My solution over the years has been what I call the International Bar Technique (IBT). Doubtless you have had the experience of going into such an establishment and spying an individual you REALLY wanted to talk to (most usually of the opposite sex). However, as the fates would have it, you were separated by that terrible thing, "The Language Barrier." Then in the natural (self organizing) course of events, passion prevails and barriers are crossed thanks to friendly strangers, half remembered high school French, German, whatever. to say nothing of sign language and pantomime. When people care to communicate the odds are it will happen. And it is very clear that when people don't care to communicate no amount of simultaneous translation will do a bit of good.
By definition, people are in Open Space because they care - which means they will find a way to communicate. And if they don't care, they shouldn't be there. End of problem. I think my record was 24 languages in a single group. Everything worked perfect, and at the end people even said that they had fun finding "Language buddies." A problem became an opportunity. Of course you can make things a little easier by pinning language flags on folks, rather like the airlines, but I've never found that made too much difference. By the time people got close enough to see the flag they had usually figured out the language. Harrison Harrison Owen 189 Beaucaire Ave Camden, ME 04843 207-763-3261 (Summer) 301-365-2093 (Winter) Website www.openspaceworld.com Personal Website www.ho-image.com OSLIST To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html _____ From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of rachel pfeffer Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 11:47 PM To: [email protected] Subject: multilingual groups Hi OS Folks: I'm new to the listserv and to OS. I'm wondering what your experiences are with groups that are multilingual? There are too many sessions to provide translation services.... Thank you, Rachel -- Rachel Pfeffer, Consulting New Solutions to Old Problems [email protected] "Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it." James Baldwin * * ========================================================== [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 * * ========================================================== [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
