*This podcast is also available Apple Podcasts.
For Today’s podcast, I had the honour of interviewing a very distinguished guest. Benjamin Zephaniah is best known as one of Britain’s favourite poets. He is also a political activist, playwright and novelist who has been listed as one of Britain’s 50 greatest postwar writers by the Times newspaper.
One of the lesser-known aspects of Benjamin’s life is his interest in foreign languages and in particular Mandarin. In his Autobiography, The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah, he writes about his decades-long exploration of the Chinese language and culture.
I wanted to find out more about why he took on the challenge of learning Chinese, how he went about doing so and why he believes language learning can be a powerful tool against bigotry and war.
I'm Learning Mandarin 