The Level Up English Podcast
The Level Up English Podcast
#56 Teaching English to Children - With Shannon Kennedy
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Hello and welcome to the English with M ichael podcast, the best place to come to study English as a second language as well as to practice the British accent with me. Michael Lavers as your teacher. Hello English learners. Welcome to the English with Michael podcast. Today is a special episode and you know I say that every week because every week is a special episode. I hope you think so anyway, but today is particularly special because I have a guest on the podcast. Before I get to that, I want to remind you or that if you want to read the transcript for today's episode, you can do so just by clicking the link in the show notes for the podcast. If you're listening on an app on your phone, you can probably scroll across, look at the description, and there'll be a link to open the transcript. And this will be especially useful today because my guest is American, so there'll be a British accent from me, American accent, and it might be quite hard to hear both of us talking together. So that might be useful for you to see what we're talking about in text as well. And if you do find it useful, let me know because it does take some time and money to prepare that. So let me know if the transcript is helpful for you. So today's guest is a very, very fascinating person because she is a polyglot, meaning she can speak many languages, she is a musician so I believe you can check out some of her music on YouTube and other places like that. She has an online library and language blog where you can find lots of good resources on learning a language and things such as travel and language learning tips. And my guest today is Shannon Kennedy, Shannon Kennedy from Eurolinguiste.com and one final thing to mention before we jump into our talk today is that Shannon also works for drops, which is a language learning app and it's a really fantastic app because it's visually very beautiful. It looks amazing and it's a really good way to learn vocabulary through games and through images. It looks so stylish and it's really fun to use. You can learn English, British, English, American English and many, many other languages too. So if you're interested in signing up to this app, then you can again click on the link which will be in the for this podcast. So if you click that you go through my link, you'll be supporting my podcast and finding a fantastic language learning app as well. So Shannon and I talk about a few things in the episode today, but the main focus is on teaching language to children. So I of course do not have any children, but Shannon does. So I think she's a really good person to ask on how to teach a second language to your children. So whether you have children and you want to introduce language or English to them or you just want to learn a little bit about learning a language, maybe what we can learn from children. This will be a great podcast to listen to. So I'm really excited to bring you Shannon Kennedy. So I am very pleased to be joined today by Shannon Kennedy. So thank you very much for joining me today.
Shannon:Thank you so much for having me.
Michael:Of course. Of course. So could you give us a little bit of an introduction first, like where you're from, uh, what you do, all that kind of good stuff.
Shannon:Of course. So I am American as you can probably hear from my accent. I live in California. I am the resident polyglot and language expert at drops, which is a vocabulary learning app. I'm also the head coach and a language encourager over at fluent in three months. I am also one of the co-hosts and founders of the woman in language conference and I run a little blog called Euro linguist where I write about language learning, raising multi-lingual kids, um, and then just culture and different things that are related to language in some way. And finally I'm a professional musician. I'm a saxophone player.
Michael:Wow. What a, what a resume. That's amazing. So many things. And in addition to that, I think you also speak quite a few languages. Is that right?
Shannon:Yeah. So, um, I, I'm actually currently in the process of learning my 13th language.
Michael:Wow. Well, what, what would you say is your, I don't think you can pick a favorite. Can you, I don't know, do you have a favorite or one that you focus on most or is it impossible to say?
Shannon:It's impossible to say and it depends on the day really. You know, you have those moments where you're working with a particular language and you're frustrated. So it's no longer your favorite. But I kind of do have a favorite, I try not to play favorites, but I would have to say it's Croatian.
Michael:Oh, interesting. I went there last year and I tried to pick up a few words, but I didn't get very far. Also, what are motivated you to learn Croatian specifically?
Shannon:My grandfather was Croatian and I just constantly heard my dad talking about how he wished his dad had taught him the language growing up. And when I started learning languages on my own, I kind of decided, you know, I don't need to wait for someone to teach me in this language. I can, I can do it. So it was my first independent study language.
Michael:Oh, fantastic. So maybe because it's the first one, maybe it has a special place as well.
Shannon:I think so. And then also because it's a heritage language.
Michael:Yeah, definitely. Wow. And have you been there and had a chance to practice in the country?
Shannon:I have not ever been to Croatia. I actually had plans to go, um, a year and a half ago and I ended up having to not go on the trip despite having booked my flight and accommodations and everything. Yeah.
Michael:Oh, I recommend it one day. I've never, I've only spent a short time there, but it is an amazing, amazing place. So hopefully you can, yeah, I definitely want to in the future. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So could you tell us a little bit about, I don't know if it's even possible to say, but what got you interested in language learning in the first place? Do you know where that interest came from?
Shannon:I do. So I studied music all through university up to my master's degree. Um, and so when I was doing my masters, I was studying at Queens university in Belfast, Ireland. And one of the program requirements was to have a fluent reading ability in Spanish, French, Italian, and German. And uh, it was because you do a lot of primary source research and you do field work and different things like that, and people who are involved in music, at least classical music will know that a lot of the like great composers and a lot of the music came out of these countries. So these are languages that you constantly come across in your research. And so I took that requirement very seriously, found out later it wasn't actually required and that, um, I was the only one who really pursued that. But I enrolled in courses at the university to get my CFR, certifications for those languages while I was there. And I realized during that time that I really enjoyed languages. It was also where I stumbled across my first Croatian coursebook. I'd never seen anything for the language before anywhere. And it was just really exciting. So I checked it out, I kept it as long as they let me and I dove into the language. And when I finished university I realized that, um, being involved in language is something that I really wanted to do.
Michael:Oh, so you came about, or you found about your kind of passion for languages through music initially. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. And I would say maybe there's some kind of connection between learning an instrument and a language, which would you say there's something similar there?
Shannon:Absolutely. I mean, music is often said to be a language and it is something that you learn to read. It's something that you learn to speak when you play and perform. It's something that you learn to use to express yourself. And then a lot of the things that you do to learn music, those skills are directly applicable to learning language. All of the discipline, all of the different ways that you break things down and improve on music are all things that you can do and kind of a modified way, but that you can do to learn language.
Michael:Oh, that's interesting. So if there is anyone out there who is learning an instrument and English as well, because as you know, this is an English learning podcast. Maybe that can kind of come in, come in handy in some way, but that's not something I can really relate to because whenever I think about learning a new instrument or something like that, I always think, well, I could learn the guitar. But on the other hand I could spend that time learning a language as well. So I can never kind of find the time to do it. But I don't know. I've, maybe I should sit down and do it one day.
Shannon:It's definitely good for, you know, learning discipline and then you'll find the reverse since you'll be doing music later, that a lot of the things that you do for language you can do with music. And then once you get to the point where you're comfortable, you can actually do both at the same time. Like, if you're wanting to learn to play guitar, you could, you know, learn some basic core structures for different songs and then sing them in whatever language it is that you're learning and learn the lyrics that way so you can combine them.
Michael:Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah, a combination of both. Yeah. Um, the one thing I have found is whenever I incorporate music into my language study, it really does help me a lot in terms of to know my motivation, flat language and maybe a connection to the culture as well. Just hearing music from that country is always really exciting and I think that that can make a big difference even if you're not learning for capillary from it.
Shannon:Absolutely. It's, it's definitely a great cultural insight. The style of music that are popular are the types of lyrics that, you know, resonate with people there. So it's learning with music is a great way to really dive into the language and the culture.
Michael:Yeah, no, really, it's really interesting how you've managed to kind of, you've got your, like your music work and also your language work and kind of they go so well together, they go hand in hand. That's really interesting.
Shannon:Yes. I'm very lucky.
Michael:Yeah, definitely. So with the music or in any other aspect of your life, have you found that language has had a big impact on your life and kind of given you any exciting opportunities that you wouldn't have otherwise had?
Shannon:Absolutely. So with both, I can think of several examples. So I am a musician and I attend a lot of events and conferences and go and speak quite a bit. And uh, there is this really big music conference here in orange County, California every single year. And each year I go, I'm able to kind of reconnect with people from all over the world because this is a conference that people come to from Europe, from Asia, from basically everywhere. And so it's this place where I get to go and practice all the languages. I actually, I did a conference last year in Las Vegas and I decided to, you know, kind of to fight the board and because I am there demonstrating some standing at the booth all day and I decided to play language bingo with myself and try to use every single language that I knew at the event. And at that point I think I was at 12 languages and I had used every language but Russian at the events. So even like obscure languages, like I met some Croatians, I met some Hungarians, um, which are not languages you hear very often here. So I was able to do that and it was a lot of fun. Um, I got to go to China to work at a music conference as well because I speak Chinese. So, um, there's, I've had lots of opportunities in combining the two and there's not a lot of people who do both or at least not, they don't do both with as many languages. So it's kind of put me in a unique position to be able to do a lot of different interesting things.
Michael:Yeah, absolutely. I love the idea of language bingo. I wish, I wish I knew enough languages to do that. That's really, that sounds really exciting. I'm surprised you didn't find any Russian speakers, you know, it's such a big country.
Shannon:I was a little bit surprised too. I think there might've been Russians at the booth, but they didn't come over to where I was in particular, so I heard them, but I didn't get to speak with them. So yeah.
Michael:Yeah, I guess you can't always expect like force your way into a conversation sometimes it might not come up, but yeah. Yeah. No, I think that's something, you know, I've never been to the U S I really want to, but I think it's something that many people in Europe take for granted is there's so many languages this close together and of course in Asia as well, I imagine it's not so easy to find any people to practice with in certain areas of the States. I'm only guessing, but
Shannon:for sure, I mean there's areas that are a little bit more metropolitan and have people coming from all over the world for job opportunities, for education opportunities and things like that. But if you live somewhere where that's not necessarily a place that immigrants would be attracted to, you would have a little bit more trouble finding partners to practice with. But I mean that's one of the great things about all of the, you know, tools and resources we have online now. You can connect with people from anywhere and anywhere in the world at almost any time. And so a lot of that's become a lot more accessible. You don't need to rely on finding people in person.
Michael:Yeah, absolutely. I do think that in person meetups can be so valuable. But yeah, you're right. It's kind of becoming very hard to make an excuse for not to learn a language these days because it's so easy and convenient for most people. Um, so they are, that's a really great, great change that's happening. Um, okay, well fantastic. So I want to get to the main topic of today cause I've had a lot of questions from people asking about how to teach languages to children. And I don't have any children and I teach some children, but I don't know so much about, you know, the best way to encourage them to learn. So as I understand, I think you have some children, yes. One. Um, and are you helping them encouraging them or anything to learn a language? What, what's your thoughts on that?
Shannon:Yeah, so before my son was born, I was actually preparing for my HSK exam for Chinese, which is the equivalent of the CFR framework exam for European languages. And the night before my exam was actually when I found out I was pregnant. And so I had this year of Chinese under my belt and I had always kind of joked around that I wanted to teach Chinese to my kids. So I took that as an opportunity to kind of set deadline. It's like, okay, I've got nine months that I can really dig into Chinese and start figuring out how to parent in this language. And so I started to do that. And then when my son was born, um, I spoke to him exclusively in Chinese as an infant. Um, when he got a little bit older, I think around six months I enrolled him in like a mommy and me Chinese class. And so we started going to class and doing things together. But I mean really, especially with young children, play is super important and they want your time and attention. And so, you know, just doing those things with my kids in Chinese as opposed to English, it, it gives them exposure to that language. Um, and it does it in a way that they're more open to working on it. Um, now I speak a lot more English with my kids because, um, you know what? I want other people to understand what's being settled, switched to English so that it's not just something between him and I, but I'll still use Chinese with him and we'll play and we'll do things. Like yesterday I posted a video on Instagram where we were playing with his cars and we put them in rainbow order and we were kind of going over the colors and we were counting and I was asking him where certain ones were and things like that. And so there's just a lot that you can do. And when children are playing, they are learning. So it's just a really great way to combine things. What we'll play board games in Chinese, we'll play other games like ice buy and things like that. Just things that kind of engage them and they don't realize that they're learning. They're just having fun.
Michael:Yeah. Okay. That's really interesting. And I, that's something... That's kind of a intuition that I had as well as the, you know, you can't really treat children like you would a traditional student. You can't sit them down and teach them. It has to be incorporated with their play. And maybe the best kind of learning for them is when they don't realize they're learning perhaps.
Shannon:Yeah. Uh, it's definitely, you know, it's just, you're almost distracting them from the fact. It's like if you, if I were to take my three and six year old and sit them down, it's like, okay, we're going to do Chinese homework now. Uh, they would kind of go, yeah, no thanks. They'd rather do a million other things. But if I go, Oh, like, um,[ speaking chinese], where's your toy? And they'll be like, what? I don't know which toy. And then like I can kind of like just involve and they're much more willing to do that and then they kind of learn a language. They respond, they, you know, they start to understand and you know, even when I just talked to them, sometimes I'll say things to them in Chinese over English if it's just us and doing things like that. It's just, it's how we communicate and then it becomes kind of the norm for them as opposed to being like, okay, now it's time for your Chinese lesson. And then after that we're going to do your French lesson. Um, they just, you know, they're not going to pay as much attention. They're going to be bored. They're going to be thinking about other things, they're going to be more distracted. Whereas if I'm doing something where they're really involved, like we go out into the garden, we pick fruit and we talk about, Oh, what kind of fruit is this? Just things that you know, have them, like, they're not thinking about doing something else. Like they're not wondering like what they could be doing that's more fun or different things like that. Um, another thing that I do is when we watch movies, uh, I have the Chinese or French version of almost every single movie that we own. So like when it's movie time, it's like, okay, you watched the movie in Chinese and that's just what it is. So you know, they get language exposure that way too. So that I'm not their only source for this language. Um, they're both at the age now where I can start to, um, have them do online lessons as well. So that's something that I'm going to start looking into the next little bit. So they have someone more formally teaching them.
Michael:Hmm. Yeah, that sounds like a really good idea. Oh, I've got so many things going in my mind at the moment. One, one question I wanted to ask was my, my girlfriend is Chinese actually, and I refuse to believe that a child is a better learner than me because sometimes we have an opportunity to speak in Chinese, but then because I'm lazy, I will kind of default back to English because it's the easiest one. It's one where we can communicate the most easily of course. So I wanted to ask about that. Like presumably of course they speak English better than Chinese, so is it hard to kind of stay in that other language without them kind of defaulting to their native language or maybe I fought, I don't know if you can dedicate a specific activity to one language to help with that. I'm not sure if you have any methods there.
Shannon:Well, the benefit with my son is that Chinese is a native language for him because I literally started speaking to him in it from birth, so I don't like to think of it as a native language. For me, it's definitely more taxing and exhausting because it's not my native language. So I'm actually the one that has to work a little bit harder to keep it in Chinese. Um, and so I probably don't do as much as I would like to for that reason. Um, especially like right now, given everything going on, like, and trying to work from home and all of these different things. So, um, I don't, I don't like to think of it as not his native language, um, but at the same time, things that I do with them if like with toys and a lot of the activities that I do, there's some sort of visual representation. So if he doesn't necessarily know that the word for, I don't know, um, superhero is a tolerant, um, you know, I can pull the superhero action figure and be like, who is this? Oh, it's a superhero. And, um, they start to learn that way through context. When I they get a little bit older, I think things will get a little bit more advanced because there'll be things that they're learning or that we're discussing that there's not immediately a visual representation for. But you know, just a lot of the things like when we're cooking and I'm talking about the ingredients or when we're playing and we have the toys, or when we're in the garden, we're doing things or we're out on a walk and I'm pointing things out to them, it's, um, you know, there's something there that they can be like, Oh, that's a go in, you know, and so like they see, okay, there's a dog dog 狗, it's a 狗. So like they, they start to make those connections because they see what's in front of them.
Michael:Yeah. And I think that probably goes for any age learner really is probably a lot better to make that kind of visual connection or concrete connection with a new concept or word rather than just translating it into your language. And I guess for kids that's even even more true. That's a very useful thing to do.
Shannon:Absolutely. Um, I, you know, I mentioned earlier that I work for drops and that's actually exactly the principle that we teach new vocabulary through. We don't teach with translations. There is just an image. So you associate the word in the new language with the image and that's how you learn. So you learn through that context. And um, it's just been really great. I mean, I use it for almost every language that I've started learning since I've discovered the app, which was long before I worked for the company. And even to, uh, we just released a new version called droplets and that's the kid's version of the app. And for my kids, I found it's really great. They love to like sit down with me and help and play the game as well. And because like, you know, they're not necessarily strong readers or writers yet, but because there's that visual element and they hear the audio and then they just like, you know, they have the visual representation, they're able to do it and like learn words that way as well. So again, just making that visual connection, you know, to the word that you're learning it, it's very, very useful for them or for us as older learners.
Michael:Yeah. Well absolutely. Yeah. No, I'll definitely make sure to put a link to that, to the app in the show notes for this episode. So how do you spell it? Sorry.
Shannon:Drops. D. R O P. S and the kid's app is droplets. D. R. O. P. L. E. T. S.
Michael:Oh, what great name. Do you ever have any issues with like crossover because I have no experience with this. So do they ever get confused between English and Chinese or another language? Like maybe speaking half a sentence in one language, half in another or are they able to keep them quite separate?
Shannon:Uh, it depends. Like sometimes they will use one word in another language. Like for example, um, they may say like, 我要candy, like I want candy or things like that. But they do make that distinction I found for a long time. One of the things that was really funny was when my son would be misbehaving, I tell him to stop an English and he totally ignore me. I'd be like, sit down, sit down. And he wouldn't respond at all. But if I went so he would sit down immediately. So, um, there's just like little things like that that happened, but I, I'm not really worried about it because they do the same things. Like when I hear them speak just English, you know, they use incorrect grammar, they use the wrong word, they completely mispronounce things. Um, and you know, they just, they sort that out through progress and I just model the languages for them and I know that in hearing it the right way, they'll adapt their speaking to be more like that later on.
Michael:Mm. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, yeah, it's, I think it's a really interesting point that you started teaching from buff, you know, from day one, right? Yeah. Um, cause I think many, I've heard many parents say that, yeah, it's still a baby. Let me wait a few years and then we'll introduce English or a second language. So that's a really interesting way of doing it and I think that's something I would like to try as well maybe in the future. I'm sure there are many people listening now where they've got, I don't know, toddlers or young children or, and they haven't really started learning yet. I may be, I don't have much interest in learning English or another language. So what would you say to those parents? I don't know if you have any ideas, like should the children be encouraged to learn gently pushed maybe or do you think it should kind of be letting the children lead the way in light, see what they want to do? I mean, what's your take on that?
Shannon:I think that it's probably a good idea to gently push your children, um, if they're not necessarily taking initiative to do something on their own. Uh, it's like the same thing. Like any extracurricular activity, like sports or things like that. For example, my son does martial arts and before class, when I say, okay, it's time to get ready and go. He doesn't want to put his uniform on. He doesn't want to leave. But the minute we get to class, he absolutely loves it. And then I can't get him to leave the school. So, um, if I don't gently push him to go and like actually get to the class, he wouldn't go. And, but I know he like absolutely loves going. He absolutely loves learning. He loves doing the tests and getting the new belts and that sense of accomplishment. So I've like, I as parents, you know what's best for your kids. Um, you know them, you know what their are, you know, you know their little personality quirks that if I could just get him out the door, I know everything's going to be great. Um, so, and, and you also know like what sorts of opportunities you're setting them up for. I mean, my kids may one day choose not to continue speaking Chinese or French, but at least I did my part to equip them with it. And then when they get older, that becomes their choice. I'm, you know, sometimes it's a little bit of a battle, but it, it, it's worth it because, you know, they do, they, they end up learning and they end up having that advantage later on. Um, and then like I said, there's just a lot of things that you can do to make it fun so it doesn't feel like this thing that they have to do. Even as far as, you know, if they're like, Oh, I want to play my video games, I don't want to study Spanish. It's like, okay, well you can play your video game if you play it in Spanish or if you want to watch TV. Okay, you can watch TV as long as you watch it in Spanish. And kids are actually really great. They're like little sponges. So doing things like that, you know, as you're playing a game or as you're watching a movie or trying to figure out what's going on and they'll start to pick up things from context and it's kind of a gateway for them and you can use that to do other things. So then like later after they finished playing their game or after they watched the movie, you can like in Spanish be like, so how was the game like did you beat that boss? Or like how was the movie? Like what happened in the movie? Tell me about it. And you can kind of keep them in that mode and there's just like a bunch of little tricks that you can use like that to encourage them to enjoy and use the language more.
Michael:Mm. I see. I see. Okay. Yeah, that's sounds like really good advice. Yeah. You mentioned that kids being like sponges as well, which is something I always hear and I was wondering, do you think there's any way in which we can learn from children, like the way they learn a language? Do you think we can learn from them, um, in our own adult learning or do you think it's completely different and it's kind of not connected in that way?
Shannon:I think that we can learn from them and there's a lot of things that we can be aware of and the way that they learn as adults. Um, I think that we're actually better learners as adults. My son could not have learned Chinese to the level that I learned it in the year and nine months that I studied it prior to him being born for sure. I mean at a year and nine months he was barely speaking, let alone speaking a language fluently enough to teach it to someone else. So we are for sure better learners than kids. The advantages that kids have over us are, um, I don't know if you spent much time around kids but they, and tell a certain age, they don't care about making mistakes. They don't care about being wrong. They don't, you know, care about how many times I need to try something to figure it out. They will keep doing it. They don't have, um, other responsibilities and time commitments, like raising a family, like having a job, like keeping the house clean, like making sure all the bills are paid. So there's all of these different things that vie for our attention as adults that kids don't have to worry about. So they're able more fully put themselves into trying things, exploring things, learning things without having to worry about did I pay the electricity bill? Um, Oh my gosh, I have this project due at work and I need to get it done. I can't spend time on anything else for kids. All they have to do is play and absorb what's around them. And then when they get a little bit older, go to school. But you know, my six year old is school age and you know, mistakes still happen and it's not a thing that's thought about. It's just kind of like you correct them and they move on. You know, they may not necessarily absorb the correction immediately, but after a few times of doing this, they will. So, um, it's, I, I think that that's really what it is. So as an adult, if you wanted to kind of steal what a child is doing to learn more effectively, one of the most important things is to not be afraid of making mistakes. And I think that as adult learners, that's one of the biggest things for us is we're afraid to go and speak. We're afraid to use the language. We're afraid to kind of put ourselves out there and in situations that are a little bit more challenging because you know, the challenge is stressful or making mistakes in front of someone seems embarrassing. We're a little bit more self critical. Um, so letting some of that go like as a child would. Um, and then the other thing too is, you know, just to take into consideration like, you know, kids don't have other things that take up their time. Uh, we do. So just like accepting that you are not going to have the same time as a child. Like when a child is learning their first language or second language, it's something that they're hearing every single day. It's something that they're constantly getting exposure to. They're getting lots of input, they're getting lots of corrections, you know, they're trying to say things, they're getting feedback based on it. Like depending on how people react to what they say. So they're having all of this time to sort that information out. Whereas an adult you don't have all day to sit and try and express yourself in a new language, you know, you have an hour, maybe half an hour, 15 minutes. So, um, you know, just knowing that your time to do this is a little bit more limited. And so doing what you can to make the most of it, like spending time with resources and tools that actually give you the results that you want and not just spin your wheels, kind of doing the same things over and over by working with different course books and doing the same three chapters in 10 different books.
Michael:Mm. Yeah, I do completely agree with you. I think many people tend to over-exaggerate like how good kids are at learning languages because they are very good and it does come naturally. But I do think that adults are kind of better equipped to do that. And we do have the capabilities to learn in a faster timeframe because I, yeah, as you said, people don't realize that children basically they've got like a 24 seven language teacher, don't they? They're learning all the time and it still takes quite a long time for them. It still takes many years for them to get to kind of a good conversational level. So now I feel much, I can compare myself with kids and I feel better about my own ability. But yeah, I do think the number one thing we can probably learn is that they don't care about their mistakes. And I think that's something that, you know, we should all encourage each other to do is not be worried about making a mistake. Just kind of see it as a good thing. Yeah. One more question I wanted to ask if you had any, Oh, so you mentioned movies, maybe video games for children. Do you have any more practical tips for people who are thinking of new ways they can encourage their children to learn? Now? One idea I had was maybe getting a, uh, I don't know if you call it like a nanny, do you call it a nanny in America? Yeah, yeah. Like a nanny from that, you know, culture that speaks a different language. But do you have any other ideas that could help in that way?
Shannon:Um, sure. So, uh, nanny is a great idea. If you can afford it, I think it might be cost prohibitive for some people. Um, like I, I know that, um, it might not be, so it's definitely a great option if it's available to you and then just establishing what that person that you want them to talk to the kids in that language. So getting that extra input source. But, um, some of the things that I've done are, you know, every time I go to Asia, like Singapore, China, Taiwan, places like that, I make sure to buy up every single book I can get my hands on that's aligned with my kids' interests. And I think that that's the most important thing. Again, you know, it's all about making them, creating and setting it up in a way that they are interested in doing it. So, you know, my, with my kids, like their interests were like finding Dory and then it was cars and then it was, you know, um, Disney princesses, then it was, um, superheroes, you know, it's like all of these different things. So like as they get these different interests going and finding those things in Chinese or in French so that I can, I have things that are related to what they want to do in the language. Getting those movies like, um, Kung Fu Panda, you know, because they're both into martial arts and things like that. So having that available to them in the language. Um, so lots of books, lots of movies, um, lots of music. You know, singing in the car is a fun thing. When I sang lullabies to them, I sang them in Chinese. Um, different things like that. Just doing things with them so that they kind of know that that's your language and then they're more motivated to use it with them. Uh, finding classes in your area, they're available. Like I said, I found a mommy and me class when the kids were younger. And so like I would take them to that and together we would do things with the teacher in Chinese. Um, if you can find immersion schools, that's always a good option too. I know that a lot of more metropolitan areas have immersion schools for a lot of the bigger languages. Um, and you can even find immersion schools or at least a Saturday school for smaller languages. Um, so that's another thing that you can do, uh, finding groups. So if you can find other parents who speak the language, you know, arranging play dates for the kids, um, and then using the language with that and other parents as well. That's another thing that you can do. Um, and so I think those are some of the tactics that I use to help, you know, make the language constantly present and, um, none of them necessarily need to be expensive.
Michael:Yeah, definitely. I like the same case of any, anything in terms of language learning. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's a lot of good stuff that I'm sure someone will find some useful stuff there as well. Um, yeah. While you were talking, I also fought again a video games cause when I think of some of my students, my young students that I teach, the ones that have like the really good English are often the ones that play the most video games because I think they realize that in order to play online and kind of understand how the game works, they have to learn English to do that. So I think yeah, just like you said, if you match it to the interest, that was probably the best thing that you can do.
Shannon:yeah. Um, I also have it so that, you know, the, every single video game system that we have in the house is set to a different language. Like they're not set to English at all. So, um, and then sometimes too, when I find a lot of the games to start off with, they're available in a bunch of different languages. You just need to go into the settings to change them. Um, but when it's not available in a particular language, you can often download the audio and subtitles and other languages and like add them, integrate them into the game. Uh, I've gone as far as, um, I'm kind of a Nintendo nerd, so I love the Nintendo 64 system. It was like kind of what I grew up with. And so I feel quite sentimental about it, but I've actually gone out and I've bought the Japanese version of the N64 as well as the Chinese version of the N64 so that I have, I can have all the games in those languages and have them available. Um, neither of my kids really play video games yet and like I, that's not something that I want to start them on yet. Um, but I do have educational apps on my phone that I do let them spend a little bit of time with. Um, so again, droplets is one of them. There's Gus on the go, which is another great app for kids, um, and available in a ton of different languages. And, um, then like if I think I have one game on my phone, it's Mario cart and I've just changed the language. So they want to play the game, they have to in a different language. But um, you know, even that just like I let them do it for five minutes maybe. But um, you know, just having it so that it's available to them is useful.
Michael:Okay. Good to know. Good to know. It sounds like we have a lot of emergence of that past really good. Um, I think that's mostly what I wanted to ask regarding children, but before we move on, is there anything else that I didn't ask you but maybe should have? I don't think so. I think we've covered quite a bit. Yeah. Okay. Fantastic. Well, yeah, I'm sure there's a lot there that people can pick and choose a little methods that might apply to their life. So, yeah. That's great. Thank you for sharing that. Um, one question, it seems like a bit of a topic jump now, but this is a question I include in every podcast talk I do. And this is in your own experience, you know, learning languages and speaking foreign languages. Have you ever had any embarrassing language moments or mistakes?
Shannon:Uh, yes. Yeah. Um, one of my favorites was in front of kids. Uh, my, I accidentally called the cap on a water bottle, a condom in French because I said[ French] instead of[ French] or it was one of the others. I can't remember anymore exactly what words I use, but it was in front of French family. Um, and like no one corrected me and it was later, like I kind of realized it on my own that I had done this and I was like, Oh my gosh, they just left me hanging with that. That was terrible!
Michael:Aw that's almost worse, yeah.
Shannon:I know. So that was, that was pretty embarrassing. And that one kinda stuck with me. I know I've had others, but that was definitely the big one.
Michael:Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's really good. I try to avoid learning the bad words in other languages because I know I'm going to confuse them.
Shannon:Yeah. I do the same. I don't want, I know everyone's like, Oh, what are all teach me bad words in the language. And I'm like, I don't even want to learn them because I don't want to accidentally say them.
Michael:Yeah. Oh, that's a good one. I like that. Thanks for sharing. Um, and let me ask, did you ever make that mistake again or was that
Shannon:absolutely not. That was the only time. Yeah.
Michael:Yeah. I think that that's one thing that I've noticed a pattern in is once someone does have a funny story like that, there's only one with that particular word. It doesn't happen twice. Yeah. Wow. Brilliant. Brilliant. Again, I think it does reinforce the idea that a mistake is not something to feel bad about. It's something to laugh about and learn from, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, it is. Well, we're coming up to the end of our time now. I know you have to go soon as well, but before we do go, would you like to share where people can find out more about you? Like where, where would you like to send people to go?
Shannon:Of course. Thank you. Um, so as I said, the blog that I run is Euro linguiste. I spell it the French way. So it's E U R O linguist, L, I N G U, I S T E.com. I'm Euro linguist on almost all social media except for Twitter where I'm Euro linguist S K. um, so you can
Michael:find me on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, everything. But that's my main site. And if you're interested in learning more about my music at shannon-kennedy.com. Fantastic. Thank you. And yeah, I had to look at your website. I know you've got a lot of like free resources and information about different languages, don't you? So it might be a good place for people to go if they want to learn, if they're interested in is in these languages too, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it looks very good. Well thank you very, very much for joining me. It's been really fun to chat with you and learn about something that I don't know much about, so I really appreciate you taking the time. Thank you so much for having me again. So I just want to say one last thank you to Shannon Kennedy for joining me today and of course thank you to all you guys, so thank you for listening into our conversation. I really hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to let me know what you think. You can send me an email head over to my podcast page at ewmichael. com/shannon S. H A N N. O. N. leave a comment there or even get in touch with Shannon. I'm sure she wouldn't mind. Let her know if you have any questions for her, so one last time you can find her@eurolinguist.com definitely check her out and don't forget to check out the language app drops, D R O. P S drops. It's a fantastic way to memorize vocabulary, improve your English or any other language and you can find more in the description of this podcast episode. Thank you very much and I'll see you next week. You have been listening to the English with Michael podcast to view the podcast notes for this episode and to listen to previous episodes. Head over to ewmichael.com/podcast
