Guest Interview Episodes

Hedvig speaks with Ady Namaran Coulibaly about African Languages Week, Language Services Providers like her company Bolingo, and the essential role these play in understanding the cultural and linguistic nuances across the African continent. Learn more about African Languages Week and register for the January 2023 event.

Lindsay Williams from “Lindsay Does Languages” brings her 10+ years of experience helping language learners better understand themselves so they can learn more effectively. We speak about the many different kinds of language learners and learner personality types she’s worked with over the years, where to start when you’re interested in learning a new language, overcoming procrastination, and learning Guarani.

Hedvig speaks with Eman Abdo, an English to Arabic translator and author of Egypt’s Localization Guide, about learning languages through video games, how Arabic is easier to learn than most people think, and how translation is more difficult than we might expect. If you’re one of those people who has been wondering about learning another language, but you’re not sure which language might be right for you, then there’s a little exercise for you at the end of the episode. For the full sho...

What are the perks and drawbacks of being a cultural chameleon? Hedvig spoke with Danai Krokou, serial migrant and multitalented business development consultant, polyglot and polymath, about the positive and negative aspects of moving country. Danai shares an important benefit for your professional horizons.

Why are many language learning methods so clinical when the process of learning languages is such a natural human activity? Tamara Marie, Founder of Spanish Con Salsa, joined Hedvig for a conversation about learning language through music and dance.

Does language influence how you think, what you do, and how you see the world? Hedvig speaks with Panos Athanasopoulos about linguistic relativity.

Hedvig speaks with Rachel Paling, creator of the Neurolanguage Coaching© method, about brain-friendly learning, NeuroHeart education, and finding our own paths to joy and autonomy by embracing the coach mindset.

Hedvig speaks with sociolinguistics researcher Dr Vijay Ramjattan about accents, societal biases, and perception.

Hedvig speaks with Nikki Wood, a civil servant, about her journey with hearing loss, British Sign Language (BSL), dabbling in Polish and Spanish, and also some of the challenges and excuses that she’s battling in trying to learn languages. Mentioned in this episode: Remark!, the charity where both Nikki and Hedvig took their Level 1 qualification in British Sign Language (BSL) Hearing loss: According to the WHO, 5% of the world’s population require support due to hearing loss. If Nikki de...

Do you want your family to be bilingual? Hedvig speaks with Flo Rozensztajn about why it was important to her that her children could communicate in multiple languages, how she turned a home project into a business to help other French-English bilingual families, whether it is actually more difficult to raise children bilingually, and we also touch upon some of the complexities of multilingual and multicultural identities.

Hedvig speaks with Friederike Sell about “International English”, a.k.a. English as a lingua Franca, how to include people with different levels of fluency, and how this can inform our own language learning.

How do you connect with another language and actually feel like yourself when you speak it? This week's guest is María Ortega García, and her answer to this is what she calls language embodiment. We discuss a few of the unhelpful learning techniques we experienced in our school days and find a few alternative solutions.

Hedvig speaks with Chesline Pierre-Paul, Queer-E-O of a global digital transformation, coaching and social impact consulting company, about learning languages without travelling, language deconstruction, decolonialisation and how this can help develop an empowering, mindful and purposeful language learning practice. Resources mentioned in this episode: Living Proof: Celebrating the Gifts That Came Wrapped in Sandpaper, by Liza Nichols Lina Vasquez on “Do you know how you learn” Ches' "Italia...

When I set out to start a podcast, I knew I wanted to help my listeners to develop new mindsets and break down old myths around language learning, and in this episode I’m speaking with someone who has really worked on her mindsets and beliefs around language learning - and even more importantly, she has found ways of learning that work for her. Listen to this interview with Elise Cutts.