Episode 23: Teach (Yourself) a Language with Tammy Bjelland from Language in Bloom

It's episode 23 and I'm back with another lovely and inspiring interview. Tammy Bjelland sparkles with all the energy she brings to language learning and teaching. She teaches, trains, offers curriculum design and runs her own podcast, the Business of Language Podcast. Let her enthusiasm pull you along in this interview!

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You'll hear about:

  • What you're going to do with that language later
  • The many secret benefits of languages in your career
  • The 7 superhero skills of language learners: Empathy, Independence, Curiosity, Versatility, Creativity, Autonomy and Self-Discipline
  • How group learning can be a HUGE advantage for you
  • How to develop your custom curriculum
  • Tammy's truly impressive looking course Language Learning Formula

"You have to learn to teach yourself a language. It's a skill in itself"

Tips of the Week

Tammy was by far the most decisive guest I've ever had on this podcast. She went straight for tip number one as your Tip of the Week!

1) Practice your pronunciation with Soundcloud

2) Practice your pronunciation and get instant feedback by talking to Siri in a foreign language

3) Make a food log in a foreign language (thanks for the tip to Ron Gullekson

Tips and Links from this Podcast

New Podcast - Episode 22: Travel and Tutor Hunting Tips

This episode features two core themes of discussion: travel and tutor tips.

"I buy everyone a little lollipop in my lessons"

(Lindsay's Teaching Secret)

Creative Language Learning Podcast

Firstly, we talked about all the ways language learning works when you travel. We also deviated to talk about historic language learning books!±

  • Should you study pronunciation first or just go all in with vocabulary? (hint: whatever you like)
  • When is it too late to learn? (hint: never)
  • What do you need to buy before you set off? (hint: nothing)

In the article discussion of this episode, we took apart the step-by-step process of finding a language tutor.

  • What do you have to look for?
  • Why are some of them expensive?
  • What kind of tutor should you try to work with?

Articles of the Week

Tips on working with a tutor from Judith Meyer

How much do you pay your language tutor? here on Fluent

Tips of the Week

This time, Lindsay chose her favourite tip and in line with her own productivity skills she chose Tip 3. Get organized, folks!

1) Download Quiz Up! and play the language sections

2) Read LOCAL lit, not just "Harry Potter in my target language"

3) Get organized with Evernote

Links and Resources from this Podcast

Great sites for you to find a tutor:

How to Learn a Language with Thousands of Helpers on Tumblr

Today's post comes from a language learner I've known for about a year. Maria is based in Newcastle and first talked to me during the 50 Calls Project. I love her enthusiasm and her awesome perspectives on language learning. Recently she contacted me to offer a guest post on language learning on Tumblr - I'm not a Tumblr user myself so I jumped at the chance.

Enjoy Maria's post!

tumblr

Never heard of Tumblr?

The magical world of Tumblr might be new to you. In this case, here's a definition I saw on Yahoo Answers, where they describe Tumblr like this:

A place to "effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors to your theme's HTML.

So in essence, Tumblr another social media platform. But what separates this one from other social networks is that once you have an account, you can create numerous blogs and join a multitude of intriguing communities, from Doctor Who to interior design.

It's also different because in general on the website, people don't tend to know each other. You don't add your friends or family, but create a family of the people who share your interests! The example I'm going to talk about is, of course, the language learning community on Tumblr!

Start with a Tag

tumblr-portuguese

Sound confusing? It's really not. Anyone, any age, anywhere can join a community they like or search for whatever they like. My favourite tag is the 'polyglot' tag but I wouldn't dare call myself a polyglot at all! You don't even need to be fluent in another language. It's just a good bit of fun for people who are interested, while acting as a serious study aid - it certainly helped me get through my Spanish GCSE!

You don't even have to have an account to see the grand world of Tumblr. The website is easy to navigate and you learn more as you go on, building your page and gaining followers. Like Twitter, you can reblog (retweet) and like (favourite) different posts, adding your own comments too! You can directly 'ask' people questions and follow blogs. You can search for a tag to see all the posts under that tag, and that's where the community you want to join will be found!

For languages, you want to be looking at tags like #polyglot, #foreignlanguage, #langblr or of the language you want to see, for example #esperanto.

Tags Give You Everything

From playful jokes to help with confusing grammar from native speakers, the sky is the limit over on Tumblr. There are videos, text posts, photos, and links to other websites. You'll find a lot of relatable posts made by other people in the same position as you, which are bound make you laugh. I can't count the times I've read a post and in my head I'm thinking, 'Oh my gosh, this person is me!'.

Here are a few good examples:

Supportive Community at the Touch of a Button

But Tumblr is not just for jokes. It can be a serious resource. Users post important grammar points, language tips and expert knowledge on any language.

On one occasion, I looked at a post that finally helped me grasp how to use the cases in Latin, and the next post along I picked up some Argentinian slang. You can directly message people and ask them about your own challenges too and they're more than happy to share their expertise. They might come asking you too.

The people in Tumblr's communities offer support if, for instance, you post about having a tricky patch in a language. Everyone is super friendly! And if you've hit a bit of a barrier recently with your learning, there is motivation left, right and centre on Tumblr. All it takes is a quick scroll down a tag and you see something new and it sparks off the relationship between you and your language again! You can find weekly challenges and search for a language exchange partner, creating global friendships while learning and teaching a language.

But what if I'm learning a really obscure language?

If there's a language, there's a tag. Someone somewhere is learning that language and is posting about it on Tumblr! You might find tips about your target language or resources you've never seen before. They come in heaps, seriously. I've seen list after list of free websites to help you learn French, or specific YouTube accounts for Portuguese. These people have spent their time searching so you don't have to! And it's all at the click of a button!

You can post in foreign languages yourself and ask for corrections, or communicate with people in the community in their language. The ways to stimulate learning are endless, and a lot of the time you're doing it subconsciously as you scroll down the page. There are thousands of people in the community from all corners of the world, and to think so few people know about this language learning gold mine!

If you want to have a peek at the magical language learning world on Tumblr, start with the #langblr tag and enjoy your journey down the rabbit hole..

Okay, as I was editing this post I got pumped up. Maria, I'm on Tumblr too now! Joining the masses! Getting into the community! Are you on Tumblr too? Leave your opinion in the comments and share your favourite Blogs and Tags with us!

New Podcast: Episode 21 - Why Your Language Learning Goal Sucks and What to Do About It

In episode 21 of the podcast, I'm flying solo! This episode is a shorter version of our usual podcast. A snack size, so to say. I've been so busy creating, promoting and talking about Speak German like a Native that there was little time to do anything else.

But Wait! Here's What I Just Had to Tell You

language learning goals

You language learners and your goals.

You all say you're going to be efficient and effective and committed, and then I ask you what your goals are in the Summer Giveaway and 150 people say get fluent.

Me language learner and my goal!

When I was asked about my short-term language learning goal recently, I wasn't much better. In my language tag video on YouTube, I shared my short-term goal for Welsh..except I had no idea what my short-term goal is! I managed to say "I want to have a conversation", but is that really any better? I don't think so.

So in this podcast, I collected five great tips to help you and me become better goal setters in language learning. Listen to the episode to find out why your language learning goals suck and how to make better ones.

My Improved Goal for Welsh

My next short-term goal for learning Welsh is much clearer now. It is a mini one, nothing particularly large, and it doesn't follow all the rules outlined in the podcast. This is difficult stuff, yo, especially since I seem to have chosen a REALLY unpopular language to learn.

As such, the goal is this:

I will listen to episode 3 of Say Something in Welsh and write down all new vocab in my notebook by Saturday.

I'd love to hear your new and improved goals, especially if you're guilty of "my goal is fluency". Share them in the comments for feedback!

Three Little-Known Facts about Speaking German

One of the most common ambitions that language learners share at all stages is that of speaking the language fluently. Fluency means a lot to you, and it pulls together aspects of confidence, expertise, speed and pronunciation.

Maybe you're dreaming of speaking German with ease and a perfect accent. No one will recognise you as Jonny Foreigner as you flirt your way through the trendy bars of Berlin.

If you're a German learner, I'll soon be ready to help you out with one of the five: sounding more like a native speaker. Behind the scenes of Fluent, I'm currently building my first German course, and this one will focus on making you sound very good indeed.

Curious about how I'll do it? Let's start with a few home truths:

1) The e is never silent in German

Even at the end of a word, you have to sound this out. Confusingly that sound is called a 'schwa', but don't worry, you don't have to 'schwa'-y as you produce the sound. In my course, I'll show you how to do it.

2) V and f and w are all fricatives

What the heck is a fricative? 

The Fricative Mouth Shape: Teeth touching lip slightly, air pushed through the space produces the sound.

The Fricative Mouth Shape: Teeth touching lip slightly, air pushed through the space produces the sound.

Well, it looks a bit like this:

Fricatives are all the sound that you make when pushing air through a constricted space. I know that sounds kinky, but it's more or less an "f" sound - sometimes they're harder and sometimes softer. In German, the most unusual fricative fact is the fact that we pronounce our w as one of these little things. Ever heard a German speak English in a heavy accent? You might notice them saying "ve are valking to the vall". This is what you want to reverse-engineer when you learn German. Crazy, right? I'll be teaching you more about it in my videos - good job you'll get to hear my demo along with the explanations!

3) Germans don't all roll the r

Some of us can't even do it at all. We make a sound that's much closer to the French r...it's called an uvular fricative but you don't have to learn the whole phonetic language too. Just listen, try out how you can produce the sound and see if you can hear the difference in the practice words. Here's a video explaining how to do this in detail:

In the coming weeks, Fluent Language is going to run a powerful email series to help you improve your German pronunciation. We'll share specific steps with you that make it easy to develop the perfect German accent. No matter if you're a German beginner or very advanced, you will learn something new.

Of course Southern German dialects such as Franconian and Bavarian are known for their beautifully rolled r, so it isn't true to say that rolled r doesn't appear in German. But it helps to know that this is proof of our very strong regional dialects (you have to read about the Mosel one).

What do you struggle with in German?

Now you know that you're not alone if you find it difficult to say some German words, I would love to hear which ones cause you the biggest problems.

Leave me a comment here and tell me all about the trickiest German words!

I'm very excited about bringing you the course by the end of next month, and would love to keep you up to date. If you want to learn more about speaking German with confidence, check out the German Pronunciation Masterclass. It's a video course focused on one thing: helping you sound AWESOME in German.

The course includes 

  • close-up photos and videos of every letter in the German alphabet to help you practice saying them at home
  • easy explanations that don't confuse you with a lot of phonetic words or complex diagrams
  • interesting examples and a special lecture on dialects to help you understand German speakers from anywhere