Taming the Dragon: My 3-Month Welsh Language Learning Update

Welcome to my first progress report on my own language study. It's pretty comprehensive and longer than my usual blog articles, so I figured we'll just jump in!

welsh language

First of all, let me give you a quick impression of how the past 3 months have gone:

  • I've been spending 1-3 hours per week on my Welsh studies, sometimes a little more and sometimes a little less
  • I've been combining a good bunch of resources and several people who talked to me in Welsh
  • I'm feeling really positive about my progress and where I'm headed

3 Month Progress

One of the best ways of tracking my language learning progress is blogging about it, which is probably the only way that I know how long I've been at this.

So here's where I'm at: I didn't seriously start learning Welsh until I returned from honeymoon in September. So that makes it about 3 months of study, the often-cited time it takes to build a habit. And I'm shocked at how much progress I have made.

Here is an in-depth update of exactly what has been going on, and how I'm feeling about my 4 core skills.

Understanding Welsh

Understanding groups listening and reading, and I feel significant progress particularly in understanding spoken Welsh. Don't get me wrong. I've still got absolutely no clue what is going on when people talk at normal speed, or when I'm watching TV in Welsh.

But I've been repeating my input and training myself to pick out the words that I do know, and it's made a big difference.

For example:

  • I am beginning to anticipate Welsh words based on the English subtitles in TV shows or on Youtube (if you want to know which shows I like, listen to podcast episode 31)
  • Understanding and spotting patterns that occur regularly in Welsh is becoming easier as well, which means I'm now able to know where sentences start and end, and if they're in future, past, or present tense

In the coming months, I would love to be able to understand more social media posts in Welsh. Lucky for me, most Welsh speakers are bilingual (Welsh/English) and post in both languages.

The progress goal here will be to recognise and know more nouns and patterns, which I can study just by tracking what I look up in the dictionary.

Speaking Welsh

I've called this section "speaking", but I actually mean producing language in both speaking and writing. Here again, I feel like my progress has been awesome.

I'm absolutely ready to speak Welsh at any time. Sure, it will be terrible Welsh. It will be full of mistakes, and I'll last about 20 seconds without an English word.

But none of that matters. It isn't about the quality of my speaking. It's about doing it over and over again, little and often.

2 weeks ago, we went out for drinks with some new people. One of them turns out to be Welsh and we started talking. I wasn't Shakespeare, but I managed to ask her if she wants a drink, talk about my studies and a little bit about where I'm from. Respectable progress for 3 months of slow burn study!

In the coming months, my next goal is that I'd like to speak Welsh on the phone. Calling up a B&B or a language school with an enquiry is a simple enough task, but it has instant feedback in case I can't get my words out.

Here's How I've Been Studying My Language

  • Community Class

I went to a class called Clwb Siârad in Preston, where I met a great mix of native speakers and language learners. The most amazing thing about Welsh Club is the fact that they're "offline polyglots" - a large group of language lovers in my county that I never knew about. The Welsh learners were speaking and learning more than just Welsh, so that our lesson ended up featuring 6 languages altogether.

  • 1-to-1 Tuition

Working with a 1-to-1 tutor is a huge benefit to my speaking skills! I've not been able to commit to weekly lessons, but decided not to let that stop me. Instead, I book a session with Mererid around once a month to top up and consolidate what I've been working on.

I learn something new in every tutoring session, and always come away feeling inspired and positive.

This podcast is currently my main speaking resource, and prompts the listener to speak continuously and right from the start. I worked with this concept before when I tried Michel Thomas, but this system of focusing entirely on patterns is easier to follow and more effective in my mind.

Main downside: I've got to find vocabulary resources for words somewhere else, meaning it trains patterns and structure way before it adds many words.

  • Instagram

Believe it or not, Instagram is a regular place for me to get just a little bit of Welsh language and practice what I'm doing. I've started giving every post a level of "added" Welsh by talking about the photo in both English and Welsh. The kind community of Instagram users out there (especially #iglc folks) has been great at helping me with corrections.

In the coming months, I also want to add the Cwrs Mynediad book, which I downloaded as a £5 app for my iphone. And of course, there's that Duolingo thing which has now got the Welsh language. I am not a big Duolingo fan, but happy to give it a try.

A Problem I Need to Solve: No Study Corner

When I'm at my laptop, my mind switches into work mode and language learning is more difficult (priming affects how we learn languages). I can tell I'm more engaged and make better progress when I am studying differently, on the couch or the stairs.

This explains why building my Memrise course and watching the BBC videos has fallen behind - both of those only work on a desktop AFAIK.

In the next month, I want to find a study corner in my house. It won't be easy, because my house is pretty tiny, but with some creativity I think the Welsh corner is going to be a great resource.

All in All: A Feeling of Ease

Welsh is the first language that I am truly teaching myself, without attending any regular group classes. It's also the most modern self-taught process I've ever used, because most of my first languages were studied in school in the 90s when mobile phones looked like this:

90s mobile phone

I'm wondering what exactly is different between this language and Russian, my previous experiment. Russian had the added difficulty of Cyrillic, so it was slightly less accessible. I also didn't feel the same level of curiosity in the end - Wales and Welsh are more exciting to me right now, and that is an entirely personal thing.

And ultimately, the materials and speakers I've worked with are just so supportive and welcoming. They are what's made my studies feel easy, and I think a feeling of ease is the key to keeping going.

Overall, I feel like things are going well. I have regular success moments, even tiny things like completing an episode of my study podcast. Those are the key to keeping going, because I never feel like I'm stuck.

Saying I'm feeling ease does not mean I'm actually "good at Welsh" yet. It just means that I'm feeling progress without frustration. But ultimately, my goals and results belong to me and this is exactly the result I am happy with.

Book to Try: Fluency Made Achievable

If you're learning a language and you haven't read my book Fluency Made Achievable yet, check it out today. Fluency Made Achievable is my guide to what it takes to learn a language and do what's necessary for achieving that feeling of ease and fluency.

It goes into depth about those 4 core skills and helps you understand why they matter and how you can create easy routines for yourself in language learning.

And now that I'm learning a new language again, I can tell even more just how useful it is to get your practice right and I want you to benefit from the same insights.

If you do own the book already, let me know how you used it in your own learning routine in the comments below!

And of course, please share your thoughts and updates on YOUR language learning routines. In other words, I invite you to comment on this post and tell me more about your own studies. I love hearing what you're up to!

11 Short & Sweet Tips To Help You Learn a Language in 2016

Ahh, happy new year to all of you! Even though the last two weeks have been quite busy, I did take a few minutes to note down my resolutions for the next year.

One thing that struck me this year is something I had not realised before. There is this huge difference between goals and resolutions. A goal is something specific, concrete, something that you can achieve and then feel good about your success. A resolution is deeper and comes from your emotional centre. It's about what you really want to change in your life.

learn a language new year

Language Learning Resolutions vs Goals

Resolutions are often ambitious and come out of the desire to improve something and feel better as a result. Here are some great language learning resolutions:

  • To become fearless in the face of talking to strangers in a foreign language
  • To feel comfortable watching foreign TV without subtitles
  • To become less self-critical
  • To build a habit of reviewing vocabulary every single week 

Success comes from combining ambition and goal. So once your ambition is set, think about how to break it down into goals - how much can you do in 3 months, how much can you do in a week? Documenting all those goals will give you a clear roadmap, with the resolution as your fuel and the ambition as the destination.

How to Start Reaching That Language Learning Ambition

The following set of tips is a summary of the best advice that Lindsay and I discussed in Episode 30 of the Creative Language Learning Podcast. You can listen to the episode to find out how we go about learning our own target languages, Japanese and Welsh.

1. Work With a Diary or Calendar

Automating a new habit is such a fantastic way to stop negotiating with yourself. If your diary usually has things like doctor's appointments and meetings with your boss in it, how can you question its authority? So use that rock in your life and start adding little bits of language study time, for example coaching sessions or vocab reviews.

2. Don't Rely on Empty Time

Instead of hoping for that Duolingo-at-the-bus-stop moment, set some time aside as a regular appointment with yourself. Lindsay sets time aside from 7am to 8am so she can enjoy an hour of language learning where she can do what she wants to do. I'm less consistent but have a Sunday afternoon study hour where I work on learning my languages.

3. Don't Be Quiet About Your Resolution

It's too easy to commit to a big resolution without even telling people about it. But when it comes to actually doing stuff, it helps to look out for other people that want to do the same. As language learners, this is more true for us than any other people. You want to learn a language, so you want to talk to people. Get started with the "people" part of it now and find a language learning buddy or a tutor to support you.

4. Build on Existing Habits

If there is a slot in your day that you repeat regularly, you have found a great opportunity to learn your language. For example, I know that every morning I sit on the stairs in my house and drink a coffee. The coffee is already a fixed part of my day, so adding a daily Welsh practice or reviewing one page of my learning notebook won't take too much willpower. Instead of going on Facebook before you drop off to sleep, could you spend 10 minutes with the flashcards?

5. Make Your Chunks Big and Small Enough

When you are studying at beginner level, it's too difficult to aim for passing the big C2 immigration exam. When you are advanced but haven't got travel money for the next 6 months, it's too unrealistic to aim for that in-country conversation with a native speaker. These goals need to be broken down so that you can see the end in sight of your current project. What can you do today so that it's a bit easier for you to get to the vision tomorrow?

6. Be Super Precise

Precision is essential for setting a good language learning goal. You must define exactly what it is that you are aiming for. Fluency is a vague desire, but what you need is more than that. Your goals have to be measurable in precise terms, so try to zoom in on those step-by-step achievements. For example, I tend to avoid putting my goals in terms of "having a conversation". Instead, I may want to finish Lesson 8 in my textbook next week or say 15 new sentences based on what I already know. The key is to DO something that will make you feel good when you've done it. Imagining your success does not count.

7.Once the Course is Set, Do Not Question It

It can be so tempting to set a big ambitious goal and leave a little bit of wriggle-room open for yourself when things don't quite work out. When you are setting your New Year's Resolution, is it so ambitious that you already know you're going to fail? If yes, then revise it. Halve it. Make it achievable so that you know you'll be committed.

This is where writing a goal down and sharing it come in handy. Write it in the comments of this blog article as a first step! Set yourself a reminder to come back to it. Whatever you do, don't just go away and forget what excited you enough to get started.

8. Repeat Your Successes

Meeting a goal doesn't mean that you'll never have to do it again. It is the first step to building an awesome new habit. So once you've had your first Skype lesson, you're one step further along the way. But you're not there. You may never be there.

Last year, my New Year's Resolution was to become a more punctual person. But that is an ambition and not a goal. A goal would have been to say "I will turn up 10 minutes early for every appointment I have tomorrow". And for the first day, I did just that. I was super proud! Now imagine what would have happened if I'd just stopped caring after that goal. I'd be just as late as I always was. But if I met the goal every single day, I'd start building new pathways and habits and become a more punctual person.

9. Identify What's Driving You

Behind all our ambitions for becoming a polyglot, more fluent, a better student, a more productive person, there is an assumption that you have a problem right now. It's extremely important to work out what drives your ambition and to identify this personal issue, so that you can start observing the progress you are making. Even if you don't meet every single goal or milestone along the way, are you learning more about yourself? Are you making progress? Are you trying out a new way of thinking?

10. Observe the Progress

It's very common to feel like you are falling behind within the first few weeks of the new year energy. But could you critique yourself in a positive way instead of being self-critical? Don't forget that failing to meet a hard goal doesn't signal a major failure. I'm reminded of Ron Gullekson's recent blog post where he spoke about failing the German exam he had spent months preparing for. Does that mean Ron is a complete German failure? No! He went through intense preparation, so even he still benefited from a tight learning schedule and improved his written German.

Finally, here is a great tip if you feel like this time is not right for resolutions, but you still want to welcome 2016 in the right way:

11. Set a Theme, Not a Resolution

If you didn't have the energy or courage to set yourself a specific goal, the theme for your year, month, or week can act as a wonderful guide to take its place. It also helps you focus on appreciating what you have got right now without becoming too self-critical. As I am entering a new year in my language studies and my teaching business, my theme will be "Figure it out!", a message to myself that giving up isn't what I'm here for.

What Are Your New Year's Resolutions?

So now it's over to you:

  • What are your plans?

  • How are you going to make sure you stay committed?

  • Have you found a buddy yet?

No matter if you have a language learning resolution or something else, I'm looking forward to reading about what you're planning in the comments below.

For more tips about how to learn a language the right way, check out Lindsay's new course Successful Self Study or my popular books Fluency Made Achievable and The Vocab Cookbook.

How To Use A Dictionary Like The Most Succesful Language Learners

dictionary for language

No language learner should be far from a dictionary, ever. These days it's very tempting to look everything up in Google Translate, but with a few of the following choices you'll be way ahead.

What Makes a Great Dictionary?

Dictionaries come in all shapes and sizes. You can buy a tiny pocket book like the one I took to Sweden this summer. Or if you've got a big shelf, you'll find a 3 volume leather-bound edition to fill it. Some come with grammar guides, others come with phrasebooks.

And of course, paper is pretty 20th century these days so there's no way to ignore apps. Most likely you've got one or two on your smartphone right now.

For me, a good dictionary will have the following things available:

1. Grammar Details

I want to know what I am looking at. Is this word feminine? Irregular? Is there something else I need to know before I use it? Good dictionaries provide all that information in a few short letters. For example, popular choice Wordreference tells you lots of extras when you look up a word.

2. Examples in Use

After over 20 years of language learning, I have trained myself never to trust the first word that comes up. Remember that looking up a word is never guaranteed to mean finding the perfect word at first sight, so you should check how to use it and whether there aren't several meanings.

3. The Other Language

I like reverse-checking my words, so monolingual dictionaries aren't my thing. This is the quickest check you can find for making sure you are using the right word. Look up your dictionary result the other way round, if it doesn't deliver the one you were looking for then you are not done with your search.

online dictionary example

My Recommendations: These Dictionaries Are Fantastic

Originally a project from a Munich University (in 1995!), LEO has grown itself to be the go-to dictionary for any German speaker. Its core language is German, so all language pairs are based on it. The strength of LEO lies in two-way search and the great forum articles that can point you in the right direction when the original dictionary answer doesn't seem right.

This is another German heavyweight - wiki-based babla has it all: 37 online dictionaries, games, tests, a fantastic community...and usage examples! Oh yeah. Bookmark now.

This offering from the TU Chemnitz in Germany is particularly good with collocations, telling you the most common ways that the word you found connects with others. So search for "cats" and you'll also find "it's raining cats and dogs". It's just been improved as well with a full supply of DGT Multilingual Translation Memory from the EU.

  • The printed dictionary

You underestimate this big boy at your own risk, because a printed bilingual dictionary offers two aspects that the online world can't deliver on. It is portable and works without electricity or roaming charges. These Language Maps are even waterproof. Secondly, the printed dictionary will usually supply you with just a little bit more linguistic oomph and show pronunciation, every conceivable example, colour codes and a friendly paper smell too!

This is not just a dictionary, but also a translation search engine. Put in new vocab, and you'll see the many real uses in language materials.

The Best Dictionary for Any Language

You definitely can use Google Translate and get through any conversation in a foreign language just fine. Or you can go deep and start to make your dictionary the ultimate resource in your language learning arsenal.

When learning a foreign language, I believe that vocabulary is one of the absolute keys to helping you feel confident and stay on top of any conversation. You can learn all that grammar, but without knowing what to say you'll always feel stuck.

I've given a few hints above that will help you work with your dictionary and start making the most of it.

Podcast Episode 28: What You Are is What You Say (Language and Identity)

language learning podcast

Welcome to Episode 28, a fun collection of language learning news. Lindsay and I shared our progress in Japanese and Welsh, read out wonderful listener feedback, and moved on to 3 big news items.

This episode is brought to you with support from HelloTalk, the world's largest language exchange app.

What's it like when your language changes to express who you are?

The episode features an interview with J from Compassionate Language Learner who identifies as gender-neutral and has some fabulous things to say about the topic.

royalmail_mx

See The World in a New Way with Emoji

An emoji is ‘word of the year’, but is it even a word? Is this good? * Emoji word of the year

African Languages Aren’t English

The East African Council has just switched its lead language from English to Kiswahili.

Tips of the Week

Lindsay’s tip is using the Interlinear books method of learning a language.

Only two tips in this episode: 1) Make weekly commitment meet-ups such as going to exercise classes with a language buddy 2) Discover Binaural songs and Interlinear Books

And Even More Interesting Links!

Losing Motivation is Not Failing: 4 Smart Tips for Positive Language Learning

I recently found myself so tired of languages that my mind refused to even learn how to say "thank you" in another language. Has that ever happened to you?

Are you normal?

Have you failed as a polyglot?

In today's article, let's dive into this phenomenon called "language learning burnout". I've gone through several types of "burnout" in my life, and never ended up as a desolate burnt-out shell. Since "burnout" is a rubbish word, I'll be calling it "fatigue" in this article.

How Alarming is Language Learning Fatigue?

It can hit you any time. You go blank. You're tired. You check out and disengage, not caring how to say anything in your target language.

For me this happened in week 3 of the honeymoon. We were at breakfast in our B&B and learnt that the other guests were Spanish. I tried to speak Spanish to them and nothing happened. My brain couldn't think of a single word. Spanish is a language in which I am usually quite comfortable. I'm not good or "fluent" but usually I have a good enough time keeping up a basic conversation. On this occasion, things were different. My mind went blank, I quickly apologised and chose to speak English.

A few hours later my husband asked a shop assistant how to say "Thank You" in Flemish and I could feel myself tensing up. I actually didn't even want to know. My language energy was spent and I could not have spoken a word in a new language if I tried.

Does Anyone Talk About This?

Language learning fatigue is much-discussed on the internet, but rarely examined in depth. For example, look at this article on the Huffington Post in which the author advises "Just take a break and try again." Yes, thanks, and the sky is blue.

For more in-depth and comprehensive perspectives, I'd recommend Actual Fluency Episode 47 as well as most of what J at the Compassionate Language Learner shares.

In some cases, the advice can lack compassion to a point that is intimidating. My eyes widened when I read Steve Kaufmann's description on his own video about burnout. It says:

Do you experience burnout when learning a language? Do you feel you don't want to go on? I don't.

Good on Steve that he doesn't have a problem, but on first impressions I felt that his thoughts on why he is so lucky (or is this implying superior skill?) were lacking a deeper understanding. Was he saying he's better than you if you have a problem that he doesn't know? Saying "if I had more time, I'd definitely do more in Czech" is not a statement that answers questions relating to mental overload or the erosion of motivation.

But towards the end of the video, Steve got down to a deeper point that I did feel comfortable with. He says

If your goal is just to learn the language and nail down these declension tables or whatever, I can see why you'd get burned out.

There's something in there. A purely technical drive to learning languages is just not enough to keep you motivated. No fake framework of goal setting and time stamps is going to get you through that one. This is why it's so flippin' hard to start off in language learning. That whole point between "I'm excited, I'm starting" and "I am reading newspaper articles" has the highest potential for burnout.

In other words:

No one likes being in the middle of things.

How much of your "burnout" feeling hits you when you find yourself in the middle of something? When you cannot see the end and you can't remember the start?

No matter if we're talking marathons or dieting or language learning, the recognition here remains the same. And the "take a break" advice feels feeble when you're lost in the weeds and struggling to remember what was on the horizon in the first place.

So, what advice can I give here? The following thoughts don't come from experience any more than common sense. Hopefully they'll provide a bit of both.

What Can You Do When You Feel %&!* About Language Learning

Here are ways to deal with Language Burnout when it happens, and to re-light that language fire.

1) Prepare Interesting Materials

Avoiding burnout starts with you and your attitude. Consider your motivations carefully, set up a positive image of what you want to achieve. I don't mean that you should put some words on a picture and post it on Facebook. Instead, focus on what interesting

For me as a new Welsh learner, it's the simple things that keep me interested. Covering another episode of Say Something In Welsh is all right, but really I want to know what happens to Siân and Ed in the BBC Welsh learning soap. Soon I may be able to watch Pobl y Cwm and one day there'll be a Kerstin party at the Eisteddfod. Such milestones are not about how many words I know or whether I'm technically proficient yet, but they work well when it comes to my own motivation.

Similarly, I urge you to stay away from wondering "how long does it take to become fluent in another language" or aiming for "a 15 minute conversation". For guidance on whether you are doing goalsetting wrong and what a constructive goal looks like, refer to episode 21 of the podcast.

2) Trust Yourself

No one knows you better than you know yourself. I hope that this also means you know you are awesome and that you chose to learn another language for a reason.

We have a tendency to push on and blame ourselves for lacking productivity, missing the "miracle morning" if we sleep past 6am. But deep down, a need for self-care is important in language learning too. Don't allow guilty thoughts to eat up your energy by telling you that you aren't "performing". Go slower than others and enjoy the journey.

This piece of advice is difficult for me to turn into something truly practical, so instead I'll bring out my coaching personality and tell you this:

If you shut off that internet for today and study nothing but your pillow for the next 48 hours, that is fine. The world will allow you that space. I believe in you, and I know you'll re-emerge with more motivation and strength than before. And all your work will still be here and wonderful when you return to it. You're not missing out.

3) Get What You Came For

If you didn't think that point 2 was hippy enough, here is an even more compassionate concept:

Pay attention to your inner wisdom

If you were excited about studying Chinese three weeks ago, and then the excitement turned into boredom and excuses, and you just don't want to do it, then you don't have to do it. As Barbara Sher puts it in Refuse to Choose, maybe you already got what you came for. For example, I feel that my motivation to learn Russian was mostly grounded in curiosity about Cyrillic writing. Once I discovered how this works, the language itself fizzled out for me. But I still got what I came for: Now I can read Cyrillic. And if I start travelling to Russia again, I'll be studying more Russian.

When you find your attention shifting to other languages, remember that line between discipline and compassion for yourself, and trust that you will return to what excites you in due time.

4) Combat Your Inner Critic

Maybe you'd like to think that you don't get tired, but most of us know ourselves too well for that. You are not a robot or a battery-operated productivity machine. Quite the opposite: You probably have plenty of stuff on your mind before you even pick up that language book.

When critical inner voices are telling you that you're a lazy learner who won't ever reach higher language levels, there are two key actions you must take.

Firstly, check the facts. Focus on what you can do and what you have learnt so far. Is it really nothing? Are you really stupid or failing?

Secondly, check whether you are catastrophising. This means thinking that all is lost, that one day of lost study means you're incapable of anything, or that your break in the Duolingo streak means you'll never be as good as anyone else. Take pride in resting, find a positive angle on it and vow to return when you are ready.

These mindset adjustments feel small, but you'll soon find that they all make a huge difference to your confidence and...believe it or not...your fluency!

Your Number One Job Is Being Happy

I hope that this collection of tips and perspectives will support you in a moment of weakness or tiredness.

Remember that your number one job is not to perform. Your number one job is to keep yourself as happy as healthy as possible, and language learning should fuel this (not the other way round).

Click here to share this message with others on Twitter.

Have you dealt with self doubt and language learning burnout before? Share your stories in the comments below, or for added privacy feel free to contact me to share your thoughts.