In this interview, host Callie Anderson talks with Virginia, a social‑media manager and educational content creator who has lived in Korea for eight years and has studied seven languages (English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Japanese). Virginia shares her language background, noting she is conversational in English, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish, and explains that Japanese was the hardest while French was the easiest because of language family similarity. She recounts her academic path, including a media‑communication master’s at Korea University, consistently scoring TOPIK level 5, and the learning curve between classroom Korean and real‑world usage. Virginia describes how a best friend sparked her interest in Spanish in 8th grade, leading to a love of language learning, participation in the Governor’s School Spanish immersion, and a national French contest win. She outlines the varied approaches she used for each language—classroom textbooks, self‑study with media, a summer program in Shanghai for Chinese, K‑pop and drama for Korean, and full immersion abroad. The method she found most effective was total immersion, forcing her brain to think in the target language; a practical home‑country technique was singing along to Korean music videos with subtitles. She found pure online textbook lectures ineffective. Virginia emphasizes that genuine interest, fun, and integrating language study with personal passions are crucial; she advises learners lacking motivation to tie language practice to hobbies (e.g., fitness influencers). She notes that confident, mistake‑tolerant students improve fastest, while shy learners plateau. Finally, she reflects on how multilingualism opened cultural doors, expanded her social network, and enabled professional opportunities such as studying in China and working in Korea.
Chapters
I've studied 7 languages. I think the method that worked the best was— that makes you speak a lot quicker and more confidently.
Do you think that you're naturally good at languages?
Hmm, I— Hi, I'm Virginia. I'm from Virginia in the United States, and I've been living in Korea for 8 years. I work with the lovely Callie. I'm the social media manager and educational contents creator.
Virginia's been such a blessing to work with, honestly. So Virginia can speak Many languages. How many languages can you speak?
I've studied seven languages over the years: Spanish, French, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, and Japanese. I think like these days I'm probably conversational in like four of them. Obviously English, and then Chinese, Korean, and Spanish. I would say. 안녕하세요 저는 버제니야라고 합니다. 반갑습니다. Bonjour, je m'appelle Virginie. Enchantée. Hola, me llamo Virginia. Mucho gusto. こんにちは、バージニアです。よろしくお願いします。大家好，我叫弗吉尼亚。认识你很高兴。مرحبا اسمي فيرجينيا. تاشا رافنة.
Which one was the hardest to learn?
The hardest of those to learn was definitely Japanese. I was lied to because I was told that if you speak Chinese and Korean that Japanese will be easy to learn, but it really wasn't. It takes like all the hardest parts of both of those and puts them together.
Wow, okay.
I think the easiest one just personally was probably French because I'd already learned Spanish, so they're both Romance languages, and I feel like when a language is in the same language family, it's a little bit easier to learn.
I'm so glad you didn't say Korean.
It's definitely not Korean.
That makes me feel better.
Yeah, definitely not.
You actually got your master's here, right? At Korea University?
Yeah, that's right. My major was media and communication. It was definitely a struggle at the beginning because I realized that the Korean you learn in the language classes was very different from the ones that you're gonna use when you're in an actual classroom in Korea. And it could be because it was a master's program, so it was pretty difficult even in English, so maybe that's why. But either way, it was definitely a learning curve.
Do you feel like your Korean improved a lot from that?
I think so. My listening improved a lot. I feel like if I took the TOPIK test again, I'd probably get a better score.
What score have you gotten?
I've gotten a 5 every time. I've taken it. I still haven't been able to get the 6, but I feel like if I try again, I can probably get it.
So what made you so interested in learning different languages?
It goes back to 8th grade. I had a best friend, and she kind of got me into Spanish, which was our first language class. I got really into that class. My teacher was also really, really great. Señora Guzmán, if you're listening, I love you. Yeah, so I really liked the class itself, and it was really fun getting to learn something new because I'd never learned a language before. I actually got like really into it and like started watching telenovelas once in a while. I even got like a Nintendo DS game for like learning Spanish. Wow. Since it was so much fun, I was like, oh, might as well try to learn some others and see if it's also fun. And it was, so I just kept doing them.
Can you tell me about some of your accomplishments related to language learning?
My first accomplishment in language learning was when I was in high school. I was one of 50 students in Virginia selected to go to the Governor's School Summer Academy, which was a Spanish immersion A lot of the students that were selected to go there were from like bigger cities and stuff. I was the only one from my school that got to go, and most of those students when they graduated, they went to like really good universities, so it was a really good resume booster. I didn't know, I just wanted to practice Spanish. That's
awesome though. I think you mentioned too that you won an award for French?
Oh yeah, I don't remember exactly what the contest was, but my French teacher like recommended that we try some national contests, and so the best friend I mentioned earlier and I, we entered it, and we both ended up winning.
I feel like you were kind of a trailblazer in your school for language learning. So how did you actually learn each language? Did you use a similar method, or did each one require a different approach?
For Spanish, French, and Arabic and Chinese, I did those ones like in the classroom setting first at school, school, and so it was like the typical textbook and speaking practice, but I feel like I wasn't able to really reach fluency based on that. And so outside of class, I tried to watch some media content from other countries with those languages. For Chinese, I did a summer program in Shanghai, so I feel like my Chinese improved a lot from that, just like ordering at restaurants, things like that, trying to navigate around the city. For Korean, I actually self-studied in high school. I had some Korean friends and watched drama and K-pop. In a way, I feel like I might have learned more natural Korean because I was learning what they use on a daily basis. And then when I went to college, I got to take proper Korean classes.
So it sounds like you've studied many different ways. Yeah, I guess so. Like self-study, classroom with textbooks, going abroad to that country. What do you think was the best method that worked for you, and was there a method that didn't work so well for you?
I think the method that worked the best was the full immersion method. Because I wasn't allowed to use English at all, my mind and my brain itself kind of converted to that language, so you start kind of thinking in it, and that makes you speak a lot quicker and more confidently. But of course, that one's pretty difficult to do, especially when you're like in your home country. So I would say a method that worked well when I was in the States was, especially for Korean, I used to look up music videos for songs I really liked, and I would sing along like noraebang style with the subtitles. And so that really helped my reading speed improve and also speaking, and it helps your pronunciation also because you're trying to mimic what you hear from the singer.
I think that's a good point. Not everybody has the opportunity to go abroad and immerse themselves fully in that country's culture. So I like how you mentioned that even if you're in your home country, You can still do that by maybe listening to songs or watching videos. I feel like you kind of have to create the environment at home.
Especially if you're living in a big city, there might be an opportunity where there's some people from whatever country of the language that you're learning, and I think it's really great to form a relationship with people from that country because not only do you get to practice the language, but you also get to learn about their culture.
This is a small one, but I feel like even changing your phone settings, like setting the environment, I did that for Korean, and even though it's frustrating sometimes because I'm like, oh, I have to actually think about it, I do feel like it's helpful. And if your algorithm— if you're like scrolling on TikTok or Instagram, if you can get content maybe from that country, that could be helpful too.
Yeah, I think the method that didn't work was online classes because it was just like lectures from textbooks, but it wasn't like Callie's content where it's like daily life or like interviews with people. It was just like reading the text. textbook basically, so it wasn't really that helpful.
I didn't tell her to say that, guys. Yeah, I promise.
I genuinely believe that.
Do you think that you're naturally good at languages, or do you think you developed this skill through your study habits?
Hmm, I think I've heard a lot of people tell me I'm good at languages, but honestly I'm not sure. But I would say like with the study habits, I noticed for the languages I devoted the most time and energy into, and the ones that I was like genuinely the most interested in, especially in their media, those are the ones that I excelled at the most and the ones that I still use today. When I was in college, I was just so excited to take all of these fun language classes, and I got really close to a lot of the professors, so I decided to take like every language class that the East Asian Studies department offered. Yeah, when I was walking across the stage to get my diploma, the head of our department was like, Virginia was the first student in our department's history to take one class from every language that we offer.
That's awesome! It's like your Collecting Pokémon or something.
I guess so. I just was having fun. I didn't do it for like the recognition or anything. It was just fun.
I feel like that's a key point in learning a language.
That's true. It has to be fun. If you're doing it just to do it, I feel like you won't have the same passion, and then you'll be really like plateauing at the textbook level.
Okay, I have a question then. What if somebody isn't necessarily like super interested in a language, but they feel like they need to learn it? For whatever reason.
I think if that's the case, then whatever you are passionate about in your life, try to mix in the language learning with that, so try to like integrate it into your routine, that could make it a lot more fun. If you're into like going to the gym, maybe you could follow some gym influencers and try to like learn the words that are related to the things that you're interested in first, and then hopefully that will ignite the fire in your heart to keep learning more languages. Also, or at least to keep learning that one.
You also taught English in Korea for a long time, right?
Yep, that's right.
We actually worked at the same school unknowingly.
Yeah, it was destiny.
Anyways, what kind of characteristics did you see in the students that were most successful at language learning?
I did notice a pattern of the students who seemed to be improving the quickest, and that would be the ones who were not afraid of making a mistake, just pretty confidently always answering the questions, participating especially in like classroom discussions. Even if they were making mistakes, like the fact that they were just practicing, even like the muscle memory of your mouth, even that was helpful for them, I think. I feel like those ones are memorable for me compared to the ones who were like a little bit shyer and like trying to like do it on their own. I'm not sure if they saw quite as much improvement or results compared to the ones who were practicing speaking more.
I feel like this is very common for a lot of people, and often myself, A lot of people are afraid of making a mistake, and that holds them back from practicing their speaking and improving.
Even with Korean, with the Topic 5, I'm still nervous to like call the taxi driver.
We gotta just get over that fear, I guess.
Exactly.
Yeah. How has learning so many languages changed your life?
I feel like with each new language, it opens a door to a new culture and such a large group of people. As a 98% extrovert, I love to make new friends, so I always love like meeting new people and like practicing the language with them. And then I feel like I pick up even more like cultural nuances about the area. And then in my professional life, I studied abroad in China, so I got an experience living in China. And then also it helped me to move to Korea, get a job here. So I feel like having that global work experience definitely opened my eyes to a lot of different ways to look at the world.
Thank you so much for letting me interview you today. And guys, make sure to watch Virginia in our content. She's in our shorts. She's going to be in more videos from here on out, so keep an eye out for her.
Thanks so much for having me. Looking forward to making more videos together.
