Video summary
The speaker begins by outlining his plans for the upcoming two weeks, which involve taking time off work to decompress, improve his health through fitness, and engage in focused language study before traveling to China for over a month. During this break, he intends to tackle daily micro-challenges rather than a previously planned monthly word-count goal, while also vlogging his experiences and occasionally reacting to content from overseas. His upcoming trip will include visits to Hong Kong, his wife's hometown in Weifang, Shanghai to meet potential clients, and possibly a side trip to Korea, during which he plans to immerse himself in the local culture and continue his language learning journey.
For his Spanish studies, the speaker is utilizing a combination of Language Transfer for its etymological insights and Rosetta Stone for direct method production practice, though he notes that Language Transfer does not always clearly show grammatical patterns. He spends about an hour on these structured exercises followed by an hour of comprehensible input through listening to podcasts and other media. He also plans to review Pimsleur later in the series, aiming to provide a comprehensive evaluation once he has completed more of the courses, while acknowledging that Rosetta Stone is particularly effective for him at this stage for drilling specific grammatical forms like verb endings and reflexive pronouns without English translations.
On the Chinese front, his focus shifts toward improving listening skills and moving beyond gaming-related content to engage with street-level interactions and spoken slang, areas where he feels a significant gap between his production abilities in niche topics versus general conversation. He is using Linguee Pie for two hours of daily study as per his agreement with the software provider, though this will not constitute the majority of his learning time due to his busy schedule. The transcript includes examples of him practicing Spanish verb conjugations and number usage, highlighting moments of frustration where he realizes he still struggles with basic concepts like distinguishing between singular and plural verbs or counting past a certain point.
The video concludes with the speaker reflecting on the psychological challenges of reaching an intermediate plateau in language learning, describing the feeling of being an "imposter" who knows enough to realize how much they still don't know. He contrasts his struggle with Mandarin Chinese, which he finds constantly difficult and frustrating, against Spanish, which feels more manageable due to its similarities to Esperanto. Despite the frustration and the nagging doubt that persists even after previous successes in learning other languages, he encourages viewers facing similar plateaus not to give up, emphasizing that this feeling is a common part of the process before wrapping up his vlog for the day.
Read the full video transcript
What's up, grinders? Welcome back to the
channel. It's 9:23 in the morning. We're
going to be learning languages again
today, but we're going to be vlogging
this. Now, before I get into the actual
language study and I start all that good
stuff, I wanted to talk about the
immediate plans for the future. So, over
the next 2 weeks, I'm pretty much going
to be at home. I do not need to work
because I've taken some time off. I'm
going to be using this time to basically
decompress, do some language stuff I
wanted to do, do some fitness stuff, try
to get my health in order, all that good
type of [ __ ] And then after that, so
that's 2 to 3 weeks, and then after
that, I'm going to China. And I'm going
to be there for just over a month, I
believe. And we're going to be going to
Hong Kong. We're going to be going to my
wife's hometown, which is Weifang.
And then we're going to go to Shanghai
to meet some potential clients of mine.
And we're just going to travel around
and then maybe we'll be doing a trip by
Korea. We shall see. So, that is the
plans for the future. What does that
mean I'm going to be doing over the next
2 weeks? I'm going to be doing lots of
little micro challenges.
I was originally thinking of doing like
100 words in a day a day type of thing
for an entire month, but unfortunately,
my holiday got cut back and then got cut
back further. And now it's down to like
2 and 2 and a bit weeks, so it's like
it's not really that appealing of a
challenge anymore. So, instead, I'm just
going to be doing day-by-day micro
challenges, vlogging them, and then the
occasional react to them while I'm
overseas. Of course, I'm going to be
learning languages while over there. I'm
going to be vlogging my whole trip.
Maybe we'll catch some shocking the
locals type of stuff. I don't know. It
won't be intentional, obviously. I'm not
going to be sitting out there waiting
for them in the shadows type of thing.
Now, I also wanted to talk about my
Spanish journey, what I've been doing
over the last week or so. So, pretty
much, I started on
language transfer. I've done some of
that. It's not that appealing to me, but
I will continue doing it for now, okay?
Mainly because
the way language transfer teaches
Spanish, it doesn't like really show you
patterns. It shows you how to convert
between, you know, one language and
another using primary like etymological
changes and stuff so far, but I will
continue doing because a bunch of you
guys really begged me to continue doing
it down in the comment section. So, I'll
be doing some of that today. Apart from
that, I've also been doing Rosetta
Stone. Now, Rosetta Stone is base it
teaches basically using a direct method
approach, and I'm finding it great for
just like production practice and then
just learning a bunch of new random
words, which strangely I just never
learned before, and just like wrapping
my tongue around the language. And
finally also,
uh really drilling some of those grammar
structures. Those are the the two things
I'm doing for Spanish, and I usually do
one or the other or maybe a little bit
of both each day for about an hour. And
then the other hour, I just continue
with just with comprehensible input,
just like listening to the language. I
know like it would probably be better at
this stage if I just did 2 hours
straight of study, but like that's a bit
exhausting. So, I'm just going to do the
1 hour in Rosetta Stone {slash} the um
the what's it called language transfer.
Apart from that, obviously I'm going to
be doing the Chinese side of things. Uh
for Chinese, I haven't decided exactly
what I want to do over these next 2
weeks. I really really want to like the
two things I want to drill is both
production practice and then also
a lot more listening. And today may
actually be a heavy listening day just
to bring my ear more like more up to
speed with the language, specifically
like street spoken language. Like I
found myself I'm pretty good with gaming
cuz I constantly just game in Chinese
like I have with my friends and then
just like watch gaming videos, but I
really got I got to I got to move away
from the gaming videos and focus on just
like some street interaction style
videos and stuff because that's where
I'm going to be using Chinese for like
the next month, but I [ __ ] find that
[ __ ] to be boring to watch online. Even
though there's like there's probably
lots of common street slang.
You know, just for like I don't know.
Like I can't think of anything right
now, but there's probably lots that I
don't know, and it makes me sound way
worse than I actually am because once
you get me in talking about gaming, bro,
I can talk about so much stuff. Like
it's it's crazy the discrepancy in my
production abilities in gaming versus,
you know, just talking about general
life. It's kind of crazy. Think I'm
going to have to start listening to a
lot more podcasts, watching a lot more
street interactions, doing that type of
stuff. Software-wise, obviously, I'm
going to be using Linguee Pie. I'll be
doing my 2 hours per day as standard.
Some of you guys might have thought,
"Hey Evil Deer, can you take that up to
like, you know, 8 hours a day on Linguee
Pie?" Um let us know how that how that
goes. I I would, but I can't because the
Linguee Pie guys um they don't want me
doing more than 2 hours a day on their
software. It's It's just part of the
agreement of the series is that I can
only do 2 hours a day. So, I'll continue
doing my 2 hours, but that won't make up
the majority of my time in the next 2
weeks. It is what it is.
Can't change it. Yeah, let's begin, I
guess. I got my phone right here, and I
kind of set up a in here just some very
very simple Chinese production decks
and also
um a Spanish production. I've I'm just
starting to do some some Spanish
production practice here, so
uh this here it's a close, as you can
see right here. So, it's like pleasing
to me
uh esta película. So, now I need to fill
in the the intermediate part or the the
part that's obviously closed out, and
that would be me gusta esta película.
And then I just go, "Yeah." You might
think it's strange I've got like
pleasing to me there, but that's kind of
it's similar to how Esperanto works with
Spanish in that regard. So, like I could
have literally just put the Esperanto
there. I don't know why I didn't cuz it
would make more sense to be like plaĉas
al mi or al mi plaĉas.
Uh anyway, um me gusta este videojuego.
Great, got that one right. Me gustan
videojuegos. Got that right. And by the
way, until I start doing production
practice, I didn't know what the
difference between gusta and gustan was,
but now it makes sense because me is
it's a a a reflex- um what's the
technical term for it?
Reflexive pronoun? I I forget the name
anyway. It refers back to the subject.
So, basically, this is that is the
object even though like in a SOV or SVO,
sorry, language that looks like it
should be the subject, but it's not.
It's the um it's the object. So, me
gustan los videojuegos. Me gusta ver
películas. Yep, got that one right. Me
gusta jugar a los videojuegos. Got that
one right.
Me gustan películas. las
las películas
Can you do that in Spanish? I don't know
if you can do that in Spanish. If you
can just say me gustan películas or me
gustan las películas. Like, I don't know
if the las there is actually required.
Uh that's the article. Vivo en Sydney
antes
No. Vivo en city uh bib Vivo en Sydney
desde
hace Ah, I've forgotten. I've forgotten.
dieciséis años dieciséis dieciséis Still
haven't got the numbers. We're just
starting to work on them now.
Specifically in sentences where they're
useful to me. So, vivo en Sydney Sydney
desde hace dieciséis años Vivi en
Singleton
durante tres años
Yes, got that one right.
Vivo en Sydney
desde
hace dieciséis años By the way, let me
know down in the comments section. I
haven't done anything with Stuart J. Raj
regarding pronunciation practice yet uh
for Spanish. So, let me know how my my
pronunciation is going and any mistakes
I'm making. Um
Vivi en Singleton durante tres años
durante tres años Okay, cool. Like, I've
I've completed that deck. That's just a
simple language islands one.
Uh I will add more probably over the
coming weeks. And then obviously while
I'm overseas, I won't be adding more
because I'll be focused on Chinese.
Okay, so I'm just walking down the
street chilling and
look what I bump into, okay? It's a
[ __ ] emu. Hello, mate. Hello.
Hello.
What you doing?
You want to learn Esperanto?
Huh?
I've just gotten home. It's 11:00 in the
morning.
As you can see, I've done 44 minutes
of just listening to Chinese podcast at
the moment. I just wanted to show you
guys this as well. So, our neighbor just
started building their house, okay?
Well, started building our land. Bro,
look how cut deep they are.
I'm a little bit of scared that our
whole property is just going to slide
onto theirs cuz they've dug it so god
damn deep. Apparently, I've already done
my daily steps in just one walk. Even
though it's 11:00 a.m., I actually
haven't had breakfast yet for today.
So, I'm just going to make myself some
I'm thinking maybe some wraps with a cup
of milk or something. I don't know,
something simple.
Then, we'll head up to the computer and
start the actual study. Okay, here's
breakfast
with a banana and I just realized I need
to take the dishes out.
Got to do that now. Okay, so the wife is
awake now. What I'm going to do is
probably just head up to the room, chill
the rest of the day, watch some stuff,
study some stuff, watch some stuff. We
shall see. But, uh this is all part of
my unwinding because shit's been intense
for these last few months.
Okay, I'm back in my room.
Just watching content in Chinese before
I
figure out what I want to do. I pretty
much had spent 2 hours and 26 minutes. I
don't know if you could see that. But,
watching Chinese content and it's now
4:17 p.m.
However, I also took about an hour nap
because
after my last like random little clip I
filmed, I was feeling I don't know, I
was just feeling really like
burnt out. And that might be because
this is like literally my first day off
in like four freaking ever, okay? And my
body is just like I just want to sleep.
So, I took a nap and then I ended up
sleeping like an hour and then I woke up
and I felt so much more refreshed. And I
I just kept going watching content. But,
I haven't done anything on LingoPie yet,
which I need to do Chinese. So, by the
time I'm done with Chinese today, it's
going to be at least 4 hours and 26
minutes total done, okay? But, I think
I'm going to do some Spanish right now
and I'm probably going to start with
Rosetta Stone and I'll I'll I'll film
that a little bit just to give you guys
a little bit of an insight just because
I want to get the
you know, the the study portion out of
the way first. Okay, so I'm about to
watch some Spanish Boost Gaming. I've
actually just had dinner, hung out with
the wife, did some stuff for a while.
It's now actually 7:00 p.m. at night. Uh
so, I'm going to watch this one episode
and then after this I'm going to do
Rosetta Stone.
That rolled R, man, still gets me. I
don't feel like
I actually don't feel like I'm getting
any better
at that rolled R at all. Like, it's
still just as bad as before.
Uh ellas ellos' tienen
bolígrafos.
bolígrafos
Ellos' tienen bolígrafos.
Él tiene libros.
Yeah, like
I've listened to, you know, 1,100 hours
of Spanish, okay? Heard that word a so
many times. Still, it's to this day just
as hard as when I first started. So, as
you can see, I'm just doing Rosetta
Stone right now. I know a lot of people
give Rosetta Stone a lot of [ __ ] I also
give them a lot of [ __ ] in a lot of
ways.
Um, and I'll give like I'll make a full
review once I've I've finished with the
series. But, I feel like in this one
specific instance, where you already
understand the language quite well, this
is actually just great for production
practice because it just slowly
introduces each one of the,
you know, the different, um, what do you
got? You like the verb changes and the
endings and, uh,
reflexive pronouns, all that stuff. It
just slowly introduces it all and it's
just like, "Oh, okay. Oh, okay. That's
what I heard before. Oh, okay." So, like
if you're coming straight out of
Dreaming Spanish and you want to do like
targeted
kind of practice for the different, you
know,
grammatical forms that exist within
Spanish, but also heavily input because
there's there's no English translations
here.
This is like one of the few instances
where I think Rosetta Stone actually
kind of shines.
But, that's saying a lot because I'm
only
what, uh,
week two or three into this cuz Rosetta
Stone supposed to like courses up into
weeks. I will give you guys, obviously,
a proper, uh, like review of the thing
once I get further along. In addition to
this, I also plan to do Pimsleur for
Spanish so I can do a review on that
series as well. And also,
um, what was it? Oh, yeah, Language uh,
Transfer. That's another one. So, I plan
to do all three. Okay, so, I finished my
Spanish. I did just under two hours all
up today. Uh, now I'm actually putting
on some shoes because I have to go to
the uh bus stop. It's night time right
now to pick up my mother-in-law.
And I'm probably going to listen to a
little bit of Linguee Pie while I walk
there. It's only like a 15-minute walk
max type of thing. Um meet up with her
and then I'll do some Linguee Pie later
tonight. I honestly don't know if I'll
actually get 2 hours of Linguee Pie done
in this vlog. But if you guys do like
these types of vlogs, remember what to
do. Sub to the channel. And if you
become a member, you gain access to more
of these types of ones and also the next
few weeks are going to be quite exciting
as I'm going to be going out a lot more
as I have time off now. Okay, I'm just
out here waiting for her bus to arrive.
And that's got me thinking deep dark
thoughts.
Do you know what the worst part about
being an intermediate level of a
language is?
You feel like a [ __ ] fraud, bro.
And you realize there's so much that you
don't actually know yet. Like you know
enough to know that you know so little.
It's It's [ __ ] painful and and you
constantly feel like I'm never going to
get this. It's just it's never going to
come to me. Like no matter how much more
I learn, no matter how much more I
acquire, no matter how much more I
practice, it doesn't matter. There's
just more to learn. And that obviously
is that whole intermediate plateau
thing. And the worst part is it doesn't
matter if you've already done this once
and you've learned a language to
fluency.
You still just sit there thinking
maybe I can't do this.
Like
I know I can do this. I've done this
with another language before, but it
doesn't matter, bro. It will It will
just nag at you and you'll be like
maybe it maybe I just can't I can't
learn another language. You know, maybe
maybe it's just
>> [sighs]
>> doesn't matter how much I try, I just
can't do it. I guess the only benefit is
I have done it before, but at the same
time that doesn't really help much at
the end of the day. You still just have
that that [ __ ] feeling in the back of
your head.
That's pretty much me with Chinese at
the moment. Spanish I'm I'm not too
bothered about. Like, you know actually,
Spanish I don't feel so concerned about
because it's so similar in a lot of ways
to Esperanto that I'm like, well yeah,
no, I totally can do this one. This is
going to be an easy one. Like, easy in
like respect to what I'm doing with
Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin Chinese is
just
it just constantly kicks you in the
balls. Like,
now obviously, this is not a call to
help. This is not me saying, "Guys,
guys, I think I'm going to fail. I'm
going to stop learning Chinese or
something like that." No, this is just
me simply
you know, stating what I feel. So, for
you guys who also feel this, don't feel
alone. It doesn't matter, you know, if
you've done this before, you're still
going to feel this every [ __ ] time.
And it [ __ ] it can be frustrating.
Some days you just wake up and you're
like, "I'm [ __ ] over this [ __ ] Why?
Why haven't I learned it yet?"
Just there's just there's just so much.
Okay, so I am back in the house.
Uh it's pretty late now, so I'm going to
just wrap up this video right now. If
you guys have enjoyed this video, you
know what you need to do. Uh like, sub
to the channel, and I'll see you all in
the next video. And if you're not there,
I will find you in a dark alley.