For example, some of the most important and meaningful conversations in my life have been in German, Finnish, and French. Some of the best friendships I’ve been lucky enough to build and enjoy have been with people who don’t speak my native language.

I feel that when you allow a stranger to talk to you in their native language, you are, in a certain sense, reaching out to them and touching their soul. Thanks to the languages I speak, I have been able to connect with a number of people on a much deeper level than I probably would have by using a common lingua franca, such as English. Today, I would like to share these things with you. We had a lot to talk about in particular, we shared many stories of all the wonderful things that have happened to us as a result of speaking foreign languages. Interestingly, we had never spoken much about language learning in person until then. We eventually sat down to make our first video together, addressing a wide variety of language learning topics. Since then, we’ve met a couple more times at similar events, and our friendship has only grown. For four consecutive days, we talked and laughed and had a great time, all in the company of mutual friends. In a way, that’s when my message to Luca from 10 years before finally got delivered.įrom the very first minute, it was quite obvious to me that Luca and I would get along well. That’s actually where I met Luca, about three years ago.

I began sharing my own passion for foreign languages by creating videos on YouTube and by taking part in events such as the Polyglot Gathering, an international meeting for language lovers. One day, however, I decided to stop hiding, both from Luca and the rest of the online polyglot world. At the time, I didn’t feel quite comfortable on social media, so I put it off for a long, long time. I was watching his first-ever multilingual YouTube video, and thinking two things:įirst: “How cool, looks like I’m not the only polyglot after all!”Īnd second: “This guy seems to be a really fun and interesting person, someone I could get along with pretty well!”īack then, I considered reaching out to Luca to share my own story-or even to just say hi-but I never did. It was 13 years ago when I encountered Luca Lampariello for the first time.

Me speak pretty one day