S3E24: What’s a conversation you’ve never had before?

Full transcript:

Good morning, happy Thursday,  and welcome to the Language Confidence Project, your daily dose of language courage, whether you love learning languages, or you really don’t, but have to learn one anyway. I’m your host, Emily Richardson, and I am here every weekday to cheer you on in your language learning, and give you full permission to carve your own path and learn your language in a way that feels right for you.  

And today, if you’re feeling like there is too much of a gap between you in your new language and your real self, I have a little tiny mini project for you. I’m going to ask you three questions, and I’d love for you to pick the one or two that apply to you.

The first question is this: What’s one thing you talk about all the time in your native language, but you’ve never discussed in your new language? Maybe a topic that never comes up in a classroom or a textbook. Maybe something that’s really specific to your job or your hobbies.

Second question. If you are living, studying, parenting, being a professional or in some other way adulting in a country that doesn’t speak your native language, I also want to ask you the opposite question. What’s one thing you talk about all the time in your newer language, but you’ve never really discussed in your native language? Is it time to bridge that gap and practise talking or writing about that thing in your native language? And I’m not just talking about translating here, but what do people actually say? What are the common expressions and shortcuts and cultural references that people attach to this thing? 

Third question: And if you are thinking, well, I’m a really advanced speaker, I use both of my languages all the time, every day, and I can’t really think of anything, I think I talk about exactly the same stuff in both of my languages, I have a slightly different question for you. What’s a conversation you’ve never had before? Go and find something you know nothing about, in either of your languages, or find a question online that you’ve never considered before. Find a topic with a whole load of new concepts or keywords, could be art history, gardening, sheet metalwork, foraging for mushrooms, anything. And just go down a bit of a rabbit hole, and just see where it takes you.

No matter what level you are currently at, it is never too early or too late to start thinking about how you can bring your new language closer to you, to the person you are, to the experiences you have, and to all the things you care about. Good luck, language learners, and I really hope you find something interesting to explore today.

I’ve just launched my first project of the year which is to have 100 conversations with listeners of the Language Confidence Project in the next few months, to meet you, to hear about how your language journey is going, and to find out what carving your own path means to you. It’s a really informal 30 minute Skype chat over tea or coffee or whatever beverage you should like to bring, it’s completely free, there won’t be any sales pitches or anything like that, and the hope is that we can chat about the hard bits of learning a language but also to celebrate your wins. If you would like to book a call, I have a Calendly link in the shownotes, and it’s also in my Instagram bio at @teawithemily. I can’t wait to hear from you!