​How much overlap is there between music and language? Sinologist, Linguist, Jazz Pianist & returning Geopats Podcast Guest David Moser, joins us again for a dive into this question. 

This week due to an evil head cold I have something different for you. This mini language episode includes:
-a personal German language update (get ready to cringe)
and
-an unpublished language snippet from a previous interview with Yunus from September 2019

Ever get frustrated with how little of the language in your textbooks can be used in real life conversations? Davey, Founder of Popcorn Club in Shanghai, China isn’t. Why not? Because he is too busy enjoying his conversations to care. I asked Davey how he keeps conversations going and here are his top 3 tips for doing so.  ​​

How sound sensitive are you? Our guest today, Phoebe, grew up with Mandarin Chinese but has learned a myriad of languages including English, Finnish, German & more. But her sound talent goes far beyond languages into sound and voice research in her current PhD life in Ireland. She is currently researching the connection between recorded voices and listeners’ emotional responses to them. This sensitivity and Phoebe’s general curiosity touch every aspect of language that we discuss in this conversation. 
Note: There are some construction noises, ironically, in this conversation. They do NOT last the entire time, so hang in there. 

In this Changing Scripts podcast episode we chat with Lotta, a Finnish college student who lived in Shanghai, China between High School and University. During part of that time she took intensive Chinese language courses. Lotta has continued with her Chinese language learning even after returning to Finland by using TV shows and other media until she can take more language classes at her university.
Lotta shares with us her intensive Mandarin Chinese classroom experience in Shanghai, how she used the language outside of the classroom and how Mandarin Chinese compares to the handful of other languages she has learned and used in her life thus far. Lotta’s mother, Pia, was a guest on the Expat Rewind Podcast last year, where shared her first impressions of Shanghai via a blog post she wrote after moving here from Finland. Hi Pia!

​As a Writer, Translator and Playright; words are what Jeremy Tiang uses to share his ideas about the world and all of its ambiguity. In his prose he addresses issues of identity, culture, and the boundaries of what we think these things mean. His upbringing in Singapore was multicultural and yet it was not. So much so that when asked what his first language is he replies, “It is complicated” and it is easy to see why.

​Singapore, very much like Jeremy and very much like most curious, discerning people such as yourself (yes, listeners, I am talking about you), is in a state of constant change. This change includes how it shares itself with the world and Jeremy plays a part in how we see both Singapore and its people, especially, if I understand it right, those who are not often portrayed in the national narrative. In this podcast episode, we primarily dig into Jeremy’s language experiences from early childhood to the present day. But those cultural tones are impossible to remove from language, so we did not even try.  ​

​In this episode we chat with Angie, Creator of the T(h)ree of Books YouTube channel. Angie is from Germany and had a few languages under her belt before moving to Shanghai, China and studying Mandarin Chinese. ​​Angie decided to take the time to study Mandarin Chinese in a classroom setting the first few months she was in the city and that is what our conversation revolves around. I have been curious about Chinese language classes in China so her description really kept my attention. She also shares tips, comparisons to her previous languages and her potential future in Mandarin Chinese as well.