LANGUAGE POLICY IN EXTERNAL

COMMUNICATION CASE STUDY: FILM FEST GENT

Word count: 11 541

Celine De Bock 01207762

Supervisor: Astrid Vandendaele

A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the

degree of Master of Multilingual Business Communication

Academic year: 2016-2017

i

Acknowledgements

“I am never going to write a master’s dissertation in July again!” – me, graduating in History,

September 2016. Well, have I failed miserably. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it again,

though, the whole track of communicative obstacles, multilingual deadlines and business

presentations called “MTB”. When I started the advanced master, I knew nothing about the

business world and now, well, at least a little more than that. I have enhanced my lingual

skills and, hopefully, my communicative powers. I have mastered the art of Canva and

consider Qualtrics almost family. I can call myself a fully-qualified consultant. My

presentation skills are lit. But most of all, I have made a great bunch of friends. Therefore,

MTB class of 2017: it was an honour to serve with you.

Special thanks go out to Team MinuteMingle. I was always able to mingle with you,

so let us please keep mingling until the bitter end (with a bottle of rosé, of course). Thanks

to Valerie and my parents for pretty obvious reasons. Also a big S/O to my promotor, Astrid

Vandendaele, thank you for all your quick replies and ideas about my subject. Thank you to

my Friends Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler, Joey and Ross for always being there for me,

and Arcade Fire for filling my days with music. Thank you nicht Marie, for proofreading this

piece of art, which must have been a wonderful experience. Last but not least, I would like

to thank my grandparents for letting me stay with them during my last days as a student.

Your kindness and generosity, your brilliant designer house that keeps surprising me, your

swimming pool and snacks, but most of all your warmth and patience as terrific

grandparents were an absolute bright spot in dark times.

In this era of absurdity, one can only reason and argue with silliness. Therefore, I would say that

“Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme

executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”

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Executive summary

Language policy is a commonly investigated subject by both linguistic and economic

scholars. The term implies a broad range of meanings and applications but will be used in

this paper as part of external communication in corporations. As this subject is still

underdeveloped in the cultural field, I decided to investigate this with the international,

cultural organisation Film Fest Gent, Belgium’s biggest film festival. This study will try to work

out if a language policy is necessary or beneficial for this organisation, and if so, to what

extent. Ethnographical research combined with interviews with seven key players was

compared to academic literature and best practices listed by the European Commission.

During the inquiry and analysis, two underlying themes were kept in mind: language choice

and register choice in external communication towards both partners (third parties) and

visitors (the audience). Adopting and implementing a language policy can result in a series

of advantages for the festival: better starting positions in negotiations or conversations,

enduring relationships with partners, a better connection with your international audience,

agile reflections on scarcity, long term commitment to the market, increasing flow of market

intelligence and more security of feedback from visitors, creation of an international ethos

in the office.

It appears that the festival doesn’t have a structural strategy concerning language

use, but does have several practices that could form a language policy together by adding

an overarching framework. A lot of benefits arising from the implementation of a language

policy are already visible, which means that FFG could be seen as a best practice in its field.

Measures already in practice:

- Use of translation bureaus

- Use of interpreters

- Use of a local agent

- Use of online dictionaries

- Selective recruitment

- Simplified English

- Use of different registers

- Multilingual website

- Language nodes

Those everyday measures are already considered fruitful, but the non-elaborated policy can

always be enhanced.

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Measures that could be adopted:

- Language auditing

- Paid online dictionaries

- Create a glossary

- Language evaluations

- List of skills

The biggest downside to adopting a language policy is the cost of it. These measures keep

this in mind, however. Only the dictionary service is a paid service, though not very

expensive. The other measures mostly take time, another means that is scarce. But since the

festival can count an unpaid interns and volunteers, they have the advantage of time above

money. Other downsides of adopting a language policy have been proven not applicable

to Film Fest Gent. Power relations are not an issue because of the size of the organisation.

The dominance of English in the field is not a problem either, since they are currently very

proficient in English and use selective recruitment to secure that in the future. Problems with

quality of professional translations are already being taken care of by doing them

themselves and proofreading them, but measures like handing out glossaries or profound

briefings can still be executed.

They have a lot of measures that form the way they deal with language measures,

but the Film Fest Gent team is quite free in how to fill this in. Apart from the style guide and

agreements on the kind of approach towards the audience, workers can write as they please.

This doesn’t need any further regulation since Film Fest Gent is a cultural organisation very

much relying on creativity. A language policy that is too detailed and takes away all the

freedom would restrain this creativity and slow down writing procedures. The members of

the organisation are educated well enough to decide on some matters themselves. Once

in a while, a self-reflecting evaluation could benefit the festival, though. Dealing with

language is such a self-evidence within the festival, that the team could sometimes forget

that language is evolving, just as they are. Moreover, a general policy with a lot of liberties

could serve as something to hold on to for everyone working at the festival. Therefore, the

creation, adaption and implementation of a structured and strategic language policy really

is something to consider.

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Table of Contents

1

Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. i

Executive summary ................................................................................................................................. iii

Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... v

1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1

2. Literature ............................................................................................................................................. 3

2.1. What is Language Policy? ............................................................................................................ 3

2.2. Dimensions and implications of language policy and use in corporations .............................. 4

2.3. Examples and practices of language policy ............................................................................... 6

2.4. Why does an organisation need a language policy? ................................................................ 9

3. Methodology and data collection .................................................................................................... 13

4. Data analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 15

4.1. Ethnographic research ............................................................................................................... 15

4.2. Interviews ................................................................................................................................... 17

4.2.1. Does Film Fest Gent have a policy? ................................................................................... 17

4.2.2. Language registers ............................................................................................................. 18

4.2.3. Language choice ................................................................................................................ 19

4.2.4. External resources .............................................................................................................. 19

4.2.5. Local agents ....................................................................................................................... 20

4.2.6. Recruitment ........................................................................................................................ 20

4.2.7. English vs. French ............................................................................................................... 21

4.2.8. Problems and solutions in practice ................................................................................... 21

5. Findings ............................................................................................................................................. 23

5.1. Policy ........................................................................................................................................... 23

5.2. Dimensions ................................................................................................................................ 24

5.3. Examples .................................................................................................................................... 26

5.4. Benefits....................................................................................................................................... 26

6. Concluding remarks & future research ............................................................................................ 29

7. Bibliography ...................................................................................................................................... 31

8. Annexes ............................................................................................................................................. 33

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1. Introduction

In the course of two months, I was working as an intern for Belgium’s biggest film festival:

Film Fest Gent (FFG). I was a team member of the music department called the “World

Soundtrack Awards” (WSA). The festival is a cultural, non-profit organisation of which the

international atmosphere immediately came to my attention when I arrived there. Everybody

spoke multiple languages and all the tasks I was assigned were to be written in English or

French. Next to film, music and culture/art, language is the most important aspect of the

festival. What I also noticed, was that those languages were used quite freely. All members

of the team seemed to deal with linguistic issues individually, sometimes with a little help

from a colleague. I didn’t get any rules imposed concerning language, as long as my

delivered work was good. I thought to myself “How can an international organisation that

works with language so excessively not be able to present a company language policy?” It

soon came to mind that it was possible the organisation was just too small to impose big

strategies concerning language and that its workers were qualified enough to handle things

at their own authority. This leads us to the following research questions:

- Does Film Fest Gent have a language policy?

o What is a language policy?

o What are the dimensions and implications of such a policy?

o What are the possible benefits?

- If not, does the festival need one and to what extent?

o How does the academic literature relate to the case of FFG?

o Which examples in the literature are applicable to FFG and which not?

o How can the practices of FFG be improved?

Film Fest Gent will thus serve as a case study about language policy examined in the bigger

scope of corporate language policies. The subject of language policy in this paper is

characterised by two dualisms. I will scrutinise external communication to FFG’s visitors, the

public, and towards third parties, their partners. In this communication, I will look at the

language they choose to use and the register or style they use for the chosen language.

With regard to these issues, I intend to find out what could be the best way to execute those

decisions and what they could signify, with a special focus on the choice to use English as a

lingua franca. It appears that a lot of elements returning in literature about language policy

are already in use or present in the organisation. In a way, the festival could be considered

a best practice in their kind, as a lot of the measures they, take are proven very fruitful. The

only thing missing is the bigger picture, a strategic mindset that overarches all individual

practices and brings them together in a structural policy.

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To come to those answers, I have read an extensive body of academic literature,

eventually narrowed down to articles about the essence of language policy, different

dimensions and influences of language policy, i.e. power relations, economic implications

and political factors, practical examples of such policies and advantages or downsides

coupled with it. The literature is very profound and abundant about the issue of language

policies, and there is no clear consensus yet over a definition of the matter between scholars.

Moreover, a big part of the literature handles language policies imposed by nation states

with identity related problems as a consequence. Another tendency deals with internal

corporate language policy concerning language use inside multinationals, e.g. between

subsidiaries and HQs. I will mention these subjects as they form part of the bigger picture

of language policy, and initiate further reading but I won’t go into detail on these matters.

Next to the description of the context, I have conducted ethnographic research and

interviews with seven key players while I worked there. The best way to investigate the

practices and policies of a company is by being thrown into the action and witnessing

everything from within. In chapter three, the methodology used to recover those data is set

out, the fourth chapter will treat the outcome and results. Both data and literature will be

set alongside each other next to a small set of recommendations. The last chapter will

contain some concluding remarks and an initiative to future research A lot of dimensions

and implications could be further analysed and elaborated with an eye toward a more

complete set of recommendations. This would have brought this paper too far, but there

are still several paths to be taken with regard to this research.

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2. Literature

2.1. What is Language Policy?

A lot of scholars have already pointed out that the academic literature about language use

and regulation is very ambiguous. Ricento notes that there is no overarching or generally

accepted theory on language planning. (Ricento, 2006) Several terms are circulating with

different, similar or overlapping meanings. Sometimes, two different terms are used for the

same content, or different definitions are attributed to the same term. Language policy,

language management, language planning, language strategy, communication policy or

multilingual policy are all examples of names being used for different aspects of what I

intend to research in this paper. I will not go into detail on these definitions as it is not my

intention to rebuild the theoretical framework of language policies. Because this is a case

study, I have looked at the practical side of each definition and decided that the following

fit this research best.

- “Language policy concerns the relations between languages, interlingual relations,

on the one hand, and issues specific to one language, intralingual matters, on the

other.” (Bergenholtz & Johnsen, 2006)

- “Corporate language management describes a course of action where language

regulation is designed and implemented on the basis of a strategic evaluation of the

subjective language needs of the organization. The language strategy, or language

policy, which has turned into a relatively common format of the rules governing the

firm’s linguistic regime […], is developed with the purpose of achieving some kind of

organizational goals and/or benefits. The decisive factor behind language regulation

may well be non-linguistic targets, in the sense that economic considerations or ideas

about increased operational effectiveness based on streamlined communication

patterns motivate the development of a certain type of language strategy.” (Sanden,

2014)

I consider the former complete in every aspect as it mentions the language needs of an

organisation (a goal) as well as a set of rules concerning a linguistic regime, almost as a

condition for the management to succeed. Apart from that, the definition takes into account

economic issues and benefits (cf. infra), which are the actual underlying reasons to adopt a

language policy, even for a non-profit, cultural organisation such as FFG. Bergenholtz and

Johnsen have dedicated part of their carreer to finding a suitable and clear definition for

language policy. Thus, they have formulated one in the most comprehensive and all-

embracing way possible. For the complete definition: see Bergenholtz & Johnsen, 2006.

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Moreover, the definition used by both scholars is interesting because it uses the distinction

between intralingual language policy and interlingual language policy. Interlingual language

is “the clear and deliberate choice, recommendation or promotion of one or more

language(s)”, intralingual language policy is “the choice or recommendation of, warning

against or ban on certain linguistic constructions, collocations, phrases or words in a

particular language.” (Bergenholtz & Johnsen, 107-108, 2006) Both terms are then given a

general and a specific viewpoint, I will only use the general viewpoint. A general interlingual

language policy is about the selection of one language above another, a general intralingual

language policy is about the selection of stylistic frameworks or aspects of the language.

(Bergenholtz & Johnsen, 2006) This is the perfect division for this paper, since it will deal

with problems and solutions concerning which language FFG has to use (interlingual) and

which register it has to use to communicate (intralingual). Further on, once that choice is

made, to decide what is the best way to bring that choice into practice.

This gives us two terms to use, namely corporate language management and

language policy. Language policy can be considered the nature of the measures, a

framework for them, whilst corporate language management would be the measures

themselves, the actions that result from the policy. Thus, the term language policy is in fact

an umbrella term. Consequently, language policy will be used mostly throughout this paper.1

Language policy can be used in a corporate context, but it can also serve the purpose of

nation states. This won’t be covered in this paper. However, since FFG resides under Belgian

and Flemish legislation, it is interesting to take a look at what the Flemish law has to say

about language policy within corporations. According to Flemish decree, the basic principle

in corporate life is that there is freedom of language use, except for official documents and

correspondence on behalf of the employer, which should be in Dutch. This means that FFG

has a free range to decide how to deal with language use and language policies towards

their partners and audience.

(file:///C:/Users/C%C3%A9line/Downloads/Taalwetwijzer_2010.pdf)

2.2. Dimensions and implications of language policy and use in corporations

The government has the authority to regulate language use in the public space. In the

private sector, language use depends on the preference of its users, so you could say that

the market regulates this matter. The market does not impose a specific language policy,

but it can give more power to one language above others. (Annamalai, 2002) Today, that

language is English. A lot of contexts have led, amongst other factors, to the status of this

language in corporate life and influence the decisions on language policy of a company in

1 Those who wish to read more on the theoretical aspects of language policy, can read Ricento (2000 & 2006),

Janssens et al. (2000), Spolsky (2004 & 2009) and Sanden (2014).

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general. Although following three dimensions are mostly used in an internal corporate

context, the contextual frames are still applicable to language policies for external

communication, as well.

- Technologic/economic context: The internet, including email and Skype, has

globalised the production and job market, implying the need for communication that

can penetrate every aspect of that market. Companies can no longer function

without the internet, and have adapted to its consequences.

- Legal/political context: This globalisation gets restrained by governments, through

legislation on education, wealth, press, etc., but other laws were made to benefit the

global market, which results in fewer limits imposed by national borders. E.g. the

European Union foresees the Schengen zone but also invests in multilingualism in

education. When a corporate organisation does not get restricted by its government,

it will (have to) follow the tendencies of globalisation.

- Linguistic context: Choice of language and language practices often depend on the

practices that are followed by the language community the company is part of.

Flanders, e.g. has Dutch as its main language, but also knows a strong affiliation to

English which is reflected in but also influenced by the business world. It is a

reciprocal relationship.

(Gunnarsson, 2013)

English is the main language used in corporate and cultural communication, but what does

that imply? To answer this question shortly: power. Again, the literature discusses this mainly

concerning internal relations. When employees get transferred to HQs in another country

and don’t speak the language, or when languages are imposed and mastered by the higher

ranks on lower ranks who haven’t had the proper education, power inequalities can occur.

(Peltokorpi & Vaara, 2014; Gunnarsson, 2014) As a consequence, that employer will also be

able to discriminate his employees based on their language skills. (Sanden, 2014) Therefore,

Lüdi et al. believe that “the integrated plurilingual communication of a company operating

in a context of language diversity might be much more efficient if there were a balance

between top-down intervention/enforcement and bottom-up spontaneity/creativity.” (Lüdi,

et al., 233, 2010)

Such problems concerning power also appear in external communication with

partners. Native speakers of English have an advantageous position towards a non-native

speaker, as they can express themselves better, understand the language better, in short

master all the aspects of English better. (Ehrenreich, 2016) On the other hand, Maclean notes

that English as an instrument of business communication is not the same as regular English.

When non-native speakers use English, it is regularly in a business context, which means

6

they are possibly more efficient and effective in their (English) communication within that

context than native speakers who use the language for tons of other things as well. Apart

from that, he states that the use of English as world’s most spoken corporate language is

declining nevertheless. (Maclean, 2006)

If we presume that proficient knowledge in English, whether as a native or non-native

speaker, gives you a better starting position towards a partner whose English is not as

proficient, we can deduce that skills in multiple languages gives you an even better spot.

Thus, employees with language skills, especially proficiency in English, give the company a

better point of departure, a competitive advantage. This means a (lack of) language policy

can have economic dimensions. Grin points out that this is a forgotten aspect in the literature

about language policy, but also the other way around. Businessmen tend to pay little

attention to language (policy) in their company. It is often ignored because the costs and

benefits a language policy brings, are not easy to put into exact numbers. (Grin, 2006) “The

true cost has to be seen in terms of the way it distorts and damages relationships.” (Feely &

Harzing, 9, 2002) You could define such a policy as a sort of externality, in that respect.

A language policy could have a (positive) impact on productivity but also signifies an

important, though not always visible change in benefits. Grin says that “Because resources

are limited and have alternative uses, choices have to be made in order to ensure the best

use of these resources, and this, in turn, implies answering the three basic questions of any

economics textbook, namely, “what to produce?”, “how to produce?” and “for whom to

produce?”” (Grin & Vaillancourt, 21, 2010) Economists always think in terms of scarcity, e.g.

time and money. Therefore, one must reflect on what language policy would could let your

organisation gain in productivity for the least money and time. (Grin & Vaillancourt, 2015)

Economic and other advantages of having a language policy as a company will be set out

in the next chapter.

2.3. Examples and practices of language policy

The European Commission claims that “there is no such thing as best multilingual business

practice in absolute terms. However, there are management and executive choices that take

into account the type of business, the profile of people involved, and the company’s culture.”

(European Commission, 2011b) Thus, there are numerous strategies, practices and measures

to deal with multilingualism and language barriers that can be adopted by essentially all

companies, others are specifically beneficial for certain kinds of companies.

Feely and Harzing (2002) have listed nine strategies:

- Lingua franca: a language that both parties decide to use when they don’t have the

same native language.

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- Functional multilingualism: an improvised approach that consists of using a mix of

languages, pidgins and signs or gestures to make yourself clear.

- External language resources: hiring e.g. translators and interpreters.

- Training: giving your staff the necessary education in (a) certain language(s).

- Corporate language: adopting an official language that is used for all communication

inside an organisation, in all its HQs and subsidiaries.

- Language nodes: staff that has already had a language education of their own and

serve as mediators.

- Selective recruitment: hiring people with certain language skills only.

- Expatriate management: giving employees form HQs a position at a subsidiary, they

can then serve as language node and mediators.

- Inpatriation: giving employees from subsidiaries a position at an HQ, they can then

serve as language nodes and mediators. Those people can also inject the culture of

their country into the company.

- Machine translation

- Controlled language: making the produced texts more understandable by limiting

the size of the vocabulary of the used language and imposing easier syntax rules.

The report of the European Commission on SMEs (2011a) gave an overview of best practices

and their specific measures:

8

These are measures taken by SMEs, and therefore directed at international trade of goods.

FFG is also active on the international market, but their commodities are of another nature,

i.e. it sells activities and events on their own grounds. Nevertheless, most of the practices

can be applied to the festival, if necessary with some adaptions. One of the actions a policy

can propose is, as mentioned above, outsourcing the translation of bodies of text to external

translators. Chiocchetti has given suggestions to make the collaboration between company

and translator as fruitful as possible. She says that it is very important to give the translator

enough time to do his/her work, to brief them sufficiently about the purpose of the job, the

target audience and market, and about the content. It can also be helpful to build a long-

term relationship with one another as the contractor will presumably understand the specific

content and desired style better, and the texts will be written consistently. The translator will

also get used to the jargon and will be able to create a substantial glossary. Next to that,

Chiocchetti offers recommendations on how to easily train new staff for multilingual issues.

You can offer them simple directions on different text typologies, explain them briefly when

translations should be literal and when certainly not, give them the necessary reference

material and specific tools for specific topics. (Chiocchetti, 2015)

These kinds of measures don’t necessarily form part of an official policy imposed by

the management. Gunnarsson (2013) noticed during her research that language choice in

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email correspondence with third parties was often a pragmatic choice: when two parties

didn’t have the same mother tongue, they opted for English. She also mentions the use of

e.g. ‘bad English’. When the proficiency of a partner’s English is rather insufficient, using a

simplified version of English can make sure both parties understand each other. This is

confirmed by Amelina (2010), who sees a special-purpose register for that language, namely

one for internationally working professionals. Apart from that, she warns that proficiency in

BELF is a bonus, though good communication skills are even more important.

It has no use implementing a policy without supervising it in practice to guarantee a

certain level of success. Language auditing is one way to do this. The Hutchinson Institute

describes the procedure as follows: “controlling, verifying, checking or assessing the

language competence of a given person or a group of employees”, and gives next

examples:

(http://www.hutchinson.org.pl/our-offer/language-auditing.html)

2.4. Why does an organisation need a language policy?

A lot of companies and organisations don’t have a language policy. Usually, they ‘act

multilingual’ and make use of language strategies nevertheless, just not in a formal way.

(European Commission, 2011b) Even if there is a formal language policy on paper, it is not

guaranteed that this strategy is reflected in everyday practice. Therefore, the best way to

find out the nature of such a policy, is to conduct an ethnographic study, which I did.

(Spolsky, 2004) According to Saulière (2014), most companies adapt to reality quite fast,

without contriving a formal way to deal with multilingual issues, linguistic practices are

regularly improvised. It is not considered a management issue. (Feely & Harzing, 2002) It is

often worth to think about such matter, though. There are a lot of barriers that prevent a

company from growing that a language policy can overcome. In the literature, the main

goal of creating a language policy is described as the modification of practices and beliefs

in the workplace, solving communication problems experienced by the participants (Spolsky,

2009), to facilitate administrative and operational effectiveness as a precondition for

organizational productivity (Sanden, 2014).

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Having a good language policy gives a company a competitive advantage.

According to Van Vaerenbergh, addressing customers living in bilingual countries – such as

Belgium – in his or her native language results in higher customer return intentions. He says

that even if those customers speak both the official languages, it is important to give in to

their emotional attachment to their native language. (Van Vaerenbergh et al., 2012) The

study by the European Commission showed that the best scoring companies they

researched were the companies whose sale turnover was increased by at least 10-25% by

using a language strategy. Moreover, the most successes came from the SMEs based in

bilingual countries that were already used to multilingualism in everyday life. (European

Commission, 2011a) The report also mentions specific assets related to using the customer’s

language as a strategy:

(European Commission, 2011a)

Furthermore, it notes that English is essential on the international market, but not sufficient.

The most successful companies embrace functional multilingualism, English will not work,

e.g. in countries with a strong affinity for their own language like France or Italy. (European

Commission, 2011a) A strategic language policy thus enhances the relationship between

buyer and seller, but also between partners. Networks are built a lot easier when their

members speak the same language. It is also a matter of identity, though. Trust is built on

feelings of familiarity and similarity, and being able to understand and talk to each other is

part of that. Language proficiency simplifies correspondence between countries and

language regions, but it is important to keep in mind that a sufficient knowledge of the other

party’s culture can also be seen as a barrier to overcome. (Peltokorpi & Vaara, 2014)

There are some downsides as well. First, it is a time-consuming activity. Not only

finding the right policy for your organisation, but also the implementation of it can take

years. Adopting a language policy is a long-term strategy. Training your employees in

certain skills won’t happen overnight, either. This is especially the case if a large employee

base does not agree with the imposed policy. (Feely & Harzing, 2002) By recruiting staff

based on their language skills, there is a chance they lack the necessary technical skills, there

might be a “misalignment between language and functional competencies”. (Peltokorpi &

Vaara, 606 2014) The same problem occurs with language nodes, who don’t have the right

11

vocabulary, and translators and interpreters, who sometimes need a lot of background to

do a translation. Furthermore, they are very expensive and might not always understand

and bring across the spirit of the company and the right tone. (Feely & Harzing, 2002) Next

to all that is the fact that it is never finished. Once you have established a policy, however,

it remains an ongoing process and aim to adapt your strategy to the constantly changing

world. The most important reason to not choose a language policy, is the cost of the

implementation. Translators, trainings, accommodation for native speakers, etc. are very

expensive. If the benefits are not clear in straight numbers and if employees handle

multilingual, communicative problems by improvising quite well, managers tend to ignore

the possibility of investing in and implementing a language policy.

12

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3. Methodology and data collection

What do all those theoretical frameworks mean for Film Fest Gent and can the practical

examples be applied to the festival? I have tried to find this out by conducting interviews

with key players of the organisation and engaging in ethnographic research. I was able to

so, because I worked two months for FFG as an intern. FFG is an organisation relying on lots

of interns and temporary jobs arriving mainly in July or September, so when I was working

there in May and June, it was still quite calm. This was not a problem for my research,

however, as the key players of the organisation were all there. A short overview:

- Int. 1 (BE) (management), financial director.

Proficient in Dutch, English and French.

- Int. 2 (BE) (management), programmer and

festival producer.

Proficient in Dutch, English and French (orally).

- Int. 3 (BE), sponsorship and protocol.

Proficient in Dutch, English and French (orally)

- Int. 4 (BE), music & special projects, supervisor

of my internship.

Proficient in Dutch, English, French, Spanish

and a little German.

- Int. 5 (BE), guest service.

Proficient in Dutch, French, English and

German.

- Int. 6 (NL), promotion & communication.

Proficient in Dutch, English and a little French.

- Int. 7 (BE), press & industry. (she joins FFG

yearly in July so I didn’t get to work with her,

although I did interview her)

Proficient in Dutch, English, French, Arabic and

a little German.

FFG is an international festival with a separate section dedicated to music: The World

Soundtrack Awards (WSA). The WSA are managed by a team of three, including Int. 4, a

temporary employee and me. I functioned as an allrounder, with tasks ranging from

managing the social media pages and website, to maintaining public relations and keeping

contact with the members of the World Soundtrack Academy. The world of film (music) is a

very small world, yet very distinct. At FFG, we call it the Industry. Composers, arrangers,

publicists, talent agents, … are all part of it and many of them are members of the Academy.

One of my first goals was to get to know that world. I was instructed to read and clean up

their documents in the server and copy the structure of the file “WSA 2016” to “WSA 2017”.

My supervisor also sent a lot of emails with me in cc. This way, I had access to parts of her

correspondence and how she deals with language. Furthermore, my Facebook account was

linked to the WSA page and I received the passwords of Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and

the website’s backoffice, which means I was able to go through the archives of their online

communication as well. Most of my observations are done regarding the WSA, because of

my position there. The interviews I have conducted have, however, given me a good

perspective on the situation in general and the way of operating at FFG as well. In addition,

several documents I have studied in the finder, the website and social media channels, as

14

well as the information I could pick up by just being there for two months, gave me a good

overview of the communication and language decisions of FFG in general, too.

I conducted interviews with seven key players of the festival with a double focus: I

tried to find out when they use which language and according to what register or style they

write or speak. Those focal points are reflected in six main questions. The fourth, “Does Film

Fest Gent have a language policy” is divided into two sets of seven sub questions, one set

for interviewees working in a production related department (Int. 4, Int. 5, Int. 7, Int. 2, Int. 1

and Int. 3), and one for the communication department (Int. 6, Int. 4, Int. 7). The second set

of questions is more focused on language use towards a broader audience while the first

asks about communication with third parties. Out of all six interviews, eight main themes

emerged: policy, recruitment, registers, English vs. French, problems and solutions,

language choice, local agents and external resources. The interviews were conducted

between 19 June and 24 July, and the questions are attached at the end of this paper.

15

4. Data analysis

4.1. Ethnographic research

From my first day on, the international character of the festival, and consequently the office,

was made clear. My very first assignment was to proofread – and correct, if necessary – a

press release that had just entered from a translation bureau, in English and French. There

were, indeed, some grammatical mistakes that I could solve. After the texts were checked

by three or four people, we sent them straightaway to the press. The industry is an

international society, so the external communication of the WSA to the public is solely in

English. This means everything I had to write on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, bodies of

text to update the website or coverage for the newsletter had to be in English, except when

I had to prepare the Facebook events for the WSA Gala & Concert and the Symphonic Jazz

Concert. Since these shows attract a lot of Flemish people, the info was written in both Dutch

and English. We had a small meeting about the language choice before I published them.

For all the other posts that I created, I was free to decide how to do it. In the beginning, I

asked my supervisor to check all of them for mistakes in grammar, but also about what tone

or feeling I had to use writing them. I had already seen in previous posts that the WSA

addressed its followers very friendly and with a lot of emoticons, but I wanted to be sure. I

asked to check the articles I wrote to publish on the website as well, but my supervisor barely

had time to proofread them.

My email correspondence – mainly with Academy members, teachers from

(international) film and music colleges, jazz organisations or composers – was mostly in

English. But I have written in French to a couple of Walloon jazz magazines, too. I did that

of my own accord, but I think that it was expected of me as well. I used Dutch to correspond

with colleagues and Belgian companies that we work with, e.g. our website designer or the

ticket service. I didn’t receive any directions or guidelines on how to approach different types

of contacts, but my supervisor asked if she could correct my responses occasionally. Next

to that, a lot of the emails I had to forward, were very formal and taken over from a template

that had already been used for more than five years. Emails coming from Int. 4 always had

a familiar tone that was mostly shared by the other side of the channel. She usually starts

by asking how things go and that she’s happy with the collaboration. This is often a mutual

feeling.

Part of the communication with the Industry is done by PR bureau Krakower Group,

because the film music world is so niche. I found a proposal of their services in the server

where they described their services as follows: “Building on the anniversary of the World

Soundtrack Academy (WSA) last year, and utilizing the growth into the television market,

The Krakower Group will seek to increase the visibility of the WSA into the US market and

worldwide. The Krakower Group (KG) will work in conjunction with the WSA and the festival

16

publicity team and will help to coordinate onsite efforts during the festival, including

organizing press conferences, guest interviews, photo calls, and red carpet/step-and-

repeats. We will work with the festival to identify US film music journalists at the trade

magazines to invite to participate in the festival as festival guests both covering the festival

for their outlets and also serving as panel moderators where appropriate.” The Krakower

Group can be considered both a local agent and reversed local agent. They make sure

contacts are established and maintained abroad, but once those contacts are here, the PR

agency tries to guarantee their well-being and that they remain up to date about important

events or decisions being made.

Int. 4 takes a lot of (skype/conference) calls next to written correspondence, as well.

She allowed me to join a meeting with the Festival International du Film d'Aubagne, a French

film festival that collaborates with FFG and the WSA for the ‘3rd Character’ project.2 It was

a one on one conversation starting with some small talk about both festivals and the tone

was very friendly. Int. 4 was very fluent in French; I could see she did this quite often, and

there were few troubles in understanding each other. Int. 4 made some grammatical

mistakes, but that didn’t have any impact on the conversation. When they did have a

moment they didn’t understand each other, they would repeat the content with another

phrasing, which always worked out fine. Both parties respected mistakes or repetitions the

other made. The agent from the Aubagne festival started off quite slowly but when the

conversation progressed, she lapsed into the rhythm that is typical for native speakers of

French, which didn’t seem to be a problem for Int. 4.

FFG constantly encounters a lot of (everyday) multilingualism as well. The corporate

language spoken by the whole team is Dutch, but correspondence with agents, distributors,

directors, etc. is usually in English and sometimes in French. Occasionally, the team gets

contacted in other language, e.g. Italian or Spanish. Social media pages are managed in

Dutch. This is because the majority of festival goers are Flemish. International visitors can

always check the website, and during their stay, they are handed a programme in English

as well. The website is available in both languages, though not every article gets translated.

You could say the English website is a shorter, summarized version of the Dutch one, like

the programme brochure available during the festival. The language used is very casual and

outgoing on the social media channels, and professional but kind in the articles on the

website. This counts for the WSA, too. The use of language is always correct and few spelling

or grammatical errors are made. In the server, I have found a style guide with some

2 “The 3ième Personnage project is aimed to enable meetings between film music composers and duos of

directors and producers working on a film project for which an original music score is yet to be composed

and a specific composer is yet to be chosen (to be eligible, projects must be confirmed to be produced and

already have a financial support).” (http://www.worldsoundtrackawards.com/en/collaborations/3ieme-

personnage-3rd-character/111)

17

recommendations and parameters about movie jargon and other issues. It notes, for

example, that film texts don’t always have to follow the same order, they can deviate from

the classic pattern of ‘introduction – body – conclusion’. There are remarks about how to

write numbers and names of actors and directors, but also concerning content, e.g. that you

must always refer to the most important awards a movie has won when you’re talking about

it. It points out differences between Dutch and English notation as well: a Dutch title only

has one capital, in the beginning, while English titles give one to every key word.

Recruitment as part of a possible language policy was mentioned above. The server

and website of FFG gave me a view of vacancies of the last few years for the functions of:

- Assistant film music projects (2015)

- Assistant guest service (2015)

- Internship communication (2017)

- Internship editing of programme

brochure & press (2016)

- Internship communication (2016)

- Press and programme brochure

- Production WSA

- Interim assistant communication

- Interim video editor

Only in one vacancy, for the job of video editor, language is not mentioned. All other job

descriptions demand excellent knowledge of Dutch and English, noting that French is a

bonus. Moreover, perfect domination of French is expected at the department of

communication and press. Except for the production office, the vacancies go into detail on

language feeling and communicative skill. The communication department, for instance,

asks “a facile hand” of its applicants, and the ability to write without “dt-mistakes” and bring

across messages in Dutch, English and French. The press and programme vacancy calls for

experience in writing or editing online and printed media, and with communicating and

promoting cultural, public events. All functions require fluent telephone skills.

FFG, and especially the WSA, is clearly a multilingual organisation. Every bit of

communication that leaves the organisation is either in Dutch, English or French. Therefore,

the employees are expected to speak those languages proficiently, it is considered

something natural. At first sight, there is no sign of a particular language policy. Everyone

knows the three languages and then decides for his or herself what to do with that

knowledge and language. But what is the view of the team on this multilingualism and the

apparent irregularity about that?

4.2. Interviews

4.2.1. Does Film Fest Gent have a policy?

When I asked seven key players of Film Fest Gent what kind of policy the organisation was

using, the answer was unanimous: FFG doesn’t have and doesn’t need a language policy.

Since the regular group of employees is very small, they all state they trust each other

18

regarding language issues within their own department. Everyone should know for him or

herself how to address their contacts, how to assess the relationship with them and how to

respond appropriately. This counts for both external communication with the audience, and

with partners or other third parties. Int. 3 even states that “it would be an overkill to decide

on such stuff for such a small organisation” and that there would be little return on

investment for her taking a language course in e.g. French without being able to maintain

it, as she doesn’t use the language on a daily basis. Int. 7 adds that there’s no use in setting

up a detailed language strategy as “most people who work here are used to being abroad”

and “mostly we’re a temporary organisation”. Int. 6 mentions that “if everything would be

according to very strict rules, it would cause a lot of delay. We have a lot of pressure, so… It

would slow things down instead of making things more efficient.” They also agree on the

fact that the language use is different for each department, so a general policy wouldn’t be

very practical. Five distinctive policies would take up too much time to make for only one or

two persons per department to adopt. Int. 4 points out that everyone is educated well

enough and should just use some common sense.

4.2.2. Language registers

Every unit of Film Fest has its own way of communicating. Int. 4 describes the relation with

her partners – especially those who return annually – very familiar, they even use emoticons

in their correspondence. She also says that “it has more to do with a certain experience than

with a policy [whether your language use is successful or not].” Int. 5 tends to be a lot more

formal, as she has to deal with movie stars and other important guests regularly. She

provides a self-made manual to her interns with some instructions on how to address people

or how to make a phone call in French. Int. 1 notes that it also depends on which medium

you use. A contract or an email contains language that is a lot more formal than e.g. a text

message or when you talk to each other face to face, but that everyone knows how to adapt

to the situation. Int. 6 tries to keep it friendly and casual towards the audience. She reckons

that it is a house style that everyone uses when communicating to the outside world in the

name of the festival, with the same message but also with their own touch. The general tone

is friendly and jovially. “Those things get clear when you start working here, but they are not

written down.” She wouldn’t invest money or time in a language policy because they don’t

have that and everything goes quite well.

Another reason not to do that is that “we need to be creative and rules can restrain

that,” she says, and “it’s about movies so it’s about interpretation. You let the content of the

movie lead. To trust each other in this is very important, as is having the freedom to handle

this content and be creative about it.” This gentle feel they use actually is written down, just

not everyone seems to be aware of it. Int. 7 refers to a ‘style guide’ (cf. supra) they have

created for the ‘Knack Focus Special’, a sort of programme of the festival. Int. 6 also mentions

19

this guide, and says they also use these spelling and style rules for the rest of the

communication, despite her saying they don’t have anything on paper about style. Int. 2

refers to the fact that they use UK English but have no rules other than that, and Int. 5 says

that, for her department, it’s only important to know a lot of languages and to be able to

write impeccably.

4.2.3. Language choice

Another aspect of language policy next to appropriate language use, is the choice when to

use which language. This depends on the department as well. It seems that only Int. 3 is not

exposed to English. For the rest of the key players, the general rule is that everything should

be always available in Dutch, and that as much as possible should be translated to English,

if need be, in a shorter form. There are three exceptions for this unwritten rule. Firstly, the

subtitles of certain movies are not available in Dutch. Int. 2 mentions that they have a

collaboration with the university college to deliver them if possible. Students-translators see

to the translation of the movie and make sure they appear at the right time during the

movie. Secondly, Int. 7 personally assures that the Walloon press in Belgium is kept in touch.

She will reach them in French, especially when there is a movie that specifically concerns the

southern part of Belgium or France. Important messages, such as the announcement of the

date or first names, will get translated by a professional bureau or by Belga. Thirdly, there is

the special status of the WSA. As the film music industry is nearly solely international and

hardly present in Belgium, all the communication on the website, social media and in the

newsletter, is in English. FFG will communicate the most important announcements in Dutch

through their media, though, so that the Flemish audience is kept up to date as well. The

Facebook events of the two concerts were decided to be published in Dutch and English.

The activities and masterclasses during the Industry Day and the Film Music Seminar are

also exclusively in English, due to the presence of international speakers and guests. Belgian

attendees apparently don’t except it to be any other way.

4.2.4. External resources

Since the use of French has been drastically reduced, FFG and, consequentially, the WSA

hardly make use of translation bureaus. Except for press releases in French, everything

concerning online communication gets translated by the co-workers of the organisation.

Int. 2, Int. 4, Int. 7 and Int. 6 all provide significant content in Dutch and English. For

communication with international partners, guests or other companies, they will address

them in their native tongue whenever they’re able to, otherwise the addressing language is

English. The only time they will contact a translation bureau, is to prepare the programme

brochure. Depending on how much time they have, they might also involve them for press

releases in English. Those bureaus take up too much of the budget and they all agree that

20

in the past, the translations often didn’t reflect the right atmosphere or were just insufficient,

especially French translations. Too much time got wasted on proofreading those translations

by the team. The quality should be guaranteed, either way, so if Int. 5 is working with interns,

she decides who has the best skills to translate a text. FFG does rely on interpreters during

the festival, who are also connected to the university. When Ryuichi Sakamoto was guest of

honour at the World Soundtrack Awards, for example, they hired an interpreter fluent in

Japanese who was also familiar with that culture to guide Mr. Sakamoto and make him feel

comfortable, Int. 4 says.

4.2.5. Local agents

Another way to overcome cultural differences, is the arrangement of a (reversed) local

agent. This is especially the case for the WSA. A lot of guests at the regular festival are

Belgian or European, but the film music industry is almost entirely based in the United States,

even though a lot of composers are European or Asian themselves. It is a totally different

world to which you should get accustomed. Therefore, the WSA collaborates with the

Krakower Group, a US based PR bureau specialised in film music (cf. supra). Int. 7 notices

that “the film music press is so niche, so small that you have to know these people and if

you want to infiltrate the bigger outlets, you have to invest in that. It doesn’t really have to

do anything with language, but more with contacts and the Krakower Group knows that

world better than we do.” They maintain contacts with American guests and communicate

with them during the festival. Int. 5 notes that FFG used to hire such agencies as well, for

French or German actors. That has gotten too expensive, though, so now she handles those

contacts herself. She has worked a lot on those contacts, she had to learn different aspects

of those cultures before being able to smoothly engage with them.

4.2.6. Recruitment

One of the measures often mentioned in the examples in chapter two, is recruitment based

on language knowledge. FFG uses this method as well. The WSA, communication

department, guest service, programme department and press department all keep

language skills in count during a job interview. Int. 5 hands out little tests to fill out, the rest

relies on their background. Int. 7, for instance, assumes that if the applicant has a bachelor’s

degree or a significant knowledge of movies, his or her English should be sufficient as well.

Int. 4 checks their resumes and education, and gives the responsibility to write a social media

post during the first week as a test. Int. 6 relies on previous experiences, not only to find out

which languages the applicant knows, but also if he or she possesses an adequate linguistic

feeling. These decisions where not imposed by the organisation, though, but originated

from both the co-workers’ minds and the necessity imposed by the international character

of the festival.

21

4.2.7. English vs. French

Until two years ago, significant communication and the website were done in three

languages: Dutch, English and French. The festival had enough people capable of writing in

French, but when cutbacks came, they switched to translation bureaus. Because of further

going budget reasons, FFG had to let go almost completely their writings in French, a

decision ought necessary, nevertheless regretted by the team. The lack of communication

in French was, however, not reflected in the turnout of French speaking visitors. The festival

hardly noticed any change, probably in part because Int. 7 makes an extra effort to contact

French and Walloon press personally, but also because that turnout was small anyway and

because most noteworthy messages still get translated by professional translation bureaus.

Apart from economy measures, low quality of the translations played a big role in the

reduction of the language. They still check the delivered work, but there are far fewer texts

to revise now. It wasn’t necessarily a case of grammatical mistakes, i.e. the translation an

sich was written without mistakes. Yet, they often lacked the necessary subtleties

characteristic for the French language. Film makers who then read the synopsis, sometimes

complained about the content.

Ten years ago, Int. 5 said, this would not have been possible. But the cultural world

has changed and French or Walloon journalists or visitors, often speak English nowadays

and don’t expect to be served in their mother tongue anymore. Other interviewees also

notice this development. Int. 7 says that Walloon journalists even speak English when they

visit the festival. When they speak to each other in person, however, the team will still

address them in French. But the general tendency is that everyone in the field makes

significant efforts to make themselves clear in English. Generally, a film festival audience,

everywhere in the world, is familiar with the international environment of the movie business

and therefore expects to be surrounded with English at such an occasion, which makes the

switch to all Dutch/English even more comprehensible and logical.

4.2.8. Problems and solutions in practice

All seven key players have a significant multilingual knowledge with proficiency in two to five

languages (cf. supra). But naturally, their writings are not always flawless. I asked them if FFG

provided translation tools and if there were regular control mechanisms of the texts they

produced. There don’t seem to be any regulations, but all interviewees state that they use

online dictionaries constantly. Int. 5 mentions that these don’t always bring accurate

translations, since it’s not a paid service, but in her opinion, the basic knowledge should be

ingrained with all co-workers. Next to that, the key players admitted checking up with each

other regularly. Every text or each article that goes out in public, gets proofread by co-

workers. Emails don’t get checked that often, but it can happen that, in case it is an important

one, it gets sent to the rest of the team to check it on mistakes or false content. Bodies of

22

text that got sent to professional translation bureaus always get proofread, unless there is a

lack of time. Furthermore, they say that communication with native speakers of English is

always more effortless than with non-natives, stating that their English is sufficient. If there

are any misunderstandings, it is mostly attributed to the other side of the channel.

For the rest, there are no big problems due to language barriers or

miscommunication, Int. 1 says. The other interviewees indeed only recall minor issues which

were solved quite easily. Int. 3 tells about how international agents or directors are not able

to pronounce the Flemish names of her co-workers, Int. 7 says that communication may be

difficult with people from India or so, but then just asks to put the information in an email,

and Int. 5 says she doesn’t experience that many problems because she masters a lot of

languages. When Int. 3 was confronted with Walloon partners who were obliged to speak

Dutch by their company, she tried to convert the conversation in French anyway to make it

go smoother. Int. 2 gave the example of a Turkish movie. During the first screening, the

director made some comments about the content. Translation students from the university

then had to rush to reconcile the subtitles with his vision before the second showing. In that

department, it happened a few times already that the version of a movie FFG first receives

is not the same as the one they get designated to show during the festival. This means that

the subtitles the students provided, won’t match anymore with the new movie. Again, they

had to rush to get this right and projected the correct subtitles under the movie. A last issue

was noticed by Int. 4. When the language knowledge of an intern appears to be insufficient,

she will grant him or her other assignments. Int. 5 does this as well, as there are always

enough organisational tasks to distribute.

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5. Findings

5.1. Policy

At first sight, FFG doesn’t seem to have a language policy. Decisions are made

autonomously and can differ from department to department. The team is rather small and

explains that such a policy would slow down the communication process instead of making

it more efficient, and it could mean a restriction to creative writing. In addition, measures

that would be imposed by a policy are very expensive, which is also the reason they

abandoned some of those practices in the past, next to the poor quality delivered by

translation agencies. Clearly, the organisation doesn’t see any advantages in a well-

regulated and official language policy. But, FFG is such an international and multilingual

organisation, would it really not benefit from a policy on language use and practices? If we

identify the way the team deals with everyday problems and take a look at how the

interviewees manage the multilingual reality the festival has to do with, we can see a lot of

similarities with and examples from chapter two.

According to the two definitions chosen as a framework for this research, we can see

a lot of elements present at the office of the festival. There have been made interlingual

policy agreements that Dutch is used for every kind of communication except for the WSA

and translations to English are provided as much as possible. This isn’t a strategy captured

in an official document, but it is a clear indication for everyone working at the festival and

therefore, in a certain way, a fixed rule. French was abandoned for financial and quality

reasons and is therefore a strategic measure keeping scarcity in mind. Regarding intralingual

policy, employees of the organisation can rely on a style guide if necessary, with very specific

guidelines concerning movie jargon. Registers of language the team uses are not

established, but the general tendency that everybody agrees on, is familiarity towards and

a kind way in approaching the audience. The external communication with partners or other

third parties has a different tone depending on the department sending out. Each team

member is ought to be intelligent enough to decide how to approach those people with an

eye toward a successful outcome.

Bergenholtz and Johnsen’s definition also holds some elements that sound familiar.

It mentions “a course of action”, “subjective language needs”, “the purpose of achieving

some kind of organizational goals and/or benefits” and “increased operational

effectiveness”. It is self-evident that an international organisation such as FFG meets those

conditions, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to sustain. The course of action can be seen in

literally every action the festival undertakes to reach out to the audience, partners or other

stakeholders in English or French. The attempt to translate as much as possible, the efforts

taken by every team member to address their partners in their own language and especially

by Int. 7 towards French speaking journalists, the investments in interpreters and sometimes

24

translators, and so on. The subjective language needs speak for themselves. FFG is no

multinational corporation and therefore doesn’t need a language policy to manage internal

communication between employees across national borders. All team members speak

Dutch and reside in the same open space their office consists of so they shouldn’t just copy

the model of a corporate language from MNCs. They adapt their strategies to their own,

subjective needs. The purpose of achieving benefits, one of which is operational

effectiveness is the underlying reason to take on all those different languages, registers and

other outcomes of an unconscious policy. Because FFG is an organisation without big

budgets and with only a small team, they try to communicate as efficient as possible. The

examples of Int. 3 switching to French in conversations with Dutch speaking Walloons, or

Int. 7 cutting phone calls short to write the information in an email illustrate this. Only the

strategy is missing, which is, however, the most important aspect of a policy. There is no

deeper design or planning behind their actions. The implementations are there, but these

decisions were made instinctively, seeing only the purpose of a specific task and with no

greater plan in mind. All the elements that a policy could contain are there, except for the

strategy and formal regulation.

5.2. Dimensions

The different dimensions influencing and originating from language policies are also present

within the festival. The technological/economic framework is very visible in the movie

business. Over the last years, English has reinforced its status as official language of the

industry and thus serves as almost unequivocal communication language in the international

circuit. Illegal streaming and torrent websites have probably even spread the worldwide use

of the language even further. FFG has jumped on that English language bandwagon many

years ago, but has sharpened its focus on it by abandoning French. Concerning the political

framework, the festival enjoys a lot of freedom. There are no restrictions on external

language use and the education system in Flanders is very favourable towards

multilingualism, especially English, resulting in a rather qualified pool of workers. Apart from

that, the Schengen zone makes sure European projects such as ‘3rd Character’, which are

by the way encouraged by the European Union as well, are possible, thus stimulating

multilingualism within the organisation even more. Lastly, the linguistic influences regarding

the festival go both ways. As stated above, Belgium and specifically Flanders provide a

positive environment to develop linguistic skills, which plays into the festival’s hands. The

other way around, the international atmosphere at the festival encourages visitors of the

festival, e.g. at the Industry Day or the Film Music Seminar, to improve their linguistic skills

should they want to participate successfully.

A significantly less positive dimension of a language policy, notably the adaption of

English or more languages, is that of power. Nevertheless, this aspect doesn’t turn out that

25

unfavourable for FFG. There is no such thing as an unequal relationship between different

layers because the team only consists of nine people, and all decisions regarding language

and language choice are made bottom up. The suggestion made by Lüdi earlier in this

paper is clearly something the festival has already done. They do discriminate in their hiring

procedures regarding language skills, but this is something that makes them stronger as a

company. The debate about who gets the best starting position, the native or non-native

speaker isn’t applicable either. The interviewees stated that communication with native

English speakers was a lot more fluent and therefore preferable, making the communication

more effective for them. In correspondence with non-native speakers, they are at least

starting at the same position as both parties don’t master the language like a native speaker

would, but interviewees noted that most of the time, their English is better which gives them

a more advantageous position. Thus, they either have a better starting position to negotiate

or have the benefit of a more efficient communication. The hypothesis that non-natives

would master business English better than natives as an advantage is probably not

applicable to the movie business, though, because that uses a totally different jargon. Lastly,

if the use of English would be declining, even in the movie world, FFG would still enjoy its

favourable position due to the extensive language skills of its employees.

Language policies, or at least the outcome of them, can be seen as externalities. The

benefits it brings are not always immediately visible and the same counts for the costs. Feely

and Harzing pointed out that these variables were mostly reflected in the loss or

strengthening of business relations. At this point, FFG seems to be doing quite well. A lot of

guests, composers, agents or directors get addressed in their native language and Int. 5, Int.

4 and Int. 7 try their best to adapt to their cultural habits as well. The example of the

Krakower Group illustrates how they want to treat their contacts as well as possible. There

are a lot of international guests that return yearly or every few years a as a result of that

strategy. In the interviews, I have also found the answer to the questions Grin posed to

define the scarcity of resources. “What to produce” would be the translations they provide

in any form. “How to produce” would be reflected in the instruments they use to do so, e.g.

the style guide, dictionaries on the web, translation bureaus, recruitment or interpreters.

“For whom to produce” would mean the choice of language towards the audience and in

external communication with third parties. The decisions the team makes about these

questions are clear internally, so they are clearly thinking about scarcity, but they are not

taken on in a bigger, structural strategy. In terms of scarcity, the festival chooses to spend

time above money. By translating almost everything, you save money but you can also

decide easier how much of it your variable you spend because you do it yourself.

26

5.3. Examples

A lot of examples given in chapter two, are already in practice at the festival. Of the strategies

Feely and Harzing listed, a lot are mainly applicable to MNCs and internal communication.

We see for instance that adopting a corporate language would be useless since the team is

so small and everyone sitting in the same big space speaks Dutch. The same counts for the

appointment of inpatriates and expatriates, seeing that FFG only has one office. The other

strategies are already in use at the festival. The general lingua franca in the movie world is

English, which is mastered very well by the team, they make use of machine translation,

selective recruitment based on language knowledge is one of the most important and

fruitful strategies the organisation has and it also makes use of external resources like

translators and interpreters, when necessary. Language nodes, training, functional

multilingualism and controlled language are also part of their unwritten policy: the team

makes use of the language skills of their colleagues (nodes), they try to train their interns to

prepare them for the festival and in communication with partners, the interviewees adapt

their language to their opponent (controlled language, “bad English”). The best practices

provided by the European Commission are also reflected in the policy of the festival, like the

use of local agents, a multilingual website, university links, or cross-border schemes. FFG

even meets the characteristics from the best practice SMEs summed up by that report.

There are some points that could still be improved though. Although each

department is different, language trainings and cultural briefings could be expanded, more

profoundly, and provided for other employees than interns. The festival could work out a

policy, part of which could consist of those briefings, but also a part dedicated to a glossary

of movie and film music jargon. Instruments could be made more useful by investing in a

paid service, as mentioned above. There are some complaints about the quality of

translation services, which could be enhanced by taking into account the suggestions made

by Chiocchetti, like providing abundant amounts of information and background or

glossaries for the translator, and explaining the purpose thoroughly. Language skills are

considered self-evident, so the idea of testing those skills doesn’t come up in the office. It

could be useful, though, to evaluate those skills once in a while, in the way of setting up a

language auditing. Making up a list of skills could be a practical guideline along the way,

just as listing up skills that could be improved. Discussing this as a team each year could

ensure that the co-workers are better aware of what they can and can’t do, and what could

be enhanced, eventually resulting in a more efficient way of communicating.

5.4. Benefits

The festival recognises language as a very important aspect of the working, but considers it

more an individual issue rather than a managerial one. How could structuralising their

actions in the form of an official policy benefit the festival? I have already mentioned the

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importance of establishing good and close relations with partners. Trust is built only when

a sense of comfort and familiarity is present, so although the movie world unofficially agreed

upon English as a lingua franca, agents from countries with a strong national identity like

France or Spain still appreciate to be addressed in their native language. The more

languages mastered, the more networks that can be entered. In approaching the audience,

less languages are necessary. Van Vaerenbergh states that customers want to be

approached in their native tongue, but since the movie business is part of a distinctive

environment where everyone seems to have accepted the status of English, it would be a

waste of time to expand the amount of languages. The audience that is not interested in

specialised activities such as the Industry Day, is almost exclusively Flemish. Visitors that are

interested, know what to expect about the used language.

Other benefits described in chapter two, were, according to the European

Commission, “creating a positive rapport with major customers, showing evidence of long-

term commitment to their market, travelling abroad, creating an international ethos within

your company or organisation, gaining a competitive edge, increasing the flow of market

intelligence and customer feedback”, all extremely welcome advantages for an international

organisation as FFG. But the most important asset of a structured policy has to do with the

many interns the festival works with each year. It would spare the organisation a lot of time

if they could just brief them through a prepared document with all the information on

language use, choice, registers, availability of external resources and tools.

Regarding the downsides of adopting a language policy and a specific language use,

FFG shouldn’t be too concerned. Hiring employees because of their language skills should

not mean a lack of technical skills, as the most important experience the team needs is of a

linguistic nature. Internal power relations are no issue either, as stated above, and the quality

of hired translation agencies can be enhanced, even partly, by following the suggestions of

Chiocchetti. The fact that it is never finished is still a concern, but that becomes less of a

burden when you follow up the policy and language skills gradually. The most important

downsides, however, are still a fact: it stays an expensive and time consuming element, which

is important especially to an organisation as FFG. Therefore, a less profound and detailed

policy would suit the festival better. Not everything needs to be captured, like some

interviewees already stated, and by doing everything you can do yourself, you save a big

deal of money already. As the festival makes use of a lot of unpaid interns, they have the

advantage of time above money. It’s just a matter of balance.

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29

6. Concluding remarks & future research

After comparing academic literature with the data I collected, it turns out that FFG is doing

quite well concerning language use. The dimensions that go together with such a policy

don’t seem to affect the festival in a bad way. The organisation doesn’t need to worry about

unequal power relations resulting from multiple language use since the team is small and

decisions are made bottom up. The legal framework in Belgium is very encouraging towards

multilingualism and international trade, and the team is definitely aware of the principle of

scarcity and weighs the different options well. Economic benefits in the form of substantial

relationships with agents and composers are already clear. However, these benefits could

be scrutinised more carefully by means of a profound economic evaluation. Such an analysis

should be conducted on the long term in order to see the results of the implemented policy

or multilingual practices. It should consider all costs made by the festival on anything

concerning language and try to set up a framework to calculate the value of the results. This

kind of study deals with complicated matters and is therefore not included in this paper. In

this way, it stays, as Grin noted, a blind spot within the study of external corporate

communication.

During my research, it became clear that FFG constantly thinks about language and

language use. They don’t have structural measures to deal with that kind of issues, but a lot

of practices I registered come back in the literature as part of language policies. The benefits

it brings with it are applicable to the festival, and the downsides can be contained. I have

given a start to create a formal language policy with some recommendations, like investing

in paid online dictionaries, keeping track of the employees’ skills and setting up a language

auditing each year. These are measures with the financial background of the festival kept in

mind. They are rather inexpensive and not so time-consuming. Creating a language policy

can be useful because it relies on so many interns. It would be a positive evolution for them

to have a physical hold in regard to language use and for the permanent staff to hand it to

them as part of their training. Structure in time of chaos (e.g. during the festival) is very

important. The measures I propose also take into account the creative background of the

festival. The team is and will be well educated and creative, meaning that too much

regulation would slow everything down. They need their freedom. On the other hand, it is

always a good thing to question yourself and your skills. It is an even better thing to do that

with your team, hence the proposed language auditing and evaluations.

An aspect of language policy that is still underdeveloped by scholars, is language

use on social media. There are numerous studies about social media strategies, but they

hardly elaborate on organisations with a multilingual following like FFG has one. This is

complicated matter, though, since the social media landscape, and that of the internet in

general, is constantly and rapidly changing. On the other hand, this is an extra reason to

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conduct research about this topic: organisations get lost in the labyrinth of the internet and

are often overtaken by developments. Furthermore, research could be taken to a higher

level by studying language policies of cultural non-profit organisations in general and

creating general guidelines that could be used by those organisations. Academic literature

only addresses MNCs and their internal language policies. Those companies have a totally

different background and make use of other economic means. Cultural organisations have

to do it with a lot less financial funds and are therefore already a lot more creative in their

appropriation, also concerning language use. General directions or instructions would be

very welcome, however, also for Film Fest Gent, in these ever-changing times.

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7. Bibliography

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8. Annexes

Questionnaire language policy Film Fest Gent

1. Can you describe your function? In which department of the festival do you work?

2. Film Fest Gent is a multilingual organisation. Both the audience as the guests from

the industry often don’t speak Dutch. In which ways does Film Fest Gent come in

contact with language in general?

3. What is the general attitude of the team against the phenomenon of multilingualism?

• Which languages do you master?

• Which languages do you need/in which way do you get in touch with

languages?

• How do you deal with that? How and when do you switch languages?

• Do you experience any problems or difficulties with multilingualism?

4. Is there a policy coming from Film Fest Gent concerning multilingualism?

o Interviewees from the communication department:

▪ Do you think such a policy is necessary?

• Or is the organisation too small?

• Or is everybody capable enough to handle it their way?

• Is there a difference in necessity for a policy between written

or oral communication?

• Would an investment in this be worth it?

▪ Do you agree on unofficial rules?

▪ Which tools do you have at your disposal?

• (Online) dictionaries?

• Do you need these tools? Example?

• What do you do if you don’t know something in/about a

language?

▪ Do texts get proofread? By whom?

▪ What happens when something gets published/sent that contains

mistakes?

▪ How do users/the audience react to the method you use?

• Do you receive feedback?

• Do you ask feedback?

• How do you react on criticism?

▪ Do you think adopting a policy would generate improvement/could

prevent problems?

• In which areas?

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• Do you have specific measures in mind?

o Interviewees from the production departments:

▪ Do you think such a policy is necessary?

• Or is the organisation too small?

• Or is everybody capable enough to handle it their way?

• Is there a difference in necessity for a policy between written

or oral communication?

• Would an investment in this be worth it?

▪ Do you agree on unofficial rules?

▪ Which tools do you have at your disposal?

• (Online) dictionaries?

• Do you need these tools? Example?

• What do you do if you don’t know something in/about a

language?

▪ Do texts get proofread? By whom?

▪ What happens when something gets published/sent that contains

mistakes?

▪ How is the multilingual level of the opposite side of the channel?

• Is there a difference between native English speakers and non-

natives?

• Does the level of the partner influence the choice of the

present policy?

▪ Do you think adopting a policy would generate improvement/could

prevent problems?

• In which areas?

• Do you have specific measures in mind?

5. Do you keep language knowledge in mind during recruitment?

o Yes: how? Do you test this?

o No: why not? Should you do that?

o What happens if you hire someone who is less sufficient than expected in a

language?

o Attitude towards the use of French

▪ Do you get in touch with this language often?

▪ The website is not available in French. What are your thoughts on

that? Have you received any reaction on this cutback?

▪ If there would be more communication in French, would this reflect in

a higher turnout from Wallonia?

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