Click or tap here to read the full show notes in my blog article on www.fluentlanguage.co.uk

What about you?

Do you have fun when you're learning a language?

Do you think it's possible to have 100% fun in language learning?

Do you enjoy the language learning process? Or do you only really love speaking to people?

Join our discussion and share your answers in the comments below! I'm looking forward to reading how you treat "fun" in language learning!

Thank you to Olly for this episode introduction and to Live Lingua for sponsoring our show.

Special Guest: Olly Richards.

Sponsored By:

• Live Lingua: A Free Skype Class For Everyone! Claim It From Live Lingua Today

Links:

• How you can inject FUN into language learning - YouTube
• Da Costa a Costa — Italian podcast recommended by Olly
• The Fluent Show: Learning and Speaking 20+ Languages in New York City — Interview with "Language Learning Hedonist" Ellen Jovin
• Short Stories For Beginners | Olly Richards — <-- Olly's brand new graded reader series!
• "I had...." in Welsh - YouTube — Example of more than one way to say an English thing in another language, here: Welsh.
• Four Secret Weapons of Practice by Fluent Language — I was all about the frustration even in 2012 ^_^

Long one, but worth it!

• SHANNON KENNEDY, the musical and multilingual bookworm from California. Shannon is an old friend of the show and never fails to impress with her incredible productivity. Shannon joined us to share her own good, bad and struggling stories.

• RICHARD SIMCOTT, one of the most multilingual people in Britain and co-organiser of the Polyglot Conference.

• KYLIE STURGESS, co-host of the all-round wonderful podcast Talk The Talk, philosophy teacher, and experienced radio broadcaster.

• GABRIEL WYNER, bestselling author, owner of a huge app project which will make us all Fluent Forever, and definitely not a robot.

We pitched Richard, Kylie and Gabriel against each other in Lindsay's fiendish episode 100 quiz - you'll have to listen in to find out who won. Play along - would you have known the answers?

And finally, we played "Conversation Starters" with

• BENNY LEWIS, the world-famous author of Fluent in 3 Months, Irish person, YouTuber star, "language hacker", and inspiration to language learners around the world.

Thank you all SO much for continuing to listen to the Fluent Show!

"Skype. Sometimes it works."

Plus another thank you to our sponsor Clozemaster, the free language app designed to help you keep up your langauge learning habit with ease.

Special Guests: Benny Lewis, Gabriel Wyner, Kylie Sturgess, Richard Simcott, and Shannon Kennedy.

Sponsored By:

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

Links:

• My Grandmother’s Lingo | SBS
• Interview with director of Embrace of the Serpent - Cirro Guerra by Kylie Sturgess
• #Add1Challenge - Hold a 15 min Conversation With a Native Speaker In 90 Days
• National Eisteddfod of Wales | National Eisteddfod
• Get By In Croatian - Eurolinguiste — Just enough Croatian to get by
• Polyglot Conference - Languages of Slovenia Challenge
• Language Learning Event – Polyglot Conference — Meet and see Lindsay and Kerstin in Ljubljana on 26 October 2018
• Benny Lewis Has a New Language Hacking Series: Here's My Review by Fluent Language
• Indigenous Language Map of Australia — Indigenous Language Map
• Fluent Forever App — Support Gabriel Wyner's App on Indiegogo
• Gesprächstoff Original – Conversation Starters
• ‎Arrival (2016) directed by Denis Villeneuve — A film with linguists in, not that much nonsense!

Of course it is!

In this podcast episode, I am speaking to my friend Daniela. She's a writer and teacher, and about to spend a month in Germany.

Daniela wants to learn German, so she got in touch to ask me:

• How to find resources that will be right for her?
• If she can really make time for learning a language, even though she's got a busy life and no classes to attend?
• How to ensure she stays motivated and benefits from learning German for more than just a month?
• How to be successful even after a year to *avoid the regret of saying "if I'd done more..."

She wants to get there!

This is a conversation in which I helped her set meaningful goals and explore how she can benefit from learning. And we recorded it so that you can benefit too!

Join Us And Answer My 7 Questions

Click or tap here to read the full list of coaching questions in my article on www.fluentlanguage.co.uk

Special Guest: Daniela Uslan.

Sponsored By:

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

Links:

• Fluent Language Learners - The Facebook Group
• Easy German Grammar for Complete Beginners | Fluent Language — Online Course in German Grammar
• The Language Habit Toolkit
• Extr@ (German) - 1 Episode: Sam's Ankunft - YouTube
• How to Learn Several Languages At The Same Time by Fluent Language — Feeling the burden of language choice? This podcast and article will help
• Language Coaching yay!

If you're stuck somewhere in the language weeds, this show will help you untangle them and get those wheels turning again.

You'll learn

• Why you're feeling stuck
• How to start feeling like the wheels are turning again
• How to re-think your feeling of being stuck for an instant mood boost
• Why rewards make all the difference
• How to figure out the next step

Sponsored By:

• Speechling: Visit our sponsor Speechling, the outstanding speaking platform in over 6 languages, and use the promo code FLUENT for a 10% lifetime discount Promo Code: FLUENT

Links:

• Mastery and Advanced Level Language Learning (Podcast Episode 46) by Fluent Language
• 3 Reasons why you're still an intermediate level language learner - The Polyglot Dream
• The Language Habit Toolkit
• How the IELTS English Test is Scored
• Common European Framework of Reference for Languages - Wikipedia
• How To Learn A New Language With Smart And Useful Goals by Fluent Language
• Kerstin Cable on Instagram: “Spotlight on Language Goals! This month, I printed off my worksheet from the #languagehabittoolkit and put up my goals on the wall where I…”

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

I've been out in the wild, seeing and discussing words in the English language, and in this episode I presented the best of them to Lindsay to discuss what they can reveal about us and about society.

First, we discussed social justice words. What really IS mansplaining? Is it just a word to describe any occasion when a man explains something to a woman? Or is there more to it?

What do you think of the social justice words like hepeating, mansplaining, manel, and the responding #notallmen and broflakes?

And our second word in the wild was tea - short and sweet, but is this even translateable?

Motivation Tips

Even though this is not Lindsay's average October of falling leaves and dropping temperatures, we took a deep dive into the season to discuss how you can get motivated for learning a language in autumn/fall.

Plus, we've got some absolute evergreen tips mixed in for you to help anyone learning a language by themselves. Learning a language by yourself is not always easy, and motivation is a huge challenge. There are so many interesting and exciting ways to get going, so here are some of our best:

You can read our full list of motivation tips in detail at www.fluentlanguage.co.uk/blog/podcast-episode-67

Little tip: Try our sponsor Clozemaster as your new app addiction. Get it done in the morning, and you'll be set for the day.

Sponsored By:

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

Links:

• Hepeating: When men say what you just said but louder
• Tower Bridge (London, England): Top Tips Before You Go (with Photos) - TripAdvisor
• Creative Language Learning Podcast: Learn A Language with TV: How to Get The Most Out of Watching TV in Your Target Language
• Quora: In the Polish language, the word for tea, herbata, is neither derived from cha nor tee. Are there any other languages like that? - Quora
• How to Stay Motivated in Language Learning (Even When You're Not Feeling It) by Fluent Language
• Talk the Talk – A weekly show about linguistics, the science of language, on RTRFM 92.1
• There's a new kind of snowflake in town: the 'Broflake'
• Yogi Tea — IS THIS EVEN TEA??
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs - Wikipedia
• What Is the Hawthorne Effect?
• How to enjoy Language Learning more by being lousy at it by Fluent Language — Discussing the Growth Mindset and how it helps language learners

Here's a taste of what you'll find inside the episode:

Could you become a multilingual parent?

We've all seen the feats of Bella Devyatkina, who speaks 8 languages at age 5. But how does that work? In my interview with conference organizer Tetsu Young, we touched on the everyday actions that he and his wife create a multilingual environment for their three (!) kids.

Applying your outside skills to language learning

You might not know this, but all of us have hidden skills that help us learn languages. I interviewed Benny Lewis and Tim Pelletier to find out what theirs are.

Impressions of Québécois

From how to make those dipthong sounds to religious swearing, be a fly on the wall during our French-language lesson on the Québec dialect.

A few words in Romanian

Listen to me try as hard as possible to get my Romanian pronunciation right with the kind help of presenter Mihai. Ooof!

Unconventional Motivational Techniques

Jana Fadness is a polyglot, translator, traveller, and introvert. She shares her insights on the most popular motivational techniques - and how she found her own unconventional ways of making things work. Jana's interview was amazing, her honesty stood out among the crowd.

Special Guests: Benny Lewis and Shannon Kennedy.

Links:

• LangFest – Festival de Langues de Montréal | Montreal Language Festival
• Eurolinguiste - Shannon Kennedy
• Get into the 4 Tendencies with the Better App
• Adventures of the Directionally Challenged - Jana Fadness
• Radiolingua - the home of Coffee Break Podcasts
• To My Father – To My Father Film
• Emilie Wapnick's TED Talk on Multipotentialites -- not all of us are made to do just one thing in life
• LanguageCon – The Shanghai Language Learner’s Conference
• 4-year-old Bella from Moscow easily speaks 7 languages - YouTube
• Vernaly, a project from Mihai who taught me Romanian in the show

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 motivates us to do things?


• What motivates us to keep going?


• Do you set yourself goals and always meet them?


• Or do you hate goals?


• Are you likely to spend weeks just looking for the perfect textbook before you start?


• Or are goals only meaningful when others set them for you?


• Or do you only set them when they make sense?

Do This:

In the episode, we dove deep into the Four Tendencies Framework developed by Gretchen Rubin, which is all about how you motivate yourself to keep going and to do things.

Take this quiz before or during the show to get the most out of it. Can't wait to read about your results!

We answer a bunch of intriguing questions in this episode such as:

• How can you use your tendency for language learning?


• What is the best ever way of researching language learning methods?


• Which tendency is perfect for the ultimate self-guided language learner?


• Do some tendencies profit more from classes and masterminds than others?

Links and Resources from This Show

• Happier Podcast


• QUIZ: What's Your Tendency?


• Kris Broholm getting up at stupid o'clock in the morning


• Terrifying Little Girl with a Clown


• Big TV Show Library from Episode 31


• Parkrun

Takeaway Of The Week

Try and be aware of the four tendencies and look for how they influence you, but also people around you.

We Want To Hear From You!!

Please comment or tweet us (#cllp, and we're @kerstinhammes and @ldlanguages) and tell us what your tendencies are.

Do you think your tendency influences how you learn a language?

Do you have ideas for how you can work with the tendency?

Brought to you by Lindsay's course Successful Self Study - save $20 with offer code FLUENT.

This episode is about habits and how we build and create them. Listen to find out what our tendencies are and how we use them to make our language routines.

Brought to you by Lindsay's course Successful Self Study.

Links:

• The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People's Lives Better, Too): Gretchen Rubin: 9781524760915: Amazon.com: Books

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

Welcome to an inspiring interview with one of my favourite language bloggers: Ron Gullekson from Language Surfer. His relaxed language learning attitude will make you so comfortable. 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why Ron's blog is called Language Surfer
• How formal language learners all know what "drawing a line down the middle" means :)
• How Ron structures his on curriculum for language learning
• Which level of language learning you might be at if you studied Arabic for 8 hours a day..for 64 weeks!
• Free listening, and how soon you can start doing this in your own study routine
• How to create your organic SRS system

"I want to get used to the idea of being lost as soon as possible."

Article of the week

Tips of the Week

I had secretly expected Ron to choose tip 3 as a music fan, but his own choice was tip 1: Get out and talk to people.

1) Meet up in conversation groups offline

2) Find local podcasts by switching itunes to the country's store

3) Learn with music on Spotify

Tips and Links from this Podcast

• Language Surfer
• Language Master Key: How to Unlock your Brain's Ability to Learn any Language on Amazon UK or Amazon US
• Forvo, a website helping you learn new pronunciations
• Readlang, to help you analyze texts and create Flashcards based on what you learn
• Readlang review from Fluent's guest writer Ricky Rutledge

“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.