reminded me of why it was so difficult to learn chinese

because back in the day I had to use

something called a dictionary and this

is a special little book that you used

to look up their words in a different

language so you can learn but it was

really really difficult and I think a

lot of people get confused because I

watch my videos and they see a

progression of Chinese language skill

and my life in China but it was way

after I moved here when i started to

make video so you missed out on all the

difficult struggles that I had when

actually trying to learn Chinese now

long story short I was approached the

other day by some people that wanted me

to check out this app and this app hello

talk is a fantastic way to meet people

and be able to learn languages not just

Chinese from all around the world now

it's actually getting really frustrated

when I was playing with it because of

how difficult it used to be to try to

learn Chinese even when i was living in

china a lot of people go kind of under

the assumption that you learn a language

just by immersion but this is one piece

of it right now back in the day I was

basically going around and trying to

have conversations in Chinese the people

but if I didn't know a word I was kind

of out of luck because a lot of the

times I wasn't able to find it in the

dictionary and I couldn't read Chinese

characters it's not like studying

Spanish or something like that where you

can actually kind of make a

pronunciation out of the letters Chinese

is based off of thousands of thousands

of intricate unique character so it made

it twice as hard to learn the language

as well you watched my videos you know

I'm married to a beautiful Chinese girl

who actually was able to speak English

been almost eight years now and we've

gone through a lot I've learned her

language she's learned mine everything's

hunky-dory now and all of you probably

know our happy story you know we're

happily married for years now and we

have a one-year-old daughter but I

always try to think what if we just were

able to communicate with each other what

would have happened hi hey hi how you

doing you speak English

why don't you why don't you give me your

number when you call me yeah no no like

call me like your phone number can you

give me your phone number yeah yeah

yeahs facebook facebook facebook from

your facebook please hi I'm happy to

meet you I'm really glad to meet you

I I happy yeah can you teach me that

learning I'm learning signees you're

learning English learning learning learn

learn learn learning learning all shit

what do you like to do in your free time

let me take free free free free ffff

bird what was it what are you drinking

well why

you're going to go okay i'll call you

facebook i'll use facebook to contact

Facebook ok

you

item a disaster who knows how our lives

would have ended up what do you think

there is a heart just totally broken

right now the thing is like I wanted to

kind of get into how I actually learned

so i need and i wanted to point out a

lot of people think that when i got here

because i wasn't filming videos back

then that magically are miraculously and

my Chinese is like totally fine because

they didn't see like the struggle

process of me learning do you remember

because I was never shy about it right

do you remember when I tried to speak

Chinese few within our first year of

meeting back in like 2009 dear i was

awful i don't know in this one or less

than your chinese film i would just give

up and shut that shit my ear it's

because back then it was this simple

this is how I learn Chinese I carried a

dictionary with me I look like an

absolute dork I'd have a pencil and I

couldn't really look up Chinese words

and I'm not going to get into how the

Chinese language work so much but how do

you look up a character I mean there's

twenty thousand seven characters right

so how am I going to look up characters

in a dictionary if I don't know it so

what I would do is have really really

awkward conversations of Chinese people

like yourself all right and I would go

and every time I didn't know word I

would ask the Chinese person what that

word meant nine times out of ten they

don't speak English so it was really

help right so they shot down some some

handwriting character and I go back he

like how am I supposed to study this you

know it's just complete Limbaugh stuck

in it really slowed down my language

learning process also I would kind of

try to tell stories in Chinese and then

when i run into a roadblock I mean I

would often find that you don't have the

patience be able to help you out through

the conversation so I'd try to get other

people to do it it was a nightmare I'm

actually really frustrated and angry

that nowadays people have it so easily

this is the first time that I was really

excited about a product or a nap and

also incredibly angry because it's

literally hello talk it's like this

social media app and it

just like we chat or Facebook so you

still have the features like you have

your moment so you post like a blog but

also there's functionality to where you

can actually correct people's language

so i signed up as a chinese learner you

signed up as a english even though we

both speak the languages just to test it

out though and what was it like it was

kind of like people could find you yeah

people can first off what they get they

give you the best match and then second

they can give you the people nearby and

also they can show you who is extra

online right so it's kind of like you

can meet people for the explicit purpose

of language exchange and this is kind of

an inside joke wit the language exchange

in China like before these apps and

stuff before they made it less weird oh

I can teach you tiny north it comes from

me and like terrible Chinese from a

foreign earnings like what ya ash way

she Joanne and were down to you and

helpful how what the idea exactly so

these be kind of has that are popping up

especially hello talk the one that we

played with it's really crazy because

it's kind of like it runs almost like

tinder or one of those dating apps

without the kind of sleazy like

background behind of it as soon as I

turn this app on as soon as we turn it

on we are getting people that were

saying hey let's let's learn together

and they have a profile that shows you

how many things they've corrected how

many people they've helped so it's like

you have a reputation it was pretty cool

you can have like this introduction voy

a la madrastra lobby a six year and

nothing to have conversations with

people and they give you all the tools

and I'm going to go back in time like if

I met a person and try to speak Chinese

I would always have my dictionary in my

notebook and I'd end up drawing pictures

on napkins and stuff right so even if it

was so difficult that I couldn't

communicate my idea and had to draw a

picture you can do that on this f2 or so

that was really really cool and I'd be

able to follow people's lives like all

the way across the world so for me it

was it's like frustrating because back

then it's so awkward to meet people if

you don't speak their language and if

you like a lot of people that watch our

videos in China think that we came

together and anyone can come together

really really easily and nonchalantly

because they don't understand how big

the language gap can be right like if

you also don't want to have those slave

romance and you just want to study and

you want your own same gender and the

same age range you can also set that

that's like really amazing for you yeah

that and like I always I always had this

belief that you had to be in a certain

country to be able to learn a language

so when I move to China like there's no

way would have learned Chinese in

America that's for sure right because

you're not surrounded by the language

and that's absolutely key you should be

surrounded by it all the time but with

with this app with hello talk you can

surround yourself with native speakers

the entire time so if you you know if

you want to spend your entire time on

here and use it as your social media app

your language will come along remember

number three I thought was really cool

that you can actually have it speak like

so you sent me a message so it actually

reads to see you know what it is and for

tiny speakers at least this was really

really good for me you put it in pinyin

and it has all the tones so you listen

to it and you can see which thought it

is me sunlights the consignee all right

I said very learned like because you

actually talk to the native speaker so

you also can learn a lot of playing in

there that was a huge huge thing that I

noticed actually I gave you a little

example so I said you're giving me some

really creepy creepy a sniffle just

pretending to be a girl trying to find

the handsome boy life need and i replied

to you and if i was learning chinese out

of a book for years ago right i was i

wouldn't understand what i replied to

you right but was this it's slang and

then you would be able to explain it to

me or vice versa right and if you didn't

know what I was talking about i could

just draw a picture of of grass right

hey go now you know what I'm talking

about

grass thanks I was never known to be an

artist you should thanks really

appreciate it I thought this was a

really interesting opportunity because

it gave me a chance to talk to everyone

about how i learned Chinese and how

bitterly angry I am there's so much

easier nowadays once again a pc is at

all eating yes is it daddy again so what

kind of language you want to learn the

more you see cuando hospices yeah so you

were wailing eating as you Konoha what

about you narcissism a year I think I'm