My never-ending quest to learn more Spanish led to the discovery of this bright and entertaining young man on YouTube where he has amassed almost 300,000 followers with his Spanish language channel. I was intrigued and had to find out the story of how he became fluent and confident enough to tackle such a huge undertaking. Very enlightening podcast that’s a must-listen.
American Boy Stephen Williams on languages and travel
Even as a young boy, Stephen always knew he wanted a life of travel outside of the city he was born in. New York seemed to have a special pull for him when he visited as a seven year old, and he knew at that point in time that somehow he was going to make his way back there.
Of course, it took a few years before that eventuality happened. When we talked, he had just moved back to his hometown after his years in New York. Covid had put a wrench in his plans, just like it had done for so many people.
He has been using that downtime to work on some exciting projects including an upcoming book which differs from most because it is a hybrid book geared towards both sides of the coin. People looking to learn English and/or Spanish.
Some highlights of our conversation:
- Growing up in Maryland, and being fortunate enough to travel around the country with his folks.
- Knowing that New York was going to be home someday.
- Being back at home now after riding out the beginning of the pandemic in New York.
- Learning Spanish by hanging out with his childhood friends and becoming fluent.
- Doing an exchange program in Madrid, and loving it.
- Eventually winding his way back to Madrid and becoming an English tutor after his initial job didn’t pan out.
- His cost of living in Madrid.
- Racism and his experience in Spain as a whole.
- Coming back to America and experiencing some reverse culture shock.
- His YouTube channel, American Boy, and how it came to be, and grow.
- Deciding to do a Spanish-only channel.
- Various travels to other countries, and general love for discovering new cultures and experiences.
- His falling in love with Canada, and how he is now trying to learn French :-).
- What he loves about New York, his cost of living there, plus luck in finding a really big apartment through sheer luck.
- The plans for the future, including his bilingual book.
- His desire to return to Spain for a bit more fun and living. He has some places that he would like to visit, and some unfinished business with Granada.
- Where he would like to live the most.
Listen to American Boy Stephen Williams podcast here:
Or the video if you prefer:
You can find Stephen here:
Instagram and Twitter handle: @AmericanBoy
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It was great to chat with Stephen. He is definitely a man with a plan, and l think he is going to have success at whatever he sets his sight on. I have no doubt he will find a way to return to Spain. He obviously loved his time there and speaks glowingly of it.
It’s not a surprise to me of course, we feel the same way about our little city, and even though the pandemic put a stop to our travels, we hope to be able to return to explore other parts of Spain, including Granada that l keep hearing about from friends here too.
It’s funny how we never had the urge to visit there when we lived in Malaga and Sevilla considering how close it was. I am not keen to see the Alhambra truth be told. I like the Seville Alcazar plenty.
Do you speak a second language? Or even a third? I am 2.5 myself. Do you find it easy to learn new things?
Kemkem, I really enjoyed this interview. He has such a great voice, loved listening to him. Sounds like he loved living in NY and that it has given him some great opportunities, but eventually a change of lifestyle lured him to L.A…I am not surprised. NY is so expensive to live and large cities can be fun when you are young, but eventually, the quality of life is not as good as other places with more easy access to nature. Sounds like he is a very determined guy and for sure he will be successful at whatever he chooses to do.
Thanks for listening Gilda. He is a very intelligent young man and l really enjoyed chatting with him. New York to me has always been very expensive. I remember visiting family there many moons ago and its close proximity to Boston meant trips every so often and it was insanely expensive then. Yeah… after a while, you get overall and choose the quality of life. His book sounds great and l am looking forward to it.
I think that there are very few native English speakers who go out of their comfort zone and start creating content (especially at this scale) in another language. It’s usually the other way around, but it looks like he did manage to find the best approach. Really good job!
You are one of those who are all in with a second language too. You conduct everything online in English, not Romanian so you are one of the brave ones. I tend to forget :-). Thanks for listening C!.