The Linguist

Chartered Institute of Linguists FEATURES country, with a different background and history. Communication is empowering, so I found it empowering to go out into the world with more languages than I'd grown up with. So how did you become a lecturer in Spanish and sociolinguistics? I studied French and Spanish at the University of Southampton, attracted to its wider studies about the history, politics, society of the places where those languages were spoken. A lot of this was linked to my personal experience. I moved to the South of England when I was 10 and when I told people "I'm originally from near Newcastle", they said, "You don't sound like a Geordie." It got me thinking, "What do different groups sound like, and why do we tend to pigeonhole them?" It was when they started adding judgements, saying "Well, you speak very well for someone from the North," I thought, "Hang on, what on earth do we mean by these kinds of value judgements?" At Southampton, sociolinguistics became my thing, where language and society meet; where people make decisions on which languages to promote, to put in the education system, to put on public signage – which languages are or aren't allowed in public discourse, in parliaments etc. All of those things came alive. I was fascinated by it all. It almost sounds as if languages were part of your journey towards becoming politically active… I would very much say that languages are part of my political awakening. My family wasn't actively political. For me, learning the recent history of France, and what that had meant more widely, made me start to think politically. I spent my year abroad in Chile, which had been out of a dictatorship for just over a decade, so you still had a very politically divided country. People's experience of before, during and after the dictatorship was something I could access because I was able to speak their language, read and understand how they documented those politically turbulent times, and reflect on it. It made me much more determined to be engaged with what goes on in my own country. When I came back, I joined the Labour Party during my PhD, and eventually stood for election as a local councillor. So the route to politics for me has certainly been through languages. Do you think your language skills have helped in your career as a politician? There are absolutely transferable skills. Communication, if done well, is incredibly empowering. Equally, the way people use languages can be very disempowering. In my research, I looked at the communication of politicians, and also of people who are trying to do the same thing as politicians: to set out a vision, to persuade people of that vision, to get people to act on that vision. It's what advertisers do. It's what good, benevolent salespeople do. It's also what manipulative dictators do. There are skills around how language works and what we have to be aware of. If someone says, "Well, everyone knows that this claim is just fact", by framing language in that way they're trying to exclude any alternative view. I am very aware when other politicians are doing that, particularly in this age of populism. I try not to do it because I'm more open and democratic. I think politics can be better if we harness the good of language. Being trained in learning from other cultures, asking the critical questions and thinking more deeply about the issues have given me a lot of skills that are helpful as a politician. For example, comparing what British history is about, as opposed to French history, Spanish history, Chilean history… learning from the human experience elsewhere. This helps to get a rounded view of all the issues – to take a far more critical, sensible and nuanced approach to politics and policy. Do you have any thoughts on the future of the languages professions? It is a sector where things are changing, with things like automatic translators and AI, but I am absolutely convinced these will never fully replace the need for humans. Communication is, at its heart, its root and its future, a human activity and a human experience. Machines can imitate but ultimately the need for good, well-trained, dedicated professional linguists will not disappear, and it's what I hope the work of this APPG will continue to champion. I hope the CIOL will continue to work with us to understand what the best future for languages and technology in the modern world can look like. "I found it empowering to go out into the world with more languages than I'd grown up with"

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