Seven Questions Any Language Learner Needs To Answer

Before taking on a new language learning project, these questions will help you focus on a realistic, positive way to bring language into your life and stay motivated so you can become an expert speaker.

Who are the meaningful people in your life?

People in your life are relevant to your results in language learning, because they will influence your thoughts through conversation and behaviour.

Beyond that, it's also important to bear in mind who you are dedicating time and attention to, and how much time and attention you'd want to dedicate to other people.

What's been your contact with other languages so far?

Most people who want to learn a language as an adult have actually learnt a language in their life before. This means you're bringing some experience which can contribute to your success. But it can also mean baggage in terms of past negative experiences.

Have you ever taught someone something?

Every learning or teaching experience you've had in the past has helped you to prepare for learning a language right now. Consider what you did before that worked, and how you felt when you were able to share your knowledge.

What does your week look like?

Even before you start off with your new project, make yourself aware of how much time you have available.

Beware: If you have a lot of things on your plate, this question may make you nervous and doubtful. You do not need to dedicate many hours every single day to learning a language. You can be successful in many ways, but accept that you will be slower.

The purpose of examining your available time is to help you think about what is realistic. If you have a full-time job, coach the local sports team, and spend 2 hours in church every Sunday, you may not currently allow enough time to get fluent in 6 months. If you tried, you'd likely burn out or feel like a failure.

Is it possible to achieve a high language level in few months? Yes. But is it possible unless you put in 20+ hours every week? Nah. So instead, work with who you are and what you've got, and look forward to the progress you will make.

Who can help you learn a language?

Pull in your support team as early as possible! If you have friends who speak different languages, work in the field of languages, or perhaps kids who are studying a language in school, this can make all the difference.

Ask yourself "Who benefits when I learn this language?".

Beyond your circle of IRL friends, consider also where on social media you can build your language circle. If you watch YouTube or spend a few hours a week on Instagram, then make sure you learn with social media. Follow people who post in your target language, get involved by posting something yourself, and share your goals with communities like #studygram on Instagram or the Fluent Language Learners group over on Facebook.

Click Here for 17 Tips for Language Learning on Social Media.

Is there anything that you think might be a stumbling block?

If you talk to an insurance person, they'll tell you that insurance is all about knowing risks. And while I cannot sell you an insurance for failed fluency, I do recommend that you consider what's risky for your own success.

Here are a few common language learning threats:

• You may commit a lot of time but find it hard to maintain that energy.
• You may be scared of practicing your language because you don't want to look foolish.
• If you're motivated by one life event like a trip to the target country, your motivation could fade away after you return home.
• You may overestimate how fast you can learn, and feel demotivated when you progress is slower than expected.
• You may tell yourself "I can't learn languages" and self-sabotage yourself right from the start.

A language coach will help you handle each one of those risks, and many more. It's worth talking to them about it!

Learn more about language coaching

What conditions exist for making you a success?

Imagine you are NOT going to move to the country tomorrow and you won't win the lottery either. How could you still make language learning a success?

Making The Plan

Take the questions listed above to a friend, a supportive group, or book a few language coaching sessions. The coach will help you

• Think positively and discover your strengths.
• Look for opportunities to build a language learning habit so you can speak a language automatically without having to study so much.
• Value the advantages that you have right now, and show you how to use them to stay motivated for many years.

If you want a little more support on how to improve your routine in practical steps after these questions, check out the Language Habit Toolkit. It is a collection of guidance notes and worksheets that will help you set goals and become more productive as you learn languages. The toolkit is designed to be your little self-guided coach in a box.

What About You?

How would you answer the questions I listed above? Who helps you learn languages?

Share in the comments below - I'm excited to hear from you.

#clearthelist May 2019: Learning 2 Languages at Once (Plus: Lots of Resources for Chinese and Welsh!)

Hello and welcome to Clear The List, the monthly language learning round-up about language learning goals and progress. This blog round-up is hosted by my friends Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy, and April marks a full year of my language goal-setting using this process.

Andiamo!

What Happened in April 2019?

The month of April started off very intense and ended a lot more relaxed. That’s how I like it!

In the first week, I was finally lifting the curtain on my new German course, German Uncovered. It’s an incredible feeling when that first student enrols and all the work translates into their language progress. I held a welcome call with co-creator Olly Richards for our first gang.

This month, I was also busy preparing for the next German retreat. These retreats are an amazing opportunity for intermediate and advanced students to visit another country, discover more about culture, and practice their language through immersion. The June edition is now fully booked for German, and you can get on that waiting list for the next event if you like.

Sign up here for news about the next German retreat.

The Fluent Show

What a month! I was so proud to release my interview with one of my favourite language authors, Dr Roger Kreuz who wrote Becoming Fluent. Roger is a psychology professor and associate dean at the University of Memphis, and our conversation about language learning was wonderful and inspiring.

If you follow the Fluent Show, you’ll know that I have a soft spot for the psychology of the language learner, so this interview was definitely a highlight of the year.

Listen to the podcast episode with Dr Roger Kreuz here

Language Goals and Progress

I’m currently working on two target languages as a learner: intermediate Welsh and very early beginner’s Chinese.

Welsh Progress

In the Welsh language, my level is now pretty functional as long as I maintain a lot of contact and produce a lot of my target language on a regular basis. And I do mean every day when possible.

In the month of April, I found it most difficult to get speaking opportunities. I didn’t arrange any meet-ups with my local conversation partner, my tutor was busy, and when I spoke to my friend Nicky it was in English because he was a guest on the Fluent Show.

Instagram yn y gymraeg

In the first half of the month, I was also struggling to find time and mental energy to learn Welsh. But once Easter came around and my workload eased up with Fluent, I feel like everything got better! I started by switching on Radio Cymru for a few mornings, then added a bit of S4C.

But the best part was creating my new Instagram account, @kersydysgu. Inspired by some wonderful Fluent Show listeners who have done this, I decided to try out the idea of a fully separate, and ONLY IN WELSH insta account. And my daily contact is through the roof because I’m already spending way too much time on the app. What a fantastic way to get more contact and write in Welsh on a regular basis.

Chinese Progress

My other language is Mandarin Chinese. I had set myself structured goals for this language for the first time last month.

Listening

My goal was to watch a bit of Easy Mandarin on Youtube, but I did nothing. Listening fell flat in April. I don’t enjoy many language instruction podcasts and I’m too low level for any natural input that I know.

Speaking

My very tentative goal of an italki lesson was realised last week. Hooray! My first tutor listened to me counting to 10 and saying “living room” and “desk” at random, then declared my pronunciation very good and my learning “a mess”.

And fair point! I had not even noticed how little I had spoken apart from sounding out the words in my apps, and how little I could say in the way of dialogue. I was incredibly motivated after that and greeted her the next time with a full introduction, including where I live, my age, and my family. Take that, language mess!

I’m very pleased that I got my head around tones and basic pronunciation before the lesson, and I’m now hoping to take some regular classes. Good reminder: It isn’t really ever too early to work with a good tutor. They know what they’re doing!

Reading

Most of my learning is still reading-based, so I kinda met my goal by default.

Writing

I think I did quite well! My notebook is in regular use at the moment, and following up the lessons has made a big difference here.

At the moment my approach is to write in pinyin and also Chinese characters, but I’m not trying to memorize any of the characters. I’m thinking stuff like 我 and 你 will start sinking in automatically.

I’m using Google Translate and the Pleco app a lot for writing at the moment.

Daily Contact Goal

Every month, I log my “daily contact” with the Welsh language. In April, it was difficult to keep anything going during the launch of German Uncovered. But once Easter rolled around and I took some time to rest, Welsh returned to my life. In the last week, my Welsh instagram account made it easier than ever and I’m on a streak.

Total: 17 day out of 30.

I also track how many times I’ve spent 10+ minutes on Chinese, mostly for fun. In April, I checked this box 7 times. Often, this signals way over 10 minutes but it’s not about the minutes. It’s about the habit.

Goals for May 2019

This month is an unusual one. I’m travelling for the first 2 weeks, to Machynlleth in Wales and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. In the last 2 weeks, I’ve got a full-time responsibility away from Fluent, so I’ll have to see how work fits around it.

Welsh Language Goals

Again, I don’t feel I need to actively split my goals into listening, speaking, reading and writing at this intermediate stage. I just want to feel like I’m as good or better, and that will be about contact and speaking.

Spending the first few days of May in Machynlleth is a good start, and in the second half of the month I hope to get started on Say Something in Welsh Level 3 and get back into meeting my speaking partner.

Chinese Language Goals

In this language I’m a total beginner (很高兴认识你) and will benefit from the goal structure. So let’s go!

Listening

Ready to try again with YouTube for Chinese beginners. I’m looking for dialogue-based or story-based input here, rather than someone explaining greetings to me in detail.

If you want to recommend a channel or listening resource, leave me a comment below.

Reading

This is the easy one for any beginner, all my apps and my textbook are reading practice. No specific goals.

Speaking

I’ve already booked one Skype lesson and hope to complete 3 by the end of the month.

(By the way, this month on the blog I have a brand new italki review - check it out if you have not tried out italki before.)

Writing

Three goals:

• to follow up each language lesson with a page or revision notes,
• to write 4 notebook pages about myself or my family (these pages are full really quickly when I write in English + pinyin + characters),
• and to figure out how to type pinyin.

That’s it! Plenty to be getting on with.

Resources

Many people have been asking me to list the resources I use for learning my languages this month. Here they are:

Chinese Resources

• italki for finding a tutor
• Chinese in 10 Minutes a day
• Pleco
• Lingodeer app
• Dropsapp

Welsh Resources

• S4C on player
• Radio Cymru on BBC radio playerapp
• parallel.cymru
• Say Something in Welsh app
• Instagram
• Ap Geiriaduron, the magnificent dictionary app
• a printed dictionary and Modern Welsh Grammar (link goes to a stupidly expensive version but I got mine from someone else who found it in a charity shop, so don’t forget your local 2nd hand resources!!)
• A local language partner and lovely people who speak Welsh with me. You can find these by asking around!

What are Your Language Goals for May 2019?

Have you ever studied Welsh? Are you a Chinese beginner? Juggling 2 languages like me?

Leave a comment below to tell me all about how you’re getting on, and what you are planning to study next.

Be sure to check out the Clear the List linkup full of inspiring language goals and reports, hosted by Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy.

On The Need For Fun And Creativity In Languages

What do you think of when you see the word “creativity”?

For me, creativity used to mean being particularly gifted in visual arts. Painters and sculptors were creative. In school, it was clear that being creative was how you got good grades in art classes.

I was a pretty terrible artist, and so I always assumed that I’m not creative at all.

But then I got a job and started noticing things. In work meetings, ideas for alternative solutions to problems would bubble out of me. When I started teaching and learning languages on my own, I felt constrained by the ideas of learning with a textbook and classroom structure.

Instead of putting off my ideas as delusions, I started to listen to them and put a few into action. And slowly I realised…I’m creative after all!

You Have The Tools to Be a Creative Language Learner

My own discovery encouraged me to start looking differently at language learning. I quickly discovered that adults learn best when creativity and fun come along for the ride. So I started to seek out creative ideas of learning.

If you are a first-time solo language learner who’s busy in her life and wants to know how to become fluent without sacrificing all your leisure time, creativity is what will get you to your goals.

I know lots of people who start off and and think “learning is the books and the app”, and when you box your language learning in like that, your motivation suffers as a result.

Creative Ideas For Language Learning

In this episode of the Fluent Show, Lindsay and I discussed the easiest ways to start building a fun and creative language routine.

Listen to the show here to get our full discussion:

Warning: These may not feel like study, but you’ll learn a lot anyway.

Language Learning With Music

Research and discover songs in your target language and music from the target country. Learn new words and expressions by understanding the lyrics of the songs you listen to.

Playing Games

It’s a common theme on this blog: We learn best when we’re having fun. Playing word games like Taboo, or even classic board games in your target language gives you a subtle way of creating a space where you learn a few new words free from pressure.

When you’re on your own, video games create another interesting option for language learning, and some of them are even [developed with language learners in mind.]

Games are especially handy when you want to share your language with kids.

Poetry and Literature

You might think you have to be an advanced level language wizard before you can even touch a book of poems in your target language, but that is not true! Enjoy a story with tools like [Interlinear books], try your first ever haiku, or lose yourself in a rhyming dictionary.

The key here is to express yourself freely and have fun in the process, getting out of your head and into the feeling that you want to have.

Technology

It’s the 21st century, which means you’re more likely to be reading this on a phone than on a desktop computer right now. And that means it’s time to get creative with tech in your new language.

Lindsay recommends creating a language space in social media that’s dedicated to learning your target language, for example a “Norwegian only Instagram”. I’ve tried this too through Twitter lists. The result is fabulous: it’s instant mini lessons, whenever and wherever you want them.

Exercise

Movement boosts memory! Have you ever thought about combining a language workout with a body workout? We had lots of ideas in the podcast, like example looking for exercise videos in your target language, and taking a language podcast out on a jog.

This one’s great for teachers of any age group, too, as you can create a whole new lesson plan when you think about different ways of moving around your classroom (or outside!).

Bricolage / Crafts

For thousands of people, getting creative means creating cool craft projects like woodwork, scrapbooks, or small art. With craft projects, you have so many options of incorporating language.

Of course you can search online for videos and instructions in another language.

Or you could take printed items from the target country and use them to decorate your home. Or make special art pieces celebrating the words you love the most. Or create a photo essay based on inspiring expressions.

Listen to the podcast to hear more about the special things I created as a teenager (Lindsay calls them ransom notes!).

Cooking

Everybody’s got to eat, and most people have to cook. So what could be more practical than cooking yourself a meal in your target language? From seaweed scones to the secret cuisines of Paraguay, we’ve tried this out and recommend it whole-heartedly.

It’s SO Easy To Get Creative in Language

When it comes down to it, we found that it’s almost impossible to be anything BUT creative in language learning. Yet…many learners avoid getting involved.

Or when we do play and enjoy in our target language, we feel guilty as if this isn’t “proper learning”.

So this made Lindsay and me wonder: why the heck did school teach us that language learning has to look like classroom-exam-teacher-class-snoozefest?

STUDY and LEARNING are concepts that feel like they should look a certain way, when in reality they are not.

Creativity is about permission!

In the podcast, Lindsay and I looked deeper into this idea of permission and allowing ourselves to let go of language learning guilt. Guilt does not do us any favours at all so we should learn to let it go.

Whenever you feel like your activity is not “real learning”, it might be time to reconsider and remind yourself to:

1. Accept our mistakes (both in language and process and habits and study)
2. Be kinder to ourselves (does it really matter if we break a streak?)
3. Impress NOBODY but ourselves

How do YOU get Creative in Language Learning?

Do you cook, craft, run, or rhyme with your target language? Or are you worried that these activities mean you won't learn anything?

Leave a comment below and hare your thoughts!