When Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “he who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own, he may have been talking directly to Anthony Permaye and Andrea Gonzalez albeit close to two centuries earlier.
The two are on a language and culture learning expedition christened ‘12 languages in 12 months, travelling to 12 countries across five continents’.
Anthony was born in France 41 years ago, while Andrea was born in Colombia 35 years ago. They both worked in China as teachers (Anthony taught English, while Andrea taught Math) before quitting their jobs to embark on their journey worldwide.
While Anthony is a confessed eternal sojourner, a curious linguist, and a culture lover, Andrea is laid back, shy, and prefers learning the history of the places they visit quietly to language.
For the last year, they have been partners, not just in marriage but in their grand plan to tour the world and attend to their wanderlust. “We have planned this for one year, most of which went to laying the ground for our journey by putting resources together, researching the places we would visit, looking for sponsors, and setting our website and socials in preparation.” Anthony begins.
The question that comes to mind – or is it a conclusion – is that they must have a good cushion of wealth to do this. They don’t.
“If we waited for the time to be right, for the money to be enough, we probably would not have started this journey,” says Anthony.
“The average cost for such a plan is about $55,000 (Sh7.1 million). We did not have that kind of money, at least not all of it. Seventy percent of this is coming from our savings, 10 percent from crowdfunding from family and friends and people who follow and like our journey, ten from sponsors, and 10 percent from a website we have developed,” he adds.
40,000 Smiles
“We built our website – 40000smiles.com – to help us crowdfund. On the website we have a spread of 40,000 smileys, each costing one dollar, buyers buy these smileys and earn a place to upload their images on the spread, the more smileys you buy the bigger your image. So far, the biggest image we have on the website is from a buyer in China who bought one thousand smileys,” Andrea says.
If this is a film, Anthony is the main character—the man who does the most. Andrea is the supporting cast.
Travellers and founders of Language Chameleon Anthony Permaye (left) and Andrea Gonzales pose for a photo at the Nation Centre in Nairobi on November 11, 2024.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
“We are doing this differently; we are not just travelling and learning languages and cultures, we are creating documentaries about it. We aim to use this to teach these languages and cultures to people around the world. Andrea shoots the videos while I do most of the talking and learning.”
To help them remain on track, they hired a video editor from Kenya. “Andrea and I would have been swamped up with editing and content creation. We generate a lot of files from our recordings, and it is only sensible to use a video editor. Additionally, we have a marketer from Bangladesh who we found online and is helping us to push the content on digital platforms.”
So far, everything has gone according to plan. They are done visiting five countries, spending four weeks in each, and at the time of talking to the BDLife, they were in their third week in Kenya—their fifth country.
They started their journey on July 1, 2024, in China, and their language of focus was Mandarin. From China, they went to Japan, where they learned Japanese. They travelled westwards to South Korea to learn Korean before heading south to Indonesia, where they learned Bahasa Indonesian.
The four weeks they spend in each country are segmented into four parts. “Our first week in a country is spent learning a language of focus. For example, in Kenya, we focused on Swahili. We spent the second week with a family. We live with them for a week, follow them around, and try to learn their culture as much as we can.
“Week three is spent travelling and sightseeing. This is the time we have set aside for us. Doing this can be overwhelming, and we need time with each other. Finally, in the fourth week, I take up a challenge.
“In Kenya, we will be going down to Lamu, where I will be working with boat builders who carve boats from wood by the end of the week, I should have carved my boat. For each challenge, I must attain at least six out of ten points that I have set for myself. At the end of our journey, I aim to have accumulated at least eighty-five points,” adds Anthony.
Travellers and founders of Language Chameleon Anthony Permaye and Andrea Gonzalez in Seoul, South Korea.
Photo credit: Pool
There is a lot of planning that goes into this kind of travel, how are they pulling it off?
“Perhaps it helps that I have good organisational skills. I have created a spreadsheet of activities, their time allocation, and the money we should spend on those activities. We had one year to do this, and I can say we did it to a T.
“I have built networks across the world as well, and these networks have been crucial in aligning our plans and visions with the realities on the ground,” says Anthony.
To cut costs, they travel light and avoid buying stuff in the places they visit.
“It is tempting to collect souvenirs as you go. But doing that will add too much to our luggage. In Kenya, we have only bought a foldable piece of art that doesn’t take up a lot of space. For clothing, we both have what we think is necessary for us: eight T-shirts each, an equal number of pants and underwear. This is also a lesson for us; you don’t need much to be comfortable. We also try to minimise the amount we spend on accommodation by using CouchSurfing – a hospitality exchange service that allows users to request free short-term homestays.”
Their journey has had its challenges—like any other journey would.
“Quitting our jobs was our first and probably biggest huddle, especially for me because I love stability. And the uncertainty we faced wasn’t sitting well with me. Secondly, my family was worried about our safety and health. Our resolve to do this, however, may have won them over in the process, and now they support us,” says Andrea.
Where do they go from here? The right answer would be Jordan, but that is not the gist of the question. What do they do after a year around the world?
“We have written a textbook in 12 languages, which we hope will help teach learners around the world about cultures, languages, and much more. We hope to monetise our YouTube channel in the coming days as well. This can be a stream of income to fund some of the overheads like production. In the best-case scenario, I become a language coach for a football team in, say, Europe, in the worst-case scenario, we go back to teaching in China. Andrea still has a contract after this hiatus.”
Travelling has taught them to be open-minded and to know that there exists a world outside what they know and are used to.
