A City Speaks

' A City Speaks' is the title of a film made in 1947, described as Manchester's Civic Film. Commissioned during the Second World War,it celebrates the achievements and the ambitions for the redevelopment of the city. Housing, health, leisure and culture are all represented. Documentary film maker Paul Rotha took over the production in 1944 and the film premiered at the Odeon in 1947. Every time I travel round Manchester, especially on the bus down through the Oxford Road corridor, past the Universities, or when I wait for the transpeak bus at Chorlton Street coach station, I am both thrilled and amazed at the diversity of the languages I hear. I try and identify the language from snatches of vocabulary. I can manage Italian, Spanish, Polish, German, Japanese, Chinese and of course French. Then there's Urdu and Arabic. I listen out for North African French because it reminds me of living in Morocco. I found myself following an excitable conversation in French last week and then realised that my satisfaction in being able to recognise what they were talking about meant that I was eavesdropping! There's such a mix of nationalities in the city. Some are passing through,students and post graduates.Others are born and brought up here, with Manchester accents and the ability to speak a family language fluently. I don't know why I worry about eavesdropping. People don't usually talk to one another on the bus, but they will have phone conversations about the most personal topics and seem oblivious to the fact that they are sharing those thoughts and feelings with a bus full of strangers! It's a great insight into what the city says.