9 Creative Ways To Power Up Your Language Resources

Today’s episode is based on an Instagram question from Iye, who is learning Norwegian. This is a popular enough language, but not one of the big ones exactly - with 5 million speakers, this language only has official status in Norway.

Anyway, Iye found that learning a lesser known language comes with the challenge of finding great materials for that language. So she wondered

Do you have any tips for how I can go about creating my own language learning materials?

Listen to this episode of the Fluent Show to find out all about making your own materials to power up your language learning routine.

What are the Benefits of Creating Your Own Language Learning Materials?

There is one big and obvious reason to get creative with materials: because there aren’t any.

For example, Ajeng from our FB group is learning Maori and says it’s hard to get good sources especially as someone living away from the country. Fewer websites, fewer videos.

Fran (learning Sicilian) say “It’s such a struggle to keep motivated because you can’t just pick up a book or watch a show or film”

There may even be materials, but they don’t always fall in with your preferred learning style.

Even if you are a learner of a big language like Spanish or French, you will still get so many benefits out of creating your own materials.

How Will Creating Your Language Learning Materials Help You get Fluent?

For this answer, let's look at the science of education. 🎓

It is best practice in the field of pedagogy to work upwards from hearing new information towards creating with it. Trained teachers may remember reading about Bloom's Taxonomy for example, which puts creation at the top of any learning process.

When you go ahead and make your own notes, flashcards and resources, you are adapting language learning to your own personal learning style and needs. Creation is a huge part of the learning process.

The Different Levels of Creation in Language Learning

In the podcast, you can hear about three different ways of starting to create your own language learning materials. So let's take a look at ideas for doing it.

Journaling / Notebooks : Document Life & Study

Try a Language Journal

Make notes on vocabulary, track your studies, write a diary, create your personal notes in this language. Definitely make your own flashcards.

You don’t need to because the internet and your materials have you covered, but do your own notes always make the most sense? HELL YES.

Examples:

• Always write down vocabulary no matter where you hear it - make your own flashcards instead of using pre-made decks
• Copy sentences and lines from any other sources that you find interesting, notes from lessons, document your own learning journey. Annotate with what you need (for example pronunciation notes as long as necessary). It’s YOURS
• Create transcripts (for example using Sonix) or translate sentences into your target language or into English (Andy’s idea)

Documenting Life & Study

This goes one step further from the last step, and means you organise more and start to truly create!

At this level, start curating materials in your target language to produce your own collections. For example, write a vocab list on a specific topic or collect an online folder of recipes to cook from.

This is also where you start creating - making videos or writing sentences, figuring out how to produce more in your target language.

Here's what other language learners are doing:

• John from the forum asks himself “How can I describe this in French/Spanish/German?" and uses these as real-life prompts
• Fran (Sicilian learner) records every Skype lesson and all her notes - she doesn't have a lot of materials available through YouTube, so getting more out of her lessons this way creates materials through conversations
• Fran also copies out texts etc from Italian text books and translates from Italian into Sicilian, or use them as a basis for making up a text for herself
• Ajeng tries to analyse and compare sentences in her target language Maori to figure out the grammar, then writes in Maori and asks for corrections from native speakers
• Lindsay (and I, a little) write using creative writing prompts as you heard on our top tools episode

Dare To Teach Your Language

Once you’re at an intermediate level, you have something to pass on to others. Teaching a language is an incredible way of learning it, and there are thousands of ways to get started.

Why not try to offer a short lesson at your local library - your attendees may even know someone who’s further along than them.

Many apps and textbooks are created from this need, for example HelloTalk and Clozemaster. And for Irregular Endings, the passion for languages became a unique stationery company. If you have the skills and confidence, this could be a way for you to go.

Why You Should Make Your Own Language Learning Plan

Creating your own materials will help you learn faster and better, so it's definitely worth a try. When you plan your next language goals or think about the weeks ahead, ask yourself where you could get a little more interactive.

The best way to get to language learning success is to build your own successful language learning routine. For this, I use the Language Habit System:

1. Plan
2. Track
3. Review

For your personal language learning plan, make sure you have set effective goals and that you know you are tracking all the contact you have with your target language.

Here's more informaiton about learning languages every day.

9 Great Websites For German Beginners

Pop quiz - Which one of these is your favourite reason to learn German?

1. You fell in love with a German speaker

2. You fell in love with the atmosphere of a beer fest or a Christmas market

3. You have not yet tasted the greatest bread on this Earth, but you’d really like to, and you’ve heard the bakery only offers it to German speakers

4. Your company works with German clients and their English is so good it’s embarrassing all you know is jawohl ein Bier bitte

5. You want to visit Germany and get a taste of the wonderful nature, forests, skiing, castles, Roman history, medieval town centres, comfortable trains, inviting restaurants, fairy tale rivers

There are no wrong answers here. ALL of the above are fantastic reasons to get started learning the German language. I have been teaching and sharing German language and culture for five years, and today I’m sharing some of my favourite resources for beginners.

Make Your German Sound Amazing

My free mini-guide to speaking German is out now. It's called Make Your German Sound Amazing and will give you the best tips and 26 key phrases to make you ready for any conversation. Pop your details into the form below to join my email list and get the guide immediately!*

Check out 2 or 3 of these resources and make sure you bookmark them to visit again and again!

Great German Learning Websites

Beautiful German castles and Germany.travel

Sometimes it's necessary to check out of verb tables and remember why you chose to learn this language in the first place. What better way than to dream of hiking up beautiful hills and discovering romantic castles? Castles beat cases, after all.

Mein Weg nach Deutschland

This is a great project from the Goethe institute. Where would we be without them! Follow the story of Nevin, a newbie in Germany (who excitedly photographs pretty much anything on her mobile phone). The videos are available with and without subtitles and each episode has practice exercises too!

Deutsch Plus and Jojo sucht das Glück

There are some truly great telenovelas out there, designed especially for German learners. Lovers of retro Germany will like Deutsch Plus, the story of shy TV intern Nico from Romania - it's vintage 1996 work. Even better - it's suitable for starters from day 1. For improvers, Brazilian student Jojo will be a fun resource.

Listening: Radio D

Another suitable resource for beginners right from day 1 - Radio D is an audio course. Nice plot and a very well supported website with grammar hints and word lists make this resource a go-to page for German learners of any age.

Dictionary: LEO

No German learner can do without LEO - it must be one of the best online dictionaries around! Language searches available in both directions, 7 supported language pairs with German, audio pronunciation and a well-attended forum finding even the most obscure expressions make this a bookmark no-brainer.

TIP: Read more on how to use a dictionary like the most successful language learners

German Uncovered

Learn German the natural way without complex grammar explanations and boring lessons. This course is based on a story, so you’ll be reading and having fun as you progress to level A2 at high speed.

Speak German Like a Native

If you find spoken German hard to understand, you need this course. This  is my 5* masterclass course for all levels. No other course digs into the sounds of the German language, giving you the confidence to even say Eichhörnchen and Wechselstrom like a native.

Got More To Add?

The German learning community out there is always growing, and I’d love to hear what you’ve uncovered online.

Leave a comment if you know where to go for grammar that makes sense, or the best Swiss expressions. 

Before You Set Your 2019 Goals, Here's What You Can Do To Get Ready

Happy New Year, hurrah, welcome to 2019!

I bet you've been itching for January to kick off so you can go full steam ahead in lots of new language projects! But before that, let's not forget the year that's just gone by.

That's right, there are some goodies and lessons in the old year that can make a huge difference in how successful you'll be in 2019.

We'll find them with an annual review! For this purpose, I hung out with my friend and 10-language polyglot Shannon Kennedy to talk through her experiences of language in 2018, and how to set the best possible goals so your year goes better than ever.

Hit play to listen to our podcast:

In our conversation, Shannon shared her stories of how 2018 went as a language study year.

A New Language Learning Routine

Shannon's language learning routine changed away from setting specific task goals like "learn 30 new words". It is now more free and focuses on time spent with the language, which allows space for inspiration and still means a lot of productivity.

Shannon also had to deal with big routine changes like the loss of her 2-hour commute which used to provide lots of focused language time. She quickly learnt how to make up for that loss and now pairs her activities with more intention, for example using household chores as a great opportunity to put on an audio course or a podcast.

The Value of Discipline Over Motivation

Shannon also talks about how motivation can be a bad friend for language learners. It's just not as reliable as you would want it to be. She discovered just how valuable discipline is instead, and the difference it can make when you make discipline a value in your study routine.

How To Set Great Language Learning Goals

Finally, we discussed the way Shannon sets herself goals and works with the structure of Vision Goals and Path Goals. She shares a few of her own Vision Goals and I promise you, they're among the best I have EVER heard from a language learner. These goals are your "why", your source of all the mental energy you may need to focus on your language and keep moving forward.

TIP: If you can anchor your goal in real life and make it about a real situation you'd like to experience, it will be a more powerful and helpful Vision Goal.

Here Are The Year Review Questions

You can use them to conduct your own review of 2018 and set goals for the next year.

• How would you sum up the year in your languages?
• What changed in your life and in your languages in 2018?
• What lessons do you think you learnt from the year 2018?
• What surprised you?
• What will you change going forward?
• Looking forward, what are your language learning goals for 2019?

Shannon's top 3 books of 2018

• Grit by Angela Duckworth
• The Organised Mind by Daniel J. Levitin
• Courses from the Assimil series

Shannon's top 3 apps of 2018

• Drops, naturally!
• Streaks
• Lingq

Shannon's top 3 courses

• The Add1 Challenge
• Yoyo Chinese
• 90 Day Korean

What Were Your Top Books, Apps, and Courses?

And do you set yourself regular vision goals?

Share them in the comments below!

#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.