Language Chats

Moving to a new country is never easy (did someone say culture shock?), but it can be especially challenging if you need to learn how to live your life in a different language when you get there. How will you buy groceries or make a doctor’s appointment? How do you get a job and then, once you have one, navigate the workplace? Our guest for this episode of Language Chats, Dory Wa

In this episode, we’re chatting with Dr Howard (Howie) Manns, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at Monash University. We were so excited to have the chance to speak with Howie, because we are fascinated by his language story and his academic work - from growing up in a monolingual environment and then (unexpectedly) becoming a linguist through joining the US

About this Language Chat In this episode, we’re chatting with Canadian-Australian Andrea Plawutsky - currently based in NSW - who has brought her interest in tourism, China and Asia together across her career. From teaching English in north-eastern China, living and working in Thailand and then working in the travel & tourism industry in Australia, we loved hearing about Andr

Penny is a long-time travel lover and in this episode, she tells us about her most recent international trip which was actually a bit of a reconnaissance mission… As she will soon be helping others to discover new cultures, languages and adventures through her new venture, Pip & Co Travel. We chat about Penny’s history of embracing language and culture through travel, how w

100 EPISODES of Language Chats have now made it out into the world! To celebrate this exciting occasion (and the start of a new year, hello 2024), we’re going back through our archive to reminisce about some of our favourite episodes. We’ve had so many great chats over the last five years, it wasn’t easy narrowing down our top eps! But it has given us an opportunity to think

In this episode, we're welcoming linguist Karla Zuluaga back to Language Chats to hear more about the interesting work she is involved in as a Community Linguist on Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory. Born in the Philippines and having grown up in NSW, a couple of years ago Karla made the big move to the Northern Territory to work with the Groote Eylandt Language Centre. She tells

Feeling a bit ‘under the weather’ because it’s been ‘raining cats and dogs’? Maybe you’ve found yourself ‘in a pickle’! But if a Danish person said to you that ‘there’s no cow on the ice’ (det er ingen ko på isen), would you know what they mean? Idiomatic expressions are a really interesting part of language and in this episode, we’re chatting with Rune Ped

In this episode, we’re chatting with our intrepid traveller Penny, who is on the trip of a lifetime around Australia with her family! After setting off in August 2023 for a 5-month road trip around the country, Penny and her family are discovering parts of Australia that they’ve never been to before, encountering different languages and cultures, and experiencing all the fun, c

In this episode, we’re again chatting with two members of the Language Lovers AU Community based in Australia - Han-Yu Ong and Ingrid Botha - who both kindly took the time to tell us (and you!) about their respective experiences of learning other languages, the part that language plays in their lives, and what has motivated and inspired them. Have a question for Han-Yu, Ingrid or

In this episode, we’re chatting with two Melbourne-based members of the Language Lovers AU Community - Lily Cerôn-Fernández and Deb McLeod - who both kindly took the time to tell us (and you!) about their respective experiences of learning other languages, what has motivated and inspired them, and where languages have taken them in their lives. Have a question for Lily, Deb or