Kerstin

Good news first: Starting is one of the hardest parts of learning a language! And starting isn’t that hard with this guide, so you’re already set up for good progress.

It’s not easy to feel confident that you’re starting “right”. There are so many different approaches out there, and the sheer number of options can stop you before you've even begun.

Here's what I actually recommend for beginners in language learning:

Start With Your Goal (But Not The Way You Think)

Early on in your learning progress, I recommend thinking about your goal. This does not have to be your big life goal for learning a language, but it helps you clarify what you really want out of it.

Some people want to speak to loved ones. Others want to enhance their career opportunities. Those are people who are probably going to be studying for years because they want to become fluent. Some people just want to have a chat on holiday, or they just want to understand more of what people are saying. Those people will practice different things.

And sometimes it helps to remember you do not have to have a goal. Sometimes it is simply, “I’m curious.” I LOVE ❤️ intellectual curiosity as a reason to learn a language. A lot of the languages I've learned started with nothing more than curiosity about a pronunciation, a greeting, a writing system. A few of them stuck, and I'm now conversational (for example, I fell in love with Welsh). With others, it didn't happen but I still know the basics. You are never wasting your time.

In my Language Habit System™, I recommend recording your Vision Goal. Record it at the start, and then get a little more practical.

Try Everything

Once you know your direction, explore properly. Don't stop at just downloading Duolingo and playing with it.

Go to your library. Have a look at textbooks. Download the apps. Get yourself on YouTube. Change a few parts of your social media feed and get your algorithm showing you things in that language. Very soon you'll be picking up little bits here and there.

Then it's about putting it all together, and that's where a group class can be great, or a tutor for the first three to six months, especially if you're new to language learning.

Follow what is fun. Follow what is exciting. That is how you stay motivated, and it helps you remember what you are learning for.

Think About All Four Skills

When you're planning how to spend your learning time, think about how you're going to get some listening, speaking, reading, and writing — all of them. Each skill informs the next. Writing, for example, can genuinely improve your speaking and listening once you understand the pronunciation rules of a language. They work together.

Grab my book about the four core skills 📘

Don't Overlook AI

I want to make a particular case for involving AI in your language learning, because I've been exploring and experimenting with it seriously, and I think it has the potential to be much more effective at teaching natural language — or letting you practise natural language — than apps alone.

It fulfils a slightly different purpose. Apps have their place. Tutors have their place. AI has its own place too. But that place is a genuinely valuable one, and it's worth exploring early.

The Most Important Thing

Language learning is a beautiful and enriching lifelong process if you let it. Allow yourself to enjoy it, even when you're not the best yet.

You don't have to become fluent on a tight deadline. You don't have to master fifty words a day. You just have to keep going, follow what interests you, and trust that every bit of it counts.

Full of candy, scared and spooked, disguised as a creature of the night…that's Halloween. The festival is very popular in the English speaking world.

But have you heard about Martinstag (St Martin’s Day)? It’s a great way to celebrate as the autumn season begins in Germany, so you can talk to your German friends about the St Martin’s lanterns, bonfires, and songs.

Contents

1. What is St Martin's Day? 2. Essential German for St Martin's Day 3. How Germans Celebrate St Martin's Day 4. St Martin's Day Songs 5. What to Eat on St Martin's Day in Germany 6. Quick Q&A About St Martin's Day 7. Where to Learn German for St Martin's Day

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What is St Martin's Day?

St Martin’s Day is (you guessed it from the name) a religious feast inspired by the story of St Martin of Tours.

Here’s the story of St Martin:

Martin is riding along a path on a cold November night. He comes across a beggar by the roadside and even though he's got nothing on him, he decides to help the poor man out by ripping his cloak in two and sharing it.

Well, this is the version of the story that I remember from Kindergarten anyway. If you read up on it on Wikipedia, the tale becomes a LOT more religious. Religious references aside, what the feast day celebrates today is the value of generosity and sharing with those in need.

Essential German for St Martin's Day

If you love learning German with stories, I recommend German Uncovered, my super comprehensive course loved by German learners all over the world. It was created in collaboration with StoryLearning, and will help you learn German in context without having to cram and rote learn.

Martinstag - St Martin’s Day

der Umzug, die Parade - procession

die Laterne - lantern

eine Laterne basteln - to make your own lantern

basteln - crafting

leuchten - to shine, to glow

das Licht - light

das Martinsfeuer - bonfire to celebrate the day

die Sterne - the stars

der Soldat - soldier

der Bettler - beggar

teilen - to share

Need ideas for remembering vocabulary better? Click here to read how to get great vocab memory.

How Germans Celebrate St Martin's Day

St Martin's Day is celebrated in Germany around 11 November. It’s particularly common in the Rhineland.

Many children celebrate by carrying little lanterns (often homemade), and following a procession with music, warm drinks, and sweet treats. Sometimes, the procession is led by a "St Martin" wearing a red coat and riding a horse. Often they are accompanied by a local band playing the famous St Martin's songs.

My own rural German background includes happy memories of lanterns, songs, and a big Martinsfeuer (bonfire) at the end, where people would gather and enjoy seasonal treats. For the adults, I’m pretty sure there was some warm Glühwein (mulled wine) involved.

Read on to find out what sweet treats are in store if you attend a Martinsumzug (St Martin’s Day parade) yourself. And if you spot someone you’d love to chat to 😍, don’t miss my tips for how to flirt in German.

If you want to celebrate St Martin's Day too, you can build little lanterns, sing a song with the children (or with your mates!) or bake a lovely Weckmann (recipe below).

St Martin's Day Songs

The easiest song to learn is "Laterne, Laterne", with its three lines of lyrics.

Laterne, Laterne Sonne, Mond und Sterne Brenne auf mein Licht, Brenne auf mein Licht Aber nur meine liebe Laterne nicht! (Lantern, Sun, Moon and Stars. Let my light burn brightly, but not my dear lantern!)

Other great songs for this season include "Ich geh' mit meiner Laterne" and "St Martin". You’ll hear these played at processions, bonfires and sung in Kindergarten.

What to Eat on St Martin's Day in Germany

St Martin’s Day is a feast day, so there are plenty of sweet treats to be had.

Look out for these St Martin’s Treats in German Bakeries in November:

Weckmänner are pastries made with sweet dough. They come in the shape of a person, often with raisins for the eyes. The little guy also comes with a clay pipe.

The word Weckmann combines Weck (Southern German word for a bun) and Mann (man). You’ll also hear them called Stutenkerl in some parts of Germany.

Martinsbrezel are sweet dough pretzels covered in sugar.

Glühwein is mulled wine. The wine (often high quality local wine) is heated up with spices and sugar to create a comforting winter drink. If you’re not into drinking alcohol, there’s often a sober version available (look out for words like Punsch and Kinderwein). Here is a Weckmann recipe in German, with thanks to the website chefkoch.de. How much do you understand? Zutaten 1 Kilo Mehl, 1 Würfel Hefe, 150 Gramm Zucker, 90 Gramm Butter, 1 Teelöffel Salz und 500ml warme Milch. Anleitung

Zuerst das Mehl, die Hefe und 125ml Milch vermischen und 10 Minuten gehen lassen.

Butter, Zucker, Salz und restliche Milch auflösen und alles mit dem gegangenen Teig verrühren. Aus dem Teig Weckmänner formen und 10 Minuten gehen lassen.

Mit Milch bestreichen und 15-20 Minuten bei 220 Grad backen.

Quick Q&A About St Martin's Day

Speedy questions, speedy answers!

What do you do on St Martin’s Day?

On St Martin’s Day (11 November), many people in Europe celebrate with seasonal foods, processions, and bonfires.

In Germany, children often craft lanterns and sing songs at local processions.

Why is St Martin’s Day celebrated?

St Martin’s Day commemorates St Martin of Tours, known for sharing his red cloak with a freezing beggar during a snow storm. St Martin stands for generosity and charity.

How long has St Martin’s Day been celebrated?

St Martin’s Day, also known as Old Halloween or Martinmas, has history going back over 1500 years. It falls on the end of harvest season and was celebrated throughout the Middle Ages, and all over Europe.

Where to Learn German for St Martin's Day

If you love learning German with stories, I recommend German Uncovered, my super comprehensive course loved by German learners all over the world.

It was created in collaboration with StoryLearning, and will help you learn German in context without having to cram and rote learn.

Here are some more handy links for German learners:

My full German learning resource list for all levels

Great websites for German beginners

Little-known facts about speaking German to level up your pronunciation skills

The 6 best techniques for learning vocabulary

Have you ever been told that project you're working on is not going to work? Ever doubted if your idea is not perhaps TOO bold or TOO radical or TOO this and that?

5 years ago, I had those doubts and I could feel them burning up inside of me. At the end of 2017, my friends Lindsay and Shannon started cooking up a new event together with me.

An online conference about languages, with expert speakers who are inspiring and impressive. So far so good.

And we were only going to have female speakers. Maybe we'd sat in the audience for one too many one-token-woman-panels...I don't know.

But I clearly remember that the idea of saying "this one's a stage for women in our field" felt kinda scary. I never want to not-please people, so taking a stand can feel risky.

And you bet that we heard as much from a few doubting voices. Those were quickly drowned out by the other side: LOTS of people, hundreds of people rejoicing and joining in with us to hear from the first batch of speakers.

The next year, we were back. Then the year after. Then through the pandemic. And this year it's time to celebrate: 5 years of Women in Language!! Have you ever been? If not, make sure you read this post as an introduction.

So This Changes the WORLD?!

Yes, yes it does. World-changing doesn't have to transform the entire face of the earth. This one's about showing many people like us that it's worth believing in your ideas and believing in yourself.

You might have an idea like this, like us. You might want to speak at an event or start a podcast. You might want to go into a "prestigious" career or learn 10 languages.

The Women in Language message to you is that there's NO ONE who can tell you not to try. And if you're still doing it 5 years later, well then that's success.

It’s a Language Learning Festival!

This year, we are delighted to bring you 22 expert speakers, a panel on Feminism in Our Language World, and a bunch of live language exchange sessions. So you'll be inspired, educated, AND you'll practice your language too.

The Women in Language conference is a great experience and we’d love to have you join us. The tickets are just $29, and that price includes all conference recordings.

And just in case you’re wondering: YES men can come too! Of course!!

Supporting a Good Cause and Standing With Ukraine 🇺🇦

I am not going to lie and say I'm not feeling bittersweet this year. I'm proud and delighted of our achievements with Women in Language. I'm also deeply affected by the war in Ukraine. 💙💛 It's making me feel heartbroken, scared, and relieved my grandma isn't here to see this.

When you buy your Women in Language ticket, we give 10% to a good cause every year. This year, the funds will go to Women for Women International. They don't currently run programmes in Ukraine but they do help fund-raise for organisations who do.

This week I've donated money to the Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal on behalf of my podcast and company. Thank you for making this possible.

As a German native speaker who speaks English all day long, I find the prospect of bilingual parenting both daunting and fascinating.

I have been contacted by so many different parents over the years for advice on how to raise your children to be multilingual.

First of all, I am so happy to hear that parents are interested in teaching languages to their kids early on. I hear from so many of my students that they wished they would have begun to learn languages earlier in life, so this will make a huge difference in their life.

One thing’s for sure: Raising multilingual children is as challenging as it is rewarding.

After consulting many bilingual parents (full list below) and learning from dozens of professionals in bilingual parenting, I have collected 6 tips for you to help you start parenting your children to be multilingual.

Tip #1: Don’t Expect Them to Be Good Right Away

Your young child does not need to be good at speaking a language, if it is clear they are doing it. Taking away this pressure is what will keep language learning fun for them and keep the curiosity brewing.

Rather than correcting them and making them repeat words and phrases over and over, keep encouraging them to step out of their comfort zone. Making them aware that there are other languages out there in the world will be a huge step.

Tip #2: Exposure Matters More Than Perfection

Exposure really matters, much more than hitting some perfect system or having them “perform” languages beautifully. (The same goes for adults too, by the way.)

Exposing your child to your target language means you can get far with accessible practices like multilingual music, TV/YouTube, and storybooks.

Several generations of learners have told me that Muzzy was their first spark of love for languages. You might start with their favourite TV show in another language (Peppa Pig is a big hit apparently), or read a bilingual story together (try Tim Tim Tom for example).

There are so many different avenues and resources out there to expose your child to other languages in a playful way that they are going to enjoy.

Tip #3: Get Involved Within the Community

Could you get your kids involved in communities where other languages are spoken within the neighbourhood? Chances are, you aren’t the only person in your neighborhood or community who is trying to learn a new language, and there is hidden linguistic diversity everywhere.

You can reach out to other families you know by searching in Facebook groups or connect with your local community. Connect your child with other children who are learning to be multilingual and set up play dates where they can read books, have playtime, or watch their favorite TV shows together in the target language.

Everything is better with a buddy!

Tip #4: Have Language Time

Having specific language time is very helpful for adults, and the same goes for children. This means setting up a dedicated time of the day or of the week where you are only speaking the target language.

This could be 30 minutes after school where your child is telling you about your day, during bath time or at the dinner table.

Tip #5: Try the “One Person, One Language” Strategy

The one person, one language approach is where one person in the family speaks solely one language within the family. It’s very common when parents have two native languages, meaning each parent only speaks their first language with the child.

But even if you are NOT a native speaker of the language you want to share with your child,

Doing this strategy consistently gives the child the expectation that all of their interactions with this person is to be in a specific language, so there are no surprises and they start to develop confidence. This also helps to make sure that your children are receiving continuous exposure and interactions in different languages.

Tip #6: You Aren’t Going to Do It Wrong

No matter what, know that you aren’t doing this wrong! You know your child best and what will work most efficiently for them to learn and interact.

While some parenting experts swear by “OPOL” above all other strategies, it’s important to remember that there are plenty of right ways to do something.

The very fact that you are taking your time and energy to teach and expose your child to a new language is a beautiful thing and something they will be thankful for later in life.

Thank you for sharing the world of languages with your children! 🙏

Resources for Raising Multilingual Children

There are so many different resources that are available for parents who are raising multilingual children or have the vision to do so. Below are different Facebook groups, businesses, podcasts, and more to help you along this journey.

Facebook Groups

Multilingual Families

Raising Bilingual Multilingual Children

Parents of bilingual children

Non-native Speakers Raising Bilingual/Multilingual Children

Non-Native Language Parenting to raise Bilingual/Multilingual Children

Podcasts and Teachers to Follow

The Future is Bilingual with Heather Koziol

Eurolinguiste with Shannon Kennedy

Juliana from The Language Mindset (@thelanguagemindset on IG)

Lingotastic

Maritere Rodriguez Bellas: http://maritererodriguezbellas.com/

Bilingual Avenue with Marianna du Bosq

“It’s Hard Work But It’s So Worth It”

This quote is from Marianna du Bosq, who runs Bilingual Avenue and shared her expertise on my podcast. Click PLAY below to listen in.

Keep in mind that it will probably be difficult to help your child learn a new language, but it is going to be so worth it to them!

As they go through life, they will be so thankful and appreciative that you took the energy to teach them a new language at a young age.

Going through the process together as a family can be a fun and exciting experience that makes you so proud of seeing their progress. If you are currently parenting your children to be multilingual, I encourage you to keep going and try these tips out.

This blog post is an my own language learning goals and progress.

Read on to hear about

what happened in my life and business so far this year

which languages I’m learning and how I’m doing in them

which courses I’m taking and creating

what I’m planning to do next!

I’ll be referring to January-March as “Q1” from here on, since it was the first quarter of 2021.

Lockdown Language Life in Q1 2021

I live in the UK, and our winter was not exciting. Shortly after the new year started, our country went into a pretty strict coronavirus lockdown which is only now beginning to ease.

Cue…another 3 months spent in and around the home. I’m unbelievably lucky to have space and quiet available in my home, and the rules allowed for just enough outdoor activity to help me avoid loneliness and depression.

I am so happy to know that our vaccine programme is progressing well, and the relief it’s going to bring vulnerable people, their carers, and all who work in healthcare.

We held another Women in Language online conference!

Let’s start with the biggest event first: Women in Language 2021! The conference was another smash hit and we learnt SO much over the course of 4 days - it’s impossible to sum up everything, but here are some of my personal highlights.

Kaché Knowles from The Bahamas helped us kick off the event in the best possible, sunniest, most celebratory mood. I loved her energy!

I moderated the “Language Learning in Australia” panel and learnt just SO much about languages down under from Michele Frolla, Bec Howie & Karla Zuluaga. Australia is a 360 degree language space with so many indigenous, regional, and immigrant languages. Wow wow! Loved it!

We added our first ever bilingual presentations with contributions in Spanish, French and Mandarin

We had an entrepreneurial streak running through many presentations, including

Inspired Teachers Create Inspired Learners! by English language icon Lindsay McMahon

A 5-Step Manifesto on Becoming a Language Teacher Rebel by Swedish teacher and Author Anneli Haake

A wonderful conversation on Mindset and Self-Worth as you grow your language business by Gwyneth Jones & Marija Dobrovolska I found myself engaged and excited for the many baby language businesses in the chatroom, loving the opportunity to share my knowledge through mentoring.

Stats round-up: 599 participants, 34 speakers, 56 countries, 1145 Facebook group comments over 4 days. PHEW! It is really cool to see more and more men attending this event each year.

Mobile Mentoring by Kerstin Cable

Through February, I have been quietly trying out a new mentoring offer for online teachers and I’m so excited to share that this is now LIVE! I have offered coaching/mentoring for online teachers for a few years now. It’s the perfect mix of

Talking shop

Helping language business owners find the answers that they need for all those decisions about prices, offers, marketing and more

Lighting that fire of excitement in them about the many fantastic ways they can create a business that makes a difference in the world (and makes some money, that's important too)

Long story short, you should consider booking one!

It’s a 1:1 deal with a twist: you get a whole day with me and we’ll be chatting via voice message! Want to learn a little more and try it out? Here’s my booking page link!

Learning Languages in Lockdown 3

When you don’t plan ahead and set myself manageable goals, you don’t achieve as much either.

But when languages are a habit and always form part of your life, you never stand still even in a super busy month.

Closing the 书 on Chinese for now

At the end of last year, I had just completed level HSK 1 in Mandarin Chinese and I wasn’t sure whether to take it any further. Well, after sitting on a very vague intention to do something or other with Chinese, in the end I decided it was time to pack it in.

I am really happy that I took 2020 to learn my first East Asian language, and I’ll happily return to Chinese at some point in the future. I didn’t find it scary or uninteresting, but equally I never quite found my Chinese passion either.

Guess for now we’ll choose to stay friends. 谢谢for the good times, 中文！

La signora nuova on the scene…it’s Italian!!

One of the reasons I wanted to let go of Chinese was to create space for just one of the many languages on my list: Italian! I studied Italian for 2 years as a teenager and I’ve got plenty of cross-language skills from learning other Romance languages over the years. But speaking Italian? Quasi ninety!

In 2021, I’m finally spending a little time with Italian again. I had a really lovely time with it in the late 90s, so I'm looking forward to playing around with Italian again!

I’m not ready to speak to anyone quite yet, but will get there in the next 3 months. Until then, I’m working with my own Vocab Checklist to build a bank of essential phrases and listening to a few learner-friendly podcasts to get into the groove.

Want to find out what I love for learning Italian? Click here to view my page for Italian learners!

My 6th Year of Learning Welsh (Y 6ed blwyddyn yn dysgu Cymraeg)

I love learning Welsh! Yes, even 6 years in I still do. My language level is B2, and I reached it without ever pushing super hard. I have so much fun with Welsh.

My attendance at the Advanced 1 course continues, a friendly weekly evening with other learners. I’m the only one who is joining the group from England, so I’m getting a great treat here from the 2020 online lessons.

My Welsh conversation skills and my grammar have improved. I now feel more confident and competent expressing myself in the language, and I CANNOT WAIT for everyone’s vaccinations and all those festivals and trips I’m going to enjoy after covid. C’mon, world!

Want to enjoy a quick dabble in the beautiful Welsh language yourself? Try my Language Dabbler’s Guide to Welsh!

Also on the Scene: Le Français

In French, I’m in the lucky position that I’ve got a strong basis to fall back onto even if I don’t study for ages. In Q1, I practiced my French mostly with Call My Agent/Dix Pour Cent on Netflix, and in March by listening to Cathy Intro’s awesome My Polyglot Life podcast.

Every now and then, I practice speaking or writing French but it’s not at the top of my priority list.

Want to find out what I love for learning French? Click here to view my page for French learners!

In Conclusion: Steady Effort Wins for Me

That’s it for reviewing my Q1! After many months thinking I’m ready to move on from Chinese for now, I’ve finally done it. It feels good to have taken the pressure off myself, though I want to continue to look beyond Europe for my language education in the future.

A 4th language I’m eager to learn is BSL (British Sign Language), but I’ve decided I’d like to start that in an offline class so it’s on hold for obvious reasons.

2021 is off to a great start, with a successful Women in Language event under our belt, and I’m excited to dive into more support for online teachers and language entrepreneurs through my mobile mentoring days.

Courses & Classes I Use for Languages

A few italki lessons in Chinese and Welsh

In Chinese, lessons used this (not so riveting) textbook and sometimes I also used Assimil Chinese False Beginners which is a good resource

Welsh for Adults Uwch 1, where we’re also reading Cyffeision Saesnes Yng Nghymru

The Intrepid Guide Italian course

Bought Italian Tutor (not started yet)

Using my own Language Habit Toolkit to stay organised

For added input, I watch Yabla, listen to breakfast radio on Radio Cymru and watch the odd show on S4C

Believe it or not, I don’t watch YouTube. some of these links above are affiliate links

Courses & Programmes I Created / Promoted

Women in Language 2021 (our 4th one)

Mobile Mentoring for language teachers and businesses

A new live round of the Language Habit Toolkit (including BINGO with prizes…I love games!)

How to Get Fluent When Life’s Chaotic (free class, link coming soon)

Blogs & Podcasts

Language Coaches: What They Are and How to Work With Them

The Languages of Western and Central Asia with Erin Morgan

Our big line-up of Words of the Year 2020

The amazing story of how your brain processes code-switching

5 Ways to Set Your Language Goals for 2021

Top Tools: Winter of 2021

Stylistics: The Science of Hemingway and The Wire

This post is part of the #clearthelist round-up hosted by Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams. I used to do these check-ins on a monthly basis, but since I’ve found relaxing the pace recently, I decided that a quarterly check-in is just as good.

Language coaches are the hidden treasure of the language learning world.

An amazing coach can train you up, just like a sports coach, to be an incredible language learner.

But if you don't pick a great match (or don't work with them in the right way), you can end up frustrated and out a lot of money.

In this master post, you’ll find everything you need to figure out exactly what a language coach will do for you and how to get the most out of every session.

By the end of this guide, you will have:

an actionable plan to start with a language coach,

how to get the most out of your investment, and

how to use alternative products to get better at language learning.

What is a Language Coach?

Before we get into the super helpful topics on this list, let’s explain what a language coach is and isn't.

That's because there are a ton of misconceptions about what a language coach's responsibilities are and confusion about the differences between a language coach and language teacher.

Pretend you are an English speaker learning French. You would need a French teacher who also speaks French, right?

Well for a language coach, it doesn't matter if they speak French or not.

You could even be working on a language that that language coach had never even heard of before! That's because a coach isn't going to teach you any specific language skills.

So what are they going to teach you?

To put this into perspective, what sets strong adult language learners apart is their ability to troubleshoot their own problems; come up with unique solutions; and build strong study habits.

A language coach will help you become that strong language learner. Unless you bring up specific problems with grammar, vocabulary, or any language learning skills, those won't be the focus of your sessions.

Sure those rules can be broken, but in general, a teacher will help you catch and fix errors by explicitly telling you the "right" way to do something.

But because we are all individuals with our own personal learning styles, busy lives, language goals, and language anxieties, a language coach will more likely focus on solving your problems with you: but not necessarily telling you the one "right" way to do something.

There's also the question of what makes someone a language coach.

With language teachers, there are large institutes, recognized accreditation programs, and achievable diplomas to show a student that they are qualified to teach a certain language. Not all language teachers have these, but many do.

But with language coaches, there is no universally recognized accreditation or certification program.

So how do students decide if the coach is the best expert for them? All language coaches speak several languages so they know your struggle and have been in your shoes. They usually have blogs, YouTube channels, podcasts, or books on the subject so you can judge their expertise for yourself. Because of all of this, language coaches are a bit harder to qualify. (But don't worry: we'll give you some good tools for how to do so below.)

Finally, neither a language coach nor a language teacher can fix your problems themselves.

Language learning is one of the most egalitarian skills in this world because you cannot buy it from anyone.

Sure, people with more money may also have more time: but it's truly a question of who is willing to put in the effort.

So before you consider going any further, you must ask yourself: if I work with a language expert, am I willing to put in what it takes to train myself into an amazing language learner?

How to find a language coach you love

Now that we've cleared that up, follow this roadmap and you are bound to find a language coach that you love.

Follow along and see what your next steps might be:

The most important thing here is that you find the best-fit coach for you yourself.

So outside of a quick Google search, our advice is that you follow potential coaches outside of social media and see what they really have to say.

No matter what, we highly recommend learning more about language learning whether or not you find a coach.

To do so, check out The Fluent Show (a podcast about loving, living, and learning languages) or any other number of linguistics podcasts or linguistics books.

The most important thing you are building with a language coach is your metacognitive and metalinguistic skills - that means knowing more about how language learning works and how to set up the right study systems for yourself.

And while a coach can be an amazing investment along the way, ultimately it's up to the student to truly learn and practice their skills.

Next up, the best tips to help you prepare for a future coaching relationship.

But if you're looking for an alternative to language coaching, you’ll find those in the final section of this article.

What To Expect & How To Prepare for Working With A Language Coach

If you've never worked with a language coach before, it can feel vulnerable to open up about your problems to a stranger. Here’s what to expect from your first language coach meeting:

A Chat with Nicole: Illustrator and Language Coachee

Nicole began studying French at university, but after moving to the UK wanted to dedicate more time towards her language studies. Her problem? How to find time and dedication for solo learning after the beginning stages. How do you get really good?

If you're a podcast fan, listen to this Fluent Show episode either in-browser here or where ever you listen to your favourite podcasts. In it, Nicole and I talk more about what working together to solve Nicole's problems was like.

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A Talk with Suzanne: Grad Student and Language Coachee

Suzanne (@suzanne.linguist on Instagram) is a self-proclaimed language dabbler, who's hobby has always been trying out little bits of languages here and there.

But as she moves closer to finishing her Master's in Library Science, she wanted to take her linguistic curiosity to the next level and work towards fluency in several languages.

That's when she began working with me as her language coach. Here are some of the tips she laid out for anyone thinking about trying out coaching for the first time.

1. Feeling a little nervous is normal.

Suzanne admits she was excited, "and also feeling a little anxious." Not knowing what to expect is normal, and with time going into sessions will feel more and more natural.

2. When booking your session, leave a note to your coach about what you want to talk about.

When using an online booking platform, most coaches have a place where you can leave a note. If you have an idea of what you want to discuss during your session, you can drop it there for them to glance at before the session.

3. During the days before your session, reflect on your problem.

Suzanne's two biggest tips involve preparing yourself for your session.

"First and foremost, come with questions," she says. "Second, have some idea of your topic priorities. My best sessions with Kerstin are when I’m very well prepared."

And how can you go about thinking about those questions?

"I’ve tried different methods [of preparing]," says Suzanne. "I once did a mind map. Usually I brainstorm in a digital note. And always I ask a polyglot friend or two, which is invaluable, as they’ll remind of things I brought up but had forgotten about."

4. Be present and truthful.

There might be a bit of nervousness in the first session or two, Suzanne reflected. But she also joked: "Stay calm... you’re in good hands!"

Remember: language coaches have seen plenty of problems before, so if you openly share your roadblocks or frustrations with them, that's not admitting failure. In fact, it's the first step to fixing the problem!

Straying off-topic a bit of thinking out loud might be a normal part of this process. "I can get off on tangents," admits Suzanne.

But part of working through these problems is also helping you explore different angles while saying on the right path.

5. Have a scrap paper nearby, but don't worry about it.

"I don’t usually take notes," says Suzanne.

The goal is to be present and thoughtful. But jotting something down might be helpful every once in a while.

6. After your session, take time to reflect and plan.

Coaching tends to get your creative juices flowing. For some people, pausing post-session to journal or talk to someone can be a great extension of what you worked on with your coach.

"In the hours following a meeting, I often brief polyglot friends on any new ideas or directions," says Suzanne. "I also put any time-bound items in my task manager, which is where I organize my language hobby."

7. Use your new skills and solutions during the coming weeks

Remember: a language coach can't magically teach you a language. (Teaching you a language isn't even their job!)

So it's important to take ownership of your own learning process. See what works, see what doesn't, and see everything through.

Then, bring in those new experiments and experiences into your next session.

8. Connect with other language learners

Over and over in our interview, Suzanne kept bringing up one thing: the online language community.

First, and most obviously, there are the native speakers of the languages we want to learn.

"I'm motivated to learn modern languages because I'm fascinated by cultures and communities. Interacting with native speakers, I've learned so much about their lives and the way they think."

But outside of just language exchanges or tutoring relationships, there are also huge communities on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Tumblr of other people who, regardless of language, want to connect with us.

"Language learning for me brings more joy when I can geek out with those who 'get' me," she says. "I love the mutual encouragement [and] the camaraderie."

With this community, you don't necessarily need to speak the same language--just love to talk about struggles, victories, and new experiences.

"Sometimes we're too close to ourselves to see the bigger picture," says Suzanne. "Language friends and coaches inspire and inform us!"

3 Alternatives to Language Coaching

If language coaching is out of your budget, that doesn't mean that you can't benefit from the advice of experts.

Here are the top 3 alternatives to language coaching.

1. Language podcasts

There are plenty of language learning podcasts hosted by experienced language learners and coaches who will fill your feed with awesome educational material.

PROS: My own podcast, the Fluent Show, has a massive back catalogue of over 200 episodes, many of which answer the most common questions you have about language learning. It's inspirational, educational, and will always be free.

CONS: Unlike one-on-one coaching, there's no one to address your specific problems or help with follow-up questions.

Click here to listen to The Fluent Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or search your favourite podcast platform today.

2. Linguistics Books

Plenty of language learning experts have written some amazing linguistics books specifically for language learners.

PROS: Linguistics books are thoroughly researched and edited by professionals, meaning the quality of content and advice is going to be much higher than other platforms like YouTube.

CONS: Since your library is unlikely to stock this niche category of books, you'll likely have to invest a few dollars into buying them.

But as a starting point, check out these in-depth interviews with two awesome book authors who specialise in language learning!

Becoming Fluent by Dr Roger Kreuz

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Ultralearning by Scott Young

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Find more linguistics book recommendations for language learners here!.

3. The Language Habit Toolkit

Finally, there's the Language Habit Toolkit.

The Toolkit is designed to help students solve the 10 most common problems they are likely to see a language coach about, and costs less than a first coaching session might. It includes (1) a multimedia training on Teachable.com, (2) printable worksheets and accountability trackers, and (3) plenty of annual goodies like live trainings, study sessions, and pop-up community groups.

PROS: It will help you solve the most common problems language learners have for a price that's better than coaching. It's not only a training, but comes with monthly activities, planners, and trackers.

CONS: It requires more self-discipline than working with a coach since you have no human holding you to using it.

Conclusion: What Do You Do Next?

This article was designed to give you the most in-depth understanding possible of what language coaching is and how you could use it.

But ultimately, you won't know if it's a good fit for you until you try it out.

As you leave this article, consider reviewing the above flow chart and picking your next action based on what makes the most sense for you.

Prost Neujahr!! Let me raise my glass of wine-with-fizzy-water to you and imagine a virtual hug to say "wow, that was something." Happy new year 2021! Over the last few days, I have been taking stock and going through my review of the year.

Winter/Spring 2020

Things started off so well!

Fluent Language Life

I kicked off the year with Your Solid Vocab Memory, a brand new online course I had created over the winter holidays. Over the month, I was delighted to welcome the first students and even host a brand new live round! Live rounds were a new concept that Iearnt about in 2020. You’ll read about them again!

In the springtime, I also became a co-host of the Language League membership group (now closed). My first lesson was about applying the lessons of the Four Tendencies framework by Gretchen Rubin to language learning, and it was a success!

💡 By the way, you can get access this lesson as part of the Language Habit Toolkit!

In my podcast world, I pre-recorded some interviews before moving house and published my long-awaited interview with Marc Okrand, creator of the Klingon Language. Along with Marc’s episode, this one with Lindsay is one of my favourites for the year.

I concluded late spring with a highlight and a challenge:

🥳 Highlight: I taught and created the Language Dabbler’s Guide to Welsh, my first ever class dedicated to the Welsh language which I love soooo much. It was daunting and incredibly exciting to teach this language to others, and I’m delighted about how it all came together.

😭Challenge: About halfway through March and before the Polyglot Cruise was cancelled by Kris Broholm (for obvious and very sensible reasons!), I decided to withdraw my own attendance on the ship. Having looked forward to this cruise for many months, it was a really hard and sad decision. I struggled with anxiety over safety on a cruise, and sadness over the loss of this innovative event.

Personal Life

🎊 I enjoyed lovely days out around the UK in London, Leeds, and Folkestone, and a week at home helping my mum celebrate her 60th. This was just a few weeks before the world shut its doors and borders, so I’m grateful I was able to celebrate her birthday as a family in Germany.

The highlights were a little more hidden. No trips around the world speaking 5 new languages, but perhaps the kind of work that will serve me and you for years to come.

🏡 Right in the last week of March, we finally got the news that our new home was ready. I remember standing in the new house having to keep a 2-metre distance from the house builder’s rep, and the absolute chaos and anxiety and stress of trying to ensure a smooth move in the same week our government issued “stay at home” orders.

Language Learning

My winter and spring of 2020 were dedicated to quiet study of the Chinese language. I used plenty of LingQ and Yabla, which were fantastic resources giving me understandable input even at my beginner level.

I wasn’t really in love, but happy to plod along. Here’s where I was at by the end of it all.

In hindsight, I don’t mind that there wasn’t a huge blissful progress rush. The spring was a fulfilled time but also a challenge, and I found that the work I did with Chinese helped me later in the year when I started speaking more. Whatever you learn in a language now will always serve you down the line, no matter if it feels like “progress” in the moment or not.

Spring / Summer 2020

April started off marked by anxiety and exhaustion. The country, continent, globe were in a bad place. Every day, my heart broke for people suffering with the disease.

My mum always said that whatever you dream in the new home comes true. I dreamt I was in hospital with covid, so let’s just hope there are exceptions to that one.

Fluent Language Life

I had chosen to pause the Fluent Show for a few weeks while settling into the new space, but recorded a bunch of cool interviews behind the scenes. Speaking to incredible people like Sara Maria Hasbun helped me connect to my own motivation again. I also produced a little mini series called “Fluent in Isolation”, which you can get through the Fluent Show’s Patreon page

During April, I wasn’t ready to run or create new programmes yet, but I dedicated my time to sprucing up the Fluent Affiliate programme, which now boasts a few great features that I’m proud of. If you’re ever interested, here’s where to sign up.

In May, I created my first ever 1:1 coaching programme, the month-long 30 Days to Fluent. It felt incredible to give learners that structured support and I learnt a lot to take forward.

Besides that, a highlight and a challenge:

🥳 Highlight: The Teach & Thrive Summit! Teach & Thrive was a membership I ran together with Lindsay Williams, my only offering for online teachers in 2020. The Summit event was our way to boost online teachers for two days straight, and we had so much fun and met a few amazing people doing it.

Black Lives Matter

This was the challenge, but to call it a “challenge” feels like an understatement. Events happened in the USA and reverberated around the world in June 2020, and I think it made a lot of people reflect not just on their own practices as teachers and business owners, but also as people on the internet.

It is worth clarifying that I actively want to support anti-racism and will highlight and advocate for the equality of all. Language learning means committing to tolerance of other world views, and this open mind is a core value for me. This topic deserves well considered words so here are the best I managed to put together.

Personal Life

Well, it was lockdown. I learnt how to make sourdough bread, bought some roller-skates, went paddle boarding. I didn’t travel. I went to the pub, just once. I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary with my husband…in our living room. I felt restricted, but made the most of it. The time passed…like bubblegum.

Language Learning

After all the events I wanted to attend in Wales got cancelled, I picked up online lessons in Welsh again in the summer and threw in Chinese lessons on top.

I participated in the italki language challenge, which was an excellent way to get more fun into my language world without having to struggle to concentrate on a book.

Summer/Autumn 2020

In the hot hot heatwaves of August, I made the lovely decision to join the business programme Profitable Playground - this was the biggest business commitment I made to Fluent Language in 8 years and I’ve been delighted about the ways it’s improved my work. When I am better at all that, all my students get better results!

Fluent Language Life

The biggest event of the late summer was Women in Language, the annual online conference I co-organise with Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams. With 789 participants from 65 countries this year, we broke all the records. Women in Language is an incredible event and we love everyone who made it along this year. (We’ll be back in March 2021 by the way.)

I followed up Women in Language with a few days of rest and a dive into something I had worked towards for many months: Updating the Language Habit Toolkit!

The Language Habit Toolkit is one of my favourite ever courses and a cornerstone of how I teach and coach languages. In October, I invited everyone who owns the course to a live round, added a brand new training on productive language learning, and even added another professional worksheet. The course is the best it’s ever been!

The Language Habit Toolkit live round was an all-round delight, and I’m looking forward to running more of these in this new year.

One more highlight to note in this period is the 200th Fluent Show episode. We made it!!!

Personal Life

Like in the summer, I have little to report here. I was proud to give blood for the second time this year, but overall this time was dominated by the monotony of life at home. There were some home improvements, and more exercise. It’s all good, but I look forward to leaving my street a little more in the summer of 2021.

Language Learning

Over autumn, I kept up my weekly Chinese lessons as much as I could, but Welsh definitely took the pole position again when I joined a weekly evening class run by Welsh for Adults.

The course runs for 2 hours every Thursday night, it’s based on a traditional textbook, and in all honesty it’s been a delight to meet new people and chat away in this language once a week.

I’m now learning Welsh at level B2, and that is enough to call myself a Welsh speaker. What a joy! I don’t regret learning this language for a second.

Autumn/Winter 2020

THEY INVENTED A COVID VACCINE!! But this isn’t a review of medicines, so let’s get back to Fluent Language.

Fluent Language Life

In November, I found myself in a massively exciting situation as a speaker at the Language Show 2020. This was my first year as a speaker at this particular event and I was overwhelmed with the positivity, engagement and joy of 1000 live viewers who tuned in to see my talk about boosting your vocab memory. What a joy!

The good vibes continued in December as I gave the year just one more fun event, the Crack the Grammar Code live training. I had so much fun and was absolutely delighted to share my honest best practices about how to really learn grammar when you’re learning languages.

Personal Life

After spending most of my year in a very small world without personal transport, I finally ordered a new car which was delivered in November. It hasn’t completely changed my life, but there’s a definite change in the quality of every day as I can now allow my world to grow a little bit more.

Having personal transport has meant that I’m also back in the sea! I love the bracing adventure of swimming outside, and even in the British winter it never fails to put a smile on my face. Having done without access to the coast for most of 2020, I feel like this small change is making a big difference.

Even though the festive season was spent without any family and friends as the UK had to increase its covid restrictions in our second wave, things still felt like there was a dawn after the cold night. The US elections, the covid vaccine, the new year are giving me hope for 2021. We can do this!

In Conclusion

✨ I dedicated myself to language coaching and sharing psychology and mindset training for your language success. In 2020, I did more of this than ever with 2 new courses (see all of them here).

🎊 I had lots of fun in my business with workshops like the Language Dabbler’s Guide to Welsh, the Language Habit Toolkit live round, and our record-breaking Women in Language conference. And I learnt that when I have fun, my students benefit!

👩🏻‍🏫 I co-ran two membership groups...both of which closed to make more space for the new, exciting work that comes next.

2020 was a huge challenge, but we got through it and we all learnt a lot. The highlights were a little more hidden. No trips around the world speaking 5 new languages, but perhaps the kind of work that will serve me and you for years to come.

My Thank You

Throughout the year, I was supported by you as my readers, students, Patreon backers, podcast listeners, blog readers and language buddies.

The other day, I heard from someone who’s got a 1336 day Duolingo streak in French. That’s over 3 years of daily mini-lessons in another language, and a guaranteed confidence boost for her the next time she wants to say something in French.

Duolingo is award-winning, market-leading, venture-funded and impossible to ignore, so I got together with my podcast co-host Lindsay to collect a bunch of unmissable Duolingo tips for you.

Want to hear our discussion? Listen to our episode of the Fluent Show podcast to learn more:

Note: This is not a review of Duolingo Plus. Personally, I have not signed up to Duolingo Plus but my impression is that it can be a worthwhile investment if you want to skip the many ads and give yourself offline access.

Why Download Duolingo for Exploring Another Language?

Duolingo has also come a long way since it first started out. Here are just a few good reasons to download Duolingo and try it out:

The app is free and it works on every mobile device

The range of languages is great, with lots of small languages and even constructed languages such as Esperanto and Klingon. Switch your source language to access even more courses in unusual languages, such as Guarani and Catalan through Spanish.

When you practice your language with Duolingo, there’s no judgement and no risk of embarrassment in front of other people. Great for shy learners!

Duolingo offers lots of reasons to come back to the app - it rewards your usage with virtual coins and hot outfits for its mascot, Duo the owl

The cute design and bite-sized lesson style makes Duolingo feel very different to learning a language with a big textbook or 20-week evening class

Tips for Learning a Language with Duolingo

Some people love to commit to the Duolingo language learning streak. Some ignore the streaks completely. Don’t worry, both ways will work just perfectly for who you are.

Adding up a long, long streak alone is not what will teach you a language. But it will keep you connected and interested. You need to make sure that you are combining Duolingo with a productive language learning routine if you want to speak your language in real life. Break out from the apps now and then and get curious about what people who speak your target language like to eat, watch, listen to, and what the world is like for them.

If you do NOTHING else, make sure you download at least one more language learning app to your phone. You want to enjoy a bit of variety every day, and the range of great apps is huge these days. (Need inspiration? Check out our Top Tools Hall of Fame.)

Make More of Your Experience With Our Duolingo Tips

Get Unlimited Hearts:

Use the "Practice" button to get unlimited hearts and review what you've learnt before, without having to watch more ads or sign up for the paid version of the app. This is great if you don’t want to run out of practice time yet.

Take it Out of Duolingo

Got a notebook? Write down sentences from Duolingo lessons by hand or start your own digital practice folder. This will take all those sentences you are learning out of the app environment and help you use them in conversations with real people.

Don’t Miss the Tips

Finally the Duolingo tips are available on the app! These helpful explanations have long been a bonus for web version users, but you can now get Duolingo tips right in the app. If you make the same mistake again and again, the tips will help you understand why.

Use Duolingo as a Level Checker

If you are studying a language outside of this app, you can use it to check your learning progress. Simply jump to the next “Checkpoint” feature in the app and see if you can skip to the next level. If you fall short, you know you’re working on suitable lessons for your level.

Discover Duolingo Stories

Duolingo now offers mini stories in a very limited number of its courses. These little stories are essential practice to help you learn more for longer and break out of the rut of “Sally and Juan go to the market to buy apples” again and again.

Boost Your Gems with Extra Features

Motivated to get more gems? Want to keep that streak going and going? Use the Streak Freeze and Double or Nothing features to boost your gems and keep that momentum for longer.

If you find the streaks too stressful, don’t worry. Here are my tips for becoming a consistent learner without any language apps.

Check the Forums

Duolingo’s community features are limited, but the community of users is fantastic! They make vocab lists and explanations based on the courses and give advice to users from around the world. Start with this unofficial Wiki and FAQ page

Want to Take Your Language Learning to the Next Level?

Your first stop is the Fluent Show, my awesome language learning podcast where we talk about loving, living and learning languages. This show will give you lots of inspiration and ideas.

If you struggle with motivation and routine in your language, check out the Language Habit Toolkit. It’s a proven system to help you set and achieve every language goal you create for yourself. The Language Habit Toolkit works with any language and any course so it’s perfect if you want to boost your Duolingo results.

My Duolingo History

I cannot remember the first time I downloaded the Duolingo app, but I know it wasn’t love at first sight. I had studied French all the way to an undergraduate degree in the UK and thought it might be a fun way to get in touch with this language.

Working my way through my first ever Duolingo exercises in 2014 was bewildering. I had not used a language app before and I didn’t understand how these disjointed, mechanical sentences were supposed to keep me excited about a language.

Over time, I learnt more about language apps as a general concept. They play an important role in getting 10,000s of people started with a new language. When I started learning Welsh, it was a great resource for quick exercises in my new language.

Hello there! Why don’t you grab a cup of very gentle camomile tea and join me on my latest post in the Clear the List series. Clear the List is a monthly language learning round-up where I share my goals and progress.

If you’re inspired to try your own check-in, why not join our #clearthelist blog round-up hosted by Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams.

Previously On Clear The List..

I barely remember typing my last Clear The List entry. That was back in early April, so I missed a month on documenting. As you probably know, it’s almost impossible to grasp all the many things that have happened in the world since then.

During lockdown, I’ve celebrated Easter, my birthday and my 5th wedding anniversary. This also makes it nearly 5 years of learning Welsh and I’m very happy to call that TWO love affairs in my life.

The Fluent Show

The podcast has been back on its usual weekly schedule with renewed energy.

Here are 3 highlight episodes for you:

How to Learn a Language Every Day

An interview with the lovely Sara Maria Hasbun on languages, lockdown and long-term success - perfect episode for world travellers who love languages

A special statement about racism, only 6 minutes long and inspired by recent events

I’m very very proud and grateful to the Fluent Show patrons. There are 36 of them now, making a real contribution to the podcast. Patrons of the Fluent Show get extra show notes, news from behind the scenes, and discounts and bonus audio on a regular basis.

If you are interested in becoming a patron, go to www.patreon.com/fluentshow to get involved.

How I Learnt Languages in April and May

Having moved house during the truly frightening anxieties of Coronavirus overwhelming the UK, I didn’t find it easy to focus on languages for the first half of April. But slowly, the stars started to align again.

italki Language Challenge

90% of language learning will have to happen online for the foreseeable future. Fun events like cultural festivals are cancelled. It’s a GREAT time to make friends with online lessons.

During lockdown, lots of new teachers opened the doors to their very own one-person language schools. This included my friend Dafydd who shared that he’d just started teaching on italki. Dafydd has been a super patient practice partner for my Welsh on several occasions, so it felt like the perfect time for me to book some classes.

If you’ve never tried italki before, check out my review here for more information.

And while I was over on italki, I spotted that they were running a new language challenge and signed up on the spot! This challenge isn’t complicated: simply set a goal of at least 12 lesson hours during the challenge period and work towards it.

During the last italki challenge, I didn’t manage to hit 12 hours. Travel commitments got in the way, and I found it hard to fit it all into 4 weeks. This time, italki offered an extended challenge period of 6 weeks and obviously I wasn’t going anywhere.

Welsh Speaking Progress

Since April I’ve been taking regular one-hour practice lessons in Welsh, chatting about everything and nothing with Dafydd. Just like every other tutor I’ve worked with on italki, he’s fab and very patient. I’m comfortable with Welsh now and that hour a week is a great way to keep going and get better.

Chinese Speaking Progress

In Chinese, April was a great time for me to try again in terms of speaking. I booked new classes with my old “Google translate read out loud” partner Zuo, who’s always fun to talk to. And behold, this time I was able to say that much more!

I’m still far from “conversational” in Chinese, but it’s always nice to feel that my work has actually paid off.

The conversation based lessons are fairly loose and chaotic (and short!) and I wasn’t going to reach 12 hours that way alone, so in addition I signed up with a more established teacher in China. She took one look at me, said a few incomprehensible things, and then exclaimed “HSK 1!” and sent me a huge PDF containing the full HSK1 materials. These lessons are different, they mostly consist of us working through the textbook and there’s a LOT of non-entertaining content. But as I had misplaced my textbook anyway during the move, it felt kinda right to bring in this element of structure.

The “start right at page 1” approach might have been disheartening to some, but my ego was restored very quickly as I found I’m breezing through pages 1-50.

Language Goals for June

Nearly halfway through the year, I’m still refusing to give up on learning Chinese. No, we’re not on cloud 9 together yet. But I have hope, or at least I have my ambitions! It’s great to be learning my first Asian language, too.

Chinese Language Goals

My most important commitments are to improving my listening, reading and speaking skills. I’m a natural doodler, so I’ve found that writing down vocab and even practicing Chinese characters tends to happen as standard with me. That’s enough for now.

Listening

I’ve got into episodes of iPartment on Yabla and neglected them during the italki language challenge, but I’ll be happy to return to these. I do love Yabla because of the super easy rewind and loop functionality!

Yabla used to be my morning activity and I’ll aim to bring it back for 10 minutes (minimum) on weekday mornings.

Speaking

In terms of my pronunciation, I’m happy. People can understand me and make positive remarks. Now if only I could express myself better… the goal is simple here: Take 3 Sunday lessons with my HSK1 teacher and 2 conversation classes with community teachers, all through italki

Reading

My favourite study app for Chinese is Lingodeer and I’m about halfway through their HSK1 skill tree. They’ve also added more reading exercises, so my goal is to focus on Lingodeer practice and reach the next checkpoint in the app.

Having finished all mini stories, I’ve got a bit of a Lingq gap at the moment, so let’s save Lingq practice for July.

Welsh Language Goals

Usually around this time I’d start to get excited about planning my Eisteddfod trip to Wales, but due to Coronavirus this was not to be. I have lots of Welsh in my life through conversation lessons and exchanges, television and social media.

The only extra goal I’d like to add for the summer is to find a new book to read! After finishing Ffenestri last year, I had planned to buy a new one in Wales and again Coronavirus blocked me there. So it’s time for a trip to Hive.co.uk to find new entertaining Welsh writing.

What are Your Language Learning Goals?

Hello and welcome to another blog post in the Clear The List series, the monthly language learning round-up about language learning goals and progress.

What can I say. It’s been two months rather than one month since my last update. That’s less than 100 days, and still the world has turned upside down for many of us.

Earlier this week, my husband stated that one “corona day” is about 6 days in the real world. Do you feel like this too?

What Happened in February and March 2020?

Back in February, I enjoyed running a brand new live round of my course Your Solid Vocab Memory. The course also got a brand new sales page, check it out here.

I also got inspired and launched the Language Dabbler’s Guide to Welsh. This class was refreshing and fun for me and for my students. It’s a chance to enjoy a fun introduction to the Welsh language, entirely designed for language lovers.

After 5 energised, positive weeks, I was just as swept up as you in the anxiety and shock that hit the world when Coronavirus became a cruel reality in our lives.

I got sick with a cold, then the world got sick with a global virus, then I moved house on the last day of March. I had been looking forward to being a speaker at the first ever Polyglot Cruise in April 🛳, but as you can imagine this even has been postponed to 2021.

The Fluent Show

My favourite episode from February and March is this discussion of language teaching methods with Lindsay: \

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The show is now on a much-needed break until 6 May so I can produce new episodes and tinker with the format. But you don’t have to miss it for too long, as I’m publishing mini episodes called Fluent in Isolation over on Patreon during the current Coronavirus crisis. The episodes are about 5 minutes long and give you tips for learning languages during the crisis.

Learning Languages at Home

This year is becoming an indoors-themed year, with announcements of an event-free summer coming thick and fast.

My favourite Welsh language event, the National Eisteddfod, has fallen victim to this as well, and it’s been cancelled for this year. The same goes for Machynlleth Comedy Festival, where I volunteered at the Welsh stages last year.

One of the things that keeps me motivated and excited when learning Welsh is the prospect of travelling to Wales. I love practicing my language with people out there, and of course we’re under lockdown right now.

Luckily, I maintain a healthy language habit and I know what works for me. A more routine-focused person than me may find that these things ruined all progress and activity in language learning. As it is, I don’t follow my own routines anyway so I’m still here and still going.

My Positive Goals for Language Learning

The key for me at this point is to revisit the language learning goals I had set myself and to set out positive, exciting goals for myself. In tough times, excitement and joy are even more important than they have always been. Tough times also call for tough decisions, so let’s start with the first one.

Doubting My Dedication to Chinese Learning

Back at the start of February, I felt a little more confident with my Mandarin studies. Then, most of March disappeared. I continued studying Chinese using Lingq (so handy!) and my Teach Yourself course book. On a placement test, I am now classed as a ‘middle beginner’ and that seems right.

But even though I can communicate a little better in Chinese and I appreciate the language very much, I still feel self-conscious about the super slow pace of my progress.

When you’ve studied Celtic, Germanic and Romance languages in the past, it’s way slower to add an Asian one.

Not impossible, but slower and more challenging as a result.

Back in January, I said I’d give me & Mandarin another 3 months. It’s time to move on from Chinese as my focus language. That doesn’t mean I’m going to drop it completely and utterly. In fact, I’m still curious. I feel the benefits of the time I’ve invested and I wonder if I’m about to turn the corner. But am I? Not sure!

Decision Time

My dilemma is this:

I’ve made progress in Chinese, but it’s been a bit of a slog

I don’t want to start feeling frustrated here

There are other interesting languages I’d like to study for a while

I don’t believe that my Chinese is strong enough to stay active if I stop studying now.

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So here’s the big polyglot question:

Can I have it all?

Well, why not? No one is measuring my progress in Chinese. In fact, no one cares except me. I can continue to pootle along here at my own pace. The real answer is not for me to double down or go home, or any of that macho kind of BS. It’s to continue doing what I’m interested in!

(Funnily enough, I used to feel this same way about Welsh and that didn’t stop me from becoming better and better anyway.)

At times like these, only one thing works: Getting back into planning with the Language Habit Toolkit, working out my goals for the month and becoming very consistent about tracking until the habit is established.

For the month of April, my one Chinese goal is to track what and when I study by writing it into my bullet journal.

Ok, but what about the other languages?

YEP the other ones!!

I am so excited to see more Welsh online tutors becoming available, so I’ve booked a lesson with friend-turned-tutor Dafydd and I’ll keep my skills up with Welsh in the same way I always have.

I am feeling drawn to a few other languages, but I won’t go beyond any dabbles at this point. My energy is low as a result of moving house and fearing Coronavirus, so for now that part of my life is reserved for fun.

What do you think? Can we have it all?

If you’re a multi-language-learner like me, I’m sure you know the odd feeling of frustration and temptation. My tendency is always to stick with my efforts for a little longer, just to see what happens. What about you?

The show is now on a much-needed break until 6 May so I can produce new episodes and tinker with the format. But you don’t have to miss it for too long, as I’m publishing mini episodes called Fluent in Isolation over on Patreon during the current Coronavirus crisis. The episodes are about 5 minutes long and give you tips for learning languages during the crisis.

Learning Languages at Home

This year is becoming an indoors-themed year, with announcements of an event-free summer coming thick and fast.

My favourite Welsh language event, the National Eisteddfod, has fallen victim to this as well, and it’s been cancelled for this year. The same goes for Machynlleth Comedy Festival, where I volunteered at the Welsh stages last year.

One of the things that keeps me motivated and excited when learning Welsh is the prospect of travelling to Wales. I love practicing my language with people out there, and of course we’re under lockdown right now.

Luckily, I maintain a healthy language habit and I know what works for me. A more routine-focused person than me may find that these things ruined all progress and activity in language learning. As it is, I don’t follow my own routines anyway so I’m still here and still going.

My Positive Goals for Language Learning

The key for me at this point is to revisit the language learning goals I had set myself and to set out positive, exciting goals for myself. In tough times, excitement and joy are even more important than they have always been. Tough times also call for tough decisions, so let’s start with the first one.

Doubting My Dedication to Chinese Learning

Back at the start of February, I felt a little more confident with my Mandarin studies. Then, most of March disappeared. I continued studying Chinese using Lingq (so handy!) and my Teach Yourself course book. On a placement test, I am now classed as a ‘middle beginner’ and that seems right.

But even though I can communicate a little better in Chinese and I appreciate the language very much, I still feel self-conscious about the super slow pace of my progress.

When you’ve studied Celtic, Germanic and Romance languages in the past, it’s way slower to add an Asian one.

Not impossible, but slower and more challenging as a result.

Back in January, I said I’d give me & Mandarin another 3 months. It’s time to move on from Chinese as my focus language. That doesn’t mean I’m going to drop it completely and utterly. In fact, I’m still curious. I feel the benefits of the time I’ve invested and I wonder if I’m about to turn the corner. But am I? Not sure!

Decision Time

My dilemma is this:

I’ve made progress in Chinese, but it’s been a bit of a slog

I don’t want to start feeling frustrated here

There are other interesting languages I’d like to study for a while

I don’t believe that my Chinese is strong enough to stay active if I stop studying now.

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So here’s the big polyglot question:

Can I have it all?

Well, why not? No one is measuring my progress in Chinese. In fact, no one cares except me. I can continue to pootle along here at my own pace. The real answer is not for me to double down or go home, or any of that macho kind of BS. It’s to continue doing what I’m interested in!

(Funnily enough, I used to feel this same way about Welsh and that didn’t stop me from becoming better and better anyway.)

At times like these, only one thing works: Getting back into planning with the Language Habit Toolkit, working out my goals for the month and becoming very consistent about tracking until the habit is established.

For the month of April, my one Chinese goal is to track what and when I study by writing it into my bullet journal.

Ok, but what about the other languages?

YEP the other ones!!

I am so excited to see more Welsh online tutors becoming available, so I’ve booked a lesson with friend-turned-tutor Dafydd and I’ll keep my skills up with Welsh in the same way I always have.

I am feeling drawn to a few other languages, but I won’t go beyond any dabbles at this point. My energy is low as a result of moving house and fearing Coronavirus, so for now that part of my life is reserved for fun.

What do you think? Can we have it all?

Do any of these describe your relationship with vocabulary?

I keep forgetting new words.

I don’t like using lists, flashcards, etc.

I feel like I’m not making progress because I don’t know enough words.

When it comes to language learning, vocabulary is a different kind of monster. Instead of jumping out to scare you (like grammar), it hides until you figure out the right trick to help you learn. The most frustrating part is that what works for someone else might not work as well for you.

But if that’s the case, what can you do to find a method that truly helps you learn new vocabulary?

Why are you learning?

All language learners have a reason for why they’re learning a language in the first place. But what’s your motivation for learning a particular set of vocabulary words?

Maybe you’re still working on the basics or using a list of words to learn from a textbook or an app. Either way, it’s not the most exciting material. In some cases, it might not even seem useful.

One of the benefits of learning solo is that you can choose exactly what you want to learn next. You can focus on vocab for more interesting topics or ignore words you’ll probably never use. Even if you’re having trouble learning essentials like numbers or directions, you can put them in a context that’s important to you.

Give Your Vocab Meaning Any Way You Can

You might not care about a list of numbers in a textbook. But you do want to know how to say dates and times, and knowing numbers can also save you money!

Back when I was a regular business traveller, I spent a good amount of time in Kazakhstan and Russia. These are not places where a regular taxi will give you the best deal. Most people just stand at the side of the road, flag down a car, and haggle for the cost of a ride.

I’m a people person and ever curious about everyone’s cars, so for me this sounded like heaven! The only problem was that I spoke no Russian at all.

After several half-bungled negotiations ("Holiday Inn...Ulitsa Shevchenko! Hundred Tenge??") and some support from local colleagues, I picked up the expression “tri sti” for 300.

From then on, every single ride in Kazakhstan AND Russia had to cost me 300 of whatever their local currency was. I simply couldn’t agree on a different amount! 😄In Kazakhstan this may have been driving a bargain...in Russia I was more like their best paying customer, every single time.

After a few months of this, I did start picking up Russian and the motivation to learn numbers was top of my list.

What’s your motivation to learn these words?

How can you see yourself using them? Most textbooks will at least give some sample dialogues, but it’s just WAY cooler to say your own birthday in your new language.

In addition to making note of your motivation, it helps to understand learning vocabulary as a process or a system that includes three stages:

Growing vocabulary (figuring out what words you need or want to learn, selecting your sources, and taking good notes)

Memorizing vocabulary (strategies to make your words stickier so you don’t forget them easily)

Revising or reviewing vocabulary (using new words or testing yourself regularly so that they become anchored in your long-term memory)

Not sure what you should learn?

Before you even start trying to memorize new words, you have to figure out which ones you should try to learn. Once you’ve covered basics like greetings, colors, directions, etc., it’s easy to feel a little unsure about where to go next.

There are a few different options you can choose to start feeling more in-control of your vocabulary learning:

Download My Topic List for Beginners

Using a list that is already created can save you quite a bit of time when you're busy. It's perfect for you right at the start of learning a new language.

My vocabulary checklist for beginners is different from most lists because it gives you topics and skills. This is more useful than just a list of words, and it will help you create a solid foundation without getting bored.

Create your own list of words

What do you want to talk about in your target language?

Consider your interests and hobbies as well as things you’d usually talk to your friends or coworkers about. Consider both individual words and expressions.

One great way to go about this is to choose a topic and do a mind map or create a quick list of every word or expression you can think of that relates to your topic. Then, edit your list and translate the words into your target language.

If you want to add on more vocab to your list, try searching social media with your translated words as well.

Learn more vocabulary from what you enjoy

You can also choose to create a list based on the things you watch, read, and listen to in your target language.

Here are a two great apps that help you understand and find resources in your target language:

Lingq for books, articles, videos, and podcasts with transcripts

Yabla for native videos designed to work for language learners

Pay attention when you listen or read something in your target language. Is there a word that keeps coming up when you listen to songs or watch your favourite tv series? Put it on your list. Do you have a book you’d like to read in your target language? Go through and write down all the words you don’t know to start learning them.

Most importantly, remember that you should always have a solid system for compiling new words and expressions.

Switch up your language learning methods

Even if you’ve got a great list of words to learn, it doesn’t help if you can’t remember them. This is especially true for abstract vocabulary. You can’t see the word for "brave", so how are you supposed to remember it in another language?

Luckily, there are 4 different methods that can help you learn both the simple words and the more difficult ones.

The Post-it Method

For words like "coffee" and “door”, it’s easy to write the word in your target language onto a post-it note and stick it on the actual object.

But what do you do for those abstract words?

You can still write them on post-its, but you’ll have to get a little creative on where you place them. Think of quirky places that have some sort of connection to the idea. For instance, you might decide to put a post-it with the translation for "awake" on your coffee cup.

As a bonus, the added creativity involved in connecting the abstract concept to the object will help you remember even more as you have to spend time contemplating the word.

The Language Play Method

In addition to associating abstract words with an object, you can also use the linguistic characteristics of the word you’re trying to remember. Link the word you’re trying to learn with similar sounds or spellings or take the time to look into where it came from.

Quick tip: Google the word you’re learning and "etymology" together, and you’ll find out more about its history.

You can use rhyme or look at the cognates of a word, or the parts of a word that borrow or share origins with another language you already know.

Chunks of Language

In this method, also called "chunking", the idea is to study chunks of language rather than individual words. That might mean choosing to learn short sentences or phrases, such as “I’m so hungry” or “Where is the bathroom?”

This can be even more helpful if you’re trying to learn abstract words because you can connect those words to a sentence you might actually use or remember.

Examples of the concept in music and art

Have you ever learned a new word only to suddenly see or hear it everywhere you go? If so, it probably made you more likely to remember the word later on.

Seeking out examples in music, movies, or even advertisements can help reinforce words that might otherwise slip your mind.

Final Tips to Keep in Mind

Don’t beat yourself up for forgetting something.

The leading scientific theory is that humans tend to halve their memory of newly learned knowledge in a matter of days or weeks unless they consciously review the learned material. This is known as the forgetting curve.

In other words, you simply can’t expect to remember everything all the time. Even native speakers forget words in their native language from time to time.

Remember to continue reviewing and revising your vocab list.

You might find that some words still give you trouble, so you need to make use of a few different methods if you want to learn them. If there are words that you find difficult to remember, it is okay to also decide that some of the words on your list might not be as important as you thought.

True fact: If a word is important enough, it will make sure that you remember it!

Make sure to apply what you’re learning.

You should always make a conscious effort to use a few new words outside of dedicated study sessions. This might mean actively using new words in conversation, using your vocabulary list to search social media or find new hashtags to follow, or looking for news articles about related topics.

Welcome to #clearthelist, my monthly update on my language learning goals and progress. This month it’s going to be a pretty speedy update because January was pretty full of good stuff!

Fluent Language Updates

The biggest project I worked on in January was Your Solid Vocab Memory, my new online course about learning and remembering vocabulary. We’re running a live round right now with group calls and a pop-up forum - great way to light a 🔥under everyone's 🍑.

On the Fluent Show, there were so many awesome episodes. My favourite is “How to Find Fantastic Language Tutors in Your Network Right Now” - catch up here if you haven’t heard it yet!

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In my personal life, I was lucky to have the opportunity to swim in the sea several times! 🌊 Winter swimming without a wetsuit is fairly new to me and I still struggle to make myself dive in, but every year it’s a little bit easier. Have you ever tried it?

My Language Goals and Progress

After it felt like January was about 60 days long, this month is promising to be almost the opposite: short and bursting with activity! I’m typing this on my way to London for an exciting new project. It’s also a big birthday for my mum this month, meaning I’ll be spending a week travelling to Germany.

I struggled with high stress levels towards the end of last year, so in terms of language goals I’m going to keep it loose in February and just study when I feel like it. Luckily, something has started to feel like….fun!

Chinese: Loose Ends Come Together

If you look back at my goal from last month, you’ll see that I had some difficulty staying committed to Mandarin Chinese. It’s no surprise that this language isn’t full of instant success moments, and I had to revisit my reason for studying it.

My decision at the time was to stay persistent with this language for another 3 months, and it’s been pretty good since!

I added the Teach Yourself Chinese course to my list of resources, and its structured guidance is the glue that’s bringing all my learning together. After about a month, I’m in chapter 6 and making good progress. I’m also beginning to feel all the benefits of 10 months of study, as I finally put together all that loose knowledge.

It can’t be said enough….learning another language means consistent progress over time, rather than a blast of knowledge forced into the brain all at once.

What I’m Using for Chinese Right Now

I’m enjoying Memrise Lingodeer and the Teach Yourself Beginner’s Chinese book I mentioned. I’m also using LingQ and it’s excellent, but I prefer printed materials most of the time. Just this week, I tested out of 13 Duolingo skills. I’m not learning with the Duolingo course at all, but using it to check in on my progress through an external marker.

What’s Next in Chinese?

I know I’m supposed to get more speaking practice already and I really want to do it, so that’s one for March probably. I’m enjoying the language content of the Teach Yourself book so I’ll try and push past chapter 8!

Welsh Practice

Although I still LOVE and practice Welsh all the time, I will no longer focus as hard on it during #clearthelist. My level is roughly B1-B2, so I’m absolutely functional and it’s a joy to speak Welsh.

In January, I watched and LOVED the S4C drama “Craith”, which you can also get in English. It’s probably WAY better in Welsh though, and good enough for me and my husband to binge several episodes. The show is set in Blaenau Ffestiniog and it’s so pretty!

What About You?

How was your January 2020? Leave a comment below!

Welcome to #clearthelist, my monthly update on my language learning goals and progress.

This month’s update is a little different from the usual fare because it’s the start of a new year! I will be going deeper into my progress with the Chinese language, and have chosen to record my update as a podcast this time.

You can listen to the show right here:

Fluent Language Updates

At the end of November, my life here at Fluent Language entered an intensive phase with the launch of the new Language League membership programme. Many people joined us during the Black Friday promotion, and in December I sat down to record my first video training for these language learning heroes.

If you have not heard about Language League yet, you can find out more about this brand new group at www.fluentlanguage.co.uk/languageleague.

German Retreat

I followed Black Friday with another highlight: the 2020 German Retreat in Berlin! What a week. In Berlin, I met 3 hyper-motivated language learners, the most dedicated group I’ve ever seen. The participants committed to speaking German almost 24/7 as we explored the amazing stories Berlin has to offer.

I was supported at this retreat by a wonderful vegan chef who looked after us for the week, and emerged both happy and exhausted from a week of stellar teaching and learning.

My Language Goals and Progress

With such a busy season in my working life, I was not able to give myself a lot of spare learning time. So the Christmas break came in, a perfect opportunity to regroup and consider where I’m at in December 2019.

In Chinese I feel like I’ve covered most of the basics but I’m untethered. I need to get better at following a clear guiding resource. And I’m wondering if it’s worth continuing with the slow slow progress I’ve been feeling.

In Welsh I’m loving the language just as much as always. I understand and speak well now, almost fluently, and I don’t want to neglect this language too much.

My other language with regular contact is French where I can still drop into a B-level conversation and most of a podcast at any given time. I don’t actively study French, but I make sure to check in and maintain that level.

Should I Keep Learning Chinese?

There are lots of other languages I’d like to dabble in, study, enjoy. 2019 was a busy year for me, especially in the second half, and I want to stay realistic about my goals and keep languages as a source of joy in my life. This means that every now and then I consider what I’m doing.

My Chinese studies are enjoyable enough, but they haven’t given me that buzzy reward of progress at the same rate as other languages do.

There might be lots of reasons for this, here are my suspicions:

The completely different and very intricate writing system takes up a lot of learning capacity, and it feels like it doubles the study effort

Words and expressions are made up of short syllables, and in the past I’ve found that I’m better at remembering long words…I love a compound noun

I’ve not had enough listening practice, so spoken Chinese is still a book with 7 seals

In order to work out what’s next, I asked myself a few questions:

What did I come to Chinese for?

For me, it was curiosity and the wish to show myself that I can absolutely pick up an Asian language and understand it.

What have I got from Chinese so far?

I am much more aware of how the language works as a system. This is what I look for at the beginning of learning any language as it makes me feel capable of learning more. The foundation is there, and I am not a complete beginner.

What do I enjoy when learning Chinese?

Mostly, I feel like I have got good tones and pronunciation. My Skype lessons supported by a computer translation are chaotic, but they’re also fun and make me feel capable of expressing myself. I’ve even started putting together my own little sentences.

I’m enjoying Lingodeer and Assimil’s “Chinese False Beginners” workbook.

What don’t I enjoy when learning Chinese?

Obviously, no one enjoys forgetting words and making slow progress. This is the challenge. I know from my experience with other languages that this doesn’t mean I need to stop right now…in fact often this moment is where something does fall into place.

I can see how persisting a little longer would get me over that hump and provide me with the kind of skill and knowledge that means I don’t forget it all as soon as I take a break. So for now, Chinese will play a part in my 2020 plan.

My 2020 Language Plan

Planning out languages for an entire year right now feels like it would go nowhere, so let’s focus on January-March instead.

Mandarin Chinese in 2020

I’m gonna persist! At least until March, Chinese will be my focus language. As I get the feeling it would all progress much faster without the added layer of the writing system, I will skip those and focus on interaction and structure.

I recently found a used Teach Yourself Beginner’s Chinese course and will work with that to tick off those foundations. My goal is to feel more at ease in interactions and try out some role-play scenarios in my lessons.

Welsh in 2020

This language still makes me so happy, and I can’t wait to work with it at an even deeper level. I’ve finally managed to get Level 3 of Say Something in Welsh working for me. My other plans are

to go to Wales, of course!

to learn more about the song Myfanwy and use it as a cultural study opportunity

to take more Welsh classes and keep chatting to the friends I’ve made who are Welsh speakers

There is no hard-and-fast goal here except to continue and learn ever more about the language. In particular, speaking more will be great.

I’ve been reducing my use of Instagram overall so I’ve not been using my Welsh dedicated account as much…watch this space.

Onwards

My curiosity and heart are drawn to so many other languages and I don’t think I want to spend a whole year resisting all of them and getting my Chinese to a higher level. So once I hit March, it’s time to slow down on Chinese and decide which level I’d like to maintain. Or if I happen to love it by that point, I might just take a few months off Welsh? Who knows!

Here are the other languages I’m hoping to improve this year:

BSL: I loved the trial sessions I took online in October, and BSL is taught locally at most adult colleges so I could join an IRL class.

Italian: I studied Italian when I was a teenager and adored it but then swapped it for Latin and Spanish as my full-time education changed. I have been hoping to return to Italian for years and think I could hit a B level with some focus and effort this year.

Polish and Swahili: Now we’re in the more experimental choices where it may be fun to have a dabble for a while, but I know very little about these languages at this point.

What About You?

What are your plans for language learning in 2020? Leave a comment below and let me know if you enjoyed the podcast format for my personal check-in!

What would you do if you could easily understand spoken English?

Would you finally watch your favourite films or TV series without worrying so much about subtitles? Maybe you’d be able to travel without feeling anxious or even study abroad in an English-speaking country. Imagine just being able to order a beer at the pub with some new friends, buy a big slice of New York pizza, or attend a BBQ on a beach in Australia.

There are lots of ways understanding English could help you achieve your dreams and finally allow you to feel comfortable during real conversations with native speakers. The only question is: how do you find the time to practice your English listening skills?

Podcasts are a great way to add a little English listening practice into your day-to-day life. They are free, and can accompany any part of your day: driving a car, washing your dishes, doing laundry, working out, reading, and more.

The Fluent Show

In addition to the English podcasts you’ll find in this article, check out the Fluent Show. That’s my own show, co-hosted by Lindsay Williams, where we discuss languages, learning methods, and how to live a multilingual life. Click here to listen and subscribe.

Quick Primer: How Do Podcasts Work?

If you're curious about podcasts, but not quite sure how they work, here's what you need to know:

You can subscribe for free to podcasts on your phone, tablet, or computer.

If you use an Apple computer, iPhone or iPad, go to the Podcasts app. If you're on a Mac that does not have the Podcasts app, use the iTunes directory.

On a PC or Android device, try the Stitcher app for a quick and easy start.

Subscribing means you'll always have the latest episode ready and waiting for you as soon as it's published.

The 9 Best English Podcasts for English Learners

In this article, you’ll find:

British English Podcasts

American English Podcasts

Podcasts with both British and American English

English Video Resources

Story-Based Shows and Business English Podcasts

A Special Tip for Advanced Learners

British English Podcasts

Culips ESL Podcast

The Culips ESL Podcast is great for upper beginners who want to improve their English listening skills. The Simplified Speech series offers discussions on a number of cultural topics recorded at a slower speed for learners. Similarly, the Speak Easy series explores pronunciation tips for common issues, such as word endings.

All podcasts also offer downloadable study guides for each episode to help you out.

Luke’s English Podcast

Luke’s English Podcast covers topics you likely won’t find in an English textbook. With over 500 episodes on British culture, comedy, expressions, and more, there’s plenty for upper intermediate and advanced learners to choose from.

Luke speaks clearly and provides notes for each episode, including vocabulary. There are also a number of episodes that have complete transcripts.

American English Podcasts

Conversations with Kate

If you’re after real conversations about interesting topics rather than language lessons, Conversations with Kate is a great resource. Host Kate invites both native and non-native English speakers from around the world as guests to help learners become familiar with different accents as well as learn about people, language, and travel.

You can also access full transcripts, lesson guides, vocabulary, and expressions by signing up on the website, giving you even more opportunities to study and understand each episode.

All Ears English Podcast

Looking to improve both your business English and your everyday English? All Ears English Podcast covers business topics as well as English grammar, expressions, American culture, and even IELTS (International English Language Testing System) specific topics.

The website also has short summaries for each episode. Subscribers can also get access to full transcripts.

British and American English Podcasts

EnglishClass101

EnglishClass101 from InnovativeLanguage covers everything from basic through advanced English. The episodes are exciting and immersive. You’ll easily find a large variety of topics, including both American and British culture, idioms, and even business-related episodes.

The dialogues are presented by engaging hosts in a clear, concise way covering many grammatical features and cultural topics. On the website you can sign up for premium content to access spaced repetition flashcards, PDF lesson notes, and a community forum.

English Across The Pond

Co-hosts Dan and Jennifer offer an entertaining way for you to get more comfortable with both British and American English. In addition to discussing vocabulary, grammar, expressions, and cultural topics, each episode is also followed by a short, in-depth focus on vocabulary or grammar points related to the episode.

You can also choose to sign up for membership access to get full transcripts, study plans, and additional learning resources every week.

English Video Resources

Yabla

Yabla is a video-based learning platform with bilingual subtitles and integrated dictionaries. The subtitles are interactive, which is a really cool concept! Check out how Yabla works in detail by reading my full review.

Yabla is great for all levels from basic to advanced. There is a free English podcast available with plenty of videos to watch.

Story-Based and Business English Podcasts

BBC Learn English

This podcast series from the British Council follows conversations that take place between hosts Tess, Ravi, and their guests as well as the activities of a fictional student, Carolina. These episodes on on the longer side, ranging from 20 to 35 minutes, but they’re split up into sections so you can pause if you need to.

Complete transcripts are available for each episode. Plus, the website offers short quizzes to test your comprehension and practice exercises.

Business English Pod

For those who are motivated to improve their English for business reasons, Business English Pod covers everything from sales and communication to presentations and job interviews.

Episodes are easy to understand and contain an explanation of the topic along with some cultural tips. These explanations are followed by conversational dialogues as well as explanation and practice sections. Members can also access PDF transcripts, online quizzes, and additional lessons.

Advanced Learner Tip: Native English Podcasts

English learners who are looking for something a bit more interesting and immersive might prefer to check out podcasts intended for native speakers. If that’s the case, try searching through popular English podcasts for something that sparks your interest, like true crime podcasts, TED Talks, or podcasts that keep you up-to-date on pop culture.

With just a few days to go until the Christmas holiday, chances are you might be feeling busy right now. When you’ve got gifts to wrap and trees to light, how can you keep learning languages?

Don’t worry, it’s not impossible. In this podcast and article, I’ve got handy tips for you to keep you in touch with any language - no matter if it’s Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or Pagan Yule season.

You can also find this podcast by searching “Fluent Show” on 🍎 apple podcasts 📣Spotify 🔶Overcast 📻TuneIn Radio 🏆and anywhere you get podcasts

1) Surround Yourself With Your Target Language

At this time of the year, you’ll probably spend a lot of time in the home. You may already be decorating your house, which is a great opportunity for subtle language immersion.

The psychological concept behind this tip is that of priming, which describes the way your brain reacts to even the tiniest cues and adjusts its assumptions and expectations accordingly. You can use it to your advantage by decorating with a little language flair.

How about

a few decorations adorned with words in your target language

multilingual cards and greetings this year (try Irregular Endings)

making and serving different foods and drink, inspired by your target culture

Even if your items don’t have any words in your target language on them, they will remind you that you’re a learner of another language and bring your loved ones in on your project.

2) Seek Out Tutorials in Your Target Language

This time of year is perfect for homemade gifts, decorations, and food. If you have an IRL friend who practices your target language with you, get out of the “1-to-1 conversation” routine and make something together!

For added bonuses, use a tutorial in your target language. This is excellent practice for reading comprehension and boosts your motivation by giving you something instant to show.

For example I’ve made biscotti before from a recipe in my Welsh learners’ magazine and then I packaged them up and gave them to friends and family as Christmas presents.

Look out for

Crafting tutorials and magazine articles in your target language

Recipes for seasonal food

Crafting materials and instructions

3) Host a Language Party

The holiday season is a time to get together, not to sit alone and stare at Duolingo or Memrise. Here are a few ideas for bringing a bit of language flair to your holiday party:

Play Games Together

There are so many great word games that broaden your horizons about English, and it’s not too difficult to adapt them to a multilingual group. For example, guess the answers to a round of Pictionary or charades in another language, or get your friends to act out your vocabulary lists for you!

For more ideas, read these ideas for language learning games in a group.

Discover Music in Your Language

Play music in your target language and explore and share how they celebrate the season. If possible, get out and visit a celebration in the community of your language. There’s lots going on and during the holiday season most people love to open their doors.

If you haven’t found any music in your target language yet, go straight to my Spotify for Language guide or this multilingual Christmas song made by Lindsay Williams.

Watch a Christmas Movie

Many people have a favourite film about Christmas, and if you don’t have one yet then Netflix is ready to help out with every new instalments of the Christmas Prince series.

Here are a few ideas:

Un conte de Noël in French

3 Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel,a German/Czech 70s classic

And of course, you can always put target language subtitles on Die Hard!

If you have not found a festive movie in your target language yet, now is the time to ask and enjoy some well-deserved downtime.

What If Your Target Language Has No Christmas Season?

No worries!

Use decorations that suit the season, and learn about celebrations at this time of year

Sneak a little snack or food from your target language environment into the boring old Christmas with Aunt Bridget

Use festive colours and glitter pens to write your vocabulary lists and language notes

Take pictures of your decorations and add them to your digital flashcard apps (for example, Smartcards + lets you easily add photos)

Find Time and Focus For Studying Your Language

The winter holiday season often means a drop in productivity. You are likely interrupted in your routine, and you may find yourself with lots of extra tasks on your plate.

If you find yourself wanting stay productive without the added stress, take my short language course Focus & Fluency.

It’s a proven way to get more motivated and kickstart your learning with smarter study techniques.

As I am going to be leading the Fluent German Retreat during my usual check-in time for #clearthelist, I have decided to post a blog article telling a bit of my story instead. This is in celebration of the launch of a new programme for language learners. I have dreamt about this programme, I’ve made plans, I’ve annoyed my friends by talking about it. Finally it’s here…

It’s about combining language learning insights with a smart, welcoming community of learners.

I’ll be explaining more below, but first allow me to tell you a story about why this means so much to me.

Think back to the late 90s...Destiny's Child were the best thing in music and mobile phones didn't have on-screen keyboards yet.

Back to my indie kid days...

via GIPHY

As a teenager, I was a little off-beat. I dyed my hair bright red and sat in my room for hours listening to indie bands. I lived in a village counting 1000 inhabitants, so I have to admit it was a fairly lonely time. I was desperate to talk about those bands, and knew precisely one other kid on my school who cared. So I did what anyone would have done in 1999: I fired up my parent’s computer, blocked the entire household’s phone calls by going on the internet, and typed band names into AskJeeves. There was a tiny handful of fan pages, which I devoured. (If you want to know why my English is so good, I think late 90s internet has a role to play.) One day I found a website that looked different. It was an online forum, a community for fans of my favourite band Belle & Sebastian. Exciting! I joined the forum that day and started to post to discuss song lyrics and tour dates. Soon, the community started to become part of my life. I discovered the magic of connecting over a shared obsession. This was much more than just a music fan discussion board. It was a place to share the heartbreak of a one-sided crush, just as much as the incredible joy when we discovered we LOVED the new album. This incredible online community became a firm part of my life. When I set off on a bus trip around the UK to see Belle & Sebastian in 2003, I had friends in four different cities. I even remember the thread I posted telling everyone I was moving to England. I used to dream of moving to the UK, and these wonderful people in my corner made it happen. The trust and friendships I created with these Internet forum people has endured. One of them was my wedding photographer, another was the DJ, and a third met me with a hug when I volunteered at a Welsh festival this year. These people get me, and just like you language learners they are my tribe. Can you imagine what it would be like to have such a tribe right here in the language learning world?

I’m not talking about a challenge or a language exchange community where the focus is on how much vocab you can cram into the shortest possible time, or whether you get to wear the hyper polyglot crown (I do not care about that). Finding a true community of people who get you is the most priceless experience you can have on the internet. It’s not just social media or a single course.

Join a group of like-minded people, and the results you dream of will become a reality.

I care so much about the online language community, and I think about my Fluent Fam every time I write an article and record a podcast.

I have been dreaming about creating a positive, friendly space for language learners to hang out. A community where you come for the languages and stay for the people.

And what better way to start this community than by doing it with my best language friends...

Today, I am so excited to tell you that I am getting together with Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy to bring you..

Lindsay and Shannon are two of my best friends in this language learning world and I could not think of better partners for this new project. Between us we have decades of experience learning over 17 languages in a whole manner of ways. You name it, one of us has probably tried it! Learning multiple languages, studying individual languages to high levels, getting qualifications in languages- we've been busy.

When you join Language League, you are welcomed by new friends. This is your space for asking the awkward questions and sharing what’s going on, no matter if you’re having a bad day or a good day. It’s what friends are for!

But we won’t just talk about our feelings.

We are solid language teachers and we know exactly what it’s like to learn a language by yourself. So Language League gives you the training that actually moves the needle when it comes to language learning: smart insights that you can’t just get through googling. These are well-researched and thorough lessons that give you an edge.

Language League is opening its doors for you today and you are invited to join.

Have you ever googled "the best tools for learning a language?"

Oh, you were doing that just now?

Lucky you found us, because in this blog article I've got the best tools of the season all lined up for you.

What Makes The Top Tools?

Top tools are curated by me (Kerstin Cable) together with my co-host Lindsay Williams, and we have been doing this honorable job for a few years now! Every 6 months, we list the most interesting and useful language learning resources we've seen online and offline.

There's also a podcast episode of the Fluent Show where you can hear a discussion of each of these resources and what makes them great.

The Recommendations for Language Learning in Autumn/Winter 2019

Try them out yourself and make sure you listen to the podcast episode to find out which ones we chose as our top 3.

FlipWord

FlipWord inserts target language vocabulary and quizzes into every page you're reading online, so that you can learn and review vocabulary in your target language while reading the content you would read anyway. As they say, it's passive language learning.

Flipword is a Chrome Extension, soon to be available on mobile devices too. Currently, it works on every page that you read online in English, Chinese, or Korean.

The Indo-European Cognate Dictionary

Do you love languages? THOUGHT SO! Your face may light up just like mine did when you hear about the Indo-European Cognate Dictionary! In this new reference book for language learners, you can look up how one (proto-or-not-) indo-European root has evolved to show up in up to 32 different languages.

No matter if you're learning German or Swedish or Portuguese, this book is guaranteed to help you remember and understand vocab more easily. You'll thank us for this one, polyglot friend.

Mini Vocabulary Notebooks

Lindsay bought her notebook in Korea and here are a few similar ones from YesStyle UK and Amazon.com. Handwrite your vocabulary lists, then memorize them and review your vocabulary by covering up one language with the little flap.

By the way, here's a little more information about the miraculous benefits of keeping a language learning notebook.

Quizklip

Do you read articles in your target language in Chrome browser and want a nice and easy way to look up vocab? Then Quizkip has your back. This handy little extension helps you find a translation for words you don't know, and it builds a list that you can export straight to Quizlet or Anki.

Master Any Language

This website offers a large supply of free language courses, language games and vocabulary list in a wondrous range of languages. If you are curious and want to dabble in a lesser-known language like Breton, Komi, or Uyghur, you'll find lots of materials here.

LingoLog

LingoLog is an online notepad with a calendar, giving you a library of interesting prompts for language learners. Every time you write na entry in your target language, the calendar records it so you can build a habit streak.

This is perfect if you want to write in your target language and you like a very simple interface. You can also share what you've written with friends and teachers to get feedback and corrections.

Honorary Mentions

Lupa, an app for learning Spanish with Radio Ambulante

The Language Learning with Netflix extension for Chrome browser

What Do You Think?

Listen to the podcast episode to hear how we ranked each one of the resources in this blog post and which one is the best.