Member-only story
The summer I found ‘love’ in a language-learning app
How I was swindled into wiring almost $1,000 to a man in Haiti
It was the summer of 2015. Back then, my nights (and sometimes days) were spent zipping around the stiff carpet of a Texas steakhouse with a sizzling hot tray balancing upon my right palm. It was hardly the dream, but it was definitely a job and I desperately needed to get out of my parent’s house again. To take my mind off the failure I felt I’d become, I decided to learn a new language. Little did I know this decision would lead me to a long-distance love affair that would end in manipulation and potential danger.
I’d heard my sister talk about an app called HelloTalk. So, I decided to give that a try. I signed up and saw a sea of options I’d never even considered. Native American languages. African languages. I was there to regain the Spanish vocab I’d lost and become fluent but, when I realized I could learn more than one language at a time, I said instead of attempting French again, why not Haitian Creole? So, that’s what I did.
I sifted through a pool of potential tutors. My criteria: How much English do they know and do they have a kind face?
That’s when I saw he was online. Let’s call him Stanley.
