English with Kirsty 1r5661

To celebrate 10 years of the English with Kirsty podcast, I’m creating a 10-part series to celebrate 10 different forms that learning can take. There will also be an online networking event for guests and listeners to come together on the podcast’s birthday in July 2025. Part five of the series is about the kind of practical learning that comes from taking action, saying “yes” to new opportunities, bringing about change in our life or business, or putting into practice skills that we’ve been learning. I brought back some of my good friends, Patrícia, Maria, and Marta,  whom you first met in an episode last year. We have all experienced change – whether that’s the career change that led to us starting our businesses, decisions to offer new services, ways to step out of our comfort zones and become more visible as business owners, or moving through the stages that bring life to new ideas. We talked about – among other things: Something that we have done that is new or that brought about change in our business Sometimes the first step is to define the change that we want to see – how can we do this? Ways we’ve become more visible as business owners or started new things – why we did it and who or what helped us Steps we can take to make implementing changes or starting new things easier – how to break down the task or find the right What we can do to give our new ideas a chance – setting deadlines or choosing which ideas come first The need for resilience and consistency – don’t expect overnight success with new plans! Thanks everyone for being so honest and generous with your insights. Do you have any tips or comments to add? Visit the show notes page here: https://englishwithkirsty.com/episode277/

I wanted to give some more time to the topic of audio description so that we can explore it, both as an important way to make films, series, and live events accesible to visually impaired people, and as a new area of work for language professionals to explore. I got together with a group of language professionals from my network with different types of experience, different working languages (English, German, Italian, and Spanish), to talk about both the role of the audio description script writer and the voice artist. During our discussion, we covered topics such as: The guests’ stories and how they became involved with audio description The process of creating scrips and recording the voice-over tracks Challenges and points to consider when thinking about creating content in different languages Different types of information that the audience needs, depending on the type of content Training available for those interested in this kind of work The interaction between scrip writers, voice-over artists, and end s Practical tips for people who want to find out more or get into either of these areas of work. Thanks Sion, sca, Philipp, Dolores, and Zayda for sharing your experience with us – I think we all learned something! We had some minor technical difficulties towards the end. It was important to me that we got all of the points into the episode, so I have added in a couple that were rerecorded so that none of the information was lost. Do you have any tips or comments to add? You can find the show notes page and further links here: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode276/

To celebrate 10 years of the English with Kirsty podcast, I’m creating a 10-part series to celebrate 10 different forms that learning can take. There will also be an online networking event for guests and listeners to come together on the podcast’s birthday in July. Use the form further down if you want to be one of the first to receive more information about the event! Part four of the series is about how we can learn through business adventures – or intentional travel to help ourselves and our businesses. I decided to have a conversation with Jane Eggers about this because it’s something that we’ve both done recently. Actually she inspired me! Jane is a German to English translator who lives in /. For the last 3 years, she’s been coming to England to attend the LinkedIn Live conference and meet up with business friends and s. I’m an English trainer who started off working only with German-speaking clients. This is no longer the case as my business has grown and evolved, but a lot of my work still comes from . I use German for communication with some of my clients and as a bridge language in some of my language training sessions. I had the chance to go to Berlin and I took the opportunity to meet up with some of my clients and friends. I also attended my first in-person LocLunch event. Jane and I talked about what our trips taught us, how they helped us in of our businesses, the value of setting the agenda on your (it doesn’t have to be a big event if that’s not your thing), some practical tips, and what we plan to do now – both in of new ideas and new travel plans! For Jane, it was good to come back to the UK to be surrounded by English for a while. I really have to hunt for opportunities to speak German, so this emersion in the language was a great experience for me. Both of us enjoyed having the opportunity to participate in events where we could discuss business topics in a different language for a change! I also mentioned the German version of my networking for language professionals events – the first one will be this month! Check my LinkedIn profile or sign up to the newsletter from the show notes page so that you won’t miss any new events! Have you been on a business adventure like this? What did you learn? Would you like to go on one? Visit the show notes page here: https://englishwithkirsty.com/episode275/

To celebrate 10 years of the English with Kirsty podcast, I'm creating a 10-part series to celebrate 10 different forms that learning can take.  There will also be an online networking event for guests and listeners to come together on the podcast's birthday in July.  Part three of the series is about how we can learn through community. The first people who came to my mind to talk about community were Kelsey and Anikó  from Team Translator - and fortunately for us, they said "yes"! Whether you call yourself a freelancer, a business owner, a self-employed professional - community is so important for all of us working on our own. Kelsey Frick and Anikó Pető-Mordovski set up Team Translator to provide a community for those working in translation. We talked about what the community is, how it works, why it's important, and what Anikó  and Kelsey have learned through leading and being part of it. We also discussed the importance of building meaningful connections, LinkedIn strategies, the need to be yourself, and how connection can take different forms, such as the Team Translator Slack community. If you are a translator and you don't know about the community, you can find out more on the Team Translator website: https://www.team-translator.com If you're not, are there other communities where you could find , colleagues, potential clients or friends? It doesn't just have to be one. Our own personal community is the system that we build around ourselves and might involve several professional communities. The main thing is that they are a great source of and opportunities to learn. Find out more on the show notes page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode274/

Accessible communication with Josélia Neves Josélia's name came up when I was doing some research about an episode on audio description. That episode is coming soon, but when I discovered all the other things that Josélia is doing, I decided it would be good to have a conversation with her on her own so that we could explore her work in more depth. We talked about: 🎤 What Josélia does in her role as a researcher, teacher, and social entrepreneur 🎤 Practical examples of how Josélia has made museum exhibitions and live international events accessible 🎤 The need to look at the accessibility of the whole experience or journey, rather than focusing on specific elements individually 🎤 How ensuring accessible communication ultimately benefits everyone 🎤 The options and next steps available to language professionals who want to gain new skills and explore these areas of work.  Find out more on the show notes page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode273/

To celebrate 10 years of the English with Kirsty podcast, I’m creating a 10-part series to celebrate 10 different forms that learning can take. Part two of the series is about how we can learn through events and I thought that talking about LocLunch events would be a really good way to explore this topic. I invited four LocLunch ambassadors: Patrícia from Loclunch Lisbon, Roberta from LocLunch Rome, Lisa from LocLunch Barcelona, and Magali from LocLunch Berlin. When you listen to our conversation you’ll discover: More about my guests – who they are and why they decided to become LocLunch ambassadors What happens at a LocLunch event How these events provide practical opportunities for and learning for those involved in the localisation industry How the events in each city are developing their own identities based on who’s running and participating Some of the different forms the events can take and the practical ways in which they help people, both personally and professionally Some of the things that my guests have learned through participating in the events. How listeners in the localisation industry can get involved. Find out more on the show notes page:  https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode272/

Today my guest is Tania from Tania Lines Translation & Writing Services. We met on LinkedIn recently and I thought that Tania would be an interesting podcast guest … so here she is! We talked about How Tania keeps all of her languages up-to-date – both her working languages and the additional ones that she wants to learn The idea of having one day dedicated to each additional language and how this looks practically Tania’s experience of moving to countries where she did not speak the language Language exchanges and my online language exchange meet-ups Facial expressions and how the correct position of your lips, teeth and jaw are also important if you want to produce the correct sounds Roxie the beagle and how Tania’s interest in dogs and cats has opened up a new area of specialisation for her How about you? If you speak more than one additional language, how do you try to ensure that you give enough attention to all of them? Find out more on the show notes page: https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode271

To celebrate 10 years of the English with Kirsty podcast, I’m creating a 10-part series to celebrate 10 different forms that learning can take. This is part one! Today I’m talking with Alfonso González Bartolessis about learning via courses. When you listen to our conversation you’ll find out: 🎧 How Alfonso became interested in languages 🎧 The many forms that courses can take – we have to figure out what works best for us 🎧 Why Alfonso decided to create the TranslaStars platform, who can benefit from the platform, and some of the courses that are available there 🎧How it’s possible to personalise the learning experience on TranslaStars – learning at your own pace, making connections with others, content in different languages. 🎧Why investing time in continuous learning and personal development is importat for everyone, but especially for freelancers 🎧 Why we should never stop learning! Thanks Alfonso for this inspiring conversation and for sharing more about your platform. I'm suremost of the translators in my network are already familiar with TranslaStars, but if not, go and check it out! Further information and all the social meedia links are on the show notes page: https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode270

Our brain, emotions, and language learning with Alice Mansaud  This week I have a returning guest on the podcast. Last time, Alice was part-way through some training, so she agreed to come back when she'd finished to share what she'd learned. We talked about 🎤 Alice’s Neurolanguage coach certification and how what she learned during the training helps her now in her role as a teacher 🎤 The journey to become ourselves in our additional languages – accepting that it is a journey and figuring out what works for you 🎤 The role of emotions in the learning process 🎤 Naming the negative emotions so we can find the best way to process them and build strategies for similar situations in the future. 🎤 Finding some smaller milestones between where you are now and where you want to be in the future 🎤 How preparing is not a waste of time – you can’t prepare for everything, but you can take some steps to make your life easier if you know you’ll have to do a new or more challenging thing in the future. We talked about all kinds of challenges when you’re using language in a practical sense, from fear of not understanding others to looking for a new apartment. Did any of our suggestions resonate with you? Are you planning to try out any of our suggestions? Find out more on the show notes page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode269/

Last week I attended one of Marta Pagans’ workshops for freelancers. It was nothing to do with languauge learning, but I was interested in the event anyway and I was also glad to participate in some training where I used one of my other languages. I’m not going to talk about what I learned at the workshop – though you’ll be seeing some of the results of the actions that I decided to take as the year goes on. I do, however, want to share some of my reflections ing German, my first additional language, in a business training context. This is what I learned! Do you relate to any of these things? Visit the show notes page, find out more about my events, and get the link for Marta's page  here: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode268/

Megan Miller is back on the podcast with me!     We recorded at the end of last week, so it’s still January and I wanted to offer something a bit different from the usual content that we hear at the beginning of a new year.  We talked about:  • How being too prescriptive about habits can steal our joy – language is important  • How saying “no” and being intentional about what we really want can create space to start new things or give us more time for things that are really important to us  • The importance of self-care and self-comion as we think about how we want to allocate our time and energy resources. Figure out what works for you!  • The importance of boundaries – with ourselves and others.  • How life works in seasons. What kind of season are you in right now?   Check out the show notes page here: https://englishwithkirsty.com/episode267/ Or go back to episode 240 to listen to our first conversation. How has 2025 been for you so far?

For anyone who's listening in January 2025 - wishing you a year with interesting encounters, opportunities that help you to grow, and people who will you along the way! If you have discovered the episode at a later date - have a wonderful day! You won't get one of the typical new year episodes from me about what you should be thinking/starting or doing differently. There's enough of that around and a lot of it lacks self-comion.  I think any time can be a good time to make a positive change. However, sometimes for us in the northern hemesphere, the middle of winter is not the best time to start pushing ourselves to do something radically different. Sometimes a gentler start to the new year is better.  But I have been making changes here at English with Kirsty. Last year I posted about them on LinkedIn. I rewrote parts of my website and reorganised the pages. I changed how I approach my content creation so that I now concentrate on 7 main topics ... and I didn't talk about those here on the podcast. So this is a quick episode to tell you where my focus will be this year so that you'll know what's coming up on the podcast.There may also be other things that I don't know about yet, but this is a fair snapshot of what I'm doing right now. In July 2025, the English with Kirsty podcast will be 10. I want to run some kind of online event to celebrate that, so let me know using the form on the show notes page or via LinkedIn if you have any ideas!   https://englishwithkirsty.com/episode266/ or you ca email me - [email protected]

My "31 ways to improve your English" challenge is back again and we'll be starting on 1st January 2025! I don't believe that the beginning of a new year is the best time to start new things or bring about change! But it is true that our routines change throughout December and sometimes it's hard to get back into the habit of practising our additional language skills outside of the things that we need to do for work. Also, sometimes people want to learn new things, but they feel bored with what they're doing at the moment and want to change things up a bit. This is where my 31 ways to improve your English challenge comes in. Each day, you receive a new activity to develop some aspect of your language. If you're doing it to improve your English, you also have access to me to ask questions or get written about any of your tasks. Find the show notes page here: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode265/ or sign up for the challenge here:  https://englishwithkirsty.com/about-the-lessons/31days/ The challenge costs £22 and we begin on 1st January 2025. If you come across this episode after that time, check my events page for current events: https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/events

I met Dolores a few months ago at a networking event and since then I’ve been getting to know her better at my networking and language exchange events for language professionals. Dolores is also a podcaster – in fact that was one of our first topics. I thought it would be interesting to talk about Dolores work, her podcast, and why she decided to split it into two separate podcasts with content in both Spanish and English. We talked about: Dolores podcast and why she decided to have a podcast in English and one in Spanish How having a podcast helps Dolores to learn more and develop her speaking skills Why Dolores enjoys translating in the area of education Why we will never stop being language learners, however fluent we become How the role of people working in translation and localisation is changing Dolores’ advice for anyone who is thinking about starting a podcast. You can find all the links and further details on the show notes page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode264/

In this week's episode I'm talking about my new interactive workshop, which is all about the challenges that we can face as advanced language learners. We've got our language to a good level, but then, for whatever reason, we feel stuck and it's hard to move forward. We'll explore 5 challenges that you might be facing and what you can do to move past them. Talking about problems isn't fun, so I wanted to make it a bit more approachable and light-hearted. I also didn't want to make case studies with these 5 challenges in case anyone had the same name as the characters. So instead, we have 5 dogs. You can see the retriever in the picture here - she struggles with perfectionism. Does anyone relate to that? If you do, come along to the workshop! We also have 4 other dogs with different situations, so if you come, you'll discover whether you're more like the spaniel, the labrador, the German shepherd or the collie! Or maybe you'll have elements of more than one. As a language learner, I do! This is where you can find out more about the workshop on 28th November 2024 and book your place: https://englishwithkirsty.com/dogs-and-language-learners-tips-for-advanced-learners-to-get-unstuck/ And this is where you can listen to the episode on my site: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode263/

If you use access technology or have other accessibility requirements, you can’t just find a good language course and sign up for it! First you need to check out how accessible that course will be for you, how willing the course provider is to make any adaptions, and then you can make an informed decision about whether it’s going to be a good option to meet your needs. I’m a learner as well as a teacher and I have a lot to say about this too, but I thought it would be more interesting to have a discussion with one of my clients who also uses access technology. I’ve known Elisabeth for a number of years now. In fact, she was my second customer! We talked about: Elisabeth’s previous experiences of learning English Why Elisabeth wanted to find an online English course and what was important to her in of accessibility Why it’s important for designers of courses or learning materials to be aware of different accessibility requirements and to consider them from the beginning of the project What Elisabeth does to develop and improve her English outside of our classes. Find out more on the show notes page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode262/

Today I'm talking about some of the activities in which I've been participating in order to develop my language skills in a way that's relevant to work. Whether that was attending a Women in Localisation webinar in Portuguese, meeting a Toastmaster's group in Portugal, or planning future attendance at a workshop in German - all of these things are somehow work-related and at the same time, they help me to develop relevant, work-related vocabulary.  I should add that I didn't need to look for these opportunities. all of the invitations came to me through my network. If you spend time getting to know people and building relationships, those people will probably invite you to things! I also talk about some other things you can do such as looking for industry-specific podcasts, publications, or social media s. Whether you're developing your ive listening skills at a webinar, participating in a workshop, or even going on a podcast in an additional language - all of these things can help you to grow and become a more confident of your additional language/s. Here is the show notes page.  https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode261/ You can send me a message with any at [email protected]  or come and find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-wolf-a8478235/ 

You first met Maria in episode 244 of the podcast about the conversation club. I first met her at our networking for language professionals events and through her interview on the Language Worker podcast. Maria also shared more of her story at one of our conversation club meetings and I thought it would be interesting to share this story with you as well. We talked about: * Maria’s interest in writing and how it has continued throughout the different stages of her career * Maria’s b Portuguese * Tips for how writing can help you to improve your language skills – either in your first language or an additional one * How writing by hand and typing in other languages with additional characters are good ways * How writing or journalling can help us to be present and get to know ourselves better. We also discussed Maria’s course for those who want to learn more about subtitling. You can find the details here:  https://www.translastars.com/course/master-subtitling Who is Maria?> Maria Virgínia Barros is a ionate wordsmith with a background in export and international communication. After completing her degree in contemporary languages and literature from the University of Porto, she deepened her skills through a postgraduate program in specialised translation at Porto Executive Academy. Today, Maria Virgínia dedicates herself exclusively to translation and subtitling projects for various companies and television networks. Her love for language extends beyond professional work. Maria Virgínia continues to write poetry and has maintained a personal blog, Sítio da Saudade, for nearly two decades. She believes that poetry and translation share a fundamental connection: the pursuit of the perfect word. Find out more on the show notes page: https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode260/ Connect with us on LinkedIn: Kirsty - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-wolf-a8478235/ Maria - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariavirginiabarros-language-consultant/ 

September can be a time for new beginnings, although really, we don't need to wait for a certain month to start something new. Still, lots of people are talking about new plans and ideas at the moment and it got me thinking... Some people just get an idea and run with it. For others, there are a number of things that get in the way or that make us put things off. Sometimes just taking the first step and getting started is the hardest part. So what are those things? This week we're looking at 8 of them and what we can do to prevent them from getting in the way of us starting something new and exciting! Here is the show notes page.  https://englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode259/ I mentioned my 3 main programmes too - details of all of them can be found on the home page of my English with Kirsty site.  *********** Send me an email if you have any questions or suggestions about the English with Kirsty podcast: [email protected] or come and find me on LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-wolf-a8478235/

Today I'm bringing you my conversation with Helen. You may her because she featured on episode 235 about the conversation club. This is part of a new series where I'm talking about different aspects of learning languages. We'll explore some of the challenges that my clients have faced and how they overcame them. Helen isn't someone who loves learning languages, but she needed English for some professional training that she was doing and she was motivated enough to get some help with it. Helen went from someone who felt nervous about speaking English to someone who now talks to strangers at the gym and prepares presentations for us at the club. What changed? Find out in the episode!   Find the show notes here: https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode258 and you can connect with me on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-wolf-a8478235/