Steven's Language Vlog Podcast

China's on its Golden Week break, seven days of no work… but two need to be made up. Why is it like this and what is there to do? Would you dare go anywhere if you know 10,000 other people were doing the same? Tiananmen, the Great Wall, or even Hangzhou's West Lake will ALL be crowded.

On the AI bandwagon, and is it necessary? What are the tools being used these days and how can they help? Do you need to LEARN AI? How can you USE it? And who benefits most: students or teachers?

And how are Chinese classes going? With two courses due October 25, I gotta get a move on. It certainly is much easier to follow along but does that matter?

(And I cancelled my DuChinese membership!)

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Time stamps:

00:00 Introduction and Holiday Overview

02:47 National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival

04:43 China's Holiday Makeup Workdays

13:46 Travel and Tourism During Holidays

15:33 Experiencing Beijing During National Day

20:49 Tourist Attractions and Local Insights

23:22 Fireworks Regulations in Beijing

24:33 National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival Traditions

26:02 AI and Agentic Workflows

27:15 APIs and Model Context Protocols

31:13 AI in Education

41:07 Language Learning Update

44:53 Conclusion and Farewell

Episode 58!

APP building begins! Let's see where this goes? Have some tasks to complete for the weekend, but this course only lasts one month so gotta get them done. Working on a "to do list" agent, multi agents, language agents, all sorts of agents. We will share these once they are out!

Chinese vs Western Literature. Had a bit of a sitdown with one of the graduate students on campus to get his thoughts on the usefulness of the modern university degree, why he switched majors, and some of the books that he's reading these days.

Books mentioned:

Western Literature

• William Shakespeare – works referenced in general (e.g., Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth)

• Albert Camus – works referenced in general

• Jean-Paul Sartre (mentioned as "thought," the French writer) – read two books in English

• Gabriel García Márquez – One Hundred Years of Solitude (referred to as "the lonely 100 years")

Chinese Literature

• Laozi (Lao Tzu) – Dao De Jing (referenced as "laws")

• Zhuangzi – works referenced generally as "the cons"

• Sunzi (Sun Tzu) – The Art of War

• Lu Xun – general recommendation for modern Chinese literature

• Mo Yan – Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out (also noted that he won the Nobel Prize)

What's up with the Air Raid tests this part weekend in Beijing? Do other cities have these?

And what about those Wedding Stickers??

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Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Podcast Setup

00:21 Microphone and Recording Setup

03:26 Importance of Backup Recording

05:33 Podcast and Vlog Overview

09:44 Challenges of Learning Chinese

13:54 Chinese vs. Western Literature

20:00 AI Agent Building Course

28:12 Air Raids and Wedding Stickers

35:45 Conclusion and Contact Information

SLV Episode 57

Bus adventures! how was it and why did you do it? From Changping to Shuangjing and back again, will be posting this to YouTube.

Enjoy your freedom! Enjoy your boredom! It'll change! Life goes fast!

Working on citations and referencing in class… honestly no idea how to make this more interesting for the students. All of the punctuation and abbreviations, etc. Ouch. My admiration continues: they're doing this in a second language.

How easy would it be to create an APP? Apparently not so easy. Good for personal use, but not for production scale. Who's going to maintain it? What about security? And is there something that can do it better for cheaper, even including time spent?

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Time stamps:

00:00 Welcome to the Language Vlog Podcast

00:55 Life in Beijing: 11 Years and Counting

02:33 Learning Mandarin Chinese: Tips and Challenges

05:25 Using Italki for Language Learning

06:54 Conversation Practice with Steven

08:49 Bus Adventures in Beijing

21:49 Teaching Argumentative Essays

23:04 The Challenge of Teaching Referencing

23:23 Reflecting on CELTA and ESL Teaching

24:53 University-Level Teaching Challenges

26:18 Importance of Accurate Referencing

27:38 AI and Automation in Education

33:13 Developing AI Tools for Education

35:24 Challenges in App Development

41:53 Future Plans and Membership Program

43:13 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Episode 56!

Changes in China! No more paper tickets! How important are these anyway?!

Didn't go to the Coffee Show this year, it cost 10 RMB!

Australian videos done, where to next?

-Dubai? Canada?

14 more weeks! Who's counting!?

-time is flying!

And Apple is releasing Airpods with built in translation?!

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Time stamps:

00:00 Introduction and Podcast Overview 03:06 Changes in China: No More Paper Tickets 10:50 Reflections on the Coffee Show 18:50 Semester Updates and Teaching Challenges 23:21 Completion of Australian Videos 26:25 Future Travel Plans 30:36 Apple's New AirPods and the Future of Language Learning 36:23 Conclusion and Listener Engagement

Wanted to shoot this outside but then remembered why: mosquitoes. And heat and humidity.

New week and we're back to school! How is it so far?

What's it like and what will we do? -Neat classroom with screens all over the place -Argumentative Essays -Citations and references

Useful resources: Goodnotes 6, Local Send, ViiTor Translate, Y2Doc

The last of the Australian videos! The Great Ocean Road and back to Beijing.

And the Sept 3rd parade is over, back to normal! … Until National Day Week, that is.

What will this semester bring? Learned a new words 学院好 (the study building number)

Need to find a bike!

And my latest language progress check, how did I do?

Questions? Concerns? Comments? Suggestions? Get in touch! [email protected] (I'm supposed to change this)

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Time stamps: 00:00 Introduction and Welcome 01:16 Beijing's Military Parade and Its Impact 08:11 Classroom Experiences and New Semester 13:01 Teaching Argumentative Essays 22:56 Useful Study Resources 29:00 Final Thoughts and Upcoming Content

Episode 54!

Welcome TikTokers! Been active there as of late. New platform to teach on?

And what am I hearing people need help on?

-Reading and listening (practice dictations - USE THIS PODCAST!!)

-Speaking

-Not too much for Writing (HERE)

-A lot of people are using Cathoven AI

-Common Errors HERE

Live streams and fluency practice, is making videos a good way to learn?

-This is something I've been recommending as of late

-Helps with confidence and fluency building

-You don't have to publish them (I've seen a few people publishing them)

Chinese books, what am I reading these days?

-Children's books about nature, science, inventions, etc.

-HSK 5 books

-Outlaws of the Marsh, one of the classics of Chinese literature (Wikipedia)

And what is all the racket in Beijing? Why all the planes? Military preparations?!

-Sept 3rd is Victory Day in China, when the Japanese forces finally withdrew from China

-Brutal occupation

-Last week I talked about Dead to Rights, the movie about the Nanjing Massacre

-More movies upcoming

-Big parade on Sept 3rd

New Chinese language check in progress, am I getting better or is it just the editing?

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Time stamps:

00:00 Introduction and Podcast Overview

01:20 Living in China and Learning Mandarin

02:42 TikTok Outreach and Language Learning

03:59 Challenges in Language Learning

06:43 IELTS Test Strategies

14:09 Writing Section Tips for IELTS

19:19 Live Streams and Fluency Practice

21:25 Benefits of Making Videos for Language Practice

24:18 Reflecting on YouTube Journey

25:14 Focus on Pronunciation and Fluency

27:42 Editing Progress Check Videos

30:15 Reading Chinese Books

37:49 Military Parade Preparations in Beijing

42:50 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Episode 53!

Saw Dead to Rights (南京照相馆). Heartbreaking. Lots of people die. About the Japanese invasion of Nanjing and how the atrocities were documented. During the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, postman A Chang posed as a photo developer, helping Japanese forces while secretly sheltering Chinese refugees. He later risked his life evacuating them and revealing evidence of the atrocities.

-One interesting point made: one reason why the Chinese couldn't assemble a cohesive defense against the Japanese was because of their own language barrier - the north and south didn't speak the same language

Live streams a go go - both got cut short and reminded me why it's tough to do this.

Australian vids uploaded and ready to go, a couple to go and then we'll be done. It was an experiment in travel vlogging and I see how it should change going forward. Spent much of the morning working on the Chinese subtitles for one of the videos!

And Idioms and Natural Conversation! How to rephrase what you want to say, those age old cliches.

Common Idioms: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EkjD8tO5xRtFJWZY8mxmYeQzoFtmAJ0jS6YwxWPnGAE/edit?usp=sharing

Everyday Conversations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uDukFfxaxaYiofNiOt9DG76YWx3N9QoU0NTz1614gxg/edit?usp=sharing

The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20PWgGy5ba0

And some questions answered!

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Membership program: https://buymeacoffee.com/stevenslanguagevlog

Contact: m.mtrbio.com/stevenslanguagevlog

Time Stamps:

00:00 Introduction and Podcast Overview

01:07 Learning Mandarin and Russian

02:34 Discussing the Movie 'Dead to Rights'

16:25 Live Streaming Challenges

20:12 Upcoming Video Projects

23:37 English Corner: Idioms and Natural Conversation

31:04 IELTS Preparation Tips

39:20 Conclusion and Contact Information

Episode 52 already!

LIVE STREAM walk n talk! Let's do this again! What did we see?

Question: just what do you have to see when you're travelling?

IELTS Top 10 and FAQ: FREE DOWNLOAD! All over on BMAC:

Top 10: buymeacoffee.com/stevenslanguagevlog/e/441366

FAQ: buymeacoffee.com/stevenslanguagevlog/e/444905

Looking to the future: what if I started a business instead?

Oh and a bonus!

And what is gerrymandering? "Early 19th century: from the name of Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts + salamander, from the supposed similarity between a salamander and the shape of a new voting district on a map drawn when he was in office (1812), the creation of which was felt to favor his party; the map (with claws, wings, and fangs added) was published in the Boston Weekly Messenger, with the title The Gerry-Mander."

Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering

And whatever happened to that book of yours?

Don't forget to subscribe to our membership program. Transcripts, mp3s: https://buymeacoffee.com/stevenslanguagevlog

Comments, questions, concerns suggestions? Get in touch! [email protected]

Time stamps:

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview

00:52 Busy Summer Recap

01:15 Daily Routine and Content Creation

03:13 Considering Full-Time Content Creation

05:11 Visa Options in China

06:25 Starting a Business in China

08:37 Challenges and Considerations

11:21 Career Reflections and Future Plans

14:23 Business Setup Costs and Legalities

17:42 Final Thoughts on Business Ownership

21:54 Finding a Reliable Incorporation Service

22:43 The Value of Content Creation

23:13 Reflecting on Personal Growth

23:50 Deciding on Starting a Business in China

26:04 Live Streaming Adventures

27:02 Exploring Beijing Through Live Streams

28:30 Engaging with the Audience

32:41 Preparing for the IELTS Exam

34:32 Understanding Gerrymandering

39:11 Wrapping Up and Future Plans

Episode 51!

Not as hot, but still humid here in Beijing. Lots of rain and lots of warnings to stay away from the forests, etc.

More Australian videos! A couple more to go! Should we try an ASMR video? (ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response)).

Then on more Chinese videos that we have ready and waiting.

Let's talk about AI and Language Learning! Our recent live stream. Summary and example prompts available HERE.

IELTS Top 10! FREE! A free cheat sheet addressing some of the things I've seen and heard over the years that can help students move up the bands. DOWNLOAD HERE.

Our membership now open! See our shop for more details! Transcripts, mp3s, worksheets, and more. Find it here: https://buymeacoffee.com/stevenslanguagevlog

Comments concerns questions suggestions? Get in touch, we'd be happy to help.

PS - And when do package cookies get healthy? Adding flax and chia seeds?

Contact: m.mtrbio.com/stevenslanguagevlog

Time stamps:

00:00 Introduction and Podcast Overview

00:47 Seasonal Changes in Beijing

01:53 Australian Trip Reflections

02:50 Exploring ASMR Videos

06:01 Video Editing Techniques

12:43 AI Tools for Language Learning

28:50 IELTS Preparation Tips

38:57 Conclusion and Membership Program

With Episode 50 we're back into the groove and thinking about just what makes a book worth saving? Shot from the second floor of the Victoria State Library, we could see that some books were off limits to touch. Why is that and who makes the choice?

Next, looking at the new Huawei (really expensive!) Matebook Fold: a dual touch screen tablet and laptop combination complete with breakaway QWERTY keyboard. Neat, but worth it?

Last week we had time to review some of the requirements for the different levels of the IELTS scoring system. What makes a four? What makes a six? And how to do you move up the bands? Full live stream on YouTube, cheat sheet here.

Finally, we're aiming to get the rest of the Australian videos posted and published this week, so stay tuned to see what we saw!

Lastly, the last week saw the deaths of two notable, big name celebrities: Ozzy Osbourne and Hulk Hogan. Who were they and why were they important? And why do some people not like them?

MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM NOW OPEN! Access to all episode transcripts, mp3s, worksheets, and even some tech stuff that will help you with your language studies. https://buymeacoffee.com/stevenslanguagevlog

Thanks for listening!

Any questions, concerns, comments or suggestions, get in touch!

Transcripts here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-sDW4HyeAH9PssJp8kE6XWQduAHOXj7n?usp=sharing

Contact: m.mtrbio.com/stevenslanguagevlog

Time stamps:

00:00 Introduction and Podcast Milestone

00:42 YouTube Channel Growth and Content Strategy

04:07 Challenges of Vlogging While Traveling

06:36 Exploring the State Library of Victoria

10:17 Debate: What Makes a Book Worth Saving?

15:43 Review: Huawei Matebook Fold

23:00 Understanding the IELTS Band Descriptors

32:59 Tribute to Ozzy Osborne and Hulk Hogan

43:05 Conclusion and Podcast Information