I Speak Your Language

Kadi looks back on Season 1, shares a few lessons, thanks listeners and guests, and gives a small preview of what’s ahead for I Speak Your Language.

In this episode, Kadi sits down with Dr. Joseph Garcia, researcher, educator, and early advocate for using sign language with babies, to explore how infants can communicate before speech develops. They discuss why signing is accessible to babies, how it reduces frustration and strengthens bonding, and what modelling (rather than teaching) looks like in everyday routines. You can find Dr. Garcia’s work and resources here: http://drjosephgarcia.com/

In this episode, Kadi is joined by cognitive neuroscientist Dr Matt Davis (University of Cambridge) to explore how we understand speech, even when it sounds nothing like speech at all. From noisy cafés to unfamiliar accents to whispered or electronically altered speech, Matt explains how the brain fills in the gaps when what we’re hearing is degraded or difficult to make out.Kadi and Matt walk through live audio demos of sine-wave speech and vocoded speech, offering listeners the rare chance to experience these illusions firsthand. For anyone curious to try the demonstrations themselves, all the audio examples are available on Matt’s research pages:https://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/personal/matt.davis/vocode/https://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/personal/matt.davis/sine-wave-speech/

Kadi sits down with Fiona McPherson, Executive Editor in the New Words team at the Oxford English Dictionary, for a behind-the-scenes look at how the OED keeps up with an ever-changing English language. From playful slang to pandemic vocabulary, they explore what it really takes for a word to make it into the dictionary... and why some never do.Oxford University Press feature on the Oxford Word of the Year: https://corp.oup.com/word-of-the-year/

In this special episode of I Speak Your Language, produced in celebration of and collaboration with Leeds City of Languages, Kadi is joined by Dr. Sofia Martinho, Associate Professor in Portuguese, and Dr. Bettina Hermoso Gómez, Associate Professor in Spanish, both from the University of Leeds and co-founders of the festival. Together, Sofia and Bettina share how the festival was born, how it brings communities together, and why celebrating linguistic diversity matters more than ever. Taking place from 10–24 November 2025, Leeds City of Languages is a two-week celebration of the 170+ languages spoken across the city, showcasing the linguistic and cultural richness of Leeds through concerts, poetry, language tasters, workshops, and community-led events. What began as a local initiative during Leeds 2023 has now grown into a regional festival connecting schools, libraries, cultural institutions, and grassroots organisations across Yorkshire.Find more details on how to take part here:https://leedscityoflanguages.leeds.ac.uk/https://leedscityoflanguages.leeds.ac.uk/programme/@leedscityoflanguages

In this episode, Kadi speaks with poet and performer Amina Atiq about memory, radical joy, and what it means to create from a place of both inheritance and imagination. They reflect on diasporic storytelling, healing through art, and how to reframe the burden of representation into power and presence.Amina Atiq is a Yemeni-British poet, artist and activist from Liverpool. Her work explores migration, archives, grief, and belonging through oral storytelling, performance, and education. She is the creator of Unheard Voices, Scouse Pilgrimage, and other nationally recognised projects.You can check out Amina’s work at www.aminaatiq.org.

In this special episode, Kadi speaks with Sven Gatz, Brussels Minister for Multilingualism, about what it means to build language policy in one of the world’s most multilingual cities. They explore how Brussels is navigating official languages, community languages, and everything in between, and why embracing the mother tongues of residents matters.Sven Gatz served as the first-ever Minister for Multilingualism in Brussels, leading efforts to create a more inclusive and forward-looking language policy. His work focuses on promoting multilingual visibility, encouraging grassroots engagement, and recognising the everyday realities of a city where no single language group is in the majority.You can learn more about multilingual initiatives in Brussels and Minister Gatz’s work here: https://svengatz.prezly.com/en/category/multilingualism

In this episode, linguist Dr. Lauren Gawne joins Kadi to explore how gestures shape the way we communicate, often without us even realising it. From metaphors you can see with your hands, to cultural differences in pointing, this conversation unpacks the subtle, powerful role of our bodies in everyday communication.Dr. Lauren Gawne is a senior lecturer at La Trobe University, cohost of the Lingthusiasm podcast, and author of Gesture: A Slim Guide, a sharp and accessible introduction to how gesture works in daily life.Check out Lauren’s book, Gesture: A Slim Guide https://academic.oup.com/book/59637Listen to Lauren’s podcast, Lingthusiasm

What happens when life-changing information is written in a way no one understands?In this episode, Kadija speaks with Dr. Deborah Bosley, an internationally recognised expert in plain language, former tenured professor of technical communication, and founder of The Plain Language Group, which advises Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and universities on clear communication.They talk about how plain language saves lives, reduces misunderstanding, supports multilingual communities, and helps people make informed decisions.This episode is accompanied by a blog series from our partner Living Stone – make your mark, exploring why clear words matter: https://blog.livingstone.eu/nl/plain-language-why-clear-words-matter

Why do we all have an accent? And why do some people face bias because of theirs? Sociolinguist Prof. Rob Drummond joins Kadija to explore how accents shape our identities, signal belonging, and carry stereotypes we rarely question. Together, they unpack what “accentism” looks like and why embracing linguistic diversity is not just fair, but essential.Prof. Rob Drummond is Professor of Sociolinguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University and author of You’re All Talk: Why We Are What We Speak. He is a regular commentator on language and identity across BBC Radio, TV, and international media.Rob’s latest book: You’re All Talk: Why we are what we speak.The accents, dialects and identities of people in Greater Manchester: www.manchestervoices.orgAccent/language prejudice: www.accentism.org