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Shae grew up in the Arizona desert, where school offered two language options and most classmates saw no reason to learn either. She picked Latin at a school that rarely offered it, fell in love with Rome on a study abroad semester, and years later built a life in Bologna, where waiters still look shocked when the American at the table starts asking questions in Italian. In this episode of Connected By Language, the content creator behind the Shae Jordan YouTube channel opens up about the force that has shaped her entire journey: perfectionism, and the fear of making mistakes that she says has held her back more than any grammar ever could.

The conversation covers how she built immersion from thousands of miles away, starting with Peppa Pig because Netflix was too hard, why exchanging audio messages with a girl from Modena became her best speaking practice, and the discovery that surprised her most: coming back from a months-long break to find her Italian had actually improved. She also shares the bittersweet story of tracing her great-grandparents to a small mountain town in Lazio, only for Italy’s new citizenship rules to close that door, and why learning the language has become her way of bringing the heritage back into the family.

About the guest: https://www.youtube.com/c/sheajordan

What is Tandem - Language exchange?

Tandem is a global language exchange app on a mission to connect the world through languages. Members build confidence and improve their language skills through real life conversations with native speakers in 1:1 chats or live audio rooms.

🔗 Connect With Us: https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App

0:00 Intro

0:41 Latin, Spanish, and the Language She Actually Wanted

21:29 Fluent and Unconvinced

33:55 The Environment You Have to Build Yourself

38:24 What Would Have to Change for Her to Believe It

🌟 What topics/language should we explore on the next episode of the new tandem podcast? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks for watching Connected By Language: Polyglot Interviews, the new Tandem Language Exchange Podcast.

🇩🇪 JOIN TANDEM DEUTSCHCONNECT: invite.tandem.net/DCV-37-NK4D

Evgeniya knew at five years old that she wanted to teach languages, fell for German through Rammstein songs, and arrived in Germany to discover that the language she'd studied at university was not the one people actually spoke. Fifteen years of teaching later, from classrooms in Moscow to a multicultural au pair household where German, Spanish, and English mixed at the dinner table, she has seen every kind of learner, and one pattern keeps repeating: people pass their B1 or B2 exams and still cannot bring themselves to speak.

That gap is exactly what DeutschConnect was built for. In this special episode of Connected By Language, we go inside Tandem's EU-funded project supporting migrants in Germany: free live audio rooms called language parties, where learners practice speaking German in a safe space, no sign-up for classes, no grammar drills, just conversation guided by qualified tutors like Evgeniya. She shares what actually happens inside these rooms, from shy listeners sending emojis to a proverb that turned out to exist in nearly every language on Earth, and why her advice for first-timers is simply: don't be so shy. Find the invite code in the description to join, plus 90 days of Tandem Pro for free.

About the guest: https://app.tandem.net/community/MzAwNDI0MTU%3D

What is Tandem - Language exchange?

Tandem is a global language exchange app on a mission to connect the world through languages. Members build confidence and improve their language skills through real life conversations with native speakers in 1:1 chats or live audio rooms.

🔗 Connect With Us: https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App

0:00 Intro

3:32 The Teacher Who Became the Student Again

12:24 What is Tandem DeutschConnect?

29:34 Everyone in One Room

50:36 Fifteen Years of Watching Who Arrives

🌟 What topics/language should we explore on the next episode of the new tandem podcast? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks for watching Connected By Language: Polyglot Interviews, the new Tandem Language Exchange Podcast.

🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH

Most people fall in love with a language and then find reasons to learn it. Veronica does the opposite. Before a single flashcard, the 21-year-old from Hong Kong runs the numbers: what career does it unlock, where is the market, how hard is it, and what's the payoff at the end. If a language doesn't pass the test, it doesn't get her time. In this episode of Connected By Language, she opens up the framework that made her choose French over every other option, and explains why in Hong Kong, a language certificate can be the line on your CV that gets you into a Japanese company.

But then Berlin happened. Somewhere between a street interview where a French girl answered "what's the most romantic sentence in your language" with a single word, and trading Cantonese for Spanish with her internship partner on the way to film shoots, the spreadsheet met something it couldn't measure. Veronica still swears by her system. She just knows now that you don't need an exam, a certificate, or fluency to let a language change you.

About the guest: [coming soon]

What is Tandem - Language exchange?

Tandem is a global language exchange app on a mission to connect the world through languages. Members build confidence and improve their language skills through real life conversations with native speakers in 1:1 chats or live audio rooms.

🔗 Connect With Us: https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App

0:00 Intro

3:39 Growing Up With a Framework

15:56 Languages as an Investment

31:01 When the Framework Was Not Enough

37:14 What Calculation Cannot Give

🌟 What topics/language should we explore on the next episode of the new tandem podcast? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks for watching Connected By Language: Polyglot Interviews, the new Tandem Language Exchange Podcast.