In this episode we are talking to Ken Hirano, who was born in Japan but his family moved to the U.S. before he started school. He has returned to Japan to live a few times in his life, and now is one of them. He moved back to Tokyo about a year ago and recently wrote a post on LinkedIn on this geographic anniversary about his cultural and language identity. And that is what we are digging into today. This identity path took us through how he feels in different languages, why he feels more simple and defenseless in Japanese than English, how Japanese locals versus expats in Japan treat his Japanese & Americanness and where he is the most comfortable. Spoiler: none of these issues have a clearly defined answer and that is what made this nuanced discussion with Ken so interesting to have.  

You can find the full show notes, links, etc to this episode at https://www.stephfuccio.com/geopatslanguage/32

Welcome to a language learning conversation in 3 acts with Kerstin Cable of The Fluent Show Podcast. Act 1 is where Kerstin and I share our empathy for the language learner during the sometimes arduous process. But then we hit heads in act 2 by arguing (respectfully, of course) about natural ability when it comes to learning languages. But don't worry, by act 3, we shift to swooning,  with languages being the things we fall in love with. 

Do you want to learn German? Try the German Uncovered Course. I am!
https://school.fluentlanguage.co.uk/p/german-uncovered/?affcode=28114_oc64fynv
& 
Here is the freebie course which gives a lesson sample and introduces the learning method. 
 https://school.fluentlanguage.co.uk/p/storybasedgerman?affcode=28114_oc64fynv

This is our first before and after language follow up episode. Cameron and I chatted about his Mandarin Chinese language learning process and progress in September 2019, in episode 21 (https://www.stephfuccio.com/geopatslanguage/21). At the end of that episode we had him write his own questions for this six month follow up chat.  

Steph Cook was born near Munich, Germany, As a true Geopat, she moved to the UK in her twenties, met her English husband, had two kids, and moved to the U.S. 10 years ago. For the past 4 years, she's lived in Austin, Texas. She loves languages, multicultural living and the stories that emerge from talking about these experiences. You can read and hear these stories in her blog and her podcast with the same name: Transcontinental Overload. In this episode, we address 3 aspects of German that strike me (Geopats Steph) as strange. Her insights and humo(u)r about these differences is a sheer delight. You will never hear the German language in the same way again. 

​How much overlap is there between music and language? Sinologist, Linguist, Jazz Pianist & returning Geopats Podcast Guest David Moser, joins us again for a dive into this question. 

This week due to an evil head cold I have something different for you. This mini language episode includes:
-a personal German language update (get ready to cringe)
and
-an unpublished language snippet from a previous interview with Yunus from September 2019

Ever get frustrated with how little of the language in your textbooks can be used in real life conversations? Davey, Founder of Popcorn Club in Shanghai, China isn’t. Why not? Because he is too busy enjoying his conversations to care. I asked Davey how he keeps conversations going and here are his top 3 tips for doing so.  ​​

How sound sensitive are you? Our guest today, Phoebe, grew up with Mandarin Chinese but has learned a myriad of languages including English, Finnish, German & more. But her sound talent goes far beyond languages into sound and voice research in her current PhD life in Ireland. She is currently researching the connection between recorded voices and listeners’ emotional responses to them. This sensitivity and Phoebe’s general curiosity touch every aspect of language that we discuss in this conversation. 
Note: There are some construction noises, ironically, in this conversation. They do NOT last the entire time, so hang in there. 

Can the making of a language be a riveting story? Yes, yes, and 对啊. According to Sinologist, Linguist, Jazz Pianist & returning Geopats Guest David Moser, for modern day Mandarin Chinese there are power struggles, harsh words, a jazz music studio and a bit of Abbot and Costello behavior that contributed to the language story. In this conversation, David and I chat about his story and people packed book about the manufacturing of modern day Mandarin Chinese via his book  "A Billion Voices". ​