EP. 29 - Petr: How Language Exchanges Led to Helping Ukrainian Refugees

EP. 29 - Petr: How Language Exchanges Led to Helping Ukrainian Refugees

🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH [https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH] Petr is a Czech linguist and freelancer who spent years treating English as just another school subject, until an early internet language exchange site opened up the world to him. From there he taught himself Russian in his thirties, not because he had to, but because he was drawn to the post-Soviet world and the vast geography a single language could unlock. He passed a B2 exam, traveled to Georgia to put his skills to the test, and built quiet long-lasting friendships along the way. Then February 2022 arrived. When Ukrainian refugees began flooding into his city, Petr showed up to volunteer at the reception center, speaking a language he had learned entirely for personal curiosity, now suddenly needed in the most human way possible. In this episode we get into what that experience felt like, what a crisis teaches you about language that no classroom or app ever could, and how a hobby you build slowly over years can matter enormously in a single unexpected moment. About the guest: https://freelancing.eu/petrloucka/ [https://freelancing.eu/petrloucka/] What is Tandem - Language exchange? Tandem is a global language exchange app on a mission to connect the world through languages. Members build confidence and improve their language skills through real life conversations with native speakers in 1:1 chats or live audio rooms.  🔗 Connect With Us: https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App [https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App] 0:00 Intro  4:36 From Classroom Boredom to Real Motivation  11:34 Building Russian From the Ground Up  38:33 The Moment It All Meant Something  54:43 The Dream That Started It and the Reality It Became   🌟 What topics/language should we explore on the next episode of the new tandem podcast? Let us know in the comments!  Thanks for watching Connected By Language: Polyglot Interviews, the new Tandem Podcast.

EP. 28 - Rafael: Teaching Korean, Learning Spanish, and Starting Over for Love

🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH [https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH] Rafael is a Korean native speaker who started teaching Korean online after noticing how many people in Prague were desperate to learn the language during the height of the K-pop and Squid Game wave. What began as a casual side project turned into a full career… Until he followed his Spanish partner back to Europe, landed in Barcelona without knowing a word of Catalan, moved to Madrid, and suddenly found himself on the other side of the classroom for the first time in his life. In this episode we get into what makes Korean both more logical and more nuanced than most learners expect, why so many Koreans can read and write English perfectly but freeze the moment they have to speak it, and what teaching a language for years teaches you about it that simply speaking it never could. We also get into Rafael's current approach to Spanish: the classic textbook, the public language school, the Spanish partner, and a playlist of classic Spanish hits that he sings along to alone at home… which he insists is working! About the guest: https://ochikortutor.com/koreanclass [https://ochikortutor.com/koreanclass] What is Tandem - Language exchange? Tandem is a global language exchange app on a mission to connect the world through languages. Members build confidence and improve their language skills through real life conversations with native speakers in 1:1 chats or live audio rooms.  🔗 Connect With Us: https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App [https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App] 0:00 Intro  8:31 Growing Up Inside the Korean Education Machine  19:29 Teaching Korean to the World  39:51 The Spanish Adventure  51:07 What the Classroom Looks Like From the Other Chair   🌟 What topics/language should we explore on the next episode of the new tandem podcast? Let us know in the comments!  Thanks for watching Connected By Language: Polyglot Interviews, the new Tandem - Language Exchange Podcast.

EP. 27 - One doctor, Seven Languages, and a Polyglot Community Built From Scratch in Stockholm

🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH [https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH] Jonatan grew up in northern Sweden with Eritrean parents, speaking both Swedish and Tigrinya at home, and was promptly labeled the math kid while his more extroverted sister got the language person title. That label stuck until a passionate Spanish teacher named Lars changed everything, and what started as a school subject eventually took Jonatan through Spain, six years of medical school in Hungary, fluency in Hungarian, Russian, and several other languages, and back to Sweden with a completely different understanding of what languages are actually for. In this episode we explore what it really means when a doctor speaks a patient's native language, why the difference between a direct conversation and an interpreter goes far beyond words, and how Jonatan turned a quiet longing for his polyglot community into Stockholm Polyglots, a growing nonprofit that brings language lovers together every two weeks across ten languages at a time. We also get into the Hungarian saying he opens every event with, and why he believes every language you speak makes you a more complete human being. About the guest: https://polyglots.se/ [https://polyglots.se/] What is Tandem - Language exchange? Tandem is a global language exchange app on a mission to connect the world through languages. Members build confidence and improve their language skills through real life conversations with native speakers in 1:1 chats or live audio rooms.  🔗 Connect With Us: https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App [https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App] 0:00 Intro  4:14 The Language Person He Was Not Supposed to Be  13:31 Language in the Hospital Room  35:11 Building the Community Sweden Forgot to Build  43:32 What Seven Languages Taught Him   🌟 What topics/language should we explore on the next episode of the new tandem podcast? Let us know in the comments!  Thanks for watching Connected By Language: Polyglot Interviews, the new Tandem Podcast.

EP. 26 - Ali: How Obsession, Self-Education, and a One-Way Ticket Built a Career in English

🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH [https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH] Ali Alradhi grew up in Basra, Iraq, surrounded by brothers who traveled the world and spoke English fluently. At twelve, he asked for a dictionary instead of a toy, started reading five to ten pages a day without knowing why, and spent the next decade quietly building an obsession that would take over his entire life. By the time he was twenty two, he had turned down Arabic music, Arabic friends, and anything that wasn't in English, bought a one-way ticket to Turkey, and started over from scratch. In this episode, Ali walks us through how that radical self-taught approach shaped the way he now runs Just English, a language school in Turkey where English is the only language allowed in the building. We get into what it actually takes to hire great teachers, why mindset always comes before grammar in his classroom, what English genuinely represents for people in Turkey who desperately want it but can't always access it, and why he believes the word "impossible" is just another entry in the dictionary. About the guest: https://linktr.ee/alawiiiz [https://linktr.ee/alawiiiz] What is Tandem - Language exchange? Tandem is a global language exchange app on a mission to connect the world through languages. Members build confidence and improve their language skills through real life conversations with native speakers in 1:1 chats or live audio rooms.  🔗 Connect With Us: https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App [https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App] 0:00 Intro 2:07 From Basra to Fluency 13:30 Building a Multilingual Classroom 47:20 What English Really Means in Türkiye 56:30 The Outsider Advantage   🌟 What topics/language should we explore on the next episode of the new tandem podcast? Let us know in the comments!  Thanks for watching Connected By Language: Polyglot Interviews, the official Tandem Podcast.

EP. 25 - From No Plan to Fluent: Frank's Language Immersion Journey

🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH [https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH] Frank grew up in London convinced he was simply bad at languages. Seven years of French at school, five of German, and not a single conversation to show for it. So at twenty-two, fresh out of university, he did the only logical thing: bought a one-way ticket to Buenos Aires with no contacts, no savings, and barely enough Spanish to order a coffee. What followed was equal parts terrifying and transformative. In this episode, Frank walks us through what real immersion actually looks like from the inside: the supermarket anxiety, the elevator small talk, the football team he joined by pretending he understood every word, and the pandemic lockdown that unexpectedly turned Argentina into home. We also get into how that journey eventually led to a language teaching career, a viral moment on Instagram, and a philosophy about fluency that has less to do with grammar and everything to do with the confidence to just keep going. About the guest: https://www.instagram.com/frankly_speaking_english/ [https://www.instagram.com/frankly_speaking_english/] What is Tandem - Language exchange? Tandem is a global language exchange app on a mission to connect the world through languages. Members build confidence and improve their language skills through real life conversations with native speakers in 1:1 chats or live audio rooms.  🔗 Connect With Us: https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App [https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App] 0:00 Intro  4:24 From “Bad at Languages” to Moving Abroad 14:45 Designing Immersion & Building Real Fluency 44:47 Turning Language into Career & Leverage 58:58 Reflection & Mindset