I came across Anja and her podcast on LinkedIn because I was curious to find out what other podcast hosts are doing and to find some new content to listen to. Anja and I started talking when I posted a question about people who produce content in another language – and here we are! I hope you enjoy our conversation, and if you’re thinking about creating content in English, but you haven’t started doing it yet, Anja has some really good tips and advice for you. We talked about: Anja’s podcast – “Freelance business unlocked” – and how it came about Anja’s language story – how English came int ..read more

Today I'm sharing a tip from one of our language exchange for language professionals meet-ups and it's something that I'm doing to help with my Portuguese. If you commit to giving yourself regular opportunities to write, this will also help your general fluency. Finding time for something quick is often easier than finding time to write a long essay! You can always extend the word count - I often go well over mine - but it's a minimum and you can always make the task harder as your language skills increase. You can also add new rules such as "don't use the dictionary" - so you have to use th ..read more

? 250 episodes of English with Kirsty ? When I published the first episode of English with Kirsty in 2015, it was meant to be a long-term project, but I didn’t think about how many episodes there would be! Now we’ve reached episode 250! I wanted to do something different, so I asked my amazing friend and podcast host Rita Prazeres Gonçalves to host the episode and ask the questions, knowing full well how she works! She doesn’t plan things… And you can see this in our conversation – I didn’t know the answer to one of her questions!! But this is us. We have spontaneous, real conversations! T ..read more

Carrying on with our voice theme, this week, Julia Michelle is here to talk with us about another aspect of voice, one which is particularly relevant to those of us who are business owners or freelancers: our brand voice. Julia was the speaker at a networking event that I attended recently and I wanted to introduce you to her as well. This is how Julia introduces herself: “I’m a registered nurse, copywriter, and brand voice specialist. Having a background as a nurse, it was a big shift for me to run my own business, and one of the hardest parts was figuring out what I wanted to say and how ..read more

Our voices are so much more than the way we speak. This is part of it, but finding and using our unique voice is about more than that. It’s about expressing who we are, what we think, how we feel, and the messages that we want to share. Every day, we play different roles and adopt different communication styles depending on what we’re doing and whom we’re with. That’s normal. But sometimes, the version of ourselves that people meet when we’re using an dditional language is not 100% who we are and this can make it harder for us to communicate and for others to get to know us. Today I’m talki ..read more

I met Sion through the networking for language professionals sessions that I run with Rita Prazeres Gonçalves. I thought it would be good to talk with Sion about her work and her experiences of moving from the US to France and then later to Spain, where she now lives and works. Sion Dayson is an American voice actor based in Valencia, Spain. She works in many genres of voiceover, and specializes in eLearning, corporate narration, audio description, and materials for English-language learners. She’s voiced projects for clients including LG, Pearson, Business Spotlight, the National Academy of ..read more

Marta is originally from Barcelona and has lived in Germany since 2002. She is a freelance translator who works from German and English into Spanish and Catalan, specialising in marketing and advertising. After many years of struggling with self-doubt, impostor syndrome and a fierce inner critic, Marta now offers consultancy services for fellow translators and interpreters, focusing on marketing and time management. What she enjoys most is encouraging people to believe in themselves and helping them to overcome their perfectionism when needed. We talked about: How we define perfectionism H ..read more

My guest today is Joana Lisboa from Unleash your Vocal Power. We met on LinkedIn last year when I think I commented on one of Joana’s voice-related posts. Then, after chatting some more, I thought she would be a great guest for the podcast. For the past 12 years, Joana’s life mission has been to help others find their authentic voice. The process of self-discovery she suggests to her clients has been proven by her before starting her career as a Vocal Coach. She went from being a shy girl, barely heard, to someone who believes in applying her vocal power authentically, no matter the circumsta ..read more

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 cl ..read more

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, specia ..read more