Richard Benton: Community impact of learning pt. 2

Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Actual Fluency Podcast. This is season three, episode ten, and I'm back with the second edition of the interview with Richard Benton. And um, yeah, that's about it. I just wanted to welcome you, and also just give a little question here. In the last few episodes there've been some really long episodes, and some people have come back to me and say, "Hey, I really like these long, kind of conversational style formats where it's not as focused, focused, it's not as targeted." And I just wanted to ask you, what do you think? You know, is do you mind if an episode is say one and a half hours long? Is that a problem for you as a listener? And if so, if you like the long episodes, would you like me to split them into two episodes? So, like I've done this time, so you get one episode week one and then the other half in the next week. Or would you like to just have one and a half hours or two hours, I mean, I don't know how long I could speak, but you know, do you want just want the full thing at once? That's you know, let me know in the on the website or Twitter, Facebook, you probably know where to find me by now. So, just give me a message and and let me know. And uh, enjoy this second half with Richard Benton.

Mhm. Right.

Uh, just because we've talked about it so many times, that people are probably like, "What where is this blog?" So, probably a good idea to throw the URL out there. Um, there was something uh, community languages, we talked about that. We talked about uh, New York. Oh, yeah, did you have a good time at the conference in New York? I guess we could make a note of that, too.

Oh, yeah, I had such a great, I had such a great time when I went there. Um, you know, I was able you know, the the language strangely enough, the language that I ended up speaking the most was Ukrainian. Um, I I was in, I I I studied in in Ukraine for a year when I was in uh, when I was in university, and I got to a really, I got pretty fluent. I mean, I even because I I made it a a point to to live with Ukrainian families where they spoke Ukrainian at home. So, I spoke Ukrainian all the time at home. Even if I spoke Russian with my friends, I'd speak Ukrainian at home. And like, one of the first people I met walking in the door was I, I unfortunately forgot his name, but I was speaking Ukrainian right off the bat, and he was from uh, uh, Eastern Ukraine. So, we talked a little bit about what was going on in Eastern Ukraine and stuff.

Well, thank you. Well, it's good fun that you talk because yeah, and I was sitting in on your talk and I found it very interesting. So, I wanted to come over and and say, "Nice talk." And connect and possibly to bring you on the podcast. And then what do you say? The first thing, I didn't even get a word in. You're like, "Oh, Chris, I love your podcast and and uh, thank you so much for this and this." I'm like, "But you know, you just talked."

Really funny, yeah. Yeah, you've been talking for the last year. So, uh, you know, I was listening to you a lot more than you listened to me. So, that's great. But I, you know, in hearing the different talks, um, was was uh, was really helpful. I mean, the endangered language project, that's you know, that's one thing that pops out in my mind. It's really near and dear to my heart. And then, um, the talk about uh, learning African languages, Khadija, um, her talk about learning African languages, of course, is near near to my heart. So, I'll speak of those. Um, I wasn't able to make it to Michael Erard's talk because it was during my uh, during my talk. So, uh, that was unfortunate. Um, but I had a I I got to talk to him about his talk anyway, and now they're all going up online, so I'll be able to see it. And, um, so, yeah. And then Barry Farber, I mean, you know, the like the original like low-tech solution. I did his solution, like where he's like, "Get a newspaper and a highlighter." And I've done that. I've gotten the newspaper and the highlighter and put it on note cards and read my grammar book, you know, like he has in his book. So, um, being able to see his talk was a real delight. So, I was really happy for the effort that those guys, that Richard and Alex, and Ellen put in to to organizing it. It was so good.

Yeah, and even much younger than me as well. You know, those uh, teenagers even, you know, coming in and being, you know, further along than I even I am, you know. So, it's really cool to see this explosion in in language learning in they say America is a monolingual country, right? So, how long is that going to last?

Yeah. Well, 20% 20% of uh, uh, of Americans speak a language other than English at home. So, I blogged about that at one point. It's it's interesting if you look at the numbers. But, yeah, what I want to see, why are they spoken at home? I want them spoken in, I want them spoken in my street. I want them spoken in my stores. I want them spoken in my schools. I want them, I want them in in the state capital, I want them spoken. You know, I don't want them just in the home. That's what I want to see.

Yeah, exactly. That's the the statistic is just a little bit sad at the same time. It's like, yeah, at home. It's nice that they have a language, but why at home? That's so true. But it it does give you a lot of, I I think, if you are American listening, and I know a lot of Americans do listen to this. Um, you know, you don't have to live up to your uh, stigma or your, um, you know, you don't have to be your own stereotype. You know, if you if you if you're determined to learn languages, you can do it. You just have to find the find the people to practice with. You just find the language in the wild and just keep going. Don't, you know, don't let your stereotype rule you because

Right. No, it's in the US, you know, the the the fact that we speak English as uh, as the language, and other languages are not spoken. This is um, this is manufactured. Um, I mean, we, you know, when the first Europeans came to the Americas, uh, you know, there were hundreds of languages that were spoken. There were hundreds of languages spoken in California. Yeah. It was uh, California used to be one of the most linguistically diverse places on the planet. Um, you know, hundreds of languages that were spoken. And, um, and then we have all these immigrants that are constantly coming in speaking all their languages.

Right.

Um, you know, and there were monolingual towns. Uh, there was a professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who did work on this. There were monolingual German towns up until the 1930s. Monolingual towns. You went into the town, the whole town was speaking German. Not just German, some funny, you know, northern dialect of German. And there's accounts of like, when the new, you know, the the they would send to the old country to get a pastor for the church or something like that. And he would be from Central German. And he would have, he would be from Central Germany. He would have such a hard time fitting in to the culture of this town because they were all Northern Germans, or, you know, that sort of thing.

Right.

We have it here. How do we bring it out of the homes into the public sphere? And so, I want to do my part. I'm going to say, you know what? I'm going to speak three words of Tagalog or Somali or Amharic or Mong. Mong is the third most widely spoken language in uh, uh, in Minnesota.

Oh, Pennsylvania Dutch or

No, there's all kinds of stuff, you know. It's all around us. Why not put forth the effort as language learners to help bring that into the public sphere? You know, make the world that that we want to see. But we make the world not by imposing it through power, but through lifting up those who are weaker in our community.

They have there is a, I don't know if you've heard of this, there's a Danish city uh, in Iowa, I think. Um, and it's called Elk Horn.

Sure. I know Elk Horn.

It's tiny. It's tiny. And unfortunately, it's kind of not very Danish anymore. Uh, but they pride themselves on on being. So, you know, a hundred years ago, they would definitely be speaking Danish all of them. Uh, but now they send their TV crew out there a few years ago. And there's like two old ladies who speak kind of Danish and it's like, I understand it and I could probably communicate with them, but they insert a lot of English words like in Pennsylvania Dutch. And uh, so it's kind of their own dialect in a way. And then you just all the, let's say, the younger than 80, they just don't speak any. You know, they might understand like two foods and hi or something. Um, so, I think unfortunately for that, um, particular city, that the time is simply over, you know. English is just too big and it's it's it's over.

Well, I bet that there was, you know, I bet that there were families who, you know, they they made the the sausage and everything. They made them all like, "We're going to you know, Christmas time or something like that. We're going to have the Danish meal." And um, they all came, you know, and so all the Danish stuff was made on one day. And so, it's like, oh, they go to the restaurant when they want the Danish meal, they get all the, you know, they get everything all at once, you know.

On the same plate, which is the funny thing.

Right.

Can you imagine eating like sausage and then a bite of like really sweet dough balls?

That's funny. That's the Midwest, too. That's the that I I was born in uh, Lincoln, Nebraska. And so, I know that I I know the the area and I know that that's like, there is some kind of funky cuisine going on in the Midwest, and I know that's how it goes. But, you know, it's funny you mention that because we do have towns. I remember when I was a kid, my mom dragged me, when I was a kid, really, when I was young, I was probably six or seven, dragged me to the like uh, uh, Wilber, Nebraska, I think it was. A little tiny town. It was a Czech town. And so, everyone there was, um, Czech. And, um, they would have music and food and stuff. I don't remember very much because I was young, but they would have this festival every year. Um, and uh, uh, yeah, you know, in America, we do have all these different kind of traditions around, you know.

Sorry.

the Swedes birthday. But uh,

Whatever, Swedish, whatever.

Whatever. And in and in just to add another layer of America onto it, they they, um, the place they did the dance, they rented out the hall at the Czech and Slovak House. Um, there's a Czech and Slovak social club that they rented out the room for. So, they had, so it was uh, uh, the the Scandinavian dancing at the Czech and Slovak House in Saint Paul, Minnesota. So,

Wow.

You know, we have all these different things around. Um, you know, going out and finding them, you know, you don't have to travel. Because look, I work a full-time job. I have two kids. I have a wife. They're not necessarily interested in moving around all the time. You know, I know a lot of the folks on your program, they're um, they're young folks like, "Hey, go to this country. Hey, you can get a mobile lifestyle." When Benny talks, I I was kind of laughing a little bit because he's like, "Yeah, all you have to do is this and this." I'm like, "Yeah, all you have to do." And as long as you don't have like any, as long as you don't have children who prefer not to move every every year and a half, you know.

Right.

Um, you know, I heard a funny story of uh, some missionaries from the US who went down during the summer, a group of kids to go down to help uh, you know, build some houses in a in a poor town in Guatemala. And they were good. They were all, they all prepared and they learned Spanish and everything before they went down there. They went down. They found out the people in the village, no one speaks Spanish.

Right.

That's very

Yeah, that's very brutal.

Yeah, they speak they speak K'iche' and or some dialect of K'iche'. You know, every every valley has a different dialect there. And, um, so, it's so funny. Even those people who are like trying to, um, make those connections, you know, without doing a little bit of research and getting out there a little bit, um, you can make those kinds of mistakes.

Right. That's the amazing language exchanges within the company. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Exactly. I'm actually trying to set that up. I I was like, "You know, we've got some good um, video conferencing technology that the company uses. How do we set up language exchanges within the company?" You know, and talk about business.

Yeah, that's true.

Just talk about it in a different language. And if all you can say is like, "How's work? Work is good." There you go.

You did something.

Yeah, that was actually, if if people wanted to know a way to um, break into a conversation, uh, uh, in a language that they're just learning, here's a good phrase to learn. How's work? A lot of time, the the as we're first learning languages and we're not so incorporated into the community, we're running into service workers who speak those languages.

Right.

And uh, and all of a sudden they're like, "What?" And so then they tell me. And I was like, "I don't know what you just said." And then they say it more slowly. And then I try to remember it. And I'm trying to, and the cars behind me are honking because I'm taking too long. And uh,

That's funny. Yeah.

But they, but then they hold up the line. Then they keep talking to me. They're like, and the people are honking, and I feel bad. But the person working there doesn't feel bad at all.

Right. That's a very quick language exchange, but an example of one.

Do it. Do it. Two minute, you know, I'll I'll add, you know, Benny says, make a hundred mistakes a day. I say, have a hundred 15-second conversations a day. You know? How's work? Good. Nice to meet you. And then move on. You say that a hundred, if you say that a hundred times a day, you will become fluent in a in a year because all of a sudden you realize that just saying, "How's work?" is boring. And you'll start saying new things.

Yeah.

And you'll get a hundred different responses, and you have to learn those responses. And, you know, do 100 15-second conversations a day.

Yeah.

Do it, you know. You'll you'll you'll learn really well.

Yeah, and that's um, I hope that other people are seeing the value of that. Uh, I definitely need to get better at it. I'm trying now with the restaurants and the cafes and wherever I'm going to order stuff. Even if you just say one word, it it it's progress, you know. Uh, the other day I I wanted to just ask for the bill. And I just I just just said, "Bill." You know, and he he was like, "Oh, okay." You know. I could have said, "Could I please have the bill?" Uh, I could probably say that now. But back then, I didn't know how. So, I just said, uh, "Bill." And he was, "Oh, he understands me." And maybe it's slightly rude, but they understand that I'm not a native speaker exactly. So,

Well, and you know, there's another thing, there's another thing you can do that I've, you know, one of the things I like is, I like Moses McCormick and how he just comes up with a lie to start a conversation.

Yeah, that's everything. That's great.

My favorite thing is like, "Is there is there an arcade in this mall?" I love that how he like uses that to start. Like, "Is there a movie theater in the mall?" You know, he just walks around the mall. And, um, you know, faking it is also because here's the thing you can say is like, when he brings the bill, you're like, "I know that's not really a polite way to say that. Could you tell me how to say it politely?" How what's a polite way to ask for the bill? And he's like, "Oh my goodness, not only a a a tourist, but a tourist who wants to speak Hungarian, and a and a tourist who wants to be polite."

Yeah.

You know,

Yeah, and then you don't see that often.

Exactly. So, you learn and then it's like, what a nice, what a nice young man. And so, then and then you learn that. You just scored points with that guy. And then, um, you know, it's but, you know, I I'm learning, I'm spending five minutes a day on Memrize learning Basque. So, I've, you know, I've got a vocabulary about 10 words or whatever. And I've got a Basque speaker living in my house, an exchange student. So, I just do it. You know how babies, they just kind of say like random words and random sounds.

Yeah.

And so, I just say that. And then she like kind of gives me a bad look. But I just say, "Fat girl." And I'm like, "No, I'm just saying it. I'm not I'm not saying that to anybody." Or, you know, I'll say like, or, you know, when it's time to eat, you know, I yell like, "Come here. Etorri ona." And, you know, like, "Come on." And, um, and uh, uh, and then and then she'll correct and occasionally I'll learn vocabulary because I'll be saying something so badly, she can't help herself but correct me.

Oh, right. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, because I'm because I was saying like, "Come on. Come on, girl. Come on, girl." You know, something like that. And she's like, "Girlz." You know? And, um, because it's just getting annoying to her now. And, um,

That's funny.

So, you know, so if all I know is how to say like, so I'll, you know, we'll ride in the car. And I'll just be like, saying my my vocabulary. Tall, short, rich, poor, ugly, beautiful. And just go down my list. Why not, you know?

That's funny.

And, uh, you could but you can totally do that. If you go to, um, I knew a Russian guy when I was in uh, when I lived in Ukraine. Super like, super poor guy. Like, no education. The guy was literally a a street sweeper in the Eastern European sense of it, where he had a giant broom and he would sweep the streets with a broom. Okay. Young guy. He knew one word of English. And that was, "Yes." And so, I would talk to him in Russian and stuff. And then he would answer, and he would say, "Yes."

Right.

That's that's how you say "Da," right? And, you know, and he would like make sure he was saying it right, you know. And that's all he knew was, "Yes." And, um, and back then, I thought, that's kind of it's kind of getting annoying to me. But now that I look back, and I'm like, "Rich, no, that's not annoying. That's him trying."

Yeah.

"Give him a break, man." And so, I know that like, if anyone is annoyed with me because I'm using my two words of the language, it's their problem, not mine. They're just they're just having they're just grumpy. Um, the point is just go and use those two words. And if they find it grumpy if they get grumpy about it, then I smile, and then I say, "Thank you very much." In the language, and then I move on, you know. And, uh, you know, just you just get out there, and you just do it. And, um, and have a good time. And not just have a good time because a lot of us want to have a good time. Help someone else have a good time.

Yeah, exactly.

Think about how things are going to be easier for them. Think about how, you know, a waiter has to speak the language a different language all day long. It's exhausting. You can take orders in your native language all day long. You're going to have an easier day.

And mistakes are perfect. Like, uh, I was in McDonald's a few weeks back. And instead of ordering a large fries, which I was trying to do, which is "nøgle" uh, something. I already forgot that. Uh, I said "nøjorn," which is very. So, I said, "I'd like very fries, please." And he was like, "I know what this guy's trying to say. I'm bringing him a large fries, you know." He wasn't like, "What?" So,

Right.

So, but mistakes are obviously easy to make. But the point is just like, if you had said it.

As long as there are a hundred a day.

Yeah, exactly. Just keep keep making mistakes. And I I I guess I was just citing I was just a perfectionist. And I I I if anything, I can I hope to tell people out there that being a perfectionist is the is the worst thing you can be when learning a language. Uh, because it listen, you're already terrible at the language. So, you're already making, you're already making your fool out of yourself in a way. In a good way. So, why are you worried about speaking it speaking the right grammar or speaking the right endings or something when your pronunciation is obviously going to give it away right away that you're not a native speaker? Um, you just hold your progress so much if you wait for that perfect sentence. And it's probably not even perfect because the thing is, you won't say it until you think it's perfect. But your knowledge of the language is so limited that you don't know if it is perfect anyway. So, you might as well just say whatever comes to mind.

Uh-huh. Yeah. I, you know, it's funny you say that because I've I've said that I've given that specific advice. I didn't hear it from Benny, but I gave that specific advice to to people who are like, "Oh, my Spanish is not that good." And I said, "I'm going to tell you the one thing that your Spanish teacher not only didn't, but couldn't tell you." Which is, you can speak Spanish using only infinitives.

Yeah.

You can just use infinitives all the time. Because look, I hear people I hear people speak English with completely incorrect grammar. And guess what? I totally understand them.

Exactly. That's the point.

Every sentence they speak has a grammatical error. And it it's working just fine. You know, we understand. And so, just start stringing words together, and they'll start understanding.

Right.

Right? They don't get all the rules. And so, and so when the teacher said like, "Aren't kids funny?" It's because three-year-olds don't understand the cases either.

Yeah, it's a process.

Four-year-olds. So, if we're like, "Oh, crap, my my um, my uh, cases are wrong. My conjugations are wrong." Well, yeah, because it takes a native speaker eight years to learn them. They're objectively hard. You know, be easy on yourself. And so, that's what I'm like, "Forget grammar." I mean, it's uh, um, I learned grammar, but I learned it as I needed it. But guess what? So did my babies.

Yeah.

You know? My babies couldn't get the difference between me and you when they were two years old.

Yeah, exactly.

They would say, "You, you, you." Instead of "Me." Because that's what I said. I said, "You," to them. They don't understand the difference between deixis and, you know, reference. So, it's like, "Be easy on yourself." Because like, um, you know, when I was at the the worst experience I had was my first day of school as an exchange student in France. I couldn't find out even where I was supposed to go. I was completely lost. And so, I I was flustered. And I asked a teacher how to get where I needed to go. And it's and I used "Tu" instead of "Vous." And like, I you know, and it was just like, just and it was I was flustered. It wasn't coming out clearly. And she was trying to get to her class, and it was just bad. And so, she's like, "Yeah, it's over there." I'm like, it was uh, you know, just kind of vaguely gestured in a direction. And I'm like, "Okay, Rich, that didn't work." Um, so, let's do this. I'm going to be here for five months. My goal by the end of five months is to sound like an intelligent five-year-old.

Right.

If I can sound like an intelligent five-year-old in five months, that's actually very efficient. My, you know, I'm barely at year, you know, age two when I first arrived in France, you know, my French is not good. And, um, now I speak, I can speak French fluently. And I got to fluent by the end. And, um, you know, I lived with three girls who were always insulting each other. So, I know how to insult people and hold my own if I, you know, if I'm being insulted by a a teenage girl.

Great.

You know, that's something I I, you know, I don't I don't think it would work very well if I, you know, if I was in a bar in France or something like that. I don't know if I would sound very good if I was defending myself there. But, you know, I could hold myself to hold my own for for to some extent. And, uh, you know, just saying like, "I just want to be an intelligent five-year-old after five months of living in the country." You know, I just want to, and this is the thing, if it's about us, this is, I think where perfectionism comes in. If it's about us, then we get uh, uh, we get really nervous. When it's about somebody else, we don't get nearly as nervous.

Right.

This is what I tell myself, when I do public speaking, I do quite a bit of of public speaking about languages and things like that. And I said, "You know what? Once I start feeling nervous, it's because I want to sound smart. I don't want to sound stupid. I don't want to drop the ball. I don't want to I don't want to be uninvited back." You know, But when I say like, "Hey, I mean, I even did this when I was a professor before. Hey, I know a bunch of stuff. And I know these people are coming because they're interested in learning about what I have to say. I want to make sure I give them as much information as I possibly can. I want them to leave knowing something they didn't know before." And so, when it comes to languages, it's like, "I want to give this guy a story he's going to go home and tell his wife about. Guess what I saw today?"

Yeah, that's true, yeah.

"The white guy is speaking Somali. And he was really bad, but can you believe that?" Um,

Yeah, that's true, yeah.

But, you know, give him a story. Give the, you know, the the the the waiter in the cafe. You know, give him a story. It's like, "There's this guy. And he kept asking me about like how to say this, this and this." And I had sometimes, here's one thing that's interesting. When you start asking questions about Hungarian, the average Hungarian doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about Hungarian grammar.

That's true. Yeah.

You know. And so, you start asking questions. They're like, "I never realized that about my own about my own language." You just offered them a gift. They they just had a a wonderful experience because you were learning their language. That's cool. It's helpful. And, um, we can do that so much. And, um, you know, uh, uh, um, asking about the, you know, different, you know, Chinese dialects. You know, uh, I've asked. And they're like, "Oh, yeah." And they you know, they talk about these, you know, things that they don't talk about or haven't thought about or, um, you know, you can you can really, um, bring some delight to people.

Wow.

You know, they just performed poetry. And the the the the average shepherd, actually, I was talking to somebody, um, in the Twin Cities about poetry and about and about proverbs and stuff. And they were like, "Yeah, but I come from the city." If you really want to know poetry, "You know, you got to come from the country and the shepherds. They're the ones who really know poetry."

That's interesting. It's like different from

It's awesome. So then my friend was my friend was at a cashier at the at the grocery store. And mentioned and saw this person was Somalian. And told her like how much he'd heard about the Somali, you know, uh, uh, poetry. Just that he knew about it. And this person was so happy that he about Somali poetry. It doesn't take much, right? It doesn't take much.

It's uh, also about just uh, learning the script, it's one thing, right? Because there's so many Greek words in English or other languages that just by learning the script, you'll start to notice a lot of the words. Right. And uh, so that's the first thing I do. I I probably spent some time on it. Yeah, you're right. A few months before. And uh, and just just do it because I've uh, I've never studied any of it, so I've no idea.

That's in between learning Kurdish, of course.

Right. Uh, we'll we'll see if that makes the list. Um, I feel so uh, spoiled for choice right now. When I started learning languages back in Denmark, I was like, what should I learn? I was so confused. And now I was like, I have so many great reasons to learn so many languages, you know. Uh, there's the, uh, there's the the Hungarian obviously because I live here. The Russian because I already learned it sort of. And, you know, we're going to Greece. Uh, I have many friends in many languages now. So, I want to talk to that person. I want to talk to that person. And, you know, the the list is just ever growing. I I have a I have a client from the Middle East, from Abu Dhabi. So, I'm like, I should learn some some Arabic. And the list just grows, you know. And any time you hear something, you fall in love with it. And you're like, "Oh my God, that sounds beautiful."

Yeah, I know we're not we're not going to learn, yeah. There's what we get to another, um, 6,990 to go, you know, whatever many we got after our first ten, you know.

Yeah.

I thought of an idea for when we go to uh, uh, Thessaloniki. If I'm able to go, God willing. But, um, what if we got we found, um, some uh, Kurd who could give a uh, you know, who could do a meal with us? You know, we get a group of people and over lunch or something like that, just give us a a a 45-minute lesson in Kurdish?

Right.

What if we got uh, uh, a 45-minute lesson in Arabic? What if we just lined up a couple of those things? Because here's why I say that. When I I had a work trip to Lisbon one time. And they wanted me to be working US hours. So, my mornings were free.

Right.

So, I hunted and hunted and hunted to find private Portuguese teachers. And I would schedule a 90-minute lesson uh, uh, each day that I was in Lisbon. So, in the morning, I would have my my Portuguese lesson. And then I'd kind of see the sights or whatever. And then I'd have to show up at work around noon or something like that. And then I'd go into work. And the other workers, I would start off the day by speaking Portuguese to all my coworkers. And, um, you know, they're all fluent in English at least. I mean, most of them were three knew three or four languages. They were on uh, uh, a a a service desk. We we outsourced service desk, and we had a desk in Lisbon. And, um, but they don't get to speak to very many people from the US in Portuguese. So, I thought that was cool. And I came home, and I was able to speak low Portuguese on the on the subway in New York.

Yeah.

In Thessaloniki. And we could do a 40, we could just do a 45-minute lesson, um, tell us, you know, how to say some basic uh, phrases in your language. Tell us about your language. Why you love your language. And tell us a little bit about your you, you know, if you're willing, talk about yourself and your your family situation. And then we can bring a little bit of, um, some of the, you know, learning community languages out into the practical, uh, um, uh, uh, day-to-day as we're in uh, Thessaloniki.

Yeah.

You know, Do you think that you think your listeners might be listeners. Listeners, I'm addressing you now. If you're interested, tell Chris, tell me, come to my blog, come to uh, Chris's blog. Let us know what you might be interested in, um, if that might be something fun for you to do. Um,

Yeah, yeah.

Because I know, look, because I'm telling all the listeners right now, if you don't show up, I'm going by myself because this sounds very cool to me. I think Chris will, I think Chris will probably join me, but if you want to come with us and have a good time, I think we could, I think we could really learn something and make a connection with a community there that we may not have uh, been able to communicate with or connect with otherwise.

This is actually uh, a big topic that is usually done at the Polyglot Gathering in Berlin. They usually have language introductions, so a a talk of about 55 minutes in very uh, a variety of languages. So, I mean, this has been done. So, I'm I'm sure that the concept applies. So, if we can just find the time, maybe we could schedule some kind of social event after or before. Or maybe we just do it in sort of like a pub or a restaurant or something that we could have a nice meal and and and do a little social event. Then yeah, definitely.

Cool. Cool. Albanian. Albanian would be one, too. There's a lot of Albanians there. Albanian, Kurdish, Arabic for people who are who's mouth is watering for uh, uh, some interesting. You know, you know what, actually, there might be, um, I wonder if we could find some, hey, here's we're going to have to do some research on this one, but you got a lot of listeners. What about um, Aramaic? I bet some uh, modern Aramaic speakers. Because a lot of the northern a lot of the the Northern Syrians are, um, are uh, uh, Aramaic speakers. And I've met some and stuff like that.

I'm looking forward to talking about that.

I need to do some research about that.

report it a lot. And I, no matter what, we'll we'll have a great time, no matter what what we figure out. Um, I'll be flying there because um, I'm lucky that my local airline has a direct flight and Oh, really. Cost like nothing. Yeah. I don't know why, but, you know, the local Hungarian Wizz Air, they they have a flight there. And when I looked at the prices, uh, when the last conference was over, it's like, you know, $50 return. So, there you go.

Yeah, I I think I I think I pay probably uh, I I pay more than that in taxes for my plane ticket. So, uh,

Yeah, I that's the problem with going across the Atlantic. It's it's expensive. But it does get slightly more epic. You know, if I just fly like 45 minutes or an hour, it's like, oh, okay, I'm still in Europe, you know. Yeah. But flying nine hours across the Atlantic, then suddenly you're in a different world, which is which is cool.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, it's exciting. I mean, there there um, yeah, I don't know, there uh, it it I went you went I went there um, last summer like I said. And we had to fly via um, there are direct flights to major cities in Europe. But then we had to change. So, we just changed in Amsterdam and then on the way back, changed in Paris. So, it's easy enough. But yeah, it's it's but yeah, I mean, it's definitely more of a commitment. You know,

Yeah, well, that's what we love to see. I mean, you should come to Berlin, as well.

Oh, man. You know, I've never been to Berlin. I have to say like, last time I spent any time in Berlin was shortly shortly before the wall fell. So, it was uh,

It has changed a little bit since then. Yeah.

or no, shortly after, shortly after the wall fell. That's right.

It has changed a little bit since then. Yeah.

Um, they uh, they really like, you know, the cafelattes now and it's very gentrified. So,

That's right.

No, I uh, uh, you know, I was in I was in Kiev, uh, when I lived there. It was just two years after uh, the the fall of the the the Soviet Union. And I look I look at like, I look at photos of places that I went to all the time. And I look at them, and I like I I literally I'm like, I have to ask my old friends because folks your age don't remember when the Kiev that I remember existed. That was really when I taught in Ukraine, it was so funny because I was telling them what it was like under the Soviet system. I was I'm American. I was telling what it was like in Ukraine under the communists. And because they, you know, they they don't. I mean, I know more than they do in some ways because I was there.

Polyglot Gathering May early May, I think. It's for a few days.

You know, and the thing is that my my cousin is he he, um, he likes traveling. He's not a language person. I tease him because he's he doesn't try on languages, but he is a a traveling teacher. He teaches at international schools. And, uh, he spent two years in Chennai in uh, in India. I know. And I kept wanting to visit. I never got around to it. And now he's in Vilnius in Lithuania, which is just a hop, skip and a jump from uh, Berlin. So, um,

Yeah.

there's, you know, once you know seven prefixes, you got a lot.

Yeah.

And they look like prepositions anyway. So, Exactly. And that so besides "Pisatch" is to write, but "opissatch" is to describe. Um, you know, and uh, so it's it's it's cool how it how it, um, and it makes you think about language in general because like "dumat" is to think, and then "peredumat" is think again or reconsider, which is Exactly. So, you just say, "Think again." Or you can insert any prefix, you know. Um, and and change the meaning, which is really cool. And if you don't know the word, you can still try and use it. And they'll some they'll probably understand you even though the word isn't being used or that particular combination doesn't work. They'll probably still understand you, which I find very fascinating. Well, yeah, because it makes me think. I think there's a word "zadumat." "Zadumat," which is means like consider all consider all the way through. Right. So, that's what you say, you can say this, you can say this to your kid, you know. "Ni podumay eto." Or like, "You know, don't think that through."