An international student team held meetings in English because it was the only language shared by some participants. A few students spoke confidently and shaped most decisions. Others understood the topic well but needed more time to formulate responses, so their ideas appeared later in private messages and were often left out of the final plan.
Cross-border projects frequently celebrate diversity while operating through one dominant language. Translation is then treated as an informal task for bilingual students, who must participate in the project and interpret for others at the same time. This hidden labor can be exhausting and may give one student unexpected responsibility for sensitive or technical meaning.
Budgets should include professional translation for key documents, captions for videos, and interpretation when meetings involve complex decisions. Smaller projects can use carefully reviewed student translations, but the work should be assigned, credited, and scheduled rather than assumed. Automatic tools may support drafts, yet important language still needs human checking.
Meeting design can reduce barriers. Agendas and questions should be shared early. Written chat, collaborative documents, and short pauses allow participants to contribute without competing for speaking time. Summaries can confirm decisions in more than one language before the group moves forward.
Language access also improves local implementation. A project may be discussed internationally in English but delivered to communities in Vietnamese, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, or another language. Materials must work for the people expected to use them, not only for the organizations funding the collaboration.
Translation is not a decorative sign of inclusion. It determines whose knowledge enters the project and whose consent is informed. Planning for it from the beginning creates fairer participation and more accurate work. International cooperation becomes stronger when language difference is treated as a practical responsibility rather than a problem individuals must solve alone.
P. Adeyemi
