When I wanted to finally return to the keys and recover some of my skills, I found my right wrist hurt far too much, and my fingers were no longer flexible or strong.

A synovitis diagnosis

The wrist is a complex joint, where lots of nerves need to go through quite a small space. If the tendons, fascia and muscles around that channel become inflamed, they can compress nerves and cause all sorts of additional problems.

Through poor positioning during a completely unrelated operation (hysterectomy), my wrist and forearm was badly injured. Seeking help, an orthopedic surgeon wanted to rule out any rheumatic problems.

With an xray and MRI of my wrist in 2015, synovitis and a ganglion cyst deep inside the joint were found, which led to further investigations, multiple hospital stays, and ended in a spondyloarthritis diagnosis in 2016 and refined to psoriatic arthritis in 2020.

Spondyloarthritis is a bit of an umbrella, and many of the more specific arthritis types under it cause tendons and the connective tissue (fascia) that surrounds and supports muscles to get inflamed - swollen, angry and painful.

The rheumatologists now believe I have had this autoimmune arthritis my entire life - it is genetic and everyone on my father’s side all have it - but this was the first time it had attacked my wrist joint.

At the time of diagnosis, I was devastated. I couldn’t use my right hand at all. I couldn’t hold a knife when eating, brush my hair or teeth. I couldn’t even write. How could I play piano again?

Rest

In the Musician’s Way, Gerald Klickstein advises not to push through pain, but to rest. So I did.

Use a supportive brace

My orthopedic surgeon prescribed a wrist brace to wear every day. It had metal strips above and below, immobilising the wrist. And I found a few other good braces, including one that could be worn in the pool when I started water gymnastics for the rest of the arthritic joints.

The main movement direction that caused a lot of pain was bending it backwards.

Over a long time, I was able to reduce use of the braces, and now, I only put them back on when the wrist is hurting - when this most ridiculous arthritis has decided the wrist is the joint-of-the-day to be inflamed.

Move to mobilise

At that time, I also found crochet. The gentle, small, circular movements of manipulating the hook around the yarn was ideal for rehabiltating my wrist.

But, I had to start small, and build up very gradually.

As my arthritis does not go away, I have to be careful about moving every day:

• gentle wrist stretches - this video has wrist stretches most similar to the ones the physio prescribed me, but do them very gently, only to the point of stretch and never to pain. Don’t use your body weight to intensify a stretch through a dodgy wrist!
• arm and shoulder stretches, modifications to exercises so I don’t put my weight over my hands if they are bent back (pushups, cat-cow stretch)

Attend therapy for wrist flexibility and strength

Along with crochet, the wrist brace and the finger exercises I learnt during ergotherapy, in 2016, I got physiotherapy on the wris:

• massage and manual therapy
• supported stretching
• ultrasound for deep warmth
• kinesiology taping for additional support

I still need to get physioherpy on it today in 2026, ten years later - that tenosynovitis and the ganglion cyst has never fully gone away.

Take medications

Many can take ibuprofen or other anti-inflammatories. I can’t, as my kidney function is too poor - why my kidneys are so damaged, is another crazy medical story for another day.

A course of cortisone helped reduce the inflammation in the joint to the point where I could do mobilisation exercises and stretches in warm water. For the fingers, scrunching warm rocks and sand in ergotherapy classes helped - warmth in general helped enormously, as by this stage, it had been half a year since the diagnosis.

The rheumatologist put me on sulfasalazine (allergic!), then methotrexate (no change), and finally adalimumab (wonderful!) for the arthritis inflammation.

The recovery process to get back to piano

1. When you first get synovitis or tenosynovitis or a wrist injury, stop playing.
2. Seek help - take medication, use a brace, get physiotherapy.
3. Gradually start moving again - stretch, take up crochet and slowly, slowly expand your range of movement and strength. Stop immediately when it hurts.
4. When mobile and not in pain, play something easy and gentle, for short periods. Start with 5 minutes or 10 minutes and avoid anything that hurts.
5. Avoid repetitive and strenous tasks - Limit computer use and wear a brace for household tasks like cooking or cleaning.

If you have a job that requires you to use a computer, get a split keyboard and a vertical mouse.

Use the brace whenever it hurts.

Gentle music to play

I find practicing scales, repetitive passage and one-hand octaves to be the most difficult as they build a lot of tension in the wrist. While I adore Beethoven and Rachmaninov, boy can they hurt!

• Erik Satie - Trois Gymnopedies and Trois Gnossiennes
• Philip Glass - slow and gentle arpeggios
• Ludivico Einaudi - Islands and Islands II are beautifully gentle
• Chopin - many Nocturnes can be played gently and aren’t too taxing on the wrist
• Mendelssohn - Songs Without Words

It’s been a while since I first wrote this article for Hubpages back in 2016 - 10 years! - and I’ve kept up the wrist exercises every day and therapy whenever it got too sore. These days I can play shorter stints of Beethoven and other more demanding composers, as long as I don’t do it every day, and as long as I massage, stretch and apply heat before and after each session.

You can enjoy playing the piano with autoimmune arthritis and synovitis!

But, the bones are there ready to have the meat grown back. And hopefully in a better, more logical structure than before.

I have found that maintaining two sites - one freelance/professional, and one chronic illness - meant that neither site got updates.

So I’m merging both into one site.

Which necessitated a new Jekyll theme, as the old one no longer compiled - the old theme’s author has not updated for the changed and new functionality of the underlying framework.

I’ll add more details here as I document how I have modified the Chirpy theme to not be just a blog. I want this site to feel more like a digital garden, without needing to being beholden to a subscribe-only platform.

For now, my to-do list is rather large:

• Get Jekyll with Chirpy up and running (without forking the Github repo).
• Move the blog off the main website page.
• Migrate the essential pages for my freelance services.
• Fix pagination to use jekyll-paginate-v2 This was painful!
• Fix favicon.
• Add image gallery functionality with thumbnail generation.
• Add my portfolio of weaving, art and photography.
• Customise the navigation panels and the front page content a little more.
• Migrate the older blog posts from learnedwords.com.
• Learn how collections work and migrate the pages of information.
• Migrate the blog posts from stillpain.com.
• Rework my previous articles and republish now that Hubpages is no longer operating.
• Explore integration with my Ko-fi shop and Patreon.
• Revive the blog - I have lots to say about current developments in tech, education, health and psychology.

Note: I will not be migrating the (hidden) family photos, as LLM agents ignore instructions not to ingest. If you are a family member and would like to have a copy, please email me and we can organise how best to get the digitised photos to you.

In the last several months, I’ve dived into a very deep rabbit hole - weaving and spinning. Working with fiber is an astoundingly complex, rich and deep area to study, rich with techniques, skills, materials and crafts.

I started with handspinning with a cheap drop spindle and a small sample pack of different wool fibers.

As a test run, to see if I would actually like weaving, I used a basic tapestry loom, available easily in craft stores here, but wove a scarf on it.

Regular weaving and spinning project updates

In addition to the tutorials I’ve published for novice weavers to help set up various looms, I publish regular exclusive creative project updates with loads of photos, tips and tricks, as well as occasional creative process videos and creativity sessions for patrons of the LearnedWords Patreon.

You can also purchase enduring access to just the weaving tutorials without needing to subscribe.

Now, what are you curious about?

Go chase that rabbit!

It was a good idea - and necessary - to take complete time off during this period to recover. As a result of resting, I came up with a mountain of content ideas for both work and Patreon as the year ticked over.

But … fate had other ideas.

January. 11 medical appointments in 15 days. In 6 different medical specialities. For mostly unrelated problems. And it’s not even the end of the month.

Each appointment knocked out at least half a day with travel and waiting time. One of those was meant to be an easy and tiny laser treatment for a venous lake/angioma on my lip. It was unexpectedly and spectacularly messy, needing urgent stitches will take much longer to recover.

Add to that, it’s that time of month when hormones torture me with endometriosis pain and constant migraines.

It’s frustrating that digital referrals and results by phone or email would have more than halved the number of those appointments.

I’m utterly exhausted.

Upcoming procedures and tests

Having a collection of somewhat related chronic illnesses means, at the minimum, I lose several days attending tests and waiting for doctors every month. It’s been extreme recently.

This year by day 18, my eyes have new prescription glasses, liver test results were discussed, and the quarterly rheumatology circus to access my medication has been performed.

Now, I’m to chase down new kidney problems with the local hospital, discuss another (likely) endometriosis laparoscopy with the surgeon in Berlin, find a new trauma psychotherapist as my current has a limit of two therapy courses per patient, and arrange a second ENT opinion for the bloody sinusitis I’ve had since 2019. I’m going to leave the pulmonology until I see the endometriosis surgeon as I suspect the breathing problems stem from endo on the diaphragm.

Update 2026: Turns out the breathing problems are ILD and systemic sclerosis, which has also destroyed my kidneys and caused anaemia. And that abdominal pain is still under investigation with more liver and gastrointestinal tests happening soon. But at least the endometriosis was resolved - the new endo clinic in Leipzig agreed to take my ovaries out and put me into menopause. It’s been rough, but so much better without the endo pain.

Medical burnout is an intractable problem.

With just the diagnostics eating so much time month, I can’t afford - neither time, nor energy, nor financially - to attend therapies that would help with the rheumatism, neuropathy and the ongoing lymph problems from the DIEP (physiotherapy, lymph drainage, pain clinic).

Scheduling recovery days

Care is my most important focus word for this year.

It has many meanings, and encompasses all of them - care for others; careful planning and spending of money, attention, and energy; care taken to produce good work; self-care; …

As I noted in my Patreon post on my focus words for 2023, I plan to schedule recovery days after any period that drains my energy.

Right now, a rest fortnight sounds most appropriate.

But, I can only afford a day or two off work. That’s more than I have allowed myself in the past.

Creative projects to distract and recover

Restful, gentle, creative projects are my lifeline.

• Knitting and crochet can be done curled up on the couch with the cats.
• Weaving is excellent for a bit more movement and to calm a scattered or overactive mind. Best done standing though, with my loom setup.
• Spinning is the best for seated zoning out and draining the lower lymph - ideal before bed.
• Painting and sketching can be done at my desk, and occasionally on the couch (not ink splodge paintings though), and are both a good warm up to thinking work.

Want to support?

If you’re interested in following my creative projects as they progress, or the productive balcony garden which is currently dormant for winter, I share regular updates, photos and videos with my patrons.

Occasional photos are posted on Mastodon, and original art and yarn projects are available for purchase from my Ko-fi shop.

I also share a little of these projects in monthly slow vlogs and occasional shorts on YouTube - please subscribe to my channel and like the videos if you want to see more.

Reading or writing wasn’t an option in hospital with chatty room mates, but I could talk and crochet at the same time. The hospital staff loved seeing the blanket grow quickly, but were a bit horrified to see it complete at the end of my second stay.

At home though, there is work to do. Photo assignments to shoot, cooking, washing, cleaning, shopping, gym and physio to go to, and so many doctors appointments and tests to attend.

After so much activity plus the battle with the ongoing methotrexate side effects and migraines, I am pretty dead. It’s meant any crafting got put aside.

I have a couple of projects that need to get done - one a promised present for a 5 year old.

The intended recipient was upset when her younger sister received a quilted cross-stitch hedgehog pillow I’d made years ago for Christmas, and requested a dinosaur one for herself. Not just any dinosaur - it must be herbivorous. Preferably a brontosaurus.

There are very few dinosaur cross stitch patterns out there, especially of dinos other than tyrannosaurus rex. As I’m not comfortable making my own patterns from scratch, it took weeks to track down a cute-enough brontosaurus for a 5 year old. Then a few more weeks to choose a colour palette and make a start.

As cross stitch is hard on my hands and wrist, I procrastinated.

Then I did a couple of marathon sessions and hurt my hands. And procrastinated some more.

I was happy when Michael Nobbs started a gentle challenge over on Sustainably Creative - just20 minutes a day on one creative project](/blog/).

The accountability provided just the prodding I needed to get moving again, and keep moving forward, a little each day.

Although, I have not done exactly 20 minutes each day, rather stitched until the end of my thread.

We are half-way through the two week challenge, and the dinosaur cross stitch is finished. The next step is to purchase quilting materials and turn it into a quilted pillow.

With a bit of luck to find appropriate quilting fabrics tomorrow, and 20 minutes of work per day, it will be ready for an Easter present next weekend.

Then I can start again with a green stegosaurus - I have another hedgehog to gift next Christmas and I don’t want to be the cause of any fights between the sisters!

The accountability and excitement of seeing what the other challenge members get done each day is so useful to get past my terrible procrastination habit.

Some of the other members of the #20MinutesADay challenge have written about it at various times:

• Cathryn - on a gentle but intentional start to the year. Cathryn is still providing gentle prompts for drawing and painting on her Patreon and in her newsletter.
• Laureen - on persisting and allowing creativity to win, even when going for  walk (unfortunately, her blog no longer exists).
• Michael Nobbs - using 20 minutes for making progress gently. He still runs creativitiy sessions - the Wickie Hour - on the Go Gently Patreon.
• Josh - on sychronicity and a challenge (another blog that is no longer!)

Getting past the procrastination on the cross stitch has had the happy and surprising side effect of prompting me to work a bit on the other presents in my crochet and sewing queue.

What creative projects are you working on? Do you do a little each day? Do you struggle with procrastination?

Fighting the medical system

Trying to get treatment for any illness here in Germany is slow. While you can typically get in to see a general practicioner (Hausarzt) relatively quickly, they are quick to refer to you specialists rather than actually treat anything.

And specialists have long, long, long waiting lists.

The specialists then want tests. MRI and CT scans, endoscopies for stomach and bowel, … these also have 6+ month waiting lists, that is if the imaging company agrees to do the tests at all - I had to be admitted to hospital overnight in order to get a breast MRI - none of the non-hospital places would do that sort of scan because the insurance companies didn’t pay enough for it.

These are my current fights.

Too young for menopause

I had had already 6 operations for endometriosis and adenomyosis, including a partial hysterectomy. I still bled every month from my butt, and had all the awful monthly cramps and migraines. Plus the worsening breast inflammation (cystic mastopathy) from the monthly hormone cycle.

I want my ovaries out.

Two gynaecologists, including the hospital that did my hyster, said that at age 47, I “was too young for menopause”.

They didn’t give the pain, anaemia from the bleeding, and the organ destruction the endo was causing any weight in their decision. Just that my osteoporosis might appear a few years sooner than if left on a natural timeline.

A new endo center had opened at the hospital that manages my arthritis and monitors my breast cancer. I had a long appointment with the department head, and after consulting with the breast cancer center across the hall, they agreed to let me have an oophorectomy in 2023 - the seventh and final operation for the endometriosis.

They found more endo on the ovaries which had stuck down against the pelvic wall and pulled the ureters and kidneys into that solid mass. The pouch of douglas was inaccessible with endo lesions (they are just left there to dissolve over time), and there were extensive adhesions throughout the pelvis, pulling in every direction - no wonder I was in so much pain.

The immediate switch to a menopause body has been a roller coaster. While there is less pelvic pain, the new hot flushes, increased migraines, and decreased concentration are ongoing issues.

But thank goodnesss, after 6 different gynecologists here in Germany (another 6 or so in Australia), and three endometriosis surgeons, I found an endo clinic that listened to me and agreed.

The nasal infection

It took 5 years for an infection in my nose - originally caused by extensive black mold exposure - to be taken seriously, despite it bleeding every day.

By that point, it was into the cartilage and heading for the brain. Various ENTs had ridiculously dismissed the infection as acne (WTF?), allergies, problems with the nose piercing (although that was on the other side, far from the infection!), and acid reflux.

If I were not in Germany, I could have considered suing for malpractice.

Finally I found one who matter-of-factly said the problem was purely mechanical and an easy fix. An operation in 2024 fixed the deviated septum, stopped the air drying out the mucosal lining of the septum, and allowed the skin to grow back over the cartilage. It was a nasty operation, a long recovery, but it has finally healed.

Update 2026: I still have ongoing skin issues around my nose, which are also not being taken seriously by dermatologists. At the moment, I am keeping the worst at bay with an antibiotic cream (fucidin acid).

Painful inflammation and a broken health system

My arthritis is auto-immune. That means immune suppressant injections are necessary to try to tone down the inflammation response. But they can’t suppress all the inflammation - there is simply too much of it.

Update 2026: Additionally, I’ve been diagnosed with systemic sclerosis, which comes with lung disease, kidney disease, and plenty of muscle and gastric inflammation. Unfortunately, the underlying mechanism for that inflammation is not the same as the arthritis, and only one can be treated at any one time. And there is a much higher risk of cancer. Which means even more regular tests.

That means I’ve had to undergo many tests, across the medical disciplines, just in case it is cancer. For each test there is a 3-6 month wait.

Various tests have shown worsening inflammation everywhere:

• neuralgias from inflamed nerve sheaths (feet)
• bursitis (shoulders)
• torn menisci (knees)
• tenosynovitis (hands, wrists, fingers, feet)
• tendonitis (jaw, neck, ankles, knees, spine)
• costochondritis (chest wall/ribs)
• mastitis and cystic mastopathy (the non-cancerous breast)
• blepharitis (tear ducts) and sinusitis (nose)
• periodontitis (gums and mouth)
• esophagitis, gastritis, duodenitis, bowel inflammation (throat, stomach, bowel - the entire digestive system from mouth to out)

None of these are bad enough individually to be considered disabling by the bureaucracy.

But all that inflammation is truly disabling in a single body, both in terms of physical function, and in level of pain.

Unfortunately, a range of doctors and therapists ignore all of these tests and say it’s my fault for being obese. Or I’m imagining the pain, that it’s ‘just’ fibromyalgia and I should relax and de-stress.

Inflammation is not a symptom of fibromyalgia.

Obesity does not cause autoimmune inflammation.

Kidney disease but no nephrologists

As the kidney blood tests are consistently worsening, other types of anti-inflammatory medications are forbidden. The failing kidneys are causing problems for my heart and blood pressure - failing kidneys spike blood pressure, which in turn causes the kidneys to fail faster.

Thankfully, Jardiance (empaglifozin), a medication used off-label for non-diabetics to support poor kidney function, has been a huge help in getting BP back to normal levels. It hasn’t done anything to resolve the complex cyst that is eating one of the poor kidneys from the inside though.

As I am not an ‘acute’ kidney failure, not a single nephrologist in or around this city will allow an appointment. The cyst is monitored every few years by a urologist.

This health system is so broken.

Update 2026: With the diagnosis of systemic sclerosis - the internal type that destroys kidneys - I was put under the hospitals nephrologists for monitoring along with the rheumatology department.

Anaemia but no haematologists

I had nearly hit zero on the iron blood test and had a very low red blood cell count when they finally ran some extra tests. They looked for why I was so exhausted and why my arms and legs were numb - iron and folate anaemia.

The doctors are still not sure why - theories were endometriosis, then the constant nose bleeds, then gastritis, plus complications from the kidneys. Gastritis means you don’t properly absorb the iron you eat.

But as all the haematologists in the region refuse new patients, and other doctors refuse to administer iron infusions, I’m stuck with eating iron and suffering the stomach aches and worsened gastritis caused by the tablets.

Update 2026: I found a haematologist who had agreed to do the infusion if I paid privately. She tried - 8 times - and failed to get the IV in, exploding 2 veins in the process. Then declared in a followup appointment after that had healed enough to try again, that there was no way she was going to try again, because my veins were simply too difficult.

Thankfully, the gastro clinic I see for the systemic sclerosis monitoring of my oesophagus, stomach and bowel agreed to do the infusion for free (the insurance doesn’t pay them for it). I now have iron in me, and my kidney values jumped back up to where they were 3 years ago. Enough iron is so important!

Fighting to and for work

Along with the every-day tasks of living - bathing, getting clothed, toileting, visiting doctors, getting tests done, dealing with bureaucracy, eating, sleeping - work has had to be my number one task for brain energy.

With massive constant headaches, vision disturbances, the nose operation, and generally higher pain levels with even less pain relief, concentrating enough to write something coherent and interesting has been nigh impossible.

But, I am still writing almost weekly blog posts for draw.io and help for the online diagram editor. And I edit the occasional PhD and Masters thesis for students who want to do well, or more recently, to hide their use of AI tools.

Unfortunately, all the other writing, editing, and translation clients I had had through Upwork and privately have run off with content generators. It’s cheaper and faster to use ChatGPT, Claude, Grammarly and Deepl than to pay someone to write something accurate and useful.

LLMs are a terrible way to write anything important.

The problems with AI-generated content

In the last master’s thesis I edited, ChatGPT made up 100% of the references. It cited articles that did not exist, fictitious medical journals, non-existent volumes to existing journals, and made up all kinds of ‘facts’. Reference checking took days, plus more to locate real research that could be cited instead.

In the body of the thesis were sentences that explicitly mentioned the content was generated - telling the user in this section they ‘could write about issues A, B and C’. It was an absolute mess. I hope her supervisor never saw those drafts.

Theses and postgraduate publications are (still) meant to be your own work. AI-generated content is, in essence, pure plagiarism.

Human editors and human translators still do a much better job - humans are more accurate, humans can fact-check, humans understand how to relate topics to each other, and humans can translate nuanced language so that the meaning is correct.

AI tools simply pattern match and mash together what has a high probability of being related. There is nothing creative or original at all, and that’s before you get to the myriad of other jaw-dropping problems, not the least, the IP and copyright theft, and the environmental disaster that is inherent in all of these content generation tools.

I am utterly demoralised.

Both at the tools and the companies who created them and stole all the training data, and the people (the majority?) who love and use them.

Rising depression

I want to change industries into something that isn’t overrun by AI.

But, my ill health is a very physical barrier to moving into a more creative, craft-focused work life, let alone all the other problems that comes with low-paid artists, although this is the direction I would love to take.

It’s all too overwhelming.

The frustration, the worry about income, the desperate wish to protect my livelihood, the disgust for AI generation and how it is all based on theft and laziness. The despair at the state of the world - the wars, atrocities, politicians, policies, hate, bigotry, abuse, unfairness. Some really nasty family turmoil that has deeply hurt and reopened past trauma wounds. And of course, the chronic ill health and ridiculous pain levels that doctors never take seriously, and the broken health system.

In the past, I used to tell therapists that while I had severe cPTSD from my childhood, I wasn’t depressed.

Right now though, I am clinically depressed. The state of humanity and the world.

But, as we all do, I have to keep on keeping on.

Lifestyle factors play a complex role, as many of these are not easily changed: level of education, stress levels, resilience skills, diet, a sense of personal safety, supportive social network, etc.

Plus, certain chronic diseases can directly affect the brain tissue and decrease brain function over time.

While exercise and a decent level of fitness can slow the natural decline somewhat, cognitive exercise is just as important.

Exposure to new things, learning new skills and new languages, keeps the brain itself active and healthier - it’s both good for us as individuals and for society as a whole.

Picking up a language as an older adult

Learning a new language as an older adult builds new and stronger connections. This is especially important where disease or physical disabilities are destroying brain function - as language learning is an intense cognitive exercise, it can help reshape the brain networks into healthier areas.

When you learn new words and phrases, you engage many different areas of your brain - working memory, inductive reasoning, sound discrimination, speech segmentation, task switching, rule learning, and semantic memory. When you use a second language, your brain has to work to suppress the non-target language, which has a protective effect on dementia.

Thankfully, our brains are plastic - they can reorganise connections and pathways no matter our age. MRI imaging has shown noticeable improvement after just four months of language learning of middle aged and older adults.

We are never too old to learn something new.

Seniors can reactivate previously learned languages just as easily as young students. In fact, the words learned will stick around for more than 50 years, even though they will be recalled slower.

While learning a new language from scratch at an older age is a little more challenging due to a decline in working memory. This is easily combatted by focusing on the student’s interests and using new language around familiar topics. As older students have a much wider range of experiences and interests, English-language programs need to be broader, and more immersive.

The topics need to be stimulating - interesting and fun - to build and maintain the motivation to keep learning.

Language learning isn’t the only way to keep your brain healthy as you age.

Skills and crafts

Motor functions also degrade when you don’t use your body in specific ways, especially when you battle joint or muscle related chronic illnesses.

Learning new crafts helps gently train a wider range of muscle groups and retain fine motor control. Of course, the initial movements can be more painful for arthritis sufferers. But over time, as the movements become more relaxed and natural, it can have a pain-suppressing effect on many joints, providing one doesn’t over-do it.

I’ve discovered this as I picked up knitting, then painting (fine brush control), and more recently, weaving and spinning (so many knots!)

These crafts have a steep learning curve.

For painting, you need to learn how to use various brushes in different ways on different types of paper, mix different colours, pay attention to what you see and to lighting and perspective, and think ahead to what you want to achieve with the finished painting.

Knitting, weaving and spinning have entirely new vocabularies and complex equipment to learn on top of the physical movements themselves.

Any skill that is both physically and mentally new is a good workout for the brain.

Nurture that curiosity

Follow your curiosity to learn any skill that piques your interest. Get distracted by those shiny and interesting topics.

Learn all the things!

I think that’s my new mantra.

My collection of hobbies and interests was always large as a youngster, but it has exploded in recent years. Luckily, I’m old enough now that no one nags me to “just stick to one thing”.

This year, I’ve been working on a massive nine-of-nines challenge. Nine projects in each of nine different categories - a large number of them require me to develop new skills or learn new techniques in cooking, sewing, fibre crafts, painting, drawing, and more.

While some projects won’t be finished this year, I have made a lot of progress.

If you’re interested, I publish a monthly update on these projects for patrons of the LearnedWords Patreon, in addition to occasional video updates, in-depth skill-building articles, a few related English-language resources, and loads of exclusive photos.

Now, what are you curious about?

Go chase that rabbit!

But not all of us can go to a conversation class – they are often held while we are at school, or working. And unfortunately, many of us have been burned by language exchange groups or partners – it’s not fun when you don’t get a turn to speak in your target language, or when your partner doesn’t help you improve.

Active communication is the best way to improve fluency

When I first started learning a language at school, penpals were the only way. Once the internet took off, email lists and forums helped lots of people write more in their target language. Then along came Skype and video calls to talk to native speakers from your own country. But with such exchanges, and even conversation classes, you couldn’t be guaranteed that you would have the same interests as your language partners, and conversations would often fizzle out.

Social media language isn’t always ‘real’

Social media provides a more natural window into languages, you can look for and interact with people who share your interests. But the language used on social media is not necessarily how people speak in real life. Not many people speak in #hashtags!

So, how can we interact with native speakers who share our interests in a more natural way, both in writing and speaking?

If you are a parent, please monitor your child’s use of these tools – as with most technology, it can be used for good, but there can also be some not so nice people there.

Use Discord to chat with friends

Discord is an app that runs on mobile and desktop computers. It allows anyone (yup, anyone) to set up their own chatroom, customise it, text chat and share photos, and even chat over voice channels. If you are a gamer in a multi-player online game, the people you play with are most likely using it to chat to group or guild members.

Interact with streamers

Twitch is a platform or tool that lets people stream (on video/audio) whatever they are doing, as they are doing it. Originally, only computer games were streamed, but Twitch has branched out into many different categories including art, crafts, music, and even just chat streams.

YouTube has similar livestreams, but they are not as well categorised or as easily browsed as on Twitch. Many other platforms also offer live streaming now, including Patreon.

Tip: Game development companies often have their own Twitch stream and offer occasional ‘drops’ – bonus items to use in game – when you link your (free!) Twitch account to your gaming accounts.

Streamers use language conversationally

Viewers can interact with streamers in real-time by writing chat messages, or joining them on a voice channel in the streamer’s own Discord server. It’s easy (and free!) to choose a category you are interested in, listen in on a live stream or watch a recorded stream to see if you like how they are interacting with viewers, and give them a follow (click on the heart).

Streamers are people, they have kids and jobs and pets, and they all need to sleep, so they aren’t online all the time. They may host other streamers when offline. Some may earn a little through optional paid subscriptions from their supporters and ads displayed in their streams (ads are selected by Twitch).

But, streams on Twitch are free to watch, free to follow, and free to interact with – who can say no to free language learning ‘lessons’.

Almost all of the streamers listed below have private Discord channels for their followers and supporters, where you can chat and get feedback on your own crafty creations while they are not streaming. Many are also very active on social media.

Recommended Twitch streamers

Here are some clearly spoken streamers (English) with various interests to get you started.

I don’t receive compensation from the streamers mentioned below – they are simply the streams I enjoy and think would be great if you are learning English!

BrushForHire – A professional miniature painter, streaming his work days. He often co-streams with friends and plays many very silly games. He’s more than happy to give you tips on mini painting, or painting in general.

ChewieMelodies – Playing and composing fantastic music (keyboard) and gaming, some of his streams are very long. He often adds a long chat session after playing and answers your questions about music, equipment, learning to play and more.

Ortopilot - Music with many instruments and loops to create awesome covers. He is more than happy to answer questions about his streaming setup and give tips on playing his various instruments. The Twitch chat is very busy, and he has a great mod team that keeps it always in English.

TheKatIsALie - crochet, bead painting (!) and gaming. I’m amazed at how quickly she can crochet with her work positioned perfectly on camera! She also has a very active community of followers on her Discord channel.

Browse the Twitch categories

AI chatbots?

While this is an easy option these days, there is not a real person behind the popular chatbots. Their training databases are heavily weighted to English content (a huge amount of the web is in English), and there is an awful lot of bad, abusive and hateful content that these tools have also included in their training.

I recommend rather that you find a real person or community to chat to.

Not to mention the obscene environmental cost of AI, the privacy concerns, and the theft of copyrighted IP in their training databases - it’s just not a good thing!

Many languages online

Of course, it’s not only English speakers who stream on Twitch – you can find all languages there! Streamers will generally indicate in their tags what language they (mostly) use, and limit their chat channels to that too.

You may find a streamer using your target language that plays a game that you are familiar with or an art style you are experienced with – this is ideal as you’ll already know the context! For example, Tokumacode is a Japanese streamer who plays ESO – it’s brilliant hearing the characters I already know speak in Japanese.

Have fun chatting with friends who share your interests as you get more comfortable with using your target language!

Or indeed, as a replacement teaching a subject that isn’t your speciality?

And more importantly, how do you get the children to engage?

While I have taught English to mostly adults since I arrived in Germany, I did teach primary and high school kids for a year in Japan. I found that their motivations to be predominantly practical, and almost identical to those of adult learners.

• To fit in with their friends - to keep up and understand, or be the person the group turns to for expertise.
• To sing along with their favourite English-speaking bands’ lyrics - pronunciation is more important than understanding.
• To be closer to their idols - sport stars, celebrities, artists, musicians, YouTubers and streamers.
• To better follow an interest - a skill or topic where the majority of reference books, media or patterns are in English. Or games, movies, books, and YouTube content that is only available in English.
• To improve entrance scores for a degree - this is probably more common in countries with an emphasis on this as an entrance requirement.

Each child may have one or more of those motivations.

Typically, teachers and parents focus solely on that last motivation. The other motivations build a much stronger case for enjoying the learning and retaining the knowledge.

The importance of the practical

The subjects I remember most fondly from my time at school are those that gave me practical skills, or items that I enjoyed using.

The English teachers that encouraged writing anything were much easier (and more fun) to write for than those where if you strayed off the narrow path of what the teacher expected, you failed.

The wood/metalwork class had us produce rings to wear and a cake lifter that I’m still using today.

My first sewing teacher got it right with an oven mitt that was used until it wore through. The second had us sew scraps of fabric together or splodge dye on them - there was nothing truly useful.

Even the maths assignment that had us calculating the arcs of water coming from a hose as if we were planning a water fight had both a practical and fun component.

In language learning, it’s harder to find a practical motivation.

That is, until you cross the language aspect over with another interest or a fun activity like puzzles, word games, video games, TV, etc.

Fill language learning gaps enjoyably

If classes in your child’s school have been cancelled, you can help them with English learning in a number of practical ways.

• Watch movies and TV with English audio (with or ideally without subtitles).
• Listen to music with English language lyrics.
• Play word games and provide puzzles that expand or refresh vocabulary.
• Play story-telling board games in English - DnD has thankfully lost its dark labels and become quite popular.
• Watch YouTubers and Twitch streamers creating content that your child is interested in, in English.
• Buy English-language reference books, art books, etc.
• Assemble hobby kits, items or puzzles with only English language instructions.
• Read English fiction books together.
• Find a teacher for a skill your child wants to develop or a hobby group where English is the main language.
• Go to exhibits and museums with English-language audio tours.

You can also hire a tutor to chat with your child for 30 minutes to an hour per week - no textbook, just chatting on topics your child chooses - either in person, or online.

Even when it’s just what they are doing at school, or things they’ve been doing with friends and family, this is how I’ve seen the fastest and most natural conversational English improvement. And also where motivation to continue with these sessions remained high.

There’s a large archive of puzzles and word games in my Patreon archive. You can either subscribe to get access, or purchase enduring access to the the archive as a whole - you can download and work through them yourself, with your child, or in a classroom.

If you have any other tips to cover the post-pandemic language gap in schools, let me know over on Mastodon.

Most of my long-time patrons are not English teachers, and skim the resources I had been creating each month. I’ve received a pile of wonderful feedback about my year-long video series where each month I published a video of 1.5 seconds a day, and even more about my garden and sketchbook tours.

As this seems to indicate that people would rather support me in my creative journey, chat about a wider range of topics than just teaching English, and go behind the scenes into my garden, I’m refocusing my Patreon offering.

English resource archive will remain

Should any English teachers or students sign up, they are more than welcome to request resources on certain topics, and I’d be delighted to make them! Plus, the huge library of word games, puzzles, conversation prompts, lesson plans, curriculums and tips and tricks is still there - subscribers can access all of the published resources as soon as they sign up.

What you get on the LearnedWords Patreon

In striving to create a balance between work and life, and documenting the process on Patreon, I’m currently offering two low tiers with the following rewards:

Garden updates and recipes

Wander through the rooftop garden with me each month in a slow video montage, look at what vegetables and plants are growing, and see what I’m making with them as I share recipes and daily harvest photos throughout the growing seasons.

Art and crafting updates

Watch sketchbook tour videos, join a painting or crochet/knitting session, and see photos of all of the creative projects I am currently working on.

At the moment, my focus is my nine of nines project - my resolution this year to do more projects. My nine categories are: yarn, sew, read, grow, paint, sell, repair, write, and lose (although this last one has now been changed to nine neins - saying no to nine things!)

Pondering posts and podcasts

A post on any topic that I’m mulling over. In the past, I’ve written about data privacy, freelancing, VAT taxes for freelancers, ghostwriting, structuring a conversation class, dealing with difficult students and much more.

Notes on learning

I am constantly learning. Right now, that’s video and audio, and juggling freelance contracts with a rather difficult health situation. I’ll share updates about my learning journey, and tips that will hopefully help you come to know how best you learn.

Book reviews, recipes, and more

Work through The Right to Write alongside me, or check out my reviews and notes on some of the books I read.

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