Back to the Classics!
Dec 22, 2024 9:00 pm
Hello everybody and welcome to this week's edition of the language vlog newsletter! :D
Well, if there's one thing that makes Christmas time what it is in my mind, it's the cold, the snow, and some music.
Why only "some of the music"? Because it's overplayed! To say nothing of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas". If I was back in the classroom, then I'd probably hear it even more than I do now at the shops and stores.
But, my time in Canada is coming to an end as I now have to focus on clearing up a few things and moving onto the next big project. Details soon.
And, if Christmas is here, that means Spring Festival is right around the corner.
Are you doing anything for the holiday season?
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This week's videos:
- Chinese: 中文检查 12月15日2024年 - Chinese Check December 15, 2024
- Short: Reading Plato's Dialogues: Gorgias
- Short: Religious texts for language learning?
- EXTRA: Chinese email course prep!
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I was hesitant to post this in last week's email as I was still editing the video, but I managed to record another "Chinese language check" last week.
The big surprise with this video was that I did all the editing myself, which may not seem like a big deal to you, my dear viewer, since it is my YouTube channel after all. Other than the fact that I do have a wonderful video editor who does A LOT of work for me, this video was made and needed to be edited at a time when she wasn't available. So, what to do?
I did two things different with this video.
First, I actually edited the video, that is to say, I didn't go for the "authentic, one take, look and me speak Chinese" angle. Instead, I was thinking of the Chinese language viewer who would watch it. Much like any other audience, I'm not sure they would appreciate to have to sit through the "ums" and "uhs" of a talking head video. So, in an effort to keep them interested, I cut out a lot of stops, pauses and stutters I often commit while speaking.
Second, I added "burned in" subtitles. I used a free version of Capcut to generate the subtitles and then had to go through them line by line to correct what the machine translation got it. And it got a lot of it wrong.
The one big trouble I had were the characters for 鲜萃咖啡, or "fresh brewed coffee". It may have been my pronunciation, or it could've just been an AI-misfire, but it needed to be corrected quite a few times. And that wasn't the only set of characters, there were quite a few more.
The good thing was that I was able to see and edit the subtitles as I understood what I was saying. All that being said and done, there were still comments (no doubt justified) that my tones were off and, of course, my grammar was not entirely Chinese. I'm not surprised by those comments and it adds to the argument that the Capcut AI machine was simply transcribing what it could figure out from my pronunciation.
How has your experience been using AI (ChatGPT or Capcut) to transcribe something you said?
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Thank you for all your support!
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Reading Plato's Dialogues: Gorgias takes a step back, or rather a look behind me, and considers some of the books that are sitting on my old bookshelf. One of those books is some graduate reading I did back in the day.
I read Plato's Gorgias in Ancient Greek as a graduate student and I remember it being easier than I thought it would be but, BUT, the challenge has always been: do you read the book in translation first or try it by sight? And if by sight, do you write the translation of the words you don't know IN THE BOOK or on a separate piece of paper?
They seem like silly questions, but looking into this graduate-level book, I see my old handwriting. I always thought I was preserving its resale value yet... how much demand is there for a book such as a graduate-level book in Ancient Greek?
How do you treat your textbooks that can be considered "just books"?
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Religious texts for language learning? Next up on the shelf was a book I'm sure I bought with the intention of some day flipping through it, possibly because it falls into that category of languages challenges that pop up: "Hey, Steve, didn't you study Latin? What does this say?" And then I look and go... "Yes, let's ask Google."
Now, this video wasn't so much about the translation of texts but about whether or not religious texts could and should be used as textbooks for language learners. The Bible, the Qur'an, and other heavily-religious texts have been around for centuries and, as a result, have been imbued not just with a cultural and religious meaning to them, but they preserve languages as they once were. One need only think of the talk about translating the word "Homo" from Latin into English: is it "Man" or "People"?
Even then, when studying languages such as Latin or Hebrew, I think it's unavoidable to study a religious text at some time. The question then can be asked: what would a religious text be in Chinese? Is it a Chinese translation of a book such as the The Bible or is it a more cultural-centric book, such as Mao's writings? What would be the appropriate relation of The Bible to a language, culture and people who aren't necessarily "denominated"?
Big questions.
All that considered, the smaller question is: would you read a religious text as a part of your language learning?
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And finally, January will see the launch of our very first mini-course: Chinese through email.
This is very much a first try and we'll see how it goes. The course was developed from the idea that, since I know some Chinese, I might be able to guide someone who's new to the language.
There's some truth in that, though I don't think I'd trust myself with the pronunciation and grammar aspect of things. That being said, I could offer some guidance on the words to know and topics to learn as you get into the country.
So, the Chinese by Email course that we're developing is very much just that: an email course targeted towards people who have little to no familiarity with the language and wanted a low-commitment (re: free), non-Duolingo, hard-to-ignore daily email.
If you want to be put on the list, just reply to this email with "CHINA" in the subject and we'll add you!
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We'll leave it there for this week. Thank you for reading and joining us on YouTube, Spotify, Libysn, and all the other channels we publish to. If you're looking for a chortle or two, you can also follow us on TikTok @thelanguagetokker where we publish memes and other quips and quotes about language learning and the like. No pressure to follow, as we understand people may be adverse to the platform and, quite simply, inundated with too many socials as it is.
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