How I Study Languages: A Quarterly Check-in for Welsh, Italian & Chinese
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!
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.
The world is feeling like that cloud over our heads is starting to move a little. What about you? Do you feel the same? Leave me a comment below if you have any thoughts or questions for me!
Clear the List November 2019: No-English Lessons as a Beginner?!
Welcome to my latest check-in on language learning goals. In October, I studied three languages: Mandarin Chinese, Welsh, and a wildcard language that you can read about in this article. Join me in setting new goals for the month!
Clear the List November 2019: No-English Lessons at My Level?!
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.
That’s right - NOVEMBER goals! October was a very interesting month for my language learning as I tried out something I had never tried before. Exciting stuff!
This check-in is part of the #clearthelist round-up hosted by Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams.
What Happened in October?
I was busy signing up participants for the next Fluent German Retreat, and then I travelled to the USA again! This time, my time was spent at a retreat in Colorado and it took up about half of the month. So that means I had half of the month for studying languages.
I don’t usually allow a lot of my weekend to become language study time as I want to spend it with my husband and my inner lazybones, but this month I challenged myself and took several lessons on Saturday afternoons. It was actually great fun, and definitely a time of the week that now feels open for languages.
The Fluent Show in October
I travelled to London to record my first ever interview in person! The interview was with David Peterson, the remarkable creator of languages for TV shows like Game of Thrones, The 100, and Defiance. The resulting show is out on 11 November so look out for it in your usual podcast locations.
Recording in person was a new adventure for me and I travelled up to London with brand new microphones, cables, and mic stands! It’s worth it for a special recording atmosphere, I can’t wait to record in person again soon. If you listen to just one episode from October 2019, I recommend this deep dive into finding a perfect language teacher with my co-host Lindsay Williams.
Reminder: The Fluent Show has opened a Patreon page. This allows all listeners to become involved in making the show with a small monthly pledge. If you want to become a part of the community, please visit our Patreon page.
Language Goals and Progress
During the month of October, I pushed myself to take as many italki lessons as possible in the italki language challenge.
If you’ve never heard of italki, click here to find out more and get $10 credit - it is a platform for finding online language teachers, and it’s excellent.
Now before the big reveal, lemme tell you a thing: italki sets the challenge goals in lesson hours. But for me, language lessons are rarely an hour long when I’m crouching around somewhere at an early level. With the approach I took in Chinese, an hour would have felt very exhausting for me and the tutor so I chose to take lots of lessons but many of them were half an hour long.
And on that note, I totally didn’t meet the goal of 12 study hours. But I hadn’t expected to.
Instead, I took 6.25 hours of study time split over 9 lessons. The results were surprisingly positive, I felt reinvigorated and reminded how much I love languages! Here are the specifics.
Mandarin Chinese
Wow! Considering I was tutor-less a month ago, the italki challenge absolutely pushed me to find a new style and tutor that worked for me. And in Chinese, I tried a whole new approach this time.
Instead of choosing an experienced and formally qualified tutor, I decided to go with what italki calls a “community tutor”, i.e. someone who is ready to help and teach but who hasn’t formally studied the language as much.
This was 100% the right decision for someone like me who is
- an experienced language learner
- already working with 1 or 2 guiding resources
- pretty confident about knowing what to do.
Going for a tutor who approaches teaching less formally suits my own informal style perfectly, especially since I tend to follow up after class and do my own homework without prompting.
By the way, you can learn more about the differences and what they mean in this month’s podcast episode about language teachers.
No-English Lessons at My Level?!
I took inspiration from Scott Young’s interview on the Actual Fluency podcast (episode 164). In this interview, Scott mentioned that he used to hire tutors and tell them beforehand that he doesn’t know a lot but he wants to eliminate English during the class, so he will heavily use google translate.
I had previously taken lessons that involved a tutor working through a textbook with me, and I did not enjoy them so much. So I figured “what the heck” and decided to throw myself in at the deep end and speak terrible internet Chinese to a few people. They get paid, after all!
And the result was totally positive! I enjoyed each class, had lots of fun, experimented, and understood almost nothing my partners said to me. But it didn’t matter! We came away after 30 minutes feeling like there had been some level of conversation.
I am NOT speaking well yet, but or the first time since I started, I was having fun in Chinese.
If you want to try this out for yourself, go for it! The key is having good follow-up.
Each tutor was very diligent about typing what they said for me, so that after the lesson I took time to copy it into my notebook and I reviewed it for myself. This added about 30 minutes of follow-up time to the lessons, but it’s how I was able to remember things, and it’s also writing practice. Worth it!
App and Book Update
I’m enjoying Lingodeer and Assimil’s “Chinese False Beginners” workbook.
LingQ has fallen by the wayside because I’ve now finished the beginner’s material and there is a big gap between beginner and intermediate. No one wants to review 50 expressions after every page.
Welsh
I also took online lessons with a new Welsh teacher, who was lovely! After my US trip I noticed that I was particularly rusty, so getting right back into an hour of conversation was crucial. Looking forward to more!
In other goals, I have finally booked my next trip to Wales! I’m going to Cardiff/Pontypridd for a Sadwrn Siarad on 23 November and I cannot wait. Love Cardiff, and it’s been too long.
Wildcard Language!
My wildcard language for the italki challenge was BSL (British Sign Language), and I loved each of my 2 classes so much that it left me very eager to learn more and more. In reality, this would come at the cost of either Welsh or Chinese…what to do? Maybe I end up being a learner of all my local languages?
Language Goals for November 2019
Let’s get into detail then! November is a month without international travel, and I’m grateful for it.
Listening
When I’m a beginner in any language, listening without the visuals makes me feel more lost than supported. So this is all about my intermediate/advanced language, Welsh. I regularly listen to the radio and watch TV in Welsh, so my goal is to continue the good work with radio 2-3 times a week and TV for at least 2 hours without subtitles.
When I’m in Cardiff, I’ll also see if I can’t make it to a gig in Welsh.
In Chinese I’ll take a bit of Yabla practice but it’s not my main focus.
Reading
In Chinese, I read a lot as it’s my main source of information. My goal is to complete 2 more chapters in the Assimil workbook and to review the handwritten lesson notes I make.
In Welsh, once again I will finish Ffenestri. I WILL!!! It’s an important goal because then I can take it to Cardiff, give it away to another learner, and get a new supply.
Speaking
I want to build on the good work from October and take another 4 italki lessons in Chinese.
In Welsh, I’m obviously going to a whole day about siarad (speaking), and will also try to hang out with local friends when I’m in Cardiff. I am so excited.
Writing
This is one for Chinese study, where I want to continue my discipline in terms of following up on each lesson with hand-written notes that I can review easily.
What About You?
How do you work with online tutors? How was your October? Leave a comment below or if you’re an Instagram fan, click on the post below to share your own goals in your stories with my template.
#clearthelist September 2019: The Eleven Languages I Spoke in One Month
Welcome to my language progress and goals update for the new month. My focus languages are Mandarin Chinese and Welsh.
You’ll read about the 11 languages I spoke in August 2019 and catch up with top episodes of the Fluent Show podcast.
Imagine you’re on a long-distance cycling trip, perhaps through all of a country or state. You know the destination and you’re pedalling every day, always pushing ahead even if you know you may not arrive for many days. On a journey like that, what would you be without a necessary stop to find yourself on the map now and then? Can you do it without GPS? I don’t think I could!
Learning a language is a lot like navigating a long trip like that. We often know our destination before we get going and we set off in the right direction. But without regular check-ins, we may pedal and pedal until we fall over.
Here on the blog, I write a monthly check-in like that to keep you up to date with my own language learning goals. It’s part of the #clearthelist round-up hosted by Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams.
Want to try out this check-in process for yourself?
Why not check out my Language Habit Toolkit, an in-depth course designed to help you set useful language goals, track them easily and achieve a new milestone every month.
What Happened in August?
Last month was dominated by my biggest trip of the year, visiting the USA and Canada to participate in two conferences. First, I attended Podcast Movement in Orlando to learn more about how to make great podcasts and support myself well while doing it.
And while I was across the pond, how could I have missed Langfest in Montréal, Canada? Impossible!
The trip in between these two cities was a lot of fun: I took Amtrak to Charleston in South Carolina, having long wanted to try the American train. My impression was…that Europeans love the train even in America, haha!
The Langfest team another excellent language event this year, with so many highlights including meeting the creators of Klingon and Dothraki, and running my own creative writing workshop with María Ortega Garcia.
The Fluent Show
First of all let me say how amazing it was for me to meet so many listeners on the road in August. I’m over the moon to know that the Fluent Show is popular!
This month contained a whole range of amazing episodes so let me share two with you today:
- Langfest 2019 captured in audio, with almost a dozen interviews and voices directly from the show
- What is the Right Mixture for Language Learning Success?, an episode about why so many methods feel like they’re THE best method
If you’re not a Fluent Show listener already, you’ll find lots more exciting shows to listen or subscribe to at www.fluent.show.
Language Goals and Progress
I had pretty clear goals for August 2019, so this time I’ll run through them without breaking it down too much into listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Mandarin Chinese
- Listen to Mandopop
I neglected this, spending more time on podcasts.
- Get 100 Lingqs on the LingQ app
Overall I now have lots of LingQs, the challenge is becoming more about noting and remembering them all! Still enjoying this app and using it in the mornings.
- Post 2-3 speaking videos on Instagram
I only posted one, then travel threw me off the wagon. I did learn some more Chinese from a new friend at Langfest though, so I feel positive about my speaking.
- Find a new Chinese tutor
So here’s what happened: I wanted a new tutor but felt guilty about ghosting the current one. Then as if by magic, she decided she’s taking a break and sent a messaging saying she won’t be available until December. So yay, I was free for a new tutor.
But then I didn’t book one. Hah! I count this as a goal half achieved 😅
- Figure out how to type Chinese characters on the iPhone
Done!
- Practice characters by hand every week
In the weeks I was at home, this was done.
Welsh
- Book a class to practice speaking
Sadly no, but I still got my speaking practice on one occasion this month in conversation with a Langfest buddy.
- Read the book Ffenestri
This book is LOVELY and I’m nearly finished. I’m reading well at all 3 levels, as I should :)
- Plan my next trip to Wales
Sadly this fell through as I prioritised visiting my family in Germany first. Chwarae teg, wouldn’t you say?
- More stuff!
I can now watch Welsh TV without subtitles! 🎉
Other Languages
It’s impossible to travel without practicing other languages, so August also became an opportunity for me to speak my long-neglected languages.
Counting in Klingon
In bilingual Montréal, I spoke lots of French with people from all over. Québécois French is never 100% comprehensible to me, but as always when I speak French I felt reassured that I’m entirely capable.
I bungled my way through a taxi ride with a lovely Colombian in Spanish, though I never did end up where I originally wanted to be. But I blame Lyft and GPS for that instead of my language skills, haha.
And talking of bungling, I also spoke more Italian than I have done in 20 years. The Italian sounded like that, too. It’s R.U.S.T.Y. and has essentially turned into bad Spanish.
I also attended basic workshops on the fictional languages Klingon and Dothraki, as well as Breton and Signed Languages.
Language Goals for September 2019
It’s handy to start setting goals by remembering the time frame available. In other words, the question is “What do you want to achieve in the next 30 days?” - seems a little less intense than wondering how to achieve a lot.
This month I’ve been inspired by intense learning projects and the book Ultralearning by Scott Young (interview coming up on the podcast). What can I commit to that would stretch me, challenge me?
Listening Goals
In Chinese, I’ll look for a tutor and ask them to help me listen, perhaps through some dictation rather than the pressure of conversing instantly.
In Welsh, I’m getting so much better so I’ll keep up what I’m doing.
Reading Goals
I don’t have firm goals here and want to focus on other skills, so I’ll just commit to the tools and say I want to finish Ffenestri in Welsh and use LingQ 4 days a week in Chinese.
Speaking Goals
Here I would like to take it up a notch!
In Chinese I am still fairly shy about speaking - I wish I had a few sample conversations to practice with. Comment if you can recommend any? Meanwhile it’s a good idea to push ahead and find that new tutor!
In Welsh I so want to practice speaking and everything, so I’m going to book myself 3 sessions to speak bad Welsh at people. Yay!
Writing Goals
I’ll go easy on the writing beyond what I usually do, which is to text people. In Chinese I’m also making vocab lists by hand now and writing down set phrases in characters and pinyin.
Here’s an instagram slideshow showing my vocab system in more detail:
\
And that’s it for September’s #clearthelist!
How are You Getting On in Language Learning?
Comment below and tell me how your month of August went! Did you come to Langfest? Would you like to attend it some time? Have you got any strong speaking goals?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
#clearthelist July 2019: My Chinese and Welsh Progress After a Break
Catch up on my Welsh and Chinese study goals, and how I’m feeling about studying 2 languages right now.
Plus: News from the German immersion retreat!
“Inelegantly, and without my consent, time passed.” - Miranda July
Welcome to Clear the List, my monthly language learning goals update. Yep, that time again already!
Clear the List is a round-up hosted by my friends Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy, and if you’re interested in joining then don’t hesitate to check out the Clear the List linkup for #clearthelist, hosted by Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy.
Let’s go!
What Happened in June 2019?
The biggest event in my June 2019 was the Fluent German Retreat, my immersion holiday for German learners.
We studied in the mornings and had fun outings in the afternoons, like a local apple farm where the owner himself showed us around. In Hamburg, we spent time in the Kunsthalle, the city’s amazing art museum which houses one of my favourite paintings: “Wanderer above a sea of fog”.
There were sea shanties and container ships, city guides in traditional dress, and not lastly delicious home-cooked meals from my retreat co-host Therese.
If you want more information about my retreats and perhaps come along on the next one, click here to join the retreat newsletter.
I also attended my first unconference in June, where conference attendees can turn up and decide to give a talk about anything. Have you been to one of these before?
New for Online Teachers
This month I also got to launch a fabulous new set of workshops for online teachers. These are open for enrolment until 7 July, and they will show ambitious online teachers how to improve the way they do business.
I’m teaching these with Lindsay Williams, my business friend and podcast buddy. Together we’re going to teach you about the best marketing tips and product strategies.
The Fluent Show
My favourite podcast experience of the month is definitely the afternoon I got to spend recording 4 podcasts about online teaching with Lindsay Williams. We’re friends and we chat, but we’d never chatted about the different aspects of our businesses in this way.
It also got personal and I shared my own story of creating this website and business out of my experience with depression.
If you are at all interested in online teaching and marketing, you’ll love this conversation.
Language Goals and Progress
We are like 300 words into this article and finally it’s time to check in on my LANGUAGE goals. As you can see I’ve been engaged in lots of projects, so let’s have an honest look about whether I fitted any language learning into all this.
The German retreat took about 10 study days out of my month, but happily I returned more motivated than ever.
Is there anything better than returning from a break, eager to progress through your routine?
Chinese Core Skills
Listening and Reading
I only really listen to Mandarin Chinese when I take lessons or use Lingq, so let’s look at these two goals together.
I created 45 new Lingqs, reading a total of 350 words. In my lessons and books, I also progressed a few pages here and there, so I’ll repeat my favourite language learning mantra:
You can never learn backwards.
In other reading news, I was able to pick out 3 characters from the writing on a Sriracha bottle. It’s the little things…
Speaking
I had hoped to take 3 italki lessons, but today it’s the 30th and again I only managed one. However, during that one class the compliments were flying my way as my Mandarin teacher said I was a very quick and careful learner.
Writing
I wrote 2 pages and practiced a few more Chinese characters.
Welsh Core Skills
Felt like Welsh was a great one this month as I naturally want it in my life now, no big motivation necessary. I found that S4C’s app works on our Amazon Fire stick, so now I can finally watch the popular show Un Bore Mercher with Eve Myles.
You can watch this with me if you are in the UK, because it was actually filmed in Welsh AND English and is available in English as Keeping Faith
And the best thing I found: SUBTITLES IN WELSH!! Amazing!! You can’t get these through my usual streaming service, so I’m just delighted.
For reading and writing practice, I kept my Welsh Instagram account going (@kersydysgu, dilynwch fi os eisiau!) and had the usual text exchanges with friends. And I had a lovely language exchange with Gareth Popkins.
Language Goals for July 2019
My next few months all look like they will feature quite a bit of travel and work, so one thing’s for sure: 2019 is not going to be the “summer of language study”. But here’s what I’m aiming for in July 2019.
Listening
I have good things going here with Welsh on the radio, podcasts, and TV. In addition, Lingq recorded dialogues are a great resource of Mandarin at my level. So it’s all good and I just need to crack on.
Reading
In Welsh, I’m actually finding myself quite eager to start my next book which will be Ffenestri by Lois Arnold.
In Chinese, I’m ALSO eager to read as I’m loving the Lingq app. Let’s see if I can build more Lingqs than in June.
Speaking
Aiming for at least 2 italki lessons in Mandarin Chinese, and let’s see if I can’t find someone to speak more Welsh to. If all else fails, I’ll record myself speaking some Welsh over on Instagram.
Writing
Unclear on the goals at the moment, but I do get the feeling that my Chinese level is now calling for some vocabulary lists. I like writing vocabulary lists rather than making flashcards, as they allow me to focus and review without a screen. So let’s see if I can’t fill 2 pages with 20-40 Mandarin expressions and words.
Not sure if I should keep it pin-yin here or go with the full character set? What do you think?
On Studying 2 Languages
Studying both Chinese and Welsh at the same time is not bothering me massively. I don’t have the big goals of reaching any levels at set points, and for this month the relaxed feel fits both languages well.
I’d love to hear from you. Which languages are you studying? Are you happy with your language choices at the moment?
Leave a comment below, or why not join clearthelist as well and post your own update on your blog. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
#clearthelist June 2019: I Am Not a Perfect Polyglot
Every month, I share my personal language goals and progress here on the blog. Right now, I’m learning Welsh and Mandarin Chinese. This post is a motivating glimpse into “polyglot life”, which is far from perfect...but it does involve wine.
Welcome to Clear the List, my monthly language learning goals update. Clear the List is a round-up hosted by my friends Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy. It is SO motivating and I recommend it to anyone who wants to share goals and celebrations.
I hope you find these goals and reports inspiring for your own language learning. It clearly shows that I’m far from perfect. But I don’t think perfection is what we’re aiming for.
If you want a “learn 25 languages in 16 weeks” polyglot, read something else.
If you want a real person loving languages and getting marginally better, this is for you.
What Happened in May 2019?
May was a fairly quiet month for me. After the exciting launch of German Uncovered and the latest language retreat, I took a well-earned break…in Wales to speak as much of my target language as possible!
This was followed by a week away in Amsterdam, and a few weeks doing something completely unrelated to languages…which has been a welcome planning month for new projects here at Fluent Language.
One of those projects is Teach & Thrive, a new set of workshops all about online teaching! I’m starting these in July together with Lindsay Williams, and there’ll be an exclusive podcast for you if you’ve registered to get notified.
The Fluent Show
Hands down, my favourite episode of the month was this inspiring interview with Paul Kaye about being a translator in the world’s biggest translation office: the European Commission!
Paul shared tips on how to become a translator along with his own fascinating story. If you dream of getting paid to learn languages, this is for you.
Language Goals and Progress
Let’s quickly cover Welsh first…I love the Welsh language so! In May volunteered at the wonderful Machynlleth Comedy Festival this year, stewarding at Welsh venue Caffi Alys. During the festival weekend, I also ran into my friend Nicky Roberts, who surprised me by whipping out a microphone to record me for his podcast!
As we spoke lots of Welsh in the podcast, you’ll read more about it below.
\
In addition to the talking, I also finally got the Welsh Grammar book back out and did a few pages of Welsh conjunctions in the garden. I strongly recommend wine to go with your grammar books.
Chinese Language Progress
In Chinese, I had more specific goals. Let’s see how that went.
Listening
I watched a few EasyMandarin videos on YouTube. I haven’t quite found my ideal listening resource yet and am not sure what to do about this.
Reading
I had no specific goals. But…GUYS!! I finally discovered the joy of Lingq! This app’s simple texts proved perfect for me as a beginner and the story structure is making me want to progress and read more of what’s going on. Compliments to Lingq. I’d been aware of the app for years but it doesn’t support Welsh, so it’s a delight to finally get it.
Speaking
I had hoped to complete 3 Skype lessons and that didn’t happen, as I messed up the times of my booking. But I did get to one by the end of the month and had done so much reviewing that my teacher was happy with the speed of progress. So I’m happy enough!
Writing
I had three different goals:
to follow up each language lesson with a page or revision notes
Success! I’m a pretty good reviewer and my teacher was excited that I learn “so carefully”. Mind you, I only had the one lesson!
to write 4 notebook pages about myself or my family (these pages are full really quickly when I write in English + pinyin + characters)
I did write a few pages, but none about me. I think I touched on a few important points such as 我有一只猫 - I have a cat.
and to figure out how to type pinyin.
Got it sorted on the Mac!
Goals for June 2019
Let’s try a new structure of going by core skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and writing my goals in each language.
By the way, did you know I have written a book about those core skills? Check it out here for your summer language read.
Listening
In Welsh, I will do my usual listening practice which is now a consistent 1-2 radio or TV hours per week.
In Mandarin, it’s harder as I’ve not come across anything specific yet. LingQ is helping me a little bit here as its own learner content comes with matching audio. If you can recommend anything else at A1 sort of level, please do comment below.
Reading
My focus here is on Chinese and I want to get somewhere with LingQ. I find the idea of a daily streak quite suffocating, so instead I’ll try one of the in-built challenges and aim for 250 “LingQs”, which are new words added in the app.
All these words make for longer flashcard revisions so let’s hope I stay sane doing that.
Speaking
In Welsh, conversations are a key part of this annoying “intermediate” learning stage and they’re never easy to come by or as comfortable as I want them to be. So this means…I need to have more of them!
I will hunt down 3 friends for at least one chat this month.
In Mandarin, it’s also important to talk but my lessons are quite structured. I can get away with less and aim for 3 Skype lessons like the May goal.
Writing
No specific Welsh goals, I type and text regularly and update kersydysgu too.
Mandarin: I’ll keep up my habit of reviewing my notes and writing lots after every lesson. It’s not always easy to find the time, but I do find writing in Chinese quite relaxing so I hope I won’t need a specific goal here.
Who am I kidding. 3 pages at least!
Chinese or Mandarin?
By the way, I know I’m using “Chinese” and “Mandarin” interchangeably in this article. I’m trying to re-habit myself to referring to it as Mandarin for clarity. It’ll take me a while though.
What are Your Language Goals for June 2019?
Do you take summer breaks? Or step on the gas when the days are long?
Leave a comment below to tell me all about how you’re getting on, and what you are planning to study next.
Be sure to check out the Clear the List linkup for #clearthelist, hosted by Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy.
