Kerstin Cable's Blog, page 11

What To Do When Duolingo Gets Boring

Every other week on the Fluent Show, I put aside a little time to answer your listener questions. Email your question to me at kerstin@fluentlanguage.co.uk or tweet it to @thefluentshow

Luka asks:

I have been learning Spanish for 3 months. I started learning with Duolingo and was really into it, and recently I have been using a textbook as well but have become really demotivated - not because I give up, because I am bored of duo lingo. I’m tired of the way it’s trying to teach me and I don’t f...

The Two Sides of Foreign Language Learning

What does it take to start learning a language and stick with it...even through the difficult parts?

Today I have a guest post from linguist and blogger tutor Julia Gracheva. In this article, Julia is all about balance and will give you actionable tips on marrying the two important sides of learning: Joy and Discipline...or Yin and Yang!

Over to Julia..

How To Create Balance In Language Learning

Learning a foreign language is fun! Learning a foreign language is rewarding and uplifting! Learnin...

How Can I Inject Fun Into Language Learning? (Special Guest: Olly Richards)

Learning a language is the challenge of your life.

It requires motivation, discipline, empathy, and some serious grey cells. It's an art because you learn to express yourself freely, beautifully, and you paint pictures with new words. It's also a science because you need to experiment with what works and what doesn't work.

But How Much Fun Can Language Learning Be?

In today's podcast episode, my guest is Olly Richards from I Will Teach You A Language. Olly says he used to learn languages for...

6 Reasons Why You Need To Do A Language Retreat As Soon As Possible

Have you ever experienced one of those moments when it felt like all your stars were aligned?

These are the moments when you’re suddenly in a conversation in another language, instead of outside the conversation saying “um” and wondering what they just said.

When chance and hard work align, it feels like you’re taking a huge jump forward instead of dancing on the spot like you usually do. It feels like you’ve arrived somewhere.

In short, it feels like you’re gasp FLUENT!

via GIPHY

That flue...

#clearthelist September 2018: Immersion, Eisteddfod, Druid, Video!

OMG it’s clear the list time again, and WHAT A MONTH IT HAS BEEN!!!

9 of the Best Podcasts for Learning Italian

Buongiorno! Who doesn’t dream of beautiful Italy: world-class landscapes, breath-taking history, outstanding food, and the culture of dolce fare niente! Well, not quite niente - which means “nothing”. There’s probably one little thing you want to try: learning Italiano!

Do you ever feel like you don’t have enough time in your busy life for learning more Italian?

Do you want to speak more like an Italian native?

Podcasts are a great way to add a little Italian listening practice into your day-t...

Travel Tales: 5 Lessons Learnt From Visiting 20+ Countries In 1 Year

Language learners dream of travel, meeting new people, and learning more about other cultures. But we only rarely get the chance to take life by the collar and say "I will DO this!".

For my podcast co-host Lindsay Williams, the dream of travelling the world became a reality last year as she set off to visit over 15 countries on a huge trip with her new husband. They called it the übermoon, and in today's podcast, Lindsay is going to reveal what one year of travel and language was really lik...

#clearthelist August 2018: The German Retreat!!

Welcome to my latest language learning update through #clearthelist, which is a language learning round-up sharing monthly language learning goals, support, and accountability.

I’m writing this a few days into August after a week fully focused on the first German language retreat - more about that later!

What Happened In July?

As ever, lots of stuff happened! July is a long month packed with travel and events that took me out of my routine as a learner, but gave me new growth and motivation...

Seven Questions Any Language Learner Needs To Answer

Is it possible to start learning a language from scratch when you're in your 30s? With a baby and a dog to look after?

Of course it is!

In this podcast episode, I am speaking to my friend Daniela. She's a writer and teacher, and about to spend a month in Germany.

Daniela wants to learn German, so she got in touch to ask me:

How to find resources that will be right for her? If she can really learn a language, even though she's got a busy life and no classes to attend? How to ensure she stays moti...

#clearthelist July 2018: French, Welsh, And Why I Am Not Learning Chinese Yet

Welcome to my latest language learning update through #clearthelist. Clear the List is a support and accountability blog group sharing monthly language learning goals.

The Fluent Show

Fantastic month for the Fluent Show as we reached 270,000 downloads in under a year. YAY!! Thank you so much.

I loved the conversation Lindsay and I had in the episode “What is Fluency, What Is Mastery…And How Do You Get There?”, my top pick for the month. Every ambitious learner should hear discussion, so do c...