The Internet is mean! Wahhhhh… (photo: Storyvillegirl)
Every time I stumble across a “Tim Ferriss claims to speak…” post regarding Spanish, Japanese, or whatnot, an orphaned kitten loses a small part of its soul. And then I cry.
Granted, I’m no master hyperpolyglot, but on my best days, I can speak five languages to differing degrees:
– English (unless I’ve had too much wine)
– German
– Spanish
– Mandarin Chinese
– Japanese
Below are videos of me speaking each.
German is the language I forget the fastest, which I believe is due to articles and noun cases. Japanese is what I retain best without practice, thanks to length of immersion and a nasty manga habit (e.g. One Piece, Rokudenashi Blues). Spanish is what I use most, and I think it’s improved dramatically since the below video from several years ago.
There are other languages I really enjoy studying. Sadly, I sound like Sloth from The Goonies when I speak these: Italian, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Arabic (aiming for Levantine), Greek, Turkish, and Norwegian. The last is hardest to learn, as they all speak flawless English.
Forthwith, assorted vintage Tim…
English:
German (for Amazon.de ages ago):
Spanish (For the Spanish publisher of The 4-Hour Workweek):
Mandarin Chinese (Dinner placemat doodle; The Randow Show with Kevin Rose, filmed in Beijing):
Practicing Chinese characters during dinner after a long lay-off. Smatterings of Japanese.
China Part 2a from Glenn McElhose on Vimeo.
Japanese (Trial by Fire TV pilot from History Channel):
Yabusame – Tim Ferriss from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than 900 million downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.