Fun First, Fluency Follows: Karl Vilhelmsson’s Chinese Strategy

What happens when a Swedish physics student decides to go all-in on Chinese? Meet Karl Vilhelmsson, a particle physics student at Stanford’s SLAC lab and a self-described language adventurer.

From a middle school classroom in Stockholm to immersive conversations with a Taiwanese friend and a solo Chinese language-only trip to Suzhou, Carl shares how curiosity and fun fueled his Chinese learning journey.

Carl talks with Jared about building meaningful friendships through Chinese, discovering the joy of reading and writing characters, and how Chinese has deepened his global perspective, both personally and professionally.

Carl’s story is a reminder that Chinese is learnable, and it doesn’t have to be boring.

Links from the episode:

• Mandarin Companion Graded Readers

• Do you have a story to share? Reach out to us