I was invited to be a panel member at a conference in Cardiff recently. Translation equipment was available but I elected to speak in English. This blog is a reflection on why I did that, the angst I experienced all morning in the run up to the presentation and the guilt I experienced afterwards.
To make matters worse, more people than expected came up to me at the end expressing disappointment that I had not spoken in Welsh. This is my apology to them and to the translator. The feeling that I let the side down and betrayed one of my own value sets has been overwhelming and disproportionate. Ironically there were three of us on the panel who, had we been prepared, could have spoken in Welsh.
I believe there is disappointment and frustration on both sides. The organisers probably felt that they had fulfilled their obligation, at some cost, by ensuring translation facilities were available only to find that nobody used them. I want everybody to understand that this is a first step but no more useful than having recycling bins where nobody can see them; laudable but misguided and a waste of money. On my part there was frustration that I had not been asked to contribute in Welsh.
So, from the moment I arrived I suffered a huge amount of angst as I agonised over what to do.
- I could have quickly switched languages but I felt that as I only had five minutes it would be difficult becaus I knew I was likely to overrun (which I did). If you work with a translator you have to speak slower to make sure that he/ she has time to translate.
- The next excuse I offered myself was that we were running late. Picture the scenario. Up until then we’d had a couple of ‘bore da, croeso’ moments. The presence of the translation service was pointed out, people sitting next to a pillar were told that they might not hear anything because the signal can’t travel through walls, nobody actually went through the performance of telling those that do not speak Welsh that they would have to wear the head phones and to get them all to check that they were working, and to tell them not to wear them on their heads like Bugs Bunny.
- When it was my turn, all the headsets were still in a bundle in the tables. It would have cause a massive cuffuffule to get everyone kitted up. In such circumstances half the audience who need translation don’t bother to wear them for whatever reason. That is hugely off putting, in what is already a stressful situation.
You might view these as lame excuse but they serve as an illustration of how important it is to organise things to be as user friendly as possible. Some best practice tips include :
- Organise a programme with parts that can be delivered in Welsh and English. A Welsh speaking chair makes it easier.
- Make sure the relevant speakers know and agree that they will deliver in Welsh
- Explain to the audience right at the beginning what the language protocol/ mix will be.
- Ask people in advance whether or not they will need a headphone for the Welsh sections and hand them out at the door.
- Check that the equipment is working right at the beginning and then give them a chance to wear them properly before the Welsh speaker starts.
- Remind people that they will need to use them and that it is rude not to.
- Ensure that they give the headsets back at the end
If anyone else has thoughts and tips on this I’d be glad to hear them.
Dweud fy nweud II Having my say 
Fascinating Einir! As a Welsh learner I thought I was the only one with such a guilt complex.
On Wednesday I spoke at an event at your prestigious university based in the heart of one of Wales Welsh speaking areas. I was the last speaker and had written my presentation in English, after all its my mother tongue. I had prepared the few slides with writing on them bilingually out of respect for my audience.
I always feel sorry for the translator who has to sit patiently and I imagine hopefully waiting for something to do. So I did the intro to my presentation in Welsh, to make the point that we are in a Welsh-speaking area and give a sense of place to our visiting speakers from across the border.
I felt good to have seen the smiling faces of first language Welsh people as I explained why I was starting in Welsh and also felt good to give the translator something to do but I guess many of the non-Welsh speaking audience missed what I said because they had no idea what those things were on the tables in front of them or what to do with them (i.e. translation headsets). So your best practice pointers are useful, diolch.
This isn’t the first time I’ve made a presentation in Wales where I’m the only one to do so in Welsh despite the presence of a translator and other Welsh speakers on the agenda. I always feel I haven’t done my subject justice because I’d be far better in my mother tongue. I wonder if it feels the same for those whose mother tongue is Welsh? And I also wonder if that is where the guilt comes from; a guilt based on not having done myself or my subject justice for the want to please others linguist choices. For me the pleasing others goes in the opposite direction to you but I wonder if the end result, feeling guilty, is the same?
Like Grant above, as a Welsh learner, I have always wanted to make using my Welsh – poor though it is in comparison to my mother tongue – a thing to be celebrated and to rejoice over; what arises however, when the basic preparations that you noted above have not been made, is that the act of using Welsh in the meeting, rather than giving a really strong positive message about how easy it is to work in a bilingual context (which many other nations do), actually may appear to draw attention away from the subject matter in question and makes the change of language itself the focal point rather than the point you are trying to make – it may even cloud it. Chances are that as the speaker, given the fact you have the stress of standing in front of a group of people and because your main desire is to communicate, you are going to be especially sensitive to such issues; perhaps even more so than the audience themselves. As a learner, this is particularly stressful, when there’s a real risk that you’re going to cock up what you wanted to say anyway, under the pressure.
So I think that the problem lies squarely with the lack of proper implementation of the translation service. You wouldn’t hire in a PA company in and then expect to have to wire up your own microphone, set and check levels and choose speaker locations. And if that system howled feedback when you picked up the mic, you would opt to ignore it and raise your voice instead. Conversely, if the system is all set up beautifully with a bloke on the sounddesk, it would be frustrating for the audience if a presenter didn’t use it, and remiss of the Chair if they didn’t instruct people beforehand of the need to speak clearly into the mic.
Tips-wise: from a learner perspective, I personally have found in the past that is is it quite stress-relieving if the Chair introduces you as such (not in a patronising way) and actually celebrates the fact that you have or are learning Welsh and are going to make some or all your presentation through Welsh. This immediately sets a positive tone and takes some pressure off you as a speaker.
Credaf mai rhwystredigaeth yw’r emosiwn ddylid cael yn lle euogrwydd 🙂