Language Chats

Excuse us while we have a little fangirl moment on the podcast because, in this episode, we chat with someone who has been a massive inspiration to us both - Kerstin Cable from fluentlanguage.co.uk and The Fluent Show ! Kerstin tells us about where Fluent Language started, how her podcast grew out of a series of interviews on her blog, a bit about her personal experience of learning languages and...

In this episode, we chat with Maddy Norris - a fellow language lover here in Australia and long-time Language Chats listener! Maddy is a NAATI -certified Mandarin Chinese to English translator and has also spent time learning a number of other languages including Japanese, Korean and French. She tells us a bit about her experience of studying languages in Australia at school and university, workin...

If we had our time again, would we choose the languages we studied? Languages are often chosen for us, rather than us choosing them when we’re kids. If Bec had her time again, would she choose French? Is it really a choice? Penny chose to learn Japanese after school in year 7, but what drew her in? In this episode of Language Chats, we talk about language learning as children in school. How diffic...

In this episode, we’re chatting with a fellow Melbournian and Australian language lover - Michele Frolla from The Intrepid Guide . Now based in the UK, Michele tells us about how she became interested in languages, how her blog and website The Intrepid Guide came about and, most recently, how she has started sharing her own love of ltalian through her new online course! Do you love to learn even j...

Technology, access to resources, and motivations to learn a new language have completely changed in the three decades since Australia’s National Policy of Languages was written. In this episode, we chat about what these changes mean for adult independent learners today, plus the power of online communities for support, motivation and inspiration. We also lament the lack of public profile people ce...

In this episode, we share with you some of our general observations about what we like to call ‘the language learning landscape’ in Australia. For as long as we’ve known each other, we’ve been talking about elements of this in bits and pieces - our experiences of learning languages at school and uni, which languages were perceived as being ‘useful’ or ‘good for your career’ while others were seen...

In this episode, we’re chatting with another language lover living in Australia - Brisbane-based Evan Walters studied French at school and has been learning Russian for the last five years. We chat about his language learning story, his different motivations for learning French and Russian, the role of long-term goals and routine, and the place of travel in his language learning. Are you an Austra...

There’s been a lot of changes to life in 2020. Bec and Penny chat about their language goals and progress so far this year and the impact of Covid-19. Bec has discovered she enjoys her ‘blended learning’ approach for German and Penny is intent on not being too hard on her self and celebrating her weekly French class. More: www.languagelovers.com.au/podcast

Just a couple of episodes ago, in Episode #019, we chatted about whether online lessons could be a good option for you as a language learner. In the meantime, COVID-19 has impacted the world in a huge way - many of us are spending a lot more time than usual at home, travel is out of the question and online learning for young people as well as adults has become more than just an interesting option,...

While Bec was in Scotland recently, she had the opportunity to meet and speak with Mark, the founder of Coffee Break Languages (also known as the Radio Lingua Network). Bec got to chat with Mark about his own story as a language lover and how Coffee Break Languages came to be, as well as the podcasts and other products that Coffee Break Languages offers to language learners all around the world. H...

In this episode of Language Chats, Penny and Bec chat about how online language lessons work, the pros and cons of learning online and some tips on how to choose your teacher or tutor. Penny is a long-time convert to online language lessons and challenges Bec to give it a go! Do you take language lessons online? Let us know how you find it!

Have you dreamed about using your language skills in your job? In this Language Chats episode, Bec shares her experience of using French in the workplace. Bec shares how a bilingual office operates in Australia as well as some tips about how to make the leap and work in an environment using your second language. Do you use your language skills in your job? Get in touch and let us know! We love hea...

Lindsay Williams is a polyglot from the UK and learns, teaches, blogs, vlogs, eats, sleeps, and breathes everything language. Languages were never really a thing for Lindsay until she decided to take Spanish at GCSE because she wanted to translate Shakira songs. Since then, it’s been a growing passion that has led to her making languages her business. Lindsay Does Languages was born in 2012 as a l...

Penny and Bec chat about language travel in this episode - what it is and how to get the most from it! Penny is a long-term fan of language travel and has been on language trips to to Vietnam, China and Taiwan as part of her Vietnamese and Chinese learning. With an upcoming French language trip planned for New Caledonia, Bec asks Penny why she loves language travel so much. Penny loves the face-to...

How do you feel about grammar? Does it scare you like it does Penny? Or are you grammar-lover like Bec? In this episode we chat about the technical terms that can be off-putting and ways to overcome our fear of learning grammar. What’s your experience been with learning grammar? Are you a grammar lover or a grammar phobe?

Bec has just come back to Australia from Japan, where she went to attend the 2019 Polyglot Conference in Fukuoka! This was Bec’s first time at this special event for everyone who loves language, so in this Language Chat we talk all about what it was like and how it works, the kinds of presentations and workshops there were to see, and the experience of being in the same place as 400 other language...

In this episode of Language Chats, Bec asks Penny about learning tonal languages. In particular, the two tonal languages Penny has learned - Vietnamese and Mandarin Chinese. Penny talks about the process of learning a tonal language as a beginner (lots of drills and repetition!), the importance of trying to mimic the sounds you hear, going back to basics and losing your inhibitions. Are you learni...

In this Language Chat episode we chat about our experience of taking part in the inaugural Language Event - Melbourne held on 21-22 September 2019. It was a weekend filled with presentations on a range of language-related topics like raising a multilingual family (Richard Simcott), language reclamation and revival (Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann), how the voice works and using it in different langua...

Learning a language takes time – it can be both fun and fulfilling, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not hard work! Outwardly, it can seem like it happens overnight for polyglots, but we have to remind ourselves that this isn’t the reality. So it’s always refreshing (and comforting!) to read and hear from other language learners who have had the same struggles and challenges as us! In this episode...

We all learn differently, but how do we find our ‘sweet spot’ for language learning? What methods and tools do you find work most effectively for you? It’s pretty easy to get distracted by the bright and shiny new tools out there… But do you prefer ‘old-school’, more traditional methods, like being guided by a textbook and making flashcards? Or do apps and online lessons take up the majority of yo...

This episode of Language Chats is two listener questions combined. Jess from Melbourne wrote in to ask about how important it was to undertake formal qualifications in a language, and Jo also from Melbourne asked how we both ended up studying European (Bec) languages and Asian (Penny) languages predominantly. We chat about our experiences studying at uni and how we developed our love of the langua...

If you’re into watching foreign language TV shows on Netflix as much as we are, you’ll love the Language Learning With Netflix Chrome Extension. In this episode of Language Chats, we talk about what this Chrome extension is, how to set it up (it’s free!), which languages it supports, and some of our thoughts on making the most of it for language learning. We chat some of this tool’s features and h...

About this Language Chat In this episode of Language Chats, we talk about dabbling in a language and why there’s nothing wrong with just learning a few words without committing to larger, long-term goals. Penny is dabbling in French at the moment and, by not fully committing to learning the language, she admits that it’s taken the pressure off - she can just enjoy just having fun and mucking aroun...

For the first time, we have a guest with us on Language Chats! Devy Baseley is a language lover in Brisbane, who grew up in France with an Irish Mum and a Cambodian Dad. We chat to Devy about speaking more than one language as a child and now, as an adult, her experiences of teaching (and learning) languages here in Australia. Devy is the founder of French Speak , a French language school in Brisb...

This episode is a listener Question from Deborah in Sydney. Deborah’s question - “I have been learning French for a number of years. I struggled with various means until I finally hit upon a combination of styles that worked for me. The class room environment just didn't suit me. I was one of those people who sat at the back and didn't answer, and there was always that one person who would constan...