Business
Matt Bonder is the creator of the Matt Vs Japan YouTube channel and Co-Founder of Refold, a company proclaiming language fluency for those who follow it’s methods.Matt managed to obtain fluency in Japanese while largely being in America. He achieved this through the use of tv, books, and an immersion approach called AJATT (All Japanese All the Time). Matt would end up making YouTube videos showcasing his ability and speaking about the method which he used to obtain fluency. Over the years, Matt has refined his stance on immersion language learning to be something more tenable by people with limited time and has also founded businesses including Refold which he did along side his co-founder Ethan.Get all the links mentioned in the episode here: bit.ly/237-MattVsJapanSKIP THROUGH THE EPISODE:00:05 - Welcome to Uncommon00:23 - Guest introduction00:38 - All my homies hate Duolingo01:54 - Childhood: memories & favourite things05:43 - Childhood aspirations06:26 - Parents’ jobs07:54 - The appeal of AJATT and immersion learning 15:10 - Language learning vs acquisition & the power of immersion21:00 - How fast is language atrophy?22:16 - Matt’s focus on language specialisation over polyglotism25:58 - The usefulness of meditation28:04 - ADHD: is it a functional illness?32:03 - What is Japanese pitch accent?35:31 - Matt’s motivation for YouTube38:01 - Collaboration: the secret to growth on YouTube?39:47 - MIA: first business, falling out & lessons42:22 - Refold: how does it work & future product development47:52 - Advice for language burnout52:00 - Morning & evening routine52:35 - Best purchase under $200