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The chocolate traveling exhibit from the field museum in Chicago was, in my
view, successful in incorporating interpretive content (not just labels) in
both English and Spanish. As a native Spanish speaker (with most of my
education completed in Mexico) I see many "bilingual" exhibits that are just
about labels (and most often with misspellings or grammar errors). I agree.
Bilingual labels do not make a successful bilingual exhibit.

Juan-Carlos Solis
Public Programs Coordinator
California Academy of Sciences
875 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Ph: (415) 321-8108  Fax: (415) 321-8601
E: [log in to unmask]
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cecilia Garibay
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005 2:20 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Bilingual graphics

ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
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I believe that Mac's question is less about bilingual interpretation 
(i.e., two languages), but more aexhibits that incorporate multiple 
languages or that use an interpretation strategy that allows access for 
multiple languages.

The closest I've seen to that in the U.S. is using some sort of handout 
or guide done in multiple languages, but not actual signage. The 
Children's Museum in Houston exhibit on Vietnamese culture, Dragons and 
Fairies, included signs in English and Vietnamese and interpretive 
handouts in Spanish. In the past, The Miami Museum of Science has 
adapted exhibits originally developed only in English to bilingual 
exhibits by developing large laminated sheets with Spanish text and 
placing them at each unit. You could theoretically include sheets for a 
number of languages. The caveat is that there's no research measuring 
the effectiveness of these approaches.


For those of you interested in developing bilingual exhibitions, you 
might interested in a session at AAM 2004 in which several of us 
discussed some of the issues surrounding bilngual interpretation. Here's 
a brief distillation of some key points:


In terms of access, here's a quick list of some of the value of 
bilingual interpretation:

* Can be part of creating/increasing visitor's comfort level (a 
well-established component in the visitor research literature on 
developing diverse audiences)


* Makes content accessible to broader audience, which means more 
likelihood that educational messages/goals are achieved.


* The visitor research that exists on bilingual labels suggests that it 
enhances social interaction and learning in intergenerational groups 
that have varying language abilities (e.g., parents are primarily 
Spanish-speakers and children are primarily English speakers).


* Research also suggests that monolingual English-speaking families 
sometime appreciate multi-lingual interpretation. Usually, these are 
English-speaking families where the children are learning a second 
language at school. These families seem to enjoy the added "benefit" of 
having an experience that allows them to "practice" the new language. 
They also seemed to appreciate the fact that bilingual labels helped 
reinforce values they were trying to teach their children, such as 
diversity.


In terms of the writing and interpretation/translation process, here are 
a few things to think about:

* Interpretation and translation are not the same thing. Build enough 
time into the process so that, ideally, writers are working side-by-side 
in the different languages. Find a bilingual writer who can negotiate 
the subtleties of language and meaning. Leave lots of time for feedback 
loops in the process and evaluation.

* Consider implications of style and. Sometimes, these won't work in the 
other language. Humor (like puns) and metaphor can be especially tricky, 
because they often depend on multiple meanings of words and cultural 
context.

In terms of design, here are a few different and effective strategies:

* Avoid a sea of text (which overwhelms visitors). It's important to 
develop a design strategy that helps visitors readily distinguish the 
two languages.

* Use different background colors to differentiate languages on the same 
panel, with consistent placement throughout (e.g., English always on the 
left). You can sometimes use a design element (like one color bar at the 
top) to help "tie" these together.

* Alternatively, you can put different languages on different panels, 
but you still need to use background color to help distinguish them. You 
also still need to consider how you visually tie everything together.

* Use only one illustration/photo for both languages. The illustration 
would be in the middle of the panel, with on language to the left of the 
illustration and the other to the right of the illustration.

* Consider fonts carefully, some fonts don't support special characters 
(accents, tildes, umlauts).



Cecilia



Solis, Juan Carlos wrote:

>
>The Field Museum in Chicago has a traveling chocolate exhibit that features
>labels in both English and Spanish. They were well done. In addition, the
>Arizona Sonora Desert Museum has good bilingual (English-Spanish) signage
for
>most or all their exhibits.
>
>  
>

_____________________________________

Cecilia Garibay

Principal

Garibay Group

phone: 773-271-5843

fax: 425-790-6317

email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>

______________________________________

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