Welcome to my world! I’m Richard West-Soley, a linguist, perennial language learner and educational software developer based variously in Edinburgh, Birmingham and London.

I specialise in interactive language learning activities to support students of all ages. I use tools and frameworks including Haxe / OpenFL for HTML5, Swift, and Flutter to create rich, engaging learning experiences.

I head the content development team at Linguascope.com, the UK’s most popular website for language learning and teaching in schools. Amongst the many apps I have worked on over the years are the highly successful Linguascope range, as well as a wide range of other student support tools.

Through Linguascope, my own e-learning projects and other providers, I have over twenty years of experience developing interactive, dynamic content for learners and educators. I also give regular training, online and offline, in many aspects of e-content creation.

And at Polyglossic.com, I indulge my love of writing about all aspects of language learning.

Educational background

After switching on to languages at an early age, I won a place to read German and Spanish at Somerville College, University of Oxford. As part of my course, I spent a year in Klagenfurt and Salzburg, where I developed a deep fascination with dialect. The Kärtnerisch I learnt there has served me well!

After Oxford, I spent a year at the University of Birmingham learning how to teach. Getting my PGCE seemed like the next logical step with languages, inspiring others to find the fascination in words that I had as a kid. Secondary teaching morphed gradually into my current day job in resource creation, and has since been a constant backdrop to my professional life.

That love of languages continues to dominate my everyday, and there’s little I like better than getting lost in some obscure grammar or reader. The emergence of a polyglot / language-hacking community has been a godsend – if only that had existed in my pre-Internet youth! I am always on the lookout out for new linguistic challenges. My current projects include Greek, Norwegian and Scottish Gaelic, as well as maintaining my German and other dabblings.

Lifelong Learning

I am a passionate advocate for lifelong learning and sustained personal development. In 2014, I was awarded my second undergraduate degree, a BSc in Social Sciences with Psychological Studies and Sociology with First-Class Honours from the Open University. Returning to formal studies as an adult has given me a completely new perspective on learning, which has, in turn, informed and improved my work in resource development and training.

In 2022 I was awarded an MSc in Linguistics with Distinction by the University of Edinburgh, where I’m now working towards a PhD. My research centres on the historical enregisterment of Black Country dialect in newsprint, a project that brings together strands from some of my big passions – language, tech and archive hunting!

Beyond the languages…

I’m a keen musician, and cannot be kept away from any piano in the vicinity (to the alternate joy and annoyance of many). As a lad, I played all the way to Grade 8 under the tutelage of the brilliant Gwendolyne Johnson. I also did my time with local choirs, pretending to be a Tenor so I could hang out with the cooler kids.

Music remains a very important part of my life today, and I also occasionally pick up a guitar (and still vow that it will not beat me!).

Oh – and I love Eurovision! 🎵

…and what’s that scar?

One thing I loved about teaching was that kids often have no filter. What’s that scar on your lip? was a routine question with new classes, and it’s one I was always very happy to answer. I was born with a cleft lip, a fairly common facial development issue that affects about one in a thousand babies.

Luckily, I was born in a country where repair of cleft lips and palates is absolutely routine, and stigma around the condition non-existent. Those circumstances aren’t a certainty for many children, though, which is why I support Smile Train. This global charity funds surgical teams in some of the poorest countries, offering life-changing reparative surgery to children who would otherwise grow up with unrepaired clefts. If you’re looking for a new cause to support, Smile Train is a very worthy option to consider. Changing Faces is another doing some brilliant work around visible difference.