Our First Journalling Workshop
One of the earliest journalling events we hosted at Blue Noun was a workshop called Journal for Joy, led by Lhamo Grace at the Blue Noun Hub in Crieff.
At the time, I didn’t fully realise how important these kinds of creative, reflective gatherings would become to the wider Blue Noun experience.
Since then, journalling has gone on to shape a number of our workshops and events — including Mid-Journey, our newer travel journal gatherings for travellers passing through Scotland.
What stayed with me from that first evening was the atmosphere the workshop created. The room became calm, cosy, thoughtful, and deeply personal very quickly.
People moved around the space freely, wrote quietly, sketched, drank tea, listened to music, and settled into the process in their own way. Because people relaxed into the experience so deeply,
I intentionally limited photography, although I did manage to capture a short film clip from the evening.
Workshops like this also helped shape the way I think about English learning itself. What struck me was how naturally conversation emerged once people were responding to something real — a memory, a prompt, a sketch, a feeling, a quiet moment of reflection. Language stopped feeling like an academic exercise and became part of the atmosphere of the evening.
That has gone on to become one of the core ideas behind Blue Noun.
We use workshops, shared experiences, creativity, food, landscapes, conversation, and local culture to create meaningful contexts for English rather than separating the language from real life.
Journalling became one small but important part of that wider philosophy.
In 2026, this idea expanded further when Blue Noun introduced the “middle way” approach — experiences designed for travellers passing through Scotland, not just people joining our full English holidays. The theory behind the middle way is that you don’t need to choose between having a meaningful holiday and taking an English course. English can become part of the journey itself.
Journalling naturally became part of this philosophy. It gives people something real to respond to, reflect on, sketch, discuss, and remember. Instead of separating English from travel, creativity, and human connection, the language grows inside those experiences.
→ Get our Support for Travelling and Learning English the Middle Way
There’s a lovely moment in a Marian Keyes novel where a character admits she feels guilty if she enjoys reading too much, because somewhere deep down she has learned that books are supposed to improve you, not simply bring pleasure.
I think a lot of people carry something similar into language learning.
We’ve been taught that learning only “counts” if it feels difficult, disciplined, or exhausting.
But one of the core philosophies behind Blue Noun is that enjoyment is not the opposite of meaningful learning.
Often it’s the thing that allows people to stay open, curious, expressive, and connected for long enough for real language growth to happen.
Journaling can be part of that story.
Journalling and Slow Travel
Travel journalling is slow travel.
It asks you to pause long enough to notice where you are, what you’re feeling, who you’ve met, and what moments are quietly shaping the journey.
Not every experience needs to become content immediately.
Some moments need a little space around them first.
That’s part of why journalling became such a natural fit for Blue Noun. It creates space for reflection, conversation, sketching, memory, and connection — all things which also help language feel more lived-in and personal.
Journalling and Real-World English
One of the reasons journalling fits so naturally into the Blue Noun approach is that it has a lot in common with the way we support spoken English.
We use prompts, objects, sketches, landscapes, food, conversation, and shared experiences to help language emerge naturally rather than forcing it through performance pressure.
Like journalling, spoken English is not really about producing perfect sentences all the time. It’s about expressing something real, following your thoughts, responding to the world around you, and gradually building trust in your own voice.
For many adults, this requires a surprisingly big mindset shift. A lot of us grew up with educational systems where mistakes were heavily punished or where language felt connected to marks, correction, embarrassment, or performance.
But meaningful communication rarely begins with perfection. Usually, it begins with permission.
Things We’ve Learned From Hosting Journalling Workshops
At Blue Noun, we genuinely enjoy helping people find more creative, expressive, and human ways to use English. Over the years, we’ve gone on to run a number of journalling workshops, reflective conversation events, and creative language experiences — and along the way we’ve learned a few things that seem to help people relax into both the process and the language.
(We also share many of these ideas with ESOL teachers looking to bring more creativity and real-world expression into their own classrooms through our teacher resource pages.)
Create a Relaxed Atmosphere
One of the biggest things we noticed during these workshops was how much the atmosphere mattered.
For the Journal for Joy evening, we created a cosy environment with soft lighting, music, tea, snacks, notebooks, plants, and flexible seating. People were free to move around the room, sit quietly, sketch, write, or simply pause and think.
The more relaxed people became, the more naturally both creativity and conversation seemed to emerge.
That’s something we now carry across many Blue Noun experiences.
Sketches Can Say More Than Words
One thing I personally love about travel journalling is that sketches can capture the feeling of a moment incredibly quickly.
Not everyone enjoys writing long descriptions, especially in another language. But diagrams, drawings, arrows, colour, shapes, maps, and visual notes can all become part of the storytelling process too.
This is something we often encourage in Blue Noun workshops and conversation experiences: communication does not begin and end with perfect sentences.
Good Materials Invite Participation
We’ve found that people relax differently when they are given generous, welcoming materials to work with.
A nice notebook, loose paper, coloured pens, postcards, printed prompts, objects to respond to — these small details change the atmosphere of a space very quickly.
At Blue Noun, we often use tactile objects, images, sketching prompts, and visual materials to help language feel more expressive and less abstract.
Some Experiences Need Space Around Them
One reason I limited photography during the workshop was that people settled into the process very deeply and personally.
Not every moment needs to become content immediately.
Sometimes reflection itself is the experience.
That idea has gone on to shape a lot of Blue Noun’s newer workshops and slow-travel experiences, including Mid-Journey.
Real Experiences Create Real Language
Perhaps the biggest thing we’ve learned is that people tend to use English more naturally when they are responding to something meaningful.
A memory.
A sketch.
A landscape.
A shared meal.
A strange travel story.
A conversation that matters.
When people have something genuine to say, language often follows more easily.
That philosophy now sits at the centre of many Blue Noun workshops, travel experiences, and teacher resources.
Language Tip
If you are not feeling fluent yet, it is often better to journal freely in your own language first rather than interrupting your thoughts searching for vocabulary.
This is slightly different from the “target language only” approach often associated with language learning, but at Blue Noun we don’t believe every meaningful moment needs to be forced immediately into English.
Sometimes the important thing is capturing the memory, emotion, observation, or idea while it is still alive.
English can then grow around that experience afterwards through conversation, reflection, shared storytelling, or translation.
In our experience, people often speak more naturally once they already have something genuine they want to express.
Gentle Journalling Prompts
In journalling workshops, a “prompt” is simply a small starting point — a question, observation, image, or idea that helps get your thoughts flowing without the pressure of staring at a blank page.
Here are a few simple prompts we often return to during Blue Noun workshops and conversation events:
- What small detail from today do you not want to forget?
- What surprised you today?
- What did you hear, smell, taste, or notice?
- Which conversation stayed with you?
- Draw the shape of your day rather than describing it literally.
- What would you want your future self to remember about this moment?
For travellers visiting Perthshire and Stirling, many of these ideas now continue through Mid-Journey — Blue Noun’s relaxed travel journal gatherings for people passing through Scotland.
Part creative workshop, part conversation space, Mid-Journey invites travellers to slow down for an evening and reflect on their journey through sketching, writing, prompts, discussion, and shared stories.
The workshops are also part of Blue Noun’s newer “middle way” approach to English support: the belief that you don’t need to choose between having a meaningful holiday and practising English. Language can become part of the journey itself.
While preparing Mid-Journey, I also rediscovered a travel journal from my own backpacking years in Canada that had been hidden in an attic for almost 30 years.
Inside were sketches, letters, photographs, observations, and tiny details I had completely forgotten — moments which came flooding back the second I turned the pages again.
Finding it became a powerful reminder that travel journals preserve far more than itineraries. They hold atmosphere, relationships, emotions, conversations, and versions of ourselves we might otherwise lose.
Further Information
It’s also interesting how much journalling culture has quietly grown online in recent years. Platforms like Substack are now full of writers, travellers, artists, sketchbook keepers, and reflective travellers sharing notebooks, travel reflections, prompts, and slower forms of storytelling.
If you’re curious about getting started with journalling yourself, it can actually be a lovely free place to explore different styles and approaches before ever joining a workshop.
