Connected By Language: Polyglot Interviews

Tandem - Language Exchange App
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The only show that finds the most dedicated language learners out there, and tries to learn from their craft! Meet and learn from language tutors and creators from all around the world in Tandem Language Exchange’s new official podcast, hosted by Michele and Michelle.

  1. 5d ago

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

    🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: 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 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 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.

    1h 2m

  2. May 12

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

    🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: 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/ 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 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.

    49 min

  3. May 11

    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 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 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 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.

    1h 8m

  4. Apr 14

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

    🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: 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/ 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 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

    1h 9m

  5. Mar 31

    EP. 24 - English Dominance, Dying French Languages, and the Luxembourg Exception

    🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH Luke is a British-born polyglot who grew up in a national park in northern England, spent his adult life living across eight countries, and now works at a French language school in Lille, advising, testing, and reassuring students from all over the world who come to learn French in an immersive environment. In this episode, he shares what years of living abroad and watching hundreds of students succeed and fail has taught him about what language learning actually takes. We go deep on the psychology of learning: why attitude almost always outweighs environment, what Luke calls the "tea bag effect," and how the fear of speaking to native speakers holds people back far more than grammar ever could. We also zoom out into the bigger picture: how the dominance of English threatens minority and regional languages across Europe, why France and the UK couldn't be more different in how they handle linguistic diversity, and why Luxembourg might just be the quiet model no one talks about enough. About the guest: https://www.instagram.com/lukielingual/ 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 0:00 Intro 4:10 From England to France: A Life Built Around Languages 11:44 Working in Language Education 40:00 Language Diversity & Rights in Europe 57:19 Reflections & Advice 🌟 What topics/language should we explore on the next episode of the new tandem podcast? Let us know in the comments!

    1h 8m

  6. Mar 17

    EP.23 - Inside CLEAR Global: Helping 3.7 Billion People Get Their Voices Heard

    🫂 Donate to CLEAR Global today: clearglobal.org/donate 🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH In this special episode of the Connected by Language podcast, we dive into the critical mission of CLEAR Global to bridge the "digital language divide". We sit down with CEO Aimee Ansari to discuss why 3.7 billion people remain "digitally invisible". From crisis response in Nigeria to disaster preparedness in Bolivia, we explore how language barriers can become a matter of life or death and why language justice is a fundamental human right. Discover how CLEAR Global uses language data and innovative technology to ensure that half the world's population can finally access essential information in their own tongue. Amy shares powerful insights on the importance of speech data for low-resource languages and provides practical ways for multilingual listeners to volunteer their skills to save lives. Join us for this impactful conversation and learn how you can support the push for global language equality during this year's Podcasthon event. This episode is part of Podcasthon 2026, a global movement where podcast hosts interview NGOs and charities to spread awareness and support for humanitarian wonders across the world. Join Podcasthon 2026: https://podcasthon.org/ 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 0:00 Intro  6:14 Personal Journey into Language and Humanitarian Work 8:46 Low-Resource Languages and Why They Matter 17:39 Beyond Translation: Building Language Infrastructure 25:16 Beyond Translation: Building Language Infrastructure 31:42 Language, Power, and Getting Involved  39:08 The Future of Language Access   🌟 What topics/language should we explore on the next episode of the new tandem podcast? Let us know in the comments!  This episode features a charitable appeal for CLEAR Global as part of Podcasthon 2026. No payment was exchanged for this interview

    45 min

  7. Mar 3

    EP. 22 - This Dutch Mother is Learning Luganda for a deeply personal reason.

    🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH In this episode of Connected By Language, Dutch content creator Jetske shares her experience learning Luganda, a language of Uganda. Originally visiting for a university minor, she eventually settled there and started a family.  Jetske explains her commitment to the language as a way to connect with her partner's family and ensure their daughter grows up with both her Dutch and Ugandan heritage. The conversation covers the technical aspects of Luganda, including its twelve noun classes, tonal pronunciation, and the use of double consonants. Ultimately, the episode highlights how learning a language serves as a form of respect for a partner's culture and identity The guest: https://www.youtube.com/@tess_chinese 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 0:00 Intro 3:39 Falling in Love with Luganda 11:28 Learning Luganda as a European Adult 29:28 Baby Intermission 30:51 The Learning Process 39:57 Language, Family & Bilingual Parenting 48:24 Advice for Learners of “Uncommon” Languages   🌟 What topics/language should we explore on the next episode of the new tandem podcast? Let us know in the comments!

    56 min

  8. Feb 17

    EP. 21 - How 8 Years of Self-Directed Learning Led Me to a Career in China

    🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH In this episode of Connected By Language, we sit down with Tess, an Australian content creator and university teacher currently living and working in China. Tess shares her incredible eight-year journey of mastering Mandarin, starting from a high school trip to Guangzhou that changed her life forever. From waking up at 6:30 AM to study before school to navigating the complex world of Chinese radicals and tones, Tess reveals the specific strategies she used to transition from self-directed learning to professional fluency. We also dive into the cultural shifts she experienced, such as moving from the informal communication style of Australia to the formal professional environment of a Chinese university. The guest: https://www.youtube.com/@tess_chinese 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 0:00 Intro 5:20 Discovering Chinese From a Distance 28:30 Independent Language Learning and Self-Directed Progress 42:43 From Learner to Teacher and Living the Language 53:11 Language Learning Mindset and Advice for Independent Learners   🌟 What topics/language should we explore on the next episode of the new tandem podcast? Let us know in the comments!

    59 min
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The only show that finds the most dedicated language learners out there, and tries to learn from their craft! Meet and learn from language tutors and creators from all around the world in Tandem Language Exchange’s new official podcast, hosted by Michele and Michelle.

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