And they can make yours come true too.

But notice the word choice above.

“They can.”

I did not say they will.

Establishing this difference is really important.

Here’s why:

The marketing of languages done in the last decades has been upside down.

It’s always about how much more money you’ll make, how many more job opportunities you’ll get, how many more people you’ll be able to pick up.

That’s cool and all, but it never leaves the realm of possibility.

I preface this newsletter saying this to highlight the question I wanna answer:

How do you go from possibly changing your life through a language to ACTUALLY doing it?

Well, you do it through emotion.

The late great sales trainer Zig Ziglar used to say: “People buy on emotion and justify on logic.”

So, if we want to “buy” into language learning, we need to leverage our emotions.

Let’s see how now.

In order for us to do so, however, we need to understand one thing:

Emotions aren’t set in stone.

As a matter of fact, they can be created out of thin air.

Don’t believe me? Just go a bit back in time:

Remember when you thought of not meeting your friends because you were tired, but you still went anyway?

Remember how good you felt after a few minutes talking to them, having laughed, vented etc.?

Or that time you went to the gym angry about something and had the best workout of your life?

You went home feeling like you could conquer the whole world.

There are countless other examples.

But the same thing happened in all of them:

You made your emotional state change.

And the reason why it happened was the same:

You engaged with something conducive to that.

Be it with friends, working out, whatever.

The fact is through the experience you were having, you altered the way your mind interpreted life.

If you truly want to learn another language, you must do the same.

What I mean is this:

So long as your mind interprets the other language as boring, annoying, a task even, progress won’t come.

The reason is an obvious chain of reactions:

You won’t like what you’re doing 👉 You’ll want to spend less time doing it 👉 Your brain won’t be exposed to the language 👉 No progress.

It’s not the first time I talk about this.

And I know you know that.

But as a teacher, the first thing you learn through experience is what author Samuel Johnson said:

“People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.”

I purposefully emphasize the importance of having fun because it’s the ONLY thing that can make your dreams come true through another language.

Wanna know how I know it?

I’ve been living it every day for the past 5 years.

My business, the amazing friends I’ve made, the unforgettable experiences I’ve had, etc.

And last weekend was a special reminder of that.

Last Thursday I went to a business meet up with foreigners to reconnect with an American friend of mine who is back in Rio.

When he gets there, he introduces me to some of his friends whom I hadn’t met yet.

We get along great and I come to find out one of them actually just moved to Rio.

Not only that, he’s throwing a party to celebrate it.

And since the conversation is flowing so nicely and we’re having fun, he invites me to it.

So, Saturday comes and I show up there.

They introduce me to some Brazilians, an Aussie, a Brit, couple of Americans, the list goes on.

Some are really into languages, others into business, sports, working out, philosophy, psychology, making music, among other things.

And after a couple hours, I looked around a bit and it dawned on me:

“I’m living my dream.”

Memories came right back to me from 2020 when I was finally getting ahold of French.

I was constantly falling in love with something new.

A new YouTube channel.

A new singer.

A new band.

A new podcast.

A new author.

A new book.

The same happened with Italian and Spanish throughout 2021.

But… I had pretty much no one to share it with.

All I had was 2 French people I met on Hellotalk, 4 Italians I met on Tandem and some Latinos I met on Hellotalk too.

And since it was the pandemic, that’s what I had to work with.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely grateful for all the help they gave me and for having had the chance to meet them.

But it felt really lonely.

I was finding out all of these amazing new things that were changing my life, personality and mindset, and had no one to share it with.

I swore one day I’d speak those languages, have friends from those countries to share those passions and a business helping people be fluent.

Some of my videos talking to foreigners went viral and thousands of people asked for some sort of course, so the business came first.

But in order to keep making videos, I had to keep going on hikes.

One time I get to the top of a hike and end up meeting Karlix, a half French half Venezuelan guy.

We chat for a while, share a couple laughs, follow each other on Instagram and become friends.

We go out a couple of times, and two days before he leaves, he invites me to go to his hostel for a little goodbye party.

I go there and meet this cool American dude named Nick.

Nick and I become friends, go hiking, and I even invite him to have lunch with my family.

Why do I tell you this?

Because he’s the friend I went to reconnect with at that business meet up.

This meet up was in October of 2024.

I met him in the beginning of 2023.

And I only met him because I became friends with Karlix.

Which was only possible because I spent those lonely months in 2020 learning French.

And guess what kept me going?

“The ONLY thing that can make your dreams come true through another language”

Having fun with it.

Falling in love with something in it.

Promising myself I’d speak it one day.

It was the seed that made multiple dreams sprout.

The fact you’re reading this is one of them.

So, if I can give you any advice on changing your life for the better with another language, it is this:

Use your emotions.

Don’t settle on seeing it as just “something you gotta do.”

It’s something you get to live.

So, do it.

Do it now.

HAVE FUN, my friend!