In English? Answering this question will now be easier with the help of Health’s new guidelines describing where and when we communicate internally at the faculty in Danish and English.

2020.03.03 | Sabina Bjerre Hansen

Are you in doubt as to when you should communicate in English (as well)? Help is available in the faculty's new guidelines for the use of Danish and English. Photo: Amador Loureiro, Unsplash.

The new guidelines on the use of Danish and English are intended to help ensure that all of the faculty’s employees receive the same information at the same time, regardless of their mother tongue. And the guidelines are there for managers and employees to reference in the daily communication.

As a rule, the working language at Health is still Danish, unless there are non-Danish speaking employees present at e.g. a meeting or among the recipients of an email etc. If this is the case, the meeting will be held in English, just as the content of the email will also be in English, possibly as a supplement to the Danish version.

The linguistic guidelines have been adopted by the faculty management team, and it is up to the department heads and division managers to implement them locally.

See the new guidelines below and on the faculty’s website.

Guidelines for using Danish and English at Health

Websites and online communication

• All necessary information about employee rights and duties (e.g. appointments, holidays, maternity/paternity leave, etc.) is available in Danish and English.
• Articles, news items, announcements and notices are found in Danish and English and are available on the website.
• The English website is not necessarily an exact copy of the Danish. The English website may be adapted so that individual elements are summaries of the Danish content, while some information is only relevant for non-Danish speaking employees and therefore only appears on the English website.

Emails

• Emails from the faculty management team, the department management team and the administration which are sent or forwarded to all employees will also be sent in English if there are non-Danish speaking employees among the recipients.
  
  This means that the information is as far as possible sent in Danish and English in the same email. If this is not possible, then the information in English is sent as quickly as possible with the initial Danish email including information about when the English version will be sent.

Meetings and events

• Meetings and events are held in English if there are employees present who do not understand Danish.

Newsletters

• Newsletters sent by the faculty management team, the department management team and the administration to the employees are sent out in Danish and English.

PowerPoint presentations

• PowerPoint presentations that are to be used across the faculty or in a unit or a forum with non-Danish speaking employees are prepared in English.
• The oral presentation of the English PowerPoint presentation may be held in Danish if all participating employees speak Danish.

Video

• Videos may be in both Danish and English, depending on the target group.
• As a rule, videos are subtitled in English, regardless of the original language.
• Text and written information contained in the video need not be translated.

Contact

Communication Partner Sabina Bjerre Hansen
Aarhus University, Health Communication
Mobile: (+45) 3012 3737
Email: sbh@au.dk