Heya everybody and welcome to another update of the language vlog!

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Sending this out a little bit later than previously as we ventured out to the China International Exhibition Center to attend the Cafe Show 2024. We originally heard of the exhibition in 2022 but something got in the way, and in 2023 the timing didn't work out. However, this year we made it work! We are now working on a video of the day to upload to the channel.

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We changed things up this week on the vlog, opting for a couple of LIVE videos, only a couple of shorts, and a couple of long forms videos as well.

1. 2024 Mid-Year Review - A look back at the last half year of language learning, especially as it pertains to keeping up on my Mandarin Chinese, brushing up on my Korean, and treading water with Russian grammar. The video also includes a bit of a lookahead for the rest of the year.
2. Let's Learn some Chinese Reading! - An hour-long live stream in which I read through some of the stories available on DuChinese, an app that I've been using to practice my Chinese reading. I've started reading Traditional characters as of late which has necessitated simpler stories. However, even by reading Traditional characters, I find I'm brushing up on my overall vocabulary which helps with my Chinese language production overall.
3. Let's Learn some Russian Grammar! - Another hour-long live stream in which I go through some of the Russian books I've been sent by my teachers over the years. In this "study session", I read through parts of Поехали which is a common book to use for new students to the Russian language.
4. Chinese Netizens say: You Swan, He Frog, You Pretty! He Ugly! - If you thought the Western media was harsh, try posting to the Chinese interwebs. With users like xyzpoplol777, twinklefairyprincess6868 and other creative naming schemes, one post went viral on Chinese social media site XiaoHongShu. The post that generated a huge response was from a Ukrainian girl who was bidding a tearful goodbye to her boyfriend who had to leave China for a while. Chinese netizens (which they call themselves here on the Mainland) took this as a rather negative thing and posted a variety of comments, one of which was "You swan, he frog, you pretty, he ugly!" and thus encouraged the girl to find a man who didn't have to leave her. This rather funny comment comes from the Chinese saying "癞蛤蟆想吃天鹅肉 (lài há má xiǎng chī tiān é ròu)" which directly translates as to "A toad wanting to eat goose meat," but really means when someone is thinking of doing something that reality won't allow. So make sure you pull this out the next time you hear someone conjuring up some cray cray idea, eh?
5. To travel or to class? - And a final short for the week in which I ask the question, "Is it better to travel to learn a language or to sit in a class and learn?" This, of course, will often come down to budgetary constraints and personal preference, possibly even the underlying intentions of learning the language in the first place, but it is a good question to consider from time to time. After all, a textbook and class is cheaper than an irreversible plane ticket.

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Another long form video is currently uploading, "Is China Safe?", which I know some people wonder from time to time. So I made a "walk and talk" video all about what I see as safe and unsafe in the country. The video should be up by the end of Sunday so have a look at the channel then.

We of course have quite a few other videos in the works and will update you as they are posted.

I myself like the idea of the live study sessions as it combines my own language studies with producing more "content" for the vlog, which I justify and hope helps other people "see" just how a language is learned. I plan to continue these for the foreseeable future (I have the number 16 in mind for some reason) and may even add one more that deals with learning English so even I can learn the language! Lol ;)

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If you haven't done so already, please head on over to the Buy Me a Coffee website as that contains a few resources I think are useful for people who are studying other languages, especially now that the school year has re-started once again. (That was a quick summer?)

And if you haven't already, please share this email with those you think it might interest, entertain, to educate as it will not only help the channel grow but, I think, help them with their own language studies. My focus here is to document my own language journey and expat life so that others can see and learn from what works and what doesn't.

If you have any suggestions for videos, long or short, or other topics you'd like to see covered, don't hesitate to get in touch and we'll do our best to get them done.

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We'll leave it there for this week. Thanks for reading! I and the team hope you're well and productive and keeping cool in these final days of summer before the colourful leaves of fall begin to appear.

Stay in touch,

Steve

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