What do you do when simple words like "yes" and "no" open up a language pandora's box? You adjust, just as Tanya Crossman has. Here she is explaining the differences between these two words in Mandarin Chinese and English. ​

Is writing in Mandarin Chinese and English very different? Nanci, a local Chinese Writer I met in various cultural groups in Shanghai, was kind enough to share her experiences writing in both languages from an early age. Does anything she say surprise you? Does her experience resonate with you? Please share your ideas with us on Twitter, Instagram or via Gmail: stephfuccio is my handle in all of these places.   ​

What is happening on Geopats Podcast this month (November 2019)?
All month I will be doing a range of experimental micro episodes about language. The main focus, as usual in our language show, will be on Mandarin Chinese but I make zero promises to stick to one language. In fact, I fully expect that I will swerve towards and away from other languages throughout the month as well. This experimentation is part of National Podcast Posting Month, NaPodPoMo (it's international really but it started nationally in the U.S. many years ago so the name stuck) http://napodpomo.org/,   https://www.facebook.com/groups/napodpomo/ and http://www.rssmix.com/u/9742423/rss.xml
 
Oh, and I will make reference to my language YouTube channel so here is that link as well https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClzR7HySZTVb6g-tSzAhi5A

Geopats Podcast: Would love to hear from you! Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn  & you can even leave a voice message on Speakpipe. Where to find the Geopats Podcast website, Apple Podcasts page, subscribe on : iOS , Android devices, RSS. Check out all of our projects: https://stephfuccio.com/

​This episode was created with:
-My microphone: Samson Q2U
-Auphonic,free online leveling software
- Producer, Editor, & Host: Stephanie (Gmail: stephfuccio or WeChat: stephfuccio)
-Music courtesy of Damon Castillo. Today's song is "Rocket Of Love" from their Mess of Me album. https://www.damoncastillo.com/
- Podbean hosting site: Get 1 month free, https://www.podbean.com/virtualexpats

Do we sound like our language teachers? Do we pick up and carry with us different language and personality nuances based on their language usage? Geopats Host Stephanie dives into this idea from both a language learner AND language teacher point of view. What do you think? ​

Are you a beginning language learner? Do you feel inadequate, shy, hesitant about talking about your learning process? Let's work on that. #languagelearningpride at every stage should be a thing and I want to help make it a thing. Who's with me on this? ​

Does the phrase "practice make perfect" make you cringe? Me too! When it comes to learning and using Mandarin Chinese, our guest Venture Capitalist Ryan Shuken focuses on fluency. He mentioned this in parts 1 and 2 of this interview but really expands on this concept with real life examples in today's episode. He stresses that he wants to keep talking to people, keep reading the newspaper, and keep typing a message. Perfection is not the goal: communication is. That's not to say that being understood is not important and this is clear in Ryan's future language goals of continuing to build vocabulary to make these communicative moments even more powerful.  ​

666 has a bad meaning in every culture, right? In today's episode Venture Capitalist Ryan Shuken explains what 666 means in Mandarin Chinese how numbers were a gateway into understanding Chinese culture for him. He also admits that focusing on communication instead of language perfection was a strong element in his success in finally becoming fluent in a language after years and years of struggle.

Have you ever had to create your own path to succeed at something? That is exactly what Venture Capitalist Ryan Shuken did to become fluent in Mandarin Chinese. In fact, he was so successful at it that he ended up being the Lead Interpreter for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in China. This is a 2 part interview about his amazing language learning story. Come back tomorrow and the day after for the rest of Ryan's inspiring language story. ​

We jumped into this month of NaPodPoMo without me explaining what the Geopats Podcast is. So let's take a moment to dig into this project. 

What words and phrases are to talk about podcasting in Mandarin Chinese? How are they different from English? Audio and language experienced James Thomas, Host of the Four Seas One Family Podcast oins us for today's mini episode to answer these questions. ​

Japanese uses 3 writing scripts but how many does English use? Lisa's 2 recent mini episodes about typing and reading Japanese in these multiple scripts got me thinking really hard about this. Guess how many scripts we use in English? Did I miss any? ​