Episode 239: EwK239 - Craig Wealand on the Cambridge speaking exam

Episode 244: EwK244 - 5 members of the conversation club share their experiences

I loved recording this episode!

Originally I asked for volunteers from the conversation club for freelancers and business owners to record an episode with me about why they come to the club, how it has helped them, and what advice they would give to anyone who was thinking about coming along. Patricia, Maria, Anja, Lieselotte, and Marta all volunteered and I was so happy to hear what they had to say. I’m proud of what we are creating together and so happy that a recurring theme was the feeling of safety within the club – safety to use the language, talk freely, and even make mistakes!

The club is for people who aren’t looking for a course, but who would like to have an opportunity to speak English in a welcoming and friendly group. We have a topic that is related to freelancing or running your own business and everyone has the opportunity to ask questions, share ideas, and we can all learn from each other.

So, if you’d like to join us at the conversation club, you can sign up or find out more on the club's page:
https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/conversations

or on the show notes page for this episode:
https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode244

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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/

Episode 243: EwK243 - Rita Menezes on subtitling and how subtitles can help us as language learners

My guest today is Rita Menezes, whom I met through the language networking events that I run with Rita Prazeres Gonçalves.

Since 2002, Rita Menezes has been working as translator, subtitler, transcreator and reviser/quality controller in several audiovisual, transcreation and marketing projects; these projects include, for example, films and series now on streaming and marketing campaigns of well-known brands. Since 2014, Rita has also been involved in translator’s training. Rita has a BA in Translation and Interpreting, a MSc in Relationship Marketing and a PhD in Translation Studies, specialised in audiovisual translation. As a researcher, her main research interests are subtitling, subtitling revision/quality control and pivot subtitling. She is the co-author of the educational project ApiVoT and co-editor of a special issue of “Perspectives” about pivot audiovisual translation. Creativity, ethics and technology are areas that awaken her curiosity.

We talked about:

• Rita’s background and how she got into subtitling
• Different types of subtitling projects
• Some of the rules that subtitlers need to follow when creating subtitles
• How subtitles can help you to learn a language or improve your language skills
• Current changes in the subtitling industry.

Find out more on the show notes page:
https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode243

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Send me an email if you have any questions or suggestions about the English with Kirsty podcast:
[email protected]

Episode 242: EwK242 - Olivia Segal on podcasts, language tandems, and authentic conversations

My guest today is Olivia Segal whom I met on LinkedIn last year.

This is how Olivia introduces herself:

Hi! I’m Olivia. I’m an English Language Specialist. I help Spanish- and Catalan-speaking organisations with all their content in English through my reviewing and editing, translation, writing, and language consultation services. I’m based in London, but you can find me in Barcelona a few times a year.
I love talking about languages! I studied them at university, learnt even more by living and working abroad and am still amazed by the people you can meet through speaking another language.

We talked about:

• Olivia’s language story – which languages she is learning and where she has used them so far
• How Olivia worked to overcome her reluctance to speak while living in Spain and Brazil
• The power of learning through asking lots of questions and finding opportunities for authentic conversations
• Olivia’s experiences with language tandems
• The importance of exposure to new languages to build vocabulary and how one-to-one classes can help with that
• How Olivia discovered podcasts during the pandemic and how looking at which podcasts are trending in each country can help you to discover new things to listen to.

Find out more about olivia on the show notes page:
https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode242
and check out the events section on my home page for details of te events that I mentioned at th beginning.


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Send me an email if you have any questions or suggestions about the English with Kirsty podcast:
[email protected]

Episode 241: EwK241 - Diego Perez on using video games to learn English

My guest today is Diego Perez, whom I first heard being interviewed on the Language Worker podcast! Thank you Rita for interesting me to so many cool people!!

I wanted to do this episode because we're talking about something outside of my experience, but it is another way for people to develop their language skills.

Diego Perez is a passionate and optimistic voice in video game localisation. With loc credits for Diablo Immortal, Baldur’s Gate III, and Final Fantasy VII: Remake and nearly 10 years of experience under his belt, he is the Portuguese translator behind the upcoming Kenshi 2, a mentor for beginner translators, a language industry writer, and the lecturer of a game loc course at TranslaStars.

We talked about:

• Diego’s story and how he learned English by playing video games with his brothers
• What is meant by “game localisation” and why it’s important
• Tips for how you can change the game language to see the content in another language
• Where you can find Diego online and information about his course on game localisation

Find out more about Diego on the show notes page:
https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode241

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Send me an email if you have any questions or suggestions about the English with Kirsty podcast:
[email protected]

Episode 240: EwK240 - Megan Miller on routines and habits

My guest today is Megan Miller, whom I met last year on LinkedIn.

Megan Miller is the CEO of Aprovechar Language Solutions, LLC, a company which acts as a bridge between English and Spanish language learners. Her personalized and small group programs take a habit-based approach, and whether it’s in class or a Book Club – you know you’ll have fun! Megan has a Bachelor’s in Spanish Language, Literature, and Culture and is certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language.
We talked about:
•Megan’s podcast for learners of Spanish and how she focuses on one word in each episode.
•How habits and routines can help us to improve our language skills.
•The mountains and valleys of language learning and what you can do when it stops being fun.
•What we want to call ourselves – teacher? Coach? Mentor? Trainer? What do these things mean in different languages?
•And it comes back again … learning a language needs to be fun!!

Find out more about Megan on the show notes page:
https://www.englishwithkirsty.com/podcast/episode240

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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/