FEATURES
14 The Linguist Vol/61 No/3 2022
thelinguist.uberflip.com
Emma Latham on the Civil Service Languages Network –
the first large-scale language community in government
When the Civil Service Languages Network started in
October 2020, Matt Brown and Hugo Griffin had no idea
it would grow to become the success it is today. Starting
off in late 2019 as a Spanish-focused group, with a small
number of colleagues meeting each week over lunch to
chat en español, it developed during the first lockdown.
Casting the mind back to those strange early days of
the pandemic, they offered us an opportunity to shift all
our activity online. We soon realised that, whether you
were working in Lima, London or La Paz, if you had an
internet connection and spoke Spanish you could join our
events. Matt and Hugo tapped into this, inviting former
colleagues in the Foreign Office and other departments
to give weekly talks about their use of Spanish.
Interest soon grew in expanding the idea beyond
Spanish and so the Civil Service Languages Network
(CSLN) was born. Since then, speakers at our events
have ranged from veteran war reporters to documentary
makers who have worked with a range of people,
including Amazonian tribes and Diego Maradona, all using
their language skills and cross-cultural understanding.
From tiny acorns mighty oaks grow
From a modest start of 20 people on a weekly call, the
network now has over 7,000 members across
government in 34 language groups. A large-scale
languages community has never existed before in
government. The CSLN offers colleagues the
opportunity to practise their skills in languages such as
Arabic, Swedish, Urdu and British Sign Language (BSL),
learn more about the culture behind each language, and
meet like-minded friends across the world. We also have
A growing network
SUCCESS STORY
Matt Brown (left) and
Hugo Griffin (right),
who established the
Civil Service Languages
Network in 2020
