John Stedman Interview 09 December 2021

Book Talk with Claire Harris

I'm talking to author John Stedman on Book Talk Radio Club. John is the author of The Language Secret: How to Learn a Foreign Language: Or. How to Speak 10 Languages. Badly. John speaks 10 languages, but he never went to university – to the disappointment and disgust of his begowned and mortar-board-wearing masters at the highly-traditional Chatham House Grammar School. Like most English schoolchildren he never learned the grammar of his own language. In fact, he was not absolutely sure what grammar was. Even though he was at a grammar school. Strange. John somehow ended up teaching English in Paris to graduates of the École nationale d’administration, where many presidents of France were educated. Fifteen years spent as a linguist and lexicographer in various African countries produced a fascination with the phenomenon of multilingualism. Now living in Germany, John and his wife, Sharon, specialise in teaching accelerated language-learning techniques. You can listen in and find out more at https://www.booktalkradio.info/john-stedman