Buena Onda - ‘Good will, ‘Good intentions’ or ‘Good vibes’
✋ Boundries
Maintaining ‘Buena Onda’ is a fine art and key to the success of events. We need participants to feel welcomed, attended to and comfortable in their surrounding environment but to do so we must also clearly mark boundaries. The following will help you keep a smile on their face.
🏆 We’re ready!
Something that sets us apart from our competition is that we are organised and run our community with professionalism. Mundo Lingo is always fully staffed and an Events Manager is always present. Managers are never late and never cancel. We always have your flag, and you’ll never wait more than 4 minutes to receive it.
Atmosphere
Ensure a smooth and non-disruptive ambience for participants
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A focal point with standing room of 15m2
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Sitting space for no more than 10% of your expected turn out
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No Live bands or DJ’s, music at a conversational volume
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No parallel events such as birthday parties or sports events
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TV’s switched off.
🗣 Politics
It’s tempting to promote our opinions and challenge others from other belief systems. This is fine done in a calm and respectful manner however you will meet people on extreme ends of the woke/free speech divide, others that work as soldiers in invaded countries, people supportive of controversial political parties, religions and activists of all kinds. While representing Mundo Lingo you must be respectful to all people even if their beliefs seem unreasoble, bigoted or even harmful. Our events absolutely must be open to everybody and nobody should feel unwelcome, even if you don’t like them. If the conversation gets heated a professional team member will let it go, bite their tongue and walk away.
🧍♀️ An Out-Standing Team
Lead by example. Managers, Photographers and Ambassadors stand the whole night and especially when greeting participants. If you or one of your team has weak legs, find an quiet space to sitdown away from the crowd until you recover. Show the public that the Mundo Lingo team are always out-standing!
Hybrid Events
Mundo Lingo has a distinct format and ambience. We know what we do, and we’re the only one that does this one. This is Mundo Lingo’s “Product”. We don’t offer football matches the same way McDonalds don’t provide photocopy services. Yes some people may like to photocopy something while waiting for a burger, but it’s not the target audience. We have our thing, we’re good at it and we stick to it. Sports, tournaments, karaoke, bands, cooking classes, theatre, speeches, dance offs or anything else that’s not described within the EOM will not be found at Mundo Lingo. Special emphasis on sports, keep those screens off! We’re unique in being the one place you can actually escape from football, baseball, hockey or whichever sport it is you’re tired of hearing about. Those who want sports can go to a sports bar. We have a purpose.
If it’s an important world event and the bar insists, exceptions can be made with prior confirmation from a Community Manager.
🙄 Flag Games
“I don’t want any flags”
Everybody receives flags unless they strongly refuse. If they refuse, it begs the questions “Why are you here and won’t you offer your languages to others?”.
National Flag
Everyone receives the national flag unless they speak the national language but from a foreign country, such as Australians visiting in London. This has the extra advatage of keeping a tally.
Flags on chests, not arms.
Flags go on the chest in a vertical line. If participant puts them on their arm or anywhere else, pause them and offer our official recommendation that they should go on the chest where other participants (and bar management / our photographers) can see them. By putting the flags in the right place they’re supporting their event.
“I’m American but my mom’s Irish”
The flags indicate languages+dialects, not bloodline, heritage, or politics etc. Native language(s) in their correct dialect go at the top, nothing else.
Self-Determination
We recognise the self-determination of societies. If a participant from Catalunya wants a Catalan flag for both Catalan and Spanish languages (and not wear the flag of Spain) then they can have a Catalan flag only. We don’t insist on the Spanish flag under an assumption that only the Spanish flag can represent the Spanish language. Same for Taiwan, Quebec, Scotland etc. For more, check full Flag Acception Rules.
I speak Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Colombian, Venezuelan…
One flag from each language only, even if they say they speak “US English, Canadian, South African, English, Scottish and Australian etc”.
Is she Swedish? Okay, give me a Swedish flag..
Ocassionally someone asks for a flag for a language they don’t speak because it’s funny or want to target a specific person from that country. While maybe it's in good jest it can be frustrating to other participants. To filter this ask them to recite an easy sentence (not just “Hello”) in that language like “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”.
🤬 Rude Participants
Once in a while a participant may be rude towards you or others. We don't tolerate rudeness in the slightest. These people should be dealt with in a calm, polite and firm manner without interrupting them or raising your voice.
Violence
If the rudeness takes the form of aggression towards you or a participant don’t intervene, instead communicate the issue directly to both the bar manager and their security if present.
“Just give me the flags”
If a participant is too busy and impatient to listen to you for 30 seconds then they're in the wrong place. You can politely suggest this to them, we are afterall an event about exchanging conversation. You’re not obliged to give anyone the flags if they haven’t given you the time to tell them how the event works and certainly not if they don’t treat you in a dignified manner.
Flag Snatchers
Yup, it happens all the time. It’s preferable for various reasons that you and your assistants hand the flags to each participant. Most people don’t realise they’re not supposed to grab the flags themselves so it’s best to respond in a light hearted fashion. → Try with a beaming smile on your face “Whooaah! Hold on a minute! Aren’t you keen!?”. This should result in light embarrassment, laughter, lots of smiles and everybody immediately understanding they should wait to be handed the flags.
😎 Vultures (Flirty Participants)
Mundo Lingo is blessed with many beautiful participants. To some opportunists the chance to get a hot date with one of said participants and knowing they come from a variety of distant exotic lands can prove irresistible. However the feeling usually isn’t mutual and these opportunists become a distinct pest, even a plague on events.
Over the years we racked our brains to develope the best solutions to deal with “Vultures”.. The lessons we learned are the following:
1: Clarify your atmosphere
People associate parties, discos, bar crawls and nightclubs with being 'on the pull'. If you're event simulates that environment you are inviting this behaviour. Club music + dark lighting attracts vultures.
2: “Wholesome” marketing
The photos you upload every week are the shop window of what you ‘sell’. If they show a ‘singles event’ with greased hair dudes in leather jackets and close ups of ladies chests, soon enough that’s what your event will look like too. It’s a self-fulfilling prophesy. Find your favourite language nerds and pop them right on the album cover.
3: Peer Pressure
If someone asks you “where are all the hotties at?” burst their bubble right away. It’s only a difficult conversation if you don’t smile – you can say anything with a smile on your face.Try this: “…it’s not really like that here, actually regular participants are a bit sensitive to it, they’ll notice you and some of them will call you out so I wouldn’t go down that path, they really frown on it here…😁”. As the sociable descendants of monkeys we’re terrified of being socially expelled. Remember, smile and be ‘on their side’, you’re not confronting them, you’re not personally against it; you’re just letting them know the event-culture so they don’t get burned.
4: Ambassadors and Vulture Hunters
So you’re doing the above 3 points, but there’s a persistent vulture that keeps coming back and nagging their victims for their insta deets. This is when you need to bring in the Vulture Hunter. Vulture Hunters are members of your team that specialise in neutralising persistent pests.
Now what?
Next up, it’s time to Take a Stand