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/

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