I once thought I had a multilingual lifestyle.

That’s how I introduce my blog and YouTube channel to people anyway. As a student, I lived in a foreign language (English), and I spent some time on various language learning apps every day. I watched YouTube and Netflix in foreign languages. My commute consisted of podcasts in a different language every day.

But it wasn’t until the past few months that I realised how wrong I was.

A multilingual lifestyle isn’t a hobby, like I put it. Language learning can be a hobby, for sure, but to turn that into part of my life is to commit.

I’ve been slowly getting through the Queen’s Gambit lately, like everyone in the world, and I saw a bit of me in Beth—at least a version of me that would have existed if I had decided to make languages my lifestyle, or will exist if I make that decision now. It gave me a painful realisation.

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絮言.狂想 #004

The Cantonese podcast for fans of linguistics, language lovers, and Cantonese learners. This episode starts with the English and Japanese loanwords in Cantonese and talks about special features of word borrowing among Chinese-influenced languages, as well as calques and the Balkan Sprachbund.

Show notes and links available on the Cantonese page. Transcript below.

This podcast is also available on YouTube. Don’t forget to subscribe!

[intro]

以:係啊係啊係啊係啊。(苗:哦,OKOK)Wiki講㗎。Wiki講一定啱㗎。

苗:哦,原來係噉。

靳:呢個係咪intro嚟㗎,我想問。

以:係啊,呢個應該係intro啊。

苗:呢個係intro喇。

[jingle]

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