Diary of a Language Freak: Recent Episodes
Chiara Maggi
A podcast about how languages can make you live amazing experiences, but also about learning and teaching methods.
Episodes mainly in English, but not only ;)
Esercitati nella lingua che stai imparando, come se fossi in palestra, ma con un professionista che ti segue (cioè, io!).ISCRIVITI QUI: https://chiaralanguagefreak.com/accountability/CHIAMATA GRATUITA PER DUBBI ETC: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/appointments/schedules/AcZssZ2t55-QbGJU_81u2fMjfYFXlVfAkpLW_HYwFIQ5HDXbQ_Ve5z5V4Lu_QgCRtl1WolT4_rLuQEVSLa mia missione è rendere il processo di apprendimento delle lingue "digeribile" attraverso compiti settimanali. Ogni settimana, devi completare due esercizi, piccoli ma efficaci.Tipi di compiti possibili:• Esercizi di conversazione tramite messaggi vocali• Esercizi di ascolto• Shadowing per migliorare la pronuncia• Esercizi di scrittura• Esercizi di lettura### Recensione di Sahebeh"Come ingegnere che vive e lavora in Italia, avevo bisogno di parlare e capire l'italiano come i miei amici e colleghi italiani. Mi ero bloccata a un certo livello, pronunciando male molte parole, e non c'era nessuno a correggermi, perché i miei amici e colleghi parlavano perfettamente inglese e passavano all'inglese ogni volta che notavano le mie difficoltà!Frequentare corsi formali non era fattibile per motivi di tempo, avevo bisogno di una soluzione flessibile. È allora che Chiara ha introdotto un metodo che soddisfaceva le mie esigenze. Seguo questo corso con lei da diversi mesi ormai. La sua disponibilità, pazienza e entusiasmo per il suo lavoro mi hanno colpito molto. È sempre pronta a rispondere a qualsiasi domanda legata alla lingua e migliora continuamente il suo approccio didattico introducendo nuovi metodi e nuove offerte.Recentemente abbiamo utilizzato Notion come bacheca di comunicazione, e sono estremamente soddisfatto del risultato. Notion permette di crearepagine e database personalizzati di ciò che hai già praticato. Funziona molto bene per la gestione delle attività di annotazione personale e condivisione delle conoscenze. Tutto ciò di cui hai bisogno per un corso di lingua remoto perfetto!"### Recensione di Goele
"Sono belga, vivo in Spagna e insegno principalmente inglese e musica. Amo le lingue e le apprendo abbastanza facilmente, tramite immersione culturale o autoapprendimento, soprattutto leggendo. Penso che sia chiaro che i corsi di lingua tradizionali non sono utili per me, e sono felice di aver trovato una persona che la pensa come me.
Imparo l'italiano da un po' di tempo, ma mi sono accorta che ogni volta che si trattava di parlare, non sapevo da dove iniziare. Non avevo un obiettivo specifico in mente, ma volevo solo sentirmi a mio agio nell'usare e comprendere la lingua. Così, ho deciso di iscrivermi al programma di Chiara.
Lei propone argomenti di conversazione o esercizi in base alle mie esigenze. Le sue correzioni sono molto utili; spiega tutto chiaramente con esempi e confronti con altre lingue che abbiamo in comune (francese, inglese, olandese), ed è sempre paziente con me, ripetendo le stesse cose più e più volte, se necessario.
Negli ultimi due mesi ho perso la paura di parlare e mi sento più sicura delle mie abilità in italiano. Il contatto tramite messaggi WhatsApp, sia audio che testo, rende il processo di apprendimento meno stressante e più simile al parlare con un'amica."
Recensione di Shahrzad"Avere una lezione con questo metodo è molto comodo per me. Perché ho capito dalla mia esperienza che la lingua può essere appresa e utilizzata solo attraverso la pratica. E questa forma di esercizio, perché espone le persone all'uso reale della lingua, è più utile. Quando invio messaggi vocali, noto che presto più attenzione nella scelta delle parole e della grammatica, e c'è una migliore opportunità di usare nuovi vocaboli. Inoltre, c'è più possibilità di parlare di argomenti diversi che potremmo non affrontare nella vita quotidiana, e in cui, di conseguenza, potremmo non usare mai alcune parole e parte della grammatica."
Questo audio è la versione mp3 di un video pubblicato su YT. Ho voluto raccontare come si può uscire dal vicolo cieco "sono troppo stanco dopo il lavoro - non ho tempo di imparare le lingue" e apprendere in un modo nuovo e più efficiente, usando le tecnologie che sono disponibili finalmente nel 2024.Si può imparare chattando via WhatsApp con un insegnante e sfruttando ChatGPT.IL MIO PROGRAMMA MENSILE: https://chiaralanguagefreak.com/accountability#lingue #linguestraniere #languagelearning #chatgpt #italian #francese #olandese
Two cents from an online business lady about certain other online business people who teach you to sell without exploiting people’s weaknesses but then repeat the worst patterns in one-on-one interactions.READ MY BLOG POST: https://chiaralanguagefreak.com/2024/07/09/sales-gurus-exposed-the-chasm-between-preaching-and-practicingJOIN MY ACCOUNTABILITY GROUP: https://chiaralanguagefreak.com/accountability FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM: @chiara_languagefreak #languagelearning #onlinebusiness #smartlearning
In this video, I share some unforgettable moments highlighting the power of language learning and integration. Join me as I recount stories that showcase the impact of passion and dedication in the world of languages.Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chiara_languagefreak/Check out my website: https://chiaralanguagefreak.com/Register for my accountability programme: https://chiaralanguagefreak.com/accountability/Chapters:0:00 - Introduction1:31 - Becoming an Ambassador in Middle School4:45 - Humbling the Teacher Who Hated Me9:00 - Speaking Greek and Getting a Free Dessert#LanguageLearning #Integration #TravelStories #LanguageNerd #GloriousMoments
http://chiaralanguagefreak.com/2023/11/20/no-homework-no-class/
📚 Some months ago, a girl decided to buy a 4-week package with me, including weekly classes and homework. She did everything autonomously through my website, without a discovery call or trial. Cool!
🤓 We had our first class, and I emphasized the importance of doing homework between sessions to see results. It’s all clearly stated on my page above the “BUY” button. She reassured me she’d do everything, and I was optimistic.
⏳ Days passed, and I reached out, asking for her work. She promised, but nothing came. I had to cancel the next lesson until she sent me something, explaining it’s useless otherwise.
✉️ After more waiting, she finally sent written work, but no voice messages, which are crucial to my method. She struggles with speaking, even after 8 years in Italy, affecting her job prospects.
💸 I’m losing money but billing anyway felt wrong.
📈 I’ve raised my prices, still figuring out how to balance effectiveness and not losing out.
Tune in to hear how I navigate this challenge!
https://chiaralanguagefreak.com/2023/11/16/feeling-part-of-a-community-the-podcast-festival-of-de-standaard/
On November 11, I attended the podcast festival by De Standaard in Oostende. Living on a tight budget, this trip was a real investment, but my curiosity about Belgium made it worth every penny.
Growing up in Italy, Belgium was a mystery. Apart from hearing about Brussels due to EU affairs and the tragic Marcinelle coal mine accident, I knew little about this country. Since moving to Belgium, I’ve wanted to immerse myself in its culture, starting with learning Dutch and keeping up with Belgian news.
Integration through shared experiences
When I quit my job, I decided it was time to truly "Belgify" myself. Watching Belgian news became a daily ritual, and I gradually expanded this to include Dutch-language podcasts, with De Standaard’s "Vandaag" becoming a favorite.
Taking the leap
Attending a full Flemish event was my next step. I wanted to challenge myself to interact with locals, especially Flemish speakers, in their own environment. Despite initial nerves, I succeeded, engaging in conversations and understanding most of the discussions, even if some podcast references eluded me.
The highlight of the day was meeting Alexander Lippeveld, the voice behind my favorite podcast. Being able to connect and share my appreciation for his work was a significant moment of integration for me.
Small talk and connections
My efforts to engage in small talk paid off when I found myself at the new smokers' corner – the power socket station. A fellow attendee struck up a conversation in Dutch, making my day and marking a milestone in my journey to feel at home in Belgium.
Reflecting on the day’s achievements, I watched the stormy sea and felt a deep sense of fulfillment. As I boarded the train back to Brussels, exhaustion set in, but it was the sweet kind that comes from stepping out of one’s comfort zone and making meaningful connections.
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New Accountability Program - CHECK IT OUT HERE
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And... here we go again:
Instagram message request, 9.50 am:
"Do you give private classes? I know very little Italian, I have now realised that I should have started earlier, but now I feel I'm lagging.
How long does it take to be able to speak it?"
People are not only stressed themselves, but they are indirectly also putting more pressure on me who feel compelled to make them reach unrealistic results.
All of this, because the local language was ignored for too long. What a pity.
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This is the theory. Don't hesitate to follow the different parts through this series of articles:
part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4
Should you actually want to implement what you've learnt and get a little bonus, you can get a very affordable paid version at this link. I'm one of those people who never apply anything if there is no-one actually waiting for something from my side, so I offer you a little mind trick to actually implement something :)
I want to implement and get the bonus
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Maggi Empire of the Soup - Thank you!
I find very funny the fact that both “teams” can relate to something very familiar like a brand they’ve probably grown up with, that they may remember from some tv ads too.
I think it makes you instantly slightly more familiar.
Which means a little bit more integrated…
which is my objective.
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I've always suffered from anxiety, since my childhood. One could say that fighting against anxiety is the background "noise" behind anything I've done in my life. Luckily every step has had a positive impact, so that's a happy-end story.
If it can help you consider your mental health and demistifying the kind of image I may give on my channels, then it will have reached a valuable goal and I'm happy with this.
Read more
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My experience of "untold apartheid"
In one of the episodes of my podcast, I tell you about when I got in touch with the immigrants in my class and school in general. I was super excited to be with them because I found Italians very boring (;D), but nobody encouraged me to do it. On the contrary, my family was quite worried and I ended up being the only Italian in a group of around 10 foreigners. When we would go out together other people would ask me if I was a migrant too. No way it was possible that an Italian wanted to stay with them. But that was all a matter of real fear.
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There are two kinds of people…First of all, once again let's not forget that all of what I say is a very big generalization. Our objective is just to find very general points that can help us adapt our expectations when we don't know the people we are going to be in touch with.I had the idea of this piece thanks to several foreigners in Italy who are posting their experiences on Tiktok, and also different personal contacts with acquaintances from both Europe and other continents.When it comes to negative ones, the most frequent complaint is the lack of social life.
Continue
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The target of this lengthy piece is mainly people like me. I hate the word “expat”, we’re just lucky emigrants abroad, who can afford to get a job in English. If this is not the case, but you can read it and you’re living somewhere where you don’t speak the local language, but you’re dependent on your family/husband/wife/friends… that’s still something that can interest you.
Here, we try to reach two objectives:
- reflecting a bit about languages and people in general
- being less frustrated once we have to get in touch with the inhabitants of the countries we’re living in.
Continue
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That's a metaphor that I dared tell someone when almost two years ago I received an email where a potential student said he was "assessing" different teachers and comparing the conditions etc.
"I understand that you are not motivated, but learning a language is a bit like going to a psychologist: you have to accept making the first step, because the teacher can guide and support you, but cannot forcibly put the information inside your head against your will.
So, I strongly encourage you to reflect on the reasons why you have/need/want to learn Italian, to focus on the positive outcomes that this could lead to, and to write them down on a piece of paper. If you don't find any, probably it's not the right moment to start."
How did it go?
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I was a speaker at this event, but unfortunately, they couldn't record my speech properly due to technical problems.
That's just my story and you can follow the slides I used during that evening through this link
I recorded it with my phone, so the quality is questionable, but I wanted to have something from this evening.
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Some months ago I wrote a little email course about the importance of learning the local language abroad – even when it sounds like a waste of time.
My target was mainly foreigners in Italy, but I think it applies to any immigrant in that grey situation where you have a very nice life without knowing the local language. I think for example about the thousands of people in Brussels speaking neither French nor Dutch and considering learning them just useless.
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Before becoming a teacher and reflecting on how to make my students learn more effectively, I was also a fan of language learning apps. I think I installed at least Babbel, Duolingo, Mondly, and maybe even Busuu. I probably installed and uninstalled some of them multiple times. But none survived on my phone. Why? (hint: they’re not human enough)
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This is just the mp3 version of a TikTok video. Hope it helps.
Make sure to check out the full page for complete information.
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This is just the mp3 version of a TikTok video. Let me know it helps.
Check out the explanation + video on my website.
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This is originally a TikTok video - what you find here is only the mp3 version. Hope it helps!
Check the full explanation + video here
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To retain the new information we have, we need to anchor them to something already well "enrooted" in our mind, otherwise, they fly away. Examples in Persian and Dutch follow.
Read the full text
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Have you ever noticed that when you make a language mistake that is particularly embarrassing or funny then you never forget about it?
That’s because a strong emotion is linked to that moment.
NEWSLETTER
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Why all my teachers didn't help me at learning smarter? I want something more back in return for my time and money. So, I try to fix this issue.
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TRANSCRIPTION: http://chiaralanguagefreak.com/2023/09/28/experiencing-the-great-resignation-firsthand-5-march-2021/
I don't really remember what I felt when all the flights got canceled.
I think that's a sort of way of coping with trauma and to me, it feels like Covid never happened. I forgot all the feelings. Like a huge black hole.
I talked about it and other people share the same. Anyway, let's go back once again to April 2020.
I had a salary that for my life standards and expectations at that time was pretty good. I was making around 1800€-1900€ net. I rarely drank alcohol, I've never smoked, I rarely ate out, I barely did anything besides working, no gym subscriptions… nothing (but Persian classes). Even before the lockdown.
When the lockdown came, my life got even more "Calvinist". I was looking at my bank account regularly and seeing with pleasure that there was plenty of money I had no way to spend. After all, yes, I went to Law School, but it was actually a branch of a business school and along with the family environment I was raised in, the idea of using money meaningfully was luckily quite natural.
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TRANSCRIPTION: http://chiaralanguagefreak.com/2023/09/02/how-covid-changed-my-life-but-in-a-good-way/
As I said previously, everything was OK, but not great. I was happy to have a job, a good salary, to have kept my Brussels life, to have nice colleagues… but I was not enthusiastic.
I thought that this feeling of unease was due to the weirdness of realizing that you don't need to fight for a job anymore, at least for a while.
Over the weeks I was also better understanding my job. I understood that some admin/database reorganization was needed, but it was slowly seeming like it was a never-ending job. I will not add further details.
Around September I was starting to realize also that the real reason why I was sort of happy to go to the office was because of the people I could find there and not for the job itself actually.
That's a problem.
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TRANSCRIPTION: http://chiaralanguagefreak.com/2023/08/13/a-taste-of-employee-life/
I honestly enjoyed my internship period, especially the first six months. However, already back at the end of 2018, I started to like the idea of having my own business.
For the first time in my life, I seriously thought I could do something good. What gave me this confidence? Well, there was a good amount of disorganization, seeing people very well paid with skills I considered even lower than mine, people making gross mistakes without basically any consequence.
Getting decent pay was crucial and very empowering.
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When I came back from Moscow, it was hard to get used again to my usual way of life. First of all, I missed my freedom. The freedom of walking in the streets and not being recognized. The freedom of going home whenever I wanted to.
Again, language helped me avoid many panic attacks during the police controls I had (one of which was in the hall of my building) or talking to the passport controls once I was leaving the country: I had taken my glasses off for the identity check and since after a while it seemed like the paperwork was over I put them back on. The lady noticed it and said quite peremptory: "There is nothing to see". So, I took them off again haha. But by then, since it was my last day, I was like "OK, that's the default mood...".
Hallo iedereen,
Ik heet Chiara en ik kom uit Italië. Ik woon in Brussel en ik hou van talen leren en studeren. Door de jaren heen kon ik dankzij talen onvergetelijke ervaringen hebben en dus heb ik besloten om ze te delen via deze podcast. Talen zijn ook mijn fulltime baan geworden - daar zal ik je ook meer over vertellen.
he first weekend, I had one of the sweetest moments ever. I went to the center to explore a bit. I went walking in the Gardens located right outside the Kremlin, called Alexandrovsky Sad.
It’s a small park with a long marble monument to commemorate the battles of the Second World War. People often took pictures in front of it.
At a certain point, two quite old ladies asked me to take a picture of them. I did what I had to, and we left each other. However, some minutes later, I came across them again, and they asked me if I wanted a picture too.
I accepted the offer, gave them my phone and immediately one of them said: “But it’s not in Russian!”.
What I told you about Persian happened between 2012 and 2014. After that year I was really too busy with university and exams… and suffering from crazy anxiety because I was totally lost with my life.
I had picked the wrong course at university and I couldn’t see any way out. In those years I posted almost nothing on my Facebook group, let alone Youtube or anything else. After all, it was “a waste of time instead of studying”, right?
So, fast forward to 2017… and back to Moscow, again like in 2004.
Spoiler alert: this episode is highly personal and includes a long rant about my life some years ago. Maybe it’s a bit off-topic, but if you’re listening to this podcast that’s part of the package. Feel free to skip how much you want.
In the last episode, I told you about Hungarian and online communities. It allowed me to get to know people on the Internet for the first time.
However, just like it happened with my other “language loves”, something else arrived at some point and made my life take another unexpected turn.
We’re in 2011, November.
I start reading about geopolitics and that was a quite hot moment for a particular area of the world: Iran.
The more I read about it, the more I get curious because I realize how ignorant I was about it.
It soon became something irresistible.
As usual, I headed to Omniglot.com to get some information about the language. Of course, I was so ignorant that I probably thought it was Arabic or something similar like that, and then… I heard an audio file of probably one of the most beautiful languages I had ever heard.
Hungarian was another one of my great language “love stories”. It was the first one that made me show up on the Internet and allowed me to realize its potential.
Once again, it started with a trip to Budapest. However, unlike the case of Russian I explained in the previous episodes, I was not prepared ahead of it, but I got curious only once back.
I got interested in it because I had put Russian aside since it was too difficult to learn on your own (I mean, I was 15 and had no clue about “cases”, declensions, verbal aspects, and so on… it was really too much of a mess).
I remember I had gone to a bookshop in my town and asked for a Chinese and Russian phrasebook, which I still have!
After that journey, I went to that place and asked for a Hungarian one. In that case or shortly after, I also got a small dictionary that I used so much that now is almost torn in pieces - but of course, I am keeping it as a memory for the rest of my life.
My curiosity came from some things told by our guide in Budapest. She was great, but she had just given some information about the language: the typical info like that it’s a far relative of the Finnish language and so on… the basic stuff you tell a group of not-so-young Italians on holiday.
But, for me, that was enough.
Again, the sound of the language was crucial in making me like what I was learning.
Another point that “triggered” me positively was that while I was getting information about the language, a pretty frequent point was that it was super difficult. My typical reaction in these cases, still nowadays, is: that’s bullshit. So, I saw it as a challenge I wanted to defy. If I could learn it, that meant it was not that hard 🙂
I was not very used to hearing foreigners and their “wrong” Italian. For me, correcting them sounded absolutely natural. Especially, since I hate being corrected without understanding “why” something is wrong, I would do the same with them.
I used to explain to them what was wrong, and why, adding also a pinch of etymology here and there, because it makes everything more logical (on average) and fascinating.
I still do it, so if you’ll ever have lessons with me you know what to expect!
But actually: why did I do it instead of shutting my mouth up and letting them in peace? Nobody asked me to do it.
Honestly, what drove me was Italian public security 😅
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Take my language test and discover your level in Italian: https://forms.gle/ACTFR5XAqeUpfmpZA
In the last episode, I talked about how Tagalog was important to me.
It is an idiom on which the official language of the Philippines is based.
Starting from there, I began discovering all the main Asian languages in a sort of ideal journey from those islands to Europe.
I started with the Maleo-Polynesian languages, to Chinese, the ones of the Indochinese peninsula, Korean, Japanese, and so on.
I really liked the website http://proel.org/. It is simple, but it allowed me to have an overview.
I was really even emotionally involved in what I was reading and finding out.
My favorite language family, the one I found the most fascinating, was the Paleo-Siberian languages. It is a group of languages spoken in the Easternmost corner of Siberia, in the Kamchatka peninsula and surroundings.
I used to feel genuine anxiety when reading that a language was in danger of extinction.
My second favorite family was the Altaic languages, the language family of Turkish, Mongolian, and Manchu, spreading from the Northern and Western borders of China up to… well, Greece. I remembered I had found another website, https://altaica.ru/e_index.php. At that time, the English version was minimal, while most of the pages were in Russian. It seems that now the English version has improved.
So, in the last episode, I talked about how I found out about the Cyrillic alphabet.
At the same time, I had fallen in love with the Russian language, but it was too complicated to learn with the resources I had at that time, of course.
A last memorable point from that time is that during the tour in Russia, as I mentioned in the previous episode, I became a sort of mascot. I was not only the youngest (which is not surprising in a group tour), but I was the only one who could read some signs at least. It was very relevant at that time!
(...)
Anyway, let’s go back to Italy: my primary school has finished and… and? Secondary school had to kick off.
The most striking difference at that time was that in the primary school, there were no immigrants.
When school started, though, I didn't have much contact with the migrants. There was a sort of undeclared separation between the two groups: Italians with Italians and foreigners with foreigners.
Until when...
Bonjour à tous,
Je m'appelle Chiara et je viens d’Italie. J’habite à Bruxelles, et j’aime apprendre et enseigner les langues. Avec les années, les langues m’ont permis d’avoir plein d’expériences inoubliables, donc j’ai décidé de les partager à travers ce podcast. Les langues sont aussi devenues mon job à temps plein - je vais te raconter plus sur ce sujet aussi.
Aujourd’hui, je voudrais parler de mon premier contact avec cette passion.
Chaque fois que je parle de ça et de ce que j’ai fait, beaucoup de fois, évidemment, la réaction typique est: “Carrément tu as un talent naturel!”
Mais franchement, si c’était qu’une question de talent naturel, je me serais peut-être attendue à le découvrir un peu plus tôt. Peut-être, au moins j’aurais imaginé une expérience différente avec l’anglais à l’école, juste pour donner un exemple.
Ce présumé talent n’est pas apparu pendant toute mon école primaire. Je me souviens que j’avais beaucoup de confusion dans ma tête au regard de l’anglais.
Je n’en comprenais pas la logique, je détestais comment il sonnait, je trouvais embarrassant de regarder l’enseignante imiter la prononciation en faisant des têtes bizarres pour montrer comment il fallait dire les mots.
Le taf de mes rêves c’était d’écrire: rien lié à l’apprentissage des langues ou à l’enseignement.
Le moment qui m’a fait aimer les langues est arrivé seulement à la fin de l’école primaire.
Today I would like to talk about my first contact with this passion.
Whenever I talk about it and what I’ve done, a lot of times, of course, the typical reaction is: “Clearly, you have a natural talent!”
But, honestly, if it was a matter of natural talent, I would have maybe expected to discover this interest a bit earlier. Maybe, at least I would have imagined a different experience with English at school, to make an example.
This alleged talent did not appear at all during my primary school: I remember I had a lot of confusion in my mind about English.
I didn’t understand the logic, I hated how it sounded, I found cringe looking at the teacher imitating the pronunciation and making weird facial movements to show us how to say the words.
My dream job was writing: nothing related to language learning or teaching.
The moment that made me like languages happened only at the end of primary school.
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Music:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quA5c2oOa_8
SONG Очи черные ARTIST Цыганова Вика
- Intro and end: https://pixabay.com/music/beats-jazzy-abstract-beat-11254/ SONG Jazzy Abstract BeatARTIST Coma-Media
Hello everybody,
my name is Chiara, I come from Italy, but I live in Brussels and I love learning and teaching languages.
Throughout the years, languages have allowed me to live a ton of unforgettable experiences and I decided to share them through this podcast.
Languages have also become my full-time job and I will tell you more about this journey as well.
Most of the episodes will be in English, but I might publish something also in other languages, like French or Persian.
I would love to be in touch with who listens to this podcast, so for whatever questions, reaction or opinion you may have: don’t be a stranger and drop me a
message on Instagram or follow me on Youtube with the same handle: chiara_languagefreak
Talk to you soon!