Going to Language Meetups in Seattle (It gets DEEP....) | Polyglot

When you learn languages, what do you use them for? In this video I explore a really easy way to use and improve your language skills with people, even if you're new to a city! My experiences with the meetup groups were all quite different from each other, and one was actually nearly heart-breaking but motivating for me.

Here are my social media :)
twitter: @valeria_v_t
instagram: @valeriatiourina

Here are sources for this video:
Music: Bensound

[ValeriaTiourina]

Make sure to turn on the subtitles !! Unless you understand everything anyway 😉

[prestokrs]

Great video. Very useful and I love your Yoshi collection.

[vincoof]

Bonjour/你好/привет

Your French level is impressive in many ways. For instance your pronunciation of the R and the U is so good that you made me forget that Russian and English speakers often struggle with them. Your liaisons are just excellent. The speed looks natural. You do not tend to repeat the same words, which shows that your vocabulary is quite diverse. Et cætera.

You said “feel free to correct me if I said anything wrong in any of the languages, I’d really appreciate that” @11:49 so I’ll take you at your word and correct your French, if you please (:

I have marked the mistakes as -strikethrough- and the corrections as *bold* . I also added the liaisons with ͜ as an information.

@1:39 Bonjour à tous ! (you need to pronounce the *s* of _tous_, otherwise it sounds like _Bonjour à tout !_ which basically means _Hello everything!_ )
@1:41 -Il y a déjà deux semaines que- *Ça fait déjà deux semaines que* / *Deux semaines se sont déjà écoulées depuis que* je suis͜ allée au meetup français (this one is debatable and may be anwsered differently in certain regions I guess)
@1:44 Je les͜ ai trouvés sur -le app- *l'app* meetup, je les͜ -a- *ai* rejoints
@1:48 Immédiatement, l'organisateur -de la- *du* groupe m'a envoyé un message de bienvenue (also, I’m not very fond of starting the sentence with _immédiatement_, I’d prefer _l'organisateur m'a _*_tout de suite_*_ / _*_rapidement_*_ / _*_immédiatement_*_ envoyé un message de bienvenue_, by shifting the adverb to the middle of the sentence you would be giving more importance to the fact that he contacted you and less importance to the rapidity of the contact, but this is debatable if you were amazed so much by the quickness that it outshines the fact that he contacted you)
@1:53 (in the text message) Comment -as-tu me- *m'as-tu* -trouvé- *trouvée* ?
@2:00 Je pensais : *y* aller ? -pas aller- *ne pas͜ y aller* / *pas͜ y aller* ? (or even *pas y aller* without the liaison which then sounds like _паяле_ in Russian) but the wording is unnatural, if you want to express the doubt between going and not going, I would say something like _Je me suis dit : j'y vais ? j'y vais pas ?_ or a more formal version: _Je me suis demandé si j'y allais ou si je n'y allais pas_
@2:13 C'est -un- *une* chance de rencontrer -les gens- *des personnes* différentes (also, _chance_ is not very well suited, I think it’s better to say _C'est l'occasion de rencontrer…_ / _C'est͜ une opportunité pour rencontrer…_, and if you want to emphasize on the diversity of the people you met I would advise against using _personnes différentes_ which kinda implies you’re talking about weird people, instead I would recommend using _personnes venant d'horizons différents_ )
@2:23 Pour aller à ce meetup, j'ai pris le bus, environ -un- *une* heure
@2:28 L'organisateur m'a trouvée et -m'invitait de m'introduire- *m'a invitée à me présenter* à tout le monde (you need to use the _participe passé_ tense in this case, also _inviter_ is usually followed by _à_, and at last _me présenter_ is a much better verb than _m'introduire_ in this situation, I suspect you used _m'introduire_ because of the English verb _to introduce_ )
@2:34 Au début, il y -a- *avait* seulement trois personnes, -c'était- *il y avait* moi, l'organisateur, un -vieux- *vieil* homme et un͜ autre homme
@2:44 -Lentement- *Petit͜ à petit* plusieurs autres personnes -arrivaient- *sont͜ arrivées* (it is slightly better to add the liaison between _plusieurs͜ autres_, as for the adverb _lentement_ it exists in French but it should be used to describe a slow motion, when you want to emphasize on something that was evolving at a slow pace, _petit͜ à petit_ is much better)
@2:46 Et à la fin -on͜ avait- *il y avait* / *nous͜ étions* environ cinq -gens- *personnes*
@2:50 Donc, -mon part favori- *ma partie préférée* de ce meetup c'était -de- *le* sujet de la discussion (this sentence ends in a weird way, I assume you hesitated on how to end it)
@2:56 Est-ce que -l'- Internet a changé nos rapports sociaux ? (you need to pronounce the *t* at the end of _Internet_, otherwise it sounds like _interné_ which is completely different, also in French the word _Internet_ has no article, i.e. _Internet_ and not _l'Internet_ )
@3:01 -Malgré que- *Bien que* -tout nous parlaient- *nous parlions tous* français avec des niveaux différents (also you must not pronounce the *t* at the end of _différent_ unless you use the feminine version of the adjective, i.e. _différente_ )
@3:05 -Nous discutait- *On discutait* (or *Nous discutions* ) *de* beaucoup de choses
@3:35 J'ai déjà oublié -des- *les* ͜ autres points que les͜ autres gens -a fait- *ont dits*

Don’t worry, most of those mistakes have a low impact in a conversation. The ones that really bugged me were the _pas aller_ @2:00, the _mon part favori_ @2:50 and the _tout nous parlaient_ @3:01 for which I needed to replay the audio clip several times.

Feel free to ask if I explained some points too quickly or even if you disagree with me (:

Ciao/再见/пока!

[DaKid]

This is an excellent video. I like the fact that you show the highs and lows of language learning. We have all been there before where we try something new and it doesn't go "perfectly". The right mindset is to understand that you HAVE to put yourself in those situations. They help you grow and it is very motivating to see your resolve in wanting to go back and develop!

[polyglotteryuniversity]

Amazing video! I hadn’t heard of “Meetup” before. I think it’s great app, but you never know how safe meeting up with random people is, so please be careful. That being said, I think it is an amazing way to get speaking practice. You sounded very proficient in all of your languages, which is very impressive. Well done! I bet everyone else in the places y’all were practicing in were extremely confused lol. I started watching your channel the other day and now I’m addicted. Again, great video and I look forward to your future uploads!
-Michael S

[eatfruitsalad]

thank you for sharing your experiences! i moved to seattle recently and am looking for language exchange groups, though most on meetup now seem to be online

[SergeyFM_en]

It was interesting to watch. Вы отлично говорите по-русски. Если бы я разговаривал с вами, из-за произношения я бы предполагал, что вы язык знаете полностью - я думаю, это был бы бесконечный источник смешных ситуаций.

[mominacup]

I was born in Poland & live in Canada so was cool to listen to this and understand it in several languages! Subscribed.

[thedavidguy]

Good for you for trying these groups. I go to a French conversation group and I find it interesting, fun, and helpful. I want as much practice as I can get! My only complaint is that in our group when someone doesn’t know a word they just say it in English. I believe that an important part of learning a language is coming up with alternatives when you don’t know or can’t remember a word. I encourage you to go to as many meetings as you can. You’ll be more comfortable with time.

[TheJoheunLife]

I'm from Washington state as well and you are basically like a ton of my friends and acquaintances from school when I was young in that you came to the US at an early age but still speak Russian. I assume you have plenty of opportunities to speak Chinese, but I am doing a master's in Chinese over in Korea at the moment and if you would like to connect, I believe we could have some interesting conversations and exchange some good information. I am studying Russian off and on at the moment as well (I wish I had spent more time with my Russian/Ukrainian friends at their homes and tried to learn Russian and not just the Spanish I studied at the time). I'd also be interested to hear about your work and get some suggestions from you on computer languages to learn. Take care and I look forward to hearing from you!

[Arctagon]

I was also thinking that going to the Russian meetup would be really good for you if you want to get over the hurdle of feeling a bit lost when speaking to Russian people outside your family. The fact that it was challenging is most likely an indication that you would learn a lot. Struggle is the sign of progress, as it were. Other than that, I agree with the overall message in this video that languages alone can connect people.

Also, 9:44 gave me chuckle, haha.

[actualfluency]

Nice video! I find it very scary to attend language meetups, but I have done in the past :)

[stephaniebeaton]

If you take a road trip to Vancouver Canada, you could practice Mandarin or Cantonese.
Maybe on a Vancouver meetup. (I can't speak these languages myself. But a lot of people near Vancouver speak one of these two languages)

[MarkDuval]

I remember going to language exchange meetsup in person before 2020. :p

[nikolaim]

I immigrated at a young age and while I have a grasp of the language I don't tend to get along with "real" Russians at all. I hate to lose my first language but interactions always seem awkward or unpleasant so its discouraging

[rishadt]

Молодца, нравится. Смелее, Валерия!)

[rishadt]

Валерия, Ваш русский хорош. ИМЕННО произношение. Ваш речевой аппарат позволяет Вам в совершенстве знать языки, особенно Русский)). Скромно, да?) И, Валерия, когда говорите на русском, избегайте слова-паразиты, например: "ВОТ". Успехов!!!

[okucherenko]

Лерусик, когда ты говоришь на китайском языке, ты похожа на китаянку! Удивительно!