Offering broadcasts in multiple languages has been a part of our Telephone Town Hall Meeting forums since 2014. We developed our Spanish Simulcasts for our Congressional clients and for the City of Dallas. Congress Members with large Spanish, Vietnamese and Korean-speaking populations have used it ever since, and Dallas has added at least a Spanish Simulcast to every teletownhall virtual forum that we have produced for them over the last nine years.
If you work with a school district, municipality, government organization, labor union, health care provider, transit authority, utility coop, advocacy organization, or are in emergency management, you know how important it is to reach your entire audience regardless of language preference. Many times arguments and misunderstandings can be avoided simply by having a civil conversation where everyone’s voice is heard.
TTHM makes this simple by offering Alternative Language Simulcasts as an add-on to your telephone townhall meeting. We have interpreters on our side, so you don’t have to worry about having staff that speaks multiple languages. We started offering this service in Spanish, and now have several languages that we can easily staff to support your needs including: Vietnamese, Korean, Armenian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, Hmong, Arabic, Japanese and a host of other language options.
As a telephone town hall operator, I have learned a simple Spanish phrase to let our Spanish-speaking callers know how to listen to the broadcast in their native language when they find themselves accidentally in the English call. This is a satisfying solution to me especially when compared to telling someone, who is unable to understand the language and there isn’t the option for them to listen in their preferred language, that I will have a translator followup with them in the future. At TTHM, we even provide translators to transcribe any voicemails left after an event, so your staff can simply understand in English any important messages that need a follow up no matter what language the message was left in.
Under-served populations participate in teletownhalls and are typically highly engaged in providing feedback and questions because they can understand the content and know that their opinions are valued. Being included is something we all like to experience, and non-native English speakers are no exception.
In communities like San Antonio, Texas, a multilingual broadcast for a school district I was an operator for ensured that all parents, regardless of their native language, were informed about changes across the board and were able to have their questions answered and concerns understood. In big cities like Los Angeles, I’ve been able to connect native Korean and native Spanish speakers to a live broadcast in their first language, while also connecting with English speakers for a seamless tri-lingual experience.
In the healthcare industry, these multilingual broadcasts are crucial to ensuring that clients fully understand the benefits available to them. Labor unions know that their members want to engage with leaders and be a part of activities, and by providing an array of language options to their diverse audiences, teletownhall meetings are proving to create a space for them to do just that.
Contact us for a demo of our services to see just how easy it can be to reach your diverse audience today. You can also read our previous blogs about our capabilities for cities and counties, what we do for labor unions, providing information during the pandemic and all the options we have for healthcare clients.
About Becca:
As a TTHM Operator since 2020, Becca has collected thousands of e-newsletter opt-ins and processed even more live questions for a myriad of telephone town hall events. Producing forums for school districts, political campaigns, medical insurance providers, labor unions, sitting legislators and cities around the country has helped Becca to gain a wealth of knowledge from client speakers and event participants. Becca works from her home office on Florida’s Gulf Coast, but she has produced live forums while working remotely from Colorado, Montana, Iowa and lots of other places in between!