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Set official languages for People Powered so that every communication, resource, and material produced is fairly translated in the official languages. For now, set 4 official languages: English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.
Original idea: https://participate.peoplepowered.org/processes/policies/f/8/proposals/51
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9 comments
I agree on the need of prioritizing the official languages.
Conversation with daniel schugurensky
I am not sure if it is necessary to set "official languages".
My suggestion is recommending that all communications produced by PP as linguistically inclusive as possible considering the context and the audience.
Given that this policy has clear budgetary implications (cost of interpretations in webinars, translations of documents, etc.), I suggest giving People Powered discretion on the choice of languages based on the two principles noted above.
For instance, it may not be necessary to hire a French interpreter for a PP meeting if nobody amongthe participants needs that service.
At the same time, if there is a meeting or a document that requires other languages because of the topic or the audience (e.g. Chinese, Swahili , Arabic), People Powered should have the discretion to allocate specific resources to translate communications in more languages.
I agree with your points Daniel. Do you have a suggestion of framework that we could use?
Here is a first attempt at a possible framework for translations/interpretations.
If there are significant resources for translations and interpretations, I suggest to be generous and use as many relevant languages as possible.
If resources are limited, I suggest to consider 4 different situations.
1) Very important short documents (e.g. a PeoplePowered declaration, manifesto, open letter, etc.)
If possible, translate to all the languages of PP member associations.
2) Other documents: Translate to languages upon request of member associations and available resources.
3) Regular discussion meetings and seminars: Continue with the current model of meetings in English and in Spanish, and add a third language if needed.
4) Large online forums (webinars, annual general meetings, etc.): Provide simultaneous interpretation in different languages depending on available resources and a critical mass of participants who request translation.
Conversation with Mustapha Khamissa
I would appreciate a framework for choosing which languages we serve, but I think "official languages" might not be the best terminology. I'm coming from a Canadian perspective, where official languages means that that everyone has the right to equal service in English or French. If that is what is being proposed, I dont agree with the workload that would impose on the People Powered team, to be offering, for example, PP University seminars in each language we choose. We should certainly have a framework for choosing which languages the website and its materials are automatically translated into.
I agree with your perspective Mustapha. Do you have an example of framework that we could use?
I dont have an example unfortunately Clara! But I would prefer a situation where the languages served are reviewed once a year by members and there's consideration put to which languages should or shouldn't be added to the list.
I understand that, as an international organization, we need to have some official languages and I would add chinese to the ones we already have in PP. But it does not mean that we have to have all of these official languages available in every single event/work we do. We must be consistent to the audience we want to reach and then make a decision of which languages will be necessary for that specific case. This way, we will safe funds and build our own Framework next year after testing this possibility. In addition, I think members of PP could volunteer to do some documents translation when it is needed as a way to be more actively engaged.
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