Hey everybody and welcome to another weekly update on the language vlog. I hope you're doing well.

Things have slowed down a little bit over here at the SLV HQ only because the heat and the humidity have made it just that much more difficult to get things done. Not horribly difficult, just uncomfortable. How are you coping with the heat and humidity of the summer months? Does it get as bad as Beijing (+35C, 80% humidity)?

That being said, we have been able to publish a few more shorts and we're currently working on a few long form videos as well. This week's shorts included:

1. Watching a movie in Chinese (抓娃娃, "Successor") - All about a family that pretends to be poor so their second son will study hard. A comedy and well worth a watch if you get a chance. I watched this movie entirely in Chinese and understood about 65% of the words spoken.
2. What will languages be like in 100 years? - What sort of changes will happen? Will it just be technology or will they linguistically change as well?
3. What does it mean to be proficient in a language? - This video follows a recent article about Australian universities are awarding degrees to students who don't seem to know English at all, yet they study abroad! How did this happen? (Article: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/30/australian-universities-accused-of-awarding-degrees-to-students-with-no-grasp-of-basic-english)
4. Reading The Three-Body Problem - Book by Liu Ci Xin, very famous here in China, a science fiction novel about how some video game helps save the world. Honestly, I couldn't really understand the plot, but it's been made into a Netflix series and a couple of movies. I tried reading it in Chinese and found it way too difficult.
5. Late Night Jian Bing - A look at one of the street foods in Beijing, 煎饼.

The last video, "Late Night Jian Bing", now holds the record for the number of dislikes one of my videos has received! Currently sitting at 6 likes and 5 dislikes! Why?!

Screenshot:

See it on YouTube

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How are the summer months going for you? Keeping up with your work and studies? Or are you taking some time off now cause it's too hot to concentrate? I hear the Chinese students only get about a week off completely from schooling, otherwise they're in summer school or extracurriculars to keep them busy. As a result, prices for attractions and other tickets have gone up to capitalize on the increase of people traffic.

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It's also QiXi this weekend here in China. It's considered the Chinese version of Valentine's Day but doesn't have nearly the same marketing pull. From Wikipedia:

The festival is derived from Chinese mythology: people celebrate the romantic legend of two lovers, Zhinü and Niulang, who were the weaver girl and the cowherd, respectively. The tale of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has been celebrated in the Qixi Festival since the Han dynasty. The earliest-known reference to this famous myth dates back to more than 2,600 years ago, which was told in a poem from the Classic of Poetry.

Although celebrated, it's definitely doesn't have the same ramp up in chocolate and flower gift buying that Valentine's Day has elsewhere.

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We'll leave it there this week. I hope you're well and getting things done despite the heat and humidity. You're lucky if you have an air conditioner!

If there's anything we can help out with, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

Steve

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Something to think about:

"I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework." - Lily Tomlin (actress)

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