About Connected By Language: Explore Cultures with Tandem
The only show that finds the most dedicated language learners out there, and tries to learn from their craft!
Meet and learn from language tutors and creators from all around the world in Tandem Language Exchange’s new official podcast, hosted by Michele and Michelle.
EP. 39 - Khaoula: Arabic, Tunisia, and Growing Up Between Languages
🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH (https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH)
Khaoula grew up in Tunis switching between Tunisian Arabic, standard Arabic, French and English, sometimes inside a single sentence, and nobody around her thought that made them multilingual. It was just how people talked in a country she describes as a train station, where everyone who passes through leaves something behind. In this episode of Connected By Language, our first dedicated to the Arabic language, she takes us from an early childhood in Sarajevo, where her family made lifelong friends without sharing a common language, to Berlin, where she has lived for thirteen years. There she paid for her studies by interpreting for refugees while her own German was still a work in progress, and started a law degree in German before realizing that legal German was a different language altogether.
Then she gives us a guided tour of Arabic itself: an ocean from the outside, a carefully built architecture from the inside. Three letters form a root that grows into book, writer, library and office. Love alone comes in dozens of shades. And the dialects differ so much that North Africans and Levantines happily tease each other about how they sound. Khaoula also explains why she can understand Maltese without ever studying it, why she wishes Tunisian schools had taught her Amazigh, the native language of North Africa, and why, after all the languages that opened doors for her, Arabic remains the language she comes home to.
About the guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaoula-ben-el-hadj-508a7325a/ (https://www.youtube.com/c/sheajordan)
What 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_App (https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App)
0:00 Intro
0:45 Growing Up Where Languages Blend
15:59 A Guided Tour of Arabic
37:21 Never Having Learned How to Learn
1:10:35 What Arabic Gave Her
🌟 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.
13 Oct 2026
EP. 38 - Shae Jordan: How perfectionism helps (or harms) your language learning journey
🌍 JOIN TANDEM TODAY: https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH (https://tandem.go.link/lcLQH)
Shae grew up in the Arizona desert, where school offered two language options and most classmates saw no reason to learn either. She picked Latin at a school that rarely offered it, fell in love with Rome on a study abroad semester, and years later built a life in Bologna, where waiters still look shocked when the American at the table starts asking questions in Italian. In this episode of Connected By Language, the content creator behind the Shae Jordan YouTube channel opens up about the force that has shaped her entire journey: perfectionism, and the fear of making mistakes that she says has held her back more than any grammar ever could.
The conversation covers how she built immersion from thousands of miles away, starting with Peppa Pig because Netflix was too hard, why exchanging audio messages with a girl from Modena became her best speaking practice, and the discovery that surprised her most: coming back from a months-long break to find her Italian had actually improved. She also shares the bittersweet story of tracing her great-grandparents to a small mountain town in Lazio, only for Italy’s new citizenship rules to close that door, and why learning the language has become her way of bringing the heritage back into the family.
About the guest: https://www.youtube.com/c/sheajordan (https://www.youtube.com/c/sheajordan)
What 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_App (https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App)
0:00 Intro
0:41 Latin, Spanish, and the Language She Actually Wanted
21:29 Fluent and Unconvinced
33:55 The Environment You Have to Build Yourself
38:24 What Would Have to Change for Her to Believe It
🌟 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.
29 Sept 2026
EP. 37 - Tandem DeutschConnect, Evgeniya and the Missing Piece of German Classes
🇩🇪 JOIN TANDEM DEUTSCHCONNECT: invite.tandem.net/DCV-37-NK4D (http://invite.tandem.net/DCV-37-NK4D)
Evgeniya knew at five years old that she wanted to teach languages, fell for German through Rammstein songs, and arrived in Germany to discover that the language she'd studied at university was not the one people actually spoke. Fifteen years of teaching later, from classrooms in Moscow to a multicultural au pair household where German, Spanish, and English mixed at the dinner table, she has seen every kind of learner, and one pattern keeps repeating: people pass their B1 or B2 exams and still cannot bring themselves to speak.
That gap is exactly what DeutschConnect was built for. In this special episode of Connected By Language, we go inside Tandem's EU-funded project supporting migrants in Germany: free live audio rooms called language parties, where learners practice speaking German in a safe space, no sign-up for classes, no grammar drills, just conversation guided by qualified tutors like Evgeniya. She shares what actually happens inside these rooms, from shy listeners sending emojis to a proverb that turned out to exist in nearly every language on Earth, and why her advice for first-timers is simply: don't be so shy. Find the invite code in the description to join, plus 90 days of Tandem Pro for free.
About the guest: https://app.tandem.net/community/MzAwNDI0MTU%3D (https://app.tandem.net/community/MzAwNDI0MTU%3D)
What 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_App (https://linktr.ee/Tandem_App)
0:00 Intro
3:32 The Teacher Who Became the Student Again
12:24 What is Tandem DeutschConnect?
29:34 Everyone in One Room
50:36 Fifteen Years of Watching Who Arrives
🌟 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.
Who has been a guest on Connected By Language: Explore Cultures with Tandem
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Una
Guglielmo
Elzo
Neeraj Ridge
Maryna
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
772,867
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Spotify
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 44 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
39
Social presence
0
YouTube
93
Engagement
32
Host of Connected By Language: Explore Cultures with Tandem?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
