Here it is the end of summer 2021. Can you believe we’ve been fighting THE CORONAVIRUS for nearly two years now? And I still can’t help but wonder, why this virus?
Be that as it may, the world is still turning and we are dealing with it. Here are a few updates of things going on on my end.
Schools are back in and China has instituted some new policies that aim to lessen the work load on students by cutting down the availability of after school tutoring. Sounds a like good idea until you realize that the competition for jobs hasn’t changed at all, so if these kids still want to get ahead, they still have to put in the time and effort.
I’ve started an audio blog which I’ve been trying to do every day. People were encouraging me to put the podcast on Spotify but I thought I needed to try it out first. Not only that, I don’t have the consistency of some other podcasts so I needed something else to try. After trying out a couple APPs, I settled with Anchor.fm which is owned by Spotify. Here is the link: https://anchor.fm/stevensirski
Mandarin Chinese studies continue and I’m now concentrating on the HSK 5 vocabulary. I’m currently using Memrise to go through all of the necessary words while still meeting with my teacher once a week for textbook work. If I don’t have work I’m able to spend a few hours a day on Chinese but if I have to go in then that time gets drastically reduced. It has made me think of quitting and becoming a full time student. As of now, I aim to write the HSK 5 test some time in early 2022.
I did pick up Russian for a few months and intend to continue but, since my teacher is located in Ukraine, it’s hard to send money there. As a result, I haven’t signed up for any more classes just yet. I still spend Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays going through Russian materials, be it reading, noun declensions, verb conjugations, or listening to Russian hip hop videos online. The thought has crossed my mind to write the A2 exam here in Beijing some time towards the end of this year.
I’ve been posting short form videos on YouTube. Coupled with my recent purchase of a new phone, I’ve been making more of an effort to produce short, creative content and uploading it to YouTube’s new “Shorts” channel. My next challenge is to get away from the templates on my phone and to create my own compositions, both visually and aurally.
My social media accounts got smacked and hacked. This may also simply be a symptom of me advertising my podcast and audio blogs so it’s tough to tell exactly why I’m getting targeted. That being the case, I lost an Instagram account and am busy securing my control of my first Twitter account. I did create a second one titled THE Steven Sirski. I may keep both once I get my old account back.
So that’s that. I hope your summers were well and that you were able to get out a do some stuff. Drop me a line if you want to chat about anything.