StoryLearning Podcast

👉Get Your Free Guide with Pedro's 9 Best Fluency Tips : https://l.storylearning.com/Pedro

In this episode, I talk to Pedro from the Languages Pedro YouTube channel, a 23 year old polyglot who speaks 9 languages. What's his secret? And how well does he really speak all these languages?

More from today's guest:

📺 Languages Pedro YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@languagespedro

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👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

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In this episode, I'm going to go rapid fire through questions on speaking your new language, because a lot of people are asking me about freezing up, people switching to English or being shy and anxious.

These are real problems. What's interesting is that most of them aren't linguistic problems. They're not about learning the language. They're about use of the language. And the thing about using a foreign language is that it involves people.

When it comes to people, we all have all different kinds of struggles, from social anxiety to shyness, to self-imposed pressure. So we're going to get into how to fix that in this episode.

Mentioned in this episode:

🤖 AI tutoring from Langua: https://l.storylearning.com/langua-ai

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

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👉 Grab your FREE Guide, How to Read in Any Language: https://l.storylearning.com/reading-guide

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How do you read in a foreign language if you cannot read the alphabet or the script yet? How can you read if you can't actually read, if you see what I mean?

If you've spent more than 10 seconds in my world, you will have heard me drone on and on and on about the power of reading for language learning.

But how do you actually do that if you are learning a language where the script is different? I'm going to talk you through how to deal with different alphabets and scripts this in this video.

Because the short answer here is, yes, we still want to read from the beginning, but you do have to make a few adaptations depending on the language that you are learning.

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

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👉 Grab your FREE Binge-Worthy Resources for Fluency: https://l.storylearning.com/free.fluency

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I'm lazy, I'm bored, I'm not motivated, studying is so hard, I don't have an hour a day to study. These are all things that I, at various points in my life, have told myself about language learning.

And as a result, I end up not doing any study. And it's a real shame because in order to get good at a language, you do actually have to sit down and study.

But there is a trick that I have found to get me to study that's almost embarrassingly simple. And I'm going to dedicate this entire video to this one trick.

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

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👉 Grab your FREE Guide, How to Read in Any Language: https://l.storylearning.com/read_guide

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A listener wrote to me frustrated that, although he’s at B2 level, he keeps using the same vocabulary over and over again when he speaks. This is a common problem - even in our native language, we understand twice as many words as we actually use. Extraordinarily articulate people, with a wide vocabulary, stand out because most of us just use the same words all the time. So what is it that those people do differently and how can we apply that to language learning?

Mentioned in this episode: 👉 Olly demonstrating reverse translation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VXmDiBfzwA

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

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👉 Grab your FREE Language Goal Planner: https://l.storylearning.com/goals_2026

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I released a video on how I would learn Spanish again in 2026 if I was going to start over. When I first learned it, I was immersed - I was living in London and had Spanish friends. Someone left a comment saying - people with lives don't have two years to immerse themselves, how are people supposed to replicate that with one hour a day? The truth is, although it would be ideal, you don't need full immersion to learn a language. In this episode, I'm going to show you how can replicate my immersion experience in one hour a day of focused study.

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info#storylearning #learnthroughstories

👉 Grab your FREE Guide, Lamont’s 8 Best Language Learning Tips: https://l.storylearning.com/lamont_tips

👉 Sign up now for the StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/SL.app.2026

In this episode, I’m delighted to be joined for a second time by Lamont McLeod from the Days and Words YouTube channel.

We talk about getting over hurdles in language learning, our appreciation of language as an art-form, the Australian Military Linguist Test, accountability practices, Lamont’s take on AI and more.

In just under an hour, we pretty much solve language learning!

More from today’s guest:

💬 Our first interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaeMO_Xyby4

📺 Lamont’s YouTube Channel, Days and Words: https://www.youtube.com/@daysandwords

🗣️ Lamont’s Spanish accountability channel: https://www.youtube.com/@lamontespanol/

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

#storylearning #learnthroughstories

👉 Take your FREE Level Test: https://l.storylearning.com/language_test

👉 Sign up now for the StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/SL.app

How fluent do you have to be in a second language before moving on to a third language? How do you know when is the right time? Do you risk forgetting the language you are currently learning or not?

This is the most common question I've ever received on the podcast - Can I learn two languages at once? And if not, when's the right time to learn another language?

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info#storylearning #learnthroughstories

👉 Grab your FREE Binge-Worthy Resources for Fluency: https://l.storylearning.com/fluency.resources

👉 Sign up now for the StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/SL-app

Struggling to understand TV in your new language? Today’s questioner, Lisa, has the same problem. She speaks French and Italian at a decent level but still finds TV tricky. She told me that sometimes she just wants to collapse in front of the telly.

And this is what trips people up when they're trying to learn a foreign language by watching TV. Most of us associate TV with just zoning out. But in order to get good at anything, you have to be able to focus and concentrate.

There are a couple of parts to this dilemma. First is understanding what type of TV you're watching. And then second is actual techniques for getting better and for learning. So let’s get into it.

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

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👉Grab your FREE Guide, How to Read in Any Language: https://l.storylearning.com/reading_guide

👉 Sign up now for the StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/SL_app

I’ve had a lot of questions come in about different ways to learn vocabulary from reading and the best books to use if you want to read to learn a language.

I do quite a lot of episodes on reading and this is going to be a rapid fire one. I'm going to very quickly go through a bunch of different types of books that you can read and tell you if they're helpful or not.

Mentioned in this episode:

📖 My 101 Conversations books: https://l.storylearning.com/books

🎓 Sangers, N.L., van der Sande, L., Welie, C. et al. Learning a Language Through Reading: A Meta-analysis of Studies on the Effects of Extensive Reading on Second and Foreign Language Learning. Educ Psychol Rev 37, 96 (2025). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-025-10068-6

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

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👉 Grab your FREE Guide, Xiaoma’s 7 Best Tips for Learning Any Language: https://l.storylearning.com/xiaoma

Today's guest, Xiaoma NYC, a.k.a Arieh Smith, probably needs no introduction. He first came on the podcast in 2020, so it's high time we caught up with him. He's been busy since then, managing to learn 70 languages. So how did he do it?

Links mentioned in this episode:

Arieh’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@xiaomanyc

Teacher AI: https://yourteacher.ai/

Arieh’s language courses: https://www.streetsmartlanguages.com/

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

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👉 Grab your FREE Speaking Guide: https://l.storylearning.com/speaking_guide

Today's question is about speaking and how to go from knowing a lot of stuff in a language to actually speaking the language fluently.

As I always say, if you want to speak fluently, so if you want to be able to interact in the real world confidently and fluently like a native speaker, you've got to be speaking a lot.

Let’s look at some ways to do that, both by yourself and with other people.

Mentioned in this episode:

Langua: https://l.storylearning.com/Langua-AI

Daniel's podcast, My Fluent Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/myfluentpodcast

LanguaTalk: https://l.storylearning.com/Langua-Talk

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

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👉 Grab your FREE Language Goal Planner: https://l.storylearning.com/goals

As a beginner language learner, you feel progress happening very quickly. Everything you learn is useful and practical.

But once you've learned the basics, it’s normal to get stuck. In fact, it's so normal that it has a name: the intermediate plateau. Every learner reaches it, generally around the one to two year mark.

So, how do you get over it? When you’re stuck and you just can’t break through to fluency, there are only two possibilities and two ways to fix it. And one thing you must never do.

Mentioned in this episode:

Find high-quality language teachers on LanguaTalk: https://l.storylearning.com/langua_talk

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

#storylearning #learnthroughstories

👉 Grab your FREE guide, How to Read in Any Language: https://l.storylearning.com/6_steps_read

I don’t know if you've noticed, but language learning advice is often geared towards extroverts - put yourself out there, just speak, don't be shy.

That makes perfect sense if you're that way inclined. But if you're at all like me and you identify as an introvert, or at least have very strong introverted tendencies, that kind of advice is very, very difficult to take.

So let’s take a look at what introverts can do instead to get fluent fast.

Mentioned in this episode: The StoryLearning App: https://l.storylearning.com/app

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

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👉 Grab your FREE Language Difficulty Guide: https://l.storylearning.com/difficulty_guide

Today we have a question about choosing your next language. And it comes from someone who's already a polyglot, who speaks four languages and is a bit confused over what their fifth language should be. An interesting problem.

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

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👉 Get Your Free Guide, Dr Popkins' 8 Best Tips to Learn a Language and Keep Going https://l.storylearning.com/dr-popkins-tips

In this episode, I'm very happy to welcome Gareth Popkins, longtime friend and language compadre, to the StoryLearning podcast. Gareth got the language bug in his early twenties and took his French further, learned Welsh and then worked on German and Russian. He’s had a rather chequered trajectory, starting as historian of Russian history. He then went to law school in his early thirties, continuing with languages and starting to blog and vlog about his language learning experiences. He now does that full-time, focusing in particular on teaching intermediate German learners. We come from a similar place in that our lives have been characterised by a love for languages. And we've since taken that passion and that experience and are using it to help other people learn.

More from today's guest:

Gareth’s website: https://howtogetfluent.com/Gareth’s

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DrPopkinsGermanGareth’s

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drpopkinsgerman/

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

#storylearning #learnthroughstories

👉 Grab your FREE Binge-Worthy Resources for Fluency: https://l.storylearning.com/fluency-resources

Understanding native speakers on the streets is one of the most difficult, challenging and disconcerting elements of language learning. But when you learn to deal with fast speech, it is the most exhilarating, wonderful, rewarding feeling you can possibly imagine. And this is the question we're gonna get into today on the StoryLearning Podcast.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Russian Immersion Lab: https://l.storylearning.com/russian-immersion-lab

Conversations: https://l.storylearning.com/conversations

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

#storylearning #learnthroughstories

👉 Grab your FREE Binge-Worthy Resources for Fluency: https://l.storylearning.com/free-fluency

Today I’m answering a question from a frustrated Japanese learner with a 650-day streak on Duolingo. Their question: What do I do? Do I keep on, do I switch to a different language? Do you have any advice for a frustrated language learner? I really like this question. I've got so much to say about it so I'm looking forward to answering, particularly as an often frustrated Japanese learner myself.

Link mentioned in this episode:

My Japanese course, Japanese Uncovered: https://l.storylearning.com/japanese-uncovered

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

#storylearning #learnthroughstories

👉 Grab your FREE Language Goal Planner: https://l.storylearning.com/fluency_goals

In this episode I’m going to be talking about this old chestnut: learning two languages at the same time. I’ve got two questions on this that have come from a recent video. Long-term listeners will be very familiar with my take on learning two languages at the same time. But my questions today are about a rather specific scenario, learning two very different languages together. So how would I approach this?

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

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👉 Grab your FREE guide, Dave Pinto's 7 Best Tips to Sound Like a Local: https://l.storylearning.com/sound-local

I am absolutely delighted to welcome to the StoryLearning podcast, my longtime friend, partner in crime and fellow language enthusiast, Dave Pinto. Professionally Dave focuses on language teaching, but many language teachers that I've met over the years in different countries never really get to grips with language learning themselves. Dave is not that! Dave, to my ears anyway, passes as a native Spanish speaker. Discover what it took to get there and how you too can sound like a native speaker in your new language.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Dave’s Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@elprofeguiri

Dave’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/elprofeguiri/

Dave’s website - https://elprofeguiri.com/

StoryLearning Spanish Pronunciation course, taught by Dave: https://l.storylearning.com/spanish-pronunciation-mastery

👉 Got a question you want Olly to answer on the podcast? Submit it here: https://storylearning.com/ask_Olly_your_question

👉 Get a 7-day FREE trial to one of my story-based language courses: https://storylearning.com/Language_Courses

👉 Check out my all-inclusive VIP language programme with guaranteed results: https://storylearning.com/StoryLearning_VIP_Info

#storylearning #learnthroughstories