Valuetainment - Polyglot Who Speaks 20 Languages Reveals His Formula

00:00:01.000 Whether it's languages or business, you got to connect, you got to connect emotion while you're negotiating, in the evening, when you go out and have dinner with them, drink a beer with them.

00:00:12.280 And language learning is all about enthusiasm, curiosity, enthusiasm, motivation.

00:00:16.800 In fact, you need to get the language in you first through massive listening and reading so that then grammar explanations might start to make sense to you.

00:00:25.340 You can't start with the grammar.

00:00:26.640 This guy's willing to take the time to learn our language.

00:00:29.460 Maybe he's going to be more detailed about working with us.

00:00:32.200 I think the biggest thing about speaking languages is that more opportunities are going to come your way.

00:00:37.180 It makes it easier to communicate with people, to persuade people, to establish relationships with people.

00:00:43.100 And we all know that in business, communications, relationships are extremely important.

00:00:51.580 My guest today is Apaligua. 0.85

00:00:54.340 Now, for some of you guys, I may say, I don't know what that means.

00:00:56.620 That means he speaks a lot of languages.

00:00:58.580 And by the way, nearly 20 languages.

00:01:01.280 I think he learned Russian in his 60s just because he wanted to learn Russian in his 60s.

00:01:06.100 And today, he's in the process of learning Farsi and Arabic.

00:01:09.640 Maybe we'll get him to say a few of these languages.

00:01:12.260 And he's got a system on how he learns languages.

00:01:15.240 And it's very unique.

00:01:16.420 And we're going to talk about that.

00:01:17.340 He's also the founder of Link.

00:01:18.480 I think him and his son together founded Link.

00:01:20.940 With that being said, my guest today, Steve Kaufman.

00:01:23.500 Steve, thank you so much for being a guest on That Attainment.

00:01:25.360 My pleasure.

00:01:27.240 My pleasure.

00:01:27.780 Looking forward.

00:01:28.940 Let me ask you.

00:01:29.840 So, you know, I speak four languages and a little bit of German.

00:01:32.620 But I speak German because I lived in Germany for two years at a refugee camp.

00:01:36.380 Right.

00:01:36.500 I speak Farsi because I lived in Iran for 10 years.

00:01:39.260 I speak Armenian because my mom's Armenian.

00:01:41.980 I speak, you know, Assyrian because my dad's Assyrian.

00:01:44.840 I speak English because I lived in America.

00:01:46.340 But I don't have a system necessarily to live in a country and keep learning different languages.

00:01:51.980 What got you to be obsessed with wanting to learn different languages?

00:01:56.220 Well, you know, the period after the age of 60, sort of after I retired, most of my life,

00:02:00.920 I was in the lumber business.

00:02:02.280 I had a company in lumber, but then as I'm, you know, past the age of 60 and I learned

00:02:08.520 nine languages prior to the age of 60, and I had a certain approach which said that there's

00:02:14.360 far too much emphasis on grammar.

00:02:17.020 In fact, you need to get the language in you first through massive listening and reading

00:02:21.460 so that then grammar explanations might start to make sense to you.

00:02:25.540 You can't start with the grammar.

00:02:26.840 And so people said, well, that might work for Chinese, which, and I'll get explained to

00:02:31.040 you why I learned Chinese and Japanese, but people said, well, that might work for Asian 0.97

00:02:34.460 languages, but it won't work for a complicated language like Russian.

00:02:38.240 So I said, okay, we'll give that a try.

00:02:40.380 So that's why I started learning Russian at the age of 60, using our system, using Ling.

00:02:45.500 But sort of the reason I started into languages was that when I was say 18, I got very interested

00:02:53.060 in French and, you know, in Montreal, which was a bilingual city, but in fact, it wasn't.

00:02:58.280 It was 1 million English speakers, 2 million French speakers, and they hardly communicated

00:03:02.940 with each other.

00:03:03.500 That's no longer the case today, but that was the case in the fifties.

00:03:07.060 Right.

00:03:08.120 And so, but then I got keen and language learning is all about enthusiasm.

00:03:11.880 I mean, that's where it starts curiosity, enthusiasm, motivation.

00:03:16.200 And so I eventually ended up going to France.

00:03:19.000 I did my university training in France, came back to Canada.

00:03:23.040 I was hired by the Canadian government trade commissioner service.

00:03:27.320 They were going to send someone, you're trained someone in Chinese because Canada

00:03:32.320 was getting ready to recognize the people's Republic of China.

00:03:35.120 Canada, I volunteered and then I was sent to Hong Kong to learn Mandarin.

00:03:39.680 Then I lived in Japan and of course I then had characters.

00:03:43.120 So the Japanese was not so difficult to learn.

00:03:46.000 And then in my lumber company, Japan was a major market for us.

00:03:50.960 And so Japanese was very important for me.

00:03:53.760 Also, we had suppliers in, in Sweden, for example.

00:03:56.960 And even though the Swedes are very good at English, communicating with the mill workers

00:04:01.440 to explain the Japanese quality requirements, et cetera, just every step along the way,

00:04:06.720 languages were very important to me.

00:04:08.560 And so I learned them always with a major emphasis on input.

00:04:12.640 And yeah, if you live where the language is spoken, that's great.

00:04:15.680 But if you don't, you have to create your own language world so that you can get that immersion.

00:04:22.320 Steve, you said always with a major emphasis on input.

00:04:25.680 What do you mean by input?

00:04:27.600 Listening and reading, put simply.

00:04:29.600 In other words, your brain has to get used to the language.

00:04:33.440 Our brains are pattern discovering machines.

00:04:38.640 Our brains are not as good at digesting theoretical explanations.

00:04:45.200 If I explain to you, here's this language, it works this way and that way.

00:04:49.280 And here's a rule.

00:04:50.080 And here's the exception.

00:04:51.760 There's nothing for you to tie that to.

00:04:53.760 There's no reference.

00:04:55.120 Whereas if you just expose your brain to a lot of the language, a lot of things,

00:05:00.000 the brain is going to figure out some things the brain will miss.

00:05:03.360 So then you can go back in with a grammar explanation and say, it works this way.

00:05:08.800 And then you say, oh yeah, I noticed that because I've listened to so much and I've heard so much

00:05:14.160 and I've read so much that what you are now explaining makes sense.

00:05:18.000 But unfortunately, typical language instruction starts backwards.

00:05:22.400 They begin by trying to explain the language to you before you've had enough of the language in you.

00:05:28.480 So that's just a brief intro.

00:05:30.000 Yeah, that's helpful.

00:05:31.440 So would you say in your career, you said you spoke nine languages before I think you said you retired or before you, you know, 60 years old.

00:05:40.720 I think you said nine languages, 60 years old.

00:05:43.040 So how did that help you advance in your career, the fact that you spoke multiple languages?

00:05:49.680 And if yes, how did it help you?

00:05:52.080 Okay, you know, whether it's languages or business, you got to connect, you got to connect emotionally, right?

00:06:00.400 You can have a contract, you can have a spec, you can have all kinds of, you know, details.

00:06:05.840 However, you're still dealing with people.

00:06:08.000 And so in Japan, which is where I lived for nine years and which was a big part of building my business, you know, often there were difficult problems, quality complaints, and we had to recover from having messed up.

00:06:22.080 And the Japanese are very fussy, like they're very fussy, right? 1.00

00:06:25.680 And so you're still you've still got to be able to connect with people while you're negotiating in the evening when you go out and have dinner with them or have, you know, drink a beer with them or whatever it might be.

00:06:37.600 And there is no question that you can connect with people at a much more personal level.

00:06:44.480 You know, get them to come your way a little better if you are able to speak their language and you understand them better.

00:06:51.120 This was not only true in Japan, but it was even true in Sweden where everybody speaks English.

00:06:58.640 But we had to get the sawmill workers to buy into Japanese quality requirements, which were different.

00:07:05.680 And of course, the Swedes, like everybody, particularly with mill workers, the same in Canada.

00:07:10.880 You know, they're very proud.

00:07:11.920 I'm a grader.

00:07:12.880 I know what I'm doing.

00:07:14.240 This is how we grade it in Canada or in Sweden.

00:07:17.280 The Japanese are wrong. 1.00

00:07:18.880 If they want that, that's wrong.

00:07:20.640 That should be the way we do it.

00:07:22.560 And so you got to get in there and explain to them somehow that actually know this is a different country.

00:07:28.000 They have different cultural requirements, blah, blah, blah.

00:07:30.880 And if you can communicate with them, even say in Sweden, in Swedish, you get a more sympathetic buy in.

00:07:38.720 So so there's an emotional connection when they notice that you took time to want to learn their language.

00:07:45.760 And then there is, hey, if this guy's willing to take the time to learn our language, maybe he's going to be more detailed about working with us.

00:07:53.120 Is that what you're saying?

00:07:54.480 Or even partly the appreciation, partly the appreciation that you took the trouble to learn their language.

00:08:03.200 So that's a level of respect for their language.

00:08:05.600 And also the feeling that maybe he understands us a little better because he understands us in Swedish.

00:08:12.240 And maybe they understand me a little better because I'm speaking to them in Swedish.

00:08:16.560 So it just introduces another level of communication in both directions that I've always found helpful.

00:08:22.800 I found it helpful in France, in Germany, you know, Spain, wherever.

00:08:27.440 If you can use the local language, it's, you know, you hit it off with people.

00:08:31.280 Makes sense.

00:08:32.640 Steve, why don't you give us some of the languages you speak and give me a phrase.

00:08:35.760 Maybe you first say it in English so we know what you're saying.

00:08:38.720 And then give us some of the other languages you speak so we know exactly what you're saying.

00:08:54.880 So that's Farsi.

00:08:55.920 I'm working on my Farsi right now.

00:08:57.280 I get them confused a little bit, but you know, it's much easier.

00:09:15.040 Farsi is much easier than Arabic.

00:09:16.880 Which is the language that I speak the best other than English.

00:09:33.600 So the next language in terms of my fluency is Japanese.

00:09:36.800 Really?

00:09:37.120 So your third best is Japanese.

00:09:39.200 Oh, Japanese. 1.00

00:09:39.920 Yeah.

00:09:40.560 And the fourth best is Mandarin Chinese.

00:09:46.880 Well, I don't have any language that I speak Spanish because I don't have any language that I speak Spanish.

00:10:01.920 I can also speak German.

00:10:03.360 I know you can also speak German.

00:10:05.360 But I wasn't there.

00:10:06.560 I was there in the 90s, but I was not so often in Germany.

00:10:11.600 And now I have no chance to speak German.

00:10:16.240 I speak Russian, of course, because when I was 60 years old, I started to speak Russian.

00:10:28.720 I really like it.

00:10:32.720 What else?

00:10:33.200 What have we forgotten in here?

00:10:36.400 Yeah.

00:10:36.720 I don't know.

00:10:37.120 What shall I continue with?

00:10:38.960 You know, I did some Turkish.

00:10:40.320 I did some Turkish and I've left it because I want to focus on the Arabic script.

00:10:45.120 And it takes so long for the brain to get used to a different script.

00:10:48.960 So that I put the Turkish on the on the back burner. 1.00

00:10:51.760 But I did do a video on YouTube where I speak Turkish with my tutor.

00:10:55.600 And it's fun kind of focusing on the Middle East.

00:10:58.160 I should maybe learn Armenian because they're pretty important.

00:11:01.280 Armenians are pretty important in Iran, for starters.

00:11:05.120 And they're starting to have a lot of influence lately.

00:11:08.240 I don't know about Assyrian.

00:11:09.360 Assyrians, by the way, out of all these languages, you've learned.

00:11:11.760 So you said English is first, French is second, Japanese is third, Mandarin is fourth.

00:11:17.840 You said Arabic is more difficult than Farsi.

00:11:20.320 Which one's been the easiest to learn?

00:11:22.160 Which one's been the toughest for you to learn?

00:11:25.200 Well, I think Spanish is the easiest because it's written exactly the way it's pronounced.

00:11:31.120 It shares a lot of vocabulary with French.

00:11:33.280 So Spanish was easy, but you know, surprisingly, like Romanian, we were in my lumber business.

00:11:40.400 We buy lumber in Romania that we sell to the US East Coast.

00:11:44.400 And our suppliers located are the owner of this, you know, group of sawmills is located in Vienna.

00:11:50.880 But I had to go to Romania.

00:11:52.560 So I took two months to learn up Romanian.

00:11:54.640 And when I was in Romania, I was able to converse.

00:11:57.280 And 70% of the vocabulary is so similar to Italian that I found Romanian very, very easy.

00:12:04.160 Very easy.

00:12:05.280 Yeah.

00:12:06.320 But Greek was difficult.

00:12:07.600 Sorry, go ahead.

00:12:08.560 Oh, you know, one thing, one language that I speak quite well is Swedish.

00:12:11.440 So now to you, the way you're talking to us, it's kind of like, you know, hey, you know, it's not a big deal.

00:12:24.720 You know, you can do it.

00:12:25.600 It's easy.

00:12:26.160 It's this, this, that.

00:12:26.880 To the rest of the world that's kind of watching you, amazed and enamored by your way to learn these languages.

00:12:33.920 You gave a little bit of a glimpse about how you learn a language, your system input, listening, reading, pattern discovery.

00:12:41.040 You talk about what else do you have?

00:12:43.680 You know, your approach, your philosophy, your system of learning a new language.

00:12:48.720 Okay.

00:12:49.040 So obviously when you start in a new language, you know, nothing, you know, no words, nothing, zero.

00:12:55.920 So you have to get some traction in the language.

00:12:58.480 So for example, on our, in our system, we have a group, we have sort of 60, what we call mini stories.

00:13:05.920 And in each mini story, and these mini stories, they use high frequency verbs, because verbs are very important.

00:13:12.800 If you want to say anything, you're going to need verbs.

00:13:14.640 And in each story, the vocabulary repeats four or five times in the story, because we tell the story in a certain tense or in a certain person, he, and then I, or you did, will do.

00:13:30.240 And then we ask questions, not in the sense that we want you to try to remember the story, which is a bad idea.

00:13:36.000 You know, comprehensive questions are a bad idea.

00:13:39.120 What you want is exposure.

00:13:40.480 So we make a statement, ask a question about the statement and provide the answer.

00:13:44.880 And you're just listening.

00:13:46.160 And by dint of listening to these mini stories where there's already a lot of repetition within the story, and then you repeatedly listen to the story.

00:13:54.880 And then you read the story on your iPad or iPhone or on your computer and any word you don't know, you look up.

00:14:02.240 And of course, on our system, all the words you don't know initially are all highlighted in blue.

00:14:07.200 And any blue word is a word you haven't seen before on the system.

00:14:10.560 But you click on it and you get the meaning.

00:14:12.880 Now it's a yellow word.

00:14:14.480 And it gradually gets lighter and lighter in yellow.

00:14:17.280 And when you know the word, it becomes white.

00:14:19.760 So this does a number of things.

00:14:21.120 You start to see that your page is getting lighter and lighter in color.

00:14:26.480 A lot of these words, because they repeat in those mini stories, that word that has become yellow will show up

00:14:32.240 again in yellow or in white within that story and also in the next story.

00:14:38.080 Once you've moved a word or changed the status of the word, it stays that way.

00:14:42.640 And so initially, say three months or so, there's a lot of repetitive listening and reading to basic content in order to get sort of a toehold in the language.

00:14:53.360 Then you have to move to authentic content.

00:14:55.760 And in the case of Farsi, for example, I found a lady, a woman in her 30s in Iran.

00:15:03.280 And she has created using the same principle of the sort of circling questions, 26 episodes on the history of Iran in Farsi with these questions.

00:15:14.880 She's gone and interviewed a bunch of people.

00:15:16.720 And we have a course there called the Iranians.

00:15:18.880 And they just talk about themselves.

00:15:20.480 And she's done one on Persian food.

00:15:22.480 And so this is kind of intermediate difficulty material.

00:15:25.920 And then more difficult is podcasts.

00:15:28.160 Now, in the case of Farsi, there's not a lot of stuff out there, but I can go to BBC Farsi.

00:15:32.720 I can go to Fardo, which is the American, you know, Radio Free Europe Farsi.

00:15:37.680 And so, but in the case of, say, Spanish or English, there's like podcasts in English, there's an unlimited supply.

00:15:43.840 And so the idea is you want to get to more and more difficult, more and more demanding content, but always you want a transcript.

00:15:51.760 And on our website, again, as you move to more demanding content, we have a web browser extension.

00:15:58.480 So you can bring in stuff from YouTube, from Netflix, from whatever podcasts.

00:16:04.560 I there's there are automatic transcription sites now where I go.

00:16:08.160 So I get the podcast transcribed and then I import these into link.

00:16:12.560 And when you import something to link, whether from YouTube or Netflix or something you found and had transcribed,

00:16:19.360 the system knows what you know.

00:16:20.960 So the system tells you this stuff you brought in has 15 percent new words.

00:16:24.720 These are the new words to you.

00:16:26.560 And so there's a whole bunch of statistics that develop flashcards.

00:16:31.280 I mean, it's hard to describe in one breath, but what it does is the basic process of learning

00:16:37.280 is based on a lot of listening and reading in an organized way.

00:16:41.360 So it enables you to use whatever, A, we have in our libraries, which is a lot,

00:16:47.200 and B, stuff that you can find on the Internet so that you can start, you know, getting this language in you.

00:16:54.160 And then you can look up grammar explanations.

00:16:58.000 Some of our some of our dictionaries, like the dictionary I use for Arabic, they have verb conjugation there.

00:17:04.720 So if I click on a verb and I'm not sure what form of the verb it is, I go to context reversal conjugator and it tells me.

00:17:12.080 So there's a whole bunch of resources like the Internet is full of resources like this.

00:17:17.120 And we kind of bring them together in in one package.

00:17:20.320 And ultimately, you can talk with one of our tutors if you want to eventually start, you know, using the language.

00:17:25.760 And even there, what I do with my Farsi tutor, my Turkish tutor, all of our lessons, like my tutor will give me like 10 or 15 or more phrases that I had trouble with.

00:17:36.800 And she'll record them. And I keep these as lessons. So I have a record going back one year or however long it's been.

00:17:43.520 And I can always review the discussions that we had.

00:17:47.280 One of the things I realized there is that I make the same mistake every week.

00:17:50.880 That's one of the constants in language learning is how we continue to make the same mistakes.

00:17:56.080 So when I get these reports from my tutors, which is basically a report of our lesson, which is a conversation, most of my lessons are just conversations.

00:18:06.000 But of course, I make mistakes and I struggle to look for words and phrases.

00:18:10.320 So my tutor typically sends me a list of 10 or 15 or 20 of these words and phrases and she records them.

00:18:16.560 And this then becomes a lesson that I study.

00:18:19.280 But I can study it not only immediately after the lesson, but six months, 12 months later, I have all of these conversation reports that I can go back to.

00:18:28.960 I'm reminded of that conversation. I'm reminded of the mistakes that I've made.

00:18:33.360 One of the interesting things is that even when you're corrected, you continue to make the same mistake again.

00:18:38.880 Mistakes are a big part of language learning.

00:18:40.800 You will make mistakes many, many times before you start saying things correctly, but you eventually do.

00:18:47.040 So, yeah, by the way, I mean, listen, if there was an information about a business product, you just did a phenomenal job sharing what your product does.

00:18:54.800 Now, here's a question about your company. Yes.

00:18:57.200 How well are you guys doing? You know, how how how well is the business doing?

00:19:01.200 OK, it's started to do well. Certainly we had to pick up with with the covid.

00:19:07.040 But we went through a long period where I was financing it basically with my lumber business because my main business has been in in lumber major activities.

00:19:17.360 We bring lumber. We used to export a lot to Japan. Now we bring wood in from Europe to the U.S. East Coast.

00:19:23.200 But now it's at a point where it's it's self-sufficient. It's financially, you know, doing fine.

00:19:28.480 And we're continuing to grow to the point where we recently decided that we were going to add, you know, another few developers because we're you know, we're constantly trying to improve it.

00:19:40.080 We've got this link 5.0 coming out and the deadline keeps on receding and receding.

00:19:45.680 And we said this is we can't do this. We better get some help in there.

00:19:49.200 So it's a good problem to have. Good problem to have.

00:19:52.240 I know the problem personally, and it's both a good problem to have and it can be annoying.

00:19:56.800 So I'm sure you've experienced both.

00:19:59.600 Now, the only reason I asked the question is because I do believe there is a ton of value in learning new languages.

00:20:08.400 I remember I was looking at some stats earlier. It said four biggest perks of being bilingual.

00:20:14.800 Number one, higher salary. Bilingues make seven thousand dollars more per year and their peers, more job opportunities.

00:20:22.880 The third one was a little bit confusing, but the more I looked at it, I said, OK, that could make sense.

00:20:27.120 You'll live longer and healthier. They said bilingual showed Alzheimer's symptoms five or six years later than those who spoke only one language.

00:20:37.040 Interesting. And then the last one was smarty pants.

00:20:40.320 Children who grew up learning to speak two languages are better at switching between tasks than children who learn to speak only one language.

00:20:47.440 What are some benefits you would say of speaking?

00:20:50.240 OK, obviously, if we are learning as an adult, it's too late to go back and take advantage of those advantages for children.

00:20:58.800 So I've always I've often said, you know, I speak all these languages, but I think the biggest thing about speaking languages is that more opportunities are going to come your way.

00:21:08.800 I think, you know, I think, you know, in business, you know, even if you only speak one language, you have to perform.

00:21:14.000 Right. Like if you're going to be a successful business person, you've got to do what you say you're going to do.

00:21:18.800 You've got to be creative. You've got to provide, you know, a benefit to your business partners.

00:21:24.080 But if you have more languages, more potential opportunities are going to come your way.

00:21:30.080 That's the big thing. I do. It's possible like here I am.

00:21:33.680 I'm seventy five. I'm alert. I'm, you know, I'm enjoying life and I attribute that to language learning and wine every evening.

00:21:39.440 OK, every red wine, every, every evening, my wife makes a gourmet meal every evening, balance, lots of veggies, a little bit of red wine and keeping active physically. 1.00

00:21:48.720 But no, I think the big thing with it, I described earlier how it makes it easier to communicate with people, to persuade people, to establish relationships with people.

00:21:59.240 And we all know that in business, communications, relationships are extremely important, so you can have a broader range of communications, a better quality of communications.

00:22:11.000 It's it's still you can't just rely on your languages, whatever business you're in.

00:22:15.800 You've got to be good at what you do. But but if you speak languages, you're going to have more opportunities.

00:22:21.080 And I think you can you can power up. Yeah, very cool.

00:22:24.800 So Link found about you and your son. How many languages does your son speak? I'm curious.

00:22:30.080 OK, so my son speaks five. OK, and of course, when we had two boys and when they were young, my wife and I, my wife speaks five languages.

00:22:38.720 We tried to get them to learn at least French in Canada, and they were very resistant to all of our efforts. Right.

00:22:46.160 But my son, Mark, who works with me on Link, he ended up playing professional hockey.

00:22:51.760 He, you know, he went to Yale for four years. He did very well. He was leading scorer at Yale.

00:22:56.800 He was in the States to have a thing called the Hobie Baker Award for the best college hockey player.

00:23:02.720 So he was a Kobe, Hobie Baker finalist in hockey.

00:23:07.200 And then he went and played. It wasn't very big. He went and played in Europe.

00:23:10.000 And all of a sudden he's you know, he's in Italy and everyone's speaking Italian and he's in Austria and everybody's speaking German and Switzerland and then Japan.

00:23:18.480 So he suddenly realized just how beneficial and how much more pleasant life is when you can speak the languages that people around you are speaking.

00:23:28.880 So now he speaks five languages. But as a kid, we couldn't get them. We couldn't get them.

00:23:33.040 You know, it's very difficult. Parents have to be very careful. Don't push too hard or the kids will just push right back.

00:23:39.520 There's no question about that, Steve. I've really enjoyed having you.

00:23:42.640 And I think in a world of business where we are ourselves nowadays, you know, it almost seems like the schools we go to, the direction they're taking is, hey, you got to learn Mandarin.

00:23:54.400 You got to learn this. You got to learn that from your take before we wrap this up.

00:23:58.740 And this will be the final topic we'll talk about. If you were to say, you know, I think if there's three languages you ought to learn today or, you know,

00:24:07.140 somehow encourage your kids to learn today, what would you say? I mean, take English out. 1.00

00:24:12.080 What would you say are the top three languages today to learn for business?

00:24:16.240 You know, I think it's very important to let the kids choose the language that they're most interested in.

00:24:21.320 Once because the most difficult language is the first language.

00:24:24.640 So once someone has learned another language, it then becomes much easier to learn other languages.

00:24:30.120 So I wouldn't force people. But in terms of importance, obviously, if you live in the United States, Spanish.

00:24:35.880 I mean, there's no question. And so Spanish is a big one, obviously, potentially Chinese, but only if you're going to be doing business there.

00:24:44.940 But the big thing is so much of language learning depends on your motivation.

00:24:48.900 So if you can at least allow kids to discover a language, one that they're interested in, it might be it might be, you know, K-pop and Korean or it doesn't really matter what it is.

00:25:00.600 I would encourage kids to get interested in a language and focus on comprehension.

00:25:07.500 Don't focus on them producing the language correctly. Focus on them enjoying the language, whichever language.

00:25:14.160 And once they get started on the voyage, the journey of language learning, they will continue.

00:25:19.440 Well, Steve, I really enjoy listening to you. Where can people find you, by the way?

00:25:25.920 Well, you can find me on YouTube. I have a channel there, well over 300,000 subscribers.

00:25:32.520 And I call myself Lingo Steve on YouTube.

00:25:35.580 But certainly come to LingQ, L-I-N-G-Q dot com, which is where I learn languages and I think people would find it, you know, helpful, a pleasant kind of environment.

00:25:46.500 Everything you need is sort of there.

00:25:48.660 So those were the two would be the two places that I'm on Twitter.

00:25:52.080 But Lingo Steve, if you look for Lingo Steve, you're going to find me and come to LingQ. 0.82

00:25:56.040 We're going to put both links below for people to go out there and find you, subscribe to his channel, go visit his website to find out more about what they're doing.

00:26:04.380 And with that being said, Steve, thank you so much for being a guest on Valuetainer.

00:26:08.580 I enjoyed it very much. Thank you.

00:26:11.080 So if you learn a second language, your income is going to increase $7,000, apparently according to Gallup, right?

00:26:16.320 Something crazy to be thinking about.

00:26:17.520 But it was fascinating listening to him about how he learns a different language, 20 of them at the age of 74, 75.

00:26:25.420 Curious to know what you took away from it.

00:26:26.660 Also, if you enjoyed the interview, there's another interview I did with Don Miller about storytelling.

00:26:30.680 Probably one of my favorite interviews of all time that didn't get a lot of views.

00:26:35.240 But it's fascinating if you've never seen it.

00:26:37.540 Click over here to go watch that interview.

00:26:39.240 Thanks for watching, everybody.

00:26:40.060 Take care.

00:26:40.480 Bye-bye.

00:26:40.720 Bye-bye.

Valuetainment - February 05, 2021

Polyglot Who Speaks 20 Languages Reveals His Formula

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