English With Kirsty

To celebrate 10 years of the English with Kirsty podcast, I’m creating a 10-part series to celebrate 10 different forms that learning can take.Part two of the series is about how we can learn through events and I thought that talking about LocLunch events would be a really good way to explore this topic. I invited four LocLunch ambassadors: Patrícia from Loclunch Lisbon, Roberta from LocLunch Rome, Lisa from LocLunch Barcelona, and Magali from LocLunch Berlin.When you listen to our conversation you’ll discover: More about my guests – who they are and why they decided to become LocLunch ambassadors What happens at a LocLunch event How these events provide practical opportunities for support and learning for those involved in the localisation industry How the events in each city are developing their own identities based on who’s running and participating Some of the different forms the events can take and the practical ways in which they help people, both personally and professionally Some of the things that my

Today my guest is Tania from Tania Lines Translation & Writing Services. We met on LinkedIn recently and I thought that Tania would be an interesting podcast guest … so here she is!We talked about How Tania keeps all of her languages up-to-date – both her working languages and the additional ones that she wants to learn The idea of having one day dedicated to each additional language and how this looks practically Tania’s experience of moving to countries where she did not speak the language Language exchanges and my online language exchange meet-ups Facial expressions and how the correct position of your lips, teeth and jaw are also important if you want to produce the correct sounds Roxie the beagle and how Tania’s interest in dogs and cats has opened up a new area of specialisation for her How about you? If you speak more than one additional language, how do you try to ensure that you give enough attention to all of them?Find out more on the show notes page: https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/ep

To celebrate 10 years of the English with Kirsty podcast, I’m creating a 10-part series to celebrate 10 different forms that learning can take. This is part one!Today I’m talking with Alfonso González Bartolessis about learning via courses.When you listen to our conversation you’ll find out:

Our brain, emotions, and language learning with Alice Mansaud This week I have a returning guest on the podcast. Last time, Alice was part-way through some training, so she agreed to come back when she'd finished to share what she'd learned.We talked about

Last week I attended one of Marta Pagans’ workshops for freelancers. It was nothing to do with languauge learning, but I was interested in the event anyway and I was also glad to participate in some training where I used one of my other languages.I’m not going to talk about what I learned at the workshop – though you’ll be seeing some of the results of the actions that I decided to take as the year goes on.I do, however, want to share some of my reflections about using German, my first additional language, in a business training context.This is what I learned!Do you relate to any of these things?Visit the show notes page, find out more about my events, and get the link for Marta's page  here:https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode268/

Megan Miller is back on the podcast with me!   We recorded at the end of last week, so it’s still January and I wanted to offer something a bit different from the usual content that we hear at the beginning of a new year. We talked about: • How being too prescriptive about habits can steal our joy – language is important • How saying “no” and being intentional about what we really want can create space to start new things or give us more time for things that are really important to us • The importance of self-care and self-compassion as we think about how we want to allocate our time and energy resources. Figure out what works for you! • The importance of boundaries – with ourselves and others. • How life works in seasons. What kind of season are you in right now? Check out the show notes page here: https://englishwithkirsty.com/episode267/Or go back to episode 240 to listen to our first conversation.How has 2025 been for you so far?

For anyone who's listening in January 2025 - wishing you a year with interesting encounters, opportunities that help you to grow, and people who will support you along the way! If you have discovered the episode at a later date - have a wonderful day!You won't get one of the typical new year episodes from me about what you should be thinking/starting or doing differently. There's enough of that around and a lot of it lacks self-compassion. I think any time can be a good time to make a positive change. However, sometimes for us in the northern hemesphere, the middle of winter is not the best time to start pushing ourselves to do something radically different. Sometimes a gentler start to the new year is better. But I have been making changes here at English with Kirsty. Last year I posted about them on LinkedIn. I rewrote parts of my website and reorganised the pages. I changed how I approach my content creation so that I now concentrate on 7 main topics ... and I didn't talk about those here on the podcast.So

My "31 ways to improve your English" challenge is back again and we'll be starting on 1st January 2025!I don't believe that the beginning of a new year is the best time to start new things or bring about change! But it is true that our routines change throughout December and sometimes it's hard to get back into the habit of practising our additional language skills outside of the things that we need to do for work.Also, sometimes people want to learn new things, but they feel bored with what they're doing at the moment and want to change things up a bit.This is where my 31 ways to improve your English challenge comes in.Each day, you receive a new activity to develop some aspect of your language. If you're doing it to improve your English, you also have access to me to ask questions or get written feedback about any of your tasks.Find the show notes page here: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode265/or sign up for the challenge here: https://englishwithkirsty.com/about-the-lessons/31days/The challeng

I met Dolores a few months ago at a networking event and since then I’ve been getting to know her better at my networking and language exchange events for language professionals.Dolores is also a podcaster – in fact that was one of our first topics. I thought it would be interesting to talk about Dolores work, her podcast, and why she decided to split it into two separate podcasts with content in both Spanish and English.We talked about: Dolores podcast and why she decided to have a podcast in English and one in Spanish How having a podcast helps Dolores to learn more and develop her speaking skills Why Dolores enjoys translating in the area of education Why we will never stop being language learners, however fluent we become How the role of people working in translation and localisation is changing Dolores’ advice for anyone who is thinking about starting a podcast. You can find all the links and further details on the show notes page:https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode264/

In this week's episode I'm talking about my new interactive workshop, which is all about the challenges that we can face as advanced language learners. We've got our language to a good level, but then, for whatever reason, we feel stuck and it's hard to move forward.We'll explore 5 challenges that you might be facing and what you can do to move past them.Talking about problems isn't fun, so I wanted to make it a bit more approachable and light-hearted. I also didn't want to make case studies with these 5 challenges in case anyone had the same name as the characters. So instead, we have 5 dogs. You can see the retriever in the picture here - she struggles with perfectionism. Does anyone relate to that? If you do, come along to the workshop!We also have 4 other dogs with different situations, so if you come, you'll discover whether you're more like the spaniel, the labrador, the German shepherd or the collie!Or maybe you'll have elements of more than one. As a language learner, I do!This is where you can find o

If you use access technology or have other accessibility requirements, you can’t just find a good language course and sign up for it! First you need to check out how accessible that course will be for you, how willing the course provider is to make any adaptions, and then you can make an informed decision about whether it’s going to be a good option to meet your needs.I’m a learner as well as a teacher and I have a lot to say about this too, but I thought it would be more interesting to have a discussion with one of my clients who also uses access technology.I’ve known Elisabeth for a number of years now. In fact, she was my second customer! We talked about: Elisabeth’s previous experiences of learning English Why Elisabeth wanted to find an online English course and what was important to her in terms of accessibility Why it’s important for designers of courses or learning materials to be aware of different accessibility requirements and to consider them from the beginning of the project What Elisabeth does t

Today I'm talking about some of the activities in which I've been participating in order to develop my language skills in a way that's relevant to work. Whether that was attending a Women in Localisation webinar in Portuguese, meeting a Toastmaster's group in Portugal, or planning future attendance at a workshop in German - all of these things are somehow work-related and at the same time, they help me to develop relevant, work-related vocabulary. I should add that I didn't need to look for these opportunities. all of the invitations came to me through my network. If you spend time getting to know people and building relationships, those people will probably invite you to things!I also talk about some other things you can do such as looking for industry-specific podcasts, publications, or social media accounts.Whether you're developing your passive listening skills at a webinar, participating in a workshop, or even going on a podcast in an additional language - all of these things can help you to grow and bec

You first met Maria in episode 244 of the podcast about the conversation club.I first met her at our networking for language professionals events and through her interview on the Language Worker podcast.Maria also shared more of her story at one of our conversation club meetings and I thought it would be interesting to share this story with you as well.We talked about:* Maria’s interest in writing and how it has continued throughout the different stages of her career* Maria’s blog in Portuguese* Tips for how writing can help you to improve your language skills – either in your first language or an additional one* How writing by hand and typing in other languages with additional characters are good ways* How writing or journalling can help us to be present and get to know ourselves better.We also discussed Maria’s upcoming course for those who want to learn more about subtitling. You can find the details here: https://www.translastars.com/course/master-subtitlingWho is Maria?>Maria Virgínia Barros is a pass

September can be a time for new beginnings, although really, we don't need to wait for a certain month to start something new. Still, lots of people are talking about new plans and ideas at the moment and it got me thinking...Some people just get an idea and run with it. For others, there are a number of things that get in the way or that make us put things off. Sometimes just taking the first step and getting started is the hardest part.So what are those things? This week we're looking at 8 of them and what we can do to prevent them from getting in the way of us starting something new and exciting!Here is the show notes page. https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode259/I mentioned my 3 main programmes too - details of all of them can be found on the home page of my English with Kirsty site. ***********Send me an email if you have any questions or suggestions about the English with Kirsty podcast:podcast@englishwithkirsty.comor come and find me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-wolf-a8478235

Today I'm bringing you my conversation with Helen. You may remember her because she featured on episode 235 about the conversation club.This is part of a new series where I'm talking about different aspects of learning languages. We'll explore some of the challenges that my clients have faced and how they overcame them.Helen isn't someone who loves learning languages, but she needed English for some professional training that she was doing and she was motivated enough to get some help with it. Helen went from someone who felt nervous about speaking English to someone who now talks to strangers at the gym and prepares presentations for us at the club.What changed? Find out in the episode! Find the show notes here: https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode258and you can connect with me on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-wolf-a8478235/

I have two announcements for you this week!Firstly, I'm doing a survey about the podcast and I'd love to get your input. It's always good to hear from my podcast listeners, but I'd be especially happy if you have a few minutes to fill in my survey because I'm making plans for the next 250 episodes and it helps me if I know what people are enjoying/finding useful. Here's the link to the survey!https://englishwithkirsty.com/english-with-kirsty-podcast-2024-survey-and-meet-up/secondly, I'm organising an online meet-up for my previous podcast guests and listeners who have completed the survey. Details are on the survey page and if you leave me your email address when you complete the survey, I'll send you the joining details for the event.Thanks in advance to anyone who gives me feedback and I'm looking forward to meeting some of you or seeing you again at the meet-up!

I decided to contact Inês because I’d been listening to her podcast, Your voice matters, for a while. I was even more excited to discover that the first episodes were in Portuguese, because it means I have some more interesting content to listen to that will help me improve my Portuguese and learn about other voice-related topics!But originally, our interview wasn’t going to be about that. I wanted to talk about voice coaching. We covered topics such as getting used to hearing your own voice and practising how you want to sound before you actually speak in public. Also, how we can use our voice to communicate our personality, even if we’re feeling nervous about the language.We can adopt vocal habits in another language that aren’t ours and it’s liberating when we learn to move past this.We also discuss why Inês decided to start a podcast, why she switched the language after the first two seasons, how she did it, what the process was like for her, and what advice she would give to people who are thinking about

We often talk about what we do, but one of the things that we touched upon at the conversation club today was why we do what we do. What motivates us? What gives us a sense of fulfilment?Today I'm sharing a bit of my story about why language is important to me, how needing to learn in a slightly different way has actually helped me, and why I do what I do.In the coming months, some of my clients and friends will be sharing their stories too.I also talked about my "Discover your voice in English" mentoring programme. Send me a message if you'd like to find out more or to have a chat about whether it's for you!https://englishwithkirsty.com/discover-your-voice-in-englishHere's the show notes page for the episode:https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode255

Sometimes advice like “feel the fear and do it anyway” or “just start and see what happens” doesn’t work. You need a more structured plan to give you the confidence to create and launch something new.This is how today’s guest approached his idea to start a YouTube channel in English. He made a plan, created the content, and finally gave himself time to make sure that it was what he wanted before releasing it out into the world.It’s easy to look at successful, well-known content creators and to think that they’ve always been doing that – but every story has a beginning. Today Adrian Probst shares his content creation story with us.We talked about:

It's summer here in Europe and many people are thinking about holiday activities - which means a lot of the things that we usually do are put on hold.This episode is one of a series of quick, implementable tips - things that you can do to work on your language skills without attending a class or working with the language.Today I'm talking about why it's important for us to meet new people anyway, and how, as a language learner, in some ways it's easier to start conversations with people that we don't know. It could be to get some information that we need. It could be small talk - they don't know all the basic things about us that are easy to answer. And more importantly, we never know where conversations will lead - you might even find some new friends!Plus - you don't have to be in a country where the language is spoken in order for this to work!If you try this out, let me know how you get on! Be mindful of where you are and whom you're speaking with - if it doesn't feel good, move on!Here's the link to the