412: The Human Connection — 10 Benefits of Proficiency in a New Language
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
Release Date: 10/15/2025
414: The Art of Trusting Yourself (And Why It's the Key to a Joyful Life Journey)
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
"The more you practice reflection and appreciation, the more you build a reservoir of evidence that you can draw from in difficult times. You start ot see patterns. You start to recognize that while life has its ups and downs, you have consistently found a way to navigate them. You start to trust yourself more deeply. And that trust—that bone-deep knowing that you can handle whatever comes—is the foundation of true inner peace." —Daniel Chidiac, author of What if I told you that your inner compass knows the way to your most fulfilling way of living is as certain as the sun rising...
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413: 13 Ways to Finesse the Art of Spending Money
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
“The best use of money is a tool to leverage who you are, but never to define who you are.”—Morgan Housel, author of The Art of Spending Money If you ever want to know what a culture values, what a country values, look at their tax laws. I will never forget the wisdom shared by Martin Ginsberg, a tax attorney and the husband of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, on how a country’s subsidies reveal the guiding values of its populace through tax breaks or credits. I share this because, simply because it is the law, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be the law that guides your...
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412: The Human Connection — 10 Benefits of Proficiency in a New Language
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
“You live a new life for every language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.” ―Czech proverb Did you know that 92% of students in Europe learn another language in school, and nearly a quarter of Canadians can hold a conversation in both English and French. Roughly one out of every two people on the planet knows at least two languages, and three out of four humans don’t speak English. (source: (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) That may sound hyperbolic or pie-in-the-sky, but take a moment and consider what a democracy rests upon:...
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411: How to Deepen Your 'Joyspan' which will Lengthen Your Lifespan and Elevate the Quality of Your Entire Life
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
"Joy is the experience of contentment, gratitude, and meaning, regardless of our external circumstance. Joy is not simply feeling happy. Joy encompasses quality of life and the ability to contribute to the world with a sense of meaning and purpose . . . Joy, by definition, cannot be the goal." —Dr. Kerry Burnight, author of A mindset shift. A lifestyle choice. Rather than 'choosing joy' a concept that is vast in its meaning as what brings one person joy will be different from another's, it is rather knowing how to cultivate joy. What we choose are the ways to bring more joy into our life....
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410: What True Compassion Is and How to Employ It By Default, part Cinq/Five of "What Lies at the Heart of Living Simply Luxuriously"
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
"Just as we are wired to be in connection with each other, we are wired with an impulse to help, with an instinct for compassion." —Deb Dana, author of Empathy in action. While to empathize with another is a good step, a step that acknowledges our shared humanity, it is when we are motivated to act to alleviate the suffering that it becomes compassion. This compassion we are going to talk about today is a gift we give others as much as we need to give it to ourselves. Compassion is a choice, but it is a natural choice to choose and each time we do, along with being curious and honoring our...
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409: How to Make Living Itself An Art, Part Deux (Who is TSLL Written For?)
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
To look up the definition of art through an academic lens is to discover there is no one agreed upon definition of art, and to my eye that is what makes it all the more beautiful to cultivate in the way we live each of our lives if we are to heed the above quote's encouragement of action. Earlier this week, a new series began here on TSLL that will explore and share Who TSLL is Written For? And What Lies at the Heart of Living Simply Luxuriously. and how thinking works as a unit with being compassionate, something we will talk about in-depth in episode #410. The foundational premise is yep,...
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408: How 3-Years of French Language Classes Elevated My Experience While Visiting France
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
The journey of learning anything new, putting in the hours, the practice, and progressing in a controlled environment eventually must make its way into the real-world to ensure any confidence we have gained is sound. Over the past three years, as many TSLL riders and listeners of the podcast know, I enrolled in French language classes (12 in total) with Washington D.C.'s Alliance de Français through their online classes. Completing through FR 204 (B 1.3) in February of this year, I had met my goal and set about heading to France in March, not having been there since 2022 when upon returning...
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407: The Joys of Living Alone —By Choice or Circumstance
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
“'I think that’s just how life panned out. I had children and it was difficult to have a relationship with a man who was not the father. And I started thinking, OK, I’ll take care of the children and then when they’re grown up, I’ll be available for a partner. But then I found, I have to say, the great serenity of being single.'” She pauses, as if to savour the words. “'And if I hadn’t, I don’t think I would have been able to do all that I’ve done. I have freedom of movement.'”—Isabella Rossellini When I recently shared above about why she, initially...
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406: How The Essence of French Cooking Elevates the Everyday and is Simple to Learn (even if you don't like cooking!)
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
"Food need not be extravagant, complicated, or mysterious to be good. Quite the contrary." —Patricia Wells in her Introduction to Robert Olney's cookbook Whether you love cooking, loathe cooking or fall anywhere in between, we all need to eat. And if we eat well - a marriage of nutritive and delicious - we give ourself a very good shot at living a long and wonderful life. But we aren't born knowing how to cook. We have to choose to learn it, and depending upon our experience with food and the approach others took in how meals came together, we may have a whole host of beliefs about what...
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405: How to Be Loving to Ourselves which Allows Us to Heal
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
"Love has the shape and feel of water. It is simultaneously flexible and powerful. It can adapt and roar; it can also be silently nourishing." –Yung Pueblo, We know we need to heal when we slip into being defensive, reactive or regress into any self-protecting behavior - anger, aggressiveness - passive or active. When we cling to perfection at all costs, avoid emotions especially during difficult times, have co-dependent relationships (i.e are unable to be alone for any duration of time), agree to whatever is asked of us whether we are truly able to or not, crave external validation, are...
info_outline“You live a new life for every language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.” ―Czech proverb
Did you know that 92% of students in Europe learn another language in school, and nearly a quarter of Canadians can hold a conversation in both English and French. Roughly one out of every two people on the planet knows at least two languages, and three out of four humans don’t speak English. (source: ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages)
That may sound hyperbolic or pie-in-the-sky, but take a moment and consider what a democracy rests upon: civility, acceptance of differences, even if the majority rules, minority's rights are protected, along with a educated populous in vast fields of knowledge. These benefits, as we will talk about in more detail at the end of today's post, not only benefit the individual in the career and life pursuits, they also benefit the social and economic security of a democracy.
"Growth in the number of people speaking languages in addition to English creates new opportunities for greater cross-cultural understanding, and integrates different ideas and perspectives in ways that will improve democratic discourse." —The Century Foundation
As we get older, the argument is that it becomes more difficult to acquire a new language, and while that can be true, it depends more heavily upon the individual, their cognitive strength, the type of language they are learning (what Group level is it), as well as their awareness about what it takes to learn a new language. Yes, there will be challenges. Yes, you will be required to set aside your ego, and yes, it will take dedicated and consistent effort for at least 500 hours of learning to gain basic proficiency in a Grade I language (French and Spanish are included in this category). But the temporary stress is worth it for all that is gained.
“A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is also ignorant of his own language.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Let's take a look four truths that are revealed about someone who chooses to learn a new language. Each worthwhile attributes that not coincidentally play fundamental roles in living a life of contentment.
Find the Show Notes for this episode on The Simply Luxurious Life blog - https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/podcast412