Idahosa Ness shares his experience growing up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, playing violin and freestyle rapping. He then takes us on his travel journey, starting with his first trip to Mexico, and explains how that ignited his passion for language learning so he could more meaningfully connect with people. He then shares how he used his background in music and freestyle rapping to develop “The Mimic Method” for learning languages by ear. He explains how he used the Mimic Method to teach himself Spanish, Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese, and then started teaching it to others. He then shares how freestyle rapping played a significant role in helping him develop fluency in 6 foreign languages. He tells the story of participating in a weekly hip hop cypher in Portuguese while living in Rio, as well as his experience attending a hip hop battle in Cali, Colombia. He reflects on the hip hop culture in South America and how it differs from the U.S. He also breaks down the Mimic Method, explains the reason it is so important to understand the sounds and perfect the pronunciation first, and then goes on to share the step by step process for becoming fluent in a new language by ear. And, finally, Idahosa reflects on what travel means to him at this point in his life.
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