Every month, I share my personal language goals and progress here on the blog. Right now, I’m learning Welsh and Mandarin Chinese. This post is a motivating glimpse into “polyglot life”, which is far from perfect...but it does involve wine.
Read more#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
- 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.
What Are the Easiest Languages in the World?
Imagine you're learning a language that's so easy that you're having full conversations within just a few hours. The vocabulary makes sense, the grammar feels natural...it's all just very easy. You've found the holy grail of languages...the one that you'll find so easy that you'll master it in just a few hours.
Listen to the latest podcast episode to hear Lindsay and me discuss this topic with lots of surprising insights and our own hit lists of top 5 easiest languages.
Here are a few of the factors that determine if you will find a language easy or difficult:
Language Families: What Is Similar to What You Already Know?
Familiarity is the most obvious way to guess whether a language is going to be easy for you to learn. The closer its structures and vocabulary are to your native language, the easier it should be to understand and learn them.
The idea: Languages in your language family are the ones that give you the least new material to learn. With less to learn, that means you don't have to work as hard. It's easy!
What You See = All You Get?
The language families theory works perfectly, but it has one flaw: Without knowing about the languages you don't know...how can you tell that those familiar ones really are the easiest?
For example, speakers of a Latin-based language like Spanish will list Italian and Portuguese as their easy languages... but fewer people mention Romanian. Romanian is less popular, but it is still Latin-based and fairly accessible.
Many people start to mistake languages that are widely spoken with languages that are easy. And that makes sense in terms of access - how easy is it to find materials for your language? How unusual do you feel when you’re learning this language?
But is the most popular language really the easiest? Maybe there's more to it!
Language History: Where Have Languages Been Designed to Ease Communication?
Sometimes, a language emerges because it needs to create ease of communication quickly and often this leads to simplified grammar structures. Languages designed to aid communication are Pidgins and sign languages, for example. They’re considered easy partly because they are based on existing languages.
In the podcast, we discuss whether a pidgin or a sign language could be the easiest language in the world...or maybe not?
Learner Situation: Which Language(s) Have You Learnt Before?
In my Facebook group, one learner replied to my question “Which are the easiest languages for you?” in an unusual way. She said:
"I think the easiest three are often your last three, because you develop your language learning strategy as you work out which things help you learn"
It's very true. Languages can be easier or harder depending on you and where your skillset and mindset are at.
A bad experience in the past (like in school) can give you the impression that a language is hard, when it may have been more to do with your learning environment.
In addition to this, some languages just call to you and that motivation makes the complex grammar or weird vocabulary a joy to learn rather than a burden.
So What Makes a Language Easy or Hard?
It's personal to you as the language learner, so there is no general answer. What you know and the languages you know are also limited, so...in a way you won't ever have the answer until you try.
But remember: It’s hard not to confuse “easy” with “available".
What Were Your Top 5 Easiest Languages?
Listen to the podcast to hear our lists of easy languages and share your views in the comments below
italki Review: Find Your Online Language Teacher
Finding a good language teacher isn’t necessarily an easy task. For those who don’t have a lot of local tutoring options or for those learning a less popular language, it can sometimes feel impossible.
Maybe you’ve had no luck finding teachers or language exchange partners in the past and you’re wondering if online teaching sites are a good idea. Maybe you’ve thought about trying one before, but didn’t know which option to choose.
In this review, let’s take a look at what italki is all about, what it has to offer, and how to make the most of its features to help you connect with others.
What is italki?
In short, italki is an online platform that connects language learners with both professional teachers and community tutors.
Currently, there are over a hundred languages for learners to choose from, including German, Chinese, Catalan, Armenian, and Esperanto. Since all lessons are done online, there’s also greater chance you’ll be able to find someone who teaches a language you’d like to learn.
How Do You Use It?
Like lots of language learning resources, it sounds great, but how easy is it to use?
Setting up an account only takes a few minutes and it’s free. After that, you can simply select a language from search bar to start looking for a teacher.
Finding a Teacher on italki
One thing I liked about this process was the fact that I could review all the available teachers before commiting to a decision. Each teacher on italki has a profile with a video introduction, a short description, a list of their teaching strengths, a list of the type of lessons they offer, and different costs. Professional teachers will also have a list of education and experience.
Once you find a teacher you’d like to schedule a lesson with, you’ll have to purchase italki credits, which can be done at any time from one of the options in the top menu. It doesn’t take long and there are a few different payment options, but keep in mind that each option has a different processing fee. After you’ve added enough credits, you can schedule a lesson.
Booking a Language Lesson
The booking process is simple and straightforward. Clicking ‘Schedule Lesson’ opens a window that lets you pick the language, lesson time, and lesson duration. New italki accounts have the option to select a 30 minute trial lesson, which is meant to help you get used to scheduling lessons and using the platform. It’s also great if you’re feeling nervous about your first lesson. You can use the shorter time period to test your connection, see how things work, and ask the teacher any questions you might have.
Once you pick a date and time for your lesson based on the teacher’s availability, you can also select an alternate way to connect for your session, like via Skype. I’d recommend entering in this information since the italki classroom is currently still in beta and can experience glitches.
After your lesson is completed, italki will ask you to verify that the lesson took place. If you did experience any issues, you’ll want to let them know. Then, you can leave a review for your teacher to share your thoughts on how the lesson went.
How Can I Get the Most out of Italki?
italki teacher: A sample profile
Since italki is focused on connecting language learners and teachers, it’s important to remember that your experience will depend on how you use it to interact with others. If you want to make the most of it, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
Think about Your Own Language Learning Goals
Do you want to learn a language in order to travel? Are you trying to pass a test?
There are a lot of teachers on italki and they all charge a different rate. I found that knowing my own language goals was one of the best factors in finding a good teacher, not price.
For instance, one of my reasons for learning Spanish is to have conversations with my Spanish-speaking, Latin American side of the family. So, when searching for a Spanish teacher on italki, I’m a bit more particular about finding someone who speaks Latin American Spanish and seems like someone I could easily talk to.
However, someone who wants to learn Spanish to travel to Spain or needs to pass the DELE Spanish Exam will have a better learning experience with a different teacher.
Once you’re a bit more clear on your own goals, you can use that information to help you pick a teacher. Pay special attention to:
Introduction videos
Teacher specialties
Lesson types
Reviews
To learn more about what you get for your money, read How Much Will You Pay For a Language Tutor?.
To Get The Best Italki Results: Be Patient and Prepared
Even if you think you’ve found a good teacher, you never know what a lesson might be like. You could find it hard to talk to each other or you might not care for their style of teaching.
Just remember that you won’t connect well with everyone. Don’t take it as a sign to give up. There’s nothing wrong with trying several teachers.
Starting a Brand New Language on italki
One thing that helped me was to be prepared ahead of time. My most recent italki lesson was for Arabic, a language I knew almost nothing about. Before the lesson started, I wrote down a few initial questions and made sure I had a notebook and pen nearby. I think even this small preparation helped me focus a bit more during the lesson, even though I didn’t feel confident.
Be conscious of any practical steps to need to take ahead of time as well, including finding a quiet room and making sure you have a fast, stable internet connection. It can go a long way in making sure your session goes smoothly.
Don’t Ignore the Other Italki Features
One-on-one lessons aren’t the only thing italki has to offer, but a lot of people either forget about or don’t bother with some of the other cool resources.
Improve Your Writing Skills With Feedback
Unter the Community tab of the main menu, you’ll find articles, a notebook to write things down in a language you’re learning, a place for questions and discussions, and a way to find conversation exchange partners.
If you’re interested in improving your writing skills, you’ll definitely want to try the notebook feature. You’ll be able to post an entry in your target language and native speakers have the option to give you feedback and corrections.
Similarly, you can check the Answers or Discussions pages if you have small questions or simply want to start a conversation. Any of these options is also a great opportunity to connect with others on the platform and find language exchange partners.
So, Should You Give Italki a Go?
Hopefully, this review has given you a bit more insight into how italki works and how you can make the most of its features to help you learn a language.
My honest advice is to start by making an account and simply searching for teachers. Take a look at the costs and click the small heart symbol to bookmark any teachers that you think might be a good fit. I’ll admit that I nervously did that for a bit before I finally took the chance and scheduled my first lesson.
The nice thing about italki is that you can just add a few italki credits and try it out. It’s not a big commitment, but it has a lot of potential to be extremely helpful.
italki: Better Than Your Local Class
Overall, I found the site incredibly easy to work with and much better than trying to find a class or a private tutor to connect with locally. So, if you think it might be a good resource for you, try at least one lesson. I think you’ll like your experience.
This review is part of a sponsorship from italki. It was written by Cassie Wright. To learn more about italki and get $10 of free lesson credit, go to www.fluentlanguage.co.uk/italki.
#clearthelist April 2019: Structured Chinese Goals
Hello and welcome to Clear The List, “that was the busiest month” edition. This monthly language learning round-up brings together my progress from last month and my goals for the next month.
What Happened in March 2019?
I feel like the correct answer to this one is “everything happened”. First of all, the month of March kicked off with the best possible start as I co-hosted Women in Language with Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams.
The event was a big success, and we’re super proud to share that our online language conference brought in over 500 people from over 50 countries. Thank you so much if you were one of them. We cannot wait for the next Women in Language event!
After those 4 days of fun, it was time for me to start the engines for my new online course launch. It’s actually happening this week. My new German course German Uncovered is out on Thursday, and you can peek inside the course by joining a free mini-course too.
So that was a lot of course building and promo writing, talking about the German language and all round getting busy.
The month was not over yet, as there was important work to do. Say what you want about the Brexit: it certainly takes up a lot of mental space. I went on the People’s Vote March in London along with a peaceful million others and Gareth from How to Get Fluent.
Here’s a video showing our experience on the day:
So that’s a glimpse into March - a busy month!
The Fluent Show
With all that was going on, we didn’t miss a single episode of the Fluent Show.
One of my favourites was my interview with calm and centred language learner Nicole Miles, who shared rich insights into the deep motivations for learning a language…the kind that will fuel your progress long after the first weeks of excitement are over.
And talking of being in for the long run, let’s see whether I squeezed in a lot of language practice.
Language Goals and Progress
I’ve got to admit one thing right from the start: This month, tracking and lessons fell by the wayside and this makes today’s review a little harder. If I don’t keep track of what I do, I get to the end of the month with a vague sense of progress.
Did I study? Didn’t I? Did you? No one knows unless we write this down.
(Or maybe your mind is less of a sieve when you’re busy..)
As you know, my current beginner language is Mandarin Chinese.
Chinese Progress
A local café - perfect study space
My Chinese studies are progressing at a leisurely pace. After failing to find any Chinese self-study materials in the library, I decided to give the old 10 Minutes a Day another try and it’s been going fine in combination with the Drops app.
This month I learnt numbers 1-20, consolidated the basics, and got a little more to grips with classifiers like 张 and basics like rooms in a house. I have a Chinese speaking acquaintance in my Coworking space and am rather proud that I was able to say “Excuse me, where is the house?” and they understood me.
TRIUMPH.
I’m very close to booking my first Chinese lesson on italki, but haven’t quite got the courage together yet.
Welsh Progress
In the first two weeks of the month, Welsh took a step back as I worked on Chinese and Women in Language. But I started to miss it, so I feel like especially part two of the month was when I stepped it up.
I was not able to meet my goal of having more conversations on a grand scale, though I did
- chat to Gareth in Welsh on the protest in London,
- wear a Welsh flag at that protest and chat to a fellow flag wearer in Welsh,
- bump into my local conversation partner by coincidence.
YES!!!
This Welsh element of surprise made me a much worse speaker - it’s so much harder to speak another language without warning. But I got there and this kept me practicing.
I also said I’d finish Level 2 of Say Something in Welsh. And I did! I am very proud of this achievement.
Finally, I continued to listen to the Mynd am Beint Gyda podcast, started watching the TV show “Fferm Ffactor” (a farm-based games show, what could be more Welsh!), and got a habit of reading The BBC Cymru or parallel.cymru articles.
Welsh = going well!
Daily Contact Goal
Every month, I log my “daily contact” with the Welsh language. In total, March had 17 contact days out of 31 (and 12 of them in the last 2 weeks). I don’t track the length of each “contact”.
In Chinese, I track a goal of “10 minutes” with the language, rather than daily contact. This is because I’m such a beginner that I feel a 2-minute Chinese session wouldn’t teach me enough. All in all, I tracked 80 minutes of Chinese during March.
Since I use an app for this tracking method, it’s not 100% accurate. If you’re interested in a tracking template for your own language routine, check out the Language Habit Toolkit which contains two templates you can print or copy.
Goals for April 2019
I love April, it’s springtime and my birthday month!
Welsh Language Goals
My habit of learning/speaking Welsh is now well established, as you saw in March where I actually started missing my language practice. Wonderful!
I’ll trust myself to keep up the reading and listening by myself and will focus my goals on speaking practice. I must speak every week! Time to book more italki lessons and meet-ups with my local buddy.
Chinese Language Goals
In Chinese, I’m slowly building up to my usual structure of listening, speaking, reading and writing as a goal structure. Let’s try it!
Listening
I dabbled with Coffee Break Chinese for a little bit, but didn’t really fall in love with it. But with Chinese being a tonal language, it’s probably very important for me to listen to it lots. So here, my goal is to find and try some more materials starting with the Easy Mandarin series on Youtube.
Speaking
I can’t say much yet. My goal is to book an italki lesson but I’m not putting pressure on myself to do this at any cost. I’ll see if I feel like there would be any benefit.
Reading
Most of my materials are written and that’s the core of my practice at the moment, so all’s well here. I just aim to learn more, really.
Writing
My goal in Chinese is not about the characters at the moment, but I do find that I enjoy practicing a few of them here and there. The notebook is very helpful here, so my goal is to just spend a little more time practicing and playing here.
How Was Your Month?
As you can see, it’s possible to keep your goals light even if you do use the structure of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Have you ever tried it before?
Be sure to check out the Clear the List linkup for #clearthelist, hosted by Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy.
So that’s it for this month. Leave a comment below to tell me all about how you’re getting on.