What do people like Kris Broholm, Kerstin Cable and other enthusiastic language learners think about that? Find out in this special epsiode in which Daniel is reading out loud some opinions.  What is your opinion? Share ist with us! myfluentpodcast@gmail.com  https://twitter.com/fluentlanguage/status/1308094380788584448?s=20 The Fluent show (Kerstin Cable) https://www.fluent.show/hosts/kerstin Dakota Abroad language https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbXelRzmh3w easy languages https://www.youtube.com/user/magauchsein twitter.com music: Scott Holmes    

In this podcast, the hosts explore what turns people off when listening to a podcast. They discuss topics such as excessive ads, lack of improvement from famous podcasters, lengthy dead air, and disorganized content. Listeners also share their own turn-offs and the host promotes their other show and asks for suggestions for future episodes.

Ahmad is sharing his language learning story with us! If you want to share your story, send us an E-mail to myfluentpodcast@gmail.com Podcasts mentioned in this show: Football Daily podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08qt66t Luke's English podcast: teacherluke.co.uk Interview with Luke on my fluent podcast: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/myfluentpodcast/E28_-_interview_Luke_Thompson.mp3 Tik Tok trailer to the interview on my fluent podcast:  https://www.tiktok.com/@myfluentpodcast/video/6835683333477846278?lang=en Zdenek's English podcast https://zdeneksenglishpodcast.podbean.com/ Transcript:  Thank you very much, mr. Daniel. My name is Ahmed Djago and I live in Senegal. Senegal is a country of a 16 million habitats in West Africa. And when it comes to learning a language, a second language or a third language, for me is, I mean, I have a very interesting story because when I tell somebody that I live in a country where the official language is not English and I've never attended an English school or an English institution and yet speak English the way I am speaking it this day it might amaze him, you know, You have a flawless accent it seems to me, Thank you, but thank you very much , the story is quite interesting for me because Senegal is a country where the official language is French because it has been colonized by the French. But here in Africa, when we say official language, mostly we don't mean that the official language is the language that is spoken by the vast majority or the whole population of the country. French is the official language but we have other national language, which is the language that is named Wolof. And that is actually the the most widely spoken language here, I can say something like 95% of the country's population is speak the same language but only those people who went to school for studying French, all those people who live in an area where the French speakers are to be found are actually able to speak French. But for me, when I was about 14 years old, my father took me to Gambia. Gambia is our neighboring country. I went there merely (synonym `= only, purely, solely, simply) for learning Arabic. So I went there to learn Arabic but Gambia and Senegal are quite similar. They have lots in common. For example, our national languages are the same and I've been able to survive while there, but they have one different thing. And it is Gambia's official language is English. So, the people that go to school for learning English but their national language is still the same as our country, which is Wolof but I was surrounding (surrounded?) by some of my friends, some boys who were going to school to learn English and they were having some conversation around me in English, even though English was not the language that they were speaking in their daily lives, but I've been, I mean, I became fascinated with the way they use language sometimes around me. And I asked one boy, one of my friends there to teach me how to read English because before you can teach yourself. You have to, somebody has to guide you to do the basics. Something like being able to read the language first before you go for yourself. By the time I was learning Arabic, but this boy, this particular way helped me to teach me the English alphabet until I became able to read English myself. And that was it. I was still speaking up some expression, some words in English, something like breakfast, brother, sister, school, things like that. Basic things. I spent the next four years there in Gambia. Then I returned, I came back to my home country, which is Senegal to continue learning Arabic in Arabic schools in Senegal, around the year 2013. I have this desire to continue learning English because I realized that English is the most widely spoken language in the world. It is the most popular language in the world. And just by being able to speak it, it will open, you know, lots of opportunities for you. And then by that time, I was able to use Arabic and English dictionary properly. I have been quite almost fluent in Arabic. And then I stumbled upon one day, one application in the form of, I mean, it was, I think the audio book but it was made, it was built up in a form of application. I downloaded it from Apple store. And then I download the on English and Arabic dictionary, this particular application or the audio book, as you might call it's actually built in several sections. That was the beginner section, intermediate and advanced section, but in the form of stories, For example, they will pick up a small story something like breakfast, and a write a text, a very short text about it. So when I downloaded this application, I thought, wait a minute. Now I can teach myself English without needing any teacher or going to school. So I found a notebook and began writing those stories in my notebook. One story a day. This is how I did it. I will pick a story. You wrote it down the whole story you've made kind of a dictation out of it. You'd listen to it. And then you wrote it down. I will open the application and write down the story in my notebook and then download the voice file and listened to it several times until I became convinced that I can read it myself without listening to the voice. And then I would use the dictionary, Arabic English dictionary to translate the new word for me and write down the meaning in Arabic beside the words. And then by the time I was in Arabic school, but I have some free times during the day I I would use those free times to learn these stories. Learn. repeating them for the rest of the day until you know, this is the way I use to gain so many vocabularies for the next, let's say five years. Okay. That means you were very focused on particular stories. It says, right? So you just stick to one story until you could learn it by heart ? yes, the stories are not that long. You know, it is built in a way that's usually 10 to 11 lines. I see. For example, let me give you an example, a breakfast. He will write a about breakfast about 10 lines, just 10 lines, for example. I am Ahmad. I will wake up early in the morning. I take my breakfast. My breakfast is made out of bread and things and these and these and that I will write down that story, short story and learn it by heart. And the next day I will take the next story. Yeah, that sounds great to me. So so this is the most effective way of gaining new vocabularies, because you will learn the vocabulary in context. There, you will have the grammatical construction, and the words are being used in sentences. And you will learn how to use them yourself. If you need them in the future. Yeah, I think today the danger lies in being overwhelmed by the vast resources out there. So that it seems to me that we can't stick to one resource, you know, you want to consume more and more and more, and maybe that's dangerous because we can't remember things we just want to consume. it makes it hard in a way to just stick with one book, for example, and to learn it by heart. Yes. But the learners should be very careful about being bugged down with lots of research, lots of resources, lots of materials. When it comes to learning a language, because today the internet is making the things, you know, it is a huge field. If you are not being careful enough you might get yourself in a difficult situation. You have to focus. You have to choose wisely. What do you believe that it's going to take you to the next level and stick to it! So, somebody might wonder how can you become able to speak the language by just writing stories and things like that because that is just input just by me, but by making just input one cannot become able to use the language by speaking or by writing, you know? By that time, my pronunciation by the way was not good at all. So, there was videos that was produced by BBC six minutes English. And I was downloading those videos which teaches the English Letters that people should learn when they want to pronounce English properly. And I think is, is about 44 letters, isn't it? Yeah, I think I, I know this show they also had, or have a podcast which is still going on. I think. Yes. This is the videos that are downloaded too polish and to brush up my pronunciation pads (`?) and I was writing them down as well in a notebook, something like a "schwa" sound, things like that, by the way, I prefer British English. And that's why I focused on those videos until I became satisfied with the way I pronounced words in English. By that time I was also listening to some podcasts as well. I discovered a guy an English teacher who lives in the UK by the name of Luke I discovered this particular podcast around the year 2014. Yes. And I was listening to it. Yeah. Like a mad person, every single time. Yeah, he's really great luke Thompson and I have conducted an interview with him about two or three years ago. So he was also on my fluent podcast. Maybe you noticed. Yeah, I noticed I listened to the episodes in which he featured on. I listened to, Zdenek Lukas also, who is actually another guy who's producing very, very interesting topic, by the way, I am a big fan of Zdenek. am listening to his podcasts, especially if he's livestreaming these days. It is quite interesting. These are the guys. That I was listening dearly listening every single time. And by listening to them, I see the progress in my listening ability. Yeah, I totally agree with you. I am also a fan of Zdenek's English podcast of course his live shows are just amazing. Yeah, they are amazing. And did you listen to other podcasts as well? Can you recommend other podcasts? Yes, I am a big football fan and I listened to some football podcasts football related podcasts, like the football daily from the BBC Firefly and six Oh six also that this might be not the cup of tea of some listeners out there, because there are so many people who don't like football at all, but this is the thing that interested me and when you're listening to something that you love, you're more likely to gain, you know, to reap the rewards by the way, to gain a lot from it. So something that is enjoyable. I'm listening to lots of podcasts. I'm listening to, some news podcasts but these two are my prime podcasts, my prime ones, Luke's English podcast. And it's Zdenek and of course your podcast, which I discovered during the lockdown. Thank you I love the way you pronounce words and it is quite clear and your vocab man podcast, it is actually very amazing. Thank you very much. It's really kind of you . Have you ever considered or contemplated to make your own podcast maybe because you have a lot of knowledge you could share it to other learners as well. Well, actually, maybe I'm not sure at the moment, because by the way, I'm a teacher right now. I teach Arabic in our government elementary schools here in Senegal. And, we only have three months a year, three months over summer occasions every single year. But the school activities are quite hectic. That's why I'm not sure, but I, you know, you make me feel that maybe I will follow you on your footsteps one day because you know, inspire me a lot. You may you make me feel like, yeah, it is possible for me as well, because yeah absolutely inspired by you. Maybe one day my English.   So you were listening to a lot of podcasts and then your journey went on, I guess. Yes, it's going on at the moment. I consider myself as a beginner and I'm talking to you now but I have a problem here. Until I listened to one episode of your podcast recently about the guy who was from Quora on who lives in India. I forgot the name of him. because until recently I. I was this mad vocabulary hungry man. Somebody who writing down every single word vocabulary that he come across. But then I realized that I have so many passive vocabularies in my bank. As I'm talking to you there, I have some notebooks that I used to write down some vocabularies. And I barely use those vocabularies because they are so passive. You know, when I listened to that guy, he made me relaxed and sit down once again, because he was saying about when you have about 5,000 to 10,000 vocabulary in your bank, you have to focus on how to use them rather than getting related thing, some new vocabulary that you don't need it. So a wise man, and I, yay. real with you because it's the same here that I used to learn a lot of as you mentioned, passive vocabulary, which I wouldn't never use . just for the pleasure of learning but. Yeah, I should also focus more on the vocabulary I want to use. Yeah. Yeah, this is a thing. Again, the language is actually a vast, vast thing. A very huge, gigantic thing that. There are some areas that you can master and talk about fluently, and they have some specific vocabulary that you are going to need when you want to talk about them. But there are some areas where you will have no knowledge about, for example, I cannot talk about doctors related, vocabularies, hospitals, things like that, medical English, I mean, so, this is my opinion about learning second language or third language. First of all, you know, you have to love the language. You have to love the language that you're learning. You have to have the passion and the determination and you have to dedicate, you have to find a time to do it because without love and but the determination of learning the language, nobody can teach you. No, even if you have the most skilled teachers, they still cannot feed you, spoonfeed you the language unless you have the determination to learn it. I have this determination to learn the language to this level. That's why I am here today. There are some people around me here who have the opportunity and they've already mastered the first language that they can use to learn a second language, but maybe they don't have the determination they didn't find a way of, I mean, to do it because they don't love it. listened to some people talking about find Enjoyable way of learning the language. I mean, let's not lull ourselves into a false sense of security. We have to realize that when you're learning a language, you have to put some extreme effort. If you want to reach your goal, you don't have to just do some little things at day unexpecting to reap the rewards. I mean, For me, you have to put a lot of work, Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And this is what I believe. Yeah, and I think it is crucial to be consistent. Consistency is key. And I think even if you'll learn, let's say 20 minutes a day, if you can keep up with this for a very long period of time, then you will reach your goal. One day, well, maybe Yes. every three years, but you have to be determined yes. To just go your journey and make your things. That consistency that you said? When I, when I was learning the language throughout the last five years, some friends of mine, you know, sometimes tease me, you know, about me carrying this notebook everywhere I go and reading, they will use it. Tell me to tell me that I'm. You are a mad person. What are you doing here? This, this is not our official language wasting your time. And they considered me as somebody who's doing absolutely nothing, but, you know, they don't see. I mean, I don't see either way is seeing things then. Yeah, because while it's your passion, see that. And I find this is just great. you are serious about this and that's why you carry your notebook with you. And it's similar here in Switzerland because. English is not the, it's not one of the official languages here. We we have Italian, we have French, we have German and retro romantic, but English is not one of the official languages. So, but for me, that's not important because it's just a passion of mine and I like to learn English. Yeah. Yes. Yes. This is a case as well. So in Switzerland you have so many languages as well. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay. And yeah. In Senegal we have about six Oh seven languages, but those languages are not popular the most popular one, as I told you his Walof and then a French you on there is a language that is called, Polar? French is the official language I chose the different way. So some people, by the way, I was, I belong to so many WhatsApp groups that I join every now and then to practice my English. Some people used to ask me why, how can you speak English while living in a French speaking country? But my use by my usual and my most frequent answer is, you know, this is my passion and I want to learn several languages. It's not just French. And Wolof by the way, I learned Arabic to the fluency level and I learned English. Maybe I'm not that good in English. I'm learning French as well. And my mother tongue language. Uh, so these four languages are acutally the lanugages I'm working on at the moment. So you mentioned what's up groups before, and I'm wondering, how did you find this groups and do your, recommend it as a method to improve in our target languages? Yes, I would definitely recommend WhatsApp groups for those English learners to join and practice their languages. It is one of the things that I used to practice. Especially my speaking part around the year 2016 a friend of mine introduced me to his other friend who was administrating an English group and I think the guy lives in Afghanistan. And I joined the group and I was this very passionate learner. And I was joining every single day. And I was sending about nearly a hundred messages a day. And I will speak about nearly everything and then I became familiar with lots of English. I mean, the guys keep passing my numbers to some other groups and until I become widely known among English groups and this is very, very interesting because by joining these WhatsApp English clubs, you can practice at any time you want, because maybe I don't have appropriate time to schedule some lessons on Italki because I don't know. I can schedule a speaking session and then missed it. That's why I I'm very careful about maybe about that maybe in my summer vacations, but when I'm in the school year when I'm going to school, I only use WhatsApp, English groups to practice my English because I can use them anytime in the morning and evening and the nights. Okay. I see. But are there people who are correcting you or is it just that you get your practice with WhatsApp or how can I imagine this? Or is it topic related or can you just talk about anything? I didn't understand it works. I mean, it's just a bunch of people who want to practice together? Yeah. Yeah, it is how it works, sometimes there are some topic related groups. I mean, some groups that are providing topics every single day. So every member on the. Have their say about the given topic to answer the questions, but there was always some expert in English. Some people who are very good at English, some futures by the way, sometimes correct us and you know, make things up for us basically. Because when you, when you begin speaking practice, you're speaking, but you don't have the time to think because they're speaking, writing are quite different. I didn't even think correctly before you pin it down. But when you're speaking, you don't have the time to maybe think, Oh, you going to make so many mistakes. And those people will use to correct mistakes. And sometimes we will give some grammatical topics and people would discuss it.     So, there are very skilled persons on the WhatsApp group it's like everyone is helping each other out in a way and together people can improve. It's great. Everyone will help each other. There was always some different levels in WhatsApp, some intermediate learners, some advanced learners and the beginning learners and will help each other. For example, if I am an intermediate learner and I see some people, I listened to message of one of my friends or one of the groups member, and he made a mistake, I will send another message, I will send the message to this particular person and correct his mistakes and telling him how to say and how to say it correctly. Things like that. This is how we used to do it though. you have to listen to your own voice message and correct yourself if it's possible. If you cannot correct yourself, you will ask some of the admins or. Some people out there to listen to your audio and to give you some feedbacks. Okay. I understand. Yeah. In my opinion, recording yourself and listening to it. It's really a great way to improve yourself because. If you have reached a certain level of English, you can analyze, you will be able to analyze your own speech up to a certain point, and can become even better by repeating the process, I guess. Yes, this is the part of recording yourself. Although it is not always enjoyable to listen to your own voice. Sometimes I listen to my voice and feel unhappy about the way I speak. And yes it is. I also used to, I forget to tell you this. I used to record myself on my cell phone. I scheduled , three or four months ago. No, six months ago that I'm going to record myself talking. In English for about 10 minutes a day and then listen to it. And I was doing it for about two months, allthough I feel guilty now because enough, but if I continue doing this particular activity I'll be, you know, it is, it is crucial. It is very, very good. Yeah. that's why I don't like that much attending classes. let's say if you have one class or one lesson a week. That's just not enough. And on top of that, if there are, let's say 20 pupils attending and then maybe you get three minutes of speaking time of speaking practice, then that's just not enough. and that's why I like the idea to record yourself or to attend in this WhatsApp groups. That you mentioned before. I think it's, it's crucial to maintain, make like , a ritual or yeah. To set up your daily practice. Yes I did understand, you know, this is the problem of the traditional way of teaching the language at school, because you will attend the school for several years, without being able to construct correct sentence in the language that you're learning. People are going to school to have. A paper. Uh, and then I achieved my bachelor degree and this and that. But when you ask them to write or to speak about the language in which they have that degree, they are going to struggle to do. For example, I can give you an example. I can give you an example here in my country. Some students went to the university in Senegal out when they have a bachelor degree, will go to the university and some of them will go to the English department. And some people here have their master's degree in English, but when I speak to them, I mean, I feel like these people are actually beginners. They cannot speak English at all. It amazes me. because they just know the theoretical way or the theory behind it but they didn't put it into practice I guess or Yeah, That is correct. When they listen to you speaking, they can spot their mistakes and the good and the bad things about the way you speak, but when they themselves, trying to speak, they have, I mean, they will struggle to make a correct sentence. And is why I love self studying because when a particular person decide to study a language by himself or herself, It means that he had the passion, because it is your own decision. you take your own decision to learn the language. And primarily it means that you love what you're doing. That's why you take it independently by in your own hands. So in, in that particular case, you're going, you're definitely going to see some progress. Yeah, I agree with you and you will have the responsibility if you don't be consistent then you really need to keep moving. That is consistently. If you, if you are determined enough, you'll go into how to be consistent in my opinion, because you will love what you're doing. And you're going to definitely unless you give up in the early stages, because at the beginning it might be very tough and you might see no progress at all in those particular common. So many people have given up learning because, Maybe it is not pleasant. It is not enjoyable for them but sometimes I think you need to have some inspiration. Some people who inspire you to continue. That's why listening to podcasts are very, very, very good. Because in listening to podcasts you're going to find someone who inspires you. Particularly when you are living in a country where the language that you're learning is in, I mean, it's not spoken there. You will not come and seeing people around you speaking the language. So you need to be inspired every now and then. So listening to some podcasts and linking up with people like mr. Daniel, is, is that going to, we'll be inspired and want to do more. Yeah, absolutely. And it's kind of funny because I mean I got my inspiration by other podcasters as well. For example, maybe, you know him, Kris Broholm, who also have a podcast called actual fluency. And while he me a lot and he was a reason why I started out with my podcast. And it goes on one inspires another person and then me, I inspire someone else and it's like a living thing it's so beautiful. I don't make any money out of this. this is my hobby. I just like it. But when I hear messages this that I inspire other people that makes it worth for me. you can't pay money to give the same fealing because I just want to help other people. it's, it's a great thing. And I absolutely recommend to everyone to start their own podcast or maybe to be creative in another way it must not be podcasting. They may be other things that are also good and creative in a way. Yeah, it's a, that's very kind of you I'm amazed about how far you've gone to help people, you know, giving people a helping hand always makes you feel happy. yeah. I know Chris. I listened to actual fluency by the way. I think he's a polyglot, isn't it? Yeah. he comes from Denmark. And we live in, denmark. Yes. And Chris invites lots of polyglots and language enthusiasts and he talks about different aspects related to language learning. Yes, I do. Listen. I do listen to him every now and then. Yeah. I mean, Chris is a great man as well. Yeah. And actually with everyone that I had an interview or a conversation, it was just so great to make this connection and in a way to learn about different people from different countries. And I think that language learning connects people in a way. And even if we don't know the person in flesh but in a way we are like connected and the it's just a great, it's so beautiful. yeah. It is the thing. The thing that makes the world a small city, people will connecting together even though they are living in a far away places they know if they feel they live. So I know for example, I'm talking with you. I live in Senegal in a farm in West Africa, and this is the magic of language. This is the only thing that can do it is a language that. That is the only thing that help being able to connect together and understand each other and share our knowledge and our feelings. You know, I mean, nothing is like that. Nothing is actually bigger than that for me. So textbooks are, or take a great part in your language learning. And can you recommend specific books or would you rather say that every learner is different has to choose a different book? Or I don't know if you can share something about that. Yeah, it's a text book is a, actually the thing that helped me to get here today but two people are different, you know, some people might be, I mean, might prefer to go another way. Some people. learn language in a different way, but for me, I can only recommend what I've gone through and what I, what I knew. I learned it via textbooks and by the way, everybody can download this particular application. It's called English speaking and listening English and speaking and listening. And it is actually. Built in six sections, I think. And there are some basic topics that everybody can write down and read just to make your input quite impressive. It will help you to gain so many vocabulary words at the beginning. And then if you've already have a first language like English or another language that you can use to translate the unknown words. I am not recommending people to just reading it once or twice and then leave it there. You'll have to put, you have to give it a time and effort. Write them down in a notebook. Yeah. And study them, review them several times. And by doing this, you'll see a progress fast, very, very fast. So, why I prefer this textbook way of learning a language, because as I told you, at the beginning, you will gain the vocabularies. Construction of the sentences and the grammatical way of saying things and writing things. I mean, it is a complete package for me. That's why I recommend it rather than, you know, learning a language by acquiring some vocabularies, some lonely vocabularies. I mean, that is not the purpose of learning language. If you're learning a language by just learning just one vocabulary, go on, you know, see things like that. Maybe you will struggle to use them later. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not recommending anybody, just one particular textbook. You can find any textbook that you can find in a topic that interests you. For example, if you're a football fan, try to find a basic textbook that speaks or talks about football. If you're a drama or musician person, find something related to that field, that particular aspect. And Read it put some efforts on it. you will see how fast will go. what do you think? About watching series or movies to improve in your target language. Yeah. I believe this is also a very interesting thing. When it comes to learning language, I think it can help, but for me, it's not my cup of tea. Maybe I don't have time to do it, but I don't deny that it is very, very interesting and it can help you to improve you're listening ability but you know, for me, when it comes to listening, I prefer podcasts. Because , it is sort of all, you can do it while you can listening to podcasts while doing some other things. Yeah. while running , it is something very convenient when it comes to listening. By watching movies, you only have to sit down and being focused on the television or the internet, to do it. But when you are somebody like me who moves around, you know, very often I prefer podcasts. Yeah. But if somebody actually prefer watching movies, series and documentaries for practicing the English, if that particular thing interests them, I would recommend them to do that because doing something that you love. It's crucial when it comes to learning language. Absolutely. I agree with that a hundred percent, so, okay. I think I wanna thank you very much for your time and your story. I don't know. Maybe you have a question or something you want to add. Okay, well I just want to thank you. You know, you are the first person who gave me this opportunity to express myself. I've never conducted a, conducted an interview before, by the way. , I, have very interesting story when it comes to learning language and I wanted to get it out of my system to help out, to help others, people like me who want to learn second language you are the person who give me the opportunity to make it happen. And I, I thank you. I'm thinking you deeply in my heart and I wish you all the best. And I have to thank you. Thank you very much for tuning in, on my fluent podcast and also the vocab man. And I mean, without you, it not be possible, or I would not see any reason to record these podcasts, you know, so I am really thankful for that. And for all of your knowledge, Which you shared with us, and maybe we can catch up, on another day. Yeah, it's very kind of you. It's my pleasure. I'm very happy. And I'm looking forward to do that in the future.   Hey, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Have a nice day. bye. Thank you. Bye. Okay. Music: Scott Holmes https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes Senegal Flag https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?cirrusUserTesting=control&search=Senegal+flag&title=Special%3ASearch&go=Go&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1#/media/File:Senegal_Flag.jpg  

Alani discusses her experience with one-on-one online language lessons, including the challenges and benefits. She shares tips for finding a suitable tutor and getting the best out of these lessons. The podcast also explores the concept of inspiration and finding it in different recordings, events, and cultures. Alani talks about the power of positive energy, becoming more extroverted, and the impact of music on her soul.

For more informatoin, go to www.myfluentpodcast.com  Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any new language tips and tricks!  https://www.patreon.com/myfluentpodcast Transcript (only the interview without the intro and outro:  I was born in Moscow and I've been living here in Moscow for all my life, you know, So, English is not, the first language that I learned the first language that I intentionelly learned was German and, I reached the C one level. And after reaching it, I decided not to move to Germany. And so, 10 years left and, I can admit that I have already almost everything forgotten, you know, and one year ago I decided to, learn English because it's the, the most popular, the most spoken lingua franca yes in the world. And so, I took free intensive language courses, in the language school here in Moscow. And then I understood that, it's not enough, go to the courses and to learn that English, we should like, you know, immerse ourselves in English as much as possible. And at this moment, I started watching a lot of series on Netflix, YouTube, videos, Ted talks that is written, a lot of writings, articles, newspapers and so on. and then I realized that, my ability to speak is not really good in order to solve this problem, I decided to, To start learning, like, study language, with a native speaker. I think when you reach, a high level of any language, it's better to learn it, with native speaker because only they can feel, this deep meanings in phrases. Yes. or something like this. So that means It was kind of your idea. You got the idea to take lessons on itutaki. Is that right? Yes, exactly. And, so at the beginning of this year, I started learning English. So is, It's Udemy? And Italki. Exactly. So how many lessons did you have on Italki? I've had about, 20 or 30, lessons with, with, uh,a tutor yes, something like this and what's interesting there are lots of tutors there on by talking and it's relatively hard to choose, someone whom you can work with. Yeah, because everyone expects, diverse, things. Yeah. Expectations, Someone wants to learn like drama. other people want, to improve their writing skills. other people just want to, have, conversations with people and, when you leave. in a country where English is not official language, and people don't really speak English well, then, these platforms, like Itakie or something else, they can really help you to find someone and especially someone who is qualified to teach, English as a foreign language. How exactly did you pick your teacher? One that suits your learning style? So, yes, as I said, it was difficult because, I saw about a hundred profiles. It's not a joke. Did you watch the introduction videos? Yes. so on I talk to each, teacher, each tutor, has, his profile page. and in this page you can find some description about, this tutor. You can find some information about how experienced they are and they also provide their like video introducing about themselves they tell us, which approach they have , how they teach us English and. So I didn't want to find just someone who I can speak with, because, so it depends some people can learn any language by speaking. it's not about me at all. I need to read a lot, I need to write a lot. and I need, like, you know, Like, prepare, something, before the fall lesson and after watching about a hundred profiles on Italki, I choose about four or five tutors, that I found interesting from him. and, so I started. Nowadays I have one tutor that, is perfect for me. Oh, okay. So, so first you took lessons with several teachers and then you decided and picked one, is that correct? Or yes, exactly. I had, so first, trial, you know, trial lessons with, three, different teachers. and, I chose one . Italki provides, an opportunity to take like trail lessons, with, with a tutor, it costs less than usual, lesson with them. And, what is the teacher doing that you can improve in your language? I mean, does he correct you? How can we imagine a lesson? Okay. So I chose a tutor who sent me, like a homework. Usually it is, an article from a newspaper or it could be also a video and with this material , He also , sends me like questions. Yeah. I need to work on this material. So, so, for example, let's imagine that it is an article, any article. So I read this article. I. Underline some words, some phrases that I don't understand or I'm not quite sure, what it means and, when we start our lesson we discuss, I tell him, like a summary about this article, what I think about, this, topic. generally, then I ask some questions what a have about, particular phrases, words. he explains me, and, yes. And, throughout our conversation about this, he also provides, some explanation, when I, tell him something wrong like mistakes and so on. yes. And, like, and in onothher part writing, so, he sent me, questions on. On these materials and I helped to write, some text. it doesn't matter how long it will be. So it depends on me. and, we discuss the texts. We find together, some mistakes and he explains why I was wrong in this place of text or, how to say something better. Nice. So this is Allah ordinary, lesson. And could you give instructions to the teacher? I mean, maybe you wanted to have things in a certain way or was it that the teacher has his style and he explained to you how the lesson works and then it, happened like the teacher wanted it to be, I mean, do you have a say in it how the procedure goes on? Or of course, so, yes, you can always adjust your lesson and approach that. you and your teacher, have throughout this lessons, you can, for example, you can choose a topic that you want to discuss just cause, or you, you can ask it. So, basically you can ask everything you want. Yes. It's about language you can ask any questions. And if this question doesn't relate to the topic, it doesn't matter. So, first of all, secondly, yes, you can adjust, the lesson and approach, that you have. for example, I asked my tutor, that we have more conversations throughout lessons and no problem. could you improve your language skills drastically after the 20 or 30 lessons you had. I can tell you that, I became more confident about language. so as I understand this process of learning language it's a matter , of your immersion in language. You can immerse yourself, in English with, or without a teacher. It doesn't matter. but a teacher can help you to make it better and more quickly and so I think that after this amount of lessons, I became more confident at least. Okay, great. And, are there , other tricks you want to give to language learners? I let's say you, you find a teacher for three bucks. would you say it is more wise to go for a more expensive teacher you know, I think it's like personal thing. Yeah. you can like someone. just because of voice or appearance or something like this. I don't think that it's the best thing because if you're, if you feel comfortable with someone is better. Certainly. so what I will suggest, first of all, you have to watch a profile of teacher. you have to understand, which approach they have because so basically , there are a lot of tutors there, who like speaking. Yes. They think that, speaking and having conversations is, the essential thing. , but by learning a language, it's, it's true. But, you can have conversations with, with any person you want. It's not necessary that this person will be a tutor or a qualified teacher. Yes from qualified teacher, I expect that they have their own, approach how to teach, people better. And. So I, I think that if you just want to have conversations, There are, tutors who are not qualified is just, people who, want to speak, who maybe they also learn, for example, your language and two, you can like, exchange, your knowledge yes. Between, languages. But if you want to start there, so choose a qualified tutor. Okay. What about the VIDEO what happens after the lesson? Do you keep it,you save the video files from the lesson to learn from it or. It doesn't matter at all. So usually I don't record, our lessons. sometimes I do it, and, I do it, if the topic is important for me. or if I feel that I'm not really well like seasoned, in this, on, on this topic and, The reason why I record will be like, I want to listen it later on and I understand my weaknesses. So usually it's about this because, each mistake I make, each, mispronounced, pronunciation. my tutor will suggest me. How I should say this or this thing. And so it doesn't turn the matter, but, it's quite a useful if you want to realize your weaknesses. Okay. Okay. And do you think, is this method also good for shy learners? I mean, taking lessons online. Or is it a, maybe be a problem? I mean, you are there with a foreigner and there is the camera. do you think it is never the last, a good method for that? So Orwell, they feel awkward. You mean if it doesn't is shy? Yeah. maybe, maybe, but, what, Oh, what I can say about this or that qualified teachers? They usually, . They usually experienced, working with shy people. Yes. And they can, and they can, like improve their self esteem or self esteem of , students. And I think first of all, for, for shy people, if you start start, your lesson online and do you feel like you're completely. A disaster, you can always switch off. Okay. so I will suggest, you'd better try. Yes. And if you feel, that it's not your thing, then maybe it's better to go to some language school, or do you remember any awkward situation in a lesson. And maybe with your first teachers,   in the trial lessons maybe, or, or anything that was funny or an anecdote or something that comes to mind, maybe not, but, I'm just asking. so it's all this, really. How to describe this. It's like, you're always a bit self conscious when you speak a foreign language. And therefore if you don't know a simple word that is really simple in your language, or like, I don't know, like smartphone. Yes. If you don't know this word is, it's always like, Oh, my God. What's wrong with me. Yeah. Yeah. And, but so we have to realize, we have to understand that, language doesn't come into our brain by, on their own or on its own. we have to just to start it to start the heart. And so they're very them. Will be, no situation that we, , may or can feel, , like embarrassed maybe. Yeah. It's just a learning process. I took several lessons, , actually on Italki, but that is about some years ago. And the funny thing about is that I felt more comfortable with a Chilean teacher who, who taught me English, you know, it's, it's just a funny thought, I think because, well, it is a non-native teacher, but for me, he was the best teacher. And because for me was not like a lesson . It became like a friend, you know, we, we talked a lot. We had the Skype conversations, but it was not like, like a English lesson. It was just like talking together with, with a friend. So I remember that that was awesome. I ended up, I think it's sometimes happens when , it's huge and the student became friends. it could be, it could be, yes. Yeah. And what about your future, or do you have any plans? Will you stick with this plan and take more lessons online or where is your language journey taking you? so I don't have a really particular like goals. Yes. In this. I just want to improve my English and. like not only into the language, but also into the culture, this American culture, or maybe British culture. so, so my plan is to, to learn step by step at yes. At not really fast pace of just ordinary. Yeah, that sounds like a great plan to me because I don't like the notion or, three, learn a language in three months or so. I don't like that because yes, of course. Yeah. First of all, it's impossible to learn any language in three months. we should admit it. Thank you. See you. Bye. Thank you very much. Bye. Music: Upbeat Party by Scott Holmes is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.  

The podcast explores the claim of becoming fluent in a language in one month and expresses skepticism. Various guests discuss the importance of motivation and hard work in language learning. It debunks the idea of achieving fluency in a short time and criticizes misleading advertisements. The host expresses gratitude to listeners and discusses upcoming interviews.

In this interview you are gonna learn about the story of an American, who moved to Italy, about his YouTube channels, his book in which he explains how he fell in love with an Italian football club. You get language learning tips and many more. Buckle up and have fun!    The Spoken English Code - subscribe for weekly videos! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Y2z77La00SKl7ADS_4jhQ Learn English with Roger Federer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHwnOMvS3Ts To read the full transcript head over to www.myfluentpodcast.com https://www.patreon.com/myfluentpodcast Matt's facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006925846390  Transcript: Hello guys I'm Daniel, a language learner. The main focus still lies on English. That's why I try to interview different people, in English, mostly about language stuff. And right now, you're about to listen to Matt, and American guy, an English coach who moved from the USA to Italy. In the interview, he will talk about how it was when he moved to Italy. What he struggled the most when it comes to learning the language. And he would also talk about his YouTube channel, the spoken English code in which he analyzes different celebrities, such as Roger Federer and Michael Jordan. Basically he analyzes their speech. He also wrote a book about the football scene in Turin or Torino. And I could learn a bunch of things. I'm sure you will too. So have fun and buckle up. You are listening to my fluent podcast. I was just blown away by your YouTube channel, the spoken English code, because I can relate to the way you are making those videos and your attitude in general when it comes to learning languages. But we will dive into that a bit later. Maybe you could tell us a bit about you, Matt. So who is Matt the communication coach and how you ended up in Italy. Matt: so first thanks for inviting me here. It's nice to speak to you and to your audience here. yeah, I'm from California, so that's where I grew up. Where I went to school, where I went to college to university and all and I went into university to be a teacher for children though. Okay, for elementary school children. And, yeah, after I went through my school, I love traveling. Like most people learning languages, I just love traveling. And I started traveling in that time with very little money and I changed my idea, my career idea.  teach English as a second language in that time. And that was about 20 years ago, a long time ago. Yeah. And why Italy? I was fascinated with Italy. I just, I love the food. I love the culture, the passion that people have, the weather, I like history a lot as well. And these things attracted me to Italy. And when I first came here, I had no plan to stay for my life or for a long period. That just happened as I was here. Nice. Yeah. So my guess is that you became fluent in Italian  because you are also making videos even in Italian. Is that right? Yeah, I can always improve for sure. As anyone learning a language knows we get better every day. Right? There's so much to do. So I'm always a little afraid to say fluent but yes, I can communicate with it. And it's what I use in my normal life outside of my teaching and training and everything. My wife is Italian. I met her when I was here. So together we speak in a mix of Italian and in English but mostly in Italian because that's just our habit. It's a little faster maybe. And I learned my Italian in the street though. So speaking about learning languages, I did not take an Italian course. I was a young guy alone without any friends or anything when I first arrived. And that was really good for learning language because I was very motivated and motivation is everything in language, You were forced to just speak and there was no other way around, I guess. Exactly. And I'm happy to be quiet by myself but after some weeks or a long time you want to communicate. And I moved to a region of Italy Piedmont, or Piamonte in Italian where there are not very many, English foreigners like from the US or the UK or Australia or what? And so that also pushed the language learning a lot. And in which areas you struggled the most when you learned Italian. You know what I struggled with the most, this may sound funny, but in the first year, I think was learning English grammar. Okay. Like many native English speakers. I had never studied my own grammar in school. I had no idea what the present perfect was or past simple or a subject verb, word, order, whatever. I had no idea what those ideas meant. So when I tried to learn Italian in the beginning, And from a book, not from the street, but from a book I had really a lot to learn because I could not connect it to my English language  yeah, I think I learned more about English in the first year than Italian probably. That is kind of funny too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the many reasons English speakers are very often bad at learning languages. There are many reasons why one from being lazy and not motivated, there are many reasons why, but another is that we don't study our own grammar. Really. So it's a little hard to, to learn, that you conjugate a verb when you have no idea what conjugation is. Yeah, of course. And then you gave English lessons to others. So you became a teacher. Yes, I'm in the very beginning is the same idea. I was, I, maybe was a nice guy. I don't know. I hope so, but I was not the best teacher in that first year for sure. Because, I had to learn how to explain. I had to learn myself a lot of those concepts. so, but I think going through this learning process of trying to communicate and being very frustrated at a dinner and understanding 10% of the language around you. That made me a much better English trainer or teacher, because I was myself in the situation that a lot of the people I work with are in, and you learn a lot of strategies of how to find your way. And communication is always the most important thing, not the grammar. And you learn in that real life situation I totally agree with you. if I'm not mistaken, you already gave a lesson today . So was it an online lesson you gave? Yeah. From  my job side. So, I lived in Italy for three years. Then I moved to Germany for six years. Okay. And there, I was always teaching. I changed to become a business English trainer, so it was more focused on business English. Okay. And since that time, I have returned to Italy but I still train a lot with German companies. Okay. It's a multinational companies and that's really cool because I'm at home, but I'm training people in Germany or in China. And just before now I had the group of Germans and Chinese people working together and I'm trying to help them communicate together. So it was an English training but really we were focused on other things not so much to do with grammar much more to do with other things about communication that it clarifying when you don't understand and so on. So is it always business English? So for example, I couldn't, message you and ask for an online lesson with you is that right? No I also do some one-to-one or private groups. I do that too. I'm just more focused on the business English in the past. but of course I still have some one-to-one students, some private students, little groups, But I tend to focus more on that because that's where my experience is basically. Yeah. Because my experience is there. It's where I tend to train more in that area. Great. So let's head to the spoken English code, which is one of your YouTube channels. Maybe you can explain by yourself what it is exactly. Yeah. it's a fun hobby, but I love it. So hopefully it's helpful. What I try to do there is take a piece of language from a interview, from a conversation, especially from a famous person, a celebrity. Maybe from a YouTube video and I take it a piece of it, maybe one minute piece and I go through and I try to explain all of the different things I hear. Okay. From a trainer point of view and I'm trying to help people improve their English listening on that channel, basically because of this business experience a lot of the time I sat in meetings to observe international communication and almost always when there was an American or British person in the room. They destroy the communication because they did not adapt very well. Okay. so I'm very focused on that. They were using too many phrasal verbs or using too many special idioms or reducing their connected speech like "gonna" ant not "going to" and so on those type of things. And on that YouTube channel, I do my best to show that. Because to understand a native, not only native to understand any English speaker, if they're specially very high level, it's very dirty that are spoken language. It's very different than what is written. Then it's full of confusing things. And I'm trying to show that. Right now I have the image or the audio in my mind, of the video you made about Keanu Reeves. Which was really great, just the way he is talking is really great and also of course, how you explain all the details in his speech... For the full transcript, go to www.myfluentpodcast.com                

In this episode, we learn more about the brilliant host of the fantastic Spanish learning podcast named Español con Juan.   Head over to https://www.myfluentpodcast.com/?p=1131 to read the full transcript of the interview! https://1001reasonstolearnspanish.com/spanish-shy/ Juan has a YouTube channel as well: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoHJ7PkM6T92LwgJgrnDhWA 1. Part of the Interview's transcript: Hello. I'm fine. Thank you very much. It's so nice having you here on my fluent podcast. It's an honor. It's an honor. Thank you. Thank you for your invitation!  My name is Juan , I'm a Spanish. I am from a small city in the South of Spain called Granada. I started to learn English when I was about 19 or 20, more or less or very late when I was about 29 or something like that, that I decided to come to England to London to prove my English because , as in your situation, I didn't have anybody to talk to. I was reading on, um, watching movies? So I decided one summer, OK I went to the UK to London for three months. I was sure that in three months my English would be very, very good. I will become fluent bilingual and every time I have many, many high expactations, um, and then I came here and after three months I realized it wasn't enough. So I decided to stay for another three months and then another three months like that, you know, because I was never happy with my English. So, um, eventually I found here friends, I made friends, I found a job, so I stayed here and I've been here for 23 years now. My English is still not good enough. So I have, uh, I have to stay there. And you were a Professor at the university is that right? I studied psychology in Spain. , when I came here, , I wanted to work as a psychologist maybe, but my English wasn't good enough to do that. So, I decided to become a language teacher. I could teach, I could teach French and Spanish in the schools and then I did different things always related to languages until I found a job at the university at university college, London, which is a very good place, very prestigious university. And I've been teaching there for maybe 15 years. Until last year, last year, I quit my job and now I'm working full time on the internet. I have a podcast and a youtube channel. It has been a long trip. Yeah. So when did you start exactly with your podcast? I think I started like seriously in 2017 I have been doing other things before similar, but it wasn't really a podcast because, um, I mean, , I'm not, very young now, so, uh, I didn't know how podcasts or Youtube work. I have. I have to learn how to use them. I had to learn how, you know, how to use them forlanguages to teach languages. So at the beginning I was doing like, it wasn't a podcast it was more like audio activities. You know, I was working out in university, so I wanted to create a listening practice for my students. So I created some short dialogues , or I interviewed some of my colleagues, taught university in Spanish. I was creating, like listening activities for my students basically for a couple of years. Then in 2017, I did a little bit of research and I discovered that I could do other things. Uh, So I started with the podcast yes. Three years ago. Yeah. So was there anybody or anything that inspired you. To do the podcast or was there any idols or Do you like listening to other podcasts? Maybe Yeah Well, I remember that he was listening to this podcast maybe, you know, a coffee break, coffee break, English, Spanish coffee break, French. They have different languages. You know it? Yes. I know. I know it. I have listened to it, but it has been quite a while. Yeah. I don't, I don't listen to it anymore, but I remember that, I liked the, you know, the, the boys of the, of the guy who was doing it and, uh, he was, I liked the atmosphere, you know , they, they create, , yeah. in the podcast Because I thought I could do something similar. I didn't like the fact that it was everything in English, because for example, when they are teaching in French or German, they speak in English most of the time. So because. I didn't like that. I liked the atmosphere. The guy is it comes across very nice, you know, very closely. Um, I was trying to learn German for a while. I was, I was listening to them until I realized that most of the time was , They were talking in English. I understand why they do. I understand why they do it, but no, they didn't work for me. And speaking about atmosphere, I must say when I came across your podcast for the very first time. I was so impressed because yeah. I remember, I think you were washing your, you, you were, , doing the , the washing machine, I think. And you were doing, small tasks, daily tasks, and to me it was like a friend was talking to me and talking about life. And that was so amazing because it was absolutely not the typical language podcast. You know, without a lot of grammar, no, like a conversation, not a conversation, but like a friend talking to me. And that's the reason why I really, I love your podcast the way you communicate and also your emotions when you are speaking. Sometimes very loud or so it's just amazing because I can feel the energy. I can feel the passion behind all this and yeah. Thank you yeah. Yeah. I am this many people, many people tell me something similar it's actually what I have been trying to do because when I started even nice, I'll tell you what a little bit. I knew that I didn't want to go the the traditional grammar podcast explaining grammar points or vocabulary. No, I felt that podcasts could have a lot of potential and it could be used in many different ways, but I don't know, I don't, I'm not a specialist, but, Little by little, I've been discovering different things that you can use, like storytelling telling stories or different things that you can use with a podcast. And lately in the last year, I've been doing this kind of thing. Yeah. Just walking down the street, for example, commenting something that I see or something that happened to me, or maybe like you, the one you mentioned in my house washing the dishes or, you know Mmm. Putting my clothes on the same time, talking Yeah. The idea ist like talking to somebody as if you were here with me. Yeah. Something very natural or very spontaneous. And that's what I've been doing lately. I don't know if It does work I guess, so, it works quite well. yeah, it's great. And I'm wondering if, if these episodes are always spontaneous or, or do you also have like a script or some points you want to talk about how do you go about, it or how do you get the topic in general? Yeah. Well, it's a mix of , situations. Sometimes it's very spontaneous, very, very natural. Well I have in mind before something I want to say I want to talk about something. Yeah. Like a topic, but in the middle of another task, you know, maybe doing the dishes or, um, you know, I I'm, I'm walking down the street and I'm making some comments a very natural way at the same time that I talk about something that is worrying me. That day or something I have in mind. But the result is very, very natural. Yeah. Other times I have a script, I write it because it depends sometimes I want to make sure that I mentioned a few things. I want to use a particular vocabulary. Yeah. And you provide the transcription as well for the listeners, which is a great way to learn and yeah. And very time consuming because when you are talking, you know, like that, , off your mind, anything that's come up, yeah. In your mind. So you transcribed for yourself the whole thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah I use, a software that makes most of it automatically, but , there are a lot of mistakes I have to go through it to correct, you know, to polish it up a little bit to correct mistakes. Yeah. that that's the most boring part. Okay. Yeah. To write the transcription. Has podcasting changed your life? Somehow, yes, , yeah, definitely because what I was teaching at university you know, I had to use the methodology. Yeah. The kind of teaching that they asked me to do. I was a one Spanish teacher like the rest ,but here with the podcast, I do what I want, I discover what works, what doesn't work, what people like, what I can do best for me. So that's very important because you know yourself a little bit people tell me, for example, I like what you do. It's very nice you have a lot of sense of humor and I like your approach. So my self esteem is very high now, compared to before, because I, when I was teaching Spanish, Yeah, nobody says to me all the time. Oh, I love you teacher no, Sometime some students congratulate you thank you yeah. But it's not that common and here online. Everybody is telling me, Oh, you are a fantastic teacher. I know I'm a fantastic teacher, but people keep telling me that. So. Eventually it becomes something that you, you get used to my brain. I don't know, I like this kind of thing. What do you like more being a professor or being a podcaster? Uh, I just see mysel y anything like that or professional or a podcaster or not. um, I am Juan, you know, I do different things. And, at the moment I'm doing the podcast and I, I suppose, for you it's the same, you discovered yourself, you know, you, you, you were not aware that you could do now. For example, I discovered that I can make jokes and people laugh at my jokes and I can kind of integrate humor in my videos and my podcast. I didn't know that before, you know, I, I do. You're telling me that you like this kind of a natural podcast, you know, I do the washing machines and all that before, so it's something that's it's it feels good. It feels good right now. so it comes to mind, which you did, it was called something like where, when sir, and you were talking about yourself , and you consider yourself as a rather shy person. And I think you mentioned also that you didn't like to, to speak in public. I think , at any rate it was, yeah, it was great because not only in that episode, but in general, you talk very openly. I think so we can, have like an insight of your life or your person. And I think that's also the reason why your podcast is so great. And yeah, it makes you human, you know? It's yeah. It's like you said before, it, you are, you are, you're not a podcaster. You're Quan. That's me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For the second part of the interview, go to www.myfluentpodcast.com (Cover Picture from one of Juan's latest YouTube video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8PVGlTicvU        

In this episode, non-native English teacher Gabriel from Spain discusses the Facebook group MAOFEN, Masters of English, and shares tips on mastering the English language. They also explore the effectiveness of learning through Facebook groups and the challenges of building a community for language learning. The hosts discuss progress and commitment in language learning and the idea of creating a community of language learners. The episode concludes with messages of gratitude towards Gabriel for their teaching efforts.

In this episode, we talk about another alternative methode to become fluent. Just use word chunks you come across in your life and translate them with DeepL. Then safe them in a notebook to remember them. Work and combine with different language learning methods! Full transcript here: https://www.myfluentpodcast.com/e67-deepl-to-learn-english-languages/ If you find this useful, don't forget to subscribe to get all the tips and tricks on how to become fluent in any language.  Learn from and with a language learner!