Richard Simcott: 20th Episode Special!

On this 20th episode of the actual fluency podcast, I talk about why I learn languages and then I have a chat with Richard Simcott. Welcome to the actual fluency podcast. The podcast that gives you the tools and inspiration to learn languages faster and more efficiently. And now your host, Chris Brohol. Today's episode is sponsored by Audible.com. Get a free audiobook and a free 30-day trial by visiting Audibletrial.com/fluency.

I've really enjoyed the community and I've enjoyed being with with people who take part in the online community in person for me, that's the important thing. The thing I particularly like about that is the interaction, the social interaction that we have practicing languages of course. But uh more than that learning from each other. Because I don't think that there's just one person we learn everything from. I think we all learn something from each other. And that experience and that sort of motive the motivation from both sides really engenders a sense of of wanting to continue and really promotes the interest in language learning.

Well, and it goes through you, doesn't it? Like you're sitting behind the screen at home, it seems like you're typing on Facebook and it is a person, of course, but once you see them in real life, you put a face to it.

Exactly.

That's when it becomes real, isn't it?

Yeah, exactly, it's when it becomes real and I think, you know, I've I've been to conferences, obviously, like this one, I went to a conference in Palma, which wasn't the Polyglot community, but it was a great event. And that I think really from that when I won the um the Nashbar East competition in um the Goethe Institute, and I became the ambassador for multilingualism.

Right.

Um.

Great honor.

Some people think I I I put the title on myself. I read somewhere recently and they so that he he calls himself this ambassador. But actually it was the it was the point of the competition. Um.

Right.

And. And yeah and I I like the title because um I I hope that I can be that for people.

Yeah.

Um. I certainly get a lot of nice feedback from people that take their their own time to write to me to say that they felt motivated by a video or some things that I've done online.

Right.

And I really appreciate it when people do that because it it shows me that what I'm doing in my spare time is is appreciated.

Right.

Um. I think if it was if it wasn't appreciated at all, it just fell on deaf ears. I think the the would be the motivation there for me to do it still. Um. But the the online community really I think it it just grew and grew and grew. More and more people started making videos and showing that they had really good skills and good knowledge to share and it made sense to then bring that together in a in a physical place.

Right. And I guess that happened last year with the with the Budapest.

That's the one.

Which you were hosting or arranging.

Yeah. Um. Yeah. I was the the main organizer for that event and hosted the entire event. Um.

Yeah. And people said it was amazing, but short. It's kind of the the things I've heard. I wasn't there.

Yeah. Yeah, people people wanted more more days in Budapest and I've got to be honest, I didn't know what to expect. It was the first time we've done it. The initial response was very positive. Um. I was also conscious that people need to go to work, people have studies and I thought a weekend's a good amount of time because people do do these weekend trips.

Sure.

And Budapest's a great destination because there are lots of cheap flights from all over Europe. So it made sense. And then the Catalan, um, you know, link there also seemed like a really good idea. You could you could have locals who know about her and her story. In fact we had the the the one of the people that put together her book. Um. translation of the book um and he he talked about that while he introduced it and and brought copies as well and um

You made yeah.

Yeah, and then somebody talked about the Hungarian language. I think what we the Polyglot Conference uh just slightly different to the Polyglot Gathering.

Sure.

Is that we we we like to highlight the local language and culture languages and cultures too. Um. So we have we highlighted the Hungarian language by having a lecture on the language itself.

Right.

Um. And then there were some locals that came along as well. I think here with the Polyglot Gathering, really it's more a gathering of the Polyglot community.

Sure.

Um. Yes, it's really nice that we're in Berlin. Um. The association's possibly not as strong to to bring in an expert on the German language and talk about about that.

Right.

And I think that that complements the other um idea of the conference very well.

Sure.

Um so when Judith approached me at the Polyglot Conference about saying that Polyglot Gathering over a longer period of time, which appealed to a lot more people too, just seemed like a really good idea.

Yeah.

Uh to have the two things in place. Right.

Yeah, and uh obviously you're looking forward to hosting one in Novi Sad as well.

Exactly. And so October polyglotconference.com.

Yeah. Get the plugin. Of course, that's why you're here, but.

Go on there. Yeah. And um but yeah, but I wanted to ask you what kind of changes you're making compared to last year and possibly you've learned something here as well that you might incorporate into Novi Sad.

Uh Novi Sad is going to have a different feel to the last two for for this one and for for Budapest in that it's going to be done in cooperation with um an official body in Serbia.

Right.

So uh the cultural center of Novi Sad is um is is really helping to host this event. It's going to be done in their official buildings. They're going to be um, you know, it's going to be a slightly higher um, I'd say, higher level of formality actually to the talks themselves. There's going to be the downtime, of course, people can can get together outside of the event. But it's going to be slightly more formal I I guess in that way. As you would expect the conference to be.

Sure. Yeah. I mean the name of conference and the name of gathering.

It shows the levels of formality there.

Right.

The first conference because it was the first one of its kind and and I was I was pretty much organizing it on my own with a local team in in in Budapest. Um. Really that that had maybe less formality than we'd saw the more see in in Novi Sad.

Right.

But I think both that event as well will also be extremely enjoyable.

Yeah, I'm sure. I've I've heard so many people asking me well you're going to Novi Sad and so it seems like a lot of people will be going. And uh and looking forward to that.

Yeah. Um. Well this is it. I mean, the key difference between me and many other people online is that I don't make any money from what I do online.

Sure.

I simply do it as a hobby. And I enjoy it, it's an enjoyable thing to do in my spare time. Um what I like to do is to to to engage the community and I do that mostly via Facebook now. Um I have a blog uh which I haven't updated for a couple of years, I guess. And that coincides with me starting um university courses in Sweden online.

Oh, yeah. Is that Upsala or?

Uh in Dalana.

Dalana yeah. So.

I I work full-time, I have a full-time job. Um, need to put bread on the table for us to eat. Um and then also in addition to that, I study um quite a lot of credits a year, I guess.

Right.

Um. And that is is my my passion if I weren't writing about it, it'd be ridiculous to not be studying. This is what I do. So I study languages. I that's my main passion. And it's not my job to be to be writing. Um, although I do enjoy it when I've got time. As I say, the the Facebook page is probably the one that I keep up to date.

Right.

Most. And and I write there every week at least. Um, most days actually, I probably write something on there.

It's easy to stay in touch with the phone and wherever you are.

Yeah, and it fits in um it fits in to it feeds into Twitter. Sometimes I'll tweet independently of of the um of the Facebook page. So the Facebook page, for anyone that doesn't know it, who's listening,

Yeah, sure.

Is Facebook dot facebook.com/speakingfluently. Um. And the the Twitter account is linked from there. So anyone that wants to see it can.

Perfect. And but I guess the the fear that some people might have had by seeing your your kind of activity levels on and go down was that you were quitting the language studies. But you said once that that would never happen.

No, no, no. I I I never quit language studies. I think that um organizing the conference last year took a toll on me because if you think I had had a full-time job. I I have my studies. I organized a conference in Budapest. And then also um I've got a family. Uh as you say, I have a young daughter. And I I I help my daughter with her language learning and her her schooling as well. So we do, you know, I work through her homework with her and that she needs to learn to read. And all of this takes takes additional time which I you know, I gladly give. Um my actual my life, my rhythm is probably from about 6 A.M. in the morning uh Central European time right the way through to midnight. And I don't stop.

Right. And that's a long day.

It's a long day. The weekends I take a bit of a bit of time out. Um so I don't work my job at the weekend. So I have a bit of time to study languages, maybe write a few posts on a Friday night or on a Saturday, if I want to add something. Um. And then I I do the normal things that you do with with your your child. Sure. Take her out to play, take her out to clubs. So that she gets the opportunities in life that I think she deserves.

And even more than that, I would say, because I listened to your talk on it was a bit of an informal talk about a little bit of everything, but you described the way you you taught languages to your daughter and I feel like you're doing quite a bit more than than other parents might do. So I found that really kind of inspiring from from when I get to to that point where I should uh bring up someone. It's a big responsibility, I feel like.

It's a huge responsibility. Um. You you basically I see parenting in this way, um I'm preparing an individual to go out into the world and and to and to make a life for for herself. So that's what I want to do. I want to make an individual who who can stand on her own two feet.

Right. How do you how do you avoid overdoing it? Because obviously you speak, you know, nobody knows how many languages these days, but I mean, I guess it's more than 10 if you have to say basic fluency.

Um very difficult to put a number on.

Of course. And I don't I don't I don't want you to either. It's just it's just to illustrate that you could potentially teach your 10 plus languages. But how do you kind of how do you avoid not going overboard with it? Because I'm sure some parents might be fanatic.

You you the temptation could be there to do that. I think that you've got you've got to question is, okay, whose life is this?

Right.

It's not, you know, your child is not an experiment.

Right.

Um. And your child is not um a utensil to use to to to live your own sort of maybe misglory or something that you you dream of for for yourself or you think isn't some sort of ideal. I think that um, you know, you've got to take into account, this is a new person to the planet. They've got lots of things to learn, not just languages. Language is one, it's very important. Um, but they also have math skills that they need to develop. They also have social skills that they need to develop. They used to have they have to learn about um, you know, how things work um in the world.

Right.

You know, whether it's science or history or geography or whatever. They've got lots and lots of things that they need to study to get to a basic level of understanding where they can function in society.

Right.

And to and to be successful if they want to have a career.

Right.

So I've got a duty to to offer that to my to my daughter. Um. In addition, I can give her a gift, which I think is more valuable than than any money I can give her. And that's the gift of language. So when when it came to choosing which languages to speak, really um French, English and Macedonian just because I spoke them as as well, I spoke them as a child and my wife and I spoke one or two of those languages ourselves as as children. And um we were they're important for us to carry on in the family. Um. German and Spanish because they're useful languages in Europe and Spanish in in the Americas. Um, you know, North and South America.

It's a big language.

It's a big language and it made sense because it's not a hugely different structure, it's not a hugely different vocabulary. It just made sense.

Right.

What I don't do is I don't burden my child with with um making sure she's perfect or doing anything like that. How can I? She's seven years old. I didn't speak seven Spanish when I was seven.

No.

I didn't speak German until I was 22. So um, you know, making her speak them like a native, it just seems ridiculous.

Of course.

For me, the important thing is I speak. If she speaks back in English or French or Macedonian or if she speaks back in German or Spanish a little bit, I don't mind. And I I I explained we sat down when she was I think three years old. And she said, Daddy, why do you speak to me in these different languages? Why do you speak to me in Spanish and German? Why why don't you just use use English or French? And I said, you know, I explained to her, when you're a big girl, you'll see that um there are lots of places you can go and people speak different languages.

Right.

And it's certainly that you have a choice to go to more places and to be able to speak to more people.

Right.

And it gives you um, you know, more more things to do because I have to put it in a child's way of of thinking.

Of course.

And um I said and that's why I do it. And I said, you can listen to me and that's all I the only thing I ask is for you you just to listen to me. That's all you have to do. Um, if you want to speak back and try and speak the language, then I'm really happy and I'll help you to speak it better if you want. Um, but I don't expect anything else of it from this stage at this stage.

So like uh, undue pressure you're applying. It's

Yeah, exactly.

Her kind of pace and.

And I love her reaction to that. She said, Clever Daddy.

That sounds like a very polite three-year-old.

It was very it was very sweet and it was really natural and and I mean, you know, you go through stages with kids. They'll have they'll have stages where she's had a couple of stages where she's she's she's queried it a little bit.

Right.

But I've not had anywhere near the issues that I've heard with other people raising multilingual children. Refusing to speak a language, for example.

Right.

She's never really done that. And and she will try and she will repeat. If I say, okay, let's see if you can try and say that. We'll try and have a game where we say, okay, how do you say this in a different language?

make it into a game. That sounds like a good way to raise a kid, I'd say.

And other things we do, if we meet families that speak another language, she'll learn a couple of words. I mean, again, I don't I don't go mad and say, don't you speak to my daughter in this language, this new language. Because again, there's not there's no real sense in doing it and the people who I'm talking to will think what's going on about.

Yeah, what's

Um. But recently we've got Italian friends in Skopje and she hears a lot of Italian. And she's been listening to it now for a few months. And now when I'm speaking to the the parents in Italian and the other their children there too, we can just speak in Italian to the the three children together. And um and my daughter goes off and she knows what they're saying, you know, she knows what we're saying to them.

That's amazing.

So she started understanding. I think that's because of the shared roots between between Spanish Spanish, French, it's not a huge leap for her to start getting some Italian. It's a couple of words that I had to explain in the beginning when she started hearing it. She's what's this? What does that mean?

Right.

And I just said it and now she just knows.

That's good because that shows she's curious as well. Because if she wasn't enjoying it, she would probably just kind of shut out.

Yeah, exactly. I mean as a small child she went through the same thing with with Portuguese. And she heard Portuguese quite a lot with some friends, um she's also had experience of Hebrew and of Japanese and just picked up a few words.

Right.

But again, I I wouldn't force her to keep keep up with that. Although now, a few years later, she can still sing Mary had a little lamb in Japanese.

Great.

And she can she can still say a few things in in Hebrew.

Right.

Which I think's really cute.

Yeah.

And she surprised me the other day in the car. She said something in Hebrew. She hadn't heard it for a year.

Wow.

So I was like, oh,

Yes, child brains are, I guess, even more impressive than any other brain.

Yeah, I mean, they forget a lot.

Sure. But they they're like us in a lot more ways than we care to admit, but um sometimes they will surprise you.

I actually it's funny that you brought him up because I met his Icelandic teacher in Reykjavik last year.

Oh, really?

And I spoke to her about him and.

Was he as incredible as.

She said he was absolutely amazing.

Right.

And she said the the act the footage that we saw, um said that he'd been there for a week. In actual fact, he was only there for like three or four days.

Gosh.

Where he actually had time to to to study language. So he did very, very well. And she said he was, he was that good.

Right.

She said it was incredible. And I actually made a video with her in Icelandic.

Right.

I just haven't released it yet.

Oh, god. Well, I don't speak any Icelandic sadly.

I'd have to put subtitles on, which I haven't done.

Yeah, it's so hard to do that.

So um yeah, the listeners can hear me murder Icelandic.

Yeah, so.

But I'll I'll um so any Icelanders out there that ever listen to this when I when I get around to putting it online, do forgive me.

Right.

One last question I want to ask you about the general language learning is um and again, looking back at when you've kind of started out. I know it's a a longer process than that, but what kind of things are you doing very differently now than from when you started? Because I think you've put every single video you could ever make on how you actually learn it. But what what do you think you do differently now than than you didn't when you started or did you do new things maybe that you didn't do back back then? Back in the day. Back in the day.

Um. No.

No.

It's it's about the same.

It's about the same.

I mean, um, yeah, I've always mixed materials. Um. Because again, I I I don't always feel like doing the same thing. I get bored with the same thing. Um. I've uh, I guess I I go go with my concentration. So if I don't feel I can concentrate on a specific day, then I'll I'll mix it up a little bit so that it makes it more interesting for me. Um. But knowing really the the the tools I'm using are fairly similar. I will use new technology more. So, for example, I my iPad or whatever I I will use. Um, if there's a new application, I'll try it out and and play with it and, you know, maybe yeah, that kind of thing, I suppose has changed because that's because technology has changed.

Yeah.

But the fundamental um process of what I'm going through is similar because even though it's an application on my iPad, it's still a type of course or it's still a type of video, it's still the same kind of materials I was using before.

Yeah. Just it's a different format. Exactly.

Exactly.

Um some people say, and I read a study about this that when you use your hand to take notes in they did a a university class. Um, when they did notes in by hand and compared to people who did notes on the computer, they said that the people who did notes by hand could recall a fairly significantly higher percentage of the learning.

Um. Because I hear about, you know, Nils Everson or somebody who like David James. They all write by hand. Tons of hand.

They all write by hand.

Right. I've got I've got books and books and books and books and books and books I've ever written. Um. So I this year I did I took on Ladino. And my idea was to do it for three months. But I finished the course that I had in a month. Wow. And then I went to Istanbul and I listened to talks in Ladino and I found I could understand pretty much everything that they said. Um. The only thing I couldn't follow very well was the comedy routine they had at the end. Um because they mixed in a lot of street Turkish that I wasn't familiar with and they were between the two like they they codeswitched a lot. Oh, really? The guy. And I couldn't get all of the references. It was just it was too difficult to get all the references. That would need to be a you know a really high level.

Of course. I think that's true for most languages. The jokes are hard.

But the songs and the um and the presentation I listen to. I said I for about two hours and I followed everything and I could laugh at the right places when they made jokes. And you know, it wasn't it wasn't too hard because it's quite similar to Spanish and it's got the same kind of Turkish words that I'm used to in Macedonian and um it it's got these words that I know anyway.

Right.

So, so that I don't forget what it what it is.

Right.

And then I just read through my notes and go through again. Um. And then really with a language like that, you need to get into the the music, into the literature, and things like that. Right. I didn't feel I needed to take it much further. I'm I'm I'm one that learns practical languages for more practical reasons. I'm interested. I want to learn how it works and how it goes and be able to communicate for certain languages. But I don't particularly need to get into I'm not I'm not going to start going around talking about Ladino. Um even though I definitely encourage anyone to anyone out there to to have a look at it. I think it's well worth um well worth a visit. Um. But at the same time, to to get to that very high level, I think you need a real reason to do that, a motivation.

Do you think the first step is quite it's it's not for you a particularly hard or time consuming task, but if you had to go from there to understanding all the jokes and the internal humor, maybe even cultural humor. Yeah. It's that would be a considerable effort.

It's a it's a huge investment for any language. Even a language that's similar to ones you speak, it's a bigger investment than than getting to that nice stage where you can communicate. Right. Um. And and then understand things without having to strain and to struggle. I mean, once you get to that stage in any language, I think you feel this these endorphins almost running through your body of wow, this satisfaction of learning, you know, and wow, I've actually got to this level. I've turned that corner. But to get to the other corners in our language where you you turn the corner to these advanced level then you turn another corner, much, much later, meaning we're talking years, where you get to like kind of a near native level.

Right.

That corner to turn that corner it is, it's it's almost a lifetime investment.

It's a long time.

So, no, you're not going to get to uh to the uh C2 plus in uh Ladino, but.

No, I don't I don't I don't see the need. I mean, I don't have a working need for it. I don't have a social need for it because we don't speak no one speaks Ladino where I live. Um. I try to be practical about what I'm doing. it makes sense. I mean, even if I did, how would I maintain it? It would be

Yeah.

You know what I mean? If if that that need to then study it for so long, you know, so many hours that doesn't then go away just because you've you've got to that level. You don't stay at that level unless you continue.

Yeah. So, I guess, rounding off the uh the the whole writing by hand. I I guess my concern is that I'm at a young generation that grew grown up with computers. So, and of course computers I'm sure can be effect efficient in in producing or improving language learning.

It's it's well worth doing. Um. What I what I find I I like to do is um sometimes if I'm looking at a new text that I find difficult to understand, I like to read it first. And then I will look at the words I don't know. I'll look what their meanings are. And then I'll go back and reread it. And then I'll start writing it out.

Right. Just word for word. Yeah.

Yeah. And then I will read what I've written.

Right.

And I will read it out as I'm writing it as well.

So, that's all the processes.

Yeah, that's basically what I do. When when I'm writing something out. And I find that just having that repetition in what I'm doing is is pretty handy for me. As I say, it doesn't work for everyone.

Right.

These these are all things that that that work for me. There's no right there's no real right or wrong in this. There's a what works and what doesn't work for you.

That's a good thing. Right.

Fantastic. Well, Richard, I want to thank you so much for taking the time. It's been a an honor and a great pleasure to have you and you know, you were among my biggest inspirers for for starting this in the first place. So, thank you for taking the time.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the actual fluency podcast. For more information, be sure to check out actual fluency.com. Until next time, enjoy learning and have a great day.