I was accepted into the Canadian diplomatic service largely because I wrote the Foreign Service Exam as an Anglophone in French. So that improved my odds of being accepted, right? There weren't that many Anglophones who would have written that exam in French. And then I heard that the government wanted to train people in Chinese. So actually, I started taking Chinese lessons in Ottawa. Then I went to the director of the Foreign, you know, Trade Commission Service said, look, I hear you're going to send someone in their Chinese. Why wouldn't they choose me? I'm your man, because I've already shown an interest in learning the language. He sent me to Hong
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 ๐ข, cows ๐ฎ, skiing โท and cutting grass๐ก and and I ask Steve about cross-cultural experiences he has had during his career.
There is a video version on YouTube but only the audio version 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 ๐๐ฆ๐ฟ๐
.
Episode page with video, comment section, MP3 download link etc https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sLt
Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ and add the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone. https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.