How to Learn a Language at Christmas (Even If You Don't Celebrate Christmas)

With just a few days to go until the Christmas holiday, chances are you might be feeling busy right now. When you’ve got gifts to wrap and trees to light, how can you keep learning languages?

Don’t worry, it’s not impossible. In this podcast and article, I’ve got handy tips for you to keep you in touch with any language - no matter if it’s Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or Pagan Yule season.

You can also find this podcast by searching “Fluent Show” on 🍎 apple podcasts 📣Spotify 🔶Overcast 📻TuneIn Radio 🏆and anywhere you get podcasts

1) Surround Yourself With Your Target Language

At this time of the year, you’ll probably spend a lot of time in the home. You may already be decorating your house, which is a great opportunity for subtle language immersion.

The psychological concept behind this tip is that of priming, which describes the way your brain reacts to even the tiniest cues and adjusts its assumptions and expectations accordingly. You can use it to your advantage by decorating with a little language flair.

How about

• a few decorations adorned with words in your target language
• multilingual cards and greetings this year (try Irregular Endings)
• making and serving different foods and drink, inspired by your target culture

Even if your items don’t have any words in your target language on them, they will remind you that you’re a learner of another language and bring your loved ones in on your project.

2) Seek Out Tutorials in Your Target Language

This time of year is perfect for homemade gifts, decorations, and food. If you have an IRL friend who practices your target language with you, get out of the “1-to-1 conversation” routine and make something together!

For added bonuses, use a tutorial in your target language. This is excellent practice for reading comprehension and boosts your motivation by giving you something instant to show.

For example I’ve made biscotti before from a recipe in my Welsh learners’ magazine and then I packaged them up and gave them to friends and family as Christmas presents.

Look out for

• Crafting tutorials and magazine articles in your target language
• Recipes for seasonal food
• Crafting materials and instructions

3) Host a Language Party

The holiday season is a time to get together, not to sit alone and stare at Duolingo or Memrise. Here are a few ideas for bringing a bit of language flair to your holiday party:

Play Games Together

There are so many great word games that broaden your horizons about English, and it’s not too difficult to adapt them to a multilingual group. For example, guess the answers to a round of Pictionary or charades in another language, or get your friends to act out your vocabulary lists for you!

For more ideas, read these ideas for language learning games in a group.

Discover Music in Your Language

Play music in your target language and explore and share how they celebrate the season. If possible, get out and visit a celebration in the community of your language. There’s lots going on and during the holiday season most people love to open their doors.

If you haven’t found any music in your target language yet, go straight to my Spotify for Language guide or this multilingual Christmas song made by Lindsay Williams.

Watch a Christmas Movie

Many people have a favourite film about Christmas, and if you don’t have one yet then Netflix is ready to help out with every new instalments of the Christmas Prince series.

Here are a few ideas:

• Un conte de Noël in French
• 3 Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel,a German/Czech 70s classic

And of course, you can always put target language subtitles on Die Hard!

If you have not found a festive movie in your target language yet, now is the time to ask and enjoy some well-deserved downtime.

What If Your Target Language Has No Christmas Season?

No worries!

• Use decorations that suit the season, and learn about celebrations at this time of year

• Sneak a little snack or food from your target language environment into the boring old Christmas with Aunt Bridget

• Use festive colours and glitter pens to write your vocabulary lists and language notes

• Take pictures of your decorations and add them to your digital flashcard apps (for example, Smartcards + lets you easily add photos)

Find Time and Focus For Studying Your Language

The winter holiday season often means a drop in productivity. You are likely interrupted in your routine, and you may find yourself with lots of extra tasks on your plate.

If you find yourself wanting stay productive without the added stress, take my short language course Focus & Fluency.

It’s a proven way to get more motivated and kickstart your learning with smarter study techniques.

No matter what you do, merry Christmas if you do celebrate it - nadolig llawen - frohe Weihnachten, and comment below sharing your favourite songs and movies in your target language.

The Best Language Learning Tools for Autumn/Winter 2019

Have you ever googled "the best tools for learning a language?"

Oh, you were doing that just now?

Lucky you found us, because in this blog article I've got the best tools of the season all lined up for you.

What Makes The Top Tools?

Top tools are curated by me (Kerstin Cable) together with my co-host Lindsay Williams, and we have been doing this honorable job for a few years now! Every 6 months, we list the most interesting and useful language learning resources we've seen online and offline.

There's also a podcast episode of the Fluent Show where you can hear a discussion of each of these resources and what makes them great.

The Recommendations for Language Learning in Autumn/Winter 2019

Try them out yourself and make sure you listen to the podcast episode to find out which ones we chose as our top 3.

FlipWord

FlipWord inserts target language vocabulary and quizzes into every page you're reading online, so that you can learn and review vocabulary in your target language while reading the content you would read anyway. As they say, it's passive language learning.

Flipword is a Chrome Extension, soon to be available on mobile devices too. Currently, it works on every page that you read online in English, Chinese, or Korean.

The Indo-European Cognate Dictionary

Do you love languages? THOUGHT SO! Your face may light up just like mine did when you hear about the Indo-European Cognate Dictionary! In this new reference book for language learners, you can look up how one (proto-or-not-) indo-European root has evolved to show up in up to 32 different languages.

No matter if you're learning German or Swedish or Portuguese, this book is guaranteed to help you remember and understand vocab more easily. You'll thank us for this one, polyglot friend.

Mini Vocabulary Notebooks

Lindsay bought her notebook in Korea and here are a few similar ones from YesStyle UK and Amazon.com. Handwrite your vocabulary lists, then memorize them and review your vocabulary by covering up one language with the little flap.

By the way, here's a little more information about the miraculous benefits of keeping a language learning notebook.

Quizklip

Do you read articles in your target language in Chrome browser and want a nice and easy way to look up vocab? Then Quizkip has your back. This handy little extension helps you find a translation for words you don't know, and it builds a list that you can export straight to Quizlet or Anki.

Master Any Language

This website offers a large supply of free language courses, language games and vocabulary list in a wondrous range of languages. If you are curious and want to dabble in a lesser-known language like Breton, Komi, or Uyghur, you'll find lots of materials here.

LingoLog

LingoLog is an online notepad with a calendar, giving you a library of interesting prompts for language learners. Every time you write na entry in your target language, the calendar records it so you can build a habit streak.

This is perfect if you want to write in your target language and you like a very simple interface. You can also share what you've written with friends and teachers to get feedback and corrections.

Honorary Mentions

• Lupa, an app for learning Spanish with Radio Ambulante
• The Language Learning with Netflix extension for Chrome browser

What Do You Think?

Listen to the podcast episode to hear how we ranked each one of the resources in this blog post and which one is the best.

You can get in touch with us and tell us what you thought by commenting below or finding us on Twitter and Instagram.

Clear the List November 2019: No-English Lessons as a Beginner?!

Clear the List November 2019: No-English Lessons at My Level?!

Hello and welcome to another blog post in the Clear The List series, the monthly language learning round-up about language learning goals and progress.

That’s right - NOVEMBER goals! October was a very interesting month for my language learning as I tried out something I had never tried before. Exciting stuff!

This check-in is part of the #clearthelist round-up hosted by Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams.

What Happened in October?

I was busy signing up participants for the next Fluent German Retreat, and then I travelled to the USA again! This time, my time was spent at a retreat in Colorado and it took up about half of the month. So that means I had half of the month for studying languages.

I don’t usually allow a lot of my weekend to become language study time as I want to spend it with my husband and my inner lazybones, but this month I challenged myself and took several lessons on Saturday afternoons. It was actually great fun, and definitely a time of the week that now feels open for languages.

The Fluent Show in October

I travelled to London to record my first ever interview in person! The interview was with David Peterson, the remarkable creator of languages for TV shows like Game of Thrones, The 100, and Defiance. The resulting show is out on 11 November so look out for it in your usual podcast locations.

Recording in person was a new adventure for me and I travelled up to London with brand new microphones, cables, and mic stands! It’s worth it for a special recording atmosphere, I can’t wait to record in person again soon. If you listen to just one episode from October 2019, I recommend this deep dive into finding a perfect language teacher with my co-host Lindsay Williams.

Reminder: The Fluent Show has opened a Patreon page. This allows all listeners to become involved in making the show with a small monthly pledge. If you want to become a part of the community, please visit our Patreon page.

Language Goals and Progress

During the month of October, I pushed myself to take as many italki lessons as possible in the italki language challenge.

If you’ve never heard of italki, click here to find out more and get $10 credit - it is a platform for finding online language teachers, and it’s excellent.

Now before the big reveal, lemme tell you a thing: italki sets the challenge goals in lesson hours. But for me, language lessons are rarely an hour long when I’m crouching around somewhere at an early level. With the approach I took in Chinese, an hour would have felt very exhausting for me and the tutor so I chose to take lots of lessons but many of them were half an hour long.

And on that note, I totally didn’t meet the goal of 12 study hours. But I hadn’t expected to.

Instead, I took 6.25 hours of study time split over 9 lessons. The results were surprisingly positive, I felt reinvigorated and reminded how much I love languages! Here are the specifics.

Mandarin Chinese

Wow! Considering I was tutor-less a month ago, the italki challenge absolutely pushed me to find a new style and tutor that worked for me. And in Chinese, I tried a whole new approach this time.

Instead of choosing an experienced and formally qualified tutor, I decided to go with what italki calls a “community tutor”, i.e. someone who is ready to help and teach but who hasn’t formally studied the language as much.

This was 100% the right decision for someone like me who is

• an experienced language learner
• already working with 1 or 2 guiding resources
• pretty confident about knowing what to do.

Going for a tutor who approaches teaching less formally suits my own informal style perfectly, especially since I tend to follow up after class and do my own homework without prompting.

By the way, you can learn more about the differences and what they mean in this month’s podcast episode about language teachers.

No-English Lessons at My Level?!

I took inspiration from Scott Young’s interview on the Actual Fluency podcast (episode 164). In this interview, Scott mentioned that he used to hire tutors and tell them beforehand that he doesn’t know a lot but he wants to eliminate English during the class, so he will heavily use google translate.

I had previously taken lessons that involved a tutor working through a textbook with me, and I did not enjoy them so much. So I figured “what the heck” and decided to throw myself in at the deep end and speak terrible internet Chinese to a few people. They get paid, after all!

And the result was totally positive! I enjoyed each class, had lots of fun, experimented, and understood almost nothing my partners said to me. But it didn’t matter! We came away after 30 minutes feeling like there had been some level of conversation.

I am NOT speaking well yet, but or the first time since I started, I was having fun in Chinese.

If you want to try this out for yourself, go for it! The key is having good follow-up.

Each tutor was very diligent about typing what they said for me, so that after the lesson I took time to copy it into my notebook and I reviewed it for myself. This added about 30 minutes of follow-up time to the lessons, but it’s how I was able to remember things, and it’s also writing practice. Worth it!

App and Book Update

I’m enjoying Lingodeer and Assimil’s “Chinese False Beginners” workbook.

LingQ has fallen by the wayside because I’ve now finished the beginner’s material and there is a big gap between beginner and intermediate. No one wants to review 50 expressions after every page.

Welsh

I also took online lessons with a new Welsh teacher, who was lovely! After my US trip I noticed that I was particularly rusty, so getting right back into an hour of conversation was crucial. Looking forward to more!

In other goals, I have finally booked my next trip to Wales! I’m going to Cardiff/Pontypridd for a Sadwrn Siarad on 23 November and I cannot wait. Love Cardiff, and it’s been too long.

Wildcard Language!

My wildcard language for the italki challenge was BSL (British Sign Language), and I loved each of my 2 classes so much that it left me very eager to learn more and more. In reality, this would come at the cost of either Welsh or Chinese…what to do? Maybe I end up being a learner of all my local languages?

Language Goals for November 2019

Let’s get into detail then! November is a month without international travel, and I’m grateful for it.

Listening

When I’m a beginner in any language, listening without the visuals makes me feel more lost than supported. So this is all about my intermediate/advanced language, Welsh. I regularly listen to the radio and watch TV in Welsh, so my goal is to continue the good work with radio 2-3 times a week and TV for at least 2 hours without subtitles.

When I’m in Cardiff, I’ll also see if I can’t make it to a gig in Welsh.

In Chinese I’ll take a bit of Yabla practice but it’s not my main focus.

Reading

In Chinese, I read a lot as it’s my main source of information. My goal is to complete 2 more chapters in the Assimil workbook and to review the handwritten lesson notes I make.

In Welsh, once again I will finish Ffenestri. I WILL!!! It’s an important goal because then I can take it to Cardiff, give it away to another learner, and get a new supply.

Speaking

I want to build on the good work from October and take another 4 italki lessons in Chinese.

In Welsh, I’m obviously going to a whole day about siarad (speaking), and will also try to hang out with local friends when I’m in Cardiff. I am so excited.

Writing

This is one for Chinese study, where I want to continue my discipline in terms of following up on each lesson with hand-written notes that I can review easily.

What About You?

How do you work with online tutors? How was your October? Leave a comment below or if you’re an Instagram fan, click on the post below to share your own goals in your stories with my template.

Interactive Instagram goal setting, here we go! Share in the comments or journal your answers to the questions: 1) What was great? 2) Did you achieve any goals? 3) What didn't go so well? We are not just at the end of the month, but also the end of the quarter. It's such a good time to set goals for yourself. A simple language goal 🎯 should be realistic and oriented on the process. That means write down something you can actually do! For example write that you want to "get to page 35 in my book" instead of "have fluent conversation". Make it very specific and check it off, and that progress you dream of is going to sneak up on you. It really works! In this slideshow there's an interactive element - share it in your stories and fill it in, then tag me to share your goals. Let's step it up. #languagegoals #languagelearning #languages #language #studygram #goals #studygoals #goals #fluentlikeaboss #monthlygoals

Brilliant German TV Shows and Movies to Turn Up Your Language Immersion

Heads up: My free mini-guide to speaking German is out now 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!

Ever since I started teaching myself languages, television has played a big role in my study routine. It’s not always the place where I actively learn a language through deliberate practice. Still, the ongoing exposure to my target language’s culture and sound keep me interested and allow me to test my learning progress by switching subtitles on and off.

And since I am a German teacher who also shares a home with a sporadic German learner, our cosy nights on the coach often feature TV shows in my native language, German.

In this article, I’ve listed 9 shows and films that we loved. These will offer you enough entertainment in German to keep you on the couch for weeks in German binge-mode. Los geht’s!

German TV Shows

More and more amazing shows are pulling in top writers and actors from Germany’s film industry, and there’s something for everyone.

If You Want Spy Drama and Retro Fashion by the Berlin Wall

The Same Sky is centred around the “Romeo” assignment of Lars, a young East German soldier in the 1970s. It’s called “Romeo” because his job is to befriend and seduce a female target who works in a military institution (played by The Bridge’s Sofia Helin!) and move her to reveal secret intel on who’s spying on the East German state.

As Lars embarks on his adventure in the “capitalist snake pit” of 1970s Berlin, a few secrets about his own past come to light.

With great acting, amazing shots of Berlin, and mind-boggling insights into the daily life of citizens in socialist East Germany, The Same Sky belongs on any German learner’s Netflix queue.

If You Wish There Was a German Telenovela

Guess what…there’s a German telenovela! It’s called Verliebt in Berlin (a pun meaning “in love in Berlin” and “in love with Berlin”). I don’t need to explain the plot in too much detail, but rest assured it involves young women and men, various love affairs, and at least one internship in fashion.

If You Wish There Was a German Telenovela for German Learners

German TV really has got it all! The series Jojo sucht das Glück is not a traditional TV show, but a programme developed by Deutsche Welle for German classrooms and learners all around the world.

As you watch the adventures of Jojo, a new student arriving to Cologne from Brazil, you can watch each episode with a full German transcript and follow it up with language exercises.

If You Want German Sci-Fi That is More Confusing Than the German Language

Dark is a gem and a rarity as a Netflix TV show produced by Germans and filmed entirely in German, to be released on the international market. And the gamble has paid off as the show became a fan favourite and won awards and top ratings across the board.

Dark is set in the small German town of Winden, where idyllic town life starts to go wrong as children start to disappear. The events are set in 2019, but very quickly the plot thickens when teenager Jonas discovers a portal that takes him back to Winden in 1986.

Can Jonas change the future? Did the disappeared children travel in time? And what’s the nuclear power station got to do with it all?

Dark is the perfect show for you if you enjoyed the otherworldly mysteries of shows likeStranger Things and don’t mind throwing time travel into the mix.

If You’re a Reality TV Junkie

Most of the big international TV hits have been produced in Germany as well as in other countries. For example, you can watch Das Große Backen if you love the happy world of home baking. Or if you’re an action junkie who wants to cheer on your favourite athlete, check out the German commentary on seasons 1 and 3 of Ultimate Beastmaster which is produced by Sylvester Stallone himself!

German Movies

The German film scene is world class, and here are a few suggestions to get you started.

If You Want an Oscar-Nominated Portrait of Terrorism in Germany

The Baader-Meinhof Komplex. They’re oddly well-dressed for terrorists, aren’t they? This film tells the story of Germany’s notorious Rote Armee Fraktion, a domestic terrorist group that emerged from the 1960s student revolts.

Fired up by rebellion against a generation of parents who let fascism happen on their watch, the young students around Ulrike Meinhof and Andreas Baader start to take action and things become increasingly violent.

This film is a must-see for anyone who wants to start getting an insight into the many ways Germany has had to face and deal with its Nazi past.

If You Think You’re Too Busy to Relax With a German Movie

Allow the bittersweet story of Toni Erdmann to change your mind. The film follows corporate consultant Ines, who is working double time to move her career forward. Her father Winfried misses their relationship and tries to win her attention through practical jokes.

Nothing works until Ines sets off on a company trip..just to find her father has decided to come along and style himself as her life coach. This film is funny and sweet with a genuinely sad undercurrent.

In Toni Erdmann you’ll discover the gentle, so absurd-it’s-serious style of humour that is so typical for Germany.

If You Are Ready to Feel the Heartbreak of Berlin’s Divided History

Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) is an Oscar-winning film about what happens when you work in audio surveillance and listen in on people so much that you end up caring about them.

Lonely Stasi man Gerd is played by Ulrich Mühe in one of his best performances ever. Watching the film, you will feel yourself drawn into his world and the conflicts he has to face between duty and integrity.

Want to Learn German With TV and Cut Out the Subtitles?

If you are an advanced learner and want to try watching without subtitles, don’t miss out on this episode of the Fluent Show with listening expert Cara Leopold.

What is Your Favourite German TV Show?

Comment below and tell me which show you cannot get enough of! I’m looking forward to adding it to my playlist.

Clear the List October 2019: My italki Speaking Challenge Plans

Hello and welcome to another blog post in the Clear The List series, the monthly language learning round-up about language learning goals and progress. Gretchen Rubin says

The days are long, but the years are short.

Well, I get the feeling that the days were >< this long in September. Nothing like a check-in post to remember what even happened!

If you’re inspired to try your own check-in, why not join our #clearthelist blog round-up hosted by Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams.

What Happened in September?

In the last week of September I spoke a lot of German! My husband is a fairly inactive German learner and we switched to the language for all conversations for a bit. I have not found it realistic to just “teach him German by speaking all the time”, so that short-term effort is unlikely to stick. Read this if you want to know more about learning languages through a partner.

The Fluent Show

First of all: The Fluent Show has opened a Patreon page. This allows all listeners to become involved in making the show with a small monthly pledge (though you can send a huge one if you like).

If you want to become a part of the community, please visit our Patreon page.

If you listen to just one episode from September 2019, I recommend the exciting recap of Langfest in Montréal. You’ll be transported there instantly!

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Language Goals and Progress

Here’s the short summary of what you’re about to read: I didn’t do much in one big chunk, but I did lots of little things and they added up. Or in another Gretchen Rubin quote…”what you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.”

Mandarin Chinese

I am feeling progress with this language. There is not a huge jump ahead as I’m not putting the big hours in, but still it’s going from noisenoisenoisenoisenoise to noise-word-noisenoisenoise-something-I-know. And phone typing in Chinese is also easier now. Hooray!

Here’s how I did with my goals:

• Look for a tutor and ask for listening support

I did look but I didn’t book. Hah! Must do better in October.

I did use Yabla this month to start a bit of TV in Chinese. I found a fun reality TV show on there and I’m excited that there are a few more learning materials available to me compared to Welsh.

• Use LingQ 4 days a week

No LingQ but it’s been an appy month anyway (GEDDIT?), as I moved ahead and levelled up with the wonderful Lingodeer. It is the best app-based course I’ve seen in Chinese.

By the way, I contacted Lingodeer and asked them for a discount code so you can now get 15% off Lingodeer membership using the code FLUENTSHOW.

• Vague speaking ambitions

I recorded myself reading the Chinese challenges on Lingodeer, but beyond that there wasn’t much progress. Again, stuck on getting a tutor.

Welsh

File under “what you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while”. In other words: I spoke Welsh, I read Welsh, I heard some Welsh, I typed a bit, but none of it in huge quantities.

Language Goals for October 2019

This month I need a little time to recover and focus on promoting the next Fluent German Retreat, and there’s a 10-day trip to the USA in my plans as well. Busy one, so I’ll be combining my goals for Welsh and Chinese.

Listening and Speaking

October is an italki challenge month, so I have a good reason to book lessons in both Chinese and Welsh, which should cover some of my speaking and listening needs.

The minimum hours to put in for a badge are 12, so I’ll divide mine into

• 4 hours of Welsh conversation (exciting)
• 4 hours of Chinese practice (terrifying)
• 4 hours of wildcard languages (exciting)

I’m thinking I might throw in a bit of French and BSL. What about you?

Reading

Apps and LingQ for Chinese, the final pages of Ffenestri in Welsh. My focus is not on this for the month.

Writing

I’ll see if I can make writing a part of my lessons somehow for the Chinese part. In Welsh, it’s a little easier since I have a few people I can always message in the language.

And that’s it for October’s #clearthelist!

How are You Getting On in Language Learning?

Boy, I’m so looking forward to my next trip to Wales. Nothing is booked yet and autumn is already going to be fairly travel heavy, but then..what’s better than learning in the country? This is why I run retreats in Germany after all!

What about you? Share your check-in and plans in the comments below!