Reflections on Language and Shame: A Post-Event Synopsis

By:  Mathieu Gagnon

On Saturday, February 28, 2026, I had the great pleasure of taking part in an FIGT Let’s Talk event hosted by Hannele Secchia. Joining me on the panel were Isabelle Min, who brought extensive experience in marketing, broadcasting, public relations, training, writing, interpreting, and coaching; Ute Limacher-Riebold, a researcher, language consultant, and intercultural communication trainer; and Mariann Bobály-Dienes, whose background spans business, applied linguistics, and coaching. The topic of the event was language and shame, a subject that felt both important and personally meaningful to me. Of course, I came to the discussion with my own experiences of shame around language, especially accents, and with what I believed was already a fairly solid grasp of the topic. What I did not anticipate, however, was how much the discussion would expand my perspective. Listening to my co-panelists reminded me that even when I have thought carefully about a topic, there is often much more to understand. I therefore want to take this opportunity to thank them.

Thank you, Isabelle, for helping me see more clearly how language can be both empowering and painful, and how fluency can become a basis on which a person’s intelligence, worth, or legitimacy is judged. I was especially struck by your emphasis on language as a means of connection rather than simply a standard of correctness. Thank you, Mariann, for helping me appreciate how deeply issues around language extend into family and relational life. Before hearing you speak, I had not fully considered how language can become tied to power, misunderstanding, and exclusion even within close relationships. Thank you, Ute, for helping me understand the extent to which language-based shame can affect identity itself and lead to silence, withdrawal, and disconnection. I also found it so helpful when you explained how distinguishing between shame, guilt, and anxiety can create a little more room to respond with self-awareness rather than simply turning inward and going silent. And finally, thank you, Hannele, for creating the opportunity for us to have this conversation and for organizing the event.

I very much look forward to seeing what else the FIGT Let’s Talk series has in store for us in the future, and I will definitely be tuning in. I will also be happy to encourage others who may not yet know about it to do the same. Here’s to this event and to many more like it.

Mathieu Gagnon PhD

Associate Professor  

Department of Military Psychology and Leadership

Royal Military College 

Host of the TCK Research Podcast https://www.youtube.com/@TCKResearchPod