Hello and welcome to yet another edition of the language vlog newsletter!

This week is a "newsletter-heavy" edition as we only published one video on the YouTube channel. We take a look around my new neighbourhood, practice typing in Russian, check in on what iShowSpeed is doing in China, and a little bit of info about the Qingming Festival, one of China’s most meaningful traditional holidays.

Listen to the latest podcast episode!

Available on Libsyn, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

This Week’s Video

1. 🚶‍♂️ Let’s Walk Back to the Hotel – A casual Friday walk from the university campus, showing a bit of Beijing’s local layout—shops, green spaces, and a surprising amount of open land. Watch here
2. ⌨️ Do You Practice Typing in Your Target Language? - A little tip on working out those language muscles.
3. 🧹 Qingming Festival (清明节) - What is it and why is it important?
4. 📱 iShowSpeed in China? - Popular YouTuber iShowSpeed shows up in China, why?
5. 📺 New YouTube Playlist Link - New link for the AUDIO ONLY version of the podcast on the YouTube channel.

Let’s Walk Back to the Hotel

The only video we published this week! A bit of a look around of the new neighbourhood, including an empty property management office and a walk up a barren hill (few and far between in Beijing!) This video gives a glimpse of just one area and is stark contrast to the video I did last year at this time (Shuangjing).

Changping neighbourhood video here.

Do You Practice Typing in Your Target Language?

Typing is its own skill—separate from speaking, listening, or even handwriting.

For Chinese, the pinyin input method makes it easy, despite how complex the language might seem at first glance. But for others, like Russian or Ukrainian, things aren’t quite so smooth... at least for me.

Personally, I find Cyrillic much easier to write by hand than to type—especially on a standard QWERTY keyboard or touchscreen. Practicing this once in a while helps not just with speed but with slowing down and noticing details in the language.

Do you type in your target language regularly? Is it easier or harder than handwriting?

Qingming Festival – 清明节

This week also marks Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, one of the most important ancestral remembrance holidays in the Chinese calendar.

Families across the country visit the graves of loved ones, clear weeds, offer food, and sometimes burn paper replicas of money, houses, or other symbolic items to honor their ancestors.

The name “清明” (qīngmíng) means “clear and bright,” and it coincides with the shift to warmer spring weather. You’ll often see people flying kites, having picnics, or even planting trees, in addition to visiting their ancestors' graves to clean them up after the winter months.

Interesting fact is that QingMing wasn't a holiday in the Mainland of China until 2008, and Wikipedia tells me that 青团 (qīngtuán, sweet green dumplings) are eaten at this time, but I haven't seen any of them on offer just yet.

Further, although China loves to append "festival" to many of its public holidays, QingMing is NOT a festival where you would say QingMingJie KuaiLe! In other words, it's not a happy festival but more of a sombre event meant to remember those who have passed away.

Instead, you can say "Have a great long weekend!" if you want to put a happier spin on the event.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, it's NOT a make up work day (调休)! That means Friday's day off is just that: a day off with NO make up work day the week before or after! That doesn't happen often here!

iShowSpeed in China?

Honestly didn't know who this guy was before he came to China, or at least I can't remember ever seeing him before. iShowSpeed, "Speed" for short, is a well-known YouTuber who got his start livestreaming playing video games.

As his channel morphed into live action "adventure" videos, he was also famous for his surprised reaction to the Chinese pop song "阳光彩虹小白马(Yángguāng cǎihóng xiǎo bái mǎ)" by 大张伟 (Dà Zhāng Wěi).

Needless to say, the video garnered some attention and, in his most recent visit to China, he sang the song with an instrumental group (but not with Dà Zhāng Wěi).

The song kinda makes you wonder what Dà Zhāng Wěi's management team was thinking when they made the video but, on the other hand, should music (and language) be governed by the impressions someone else can have of them on the other side of the world?

YouTube video for Dà Zhāng Wěi's song is here.

Speedy's reaction video here.

New YouTube link!

I know not everybody has access to the podcast via YouTube, but for those who do and want to simply LISTEN to the podcast (rather than watch), we've created a new UNLISTED playlist. That means you need to have the link in order to find the playlist.

Why the unlisted playlist?

I'm not sure if it really affects the channel's analytics or ranking, but I figured having a dedicated playlist for the audio-only version would help keep things organized and decluttered and benefit those who don't want to jump to another platform to listen. Feel free the share the link to anyone you think might enjoy it.

Here's the playlist link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyCuZCTh5Rg&list=PLyGSBt0905-z683cduidMlcbeYz99XvUl

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Need help with your studies? Reach out anytime: stevenslanguagechannel@gmail.com

Best,

Steve