As the 100th week of the 7 Bullet Points About Languages Newsletter (7BPN) just arrived in your inbox, it’s now time to start a new (exciting!) journey.
From next week, The 7BPN will be replaced by a new weekly newsletter called…
TL;DR — Talk. Learn. Discover. Repeat.
For those that don’t get the pun, TL;DR is usually used to mean “Too Long; Didn’t Read” and has two possible usages:
Complain to the writer he rambled too much and that you didn’t read.
Give a summary of a previously shared intel
That second usage is one of the reasons this newsletter will be named this way.
After spending years online ingesting and creating content related to language, I realize there’s way too much information. My goal is for this newsletter to be a place you visit to learn everything language-related every week, without having to go through mountains of content.
Instead of directing you toward a bunch of other resources each week, here’s what you’ll get each week. It’ll be a sort of reformed and improved 7BPN.
A summary of at least one piece of content
In this section, you can expect anything.
I can share podcast episodes, articles read, summaries of discoveries research unveiled, videos watched, apps I used, video games great for learning languages, etc.
Anything goes.
As long as it’s language-related of course!
A summary of one of my articles
For those who don’t know1, I write articles on Medium.com too
Unfortunately, you need to have a paid membership on Medium to read more than 3 pieces per month... unless I share a special link called a “friend link.”
And that’s what I’ll keep doing as I share new articles and sum them up in a few words each week.
Culture across borders
If you’ve followed me throughout 2022, you’ll already know this section too and you might have already seen an evolution these last two months.
For those who are new, here’s the TL;DR:
I originally chose to talk about a cultural difference each week but now choose one topic per month and divide it throughout the week to talk about more countries.
Culture is an unavoidable part of learning a language. The goal of this section is to help other average polyglots (or future average polyglots or just curious peeps) get more curious about different cultures!
Lesser-Known Languages (LKL) Overviews
🤩
Now now. Calm down, Mathias.
Sorry. I kinda lost my mind because I love this section so much.
For the past 6 months, I’ve researched and written about languages most people don’t know about. This section is here to stay. As is.
But there’s another reason these LKLs get me so excited.
A gift for yall
Since July 2022, I’ve also written 6 deep-dive pieces about lesser-known languages. When I say “deep dive,” I mean it. These all took me (at the very least) dozens of hours to research and write.
They’ve all been reserved for paid subscribers but I figured it was a shame to keep them locked away while my goal is to make them better known.
From tomorrow until Sunday, free subscribers will receive one piece a day as each gets unlocked.
Now, these pieces aren’t the kind you read while waiting for coffee. They’re the kind you read while drinking that coffee, tea, or whatever2. They can get intense so take your time and don't hesitate to come back to them later when you have more time!
For those not interested in those, don’t worry, you won’t be receiving daily emails forever. It’s just this one week. 😉
Oh, and I’ve also added a directory page you can reach directly with all the languages I’ve already covered (ordered by region) along with links to them. I’ll update it weekly with the new languages!
Here’s the page if you want to bookmark it!
From January onwards, the TL;DR newsletter will be out 3 times per month while the last week will be reserved for an LKL deep dive available for everybody at the same time!
Why become a paid subscriber?
Now that the lesser-known language deep dives will be available for free, what’s the point of becoming a paid subscriber?
Well, for one, to support my work! 😁
But there’s also something in it for you of course:
I send a personal reflection about language learning (and more) every two weeks, along with an audio version by me.
Current and new paid subscribers will receive on January 1st an Excel file with all the sections shared in the past 100 editions of the 7BPN.3
Paid subscribers will also get discounts on future products I put out (such as my ebook about learning languages through video games coming out in 2023, and more) and free templates to use to learn faster their target language(s).
TL;DR
2023’s gonna be a great year.
We’ll Talk.
We’ll Learn.
We’ll Discover.
And we’ll Repeat those again.
Whether you’re a paid subscriber or a free one, thank you again from the bottom of my heart. Sharing my love of languages with all of you really is one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever done.
Thank you and see you next year!
I mean… I’d be surprised you found me without Medium but, hey, let me know if that’s your case! I’d love to know how I popped up on your screen!
I’m going hot choco nowadays but, you know, it’s freaking wintertime.
Those who will become paid subscribers after January 1st will receive it too of course!
All set for 2023... Yay!
This is great. I read every word…
well almost