Language and Belonging | Multilingualism, Identity and Who Feels at Home Here
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SU Student Success Initiative Series: Episode Ten.
Recorded on Tuesday 29 September 2026.
Most of us study, work and live in a second or third language. Most of us have also stayed quiet in a room because we were not confident enough in the language being spoken there. This conversation is about that tension, and about what a university does when belonging and language are the same question.
Jacolette Kloppers hosts the tenth of 15 conversations on Lunch Club, joined by two staff members from the SU Language Centre — Dr Arné Binneman, Head: Multilingual Learning, and Sanet de Jager, senior interpreter and coordinator of multilingualism workshops — and three SU students: Tes-Adri Page, a PhD candidate in Arts and Social Sciences and Writing Lab consultant; Kauthar Samsodien, a BEd (Intermediate Phase) student on the Khayalethu house committee; and Amo Shale, a master's student in Biomedical Engineering.
What we cover in this episode:
- What the Language Centre actually does: De Jager sets out the full range of services and support, and explains where the Centre stands in relation to the SU Language Policy.
- A multilingual mindset: What it means in practice, how you develop one, and why it is something to be practised rather than simply held as a view.
Workshops that build belonging: Dr Binneman on the Language and Belonging series, which is open to all students, the Language Centre's part in MatiesLead alongside the Centre for Student Life and Learning, the online course for phase three, and workshops offered on request. He also unpacks what belonging actually means, and why it feeds directly into student success.
- Multilingualism in the Writing Lab: Page on how consultations handle students who think in one language and write in another, and what the consultants themselves were trained to do differently.
- Language in living spaces: Samsodien on the language workshops for student leaders, and on how sensitive language becomes inside residences and student communities, where it attaches directly to identity, inclusion and exclusion. Her advice to students and student leaders navigating that.
Postgraduate spaces: Shale explains what the Postgraduate Network and the LLL Houses are, and what came out of the workshop the Language Centre ran with them.
- The honest tension: Our home languages matter to us, and many of us work and study in a second or third language while feeling self-conscious about it. The panel address how to navigate that alongside the practical demands of running a multilingual campus where everyone should feel included.
Where to find support:
SU Language Centre: https://languagecentre.sun.ac.za/
SU website: https://www.su.ac.za/en/students/success — or from the SU homepage, click Students, then Support, then Student Success.
Recorded on Tuesday 29 September 2026.
Most of us study, work and live in a second or third language. Most of us have also stayed quiet in a room because we were not confident enough in the language being spoken there. This conversation is about that tension, and about what a university does when belonging and language are the same question.
Jacolette Kloppers hosts the tenth of 15 conversations on Lunch Club, joined by two staff members from the SU Language Centre — Dr Arné Binneman, Head: Multilingual Learning, and Sanet de Jager, senior interpreter and coordinator of multilingualism workshops — and three SU students: Tes-Adri Page, a PhD candidate in Arts and Social Sciences and Writing Lab consultant; Kauthar Samsodien, a BEd (Intermediate Phase) student on the Khayalethu house committee; and Amo Shale, a master's student in Biomedical Engineering.
What we cover in this episode:
- What the Language Centre actually does: De Jager sets out the full range of services and support, and explains where the Centre stands in relation to the SU Language Policy.
- A multilingual mindset: What it means in practice, how you develop one, and why it is something to be practised rather than simply held as a view.
Workshops that build belonging: Dr Binneman on the Language and Belonging series, which is open to all students, the Language Centre's part in MatiesLead alongside the Centre for Student Life and Learning, the online course for phase three, and workshops offered on request. He also unpacks what belonging actually means, and why it feeds directly into student success.
- Multilingualism in the Writing Lab: Page on how consultations handle students who think in one language and write in another, and what the consultants themselves were trained to do differently.
- Language in living spaces: Samsodien on the language workshops for student leaders, and on how sensitive language becomes inside residences and student communities, where it attaches directly to identity, inclusion and exclusion. Her advice to students and student leaders navigating that.
Postgraduate spaces: Shale explains what the Postgraduate Network and the LLL Houses are, and what came out of the workshop the Language Centre ran with them.
- The honest tension: Our home languages matter to us, and many of us work and study in a second or third language while feeling self-conscious about it. The panel address how to navigate that alongside the practical demands of running a multilingual campus where everyone should feel included.
Where to find support:
SU Language Centre: https://languagecentre.sun.ac.za/
SU website: https://www.su.ac.za/en/students/success — or from the SU homepage, click Students, then Support, then Student Success.
