[OSList] Tips for working with Translators during Open Space event

Tue Feb 23 03:24:54 PST 2016

Dear Andrew, Lisa, Birgitt and you others,

a few years ago I was asked to facilitate an event in the northeastern
corner of Poland with folks across the border from Lithuania also
attending. The sponsor asked two translators to translate my US-American
introduction into Polish and Lithuanian. They walked the circle behind
me as Lisa also described. One effect was that I constantly had little
breaks to focus on the next thing to say and the participants had
various inputs they could understand in different languages (my
assumption: all understood their mother tongue, of course and most had
at least some rudimentary language skills in the other languages spoken).
All posters were in the three languages and issues were written on
sheets that had been folded into three spaces, so that translations
could be added by other participants.
I was wondering how they would manage in the breakout sessions. To my
surprise, a number of the breakout sessions used Russian... so there was
a common language? On inquiry, I was told that it would never do to use
Russian in an event like this, at least not in the "official" parts.
Ok, be prepared to be surprised.

Here is a short summary of some aspects of this event back in 2002 as
recorded in the Open Space worldscape
> http://openspace-landschaft.de/an_veran.asp?veranstaltungId=1041&sprache=en&von_seite=ue_veranstaltung.asp&ds=10&branche=&begleiterId=9&anzeigeOrtId=0

Reading through this report I noticed that I did not include the part 
about Russian in my note... hmmm? Political correctness?

A few years later, Harrison came to Berlin and did his three day 
Practice of Peace event. Every day starts with a lecture followed by an 
open space on the theme of the lecture. On the first day, Harrison 
introduced the process, on the second day a colleague from Russia did it 
in Russian and on the third day I did it without using spoken words.
To me, the most memorable moment was during the Russian introduction 
(not being translated) when pretty much at the beginning a participant 
ran to the Russian colleague, kneeled in front of her pleading, in 
English, to please translate her introduction. At that moment, his 
friend that he sat next to in the circle called out: "Hey, come back 
here, I know Russian and can translate for you if you like!"
This was a hilarious intervention that not only stopped the space 
invader but also demonstrated how hidden the ressources in the group are 
even for people in the know (friends).

 From all this and other situations I learned to ask questions when the 
issue of translation arose (especially when the sponsor of the event 
does not come from the local context). This often leads to "one less 
thing to do" and to make more space for the forces of selforganisation 
to do its thing.

Yes, lets hear how things went and I invite you to deposit a note about 
this event in the Open Space worldscape, a data base with presently 793 
events recorded, here is the link, its in English and German
> http://openspaceworldscape.org/

cheers
mmp
>
22.02.2016 22:18, Andrew Rixon via OSList wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I'm helping a client prepare for an Open Space event - 400 people,
> and within the audience there will be a group of 10-20 koreans who
> will require a translator.
>
> I'd love to hear stories and tips on what people have found to work
> well...
>
> Warm regards, Andrew
>
> -- Andrew Rixon PhD Director Babel Fish Group W:
> http://www.babelfishgroup.com E: andrew at babelfishgroup.com
> <mailto:andrew at babelfishgroup.com> M: +61400 352 809 F: +61(0)3 8610
> 0162
>
> *Come join Bob Dick and I on April 12th and 13th in Melbourne for:*
> "Kickstarting Change that Lasts: How to flatten hierarchies, build
> relationships and get work done!
> <http://kickstartingchangemelbourne2016.eventbrite.com.au>"
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Michael M Pannwitz
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