Anywhere Immersion with John Fotheringham

Richard Simcott is a "hyperpolyglot" (named one of Britain's most multilingual people by HarperCollins) and the co-founder of the Polyglot Conference, an annual event that brings together language lovers from all over the world. He returns to the Language Mastery Show six years after our first conversation to talk about how he juggles so many languages, the "minimum effective do...

Anthony Metivier is the founder of the Magnetic Memory Method , the host of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast , and the creator of the Magnetic Memory Masterclass .  He has refined his memory techniques learning a number of languages, including Biblical Hebrew, German, Mandarin Chinese, and Sanskrit, and has gone on to teach thousands of learners how to maximize their memories and create unforget...

Nick Velasquez is the author of the new book Learn, Improve, Master: How to Develop Any Skill and Excel at It . In the interview, we discuss the core principles, strategies, and tools you can use to master any anything, may it be reaching conversational fluency in Japanese or remembering more of what you read.   🇯🇵 Learn Japanese Anywhere!  Want to learn Japanese through at-home immersion instead...

Chris Vasselli is a programmer, passionate Japanese learner, and the creator of the Nihongo iOS app , my go-to Japanese dictionary and reading tool for authentic Japanese content. In the interview, we discuss, 1) his language learning journey, 2) how to acquire Japanese the fun, natural, immersive way, and 3) why you shouldn't fear the Japanese writing system.  🇯🇵 Learn Japanese Anywhere!  Wan...

I first started The Language Mastery Show in 2009 as a short-term experiment. My initial goals were:  ① To test drive the new medium of podcasting.  ② To serve and empower independent language learners.  ③ To have a good excuse to meet some of my linguistic heroes.  Now eleven years later, I am happy to say that the podcast has exceeded all initial expectations. I've reached hundreds of thousa...

Nelson Dellis is a memory athlete, 4-time U.S. Memory Champion, a Grandmaster of Memory, a high-altitude mountaineer, author, speaker, and all-around cool dude. He is now on a mission to reach conversational fluency in Dutch in just one year, applying all the memory techniques, mnemonics, and visualization strategies he used to train for memory championships.  📧 Get expert language immersion tips...

Last week, I shared part one of my most recent chat with the inimitable Olly Richards, who first appeared on  The Language Mastery Show  back in in April 2014. Since that time, he's gone on to build  I Will Teach You a Language  (now called StoryLearning ) into one of the top language blogs, launch a slew of excellent  language courses , and publish a series of great  short story books  throug...

Author, polyglot, and "langpreneur" Olly Richards from  I Will Teach You a Language  (now called StoryLearning ) returns to the podcast six years after our first chat to share what new lessons he's learned and how a high-altitude near death experience led him to the power of stories in language learning. Olly has been quite the busy bee since we last spoke, going on to build one of t...

Jan van der Aa is a Brussels-based polyglot and entrepreneur from the Netherlands, the co-founder of the language learning site  LanguageBoost , and the co-founder of  Langpreneur (now called Creator Smarts ), an event series and podcast dedicated to helping language lovers, teachers, influencers, podcasters, YouTubers, etc. turn their passion for languages into profitable, scalable online busines...

Arieh Smith, a.k.a. Xiaomanyc (Xiǎomǎ, 小马), is a popular YouTuber who loves practicing Mandarin Chinese on the streets of New York and surprising unsuspecting native speakers. From 24-hour crash courses in new languages like Korean, to learning additional Chinese  dialects  like Cantonese and Fuzhounese (which are really mutually unintelligible  languages ), his viral linguistic exploits have en...

Jonty Yamisha is a language activist, an "accidental polyglot" in his own words, a "third-generation Circassian refugee," and the founder of OptiLingo, an audio-based language app that uses "guided immersion" to help people reach fluency in foreign languages more quickly. We discuss the Circassian language and cultural history, how he's raising his children biling...

Michael and Ellen Robins first met in 2004 while they were studying Spanish in Mexico. Though Ellen had intended not to spend time with any other native English speakers while abroad, Michael's charm and sufficient command of the Spanish language were enough to overcome her initial objections. They are now married, have two children, have visited 23 countries, and have lived abroad nine times....

In 2015, the Danish podcaster Kris Broholm joined me on the Language Mastery Show to talk about how discovering the polyglot community helped pull him out of depression and give his life direction. His podcast, Actual Fluency , is now one of the most popular language podcasts on the planet, with 166 guests to date! Though Kris speaks multiple languages, he sees himself not as a language expert him...

In 2015, the Danish podcaster Kris Broholm joined me on the Language Mastery Show to talk about how discovering the polyglot community helped pull him out of depression and give his life direction.  His podcast, Actual Fluency , is now one of the most popular language podcasts on the planet, with 166 guests to date! Though Kris speaks multiple languages, he sees himself not as a language expert hi...

Ruben Adery is a pronunciation and dialect coach who helps language learners, actors, singers, etc. develop native-like foreign accents in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, and Italian. I first met him at the 2019 Polyglot Gathering in Bratislava where he gave a talk titled  The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Imitating Foreign Accents to Help Master Any Language . The content of the talk itself w...

I am pleased to welcome back my first repeat guest on the podcast: the author, teacher, and grammar guru Ellen Jovin. A lot has happened since our first chat over five years ago, including travels all over the United States discussing the inner workings of English grammar with passing strangers at her "Grammar Table," and a new book for English learners called English At Work: Find and F...

Katie Harris is the founder of Joy of Languages , a site dedicated to helping make language learning a joy instead of a chore. She was bored to tears with languages in school, but eventually figured out a more fun, effective approach to language learning that is focused on communicating with people and enjoying authentic listening and reading content. With a Masters in Linguistics from Cambridge U...

Gabriel Gelman is the founder of Sprachheld , a popular language learning website for Germans learning foreign languages (and―as an added bonus― non-Germans learning German as a foreign language). On the site, Gabriel shares useful language learning tips and tools, inspirational interviews with polyglots and linguists, and a dialogue-based Spanish course (with other languages slated for production...

Elisa Polese is an Italian polyglot known for teaching multiple languages at once (up to ten languages at a time!), including Arabic, Catalan, Dutch, Italian, English, Esperanto, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. In addition to her focus on  multilingual learning , Elisa is also a big proponent of speaking from day one and getting over the fear of making mistakes. I h...

Dr. Gareth Popkins is a lawyer, historian, and former English and Welsh teacher who is fluent in German, Russian, and Welsh, advanced in French, conversational in Hungarian, Finnish, Italian, Portuguese, and Basque, and now hard at work on Japanese. We first met in June 2019 at the Polyglot Gathering in Bratislava and I knew right away that I wanted to have him on the podcast to share his language...

Inés Ruiz is an award-winning entrepreneur, a former Spanish teacher at Cambridge University, and now the founder and CEO of Medita Spanish, the world's first language and meditation app. By integrating mediation and mindfulness practices, she hopes to make language learning more fun and less stressful.   📧 Get expert language immersion tips in your inbox each week! Join my FREE weekly newsle...

Gretchen McCulloch is an internet linguist, the "Resident Linguist" at WIRED Magazine (Best. Title. Ever!), the co-host of the Lingthusiasm podcast, and the author of the new book  Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language , a smart, loving, pun-filled look at the evolution of language in the internet age.   📧 Get expert language immersion tips in your inbox each week! J...

Benny Lewis is a fun-loving blogger, YouTuber, author, language hacker, and technomad from Ireland (hence his nickname "Irish Polyglot"). He is the creator of the most popular language learning site in the world as of writing, Fluentin3Months.com, and has authored five books. He has demonstrated again and again that it's possible to reach conversational fluency in a matter of months,...

Shannon Kennedy is a language lover, traveler, musician, and writer. She has written extensively for Fluent in 3 Months and Drops, and is also the Language Encourager and Community Manager for the Add1Challenge. In 2018, she co-hosted the inaugural Women in Language event, an online conference to champion, celebrate, and amplify the voices of women in languages. In the interview, we discuss ① why...

Lindsay McMahon is the co-founder of All Ears English , a podcast and site dedicated to helping people learn natural English in a fun, relaxed way by focusing on " connection , not perfection ." The show is ranked in the Top 20 Most Downloaded podcasts in Japan, Korea, China, and Brazil, and has been downloaded more than 50 million times! In the interview, we discuss her experience livin...