Description
In spring 2011, my syntax professor summoned me to his office and asked me if I want to study Kichwa the coming summer. "It’s fully sponsored by the school." He added. Studying a language for free and gets paid. That’s a no-brainer for me! Thus, I went all the way down to the Amazonian jungle of Ecuador and started to learn it immersively with the help of Kichwa field school. At first, I thought I would just dabble it for a summer. However, to me surprise, I did not only sticked with it for years but also became an activist for indigenous languages. On top of that, my other languages also flourished thanks to Kichwa! In this talk I will share my journey in Kichwa and how this language transformed my multilingual life and why I encourage every polyglot and aspiring polyglot to pick up an indigenous language!
Terry Chih Hsiang Hsieh
Terry is the founder of Polyglot.tw, the first organized and officially registered polyglot group in Taiwan. He is also an immersion program designer/engineer, a published writer, an entrepreneur and a language revitalization activist. He has learned more than 50 languages to various levels so far and continues to learn new languages. In addition to his linguistic passion, he is also a cat rescuer, a globe-trotter and a hardcore gamer.
https://polyglotimmersion.com/
This video was recorded at the Polyglot Gathering 2025: https://www.polyglotgathering.com.