English With Kirsty

I’ve been wanting to talk about this topic for a while and to bring you a conversation with people who are in more of a position to explain, give examples, and help others to either start thinking or learn more about the topic of inclusive language.In this episode we talked about: What is inclusive language? What are some general tips that we can implement to make our texts and speech more inclusive? Are there any language-specific aspects, approaches, or challenges that we should be aware of in terms of the languages represented on the panel? Different experiences of speaking with clients about making their texts more inclusive or pointing out where the original text was not? Inclusive language resources that would be useful for translators. Thanks Renata, Marina, Alicja, Inès, and Charlotte for making this content with me and I look forward to exploring these topics further with you and others in the future.To find out more about my guests and to see the resource list for this episode, visit the show notes

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.The final part of the series is about learning through Volunteering. I had a number of people who wanted to be involved, so in the end I decided to split this into three conversations. The third and final part is with Colette Myler, whom I met back in 2021 when we were attending some of the same international networking events together.What did we talk about?I really wanted to show some of the different ways in which people can be volunteers, so I spoke with people doing very different roles. We talked about: Colette’s story – why she decided to volunteer and which organisations she chose. The skills and knowledge that Colette brings to her volunteering roles and some of the new skills that she’s gained over the years Some of the things that Colette has learned through her volunteering experiences – as well as some of the people whom she’s met along the way. How volunt

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.The final part of the series is about learning through Volunteering. I had a number of people who wanted to be involved, so in the end I decided to split this into three conversations. The second part is with Diana Silva Franco, whom you may remember because she was also my guest in episode 219.What did we talk about?I really wanted to show some of the different ways in which people can be volunteers, so I spoke with people doing very different roles. We talked about:

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.The final part of the series is about learning through Volunteering. I had a number of people who wanted to be involved, so in the end I decided to split this into three conversations. The first one is with Sónia Rio and MIRIAM SANTOS FREIRE – both independent professional colleagues from LinkedIn whom I didn’t know very well before we got together on Zoom.What did we talk about?I really wanted to show some of the different ways in which people can be volunteers, so I spoke with people doing very different roles.We talked about:

I met Laura at one of my networking events and decided to have a chat with her on the podcast because we’re offering something similar for different source languages. I work with people who translate from English and who want to feel more confident when speaking it. Laura has a new service to provide support for people who want to communicate more confidently and spontaneously with customers in German.We talked about:Laur’as story and how languages became part of it Some of the benefits of working as a freelance translator and working with international clients Laura’s new service for people who want to improve their German speaking skills Why it’s good to have choices and the benefits for freelancers when we can communicate with customers directly in their own language … in both conversations and emails. You can connect with Laura on LinkedIn if you want to carry on the conversation or find out about her services to help you speak more confidently in German - https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-schartmann/If y

I've recently come back from a week away and I spent some time reflecting on time. How I organise mine. What happens when you try to cram too much in and how that leaves no room for spontanaity. How having a different relationship with my to-do-list would make me happier! It's a week since I recorded the episode now and so far, the changes that  I put in place are still working!I also started thinking about what it means when we say that we have no time for things. Sometimes it just means that we're in a super busy period and it feels as though we don't have time for anything. But I mean more generarlly. Are we really saying "this isn't a priority for me right now"? or "I don't actually want to do this thing, but it's easier to say I don't have time"? Or "I'd like to, but I don't have time because I need to set some different boundaries with myself or others"? Or maybe it's more of a case of how we organise our time and build things into our schedule to make sure there's room for them.We don't need to justify

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 nine of the series is about learning through podcasting. Not just listening to podcasts, but hosting them! I decided to give myself the challenge of inviting guests whom I didn’t know so that I would meet some new podcasters too. David has been to a couple of my networking events and I met Nina and Lisa for the first time on the call.We’ve all had different experiences in terms of starting our podcasts, but we discovered a lot of parallels too! When you start a project such as a podcast, you inevitably learn a lot about yourself, it brings new opportunities, and you develop all kinds of skills that you may not know you needed

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 eight of the series is about learning through conferences and what we can learn through attending, speaking at, or organising them.I wanted different perspectives – geographically, in terms of specialisations, and to have different types of conference represented as well. So I put together our panel of five guests whom you’ll meet in this episode - Suzie, Anna, Silvie, Andrea, and Aída.It’s interesting how the main theme that ran through the answers was around community and connection rather than specific memorable talks and presentations! These were some of the topics that we discussed: What’s one key thing that you have learned through a conference recently, whether as an attendee, a speaker, or an organiser? Travel costs to attend large conferences in person can be a barrier for some. Have you experienced other variations on traditional conferences? (Moving the

I met Marina online in 2024 when I attended one of her LocLunch networking events. Since then I've been following her content and I started noticing some posts about age-inclusive language. This isn't something that I'd thought much about previously, but I wanted to look a bit deeper into the topic - firstly because I think it's important, but also because it's relevant to what I'm trying to do here with the podcast.We all use language. Many of us are working in multiple languages, but every day we have choices about the language that we use, the way we express ourselves, which words make it into our own vocabulary and which ones we choose to avoid. If we are more intentional about the way we speak, we will not only communicate better, but we also have a chance to be more inclusive and contribute to the changes that many of us want to see.I have plans for content on other aspects of inclusivity, but today we're focusing on age-inclusive language.Marina provided a lot of links and further reading. The text on

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 seven of the series is about learning through mentoring.I’m not an expert on this topic, but I’ve read about many official or unofficial programmes which match mentors and mentees to promote growth and learning. I also knew that Women in Localization has a mentoring programme, so I decided to try and find out more about it and discover what people have learned through the experience of being a mentor or a mentee.Tamara Tirjak and Teresa Toronjo are my guests in this episode. Whilst they are currently working together as a mentor/mentee, they both have experience of both roles.We talked about:• Tamara and Theresa’s stories, including their links to the topic of mentoring• The Women in Localization mentoring programme and how it works• The difference between mentoring and coaching• What both of my guests have learned and enjoyed through their involvement in mentorin

6/10 Learning through musicTo 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 six of the series is about learning through music and how we can encorporate music into our language learning journeys.Who would be a good person to talk with me about this? It had to be someone who is not only passionate about music, but who could bring together mucic and language learning with real-life experiences and a story that demonstrates how powerful this combination can be! So I invited my friend Rita Prazeres Gonçalves back to do another episode with me.We talked about – among other things:

When I saw that the podcast's 10th birthday was coming up, I wanted to do something. But what? It would have to be online because my podcast, my friends, my clients, my guests, and my listeners are spread out across the globe. But what should the event look like? I wasn't sure!But I did know that, as well as having the podcast in common, my guests and listeners share a common interest in language and learning. That's a good start!One of my ideas was to record a mini episode while we were together. A couple of people came with prepared questions, but when we opened it up, there were more questions than I'd expected, which was great! I knew about the first four, but the rest of the episode was my spontaneous reactions to questions about what it's like to have a podcast, some of the things that have happened, what having a podcast means for my business, how it feels to be a guest, and my plans for the future - among other topics!I couldn't answer the question about my favourite episode because I really don't hav

I believe that learning to be yourself, in your first or any other language, is a process! It's a life-long journey of self-discovery!But it's true that, when we're using additional languages, we sometimes don't show the full extent of who we are. Maybe we don't have the words or maybe we use strategies that make life easier in the short-term, but don't allow our unique personalities or ideas to shine.I'm talking about five of those strategies today. My clients use them, but I've used all of them too at some point. I explain why they can be a problem and what we can do to challenge ourselves to move past them.I also mention my mentoring programme - Discover your voice in English: https://englishwithkirsty.com/discover-your-voice-in-english Send me a message if you'd like to arrange a call where we can discuss whether the programme is what you're looking for so that you can discover and use your voice in English - effectively and in a way that feels natural.Do you have any language coping strategies that you w

If you've been following along with the 10 episodes on 10 forms that learning can take, you'll know that I'm creating them as part of the podcast's 10th birthday celebration.In July 2025, the English with Kirsty podcast will be 10 years old. A lot has happened since July 2015. I've learned a lot. I've changed a lot, both personally and professionally. In this episode, I'm sharing with you 10 of the things that I've learned along the way. Maybe you can relate to some of them. Maybe they'll encourage you to finally start that podcast/blog/YouTube channel, or to keep going with a project that you've started recently. Let me know if you've been in similar situations or if you'd like to share any of your learning experiences too.Also, if you're reading this before 10th July 2025, I'd like to invite you to the podcast's 10th birthday celebration, which will be an online event to celebrate the role of languages and learning in our lives.You'll meet new people, discover new podcasts, learn something new, and hopefull

 | I first discovered Kimberly Martinez from Bright translation on LinkedIn – where else! I signed up for her newsletter because I thought it would be useful for me to learn some new things about the translation industry and, after reading some of Kimberly’s posts on LinkedIn too, I thought she’d be an interesting guest for a conversation on the podcast.  We hadn’t spoken before our podcast conversation, so this was also our chance to get to know one another better.  We talked about:  

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. There will also be an online networking event for guests and listeners to come together on the podcast’s birthday in July 2025.Part five of the series is about the kind of practical learning that comes from taking action, saying “yes” to new opportunities, bringing about change in our life or business, or putting into practice skills that we’ve been learning.I brought back some of my good friends, Patrícia, Maria, and Marta,  whom you first met in an episode last year. We have all experienced change – whether that’s the career change that led to us starting our businesses, decisions to offer new services, ways to step out of our comfort zones and become more visible as business owners, or moving through the stages that bring life to new ideas.We talked about – among other things: Something that we have done that is new or that brought about change in our business Some

I wanted to give some more time to the topic of audio description so that we can explore it, both as an important way to make films, series, and live events accesible to visually impaired people, and as a new area of work for language professionals to explore.I got together with a group of language professionals from my network with different types of experience, different working languages (English, German, Italian, and Spanish), to talk about both the role of the audio description script writer and the voice artist.During our discussion, we covered topics such as: The guests’ stories and how they became involved with audio description The process of creating scrips and recording the voice-over tracks Challenges and points to consider when thinking about creating content in different languages Different types of information that the audience needs, depending on the type of content Training available for those interested in this kind of work The interaction between scrip writers, voice-over artists, and end u

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.There will also be an online networking event for guests and listeners to come together on the podcast’s birthday in July. Use the contact form further down if you want to be one of the first to receive more information about the event!Part four of the series is about how we can learn through business adventures – or intentional travel to help ourselves and our businesses.I decided to have a conversation with Jane Eggers about this because it’s something that we’ve both done recently. Actually she inspired me!Jane is a German to English translator who lives in /Germany. For the last 3 years, she’s been coming to England to attend the LinkedIn Live conference and meet up with business friends and contacts.I’m an English trainer who started off working only with German-speaking clients. This is no longer the case as my business has grown and evolved, but a lot of my work

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. There will also be an online networking event for guests and listeners to come together on the podcast's birthday in July. Part three of the series is about how we can learn through community. The first people who came to my mind to talk about community were Kelsey and Anikó  from Team Translator - and fortunately for us, they said "yes"!Whether you call yourself a freelancer, a business owner, a self-employed professional - community is so important for all of us working on our own.Kelsey Frick and Anikó Pető-Mordovski set up Team Translator to provide a community for those working in translation. We talked about what the community is, how it works, why it's important, and what Anikó  and Kelsey have learned through leading and being part of it. We also discussed the importance of building meaningful connections, LinkedIn strategies, the need to be yourself, and how

Accessible communication with Josélia NevesJosélia's name came up when I was doing some research about an upcoming episode on audio description. That episode is coming soon, but when I discovered all the other things that Josélia is doing, I decided it would be good to have a conversation with her on her own so that we could explore her work in more depth.We talked about: