How to create a language learning roadmap

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, and welcome to The 3 English Experts. I'm Birgit. I'm Dave. And I'm Rebecca. And welcome to this episode. 3 English Experts is your English podcast to help you speak better English and create a positive and happy mindset for your English learning journey. Hi, everybody. Happy New Year. And welcome back to The 3 English Experts. It's 2026. And we are here again with a new episode. Today we are going to talk about, because it's January and January is always a time when people are super motivated to do something new and start again, and maybe just have a bit more time because the time before Christmas is always a bit busy and sometimes January is a little bit easier. So today we're going to talk about roadmaps. So how to make your language learning roadmap. First of all, it's just a fancy word for a plan, isn't it? A roadmap, but it sounds nice. Birgit, what would you say? Why is it important for us to have a map, a roadmap? Yeah, hello, everybody, and Happy New Year. What would I say? It's important to have a roadmap and a plan because you can break projects down. This is what I have been doing in the last year. So if I want to do something, focus on something, get something going, get something done, which is bigger than fits into a normal week, let's say, for example, one of my examples, of course, getting to talking and talk Dutch eventually. That was on my roadmap for 2025. So I started learning Dutch some years ago, took some years. Last year I wanted to be able to talk and I did that. So that was on my roadmap for the whole year. And I have like little notebooks. I keep books when I know, OK, next for this year, 2026, there's something in my personal roadmap connected to my dog. So my dog needs some more training. It needs some brush up on obedience and things like that. So your dog has a roadmap. Yeah, you see, but it's a plan. You can use that for business. This is why, for me, as I said, it doesn't fit in this extra input, doesn't fit in a normal week. Now Dutch has gone, it's ticked the box. And for 2026, now the dog will be in the focus first half year. Fantastic, I like that. It is looking forward to it. I'm sure the dog is really looking forward to reading that roadmap. OK, Dave, any plans or do you have a roadmap for 2026 for anything specific? Happy New Year, everybody. Yes, I do. And actually, I want to extend the Spanish thing this year round. But I want to go through the whole year and try to get to B1 in Spanish. Oh, B1, OK. B1, I think it will take a while. But as Birgit said, I think with a roadmap, it's about breaking it down. It's also been about being more consistent. I hope that next year, with being more consistent, breaking it down into smaller chunks that maybe I can aim to get to a certain level at a certain time. That will help me to get to B1. My main goal is, I know my why, the main goal is just to be able to have a conversation in Spanish. But I think if you aim for a certain level, I'm not going to do any exams or anything like this, but it's just that I feel that this is my conversational level and the level that I can understand in Spanish. That is a kind of roadmap I've already thought about, but I'm interested in actually setting it up. And I guess that's where you can help us out, Rebecca. Absolutely. I like that. I love that you're having the B1 target because this is one of the points some people say, I want to improve my vocabulary or I want to improve. That's a big, random, vague word. But if you put a B1, you put a level on it, then it gets a bit easier. Okay, so like we said, B1, it's a good goal and you have this target. You don't necessarily, like Dave said, you don't necessarily have to do a test or anything, but there are ways of assessing how far you've come without doing a formal exam. At the end of the day, a roadmap, you wouldn't go on holiday if you didn't know where you were going, right? You wouldn't just get in the car and go, okay, where should we go this year? You might do, if you were really spontaneous, you might get in your camper van and just drive. I know some people do that, but most people, before you get in the car or before you get in the plane, you know where you're going and then you know when you've arrived because that's the other point we have to see. When have I reached my destination? When have I arrived? Have I ticked that box like Birgit said? We had a workshop back in September, was it? And part of the workshop, we offered the participants, we helped them create their own personal roadmap that was part of our offer and people found that very useful. So we thought it'd be a nice episode to offer that. And we are doing our workshop again at the end of January the 23rd. It's online this time, so you can take part no matter where you are. It's just one day for about four hours. And again, this roadmap will be part of that. So when you leave the workshop, you will have some sort of plan of what to do next. Because I think that's the point. Often people go to a workshop and then they go, okay, that was great. But what now? What do I do now? How do I keep going? So that's an important part. So that's our topic for today. First of all, we're going to talk about, yeah, smart goals. Birgit, how do you create? What are the questions? If I'm creating a roadmap, what kind of questions do I need to ask myself if I'm when you are putting your Dutch roadmap together or your dog training roadmap? With the dog training, of course, I'm not writing out a clear roadmap. We both can read. But of course, it's pinning it down to, so how much time can I spend every week? Because now it's going into the normal routine. How much time can I spend a week on my task, on my goal? So that will be, I think, every week, regular meeting, maybe going to some training course. And with the Dutch, similarly, I booked myself some lessons with somebody, maybe on a bi-weekly, on a bi-weekly routine. So pin it down, really make it very concrete what you can do, what you want to do, and then maybe set up a period of time. Do that for, let's say, six weeks. And then I usually want to take a look. OK, am I happy with it or do I have to readjust? Yeah, two things I need to know. Yeah, I think that's perfectly explained. So first of all, be realistic. What can you fit into your week? Be realistic. People tend to be way too optimistic about how much time they have. And then, yeah, pin it down. How much time am I going to need to do this? When can I fit it in? Can I fit it in? And then, yeah, I like the whole six weeks or ten weeks and then reviewing, because if you just keep going, then you never really track. And so this sort of six weeks period, like a sprint in a way, and then you can see what's working and change. If it's not working, that's OK. It's not the end of the world. Then you've got time to adjust it and change it. Yeah, OK. I think it's also very important that, as I said before, you're consistent, but you can take the smallest number. So at least even if you haven't got much time, you do the very minimum. Maybe it's just try to learn a new phrase a day, or maybe you just try and read one page of an English book, or maybe you just listen to one podcast a day or something like that. But they often say, don't go to zero. So every day you try and do a little something, even the smallest thing that could possibly do. And then I think you're more motivated to do it, or you find the time to look up one vocab. You find the time to do this and you do it consistently. And then that in itself, I think, helps build motivation to continue. If you know you're at least ticking off the bare minimum, and then on other days, maybe you then are able to find more time to do stuff. And also this way you create a habit. So we talked about this in one of the episodes. So this is going back to something we already addressed in some episodes, how to stay motivated, how to get started. And the habit, I think this is a good aspect here, making it a habit. Once you're used to doing that every week, OK, yeah, it becomes a normal, a new normal or something. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So we talked about focussing. What do I want to achieve? We've talked about timing. How long each week? How long am I going to do this for? This sort of consistency. Dave said zero, don't go to zero. Something is always better than nothing. I agree with that. Absolutely. One hundred percent. So the biggest question. First of all, there's two big questions. There's the how am I going to do this? So what what am I actually going to do? What is the task and why am I doing this? First of all, the why is why important? Big is nodding. Why is the why an important question, do you think? What's your why? For example, for the dog training or for the dog show? I know a lot of people out there having dogs. They they probably say, oh, I should. The why is simply it will make life easier for everybody in the family. And we have another big why our dog doesn't like going to the vet. And she's now eight turning eight in March. And we need to train that. So it's not getting easier. So it's I think I feel I'm at a point where we need to look into that. Otherwise, we'll be in trouble. I could leave it. I could leave it and just see what happens. But I'd rather start looking into it. The dog well-being is your why? The family well-being, ultimately, but also her own well-being as well, because she can go to the vet without. And it has side effects, too. So, you know what it's like? You have a dog if you were on the street and you know the people see that your dog follows you, what you say. Oh, that's great. That's fantastic. Never happens at the moment. Sometimes it does. She's not as bad, but that's wonderful. And Dave, your wife, your Spanish, what's the key reason? I know you live in Spain, but what's the sort of what's pushing you to do this? Yeah, I want to be able to talk to people more on a more regular basis. Firstly, it's the understanding, because I find that Spanish, I suppose, as foreign learning foreign languages, we always say the other language speakers of the language speak quickly. But the Spanish just do seem to speak very quickly. So I think first and foremost, it's the understanding. But at the same time, then to be able to have normal conversations with people. And then I think that will help me to maybe also build up a circle of friends who are Spanish. And because at the moment I've got a lot of other people from other countries, expats where I speak English and or German, French, whichever. But I don't have many Spanish friends at the moment. So it'd be nice to also build up a little group of Spanish people who I know I can go out with and talk to and have a normal conversation with and not be hoping that they can speak English when I talk to them, that I can actually speak to people directly in Spanish and get my message across. So that's the big why that I can maybe integrate better here in Spain as well, for sure. Yeah, so that's the really the kind of why behind it all is the integration and just meeting new people and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Right. OK, so then let's talk about that. How this is the tricky part, I think, is choosing what resources you're going to do or what is your action you're going to do. I think today there is just so much out there, which is a good thing. There are so many resources. There are so many possibilities. But I do think it's a bit overwhelming. So people sit down and go, I want to do this. And it's like, where do you even begin? And I had this with the workshop where people would ask me, I know I want to do some listening, but I just there's just so much to listen to. And I don't know what to focus on. And I think that's where it's good to try and pin it down to resources to try and figure out. So the first thing I would always say, we talk about character strengths. We've talked about character strengths before is first of all, your character strengths. What are you good at? What are your strengths? What are your things that you enjoy? Are you a creative person? I had a couple of people who started journaling in English, for example. They wanted to start writing and journaling was something they wanted to do anyway. So they combined it. Win-win. I'll do my journaling in English and then use that as a learning thing. It depends what your character strengths are, but your activity should reflect that. Don't do something because somebody's told you this is what the best thing is to do. Find something that works for you and what you enjoy. If you don't like listening, don't listen. If you don't like watching films, don't watch films. And it's such an obvious thing. But I feel so often people get pulled into doing things that are just not fun and not suitable and boring. And I've been there. I've done that. I've tried things where I've just got so bored. So you have to create your own system. Yeah. Going back to our roadmaps. So you did classes with Dutch, right? That was your option. Did you look at other options or did you say, that's what I'm going to do? Yeah, you're right. It's important to find whatever to. And I know myself how I enjoy learning or how I take things in. And I need to change. So I'm not the person who would say I book into a class and I'm going to stay there for two years. That's not going to work. I try things out. So that's how I tried some classes I like. But that was only like, as I said, like six weeks, eight weeks. And then I would rebook and then I would find a podcast. I liked listening to some podcasts and I noticed the progress as I went along. I have a notebook and I take some notes. So I like writing. So I need my pencil. I need to I don't think I did some drawings or scribbling. But yeah, this is the way it works for me. And it did this time also. Yeah, I think that's it. You have to create your own journey. You have to tailor it. But try things if you've not done something like that before. You have to try things out, Dave. Right. So you get what do you have an ideas or do you have plans for your Spanish journey? Are you going to use apps? Are you going to go to classes? What's your plan? This may not be very popular, but I'm really going to try and do everything using ChatGBT aside from having a friend of mine who from the gym. He's really nice and he speaks a little bit of English and so we get on and we meet up for a coffee and we just I try to talk with him a little bit in Spanish and I write some vocabulary down, phrases down and what have you. So there will be that active part to it. But for the most part, I really want to try and do it via or with the help of ChatGBT to do stuff and to ask me questions and learn vocabulary that way. But also, I must say, coming back to the interest, what you said, which is, I think, probably the most important thing when you're learning a language, that you learn it through interest and curiosity. I watch my Liverpool football games on the zone in Spain. So it's always in Spanish. That's good. So you can imagine how fast it is. Spanish football commentary. Well, as the more I listen to it, the more I pick up words and the more I'm understanding stuff. So I think, again, it's something that I enjoy watching the football. I'm learning Spanish and I do the same also with films on Netflix. I try and watch with either in Spanish, with English subtitles or and Spanish subtitles or in English with Spanish subtitles. So I'm always trying to to change ways in which I learn the languages and just see what I like and what's good. And I think inevitably things will stick if you keep going, if you keep doing things OK. The watching football at a very high speed of Spanish is very difficult and also very demotivating. So I think that's something people also have to think about what level they choose. But even if it does seem demotivating, still to keep going, because each time you watch a football game, I will learn a new two, three phrases or words that maybe have to do with football, but maybe just be normal Spanish words. So I'm always learning. So I think even and again, back to zero, don't miss a day without doing something. And so even if I only pick up one or two words from the football game, I've still picked up one or two Spanish words. So, yeah, I think the first time that I did that with languages really was when I had my own road map was Japanese. So German, I did the classic thing. I did it at school, then I did it at university, then I moved to the country. So it was always like this sort of traditional way of learning a language. Spanish was the same. I did it at university and things like that. But Japanese was the first language where I really said, I'm going to decide how I'm going to do this. And I started off listening to it was literally listen and repeat. We were going to Japan on holiday. I bought the phrase book and I download the listening and I just learn phrases how to ask for the bill, how to order a white wine, things like that, that I knew I was going to use. And then I came back and then I thought I'm going to do classes. I went to the Falshof Schule. I did classes that worked for a while, but then I got a bit bored with that. The group thing wasn't really working. So then I was friends with my sensei and she wanted to learn English or she wanted to improve her English. She already spoke English. So then I set up an exchange with her. So we used to meet and we do stuff in English for her. And then she would help me with my Japanese. So I created my own sort of thing. Then I went on to a video course. Then I bought a course where I watched videos and listened to content. And I had flashcards. I had books with pictures that help you learn kanji symbols. I had all kinds of stuff. And I think that's what you have to do. You just have to try. I tried the manga thing. I tried the manga comics. Didn't work for me. I am not into that whole thing. And everyone goes, oh, you should read manga because it's really good. Or you should watch anime. No, I don't know. It's just not my thing. And I know that's what a lot of people, why a lot of people learn Japanese because they're into that kind of stuff. But it just wasn't my thing. So I tried it and then I decided, no, it's not my thing. So you have to do that. Yeah, so one of the things that made it successful, I think, my Japanese journey was this mix of different things. I had lessons. I used apps. I had flashcards. I had I did an exam. I actually registered for an exam. I know what an idiot. And I went all the way to Stuttgart for a whole day doing Japanese activities. Like, oh, dear. If I can interrupt, Rebecca, I think that's also a good thing because it gives you a target. Something to aim for. Yeah, I agree. And I think once you've put money on the line, you're very invested. Yeah, it was, yeah. I think it's not necessarily a bad thing to encourage people to do an exam or in some way pay for something, because as soon as money comes into play, then obviously you're more invested in the whole thing, right? Yeah, it was money. I had to pay for my train ticket. I booked this day that I was going to spend in Stuttgart doing all this stuff. And I learned. I sat down at the nights before and spent hours practising my vocab and learning stuff and going through things, which I would never have done that if I wasn't registered for that exam. I would never have done that. I was. And it was nice when I passed and I got my result. Yeah, it was brilliant. So I was really happy with that. And I put that on till next year. Twenty twenty seven. Dutch test. Dutch. Yeah, why not? It's I don't know. Yeah, I think the problem is we talked about this panic zone, comfort zone, stretch zone and panic zone. And I put myself in the panic zone. It's nicer to be in the stretch zone where you're learning. And I was in the panic zone. I remember sitting on the train and learning my flashcards. It didn't really matter. Even if I'd failed, it didn't mean anything. But I was in nightmares about it. But I would still think that's worth the thing, because again, I read something about how healthy language speaking and learning is for the brain to prevent dementia. I don't know whether that's true, but. Oh, it is true. It is. Yeah, yeah. I think the researchers. So I would think about, OK, if I don't pass, OK, at least I try. And I'm doing something good for my health. Yeah, absolutely. No, this is all brain plasticity and yeah, building new pathways. And it is good, but it did freak me out a bit. I know you've recovered by now. I did a sort of language challenge with Spanish a couple of years ago where I was learning. I was watching Spanish comedy. So using my character strengths of sort of humour and then of also of zest, I was singing Spanish songs. And that was one. I did that for six weeks. But I have to say after that was really good. But I noticed there was no interaction. So it was all just online materials. And I think that's something you need to think about when you're learning. Are you someone? Do you need feedback? Do you need someone there saying, yes, that's right. Yes, that's wrong. Or do you need to see the human interaction? Some people, if you're if social intelligence is high on your skills, on your character strengths, are you a very sociable person? Do you like interaction? Is love really high on your list? Because that means you like people. You like hanging out with people and building connections. So think about that when it's easy to hide behind an app and say, I'm just going to use this app and I'm going to learn loads of vocabulary. But ultimately, this human connection sometimes. And I realised that my Spanish challenge was missing that human connection because it was all just me singing to the dog. I had the dog connection, but I didn't have the person who I could just say, when do I say this and when do I say that? The little fine things where you just need someone to clarify something or you just need to have a bit of fun with someone. And then as a result of that, I did actually then book some Spanish lessons after that. And that was my motivation, because I thought, no, I need something a little bit more. So all of this roadmap, you find out, like you say, what suits you, what do you like, what works? And that's the point. There is no prescription for this. It's all personal. And you can be flexible if you see that something's not working or just add in something else. I think that's the same if you go to the gym. I go to the gym and on a regular basis, they say that you should change your routine for training and maybe train with different equipment or different methodologies just to allow your muscles to feel some other kind of or to be strengthened or pushed in different ways in order to build your muscles in that respect. Yeah. So I think you can take a lot out of the physical training also into language learning. Absolutely. I think that's the point. January, everyone's reading about how to get fit, how to lose weight. Again, it's overwhelming. There's so much information or you need to be on protein. You need to be on keto. You need to be on in this type of training. And it's overwhelming. And you've got to find your own version. I just want to add, because you said it's no good. Why it didn't work for you with the Spanish just to have no interaction, just to listen. I think that's especially true for languages, probably because in the language you need to speak. It's got a reason why so many people think they are not able to speak English well enough because they had a lot of input in the past. But the speaking part, getting to the point where you actually enjoy an interaction with somebody, with getting feedback instantly so people understand what you're saying and you have a human reaction. I think that's with languages especially true. It is, yeah. It is important. Yeah, which brings us very nicely to our golden nugget. The golden nugget. So Rebecca mentioned having the human touch and also, of course, practising speaking. So we decided as a group, as a team, the three English experts that we would in 2026 start offering small conversation groups. We're limited to five or six people to come along in the morning. Our Breakfast Conversational Club, it's called, which you can also find on our website. You can go there, have a look, check it out, find out what it's all about and come to maybe our first session, which is on the 14th, Wednesday the 14th, 8am for the Conversation Club. Come along, meet us and meet other people who are also wanting to chat in English. And then if you like it, maybe sign up and get our session, 10 session tickets, which will also be available. We'll be having these in a weekly basis so people can come along whenever you want. It's very, very flexible. And just chatting about this and that, getting your conversation going, meeting new people and working, of course, with one of us as the host in every single session. So I hope you'll kick off your 2026 with some conversation. First thing in the morning, cup of coffee and a nice chat with some nice people. That sounds wonderful. And I believe people are going to meet you, Dave, on the 14th of January, because one of us will be there. Yeah, that's right. OK. OK. And in our next episode, upcoming episode after this one, we're going to talk about how to reactivate vocabulary. You already know you learned in the past, but you might not use. A lot of people have passive knowledge of the language. But how can you actually activate that? What kinds of tips do we have to bring that to the forefront of your mind and being able to use it whenever you talk and need it? So join in again. And thanks for listening to us last year. Thanks for listening to us today. And hopefully we'll be continuing to listen to us this year. Also, that would be great. We really appreciate it. OK, bye for now. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening today, guys. Just to remind you that we are offering a workshop, a three English experts workshop on January the 23rd. It's going to be online so you can take part no matter where you are. It's about four hours. Working with me, working with Birgit, working with Dave. There'll also be a group session. We did one of these recently. It was great. It was so much fun and really productive and really useful. So if you're interested, head over to our new website, three English experts dot com. So the address is the same, but we have a new look. We have a new logo. We've been working hard on that. So have a look at that. You can also sign up for the golden nuggets, as Dave said. And if you're interested in joining us in January, let us know. Book your place now. Thanks. Bye bye.