The Learners: Anita Anthonj & Mel MacMahon

Mel, born in Ireland, wanted to learn German. Anita, born in Germany, wanted to improve her English. As an intercultural couple in New York City, they wanted to understand each other and their respective cultures better. But they couldn't find any lessons or teachers they liked. Taking life by the horns, they started their own thing in 2016: Talaera, a platform for personalized English training. Today, they are a husband-and-wife-team employing half a dozen full-time staffers while the platform connects hundreds of learners and coaches around the world every day. On episode 8 of the Wunderbar Together podcast, Anita & Mel explore their successes and failures with German and English, discuss the challenges of being married AND running a company and – in a surprise plot twist at the very end – share why learning to cope with loss has helped them find deeper meaning in life.