How Real Fast Spanish's Andrew Barr Went From a Monolingual Aussie to a Budding Polyglot

Despite doing well in other school subjects, Andrew Barr failed French in secondary school. Upon hearing this news, his supportive father assured him:

"The Barrs don't do languages. We do maths and sciences. You will never have to speak of a word of French again!"

It turns out that this prediction was a bit off the mark. Today, Andrew speaks multiple languages and has built a successful business teaching languages at Real Fast Spanish.

Topics Discussed

In this deep dive into Andrew's language learning journey and philosophy, you will learn:

• How a multilingual climb up Mount Kilimanjaro inspired him to learn languages (and led to befriending a French actress).

• The importance of high-quality language input (high-yield listening and reading content).

• The power of learning with other people (teachers, tutors, and exchange partners) and why you need to avoid the input-only trap.

• Why motivation, consistency, and discipline are the essential 3 essential ingredients of successful language learning.

• Why Andrew decided to start learning Polish (his first non-Romance language) and the surprising origins of his family name.

• The ideal order of operations for learning a new language from scratch and why you should master sounds first.

• The 24-hour rule for new vocabulary and the simple $5 language-learning tool you should carry with you everywhere you go.

• The language-learning advice Andrew would give to his younger self to break through his earlier stories and self-limiting beliefs.

• Why learning a language is akin to learning to play the guitar (you have to learn by doing, not watching).

• Why your feelings about a language-learning method are more important than the method itself.

• Why pursuing pleasure in language learning is not always the answer and why Andrew studies flashcards in Anki even though he doesn't enjoy it.

• The most common mistakes that native English speakers make in Spanish (and how to sound less like a "gringo" by changing just one sound).

• Why correctly pronouncing vowels is more important in Spanish than getting consonants right.

• The critical difference between "accent" and "pronunciation" and why the latter matter much more.

• Andrew's 2 essential language-learning principles: 1) readiness to learn, and 2) high-quality practice.

• How to build early confidence by setting the bar low and having specific goals in each conversation.

“One of the things that I really changed was I went from learning by myself to learning with other people. So rather than myself and a book and a podcast in my room at home, I started attending a local Spanish school, and I started doing meetups and language exchanges. And over the next 6 to 9 months, I went from that very awkward beginner type to very conversationally comfortable. And from that point, I really felt Spanish opened up to me and became really enjoyable.”

Concepts, Methods & Resources Mentioned

• Real Fast Spanish (Andrew's website)

• Real Fast Spanish Podcast (Andrew's podcast)

• My 2015 interview on Andrew's podcast

• CEFR Levels (e.g. A1, A2, B1, B2, etc.)

• Language input & output

• italki 1-on-1 language tutoring

• Cognates

• Anki SRS (spaced repetition flashcards)

• Diacritics (marks on letters to indicate pronunciation)

• If You Want to Sound Less Like a Gringo... (Andrew's YouTube channel)

• Schwa (ə)

• Spanish phonology

• churros & porras (types fried dough)

• porros (marijuana joint)

• puros (cigar)

• Voiced dental fricative (ð)

• Allophone

• Comprehensible input (part of Stephen Krashen's "Input Hypothesis")

• Deliberate practice

• Intermediate plateau

• Growth mindset

• Dunning–Kruger effect

People, Places & Names Mentioned

• Ruan De Witt (Andrew's polyglot friend & car accident survivor)

• Mount Kilimanjaro

• Barszcz (Polish version of Borscht)

• Warsaw, Poland

• Kraków, Poland

• Wrocław, Poland