As part of this year’s Govanhill International Festival and Carnival, Thriving Places Govanhill hosted online language sessions to share some of the many languages of Govanhill. The festival, which is now in its 4th year, was completely reimagined in response to Covid-19 physical distancing restrictions, moving most of the events outdoors or online. Still, it was a vibrant, well-attended, and unique celebration of Govanhill’s diversity.

The Polyglot Sessions were created in response to the Languages of Govanhill community survey, carried out in June, which identified the incredible wealth of linguistic diversity in Govanhill. At least 88 languages are spoken in the area, including 54 mother tongues. Almost three-quarters of respondents said they would like to learn one of the languages of Govanhill, and the most popular requests were British Sign Language (BSL), Arabic, Spanish, and Romanes (Roma).

Participants in the Arabic polyglot session

The sessions, which were aimed mostly at beginners who were curious to learn more, attracted Govanhill locals, staff of community organisations in the area, and even the pupils of Holyrood RC Secondary School, and participants as far away as Poland and Romania. Feedback from attendees was very positive, including:

“I absolutely loved the BSL session! Thanks to Tauseeb, to the SEMDC, and to Mana for organising. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I immediately went online and signed up for a course to learn more! I would be really interested in any future language sessions. Thank you!”
“The Arabic session really made my day! I was feeling quite lonely and isolated during the day, and it really helped to meet some new people. I also learned some new phrases, and definitely want to get practising now! Thank you to everyone involved.”
“It was fantastic to attend the Romanes session last week. Our young people were delighted to be with me as I got to learn more about their language and culture and I was lucky enough to have my personal language assistant David with me to help with my pronunciation! Thank you for the opportunity. We look forward to working with you in other ways! “
Mrs Sharon Watson, Head Teacher, Holyrood RC Secondary
“I had an absolutely fabulous time at the Polish session. I'm not an absolute beginner but it was really nice to refresh all the stuff I use mostly everyday. Also thank you to all the teachers of the session. It was amazing. I am looking for more Polish sessions as I would like to study for my Polish citizenship.
Participant of the Polish session who currently lives in Poland

In addition to bringing language enthusiasts together, the Polyglot sessions provided an opportunity for training, skills development, and additional income for the session-leaders, most of whom are locals of Govanhill.

Participants in the Romanes polyglot session

One of the session leaders, Marius Varga, who is Roma from Romania said:

“I never taught Romanian before. I had a planning meeting with Mana, and I also practised with Cristina and Andrea [Romanian speaking Community Development Workers with GCDT]. I spent time preparing for the session and learning how to teach the subject! I was very nervous, but I managed to overcome it and it was the most beautiful experience of my life. I am glad that I was able to represent my country. I would like to teach Romanian in the future and I could also teach Romanes. I would definitely take up the challenge if there was an opportunity! It would be a great pleasure. I hope that I could better learn how to teach a class without feeling nervous and I think experience and time will make it easier.

Emilia Gaziova, also took part, teaching Romanes (one of the Roma languages) for the very first time:

“I have never taught anyone any language before. I was very, very nervous. I was thinking about how I would like to be taught another language. I decided to offer more than words. I wanted to provide some background to the culture and create that "Roma" atmosphere. The teaching experience was fabulous! I really enjoyed it. The atmosphere was calm and relaxed, and the students were amazing, so it was very easy to teach. When a Roma sees that you are learning their language it warms their heart as Roma language is not very popular, as well as Roma people.

Participants in the BSL polyglot session

The BSL session was delivered by Tauseeb Aslam of the Scottish Ethhic Minority Deaf Club, an organisation based in Pollokshields. Tasnim Sharif, a Project Manager at SEMDC said:

“SEMDC was delighted to be invited to take part in this innovative and exciting project and especially to discover that BSL was the most popular language chosen for learning! The session was relaxed and fun and the feedback from both tutor and students was amazing. We would be privileged to be involved in teaching basic British Sign Language skills.

Thriving Places Govanhill hopes to continue these sessions, offering training and employment opportunities to local people, as well as the opportunity for more people to come together and celebrate Govanhill’s diversity.

Marzanna Antoniak, Community Connector for the Thriving Places initiative in Govanhill, who initiated and programmed the sessions, said:

“Last year, as part of the Govanhill International Festival, we held a fun and interactive language exchange event at Samaritan House and although this year it wasn’t possible to meet in person, one positive aspect of doing the sessions online was that they became accessible to people who live further away.

It’s been a privilege to work with the session facilitators and to see how easily the languages spoken by our residents can be turned into great assets. The ultimate goal is to bring a community languages programme to Govanhill, which would provide an opportunity for people to get to know each other through languages, as well as training and job opportunities for some of the talented members of our diverse community.”