7 Bullet Points About Languages - Week 34
Hi everybody,
I hope your week was marvelous!
This week was mentally rough. I felt low the entire week and it only got worse when Taiwan announced they still wouldn't open their borders, which means I'm still stuck in France. I barely wrote but did a lot of passive listening in all my languages and found a fun Taiwanese show where fluent foreigners talk about everything in Chinese. Here's a good one if you speak or learn Chinese!
Alright, let's dive right in!
Each week, I share 7 things that could be useful to your learning odyssey. I hope they can help you improve your journey, tickle your curiosity, and inspire you to keep exploring.
One video: Language learner speaking for the first time be like… — By Dan Yo
This is a short and funny video about how we all get overwhelmed when we first speak a language. Dan made another funny skit about what learning a language is like. Have fun and laugh while remembering when you were scared straight too!
One article I read: 3 inspirational language learner stories to motivate you in 2021 — By Adon Lawley
I wasn't really happy this article was a sort of an ad for Busuu but the first story really is inspiring. Andrea Caschetto went from being told he could never learn again because of a brain tumor to speaking 5 foreign languages. If that's not inspiring, I don't know what is!
One article I wrote: 4 Easy Habits To Improve Your Language Every Single Day
It's an oldy but a goody. Since I didn't publish any new article about language learning this week, I thought I'd share an old piece most of you probably haven't read but that'd be useful. This one is about making tiny improvements no matter how busy you get.
One podcast episode: The Speakly Podcast (Ep. 1) - Laura Maliszewska ― By The Speakly Podcast
The Speakly app (available for iPhone or Android) seems to be everywhere nowadays. They've now come out with a really good podcast. This first episode was long but full of great tips. I won't spoil it for you but know that the middle part gives great tips for improving your pronunciation and staying motivated.
One tool to try: Downsub (website)
This free tool can allow you to download the subtitles of YouTube, Viki, and other platforms. By adding "subtitle.to/" in front of the URL, you get to a page where you can choose which language's subtitle you want. You can even download bilingual scripts if you want!
One quote to ponder: “Knowledge will bring you the opportunity to make a difference.” ― Claire Fagin
Current biweekly challenge: Set one single daily focus (Listening, grammar, reading, speaking, vocab, writing)
The goal for the current challenge is to choose one specific type of activity and focus on it, changing the skill every day. Unfortunately, since I felt down most of the week, I ended up switching back and forth between different passive activities only. At least I stayed in touch with my languages but I wished I had been more active!
Let me know how it went for you by sending me a mail at barra.mathias@gmail.com!
As always, thanks for reading!
Mathias Barra
PS: The majority of you chose to keep the same format for this newsletter so we'll stick to it for now but don't hesitate to keep answering the survey or to send me a message if you have any questions!
For more of my articles, you can find them here.