How to organize multilingual events
South Asian social movements have always attended to language diversity. Often this happens in an improvised, last-minute way: linguistic jugaad!
In this section, we offer some insights, practices and lessons learned. These practical considerations may interest organizers who wish to plan in advance and with care for a multilingual space. After all, language justice is a very important component of social justice.
For a case example, check out this blog post on the 4th People’s Health Movement Assembly in Savar, Bangladesh. For additional documents, please see our downloads center.
Event Checklist
Adapted from Antena, “How to build language justice,” 2012
Checklist PDF Available here.
At least 45 to 60 days prior to an event:
Leadership. Identify a coordinator from your event planning team to manage language access. Decide which languages will be officially offered, which can be accommodated on an ad-hoc basis, and what the pivot language will be (i.e. what medium the event will be in). Assign a technology coordinator for the event.
Mobilization. Identify potential interpretation trainers and volunteers for your movement/event. Identify potential interpreters in your own community and engage them. Ideally, account for two interpreters per language combination to maintain quality and avoid interpreter burn out.
Budget. Consider interpreting in your event budget, accounting for interpretation fees (they varybased on the nature of the work and the interpreter’s experience level). Also account for equipment fees, if the gathering is large and with a diverse language group. For description of different equipment, click here.
Program integration. Inform movement base which languages will be offered at the gathering so that your participants are from more diverse language backgrounds. Plan your event programme to include sessions that feature speakers of different languages
At least 30 days prior to an event:
Capacity Building. Send your potential interpreters a few exercises to introduce them to solidarity interpreting, and some links from this website, including What is Solidarity Interpreting? and Why Language Justice? Encourage potential interpreters to study the variety of Language Justice curricula available online.
Infrastructure. Map the venue to figure out infrastructure requirements. For e.g. Interpreters should always be able to see the stage and speakers on the stage. Is it possible to arrange booths?
Equipment. Purchase the equipment or source/rent the equipment from a regional interpretation organization who is willing to provide it at a reasonable rate.
Translation. Translate all written material that will be used during the event into all the official languages. Send it to interpreters as this will be useful for them to activate their vocabulary.
The week before the event:
Training. Organize a pre-event training (even bilingual or trilingual folk need experience of techniques and strategies to become a skilled interpreter!)
Technology. Test all the equipment and pre-decide the language combinations on each channel.
Access. Make a proper plan of how equipment will be handed out and collected every day. Print out a sheet or use a whiteboard to draw out the system for e.g. note the equipment number next to each participant’s name.
Preparation. Make sure interpreters are very comfortable with the lay-out of the room, the equipment, and the booth plans for the event.
During the event:
Awareness. You can use this script as an announcement at the beginning of the day. (Adapted from Center for Participatory Change Language Justice Curriculum)
“Hi! The organizers of today’s event have made a commitment to create a multilingual space. To help create that space, we have interpretation equipment and interpreters that will be interpreting from X to Y, and Y to X. It takes the whole group to really make this work, so we’re going to ask for your help with a couple of things:
If folks start speaking too fast, and the interpreters need them to slow down, we’ll do this hand signal [demonstrate hand signal].
If folks are speaking too softly, and the interpreters can’t hear them, we’ll do this hand signal [demonstrate hand signal].
Speak one person at a time, so that the interpreters don’t have to choose who to interpret.
For bilingual folks, please feel free to switch languages (and we actually encourage you to speak in the non-dominant language), but please don’t switch languages in the same sentence.
When you’re talking, it may be helpful to pull off your earphones or turn down the volume so you’re not distracted by the interpretation.
The language the conversation is happening in can switch at any moment, so please keep the earphones close by and ready to use should the language change.
If there is any trouble with the equipment, please don’t suffer in silence. Come over to the interpreter table and we can help you.
We believe that language is intimately connected to who we are – our thoughts, the way we see the world, our emotions, cultures, passions, and politics and we want to create spaces where we can share all of that and relate to each other in deeper ways to to transform our communities. Thank you!”
You can also put up multilingual signs to reinforce the message above, including information on how to access interpretation. This can also be projected on a screen.
Equipment management. Set up the equipment table near the entrance so that participants are immediately aware of the availability of such technology. Assign equipment to everyone who needs interpretation at the event, there is no need to ask for IDs or any such proof, try as much as possible to organize the hand-out and collection on a trust basis. Explain how the channels and functions work.
Norm setting. Make sure to begin your event with a presentation or speech that is accessible in many languages. Ensure that interpretation happens from the moment people begin to enter the gathering space and not only for so-called “more important sessions.” This is in order to ensure that especially the dominant language speakers understand that this is a multi-lingual space. Furthermore:
Make sure the speakers are constantly aware of interpretation taking place and that they pace themselves accordingly.
Make sure that diverse languages are not just being interpreted into but that there is a diversity of language speakers holding the microphone, the podium or the centre of the circle.
Encourage bilingual participants to use the non-dominant language, to break the cycle of privilege or mindsets to do with inferiority that could exist in the room.
Avoiding burnout. Have fixed timings/sessions for each member of the pair of interpreters as they too need breaks. Switching interpreters every 20-30 minutes is recommended. The person who is not interpreting has the task of helping out people who may have equipment problems, need to change batteries etc.
After the event
Pay your interpreters based on the decided budget (pro-bono with food, sliding scale, fixed rate per hour, fixed rate per day). For students it is appreciated if you can also provide certificates.
How things went in terms of pre-event training, comprehension during the event and particular struggles during the event.
Evaluate at the level of feelings + accuracy (solidarity) about the interpretation.
Also ask the participants about their experience.
Celebrate your first time creating a language justice space, successes and failures, and plan for a better next event.
“They stood up together to protect the honour of the sound, that issued from the lips of a new-born babe, churning the very core of its existence, the utterance which signified for it, the first lesson of humanity”
- quote from the Bengali language movement