That's really helpful Lisa - thank you! Warm regards, Andrew
PS: Planning for an Open Space gathering in Marysville 2017 has begun......... 15 years after the last one.... On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 10:39 AM, Lisa Heft - <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, Andrew - > > I find that for Open Space, there are times when a skilled translator may > be helpful, and times when “whisper translation” amongst fellow > participants may be helpful. > > I have used a lot of full-group capacity/visibility tricks like putting a > colored dot on peoples’ name-tags to tell which of the several top / shared > languages at an event each person speaks. > Sometimes a client has money to pay for a professional simultaneous > translator (with or without headphone technology), sometimes they do not. > > If we deconstruct the process of Open Space, there is… > > - Opening Circle - where the facilitator explains principles, process, > perhaps a few instructions about documentation > ...and, as everyone is quietly listening all at once, this time works well > for either > 1) a professional translator talking into the headsets of the mono-lingual > participants, or > 2) a translator walking around with the facilitator saying these things in > Korean just after they say them in the main meeting language. > 3) or, as people often arrive and first sit with their friends / language > buddies, whisper translation amongst participants can also happen > > - Opening Circle is where participants write, announce and post their > topic signs, as well > 1) If a ‘headset’ translator is working for Opening Circle, they can speak > the topics into the Korean participants’ headsets, and can speak in (main > conference language) anything a Korean participant wants to announce + post > 2) or if there is whisper / buddy translation, someone can come up to the > center with the mono-lingual Korean speaker to announce in main conference > language after that person first says it in their home (Korean) language > > I have also had great clients who have trained a bunch of bi-lingual > speakers - non-professionals - participants - for a day in both concepts of > the meeting (agriculture, for instance) so they have a glossary of > translation terms in their heads - and in Open Space concepts. Those folks > might have that colored dot or wear a specific-to-that-color piece of > fabric to indicate they are traveling amongst the meeting participants with > this language capability, even though they too are participants. These > now-trained translators can add that skill to their resumes / cv’s so it > brings up the visibility of (for example) community participants as being > diversely skilled. > > When a client has hired a professional translator, after Opening Circle, > they might walk around to the different small groups, but if this > colored-dot-on-your-nametag method is used, they are usually waved away by > the participants, who have their own capacity by this point. They can look > across their own little group and ask a co-participant to translate for > them as needed. > > In Closing Circle, once again there is silence, where the translation > process for Opening Circle can be used again. > > For documentation design, if a client has capacity / resources, they can > translate the Book of Proceedings - often written in the main language of > the conference - into the one next-most-spoken language of the conference > (example: Korean). > > And all written materials (Notes-Taker forms, small group participant > sign-in sheets, principles posted around the room) can be translated / > written in the top two or three most spoken languages of the conference / > meeting. > > Of course, the way to know this capacity and language capability is by > having participants pre-register to identify whether they are bi-lingual, > mono-lingual (in which case someone is often helping them fill out the > registration information) or has other resources or capacities. > > I’ve done this with groups of hundreds of participants where there are > many languages spoken - we have identified the top four-most-spoken > languages and resourced translation or made color codes because this was as > many as the client could afford to support - and everyone else did just > fine with the colored dot system. > > I look forward to hearing what our other colleagues have tried and found > to be successful regarding working with groups with two or more languages - > specifically when using Open Space. > > Thanks for the question, > Lisa > > Lisa Heft > Consultant, Facilitator, Educator > Opening Space > > > On Feb 22, 2016, at 1:18 PM, Andrew Rixon via OSList < > [email protected]> 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: [email protected] 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>" <http://kickstartingchangemelbourne2016.eventbrite.com.au> An innovative program on applying Open Space Technology and Action Learning
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