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Transcript:

Hello everyone, welcome back to the channel, and I’m Israel. And surprise, surprise: this is actually my first video that is mainly in English.

So, today we’re going to have a slightly different kind of video, because I want to do a sort of live demonstration of my own language studying method.

Recently I saw that Easy Polish made a new video about winter in Poland. I love winters, and I love Poland, so I’m really excited to watch this video.

If you don’t know Easy Languages, they are a group of very amazing channels that make videos for people to practise listening to everyday language.

They used to do a lot of street interviews, but of course, because of the pandemic, they can’t do that now, so currently they just mostly film themselves talking about various topics about different areas of vocabulary, and most importantly, they always have bilingual subtitles in the target language and in English.

I absolutely love these channels and I recommend you check them out. They have a large variety of languages.

Throughout this video, you’re going to see how I watch their videos, what I naturally do when I watch them, in order to teach myself efficiently.

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bear drinking beer

Let’s face it: German adjectives are unnecessarily complex.

If you’ve reached that part of your German studies, you’ll be nodding in pain and frustration at this statement. If you haven’t, come back when you’ve had a glimpse of it.

Alternatively, here’s an overview: there are three kinds of declensions, depending on what is being referred to; each declension includes an ending for 4 cases, 3 genders, and 2 numbers (singular/plural).

It really seems like this was designed to mess with learners. But since German is a natural language, not the creation of a madman, there has to be a reason for this mess. Throughout history, German speakers have collectively decided that this makes sense and is necessary.

I don’t know what that reason is, but I have some guesses myself. And my own justification has been immensely helpful for me to remember these complex endings. Now, I’m going to tell you why that is, and how to remember the endings without learning by rote.

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絮言．狂想 #009

The Cantonese podcast for fans of linguistics, language lovers, and Cantonese learners. This episode, featuring our first guest Heinrich Tsanov, discusses his work on YouTube, our (Lunar) New Year resolutions, and how the latest hit social medium Clubhouse can help learning languages.

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

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

Support us on Patreon

苗： 係啊，即係佢嗰啲畀盲人睇嘅……唔係畀盲人，畀聾人。[笑]

靳：畀盲人睇。[笑]

眾：[笑]

苗：即係，即係佢嗰啲畀聾人睇嘅……

[jingle]

以：歡迎大家返到嚟《絮言・狂想》嘅第九集，我係以色列。

苗：我係三苗。

靳：我係靳尼啊。

以：好啦今次呢一集就好特別嘅，因為係我哋第一次有呢個嘉賓上嚟同我哋一齊傾偈啊。

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絮言．狂想 #008

The Cantonese podcast for fans of linguistics, language lovers, and Cantonese learners. This episode discusses the types of minority language communities in Hong Kong, how they interact with the majority Cantonese community, and cultural integration.

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

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

Support us on Patreon

以：咪即係佢哋用法文嚟取代中文囉

苗：下？下？

以：所以我細個以為法國人係南亞裔㗎

靳：OK喎呢個

以：「French students」囉，佢哋叫

[jingle]

苗：好

靳：好lag啊

苗：好lag啊你

靳：大家都好lag

以：你lag啲

靳：點解你咁lag嘅？

以：我都想知

苗：好lag啊

以：大家好，又係我哋〈絮言．狂想〉嘅第八集，我係以色列

苗：我係三苗

靳：我係靳尼啊

以：其實唔一定要跟嗰個次序㗎

苗：冇啊，好似formulaic啲啫

靳：係啊

以：香港呢排好似都緊張，係咪啊？即係喺疫情方面，大家都好緊張

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Birmingham house garden in winter

It’s the 1st of February, 2021.

Oh God, 2021 still feels unreal.

And I decided to set some language learning goals today. And give you guys an update on what I’m doing too!

Why set goals one month later?

Everyone makes New Year’s Resolutions. Why am I doing this one month late?

For one, that ship has sailed. (lol) I got carried away by something else.

But more importantly, people always go overboard with their 1st-January resolutions. Since they’re ‘resolutions’ and not ‘goals’, most people just think about lofty things like ‘learning a new language’ or ‘starting to [insert new healthy habit]’.

It can be really demotivating to fail in the first month.

That’s why I waited it out. I wanted January to set the tone for the rest of the year, get a feel for how nice 2021 wants to be to me, try some things I might want to accomplish, and then project or extrapolate the rest of the year, to get a realistic goal.

Language learning goals

Even though I am growing into more and more of a content creator, I am deep down first and foremost a language lover. So let’s start with my language goals, shall we?

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