The Linguist

FEATURES @Linguist_CIOL JUNE/JULY The Linguist 15 a Bilingual Parenting group, which supports parents with tips on how to raise their children bilingually. An army of 100 dedicated volunteers invest time to help run our various groups and events as part of their civil service corporate contributions. Civil servants generally have a minimum of three volunteering days a year, and the 'Fast Stream' scheme enables staff to dedicate up to 10% of their time each week to a corporate contribution. CSLN's volunteer pool is diverse and includes native, fluent, beginner and enthusiast language users keen to share their skills. Some are based overseas or have overseas posting experience. Given the scale of the network and the level of interest, it is largely self-sustaining. Junior colleagues often volunteer as a way of building leadership experience while they help to develop their colleagues' language skills and intercultural expertise. As for Hugo and Matt, providing the overall direction for CSLN, and handling much of the admin, has become a passion project. Forming a languages community Each language group runs two main types of event. At 'tandems', colleagues are drawn with a new partner who is at their conversational level every fortnight to practise for 30 minutes. This is complemented by conversation lunches, where colleagues come together over Teams – or now in person – to chat in their chosen language. The language tandems and conversation sessions are popular, as they allow members to put their language learning into practice informally – an opportunity that was only previously available to those working in internationally focused departments. This runs alongside speakers events, which welcome high-profile speakers, including diplomats, interpreters and academics, to share their experience of using languages and cultural expertise. Past speakers include HM ambassadors Deborah Bronnert, Laurie Bristow and Daniel Pruce. Such events offer ways for our members to learn about international careers in the civil service and build their professional networks. The CSLN was initially founded out of pure enjoyment of foreign languages and cultures. It has since become an important forum for multilingual civil servants and those set on learning languages. An extraordinary number of civil servants are multilingual, but often never use their languages in their day jobs. The network offers an outlet for this uniting interest, and has even provided opportunities for civil servants to put their languages to use in the workplace, including helping the Office for National Statistics understand the arriving Ukrainian refugee population. Although the lockdowns of the past couple of years have threatened communities, the switch online played an important part in expanding the network. Colleagues from across the UK and even overseas have been able to join events and engage with fellow members and guest speakers. In December 2021, CSLN members supported the NHS with the Covid-19 vaccine booster drive to combat vaccine hesitancy. Over 150 volunteers recorded themselves encouraging people to get the booster in 32 languages. The network then produced 50 videos for the NHS, as well as a video montage. We have also supported a departmental team charged with managing the arrival of Hong Kong British nationals, upskilling them on intercultural understanding and culturally sensitive approaches to their engagement, plus teaching some basic Cantonese to use when greeting arrivals – all through the CSLN Cantonese group. The design and delivery of a Civil Service HR project to survey language skills across the Civil Service drew on CSLN expertise and communications channels. Alongside other government departments, the network helps to coordinate language outreach events. These see enthusiastic network members go into schools and universities to run themed workshops that inspire students to learn languages and consider careers using them. The new Bulgarian and Czech groups will launch soon, and more school and university outreach events are in the calendar. We are even looking at a trip to visit our embassies and staff based overseas. We'll continue to use our unique community to champion language skills and support projects in government which require them. As Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett said when she came to speak to us, "Languages are everywhere and nowhere in government." If you are a multilingual civil servant, or are interested in coming to our events in English, we'd love to hear from you. We welcome civil servants in all departments and Arms Length Bodies of all levels. If you aren't a civil servant but might want to replicate this idea in your workplace, have ideas for us or think you could be a guest speaker, do get in touch: languages.network@faststream.civilservice.gov.uk. JUST REWARDS CIOL Royal Patron Prince Michael of Kent with Sorrel Evans (above); and Matthew Brown and Rosalind Lane (top), as they receive the Threlford Cup at the prizegiving ceremony in March Prizewinners 2022 At CIOL Conference, the Civil Service Languages Network was awarded the prestigious Threlford Cup for significant contribution to fostering the study of languages. Other 2022 winners include Sabine Centofanti (DPSI Best Candidate), Tseazghi T Michael (DPI Best Candidate), Rositsa Lafchieva (DipTrans Best Literary Candidate), Paula Gayol-Corral (DipTrans Best Candidate) and Bishop Nicholas Baines (David Crystal Award), who is interviewed on page 26. For more details see ciol.org.uk/the-ciol-awards. IMAGES © RICHARD WASHBROOKE

• Cover