These are the slides from a presentation I gave at the 2016 Polyglot Gathering in Berlin on how to create a Polyglot Community in your local area. There will be a video on YouTube of the presentation, and when it is posted I will link to it from here.

1. Creating a Local
Polyglot Community
Alexander Ferguson
Blog: http://www.echonotation.com/
Twitter: @echonotation
Presented at: The 2016 Polyglot
Gathering in Berlin
1

2. Don’t reinvent the wheel!
Does the community already exist in your area?
Are there groups you can partner with in your area?
2

3. Don’t reinvent the wheel!
Does the community already exist in your area?
Are there groups you can partner with in your area?
EXAMPLES:
● Cultural Centers / Organizations
● Heritage museums
● Local, language-specific clubs
● Schools
3

4. Seattle Polyglots
June 2015 -> Feb 2016 (when I left to Vietnam)
-- Used Meetup.com
-- By February: ~99 “members”, 25 “showed up”, 7 “regulars”
-- All who showed spoke at least 3 languages, most were conversational in 5+
-- Weekly meetings: language free-for-all, Romance Languages chats
-- Member main interests: conversation, dining out, cultural events, presentations
So.. basically.. A lot like the Polyglot Gathering…
4

5. Making the Community requires PLANNING!
5

6. Making the Community requires PLANNING!
5 Questions to ask yourself:
1. WHAT
2. WHERE
3. WHO
4. HOW
5. WHEN
6

7. Making the Community: WHAT
What kind of group do you want to create?
What will you do?
7

8. Making the Community: WHAT
What kind of group do you want to create?
What will you do?
EXAMPLES:
● Conversation practice
● Polyglot tips / tricks
● Cultural exploration
● Language “oddities” and presentations
● How-to’s and mini language lessons
● Group language goals
● Language Games
8

9. Making the Community: WHERE
Where will you meet?
9

10. Making the Community: WHERE
Where will you meet?
EXAMPLES:
● Cafés
● Libraries
● Cultural Centers
● People’s houses
● The park
● Schools / Campuses
10

11. Making the Community: WHERE
Where will you meet?
EXAMPLES:
● Cafés
● Libraries
● Cultural Centers
● People’s houses
● The park
● Schools / Campuses
11
BRAINSTORM!

12. Making the Community: WHO
Who will be a part of the group?
12

13. Making the Community: WHO
Who will be a part of the group?
● The whole community
● Just students
13

14. Making the Community: WHO
Who will be a part of the group?
● The whole community
● Just students
How will you find members?
14

15. Making the Community: WHO
Who will be a part of the group?
● The whole community
● Just students
How will you find members?
● Meetup
● Facebook groups
● Bulletin Boards
● Campus Groups
● Flyers
15

16. Making the Community: WHO
Who will be a part of the group?
● The whole community
● Just students
How will you find members?
● Meetup
● Facebook groups
● Bulletin Boards
● Campus Groups
● Flyers
16
BRAINSTORM!

17. Making the Community: HOW
How will you organize the meetings & communicate with each other?
17

18. Making the Community: HOW
How will you organize the meetings & communicate with each other?
● Email list
● Bulletin board
● Social Media (Meetup, FB, Twitter)
● Email lists
● Membership online?
● Messaging apps (Whatsapp, line, etc.)
-- Can everyone contact everyone else? Or can they only contact you?
18
BRAINSTORM!

19. Making the Community: WHEN (+ more how)
Scheduling!
19

20. Making the Community: WHEN (+ more how)
Scheduling!
● How often will you meet?
20

21. Making the Community: WHEN (+ more how)
Scheduling!
● How often will you meet?
● Will the schedule for each meeting be organized?
a. Introducing each other
b. Theme / Presentations / Discussion
c. Free-for-all conversation
21

22. Making the Community: WHEN (+ more how)
Scheduling!
● How often will you meet?
● Will the schedule for each meeting be organized?
a. Introducing each other
b. Theme / Presentations / Discussion
c. Free-for-all conversation
● Will you schedule topics ahead of time?
22

23. Making the Community: WHEN (+ more how)
Scheduling!
● How often will you meet?
● Will the schedule for each meeting be organized?
a. Introducing each other
b. Theme / Presentations / Discussion
c. Free-for-all conversation
● Will you schedule topics ahead of time?
● Can people see what topics will be ahead of time?
● How organized is TOO organized
23

24. Growing the Community: Are you ready?
Is it time to grow?!
WAIT LONGER!
24

25. Growing the Community: Are you ready?
Is it time to grow?!
WAIT LONGER!
● You don’t want to grow too fast if it is “low quality growth”
● Community building is like language learning: persistence is the most
important part, and progress takes time.
● My first 3 months were slow, then the group grew a lot faster
25

26. Growing the Community: Who IS the Community?
What do you know about your community?
26

27. Growing the Community: Who IS the Community?
What do you know about your community?
● Who is showing up?
● Do members share the same interests and desires for the group that you do?
● Age range? retired/student/professional?
● Interested in speaking practice? General language geekery?
● Seasoned polyglots or passionate novices?
27

28. Growing the Community: Who IS the Community?
What do you know about your community?
● Who is showing up?
● Do members share the same interests and desires for the group that you do?
● Age range? retired/student/professional?
● Interested in speaking practice? General language geekery?
● Seasoned polyglots or passionate novices?
I kept statistics for my group:
● Most common languages (in order) -> en, es, fr, it, de, ru, pt
● Speakers of Middle Eastern and S Asian languages least likely to show up
28

29. Growing the Community: Change
Is it time for the group to change?
29

30. Growing the Community: Change
Is it time for the group to change?
● Are some activities not working out?
● Are you getting any complaints?
● Seasonal constraints (e.g. outside picnics and activities)
● Un-included demographics (Ages? Genders? Languages spoken? Native
speakers?)
● Is the group splitting into multiple groups?
● Is there an interest you can’t yet accomodate? (Movies, Presentations, etc.)
30

31. Growing the Community: Participation
Quality over Quantity
1. It’s better to have fewer people who are more enthusiastic than more people
who are less interested
2. Identify your most “engaged” members
3. Accept help / ask for participation / nurture others to lead -- plenty of people
want to be involved in things they care about
4. Help everyone feel (and be) involved
The more people are enthusiastic, they more THEY will help grow the community
31

32. Growing the Community: Rinse and Repeat
Make adjustments along the way, but keep going back to the same questions you
had at the beginning of making the community.
Just be persistent.
32

33. Questions?
33

34. Thank you!
34