Facilitating multilingual online discussions

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Session on decision making and management in multilingual environments - 20071130, 15:30 - 16:30

Practical exercise between the participants showed that using multiple languages (Polish, Dutch and Norwegian) within one conversation is hard :-)

Difficulties in management and cooperation not only in language but also culture.

Not everybody speaks English. How to communicate? How to structure different forms of communication? Online: mailinglists, wiki's etc; offline: events, conferences. If you pretent to be a global organisation you should be accessible in multiple languages as well.

(some of these can be used both online and offline)

Physical:

  • slowing down speech / using simple words
  • identify all languages so you know what you're facing
  • real-time whisper translation (downside: translator cannot be involved with the program itself)
  • write down key words on a black board / visual aids, hand-outs
  • as most people have laptops, online translation on irc channel/chats, summarizing questions/answers
  • break out in groups and have one reporting back
  • make sure to have enough social interaction in order to pick up language faster (people need to feel comfortable)
  • identify / mark people who are good at multilingual communication and use their skills
  • group same kind of languages in smaller groups to discuss topics together
  • voice recognition (no FS apps available??); transcription of what's been said (reading is easier than listening)

Online:

  • (for simular languages) try not be fully competent, learn to read simple texts -> straightforward
  • reduce the amount of languages to a minimum, skip simular languages
  • machine translation between simular languages is rather advanced
  • integrate machine translation in irc/chat
  • simple machine translation word for word
  • reading is easier than talking
  • pictographic alphabet, emoticons
  • informal defacto delegation to bring message across
  • easier than physical as there's a short delay

-> combine these options! & important: be open to other languages (and cultures) and put a step forward to learn them, use them, and practise them.

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