Learning Languages

I was wandering through a cramped little market in Istanbul when I stopped in front of a massive display of olives—green, black, spicy, marinated, glistening with oil—and froze. I wanted 250 grams of the shriveled ones. I could already imagine the salty bite. But despite completing two different Turkish A2 courses and proudly maintaining a […]

Most mornings, the day kicks off before I’m even fully awake. The coffee machine’s buzzing, the dog’s doing his happy dance for breakfast, and my inbox is already flashing like it’s in a competition. That’s usually my cue that the daily juggling act has begun. While my espresso brews, I open Babbel and make myself

A lot of people imagine that fluency is the finish line. They think once you’ve “made it,” you’ll speak without hesitation, nail every grammar rule, and never slip on articles or pronunciation.Reality check: it doesn’t work like that. I’ve been using German for nearly twenty years—studying it, working in it, building a whole life around

If you had told me a few years ago that I’d be adding Spanish to my language lineup, I probably would have shrugged and said, “Sure, maybe one day.” Because back then, I was laser-focused on Portuguese. There was a chance my family and I would’ve moved to Portugal, so naturally, I threw myself into

When I first dove into learning new languages as an adult, I had this rosy belief: if I nailed the vocab, mastered the grammar, and tossed in a few idioms, I’d slide right into conversations with native speakers. Easy, right? Not quite. I still remember standing in a little bakery in Rome, proudly ordering a

Back in the day, I was the kind of learner who loved those thick grammar books where entire chapters obsessed over things like the past perfect progressive. That was my comfort zone. I dove straight into grammar—hard. If a sentence bent the rules, I dismissed it. To me, grammar wasn’t just important; it was the

While some people line their shelves with stamps or vintage teapots, my collection has always been languages. At least, that’s how I’ve liked to think of it. I started out with Ukrainian and Russian. Later, school introduced English and French into the mix—though French didn’t last and eventually gave way to Turkish at university. Italian

Back when I was learning French, I set myself an impossible rule: I wouldn’t open my mouth unless every sound came out perfectly. I wanted to roll the “r” like a Parisian, nail every irregular verb, and string together sentences that could pass for something out of a language textbook. In other words, I expected

Before we go any further, let me be honest: I’m not some kind of language wizard. Sure, I speak eight languages now—but that doesn’t mean it all came easily or naturally. I didn’t grow up surrounded by ten different languages at home. In fact, Russian was the only language I spoke as a kid. Ukrainian,

One of my earliest memories of speaking English was in primary school in Ukraine. I must’ve been six or seven when I proudly said, “I like cats.” It was a tiny sentence, but my teacher applauded—and to me, it felt like I’d just won a gold medal. Now, many years (and a few languages) later,