Shifters: On Language, Identity, and Becoming

What if the question “Where are you from?” isn’t small talk — but a trapdoor? In this episode, I’m joined by Xenia: Russian-speaking trilingual living in Madrid, English and Spanish teacher, American accent coach — and someone who knows what it means to live in several voices at once. We talk about the actual multilingual experience: the selves that emerge in different languages, the homes you grow out of, and the subtle grief and freedom that come with becoming. We get into: - why “I’m a linguist” can feel truer than “I’m a teacher” ; - why some of us say Siberia, not Russia ; - how 2022 quietly rewired the emotional weight of “where are you from?” ; - accent prejudice, identity flexibility, and the psychology behind “I want to lose my accent” ; - fluency arriving before permission ; - language not as a skill, but as a way of living . This episode is for the people who don’t feel fully at home anywhere — and have stopped trying to force themselves into one version of themselves.

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