On one occasion, I was between jobs, so I decided to really go after German. From that point on, it was more a matter of learning because I was interested and because I knew I could do it. Thereafter, I was transferred to Japan, so I learned Japanese. Initially, I was sent to Hong Kong to learn Mandarin Chinese. I then worked for the Canadian government. Eventually, I ended up going off to Europe, to France, where I did my university, completed my university training there for three years. So then I got very much turned on to French because I had a professor at McGill University who was very stimulating, got us interested in French civilization. I had learned the grammar and all those kind of stuff, but I couldn’t speak. However, in Montreal, Montreal in those days was what they called “The Two Solitudes.” You had a million English speakers and two million French speakers, and there wasn’t much mingling. You know, I like to say that at the age of 16, I could only really speak or carry on a conversation in English. Would you mind sharing with us how you went from being monolingual into being a hyperpolyglot? Kind of what were the steps there? From Monolingual to Hyperpolyglot: Steve Kaufmann’s Journey The way that you traveled the world and you were kind of a linguistic nomad for quite a while of your early life in a way of learning languages. I have to admit, I’m actually a little jealous of your language learning journey. There’s a link in the description, if anybody’s interested in that. I actually had a chance this weekend to read your book, The Way of the Linguist: A Language Learning Odyssey.
And I have been following your career, your YouTube channel, and other places that I’ve found you online for quite a while now. How Steve Kaufmann went from monolingual to hyperpolyglot I have a channel at YouTube, where I try to encourage people to learn languages because I think it’s a great thing to do, and it’s a lot more fun than people realize. Learned, 9 or 10 languages, set up LingQ with my son, Mark. I was always interested in languages, but in the last 15 years, I’ve been particularly interested. And then I was in the wood business for about 40 years and I had occasion to learn other languages, Swedish and so forth and so on. I’m retired now, I’m 75, but when I was working, I was initially a Canadian government trade commissioner, so I learned Chinese and Japanese with them.
#LINGO STEVE PROFESSIONAL#
I have a great interest in languages during my professional career.
Could you first give us kind of a quick elevator pitch of who you are and what you do? Thank you for taking the time out of your day to come and talk to me today.
#LINGO STEVE HOW TO#
Who is Steve Kaufmann (AKA LingoSteve)?.Before you know it, you will be conversational in German on a variety of important topics, all while mastering German grammar. You will go from knowing zero German to being able to have a short conversation in a short few weeks.
#LINGO STEVE FULL#
If you are really wanting to put your German learning on track, consider joining Herr Antrim’s Deutschlerner Club! For just $9.99 per month you will get access to his full A1 and A2 courses plus new materials as he creates them. If you want to know how he learned 20 languages and what his methods can teach you about learning a language as well, you are going to want to watch this interview. I had a chance to sit down with him via video conference and talk about language learning, the educational system with regards to language learning, and of course, learning German. He’s a fellow YouTuber and one of the co-founders of LingQ, the online language learning platform. He is an internationally known polyglot who has learned over 20 languages. Today, I have a very special guest with me on the channel.
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