Love, Joy, and Languages

In this Season 1 Finale, I share and celebrate language learning wins from listeners across the globe. Real life stories from real life language learners, inspiring us to see every bit of progress along our language journeys. In this episode, you'll hear stories from six language learners who recognize a huge variety of wins in their language journeys. The achievements they've shared with me for this episode are inspiring for language learners of all types, ages, and levels. The languages they're celebrating include French, Italian, Catalan, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and German. Some are still in the beginner phase of acquiring their languages, and others are futher along. Some are working on their first or second non-native language, and others their fourth or...eleventh.

This episode is made for you, my listeners. Every win we have matters. No achievement is too small. Every success is significant. And every win is worth celebrating. Join me in today's episode by cheering on those who shared their stories with me and for everyone else out there working on your new language. Take a moment to reflect on your own wins, and celebrate them! Feel the pride. Give yourself a round of applause. Brag about it on social media. You're doing great, and you can be proud of yourself and your achievements.

Instagram accounts for those who shared success stories in this episode:
@cory.viento
@something.polyglot
@lingo_mama
@ninakpeacock
@fayefran_x
@liza.learns.languages

Find me on:
Instagram: @love.joyandlanguages
Twitter: @LoveJoy_Lang
www.lovejoyandlanguages.com

Some of my favorite language podcasts for you to check out:
Language Chats Podcast, co-hosted by Penny from today's episode & her friend, Bec
The Language Confidence Podcast, by Emily Richardson
Speaking Tongues Podcast, by Elle Charisse
Insecurities About Language, by Alexandria Robinson
The Future is Bilingual, by Heather Koziol
The Fluent Show, by Kerstin Cable
Language Stories, by Lindsay Williams
Language Hacking, by Benny Lewis & Shannon Kennedy

My favorite podcasts in Italian:
Simple Italian Podcast, by Simone Pols
The Teacher Stefano Show, by Stefano
The Italian Effect Podcast, by Agata
News in Slow Italian, by Linguistica360

My favorite podcasts in German:
Natural.Fluent.German & Deutsches Geplapper, by Flemming Boldbecher
Slow German, by Annik Rubens
Sprach Venture, by Markis Galli

In this episode, guest Emily Richardson tells us about her early experiences learning French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Korean. She has eight years of classroom experience teaching languages. After a brief spell in the Artificial Intelligence industry, the 2020 pandemic hit, and she found herself unemployed with no income, no stable home, and feeling very lost.

Against financial, emotional, and personal odds, Emily started learning Brazilian Portuguese in response to the challenges she faced. Emily shares her joirney learning Brazilian Portuguese using only language exchange apps, and she shares some tips that have worked for her when finding a language partner.

Emily uses her language knowledge and experience to author and publish a book series “How to Be Me" which is available on Amazon in English and French. Spanish, German & Brazilian Portuguese. This series serves as a guide for language learners to find their voice and preserve their whole selves in their new languages.

Emily is also the creator and host of "The Language Confidence Project," a podcast for all language learners, whether they have to or want to learn a language. In her short, daily episodes, Emily provides tips, tricks and tons of encouragement for all language learners throughout every step of their journey.

Thanks to Emily for taking the time to chat with me and share so much of her story and work. This conversation is packed with incredible insights and take-aways, and I'm thrilled to be able to share it with you.

Links:
Find all of Emily's work, including links to her website, books, and podcast here: https://campsite.bio/teawithemily

Emily on Instagram: @teawithemily

Find me on Instagram: @love.joyandlanguages

Find me on Twitter: @LoveJoy_Lang

In this episode, I talk about the power of the words we speak to ourselves about ourselves and our languages. Beginning my language learning journey, I held core beliefs about what that journey would look like and about myself as a language learner. Such things as, "I'm too old," "Language learning is difficult and time-consuming," and "I'm not gifted at languages" were at the center of all my beliefs about language learning and what it meant for me. I often found that the words I spoke -- both out loud and in my head -- upheld these beliefs, and confirmation bias had me focusing on things that seemed to affirm them.

Learning to pay attention to these words was the first step I took to halting this destructive pattern. I learned how to pay attention to how I feel in a language moment, which is often a signal that negative thoughts are swirling around my head. Next, I gave this callous voice a name, allowing myself to disassociate from the pessimism and self-doubt and look at things from a more realistic and constructive perspective. Finally, finding positive, believable words to replace the negative ones was something I knew I needed to practice in order to move forward with a growth mindset.

Links:
Lindsay Williams of Lindsay Does Languages
Kerstin Cable of The Fluent Show
Emily Richardson of Tea With Emily

In this episode, I talk about the importance of forging a joyful bond with your languages as early as possible. My first year learning Italian, especially, was rife with pressure, self-doubt, and beliefs that language learning is hard, that it's a struggle. By the time I started learning German, though, I had worked through much of this negativity, and my first year was full of positive energy, fun, and believing in myself. Today, even though my Italian is stronger than my German, I still get nervous and hesitate when speaking Italian. I still feel a pull to use Google translate, subconsciously believing that I can't do it on my own. With German, though, a language in which I'm still a beginner, these feelings don't exist. I feel no hesitation to just jump into a conversation, and I completely forget translation apps are available. Instead, I just charge forward with what I know. This stark difference in how I interact with my languages is connected to my early beliefs about myself learning each one. The limiting beliefs that overshadowed my early years with Italian still exist. I've proven to myself over and over again that I can learn and speak this language, that I am learning and speaking it, but those negative beliefs formed a bond that I must actively and intentionally work against. With German, though, I knew I could do it from the beginning. It's challenging, of course, but I've believed in myself and my abilities from day one, and the result is that I'm more likely to enter a conversation with ease and not worry about mistakes or judgment.

I find this disparity in my underlying feelings of my ability in each language interesting, and the more I think about it, the more I believe in the importance of forging a joyful bond from the beginning. What we say to ourselves and what we believe matter. To me, I think they matter just as much as what resources or methods we choose for learning a language. We have to believe we can do it, and it's important to make sure you're speaking truth and kindness to yourself both about your language and yourself. No matter where you are in your language journey or what your reasons are for learning a language, I think the take-away from this episode is something that can benefit us all.

Where to find me:
Love, Joy, and Languages Blog
Instagram: @love.joyandlanguages
X (Twitter): @LoveJoy_Lang

All episodes of the show can be found at www.lovejoyandlanguagespodcast.com.

In this episode, I sit down with guest Sarah Knight from Language Immersion Abroad, who shares her experience navigating life as an immersion program student in France. Sarah shares her discovery of immersion as a way to learn a language and how being part of a host family in the U.S. inspired her to take the immersion leap for herself. She brings us through the emotional and linguistic process of living in an intense immersive environment, including unexpected challenges and how she worked through them without losing herself. Even though our immersive experiences are different, Sarah skillfully describes thoughts and feelings about living abroad that I have never been able to put into words, showing that we're never alone in our experiences and that tapping into our subset of the language community to share stories and experiences is valuable, inspiring, and healing.

While her experience was in an immersion program in the country, Sarah explains the concept of an immersion spectrum, allowing me to identify my experience along the spectrum. We compare and contrast various aspects of our diverse experiences learning a language while living abroad, talk about the role of family in our language choices, and what we envision for the language community. Sarah is on a mission to use her experience as an immersion student to build support and community for others going through or thinking about immersion. She values connection within the language community and wants to share all the facets of language immersion, both the exciting aspects and the challenges, in order to support and build strength amongst those living abroad.

WHERE TO FIND SARAH:
You can follow more of Sarah’s journey on Instagram @languageimmersionabroad, where she shares insights, tips, and stories about living immersed.