The CRAZIEST stories from my time at Rosetta Stone in Grand Central Terminal New York City

Рет қаралды 9,535

Жыл бұрын

I spent almost 5 years working in a hallway in Grand Central Terminal in NYC for a language learning software company, trying to become a HYPERPOLYGLOT. The company was great , and my colleagues were wonderful, but Grand Central is insanity. These are my stories.
Limited time "Breakfast to you" merch (10% off any merch this month with code GCTERMINAL): languagejones.creator-spring....
My Patreon: / languagejones
Purchase link for Rosetta Stone (not an affiliate link): www.rosettastone.com/
My website: www.languagejones.com
Article about radioactive Grand Central: piccolanewyorker.com/blog/201...

Пікірлер: 74

@geraltofrivia9424 Жыл бұрын

"Breakfast to everyone" is how you greet someone in East Allemania.

@cliffenyprize8489 Жыл бұрын

I haven't seen a storytime video this great since 2038, keep it up!

@languagejones6784 Жыл бұрын

* squints * we meet again

@kierstynsharrow1266 Жыл бұрын

@@languagejones6784 🤣

@jackperl7040 Жыл бұрын

All Power to East Alemania!

@totustuus5279 Жыл бұрын

You Alemanian dog. The German Confederation will crush you

@anidnmeno 11 ай бұрын

"seeking satisfaction through self gratification" i love it

@The_Lord_Of_Confusion Жыл бұрын

the time travel guy story is quite funny, I have to use that line sometimes to see what happens

@shmankersox 10 ай бұрын

Oh my gosh... What you said about buskers 😂😭 When I was doing a Master of Music degree in violin at Juilliard I used to busk in both Central Park and in the subway (Times Square station or Columbus Circle usually, on the platforms because I didn't want to bother to get a permit, maybe that was your mistake?) and I had easily an hour's worth of music (mostly solo Bach, and some Vivaldi because people generally recognize the Four Seasons). This was between 2010 and 2012 btw, there's a non-zero chance you saw me at some point and assumed what I was playing was the only thing I knew 😂😂😂. Slim chances, but non-zero. There were also other musicians I saw there, busking in various parts of the city, who were legitimately super impressive. Maybe don't paint us all with the same brush? Anyway, I'm in a professional orchestra now, no longer in NYC, so those days are, at least for now, behind me. It's worth saying also that my busking experience did a great deal to improve my performance anxiety management (and pay my expenses, it wasn't not lucrative). So I can credit those experiences in part for my overall music performance education. Love the channel, only found it recently but I've been enjoying it! Be nice.

@nqldaro Жыл бұрын

Fun video :) Did you notice if the time traveler had any discernable accent? Curious if English sound changes in the parallel timeline evolved the same as in ours.

@languagejones6784 Жыл бұрын

contemporary Harlem. Not sure when he was originally from.

@SanjayMerchant 9 ай бұрын

As someone who did occasionally busk in Graybar Passage around 2009, I apologize for however many times you had to hear me sing "Ah, mes amis."

@Ledturbeaux Жыл бұрын

I walked past this kiosk everyday for years

@jazzygiraffe8589 10 ай бұрын

It's so cool you've been a jazz musician at some point because I've really been enjoying your videos and have been quite fascinated with language learning for a while now but am planning on studying jazz music at university :)

@jeroenwarner4834 10 ай бұрын

I'm afraid you weren't paying attention... he said there's no money in Jazz! As a trainef pianist turned translator turned political scientist I concur..

@empresagabriel Жыл бұрын

Amazing stories. It's crazy how life happens and stories unfold unexpectedly at a daily pace.

@hybrismc4105 Жыл бұрын

....alright, more stories please. Any stories.

@jackthomson1603 Жыл бұрын

legendary vid, thank u

@lroc6272 Жыл бұрын

Thank you , really enjoyed

@languagejones6784 Жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

@JCtheMusicMan_ 11 ай бұрын

Awesome tales! As an unemployed jazz musician and hobby linguist who wished I had a PhD in linguistics, I am thoroughly entertained and educated by your videos!

@EvidentlyThinking Жыл бұрын

Cheers for the video!

@languagejones6784 Жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@paulwalther5237 Жыл бұрын

You've gotten me thinking of trying out my lifetime subscription I've been ignoring for years. *edit* Alright. The iPhone app still feels like a lazy port from the PC version. It’s much better on the iPad or PC but it is confusing why they didn’t revise the phone app to compete with Duolingo etc.

@AaronQuitta Жыл бұрын

Cool video! Would you be willing to do a video going over your thesis at some point?

@languagejones6784 Жыл бұрын

Definitely. That's on its way.

@bigscarysteve Жыл бұрын

I'm not sure what Rosetta Stone was doing in Grand Central Station. Were you providing on-the-spot translation services? Or were you simply trying to sell the software? I saw a free trial of Rosetta Stone somewhere--a very long time ago. From what I saw, it looked to me as if it were simply a mnemonic system that someone had come up with and decided to use for language learning specifically, when it probably could have been used for anything. I wasn't particularly impressed with that, so I never bought it. It seems to me that Rosetta Stone's success has more to do with aggressive marketing than with the actual success of the program. Then again, I don't like Pimsleur either. In fact, I'm not really happy with any approach to language learning that I've ever been presented with. I try to come up with my own, since that seems to work better for me than anything anybody else comes up with.

@languagejones6784 Жыл бұрын

It was retail software sales. I only have experience with versions 2, 3, and 4, but it struck me that in V2 the linguists had free rein, and it was an eclectic but truly great program, and from V3 onward it had a lot more care put into the UX, really tailored to usability for the average person. I'm probably the only person who absolutely adored the old version that everyone complains about.

@frechjo 10 ай бұрын

I like the old Pimsleur audio courses (I don't know what the new browser thingy is about). I would never call them a complete course. It's good at encouraging you to start speaking, and gives you some confidence that's probably completely unjustified. But I think that's good, and paired with other stuff, it helps. But I never payed for them. If I had to, I'd probably spend the money some other ways.

@bigscarysteve 10 ай бұрын

@@frechjo I've heard a lot of people swear by Pimsleur. If it works for you, then I guess more power to you, but I've never seen the appeal. It all looks pretty pointless to me. I prefer a logically organized approach to understanding a language's structure.

@GroovingPict 10 ай бұрын

how did Wallace Shawn react to that? like, you quote his undoubtedly most famous line to him, and he goes something like "hah, yeah, good one, so you recognised me huh", and you go "what on earth are you talking about?"... must have been confusing :p

@languagejones6784 10 ай бұрын

He literally winced

@sjm42 2 ай бұрын

You had me at SLIDERS! 😍😁

@hodelhophopp9386 Жыл бұрын

Please do talk about the story in Rome with the mafiosi

@byronwilliams7977 Жыл бұрын

Fun video :)

@jetlaggedchef6806 Жыл бұрын

Loving your vidoes! I just bought a place in Italy and plan to move there in a year or two. Any advice on learning Italian? (e.g. - program vs immersion school vs... ?)

@crbielert Жыл бұрын

That was epic.

@kierstynsharrow1266 Жыл бұрын

#BreakfastToEveryone

@illexsquid 9 ай бұрын

Someone needs to get Samuel L. Jackson on video saying this.

@Thermobyte Жыл бұрын

It could be a time traveler. Alternatively however, that's a great bit to pull on unsuspecting strangers.

@illexsquid 9 ай бұрын

No, it was DEFINITELY a time traveler.

@takingbus11 Жыл бұрын

What’s your instrument? Can you do an improvisation video? Will settle for a standard. The language stuff is nice, too.

@MrRubikraft 12 күн бұрын

Breakfast to you :-)

@languagejones6784 12 күн бұрын

Same to you!

@eurovicious Жыл бұрын

Great video. Love the Sliders shoutout. Not seen The Princess Bride but I know Wallace Shawn from DS9 and Southland Tales. What's the story with the abortive jazz career?

@languagejones6784 Жыл бұрын

I called worked as a bandleader, composer, arranger, and side man for almost a decade. I called it quits when I saw a live recording session at a club and my mentor, whose session it was, paid his musicians half of what I paid mine. I already felt guilty about paying so little. I asked how he afforded such a nice house, car, and so on, and long story short, most seemingly successful jazz musicians just have successful spouses. AND teach in music programs, take every gig they can, regardless what it is. I still play, I just enjoy it now and can focus on the music rather than putting food on the table.

@eurovicious Жыл бұрын

@@languagejones6784 I love hearing stories like that, thanks. I worked as a translator in Germany for a decade and most of the other expats I knew who worked as translators or English teachers were women with high-earning engineer husbands. Seems a lot of interesting professions need that spousal subsidy...

@ak5659 Жыл бұрын

I've noticed that, too. I'm an ASL interpreter and I was shocked to find out that spoken language interpreters get paid half what we do.

@nicholaswise5818 Жыл бұрын

OMG You had a jazz career!?

@amethystjean1744 11 ай бұрын

Breakfast to everyone! lol

@davekaiser7891 5 ай бұрын

Best wacky language story: On an overnight train to nowhere in Russia, a Russian man, completely shitfaced, jams a hunting knife onto the table in our room, so that the knife is quivering back n forth, then says “let me tell you about my wife…and her lover.”

@mkm1836 9 ай бұрын

Can we get a video on the Dutch Neighbors Prank, please?

@beansclox 11 ай бұрын

4:30 we all have em'

@hadlerleco1 11 ай бұрын

Sayonara!

@Droni0201 Жыл бұрын

What language do you speak?

@SideWalkAstronomyNetherlands Жыл бұрын

He spoke American Engrish, with an New England accent.

@aimee-made 11 ай бұрын

@@SideWalkAstronomyNetherlands He doesn't sound particularly New England to me, that said, I'm a New Englander, so maybe I just can't hear it!

@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug Жыл бұрын

0:55 Ehhh... My question was when did a big block of granodiorite with an inscription in three languages become an employer... But I guess this is something else called "Rosetta Stone" 😅

@eritain Жыл бұрын

No, it's -- you were right the first time. Sort of. Let's see ... the nanoplaque infestation sensed quorum and booted into self-awareness around 2029 -- sometimes they/it says 2028, hard to get a straight answer out of those critters/that gestalt, you know how it is -- and best estimate is it/they had infiltrated and crawled most of the British Museum collection already, so when the "Make Friends" Glitch happened they/it probably restructured the Stone for sapience pretty much immediately. But I guess Rosetta didn't really accumulate the economic clout to start hiring folks until about 2032. Maybe 2031. Safe to assume it started making deals under the table before its public debut, and we can't really check its financials because "minerals don't pay taxes" (thanks a lot, House of Lords). Sometime around then, anyway.

@resourceress7 11 ай бұрын

❤