"America The Bilingual" Podcast: Review & Inspirational Language-Learning Tool

Hello, everyone and welcome back to my blog! Today is a very special day, as it marks 2 years of having started this language-learning blog. I am overwhelmed by the amount of lovely comments and words of encouragement I have received over the years- it truly makes writing for you so special and rewarding. I am humbled to have such an amazing support system and hope to make all of you even prouder this upcoming year.

As you may have read in my first post of the year, this year holds many challenges, yet exciting adventures abroad. On Sunday, I embark on my third study-abroad journey in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where I hope to learn more about what makes Cameroon so linguistically and culturally unique. With over 200 languages spoken and French being one of its official national languages (the language I will be speaking and studying in while I am there), I am sure that I will be filled with many fun linguistic experiences that I cannot wait to share with you.

That being said, for this week’s post, I thought that I would share what my favorite language-learning podcast is: America the Bilingual, a podcast that is “part of the Lead with Languages campaign of ACTFL- The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages” written by Steve Leveen and its Mexican and bilingual producer, Fernando Hernández. In 2017 alone, 20 episodes were launched that are usually anywhere between 10-30 minutes long. In my opinion, every second and minute is filled with many interesting anecdotes and personal stories of how learning languages, or being reluctant to learn them has positively, or negatively impacted monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual individuals’ lives.

This upcoming year will mark its second year of being on air, so there is currently only a minosode available in 2018, as far as I am concerned; however, Steve has mentioned just how thrilled he is to launch their new episodes very soon. A few of the episodes’ titles are: “The Lamp of empathy”, “With a little help from his friends- and good French wine”, “Just call me Anna”, and “Mother Tongue”, which instantly pull you in as a listener. I personally find this podcast in particular to not only be worth your time, but to also be very informative. You can learn anything from the cognitive, personal, and professional benefits of acquiring a second language as a native speaker, or as an adult, of studying abroad in high-school, or college, and of what kinds of career possibilities you can have as a linguistically capable and informed global citizen.

This podcast does not just spew out facts giving you the number of speakers of x language, or of y language, but rather takes the time to recount real human experiences of the beauties, mysteries, confusion, and frustration that comes with having multiple identities and personalities. It talks about our well-known eureka moments when something finally clicks in another language and why languages are not meant to be subjects, but rather tools with which we can more easily navigate the complexities of the 21^st century.

It also has the goal to inform educators, learners, families, parents, and friends about why we should invest in our children’s language education starting at a very young age and what we can do to “reverse” that if we started “too late.” Ultimately, it is a podcast that does not give you fluffy details to make it sound more easy than it is- it speaks of the truth, of what people actually experience when they are in their home countries and abroad. It will move you. It will inspire you and it will hopefully make you want to pick up a language that has been stored in some part of your brain, but has been out of use for years. To attest to this, I have listened to 16/20 episodes in just a matter of two weeks and will continue to listen to all of its episodes as long as it continues to air. As Steve Leveene always says, you do have hope and can make it, even as a recovered monolingual.

Here is its link to download it on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/america-the-bilingual/id1219082864?mt=2

Plan with Me: 2018 Language Goals

Before getting into the rest of this post, I wanted to wish everyone a happy new year, un feliz año nuevo, une bonne année, ein glückliches neues Jahr, un felice anno nuovo, С новым годом! I was recently talking to my parents and told them how amazed I was by how quickly 2017 flew by for me after being away from the states for over 6 months, but am hoping that this year provides even more opportunities for language-learning and for dedicating more time to this blog. Despite having an unsteady posting schedule last year, I am determined to create more content for you this year.

I also wanted to thank each and every one of you who has taken a few spare moments out of your day to read my posts. We are slowly approaching 2 years on this blog, which is very exciting! Before getting ahead of myself, I will be spending 5 months abroad this semester and am told that I will rarely have access to wifi, but do not hesitate. As soon as I get back, I will make up for lost time and content and will write entire posts about all 3 of my study-abroad language immersion experiences.

I love starting off the new year by starting on a clean slate. As a language guru, I love getting inspired by videos made by language-learners who have similar ambitions to mine. As few days ago, I stumbled across a video, “Plan with me: Language Goals & 2018 Bujo”,  made by one of my favorite YouTubers, Lindie Botes. In this video, she takes out her agenda and walks you through how you can set meaningful and realistic goals for the new year, most of them being language-related. What I like most about her approach is that it is feasible and very rewarding if you stick to it. She gives you practical tips on how you can track your progress the old-fashioned way, using a notebook and colorful pens to jot down your goals. If you would like to know what it is that she does to keep up with other 10 languages amidst a full-time job and schedule, feel free to watch it by clicking on the video that I have attached to this post! Below are my language-learning goals for 2018:

Spanish: As a native Spanish-speaker, I will admit that I have not had much time to listen to any audio or spoken Spanish aside from hundreds of calls with my family. I would like to change that this year, as I have found that a big part of my identity has been lost ever since college (due to there being very few Hispanic students there in general).

·      Read as many books and novels in Spanish as I can-I already have a couple dozen books that have been purchased within the past year in Barcelona and books that I bought in Colombia years ago waiting to be read.

·      Watch movies and YouTube videos from many countries throughout Latin-America, including Colombia.

·      Write diary entries in Spanish.

·      Try to reach out to other native Spanish speakers on campus to make more meaningful friendships.

French: Status-Fluent; Hope to achieve: Native-like proficiency

Given that I will be studying abroad in a country whose official language is French, this list will not be as long as the other ones.

·      Listen to as much audio content (i.e. podcasts, videos, movies, and music) as I can to complement what I study in my courses and my conversations with my host family while I am studying abroad.

·      Journal about my experience abroad in French starting on the first day.

·      Write down new words, sentences, and phrases that I learn in a notebook dedicated to French.

German: Status- Upper intermediate; Hope to achieve: C1 level (European framework of reference)

Given that I have not taken a German course since my senior year of high-school, I have lost a lot of vocabulary that I would like to relearn. I hope to do the following to reach my goals:

·      Take German both semesters of my senior year to review advanced grammar and vocabulary, reading, writing, and speaking with other classmates who want to do the same.

·      Go through at least one, or two of my German workbooks that have been laying on my shelf for a while to work on all areas of the language.

·      Fill up more of my German notebook with what I learn from my workbooks, what I learn in my courses, and any other additional materials I use (i.e. free online sources, such as YouTube).

·      Memorize a few songs in German.

Italian: Status-Fluent; Hope to achieve- Native-like proficiency

Given that I studied abroad in Italy for 4 months, I am finally fluent in the language; however, believe that in order to fully master a language, you have to sound and feel as native-like as possible, which is always my ultimate goal with every language endeavor I take on.

·      Video call my Italian friends as often as possible and, whenever that is not possible, message them to ask them questions about how to say certain sentences correctly.

·      Fill up an entire notebook of new Italian words and sentences that I learn during my academic and personal studies.

·      Write many journal entries in Italian after returning from being abroad.

Russian: Status- Intermediate; Hope to achieve- Advanced

This year will be a challenge for Russian since I have not taken it since last spring semester, but am still determined to get back on track. Doing so will take an incredible amount of patience and hours of study, but I have never wanted to improve a language as much as I do Russian.

·      Use “Dots” application every single week, and, whenever possible, every single day to increase my vocabulary through spaced repetition.

·      Use two, or three of my workbooks to work on all areas of the language, including grammar and vocabulary.

·      Watch many Russian films with either Russian subtitles, or no subtitles at all and write down new words and sentences.

·      Listen to more Russian music and watch more YouTubers talk about their lives, lifestyle, traveling, and languages to acquire those sets of vocabulary.

For now, I believe that is it! Just to clarify about my upcoming language-learning endeavors, I am hoping to focus on these 6 for now, as I am not fluent in all of them quite yet. Once I am, I will feel more comfortable taking on new languages. 

What are your language-learning goals and how do you hope to achieve them? Hopefully my goals will give you some inspiration to write down your goals to track your progress as the months go by in 2018. Good luck, buena suerte, bonne chance, viel Glück, in bocca al lupo, удачи with your language studies!