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Diary of a Language Freak
Diary of a Language Freak episodes
- International bubbles and the rest of the country – why speaking only English is likely making you socially isolated (part 2)
There are two kinds of people…
First of all, once again let's not forget that all of what I say is a very big generalization. Our objective is just to find very general points that can help us adapt our expectations when we don't know the people we are going to be in touch with.I had the idea of this piece thanks to several foreigners in Italy who are posting their experiences on Tiktok, and also different personal contacts with acquaintances from both Europe and other continents.When it comes to negative ones, the most frequent complaint is the lack of social life.Continue
11 min - International bubbles and the rest of the country – why speaking only English is likely making you socially isolated (part 1)
The target of this lengthy piece is mainly people
like me. I hate the word “expat”, we’re just lucky emigrants abroad, whocan afford to get a job in English. If this is not the case, but youcan read it and you’re living somewhere where you don’t speak the locallanguage, but you’re dependent on your family/husband/wife/friends…that’s still something that can interest you.Here, we try to reach two objectives:
- reflecting a bit about languages and people in general
- being less frustrated once we have to get in touch with the inhabitants of the countries we’re living in.
Continue
15 min - Is working with a teacher like going to a psychologist? Story of a failure
That's a metaphor that I dared tell someone when almost two years ago I received an email where a potential student said he was "assessing" different teachers and comparing the conditions etc.
"I understand that you are not motivated, but learning a language is a bit like going to a psychologist: you have to accept making the first step, because the teacher can guide and support you, but cannot forcibly put the information inside your head against your will.
So, I strongly encourage you to reflect on the reasons why you have/need/want to learn Italian, to focus on the positive outcomes that this could lead to, and to write them down on a piece of paper. If you don't find any, probably it's not the right moment to start."How did it go?
7 min - Noob Night - 21 February 2024, La Fonderie, Brussels
I was a speaker at this event, but unfortunately, they couldn't record my speech properly due to technical problems.
That's just my story and you can follow the slides I used during that evening through this link
I recorded it with my phone, so the quality is questionable, but I wanted to have something from this evening.
38 min - Future-proofing your serenity as an emigrant: the importance of learning the local language
Some months ago I wrote a little email course about the importance of learning the local language abroad – even when it sounds like a waste of time.
My target was mainly foreigners in Italy, but I think it applies to
any immigrant in that grey situation where you have a very nice lifewithout knowing the local language. I think for example about the thousands of people in Brussels speaking neither French nor Dutch and considering learning them just useless.7 min - Why Babbel is the smarter version of Duolingo, but still doesn’t work for me – aka the importance of tangible human connections
Before becoming a teacher and reflecting on how to make my students learn more effectively, I was also a fan of language learning apps. I think I installed at least Babbel, Duolingo, Mondly, and maybe even Busuu. I probably installed and uninstalled some of them multiple times. But none survived on my phone. Why? (hint: they’re not human enough)
8 min - How to pronounce the “doffe e” in Dutch or the unstressed “e” in French, a bit like the schwa
This is just the mp3 version of a TikTok video. Hope it helps.
Make sure to check out the full page for complete information.
3 min - How to pronounce the “u” in French / Dutch, “ü” in German
This is just the mp3 version of a TikTok video. Let me know it helps.
Check out the explanation + video on my website.
3 min - How to pronounce the “r” in French – an unorthodox trick
This is originally a TikTok video - what you find here is only the mp3 version. Hope it helps!
Check the full explanation + video here
2 min - Want to learn words FASTER? Give your brain some hooks!
To retain the new information we have, we need to anchor them to something already well "enrooted" in our mind, otherwise, they fly away. Examples in Persian and Dutch follow.
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About Diary of a Language Freak
From the publisher's feed
A podcast about how languages can make you live amazing experiences, but also about learning and teaching methods.
Episodes mainly in English, but not only ;)