from my phone
I am forever searching for a new vegan recipe. Not that I am a vegan since I know I can never achieve the status of not eating eggs, turkey slice for sandwiches, or Campbell chicken noodle soup at all. However what I can do is reducing animal products in my diet to the minimum. And doing this requires me to search for new recipes all the time because not having meat (or having very little meat) in my daily diet has made the food quite boring and the taste quite bland. In order to spice up my interest in food, I have to go out to search for new recipes to boost my spirit. Recently I’ve experimented with a new recipe with “Just Egg”, cauliflower, and tofu. And it is delicious.
And learning a language is equally boring and often we have to go out to search for new tools to aid our language learning. Fortunately there are a lot of online videos and AI tools nowadays to aid us in this task. I’ve recently found several new tools:
From A Picture
The google translator app is a wonderful tool. It can turn on the cell phone’s camera, take a picture, and translate the picture for you immediately. This tool has made my reading of weekly Spanish newspaper “Latinos Unidos”, “El Especialito” much easier. They are two of the locally distributed community newspapers that one can pick up for free in Asian grocery stores.
One of the good things about these Spanish newspapers is that they love big pictures and less words. It is such a pleasure to read them when they don’t have so many words since I read sooooo slow. In contrast, the newspapers of Asian language varieties are cluttered with words and scarcely any pictures. I guess there must be some cultural differences there.
Try to Write on Screen
The google translator app also allows one to write on the screen, which is a great way for practicing handwriting. Since I don’t use pen and paper anymore, the only way I can practice writing is on the phone or computer screen.
Test The Pronunciation
The google translator app can record what you say and translate them. This is a great way to practice pronunciation. However the app I downloaded into my cell phone doesn’t work very well in this aspect unfortunately, but the google translator on my computer works very well.
Forever Searching For New Videos
I am at the awkward stage of finding basic Spanish videos very boring while not being able to understand more advanced stuff. And one way to get over the boredom is to searching for new videos. I mean searching for a new video, watching it for a minute before abandoning it seems to be an entertainment, like those people who flip TV channels for fun.
And there are several tricks in searching for new videos
- game show: if you like game shows, you may search for game shows in the language you want to learn. Also game show repeat a lot of sentences, which are wonderful for language learners.
- food show or animal show: I like food shows and animal shows, and this is why I am often searching for a new video among these shows.
- vlog: searching for the most suitable vlog is not really easy, but I recently find a strategy. Type “50 things about me” into YouTube in the language you want to learn. In Spanish, it will be “50 cosas sobre mí”. There will be a list of video bloggers coming up, each talking about themselves. This way you have a list of video bloggers in your hand and you can watch each one to see who speaks slowly and clearly while using simple words and phrases.
Subtitle Manipulation
Google Chrome has the capacity of providing two subtitles in different languages. So I heard, but I’ve never tried. I am a little lazy.
Haoyan Do 
The Welsh, Irish and Scottish are all capable of speaking English – but they have their own languages as well. Only a minority speak those languages. Eg only 20% of the Welsh speak Welsh, but 100% speak English. They are all related “Celtic” languages. The Scots also have an extreme dialect of English that they call a language (“Scots”). The Scots call their Celtic language “Gaelic”. So there are 3 languages in Scotland. The variety of English spoken in the London area is called “Estuary English” these days. They say it is spreading at the expense of other regional dialects.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Really? Their own languages? That’s so cool. I guess if we look hard enough anywhere, we will find diversities. And I am really shocked that people have their own English accent in London and I have to say the London accent in the TV learning program we watched is nowhere near BBC accent. We were very surprised. I guess the world is never the same as we assumed or imagined.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think there are 4 living languages in the Celtic family: Welsh, Gaelic (in Scotland), Irish and Breton (in NW France).
LikeLike
In case you are interested in trying Asian veg food, I can recommend The Foodie Takes Flight. Her recipes are spot on and straightforward. Also, I feel you with the intermediate language situation. I think I can understand A2 German quite well but am still fumbling with B1!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you fro sharing. Love this recommendation. I just checked out Foodie Takes Flight and it is a wonderful site. I mean it looks like something I can prepare. Yes, the intermediate is an awkward position since the material (or content) becomes so boring and the delight of a new language is fading. I think I am right now at A2 to B1 Spanish and advancing from here will take a lot of will power, which I probably don’t have. LOL.
LikeLike
Forever searching…forever learning…I like that great attitude. Thanks for sharing your discoveries, Haoyan. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well… vegan food is boring and I wish there are more vegan brands, but so far most of them are not tasting so well. It takes time and I hope there will be more vegan products in coming years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I gained quite a good knowledge of Welsh by listening to Welsh songs and translating them into English. I played them over and over and stopped the CD after every line to look up words etc. There is something about the musical aspect that imprints the rhythm of the language in one’s mind – I think.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I thought Welsh speak English. I have to look it up. Thank you for sharing. Are you saying Irish, Welsh, Scottish all have their own languages? I remember long ago in middle school, we watched a very popular English learning TV program taught by a man and a woman, both British. At one point, they went out to London streets early in the morning and talked with an old lady, who said something none of us could understand. Our teacher told us that’s called London dialect and we were so shocked.
LikeLike
I too am searching for new videos. And I think it’s great you’re trying to reduce animal products. It’s hard to be fully vegan but it is possible to reduce how many animal products you consume. Have you tried Yves turkey slices? They’re vegan and quite good.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well… I really should tell you my adventure of finding Yves turkey slices… On second thought, I am thinking of writing a post about it since it was quite an adventure. I still have found it although on Walmart’s website, it says it has it. I am thinking of go to Wegman’s, which is ten miles away, to see if they have it. I guess it must be very tasty…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I look forward to reading about your adventures. It was very easy to get in Canada but I guess it’s not so easy in the US.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am still looking for it right now. I guess it is really tasty, which is why I can’t find it in those stores that google says I can find it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I used to get the brand “bob’s red mill” and it was so tasty although a little expensive. You may find it at Walmart. It used to be there before.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha, I am still searching for that Yves turkey and I swear I used to see it somewhere. Probably it is so tasty that it is sold out whenever it appears.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha yeah that happens sometimes but hopefully you can find it. I really liked it in sandwiches.
LikeLiked by 1 person