At other meeting activities, seminars, department days, etc., the language of the meeting must be decided on and reasoned before the meeting, and the meeting language must be indicated on the meeting notice.
3. Involvement and meetings
The UCPH language policy consists of 10 sections divided into principles on "Language and employees" and "Language and students". Below you can find our take on the principle 3.3 regarding Involvement and meetings.
Principle 3.3
Thinking about language choice and making the ‘language policy’ for department meetings, section meetings and similar events known in advance to the participants is an important aspect of practicing a reflective language policy where both language use and language choice are openly discussed. Principle 3.3 stipulates that not only is such practice good but in fact mandatory when a meeting is called.
As discussed under Principle 3.1, language choice is not simply a matter of either Danish or English. There are plenty of other options, and in many cases carefully considered use of both languages (and possibly others) will be a good way to ensure inclusion.
More than anything, the successful implementation of Principle 3.3 depends on management’s ability to create a reflective culture amongst all members of staff (including management itself) where both language use and language choice are openly discussed.
A meeting cannot be held without someone making a decision about language choice. Often, such decisions are implicit, based on habit. Although this makes the decisions tacit, they are always there. This means that language choice in a multilingual environment invariably involves the risk of excluding or marginalising some speakers (and not others). It is important to have an ongoing conversation about ‘what we’re doing’, ‘why we’re doing it’, and ‘how we might do it differently.’
This is especially important in an organisation like a university where social configurations tend to be transient in nature. People come and go, and it is therefore necessary to assess the language situation of the group continuously in order to best accommodate and take advantage of the linguistic resources in the group. This can be done through conversation or simple surveys.
The important thing is that the conversation is ongoing.
CIP can facilitate workshops for departments or other units at UCPH that would like inspiration for implementing the language policy locally. We have developed various workshop formats that are useful for facilitating what can be quite difficult conversations about language.
CIP also offers tailor-made language courses in Danish or English – for individuals or groups – focused on language needs associated with specific activities at the university, for example, study board meetings.
If you’re interested in knowing more about what we offer at CIP, please contact us at cip@hum.ku.dk or +45 35 32 86 39.