Hi Open Space LIst, I finally have joined. At Nexus for change many open space practitioners were talking about how wonderfully supportive this list was of their practice and a real community.
Part of the reason I joined is that I have a question that was not answerable easily by searching the web. I would like to know about expereinces and learning about open space where multiple Languages are used and perhaps more importantly where many of the participants don't have the primary language the Open Space is being run in don't have it as their first language. I have brought Open Space into the stodgy standards world of the International Telecommunications Union's Focus Group on Identity Management. Although we have used it at one of the meetings there are those who remain unconvinced of its potential and who are insisting that it "doesn't work" for non-english as a first language speakers. They are apparently suggesting that when we have our meeting in Japan that the Open Space be run in Japaness to prove to me that it doesn't work for these people. (Like sitting in a room for 8 hours a day reviewing english written Microsoft Word documents projected on the front wall 'works' to deal successfully with the complex world of telecommunications standards and regulations world wide.) What I would like to know from people is how do you create a supportive space for groups where many of the participants don't have english as a primary language? What are the guildelines/suggestions to put forward to both the first language speakers? What are the guidlelines/suggesitons put forward to the as a second (or third..) language participatnts. Any other advise you have about this would be welcome. Regards, =Kaliay * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
