I just realized this is the coolest thing ever. To be able to speak language is like you can live anywhere and, you know, sometimes we're close to other cultures because we are scared, but then when you speak the language, even just speaking a couple of words can put a big smile on a man's face and a grumpy man's face in the middle of the street.

Welcome to How To. I'm Carval Wallace. You know, learning a new language is really one of those things, right? It's like a self-improvement goal that we feel like we should be working towards, kind of like eating healthier or getting more sleep or managing our time better. But it's like, how do you find the time?

Often you do it half-heartedly, right? Like you buy an app, you take a course and never use it again. You're left with a handful of words that you can maybe pull out and use on vacation or that you awkwardly try to force into conversation when you're ordering at a restaurant, but not much beyond that.

It's easy to get frustrated and just eventually decide that you're not a language person, but it doesn't have to be that way. Does it?

My name is Nikki, and I am keen to improve my Spanish. I've been at it for several years and feel I am making a snail's pace progress.

Meet this week's guest, Nikki, who lives in Toronto, Canada. Toronto is the most multicultural city in the world. So there's tons of Spanish speakers among other languages.

A lot of the places I travel to are Spanish speaking. And as soon as you start to speak somebody's native language, I mean, you're sort of instantly friends.

It just really opens the doors to sort of having a great connection with that person.

Wanting to travel is a great motivator. But for Nikki, there's actually another reason she's been desperately trying to pick up Spanish.

I recently started teaching dance and fitness classes to refugees and new immigrants to Toronto. And you know, you want to make them feel welcome by one speaking their language among other things.

Nikki first started learning Spanish in college, but when she decided she really wanted to attempt it again, she hired a private tutor. They've been meeting once a week for about two years now.

And I feel after all of that, I am at best an advanced beginner. And it's sort of is a bit frustrating because I'm pretty fluent in French, just because we had to take it here in Toronto primary school.

And I'm generally a decent learner and you know, been a good student. And so it's sort of frustrating that I am barely making progress.

So you've tried getting a personal tutor. What else in here?

Yeah. So in addition to sort of university courses back in the day and then the private tutor, I almost daily listen to about 10 minutes of a Spanish podcast as I'm walking and I've been doing that for about three years, most days.

And then my sister-in-law is Mexican. And I don't see her often, but when I do, I try to engage her in as long as she's willing to chat with me for.

Okay, I hear that. So I want to get dig a little bit into what your actual experience is trying to speak Spanish with people. Like, where do you get stuck?

I think it's one is, is tenses as sort of basic as that is even though I've sort of worked on that, you know, you're trying to say, oh, you know, I hope to see you soon rather than I saw you, you know, and it just

or I'm trying to convey something and it's just so slow as I'm thinking about every word that I can just see their, you know, attention span waning.

You know, I've gotten through one sentence and it's been a minute and, you know, you kind of go, I don't know how to say that word.

So it's a bit frustrating when you start and you realize, I can't really finish my thought here.

To help Nikki out, we're bringing in today's expert, Luca Leperello.

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