13: Von, An American Learning Mandarin Chinese & Loving The Brain Burn

This week we talk to Von, an American who grew up around Mandarin Chinese via martial arts and later intentionally slid into learning to read the language as well. Von thought the first 4 of the 5 years he studied Chinese were easy because he viewed it similar to the frequent practice of any new skill. But then the grammatical difficulty, script changes, and genre differences kicked in and the “brain burn” began.
​But that has not stopped his progress at all. He studies usually in intensive two week increments of about 6 hours a day and then pauses until the desire to learn returns (usually a few weeks later). His patience, persistence and contextualization of the language are ideal characteristics for what I wish were called the “Slow Language Learning Movement.” In a world where people strive to learn a language in 30 days, his views are refreshing and his approach is inspiring. Come along and listen to how he wants to use language to “speak the story of what he wants to say."

Links:
-TubeTo Pod YouTube channel
-Cat video that Von said would change my mind about cat videos
-Fluent in Mandarin, the website Von used to start learning Mandarin Chinese
-DimSum learning Chinese method
- Serge Melnyk Mandarin Chinese learning method
-Writing Video
-Chinese sign language
-Sign language
-Tricking video (like martial arts and acrobatics combined)
-Steve Kauffman YouTube
-Stylized Hanzi Chinese script for "grass/cao" that Von saw on this Chinese restaurantsign
-Two popular podcast sites in China (for Mandarin Chinese podcasts):

1. Lizhi AND 2. Ximalaya

-SlowChinese.com
-New York Times Mandarin Chinese-English bilingual edition
-Changing Scripts “Goodbye Leitner Box” video
-#studygram hashtag on Instagram
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Music courtesy of Damon Castillo,"I Hope You Figured It Out" song on the "Mess of Me" album
This episode was created with:

• My microphones, Samson Q2U
• Remote video software, Zoom
• Auphonic, free online leveling software
• Podbean hosting site: Get 1 month free, https://www.podbean.com/virtualexpats