Discover the inspiring stories of people from all walks of life who share a connection to the North East of England. Some were born here, others came to study, work, or build a new life in the region.
Through their voices, explore how learning and speaking other languages shaped their education and career paths and enriched their lives. Each story highlights the personal, social and professional rewards of embracing their home languages and learning new languages.
These experiences reveal how language learning opens doors, broadens horizons and shifts perspectives. We hope their journeys inspire you to see the endless possibilities that come with speaking and learning languages!
Click on the stories to find out more and get in touch to share your story
Hannah’s story
How languages changed my life: I first started learning French when we had our two taster classes in year 5. I was hooked. I loved learning how to com
Chris’ story
How languages changed my life: I first spoke French when I was three years old, ordering croissants in a small boulangerie during a family holiday in
Natali’s story
How languages changed my life: Languages have always played a central role in my life. I’m originally from Greece but I grew up in a French-speaking h
Ashley’s story
How languages changed my life: I started learning English at the age of six in Angola, where my education was anything but conventional. A Life Across
Ulfet’s story
How Languages Changed My Life Languages have always been more than just a means of communication for me; they have been a gateway to opportunities, co
Freddie’s story
How languages changed my life: It always starts at school, but never ends there. For me, studying French at school in Whitley Bay was just one subject
Luke’s story
How languages changed my life: I’m originally from Newcastle, where I first fell in love with languages while studying Spanish at school. My passion r
Amber’s story
How languages changed my life: My language learning journey has been pretty conventional. I was born in Newcastle and grew up in Whickham (Gateshead)
Samad’s story
How languages changed my life: Learning new languages has been transformative for me, offering a window into other people’s cultures, thoughts, emotio
Nadine’s story
How languages changed my life: From a young age, I have always been surrounded by different cultures and languages. My mum is Japanese, so we spent ev
Guy’s story
How languages changed my life: I often think that my language learning journey is quite conventional. I grew up in Newcastle and started learning lang
Victoria’s story
How languages changed my life: Yorùbá, the language of my home, the language of my people, the language of my grandmother. I can’t express what my lan
Francesca’s story
How languages changed my life: I grew up in South Shields and had my first taste of a foreign language in primary school. We’d have a French lesson ev
Frances’ story
How languages changed my life: I grew up in Newcastle and learning languages at school helped unlock career opportunities and chances to see and exper
Gianna and Dzesika’s stories
How languages changed our lives: Best friends and former pupils of St Mary’s High School in Newcastle, Gianna and Dzesika, tell us about their lives a
Paula’s story
How languages changed my life: Languages never interested me at school – like most 16 year olds I was more interested in the boy next door than conjug
Daria’s story
How languages changed my life: There is an expression ‘The limits of my language are the limits of my world’. The more languages I learn the wider wor
Bianca’s story
How languages changed my life: Languages are an expression of who we are and how we experience the world around us. Languages have definitely changed
Caroline’s story
How languages changed my life: I was born near Ypres in Belgium, not far from the French border. I grew up being surrounded by Flemish and French. F
Klaus’ story
How languages changed my life: I started learning English in secondary school back in my native Germany in 1978. I instantly liked it because it helpe
Deanna’s story
How languages changed my life: I am going to go back a generation to explain how languages changed my life. Both my mother and father came to North Ea
Anne’s story
How languages changed my life: Languages have been a huge part of my life, both personally and professionally – and the roots of that were the chance
Martin’s story
How languages changed my life: My name is Martin Bernacer and as a Spanish national I spent the first 29 years of my life living in Spain and conversi
Tessa’s story
How languages changed my life: I was born in London, the Deaf daughter of two Deaf parents who came to England from Ireland after the War. Both my par
Syed’s story
How languages changed my life: Meet PC Syed Ahmed, the bilingual officer working in Northumbria Police, helping make sure all our communities receive
Faïza’s story
How languages changed my life: I was brought up speaking 3 languages at home – French, German and Arabic. As a child, I lived in Senegal for 2 years
Rina’s story
How languages changed my life: For PC Rina Varghese, being able to speak multiple languages was always something to be celebrated and in her role as a
Declan’s story
How languages changed my life: A love of languages, people, cultures, history and a passion for travel, which has taken me around the world and made m
Sue’s story
How languages changed my life: Growing up, as an army child, travelling the world listening to different languages and seeing how they are intertwined
Brian’s story
How languages changed my life: Languages are Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! I went to see the film, Mary Poppins, aged 3. I came away singing a n
Nathalie’s story
How languages changed my life: I was aware that not everyone spoke the same language from being very little, mostly from visiting my cousins in German
Veena’s story
How languages changed my life: My name is Veena Soni and I came to the UK with my parents and younger sister in the 60’s when I was 5 years. This was
Ahmed’s story
How languages changed my life: At the age of 8, my father brought home a personal computer called Spectravideo. This was back in the 80s and it was th
Chris’ story
How languages changed my life: I grew up in the North East in the 70s and 80s in a monolingual environment. At school, it’s fair to say that languages
Steven’s story
How languages changed my life: I volunteer for the Assocation of Language Learning (ALL) and ALL North East, having moved to the North-East to do my t
Paula’s story
How languages changed my life: The year was 1992 and I had just started Spanish in my secondary school in Northern Ireland. Soon I realised that I lov
Chi’s story
How languages changed my life: My language journey began in Hillsview Primary School in North Kenton, Newcastle, in the seventies where I first learnt
Juliana’s story
How languages changed my life: My name is Juliana and I was born in Brazil. At a very early age, my family moved to Portugal, the place I will always
Kamila’s story
How languages changed my life: Hi my name is Kamila and I can honestly say that languages changed my life. I am originally from Poland, but always dre
Fiona’s story
How languages changed my life: I grew up in Bishop Auckland and learning languages at school not only opened up new experiences, but set me on my care
Crista’s story
How languages changed my life: I was 11 years old sat in a brown and gold uniform in a middle school in Leeds when I had my first French lesson, heari
Hélder’s story
How languages changed my life: My name is Hélder and I can firmly say that languages changed my life! I am from Portugal and I live in Sunderland. I a