English with Kirsty

We often talk about what we do, but one of the things that we touched upon at the conversation club today was why we do what we do. What motivates us? What gives us a sense of fulfilment?Today I'm sharing a bit of my story about why language is important to me, how needing to learn in a slightly different way has actually helped me, and why I do what I do.In the coming months, some of my clients and friends will be sharing their stories too.I also talked about my "Discover your voice in English" mentoring programme. Send me a message if you'd like to find out more or to have a chat about whether it's for you!https://englishwithkirsty.com/discover-your-voice-in-englishHere's the show notes page for the episode:https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode255

Sometimes advice like “feel the fear and do it anyway” or “just start and see what happens” doesn’t work. You need a more structured plan to give you the confidence to create and launch something new.This is how today’s guest approached his idea to start a YouTube channel in English. He made a plan, created the content, and finally gave himself time to make sure that it was what he wanted before releasing it out into the world.It’s easy to look at successful, well-known content creators and to think that they’ve always been doing that – but every story has a beginning. Today Adrian Probst shares his content creation story with us.We talked about:🎙 Adrian’s language story and why he chose a career in the language industry🎙 Why Adrian created his Youtube channel the Freelanceverse for freelance translators and language professionals🎙 Adrians thought process around creating the channel, why he decided to do it in English, how he made his plan, and then how he began showing the content to others🎙 How different parts of Adrian’s personality come out as he uses his different languages to communicate.🎙 Adrian’s advice for other people who want to start something new or to create content in an additional languageDo you have ideas for a new content creation project? Will it also be in an additional language? If it would help with your accountability, let us know about it in the comments!You can listen to our conversation herehttps://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode254/and this is Adrian's YouTube channel https://youtube.com/@Freelanceverse

It's summer here in Europe and many people are thinking about holiday activities - which means a lot of the things that we usually do are put on hold.This episode is one of a series of quick, implementable tips - things that you can do to work on your language skills without attending a class or working with the language.Today I'm talking about why it's important for us to meet new people anyway, and how, as a language learner, in some ways it's easier to start conversations with people that we don't know. It could be to get some information that we need. It could be small talk - they don't know all the basic things about us that are easy to answer. And more importantly, we never know where conversations will lead - you might even find some new friends!Plus - you don't have to be in a country where the language is spoken in order for this to work!If you try this out, let me know how you get on! Be mindful of where you are and whom you're speaking with - if it doesn't feel good, move on!Here's the link to the show notes page:https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode253

I came across Anja and her podcast on LinkedIn because I was curious to find out what other podcast hosts are doing and to find some new content to listen to. Anja and I started talking when I posted a question about people who produce content in another language – and here we are! I hope you enjoy our conversation, and if you’re thinking about creating content in English, but you haven’t started doing it yet, Anja has some really good tips and advice for you.We talked about: Anja’s podcast – “Freelance business unlocked” – and how it came about Anja’s language story – how English came into her life Why Anja decided to change her podcast language from Croatian to English, why she made the change, and how she felt about it Tips for dealing with imposter syndrome and procrastination The importance of learning to be comfortable with our voice – in general and when we’re speaking another language. Is procrastination or imposter syndrome preventing you from starting something new? If you like, you can share something about the idea with us – it’s the first step to making it real!Who is Anja?If you’re here, you want to know whether it’s worth tuning in to the episode, so I’ll hopefully manage to convince you! My name is Anja Lordanić Mustać, I’m from Croatia, and I love fostering meaningful relationships with other freelancers and solopreneurs. Why is that something that comes first? Because as much as we think we’re “free” and “solo”, we cannot do this thing called business on our own.I recently discovered that podcasting is my true business love, and I love to teach others how to finally launch and grow their podcast AND stay consistent.As a semi-retired translator and interpreter, podcasting has been such a great way to keep on working on my language skills, communicating with people from various countries and backgrounds, and learning more about what fills them up.Find out more on the show notes page:https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode252/

Today I'm sharing a tip from one of our language exchange for language professionals meet-ups and it's something that I'm doing to help with my Portuguese.If you commit to giving yourself regular opportunities to write, this will also help your general fluency. Finding time for something quick is often easier than finding time to write a long essay! You can always extend the word count - I often go well over mine - but it's a minimum and you can always make the task harder as your language skills increase.You can also add new rules such as "don't use the dictionary" - so you have to use the words that you already know. I'd do that for German and Romanian, but the Portuguese practise for me is also about vocabulary building.You can be more prescriptive about the text.Or, if stories are more your thing, you could commit to writing a bit more of your story each time.If you try this out, let me know how you get on!Find out more on the show notes page:https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode251***********Send me an email if you have any questions or suggestions about the English with Kirsty podcast:podcast@englishwithkirsty.comor come and find me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-wolf-a8478235/

🎉 250 episodes of English with Kirsty 🎉When I published the first episode of English with Kirsty in 2015, it was meant to be a long-term project, but I didn’t think about how many episodes there would be!Now we’ve reached episode 250! I wanted to do something different, so I asked my amazing friend and podcast host Rita Prazeres Gonçalves to host the episode and ask the questions, knowing full well how she works! She doesn’t plan things…And you can see this in our conversation – I didn’t know the answer to one of her questions!!But this is us. We have spontaneous, real conversations! This time we talked about🎙 The early days of English with Kirsty🎙 How the English with Kirsty podcast started and how it has changed since then🎙 My current and future plans and my 3 new English programmes that are launching in 2024🎙 How we get inspiration for our podcasts and decide on new content🎙 Why you should listen to this podcast!I talked about my new course for translators, my English mentoring programme, and my language consultancy service for trainers and coaches. You can find out more about all of them in this recent LinkedIn post:https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7210949084902260736/Thanks so much Rita for hosting this episode, for all the things you’ve taught me so far, and for your refreshing and real approach to podcasting.Find all the other links on the show notes page, including Rita's profile and the links for her podcast, The Language worker:https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode250 

Carrying on with our voice theme, this week, Julia Michelle is here to talk with us about another aspect of voice, one which is particularly relevant to those of us who are business owners or freelancers: our brand voice.Julia was the speaker at a networking event that I attended recently and I wanted to introduce you to her as well.This is how Julia introduces herself:“I’m a registered nurse, copywriter, and brand voice specialist.Having a background as a nurse, it was a big shift for me to run my own business, and one of the hardest parts was figuring out what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it!When it came to building a personal brand, I found that so much of the advice out there was contradictory and confusing, and it just left me feeling like I had to give up who I wanted to be in order to follow “best practices”.That is… until I worked with Justin Blackman, one of the top brand voice experts in the world, and learned about how to measure and document brand voice.Now I work with entrepreneurs – a lot of whom have a professional background like me – and help them identify and develop their brand voice in a way that lets them take control of how they’re showing up online and create a brand they’re proud of.Oh, and in my spare time, I do cold water dipping and explore the great outdoors of Maine with my two pups :)”We talked about: Why your voice is important and why it often gets overlooked in conversations about your brand Which components make up our brand’s voice Why it’s important for freelancers and business owners to discover and work with their brand’s voice Different voices that we can use – Julie has an opt-in on her website with examples to make this clearer. These points apply whether we’re using our first language, communicating in an additional one, or working with copywriters or translators who create content on our behalf.How would you describe your brand’s voice?Find out more on the show notes page:https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode249

Our voices are so much more than the way we speak. This is part of it, but finding and using our unique voice is about more than that. It’s about expressing who we are, what we think, how we feel, and the messages that we want to share.Every day, we play different roles and adopt different communication styles depending on what we’re doing and whom we’re with. That’s normal.But sometimes, the version of ourselves that people meet when we’re using an dditional language is not 100% who we are and this can make it harder for us to communicate and for others to get to know us.Today I’m talking about a couple of reasons for this – and they’re not all entirely language-related. I also talk about a short exercise that you can do to find out where your blockages might be.If you’re a freelancer or business owner who uses English as an additional language and you’d like to explore this in more detail, I’m offering a new 11-week mentoring programme called "Discover your voice in English." https://englishwithkirsty.com/discover-your-voice-in-english/Send me a message at kirsty@englishwithkirsty.com if you have any questions about this programme or if you’d like to set up a call to discover whether it’s right for you.

I met Sion through the networking for language professionals sessions that I run with Rita Prazeres Gonçalves. I thought it would be good to talk with Sion about her work and her experiences of moving from the US to France and then later to Spain, where she now lives and works.Sion Dayson is an American voice actor based in Valencia, Spain. She works in many genres of voiceover, and specializes in eLearning, corporate narration, audio description, and materials for English-language learners. She’s voiced projects for clients including LG, Pearson, Business Spotlight, the National Academy of Sports Medicine, Iberian Media, among many others.She’s also narrated more than 130 titles for Blinkist, an app that summarizes the key takeaways from bestselling books. Her Blinkist credits include titles by Michelle Obama, Brene Brown, Robin Sharma, and many more.In addition to her six years in Spain, Sion’s experience with different languages includes studying in Mexico and Ghana, and ten years living in Paris, where she acquired French nationality.We talked about:🗣 Sion’s work as a voice actor and her story in relation to learning other languages.🗣 How the lockdown became a turning point in Sion’s career.🗣 Some cultural differences when comparing life in the US, France, and Spain.🗣 Things that have helped Sion to improve her Spanish while living in Spain.🗣 How speaking an additional language can facilitate better communication with clients, even when the service you provide is in English.Find out more on the show notes page:https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode247

Marta is originally from Barcelona and has lived in Germany since 2002. She is a freelance translator who works from German and English into Spanish and Catalan, specialising in marketing and advertising.After many years of struggling with self-doubt, impostor syndrome and a fierce inner critic, Marta now offers consultancy services for fellow translators and interpreters, focusing on marketing and time management. What she enjoys most is encouraging people to believe in themselves and helping them to overcome their perfectionism when needed.We talked about: How we define perfectionism How perfection appears in the context of language learning How good attention to detail can help us, but perfectionism can also hold us back or make life harder Some practical tips and strategies for dealing with our perfectionist tendencies and reducing their impact on ourselves and our performance. Who and what can help us. Find out more on theshow notes page;https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode246/