How can I facilitate a workshop in multiple languages?
How can I facilitate a workshop in multiple languages?
Q&A: Workshops and facilitation with Service Design
Preparing a workshop like a service designer
Preparing a workshop like a service designer
Custom workshop Canvases
Custom workshop Canvases
Workshops with a lot of participants
Workshops with a lot of participants
Running and facilitating a workshop like a service designer
Running and facilitating a workshop like a service designer
Creating a workshop report like a service designer
Creating a workshop report like a service designer
Mass participation workshops
Mass participation workshops
Synthesis in Service Design workshops
Synthesis in Service Design workshops
I live in Switzerland, a country where we speak multiple languages, and therefore, facilitating a workshop where people don't speak the same language is common.
Here are a few tips I've learned when it comes to making such multilingual workshops work:
Bring translators
Work in subgroups by language
Have a multilingual whiteboard
Use colour coding to differentiate languages
Install shortcuts to translate quickly
Bring translators
This is the most important tip, the most expensive and the most difficult to sell. But translators are the one investment that will make the biggest difference when you're having a multi-lingual workshop.
If you speak multiple languages, you know how frustrating it is to express yourself in a language in which you don't have much vocabulary when it comes to explaining something complex. Even if you can speak casually a language, it doesn't mean it's a language where you can bring all the nuances you wish.
Translators allow you as a facilitator to speak in your "best language" in which you can bring the most nuances. Also great translators are able to translate not only words but also cultural elements.
Work in subgroups by language
Your budget for translators might be limited, so it's smart to form subgroups by language when people have to work together.
Have a multilingual whiteboard
In a digital whiteboard, like a Miro board, I tend to have one horizontal lane per language. And then people can see the information in their preferred language.
Use color coding to differentiate languages
Choose specific sticky note colours for specific languages. For example: blue for french, orange for German, and black for English. So that people can quickly see where the information is in their language.
I'd recommend that you avoid having the same text in multiple languages in the same sticky note.
Install shortcuts to translate quickly
There are great tools that make it possible to translate something you write quickly.
Deepl
Deepl is pretty good, and you can integrate it with another tool like Alfred on Mac for quicker access.
My own Mac Os Shortcuts
These days my favorite way of doing these on the spot translations of written notes is to use the Shortcuts app with a custom workflow and custom shortcut.
This allows me to, for example, select a text in a sticky note in Miro and translate it in German by just hitting the shortcut: "ctrl + option + command + G". I have similar shortcuts for English and French.
You can copy my shortcuts here: