irrelevantPseudonym

backrank pieces are randomly placed

Mostly random but there are some rules. The king has to be between the rooks and the bishops have to be on different colours.

If you don't speak the passive languages how do they know what is being said by everyone else? Are there two people for each language, one to translate each way?

Or indeed worst downhill section/best climb

I get that, but in a multi lingual conference if someone speaks and it gets translated to English, when someone replies in a different language, the first person needs to be told what the reply was. Who tells them?