Are you dreading the language learning process? Putting off getting started, or maybe going back to it after a break? I'm blaming the Inner Complainer.

This is the third episode in a trio called For the Very Reluctant Learners, where, in our weeklong Ode to Inner Complainer, we are listening to her most common complaints about learning a language, taking them very seriously, and then learning our language anyway. Today’s complaint is a favourite whenever we’re starting something new: “It’s going to be a nightmare”.

Join your host, Emily Richardson, every weekday for a short and snappy dose of language courage to get you unstuck, whether you love languages or whether you really don't, but need to learn one anyway. Emily is the tiny and colourful creator of Tea with Me, a platform to help multi-passionate and unconventional language learners splash language into every part of their lives. She is also the author of the How to Be Me series of language journals to help you to tell the stories that really matter in your new language. Join her on Instagram at @teawithemily or visit her website at https://teawithemily.com/

A huge thank you to Samuel Peter Davies for the happiest music in the world, and to Anna Bovi Diamond for using every colour in the box on the cover art.