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In This Episode

In this episode, Rebecca and Lisa share practical tips for building clear, confident speech in your second language - even when the idea of “fluent” feels overwhelming - and run through what you can expect from the episode's supporting freebie materials.

Key insights in this episode

• The difference between receptive skills and productive skills
• Why it’s okay (and even normal) to start with more listening than speaking
• How to improve your speaking clarity, rhythm, and flow
• What "Lexical Chunks" are and why they matter
• Why you don’t need to sound exactly like a native speaker to be understood
• How to use self-assessment questions to tailor your next study steps (If you've already signed up for the free resources and materials that support the podcast content, you have access to these; the skills we outlined and the definitions provided in the episode are listed inside. If you haven't signed up yet, see the link in the Links list below.)

Your Joy Builder: the takeaway

This should serve as the focal point of what you take away from this episode in order to continue to build resourcefulness and adaptability: We can’t let that feeling of wanting to be perfectly understood stop us from speaking our second or additional languages. To get yourself out of flight or freeze mode, work on speaking for increasing amounts of time even if it’s on kind of a silly topic, use word association games to get faster and more fluent, or plan ahead for low-stakes scenarios you can prep for to get yourself to a place of speaking more fluidly and feeling more fluentish.

Links

• Episode 6 is brought to you by Flodesk
• Episode 6 is brought to you by Shopify
• Theme music is provided by Milk Fangs
• In this episode we used the games Pickles to Penguins and Whoonu as examples of fluency-building tools
• Our Bu Bu Bu mentioned Duolingo
• We did a mini bonus Oh La La about @abraham.piper
• Share your thoughts and language-learning journey with us on social media: continue the conversation by connecting on LinkedIn, BlueSky, Instagram, or Pinterest
• Watch the vlog on YouTube
• Sign up for materials and resources we've created just for you!

Reminders and acknowledgements

If you're found value in this episode and you haven't already subscribed make sure you tap that button to keep on breaking new ground in your language learning. Please take a moment to review the show on your podcast app, or to send this episode to someone you think could use it: It all helps us continue to build a safe-space for the fluent and Fluent•ish that is free of snobbery and filled with joy!

Fluent•ish the Podcast is brought to you by Little Crab Educational Press. Thank you to the language learning communities on BlueSky, Reddit, and Instagram for sharing openly about the struggles that people have to overcome to persevere in the pursuit of becoming fluent (or fluentish) in an additional language. Remember to Subscribe, Rate, Review, and Share from wherever you get this podcast.

Fluent•ish the Podcast is recorded remotely (most of the time) between Victoria and Vancouver which sit in the unceded traditional territories of several Coast Salish nations, across which we are grateful to live and work.