Back to School, the Great Ocean Road, and Checking in on Chinese

Aug 31, 2025 9:44 am

This Week: Back to School, from the Great Ocean Road, and Checking in on Chinese

Vacation time might be over but the videos are still a coming. We’re finishing up the last Australian video from this past summer and will then get back into our regular China adventure stories so sought after by our viewers. It is back to school on Monday (8am start time) but some schools won’t start until Sept 4th because Beijing is putting on a big military parade. No matter, check in on my Chinese language skills in the meantime, thinking… what do Chinese listeners want to hear?

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🎥 This Week's Videos

🌊 To the Great Ocean Road! - Journeying along Victoria's famous coastline visiting the 12 Apostles, Razorback Edge, Loch Ard Gorge, and Apollo Bay, with wildlife spotting and a $12 scallop pie experience. 👉 Watch here
🇨🇳 中文检查2025年8月20日 | 博客 | ASMR | 邮件 - A Chinese language practice video discussing blogs, ASMR content, and newsletter information—all in Mandarin. 👉 Watch here
🎯 Common Questions about IELTS and TOEFL - A new video that addresses some of the common concerns students have about these standardized tests. 👉 Watch here
📚 Back to School - We’re back to full time university teaching on Monday, which means… what?.

🌊 To the Great Ocean Road!

One of the last trips we made while in Australia was along the famous coastline of Victoria: the Great Ocean Road.

This road was constructed in an effort to give World War 1 vets work to do as they returned from overseas. Though it received some funding from government, private enterprise also contributed in an effort to expand the coastline drive.

Highlights included:

The 12 Apostles remain the star attraction—these limestone stacks rising from the Southern Ocean not only create a dramatic seascape that's been millions of years in the making, it’s also on the cover of at least one English book. Oh, and there aren’t actually twelve, there were originally only nine but one fell over and so now there’s eight. Oops?

Then there was the Razorback Edge which sat in front of another rock formation that I say looks like a mini Sphinx, but it doesn’t seem to be a common opinion. A little way’s away from the Razorback Edge is the Loch Ard Gorge which is the site of a shipwreck in 1878 and also gives names Tom and Eva to a nearby set of rocks that used to have an arch connecting them, but that collapsed back in 2009.

Next, despite Apollo Bay being a common over night stay for those visiting the coastline on their own, we were on the Taobao special which meant we had only an hour or so in the townships. Enough to walk end to end and try out one of their famous scallop pies (for $12 AUD). Worth it? That's debatable, but we were only there once so might as well try it.

Finally, wallabies and koalas… kinda. We saw a pack of wallabies in one of the fields as we were nearing Split Point Lighthouse and so we were allowed off the bus to get a closer look. The koala(s), however, were a drive by sighting. A “Hey, look up in that tree, there’s probably a koala up there.” And then we kept going. Oh well.

👉 Watch the full video

🇨🇳 中文检查2025年8月20日

In what I hope is an example of how to approach your own language studies, I posted my latest language progress check for Mandarin Chinese.

These practice videos serve multiple purposes. For me, they're a way to push my Chinese speaking abilities outside of my comfort zone and something I tell my students to do as well—record yourself and find the gaps in vocabulary and grammar.

This video was straight forward in that it covers practical information about our newsletter and podcast while giving me a chance to practice explaining concepts in Chinese. It's not perfect—and I’m sure there are more than a few cringe-worthy moments. But, in trying to lead by example, and in an effort to build up my skills so that I CAN deliver a good presentation in Chinese, I gotta produce!

👉 Watch the full video

🎯 Common Questions about IELTS and TOEFL

A mid-sized video that goes over some of the common questions people often have about IELTS, TOEFL, and other standardized language tests. Intended for the ESL language learner, this video helps alleviate some of the concerns and anxiety surrounding test preparations.

👉 Watch the full video

📚 Back to School

We’re back to class on Monday morning, 8am-ish. Though the university has provided me the necessary PPTs for the class, it’s literally chock full of assignments and instructions for the first assignment. No introductory day of getting to know you?

No problem. We’ll do some chit chat and catch up, and then get into this semester’s major work: the argumentative essay.

But that’s all up in Changping. For those in the centre of the city, it seems they’ll have an extra few days off as the city literally SHUTS DOWN for the military parade set to happen on Sept 3rd. Twenty six world leaders will be in town and it will be tough to move around until after the parade is done and over.

👉 Video in the works!

We'll leave it there for this week. Thanks for reading! If you know anyone who might be interested in this newsletter, please do pass it along.