813. Language Learning is a Voyage of Discovery / Steve Kaufmann Interview

Steve Kaufmann is a very prolific language learner. He has learned at least 20 languages to varying degrees during his life. Some of them he learned during his career as an international diplomat and businessman, and others he has learned during his (semi) retirement. In this interview Steve talks about his language learning experiences, methods and motivations. We talk about various metaphors and similes for language learning including ocean voyages 🚢, cows 🐮, skiing ⛷ and cutting grass🏡 and I ask Steve about cross-cultural experiences he has had during his career. The audio version of this episode contains my intro and ending rambles about getting my hair cut and how you need to remember that you’re a baby cow-shark on skis 🐄🦈🎿😅. Subscribe to the audio podcast in a podcast app Episode page with audio version, links, etc @Thelinguist 00:00 Hello Steve 01:11 How many languages do you speak? 02:49 Why so many languages? 04:09 How did you learn Mandarin Chinese? 06:38 Did you ever lose motivation? 08:38 How did you feel when using Chinese while working as a diplomat? 11:35 Languages are like cake, wine or cheese 12:07 Is Steve a special case? Can everyone learn like Steve? 14:15 What stops people from learning languages? 15:25 Is it all just input, or is deliberate practice useful too? 17:36 How do you learn a language from scratch? (e.g. Persian or Arabic for Steve) 21:37 Steve’s motivation and tolerance for failure/mistakes/“fuzziness“/forgetting 24:15 If Steve was learning English, what would he do? 27:30 Language learning metaphors and smilies 37:29 Steve’s career as an international diplomat and businessman 45:16 Learning about Persian and Arabic history and culture