One of the criteria for this international school program is that participants have the basic ability to understand and speak English. JAZAS decided many years ago that in order to design an international program, there would need to be a consistent means of communication. Therefore, the program is presented entirely in English. More on this is a minute.
In most training programs of this nature, it is important to establish groundrules from the start. This gives students an understanding of what is expected of them in terms of behavior and participation. The groundrules are usually created by the suggestions of the people being trained, and this happened in our program yesterday as well.
The rules include things like: Not Interrupting Each Other, No Cell Phones, The Right Not to Participate, Respect for Opinions Different From Your Own, Punctuality, Risk Taking . . . you get the idea. If you'd like to see the list I created many years ago to help guide my trainings, I'll post it below. It is rare that the group doesn't come up with almost everything on my list plus others that are specific to the group. One group I worked with years ago added the rule: “No hitting, spitting, or fighting!” This one, for example, doesn't come up often, but is certainly important when it does.
The Arrogance (and Necessity?) of English-Only
Now back to the language discussion. In the program here in Serbia, we spent a lot of time while establishing groundrules talking about the “English, Pliz!” rule. Last year, there were students from many more Western European countries. This year, the Eastern Europeans are represented more strongly and most have the ability to speak some form of Serbian (often better than their English). As soon as we opened the brainstorming for rules, the first request from some of the students was a reminder (actually a plea) to speak in English as much as possible.
Language is an amazing bridge and it can be a powerful barrier. It creates boundaries between nations and can be used to include or exclude. After just one day of traveling together, some students were already feeling excluded. As you can imagine then, folks were very engaged in this discussion.
From my perspective, I am certainly able to train and communicate much better in my native language and so it makes my participation easier. But I also can't help but think about why English has become a kind of standard in the world. It is certainly not that English is easier to learn. It is not the native language for the majority of the world's peoples. It is not one of the world's ancient languages.
It has to do with power and money. I don't really believe that we can change it at this point, but don't those of us who speak English as a first language have a responsibility to recognize that we are not in the majority?
I'm embarrassed when I travel internationally (and often in the States) that I don't speak more languages than I do. Here in Serbia and around the world, people speak several languages fluently. Yet, think about how many times you've seen people who don't speak English perfectly, but who can communicate effectively, still put down or ridiculed. I think in the U.S. we should place a higher value on teaching young people language skills and communicating cross-culturally. Not only will it help them develop useful and important skills, it makes life so much more interesting.
In the meantime, I am trying to learn while I am here. This is my second visit and I have no excuse for not being able to engage in some basic conversations with my Serbian friends. I'm also working to slow down when I speak in English (most of you know how fast I talk, so you can imagine not only why this is important for me to do as a trainer, but also how hard it is for me as a person!).
Well . . .
Vreme je za ručak. Hoću sir!