English with Kirsty

Belinda and I have been getting to know each other recently – with coffee chats in German and English to share our thoughts on language, business, …. and dogs

I asked Belinda to come on the podcast because she often posts interesting takes on marketing and transcreation and I wanted to explore this topic further, looking at various aspects of her work, how we use language differently, depending on the culture and context, and some speecifics relating to the German market.

We talked about:

And … it wasn’t just dog talk. One of our final take-aways was “enjoy the walk you’re on” – the dog’s version of be in the present moment!

Here's where you can find out more about Belinda and her work on our episode's page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode327/ 

I had been following Dana’s content on LinkedIn for a while. I finally contacted her and asked her to come on the podcast because I saw a post about her recent presentation on terminology and solo female travel. The point was that, when the termonology is right, women have the right names to describe what is happening to them. This is how organisations where we get information prior to travel can get the tools they need to inform and prepare women who are planning to travel alone. But this can only happen if there is a joint understanding of what specific words mean so that they can be used consistently.

I wanted to find out more about this presentation and to hear some of Dana’s stories discovering new places and meeting both colleagues and new people in other countries.

We talked about:

Find out more about Dana on the show notes page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode326/

I first got in touch with Cláudia on LinkedIn when she interacted with a post about one of my other episodes. As I learned more about her work in creating original Portuguese audio content for children, I thought we could have an interesting conversation on the podcast too.

Of course I am always interested to find new content in Portuguese because it helps me too. If it’s about animals, it’s an added bonus! But whether or not you speak Portuguese, you wil be able to relate to our other topics around education, children’s literacy, learning by listening, and a love for the natural world.

We talked about:

🎙 Cláudia’s own language story and why she became interested in story-telling for children
🎙 The Trevo Trevo project – what it is, whom it’s for, and what Cláudia wants to achieve through sharing her stories as spoken words
🎙 Why it’s important for children to develop their listening skills without additional stimuli or distractions
🎙 Where Cláudia gets her inspiration and how she ensures that the stories are also educational

Thanks Cláudia for this conversation and for sharing your work with us 😊
 
Find out more about Cláudia  and Trevo Trevo on our episode's page - https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode325/

How do we answer the question about what we do, when do we need to change this answer, and what might be missing in terms of connecting our positioning, visibility, and connections? Those are my topics in this week's solo episode! Are you coming on this journey with me? You might leave with things you want to change, improve, or do differently!

Find out how I can support you with my language and communication services or send me a message here: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode324/

I contacted Kathrin a few weeks ago when I discovered that her Medtalks with Kathrin are recorded and available as podcasts. I had enjoyed a recent episode and wanted to let her know. That turned into a coffee chat, which turned into a collaboration plan! In this first episode, you’ll hear more about Kathrin, her story, and her projects. We’re also planning a future episode with some colleagues from the How to speak cancer translation team.

In this conversation we talked about:

Who is Kathrin ?

Kathrin Kunze is a nurse-turned medical communicator, author, translator, and founder of Kathrin’s Medical Linguistics. Drawing on almost 20 years of clinical experience, she helps patients, families, and care partners understand complex medical information with greater clarity and confidence. Through her book How to Speak Cancer, her blog, and her conversations with patients and healthcare professionals, Kathrin and her network work to make medical language accessible for all.

You can find the links that we mention by visiting our episode's page: https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode323/

Nora and I met through my networking meetings. Most of us don’t have any idea what life as a freelancer is like until we actually take the leap into the unknown. Nora offers placements for people who want to find out more about life as a freelance conference interpreter and I wanted to find out how they work, what the participants learn, and what mentoring junior colleagues or answering questions from students has taught Nora as well!

We talked about:

🎙Nora’s story with languages and how she followed her own path into interpreting
🎙 Why Nora decided to offer work placements for people interested in freelance interpreting and what kind of people will benefit from them
🎙 Nora’s general tips for improving interpreting skills
🎙 Nora’s work with students and their most common questions and misconceptions about her role

Find out more about Nora on our episode's page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode322/

 | Today I’m bringing you a conversation with Helen von Dadelszen from Present Potential Sàrl.
 
 We covered a lot of ground in terms of using our voice, speaking in front of others, dealing with stage fright, and often doing all of these things in an additional language. Some of the key topics are:
 
🎙 Helen’s story and how she became a language coach
🎙 How we sometimes create a persona in another language that doesn’t reflect who we are – and what we can do about it
🎙 The fact that many of the things that people don’t like about their voices are actually things that we can change
🎙 How we can build confidence
🎙 How we can deal with stage fright and last-minut nerves before we have to speak in front of others
🎙 Helen’s book – courageous action that talks about how we need to take action in order to build our confidence..

 What’s some courageous action that you’ve taken recently, or that you’re planning to take, in order to speak with more confidence in your first language or an additional one?
 
 Here's where you can find the show notes page with Helen's links: https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode321

I recently met Urmi Hossain online and we decided to record a conversation together discussing Urmi’s experience of living in different places, speaking multiple languages on a daily basis, and exploring other people’s stories of culture, language, migration, and identity.

In this conversation, we talked about:

🎧 Urmi’s language story and her relationship with each of her “almost five languages”
🎧 How the settings in which we learn languages can affect how we communicate in them.
🎧 Urmi’s experience of adapting to both living in a new country and working in an additional language.
🎧 The importance of curiosity and open-mindedness when you’re exploring a new culture.
🎧 Reframing the stories we tell ourselves and our relationships with our multiple languages.
🎧 Urmi’s podcast “Stories Beyond Borders”, why she decided to create it, and the voices that she wants to amplify through her platform.

Find out more about Urmi, her book and her podcast on the show notes page https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode320/

These solo episodes are intended to be shorter – with a thought, a question, something practical to try.

I talk so much about discovering our voice in another language, but I also started reflecting on the way I communicate in my first language – in writing and on the podcast. Finding what feels natural and conveys the right message is a journey too, especially if you have previously worked somewhere else where it was necessary to write in a different way.

Of course I focus more on working in our additional languages because that’s what my clients are doing with English. But at the same time, it’s good to reflect on the ways in which we communicate in our first language too. There’s so much talk about optimising and improving, that sometimes all the individuality is gone from a message – and that’s really sad.

I don’t believe we should just write as we speak. Sometimes that’s really hard to read, especially if your going in three different directions at the same time and it becomes hard to follow.

But I do believe that people are looking for human connection over perfection – whatever that is – in our first or any additional language. And in my case at least, for a while, I was living with professional restrictions that don’t apply now!

And of course, if you are looking for support with being more visible in English, let me know using the contact form and we can arrange a time to discuss it. I have a number of group and individual programmes in which I accompany people on this visibility journey. Also check my home page – if you’d like more details about the individual programmes.

This two-part content came out of a discussion at one of my meetings, when one of the participants shared about her work as a board games translator. I thought this was interesting,both to learn more about this work and to see how people are using board games for language learning – in terms of adults improving their skills, parents with multilingual children, and teachers in the language classroom.

It’s not a topic that I know a lot about. As someone with a visual impairment, it’s hard to find accessible games for me in English, my first language. It’s even harder in my additional ones. So I put up a poll on LinkedIn to see what others thought about the topic and then asked if some of them would like to come on the podcast for a group discussion. In the end, we had 6 people who wanted to take part, so I made two groups. This is the second one, with Sónia, Gwen, and Helene.

You can listen to group 1’s episode here.

In this session, we talked about:

Find out more about the guests and which games they recommend on the show notes page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode318/