#clearthelist January 2019: 中文 Language Dabbling, and I Finally Hit My Reading Goal

Ho ho ho, Christmas is over and I’m here to catch up with you all on my language goals and progress since the last Clear The List post in November. This is a great opportunity for me to check in and prepare for the new year.

Just in case this is your first #clearthelist post here at Fluent, let me say welcome and explain what this is about. Clear The List is a support and accountability blog group sharing monthly language learning goals, hosted by my friends Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy.

I’ve been tracking my goals and progress with this group since April 2018, and I use the Language Goals worksheet from my Language Habit Toolkit to keep track.

Click here to check out the Language Habit Toolkit - a handy tool for kicking off your language routine in the right way.

What Happened in December?

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A post shared by Kerstin Cable (@kerstin_fluent) on Dec 9, 2018 at 12:57pm PST

My biggest language event of December 2018 was the Fluent German Retreat in Trier! I hosted this language retreat for four motivated German learners who joined me for daily classes, excursions, Glühwein stops and more. Our theme was Wein und Weihnachten, and we honoured that name

Retreats are my big discovery of 2018 as a language teacher. Again on this occasion, it was amazing to see hesitant speakers warming up and starting to chat more and more in their target language. Plus, nothing beats a week of all-in travel in a beautiful location.

If you need a confidence boost and want to join one of my future retreats, make sure you register here.

Apart from this, December was the usual festive flurry of activity, with more trips to see family and exchange lovely presents for the season.

The Fluent Show

The Fluent Show had 3 episodes this month, as we’re currently on a short holiday break until 7 January 2019.

Are you catching up during the break? Here’s a link to our full archive.

My favourite episode of December was this discussion of what to do and how to react when you find yourself in an intermediate speaking dilemma. Thanks to Elizabeth for this great question!

Language Goals and Progress

I have a confession/announcement: This month, I’ve decided I’m officially dabbling in learning Chinese!! I feel like I’m documenting some kind of new list of learning stages:

1. “Not that I’m learning Chinese, but I’m just here with an app”
2. Officially dabbling

I’m guessing that number 3 might be “learning” and that would be when I’d think more deeply about my goals. For now, dabbling means I continue to add more Chinese vocab and I may get myself a notebook. It’s fairly pressure-free over here.

I’m using the Streaks app to track my time spent with this language in 10-minute blocks. In December, I completed 7 blocks so that’s about 70 minutes spent studying Chinese.

Welsh

Here’s how I got on in Welsh - still my number 1 language.

Listening

Ughhhhhh. I wanted to listen to an episode of Nicky’s Mynd am beint gyda.. podcast and listen to the radio a lot. I got 9 minutes into a 2-hour episode. The language level is about right though. I remember putting the radio on about 5 or 6 times. Listening practice continues to be my big challenge. (In ANY language, tbh.) What am I to do?

Reading

I HAVE FINISHED THE BOOK SGWP!!!!!! My goal was to get to page 185 and by that point the story was wrapping up, so I found myself wanting to follow. Great book for Welsh learners - if you’re anywhere in the B levels, get yourself a copy here.

Speaking

I had a lesson with my Welsh tutor but that’s about it. To be honest, this month was so stressful with a lot of travel and the intense German retreat, I’d have struggled to fit in much more. In addition, I completed challenge 21 of Say Something in Welsh level 2. I’m happy enough with all that.

Writing

Mostly centred at the start of the month, my writing progress was focused on completing exercises from the WJEC Welsh GCSE Past papers. I didn’t find these particularly hard and I enjoyed having something to write about for a few more minutes. The challenge is to ensure I have someone correcting me.

Daily Contact Goal

Every month, I log my “daily contact” with the Welsh language. Given the retreat and Christmas time, December looks ok with 14 days out of 30 (bei Redaktionsschluss as they say in Germany). I don’t track the length of each “contact”.

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

If you’re interested in a tracking template for your own language routine, again let me recommend the Language Habit Toolkit which you’re going to love.

Year Review

In the next podcast episode, we’ll have a new year special with Shannon Kennedy where I’ll share a few year end review questions. Look out for it by subscribing to “The Fluent Show” wherever you get your podcasts.

Goals for January 2019

To kick off the new year, I’m participating in an Instagram challenge with the Drops app. You can find it at #90dayswithdrops on the Instagram app. I’ll be using the app for Chinese, throwing in some Russian, and perhaps playing in a few more.

If you have only ever used Duolingo and want a new language app to play with, by the way, here are my top 3 for the year 2018:

• Smartcards Plus
• Drops
• Say Something in Welsh

Now let’s get to the Welsh goals.

Listening

Above, I identified that listening time can be a challenge for me and I do think that understanding spoken language is important. I feel like I want to get away from “entertainment listening” for a little while and make this a stronger study focus, so my goals are

1. Listen to the Say Something in Welsh practice audio twice a week
2. Parallel.cymru has a news in simplified Welsh section, and my goal is to listen-while-reading or make notes on 10 of these in January

Reading

Reading a whole book (Sgwp!) was a great benefit during the last year, so I’ll take January off but I already know I’ll be back in Feb with a new reading goal.

Speaking

I’ll crack on with Say Something in Welsh and complete challenges 22-24 of level 2, and I’ll take action on posting that little ad asking for a language buddy say’s siârad Cymraeg around here.

Writing

The exam papers were a great prompt last time, and my next goal is to use a few writing prompts from a writing prompt book (Lindsay and I discussed this technique on the podcast a few times - see here) to fill more pages in Welsh. The goal is 6 double-spaced pages.

What Are Your Language Goals?

It’s time for a new year - are you studying a new language?

How was your December? Leave a comment below and don’t forget to check out the Clear The List linkup by Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy.

And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram to see how I get on during the month.

Happy new year!!

Language Learning On The Go: How To Find A Great Language App

When was the last time you picked up your phone? Oh, you’re looking at it right now? And you want to learn a language?

Game on! It’s time to talk about effective apps. When you don’t have a lot of time and want to fit in some language study on the go, there are hundreds of language learning apps that can help you succeed.

But how do you know you’re spending your time well? Is your app effective for teaching you another language?

This article idea was supported by the team at Drops, a gorgeous vocab training app that I love. So I decided to use their app as the example of great ways that app design can help you learn a language.

Here are 5 ways to find the best apps for YOUR language learning routine, using Drops as an example.

1. There Is a Clear Purpose

Some apps are designed to help you learn and memorise new vocabulary, others train your pronunciation, some aim to be full courses, yet others are games or dictionaries. It’s important to understand what each app is trying to do so that you get the right mix.

In my Language Habit Toolkit, you’ll learn that there are three types of key language learning resources:

1. Guiding Resources, which help you through grammar and communication goals in a language (like courses)
2. Input Resources, which help you experience the language in context and practice understanding it (like videos and stories)
3. Reference Resources, which help you look up information as you need it (like a dictionary)

Now when you look at language apps, you will be able to slot most of them into one of those categories. One of my current favourites is Drops, a beautiful app designed around learning new words of vocabulary.

Drops is a guiding resource, focused on words only. It teaches you a curated list of words (around 2300 per language) through playful actions, but it doesn’t include speaking practice or grammar.

For me, that’s no dealbreaker. As I’ve mentioned before on the blog, I love it when an app focuses on doing one thing and doing it well.

2. The Language App Works For Your Language Goals

The most effective way to learn languages with apps is to break down the different parts of a language course. Think back to your school life or any teacher led class. What are the different things you do and learn? Once you have a list of the elements that you are looking for, you can make sure your group of language apps covers you for each of them.

Then, divide your study goals into listening, speaking, reading and writing and make sure you cover each.

For example, here are a few different things you’ll do in a good language class, and the different apps that can help you with each:

1. Learn new words (for example Drops)
2. Practice speaking a language (for example Tandem)
3. Listen to another language (for exampleSpeechling)
4. Help you read and write the language (for example Clozemaster)
5. Schedule and track your study sessions (for example Streaks)

You can add many more ideas to this list, for example keeping up to date with news in another country or preparing for an exam.

Learn more about language apps and the ones the Fluent Show hosts use on our podcast and list about apps.

3. The App Teaches You The Right Language

There is more than way to answer this question!

Of course, the app should offer the language you’re learning. Some are common like French and Chinese, others a little bit rare like Welsh and Hawaiian. (Drops offers 3 out of the 4!)

Different themes to choose in Drops app

Secondly, it should cover what you want to talk about. Most language courses are developed with an eye on their market, for example travellers or people who need the language for travel.

The key is to talk about what you find interesting, instead of suffering through vocabulary about politics just because your textbook says that this is what you “should do”.

Drops offers in a cool twist on the “language tree” system of other apps. In this app, you get to choose what matters. For example travellers can start by learning helpful vocabulary for their travels first, business students get to grips with the Business & Tech words, while romantics may want to start learning how to talk about relationships.

4. The App Maximises Your Language Study Time

Time and habits are closely related. When you’re thinking of learning a new language, one of the first questions in your mind will be: When am I supposed to do fit this in?

The trick for many learners is to stop thinking of language study as these super-sessions that last 3 hours, and instead to study little and often. This is certainly how I’ve been studying languages myself, and I can now have conversations in several languages that I studied for a few minutes on most days.

So with any language learning app, the question is: What can you do in the app, given the time that you have? The good ones will know that you are not here to study for many hours, and they’ll maximise your results for this short time.

Timing Your App Usage

That ticking clock knows no excuses!

For those of us who are pressed for time and easily distracted, Drops has introduced a simple and effective tool: the countdown! Learners who start out on Drops will only have 5 minutes of app time available to them. That’s right, after 5 minutes the app will lock and you’ll have to wait.

You can gain extra seconds by keeping up a streak and checking in regularly. But the app will still help you to stop learning and keep up a habit of small steps, rather than a huge study session that you won’t want to repeat.

When you see that countdown ticking as you study languages, it does something magical: you’ll stick with this app. Most of the time, our phone usage is bitty as heck. Using a smartphone is frantic and distracting, and that’s not a great way to study. But the timer in the Drops app acts like a gentle reminder: Stick with this, you’ve decided to do it and it’s only 5 minutes.

I’ve no doubt that other education apps are going to introduce this super cool countdown feature as well, because it’s perfect for busy smartphone users.

5. The Language App is Fun

If you get frustrated or bored using any language learning app, I’d say delete it. There is a huge market out there with well-designed apps, and the phone is not the place to start trying to practice tenacity when something isn’t fun.

Ask yourself these questions to be sure that the app will work correctly:

Is it fast?

The app should load quickly and minimise the time you have to spend typing on the world’s smallest keyboard. Save your thumbs! For me, this is the area where Drops was most surprising. There is no typing at all.

Drops is the most considerate app for phone users I’ve seen so far.

Is it pretty?

I’m not talking about pink unicorns. If the app interface doesn’t make you want to look at it, you are less likely to use it. Choose an app that makes you think “experience”, not “homework”.

Does it work well on your phone/tablet/watch?

If the app you’re using hasn’t been tested well enough, it may come up with a number of bugs. Screens getting stuck, freezing, shutting down, or a failure to save your hard-earned progress will warrant an email to the developer, but they’re not a reason to stick with this version.

6. You’re Still Learning With The App

Download a bunch of language learning apps, and then track yourself as you go ahead and use them. You’ll find that a few apps are always “top of mind” and just keep you coming back, while others don’t seem to get any screen time.

It’s okay to say “this one just isn’t right for me”. With the range of apps that we have available now, my advice is to cut out the apps that sit on your phone and don’t get used. The key is to know where your focus is, and that should be where you have fun as well.

As a final tip, consider putting some money on the line for a subscription to an app that you enjoy and use the most. Paying for something can help a user feel more satisfied and more effective using it, and supporting good developers can only work in our favour as language learners. After all, “free” doesn’t always mean the same thing as “good”. In no language.

_By the way…_Drops has a free version and a paying subscription, here is a link for 40% off if you decide to go for it.

What Is Your Most Effective Language App?

If you haven’t given the Drops app a go yet, I can definitely recommend it! I’ve been using this app for weeks now for my Chinese practice, and found that I’m remembering new words well and feeling confident about the “Kangxi Radicals” it’s teaching me.

I’d love to hear from you. Do you download lots of apps and test drive them all? Or are you a one-app one-time kind of learner? Leave me a comment below to join the conversation.

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

Join my Newsletter for more language learning tips, mindset shifts, and updates

#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!