In this first episode of A Language Journey, Andy Mendez of Bangladesh tells us about his life and being exposed to many languages early on in life. He brings us through the cultural and political influences on the languages he speaks and the communities around him, and eventually how he ended up in the United States. Enjoy!

Ep.1 Andy: Bengali, Urdu, Hindi, English

In this episode of A Language Journey, Clark tells us about his life in China and navigating the many different large and small languages and dialects in different regions across this enormous and complex country. With wonderful care, Clark brings us through the nuances of switching between languages that he speaks and understands, and teaches us quite a bit along the way. Enjoy!

Ep.2 Clark: Mandarin Chinese, Wu Chinese Dialects, English

Hello and welcome to A Language Journey, a podcast series where we explore humans, where they come from, the languages they speak, and the stories that shape them. My name is Ken Walker. In my time as a language educator or even just a human, I’ve had transformative conversations with students, people in my travels, and with my friends and family about our journey through life.   The places we come from, the languages that we know and also the languages we choose to learn are often deeply ingrained into who we are as people and can often have implications on how we interact with others and how we learn new languages. This podcast seeks to uncover some of these through stories and storytelling.

There are over 7,000 languages spoken all over the world; I’m currently confined to do this podcast in only English, but my aim is for us to discover as many as we can together. 