Michael Levi-Harris: The Hyperglot Movie (2/2)

Hello everyone and welcome back to the actual fluency podcast. This is the seventh episode of the third season. And today I'm joined once again by Mr. Michael Levi Harris and this is a part two of the last week's episode. So if you haven't listened to season 3 episode 6 yet, I highly recommend you go listen to that first as we introduce a lot of the things that we talk about in this episode. So, uh, you know, please go one episode back and listen and then come back to this one.

Michael Levi Harris is the star and writer of the Hyperglot movie and during this interview we talk a lot about the movie, being a language learner in general, being a hyperglot in general and some of the challenges that Michael has with learning languages, which is no surprise shared by many people. Um so I really hope you enjoy this episode.

And because I've had a few delays lately on the podcast. uh, you know, I try to bring one out every week when possible and some weeks it's just not possible because of, you know, sickness or traveling or you know, what things happen. But in the last few weeks, there's just been minor delays. They, you know, the episodes have gone out, but they've been up to like three or four days delayed. And that's not ideal. So to kind of compensate for that and bring back the schedule a little bit, I'm going to release two episodes right after each other.

So if you're listening to this as it comes out on Saturday the 12th of December, you can look forward to a new episode of the actual fluency podcast already tomorrow, Sunday the 13th of December. And this episode is going to be with the CEO of memorized, Mr. Ed Cook. And we're going to talk about the new Membus project and memorize in general, the future of online learning, uh space repetition based learning. And uh you can still get involved in the Membus project, drive around the most epic multilingual road trip ever attempted. You can check out the Membus project on Google and you'll find the Kickstarter where you can still contribute. But uh for now here's the continuation of the interview with Michael Levi Harris.

Um, but I even with those 10, I would I really feel like given that I I have a good ear for it and a good mind for it and an ability to keep it straight, which I never really thought of as an ability until I've met people who've told me that they can't keep different languages straight that they learn a foreign language and then they try to learn another one, but but the other foreign language keeps coming out. Yeah. Um, so I guess you know, I I have some ability with that and and I just if I could only have kind of combined those abilities and and innate skill with discipline. I feel like the 10 languages that I speak, I could, you know, speak at a spy-level accuracy.

I mean, obviously, I love acting and storytelling and and those things are really connected in my mind. It's all about communicating to with people and language is one way, you know, one facet of communication, but telling a story is a medium of communication and um and so yeah, I mean, I I I don't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't choose to speak those 10 languages perfectly if there is such a thing, plus another five at the expense of you know, the other things that I like to do in life.

Um, but what I you know, it's just that I guess where I'm hard on myself is I don't know why I I haven't, you know, taken 10 minutes a day to to read something in each of the languages that I speak just to keep it fresh because that's I think that's really important. Because as you say, learning a language, I don't think it's that hard. It maintaining it and keeping it is what's hard because if you don't use it, you lose it. And if you don't have people around you to speak with, the only other thing you can really do is is read in it. Um, so I, you know, that there's time there's would still be time for me to act and, you know, cook, which is something I like and do genealogy, which is a big hobby of mine and still spend a few minutes a day and I why I don't do it, I don't know. I mean, partially because I'm there's always a different language that I want to be one that I don't already know that I'm like interested in.

And for me, it's I think it's the idea that 10 minutes isn't really 10 minutes. It's like you when I need to I almost need to mentally prepare for the 10 minutes and then I need a little wind-down period after the 10 minutes. Yeah. It's not just like pick up a book and then starting a stopwatch. It's like because when you read something you get engaged to it, you know, you really become involved unless it's really bad, but then again, why would you read it?

Um, so for me, it I'm a lot more all or nothing. I would do like an hour or maybe two hours every week instead of those, you know, 10, 15 minutes every day. And I'm sure that's again shared by about there.

But on the other hand, it doesn't reading doesn't help I I think with the with being able with keeping up a level of speaking because and maybe that sounds obvious cuz they're two different skills, but um what I notice is that I I can read really well in all most all of the languages I speak and then some that I don't speak, you know, I don't really count Dutch as a language that I speak. Um, I I sort of say I can converse in you know, on my on my uh acting CV. I I categorize languages into fluent, proficient and conversant. Um, because for acting, you know, you don't usually don't have to um improvise. There's a script. So if somebody gave me a script in Dutch, I I could do it. No problem. Um, so that's why it's on my resume anyway.

But I can read Dutch, you know, and in fact, I helped a friend with an audition for a short film a while ago. Uh, like a week ago, actually two weeks ago and it was in Dutch and the whole all the stage direction, everything was in Dutch. Oh, wow. And she forwarded it to me so that I could be prepared and I read it very easily. I mean, yeah, there was the odd word. I didn't know what it meant, but the whole gist of it I got. So so reading I find is like kind is a bit passive, you know, because I can do it and understand and get whatever it is out of it and and every time I've had to read something for some purpose, you know, whether it's Italian or French or just something that that I don't use often enough or Romanian, let's say, I mean French is my French is good. But um, you know, something that that is not on the forefront of my mind, but I if I read it, I think like, oh, I know what it's saying. Which is similar to I think people that understand a language and and can't speak it. Right. So so it isn't enough actually to just spend 10 minutes a day reading unless the issue is vocabulary, I think.

So, yeah. I I well, I guess the question is out there, you know, how do we how can we get those short bursts of learning in every day to maintain and also improve, you know, if you have weak languages, doing those 10 minutes of listening or watching or reading, it just seems so hard for me. It's much easier for me to just cut off an hour and say, okay, I'll do an hour of flash cards or something.

At the moment, I'm I'm doing Pimsleur Mandarin because I'm going to China in April with my school to perform. Um, and I did Pimsleur Mandarin years ago and never used it after, so pretty much forgot it all. Um, so it's sort of a redo for me. Um, but that would be Which is also helpful, actually. It's sort of, you know, you it's helpful to to redo things and I think something that I've learned along the way is that you one what I'm my nature is kind of like a purist nature. I like to have one method that works for me and just do things one way and do it thoroughly and and I've learned that that that does work for me to start with, you know, I like to have I think it can be confusing to do too many different language programs or look at too many different books at the same time when you're starting because um each one of those is designed with a, you know, in a different way pedagogically. And some books, I find, I mean, a lot of I mean, it's hard to find good ones actually cuz I find a lot of really flawed ones.

Um, but I I love starting a language learning thing with Pimsleur because um, I I know where I know where I'm going and because I had success with it before with Portuguese. And then at after a point, you you kind of want more and you want to, you know, what if you are somebody that already knows several languages or knows a lot about grammar, it's at a point it becomes more useful for you to just look at a verb chart and okay, this is how you conjugate a verb rather than wait until the Right. the their method, you know, has gotten through all of the the personal pronouns.

Um, but what I especially like about it is the the focus on pronunciation. And I absolutely think that people should um learn to speak before they read or write. Right, yeah. Uh unless you know that you're really good with sort of phonetics and and being able to look at a letter and know that that letter might have a completely different quality in a different language. But most people that I've ever met and I'm not really talking about polyglots, I guess, or or language enthusiasts, I should say. Just people in general are not that pernickety about about phonetics. And so they see an R and they just think of an R in their own language. Whereas if they were just listening and repeating what they heard, they would be so much more accurate.

Um, so I'm a big proponent of and that's why I like Pimsleur because you do it without writing first and you just listen. And they really, really drag the pronunciation out in the beginning. They really focus on breaking down each word and really, you know, repeating it many times. And actually for me it was a bit too slow, uh, sometimes in the beginning. But I recently interviewed um, Idahosa Ness who has like a pronunciation course online. Called the mimic method and that was in I can't remember which episode it was in season 3 at least.

And um, you know, I really realized that I hadn't been focusing enough on pronunciation because I went into it thinking, well, a good enough pronunciation is probably fine. But actually coming to realize that pronunciation does not only help you to make yourself understood, it actually also helps you to understand others. Mhm. And that's when I realized that, you know, you should really focus on pronunciation first and get that right. Uh so you don't develop those bad habits of, you know, going into Russian and just people don't understand what you're saying. Yeah. It's better to use that time up front and then have a great accent down the road.

Um so I I definitely agree with you and I I also agree with you that it's not it's very underrated. People like to think of the good enough Yeah. method. And I think that applies to other areas like, you know, you can speak good enough. You don't have to be perfect or anything. Mhm. But with pronunciation, I think working extra on that is definitely worth it. So, um, happy to hear you made the same observation.

And even in terms of practicing, if people, you know, if the best surely the best way to keep a language up is to practice it with somebody. And I just think even for people to be able to practice with you and to take you seriously, um, if if you're speaking, you know, if it's really hard to understand you, then I think that there's just something that automatically shuts off and they they people will disengage from talking to you because either they're finding it difficult or subconsciously they're thinking you don't really speak it that well because your pronunciation, you know, is not good.

And it was like my friend told me, oh, she's probably just asking if you want to go or to stay. Yeah. But I mean, you have no idea. And then you have to kind of have to like give up and go with the sorry, I don't speak Hungarian anyway. Um so that that's kind of funny. I don't know if there's a solution to that. I guess you just need enough exposure to the follow-up questions and

Um, Is that very is that a very valuable skill for actors these days to have a lot of languages on their CV? Is that a good opportunities? Um, you know, they always say that, but because the not just not just languages but accents, but because of, you know, the world is so globalized and and because so many people want to be actors and because film has become increasingly about realism and being realistic, they, you know, if they want somebody from the north of England, they will find an actor from the north of England. They won't ask you to do an accent where accents can come and get in handy. Well is is is in a smaller production or not necessarily smaller actually, but it's more this is more common in smaller productions or regional productions, but where a character is playing more than one role, an actor is playing more than one role. All right. So sometime and that, you know, occurs every so often and sometimes one of the roles either requires a different um accent or the actor and director decide that it should have a different accent to help differentiate. Um, so that's very useful.

As for languages, uh, I don't know. I mean my my my dream is to is to be remembered at the end of a hopefully very long life. Um, as as, you know, an international actor that that acted in in so many different film industries around the world. I I want to be in a French movie, in an Italian movie, in a Brazilian tele novela and I mean, I that's my my ideal career is to just um to do all of that and not just once but you know, to to be every time they want a quirky American character in a French film, like, oh, we're going to call Michael Levi Harris. Right. That that's what I want. Yeah.

Well, I think they usually do them in English though. No, I don't know. Not at all. Not at all. They have their own languages. Oh. Germany is very popular for doing their own language. Well, stuff like that, I I'm sure they would uh hire local local actors.

Um, Yeah, well, I I mean, I would love a career like that. I I think that generally speaking people don't expect, you know, that actors to be multilingual and and necessarily acting in different languages. Um, but that again, I mean, that's also where I'm hoping my niche will be. I'm hoping to be I certainly wouldn't be the first. I mean, there there I've there are actors that have acted in more than one language, but but I'm talking like really recognizably doing several different, you know.

Yeah. Well, that's why I mean, that going back to the Hyperglot, that was why ultimately at the end of the day, I made that film because confronted with this possibility that I could do it on the $300 in five minutes, which of course, neither of those things turned out to be even remotely um accurate. But the point was, you know, to take control of my own career and rather than sit around and wait for uh somebody to cast me in something, you know, because cast and casting is such a difficult process whereby you could be the greatest actor in the world and you could, you know, be exactly what somebody likes. But if the person who's ultimately in charge really wants someone who's two inches taller than you, then you just don't cut it. Or you know, so there's so many variables that something has to be exactly right for just you. Right. And, you know, the number of times that that comes along is so rare that you you must have a better shot at writing something that is exactly for you.

And and without wishing to sound um arrogant, I I don't I don't know that there's anyone else that could have played myself, Jake, in the Hyperglot. Um at least it would have been different, I I think. Yeah. That would have been a very interesting sort of exercise to cast someone to play yourself. Yeah. I mean, that would be you'd really have to go outside and look at yourself. Yeah. An interesting experiment.

But I think that the way forward, you know, I because lots of people ask me about um about uh you know, will I will I make another one? Will I make a sequel? Will I turn it into a full-length movie? Cuz a lot of times people, you know, short films get turned into feature length films. And um my plan is that when I finish, I finish acting school this this year at the end of this academic year, so in summer of 2016. Um, my plan is to I I hope that I'll get loads of job offers and things that would be great. But um, either way, I I won't the lesson that I learned from making the Hyperglot is that if you really put your mind to it, um, you can, you know, you can make your own success happen. And so I won't sit around, you know, for another four years before I decide to take matters into my own hands. I will Yeah. work on something.

Uh I don't I don't know how it will work because I have I have too many ideas and I I don't know if I want, you know, I'm part of me is afraid to like if I use all of them, then I've put all of my ideas into one thing and, you know, what if I want to do another one or what if that one is a failure and, you know, so you don't want to use all of them. But then you're not sure what what do you use and what don't you use? And and what's funny is that the the the languages is the kind of connecting factor in all of them because it's such a part of me.

And anything that I would write about, I heard this great quote the other day. You should, which is something I I sort of knew inherently or had learned at some point, um but not said I I didn't know how to express it as succinctly as this, which is you should only ever write something that only you could write. Right. And I think that's a fantastic piece of writing advice. Um, and I I well, maybe other people could have written something similar to the Hyperglot, but it would have been different. They wouldn't have written that exact movie because those those stories happened to me. Exactly.

Um, and uh, where was I going with that? Could be a franchise, you know, Hyperglot like the series. Yeah, I could It could be a lot of things. Oh, I know what I was saying. So that the so that the fact so that anything else that I write, I mean, language is such an you know, intrinsic part of who I am that that every somehow there's always something language-related that, you know, will creep in and I never and I don't necessarily want to write this use the same character in completely unrelated films all the time. Right.

You know, so, for example, I have I I as I mentioned earlier, I have a uh a hobby that I really enjoy is genealogy and I'm really into it. Um, and I have loads of ideas about do writing something with that. Um, but the question but a big part of genealogy, especially in my case is being able to uh look at records in Russian and Polish and Yiddish and know what they say and and then I've had lots of traveling experiences um visiting places where my great-grandparents came from. And I and I have loads of stories that could go into a Hyperglot film from that. But so then the question is, do I make a Hyperglot film that's about that and and, you know, talking about that's intertwined with genealogy or is should genealogy just be its own subject, which it could be. Uh And and other, you know, so I I have lots of kind of ideas like that about other spheres of my life where, yeah, but but the character kind of has to speak a couple of languages, just just a couple of languages. He doesn't have to be a Hyperglot, but he has to be a polyglot because of that and I mean, I don't know, maybe that could be a thing. Maybe maybe I have it wrong. Maybe instead of wanting to be remembered as the actor that acts in loads of different film industries, maybe I just, you know, uh become a writer-actor who in every film, even though the characters are totally different and unrelated, happens to speak several languages. I don't know.

And um, but I kept I was sort of really going in circles with it a lot. And at one point, I just sort of thought to myself, you know what? Every everyone is going to have an opinion. And at some point, you it's mine and I just have to decide what I want it to be. Which is what I eventually did and I finally sat down and said, you know what? This is it. I'm I'm I'm happy with this. So this is what it's going to be.

And um, yeah, and then actually what's really nice is that because the Hyperglot's done well and been well received. Um, people I've managed to it's managed to be seen by potential investors who could fund a a future project. And so that part of it won't actually be as difficult. And the director of the Hyperglot is is tremendous. I mean, extremely talented person and um, if I, you know, I and he wouldn't be shy. I mean, it I don't he I don't think he would work on something that he didn't like. So assuming I wrote a script that he liked, I think he would do it again in a heartbeat. Um, and if he didn't like it, he might say he would say why and then maybe I would fix it or whatever. So it wouldn't be nearly as difficult the task of sort of getting into it because I've got I had a great experience with the with the cast and crew of the Hyperglot and the director and and I know where to to get um at least some of the funds from. I mean, I you know, there might be some more fundraising that needs to be done. Um buy the Hyperglot on iTunes that will that will help. Um, For sure. But but uh, but yes, the hardest part of the next one will just be writing it.

But also but the a big difference is I have much more confidence now because before it was just sort of this quirky idea like, wouldn't it be funny if I wrote a movie kind of thing that you don't really think it's going to happen. And um, and actually, I I would say that really why it what finally made it happen was the after four years, three or four years of working in New York as an actor. And I got to the point where I thought either, you know, I something needs to change. You know, I need to be doing much bigger, better stuff or I need to move on and and Yeah. to something else in life.

In spite of what I said about setting goals and measuring success and that I was doing relatively well. Relatively well for an actor means you're doing something. It doesn't mean you're getting paid for it or making a living out of it. So, so I thought to myself, okay, I've got this script. I've got I've got a director who says he likes it and he would do it if I have the money. I had had an an office job for two and a half years through which I saved a lot of money, um which is how I funded the Hyperglot. I funded it myself from my savings. And it's also how I funded my school uh at least the part of it that I funded. I also had very generous scholarships.

Um, but I I I thought to myself, right. I think this is the moment where I I'm I'm going to do this movie. And it is either going to be a resounding success that launches my career and is like the next thing that I need or it is going to be a kind of closure on this chapter of my life, which was fun and filled with adventure and I will, you know, when I'm old and tell my kids that uh once upon a time I was an actor, I can show them. I can prove it to them. And you know, so it was it was going to be that. It was either going to be like a nice ending to my little acting career or a nice beginning. Yeah. And that was what pushed me over the edge of like just spend just spend your savings and do it because it it's money worth, you know, well spent if you just to know that I did something to have something to show for it. Right.

And and then of course, I got into this really prestigious drama school and I thought, well, that's a big, that's a game-changer and um, when that happened right when the Hyperglot was just finished and right before it started the festival circuit. Um, so so I I sort of I've been kind of in limbo in terms of my career because I've been in school. So I have no idea whether whether the Hyperglot is the launching pad or the or the the bookend, but um, no, I I because of its success. I'm confident of at least being able to to try another, you know, and then and maybe that's just how life will be. Maybe maybe the whole, maybe the whole way through life. You just think, well, well, the last project was all right. So I'll just do one more and see and and maybe that's what everybody kind of does in their life.

So I just uh on a on a quick note, I just wanted to ask you about um because I'm obviously part of the Polyglot community and, you know, multilingual. So when we saw your movie, it felt like a, you know, this feels quite normal. This is quite everyday life. Um, maybe not as absurd as some of the jokes obviously.

But how did how have you heard had any reactions from people who are not into languages at all? And how did they sort of see because they might must consider Jake quite, you know, almost like a um, what's that movie with um, you know, almost like a genius kind of thing. Mhm. Because he's speaking all these languages and he's kind of the cool guy, you know, with some flaws, of course, the the but how did they see it in in terms of that because um obviously we have the different perspective altogether because oh, that's just normal, you know, you find a book in a language. You don't know, of course you get to teach yourself or the colloquial or whatever. So so how what kind of reaction has it has it gotten from from sort of the non-language learning side of things?

And people what I get what a lot of people have said is that it's really charming. They find Jake charming and they find the whole story charming. But that one woman in the movie did not find it very charming. Which one? In the Japanese uh restaurant. Right. It was like, oh, what are you guys speaking? Sounds so exotic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we're speaking Portuguese. Oh, okay. Well, yes, I think no, I think she didn't she yes, she didn't find Jake charming. Right. Which she's made me more interested in your Brazilian friend. Yeah. Um, which is part of life.

Um, and uh, but yes, I I think I think that people um, I don't think they relate to it in the ways that that language enthusiasts relate to it. But I think they I think they find other things that they can relate to in it. The the the difficulty, you know, I I've heard it described in different ways. You know, some somebody somewhere described it as, you know, the the the search for love in in a multilingual multi-ethnic place like New York or something like that. You know, so some some people I think just related to the difficulty of meeting somebody.

Um, it was it was shown at a disabilities Film Festival, um, which is organized by the Jewish Community Center of the Upper West Side in New York. And the the um sort of headlining synopsis was I I don't remember the whole thing, but whatever it was, the story of a nice Jewish boy who, which is, you know, for for for European listeners, the the term a nice Jewish boy, I don't know how familiar that term is, but it that's just a thing that, you know, New York Jews and maybe American Jews in general kind of um, an an epithet they use to to describe uh the kind of the boy next door who happens to be Jewish and therefore they want to fix up with their daughter kind of thing. Oh, yeah. Um, and uh, where was I oh right. So now I don't know where they got that from because yes, Jake has one line in Yiddish in the in the film, but there's no reference he has no religion. Um, and while I may be a nice Jewish boy. Um, I I you know, I so so I think from that perspective, it's like the people watching it they they they looked at me and they looked at my perhaps Jewish-looking face and and just saw a nice Jewish boy in New York. And that was you know, what what it was to them. So people have picked up on different things.

Um, but mostly I I think that I think people like a story that is different. And the story of somebody speaking lots of languages has not been done before. And I'm, you know, I gosh, I feel like I'm sounding so arrogant in this podcast cuz normally I'm very um, self-critical and and uh and uh We haven't actually talked about what things you don't like. So maybe you want to about the film or in life? Or in life. Uh, I don't like bananas and no, it's so more in the um in the film. What would you have changed? I guess that's a really good interview question. I should have asked about half an hour ago. So what would you have made different today if you had to do the movie again? That's easy to say. Under similar conditions, mind you. Yeah. You don't get 10,000 pounds more or

And we suddenly, you know, got to we had done a bunch of filming and then it was like, okay, now we're going to film the sequence where Jake is learning Maltese. And I hadn't decided what I was going to say and didn't and and only had this this sort of this sort of inadequate Maltese book because because the book that you see in the in the film is is fake. Um it it was around a real book that I had that I bought when I went to Malta. Um, and it was it was sort of inadequate in terms of for this purpose. And I and I just panicked and I so I did the best that I could with, you know, random but I didn't um, I would yeah, I I would have made I would have made that smoother and I would have made more sure of my pronunciation.

And then I was told that um at one point, I was told I had I had done I had uh made too many assumptions about the Maltese language in terms of how it how it's structurally similar to Arabic. And so when when I I sort of ad-lib talking to to my uh yes, I don't want to give it away. But I ad-lib something in Maltese. And um and uh in the scene in the park right before I meet the deaf girl. And um, I it it's incorrect Maltese to make a long story short. Um, which which is fine because the character is just learning it. So I was like, all right, it's not the end of the world. Uh, but I did think uh, yeah, I I I sort of made that up based on a grammatical structural assumption that was wrong in terms of how you do the possessive in Maltese. I guess it could have been cool if you put, if you knowingly made a mistakes and you put the mistakes in the English as well, so everyone who didn't speak Maltese could see, oh, he's learning so he's stumbling a bit through the sentences. That would have been a nice save. Yeah. I think there was a version where I may have done thought of that and then we decided not to or something.

And similarly, I would have also um, I would have maybe if I could have spent more time working on the Icelandic dialogue because well, the truth of the matter is, I think that the take that they used on that particular bit where I speak Icelandic was the first take. And this is a problem that, you know, I wasn't really prepared for uh in filming, but you know, you you do a bunch of takes and then the editor sometimes with the director, sometimes without decides which is the best one. Now, the editor and director did need to consult me on various, you know, to come into the editing room to make sure A of what I was saying and where it what, you know, and that it was all correct correct and things like that. Um, however, the quality of the language speaking was their last priority because they were more concerned with things like the lighting and continuity, you know, if if if the bottle was if the glass was full one second, it can't be empty the next kind of thing. Um and and rightfully so.

But but therefore, you know, because to their for them and and for I think the audience that they thought would receive this, which is just the average person and wherever. Um, it's not going to care or know how good, how well I'm speaking these languages. Uh maybe that's not giving people enough credit. But maybe I they would assume that I'm speaking it well enough and I could tell I'm speaking it well enough that they don't question beyond that. So for them that was the last thing. For me, of course, it was I wanted Jake to speak to be better than Michael. I wanted Jake's each of his languages to be absolutely perfect.

Um, and so with the Icelandic, I'm pretty sure it was the first take that we used. And we did a few takes and it was and after getting into it, um, I was much much better, whereas in in that take, I and I I sort of hesitate to say it because I don't want to ruin the movie for people, but I but I I sort of slightly over-articulate, you know, so that I sound like I'm pronouncing every letter. Um in an effort to to say it correctly and it doesn't quite sound to an Icelandic person. So I so an Icelandic person told me. It doesn't sound like like smooth connected speech. Um, and that's sort of that's a regret. I I know, which is not entirely my fault. I you know, because as I said, when that's, you know, I think we got there like 4:00 in the morning for that scene to start with the hair and makeup and the set. And I, you know, and then all of a sudden it's like, okay, action. And, you know, you don't really get to to practice. Um except by doing a few takes. And I sort of was under the impression that, oh, I'm sure they always use the latter takes anyway because the first few aren't good. Uh but that's often not the case.

And then, you know, similar things in other not quite as bad as the Icelandic, but there were other bits of in different languages where where for me, for my input in the editing room was, this take is best because the language is the best in that one. And the and that got overruled because of the lighting was better in the other one or whatever. Right. Um, so so what I could have done better or what I would do differently is just be better, quicker at all of them, you know, have practiced more so that I could do it more easily. And I guess I should mention here, cuz you asked about differences between Jake and Michael is that I don't speak so I think about half the languages in the film I do speak and half of them I don't. So the ones that I do speak, obviously much more much easier for me to to get into, but Icelandic I don't is not a language that I speak. So that was But why did you decide to add them then if you had your uh catalog of 10 to 15 languages you could choose from?

Yeah, I have to say that that one that that was a good one for uh for a for a language enthusiast audience because um I think people appreciated the quirk of changing from American Sign Language to British Sign Language. Yeah. Whereas I think, you know, most people don't realize that there's a difference. And and I think a lot of people might watch it and and not necessarily be clear what ASL and BSL stand for until I mean, I think people get it eventually, but um But yes, I I think I recall uh being told that that got big laughs at the I unfortunately wasn't able to be present at either time that it was viewed to a screamed to an audience of polyglots. But um, I was told that that always got a big Yeah. A big laugh uh Whereas in in among other audiences, it didn't it always took a bit it always took I think time to register. And by the time it registered, it was one of those like, oh, that's clever. But it was too late to laugh kind of. Right. Right.