EP. 28 - Rafael: Teaching Korean, Learning Spanish, and Starting Over for Love

🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQHRafael is a Korean native speaker who started teaching Korean online after noticing how many people in Prague were desperate to learn the language during the height of the K-pop and Squid Game wave. What began as a casual side project turned into a full career… Until he followed his Spanish partner back to Europe, landed in Barcelona without knowing a word of Catalan, moved to Madrid, and suddenly found himself on the other side of the classroom for the first time in his life.In this episode we get into what makes Korean both more logical and more nuanced than most learners expect, why so many Koreans can read and write English perfectly but freeze the moment they have to speak it, and what teaching a language for years teaches you about it that simply speaking it never could. We also get into Rafael's current approach to Spanish: the classic textbook, the public language school, the Spanish partner, and a playlist of classic Spanish hits that he sings along to alone at home… which he insists is working!About the guest: https://ochikortutor.com/koreanclassWhat is Tandem - Language exchange?Tandem is a global language exchange app on a mission to connect the world through languages. Members build confidence and improve their language skills through real life conversations with native speakers in 1:1 chats or live audio rooms. 🔗 Connect With Us: https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App0:00 Intro 8:31 Growing Up Inside the Korean Education Machine 19:29 Teaching Korean to the World 39:51 The Spanish Adventure 51:07 What the Classroom Looks Like From the Other Chair 🌟 What topics/language should we explore on the next episode of the new tandem podcast? Let us know in the comments! Thanks for watching Connected By Language: Polyglot Interviews, the new Tandem - Language Exchange Podcast.