I'm so new to this platform that I haven't had the opportunity to write about one of my greatest passions in life: language learning. I caught the language bug when I was around 13-years-old, independently studying Japanese and Italian. I put Italian on hold to study Japanese better (let's face it, it takes longer to learn), then I went back to Italian and moved on to Finnish, Norwegian, Ancient Greek, Old Norse, and Russian. On the back-burner, I have Latin, Bahasa Indonesian, Korean, and Swahili.
No, I'm not claiming native-like fluency in all of those languages! I also didn't expect my very first article on the topic to be a tribute to a man whose life can inspire all of us.
The polyglot community is relatively small, especially compared to other communities I lurk about it, such as writing and gaming communities. As such, when we lose one of our own it comes out of nowhere!
Moses was a fantastic polyglot, his enthusiasm for languages contagious. Rather than set out to reach an intermediate or high level in a language, he was the type who would “collect” languages, learning enough to have basic conversations with a multitude of people, breaking cultural barriers wherever he went. Just check him out!
However, and I what I envy most, was his ability to take this passion and turn it into his income. I suppose that's the American dream right there, isn't it? Through his FLR (Foreign Language Roadrunning) website, he could tutor others to achieve what he did, focusing on conversation first instead of lists of grammar and vocab.
As much harm as the Internet has done, it has given so many of us the opportunity to live out our dreams, just as Moses was able to do in his short time with us. Moses died just shy of his 40th birthday, leaving behind two young children. His life was claimed by heart complications, perhaps related to a stroke he'd suffered just five years earlier.
I don't know how many people here were familiar with Laoshu50500, but remember this lesson: live life to its fullest. Put your passion into your work or, if able to, make your passion your work.
This was such a short article, and I don't know if it's any good, but I felt the need to say something. I'm flabbergasted right now that this happened, but so thankful to have had such an amazing man sharing his incredible life with us.
