Manchester City of Languages is an Open Forum on Multilingualism.

It aims to complement existing structures and initiatives by offering an open forum to discuss issues and global solutions relating to multilingualism.

The forum is committed to the Call for a Multilingual Cities Movement and seeks partners locally and internationally to pursue its goals.

Everyone has a stake in the multilingual city, regardless of their language background or language interest. Our forum brings together people who know or are interested in other languages, as well as people who are simply aware, curious and respectful towards the languages that are spoken in their locality and beyond.

The multilingual city is a place where different forms of language are used. We consider ‘multilingual’ in the broadest sense, including non-written languages, regional varieties and dialects. Being multilingual does not necessarily mean being fluent in another language (although it can mean that). We recognise and emphasise that everyone’s language experience is different. We do not treat language as a skill on somebody’s CV but as the personal, social and emotional dimensions of what it means to have multiple languages in one’s life.

The forum brings together contributions from individuals and groups to articulate needs, points of view, perspectives and solutions to problems and to engage in conceptual reflection. We hope to make use of opportunities to feed back the outcomes of that reflection publicly and privately and to link with other forums and interest groups to enrich our discussions.

The forum is open to all, without formal membership, as a dynamic partnership, where individuals present and react to ideas, and propose activities and link with others to find opportunities to carry them out.