Lessons from 2017:

• Best practices aren’t going anywhere
  • Ask yourself what you want to achieve
  • Get out of the house and use what you know
  • Contribute to your community
• Getting organised is the key to actually using those best practices: Plan - Track - Review
• Setting goals helps me get out of my comfort zone - I’ve never self-studied a language to this level and I can totally do it

The Year in Language Learning Events

• Polyglot Gathering in Bratislava
  • It was warm, busy, and great to visit this Slovak city
  • The organisation was outstanding and there was a real sense of interest in almost every talk
  • A lot of people enjoyed the no-English zone
  • I gave a talk on how to talk to people and the feedback was very interesting (no it was NOT about chatting up girls)
  • Already bought my ticket for 2018

• Langfest in Montreal

  • It was warm again, a slightly smaller event, and with so many great volunteers and organisers
  • Langfest stood out in how media-savvy it was, there was live streaming, lots of web coverage, even a little podcasting room
  • Montréal is an amazing city for any polyglot

• Languages of London

  • A smaller meet-up, great for connecting

The podcast came back this year!! Thank you all so much for listening and supporting us.

• Thank you to my wonderful guests this year: Madeline Vadkerty and Marianne Manz, Gabriel Wyner, Chuck Smith, Kris Broholm, Shannon Kennedy
• Thank you to our sponsor Clozemaster, and the future sponsors who have shown interest in supporting the Creative Language Learning Podcast
• A special thank you to my co-host Lindsay Williams
• Please review!!

Sponsored By:

• Clozemaster: Visit our sponsor Clozemaster, the free addictive language app in over 50 languages

Links:

• What Gets Easier When You Study More Languages? by Fluent Language
• 10 Polyglot Conversations from Langfest 2017 in Montréal
• Polyglot Gathering 2017 in Bratislava
• List of Language Learning Events Around the Globe — Find where you can meet language learners
• Montreal: Beyond Bilingual - Lindsay Does Languages — An episode of Language Stories about the languages of Montreal

Follow up on a topic: Pop Music

Bilingual lyrics, Spanglish and Justin Bieber of all people winning a Latin grammy. Lindsay brings up the Despacito Effect and we discuss if that's a thing.

If you love music, check out our pop music episode.

Top Tools for Winter 2018

Here are the nominees - listen to the show to find out how they can help you learn languages.

Kerstin:

1. Clairefontaine Vocab Notebook (on Amazon UK, and here's a comparable one on Amazon.com)

This is a classic notebook for learning and testing yourself on vocabulary. Write down your words, and use the handy cover tabs for testing yourself. Perfect for one of my favourite vocabulary learning techniques of all time, Write-Look-Cover-Repeat.

2. Libby
Libby is a library app designed to give you access to ebooks and audiobooks in your local library's catalogue. So that means you can borrow hundreds of books and even language courses right now, for free, on your phone or tablet. Available for iOS, Android, and Windows 10.

3. Lingq (referral link)
After hearing so much high praise for Lingq from Shannon Kennedy on episode 65 of the show, Lingq got a well-deserved new mention. This app is designed to help you read any text in another language, and it remembers the words you study. Check it out as it might plug your gap.

Lindsay
1. Léa Knows App
This app takes words that you've looked up on google translate and automatically creates flashcards of them. It's out for Android and iOS, and will "proper plug the gap" if you're stuck on how to study all those new words you've looked up, for example during and after speaking practice.

2. Museum leaflets and other "bumf" from tourist attractions near you
Discover a museum near you and check out their leaflets in other languages. Perhaps there's even a walking tour so you can get reading and listening practice at the same time, and play around with the available languages.

3. FlowLingo
This app is for Spanish users, and gives you access to a huge library of online videos from cartoons to TED talks. You will be able to listen to the video and see the subtitles, and it even pairs with Duolingo. Great for Spanish learners who want to add more video to their routine. This app is out for Android and iOS

Sponsored By:

• Clozemaster: Visit our sponsor Clozemaster, the free addictive language app in over 50 languages

Links:

• List of multilingual bands and artists - Wikipedia
• 'Despacito' wins big at 2017 Latin Grammy Awards - UPI.com
• Podcast episode 62: Why is it so Hard to Find Pop Music in Other Languages?
• FAQ | LatinGRAMMY.com — Which product can participate in the Latin GRAMMY?
• Rak-Su perform their winning song with Wyclef Jean and Naughty Boy! | Final | The X Factor 2017 - YouTube
• Playlist: Latin GRAMMY Song Of The Year — Some excellent tunes, and mostly not in English...
• Clairefontaine Koverbook Vocab Notebook at Amazon.co.uk
• Vocab Notebook for Amazon US users
• Lea Knows - never forget a word again
• Lingq - Learn Language in Context
• Flowlingo - Learn Spanish by Reading Books & Watching TV
• Libby, by OverDrive - an app for library ebooks and audiobooks
• Dark | Netflix Official Site
• Freundeskreis - Esperanto lyrics + English translation (Version #2)
• National Museum of Anthropology in San Salvador - Travel guide to San Salvador
• Readlang - Read, translate and supercharge your vocabulary
• Toastmasters Podcast #127: Spanish Bilingual Podcast—Veronica Corona, CC
• BBC - Vocab Extension — This is available for Welsh and Gaelic on BBC articles

And on to what's in this show:

Language Stories: Lindsay has a new podcast, reporting back from her adventures around the language landscapes of cities like Montréal, New York, and more.

Even after 20 years of English, I still don't know all the words. We discuss an English slang word that was news to me.

Tip: The Psychology of Rewards

We discussed why and how you can reward yourself when you reach those study goals.

Language Learning Misconceptions

Here's the list we discussed on the show:

• Children learn their first language effortlessly
• Younger learners learn languages more easily than older learners
• Intelligent people are better at learning languages
• Immersion is the best way to learn a language
• Grammar study is detrimental to second-language acquisition
• Learning a second language hinders the development of the first language
• Once a child can speak a language, the language-learning process is complete

Consider: All these ideas and beliefs are widespread, but none of them are true when taken at face value!

Sponsored By:

• Clozemaster: Visit our sponsor Clozemaster, the free addictive language app in over 50 languages

Links:

• List of common misconceptions about language learning - Wikipedia
• Stephen Krashen on Language Learning in the Polyglot Community — 1. Comprehensible input 2. Patience 3. No forced production (this is SO very much where schools go wrong)
• What does choad mean? choad Definition. Meaning of choad. OnlineSlangDictionary.com
• But WHY!!! Would You Learn a Language? Is Learning a Language Useful? by Fluent Language
• New Podcast: Becky Morales on Perfect Pronunciation and Having 4 Bilingual Kids by Fluent Language
• ‘We’re told we’re anti-Welsh bigots and fascists’ – the storm over Welsh-first schooling | Education | The Guardian
• Ignore the Guardian: A bilingual education is best for our children – Nation.Cymru
• Language Stories — Lindsay's new podcast
• Savage Lovecast
• Amazon.com: Second Language Acquisition Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching (9780472034987): Steven Brown, Jenifer Larson-Hall: Books
• Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - IMDb

This episode is all about being inspired by other people and their achievements. We decided to invite a guest, well-known language learning hero Benny Lewis from Fluent in 3 Months.

Benny has done a lot for the promotion of language learning, and these days he gets hundreds of emails from his fans.

In our interview, you'll find out:

• How does it feel to be the big language author and influencer man?
• Who is the mystery man that got Benny excited about language learning?
• Does "Benny the Irish Polyglot" want people to say that he is impressive?
• How can we share the love of language and stop people from asking us how many languages we speak?
• What is the most important difference Benny thinks he's made in the lives of language learners?
• Which polyglots and community members have made an impact to Benny?
• What did Barbie, Shakira and Beyoncé do to get us where we are today?

You also get to find out a lot about how Benny is keen to be promoting many others in the community, and how even a speaker of over 10 languages can be thrown when they're "hit with another language".

"The people around us are the ones that can inspire us even more than those YouTube superstars."

And what about being someone who runs their own business and travels the whole world learning languages? Benny is a pioneer, but knowing the real situation is a different story.

We hope you enjoy this awesome interview with Benny. Tell us what you think as well! Hashtag #cllp on Twitter, or simply comment below and let's chat about our heroes!

GREAT LANGUAGE-LOVING PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS SHOW

Why not see them all at once in the fun Skype Me Maybe video!

• Richard Simcott
• Luca Lampariello
• Moses McCormick
• Susanna Zaraysky
• Ellen Jovin
• Judith Meyer
• Kris Broholm

TOP LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE

• Lindsay cheats on Creative Language Learning Podcast with the Actual Fluency Podcast
• You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation
• Carl Sagan, passionate astronomer
• Notes on "Turn that envy into inspiration" from Lindsay and Kerstin
• Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

Special Guest: Benny Lewis.

What's it like when your language changes to express who you are?

The episode features an interview with J from Compassionate Language Learner who identifies as gender-neutral and has some fabulous things to say about the topic.

• Swedish introduces "hen" pronoun
• Oxford Dictionary introduces "Mx" as a new honorific
• Fluent's Quick Guide to Language Blogging for Beginners

See The World in a New Way with Emoji

An emoji is ‘word of the year’, but is it even a word? Is this good? * Emoji word of the year

• Lindsay’s Video: Is Emoji a Language?

African Languages Aren’t English

The East African Council has just switched its lead language from English to Kiswahili.

• Could Kiswahili become an African lingua franca?

We love hearing from you!

Tips of the Week

Lindsay’s tip is using the Interlinear books method of learning a language.

Only two tips in this episode: 1) Make weekly commitment meet-ups such as going to exercise classes with a language buddy 2) Discover Binaural songs and Interlinear Books

And Even More Interesting Links!

• List of Placeholder Expressions by Language
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

“As long as you’re doing something, you’re doing it right.”

— Chris on Language Learning Methods

Article of the Week

Duolingo is Getting More Serious by Kay Alexander on Fair Languages

Tips of the Week

Chris chose Tip 1 as his favourite, because goal setting is still WAY undervalued in learning a new language.

• Tip 1: set your chosen Fluency level (travel fluent, job fluent?)

• Tip 2: Be a historical linguist

  • Word origins and vocab divergence can help with remembering words

  • Look up "etymology"

• Tip 3: Sprint with the Language Challenge

Tips and Links from this Podcast

Support the Creative Language Learning Podcast through Patreon - from just $1!

Actual Fluency Indiegogo Campaign

The italki New Year Challenge: Study 20 Lessons and Win

Actual Fluency Episode 32 with me talking about how to be an independent online teacher

Handbook of Russian Affixes

Russian in 10 Minutes a Day by Kristine Kershul

Special Guest: Kris Broholm.