Eurovision is letting language learners down

It's the best song in Europe, honey!

What were you doing last Saturday night? If you are like 125 million Europeans, you may have spent a few hours in front of your television following one of the continent's best-loved TV traditions: the Eurovision song contest! It features bilingual presenters, entrants from European countries such as Azerbaijan and Morocco, and one of the largest tele-voting networks outside the USA.​

Eurovision stage ​©wikimedia

Eurovision stage ​©wikimedia

Is Europe ruled by English?

But there is one thing that bugs me about the contest: The rules were changed in 1998 to allow countries to submit entries in any desired language. As a consequence, a lot of countries opted for the widely understood English language. And the numbers don't prove them wrong - the Economist reports that most of the winning songs were sung in English, only followed by French on a far-off second place. The article says "whether you find this linguistic convergence cheerful as an Abba foot-stomper or depressing as an Icelandic fishing trip will say as much about your politics as it will your views on language."

“Most winning songs were performed in English - songs (mostly) in English won 24 times. French is also popular, with 14 victories. Dutch and Hebrew songs won 3 times each”
— eurovision.tv

Why Eurovision entrants should sing in their official language

​This may not come as a shock to Fluent blog fans, but I say let's get the old rules back and give so many countries a voice in their own words.

  1. ​Europe is one of the most beautifully diverse continents in this world (top 5 I'd say!) and its languages are one of the strongest symbols of that diversity. If we don't support languages from every country, we risk losing them.

  2. Eurovision is not a popularity contest - or at least it shouldn't be. In a world where the voting is so skewed by silly political considerations, I believe that singing in English can mean trading in a little bit of your national identity for bland conformity.

  3. ​Inspiration can strike in the language learner anywhere, and this is one of the most famous platforms for some countries to show off their beautiful languages. The brave countries took the decision to submit an entry in their native tongue this year, and to me, each of them stood out: Iceland, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Greece, I salute you!

What do you think - is winning the Eurovision with a bland English-language track better than flamboyantly celebrating what your country has to offer? Are there any entrants that combined both?​

Read more about Music and Language Learning on the Fluent blog:​​

​Where to look for inspiration

Musical Language Learning Hacks​

And you can see me speak 25 European languages on this Youtube video:

Why I'm quitting my job to become a full-time tutor

So you guys, I've got a personal announcement to make. You've just seen it in the heading - my office days are done, I'm going to dedicate myself fully to Fluent Language Tuition.

I have never done anything like this before. It's scary and exciting, and it's a credit to all my lovely students and friends that I feel ready for this. Let's make sure we take this opportunity and turn Fluent Language Tuition into a success!

In practical terms, this means I will have booking slots available every day of the week.

Things I love about being a tutor

  • Creating my own materials
  • Discovering online resources and techniques
  • When "grammar face" turns into "aha!!!!! face" 
  • Learning with my students and from my students
  • Inspiring those who thought they weren't "natural language learners" 
  • Meeting new people in the US, China, Switzerland, London, Lancaster...everywhere! 

Things I want to add to Fluent Language Tuition

As an ideas person, there's always a lot bouncing around in my head. One day I want to write the ultimate German learning ebook, the next I want to take you all on a holiday, and I always want to inspire businesses to get into the international markets out there!

You guys are invited - join me on the adventure of edupreneurship.

Inspiration is everywhere and I'm really excited that I will be able to work on more projects. But I want some guidance. What IS it that the world is missing? If you have suggestions, ideas or thoughts then please do comment. My blog is important to me and I love hearing from the community!

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Language Learning Motivation: What Drives You?

​Image source: Morguefile

​Image source: Morguefile

There's been an awful lot of research into language learning motivation, with scholarly articles, curriculum changes and millions of research funding spent on working out what makes us learners tick. Motivation is one of the most significant factors for successful language learning, so there is a lot of value in sitting down and having about yourself and what makes you tick. Here are my ideas about the motivation groups - which camp are you in?

2 camps of learners

To me, there are two key camps, let's call them Camp Requirement and Camp Acquisition. Those who learn for a practical application and out of necessity. They may not feel the joy of learning a language from the word Go, but keep going anyway because they are working towards a clear goal. They have the motivation of requirement.

And those who learn because they are curious about a language and simply learning because they want to get good at this. These guys often love the process of learning just as much as applying their new knowledge and will feel happy with the "lifelong learner" label. They have the motivation of acquisition.

None of these types of motivation is any more valid than the other, and I don't believe that either one will make you a better, more skilled learner. It's simply important to understand your driving forces. Be clear about why you are in this learning process. Make sure your motivation is clear to you, and you'll find it will help you kick through those dips and keep going even in the boring drills. If you have a tutor or teacher, why not try and catch them for a conversation about what motivates you and gets you going. That way, they may be able to support you better - even a busy school teacher is likely to jump at that chance of understanding how to get more out of a student.

​No Success without Motivation

You have GOT to ​stay motivated, you have got to stay excited or keen about learning your target language. This is the only way that you will actually look for chances to speak, you'll listen to things you only half understand and in effect the only way that you can keep going once the lesson is over and you have a whole week to forget all you've just been told.

For me as a language tutor, this brings in an extra responsibility. It's my job to understand, as well as I can, the motivations of my students and help them work towards goals that are important to them. Teachers may sometimes make assumptions about language learners which don't match up with their own inner drivers, and that results in both steering in different directions. I want to make sure that I understand where my students stand, so I'll be my best at supporting them reach their goals, and at facilitating a real sense of achievement.

​My Allegiances

I have drawn you a little graph to show just how much variation I find in my own language learning motivations:

​You can see how far I was in Camp Acquisition at some points, for example when I took Italian. That was my third language, it was an optional offer, afternoon lessons at school doing something new and fun, with friends - I was in it for social reasons. Later when I took Spanish, the main motivation was more about where it was in my curriculum and my career. I wasn't desperate for another new language, but there was a clearer requirement. These days, my lifelong learner is very keen and I'd say it's nearly all that drives my Russian learning.

This was actually a bit tougher to work out than I thought. It's a great exercise to have a little think about the question "Why is it that I'm putting the effort into this language?" Be clear with your answer about this question and review it on a regular basis. What is your personal language learning driver?