This is a wonderful piece and a brutal reminder of all the opportunities I have let slip by in the past. (I should be fluent in Turkish, Danish, Italian and Spanish by now!)
My favorite quote in the article:
His final preparation consisted of watching Hindi soap operas, which have become a bonus pleasure, he said. “I get to feel less guilty about watching trash TV,” he said. “To watch ‘The Bachelor’ in English is one thing, but in Hindi it’s O.K.”
Hope you enjoy and are inspired!
I agree with the quote. My husband and i are currently watching German reality tv shows we would not watch in English just to improve our German. These shows are easy to understand as you know the format and you get to listen to language as it is spoken by “real” people.
And they are so addictive :)
Isn’t it funny we all do the same thing? I used to watch soap in Cantonese for the same reason the young polyglot did. Yep, i didn’t feel as guilty either.