[OSList] Bi-lingual open space

[Stanley Park]

Yes, be prepared to be surprised. Period!!!

Again i find myself humble to sacred power of ost & its self-humbled
originator who has been trying to hide behind the planetary show of ost. ;-)

Thank you Katia
2012. 3. 4. 오후 3:44에 "Katia Van Belle" <katiavanbelle at me.com>님이 작성:

> Here is one more story I would like to share.
>
> Last month I opened space for 450 people. They gathered around the topic
> of "more holidays for more people", and were invited by a special
> department of our government that provides holiday opportunities to poor
> people. Usually, on their forum (which is held once a year and lasts for
> half a day), half of the participants are poor people who went on holiday
> thanks to the initiative. The other half are social organizations that work
> with these people, and a small group are hotel owners, managers of
> entertainment parks / zoo /... So it is a very unique and interesting mix
> of stakeholders who meet.
>
> This year the department has won a prestigious international prize, and
> the 'officials' were present to give the prize to our minister of tourism,
> who then gave it to the head of the department, etc... However, we decided
> we didn't want the officials just to sit and observe the event, and leave
> without understanding (without having felt) the power of this group of
> people. So we decided to include them in the open space. At least in the
> second round of sessions, once the journalists had left.
>
> To our surprise, they convened a session on the topic of 'how can social
> media help us give more holidays to more people?'. Quite a stretch we
> thought... given that many of the participants didn't speak English, and
> maybe many of them don't have computers at home... But that proved us
> wrong! It was the largest session, with over 25 people attending, and our
> international guests where pleasantly surprised by the intensity of the
> conversation, the richness of the ideas shared and how many of the
> participants did their best to speak English.
>
> "Be prepared to be surprised", how true that was once more!
>
>
> Katia
>
> Op 03 Mar 2012, om 17:40 heeft Harrison Owen het volgende geschreven:
>
> Chuni--Several languages. Wonderful! Having been "there" multiple times -
> once with 15 different languages - I have always found it the richest of
> experiences. If you follow all the wonderful, detailed suggestions of Lisa
> I know it will turn out just grand. But personally I find myself much
> closer to Katia. I guess that is not surprising considering my affection
> for thinking of one less thing to do.****
> ** **
> My approach comes from some considerable experience in good international
> bars (go ahead and say something nasty about martinis J) - and one of the
> things I have always noticed and enjoyed was that as the evening went
> along, anybody who really wanted to talk to anybody else always managed to
> accomplish their desire. The conversation might take a little time and pass
> through multiple languages and persons, but the essential messages were
> always delivered. Self organization at work, I think.  And something else
> happened along the way.  As people were helping people they bonded in the
> process. By evening's end, total strangers had become pretty good friends.
> Doubtless the alcohol helped, but there was more than that - related to the
> fact that helping each other is a good thing in itself. And all of a sudden
> the disparate languages became a positive support for emerging community.*
> ***
> ** **
> So I advocate using the Principles of a Good International Bar (Is that
> the 6th Principle?). When people want to communicate, they will do that
> and the effect of their effort goes way beyond the simple passage of words.
> To help out, I have used little lapel flags representing languages spoken
> (like the airlines) - so if you were looking for somebody who spoke
> Serbo-Croatian you might find them. This can help when you only have two
> languages - however, it is almost easier just to ask people (that is a nice
> civil thing to do).  Bottom line in my experience is that language is a
> problem only if you make it one. If the people care, they will find a way,
> and be stronger for the effort.****
> ** **
> Harrison  ****
> ** **
> Harrison Owen****
> 7808 River Falls Dr.****
> Potomac, MD 20854****
> USA****
> ** **
> 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)****
> Camden, Maine 20854****
> ** **
> Phone 301-365-2093****
> (summer)  207-763-3261****
> ** **
> www.openspaceworld.com****
> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)****
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
> OSLIST Go to:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org****
> ** **
> *From:* oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:
> oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] *On Behalf Of*
> chunili2000 at yahoo.com
> *Sent:* Friday, March 02, 2012 9:29 PM
> *To:* World wide Open Space Technology email list
> *Subject:* [OSList] Bi-lingual open space****
> ** **
> Hello All,****
>  ****
> I am working on a state-wide initiative to bring people together to
> address "How Can Creativity and Innovation Revitalize New Jersey."****
> One of the communities we are planning an open space for has a large
> Spanish speaking population. To host an inclusive event, we very much want
> to include these people who don't speak English.****
> Does anyone have experience organizing a bi-lingual open space?****
> Did you use a translator? Did you repeat everything in both languages? How
> did you handle the break-out discussions?****
>  ****
> Thank you so much for sharing!****
>  ****
> Chuni Li****
> New Jersey****
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20120304/a594008f/attachment-0008.htm>