I have a team that without a single common language among all of the team members. The team is split across two locations (though the geography isn't the main issue). All team members in each location speak the same language and there are members in both locations that can speak both. I'd like to introduce scrum, but am struggling with the logistics of dealing with the language issue.
This isn't an offshore team. All team members are employees of the company, but located in two different offices in different countries. Fortunately, we don't have any issues with timezones; language is the primary barrier. While the team could be split into two teams, given the size and skillset of the people in each location as well as other external factors, it is more desirable to integrate as a single team.
I think it would be preferable to use video conferencing in order to have richer communication and help unite the team in being able to see each other and do the true stand-up approach. However, I am afraid this will be difficult to communicate between languages. Should bilingual members of the team translate verbally? Alternately, we could use instant message as recommended by the only reference I could find to language issues in distributed scrum. I'm concerned about the "poorer" communication and perhaps it is a poor introduction to the scrum concept.
From people that have experience in dealing with language differences in a team, how did you address the problem and how well did it work for you?