Episode 71: A Beginner Goes to Italy and Wonders: Why Learn a Language?
In this episode of Hear You Go for intermediate and advanced English language learners, I take you with me as I connect the TED Talk by linguist John McWhorter to my 2½-week language experiment in Italy.
Can I tell you how often I felt like my head was going to explode?!
In this three-part episode, I:
- unpack McWhorter’s four compelling reasons to learn a language
- share my real-world Italian wins and stumbles, and
- reflect on what this experience taught me about learning, teaching, and recommitting to French
Wherever you are on your language journey, this episode might make you pause and ask: Why am I learning a language—and what do I want from it? We probably don’t ask ourselves this question enough, right?
Bonus: travel vicariously through me as I share some remarkable moments from a special trip.
As always, I’ll note some useful intermediate/advanced language (B1/C1 Intermediate & Advanced English) along the way.
Hear You Go English language listening podcasts aim to give you, the intermediate English language learner and advanced English language learner, a space to practice your English listening so that you can think, learn, and connect in English.
To access the transcript, be sure to sign up for the newsletter.
You can also follow me on Instagram.
🎶 Amos the Transparent provides my theme song. They're an awesome group of talented musicians. Give them some love and check out their music.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.