This two-part episode came out of a discussion at one of my meetings, when Harrie 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 first one, with Harrie, Gabriela, and Raquel.

We talked about:

How about you? Have you played board games in a language that wasn’t your first language? What did you learn? If you’re a translator, have you done any work in this area?

Find out more and connect with my guests on the show notes page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode317/

One of my first conversations with Gabriela was about her work as a medical interpreter. I shared a situation that I’d experienced on holiday many years ago when someone in our group didn’t have access to an interpreter in hospital. Until this time, I’d never thought about it – but it can be a scary situation if you know that you need medical assistance, but you aren’t entirely sure what’s going on – whether that’s because you’re living in a country where a different language is used or because you’re travelling or on holiday.

From there, we got on to why it’s important for Gabriela to provide language access to people in situations involving important conversations relating to them – whether that’s a medical appointment or a legal hearing. That’s when I decided she’d be an interesting guest on the podcast – both to explain her journey for people interested in this kind of work, and to remind us all of the importance of having full access to the facts so that someone can participate fully in conversations about them. This text, originally from her bio sums it up: “For Gabriela, language access is personal — the idea that something as fundamental as being understood should never be a privilege. She knows first-hand the weight that falls on people when there is no interpreter in the room: miscommunication, fear, and the quiet indignity of not being heard.”

Gabriela describes her journey, talks about some of the changes in the telephone interpreting space over the last years, shares some of the best parts and the challenges, and gives tips for those who are thinking about entering this field.

Gabriela Paez is a Senior Spanish<>English Interpreter with 10 years of experience in medical, legal, and public service settings. Based in Mexico, she specializes in professional consecutive and remote interpretation (OPI/VRI), interpreting more than 50,000 minutes annually.

Find out more on the show notes page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode316/

 | If we’re talking about your private social media, you can do whatever you want! But when you’re the face of your business, there’s more strategy involved and you have to make decisions based on your audience. In this episode, I’m looking at 3 topics:
 
1.  When does it make sense to post content in an additional language?
2.  7 reasons why we sometimes get in our way with this – and what we can do instead
3.  3 reasons why speaking to potential clients in your additional language(s) can help with visibility and credibility.

 The point of this episode is to be practical. To examine what is working/what could work for us in the future, some of the reasons why there’s a gap between what we want to do and what we actually do, and an encouragement to move forward if this is a direction in which you want to go.
 
 It’s not something that I find easy, so I also explain my plans and give myself some accountabaility by talking about them on the podcast.
 
 And of course, if you are looking for support with being more visible in English, let me know using the contact form on the show notes page 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 website  if you’d like more details about the individual programmes.

Show notes: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode315/

Home page: https://www.englishwithkirsty.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-danielle-wolf-a8478235/

The first thing that struck me about Silke was her content. I knew she was fairly new to the freelancing world, but she was getting comments and starting conversations on her posts in a way that felt real and natural. I remember commenting on one of her posts, which led to a few more comments and we also started chatting privately.

I hear so many comments about people not knowing what to post, people second-guessing themselves and in the end not sharing things, or outsourcing it all to AI and hoping for the best… I wanted to have this conversation with someone who was creating content that connects people and starts meaningful conversations.

I also wanted to find out why Silke chose to focus on women’s health and mental health content and to explore what happens when people don’t have access to information that’s relevant to them in a language that they understand.

We talked about:

Who is Silke?

My name is Silke Kogler. I love learning foreign languages and talking about physical and mental wellbeing. That’s why I recently decided to combine my two passions and become a German translator specializing in women’s health and mental health. By helping international wellness brands with thoughtful and authentic translations into German, I want to empower women, especially, to educate themselves on how to live a happier and healthier life. Outside of work, I love reading all kinds of books, practicing yoga, and having deep conversations. I’m also currently taking a course on holistic women’s health to deepen my knowledge and offer even better services to my clients.

Find out more and access the episode links here on the show notes page: https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode314

I discovered Valentina and her work a few months ago when I signed up to her newsletter. I was a silent reader for a while, but one of her newsletter topics resonated with me, so I sent an email … firstly because I think it’s important to give people this feedback when we like their content, and secondly to ask Valentina whether she’d like to come on the podcast to talk about it!

We talked about:

Why Valentina decided to start her newsletter and her mentoring programme for freelance translators

And remember – if you’re not a translator, these points about marketing and finding clients can be applied to other areas and industries too!

If you’re looking for direct clients at the moment, what would you say is the biggest challenge?

Find out more about Valentina, her work, and how you can contact her by visiting the show notes page for our episode - htpps://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode313

Christina and I met recently on LinkedIn and found that we have 3 languages in common! Rather than letting the easiest one for communication become the norm for us, we’re trying to use all of them … However, this podcast episode is only in English! I was curious about Christina’s work with language identity and I thought it would be an interesting topic to explore further on the podcast.

We talked about

Find out more about Christina and her work here: https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode312

Feeling ready and being ready aren’t the same! One of them can be influenced by a whole host of unrelated factors and the other one is based on facts. One depends on your mood, how much you want to listen to imposter syndrome today, or whether your old friends procrastination or perfectionism are knocking on your door. The other one is far more something 
that you can control.

Taking the next step in any journey can be a bit scary because we’re venturing into the unknown.

But my question for you today is … is there something that you’ve been putting off doing, either in your business or personal life, because you don’t yet “feel ready”? Is there anything you can do, or anyone who could help with that – to get from where you are to where you want to be?

And of course, if it has something to do with actively using your English in spontaneous conversations, let’s chat! I may be the person who can help you to move forward!

You can find out more about what I offer here: https://www.englishwithkirsty.com

Jadwiga is my final guest from the group of language professionals who agreed to share how they combine their love of animals, in Jadwiga’s case horses, with a career in languages. You’ll find out in the episode why Jadwiga wasn’t able to join us for episode 300, but it was great to catch up with her this month to find out more about her … and her animals of course!

We talked about :

I particularly liked Jadwiga’s take on the last point in terms of being open to identifying potential clients in the spaces where we already are and with the contacts that we already have. Sometimes you just need to have the courage to present yourself and explore those potential partnerships and collaborations.

Find out more on the show notes page - https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/episode310

I’ve been following Cátia’s blog for a while now – since the time when I first started meeting more Portuguese people and eventually decided to learn Portuguese myself. Recently I decided to find out more about her work, her blog, and why she decided to write it. So, this is that conversation! If you want to know about Portugal – places, traditions, customs, and other interesting facts – head on over to the blog. If you’re learning a language other than Portuguese, stick around for the language tips – most of them can be applied to any language!
 
We talked about:
 
🎤 Why Cátia started writing her blog
🎤 Why it’s important for us as language teachers to bring information about culture, traditions, history, and interesting places to the language classroom
🎤 What Cátia enjoys about teaching Portuguese
🎤 Where Cátia’s blogging inspiration comes from
🎤 Tips for learners of Portuguese

Did you know about this blog? Have you discovered something new there recently? Is there an aspect of Portuguese culture or a place in Portugal that you’d maybe like to hear more about?

You can find all the links on the show notes page - https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode309/

You may remember Katharina from last year when we did an episode on the importance of networking. If you missed it, you can check back to episode 294.

Today we’re talking about self-care. It’s something we hear about a lot, but often it can feel like an afterthought or a nice-to-have-if-we-weren’t-so-busy. But especially for those of us with one-person-businesses, self-care is essential. And of course, as this is a language podcast, we also talk about how our additional languages can be part of our mindfulness activities and help us to focus on what’s happening here and now … and not in all the other times and places where our mind likes to wander.

We talked about

🎧 Katharina’s language story, including her interest in medical writing and why it’s so important to guarantee equal access to medical informatioin
🎧 How writing for ourselves or journalling can help us to process our thoughts and emotions
🎧 Why it’s important to take care of ourselves as freelancers and what forms this can take
🎧 How journalling in other languages can give us different perspectives and help us to be present.

We’d love to hear your ideas – so if you want to share what works for you in terms of self-care for freelancers, which language you choose for your journalling, and how the writing process has helped you, do let us know in the comments.

Find out more about Katharina on the show notes page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode308/