Zhen Yang came to the UK from China to study marketing. Twenty years on, she’s a Communications Manager at Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and she’s built her entire career in her second language.

In episode 15 of The Comms Collective, Zhen joins host Vishnee Sauntoo to talk about the real cost of communicating in a second language, why ‘clear’ is one of the hardest things to achieve in comms, and how a mentor’s four words changed the way she shows up at work.

From marketing to comms, by accident

Zhen’s route into communications wasn’t planned. She came to the UK to complete a master’s degree in marketing, and only once marketing and communications began to overlap did colleagues start giving her the chance to try comms work. She found her way in gradually, “which is slightly ironic,” she says, “because English was one of the things I worried about most.”

She joined Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) after a friend shared a job advert on LinkedIn. The role covered education, work and skills, and with a young daughter of her own, understanding the UK education system felt personal. She said exactly that in her interview. “I’m passionate about education, work and skills because I have kids,” she told the panel. She credits that honesty with getting her the job.

The hardest part wasn’t the English.

Ask Zhen about the toughest challenge she’s faced in comms, and the answer isn’t the one you’d expect. “It wasn’t only English,” she says. “I was learning British humour, when to speak, how to disagree, and what people mean when they don’t say things directly.” Her brain, she says, is “translating all the time, and it still does” — by the time she’d worked out how to answer a question in a meeting, the room had already moved on.

Over time, that experience became a professional strength rather than a limitation. Because she knows exactly how it feels not to understand something, Zhen is fiercely committed to plain English in everything she writes. Her test: if her husband, who works in IT and has no patience for jargon, doesn’t understand something, she rewrites it.

“Good communication isn’t about making me sound clever,” she says. “It’s about helping you understand.”

Zhen Yang, on the Comms Collective podcast

Showing your value isn’t showing off.

One of the most honest moments in the conversation is about confidence — and where it comes from. Zhen talks about growing up in an environment where criticism came more easily than praise, and how that shaped her instinct to deflect compliments rather than accept them. A turning point came from her mentor, Advita Patel (herself a guest on episode 13), who signed a book for Zhen with the words: “Don’t dim your light for other people.”

The LG Comms Future Leaders programme further reshaped her thinking. She’d assumed confidence meant being the loudest person in the room. It doesn’t. “Being thoughtful doesn’t mean I need to be invisible,” she says, “and I don’t need to become louder to make my voice heard.”

A campaign she’s proud of

Zhen’s team has led communications for the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate (MBac), a major programme connecting young people who don’t go on to university with employers, colleges and training routes into work. Two-thirds of young people in Greater Manchester fall into that group. What makes Zhen proud isn’t a headline metric — it’s watching educators and employers genuinely get behind the programme. “I genuinely believe in it,” she says, “and I’m very proud to be part of the team.”

From output to outcome

Zhen also shares what she sees as the biggest shift happening in public sector comms right now: a move away from counting outputs — press releases, posts, open rates — and towards proving outcomes. Did the communication actually change behaviour? Did it drive real action? It’s a shift that makes the job harder to measure, but far more valuable to the organisations comms teams serve.

Advice for anyone finding their voice in a second language, or a new sector

Zhen’s advice to her younger self is simple: worry less, and speak up sooner. “You don’t need to sound British to belong in Britain,” she says. And when someone tells you you’ve done well? Say thank you — and mean it.

Listen to the full conversation

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Connect with Zhen Yang on LinkedIn and to learn more about the Asian Comms Network.