👉 Grab your FREE Guide, Lamont’s 8 Best Language Learning Tips: https://l.storylearning.com/lamont_tips

👉 Sign up now for the StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/SL.app.2026

In this episode, I’m delighted to be joined for a second time by Lamont McLeod from the Days and Words YouTube channel.

We talk about getting over hurdles in language learning, our appreciation of language as an art-form, the Australian Military Linguist Test, accountability practices, Lamont’s take on AI and more.

In just under an hour, we pretty much solve language learning!

More from today’s guest:

💬 Our first interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaeMO_Xyby4

📺 Lamont’s YouTube Channel, Days and Words: https://www.youtube.com/@daysandwords

🗣️ Lamont’s Spanish accountability channel: https://www.youtube.com/@lamontespanol/

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

#storylearning #learnthroughstories

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How fluent do you have to be in a second language before moving on to a third language? How do you know when is the right time? Do you risk forgetting the language you are currently learning or not?

This is the most common question I've ever received on the podcast - Can I learn two languages at once? And if not, when's the right time to learn another language?

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info#storylearning #learnthroughstories

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Struggling to understand TV in your new language? Today’s questioner, Lisa, has the same problem. She speaks French and Italian at a decent level but still finds TV tricky. She told me that sometimes she just wants to collapse in front of the telly.

And this is what trips people up when they're trying to learn a foreign language by watching TV. Most of us associate TV with just zoning out. But in order to get good at anything, you have to be able to focus and concentrate.

There are a couple of parts to this dilemma. First is understanding what type of TV you're watching. And then second is actual techniques for getting better and for learning. So let’s get into it.

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

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👉Grab your FREE Guide, How to Read in Any Language: https://l.storylearning.com/reading_guide

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I’ve had a lot of questions come in  about different ways to learn vocabulary from reading and the best books to use if you want to read to learn a language.

 I do quite a lot of episodes on reading and this is going to be a rapid fire one. I'm going to very quickly go through a bunch of different types of books that you can read and tell you if they're helpful or not.

Mentioned in this episode:

📖 My 101 Conversations books: https://l.storylearning.com/books

🎓 Sangers, N.L., van der Sande, L., Welie, C. et al. Learning a Language Through Reading: A Meta-analysis of Studies on the Effects of Extensive Reading on Second and Foreign Language Learning. Educ Psychol Rev 37, 96 (2025). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-025-10068-6

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

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👉 Grab your FREE Guide, Xiaoma’s 7 Best Tips for Learning Any Language: https://l.storylearning.com/xiaoma

Today's guest, Xiaoma NYC, a.k.a Arieh Smith, probably needs no introduction. He first came on the podcast in 2020, so it's high time we caught up with him. He's been busy since then, managing to learn 70 languages. So how did he do it?

Links mentioned in this episode:

Arieh’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@xiaomanyc

Teacher AI: https://yourteacher.ai/

Arieh’s language courses: https://www.streetsmartlanguages.com/

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

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👉 Grab your FREE Speaking Guide: https://l.storylearning.com/speaking_guide 

Today's question is about speaking and how to go from knowing a lot of stuff in a language to actually speaking the language fluently.

 As I always say, if you want to speak fluently, so if you want to be able to interact in the real world confidently and fluently like a native speaker, you've got to be speaking a lot.

Let’s look at some ways to do that, both by yourself and with other people.

Mentioned in this episode:

Langua: https://l.storylearning.com/Langua-AI

Daniel's podcast, My Fluent Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/myfluentpodcast

LanguaTalk: https://l.storylearning.com/Langua-Talk

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

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👉 Grab your FREE Language Goal Planner: https://l.storylearning.com/goals

As a beginner language learner, you feel progress happening very quickly. Everything you learn is useful and practical.

But once you've learned the basics, it’s normal to get stuck. In fact, it's so normal that it has a name: the intermediate plateau. Every learner reaches it, generally around the one to two year mark.

So, how do you get over it?  When you’re stuck and you just can’t break through to fluency, there are only two possibilities and two ways to fix it. And one thing you must never do.

Mentioned in this episode:

Find high-quality language teachers on LanguaTalk: https://l.storylearning.com/langua_talk

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

#storylearning #learnthroughstories

👉 Grab your FREE guide, How to Read in Any Language: https://l.storylearning.com/6_steps_read 

I don’t know if you've noticed, but language learning advice is often geared towards extroverts - put yourself out there, just speak, don't be shy.

That makes perfect sense if you're that way inclined. But if you're at all like me and you identify as an introvert, or at least have very strong introverted tendencies, that kind of advice is very, very difficult to take.

So let’s take a look at what introverts can do instead to get fluent fast.

Mentioned in this episode: The StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/app

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

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👉 Grab your FREE Language Difficulty Guide: https://l.storylearning.com/difficulty_guide 

Today we have a question about choosing your next language. And it comes from someone who's already a polyglot, who speaks four languages and is a bit confused over what their fifth language should be. An interesting problem.

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

#storylearning #learnthroughstories

👉 Get Your Free Guide, Dr Popkins' 8 Best Tips to Learn a Language and Keep Going https://l.storylearning.com/dr-popkins-tips

In this episode, I'm very happy to welcome Gareth Popkins, longtime friend and language compadre, to the StoryLearning podcast. Gareth got the language bug in his early twenties and took his French further, learned Welsh and then worked on German and Russian. He’s had a rather chequered trajectory, starting as historian of Russian history. He then went to law school in his early thirties, continuing with languages and starting to blog and vlog about his language learning experiences. He now does that full-time, focusing in particular on teaching intermediate German learners. We come from a similar place in that our lives have been characterised by a love for languages. And we've since taken that passion and that experience and are using it to help other people learn.

More from today's guest:

Gareth’s website: https://howtogetfluent.com/Gareth’s

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DrPopkinsGermanGareth’s

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drpopkinsgerman/

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

#storylearning #learnthroughstories