StoryLearning Podcast

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 Today we answer a question from John M who asks : how do I start speaking even when I'm a complete beginner?

In your very early days of learning a language, you cannot have a meaningful conversation. You've got to build up to it.

The big mistake that people make is to think that, in order to speak, they need to be heads down studying for two years, and then one day they will emerge out of a cocoon and be able to magically speak.

It doesn't work like that. You've got to approach speaking as a hands-on task that you learn by actually doing, not that you simply prepare for.

Mentioned in this episode:

🇮🇹 Italian project: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQJscr8iS4eEuHPHQerHMBxZ68O8jiq12

🇹🇭 Thai in two weeks: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQJscr8iS4eEA0CRSgEhNJ6sM0p-Y2Im2

👉 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

👉 Sign up now for the StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/SL-app-26

👉 Check out my Uncovered courses where you read from day one: https://l.storylearning.com/SL_courses

I've had quite a few questions coming in on how you know when it's the right time to start reading:

❓How do you know when you're not a total beginner anymore and you should maybe start reading or using your new StoryLearning app?

❓What level of understanding do you need to be at to actually get something from content?

❓I purchased your short stories in French and I can get a little bit of the plot, but not much. And rereading doesn't seem to help. I'm looking up words, but a week later it's all gone.

I'll show you how to read the right way in this episode of the podcast.

👉 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 with Pedro's 9 Best Fluency Tips : https://l.storylearning.com/Pedro

In this episode, I talk to Pedro from the Languages Pedro YouTube channel, a 23 year old polyglot who speaks 9 languages. What's his secret? And how well does he really speak all these languages?

More from today's guest:

📺 Languages Pedro YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@languagespedro

👉 Sign up now for the StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/read_daily

👉 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 Speak in ANY Language: https://l.storylearning.com/speak

👉 Sign up now for the StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/read-in-15

 In this episode, I'm going to go rapid fire through questions on speaking your new language, because a lot of people are asking me about freezing up, people switching to English or being shy and anxious.

These are real problems. What's interesting is that most of them aren't linguistic problems. They're not about learning the language. They're about use of the language. And the thing about using a foreign language is that it involves people.

When it comes to people, we all have all different kinds of struggles, from social anxiety to shyness, to self-imposed pressure. So we're going to get into how to fix that in this episode.

Mentioned in this episode:

🤖 AI tutoring from Langua: https://l.storylearning.com/langua-ai

👉 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/reading-guide

👉 Sign up now for the StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/read_in_15

 How do you read  in a foreign language if you cannot read the alphabet or the script yet?  How can you read if you can't actually read, if you see what I mean?

If you've spent more than 10 seconds in my world, you will have heard me drone on and on and on about the power of reading for language learning.

But how do you actually do that if you are learning a language where the script is different? I'm going to talk you through how to deal with different alphabets and scripts this in this video.

Because the short answer here is, yes, we still want to read from the beginning, but you do have to make a few adaptations depending on the language that you are learning.

👉 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 Binge-Worthy Resources for Fluency: https://l.storylearning.com/free.fluency

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 I'm lazy, I'm bored,  I'm not motivated, studying is so hard, I don't have an hour a day to study. These are all things that I, at various points in my life, have told myself about language learning.

And as a result, I end up not doing any study. And it's a real shame because in order to get good at a language, you do actually have to sit down and study. 

But there is a trick that I have found to get me to study that's almost embarrassingly simple. And I'm going to dedicate this entire video to this one trick.

👉 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/read_guide

👉 Sign up now for the StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/read_app

A listener wrote to me frustrated that, although he’s at B2 level, he keeps using the same vocabulary over and over again when he speaks. This is a common problem - even in our native language, we understand twice as many words as we actually use.  Extraordinarily articulate people, with a wide vocabulary, stand out because most of us just use the same words all the time. So what is it that those people do differently and how can we apply that to language learning?

Mentioned in this episode: 👉 Olly demonstrating reverse translation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VXmDiBfzwA

👉 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 Language Goal Planner: https://l.storylearning.com/goals_2026

👉 Sign up now for the StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/reading_app

I released a video  on how I would learn Spanish again in 2026 if I was going to start over.  When I first learned it, I was immersed - I was living in London and had Spanish friends. Someone left a comment saying - people with lives don't have two years to immerse themselves, how are people supposed to replicate that with one hour a day? The truth is, although it would be ideal, you don't need full immersion to learn a language. In this episode, I'm going to show you how can replicate my immersion experience in one hour a day of focused study.

👉 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, 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

👉 Take your FREE Level Test: https://l.storylearning.com/language_test

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

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