How much do you know about Filipino food, culture and language? Did you know that Australians of Filipino heritage make up the fifth largest group of Australians born overseas*?

In this Language Chat, we speak with Fides Mae Santos-Arguelles, independent business consultant and co-founder of The Entree.Pinays, a food-loving entrepreneurial group of Filipinas working together to bring Filipino cuisine, culture and community to the hearts, minds and tastebuds of Australians on Wurundjeri country.

We chat about growing up with Filipino heritage in Australia, pride for community and identity, the diversity of Filipino languages and dialects, and how The Entree.Pinays aims to improve the representation and celebration of Filipino food, culture and community in Australia.

Do you have any questions or thoughts to share with us or Fides? Let us know!

Australians aren’t well known for their language skills (unfortunately)… But is this just a stereotype? Do we really struggle at learning languages, or are we just expecting too much, too soon, when we set out on a language learning journey?

In this episode of Language Chats, we speak with Margaux Josse, a Melbourne-based French language teacher who has been teaching French to Australians of different ages, backgrounds and motivations across a range of professional contexts for over six years.

We chat about what it’s like teaching Australians another language, how she came to teach her mother tongue to others, her experiences of her students’ challenges, strengths and motivations, how things have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the part that intercultural differences and similarities can play.

Have a question for Margaux or for us? Get in touch!

In this episode of Language Chats, we’re talking the ‘F’ word! Maybe not the F word you are thinking about…. but FLUENCY.

Our very own Language Chats co-host Bec talks about her French language learning experience from a beginner 5-year-old kid to becoming ‘fluent’.

What does fluent mean to you? Is it a goal of yours? Can you be fluent in a particular context and not in others? What about all the pressures of admitting you are fluent? Does it take confidence to talk about your language skills with others?

We chat about all of these questions and more in this fun episode.

Have a question for Bec or for Penny? Get in touch!

In this episode of Language Chats, we speak with Italian teacher and artist Ermy Pedata of The Language Rose. Ermy is passionate and enthusiastic teacher (her positivity is infectious!), who loves to help her students learn Italian through their interests and passions. We chat with her about her own language learning journey and how art led her back to languages, her tips to help people connect their language learning with what they love, and how she has applied this approach to her own language learning.

Have a question for Ermy or for us? Get in touch!

50 episodes of Language Chats! We can hardly believe it! It’s been a little over two years since we started recording this podcast and we’re still here… But so are you! We have a lot of fun chatting language between ourselves and with others, but it’s extra special that there are other language lovers out there who enjoy listening to these language chats too. So, thank you for tuning in and engaging with us on our favourite topics!

To celebrate this little milestone, we’re putting each other to the test with some language trivia! If you’re a fan of the occasional pub quiz but have always wished that there were a few more language-themed questions so you can show off your real talents… You’ll love this episode! So pop on your headphones, turn up the volume and play along with us (and maybe pick up some fun facts to share at your next dinner party)!

Did any answers surprise you? Any questions you wanted to know more about? Let us know!

And if you’d like to join an online trivia session with some other language lovers, join our Facebook group here!

Wiradjuri is the Australian indigenous language of Wiradjuri country, in central-southern New South Wales. As a revival language, it is experiencing growth and provides an important connection to the local indigenous culture; however it also faces significant challenges to keep it alive and active.

In this episode, we speak with Wiradjuri man Yaaran (Aaron) Ellis who currently teaches the Wiradjuri language in Young, New South Wales. We chat about his experience of learning and teaching the language, the importance of language as a way of connecting to culture within his own family, sharing Wiradjuri in classrooms and online via social media, the challenges ahead and his hopes for the language’s future.

Episode Links

Farsi (Persian) may not be a language that you hear about people learning often in Australia; however the official language of Iran has an estimated 70 million native speakers and 110 million speakers worldwide, and it’s the language that has captured Sydney-based Candace Powell’s language-loving heart for the last several years.

In this episode of Language Chats, we speak with Candace about how she became interested in learning Farsi, how she has been learning the language and finding resources as a learner in Australia, tracking habits for language learning, what it means to be conversationally ‘functional’, her favourite words in Farsi and more.

Do you have any questions for Candace? Contact us here, or contact Candace directly via her Instagram account @the.far.see

How important are podcasts to you for learning a language? Being so accessible, podcasts are a great way to practice your listening skills for any language! But it’s not always just about the language itself. Listening to podcasts can also be a way to learn more about another culture and about other more subtle aspects of communicating in another language too.

In this episode, we speak with Pete Smissen, creator of Aussie English, a podcast and learning platform that helps advanced English students level up their Australian English whilst also learning about the country’s unique culture, history, and more. We chat about he came to focus his work on helping English learners to better understand Australian English, his interest in language and the languages he has learned the highs and lows that he’s faced as a learner and a creator, and his best tips for language learners.

Got a question for us or for Pete about Aussie English? Get in touch!

In this episode, we speak with two members of our Language Lovers AU Community - Andrew & Xuran (Sharon), who are both currently language teachers of Chinese at schools in Geelong, Victoria. We chat with them both about their respective journeys with language learning and how they became interested in languages, teaching Chinese in Victorian high schools and how they bring many languages into their home with their two young sons.

Can you relate to their experiences? Do you have any questions for Andrew or Xuran? Let us know!

Have you learned (or would you like to learn) a language that uses another script or alphabet? Or does the idea of learning a language that is written in a *completely* different way scare you? In this episode of Language Chats, we chat about Penny’s experience of learning Japanese and Mandarin, the excitement of learning to ‘crack the code’, the visual nature of learning other scripts and alphabets, whether it would be possible to skip learning a script (#controversial), and which scripts we’d love to learn in future.

Have a question or want to share your experience with us? Get in touch!

Show links available on our website - languagelovers.com.au

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Penny @lingo_mama and Bec @bec_languages