Chapter 28: How to Actually Learn a Language with Griffin McNesby

Warmer days, longer evenings, and Easter right around the corner, it honestly feels like everything is starting again… and so is this podcast. I’ve missed this space so much, and I’m so happy to be back.

In Chapter 28, I’m sitting down with Griffin, and we’re talking about something I feel like everyone has said at least once: “I really want to learn a language.” And somehow… we never start. Or we download the app, do one lesson, and call it a day. Even if you only speak one language, it’s never too late to start a new one or pick up where you left off in school.

This episode felt like the perfect reminder that you actually can start, maybe even now, before summer hits and life gets busy again. We talk about Griffin’s journey through Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Russian, and how it was never about being perfect, but about showing up, staying curious, and letting language become part of your everyday life

I also share some of my own experiences, how much learning a language is tied to the people around you, the environments you put yourself in, and honestly just being okay with sounding a little lost at first.

Think of this episode as your little push to finally begin. Not in a “new year, new me” kind of way, but in a soft, spring kind of way. You don’t need a perfect plan, just a starting point.

Creators and Guests

Host

Veronika Becher

What is Identity Library?

Welcome to the Identity Library, a captivating podcast hosted by Veronika Becher, a German student exploring life in the United States. Join me as we unravel the different layers of identity and embark on a quest for authenticity. Each episode delves into how our backgrounds, cultures, and personal journeys sculpt our sense of self.

Every month, we journey into a new cultural landscape with our guests, sharing stories and experiences from the tapestry of life. Whether you're forging a path in a foreign land or simply curious about the forces that define us, The Identity Library invites you to write your own narrative or uncover fresh perspectives.

So, settle in with a cup of tea and immerse yourself in tales from around the globe with some sense of humor. If you don't find your story here, keep exploring—there are countless books with chapters waiting to be discovered. Identity Library is a podcast by WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2.

00:00
Veronika Becher
Foreign. Hey, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Identity Library. My name is Veronica Becker, and today I'm joined by Griffin McNasby. I hope that was right.

00:23
Griffin McNasby
That's right.

00:24
Veronika Becher
Let's go. A win. Win. And yeah, it's just been a while, actually. I'm so happy that people are tuning into this episode. And this winter was crazy. We had so many snow days. Way too many snow days. And I love how Griffin is just looking at me. He's like, what is this? What is happening? What is happening on this episode? But basically, Griffin, would you like to introduce yourself? What you're studying? Maybe one fun fact about yourself? What would you like to do? Whatever you want to share. Maybe not too much.

00:59
Griffin McNasby
Absolutely no. So My name's Griffin McNesby. I'm a second year student here at NC State. I'm part of the international business dual degree program, which is actually the same one as Veronica was in. So I'll be doing my last two years in her hometown of Reutlingen, Germany. Fun fact. I used to teach the guitar. I don't know if she knew that.

01:21
Veronika Becher
I do. I actually, now that I think about it, I do.

01:23
Griffin McNasby
Yeah. Yeah.

01:24
Veronika Becher
So I think you mentioned that to me.

01:25
Griffin McNasby
Teach the guitar. What was the other icebreaker I had?

01:29
Veronika Becher
You had so many icebreakers.

01:31
Griffin McNasby
Actually, at this point, you said you had. All right, so studying fun fact.

01:35
Veronika Becher
Yes, fun fact. Anything you want to share?

01:37
Griffin McNasby
Oh, I want to share if you're coming. If you're an NC State student. I'm teaching jiu Jitsu on Tuesday. Pull up to the grappling club Tuesday night. 6:30, 6:30 On Tuesdays and Fridays. Yeah, I'm only teaching Tuesday, though.

01:54
Veronika Becher
I love the ad they will be firing if you want to know how I look. Like what?

01:59
Griffin McNasby
If you want to know how they're gonna be confused. Yeah.

02:04
Veronika Becher
Oh, my gosh. Griffin and I met, like, one and a half years ago, and we've been on and off in touch, if you can say that. Met at the gym a couple of weeks ago. Super random. Once, actually.

02:19
Griffin McNasby
It was in, like, October. Yeah.

02:20
Veronika Becher
Oh, never mind. I take it back.

02:22
Griffin McNasby
It's been a while.

02:23
Veronika Becher
Yeah, time flies. And he was actually on my panel. Like, one of the only panel discussions I was on in my life about the IBD program. And, well, I was just sitting in front of everyone, just enjoying my life way back before my podcast ever started. And he ended up accepting it and coming. Coming to NC State. So that's really cool. And, well, the reason why I wanted you to be on the podcast and, well, you know, it. The listeners don't. Not yet is you've learned so many languages over these past, I don't know how many years. And I was like, this is so interesting. Like, my boyfriend is learning German right now, and I know so many people that are learning in different language. And it's fascinating.

03:09
Veronika Becher
I mean, I've learned English too, but, you know, it's so fascinating how people pick it up when they don't have anyone in their family who speaks that specific language. So I would like to just dive right into the topic and be like, how did you start? What language did you start with? Do you like learning languages? Wherever you want to start?

03:31
Griffin McNasby
I hope I like learning languages. I mean, I've done a lot of work to not like learning languages. But yeah, so I've been learning languages since I was about 12, no, 13 years old. And like she said, neither my parents are fluent in any other language. They don't speak a lick of anything else. I started with Spanish in middle school and I did that throughout high school. And I really realized I had a passion for languages when I started my first job at an Italian restaurant. And I got to work with a lot of the back house people. So a lot of the cooks were from Latin America, so Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba. I made a lot of friends there because I was the one white dude who spoke Spanish.

04:23
Griffin McNasby
At the end of the day, I mean, you guys can't see me because we're on a podcast, but I'm a very white man and see me speaking Spanish, you know, it makes an impact. And so I realized, like, man, I really am able to connect with these people who otherwise I probably wouldn't, would have never been able to meet, get to know, become good friends with that one Cuban guy. I'm a very good friends with them today. And that really made me realize my love for languages. So that same summer, I started learning German by myself, partly because I was bored, but also because I thought, you know, German. Germany is the largest business sector in Europe, third largest GDP at the moment. I believe them and Japan go hand in hand. I think they're third right now. I don't know.

05:13
Veronika Becher
I feel bad about not knowing the numbers.

05:15
Griffin McNasby
You should definitely know that because of your country. But. And your business, you're going, what, your master's right now? Business. Yes, okay, yes.

05:24
Veronika Becher
It's just bad because Germany's been nodding.

05:26
Griffin McNasby
Well, you guys have made some decisions for sure.

05:29
Veronika Becher
That's a nice way of putting it. And honestly, it's been rough Honestly?

05:33
Griffin McNasby
Yeah. So, yeah, with that summer, I hired a. Like a tutor online on this website called Preply. And I was able to take lessons two or three a week throughout the rest of high school. And then when I started here at NC State, I started learning Portuguese in part due to my sport, which is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. So I've done a little bit of that, a little bit of Muay Thai, and I met a lot of Brazilians there, and it piqued my interest. Already knew Spanish. It's pretty easy to cross over. So I started taking lessons in that. Did that for about a year and a half. And then actually two months ago, I started learning Russian. And I don't know if Veronica knew.

06:16
Veronika Becher
That, but I feel like you've talked about it a year ago.

06:21
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

06:21
Veronika Becher
And you're like, I really want to learn Russian. And I'm like, this is so funny. Why Russian? Like, you're just following basically all languages I speak. I don't speak Portuguese, so that's like, one difference. And instead I've learned French, so I.

06:38
Griffin McNasby
Didn't know you speak French.

06:39
Veronika Becher
These language skills are almost gone, unfortunately. It's just when you don't use it, if you don't. Don't interact with people. Well, I did attack with people that spoke French, and I do that. But the issue is, like, are people really willing to speak their language? I think there's a big difference between people that are like, if you speak my language and you don't know how to pronounce something, I will hate you and just not talk to you.

07:03
Griffin McNasby
That's. Yeah, that's very French.

07:05
Veronika Becher
So, yeah, sorry for saying that out loud. But then I feel like Spanish people can be more open. But it depends where you're from. Like, maybe I feel like Madrid and like Barcelona and like these areas. Maybe not as much as, like, if you go into, like, small towns or somewhere outside of actual, like, I don't know Spanish, like just Spanish speaking countries that are not Spain. Spain.

07:30
Griffin McNasby
I felt that Spain is very hard. I can talk about my. My trips in a bit. But yeah, my time in Spain, I had trouble learning the accent for sure. But when I was in down in Argentina, I mean, they're very welcoming people. They don't care if you have the thickest American accent. You sound like the worst Spanish speaker ever. You know, three words. They love it. It doesn't matter.

07:51
Veronika Becher
And they, like, appreciate it.

07:52
Griffin McNasby
Absolutely.

07:53
Veronika Becher
There's so much, like, love behind it. I feel like the same goes with Russian. The same goes with Russian. But the difference is that not everyone speaks Russian. And that's kind of a thing that you also consider.

08:06
Griffin McNasby
It's hard, man. It's really hard.

08:08
Veronika Becher
It is hard. I think the difference between, like, Russian and GE. German is. Least for me, German is easier when it comes to the grammar. And then English has more words. So that's the tricky part. There's so many words that we don't even use daily that are out there that mean so many other things that you just can't translate into other languages. But then Russian has a really tough grammar. It's not the sentence structure. It's just everything is irregular. Yeah, every verb is irregular. And I think what helps me is just growing up with the language instead of learning it. I would not know how to learn the language.

08:44
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, absolutely.

08:46
Veronika Becher
So it's like almost like a feeling at this point rather than me knowing the rules 100%.

08:50
Griffin McNasby
Yeah. But you never took lessons or anything, did you?

08:53
Veronika Becher
No, my mom actually taught me Russian herself.

08:56
Griffin McNasby
Is it your mom that's Russian or your dad?

08:58
Veronika Becher
My mom. Oh, yeah. And so my mom taught me Russian, and I had to take Russian lessons with your mom. Please don't do that. I mean, I'm sorry. Like, I love my mom, but that was just. When your mom becomes your coach or your teacher, that's a different level of. I feel like your parents can be harsher on you rather than when it's someone else and you can be mad at them in a different way. You don't have a personal relationship with them. When they let you not play outside because they want you to learn something new, and you're like, why am I doing this? But I feel like it's so interesting. Do you think sports helped you then learn a language?

09:39
Veronika Becher
Because you were in that community and people spoke in jiu jitsu, like, a certain languages, and that just helped you connect with people better.

09:48
Griffin McNasby
Absolutely. 100%. A lot of the people. I should shout out my gym first. G13. Carrie Holly springs from. Trained. Trained by Roberto Godoy. He's from. He's from Sao Paulo. So my gym has a lot of Brazilians from Sao Paulo. That's, like, their main place. And when they learned that I was in the process of learning, I actually got my balls busted for a while by one of my trainers, because he would. I would come and I'd be like, man, I learned this new thing, you know, all this stuff. He'd be like, what? What. What are you talking about? It's not. That's not Portuguese. We don't. We don't talk like that. He's just messing with me. So. So half of it was like that. But then you got to learn like, oh, man, he's just like messing with me.

10:35
Griffin McNasby
Brazilians love to do this too, is the thing. Like, half the Brazilians, they love to help you, and half of them just like to mess with you. And my buddy tried learning for a little bit and then he had the same response from my coach and he's like, man, I don't want to learn this anymore. But half the people I train with are very helpful in like teaching me new words, phrases, everything, resources. And then when you're there, right, you have people to speak to. And I started when I was training, people would help me. Like, they would just explain moves in Portuguese. And then at a certain point I was able to do it. But in addition to that, I wouldn't say that's the biggest help that I had in learning Portuguese.

11:11
Griffin McNasby
So in addition to my lessons that I took, I surrounded myself with the community here. There's a lot of Brazilians here. I don't think I can, like, I don't think I've left my house in the last year without somehow running into a Brazilian. They're everywhere in Raleigh. How many Brazilians have you met? You think?

11:29
Veronika Becher
Could you name in Raleigh specifically?

11:31
Griffin McNasby
Not that many. Right? You wouldn't think so.

11:33
Veronika Becher
Not in Raleigh. I actually live with two in Germany.

11:36
Griffin McNasby
Really?

11:37
Veronika Becher
And I was in a big, like, Brazilian group. And one of my closest friends went to Brazil actually for his dual degree because. I don't know.

11:45
Griffin McNasby
So one in Brasilia, right?

11:46
Veronika Becher
Yeah, he was in. I think he was also close to Sao Paulo and he just returned, so I'm still in touch with him. And I don't know, it's just. I live with two. It was, it was so good. Like, I. I had the best time. They're great people, probably. Yes. They really heartwarming people. And open minded too.

12:07
Griffin McNasby
100%.

12:08
Veronika Becher
Like, had really good conversations. People would take me, teach me the most random things. Oh my gosh. I, I still remember, I. I was telling you today that a building in Germany is out of glass, or at least a kitchen area. And my roommate, so one was a guy, one, and the girl was like, well, you need to learn how to dance to Brazilian sock. Are you funky?

12:30
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, yeah.

12:34
Veronika Becher
And I was like, oh, my gosh. And I danced my whole life, but I was like, not exposed to that type of dancing. And so she was teaching me how to twerk in our kitchen. And I was like, the Glass kitchen in the glass.

12:47
Griffin McNasby
Oh, man. This is the place you're telling me to live?

12:51
Veronika Becher
Yes.

12:51
Griffin McNasby
Oh, my gosh.

12:52
Veronika Becher
And my friend was like, do you know that there are like probably seven people sitting right now in front of their apartments just to watch what is happening in your apartment? And I was like, I didn't pay attention. It was so much fun. Like, we end up getting more people to join and it was just a group of people just learning from her. And I wouldn't say I mastered it, but it was kind of fun and I enjoyed it. Just because you have like someone who can teach you more and I don't know, I just loved it.

13:19
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, no, great culture. I feel, especially after learning the language too, or at least beginning the journey that I. I meet them everywhere. Like, I went to a party last week and one dude there happened to be Brazilian. And I was talking.

13:37
Veronika Becher
I've met one girl actually at State.

13:38
Griffin McNasby
That is one girl. There is a ton of. There's a ton of people.

13:41
Veronika Becher
There's a ton. And I know that because the international orientation runs and we have so many Portuguese people there all the time. And I used to be a small pack leader who would like lead these teams of undergraduate students. And so I was like, oh, there's so many of them. But at the same time, it's so easy at State, I feel like to fall into your own bubble where you don't get exposed to people in these fields unless you know someone and then you enter.

14:05
Griffin McNasby
So I met a good group of friends through both my church and then also my. There's the grappling club here I was talking about earlier. Happened that our interests kind of like co aligned and they took me to a lot of Brazilian parties. And I actually ended up meeting a girl I dated there for a long time. She had to leave back to Brazil. I was telling you about this earlier a couple weeks ago, but she helped my Portuguese a lot too. For sure. But you'd be surprised how many resilience there are. That's my point of the story.

14:39
Veronika Becher
I just. My thought was just traveling completely somewhere else. I was just thinking of when I was dating the American dude. He actually probably. Even if he would never probably admit it out loud, I think he learned a lot of German through me. Yeah, it was just a matter of me repeating things or like practicing or having these like short conversations in German where we like would do like. It is still his effort and his abilities that brought him where he is now. But I think in the span of a year, I think his German improved so much just because living with a German helps a lot, too.

15:12
Griffin McNasby
Absolutely. I'm sure it does.

15:13
Veronika Becher
And right now, for instance, like, my boyfriend has these, like, exercises where he has to pronounce words, and I'll be like, at first I thought he would hate me for that, but he said that he actually appreciates it. So sometimes I would, like, stop him. I'm like, this is just mispronounced. Do it again. And he would do it again. And we would just, like, same things twice and three times. But I feel like. Would you say it's just easier for you to learn languages, or is it a matter of, like, effort in a combination of talent that has to come into.

15:44
Griffin McNasby
I would not say I am especially good at learning languages, if I'm being honest. I think so. It's hard for a lot of people to understand because a lot of people don't have language learning as a hobby. Especially here in America. I. Most people speak one language. If you speak a second language, it's like, wow, you know, you speak Spanish. That's. That's crazy, right? But once you start to learn the third and the fourth and the fifth, you start to recognize a lot more patterns. And I think that might be something that's. That could be an innate thing that could help you. I've also heard that musical ability kind of correlates with proficiency in language learning. But for me, I'd say, you know, how I really learned was immersion through, you know, music, friends, traveling, my phone, like. Like I open Instagram.

16:39
Griffin McNasby
Half of my reels are in German, Spanish, whatever. And then as you. As you learn the next language, it's like, oh, yeah, I understand this. I understand how adjectives work. I understand how conjugations work. You know, I can pick up on these patterns pretty fast. I don't need to spend as much time on the logic behind the language as much as I do the listening. And that's what the hardest part I think is learning to hear the language, if that makes sense. I think my best metaphor would be, like, pick. It's like plucking mud out of your ears, right? You're just taking clumps out at a time, and you're slowly beginning to understand more and more. And you might hear a sentence and recognize two words at the start, and then you understand more and more, and then you understand the whole sentence.

17:27
Griffin McNasby
I go in an airport. I noticed this was it in June. I was sitting in an airport, and I had a German couple behind me. And then I had Two Brazilian women behind me, and I was trying to write a paper and I didn't have headphones. And I was driven insane because, like, my mind was, like bouncing back and forth because I could understand everything they said, and it was not like I could not focus at all because I had plucked the mud out of my ears. I could finally understand them. So it's kind of a blessing and a curse.

17:58
Veronika Becher
I can relate to that. I have days where I can't remember words in any language. What is even worse, it's like people tell me, oh, explain this in a different language. I'm like, I don't recall that word at all. It's just not there. And I don't know if that's how people feel if they speak one language. But the worst is when you have three languages and you can't still remember anything or when they get mixed up. It's just like, I don't know, just depends on the day. There are days where, like, can speak one language better than another. When I go back to Germany, I lose my German skills, and then I have to regain them. It's really interesting. English just comes as the first language. And then I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is so bad.

18:36
Veronika Becher
But then also, in my head, English and German are much closer, and Russian is a separate thing.

18:42
Griffin McNasby
That's fair.

18:42
Veronika Becher
And it helps a lot because I speak continuously throughout the year, Russian with my mom and with my dad. But I don't speak English and German all the time with them as often. So it depends what country I live in. I will use a different language more over the other. And then it just takes me like a month to get back into the language. Because last time when I came back to. When I came back to Germany, it took me a month to be able to buy bread at a bakery. My brain was like, just. It would be subconsciously I would use but. And like, words that are like connecting a sentence in English without noticing it. And then I'm like, oh, this is so bad. Like, I don't know how to have a conversation or, like, even my slang.

19:29
Veronika Becher
Or the way, like, certain words that you use in German but you wouldn't in school, they would just slowly return back into, like, my normal language conversations.

19:38
Griffin McNasby
That's one thing I love about learning languages. You can tell what. What words people say very often in their own language and what I mean by this. So I don't tell you this either, but I was. I've been teaching English since July, so I've taught probably over 45 students at this point. I was teaching, like, 30, 40 hours a week last semester. Mostly Latin Americans, but also many Germans, Polish people all over the world. I think there was Ida guy from, like, Beirut, too. Germans, they'll. They'll end. If they're talking English, end every question. Like, oh, you want to go to the bakery? Or Oda, right? They'll say oda all the time. Oda, yeah. Or, oh, man, you know, went to the. We went to the park. Yeah, it made a lot of fun. You know, they say that all the time.

20:29
Griffin McNasby
I've got this one student, and he dies because he knows. He recognizes when he says it. It's like, oh, yeah, it makes a lot of fun. And that's not something we say in English. Ichmach spas. Yeah, that I make. I make fun. That's what they say in German. They don't. They don't say it was fun. And I love picking up on that.

20:45
Veronika Becher
I love the German accent.

20:46
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, it's good, right? I mean, like, I work with these guys. Yeah. But this is.

20:51
Veronika Becher
This is crazy. Is this how I sound like, oh, my gosh. I actually don't like the German accent at all. No, it makes me upset. It just doesn't sound. Well, I don't know. I just don't.

21:03
Griffin McNasby
I don't mind it. I. I dig it. I think there's worse accents, honestly. No, But I'm also a German speaker, so maybe that. Maybe I'm biased.

21:13
Veronika Becher
I like to bring up this joke. It's my. One of my friends would just laugh right now. We met the CIA guy, and I mentioned this in the previous episode. And this. You know, we're sitting in this, like, political, like, charged room, I don't know, however you want to call it. And this guy just goes, yeah, you know, Abdullah, you don't really have an accent. And Abdullah is from Libya. And so he's like, you don't really have an accent. Like, you can be double spy. Like, no one would know because he had such a clean American accent. But then he turns around because I'm the only foreigner in that whole room, and he goes, well, you obviously have an accent. But one thing I will tell you for sure is every American guy will tell you that, and if.

21:55
Veronika Becher
Even if they don't tell you that they think that. That you have really accent, like, attractive accent that is really sexy. And I'm pretty sure that people would really appreciate your accent in that. And I think it was crazy because I never expected this guy who said this. A CIA guy.

22:11
Griffin McNasby
Okay.

22:12
Veronika Becher
American CIA guy. And he repeated himself three times. And I was like, I don't know if I should actually. Like, I think he meant it, but I don't know what to do with that now. That information. And I. Not sure.

22:24
Griffin McNasby
I think you were trying. You were. You were about to get recruited in the CIA. I know what was going to happen.

22:28
Veronika Becher
Yes. Although he did say that he would accept only ugly people because they're less. Like, apparently the CAA would only hire ugly people or people that would not stick out in any way. And I think I would just, as a German, really stick out. So it wouldn't work.

22:46
Griffin McNasby
You don't. You don't look German, though.

22:51
Veronika Becher
You're the. You're one of the only people that actually notice that. Because that is true.

22:57
Griffin McNasby
No, you don't.

22:58
Veronika Becher
And people. When I got.

23:00
Griffin McNasby
I don't know what Germans look like. I'm going be honest.

23:02
Veronika Becher
No. But when I got. But when I got my bangs, actually, people were like, oh, you look so much more German. I'm like, no, I don't. And exactly. With my bangs now, I don't look as much.

23:14
Griffin McNasby
Your banks. You could be from Berlin for sure. But I wouldn't say. I wouldn't say German. German.

23:18
Veronika Becher
It's like, I think my, like, Slavic roots are coming through, but that's not the point. The point is, it's really interesting how people perceive accents and how some people like one accent over the other. And then I sometimes have a hard time with certain accents when people speak English. Like, I feel like Asian accents are really difficult for me to pick up on.

23:39
Griffin McNasby
Really?

23:39
Veronika Becher
Especially, like, Chinese accents. Well, I'm like, oh, my gosh. This is just. It takes me a while. It's just the way. It's almost like the timbre, so the rhythm, the way people speak a language in. Is the opposite of everything I speak.

23:51
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

23:52
Veronika Becher
And you also mentioned that it's easier to learn certain languages. And I. Because of the patterns you see. But also, I feel like I've. I was looking into if I want to learn Japanese or Korean. What? It's like, it's been a while, but I'm still debating on it.

24:07
Griffin McNasby
You Japanese. I'm gonna do Japanese, actually, next.

24:09
Veronika Becher
And the thing is, I'm gonna give.

24:12
Griffin McNasby
It a couple years. It's gonna. Down the line.

24:14
Veronika Becher
Yes. But it's like, the thing is, with Japanese or Korean, depending on what language you speak, it's easy to learn it because you have certain, like, sounds that are existing in your language that makes sense.

24:25
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

24:26
Veronika Becher
And so apparently, if you Speak Russian. You will more likely learn Korean. Because there's an overlap in certain sounds that I don't even know. I was, like, researching it, and I've heard it so many times, and I'm like, that's really interesting. Like, the way you pass or certain. Like, in general, I feel like Russian has more sounds. I sometimes think about it, and I cannot explain it. And it's like when I explain to people, oh, this is my nickname. It's Veronya. And people cannot. They cannot hear the difference between. And Veronia. There's a difference. And I. People don't hear it, and I'm like, I cannot explain to you, but there's a difference between. And maybe if you are now listening to you, like, that's the same. You said the same thing. I'm like, I did not.

25:12
Veronika Becher
And I feel like I had so many points that you just brought up, and I'm like, exploding.

25:17
Griffin McNasby
No, no, you're good.

25:18
Veronika Becher
And then last, I'll stop you at.

25:19
Griffin McNasby
The Russian point there, because I. I've been learning a little bit. You guys have, like, weird vowels, like, almost like diphthongs from, like, the Y.

25:27
Veronika Becher
Like.

25:27
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, you. Yeah, like that. Very difficult. I'll say that. It's very difficult.

25:35
Veronika Becher
But I also discovered about more the German accent. The reason why people. And that's just through my boyfriend learning right now German. Apparently our sound is different.

25:45
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, no, it's extremely different.

25:47
Veronika Becher
Because it's a back of the throat. Yes. And I think that's what makes us having a German accent. Most likely in the thunder. The like to pronounce words.

25:59
Griffin McNasby
Oh, wait, say, what is the th in German?

26:02
Veronika Becher
We just don't have that sound at all in our language. Yeah, a th sound is the same as in English. You don't have a here sound, like, my last name.

26:12
Griffin McNasby
No.

26:13
Veronika Becher
Yeah, there's not. It's not existing. But the same goes with the. Like, the th sound in English does not exist in German. So that's why people pronounce it as a Z. And that's how you have actually the accent that gets. Well, it's getting created for Germans.

26:29
Griffin McNasby
Okay.

26:29
Veronika Becher
Because when you were, like, mimicking the German accent, you would use the sounds instead of like, I can't even explain it. I'm the other person, too.

26:38
Griffin McNasby
Interesting.

26:40
Veronika Becher
And yeah, and that's, I think, what makes sometimes people confused about my accent. I think because it's a combination at this point.

26:48
Griffin McNasby
I think it's a lot of ignorance, too, to be honest. I don't think a lot of people Understand all the accents.

26:55
Veronika Becher
You know what I mean? And after a while, you will actually, the more you learn people and get to know them. Speaking of reels, this is super off topic.

27:04
Griffin McNasby
All right?

27:04
Veronika Becher
The more Instagram has this weird future, the more you actually like sometimes German memes. And if you're following me, I will tell you with a high percentage guarantee that you'll get German reels.

27:17
Griffin McNasby
I've seen many of the reels you've liked, Veronica.

27:20
Veronika Becher
I do too, actually.

27:21
Griffin McNasby
You see a lot of the ones I want. That's probably getting me in trouble.

27:24
Veronika Becher
And not only. Not only German ones, there are a lot of other reels.

27:30
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, I know. I've seen the ones you've been liking too, Veronica. Yeah, I know. No, I understand.

27:35
Veronika Becher
And I'm like. Sometimes I'm like, even pausing, and I'm like, should I.

27:38
Griffin McNasby
Even if you're gonna. If you're gonna mention it, you're going down with me. Like, this is a two way ship.

27:42
Veronika Becher
I know.

27:42
Griffin McNasby
We're sinking the ship. If we're on, if we're gonna talk.

27:44
Veronika Becher
About this right now, let's just fly.

27:46
Griffin McNasby
I think so.

27:47
Veronika Becher
I see. That's why you date an aerospace engineer.

27:51
Griffin McNasby
Where's my aerospace engineer?

27:54
Veronika Becher
There are two more guys single in that department.

27:57
Griffin McNasby
Oh, all right. I know what I'm doing after this podcast.

28:03
Veronika Becher
No, but because my. My Libyan friend is getting German reels, and he's like, what is happening? I don't even speak the language. You're not even sending it to me. But since knowing you, I have only German reels in my feet, and I'm like, this is just, you know, German humor, right?

28:20
Griffin McNasby
So great German humor. People don't get it known worldwide. Huh?

28:23
Veronika Becher
People don't get it. Like, German humor? No. A lot of times they're like, you have no humor. That's hysterical.

28:28
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, that's true.

28:30
Veronika Becher
But I don't think that's. I think it's just the issue. You can't translate it into.

28:34
Griffin McNasby
You guys are weird people. I'll be honest. You guys are very. You got to understand Germans to understand they're human. You know, I think they're. I. The thing is, I don't think there's cultures where there's not humor. Like, people say Germans are like, the least funny people in the world. I don't think that's necessarily true, but I think you really gotta understand Germans to understand their humor.

28:55
Veronika Becher
That's true.

28:56
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

28:57
Veronika Becher
We have so many movies, German movies, that I'm like, I cannot translate them. And you should not translate them because that makes no sense at all.

29:05
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

29:05
Veronika Becher
There were like so many hidden, like, read between the lines jokes that are just not translatable.

29:11
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

29:11
Veronika Becher
And. And then even words wise, it's just not funny.

29:14
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

29:15
Veronika Becher
And then I feel like that's like the thing I tell people. When you can actually make someone who's native speaker laugh, that means you actually mastered the language enough. Because humor is my goal.

29:27
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, I'm a little. Yeah, let's see.

29:29
Veronika Becher
Yeah, but humor is something that I think is a big indicator if you understand the other person's like. Well, sometimes people don't have a humor. A sense of humor at all. But we're not talking about the weird ones.

29:42
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, we're not talking about Germans right now.

29:46
Veronika Becher
Well, honestly, sometimes that is the case. When I moved here, I realized I actually don't understand American humor. It took me a while, really. I was like, how the heck should I go to a comedy show if I don't understand the humor at all? And there are just a lot of inside things that you just get to know when you live here. You can't get actually in the language when you're learning it in Germany. And then you get only British English as your first.

30:11
Griffin McNasby
Oh, gosh. You guys learned off of British English?

30:13
Veronika Becher
Yes.

30:13
Griffin McNasby
No, they're funny. The British are really funny. Like, have you watched Monty Python before?

30:18
Veronika Becher
No.

30:19
Griffin McNasby
Oh, dude, you got. All right, after this, you're watching Monty Python.

30:22
Veronika Becher
Honestly, I'm not a. I don't like the British English accent at all. I would never. I would not. Even if I have the choice between America, like the USA and Great Britain, I would not go to Great Britain.

30:37
Griffin McNasby
Oh, yeah, me too. I mean, it's just not living aside. Their accent is ridiculous. Right. And they're ridiculous people. But they have good humor. They do have good humor.

30:46
Veronika Becher
It's like a different sense of dark, dry humor that. It's a different level of German humor being amplified in English.

30:56
Griffin McNasby
No, actually for British.

30:58
Veronika Becher
Really, sometimes it is.

30:59
Griffin McNasby
Oh, no, I think the British are really funny. I think they. They've got. If you should watch Monty Python, should watch the Holy Grail and Life of Brian. Those are their two movies. Or you should watch some of their skits. I'm going to. I'm going to send you some after.

31:10
Veronika Becher
What is this?

31:10
Griffin McNasby
I don't think you've seen the right.

31:11
Veronika Becher
What is this new movie that just came out? Oh, I don't want to swear on the podcast and having the wrong name too, but it starts with. And ends with him. Like, what? Wait, I'm like looking it actually up.

31:28
Griffin McNasby
Because if you show me and it has a swear word, I'm like, I'm. I am going to say it.

31:34
Veronika Becher
No, I mean, I think it's. It's called Fuck him Whole. They like created.

31:44
Griffin McNasby
Oh, I get it.

31:45
Veronika Becher
And it's the weirdest dog humor I've encountered in the movie in a while. But the only thing that made me really proud of myself was I was able to watch the whole movie. I did not need any subtitles and I understood all the humor and I felt really bad because it was some inappropriate humor.

32:05
Griffin McNasby
It's like you are turning 24 this year, Veronica. I think it's okay to. Don't tell me that inappropriate humor. I mean, we're both adults.

32:13
Veronika Becher
No, but I'm like, huh? You're telling me like I'm old. I'm not that old. But I do think learning languages is easier when you're younger.

32:22
Griffin McNasby
You think so? I didn't start when I was young. I don't think so.

32:26
Veronika Becher
But I think the earlier you're exposed to a different language, the easier it gets than when you're actually much older. And then you have to adapt and learn new languages. I don't know.

32:39
Griffin McNasby
I think it depends. I think if you understand how to properly learn a language. My biggest gripe nowadays is that nobody like who wants to learn a language for the most part goes about it the right way. People. People use duolingo a lot. Dude, I hate. I hate duolingo. I think it is one of the worst tools you can use if you want to learn language. I don't think it helps you.

33:02
Veronika Becher
What would you do?

33:03
Griffin McNasby
Like what would I do?

33:04
Veronika Becher
Imagine I would like to learn now. I don't know Japanese yet. The example, what should I do?

33:11
Griffin McNasby
I tell everybody person the same thing is you go and you get yourself a tutor. I think it is the most important thing. And you can use preply. That's a good site I've used that. I've taught on it. I don't get any money for saying that. But I think it's a good tool so I'm going to shout it out. I think hiring a tutor is one of the most important things in like language learning journey. Because you need to have someone to communicate back and forth with. You need like immediate feedback. They can give you structure, they can give you context, they can give you a plan to learn. They can give you all the tools you need. Right? If you don't have any idea, like I don't have anything in my life that will help me learn Russian. Really?

33:50
Griffin McNasby
I don't have anybody that's. I have very few people that are Russian or speak Russian that are my, like, in my vicinity. But if I hire this dude for $8 an hour, right, on this website, he lived in Russia, right? He's got all the contacts. He's got 24 years in the language, his native language, right. He understands the whole system, and he can guide me through it, right? So I think what first thing you do is you get a tutor, right? Try and do a lesson a week, two lessons a week. Even if it's hard, even if it's like, oh, my gosh, man, maybe I didn't do my homework, maybe I didn't do my vocab. Whatever. Keep it in your life, right? You need to do it constantly because it's a gradual thing.

34:29
Griffin McNasby
It's hard to say, like, oh, man, I started Russian last month and now I speak Russian. It's never going to be like that, right? You need a lot of time in a language. So that's the first thing I think you need to get consistent lessons with the tutor. Second, I think you need vocabulary, right? So flashcards, I think it's really important because you need to build a base of understanding. If you don't know enough words, you can't speak properly. It's a problem I'm having right now. I'm not devoting enough time to learning vocab in Russian, right. So I'm struggling with that. Third, I think you need to surround yourself with the language, right? Get on websites, watch videos on YouTube, watch videos on Instagram, listen to music. That's a big one. I really love music in other languages.

35:11
Griffin McNasby
If you get all of these different sources of the language feeding into you, then that will help speed up your journey. And I think it's. You need to understand that it's a long process if you want to get good. I don't think there's like a. Unless you go to maybe like an immersion school, a realistic way to get good because. Right. Because we have jobs, most of us, we have school, we have priorities in our life. And if we want to devote ourselves to a goal, you got to understand that it's going to take a while and those things will help you. So tutor, vocab, immersion. I think those are the three things.

35:45
Veronika Becher
I feel like that's really helpful for the merger part. I've also heard people switching their phone settings to a different language, like completely having everything in a different language. Yeah, I mean, that's really helpful. I actually discovered something new that I've been doing. What is maybe strange to some people, but I drink a lot of tea and some of the tea. Tea cans. I mean even in the United States they have random like wisdom of the day things on the like little paper that you have on the tea bag. And what is really interesting, you can learn through that new words.

36:21
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, absolutely.

36:22
Veronika Becher
So my boyfriend would like read it. I'm like read it in German. And then we would dissect the random one sentence into like breaking it down. What the sentence means in learning new words for that. Or what also helps in my opinion is learning words that you're interested about learning in a different language. So the first words he actually ever learned. What's the most strange, like random things? It's everything that's surrounding Hobbit. He really likes Hobbit. And I would teach him what like, like magician or like saba trunk. What is super strange? Like at first because he's like, when will you use these words? Yeah, but honestly that helps. And verbs. I think that's like the big thing. You might hate it, but verbs are helpful to. Because it will make you actually. Yeah, they all look the same. But the only.

37:17
Veronika Becher
Yes, but the only difference, I think what Russian helps you. Like if someone out there is trying to learn Russian. Russian has this good quality that you can actually put words in any order in theory and people will still understand you. You don't have this in other languages that I've seen so far because you can say I'm going somewhere or somewhere I'm going. Or you could still like, you could still understand. But in Russian it's like more clearly like if there's like. If you start dissecting it, you will notice that people will probably still understand you. Even if you wrongly conjugate a word. They would just notice that you're not a native speaker. But somehow you will still manage to get around. In German that changes sometimes completely the meaning of the word. Because verbs are just completely then different words.

38:06
Veronika Becher
And that's really confusing.

38:07
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, German's a confusing one.

38:11
Veronika Becher
Yeah, it is. And it's even confusing sometimes to me. Like, especially with like articles people are like, what is happening? Yeah, why there are articles? Like there's. And they don't even follow rule. It's like, why is a girl in neutral article? It's not masculine or feminine. It's just in the middle.

38:31
Griffin McNasby
So people who complain about the Spanish feminine and masculine. Once you start learning German, you Understand, There's a whole lot more. Whole lot more. I would say start with Spanish for everybody, though, if you're thinking of another language. What do you think about that?

38:46
Veronika Becher
Honestly, I think the same. If you. An English speaker, start with Spanish.

38:50
Griffin McNasby
It's the easiest language.

38:52
Veronika Becher
You're gonna laugh. I've never learned Spanish in my whole life, and I regret that I never had the opportunity in school. But also, I went abroad when people started learning it in school. The German system is set up that you will probably graduate with a minimum of three languages. Probably sometimes four or five.

39:11
Griffin McNasby
A minimum of three? That's crazy.

39:13
Veronika Becher
Meaning. So, I mean, including your native language. So it's like German, English, and French. Because we started in, like, seventh. Yeah, in, like, seventh grade, you have the choice, at least in my school, between Latin and French. And I was like, I'm gonna do French because French is just a language you can actually use.

39:34
Griffin McNasby
Applicable. Yeah.

39:35
Veronika Becher
Yeah.

39:35
Griffin McNasby
As a Catholic, I'm even. I don't understand why people choose to learn Latin.

39:40
Veronika Becher
It makes sense for certain. Certain studies. Like, if you're doing, like, history or you're doing philosophy. There's so much Latin I have to pick up where I'm like, it will be helpful, actually. Will be really helpful because. Or linguistics, like, just studies on linguistic is really helpful to know Latin because you can, like, derive a lot of words back to their origin. And there are so many overlaps and languages, too, with that.

40:06
Griffin McNasby
100%. Yeah. I can understand some of the Latin from, like, a mix of Portuguese and Spanish.

40:12
Veronika Becher
So. Yeah. And that's just. And I think, like, then you go on and you can add Spanish. You've been having English probably since fifth grade, but you just. Maybe even elementary school.

40:26
Griffin McNasby
Really?

40:26
Veronika Becher
People learn really early on, but it takes time. That's what you meant. Yeah, People think, oh, but you've learned it for, like, almost your whole life. I'm like, yeah, but it's not that easy because you don't have anyone who speaks the language with you fluently all the time. Or you do slender vocabulary. That's what happens to me, at least. And then you forget it. And by the time you actually need to use it, you're like, oh, I don't know what that word means. So that's practice. And then the more you, like, use it, the easier it gets. So that's just my, like, advice. And then you can add another language sometimes Italian or Russian or Chinese. It depends on the school.

41:04
Griffin McNasby
Italian or Russian or Chinese. So.

41:06
Veronika Becher
Yes.

41:06
Griffin McNasby
Jump.

41:07
Veronika Becher
Yeah, but that's, like, the options.

41:08
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

41:10
Veronika Becher
And so that's just up to you what you want to make out of it. I just decided not to do it because I just feel like languages take a lot of time and I end up more focusing on the stem side. But I already had Russian, so I was like, okay. I think that's just three languages is still a good amount. And then it helps you a lot understand certain languages without actually understanding them fully. But it's a good basis. And I think if you're an English speaker, French or Spanish would be a good way of learning a new language because they're similar and in the same sometimes like, bracket. But Spanish makes the most sense just because you have a lot of Spanish speakers here. And it's.

41:51
Veronika Becher
If you do travel, you'll most likely travel to a Spanish speaking country rather than to Europe all the time. I feel like that's what I've been seeing. Or you have these like huge Spanish communities. Of course, it depends what state you're living in.

42:04
Griffin McNasby
Spanish is their second language of the U.S. i mean.

42:06
Veronika Becher
Yeah. And I think Spanish should be a way to go.

42:09
Griffin McNasby
Absolutely.

42:10
Veronika Becher
Unless you hate it.

42:11
Griffin McNasby
Yeah. So I, my suggestion would be see what culture is around you. Right. Like if your family is from, I don't know, Iran. Right. Or Russia. I would say first learn what's like, closest to you because you're gonna have other influences that will help you in that language. Right. Instead of just saying like, you know, do I really care about Spanish? No, but it's probably the most applicable. That's not going to help you. I don't think. I don't think you can learn a language you really don't want to learn or at least you really don't have that much interest in. What do you think about that?

42:41
Veronika Becher
I think I agree with you, actually, now that you're mentioning it, like from a logical standpoint, Spanish makes sense.

42:47
Griffin McNasby
It makes sense. Yeah.

42:48
Veronika Becher
And maybe that's also like level wise easier not saying that's going to be easy at all. It just easier because it's in the same group and you have similar sounds. What will help you expand if it's your first second language, at least the basis. But then if you're not interested in the culture at all, you don't want to watch movies or reels or anything else, you will just hate it.

43:09
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

43:10
Veronika Becher
Like, that's how I feel right now with French. I love French. But there are a lot of things that just at this point in my life where I'm like, I don't feel as passionate As I used to. I used to love French language more than actually English. And I would like learn it because I loved being like emerged in that field and I would listen to music and do all kinds of things. But now I'm like, I think I would learn, for instance, Japanese for the sake of the culture like I grew up in. It's called Little Tokyo. Dusseldorf in Germany has this huge street of just Japanese people. There's so many Japanese people. My childhood best friend was South Japanese. So there was so much influence.

43:49
Veronika Becher
And I like, even through, I don't know, anime or like a lot of like influence right now coming in. There's. I watch almost all movies even though with subtitles, like Studio Ghibli movies in Japanese. I like the way things are pronounced in Japanese rather than in English when there's like a dub on top of it and it just feels more authentic and it's softer. The language is softer. That's how I perceive it at least than English is. And so that's the interesting thing. When you know several languages, you can pivot. I actually watch a lot of movies in Russian. If the language is actually closer, like softness wise. And people think that Russian is harsh. But I would not say that Russian is a harsh language. It's softer in certain pronunciations, at least for me.

44:36
Griffin McNasby
Well, people say German is angry language, which I don't agree with.

44:40
Veronika Becher
I don't agree with completely. I think it depends also what region you're from.

44:44
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, yeah, of course.

44:45
Veronika Becher
Like Bavaria, more the southern part. They have this like. They roll the R. What is something you would think a Russian would do. But actually I discovered that's the thing they do in that region. And it's much harsher. Then like mid Germany is also like more harsh. And sometimes their accents I don't even understand.

45:03
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

45:04
Veronika Becher
But then the south, where I study, where you're gonna go, it's Schwabenland. Like, that's a completely different accent.

45:11
Griffin McNasby
Oh my. I've heard it before.

45:14
Veronika Becher
Something. It's something. And. And I liked my region just be coming from the western side. Notremesfahn. What? It was really helpful because people don't really have much an accent. It's pretty clean. And people make fun of us because we don't have an accent. Not from Roilingen, I'm not.

45:33
Griffin McNasby
What's your original city?

45:34
Veronika Becher
Actually like Dusseldorf area.

45:36
Griffin McNasby
Okay.

45:37
Veronika Becher
So I moved down to the south just for studies.

45:40
Griffin McNasby
Okay.

45:41
Veronika Becher
And I like the region a lot. I like, appreciate so much Stuttgart and like the area, it's Like a big valley.

45:49
Griffin McNasby
Okay.

45:49
Veronika Becher
But I love. I don't know, there's just something about being on top of a hill and seeing the whole city glow in, like, the dark.

45:56
Griffin McNasby
That's pretty cool. Yeah. I can't wait. I'm really excited to go and just.

45:59
Veronika Becher
Taking, like, a train up the hill or like. Like an air train, you know, like in the sky. Like a sky train. Have you seen them before?

46:08
Griffin McNasby
A sky train?

46:09
Veronika Becher
Yeah, Yeah.

46:10
Griffin McNasby
I mean, I think. I think I do.

46:12
Veronika Becher
Yeah. The ones that are, like, not on the ground, but actually, like.

46:15
Griffin McNasby
I want to say carousel, but it's not a carousel.

46:17
Veronika Becher
They actually are called sky trains, I think.

46:19
Griffin McNasby
Sky trains. Yeah.

46:20
Veronika Becher
Yeah. Or like, it depends where you live. I think people call differently.

46:23
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

46:23
Veronika Becher
But there's, like, one. And you see, like, everything outside.

46:26
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

46:27
Veronika Becher
And it's just beautiful, in my opinion. And even Rattling has so many, like, hills where you can, like, climb on top and you see everything. You will definitely climb them.

46:36
Griffin McNasby
Oh, yeah. I'm telling you, I'm gonna do a lot of nature stuff I really like.

46:40
Veronika Becher
That's. That's a nice area. But, yeah, I think it helps emerging yourself of the language and loving what you're learning. Yeah. And not being scared of all these facts of. It takes so many hours to learn a certain language.

46:54
Griffin McNasby
It takes a lot of time, but you gotta understand. It's so worth it. Can you. Can you talk about that for a second?

47:01
Veronika Becher
How difficult.

47:02
Griffin McNasby
No. How much have you gained, do you think, from speaking all these other languages? I think it has incredibly benefited my life. I think it's benefited my life a lot.

47:13
Veronika Becher
I think the way you think changes through the way you speak different languages. There are certain words or certain word reviews that you cannot fully. I wouldn't say, comprehend because it sounds like you're dumb if you're only speaking one language. But that's not what I'm trying to say. There's just. If there's a word you can't translate, I like to bring this example. I forgot, like, what language it is. They have several, like, I think 20 of or 50 different words for snow.

47:45
Griffin McNasby
As the Inuits.

47:47
Veronika Becher
Yes. Thank you. We don't have that.

47:50
Griffin McNasby
No.

47:51
Veronika Becher
But how do you. You can't translate something like that into a different language. But the way you perceive snow changes completely through language.

48:00
Griffin McNasby
Is that right?

48:01
Veronika Becher
Yeah.

48:02
Griffin McNasby
Okay.

48:03
Veronika Becher
Because the way you perceive an object having several words is different. The way you approach even, like, slang and culture is different.

48:12
Griffin McNasby
I've heard that too. With color. With, like, being able to distinguish colors. Like, there was. There were Studies done with different peoples where they would show like 10 little dots of color and one would be a slightly different shade. And I think there was a African tribe, I forget which one. And they were able to distinguish the different, like green tint faster, like considerably faster than anybody else. I think there's another one with blues and stuff. But like, that's a cold. That's a cultural thing too. That might be due to like hunting or something like that. But it's, you know, it's those little things. Like you wouldn't think that too.

48:48
Veronika Becher
That's fascinating. I, I think learning language is something people should do. And I think it's such a shame that American systems kind of drop it. I think after like couple of classes, people take it maybe in high school and maybe they try to pick it up and like, I don't know, in college I think it should be more mandatory.

49:07
Griffin McNasby
So I don't know with that because I think it's really good for you to do. And I think that's with a lot of things. Like, you know, if you go to be an engineer, it's the same thing. Do you really need to take a psychology class? I mean like I'm gonna be a, I'm a marketing major. Right. But do I need to take, I don't know, English 101? Not necessarily. But I think it does make you smarter overall and I think it maybe broadens your worldview. But also being in America, I think changes things. So I think the way that Europeans look where it's, you know, I go, I take a two hour train ride.

49:41
Griffin McNasby
I've passed through three countries, I can take a six hour train ride in the state and be in the state like at the end of the day, you know what I mean? I think it's a lot less pertinent for Americans to do. What do you think about that?

49:52
Veronika Becher
But then I think it makes a big difference, at least from my experience when I meet Americans, if they've been traveling to different countries or speak a different language, it's a completely different type of person I meet without trying to put people into boxes, what I do right now. But people do fall out of the stereotype. But there's just something about being more open, more interested in other cultures and having, oh, something that makes me so mad is this like thing that people say here. It's like, oh, we're just dumb. We don't speak a different language, we're just dumb. Americans are not dumb. I just want to like, put this down. And I'm saying this as a German, Americans are not dumb. I met so many great people that are super smart here. And I would not say people are dumb.

50:36
Veronika Becher
But I think sometimes your system, your school system doesn't support a lot of people that like the way you learn languages is just not the way we do. Like, if you're saying you need two hours to take a train and be in a different city or a different country, you will more likely learn the language because you're more exposed to people that speak that language. If you and your little bubble of only English speaking, like people, I think it's much more difficult to pick up a language or there's. Or even like a pre notion of saying, we cannot learn a different language because we're American, we're dumb, we like, can't speak a different language. I think that's just you stopping yourself from doing something and finding an excuse because you being American does not dictate you not being able to speak a different language.

51:19
Veronika Becher
And you're the example.

51:21
Griffin McNasby
I think. I think we. We can learn other languages. I think people often say that we don't need to. I think that's what my dad says sometimes. Honestly, he's like, why don't. You know, I don't. I've lived in America my whole life. Do I really need to learn another language? I don't think he does. I think there's a lot of people, I think that might go for most people in the world not talking first World, not talking Europeans, whatever. I went down to Brazil in May. I think less than 1% of those people speak another language. It's ridiculous. You look at Americans and how multilingual they are, and then you look at Brazilians. Brazilians are much less multilingual. Like, I went to a place called Salvador, which is. And I stay with my. My friend and his parents. They're great, amazing people.

52:05
Griffin McNasby
And he is extremely smart person. He's studying medicine here. His parents don't speak a lick of English. They've been here many times. They've spent probably cumulative. Cumulatively over a year in the US at least. And they don't speak a lick of English. Right. You know, why is that? Is that on the Brazilian system now? Now, some, obviously people in Brazil are extremely educated, speak many languages. But I think people look at Americans and say, all right, you're a first world country. You know, you guys aren't as multilingual as, say, like, Europe. Right? How multilingual is Australia? I don't know, throwing that out there, how multilingual is Japan?

52:44
Griffin McNasby
I think we need to do more comparisons because I think you guys, as Europeans, it's hard to say, like, you know, Americans don't speak that many languages when it's like, as in Europe, you're so packed together, how can you not.

52:55
Veronika Becher
But then on the other hand, not all Europeans speak so many languages either. That's like a. Yeah, that's true.

53:00
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

53:00
Veronika Becher
And that's something you've been noticing. And we also talked about how people are willing to learn a different language or accept people that try to speak their language, but they, like, block it off completely. I think that's also a big indicator if it would be helpful or not to learn the language. Like, if you like the thing that Germans do. And I actually sometimes don't like it. Whenever an American person is trying to talk to you in their native language, they switch to English.

53:26
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, yeah.

53:26
Veronika Becher
And that prevents you from learning a language what is really difficult. And I think that prevents others to learn. But you need a lot of patience. And so maybe, like, maybe don't force then learning a language onto someone. But I think one thing I would love to see in Americans more, it's the interest in cultures. 100 An interest in understanding people. Because you're saying, like, maybe, oh, I'm never leaving. Like you said, your dad is like, oh, I'm never leaving the United States. Like, why? Well, we.

53:56
Griffin McNasby
He has left, by the way. I should say that he just doesn't view it as, like, the most important thing for him to do. He doesn't have an interest in it.

54:01
Veronika Becher
And. And that's fine. And that's like, okay. And I understand that. And I'm not like, I'm learning a different language, right. To communicate with you guys, but there's something about you. Like, for instance, in business, so many people right now are working with people overseas. You understanding language or specific percentage of, like, culture. Understanding helps you understand the person, communicate better and be also a more effective leader. And I think that has a big impact on your daily life because I don't think we can think anymore. Like, in countries, it's going to be much more broad. And I see the world becoming a network more and more over these next years.

54:41
Griffin McNasby
It has been, it's been becoming that. And I'll say this. I'm obviously studying international business. Right. I'm someone who speaks or at least trying to five languages. Right. So I'm obviously not in this bubble I'm talking about, but I'm. I'm Speaking from a broad perspective that most people, I think, in general, don't speak more than one language. And some people don't. Right. If you're a construction worker, right, indiana, what do you need to learn German? What do you need to learn Spanish for? Maybe Spanish. Maybe Spanish might be more helpful.

55:10
Veronika Becher
Right.

55:10
Griffin McNasby
But maybe. Maybe it sounds important. I think it is. More. It is very beneficial to you, though, even if you say, like, is this gonna, like, better myself? Like, maybe professionally. Right. Maybe it won't. Maybe learning another language won't benefit you professionally. But I think, like you said, it will expand your mindset. It will make you more culturally aware. I think it makes you more interesting person too, and it expands your. Your worldview to so many other cultures, and you get to learn so many other cool things that you would never have learned before. I think that's a really cool part. So, yeah, as much as I play devil's advocate, I. I obviously do like learning languages.

55:51
Veronika Becher
No. But I actually don't.

55:53
Griffin McNasby
You don't?

55:54
Veronika Becher
But it's really random. I. I don't find joy in that process. I love talking and speaking that language, but not the process of learning. It just sometimes makes me really frustrated because, like, you get to a certain point in grammar and you're like, oh, my gosh, I have no clue what is happening right now.

56:10
Griffin McNasby
It's frustrating. Absolutely.

56:11
Veronika Becher
And it just takes me a while. And there's just so many components to speaking and reading. And a lot of people I know, they can read well or listen to the language, but they can't speak. And that's what you brought up with. Having a tutor is helpful.

56:26
Griffin McNasby
That's what I think is the most important thing you can do.

56:29
Veronika Becher
Something that our German university used to do is coffee chats with a native speaker.

56:33
Griffin McNasby
Oh, I remember those.

56:34
Veronika Becher
Yeah, you can sign up. And so my roommate was learning Chinese. She's fluent in Chinese right now.

56:41
Griffin McNasby
That's awesome.

56:41
Veronika Becher
And she picked up herself. She's another person who's like, no background in any languages, but she speaks five fluently right now. And she decided to speak or learn, like, Chinese. And she had her, like, coffee chat partner who was living in China, and they would in. Her partner would learn English at the same time in German. And so they would speak in all languages. And trying to, like, learn from each other was really interesting. I wish, like, our university would offer classes in languages without actually, first of all, it should be cheaper.

57:18
Griffin McNasby
That's another topic.

57:19
Veronika Becher
That's another topic.

57:20
Griffin McNasby
Invite me back on for politics and we can do.

57:22
Veronika Becher
Yes, yes. And then the other thing, something that you. I don't know if you're able to take the class without getting any credit for it, but sometimes what I'm thinking about what might encourage people to learn it. Maybe some people need it. They need the exams and the tests in order to like improve and actually do something for the, like the class. But a lot of times I'm like, I want to pick up the language but I don't want to feel pressured of getting a C in that class.

57:51
Griffin McNasby
I don't think the university method is the most efficient way, if I'm being honest. I don't think the high schools are either. I think it's also hard to teach a class of 30 people how to speak a language as opposed to one one too.

58:06
Veronika Becher
There's a local high school here in Raleigh that invites German speakers every year for this event. It's like a full day where they find actual German speakers that are living in the Triangle area. And what we would do is we would talk to the students in German, really practice their speaking skills. And I've done once by speaking to actually a native speaker.

58:29
Griffin McNasby
Yeah.

58:30
Veronika Becher
And you wouldn't like, you will learn there's so many people here living that are actually native speakers that moved here in the 80s on 70s, not even exaggerating really like much older people and they like been living here because of their spouse or whatever. And maybe they're not even together anymore, but they still live here.

58:47
Griffin McNasby
Okay.

58:48
Veronika Becher
Wow. So really interesting community that there's out there. But I feel like we kind of, went everywhere.

58:55
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, yeah.

58:56
Veronika Becher
But something I'm like, is there something you would like the listeners to remember? Something to just last words that you want to like share about language learning? Any advice? I know you've shared a lot of advice already, but something else that you like to just throw out there.

59:15
Griffin McNasby
I'd say it, I say two parter, right. If you have been thinking about starting a language, I think you should just dive into it. Don't think about your work, don't think about your other responsibilities. Right. Just try it. Right. An hour or two a week, you know, you can fit it in. I fit it in after 10 hour shifts. I fit it in after 16 hour work days. You know, I say start it and then whether you've started it or you're on that path, just stay resilient, keep it up, you know, understand that it's a process. It's not a, it's not something that you really get tangible results from.

01:00:03
Griffin McNasby
But in the long run, whether that's six months, nine months, a year, two years down the line, you will see results, and you will be thankful that you have done it, because I think it really does make your life better.

01:00:16
Veronika Becher
Thank you. I appreciate that. That's a good one. And I loved having you on the podcast because it was just. I don't know, it was one hour, and it's just.

01:00:25
Griffin McNasby
Yeah, man, it flew by.

01:00:26
Veronika Becher
Flew by, and I loved it. I just. It makes me so happy when people learn your own language. But also, it's fascinating. You're learning two of the languages I speak, so that's. Yes. And. And I'm really happy. And I hope if someone is listening to this podcast and it's like, I want to pick up a language, I hope this motivated you to do that, because I don't think there's a right time to do it.

01:00:49
Griffin McNasby
There's never a right time.

01:00:50
Veronika Becher
You should just do it. It's the same as going through everything else.

01:00:53
Griffin McNasby
Everything else?

01:00:54
Veronika Becher
Anything else where you, like, got to make time one time, one day. No, no. Just do it. So thank you so much for being on the podcast.

01:01:02
Griffin McNasby
Thanks for having me.

01:01:03
Veronika Becher
I wish everyone a wonderful weekend, and I will see you next episode. Bye. Bye.