I’ve been learning languages since I was twenty. I’m now… significantly past that. I first learned Spanish, then French, then Italian, and then Chinese, and I’ve lived, worked, studied, and travelled in countries where those languages are spoken.
I’m also “pretty good” at Egyptian Arabic and Korean, and have reached a functional level of touristy fluency — around 500 words — in Turkish, Japanese, and Swahili. Oh, and my mother tongue is Persian (Farsi).
I write a lot about language learning and cultural immersion on Discover Discomfort, our first website that actually made any money — something I’m immensely proud of!
Being ready for the conversation.
Over the years, I’ve refined my method of language learning a lot. I believe in travelling somewhere and speaking to people, but I also like to prepare for specific situations.
Years ago, in Spain, I didn’t know how to order a can of Coke, and didn’t know the gender of the word “Coke”. This was in 1999, before such things were easy to look up. So I ordered two Cokes.
These days, I’m much more prepared. Before signing up to a gym in Italy, I knew all the words for registration and payments.
Before my first classes, I knew the words for all the moves — and then was amused to hear the coach using the English terms anyway. But I was ready!
I used to prepare in a really laborious way: writing lists of words, getting translations from websites or teachers, making card decks, and creating audio by recording it myself or using an API. I even wrote a guide to creating audio for Anki cards years ago.
My dream app.
I built Grandmaster Flash — people of my generation will know the reference — to shortcut all that. Now you can go straight from a prompt to a deck on your phone, complete with voice, in a nice interface.
You can build decks entirely from ideas, or start with source material like a website, a song, or a presentation you’re going to make in another language. It’s basically my dream app. Even if nobody else uses it, I will.
But I hope you will, and I hope you’ll tell me you like it — or what you want to change. Let me know via the contact form!