The Linguist

26 The Linguist Vol/61 No/3 2022 thelinguist.uberflip.com INSTITUTE MATTERS That's what I was rather hoping you'd say! So what happened after that? I left GCHQ because I was always dealing with other people's ideas and my confidence in myself was starting to grow; the confidence that I might have some of ideas of my own. Still, if you told me then that I'd be invited to speak at conferences with world leaders in a foreign language, and write books in German, I would never have believed you. Where languages, and life, have led me is a completely different world from the one I grew up in; and my family and I still don't quite believe it sometimes. Languages have really helped. If you're ordained in the church, it's no good just knowing the bare theology; theology is deeply rooted in language. You've got to be able to communicate and that means listening to the vocabulary and languages of the place you're in. One thing I always say to clergy going to a new parish is that you can learn the history, but you can't share the memory: you have to ask, listen and learn. That's interpreting in effect: communicating in the languages and registers of the people around you. You have to be 'multilingual' in our work, because different communities have different ways of speaking and hearing, especially when it comes to faith. I guess having done that across 'international' linguistic boundaries gives you more tools to do it in a local context? You know, I do what you might call public speaking every day of the week, but I use different language when I'm speaking in the House of Lords from when I'm on BBC Radio 2, or going to a local parish church in the Yorkshire Dales. You have to be able to Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you came to be a linguist? Well, I grew up in Liverpool and went to a comprehensive school. It was an inspiring German teacher who really got me hooked on languages. Being a lad in a Liverpool comprehensive, French wasn't a natural fit – you have to 'act' into it to get the accent right and we didn't do that sort of thing at my school! German worked better for me; it seemed suitably sound and solid. When it came to university, I didn't have much confidence to do languages. I thought, "There must be special kinds of people – linguists – who do things like that." I think there's a lot of people like that. In the end I did German and French at Bradford, where they were doing a pioneering course which included practical elements towards being an interpreter or translator. So what did you do next? Having worked as a freelance technical translator there, I was offered a translating job in Germany. But my wife's nursing qualifications weren't easily transferable, so we decided to settle in the UK and I got a job at GCHQ, the intelligence agency. My first job was to retrain in Russian. This meant going from not knowing the alphabet to degree standard in nine months, then operational training for five months and then into a team. Later on I did language research and had about 20 languages going through my desk. Is there anything else you can say about your work at GCHQ? I think I'll have to give you the classic answer: "If I tell you about that I'll have to shoot you!" flex the language. I'm staggered sometimes when interviewers assume foreign politicians can speak English and ask really complicated questions. I think, "Ok let me do that to you in French and see how you get on!" Yes, it's amazing really. We could talk for hours on that particular topic. It's partly about borders and geography. In a couple of weeks, my wife and I will be staying with friends in Basel in Switzerland, where you can drive over three borders in 20 minutes – and countless linguistic frontiers. There's nothing physical that says you're in a different place but the languages change every few miles. When you live near borders you live on the edge. You live differently. Language works differently. You have to have a facility to be able to work both sides of the language divide. In places where physical and linguistic borders are potentially shifting, such as in Ukraine, your life may even depend on it. This is why, at the CIOL Awards evening, I quoted Helmut Schmidt's advice to young people thinking of going into politics: "Don't think about it unless you speak at least two foreign languages to a competent degree; to understand your own culture you have to look through the lens of another, and for that you need language." You often speak in the media and the House of Lords about the importance of language learning and the UK's national language capacity. What have been your most effective arguments? There are a lot of people, particularly in politics, who just don't get it. They think languages are just for people who like that The 2022 David Crystal Award winner reveals how languages have driven all aspects of his life, from growing up in Liverpool to becoming Bishop of Leeds BISHOP NICK BAINES JOHN WORNE MEETS

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