My guest is Kapitolina Fedorova, a professor of Russian Studies from Tallinn University, a specialist in sociolinguistics. Yes, it is exactly that: two women speaking English with an accent discuss how we/they are perceived from the outside.

Doing this for ourselves and for everybody out there communicating in their non-native language. There’s some bad news: accent does matter and good news - we, humans, can reflect upon our own perceptions.

We discuss accents and languages hierarchy, the hidden perception biases and the open prejudice and whether moral judgment based on the language abilities helps us get along with different people or ourselves.

And also:

 * Who speaks a better language - women or men?
 * Can your pronunciation be too good for an occasion?
 * Is cooing around baby’s toesy-woesies actually stupid? (Fat spoiler in case you don’t have time to listen - NO. This is a part of a very fine-tuned mechanism for language learning, never laugh at a babbling parent)

If you’ve got this far, please drop me a line at beholdtheduckpodcast@gmail.com - I’ll be happy to hear from you!

Speaking and sounding foreign: the sociolinguistic reality of accents

Olga Ermishkina, a UX researcher with many years in language tutoring, and Anna Degteva, a conversational designer discuss the redesign of a popular language learning app and its possible impact on users' experience and motivation.

You see, we just couldn't keep silent, had to start a podcast.

 * What is better in the long run the correct order of exercises that has been scientifically proven to help you memorize the vocabulary if your follow through, or the motivation which is closely associated with having a say in the matter - and it is this motivation that helps you to follow through?
 * Where is the thin line between giving the users control and confusing them with too many options with not-so-clear meaning and consequences?
 * What happens if we mix the language learning methodics, which is supposed to teach you to express yourself in another language, and the game design mechanics, where you are rewarded for actions only indirectly related to communicating?
 * Is there such a thing as a “bad” user that abuses the reward systems and “farms” XP instead of learning the language “properly” and why should we all care?

To share your thoughts, ideas and comments on the subject you can reach me at my linkedin page (http://www.linkedin.com/in/degteva-anna).

I promise, by the next episode I'll get a dedicated email. 

Duolinguo redesign (and the very first episode)

Behold the duck.
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.

I am a linguist and an anthropologist interested in clucking and quacking, talking teapots, smiling robots, babbling kids and all things communication, language and conversation - so this is what this podcast is about. Also it's about the modern technologies that facilitate our efforts to reach out to other humans (or non-humans, or whatever).