Former diplomat, author, business owner, polyglot, husband, father and grandfather Steve Kaufmann never stops learning and growing. Undeniably motivated, he studies language up to five hours a day, listening while attending to his daily chores and errands. He now speaks 16 languages as a result of this self-guided learning.
Born in Sweden to Czechoslovakian parents, Steve grew up in the English-speaking area of Montreal and never learned French despite spending his formative years on the edge of English and French Canada. Steve pursued his post-secondary education at L’Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, France and that decision cracked his world wide open.
After completing university, he lived in Hong Kong from 1968-1969, learning Mandarin while building a career as a Canadian Trade Commissioner. After China, Steve lived in Japan from 1971-1974 while working with a major Canadian lumber export company, the basis for his own lumber company K.P Wood. Of course, he became fluent in Japanese during that time.
Steve and his wife have two sons, both successful professionals today. In fact, younger son Mark works alongside Steve as an indispensable asset to his companies.
A number of years ago, Steve was working on his Cantonese by listening to a local Cantonese radio station at his home in Vancouver. A story came on about a recent immigrant from China who had his life savings stolen at the airport upon his arrival in Canada. The young man was a graduate of a top technical institute in China, so Steve thought he might be able to offer him a job and help him get on his feet.
It turns out there was quite a language barrier between the new employee and the rest of the staff, so Steve had the software engineers create a basic translation program. This led to a lightbulb moment, and the development of much more complicated software – forging a path to the online language training business he and Mark run today.
Since then, linguistics has become a large part of Steve’s life, especially in the last 10 years. He has written two books on the subject, the first titled The Linguist: A Personal Guide to Language Learning and the second, The Way of the Linguist: A Language Learning Odyssey. He’s currently drafting a third book, All the Way to Fluency, which will serve as a guide for others learning additional languages using his process of listening and breaking the language down into small, manageable chunks.
An expert on linguistics – through his online presence as well as talks and presentations worldwide – Steve is breaking down language barriers and helping thousands of people succeed on their journey to learn. Today, there are more than 100,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.
“We spend our lives learning, and there’s no reason it needs to stop when you’re a certain age, whether that’s 50 or 95, or 105,” he says. “However, there has to be a spark somewhere. Even if it’s a small spark, once it gets going, that interest will grow, and if you’re prepared to put the time in, it’s amazing what you can learn.”
Steve’s philosophy about learning language revolves around making learning enjoyable. Bypassing drills, grammar rules and tedious studying, this method of learning is based on combining individual interests and passions with learning vocabulary, both actively and passively.
For instance, if you like to cook, you might start by reading recipe blogs or watching vlogs in your chosen language. You can also learn anywhere, anytime; Steve likes to cross-country ski while listening to audio books. Above all, he asserts that the learning process is more natural when you are interested in the subject matter; reading, hearing and seeing the language in action helps it to stick, making success much more likely.
“So much focus is put on grammar rules that it becomes deeply confusing for many students, who may think they just cannot learn another language,” says Steve. “As a result, students leave high school unable to speak French, despite being in French classes for years.”
This also applies to immigrants, who may not have learned English or French despite having lived in Canada for decades. They get confused early on, decide they cannot learn another language, and they spend their lives being unable to fully assimilate.
Anyone, any age, from any background can learn a new language. Being too old, or not being able to learn is just not the case, according to Steve, who has learned some of the world’s most complex languages. He’s working hard to master Hebrew, a notoriously difficult dialect, and though it’s a huge challenge, he knows he can do it based on past success. Many of his students feel the same, and report that once they start learning, doors open.
“It’s like anything,” says Steve. “Once you discover you can do it, you discover how much fun it is. You begin to realize how wonderful it is to be able to access these cultures and history through language learning.”
Not simply one to learn language, Steve wants to immerse himself in all facets of it and has a thoroughly stamped passport as a regular keynote speaker at polyglot conferences around the world. He travelled to Bratislava, Slovakia as a guest speaker, and he and his wife stayed in Ukraine for three weeks taking in the culture.
This fall, they visited Israel and Greece together, taking the time to really see the countries and experience the lifestyle. This was after travelling to South America in March 2017, and Vietnam, Myanmar and Korea in spring 2016.
“If you expose the brain to experience, it will start picking things up. It’s constantly processing this experience, and we’re continually creating new neurons to respond to new experiences,” he says. “We’re constantly learning, whether we like it or not.”
All the more reason to try something new. It doesn’t need to be language — it can be a new sport, a craft, any kind of hobby you like.
As well as juggling businesses and a packed travel schedule, Steve is very active, playing ice hockey, golf, hiking, and he tries to do something physical every day. He even tried Cross-Fit, but admits it was a bit intense for his liking. But he tried it, and he’s fine with that, accepting that not everything is going to be a fit.
“We all want to learn new things and explore new things. It’s the learning process in itself that is the reward,” he says. “If we have a task that is a little bit difficult and we manage to achieve whatever it may be, there’s a great sense of satisfaction. That’s what keeps you going forward. Time and effort will lead to success, which leads to greater motivation.”
To learn more, visit Steve Kaufmann’s blog at www.thelinguist.com
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