Kerstin Cable's Blog, page 42

Personal posts and international TV recommendations

Hello world, this is a new type of post. The kind that is just inspired by spotting something nice and wanting to share it with friends and friendly folks, as I hope you blog readers would be if we had the chance to meet. This post is coming to you from my mobile phone, as I'm trying to caramelise onions for the first time in my life. Well, if you hate it let me know - it makes for a more interesting, but less polished type of blog.

I want to share a few current TV and box set recommendations...

Which type of language learner are you?

I thought that today I'll put out some words for you from the view of a personal language tutor. I believe hiring a language tutor is a decision to be taken lightly. It's not the same as language exchange, and not the same as teaching yourself a language.I also want to point to a particularly good and well-written post from Claire at Conquering Babel. She has been sharing why it's a good idea to hire a tutor - many, many reasons of course.

Having worked with a large group of students both in...

Making time in the day - A Case Study

You know, sometimes it is extremely hard to stop being a super-person and remember, admit and accept that we are just human. For me, this is an ongoing struggle. I am a positive person with a lot of energy and vision, in fact so much that I get carried away sometimes. This morning, I listed the projects and items I am working on (in my mind) - there were 25! Too many projects, too little time - a classic problem affecting “starters” like me and something that really needed addressing.

In case...

New Podcast: HipHop, Rap and Repetition with Fluency MC

You may well remember Fluency MC Jason Levine from an interview I conducted with him a few months ago, in which Jase shared his techniques around collocations, repeating things and the inspiring philosophy of just relaxing, enjoying music and improving through that.

Taking the pressure off is one of the core things language learners must learn.

Last week I was very happy to welcome him back for an interview on the podcast! You can enjoy a freestyle rap performance as well as a sample of his mus...

This cool map makes me want to learn all the languages (except Estonian maybe)

Looky! I got quite excited looking at this map last night (NERD, I know). Remember how we have previously covered how languages are easier or harder for you as an English speaker?

If yes, you will know that shared vocabulary is one of the most important things to consider in language choice.

Shared vocabulary - a language shortcut

Shared Vocab, or "vocabularly divergence" for linguists, means how many words in languages are shared or used to be the same hundreds of years ago. Languages come in f...

The most Rock'n'Roll Fluent Language Blog post ever

Guten Tag, Fluent Crowd!

I hope you are enjoying your steps out into the world after the sparkly lights of Christmas. Do you have New Year’s Resolutions, or are you just getting back into your routines?

First of all: The Blog

You readers are the people who make this whole thing interesting, and I put my thoughts on here for you to enjoy, respond to and shout about. SO - I actually want to hear as much as possible back. You should respond more, comment more, chat to me on Twitter. Get me busy!

Re...

How to learn a language in 2014

(img credit to the lovely Christian Cable)

Ah, this time is my favourite time. After a full year, our thoughts now turn to 2014 and I hope you are feeling ready to make a change or keep a good thing going. My new ideas involve a few changes at Fluent and a renewed commitment to health and wellbeing in my personal life. And I think I want to improve my Russian a little, and get into drawing as a fun pastime!

What's the state of language learning on the eve of 2014 then? How do people learn, wh...

Merry Christmas

Christmas at my house

I got this great bunting from Etsy

Dinner

We usually have an early Christmas meal for all our English friends

Oh Tannenbaum

I love looking at people's Christmas trees

Texas Bauble

Well, we've made it to Christmas! Whether you celebrate it or not, I would like to wish you very happy holidays and a happy New Year, or as we say in Germany: "Guten Rutsch!" This means "slide well"...sliding into the new year is one of my favourite expressions.

And I want to say thanks:

Than...

Kerstin's 3 Steps for Learning Topical Vocabulary (Plus: How you can be featured on the Fluent blog.)

Topical vocabulary means the words and expressions that all relate to one topic, for example cookery, education or firefighting. Today's article introduces a foolproof 3-Step Method, plus get involved by posting your next vocab topic in the comments, and we'll feature you in a blog article next year.

Why is this useful?

If you make it your goal to learn all the words in a language, you'll never know when you're done. Setting a goal like "500 words" is also though, because who counts all the new...

I present the Creative Language Learning Podcast (it's my new show!)

I have been conducting audio interviews with various fab language experts on my blog for some time, and been considering putting these all into podcast format for my readers. The podcast feed is now live and you can subscribe to Creative Language Learning in iTunes and on your preferred podcast device.

You need to open this URL in iTunes or your preferred podcasting app:

http://fluentlanguage.co.uk/creative-language-learning-podcast?format=rss, or you can find me in the directory under Educ...