Welcome, fabulous Kaliya !
I agree that Open Space is possible across cultures and with a rich mixture of participants with languages different from each other - even different from the facilitator's. It is simply a design issue, a discussion and ideas that happen during the pre-work, and perhaps some extra resources and support for translation, depending on the needs of the group. Many of you readers remember my asking a few months ago for experiences from those of you who had facilitated in multi-language events - I had done this before as well but for this particular event there was the extra layer of readers and non-readers and many people who spoke only one language (not the main conference languages). I had promised to write this experience up for you all, my colleagues - the full paper will appear at my website soon and will include more description of the event and the other activities we designed. Here is an excerpt regarding language and access, from my to-be-on-my-website-in-a-month-or-so photo-story and paper: Open Space Conference for Immigrant and Refugee Farmers In February 2007, two-hundred and sixty participants joined together for three days rich with learning, networking and knowledge-sharing at the National Immigrant and Refugee Farming Initiative's (NIFI) historic Inaugural National Conference for Immigrant and Refugee Farmers. There were close to 300 participants, speaking over 17 languages traveling from all across America to meet and share best practices, challenges, ideas and solutions for 3 days. Over 50% of the participants were farmers, many of who received full funding to attend this conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA. The conference was the culmination of months of visioning and planning between funders, the planning committee, NIFI and Heifer staff and myself as the conference facilitator. While the conference was held in the method of Open Space, we also designed the entire time participants would spend together in a way that could maximize intercultural learning, knowledge exchange across language and culture, an equalization of power dynamics and a welcoming of the rich diversity in the room. One of the challenges was that many of the participants were monolingual non-English speakers. Languages included Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Hmong, Vietnamese, Somali Bantu (Maay Maay), Khmer, French, Navajo and others. Plus, not all of the participants could read written word, even in their home languages. So our design for both the Open Space and the other activities included an emphasis on multiple languages and modalities. The pre-work was complicated, the design work was challenging, the event and site kept the core planning and facilitation team on its toes - and, as is usual - the success of the conference was due to an interdisciplinary, intercultural, skilled, flexible and energetic team. Registration was in two languages (Spanish and English - the two languages spoken by the most participants) and we knew that those who could not access written language, English, Spanish or computers would have an advocate working with them to register for the conference. So we asked all registrants to pre-identify what languages they spoke. We also asked who had laptops to offer and who would like to spend some or all of their time helping us as notes-takers. This helped us identify what translation and other support we might need, what were the top languages spoken, how many computers we could have for the Newsroom and a sense of being able to 'seed' the room with enough people who were comfortable writing as notes-takers. Spanish, English and Hmong were our top three languages spoken - therefore NIFI collaborated with the Highlander Center in Tennessee, USA, who held a training in Maine, USA for a group of farmers serving as peer simultaneous translators for the conference. To that we added a few professional translators from Professional Translation Interpretation Services in North Carolina, USA. We had multi-channel translation headsets for about 40 people, I believe. Then, as we had asked in advance about languages participants spoke, we pre-labeled every participant's conference badge with color-coded dots indicating which languages they spoke - and we gave them extra dots to fill out and apply to their own badges to add additional languages they spoke. This would help is with 'whisper translation' - people being able to sit together to translate for each other. It was important that we support participant self-organization for translation as well as offer professional support. The professional and peer translators wore strips of color fabric coded to match the dots on everyone's badges. If a translator spoke more than one language, she would have several strips of fabric - they wore these as neck ornaments, arm-bands - whatever fit their personal style. In this way, you could find someone to help you wherever you were in the conference. Then there was the challenge of how to design for a switch from the conference host and the facilitator speaking to the full group (welcome, explanation of the Open Space process and guidelines) -- to the voices of the participants themselves coming to the center and announcing their topics. So we started with those who needed it on headset (Spanish, Hmong and Maay Maay listeners - others sat next to friends and peer translators for whisper translation). Participants wishing to announce and host a session would walk up to one of two long tables (one in each of two aisles in the circle) and write their topic and name on the top half of an 11 x 17" piece of paper. A multi-lingual person sitting at that table would help them if they could not write and would also add another language translation onto that sign (ideally in one of our three top languages) in another color. The convenor would then walk to the center where they would stand at a microphone to announce their topic. After I had invited convenors to announce and post their sessions, I joined a group of translators seated near the microphone in the center. We had a cordless microphone to pass amongst ourselves. As this convenor would announce their session (in their own voice; their own language) we would pass the microphone to each other to translate immediately after them into the top 3 languages. Then the convenor posted their sign on the Agenda Wall and so continued the Agenda co-creation process. As usual when working in a multi-language environment -- when I speak, I enunciate, choose universally understandable vocabulary (no vernacular, no 'Americanisms', and for this conference, no 'agriculture-speak', either), and put air between each of my words: I speak slowly and carefully. I pause between each sentence, and I use my body and my face to express the words, as well. I have found that all of this gives time for translators to translate, helps people who speak multiple languages translate in their heads, and gives people more of a chance to sense and understand what is being said. My Open Space signs are always in multiple languages, whether my participant group speaks one language or more - as a way to welcome and include people and also to share an awareness of the richness of working in a multicultural world. In this case the signs were in Spanish and English. There is no universally-used written Hmong language at this time. After returning to headset (for some) for my explaining the schedule for the day, the group broke into discussion areas and conducted their conversations throughout the day using whisper, peer or professional translators as needed. Topics included a wide range of subjects: beekeeping and pollination, how to apply for funding, engaging high school youth, organic pest control, growing mushrooms, abuse of immigrants, disaster response, organic corn for masa, organic crop development, growing ethnic crops, farming in an arid environment, building greenhouses out of found resources, and more. Notes-takers self-selected for all the groups, though we knew we had seeded this thought of note-taking before the conference -- so those who were multi-lingual and able to write easily simply supported each group by notes-taking on paper notes-taker forms (with English and Spanish both on the form). Throughout the day they would transcribe their notes at the bank of computers in the Newsroom; most of which had been loaned by participants themselves. If they had taken notes in a language besides English they would sit with a colleague to translate before entering them into the Book of Proceedings -- as our first edition of the Book would be in English and then we would have the book translated into several other languages next, thanks to the funders. Note that this was not an event in which we created the Book for viewing during the event - we finalized and distributed it post-event, translated it into other languages and also will be providing photos and video for non-readers to review the event. Some groups are also gathering post event to tell the stories of the event to each other and to their communities as a way of sharing the news with non-readers. And so it went for 2.5 days, with Evening News happening much like the openings each day - with some folks on headset and others sitting next to peers for whisper translation. For Closing Circle we allowed 2 hours - as in many of these cultures speakers use more words to frame their experiences and tell of their experiences through telling stories or returning to themes while they speak. We ensured that all who remained for the closing (some had to fly away home before then) got a chance to speak if they wished to. As is usual, I scribed their closing comments on my laptop to include in their Book of Proceedings (participants would translate after their peers as needed during this time). _____________________ The complete paper, including a description of the other activities we designed for the evenings of this conference, will appear at my website soon, along with a video and a photo-story. I shall let you know when to visit to see these. Peggy - thank you for mining the archives for some rich examples of learning from our fellow OpenSpaceniks. I look forward to the richness you bring to our community, Kaliya, Lisa ___________________________ L i s a H e f t Consultant, Facilitator, Educator O p e n i n g S p a c e <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <http://www.openingspace.net> www.openingspace.net * * ========================================================== [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
