A Language Learning Tale

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,...

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? W...

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 e...

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 relat...

Listen on Spotify here: Spotify Link Listen on YouTube here: 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 … Don’t Make Me Talk! Or Oral Exams and Being Forced to Speak in Your Target Language In a previous podcast I talked about language learning in school, but I didn’t mention anything about the exams. Honestly, I don’t remember much about the exams, except for one part. That part is etched in my memory. I’m talking specifically about the oral exams that we had to complete. So, talking in the language. Being an introvert, these were, as you might imagine, a nightmare scenario for me. You literally had to sit there - actually, I think we had to stand for at least one of them - and talk to the examiners in the foreign language. If my memory serves me right, it was your course tutor...