​So the long-awaited final countdown is over and the launch event is now behind us! Earlier this week (Wednesday 21st June) with VMA GROUP, I hosted Lost in Translation, the launch event for the NNC Network -a community designed for non-native internal comms professionals. As a Modern Languages and Translation graduate, I was thrilled to work alongside the IC professional and native Spaniard Coco Garcia Acevedo to establish a community of talented multilinguists working in the world of Internal Comms. The evening was full of lively chatter with drinks in-hand overlooking the city from the beautiful Hanover Communications offices on Southwark Bridge.

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What Did You Miss?

Designed as a ‘fireside chat’, I interviewed Coco about her experiences as a non-native English speaker working in internal communications. After Coco’s opening, the discussion moved to set-backs faced as a non-native, cultural differences in the UK working culture, and finally offering advice to those earlier on in their UK-based IC career. As a brand new network initiative, it was interesting to gauge the room; it soon became apparent that many aspects of conversation resonated with the audience. Notably, one participant also highlighted the cultural differences in education value. He stressed that within their native country, comms-specific academic achievement is almost a prerequisite to getting on the job ladder – this is arguably very different in the UK market. I was also curious to speak to some of the network members who perhaps haven’t faced ‘setbacks’ as non-natives. Whilst the chat between Coco and I was perhaps less relatable, they undoubtedly left with a greater understanding of other people’s experiences.

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But, What Was the Point?

So, we succeeded in the launch event, but why create such community? As a native English speaker having studied foreign languages and translation in an academic context, I was all too familiar with the phrase ‘everyone speaks English’… you may have seen my blog post