Meet RJ: The founding member eavesdropping his way around South America

Our founding members took a chance on Sylvi back in 2024 when it was still a scrappy little idea - and now they're out in the world, using everything they've learnt 🥹

And RJ was one of the first! He's 56, semi-retired, based in Canada, and currently doing what he does best: eavesdropping on conversations in South America (his words, not ours).

Why Spanish?

RJ started learning for practical reasons - he wanted to be ready for travel to South America. But along the way he realised language learning does something to your brain & he’s here for it! It keeps him sharp, and it opens doors into cultures that would otherwise stay closed.

His favourite Spanish words?

RJ's current obsession is chimba - Colombian slang for something being cool. And then there's chamba, used across Mexico, Peru and Colombia to mean work or employment. It’s the slang that does it for RJ - the living, breathing vocabulary that no textbook includes, but that native-like fluency is actually made of.

On Sylvi...

And his favourite feature? He goes to the namesake herself: "I want to show some love to the original star of the app - the Sylvi tutor. She's like having a full-time, 24/7 Spanish tutor in your pocket."

Couldn't have said it better ourselves 🤷‍♀️

How he actually practises

RJ watches the Spanish news every day - no subtitles. When a word or concept trips him up, he takes it straight to Sylvi. He's also working his way through García Márquez's Cien Años de Soledad, a couple of pages at a time. This is comprehensible input at its best: surrounding yourself with the language at the edge of what you understand, then pushing that edge a little further every day.

The breakthrough moments

RJ's favourite thing? The moments that catch him off guard when he's travelling with his partner. Overhearing a conversation and suddenly realising he understood it - it’s those wee moments that make the whole language learning journey worth it.

"Having knowledge of another language is like having a super power."

We think so too, RJ. Welcome to the club 🌎