Tag: language learning

Lighting ready for Eurovision

Eurovision 2025: Lingua Franca? Nein Danke!

Eurovision 2025 was a good vintage for lovers of language diversity. It’s clear that English isn’t a default for many countries any more, and ditching the lingua franca is certainly no bar to success.

In the first semifinal, for example, the five jettisoned entries were all in English , while nine of the ten qualifiers contained national language lyrics. The second semifinal was less kind, ditching Georgian, Montenegrin and Serbian in the last three places, but still, seven out of the ten successful songs chose not to rely entirely (or at all) on English.

And then, of course, to the final. After a pretty intense finish, it’s time for a stocktake. Just how, exactly, did our foreign languages fare?

A good start – and a good finish

The final promised much, with 21 of the 26 entries sung fully, or partly, in a language other than English. Admittedly, for the third year in a row, we do have another anglophone winner, although a wonderful one, with Austria’s sensational popera number Wasted Love by captivating countertenor JJ.

But our top ten is an encouraging one for fans of non-anglophone lyrics. Runner-up Israel manages to squeeze another two languages in alongside English, with lines in both Hebrew and French.  A single point behind, Estonia managed third place with arguably Anglo-Italian (or is it Mocktalian?) lyrics. Favourites Sweden, showcasing the national language for the first time since 1998, unexpectedly just missed out on the top three.

The rest of the top ten is made up almost exclusively of songs with national tongue lyrics – Italian, Greek, French, Albanian and Ukrainian. And if we take the coveted left-hand side of the scoreboard as the measure of general success at Eurovision, then we can add Finnish and Latvian to the list too.

Eurovision 2026 – Onwards and Upwards!

And that’s it for another year. Huge, deserved congratulations to Austria on its win, English lyrics or otherwise. Here’s hoping that the success of national languages in 2025 tempts even more countries to dare to switch back in 2026!

Lighting ready for Eurovision

Eurovision of Languages, 2025 Edition

Europhiles, unite! It’s time once more for our annual pilgrimage to Eurovision. And this year’s celebration of music and language is coming to us live from Basel, Switzerland.

Switzerland, of course, is the land of multiple national languages, with an impressive four to its constitution. For most of us, languages one of the main draws of the contest (it was certainly my way in!). And as it turns out, 2025 has a few nice surprises in store.

Eurovision 2025 : What’s In And What’s Out?

Icelandic is back, thanks to the Væb brothers – but Norwegian gives way to English again. After norsk-singing Gåte’s last place in the 2024 final, perhaps the appetite for a national language song wasn’t there. Perhaps most surprisingly, Swedish is back, and after a 27-year gap! Sverige is represented by the winsome KAJ, hailing from the Swedish-speaking region of Finland, and are bookie’s faves with their ode to the sauna, Bara bada bastu. It’s been a long time waiting since Jill Johnson’s Kärleken är in my lovely home city of Birmingham.

That makes two Finnish entries this year, then – well, almost. As for the Finnish broadcaster, YLE, there’s more language joy in store. Yes, Finnish is back! And Suomi’s Erika Vikman is proving, like Käärijä in 2023, that singing in your national language is no hobbler. The cheeky Ich komme not only squeezes a bit of German in there via the title, but has consistently featured in the bookie’s top ten favourites since its selection.

Francophone Delights

French is back big for 2025. For a start, Louane’s emotional Maman is currently third favourite to win. Joining her in francophone pop celebration are Luxembourg’s Laura Thorn, singing an up-to-date homage to the 1965 luxembourgeois winner Poupée de cire, poupée de son, Swiss home defender Zoë Më with the charmingly beautiful ballad Voyage, and Israeli singer Yuval, whose lyrics are partly in French (she lived in Geneva as a child).

Hardy Annuals

Italy, Portugal and Spain continue with France their long-held tradition of sending songs in the national language – welcome bulwarks against the tide of anglophone pop unleashed when the national language rule was dropped (again) in 1999. But they’re joined this year by Germany, who send a song in German for the first time since the late Roger Cicero’s 2007 entry. Baller is a fresh-sounding Ohrwurm that has worked its way into many fan favourite lists.

Neighbouring Baltics Latvia and Lithuania have both chosen this year’s edition to showcase their own languages. That’s a double rare occurrence – both countries have overwhelmingly opted to sing in English for most of their Eurovision journey. Estonia doesn’t quite join their club this year, but isn’t entirely in English; the quirky Espresso macchiato is sung partly in English, and partly in ‘Mocktalian’, which has caused some consternation with native speakers.

Completing the language line-up, we have Albanian, Greek, Hebrew, Montenegrin, Polish, Serbian and Ukrainian.

Now that doesn’t compare too shabbily with 2024, does it? Whichever country you’re supporting, have a great Eurovision – and see you in Basel!

Advert for Assimil language learning courses in The Scotsman, 1959

Selling Language Learning : Two Hundred Years of Promises

A lot has changed in contemporary language learning and teaching in a pretty short space of time. Anyone over 30 might still remember two distinct types of courses being sold on bookshop shelves – the traditional grammar-translation type, and those following a newer communicative approach.

The former is all about rules and drills, while the focus of the latter is language skills for real-world situations. In short, book language versus people language. There’s merit to both, of course – I get a lot from course books both old (sometimes very old) and new. But as the communicative approach is now such a natural first step for many, it’s easy to forget how recently it arose and became mainstream.

In my travels through the British Newspaper Archive, I come across countless ads and reviews for language course books through the decades. Of course, they’re almost all in that rules and drills vein. Writers were constantly coming up with the latest and greatest new system for ‘mastering’ a language. The Victorians seemed particularly obsessed with ‘system’ and ‘mastery’, and that fixation comes through in so many of the titles from that era.

So, here’s a selection of recent finds, spanning 150 years or so. What’s familiar – and what has changed?

A Practical German Grammar (1825)

Advert for "German Grammar" by John Rowbotham in Bell's Weekly Messenger, 1825

Advert for “German Grammar” by John Rowbotham in Bell’s Weekly Messenger, 1825

Two hundred years ago, German learners might have been tempted by Rowbotham’s A Practical German Grammar. There’s already an eye to later Teach Yourself courses, as the book is useful to “Private Students” too. And the biggest selling point? The author is “an Englishman” who knows well “those points which are attended with difficulty to his countrymen“. There’s nothing like solidarity!

Hebrew Verbs Simplified (1852)

Advert for "Hebrew Verbs Simplified" by Tresham D. Gregg in The Morning Herald (London), 1852

Advert for “Hebrew Verbs Simplified” by Tresham D. Gregg in The Morning Herald (London), 1852

The 19th Century saw the idea of efficiency and system fetishised to a fault, and you find simplified titles at every turn. There’s a drive to divide knowledge up into orderly chunks so that mastery – a Victorian fixation – is in the reach of everyone. This volume on Hebrew Verbs from 1852 is a lovely example of it. Learn it here and it will be “scarcely forgotten“!

An Easy And Rapid Method for Learning French Verbs (1881)

Advert for "An Easy and Rapid Method for Learning French Regular and Irregular Verbs" by A. E. Ragon in the Dundee Courier, 1881

Advert for “An Easy and Rapid Method for Learning French Regular and Irregular Verbs” by A. E. Ragon in the Dundee Courier, 1881

We have yet another system described in this short 1881 newspaper review, this time for French verbs. It’s easy! And it’s rapid! And you can sense the thrill of the efficiency-seekers, setting the messy world of language in order. It’s nothing new, of course; plenty of modern courses promise to simplify difficult paradigms. But the idea is so bound up with the Victorian ideal of progress and scientific understanding, that there’s a real feeling of Zeitgeist about these pieces.

Italian Conversational Course (1870)

Review for "Italian Conversational Course" by Giovanni Toscani in the Educational Times, 1870

Review for “Italian Conversational Course” by Giovanni Toscani in the Educational Times, 1870

Learning Italian in 1870? You might like to try Giovanni Toscani’s Italian Conversational Course. In the 19th Century spirit of logic and order, it’s organised perhaps a little differently from courses you might be used to. Namely, you’ll focus on verbs first, before moving onto nouns. You have to wonder how ‘conversational’ you’d be after only the first few chapters (“well, I can say I want but I can’t say what I want…”). Saying that, most of the Polish grammar I know is from a 1948 course that only taught neuter nouns for a surprisingly high number of chapters…

Hugo’s In Three Months (1957)

Advert for Hugo language courses in Bookseller, 1957

Advert for Hugo language courses in Bookseller, 1957

Skipping forward to the mid-20th Century, things start to look a little more familiar, even if the language sounds old-fashioned. Hugo – a language learning brand you’ll still see in bookshops today – ran this substantial ad piece in 1957. As a testament to the books’ popularity, the ad tells us that they’re now available as hardbacks (“bound in boards“), and available for a mere seven shillings and sixpence. That’s a bargain for language learning without a master!

Assimil Languages (1959)

Advert for Assimil language courses in The Scotsman, 1959

Advert for Assimil language courses in The Scotsman, 1959

Another evergreen language brand many will be familiar with from modern editions, Assimil was well on the game in 1959. And these courses were fully multimedia, at least in the format of the day – they came with a set of “gramophone records” to speed learners along the path of their three-month journey.  It’s that magic three months, again – both Hugo and Assimil were making that claim back in the 1950s, and it’s one you still see in today’s Hugo titles. The Victorians weren’t the only ones selling the simple system for mastery; it’s a tantalising (and book-selling idea) right into our own era.

Exploring the history of language learning seems like a tangential side-quest for the language learner, but it’s such a worthy one, if only for the social history of it all. The ideas that drove us, the tools we used to realise those ideas – its reflections are in each of these ads.

And sometimes, it’s surprising how little we’ve changed.

An issue of "Our Gaelic Page" in The Highland News, 1897.

Learning Gaelic in 1900 : Highland News’ “Our Gaelic Page”

Over a century before the BBC’s Speaking Gaelic team were building a community of modern learners, the Highland News was doing the same with its regular feature Our Gaelic Page.

A couple of weeks ago, I shared a chance language learning find in the BNA – the regular Gaoluinn Irish language lessons in The Irish Independent. I’ve spent some time this week on the trail for similar resources for Gaelic in vintage newspapers. Did anything like Gaoluinn exist in Scotland?

Our Gaelic Page

Well, around the turn of the 19th Century, it happens that The Highland News was publishing this regular page packed with language learning content. Although Our Gaelic Page didn’t consist of lessons in the sense that Gaoluinn did, it featured poetry, prose, song, a learner’s Q&A section, and even recent exam paper questions.

Its aims are clearly different from those of Gaoluinn – this a page for those with Gaelic, who want to maintain or improve it. But it offered a wealth of material for that end; in some ways, the content reminds me a little of the NRK podcast Språkteigen – discussion of language simply for the love of learning it.

Clàrsach nan Gaidheal

Its regular song section, Clàrsach nan Gaidheal – the Gaels’ Harp – is a great find for anyone interested in traditional music. Editions ran into the hundreds, each one offering background notes, lyrics in Gaelic and English, and even the music in the form of what I think are chords. Annotation like m, n and r aren’t familiar to me, though, so if anyone has an idea about what they refer to, I’d love to hear from you!

An edition of the Gaelic song series, Clàrsach nan Gaidheal from The Highland News, 1898.

An edition of the Gaelic song series, Clàrsach nan Gaidheal from The Highland News, 1898.

Exam Reports

One of the more academic inclusions consists of exam reports from various places – sometimes Glasgow, sometimes as far as London. As well as the top performers’ names, we get, unusually, a rundown of all the exam questions, too. Newspapers as a repository of past papers is a brand new genre for me (and one I quite like, I must admit!).

That said, the exams take quite a different tack from the more communicative approach of today. This is Gaelic being taught much as Latin and Ancient Greek were – declensions and conjugations by rote. As much as I love that traditional take, perhaps treating the language as a written classic wasn’t the best strategy for reviving it in conversation.

Gaelic examination reports from The Highland News, 1902.

Gaelic examination reports from The Highland News, 1902.

Our Gaelic Page seems to have run from 1897 to 1902 – at least that’s what turns up in the BNA scans. But it’s certainly not the only focus for learners a century ago. Further searches turn up plenty of other evidence for an active, enthusiastic community at the time. Amongst the tidbits are reports from language societies, notices seeking teachers for adult classes, and ads for new reference books. Nothing new there – in fact, it’s heartening to draw a continuous line between learners then and now.

In any case, it’s a lovely glimpse into life as a language learning a hundred years back, as well as a great reading resource for this modern-day learner. I’ll doubtless be dipping into more of Our Gaelic Page over the coming months.

Vintage TV set for franchise hopping! Image by FreeImages.com

Target Language TV for Titters : Amazon’s Last One Laughing

I’ve long been a fan of highly exportable TV show franchises as ‘authentic target language with stabilisers’ media for learners. The language is rich and colloquial, but the format is familiar enough to be more accessible to L2 speakers than other TV genres.

Well, I’ve recent discovered another one that is available in a wonderfully broad array of languages. It’s Amazon Prime’s Last One Laughing, the show where comedians vie to keep straight faces in an onslaught of silliness, and be the very last to crack up.

It’s a simple concept, and for sure, it’s simple, cheap telly. That’s probably why Amazon found it so easy to roll it out to so many different language settings. All you need is a studio and a bunch of comedians willing to act daft. The result? Last One Laughing has local versions in languages from mainstream French and Spanish to more niche learner langs like Dutch and Norwegian.

Good TV Fit for Learners

In terms of the language, the show is a curiously good fit for L2 learners. The improvised dialogue can be slow and deliberate, as the contestants try to out-pun each other. It can often have a touch of the bizarre and clownish about it, too, which is always good to keep learners on their context toes (did she really just say her brother was a fish?).

(Pop-)Culturally, too, it’s a winner. If you didn’t know much about the comedy scene in your target language countries before, then you certainly will after a few episodes. The guests are fresh, current TV faces that give a good sample of who’s popular right now where your language is spoken.

If you’re looking for some target language listening fun, then Last One Laughing is both great learning material and just good TV. Well worth a punt if you have Prime.

An Irish lesson printed in the Irish Independent, 1924 (British Newspaper Archive)

Irish Lessons from 1924

As part of my PhD research, I spend countless hours trawling the British Newspaper Archive for forgotten dialect writing. Occasionally, the net catches more than I was expecting.

So it was this week, when I was searching for some Black Country collocation or other. Because they’re often short – like doh yer (don’t you) – and because of OCR errors in the transcriptions, the chance for false positives can be really high.

But this false positive was a bit more interesting than many. The search had mistakenly picked out some Irish text in a 1924 edition of the Irish Independent. It turned out to be part of a regular “Teach Yourself” style column, Gaoluinn. That’s an alternative spelling of Gaolainn – the Munster word for Gaeilge, the Irish language, which suggests that it’s Munster dialect that is the basis for the lessons.

Now, newspapers and language learning lessons are nothing new – there was a giveaway in the early noughties (I can’t remember the paper) where you got a special edition Teach Yourself book with every copy (I still have that mini Teach Yourself Basic Italian somewhere!). But Gaoluinn looked to be part of a run of language lessons that built up readers’ knowledge across editions.

Gaoluinn – Newspaper Irish Lessons

An Irish lesson printed in the Irish Independent, 1924 (British Newspaper Archive)

An Irish lesson printed in the Irish Independent, 1924 (British Newspaper Archive)

It’s typical of the language learning of its time, taking a systematic grammar-based approach (you might remember this from my raving over Teach Yourself Polish 1948!). The particular week that popped up here explains plural formation in Irish, alongside a bunch of illustrative phrases with just a hint of the aphorism and sermon about them.

A lovely thing about the lessons is its attempt at ‘folk’ phonetic spelling alongside the Irish. You can imagine readers giving it a go – readers whose families had maybe lost the language a couple of generations ago, and wanted to reconnect with Irish.

There’s More Out There

There’s clearly loads more Gaoluinn to explore in the archive, but I haven’t investigated further yet. Of course, I have more pressing things to be getting on with on the BNA, as fun as false positives are!

But I’m intrigued by the find nonetheless. A quick peek shows that it ran from at least 1922 to 1925, and later on, often taught via the target language (how modern – the way I learnt to teach!). I have so many questions, though… Was it serialised from an existing course book, or was it turned into a course book later? Was it popular or well received?

It’s definitely something I’ll circle back to when I have a bit more time. And, incidentally,  I’m sure there’s some PhD material in there for anyone interested in the evolution of language teaching, too!

Darren Paffey MP giving the keynote speech at ALL Language World 2025

ALL Language World 2025

I was out waving the yellow flag for Linguascope, working the stands at the ALL Language World conference this weekend. Now, it’s not often I’ll rave about attending conferences. After all, they can be pretty dry affairs, especially as an exhibitor, where your main job is to smile and hand out goodie bags.

But there was something so positive about the vibe with this one. Perhaps it was the smaller scale and more intimate setting in rural Warwickshire. Maybe it was professional solidarity, after some tough years for secondary language pedagogy. Whatever the reason, it was a lovely opportunity to mix with other language professionals, faces both familiar and new.

One of the highlights was the keynote speech by Darren Paffey MP. Darren is one of the new 2024 intake of British MPs (and, we are told, one of only three Darrens to be elected to parliament!). Before being swiped by politics, Darren was a professor of sociolinguistics at the University of Southampton, and a long-time language learning enthusiast. The ideal guest, then, to reassure an anxious crowd, worn down by years of official neglect of languages on the curriculum, that he will be fighting our corner in the new government.

It’s not often we get one on the inside!

Darren Paffey MP with Didi, the Linguascope Dog at ALL Language World 2025.

Darren Paffey MP with Didi, the Linguascope Dog at ALL Language World 2025.

Perhaps it was the encouraging tone of that keynote that helped buoy the mood. In any case, it was one of the nicest events, in terms of camaraderie, mutual support and optimism that I’ve attended in recent years. Props to the ALL for organising it, and for bagging such a thoroughly decent keynote speaker.

An Anki card with a note image and a template image.

Top Three Gamification Plugins for Anki

If you’re committed to mastering a new language, you already know the power of Anki’s spaced repetition system and its range of fantastic, functional add-ons like Review Heatmap.

But let’s face it—purely functional flashcards can sometimes feel monotonous. That’s where gamification plugins come in, introducing arcade-style elements into your study sessions to transform them into engaging, motivating experiences.

Below, I’ve pulled together three perhaps lesser-proselytised entries from the plug-in cache that introduce a, well, off-the-wall element to your card reviews. Think kawaii rather than cahier. Yes, they are a little whacky. But there’s often method in language learning madness, and these are all great fun as well as being squarely aimed at increasing your motivation.

Let the fun begin!

1. POKEMANKI – Strategic Learning Meets Fun

Pokemanki ingeniously blends language learning with the mechanics of Pokémon, turning your Anki reviews into a game where you hatch eggs, train Pokémon, and climb leaderboards. With over 30,000 downloads, it’s a clear favorite among learners who appreciate its strategic depth and nostalgic appeal.  If you’re looking for a plugin that combines fun with serious progress, this is an excellent choice.

Download Pokemanki here.

2. ANKIMON – Catch ‘Em All, Pokémon-Style

OK, there’s a theme emerging here… and it’s perhaps not surprising, judging by how many of my polyglot pals are also into Pokémon. Ankimon takes gamification to the next level by turning your Anki reviews into a full Pokémon adventure. As you review cards, you catch, train, and trade Pokémon, competing with others online. With over 15,000 downloads, it’s a hit among learners who thrive on immersive gameplay. If you’re a Pokémon fan looking to inject excitement into your language learning, this plugin is a must-try.

Download Ankimon here.

3. ANKITTY – Simple, Effective Motivation

Sometimes, the simplest incentives are the most motivating and fun. Kitten Rewards displays charming kitten images on your “congrats” screen after completing a deck, offering a small but effective boost. With over 10,000 downloads, it’s a popular choice for learners seeking a low-pressure, low-key way to stay engaged. If you appreciate subtle, positive reinforcement (and love kittens), this plugin is worth exploring.

Download Ankitty here. Alternatively, for doggie fans, there’s this puppy alternative!

Final Thoughts

Gamification isn’t just about enjoyment—it’s about leveraging psychology to sustain your language-learning momentum. Whether you’re strategising with Pokemanki, tracking progress and hatching eggs with Ankimon, or enjoying the small joys of Kitten Rewards, these plugins can transform your Anki experience into something quite unique.

Choose the one that best aligns with your learning style, and take your language skills to the next level. Happy studying, polyglots!

A robot reading a script. The text-to-speech voices at ElevenLabs certainly sound intelligent as well as natural!

ElevenLabs : 5-Star Tool for Language Work and Study

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know how impressed I’ve been at ElevenLabs, the text-to-speech creator that stunned the industry when its super-realistic voices were unleashed on the world. Since then, it’s made itself irreplaceable in both my work and study, and it bears spreading the word again: ElevenLabs is a blow-your-socks-off kind of tool for creating spoken audio content.

Professional Projects

In my work developing language learning materials for schools, arranging quality narration used to involve coordinating with agencies and studios — a process that was both time-consuming and costly. We’ve had issues with errors, too, which cost a project time with re-recordings. And that’s not to mention the hassle keeping sections up-to-date. Removing ‘stereo’ from an old vocab section (who has those now?) would usually trigger a complete re-record.

With ElevenLabs, I can now produce new sections promptly, utilising its impressive array of voices across multiple languages. The authenticity and clarity of these voices are fantastic – I really can’t understate it – and it’s made maintaining the biggest language learning site for schools so much easier.

Supporting Individual Learning

As a language learner, ElevenLabs is more than worth its salt, too. It’s particularly good for assembling short listening passages – about a minute long – to practise ‘conversation islands’—a well-regarded polyglot technique for achieving conversational fluency.

Beyond language learning, the tool can be a great support to other academic projects. I’ve created concise narrations of complex topics, converting excerpts from scholarly papers into audio format. Listening to these clips in spare moments (or even in the background while washing up) has helped cement some key concepts, and prime my mind for conventional close study.

Flexible and Affordable Plans

ElevenLabs offers a range of pricing options to suit different needs:

• Free Plan: Ideal for those starting out, this plan provides 10,000 characters per month, roughly equating to 10 minutes of audio.

• Starter Plan: At £5 per month, you receive 30,000 characters (about 30 minutes of audio), along with features like voice cloning and commercial use rights.

• Creator Plan: For £22 per month, this plan offers 100,000 characters (around 100 minutes of audio), plus professional voice cloning and higher-quality outputs.

For messing around, that free plan is not too stingy at all – you can really get a feel for the tool from it. Personally, I’ve not needed to move beyond the starter plan yet, which is pretty much a bargain at around a fiver a month.

Introducing ElevenReader

And there’s more! Complementing the TTS service, ElevenLabs has introduced ElevenReader, a free tool that narrates PDFs, ePubs, articles, and newsletters in realistic AI voices. Available on both iOS and Android platforms, the app doesn’t even consume credits from your ElevenLabs subscription plan.

Seriously, I can’t even believe this is still free – go and try it!

Final Thoughts

ElevenLabs has truly transformed the way I create and consume spoken content. It truly is my star tool from the current crop of AI-powered utilities.

The ElevenLabs free tier is enough for most casual users to have a dabble – go and try it today!

Anki Heat Maps – Honesty Corner

When it comes to building and reviewing habits, honesty is the best policy. And there’s one Anki plug-in that has been that tough-talking, truth-speaking friend I’ve needed over the years.

Review heat map has been going for as long as I’ve been using Anki (and that’s a long time already!). I think it was a German conversation partner on iTalki who pointed me in its direction originally – it was so long ago, that that origin story is lost in the mists of time.

But because of that admirable length of service, I have years of usage data in there – and it really shines a light on my consistency (or lack thereof) in that time.

Anki Honesty

I’d not looked at mine in a while – in the desktop app they’re hiding below your decks – so it was about time to check in. And while I knew I’d been a bit on and off in 2024 (preparing for a PhD was a slight distraction!), I didn’t realise I’d been quite so neglectful.

Anki heat maps over time

Anki heat maps over time

It’s not all bad, though. There’s actually something very encouraging about this. Progress is bitty, yes; but it never stops completely. A couple of times, I’ve had over two weeks without checking in. But I’ve always got back into it (usually in a mammoth catch-up sesh, working through 200+ cards – although even those catch-ups took perhaps just 10-15 minutes each).

Taking stock like this also serves as a motivational kick – I can do better. And so it’s back in my goals list for 2025 – make Anki part of the start of your day. Getting a year completely blued out, like 2021, will be so satisfying.

Know Yourself

Heat maps can show us that sometimes, we fail to take our own advice. We fall off the wagon. It’s clear that there are times that I repeatedly let my daily tactics slide, despite my own efficiency evangelism!

That said, knowledge is power. Looking over those heat maps, I see when those times of slippage occur. Without fail, they’re always times of being over-busy, stressed out, or – conversely – times of extreme leisure (think: holidays!). More than anything, the stops and starts in my heat maps show that life sometimes gets in the way.

But you can always get it back on track.

Review Heat Map is a pretty essential addition to your Anki toolbox, to my mind. And it’s available for free from the Anki plug-ins site!