The Unconventional Polyglot: A Unique Approach to Learning Languages

In this episode, I discuss how interest in a language can just as well develop after you start learning as it can before you start learning.   I use the example of my developing love affair with Portugal and Portuguese to demonstrate this.

In this episode, I discuss my objections to the types of ads and videos out there proclaiming that you can learn a language just by watching TV, or that you can learn a language in some ridiculously short amount of time.  I discuss how these claims are not only wrong, but potentially very detrimental to real language-learning.

In this episode, I discuss the widely-held opinion that children learn languages better than adults, and why that is believed to be the case, from the perspective of both children and adults.

In this episode, I cover five possible disadvantages to learning multiple languages at the same time, along with some reasons why they may not necessarily be actual disadvantages.

In this episode, I discuss five advantages to learning languages simultaneously, as opposed to sequentially, including 1. Having a much broader knowledge of languages, 2. Being able to compare and contrast vocabulary, grammar, syntax, etc. of different languages reinforces them in each of the languages you study, 3. The more languages you study, the less likely you are to get bored or burned out from focusing on one single language too much, 4. You can achieve fluency in more languages faster when learning them in parallel, and 5. Learning languages faster turns you into a polyglot faster!

In this episode, I describe my two-stage method of language-learning.  Stage 1 involves input acquisition (most commonly done with the aid of apps nowadays.   Stage 2 involves output (which includes speaking and writing) as well as intense, active input (which includes listening and reading).  I also tie these two stages to the two classes of target languages, primary and secondary.

In this episode, I describe roughly how much I have progressed (as of early September, 2021) in each of my target languages.  I also introduce the classification of target languages into primary (the focus of a majority of my daily language-learning schedule) and secondary (languages that I only spend a comparatively short amount of time on each day).

In this episode, I discuss my motivations for and experiences of learning Spanish and then Mandarin Chinese.  Both of these language-learning experiences came years before my current plunge into polyglot-madness.

In this episode, I recount how I went from not studying any foreign languages to studying 16 foreign languages, all set into motion by a Jeopardy question.