What you do after your language celebration is just as important as the planning and running of the event itself. This is a chance to congratulate everyone who helped make the celebration happen, to evaluate what went well, and to decide what you’ll do in the future.
First, congratulate the team, supporters and the whole community. It’s important to acknowledge the effort made by those who contributed to the celebration with funding, time and effort.
Next, assess the successes of your language celebration and what you could improve on next time. This is a good time to look back at your community’s goal and consider whether your language celebration met your community’s objectives. Other evaluation techniques that could be used are:
- Surveying the community to see if the language celebration encouraged them to learn, use or promote the language
- Discussing what went well and what could be improved with the organising team
- Checking whether you met your budget.
Evaluation is often a requirement when funding is granted, so check what feedback your funders require.
Finally, look ahead to what’s next for your community. Consider the successes and recommendations that the evaluation has revealed and make sure they are taken into consideration next time. You should aim for each language celebration to be more successful than the previous years.
Making the most of your language celebration success
A language celebration is an excellent tool for encouraging people in your community to learn and use your language. This enthusiasm can be put to good use afterwards by ensuring that people are given more language opportunities. This can be as simple as organising informal meetings for community members so they can use and share language skills, or arranging a sports team where only your language will be spoken.