Meet Guy Sharett Who Speaks 7 Languages

Guy Sharett started his love of languages as a child.

Growing up, Guy used to correct his parents on proper grammar. Surprisingly, they didn’t throw him out of the house…

Today, Guy’s passion of language learning has led to a podcast with 1+ MILLION downloads.

Personally, I love his podcast StreetWise Hebrew. It’s short, funny, and fascinating — and they talk about sex words. 😛

During my recent trip to Israel, I got to sit down with Guy.

We had a 15-minute conversation with 3 main takeaways:

1. How Guy turned his moonlighting passion into a full-time business
2. How the f he knows 7 languages — plus ways to make learning languages easier
3. How Israel is different than other countries

Listen on Apple Podcasts – Listen on Overcast

P.S. Want more lessons from my month in Israel?

• 3 Important Lessons About Business, Life, and Happiness
• Behind-The-Scenes with the Man Who’s Disrupting a Trillion-Dollar Industry

1. Turning your passion into a career

Streetwise Hebrew recently celebrated 1 million downloads.

Congrats, Guy! 🎉 🎊 It’s even crazier when you consider it started out as a side project…

Like many entrepreneurs, Guy started his career working a 9-5 job.

After finishing his daily grind, he taught Hebrew from 7-11 pm each evening.

He LOVED those late night hours:

• The buzz his students felt when learning a new language
• The energy he felt teaching something he enjoyed
• The power of building his own side hustle

After validating his idea, Guy decided to go all-in.

The result was Streetwise Hebrew – an innovative method of teaching Hebrew consisting of the sights, sounds, smells, and insight into the beautiful Tel Aviv, Israel.

Tel Aviv, Israel

A post shared by Noah Kagan (@noahkagan) on Jul 4, 2017 at 6:05am PDT

Guy has become one of Israel’s most well-known podcasters — and his walking tours of Tel Aviv have even been featured by the New York Times.

Way to go, boss.

Here’s what you can learn from Guy about turning your passion into a career:

1. Become an expert: Before starting Streetwise Hebrew, Guy had taught Hebrew for 20 freakin’ years. Building something takes time. He was an expert in the language and knew all the secrets and best tips for learning that only come from experience
2. Just start: Guy used to teach Hebrew at night after his 9-5. He could have bitched about the hours, said he’d do it when the “time was right” — but instead he just started. If you want to make your business a reality without quitting your day job, hustle on the side
3. Find a unique angle: In Israel, it’s not hard to find a Hebrew language instructor. But Guy is one of the best because his approach to teaching is unique. He takes his students on adventures through the streets of Tel Aviv to provide visual aids and memories to help them fully understand the language

Listen on Apple Podcasts – Listen on Overcast

Get more tips about combining your business idea and passion

2. Language learning (and how you can learn anything)

How many times have you heard someone use laziness as an excuse:

• “I can’t start that app, I don’t know how to code”
• “I don’t know much about marketing, but if I make it good enough they’ll visit”
• “My diet is wack because I can’t cook”

Most excuses = B.S. 💩

Anyone can put in the effort to learn something. Stop being so damn lazy!

For inspiration to get up off your butt, look at Guy –  he’s fluent in SEVEN freakin’ languages:

1. Hebrew
2. English
3. Arabic
4. Italian
5. French
6. Indonesian
7. Thai

He’s not superhuman. He’s not a genius. And he has the same 24 hours you have.

Here’s what he does different…

If you want to learn something new, Guy recommends repetition in context.

When Guy takes his students around Tel Aviv on graffiti language tours, they read and see everything in context of daily life.

This is a HUGE difference compared to how most people sit down and try to learn language from a book…

When you’re focusing on context, there are 2 key elements of learning:

1. Purpose: I wanted to go to Israel. I motivated myself to learn Hebrew because of the trip knowing that I’d look weird in some places in Israel if I didn’t learn
2. Define fluency: To converse, you don’t need to know every word. For me, fluency in Hebrew means having basic conversations. The same is true of most things. For example, to grow your business you don’t need every tip — just the right tips

When it comes to learning you should always think about:

1. Practicing in context
2. The purpose of learning
3. What fluency means for you

3. What makes Israel different

My time in Israel was pretty life changing. It helped me to realize that I need to:

1. Take more time away from my business
2. Focus on the right things
3. Create opportunities to meet new people

It’s a special country. And, Israel is still finding its feet. It’s a young state when you compare it to many other European countries.

And, as Guy and I joked about, it takes a lot of inspiration from other places…

“Tel Aviv is very similar to Venice Beach. There’s a bunch of Jews and you’re on a great beach.”

Israelis are very to-the-point people. Everything is very short and condensed and a lot of this sparks from the language.

For example, “did I wake you up?” is five words in English. But in Hebrew, it’s just two words.

Israelis can pack a lot of information into just one or two syllables.

This communication style is helping Israel’s startup and business scene go to the next level, with some super exciting companies disrupting trillion-dollar industries.

Check out the podcast below for additional lessons on language learning and following your passion from Guy Sharett.

Listen on Apple Podcasts – Listen on Overcast

Learn more life, business, and success tips from my trip to Israel:

• 3 Important Lessons About Business, Life, and Happiness
• Behind-The-Scenes with the Man Who’s Disrupting a Trillion-Dollar Industry

BONUS: How Sascha also made his passion into a career