Kerstin Cable's Blog, page 9

#clearthelist March 2019: Surprising Gigs, Welsh Friends, Big Things to Come

Welcome to the March edition of my #clearthelist goal tracking post. Clear The List is a support and accountability blog group sharing monthly language learning goals, hosted by my friends Lindsay and Shannon.

Anyone can join and you're welcome in the blog round-up. Lindsay has more information on how it works on her website.

What Happened in February 2019?

February is a short month and full of joy for me as one of the co-organisers of the Women in Language conference. I spent a big chunk of t...

How to Fluently Switch From One Language To Another Language

Imagine you're on a train in Belgium. A woman on the train is speaking French on the phone when the ticket conductor comes in. She asks him a question in fluent Flemish. No one bats an eyelid.

Or a guy at a party is chatting to his friends in Spanish, and suddenly an American friend comes in and he enthusiastically greets her in fluent English.

We've all seen it on TV or even in real life, but have you ever wondered how these super-quick switches between languages work?

Alessia, 17 from Ver...

Women in Language TICKETS ARE HERE For 7-10 March 2019

Get Your Ticket Here

Just over 16 months ago, Lindsay Williams (my podcast co-host) and I were chatting on Skype. It was October or November. I remember the day turning into night at what felt like 4 in the afternoon on my side of the world, while Lindsay was getting ready for her day.

We were chatting about a few ideas for the future, when she mentioned this one thing that made my heart explode with excitement.

“So I’m thinking of maybe doing a one day event on International Women's’ Day with...

#clearthelist February 2019: Chinese App Reviews and Teaching Welsh in Edinburgh

Welcome to the January edition of my #clearthelist goal tracking post. Clear The List is a support and accountability blog group sharing monthly language learning goals, hosted by my friends Lindsay and Shannon.

I have now been tracking my goals using Clear the List for 9 months. It’s a fun process - a little cumbersome at times to write check-in posts but always worth it for the accountability.

Ever since I created the Language Habit Toolkit I have been aware of how important it is to build...

9 Creative Ways To Power Up Your Language Resources

Today’s episode is based on an Instagram question from Iye, who is learning Norwegian. This is a popular enough language, but not one of the big ones exactly - with 5 million speakers, this language only has official status in Norway.

Anyway, Iye found that learning a lesser known language comes with the challenge of finding great materials for that language. So she wondered

Do you have any tips for how I can go about creating my own language learning materials?

Listen to this episode of t...

9 Great Websites For German Beginners

Pop quiz - Which one of these is your favourite reason to learn German?

You fell in love with a German speaker

You fell in love with the atmosphere of a beer fest or a Christmas market

You have not yet tasted the greatest bread on this Earth, but you’d really like to, and you’ve heard the bakery only offers it to German speakers

Your company works with German clients and their English is so good it’s embarrassing all you know is jawohl ein Bier bitte

You want to visit Germany and get a taste of...

Before You Set Your 2019 Goals, Here's What You Can Do To Get Ready

Happy New Year, hurrah, welcome to 2019!

I bet you've been itching for January to kick off so you can go full steam ahead in lots of new language projects! But before that, let's not forget the year that's just gone by.

That's right, there are some goodies and lessons in the old year that can make a huge difference in how successful you'll be in 2019.

We'll find them with an annual review! For this purpose, I hung out with my friend and 10-language polyglot Shannon Kennedy to talk through her...

#clearthelist January 2019: 中文 Language Dabbling, and I Finally Hit My Reading Goal

Ho ho ho, Christmas is over and I’m here to catch up with you all on my language goals and progress since the last Clear The List post in November. This is a great opportunity for me to check in and prepare for the new year.

Just in case this is your first #clearthelist post here at Fluent, let me say welcome and explain what this is about. Clear The List is a support and accountability blog group sharing monthly language learning goals, hosted by my friends Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kenn...

Language Learning On The Go: How To Find A Great Language App

When was the last time you picked up your phone? Oh, you’re looking at it right now? And you want to learn a language?

Game on! It’s time to talk about effective apps. When you don’t have a lot of time and want to fit in some language study on the go, there are hundreds of language learning apps that can help you succeed.

But how do you know you’re spending your time well? Is your app effective for teaching you another language?

This article idea was supported by the team at Drops, a gorgeous...

No More Stutters! Improve Your Speaking Skills In Any Language

Do you remember your first sentences in another language? You'd come away beaming like a kid at Christmas after creating pearls like "I do not like pizza, I like eating salad".

As you learn more in your new language and increase your levels, you want to go deeper, talk about future, past, conditionals, things you've read and things you've thought.

It's like in this Bible verse (oh yeah! Quoting this big book is a Fluent first!):

When we were children, we thought and reasoned as children do. B...