Tamás's Blog Posts - 1: Real-World Study Driven By A Great Attitude And Courage
Introducing Steve Kaufmann, the language-hacker linguist, businessman and world-traveller. His life proves that with a good attitude and a bit of courage there is always a way to follow your passions and reach your goals, even if we talk about learning 15 languages or exploring the world.
My testimony Two years ago, in 2014 maybe, I found Steve Kaufmann's blog when I was searching quick and easy ways to learn English. I wanted to make up all the wasted years of the supposed English education my teachers provided me in high school. I found an article titled “An English Learner's Manifesto”. I hardly understood what Steve said in the text, but honestly- I did not even pay too much attention. I wanted quick and simple answers and solutions to my questions and problems. I wanted to learn English as soon as possible with as little hard work and commitment as possible. I had a bad attitude.
Now I am writing this blog from Vancouver, Canada, on the 26th of May, 2016. I am sitting in front of the window at the LingQ headquarters.I was lucky enough to win a place to LingQ's Academy Program. I will uncover the hows and whys relating this program but the point is:
The person who co-founded LingQ is Steve Kaufmann.
I have experienced a huge turn around in my life in the last two years of my life.
The last two years of my life have been bookended by watching Steve's video and now studying with him at LingQ. What has changed is my attitude towards hard work and courage.
While I am struggling to find the best words for this blog post as my first language is still Hungarian, my attitude has changed in the last one-two years. It has changed to positive along with my life and my achievements in every aspect of my life.
The Steve Kaufmann way Steve Kaufmann is mostly known for speaking 16 languages. Fewer know that he left Canada in favour of Europe at the age of 17. He travelled around Europe for years, then he decided to go to work in Hong Kong, in Beijing and in Tokyo afterwards. His courage, his great attitude and constant hard work payed off.
Today, through my experiences over the last two years, I am going to attempt to uncover Steve' secret of success. While I was reading his book about his life , the same principles tend to appear in every story of him. I also had the opportunity to interview him so I hope I will be able to give you a great insight to his attitude and life-perception.
Steve Kaufmann-LingQ Steve, 70, was born in Sweden and emigrated to Montreal, Canada as 5 year old with his parents and older brother. He grown up there essentially as a unilingual English speaker. When he immersed himself in French culture and French language he decided to travel to Europe on a working steamer. He had the courage to leave his home country at the age of 17 and he was confident enough to believe that he could stand his ground in a foreign environment.
Later in his life as a first year diplomat he had the same attitude when it came to learning a notoriously difficult language, Chinese, and starting off his life in Hong Kong. He met his wife there and with the confidence and right attitude he acquired the Chinese language.
In 1970, having studied Chinese, Steve expected to be assigned to Beijing as Assistant Trade Commissioner. He refused to go. The reason was a personal conflict with his boss back then and he wouldn't have felt comfortable working in an environment where he couldn't get along with his supervisor. Instead, Steve offered the Trade Commissioner Service that he would learn Japanese if reassigned to Tokyo.
Follow your path Follow your path Imagine the situation. In an absolutely different cultural environment and language, would you “ give up” all your efforts and investments to absolutely change your plans and start off a new life in Tokyo? Steve did this and lived in Japan for more than a decade.
“Through our lives we are surrounded by opportunities. It is only by being active and acquiring knowledge that we are able to see these opportunities and to take advantage of them.” There is a reoccurring idea in his book: “Through our lives we are surrounded by opportunities. It is only by being active and acquiring knowledge that we are able to see these opportunities and to take advantage of them.” It is great to know him personally and affirm that undoubtedly he follows all the principles that he mentions in his book.
There is the traditional, so-called logical way to live your life and build your career. Finish high school at age of 18, pick a fine-sounding university, finish it, get a job and so on. Do not get me twisted, I am not saying that these things are not important and cannot lead to happiness and a fulfilling life. I am not saying that. But if you do this only to follow your teachers' and your parents' advice and you have no courage to follow your intuitions and passions….you are in trouble. Who would have advised Steve to leave the beautiful, successful Canada at the age of 17? Who would have said to switch from Chinese to Japanese after 3 years of the struggle to learn Chinese? Nobody.
Don't get me wrong, it is sometimes important to listen to others. But is is much more important to find your own path to your life and your passion. “Pursuing languages was like a net for me, allowing me to catch opportunities that would otherwise have passed me by”- for Steve, this passion was language learning. Every beautiful experience in his life has been connected to languages.
Acceptance There is always a turnoff when people hear about “ finding their way, following their passion etc”. And this is acceptance. “ What if I wont be accepted if I change my life?”, “ what will I do if my friends will tun away from me as I follow my way?” Steve has a short story in the first pages of his book and this story had a big impact on me.
His story is set on the street when he, as a 6 year old, played baseball with his contemporaries. One day the baseball bat was gone. There was a Lithuanian boy in the group and since he did not speak English well and he was an “outsider” he was suspected of stealing the bat. The only problem was that had not taken the bat. Simply, the group had not accepted this Lithuanian boy yet. It took one year for the group to accept both Steve and this Lithuanian boy.
Here, Steve writes about acceptance in his book and I think it is really important. There are times in your life when people unthinkingly stick together and resist the participation of an outsider.
“But acceptance is a two way street”. Insiders might resist an outsider or newcomer for the first time but it is also up to the new guy to be adventurous and take the first step as well as make the effort to be accepted. There are way more examples of newcomers hesitate to take action and thereby losing opportunities than there are of them being rejected.”You must take risks to be accepted.” Steve explains. He mostly writes about this phenomenon in language learning terms but you can generalize this principle and employ it to your life.
Have courage to change things in your life and find the ways to get to the point when you can live your own life and not someone else's!
