A Language Learning Tale

Podcast on Spotify: Link to Spotify Podcast on YouTube: Link to YouTube Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today I’m talking about… Well, That’s More Like It Or Why Italian Can Be Easy for English Speakers Last week I spoke about the difficulties of learning Italian. Today, on a brighter note, what makes it easier? Well, I think it comes down to the real basics, which makes starting off easier, but what does that mean? For a start, the Italian alphabet is pretty similar to the English alphabet. The only difference is that it only has 21 letters. There’s no J, or K, or W or X or Y. Hmm, now that’s not strictly true, but it’s not the fault of the Italian language. You will see these letters, but they’re usually in imported words and, sometimes, names. However, the combinations of letters you’ll find and how they’re use

Podcast on Spotify: Link to Spotify Podcast on YouTube: Link to YouTube   Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today I’m talking about… I Don’t Understand or Why Italian is Difficult for English Speakers Oh, so many reasons. Let’s talk about a few today and next week we can talk about why it can also be easy in some ways. The mere fact that Italian has genders for nouns is a big stumbling block for many native English-speakers, especially if they haven’t learnt a romance language before. And even if you have learnt a romance language before, you’ll find the rules aren’t the same. Yes, an ‘O’ ending is masculine and an ‘A’ ending is female, usually, but there’s the thorny issue of ‘I’ endings and ‘E’ endings. Not only are these the plural endings for masculine and feminine nouns, ‘E’ can also be a singular ending for ma

Podcast on Spotify: Link to Spotify Podcast on YouTube: Link to YouTube    Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today I’m talking about… Can I Just Hide in My Cave, Please? Or Learning a Language as an Introvert You may not have guessed this, if you’ve never interacted with any of my content before, or even if you have, but I’m an introvert. I am not the type of person who will walk into a crowd and introduce myself to all and sundry. I probably won’t talk at all. I dislike having to make phone calls. Any kind of interaction drains me, which is why I stopped using social media, because replying to people became just as bad as speaking to someone face-to-face. The only exception to this is if I know someone very well, or if I’m in a comfortable one-to-one situation, or maximum one to … about three situation. And yet, I

Podcast on Spotify: Link to Spotify Podcast on YouTube: Link to YouTube Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is … Intensive vs Extensive Or Different Reading Styles   There are two basic ways of reading in a foreign language and they both have different purposes and, I guess, comfort levels. These are Intensive Reading and Extensive Reading. You can, of course, use the same reading material to do both. Intensive Reading This type of reading is slow and methodical. The purpose of it is to get the maximum learning benefit from the text. Typically, intensive reading has a number of elements: There is usually a specific aim to the reading. With language learning that will generally be to gain the maximum understanding from the text and the reading may well be something that is graded to your current le

Spotify: Click here for Spotify Podcast YouTube: Click here for the YouTube Podcast   Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is … I THOUGHT I KNEW THAT! Or THE U-SHAPED LEARNING THEORY When I was researching something for this podcast, I came across a concept I’d never heard of before, the U-shaped learning theory. This, it seems, can be very easily applied to language learning. So, what is it? Well, the theory says that you will start out at a very high level with your learning, then your level will drop significantly and you’ll start making mistakes with what you thought you knew already, causing a big dip in the graph’s curve, and then you will get better again. So the shape of the learning curve is like a U. There may be multiple dips, creating a wave-like graph. But why is this? Surely what you’v

Spotify Link: Click here for Spotify Podcast YouTube Link: Click here for YouTube Podcast   Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is … NOT THE FIRST THING TO DO Or IS IT TIME TO GET COLLOQUIAL? One of the first things some people do when starting to learn a language is to go on a search for colloquialisms, slang and swear words, in the language they’re learning. But is this a good idea? And if not, why not? So, the first thing you’re going to go up and say to a native is something only the locals ever say, or, swear at them? You do realise that if you do that, bad things might happen? The problem with any slang, offensive, or not, is that it’s just too easy for a foreigner, with little knowledge of the language, or even with a significant amount of knowledge, to get the context completely wrong. Just

Spotify Link: Click for Spotify Link YouTube Link: Click here for YouTube Podcast   Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is … BUT THEY SAID TO DO IT THAT WAY Or WHEN IT DOESN’T WORK FOR YOU There are a lot of language learners, or polyglots, if you prefer, giving advice on language learning on the Internet. Ahem. Everyone has their favourite people they follow on a particular platform, often the people with the biggest followings, because they get recommended most often. And many will attempt to learn a language in the way these people say languages should be learnt, to the letter. The problem with this, of course, is that not everything a particular person mentions will work for everyone. Some people, for example, swear by using a spaced repetition app, like ANKI, to learn vocabulary, whereas other

Spotify Link: Click for Spotify Link YouTube Link: Click here for YouTube Podcast   Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is … WHERE’S THE CALENDAR Or SHOULD I SCHEDULE MY LANGUAGE LEARNING? Do you schedule your language learning? I don’t formally make a schedule, but I do regularly do the same things at roughly the same time of the day. I’m lucky, because I don’t have to go out to work, so I can organise my own days. Many people won’t have that luxury, but might also think that creating an actual schedule is a waste of valuable learning time. Well, before you throw the idea out, here are some known benefits to scheduling learning that might change your mind. Scheduling will allow you to create for yourself a balanced programme of learning. What do I mean by this? Well, if you just randomly grab some

Spotify Link: Click for Spotify Link YouTube Link: Click for YouTube Podcast Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is … LEARNING BY DOING Or THINGS I’M LEARNING BY WRITING It’s a few weeks now since I spoke about writing in Italian. Today, I wanted to do an update on what I’m learning by doing this. First up, the subjunctive, or congiuntivo. I remember when I started learning Italian seeing it said, I don’t remember where, but more than once, that many Italians don’t even know when to use the subjunctive and don’t, which kind of rang true with me, because I know many people don’t use the limited subjunctive we have in English. But then, I also saw it said that Italians would be impressed by a foreigner using the subjunctive. Hang on a minute. If many Italians don’t know how to, or don’t use the subju

Spotify Link: Spotify Link YouTube Link: YouTube Link   Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is: NO SCALES REQUIRED Or HOW DO I GAUGE MY LEVEL? So, I don’t measure my language competence on any of the available scales. Is it because I’m scared I’ll fail, or is it because of something else? Well, my problem with the concept of measuring myself against a scale, truly measuring myself, would be that it would mean taking an actual exam of some sort. That’s the only way you can judge yourself against a scale with other people also learning the same language, because judging yourself against a scale without an exam is fraught with problems, not least the fact that you might inadvertently inflate your abilities. Even if you take sample exams in your bedroom that is not a true test. It’s not an exam situati

Spotify Link: Spotify Link YouTube Link: YouTube Link   Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is: TWO LANGUAGES AT ONCE? Or IS LEARNING MULTIPLE LANGUAGES AT THE SAME TIME CONFUSING? A good question. Well, it can be, but that depends on a number of factors relating to you and the languages. What you have to remember is that learning languages is always difficult and confusing, no matter whether it’s one, two or three plus languages you’re learning. There will be things you don’t understand, at first, because they don’t fit with how your native language works. There will be sounds that you find difficult to pronounce and combinations of letters that are perplexing to deal with on many levels. There might even be whole concepts that don’t exist in your native language. Let’s break it down, though, in m

Spotify Link: Spotify Link YouTube Link: YouTube Link   Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is: LET’S SING ALONG Or USING SONGS TO HELP WITH LANGUAGE LEARNING Okay, exactly how can songs help you learn languages? You might be surprised, but there are many ways songs can help improve your level in a foreign language. First, let’s talk about pronunciation. When you’re new to a language, pronunciation is one of the most difficult things to tackle. You need something approaching correct pronunciation even to say the words in your head. If you don’t have that, it’s like reading a fantasy novel and knowing that you’re probably getting all the character and place names wrong. In that situation it doesn’t matter, with a language, it does. Let’s think about that in more detail. There may be sounds in your t

Link to Spotify:  Spotify Link Link to YouTube: YouTube Link Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is: WHAT? CREATIVE WRITING? Or HOW I’M EXPERIMENTING WITH CREATIVE WRITING IN ITALIAN If you follow me on the A Language Learning Tale YouTube channel, you’ll know that I’ve been dabbling in writing poems and very short stories - flash fiction - in Italian. I thought that today I’d explain how I go about this, because doing something like this is not exactly easy - there’s the understatement of this podcast. However, the one thing I’m not here to tell you is how to get your writing ideas, that’s nothing to do with language learning. This is just to discuss my process of putting together the words on the page to come up with something that’s vaguely passable in the language. No, I’m not claiming that wha

Listen on Spotify: Link to Spotify Listen on YouTube: Link to YouTube Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is … Am I Speakin’ Proper, Mate? Or How to Improve Your Accent in Your Target Language We might all have a little bit of affection for Dick Van Dyke’s questionable cockney accent in Mary Poppins, but, honestly, no one really wants to end up with such a bad result, do they? So, how do you improve your accent in your target language? I say improve, because it’s unlikely you’ll ever sound like a true native speaker. Well, you have to speak, obviously, but that doesn’t mean that you have to speak to another person. There are plenty of ways to practice before you get to that stage. Well, the first key to speaking is to listen. You cannot possibly know how to pronounce words in a foreign language wit

Listen on Spotify: Link to Spotify Listen on YouTube: Link to YouTube   Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is … I Just Don’t Have Time Or How to Streamline Your Language Learning Are you someone who struggles to find time to learn a language? Or someone who doesn’t even want to start because they can’t see how they’d manage it? Let’s talk about that. In truth, learning a language takes a long time. Obviously, how long depends on the language you want to learn, your language and any other languages you’ve learnt in the past. Starting to learn a language is a big commitment, so you need to use your time efficiently to get the most out of that commitment. So, where can you find extra time to start with? The key here is to prioritise what’s important to you. If learning the language is a priority, wha

Listen on Spotify: Link to Spotify Listen on YouTube: Link to YouTube   Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is … I Can Do Less Work? Or Is Using the Pareto Principle a Good Way to Learn Languages? Have you heard of the Pareto Principle, named after Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, who in 1896 observed that 20% of the people in Italy owned 80% of the land and also found this connection in other things? He didn’t name it, though. That was done by Dr Joseph Juran in the 1950s, who called it universal, applying it to many other things. So, how is this principle used these days? Well, those who believe in it state that 20% of the effort, for whatever you’re doing, will produce 80% of the results. That means that 80% of the work only produces 20% of the results. But does this actually hold true? Well,

Listen on Spotify: Link to Spotify Listen on YouTube: Link to YouTube Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is … I’m Going to Forget This Or How Language Stays in your Memory for a Very Long Time You’ve probably heard of Steve Kaufmann, a prolific producer of language content on YouTube and elsewhere and a speaker, learner of a lot of languages. He frequently talks about the fact that you won’t forget everything you’ve learned about a language if you stop using it for a time. Your brain will remember and all that it needs is some reactivation. But is this true? You’ll remember, if you’ve been listening along to all these podcasts, that I started refreshing my French language a few months back. When I say refreshing, I hadn’t used it since leaving the education system at the age of 21. Let’s just say

Listen on Spotify: Spotify Link Listen on YouTube: YouTube Link   Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome. Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is … A Language with Benefits? Or Am I Lucky to be a Native English Speaker? So, it won’t have escaped your notice that I’m a native English speaker. British English, to be specific. Speaking English as my native language, of course, gives me huge benefits in some things. English is what  people call the global language, or the universal language - although who knows what else is out there in the universe. In other words, there are a lot of people who speak it as a first language, but not only that, it’s a language that is spoken as a second language by even more people. Why is that? Because English is largely considered to be the language of business and if you don’t speak it, you could end up bei

Listen on Spotify: Spotify Link Listen on YouTube: YouTube Link   Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is … But I Don’t Want To Right Now Or How to Motivate Yourself to Learn a Language Learning a language takes a long time. How long will depend on many things, such as: If you’ve learnt any languages before Whether the language is close to your own in how it’s constructed How much time you have to dedicate to learning There is no possible answer to the question of how long it will take for any one person, but it will take a long time. So, if that’s the case, you’re going to need to be motivated to do it. Reasons for learning a language are many and varied. For example: It might be that you need to learn a language for your work, or the job that you aspire to do. It could be that you’re in a relations