It’s part of a camp like the climate camp/the Summerschool to question existing or possible forms of hierarchy and to dismantle them. Language is something beautiful, but it’s one of the many things that often build barriers between people where there shouldn’t be any. This could be that information is only accesible to a certain group of people who speak the language in which the information is provided. Or it could mean that someone uses difficult words that others do not understand although they do speak the same language. All this can easily lead to hierarchies of knowledge.
Too often people who speak the same language have to stay „within their group“ if there is no possibility to communicate with people who speak other languages. This might reproduce groups forced on us by society according to „nationality“.
At the climate camp and the Degrowth summerschool these barriers and mechanisms are supposed to be weakened and dismantled if possible.
Unfortunately we will only be able to provide the homepage in German, English and French. Texts that aren’t available in all three languages yet will be translated as soon as possible. If you want to access the information on our page in another language please contact us and we will look for a solution.
A group of committed interpreters got together some time ago especially for the camp. These people are putting a lot of time and effort into making the camp multilingual. Still we will be counting on the support of people at the camp who would feel comfortable spontaneously interpreting at some events!
In this existing group people who studied interpretation work together with people who feel secure in more than one language by way of having spent a long time abroad, having multiple native languages or similar. This is a learning space for us, on in which we learn skills from one another and can exchange experiences. We will prepare the interpretation of different events together to ensure a good result in all languages that are needed. We would like to ask you to keep this mode of organisation in mind if interpretation did not live up to your expectations at some point.
We will be visible and approachable at camp in order for you to register more spontaneous interpretation needs (e.g. for workshops). We’ll most likely be technically supported by the awesome bla-collective who provide us with their knowledge and equipment.
We want every person, regardless of the language(s) they speak, to be able to participate in the climate camp and the Degrowth summer school. We will make every effort to ensure that as much content will be translated/interpreted at the camp, to not let „language barriers“ become actual barriers. Most of the workshops will be held in German, but some also in English or other languages. Many panel discussions with guests from all over the world will definitely be held in multiple languages. Still, everyone should be able to listen to and speak in the language they like to during all workshops, plenaries and so on.
We will do our very best to make that possible. This also means that we need your help: if you, for example, know that a workshop you want to attend is not going to be in a language you want to speak or listen to it’s very helpful to talk to us beforehand. We can then prepare to provide the technical stuff and interpreters, so that the workshop does not have to start late.
The interpretation group sees itself as part of the climate camp and the Degrowth summer school and depends on the support of many people to work to the satisfaction of everyone. This could mean that we are notified early if a workshop is in another language than we were told before, or that people participate in the interpretation work if they feel confident enough to do so.
People who feel at home in more than one language are a great help. If this applies to you, you can already now think about whether you’d like to support the translation work. During the camp we will also again and again be looking for people who would like to interprete something. Probably there will be a beginners-workshop with advice for people who would like to do simultaneous interpretation at one of the first days of the camp. That way also people without any experience in interpretation can dare to take up some interpretation tasks. You can approach us at any time and ask for advice with interpretation.
If you have any questions or needs regarding language and so called language barriers, please contact us right away!