A dialect learner

A life spent puttin' one foot in front of t'other.

Surviving rheumatic fever, learning from a polio victim, and finding gumption that would last a long and successful life.

Hazing, scolding, muggings, heartbreak, burnout; and opening for Dave Chappelle.

Some words about terms.

How prioritizing my dialect learning has ebbed and flowed over time and, perhaps, how who we are sets our priorities more than any master plan.

Why dialect learning is the one productive thing in life I feel pretty consistent motivation for, and how I wish it would help me get off my butt and exercise more, too.

From AI skeptic to avid user of Large Language Models (LLMs) akin to ChatGPT. Pending their takeover.

Creator of the YouTube channel "Finnished" and "Comprehensible Input" advocate, Master of Environmental Science and golden-hearted lobbyist, jazz dancer, Italiano Aficionado, and overall overachiever Lotta joins me to discuss her journey from being a minority Finn in Finland, adapting to the Helsinki dialect at university, feeding her study-abroad addiction, controlling her rag...

Why I think we're mostly all using the same "method", despite the different sales pitches, which boils down to: 1. Hear or read something new(ish) 2. Figure out what it means 3. Repeat And why this simplistic method nonetheless reveals common flaws in other proffered approaches, while offering the freedom and control to focus on what we enjoy, connect with emotionally, and find satis...

A personal road to Bangkokian Central Thai.

Nomadic free flow. To be revised and improved.

Forgive my free-flow. To be revised and improved.

Finno-American wunderkind and YouTube veteran Kat ends her twenty-nine-year podcasting dry spell with an exclusive interview where we discuss her posh Swedish-speaking ancestry, easy four-hour school days, hard cheerleading competitions, school project that turned into a twelve-year influencer era, decisions to move abroad for adventure and return home for love, clubbing rituals, current tech vent...

Arheologă dimineața, profesoară de română și engleză după-amiaza, și gânditoare profundă noaptea târziu, Anamaria, sau Lara Croft à la roumaine , ne dăruiește povestea ei despre evitarea limbii maghiare în Ardeal în copilărie și îmbrățișarea limba greacă antică printre morții din deșerturile Africii de Nord. https://www.instagram.com/romanianwithanamaria

Culinary author, prolific YouTuber, dual podcaster, double Master, former Minister, and decade-long Cantonese teacher Winnie Mak joins me to discuss growing up in Hong Kong as a chill kid in a stressful educational system, being accepted to the prestigious University of Hong Kong, studying English and Japanese, finding joy and burnout in the ministry, escaping Hong Kong in 2019 for the American We...

Remembering freebies and giving up after a thousand hours of self-study and one lesson with a tutor. To be completed.

Мама однієї дитини, вчителька багатьох учнів, та Магістр усієї освіти Ірина Криніцина приєднується до розмови, яка починається і закінчується зі суржиком. Іра розповідає нам як її батько виріс у Радянському Союзі з україномовними батьками, але сам розмовляв лише російською; як вона була здивована, дізнавшись, що українська мова існує коли їй було сім років; як вона каже собі, що розмовляла чистою,...

Ending childhood, starting a new chapter, and crossing a watershed in my dialect learning. To be completed.

I land the internet’s most famous Qazaq teacher for a tell-all interview and we end up chatting about flirty boys at the office, muscly boys at the gym, old men on the internet, and the meaning of life. Zhannur takes us from the history of her grandparents fleeing to China during the famines, to being born in a village in Eastern Qazaqstan, moving to Almaty as a child, growing up with four sisters...

Cea mai prodigioasă creatoare de podcasturi pentru săracii care învață limba română din istoria acestei planete, profesoară de norvegiană, și moldovancă prea mult timp în străinătate, Camelia mi se alătură să grăim despre copilăria ei la bunica cu ceangăiască, facultatea la Cluj cu petreceri, viața de adult în Oslo cu greutăți, dialectele norvegiene și moldovenești, și plăcerile simple ale sării g...

Blood sacrifice, (former) student marriage, "The Pit", and other flashbacks to surviving the '90s with imperial Latin and imperialized Spanish.

Master of Philology, lover of board games, and Odesa native Iryna Bazik kindly joins me to talk about her journey to becoming a Ukrainian and English teacher, fluent Mandarin speaker, and online content creator. Ira teaches us some Odesa slang, pushes back on Surzhyk haters, reveals her shocking first encounter with an American, proves that you don’t choose Mandarin, Mandarin chooses you, tells ho...

So nice, you’re hearin’im twice. In this second part of my interview with The Everyman of Dialect Learning™, Kris explains why trees don’t take a day off, opens his scorecard of wins and losses in dialect learning, calls Hungarian crazy, acknowledges that week he spent in a cabin full of Esperantists, reveals a new hobby, has the seed of future Ukrainian studies nurtured in his mind, reflects on h...

I bag decade-long podcaster and The Everyman of Dialect Learning™ Kris Broholm for my first interview and the excitement doesn’t leave my voice ‘till long after the episode ends. We dig deep to find Kris’s long-lost heritage dialect, prove why video games can grow – not just rot – your brain, show off Kris’s battle scars earned defending the King’s English, postulate the American Media dialect as...

Thank You, to some very special people.