The Fluent Show

This week, we discussed two topics: Topic 1: Teaching Methods! After watching a few episodes of Welsh reality TV Welsh learning celebrity knees-up cariad@iaith, we decided to pick up on their 3 big methods for teaching languages and explain what they mean and who they work for. These are immersion, TPR, "communication" and story time a.k.a. the "input method". What is natural language learning and...

In this podcast episode, I explain how to use similar languages and language families to get a head start in your multilingual life. If you've ever wondered how to work out which languages belong to the same family, or how to decide if you should learn related languages as a group, listen in as I go through linguistics and geopolitics to work out how to make your learning life easier. I'll tell yo...

Do you know someone who grew up speaking a language at home as a child, but never fully developed it because their environment wasn't able to support it? This community of speakers who grow up with a different dominant language is called heritage language speakers . They are often found in immigrant communities. In fact, here in the UK there are many thousands of them all over the country. In this...

SURVEY TIME: Please take 5 minutes and participate in the annual Fluent Show survey. Click here to start. Are you looking for a new language tutor, but you can't find one online? Does it feel like no one is teaching your target language? Today on the show, I've got your back and I'm sharing lots of ideas for hidden places to find great people. You'll learn how to use your own network and get other...

Shannon Kennedy is back!! It's been a whole year since we recorded our review of 2019 and this year it's time to do "the same procedure", if you get my Dinner for One reference. Shannon is an accomplished language learner who's studied 13 languages including French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian, German, Hungarian, and Russian. In this podcast we talked about music and motherhood, the power o...

In this episode I share my own review of language learning in the year 2019 and what's next for me in 2020. It's like an audio #clearthelist article on my goals and what matters most in the upcoming year. In 2019, my main foreign languages were Chinese, French and Welsh and I'm sharing where I am at in each of them. In Chinese I am finding myself in a plateau - that frustrating slog where it feels...

In this episode, Lindsay and Kerstin wrap up the year by reviewing a BIG crop of Words of the Year from Australia, the USA, the UK, Germany, Portugal and Japan. We also create a Spanish version of #yolo, explain why Austria is going to Ibiza, and figure out the Portuguese nominations (even though we don't know a lot of Portuguese). Thank you for listening to the Fluent Show! If you enjoyed this ep...

Grab a Brandy and a Mince Pie! This is the festive Fluent Show. Is your mind wrapped up in gift wrapping and hosting this week instead of flashcards and language partners? Don't worry, because in this show I have put together some quick tips for staying in touch with your target language during the festive season. Click or tap here to read my Christmas learning tips on the blog Feliĉan Zamenhofan...

Shahidah Foster is an American expat in Germany, creator of the Black Girls Learn Languages community, and a passionate language learner. She's an English native speaker but her German is 💯 so prepare for a bilingual show today! Bilingual Show: German and English Conversation If you are not an experienced German learner, there will be some parts of the podcast that you don’t understand. You can l...

In today's podcast, I'm excited to tackle a big question: Listener Maria writes that she hears people sounding different to her depending on the language they speak. Could it be that learning another language can change your entire personality? Listen in to hear me discuss a few of the aspects that contribute to how we perceive personality through a language: Language Attitudes and Egocentricity:...

Wrap up warm, it's the autumn/winter edition of Top Tools for language learning, bringing you ingenious solutions to common language learning problem. This podcast has chapter support, so if your podcast player supports chapters, you can skip to relevant parts as your little linguist heart desires. Click or tap here to read the full show notes and get all links << This time, we're covering 6...

Today I am answering a listener question from Jessica who is an English native speaker, but so advanced in German that she wants to use it to learn a third language, Spanish. Can you learn a language through another language? Of course! Here are some advantages: You boost your 2nd language as well as your 3rd - double result! Sometimes you can find much better materials, for example when learning...

"Polyglots and language creators...that Venn diagram is almost a circle." In this episode, language creator David Peterson sat down with me to talk about language creation, language ownership, and the joy of it all. No other interview has had such an impact on me, the level of mastery in language creation was completely unclear to me. Every single choice that you're making is an active choice. Not...

When you are learning a language and selecting courses and materials, it's important to assess your level accurately. But how do you do that? In today's episode I've got English teacher Michael Lavers on the show and we go into the deep detail of what determines your level...and when it even matters to know. If you've ever wondered about the real difference between A2 and B1, this conversation wil...

Lindsay is back from Korea and Kerstin is back from America, and we're all together again to talk about finding yourself a GREAT language tutor! We discussed what the research tells us about the 5 signs that a teacher is extremely competent how to get super clear about what you want from language lessons why your first lesson is NEVER going to be a normal language leasson whether it's ever okay to...

You're leveling up in courses, going from A2 to C1 quickly...but stalling in real life. What gives? This week's podcast covers a question from Maria, a talented language learner who has found herself stuck after moving to Germany. She says: I am fluent in English, or at least my Cambridge Certificate says so, I've been studying to a certain level Spanish and Turkish, but I cannot achieve the desir...

In this episode, I bring you a touching interview with Alexa Little, a computational linguist who runs a non-profit building language apps for languages that REALLY need them. Endangered Language Revival with Alexa Little from 7000 Languages One common question about endangered languages is what that definition actually means. Here is how Alexa put it: An endangered language is a language that is...

This week, I am on a listener inspired quest: Is there a set of language learning notes that can make you better at speaking another language? This Fluent Show episode brings you a discussion of the science of cognitive load, working memory, and long-term memory...all in the quest for finding the best notes ever to use in conversations. Show Patrons can read the detailed show notes now over Patreo...

Bestselling author Scott Young presents his book "Ultralearning". Scott is well known for his project called "The Year Without English", which involved a year of full immersion and learning 4 languages. Intense, right? He thought so too, and became fascinated with this concept "There was a look on the plane, and that was our last time speaking English for a year." Scott's recently been obsessed wi...

The German Retreat in Berlin Today I answer a listener question from Hadassah about memorizing vocabulary that describes ideas, not objects Here are a few handy tips in summary - listen to the show to hear my many examples and in-depth explanations. The post-it method. Write your words on post-its and stick them up around quirky places that do have a connection to the ideas you’re describing. The...

Hooray, it's conference time! In today's episode I'll bring you a mix of language learning goodies straight from Montréal, Canada. You'll hear What a language conference is all about Poetry, written on the spot by language learners A drinking song in a minority language you may have never heard of Language learning tips from an 8-year old who speaks four languages And how you can make the most out...

Free gift with today's podcast: Sign up here for free affirmation cards to print & save Read the in-depth blog article for this podcast on www.fluentlanguage.co.uk Do any of these sound familiar? "I'm just not where I should be in languages, somehow everyone else seems to make better progress than me." "I don't have a talent for languages." "I don't know if I'm learning languages in the right...

Today’s theme: How to Learn Specialist Vocabulary Thank you to Bonnie for this episode introduction. Support This Podcast Like all podcasts, the Fluent Show is supported by your online reviews and word of mouth. If you liked this episode, please tell someone about it. Click here to tweet about the show , go to your Podcasts app and leave us a review, or simply text a friend about the Fluent Show....

You can't see their faces, you can't see their hands, you can't hear their voices. But somehow, you still know how people are feeling when they communicate with you online. How does that work? 🤔 In this episode, I'm speaking to Dr Monica Riordan. She's an emoji expert and researcher who designs and conducts studies into how people express their feelings online. Here's the tweet I mentioned in the...

In this episode you'll hear how courses like the Michel Thomas series change the script on language learning and why they work. I'll share my personal language success mixture, and why I don't debate study methods on social media. Thank you to Maksimilian for this episode introduction. Support This Podcast Like all podcasts, the Fluent Show is supported by your online reviews and word of mouth. If...