Season Review & Updates (2/2)

And what I did last week was I sat down and I looked at the episodes that we had in in the previous season, which is just ending now. This is the last, I guess you can call this in like an in-between set of episodes, but the the old episode, the old season is gone. And for the new season that's starting on December 1st, so not as much time as I usually allow myself between seasons. And we're going to have some new people on. It's going to be exciting.

And I'm I'm excited to keep doing this. As you know, I had some kind of concerns about continuing the podcast due to I I felt like I wasn't really providing enough value or enough interest. But luckily, I got a lot of positive feedback and I got a lot of friends who who said to me, "You know what? I really like the episodes that you do. I really like the content." And so I I just felt like I had to keep going.

And for me, it's really easy. I really love to talk about these things, as I do believe that learning languages, traveling, exploring foreign cultures, are really key to not only developing yourself, but also getting a broader picture of the world and getting to experience just way more things. And and when you do get those experiences, they're usually much greater than if you hadn't spent the time learning the language or, you know, figuring out how to travel properly or or learning the local cultures, because I feel like the more I learn about other cultures, the more I appreciate them and the more I appreciate my own as well, because it it puts your own situation in a sort of perspective, which is fantastic.

So, if you didn't listen to part one, I would strongly recommend you go back to 134. Just listen to that. I there's a bit of a a longer explanation of what I just said there. And I do go through the first kind of couple of episodes of that season just to give you a little rundown of what happened, some behind-the-scenes thoughts, and some reasoning for why this person provided me with a lot of value, what I learned from the interview, and that kind of thing or any themes that kind of pop up. I'm going to be talking about with you today. So, it's a little bit more casual than normal, but I hope you will enjoy the episode nonetheless. And why don't we just dive straight in?

So, we left off at 124. So, the next episode is 125, which was with Joey Perugino. And he's one of the organizers of what is now LangFest. When the event started back in 2016, it was called NAPS, North American Polyglot Symposium. And I actually asked one of the founders how they came up with that name, and they said, "Well, it was the only it was the only noun to describe a gathering of people that was left," they felt like, because, you know, the polyglot gathering was already taken, the polyglot conference was already taken. So, it seemed like symposium was one of the only available choices.

And I was really, really happy to go to that first event. I was really honored to be invited by the organizers to come up and and share a talk with the audience there. There was about 200 people with everyone. And and we had a great time. I really love Canada. I've only been there this once, but I was lucky enough to be able to stay there for a month before the event. So, I got to know Canada a little bit. And it's definitely a place that I I really enjoy.

This is another polyglot event in the world, and I'm really happy that we have so many now. When I discovered the polyglot movement, the polyglot conference had only just started, and that was really the first proper event for people who had language learning as a hobby. Of course, there was, you know, industry conferences or teaching conferences, but they were different, you know, they didn't target this segment. They didn't have hobby language learners showing up left, right, and center.

So, the polyglot conference, starting in 2013, by the time it started, I didn't really know what polyglot meant. I had no idea this movement even existed, because my foray into polyglot language learning really only started at the end of that year in in very late December, I think, it was. And Actual Fluency started just a year after in in March, because I wanted to document my own journey and kind of talk a little bit more about this like mysterious group of people and and how is it possible for for some people to learn 10, 20, 30 languages, while most people complain that they can't even learn any French for their, you know, holiday in in the wine country.

So, I'm really happy for that there are more events today. I consider like a couple of events like the main ones. So, you got the conference every year in a new place. It's going to be in Japan in 2019, which is incredible, and I I can't wait. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it there. It's a little bit far away, of course, and it's quite expensive to fly. But if I can make it, I will. Then you have the conference in North America, LangFest as it's now called, which Joey from 125 was talking about. A great event as well. And then you got the gathering, which is going to be in Bratislava, Slovakia, again, for the I think is that the second that must be the third time. Yeah, next year's going to be the third time it's in Bratislava. It was in Berlin three times before that. And I was really sad to miss it this year, but hopefully, I can come back next year. They haven't decided if it's going to stay there or not, but what I really like about these language events is just it really gives you the opportunity to share your passion for language learning. It get it gets you motivated, it gets you inspired, and these people are just really nice, most of them who come to these events. They're really tolerant, they're really, you know, high respect, and they have a lot of patience as well. So, even if your language skills aren't up to, you know, the Richard Simcott of the world, you can definitely come and enjoy it.

I asked a a guy in Berlin a couple of years ago who who only had English. And I say only with, you know, a lot of respect, of course, because there's nothing wrong with speaking one language. Obviously, we live in a very multilingual community here, so there's it's very rare to meet someone with one language, and I asked him, "So, why are you here?" And he said, "Well, some of my friends wanted to go, and I thought, 'Why not?'" And he actually had a fantastic time, and he couldn't wait to get started on his second language, which I think is amazing. So, if you don't speak 10, 20, 30 languages, don't worry, you know, I only speak a couple reasonably well, and and for me, I was almost always at the bottom of the list of languages on badges, but I always had a great time. Nobody ever said anything to me that would make me lose the interest or the hope of going to another one. Well, I've come back every year, anyway, so, what was really interesting to talk to Joey about as well was just how much his dual culture kind of fit his life and and and, you know, was a part of him. Because he embraces his heritage, like his Italian heritage, and he's also Canadian. And I think a lot of people in Canada and many countries around the world have it like Joey, where you have perhaps parents from multiple countries around the world. You have to like bring different cultures together, and the the kids of of those parents then become these like multilingual, multicultural people, which is nice in many respects, but it can also be challenging. So, it's interesting to to listen to Joey's experience, how they were very, you know, meticulous of of his upbringing, especially.

And LangFest is just amazing. Hope I can go again. I think the schedule for next year is looking a little bit packed around that time, so I'm not sure I can make it. But it's if I can, I will, definitely, and I recommend you go as well. It's just an amazing event and an amazing city as well, Montreal. I wish I could live there.

And then we had one of the young ones, as I as I have had in the past, you know, on the podcast, we have a a huge age variety, and and this is true in the community as well, you know, you have the 14-year-olds and and below even, who are just getting into this kind of hobby, who are finding it really fascinating, and are are doing it in a way where maybe when I was that age, I was more interested in Pokémon cards or, I don't know, playing football or something. Um, but it's like it becomes a hobby much earlier this way, and I think it's great, because obviously, the younger your brain is, the more adaptive it is, and the the quicker you can add new stuff.

Um, but Azren, the language nerd, as he would like to be called, was on, and he's been doing a lot of social media stuff. And what I think is cool is you've got the young movement, but you also have a lot of people at the other end of the scale. Like my friend Andrew, for instance, I don't even know how old he is, but he's been doing it for longer than I've been alive, for sure. And you've got all the way down as well from, you know, 50s, 40s, 30s. You can find any age at these gatherings, which I also find really cool, because it allows the generations to bond in a different way that probably wouldn't happen in many places. You know, it's not normal you go to a some sort of conference or convention, and people are just of all different ages and and cultures. Like, it's a very diverse group of people, which I really like.

Um, but Azren talked about his experience getting into language learning and using social media as well. He's uh got some really nice stories going on on Instagram and Snapchat. And I think he's demonstrating kind of the new tech on how we can use it. For instance, Snapchat is a relatively new social media platform, and I know that Facebook and all the others have the the ability to show the stories and even a Snapchat-like feature. Uh, and we can use this to practice our languages. There's my friend Lindsey, Lindsey Williams, who does like a little videos of herself speaking on Instagram. At least she used to. I haven't used Instagram much lately. And and I think that's a fantastic way to not only, you know, try to prove yourself to what you have learned, but also to give some encouragement to other people, maybe share ideas with your friends or fellow learners. And Azren is definitely a big shining beacon in that movement. And, you know, social media will be a big part of language learning going forward. If it isn't already, it kind of is already, I guess. I I don't want to sound like an old man here saying, "Oh, social media is going to change everything." Uh, it's already kind of changed everything, and language learning is no different.

Um, 127 was with Susana Sarasky. And this is an interesting guest, because she's always been a massive part of the polyglot community. She's been almost like a leading lady, if you will. She's been in many of the early YouTube videos. Her website was fantastic. And I always want to have her on the show, but the scheduling just never really worked out. And I obviously was moving around a lot, moving different countries. The podcast had its on and off times. So, I never really find the time to to talk to Susana.

But then, in 2016, at the LangFest or NAPS, as it was called back then. I'm at this picnic at the end of the whole week, and we're at this park. It's a little bit dark. There's no light in the park. It's getting dark. It's still summer, so the light did stay out for a long time, but it's dark, and I'm at this table, and and there is this, you know, woman standing at the the table. She seems familiar. I can't quite place her. Uh, and it turns out it was Susana, but that I had for some reason completely missed during the the the whole, um, event. Maybe I knew maybe I knew she was there, but I I didn't have the chance to to bump into her at the coffee breaks, or I didn't see where she was hanging out. So, that was the first chance I I had to talk to her. We had a chat. Uh, we talked a little bit about mental health, which is something that we both talk about and she encouraged me to keep kind of adding the awareness to it, which I will definitely do. That was part of the the talk I did in in Canada, and that was part of mental health, like, you know, how language learning can improve mental health in in terms of depression and stuff. But I already talked about that in the previous episode, so I don't want to drum on about that.

But Susana is absolutely amazing. Very talented polyglot, author as well, and she's got a few passion projects that I find really amazing as well. She's really into endangered languages, saving the languages, some of them that are dying, indigenous languages, and that kind of thing. She also really likes music. So, she really thinks that she really thinks, she thinks that music is really important in terms of language. I have never personally found that I haven't found the magic of music in terms of language learning yet. I must say I do enjoy listening to Russian songs, which is my main Russian kind of project, but it's it's kind of a novelty songs, more like, you know, musical songs and Disney and all these things I can recognize the tune in. I find very good. So, uh, really happy to have Susana on. She's an amazing personality and person, very friendly, very warm, and her stories will make you will make you laugh, for sure.

Um, then we had 128, which was with Mike Campbell, the founder of Glossika. And Mike is just a genius. I mean, there's no other way of putting this. He's the things he knows about linguistics and language acquisition and studies on the subject is amazing. So, we had a really in-depth talk about what makes sentence-based learning what it is, and he shared a lot of academia, he shared a lot of anecdotal evidence, and he shared what the philosophy of Glossika is. And obviously, Glossika has been sponsoring this previous season of the podcast, which I'm really grateful for. Thank you, Glossika, for giving me that opportunity to keep the podcast going as well. And if you want to try out Glossika, you can go to try.glossika.com. How about that effortless effortless segue there?

And um, it was a really interesting episode, and I Mike is just a a fountain of wisdom when it comes to language acquisition. And he links together some kind of aha moments I've had about language learning, especially connected to context. Because I, which I also talked about in the previous episode, but it's basically, I think that when I started, there was a big focus on single words, which gets you nowhere. Um, it might work for languages that are very similar and have limited grammar. So, let's say you're German and you're learning Dutch, maybe learning single words will be absolutely fine, because you understand the structure inherently. But for me, let's say learning Russian, learning single words doesn't even make sense, because what form do you learn? Do you learn all the endings? Do you learn all the conjugations? And even if you do, how do you separate them in your head? So, learning in context means that you learn the let's say the relevant conjugation or the relevant ending, and then you can apply it to other contexts. And I think places like Glossika, or Speechling, or other places that use this kind of contextual learning are the ones that are going to be the most successful for me, certainly, but also for general language learning. I think if you work only on words, you're going to be very disappointed.

So, then brings us to 129 and 130. That was a double episode with Dave Prior. Dave is a really funny and cool guy that I met in Bratislava. Oh, no, actually, we met in Berlin, I think, for the first time in at the polyglot gathering when it used to be there. And then we met again in Bratislava last year, or the year before last, maybe. Uh, it's all blurring together at this point. But, um, really cool guy, really talented and funny. He's also interested in endangered languages, and he's also a fellow language podcaster. I don't know if he's still doing it, but he definitely, um, had aspirations of doing that.

But the cool part of this episode is not Dave, necessarily. I mean, he he's a great guy, but he took one for the team and went full like Dr. Prior on me. He he went into like this polyglot therapist role, where I was kind of talking about how I how I felt about language learning, and that was that I felt some pressure from having the blog, from having the this podcast, that I needed to be more of a language learner than I actually was. And together with Dave, I actually realized that this is not what I want. This is some kind of, I don't know, I'm putting on some kind of show.

Um, and I think it's because that's how I discovered the language learning community initially. You know, I found Benny Lewis's blog. He was learning 10 languages on the blog, and I found the blog when it was a few years old. So, by then, he'd already had a lot of experience in in rapid acquisition and learning what was necessary to have these conversations in in very quickly after getting started. You know, he he never claimed to be absolutely fluent in any of the languages, but he was just traveling and learning these languages so effortlessly, it seemed, that that's what I wanted to do. So, when I started Actual Fluency, and this is a funny, but embarrassing story. I had a goal to learn Russian in three months. And I think I put something like, "Oh, yeah, B1, you know, low B1 will be nice." And of course, by the time I hit three months, I'd learned nothing.

And, you know, I still want to learn languages. Definitely, I want to keep learning. I think one of the ways that we improve here in life is to keep keep improving and keep learning, because it keeps the brain fresh, and it keeps everything interesting. Um, so I want to keep learning, but I have pretty much accepted that I won't be, you know, the 10, 20, 30 language polyglot necessarily. Uh, there would have to be some exceptional circumstances for that to happen. I'm perfectly happy being like a a language learning journalist or language learning researcher or an encourager, maybe, or a messenger that spreads the message. I guess it's like being a fitness journalist, you don't actually have to be the one showing you how to do the lifts. You just have to kind of share the message and pass the message on.

So, together with Dave, I realized that, and I really, it was a huge relief, because suddenly, I didn't have to feel bad every day about not studying as much as I could have, or like feeling that I was a bit of a fraud or impostor, because I was doing all these missions about, "Oh, yeah, Chris is 10 language 10 languages in 10 years." And I just realized it's not me, you know. I don't know where it came from, but, you know, that's the journey we take. We have some adventures, and then we realize that we the mission that we were on weren't really wasn't really meant to be. And for me, that 10 languages in 10 years was just too arbitrary, too random, and it doesn't really comply with my goals and visions right now, which is to build out the this podcast to be even better, you know, build the Actual Fluency brand as well, and and try to help as many people as I can. First of all, discover that you can learn languages on your own, but also improve how we learn languages in schools and for adults, perhaps, for in terms of immigration, assimilating to society and that kind of thing.

But so, that double part with Dave was absolutely life-changing for me, and uh, I think I need a new session soon with Dave, but it's a fantastic guy, and I really recommend you listening to that episode if you struggle with like the why of learning languages, or what your goal should be. Um, because what Dave and I kind of end up agreeing on is that it's okay to dabble in languages. You shouldn't feel like you have to become absolutely fluent in in the language you're studying or not study it at all. Like, it's not an ultimatum. For me, the enjoyment of language learning comes at the first word you know. If you go into any shop where you know the staff speaks a different language, if you learn the hello for that language, how are you? They're going to love you forever. They're going to smile. They're like, "Oh, how did you learn that?" And and you can see the reactions. This is what, um, what's his name, Larshiu, uh, on YouTube does. Moses McCormick, he goes into all these ethnic shops, and he speaks their language to them. And some of the languages, he's really good at. And like his Chinese is is almost perfect, and Japanese is also great. Pretty pretty much his Asian languages are really strong because of his uh his uh he's always like that part of the world, and his wife is Chinese, I believe. Um, but then he walks into, you know, the the Serbian deli or the Bulgarian bakery, whatever, and just knowing, you know, hello, how are you, and just the answer to the first three questions he get, he gets the best reactions ever. And this is my point about the rewards of language learning. It's not at the end when you're completely fluent and you know everything. The reward started day one, which is why I encourage everyone to do it at whatever pace or level they want. Um, so, really, I owe a lot of thanks to Dave for that.

Then we move on to 131, which was Conner Klein with Eastern European travels and experiences. A bit of a different episode. Conner is a is a very interesting person. He speaks a lot of languages. So, we had an episode way back a couple I think it was about four years ago, maybe three years ago, that we talked about how he learned all his languages. So, if you want a more language-related episode, definitely go back and listen to that, because he didn't really speak much more than English going out of school. And and now he he knows about 10 languages. So, that's really good. What's interesting also is he decided to settle down in Ukraine, which for many people is like, "Whoa, that sounds, you know, dangerous and, uh, you know, there's a lot of stereotypes and and about the Ukraine and and living in the Eastern Europe in general. But Conner loves it, and he shares some his his experiences there, including some tips on dating, which is not something I thought I'd have on the Actual Fluency podcast, but he talks about the dating community and also like the expectations for the locals when foreigners come, and how to use language languages more in your travels. Um, he has a lot of great stories, so I definitely recommend that.

And 132 was with Josh Koen. A friend of mine who I met at the polyglot symposium, I was about to say. Uh, LangFest in 2016. He's a fantastic guy, really talented. He really uses his languages in his community. He really finds ways to use it. Like, he's doing a like a taxi service for the the the local, um, you know, I'm not sure if it was Tamil or Punjabi-speaking community. And he uses these this the languages that he learns right away, you know. He he tries to improve not only his life but learning more languages, he also improves his community, and he does good service to to the people around him. So, it's a really nice episode. Josh is also amazing. He was, um, he supported me really a lot in 2016 with the when I was doing the talk about being stuck in like a black hole and talks about mental health, and, um, it was great to have Josh on and and hear his experience learning languages, and how he he got interested in Chinese when he was like eight, which is fantastic. So, 132 really a nice a nice wholesome episode.

And then 122 is the last episode that we're going to talk about in this in this episode. It's kind of meta, isn't it? Uh, that was with, uh, Miroslav, uh, Sadovi. I'm so terrible at Slovak, uh, pronunciation, and I I apologize many times to Miro. Um, he's also one of these geniuses that just when you go to the gathering or the conference, his name badge is literally filled up with languages. He is so well-versed in languages. Not only does he know actual languages, he also knows programming languages. So, there you go, a two-for-one package.

Um, but I I think more than anything, Miro is a fantastically warm human being, very positive, and he has done a lot for the polyglot community, volunteering at the gathering for, I think, since it started now, and always been helpful, um, supporting everyone. And and he's supported me, probably, more than most people in life, uh, when the podcast was when when there were some problems, or when something wasn't quite right, or when something was really good. I always got an email from Miro, and I always appreciated it, and he is the main, one of the main forces of of getting the podcast to to move on.

And he was he sat down with me. It's kind of a it's a really nice touch, but this is what he does, you know, he's a really nice guy. The first event, I didn't know anyone. I just released, I think, five episodes of the podcast. And I had one episode with Steve Kaufmann, which was a real scoop, and obviously, that did get me some press. And Yudie Meyer as well, who is on the, uh, who hosted the or organized the gathering. But, um, I didn't really know anyone, and I think I had about each episode was downloaded like 30 times, which, uh, you know, it's not nothing. I was happy that some people were interested. But, um, definitely, nobody really knew anything of Actual Fluency when I came into the building.

Um, so when we had heard the presentate the introduction, he came over to me and said introduced himself, and said who he was, and and he sat me down and showed me his phone, and I was like, uh, "So, what's this? I hope I'm not going to see any nude pictures or anything." But luckily, it was his podcasting app, and he showed me how he was subscribed to a lot of podcasts, but right there in the middle was Actual Fluency. And just seeing this in in person, really, it really it really made me happy, because it it showed that I was onto something, you know. I was doing something that was not just for the benefit of myself. It was it was not just some random scribbles online. It actually had real impact with people, and Miro really personified this.

And, um, he gave me a lot of praise, and some of it not really deserved, I'm sure, because those early episodes were really rough, and it took me a lot of time to learn how to do this. Not only the interview techniques and getting the stories out of people, but the technical side as well. If you go back and listen to some of them, they're really bad, almost impossible to listen to. And if you have listened to some of the catalog the whole catalog, uh, you know, props to you. Thanks for your dedication and perseverance. And I apologize for the technical errors, but yeah. So, Miro has been there from the beginning, a super guy.

And I think the interesting bit is also his story about how whenever his parents had an opportunity to use languages to grow him as a as a person as well, they did. So, there's, you know, bilingual kindergarten, it was studying abroad, it was all these opportunities that we all get, but he was sort of pushed into from his parents' side, which is just amazing. Also, of course, growing up in in the middle of Central Europe, where you've got about six languages all around in in a very small radius. I think if you're if you're near Prague, you've got Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava, and Prague within very small geographical distance. So, you really have a great place for a polyglot to be born. And Miro took every opportunity, and since he's become an adult, he hasn't stopped.

Um, but yeah, that was a fantastic opportunity to have him on. And I've been talking about having him on since the beginning of the show, pretty much. But I knew it had to be pretty special, so that's why he was the last episode in this season. And, uh, that episode could have been the last. You know, at that time, I wasn't really sure if I was going to keep doing it. So, that was a very special moment, and I was happy that he would he had could take the time to talk to me, because obviously, scheduling isn't easy. He's got a little daughter as well, so it's a is an it's not easy to manage everything. He travels a lot as well.

So, with that said, I'm just going to say thank you for listening to this little recap of the last season. And what's going to happen in the next season? Well, the big thing is I'm going to I'm going to go back to one episode a week, and I will hold to this unless something extraordinary happens. In the last year or so, it's been very sporadic, but I think it's due to me moving around, you know, when you move jobs or or countries, then it can be a little bit stressful to maintain something like a one-episode-a-week schedule. But I'm already on ahead of time trying to organize the interviews for the next season, and the first episode will go live December 1st, and then we're going to do at least 16 episodes, so once a week, so 16 weeks of episodes. And I'm happy to say that I've got a a brand new sponsor lined up, really great partner that I can't wait to share with you guys. And it's going to be fantastic. It's one of the language companies that actually changed my language learning the most. And, uh, I'm happy that they were willing to partner up with me for this future season.

The other thing I'm going to change is I'm going to, well, change and change, improve is I'm going to have a new, not format, but I'm going to add a little jingle, because right now it's very bootstrapped, isn't it? So, just to make it a little bit more professional, I'll add a jingle, so it's the same in every episode. Maybe I'll get someone to record the intro just to so it's not me doing it every time. And, um, hopefully, package it up a little bit better, because if there's something I've learned is that, yeah, the content is solid, but sometimes the my presentation really lacks. And I hope that I can keep improving in that aspect in this new season, which, um, won't be easy for me, of course, is always a challenge. But, um, together with your help, hopefully, we will keep producing some great stuff here, and as I've said before, if you have a fantastic language learning background, or you speak a lot of languages, or you went to an unusual place to learn unusual language, or you have any anecdotes and stuff that could be the basis of an episode, don't hesitate to get in touch. Uh, Chris@actualfluency.com. I'd love to talk to you and, uh, possibly feature you in an upcoming episode.

And, uh, with that said, I think that is the end of this review of the last season. And if you have any questions or comments or concerns, like I said, you're always welcome to write to me at Chris@actualfluency.com. I I respond to every email. I always have and always will. And, uh, yeah, thank you for listening to this episode, and thank you for being a listener. I really appreciate it. And if this is the first episode you hear of Actual Fluency, I hope that I, you know, wet your appetite for the for the other episodes that you could be listening to right now. So, take care. Enjoy yourself and languages. And I'll see you in episode 136, which will be the new season.