Like breathing, communication is often taken for granted. Seldom do people question how they breathe, seldom aware they can take fuller more quality breaths. Also rare are people who question in order to improve how to communicate: how to establish a good rapport, how to actively listen, what tone to use, what order of words, how to do follow-up and how frequently, who to reach out to and how (in the group or to an individual, virtually or in person), and finally, which language to use.
Communication and languages are our community’s breathing.
In the process of creating this written mosaic, many discussions occurred: How do we make it a collaborative process? Where do we begin? Who is our target audience? What do we want to include and why? Who wants to write in their native language that can then be translated and shared with the rest? What is the order of the sections? Do we need one voice for consistency, or the color and depth of several? One style or mix-and-match? Do we use languages of current members only, or potential ones, as we would like to indicate openness to diverse newcomers?
The languages that came through the atelier in the last nine years of our community’s birth and growth, are: Arabic, Armenian, “Dobardanski” (an increasingly common term encompassing all languages sharing in the greeting of “dobar dan” or “good day”), English, French, Kurdish, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Tigrinya, Turkish, Urdu, Ukrainian. (In alphabetical order―even that detail is important!). Our regular communication among the most active current members usually entails six of those languages. It is complicated, takes time, energy and effort.
Why then multilingual?
Many people have remarked that by using a multilingual approach, we are slowing down people’s opportunity to learn Croatian, the Dobardanski language of this area that can become, has become or has always been, home.
In Živi Atelje DK, learning a greeting in a new language is a bonus for us all. Sending messages in multiple languages is a reflection of the diversity of our group, a small sign of welcome to those who are new and might appreciate reading something in their language or at least one they know better than Croatian or English.
We put comfort, a feeling of welcome and home, above that of learning a specific language. Yet, learning happens by the pure fact of spending time together as each is pushing their best to make themselves understood, helpful and productive. Those who are more settled, have less stress or worry than before and will almost inevitably learn faster than they otherwise would. It’s about being open to understanding, accepting and encouraging different ways of learning, remembering and communicating. Hence we need more patience.
Copy and pasting into an online translation application doesn’t seem like a huge effort and yet, on a day-to-day basis, and during conversations, it is no small feat in terms of time alone. As we mentioned in the section about mutual accompaniment, it takes extreme availability.
Dear reader, by this place in the text you are our true communication companion on a beautiful journey – many hours of exchanges in a rainbow of languages for this colorful Mosaic of ideas, stories, anecdotes, advice and sharing. We are grateful that you are taking the time and energy to share in this Mosaic.