No More Stutters! Improve Your Speaking Skills In Any Language

Do you remember your first sentences in another language? You'd come away beaming like a kid at Christmas after creating pearls like "I do not like pizza, I like eating salad".

As you learn more in your new language and increase your levels, you want to go deeper, talk about future, past, conditionals, things you've read and things you've thought.

It's like in this Bible verse (oh yeah! Quoting this big book is a Fluent first!):

When we were children, we thought and reasoned as children do. But when we grew up, we quit our childish ways. (1 Corinthians 13:11)

In language learning, it can feel just like that: You want to talk like a grown-up, your self-assured and intelligent self. And what's more frustrating than the reality, where we stutter and stumble over words, and leave....lo o o o o ng...um....gaps in sentences?

Listen to my speaking tips on the Fluent Show podcast:

Let's start by looking at what's causing you trouble.

Reasons Why Your Speaking Skills Aren't Improving

You Have Too Much Vocabulary

Through your reading practice, you are acquiring a lot of new vocab, storing it, but not using it quickly enough after it goes in. This can lead to the word getting very comfortable in your passive vocabulary store, but locking the door behind walking into there so it can't come out when you look for active vocabulary.

If you want to learn a flexible, agile approach to learning vocabulary, click here to discover my course Your Solid Vocab Memory.

You Need to Work On Your Learning Mindsest

As you are speaking, you may also be letting your mind freak you out with unhelpful thoughts. Maybe you slow down or pause, just to hear yourself slow down and pause, then to think "Oh no! I'm doing that thing again! I'm so much worse at this than I thought!"...which then affects your focus.

You're Trying To Talk About Everything

You're trying to speak about a wider range of topics than you expected before you start, so you're hitting unknown areas of vocabulary a lot quicker.

You Don't Have Good Structures

Your practice is lacking sentences and complex constructions, so you can understand a sentence with conjunction and three objects, but making one still grinds every single gear in your brain as if someone just dropped a bucket of sand in there. This is often where learners say they're "translating in their head".

What To Do So You Can Improve Your Speaking Skills

Strategy 1: Say Way More Sentences

Practice and activate a set number of words IN SENTENCES. Write sentences about them, for example defining their meaning or finding five different ways of using the items you have learnt about. In those sentences, focus on one new way of saying something and transform your sentence.

You can do this yourself, even make a prompt sheet:

• Sentence
• "I heard that.." + Sentence
• Last week I met my sister in the shop and she said that + "sentence"
• "Next weekend" + Sentence
• Question + Neg/Pos Sentence
• "Would you...?" + Neg/Pos Sentence

Strategy 2: Target Your Negative Thoughts

Your thoughts determine how you see the world and also how you perform, and so your mindset is what gets you through the uncomfortable gaps.

For example, consider whether a pause could be a great sign that you're about to remember a word, or a signal to try and approach the topic from another side.

Some learners find it helpful to practice filler phrases like Hang on, let me consider this..., It's on the tip of my tongue, or I want to summarize

You can make incredible mindset changes when you work with a language coach. Check out my Coaching page to learn more..

Strategy 3: Go Deep With One Topic

It's easy to get lost in a conversation if you're entering it without clarity about the topic. Luckily, most tutors and exchange partners are pretty obliging and will allow you to steer them towards what you want to talk about. So the key is: Prepare! Look up all relevant words relating to your topic, write them down in advance, practice what you might want to say.

You don't have to script a whole conversation, but even bullet points will make a huge difference.

Useful Links for Improving Speaking Skills

Language Coaching & The Fluent Language Mastermind

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#clearthelist December 2018: Welsh Progress, GCSE Exams, and Women in Language

29 November 2018

Welcome to the November edition of my #clearthelist language goal tracking post. If you’ve never heard of this before, Clear The List is a support and accountability blog group sharing monthly language learning goals.

I’m very excited because I’m writing this article at the end of the month and not as usual - a few rushed days into the start of a new month.

On Monday, I am excited to open the doors to the Fluent German Retreat in Trier so over the last week I have mostly been preparing for this: planning visits to amazing Christmas markets and monuments, booking restaurants, collecting teaching ideas for the participants. I can’t wait!

What Else Happened In November?

This was a great month for learning a language! We kicked it off with the amazing Women in Language Camp event, a one-day get-together online where over 100 language learners learnt and exchanged ideas around the theme of creating community in language learning.

I can never get tired of mentioning how wonderful the audience at Women in Language events is. The Women in Language Camp event gave me a huge boost, because sharing the language passion makes me want to learn more languages!

There will be a big Women in Language conference in March 2019, so make sure you get all the news by signing up at www.womeninlanguage.com.

Beyond this online event, I also attended the Language Show Live in London on 10 October. There were so many great friends to meet! You can see them all in this video by Gareth Popkins. Lindsay Williams, Rebecca Howie, Michele Frolla and I hosted a meet-up in the pub and it was exciting to meet so many of you!

The Fluent Show

November was a FAB month for the Fluent Show, with special guest Ellen Jovin making her second appearance to share stories from her grammar table project. Ellen has just been featured in the New York Times, so I’m delighted to say we got the scoop.

My recommendation for your listening this month is How to Get The Perfect Accent, which features all the tips you need if you’re an advanced speaker thinking of polishing how you sound.

Language Goals and Progress

Time to dig into how my own language learning went in November! Here’s how I got on in Welsh.

Listening

The goal was to watch 4+ episodes of Byw Cerlwydd, a Welsh-language political drama that I used to enjoy. The storylines, however, seem to have gone full-on soap opera and I’ve not been a fan of what I’ve seen this season.

I did catch the BBC programme Hidden Wales. It’s only available in English and it’s wonderful. For all of you who aren’t learning Welsh, watch it to see why I’m in love with Cymru.

This leaves me with a gap for my listening practice. I have been switching the radio back on in Welsh, and tried to listen to the Podpeth podcast but found it a bit too difficult to follow.

Reading

Great month for reading! My goal was to reach page 150 of my Welsh for learners novel Sgwp, and I’m pleased to say I’m currently on page 137 and about to get to 150 during my train journey to Gatwick airport.

It’s also been fairly quiet in Welsh on my social media feeds! Usually I see a few more posts, maybe I should look into more accounts to follow outside of Twitter.

Speaking

My goals were to have two italki lessons and two “paned” online catch-ups with friends. I booked and took both of the italki classes, and I will also count my chats with Gareth during the Language Show Meetup as good speaking practice. Apart from that, things were sadly quiet when it came to practicing Welsh.

I’ve long thought about posting a quick advert at the local university to see if anyone might be up for practicing Welsh with me in exchange for a free coffee and cake, so maybe that should make it into my goal section!

Writing

This month, my writing practice consisted of

• texting a few friends (I used my first ever passive voice sentence!!).
• making hand-written class notes about Christmas vocab.
• writing a sample paper of the Welsh GCSE exam, taken from past papers on the WJEC website.

The only annoying there is that I should have chosen one of the adult learning levels instead of the GCSE (which is a school exam), as now I find myself writing about school trips and my favourite Welsh star. But never mind, all practice is good practice.

Daily Contact Goal

Every month, I log my “daily contact” with the Welsh language. November looks just fine, with 16 days out of 30. I don’t track the length of each “contact”, but on at least 7 days this was a longer session than 10 minutes.

As always, this depends on me remembering to tick a box, so it’s not a 100% accurate number.

Goals For December 2018

As I mentioned above, I’m spending the first week of December focused on my German learners at the Fluent German Retreat. I’m going back to Germany later in the month to spend Christmas with my family, so there’s certainly some travel time that could double up as language learning time.

Listening

The radio is my best bet, I generally find the BBC Cymru shows 60-80% understandable, so my goal will be to listen to the radio in Welsh during my breakfast or lunch at least 4 times a day.

It’s just so hard to commit when there’s amazing podcasts around every corner. I’m so glad to hear that Welsh language superman Nicky Roberts has just launched a podcast called Mynd am being gyda... I spoke to him in Cardiff at the Eisteddfod, and here watch a video episode of that show featuring me and my spoken Welsh.

Reading

Last month, being very specific about the number of pages I want to read really helped get me going with Sgwp. So I’m using that strategy again. In December, I want to get to page 185 of this book.

Speaking

I’ve already booked my next italki class, and my goal is to always re-book after a finished class.

As I mentioned above, I’ll also step up my efforts to try and find a local Welsh speaker who’s interested in speaking their language to me on a regular basis. This city is so small that I can imagine we have fewer than 10 of them, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try to find them!

Beyond this speaking practice, I will also pick up Say Something in Welsh again and finish challenges 21 and 22 of level 2.

Writing

I’m enjoying my practice with the Welsh exam papers and once they’re finished I will read them out to my italki tutor so she can give me feedback on my writing skills.

I’m keen to move on from the GCSE level (although it’s amazing to know that this level is not a huge challenge for me) and go back into the system they use in adult education. But that sounds like a bit much for December, so for now I want to “pass the written GCSE” in Welsh as a second language. And celebrate with a Welshcake.

Other Languages

My main language dabble at the moment is Mandarin Chinese, and my contact was largely app-based. I’m enjoying Drops a lot for Chinese, as well as Memrise. When you’re a Welsh learner, you don’t get as much playtime with the language learning apps so right now I’m enjoying this very much.

I also watched a few Chinese videos on YouTube (EasyChinese and YoYo Chinese, if you wanted to know) and listened to the much-recommended Chinese with Mike

And I have to admit something: My beloved 10 Minutes a Day series isn’t really working for me in Chinese. I don’t know why as I loved the Russian version, but this one clicks a little less. If you want to recommend a good book for solo Chinese learners, I’m interested!

(Not that I’m learning Chinese.)

In other languages, I obviously focused on German from my teacher’s perspective because of the German Retreat. I cannot wait to meet this year’s participants!

What About You?

Are you travelling to any Christmas markets this year? How was your November? Leave a comment below and don’t forget to check out the Clear The List linkup by Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy.

How to Get The Perfect Accent

Learning a language is a long journey, and even after many years of dedication it can still feel like you're far from arriving.

One of the milestones we hope to hit along the way is to start creating a 'perfect accent' in another language, so we can fit in well. But how is that done? Hear all about it on this episode of the Fluent Show.

After I shared my own story of learning English to a very high level on an episode of the Fluent Show’s episode 96, listener William sent me a very interesting question.

It’s about a classic problem when you’re learning a language: how do you sound good? How can you fit in with your accent?

Here's what he wrote in his question:

I'm learning English (and French) in Canada, I'm very happy with my progress so far. I'm a self-touch learner and I spend most of my time for listening and reading. For about 2 years learning from scratch, now I'm able to read books I love and listen to any audio source without much struggles. But still, I feel the "isolation" since I have not have a great intonation and accent yet. As you said that it could have affects on learner's self-confidence. So I hope you could share some thoughts on the topic in a future episode, how you do it and what is the right mindset to acquire the native accent.

William is so smart because he recognised the core feeling that’s the problem here. It’s not about being understood anymore or about having access to conversations, now it’s about blending in and feeling at ease, personally. I have a lot of empathy for that desire, because even after 15 years in the UK I still can’t seem to blend in like a local. And every now and then it bothers me, because it directs the conversation to me, or something about me, or something I don’t want to focus on at that moment. So even after all this time...people still pick up that I’m from somewhere else, and there are certain sounds that I will “Germanize”, especially when I’m very tired.

Tips For Improving Your Accent

Working on your accent in another language is best reserved for those levels where you are communicating comfortably. It's not the same as studying the pronunciation rules of a language, which comes at the start and will help you understand words and rhythm. The accent you want to acquire is all about blending in with the people you hear and speak to on a regular basis, so that you can feel like you belong with that group.

There are specific exercises and accent work activities that you can do, and most of them are focused on listening intently and echoing what you here.

Here are four principles that will help you as you work on improving your accent:

1. Listen & echo. Fine-tuning your accent starts with hearing many details of the accent you want to acquire, so listen intently and identify specific sounds that you want to get.

2. Tinker. Focus on individual expressions instead of trying to fix it all at once. It can sound inauthentic when you try to create a full "accent profile" for yourself, so instead think of it like tiny iterations of your existing language.

3. Harmonize. Continue to listen to others even while you are producing language, and try to monitor your speech as you talk.

4. Look and feel. Consider mouth shapes, learn the IPA if you wish, but most importantly observe and feel where in the mouth different expressions are formed. When you echo what you hear, think about how it feels in your mouth.

Finally, you can also find a language coach who specialises in accent work and who will help you improve through recorded speech, individual feedback and specialised challenges.

Online Courses For Getting a Great Accent

My recommendation for German learners is my Accent & Pronunciation Masterclass Course. This course is designed for foreign natives who want to sound authentic and understand German words with ease. The course is great because it

• Works with mouth shapes
• Focuses on sounds and how they’re formed
• Provides consistent rules that help you make sense of German
• Considers you as an English speaker - knows what you tend to get wrong

Check out the German Pronunciation & Accent Masterclass

For English learners, these two courses from Elena Mutonono will be a great resource and cover the essential topics you need to know about, like connected speech.

And in French, I have a wonderful recommendation from my muse française, Géraldine Lepere, who has a great Vocabulary and Pronunciation Program.

3 Mindset Tips for Accent Work

Finally, I've got a few important notes regarding the mindset to adopt when you are working on improving your foreign accent.

There is no such thing as perfect when it comes to learning a foreign language or working on a foreign accent. Some people do work on improving how good they sound and how well they fit in. But bear in mind that striving for perfection would be like aiming for a moving target - impossible to hit and impossible to maintain!

Consider these three mindset tips to ensure that you're working on your accent without expecting unreasonable things from yourself:

1. Don’t compare up, i.e. don't compare yourself to better speakers than yourself. Everyone's voice and accent are absolutely unique.

2. Don’t obsess over fixing everything at once - instead remember that the trick is to tinker and iterate your improvements.

3. Pay attention to how other people say things. If you do hear something that sounds great in your target language, echo it and use it for yourself. There's no 'stealing' in accents.

Do You Feel Great About Accent?

Have you tried to lose your foreign accent in a target language? How did it go? Share your story in the comments, and don't forget you can send podcast feedback to kerstin@fluentlanguage.co.uk or follow the show on Twitter.

If you have a second, leave us a podcast review on iTunes or in the Podcasts app!

7 Reasons Your Cultural Awareness Matters More Than Perfect Vocabulary

The following post is written by the lovely Michele from Intrepid Guide, a blog dedicated to language and travel.

How well would you say you speak the foreign language you’re learning? Are you beginner, intermediate or even advanced and near fluency?

Now, I don’t want to bust your bubble, but, you may not be as ‘fluent’ as you think.

While we may learn languages with the goal of being fluent (whatever that means to you) the most important question to ask here is, how culture-savvy are you?

You may understand a foreign language but that doesn’t guarantee that you understand the nuances and the whole range of meaning that native speakers communicate to you.

Communicating in another language requires more than just memorising words and grammar. We have to learn how to communicate beyond words by understanding its culture. Therefore, as we study a language, we must learn it alongside its culture.

Afterall, language is culture!

What is Cultural Awareness?

Cultural awareness understanding that our own culture differs from one individual and group to the next, and specifically from our target language.

Being culturally aware helps us recognise and have an appreciation for other’s values, customs and beliefs and meet it without judgement or prejudice.

As we encounter new languages and cultures we begin to make comparisons and realise that our own behaviours, values and beliefs are not the general norm found elsewhere in the world.

Michele at the Vatican

Why is Cultural Awareness Important?

Cultural awareness is key when we communicate with people from other cultures. Since we use language to communicate, our knowledge of foreign languages gives us ‘access’ to different societies and cultures. We become mediators between cultures.

The most important reason why we should be culturally aware is so we have an increased awareness of people all over the world. This helps us develop a deeper understanding of our own and other people’s cultures, while broadening the mind and increasing tolerance.

Expressing Respect

When we are culturally aware we know what is considered inappropriate or offensive to others. For example, incorrect body language and can lead to misunderstandings. Even something as simple as nodding your head in agreement can be misunderstood in places such as Greece, Bulgaria, and Albania where shaking one's head can actually mean yes.

In Western culture we’re taught that it’s polite to look someone straight in the face when talking to someone, however, in Japan this is considered disrespectful.

Being culturally aware isn’t just for those learning a foreign languages either. As an Australian who swapped her life in Melbourne for a life in Rome and then again for London (where I’m currently based), I learned that even between English speaking countries our cultures can differ and that these differences can surface in unsuspecting ways.

During the past 5 years of living in the UK, I’ve accidentally ruffled a few feathers and learned some important cultural lessons the hard way.

Here are 7 times learning cultural awareness changed my life way more than any vocab table ever could

1. Inviting STRANGERS Round To Yours - Kidnapping Or Hospitality?

Whilst living in Italy, I travelled the country extensively and took many walks and tours with local guides. Each of Italy’s regions has its own personality, unique history, culinary delights and beauty. You can’t just visit Florence or Rome. You have to visit other cities too to really understand Italy.

When I was on one of these local tours in Milan, our guide explained that we shouldn’t be ‘discouraged’ if we encountered a ‘rude’ Milanese. She explained that people from Milan can seem rude or cold at first, but once you make an effort to get to know them they are just as warm and welcoming as we’ve come to know Italians to be.

Compare this with an experience I had at the opposite end of Italy in Sicily. One summer I was in Palermo celebrating a girlfriend’s birthday with 4 other girlfriends. we went to dinner at a popular restaurant frequented only by locals. It’s fair to say we stuck out a sore thumb.

After about 10 minutes at our table, a middle-aged lady from a neighbouring table who was with her family enquired where we were from. Her eyes lit up when we replied in Italian. After no more than 5 minutes of chatting, Maria invited all 5 of use around to her house the next day for coffee and cake! She gave us her number, address and a time. It was all set.

I’d never in my life received such an invitation. After some internal juggling wondering if we were about to experience Liam Neeson’s movie ‘Taken’, we decided to take our chances and go. I’m so glad we did. Maria had very kindly baked two different homemade cakes and even gave us her recipe.

This would whole encounter would never happen in Australia, or the UK for that matter. To this day I still can’t believe it did. It just goes to show that just because you do things one way in your country, doesn’t mean it’s the same everywhere else.

2. American, British, and Australian English: Similar but Different

Even though Australia is a British colony and Australian English is based on British English, we’re not very politically correct with our choice of words. Australians say things that can be considered highly offensive, but we do so without malicious intent.

It's like we’ve used these words so much in everyday speech that they've lost all power and negative connotations that it no longer offends anyone, hopefully.

This was and still is the hardest lesson for me to learn since living in London and something I still struggle with today.

An example of a word that Australians will use without batting an eyelid and which makes up part of many common Australian idioms is the word ‘bloody’. So common is it for us to say ‘bloody’ that it was even part for a A$180 million advertising campaign by Tourism Australia that was banned in the UK for being too offensive. The slogan read “So, where the bloody hell are you?”.

A more extreme example, which I know will probably make you cringe, is the use of the highly offensive c-word. It may surprise you to learn that many Australian males will use this as a sort of term of endearment towards other males. They’ll say things like, “Hey c&!, how are ya?”, or “he’s a good c%!.” The c-word is never directed to females or used by them as it’s still considered an offensive word, but it’s not nearly as taboo as it is in the UK or America.

3. Being 'On Time' Means Being Early, Late, Or Just On Time Depending On Where You Are

Even being punctual can cause misunderstandings. While Germans consider punctuality to be very important, the exact opposite is true in South America where it is considered rude to arrive on time.

During my early days in Rome, I distinctly remember the first time I was running late to an appointment with my Italian friends. I messaged my friend Marta and apologised for running 5 minutes late. She responded with Ma Michele, sei troppo anglofono. Non ti preoccupare! (Michele, you’re too English, don’t worry!).

When I started learning Arabic leading up to my trip to Egypt, I learned that if you say to someone that you’ll see them tomorrow they might reply with, ‘in sha Allah’ or ‘insha'Allah’ which literally means ‘god willing’. This is often used in response to anything tentative, or when timing is in question.

The phrase expresses the belief that nothing happens unless God wills it ("if God doesn't want me to be on time..." ¯_(ツ)_/¯ ). From this one phrase we can see just how much of an influence religion plays in the Arabic language and in the lives of those who speak it.

A similar phrase is also found in Spanish and Portuguese, ojalá (Spanish) and oxalá (Portuguese). This was adopted into both languages after they came into contact with the Arabic speaking world as far back as the 8th century.

4. Saying 'Thank You' Can Make Your Host Unhappy - Only In Italy?

One year I celebrated Easter with a friend’s family in Naples. They welcomed me and my Dad who was visiting into their home and fussed over us making sure we had everything we needed and making special dishes just for us. They made us feel so special, like we were part of the family. I was so grateful and I wanted to let them to know.

Everytime Carmela, my friend’s mum, would hand me a plate, or do anything, I would say “grazie” (thank you). On the third day, Carmela said something I’ve never forgotten.

“Michele, devi smettere a ringraziarmi, mi fa piacere. Siamo famiglia e non si ringrazia familia. Non mi piace,... ci separa.” (Michele, you have to stop thanking me, it’s my pleasure. We’re family and you don’t thank family. I don’t like it,... it separates us.)

Before that moment, I never thought that thanking someone could offend them but I could understand Carmela’s point. At the same time, it felt foreign to me to not show my appreciation and gratefulness towards her for everything she was doing for us. I felt like I was being rude, but it was what she wanted so I had to fight my instincts so I wouldn’t not offend her again.

5. You Can Scare Italians With An Ill-Timed Party

After organising my birthday party whilst living in Rome, I learned just how superstitious Italians are.

You see, I have the unfortunate pleasure of being born two days after Christmas when most people aren’t around to celebrate with me. This usually means I have organise my birthday celebrations a couple of weeks in advance while everyone is still around.

The first time my birthday rolled around in Rome, I knew I wanted all my friends to be there and that since most of my friends weren’t from Rome and would be heading home for Christmas, no one would be around to celebrate my birthday on the 27th of December.

With that in mind, I booked a venue two weekends prior to my actual birthday and sent out the invites. Within minutes I was inundated with messages “Ma, Michele, non si può festeggiare il compleanno in anticipo, porta sfortuna!” (But, Michele, you can’t celebrate your birthday early, it’s bad luck!).

Up until this point I had never heard of such a thing. Growing up in Australia, it was something I was used to doing otherwise I’d never see my friends for my birthday. I felt that if I celebrated after the fact (which by then would be New Year’s Eve) everyone would be all partied out and celebrating the following year just didn’t feel right.

After explaining that for an Australia it wasn’t bad luck, they tried to understand but it still didn’t sit well with them. On the night of the party they didn’t wish me happy birthday, they insisted on waiting until the my actual birthday to tell me.

6. Gruesome Things Can Happen If You Don't Make A Toast With Caution

The custom of making a toast is universal. That moment when you say Cheers! Prost! Salud! or L’chaim! in celebration of anything from New Year’s Eve to weddings to a night out with friends.

This seemingly simple and harmless practice comes with disclaimers in some culture who have their own twists on this tradition.

In Spain, for example, making a toast with water or any non-alcoholic drink is considered bad luck resulting in ‘seven years of bad sex.’

Those in France or Germany believe the same to be true it you don’t make and hold eye contact whilst making a toast.

Living in Italy, I learned that Italians take things a step further. Aside from not being able to toast with water, and making sure you maintain eye contact, you also can’t toast with a plastic cup and you have to touch a table or ledge with the bottom of your drink after clinking glasses with everyone.

Interestingly, this superstition comes from the Ancient Greeks who, according to Greek mythology, would toast to the dead with glasses of water to symbolise their voyage, via the River Lethe, to the Underworld.

Who knew making a toast could be so complicated?

7. La Dolce Vita, Let It Change Your Outlook On The Working World

When I moved to Italy, I left behind a pretty intense job where I worked crazy hours, sometimes working til 1 or 2 am. In places like Australia, the UK and America, you’re rewarded for working overtime which usually comes in the form of a pay rise or promotion, where funnily enough you’re given even more work to do!

Living in Rome made me realise how flawed this whole concept was of working hard and sacrificing time with friends and family for the sake of climbing the corporate ladder. I quickly learned that Romans value time with their family and friends so much that they don’t have this poisonous desire to work overtime just to get ahead. Quite often, I would go out with friends til 1, 2 sometimes 3 am on a “school night”. We weren’t getting drunk, were were just socialising and just hanging out.

I never did this in Australia, but in Rome I was living La Dolce Vita or the Sweet Life. I replaced my work addiction with friendships and I began to value my relationships over work. I enjoyed life to the fullest with the people who matter and sometimes that meant staying out until the wee hours of the night.

The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country

La Dolce Vita isn’t just for Italians though, the Danes have their own version of this too. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, the Danish word hygge (pronounced hue-guh) has gained worldwide popularity. Hygge describes the feeling you get, either alone or with friends, where you feel cosy and have warm feelings of togetherness, contentedness and enjoying the simple things in life.

The Danes also don’t believe in overtime. Helen Russells explains in her book, a The Year of Living Danishly, that working overtime is not only frowned upon by your peers but you’re considered as being inefficient!

In Conclusion

Being knowledgeable in foreign languages shows native speakers that you respect their ideas and their way of living. This is why I encourage travellers to learn some of the local language before their travels and I’ve created a collection of free travel phrase guides to help my readers do that. Knowing even a just a little bit of the language can help offset cultural shock and open you up to new experiences in a destination.

Cultural awareness extends into your everyday life, not just while travelling. Think about how valuable this skill can be (and it is a skill) to the development and advancement of your career. Being able to communicate with global communities is invaluable to a business when they scout new talent.

Being able to communicate effectively has a lot to do with context and culture. Therefore, understanding cultural implications is just as important as learning correct grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. Neglecting this part of the learning process can lead to unnecessary misunderstandings or miscommunications.

When Have You Learnt More Than Just Language?

What moments of cultural awareness have you encountered? Ever you offended someone or embarrassed yourself like me? I'd love to hear from you - share your story in the comments below.

About Michele

Michele from The Intrepid Guide is a language and travel blogger and author of Learn Italian FAST. Originally from Australia, Michele moved to Rome in pursuit of improving her Italian. Currently based in London, she lives by the motto “The more we travel, the more we learn.”

With her blog, Michele shares her passion for bringing language and travel closer together with detailed destinations guides, and free travel phrase guides, and more! You can follow her on social media as she shares fascinating and little-known linguistic and cultural facts.

#clearthelist November 2018: How To Stay Consistent (Or: The Goals I Missed)

Welcome to my latest language learning update through #clearthelist, which is a language learning round-up sharing monthly language learning goals, support, and accountability.

What Happened In October?

I feel like October began and then I went travelling and got home and then it was over. In our personal life, big things were afoot as we started the process of buying a flat here in Canterbury. Cue lots of new levels of bureaucracy, which I never knew the game of life could offer.

The month also saw a new speech I made at Toastmasters, this one probably my favourite so far as I spoke about feminism and the Women’s Equality Party, a cause well worth your attention.

Travel in October

Halfway through the month, I set off on a language trip with podcast co-host Lindsay to Croatia and Slovenia. I admit I didn’t study much Croatian before setting off to this beautiful country, mostly because I was relying on the linguistic guidance of lovely Shannon Kennedy (from eurolinguiste), who sadly had to drop out at the last minute.

Croatia’s most exciting language discovery was to spend a few hours in the mental Froggyland museum with Lindsay and trying to work out as many Croatian words as possible from the captions and their English translations. It worked surprisingly well, and later at the Polyglot Conference I learnt that this is an official teaching method called the Discovery Method. Not sure if it always has to involve frogs.

Polyglot Conference

Presenting at the Polyglot Conference

Our travels led us to Ljubljana in Slovenia in time for the Polyglot Conference! Overall, what a fantastic event. I presented a talk on the seven questions you need to answer to learn a language solo, which was my first live workshop on the topic, during the Friday Language Learning Event. The line-up was excellent, with fellow presenters including Olly Richards, Gareth Popkins, Judith Meyer, Katie Harris, Lindsay Williams and Tim Keeley.

I also saw some great talks at the main conference, including Angelo DeLeo re-visiting the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in a talk on Linguistic Anthropology. So interesting!

Sadly I missed a large part of the conference as I got pretty sick, but I was well taken care of by many language friends. Thank you all!

The Fluent Show

My favourite episode of the month has got to be the conversation with Kathryn and Sam about how to start an amazing language journal. The podcast episode was combined with a gallery of inspiring shots from language journal keepers everywhere, and I loved the variety and creativity.

Language Goals and Progress

Let’s have a look how October went in terms of my language goals. I had hoped to focus mostly on Welsh, though I knew it’d be a busy one.

Listening

The goal was to switch the TV or radio on in Welsh 2-3 times per week, and somehow I just got too busy and overwhelmed and completely forgot about this. I will be back on this one as soon as I’m feeling well!

The trick with TV is always to find one TV show with a narrative that I want to follow, either a reality programme or a drama. In the goals section below, I’ll choose and commit to one.

Reading

Not a bad month! During my trip I worked my way through about 5 chapters of this book, and I’ll be able to finish it as soon as I find where I’ve put the damn thing when unpacking.

Speaking

I did okay here on the Say Something in Welsh goal, as I completed level 20. It’s not up to 22 as I’d aimed for, but 20 was a long one and taught me several new things. I also got to chat to several Welsh speakers at the Polyglot Conference, though sadly no fully Welsh speaking “paneds.” ☕️

Say Something in Welsh continues to be a great resource when my friends are busy.

Writing

My goal was to write at least one instagram caption in Welsh every week, and I did post 3 out of 4 (I’ll add another one today).

In addition, Lindsay’s idea of writing prompts helped me fill a few more half pages. I’ve even found writing prompts inside of the Duolingo app - finally something I like it for!

Monthly Contact Goal

Every month, I log my “daily contact” with the Welsh language. And October was not impressive, with just 13 days out of 31 logged. As always, this depends on me remembering to tick a box, so it’s not a 100% accurate number. On most of those contact days, I did spend a good 15+ minutes, so there’s that for a sunny side.

Other Languages

I’m slowly reducing my fear and getting a tiny sense of the words in Chinese, though I am far from spending 10 minutes every day. Overall, I spent about 60 minutes on Chinese this month. I watched an Easy Languages Chinese video which was excellent, taught me a word, and kept me interested.

In addition used the apps Lingodeer,Drops, and the book Chinese in 10 Minutes a Day.

Goals For November 2018

I’m pleased to say that November is not much of a travel month, so I can actually get a little bit of a routine going! Fantastic stuff. For the rest of this year, I’m excited to prepare for the Fluent German Retreat in Trier, and start work on my next secret project.

I am planning my goals using the Language Habit Toolkit, my collection of handy self-coaching materials for solo language learners.

Listening

As I mentioned above, the trick with TV is always to find one TV show to get into. Last week I checked into the S4C app and saw that the Welsh political drama Byw Cerlwydd is back for a 3rd season. Fantastic! For this month, my listening goal is focused on catching up with this show. That should give me over 5 hours of exposure.

Reading

If I write the name Sgwp here again, will you be cross? NO! I am getting better and better at reading in Welsh with the help of this book and there are just under 100 pages to go, so this month’s goal can be really specific: Get to page 150 of Sgwp!

Speaking

Apart from the Polyglot Conference, last month was a quiet one. So this month, I’m not sure how I’ll do with time but I am making it my goal to book 2 italki lessons and 2 language exchanges, one every week at least.

I am tempted to add a stretch goal as I’m super impressed with a coaching client who recently took the italki Challenge, and will return to italki this month to find a new tutor to chat with.

Writing

After the Top Tools episode and the language journal episode of the Fluent Show in October, how could I not be excited about language journaling! I’ve been diligently writing, but this month my goal is to put pen to paper and write in my Welsh journal 3x a month.

Other Languages

I’ll keep up the Chinese dabbling and aim for at least 6x10 minutes during the month. That’s a whole hour, after all, and often a goal of “10 minutes” turns into 20 before you know it.

How Was Your Month?

So that’s it for this month’s goals! Be sure to check out the linkup for #clearthelist, hosted by Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy.

Are you setting goals, too? How do you feel about your target language and its usefulness?

Leave a comment below to tell me all about it!