Episode 20: Celebrating Your Wins!

07/25/22 • 21 min

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

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

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

Previous Episode

Episode 19: Revisiting Overwhelm in Parenting, Languages, and Parenting with Languages

In this episode, I talk about how overwhelm has started creeping back into my life as summer break approaches, and the kids will be out of school for several weeks. When I think about my own language learning time, travel plans, keeping a clean house, preparing healthy meals, providing lots of activity time for the kids, minimizing screen time, working on their English reading and writing, while also keeping German a central language for them outside of school -- everything has started feeling completely impossible. So today I use this space to talk myself through what really matters, getting honest with myself about the crazy expectations I'm putting on myself.

By defining my real priorities for the summer -- quality time with my kids, restoration for myself, and more contact with German and Italian -- I'm able to clearly see realistic opportunities for time, energy, and resource management that previously felt impossible. Brainstorming activities we can do to foster these priorities helped stop the overwhelm spinning around in my head and instead allowed me to come up with a very manageable summer plan that leaves room for mood, energy, and personality shifts throughout our weeks out of the school year routine.

Note: If you have a language learning win to share with me for next week's season finale, reach out to me on Instagram or Twitter by Wednesday, 20 July 2022, and I'll give you and your success a shout out in the episode!

Instagram: @love.joyandlanguages
Twitter: @LoveJoy_Lang

Next Episode

Episode 21: Our Summer Language Activities

Welcome back to Season 2! In this episode, I review my summer break with the kids at home and talk about how we interacted with the languages we're learning, Italian and German. If you haven't already listened to Episode 19, give it a listen here because that's where I set my priorities for the summer. Those priorities were critical for going back and reviewing everything we did (and didn't do).

I hope this episode gives you some ideas for how to interact with your languages, whether you have kids or not. But most of all, I want to emphasize the importance of reviewing your language progress, tasks, and study time with respect to your goals and priorities. I want to exhibit the power of letting go of all-or-nothing thinking and unrealistic expectations, giving yourself grace to be flexible in what transpires along your journey, and keeping long-term language dreams without sacrificing short-term wins and language advancement.

I'm so excited to be back with you this season!