This one's been a long time coming... I've been raving about this incredible person to friends and family for months, but this week I'm finally letting some of her light shine on my online networks, too. Meet Mina, an Afghan women's rights activist whom I've had the privilege of working with for just over 6 months now. One thing I'm learning about activism is that this stuff takes time and a LOT of patience. Mina continues to show up for her people and for the country she loves, with good and bad days along the way, tackling challenging debates, speeches and articles fighting for the rights and lives of fellow women and girls in Afghanistan. TW: Suicide Want to help? You can... Contribute to Mina's "undercover" teaching network (URL to come) Donate to UN Women in Afghanistan (UK residents / citizens) Write to any member of the House of Lords who focus on International women's issues: e.g. Baroness Hodgson of Abinger Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

How does perfectionism sometimes work against your goals and values, preventing you from making progress? Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

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. For the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/19. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

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. For the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/18. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

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 show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/17 Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

You know what works for me won't always work for you. The reason we need to tailor language learning is because your language learning needs, goals, ambitions, lifestyle and brain are different from anyone else's. But there are a few things I've noticed learners do that really boosts their progress and confidence in a language. In this episode we delve into 3 things that excellent language learners do differently. If you dare to be excellent and want to find a 4th thing that language learners do to excel (no email address or details required), visit abundate.org/xlnt. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

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. For the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/15. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

There are so many transferable skills that you build through language learning. One of them is self-trust. But it's also one of those things you need to build gradually in order to learn, too. In this episode I discuss some of the benefits of language learning, why self-trust is key, and how you might work to build this in your language learning or across other areas of your life, too. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

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. For the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/13. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

Does language influence how you think, what you do, and how you see the world? Hedvig speaks with Panos Athanasopoulos about linguistic relativity. For the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/12. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

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. For the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/11. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

Hedvig speaks with sociolinguistics researcher Dr Vijay Ramjattan about accents, societal biases, and perception. We tend not to recognise that language is not just a skill, but a social tool with a deep history in power dominance, colonialism and discrimination. This episode contains a few stories about racist discrimination. For the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/10. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

In this short bonus episode, Hedvig talks briefly about a topic that everyone should consider from time to time, and shares some news about an upcoming new programme for language learners. Read the show notes on podcast.abundate.org/9 for more details. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

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. For the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/8. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

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. For the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/7. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

Is learning a language more difficult as an adult? Have you missed your window of opportunity? There are many ways to make language stick, and in this solo episode we take a look at one way to do that. For further details on the exercise from this episode, get the full show notes on podcast.abundate.org/6. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

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. For the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/5. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

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. For the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/4. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

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. For the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/3. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc

When she set out to start a podcast, Hedvig knew she wanted to help her listeners to develop new mindsets and break down old myths around language learning, and in this episode she's 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. To read the full show notes including more guest information and links, visit podcast.abundate.org/2. Join the School of Certainty Don’t let your language worries hold you back any longer. Join the School of Certainty and start your journey towards confident and effective communication: abundate.org/soc