Love, Joy, and Languages

A podcast to boost your LOVE of languages and bring out the JOY in learning them

About the show

Love, Joy, and Languages is a Podcast where you can learn about language learning, supporting your children in their language journeys, and overcoming the many challenges faced by adult language learners, parents raising multilingual children, and expat language learners. I sit at the intersection of these three worlds, and I want to share my own journey navigating this crossroads while inviting you to discover your own, unique language learning journey.

  • Music used as intro & outro in this Podcast is "Home" by artist Nick Gallant, licensed from TuneCore

Love, Joy, and Languages on social media

Episodes

  • Episode 28: Good Advice Gone Wrong, Round 2

    7 November 2022  |  Season 2  |  18 mins 43 secs

    Second episode of "Good Advice Gone Wrong," a segment in which I highlight some really good language learning advice that can also go wrong. There are countless methods for learning a language, and I believe that all of them are good, but they aren't all good for everyone. Instead of just giving language learning advice, this recurring segment focuses on reasons specific pieces of good advice may not work for everyone. I also brainstorm some ideas for how we can mold the advice and shape it into something that does work for us, hoping to inspire you to discover your own creative, personalized language journey.

  •

    Episode 27: The Meaning of Multilingual Mastery - Interview with Jamie

    31 October 2022  |  Season 2  |  54 mins 25 secs

    Discussion with language coach Jamie of Multilingual Mastery. Jamie shares how she got into language coaching after realizing that she’d been approaching her own language learning all wrong. She had followed all the standard advice, used all the typical resources, and even lived in the country where her language was spoken. After everything, however, she still didn’t feel fluent. Instead of throwing in the towel, she decided to start talking about language learning on her blog, and today she shares a lot of what she discovered about language apps, language advice, and language learners through her experience researching about learning languages, and how that led her to start Multilingual Mastery.

  •

    Episode 26: Your Most Limited Resource

    24 October 2022  |  Season 2  |  6 mins 45 secs

    Discussing your most limited resource in language learning and in your entire life, at that. No matter what language you're learning, resources directly related to learning or acquiring the language are limited (even if it seems overwhelmingly the opposite). No matter our life situation, we all have limited time, money, energy, and motivation. But there's still one resource I don't think we consider often enough, and I believe it's the most limited resource for each of us. Listen in to see if you agree.

  •

    Episode 25: What Is "Fluency," Anyway?

    17 October 2022  |  Season 2  |  19 mins 19 secs

    Digging into the dictionary definition of "fluency" and what it means for language learners...or rather what it doesn't mean. Fluency is something many of us strive for. It's a goal or and end-state we imagine ourselves in. We're often asked my well-meaning monolinguals if we're "fluent" in the language we're learning. But as we progress, fluency starts feeling further away than before, and we start to wonder if we'll ever get there. Here, I address why this word is problematic for language learners, and how we can change our perceptions and usage of the word to better fit the reality of what it is.

  •

    Episode 24: Testing a New Language

    10 October 2022  |  Season 2  |  22 mins 29 secs

    Sharing my 7-day jump into Korean with an overarching analysis according to the fear of missing out (FOMO) I talked about last week. Why did I decide to start learning Korean? Is it even reasonable to begin when I have two other languages that take priority? Am I just giving in to that pull of a shiny new language? Listen in to see how I take my own advice (given in Episode 23) and work through testing out a new language.

  •

    Episode 23: FOMO - Fear of Missing Out

    3 October 2022  |  Season 2  |  28 mins 42 secs

    Sharing my experience and thoughts on fear of missing out (FOMO) in language learning. This can show up in so many ways, and it can also be really difficult to recognize it and even more difficult to understand why it's showing up. Fear of missing out can deeply impact our language progress because it keeps us focused on what we're missing or what we don't know instead of allowing us to move forward and tackle those things for forward progress. Here, I share how FOMO has shown up in my language journey, the signs I know to look out for, and a couple tips to combat it.

  •

    Episode 22: Am I Even Making Progress?

    26 September 2022  |  Season 2  |  21 mins 50 secs

    Sharing the difficulties of feeling like we aren't making progress in our languages. Talking about why progress can be hard to see, how this can affect our language journey, and what we can do to bring mindfulness into our everyday language lives in order to show ourselves that we are, indeed, making progress.

  •

    Episode 21: Our Summer Language Activities

    19 September 2022  |  Season 2  |  19 mins 57 secs

    I'm back with Season 2! Doing a bit of a re-cap of my family's summer break with respect to languages. In Episode 19 I talked about my language plans for us during the break, so I'm starting off this season by talking about what we did, what worked, and what didn't work. Most importantly, I take a good glance at what all we accomplished without allowing myself to feel like a failure for not doing it all.

  • Episode 20: Celebrating Your Wins!

    25 July 2022  |  Season 1  |  21 mins 44 secs

    Sharing language learning wins submitted by listeners across the globe. Mastering verb tenses, successful conversation practice, kids interacting with languages, speaking progress, returning to a beloved language...it's all here, and I'm celebrating every success story!

  •

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

    18 July 2022  |  Season 1  |  18 mins 42 secs

    Discussing my thoughts on our upcoming summer break, where the kids and I get completely out of routine, and I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with doubt of how I'm going to manage. Working through my own advice from previous episodes, I use this space to clear my head and look at my real priorities for the summer -- spending quality time with my kids, taking time to recharge my own batteries, and keeping us immersed in the German language.

  • Episode 18: Finding You in Your Languages - Interview with Emily Richardson

    11 July 2022  |  Season 1  |  58 mins 59 secs

    Discussion with linguist, teacher, author, podcaster, and all around colorful soul, Emily Richardson. Emily shares her journey learning Brazilian Portuguese during the pandemic using only language exchanges. We dive into the concept of her book series and podcast, which serve to guide language learners to discovering themselves — their whole selves — in their new languages.

  •

    Episode 17: The Words We Speak

    4 July 2022  |  Season 1  |  18 mins 16 secs

    Discussing the power of the words we speak to ourselves about ourselves and about the languages we're learning. Our core beliefs about ourselves as language learners often show up in how we speak to ourselves. If we believe we're too old to learn a language, we'll tell ourselves we're too old, and we'll feel too old. If we believe a language is difficult to learn, we'll say it's too difficult, and we'll focus on all the hard things about the language. These words do not serve us. They hold us back, reduce our confidence, and have the power to negatively influence our entire language journeys. Learning to pay attention to these words and find ways to change them into positive, believable statements is the first step toward challenging the limiting core beliefs we hold.

  •

    Episode 16: Forging a Joyful Bond With Your Languages

    27 June 2022  |  Season 1  |  12 mins 23 secs

    Discussing the differences in how I interact with my languages as it relates to my early years learning each one. My experiences learning Italian and German are very different, and one stark contrast relates to how I viewed each language and my ability to learn it from the beginning. The early mentalities I experienced solidified a foundational bond with each language that affects how I feel about my abilities with each one, even to this day.

  • Episode 15: Language Learning on Vacation

    13 June 2022  |  Season 1  |  11 mins 44 secs

    Discussing what I do while on vacation to keep contact with my languages. To be clear, I don't study, do intensive language activities, or take lessons when I'm on vacation. I do, however, touch my languages daily as a way to relax, re-energize, and keep my stress low. I enjoy doing something in my languages daily, no matter where I am in the world, so finding little ways to include them in my holidays without feeling stressed, obligated, or guilty is just a part of me finding joy in life. Listen in to hear how I use language apps, read, listen, speak, and write in my target languages while on vacation for maximizing my relaxation.

  • Episode 14: Navigating Language Learning Abroad - Interview with Sarah Knight

    6 June 2022  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 4 secs

    Listen in as Sarah shares her story of moving abroad to France for an intense immersion program. Sarah shares her discovery of immersion as a way to learn a language, her expectations, and struggles living abroad in an intense language learning environment. 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.

  •

    Episode 13: Expat Parenting Language Expectations

    30 May 2022  |  Season 1  |  26 mins 56 secs

    Talking about my biggest mistake as a parent supporting my kids as expat children learning the community language -- having unrealistic expectations. I talk about my expectations of myself learning the languages alongside them in an immersive environment, expectations of my children taking command of their own language journey, and expectations of our local community and its role in our language acquisition. I share how I've adjusted my expectations and what it's done for each of us, especially as we moved to Germany and got to start a language journey from scratch -- but doing it better this time.