Multilingualism
The working language at Leiden University is Dutch. As not all employees at the University have the same level of Dutch language skills, there are various ways of working together.
The basic principle of Leiden University’s current language policy is that the working language is Dutch, unless there are good reasons to deviate from this.
If one or more colleagues are not sufficiently proficient in Dutch, this could be a good reason to switch to English. However, not everyone may have the same level of English or feel comfortable speaking it. It is therefore advisable to employ parallel as well as receptive language use.
Receptive and parallel language use: what does that mean?
Receptive language use is a form of multilingual communication in which participants continue to speak their own language and can still listen to and understand each other. For example, someone may understand Dutch but find it difficult to speak, in which case they can answer Dutch questions in English.
When using parallel languages, you can choose to speak another language, such as English, in a meeting with international colleagues. This depends on how well you speak English – if your native language is Dutch – and whether you feel comfortable speaking English. International colleagues can then respond more quickly: there is no delay between translating, understanding what has been said and formulating a response.
As well as providing flexibility in language use, it promotes inclusiveness within a project group, team, department or participation body.
Advantages and conditions
Receptive language use and using languages in parallel both have their advantages:
- Less anxiety about speaking. You can understand English, but you may not feel confident enough to speak it yourself. The same goes for colleagues who do not speak Dutch but can understand it. One person’s discomfort is no more important than another’s.
- Better-quality debates. You speak better in languages you know well. Your arguments are stronger and more nuanced than when you have to search for words in a second language.
- More effective and efficient conversations and meetings. It saves time if people don’t have to search for words.
If all colleagues are able to understand Dutch and English, switching to receptive language use is recommended. If this is not possible, switching to parallel language usage can make a meeting more accessible to international staff. Sometimes it may be better to use an interpreter or another translation service.
Multilingual meetings
Do you work in an international team or interact with international colleagues? If so, chances are that your meetings will often be in English. Bear in mind that not everyone may be equally fluent in English, or that international colleagues may not (yet) be fluent enough in Dutch.
It is important to treat colleagues who do not speak Dutch and those who do not speak English equally. Multilingual meetings can be a solution. You can then opt for receptive language use or use languages in parallel.
Tips for multilingual meetings
If you have decided to hold multilingual meetings for your team, it helps to adapt to the language used. Although people know that it is important to be considerate in multilingual meetings, they often forget this during the meeting itself.
Here are some tips to help:
- Repeat agreements: check that you understand each other and repeat agreements to make sure.
- Structure the meeting: stick to the agenda to avoid confusion.
- Adjust your speaking pace: speak slowly and check that others can follow you.
- Be careful with sayings and expressions: avoid jargon and sayings, or explain them clearly.
- Use humour carefully: jokes are difficult to translate, so it is better to explain them.
- Proactively introduce abbreviations and specific terms: you can provide your international colleagues with a list of commonly used abbreviations in advance.
- Send meeting documents well in advance: this will give international colleagues enough time to translate the documents (or have them translated).
- Put multilingual meetings on the agenda regularly: are everyone’s needs being met, and what could be improved? Multilingual meetings are a learning process in which you gradually discover what works and what doesn’t.
- Make internal agreements within your team, department or board so that everyone is clear about which language is used: for example, presentations can be given in Dutch, but the slides can be shown in English. Or agree to hold staff meetings alternately in Dutch and English.
The University’s language policy states that although Dutch will continue to be the administrative language (and therefore the language used for official meeting documents), the University will use two languages as much as possible.
