SpeedyGlot: Recent Episodes
Olivia Sumich
In this podcast I share my language learning journey with you and then we learn new languages together using my method, SpeedyGlot. The goal is that we get 80% of the communication with 20% of the effort. Lets see!
I found a fellow language enthusiast in Northland! Brent grew up hearing his grandparents speak Te Reo Māori to eachother. He didn't learn it as a child but ended up finding his way to speaking Te Reo (and Indonesian) as an adult. I found talking to him really inspiring! If you like to listen to people talking effervescently about how (they think) language learning could be easier for everyone and why the world would benefit from all of us speaking more languages, have a listen! Warning - this episode may involve a wee bit of swearing because, you know, we language learners are passionate people!
Ever seen a video on YouTube of a polyglot doing a language challenge? Well in this episode I talk about how I approached my own (mini) language challenge. I explain how I learned German for two weeks and why the simple game of 'snap' is now my best friend when it comes to language learning.
Do you live with a feeling of regret about not learning a language that is part of your family heritage? That's exactly how I felt for 30+ years! My grandparents on my father's side migrated to NZ from Croatia and growing up I heard the language a lot and I was really keen to learn but everyone said it was too difficult. As a child I did some lessons but our teacher couldn't get us beyond the colours and the numbers so I thought, 'oh well it must be too hard to learn' and I settled into that familiar feeling of not understanding my relatives having conversations. Until one day when all of that changed... Click play to find out how I ticked this epic challenge off my bucket list!
This episode is dedicated to all the people who tell me they regret losing a language they studied a long time ago. My advice: Dig deeper, find your best way to revise, you will be surprised what your brain is hiding from you.
Find out how I abandoned Italian for ten years and then get it back despite having crippling language speaking anxiety. Plus the story of how that anxiety melted away in one 'critical' moment.
Welcome to the SpeedyGlot podcast! In this episode I talk about my first language learning role models and my first encounters with Croatian, Te Reo Māori, French, Italian and Brazilian Portuguese.