A Language Learning Tale

YouTube Link: Link for YouTube Spotify Link:  Link for Spotify Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Bienvenidos, 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… Am I getting my languages in a muddle? As some of you will know, I recently refreshed my Spanish, which I learnt in my youth, using Italian. In other words, going from Italian to Spanish. I did this to try to force myself to keep the two languages apart, which worked quite well whilst learning, but how’s that going now? Is Spanish creeping into my Italian writing? Um … well, yes and no. When I started learning Italian, there were always some words that bled in from my Spanish, even though I hadn’t used it for many, many years. Mismo was one, meaning same, instead of stesso, and I really had to make an effort to expunge that and I did. Unfortunately, it is rearing its ugly head a...

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 … I’m Not Making Much Progress with my New Language So, you started learning a new language on the first of January, but you don’t feel like you’re making much progress and you feel like giving up. It sounds like you might have believed a common myth that pervades some corners of YouTube and, no doubt, the Internet in general, and that is that you can become fluent in a new language in a few months, or even a few weeks. It’s not your fault if you believed this, because the people who claim to have done this can be very convincing. They will give you evidence. They will talk to you in the language. And, maybe, some of them are being truthful about their abilities, but others definitely are affiliat...

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, ...

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,...

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 e...