Network and practice languages at the same time
Interested? (This post includes a free tool for scheduling meetings with people!)
Hey everyone!
A few months ago I found myself with the possibility that I would have to account for myself in French for a job interview. Even though I do consider myself quite fluent in French in the sense that I would be able to have a conversation if I went to Quebec, order some baguettes, ask for directions to the washroom, and read the labels on all the museum exhibits, this does not necessarily extend to a having a successful job interview for cultural heritage in French.
Finding language buddies
So I decided I wanted a language buddy. At first, I considered hiring an online teacher who would just talk with me, and then I realized that I could have a conversation in French, but it wouldn't be quite the same as talking about issues in conservation or museums with someone who is a native French speaker and in the field. And it wouldn’t be free. And it would benefit no one but me.
And of course, I’m in Canada now. So there are plenty of people who speak French or who, like me, would love to practice it for their own professional development.
So the next step was to try to find someone else. If you follow me on LinkedIn, or if you hang around the classic Facebook groups for museum folks like The Art of the Conservator or Museums Collection Management, you might have seen that I posted in some groups that I was looking for people who were interested in practicing their French in a group of peers and with topics that revolved around museums and cultural heritage and conservation.
I was surprised to see at least a dozen people leave a comment below the thread saying they would definitely be interested in trying this and soon enough I had a short mailing list of people who were interested in having casual conversations in French around cultural topics.
The Project
So I organized a group chat. Because… why not? Let’s face it. It seems I give myself projects so I can have an excuse not to exercise. (I’m considering getting an under-the-desk cycle thing though! Thoughts? Leave me a comment!)
Goals
Network, network, network! Regardless of where you are in your career, it is always important to keep networking. There are jobs that come up through personal contacts. There are resources you can get through the people you know. The wider the network the more you can learn from your peers.
Practice a language to improve your resume. In Canada, where there are two official languages, you want French and English. In another country, you might be looking for a different language so what better way to practice than talking with your colleagues?
To practice a language properly, it must be done repeatedly. I intended to do this at least once a month. Intentions, eh?
What actually happened
We did this for three months once a month and then decided we needed to upgrade. What happened?
I sent out calendar polls to this small mailing list to try to find the best time to meet. I used a free Doodle. If you’ve done this before, you'll know that you are limited to 20 slots. Today, I found a new website that does this much better and for free! Here you go. Anyway, this was extremely time-consuming. Do not recommend.
Special thanks go out to Madeline Smolarz from the Emerging Museums Professionals / Professionels émergents des musées Canada for being an early member of this group and letting me use the EMP’s paid Zoom account.
The original intention was for colleagues to practice both languages with each other, but then it became apparent that I could not find as many French speakers wanting to practice English as the other way around, so the structure had to change.
In spite of initial interest, it was hard getting people to show up. If you’ve ever organised online events, you will be familiar with the classic 50% drop-off law of the universe. Out of all the people who are interested, only half will actually sign up, and out of those, only half show up. This is normal, but with a mailing list of less than a couple dozen, the group was excellent but too small.
I never wanted this group to become a thing where people needed to do homework. We're all very busy. So we just showed up and started chatting casually. However, this meant that it was difficult to keep to museum and conservation-related topics and we wandered a lot talking about Toronto bed bugs, Quebec universities, summer activities, etc.
There were enough issues that we decided we needed to improve.
The Upgraded Version
So we’ve planned an upgrade. The revamped version of this will have the following characteristics:
There will be a set date and time and an open call on socials to sign up.
We will find either a video or a live speaker to talk to us about a GLAM topic (Galleries, Libraries, Museums, Archives).
We will have break-out groups and discuss after the video/presentation.
I would like to do this once a month, but it will depend on how many resources it requires.
What does this have to do with you?
Maybe nothing! Maybe a lot! I will let you decide.
I am currently in conversation with another professional organisation in Canada interested in helping me make this happen as a regular meet-up. For this, I need to gauge interest.
If this is appealing to you, please fill in the form so I know you’re interested, and can contact you directly when the next session is organised and I have updates.
Why should you sign up?
Here are some reasons I can think of:
You want to network. I can’t stress how important this is regardless of your career stage!
You want to improve a language you don’t get to use often.
You want to learn more about GLAM.
You want to see how this goes (as do I). If this becomes a success, we can adapt it to so many more languages!! Think about the accessibility possibilities!
I hope you liked this latest newsletter letting you know about interesting projects and I hope you sign up. If French is not your thing, but you know someone who’d be interested, hit the button below and send it to them!
Have a great week and for you Canadians out there, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving next week!
x
Angelica
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