Multilingual creativity

Here’s a good post about languages, creativity and working together! It’s summarising a Multilingual Creativity Series that took place in London in 2016. The series is interesting as it covers Language Communities, Multilingual Projects, Performing and Visual Arts, and Print and Multimedia Texts (there’s a separate write up on each area too).

https://storify.com/freewordcentre/what-is-multilingual-creativity-all-about

…about recognising all the different languages that are being spoken all around us today. How do projects work with these different language communities, whilst also respecting their nuances and individuality, ie. Bulgarian speakers, Portuguese speakers, Mandarin speakers etc?

…it isn’t quite that simple. Working with different languages isn’t about simply recognising a national group – ie. Portuguese speakers – and working with them in Portuguese. What we were really finding was that there are many different ways of using languages within those national groupings. How do we recognise the amazing range of different ways that those languages were being spoken? Different Portuguese dialects, for example, and different regional variations of a language: slang, urban hybrids etc. as well as individuals who switch between these languages, and varieties of these languages, within the course of their daily lives..

…ways we might develop creative projects that fully engage with these different, complex and fantastic uses of languages.