28 | Different Language, Different Vision
Hey guys,
This week, I released a video 🎬 about Travel & Languages 🚀 - I explain how learning 4 languages improved my life. There's subtitles in 4 languages, so I'd recommend you enable them from the very beginning as I'll be switching languages all the time.
Few days ago, I also hosted a room in Clubhouse to talk about travel and languages with like minded people. Clubhouse is a social networking iPhone app based on audio-chat only. Users can listen in to conversations, interviews and discussions between interesting people on various topics. It's just like tuning in to a podcast but live.
It’s interesting because I keep hearing a lot of people saying they learnt many languages but years later they literally know nothing. I understand how it feels because we still teach languages in a very conventional way.
I understand this might not work for everyone and visas/family/career stage can be a challenging factor. However, my recommendation for any younger new learner:
💪 Leave your fear behind. We all make mistakes and feel embarrassed to speak in front of other people initially but this doesn't help. Just acknowledge that we're all starting from somewhere at some point and things will work fine.
📚 Books are good but careful. Don't spend too much time learning vocabulary or try to be the king/queen of the phonetic transcription. Grammar is very important and foundations are key, this is a fact but there's a certain point when listening to music/radio/podcasts, watching films, reading news/magazines in the language you're trying to learn will complement it.
🧠 It's not the language itself. Immerse yourself in the local culture and customs too. Understanding how locals thinks will complement and accelerate your language skills.
👀 Be curious. Don't judge why they eat in a certain way, why grammar is that way or why they do certain things. Every new language is a new vision of the world.
🧭 Travel. From my perspective this is the game changer. If travel is an option and we can learn in the local country, then this should be the starting point. I cannot stress enough how this accelerates and enriches the whole learning process.
Have a great week and enjoy the content below!
Alejandro
🎯 This Week’s Quote
“Strange that there are some things people won't change, with tradition as an excuse.”
Stories of the Sahara by Sanmao
📝 This Week's Blog Post
The connection between language and how we understand the world is something that has always excited me. Language is not just the way we communicate but also how we think and what our culture, history and values are. Let's explore what this really means.
Read more: Languages & Travel
🎥 This Week's Video
Hey guys, in this video I'll show you the 4 ways that languages improved my life and why we should learn languages to complement our travel.
Have you enjoyed the recent videos? Then please feel free to hit the button below to subscribe to the channel so I can keep making more free videos every week. 🚀