The Actual Fluency Podcast for Language Learners

In this episode, Kris and Luca Lampariello discuss the importance of building confidence and identity in a language to overcome perfectionism and fear of making mistakes.

They also touch on the impact of mindset on language learning, the benefits of speaking a language even imperfectly, and the challenge of maintaining multiple languages. Lampariello emphasizes the importance of exposure and practice in language learning, and suggests that building an identity in a language and treating all languages as equally important can help prevent confusion between sounds and pronunciation in different languages.

Find Luca here:

In this podcast episode, language learner and transracial adoptee Emily Harris discusses her own experiences as an adoptee when it comes to learning her heritage language, and her experiences with perfectionism and finding balance in language learning.

She also talks about her language learning journey, including her initial attraction to German and her future language goals, such as learning Persian and improving her Arabic skills.

Harris emphasizes the importance of individualized goals and finding a learning schedule that works for one's energy level and personal life. She also shares her language learning content on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and a new podcast called "The Language Wellness and Identity Podcast."

Follow Emily Harris:

In this episode Kris is joined by Rick Dearman to talk about using forums to help support you in your language learning, language conferences, and much more.  

Brought to you by OPTILINGO -- https://optilingo.com

In this episode I'm joined by Olle Linge from Hacking Chinese to talk about his "random" journey into Chinese, founding the Hacking Chinese website (10 years anniversary this year) and a ton of language learning methodology and academic vs non-academic perspectives.

A lot of the advice in the episode are centered around Chinese, but almost all of it is applicable to every language.

Enjoy!

Here's what we talk about in the episode:

• How Olle "randomly" stumbled into his Chinese language passion and ability
• What the differences between academic and non-academic language learning are
• How to learn the tones, and characters of Chinese
• How to succeed learning any language
• And much more!
  

LINKS:

Brought to you by OPTILINGO -- https://optilingo.com

Editor's Note: A previous version of this episode had some audio issues, which have been fixed.

In this episode I'm joined by "A Māori Phrase a Day" author Hēmi Kelly, to find out a little more about Māori, which is the name of the indigenous people of New Zealand, as well as the language.

Hēmi is a full-time lecturer in te reo Māori at the Auckland University of Technology. His academic research and writing focus largely on the revitalsation of the Māori language and translation studies.

Hēmi is a licensed translator and graduate of Te Panekiretanga o Te Reo (The Institute of Excellence in the Māori Language). In 2017, Hēmi translated Witi Ihimaera’s novella in Sleeps Standing and published his first book A Māori Word a Day in 2018. In 2019, Hēmi published his first creative writing piece in English in Purakau, a collection of Māori myths retold by Maori writers.

Here's what we talk about in the episode:

• What is "Māori" and where is New Zealand?
• What is the relationship between the Māori and non-Māori population in New Zealand?
• What is the legal status of the Māori language
• What is being done to revitalize the language for the last 100 years
• What is happening today to improve relations and cultural understanding?
• What is the Māori language, and what does it sound like?
• + Much more!

LINKS:

Brought to you by OPTILINGO --

One of the most popular guests of the podcast returns to share all the details for her upcoming project, that she co-hosts with Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy: Women in Language (September 17-20, 2020)

Here are some of the things we discuss during the episode:

• * What Kerstin has been up to for the past 2 years since her last appearance
• * How did the idea for Women in Language come about?
• * Why there is a need for a conference like Women in Language
• * What separates Women in Language from all other language conferences
• * What other projects Kerstin is working on
• * How her programme, Teach & Thrive helps teachers scale their business and income
• * Discussion on why language teachers are well-placed to make passive income, and how anyone in theory can get started with this as a career.
• * and a lot more!

LINKS: 

Brought to you by Optilingo.

In this episode I'm joined by my friend Lina Vasquez, an amazing polyglot who shares her passion for languages, self-development, and many other topics on her YouTube channel. 

In the episode we dive DEEP into the mindset behind self-development and language learning, and offer some ideas on how anyone can level up their life and be better in every way they want.

Resources:

Brought to you by Optilingo.

In this episode I'm joined by Italian teacher Gloria Spagnoli who shares her insights as both a language learner and teacher.

She specifically talks about finding your confidence and inner resources.

Finally we touch on the difference between a teacher and a student, and how you can level up your language lessons.

Resources:

Brought to you by Optilingo.

In this episode Tetsu Yung returns to update on his childrens' language learning (5 languages!) and talks in detail about the ONE PARENT ONE LANGUAGE methodology, he's been using for over 8 years now.

We also chat briefly about LangFest, the annual conference usually held in Montreal, Canada. The event is currently postponed until 2021 due to the ongoing situation.

Resources:

Brought to you by Optilingo.

In this episode I'm joined by podcast regular Anthony Metivier, to talk about his new book The Victorious Mind, mental health, and how language learning as well as memory training play a role in improving your life.

Resources mentioned:

Brought to you by Optilingo.

In this episode I'm happy to be joined by Matt from "Matt vs Japan" to share his ideas about immersion (Mass Immersion Approach / AJATT) and how he learnt Japanese in 18 months.

Resources mentioned:

PART 2! > John Fotheringham, a fellow language podcaster comes on the show to do an experiment. Instead of a traditional interview, we are chatting as two language podcasters, sharing experiences, takeaways, and lessons learnt from over 5 years of podcasting. 

John Fotheringham, a fellow language podcaster comes on the show to do an experiment. Instead of a traditional interview, we are chatting as two language podcasters, sharing experiences, takeaways, and lessons learnt from over 5 years of podcasting. 

If you liked this episode, please let us know!

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Ekaterina Matveeva comes on the show to talk about her amazing polyglot story, as well as the concept of the language alter ego and cultural personalities. We also share notes on what happens to the personality and identity of an individual as one goes abroad and stays for an extended period of time.

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On this episode, I chat to French teacher Lea Tiralarc, who's taught over 5000 lessons on italki about her experiences as a teacher and a learner. We also talk about her method (The Staircase) and how to make teaching languages your career.

Show Links:

The Staircase: https://thestaircase.org/

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On this episode I chat to entrepreneur, blogger and author Scott Young about his experiences learning 4 languages in a single year (without speaking any English) and his new book Ultralearning: Accelerate Your Career, Master Hard Skills and Outsmart the Competition. 

Show Links:

Scott's Blog: http://scotthyoung.com

Ultralearning on Amazon: https://geni.us/ultralearn

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On this episode I chat to Lingvist founder Mait Müntel, who was part of the Higgs-Boson discovery team at CERN. 

His big passion is furthering human learning using machine learning, artificial intelligence, and the power of spaced repetition.

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On this episode I chat to Jonty Yamisha, who took it upon himself to learn his heritage language of Circassian as an adult. 

He shares a lot of great stories about his family, and practical tips and advice for how he managed to learn a language with such limited resources available.

Perfect if you have a heritage language you've been meaning to learn!

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On this episode I chat to Jon Mahoney, who went on a trip around the world that lasted over 900 days. We also get into his story of living in Ukraine, and Russia - as well as progressing his Russian skills to well above advanced. 

Along the way he produced videos for his YouTube channels (in English and Russian) together with his wife Eva.

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On this episode I catch up with Steve Kaufmann to hear what he's been up to in the last 5 years since he was last on the podcast. We also chat about his popular YouTube channel, travelling for language learning, and how he's learning languages as a retiree.

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On this episode of the podcast I chat with Grandmaster of Memory and 4x US Memory Champion Nelson Dellis about his mission to learn Dutch, his heritage language - and to get some insight on how memory techniques relate to learning languages.

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On this episode of the podcast I chat with Ben from IELTSPodcast, about how you can improve your 4 key skills in English, and specific tips and advice for passing the IELTS exam.

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Pablo Roman, founder of DreamingSpanish comes on the show to talk about his experiences learning Japanese in 6 months, learning Thai, and developing materials and resources for learning Spanish.

Show links: 

Head of Marketing for italki: Iker Uriarte comes on the show to share his language background and how he got involved with italki. He also shares some behind the scenes stories and visions for the world's biggest tutoring platform.

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Silver from MagicLingua comes on the show to share his multilingual experiences, as well as his new startup MagicLingua, which uses speech recognition technology to revolutionise language learning. 

Tamara from Spanish Con Salsa comes on the show to talk about the benefits of using music in teaching and learning languages.

Links: 

Andrew Feinberg is back on the show to discuss his experience moving to Japan and learning Japanese, as well as some of the tricky aspects foreigners might be surprised about the Japanese culture. 

He also compares Japanese to his experience learning Norwegian.

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In this episode Lindie Botes comes on the show to talk about her passion for languages, and her extraordinary upbringing in different countries and languages.

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 Àdhamh Ó Broin comes on the show to talk about the many languages of Scotland (past, present and future) as well as his own personal mission to reclaim his heritage language of Gaelic, and the revitalisation efforts that are going on today.

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📣 This podcast is sponsored by http://Italki.com ! Learn REAL language through the power and convenience of personal tutoring lessons, for any language at VERY affordable rates.

Shannon Kennedy is on the show to talk about the upcoming Women in Languages conference (March 7-10, 2019) and some of her other projects.

http://womeninlanguage.com

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📣 This podcast is sponsored by Italki! Learn REAL language through the power and convenience of personal tutoring lessons, for any language at VERY affordable rates.

 Katie Harris comes on the show to share how her joy of languages started, and her philosophies for learners today.

We also get around her current projects like her blog; JoyOfLanguages and language retreats.

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📣 This podcast is sponsored by Italki! Learn REAL language through the power and convenience of personal tutoring lessons, for any language at VERY affordable rates.

 Sara Maria Hasbun from Meridien Linguistics comes on the show to share how she went from translating to founding a linguistics consultant company that now works with over 3000 freelance translators.

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📣 This podcast is sponsored by Italki! Learn REAL language through the power and convenience of personal tutoring lessons, for any language at VERY affordable rates.