Another week, another email! Hope you're well!

Welcome to the Language Vlog Podcast Newsletter! :D

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ALMOST got it all done this week! BUT, failed. We tried... but it was not to be.

WHAT am I speaking of? Well, we managed a livestream for English and Chinese but when we tried to stream for Russian? Failure. Tsk. On the up shot, however, the failed livestream did prove one point: my language studies are paying off.

Live streams aside, it's getting colder here in Beijing as the winter winds are a blowin', which helps clear up the air but substantially drops the temperature. Not yet time to break out of the winter parka but getting there.

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This week's videos:

1. Chinese: Chinese writing practice!
2. English: All about Chinese visas and green cards
3. Russian: #FAIL - BUT... practiced speaking!
4. Short: What is the five second rule?
5. EXTRA: Working on a book?

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Got MOST of the Chinese livestream done this week, and by that I mean, it got cut off again at around 42 minutes. Not to be deterred, we still managed to work our way through one more of the Traditional Chinese character sheets, so that takes us to Page 10. I STILL haven't translated the text yet, but we'll get there in due time.

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An English livestream was up next wherein we talked about getting a visa to China while also touching upon the so-called "Chinese green card", what it is and why anyone would want it.

This was an informative livestream as we went through several aspects of applying for a Chinese visa. Most people receive a Type Z visa is they're coming over to work in the ESL industry. However, there are many other visa types that can be applied for, including livestreamers!

In this video we also went over some of the qualifications needed to apply for a Chinese green card, aka, a permanent residence card (which is only valid for ten years!) This card is useful as it allows its holder to skip renewing their visa each and every year (which is what most ESL teachers have to do, including myself) AND provides an extra bit of security if something were to happen such as job loss, since the green card isn't tied to the sponsoring company. This means that if the green card holder quits or otherwise loses their job, they can walk down the street and find another job. It makes things a little bit easier.

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The third livestream of the week was supposed to be a Russian language study session but... it only partially happened. I wanted to go through an email we received from one viewer that suggested an effective study method for learning Russian declensions. However, the stream cut out and we were only left with 7 usable minutes.

On the up shot, I did this live stream primarily in Russian, minus a few words I didn't know how to translate properly from English (including the numbers). So, what this does show is some success and progress in the language after EIGHT YEARS of studying it!

Granted, I didn't start studying Russian in earnest until about 2020, opting for a more relaxed, self-study, and casual approach to the language beforehand. However, some time around 2020 I decided to take the language a little more seriously.

Sadly, the events of February 2022 put a damper on learning the language so progress had stalled.

However, as time has gone on, I've continued in my own studies and, well, Friday's live stream demonstrated if only to me that I have apparently picked up some of the language! Quite the thing to see and hear, I say.

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This week's short was all about the so-called "five second rule", which could also be a three-second rule, ten-second rule, or even the 30-second rule.

This "rule" isn't really a rule so much as a funny way of justifying that if something falls on the table in a restaurant or on the floor, you have a limited amount of time before the germs "akshewally" get onto whatever it is.

Some people opt for a shorter time period, some people longer. I think it really comes down to what you know to have been on that space before and whether or not it has been cleaned properly and to your standards... and everybody has different standards!

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Finally, there is a little bit of a project we're working on over here at SLV central and that is a book of shorts.

The idea is to compile, sort, re-write, and publish a book (ebook and physical?) about learning another language. The book would be based on allllll of the YouTube Shorts we've created to date and to make a bit of an inspirational guide for someone who is looking to learn another language or, even more importantly, STALLING in their language learning.

We'll let you know how things develop and announce it in due time!

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We'll leave it there for this week! We hope that this week's email has been helpful and insightful.

Comments? Questions? Concerns? Suggestions? Get in touch! We'd love to hear from you! You can email us here or follow us on YouTube and post a comment, we'll get back to you!

Thanks for reading and let us know if there's anything we can help you with!

-Steve

YOUTUBE

PS - You want a postcard? Send me an email with your address and I'll ship one out. I want to try out my postal service Chinese!

PPS - Want a digital postcard instead? Send me an email and I'll make one for you.