Prost Neujahr!! Let me raise my glass of wine-with-fizzy-water to you and imagine a virtual hug to say "wow, that was something." Happy new year 2021! Over the last few days, I have been taking stock and going through my review of the year.
Winter/Spring 2020
Things started off so well!
Fluent Language Life
I kicked off the year with Your Solid Vocab Memory, a brand new online course I had created over the winter holidays. Over the month, I was delighted to welcome the first students and even host a brand new live round! Live rounds were a new concept that Iearnt about in 2020. You’ll read about them again!
In the springtime, I also became a co-host of the Language League membership group (now closed). My first lesson was about applying the lessons of the Four Tendencies framework by Gretchen Rubin to language learning, and it was a success!
💡 By the way, you can get access this lesson as part of the Language Habit Toolkit!
In my podcast world, I pre-recorded some interviews before moving house and published my long-awaited interview with Marc Okrand, creator of the Klingon Language. Along with Marc’s episode, this one with Lindsay is one of my favourites for the year.
I concluded late spring with a highlight and a challenge:
🥳 Highlight: I taught and created the Language Dabbler’s Guide to Welsh, my first ever class dedicated to the Welsh language which I love soooo much. It was daunting and incredibly exciting to teach this language to others, and I’m delighted about how it all came together.
😭Challenge: About halfway through March and before the Polyglot Cruise was cancelled by Kris Broholm (for obvious and very sensible reasons!), I decided to withdraw my own attendance on the ship. Having looked forward to this cruise for many months, it was a really hard and sad decision. I struggled with anxiety over safety on a cruise, and sadness over the loss of this innovative event.
Personal Life
🏡 Right in the last week of March, we finally got the news that our new home was ready. I remember standing in the new house having to keep a 2-metre distance from the house builder’s rep, and the absolute chaos and anxiety and stress of trying to ensure a smooth move in the same week our government issued “stay at home” orders.
🎊 I enjoyed lovely days out around the UK in London, Leeds, and Folkestone, and a week at home helping my mum celebrate her 60th. This was just a few weeks before the world shut its doors and borders, so I’m grateful I was able to celebrate her birthday as a family in Germany.
Language Learning
My winter and spring of 2020 were dedicated to quiet study of the Chinese language. I used plenty of LingQ and Yabla, which were fantastic resources giving me understandable input even at my beginner level.
I wasn’t really in love, but happy to plod along. Here’s where I was at by the end of it all.
In hindsight, I don’t mind that there wasn’t a huge blissful progress rush. The spring was a fulfilled time but also a challenge, and I found that the work I did with Chinese helped me later in the year when I started speaking more. Whatever you learn in a language now will always serve you down the line, no matter if it feels like “progress” in the moment or not.
Spring / Summer 2020
April started off marked by anxiety and exhaustion. The country, continent, globe were in a bad place. Every day, my heart broke for people suffering with the disease.
My mum always said that whatever you dream in the new home comes true. I dreamt I was in hospital with covid, so let’s just hope there are exceptions to that one.
Fluent Language Life
I had chosen to pause the Fluent Show for a few weeks while settling into the new space, but recorded a bunch of cool interviews behind the scenes. Speaking to incredible people like Sara Maria Hasbun helped me connect to my own motivation again. I also produced a little mini series called “Fluent in Isolation”, which you can get through the Fluent Show’s Patreon page
During April, I wasn’t ready to run or create new programmes yet, but I dedicated my time to sprucing up the Fluent Affiliate programme, which now boasts a few great features that I’m proud of. If you’re ever interested, here’s where to sign up.
In May, I created my first ever 1:1 coaching programme, the month-long 30 Days to Fluent. It felt incredible to give learners that structured support and I learnt a lot to take forward.
Besides that, a highlight and a challenge:
🥳 Highlight: The Teach & Thrive Summit! Teach & Thrive was a membership I ran together with Lindsay Williams, my only offering for online teachers in 2020. The Summit event was our way to boost online teachers for two days straight, and we had so much fun and met a few amazing people doing it.
Black Lives Matter
This was the challenge, but to call it a “challenge” feels like an understatement. Events happened in the USA and reverberated around the world in June 2020, and I think it made a lot of people reflect not just on their own practices as teachers and business owners, but also as people on the internet.
It is worth clarifying that I actively want to support anti-racism and will highlight and advocate for the equality of all. Language learning means committing to tolerance of other world views, and this open mind is a core value for me. This topic deserves well considered words so here are the best I managed to put together.
Personal Life
New blinds! Sometimes it’s the little things that make your day.
Well, it was lockdown. I learnt how to make sourdough bread, bought some roller-skates, went paddle boarding. I didn’t travel. I went to the pub, just once. I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary with my husband…in our living room. I felt restricted, but made the most of it. The time passed…like bubblegum.
Language Learning
After all the events I wanted to attend in Wales got cancelled, I picked up online lessons in Welsh again in the summer and threw in Chinese lessons on top.
I participated in the italki language challenge, which was an excellent way to get more fun into my language world without having to struggle to concentrate on a book.
Summer/Autumn 2020
In the hot hot heatwaves of August, I made the lovely decision to join the business programme Profitable Playground - this was the biggest business commitment I made to Fluent Language in 8 years and I’ve been delighted about the ways it’s improved my work. When I am better at all that, all my students get better results!
Fluent Language Life
The biggest event of the late summer was Women in Language, the annual online conference I co-organise with Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams. With 789 participants from 65 countries this year, we broke all the records. Women in Language is an incredible event and we love everyone who made it along this year. (We’ll be back in March 2021 by the way.)
I followed up Women in Language with a few days of rest and a dive into something I had worked towards for many months: Updating the Language Habit Toolkit!
The Language Habit Toolkit is one of my favourite ever courses and a cornerstone of how I teach and coach languages. In October, I invited everyone who owns the course to a live round, added a brand new training on productive language learning, and even added another professional worksheet. The course is the best it’s ever been!
The Language Habit Toolkit live round was an all-round delight, and I’m looking forward to running more of these in this new year.
One more highlight to note in this period is the 200th Fluent Show episode. We made it!!!
Personal Life
Like in the summer, I have little to report here. I was proud to give blood for the second time this year, but overall this time was dominated by the monotony of life at home. There were some home improvements, and more exercise. It’s all good, but I look forward to leaving my street a little more in the summer of 2021.
Language Learning
The eye of the storm on a Welsh study night
Over autumn, I kept up my weekly Chinese lessons as much as I could, but Welsh definitely took the pole position again when I joined a weekly evening class run by Welsh for Adults.
The course runs for 2 hours every Thursday night, it’s based on a traditional textbook, and in all honesty it’s been a delight to meet new people and chat away in this language once a week.
I’m now learning Welsh at level B2, and that is enough to call myself a Welsh speaker. What a joy! I don’t regret learning this language for a second.
Autumn/Winter 2020
THEY INVENTED A COVID VACCINE!! But this isn’t a review of medicines, so let’s get back to Fluent Language.
Fluent Language Life
In November, I found myself in a massively exciting situation as a speaker at the Language Show 2020. This was my first year as a speaker at this particular event and I was overwhelmed with the positivity, engagement and joy of 1000 live viewers who tuned in to see my talk about boosting your vocab memory. What a joy!
The good vibes continued in December as I gave the year just one more fun event, the Crack the Grammar Code live training. I had so much fun and was absolutely delighted to share my honest best practices about how to really learn grammar when you’re learning languages.
Personal Life
After spending most of my year in a very small world without personal transport, I finally ordered a new car which was delivered in November. It hasn’t completely changed my life, but there’s a definite change in the quality of every day as I can now allow my world to grow a little bit more.
Having personal transport has meant that I’m also back in the sea! I love the bracing adventure of swimming outside, and even in the British winter it never fails to put a smile on my face. Having done without access to the coast for most of 2020, I feel like this small change is making a big difference.
Undeniably cold
Even though the festive season was spent without any family and friends as the UK had to increase its covid restrictions in our second wave, things still felt like there was a dawn after the cold night. The US elections, the covid vaccine, the new year are giving me hope for 2021. We can do this!
My Languages
During one of the total of 3 italki challenges I took in 2020, I started working with tutor Jie who took one look at my speaking skills and declared “HSK 1! Start book!”. With her help, I worked my way through the full HSK 1 book and easily completed the HSK 1 exam paper (at home, by myself) in December 2020. My year of Chinese learning has been fun, though I’m not sure where to take it next.
In Welsh, me and the language continue to be best pals. I’m proud to be a Welsh speaker and confident that my level is B2 (upper intermediate). The weekly evening classes weren’t always easy to fit in, but I look forward to starting back up in January 2021. I’m currently reading Cyfession Saesnes yng Nghymru.
In Conclusion
✨ I dedicated myself to language coaching and sharing psychology and mindset training for your language success. In 2020, I did more of this than ever with 2 new courses (see all of them here).
🎊 I had lots of fun in my business with workshops like the Language Dabbler’s Guide to Welsh, the Language Habit Toolkit live round, and our record-breaking Women in Language conference. And I learnt that when I have fun, my students benefit!
👩🏻🏫 I co-ran two membership groups...both of which closed to make more space for the new, exciting work that comes next.
2020 was a huge challenge, but we got through it and we all learnt a lot. The highlights were a little more hidden. No trips around the world speaking 5 new languages, but perhaps the kind of work that will serve me and you for years to come.
My Thank You
Throughout the year, I was supported by you as my readers, students, Patreon backers, podcast listeners, blog readers and language buddies.
Stay healthy, all of you, and tell me what’s been your highlight of the year 2020 with a comment or a message!