If I'm a polyglot, why are my videos in English? + language community issues [AFR]

Language community, it's time we get back to the heart of what it means to be a polyglot and not hold back on sharing more linguistically diverse content. How can we foster a more supportive, accessible and diverse community? 😊

There are so many "Polyglot speaks X language" videos but not many that actually share the process and progress behind it. Why are we worried that uploading a video in another language will not get as many views as in English? Isn't language diversity worth more than views? 🤔 ... and yes, that's exactly why this entire video is in Afrikaans! 🇿🇦

It's not easy and there are so many factors to take into consideration - I feel the struggles too! What are your thoughts? 💕 (Press CC for English subs)

Timestamps:
00:00 Video preview
00:21 English videos and accessibility
01:25 A weird issue in the community
02:10 Changing the status quo
03:14 Is it really a problem?
03:44 How we can fix the problem
04:34 My videos in other languages
05:04 PoLyGLoT SpEaKs 20 LAnGuAgeS and exclusivity
06:09 4 polyglot YouTubers I admire
07:01 Ideas and closing

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[misomar]

I've never actually heard a video in Afrikaans before, this is a first

[elleryprescott]

It's so interesting how your personality changes when you're speaking Afrikaans. I feel like I'm watching and listening to a completely different youtuber. Your voice sounds different, the way you move looks different... Really interesting! (p.s. Great points made in the video. In my opinion, you should absolutely do more videos like this with subs even though it's time consuming!)

[addyluu]

I’ve definitely noticed this about polyglot videos. It’s a breath of fresh air to see a whole video from a polyglot that’s not in English 😅. Thanks for your hard work. Also, I’d love to hear how your Chinese is coming along!

[daysandwords]

Thanks for the mention Lindie! I just like that ANYONE appreciates shall we say, the more "humble" channels, let alone an accomplished speaker of many languages like yourself.
I do actually have one recent video in Swedish which is probably one of my better ones because I felt like having a whinge and it seemed more fun to do it Swedish haha.
Great video! (And yes I agree the subtitles are annoying and time consuming!)

[LetsLanguageTogether]

Great video! I think many people would like to watch videos in another languages about language learning because it gives them a chance for listening practice and it potentially exposes them to a new language they may have never thought about learning before.

[adolin.kholin]

I’m dutch and it’s exciting to notice I can basically understand most without subs and yet it’s so different from Dutch too. Afrikaans is so wonderful 🧡

[AmericanAccentMastery]

Whoa, I love the sound of Afrikaans!!

[marlo_reads]

I think it makes sense to speak in whatever language you’re focused on in each particular video :) When it’s a video about Korean, I love hearing you speak Korean, for example. And if it’s a general language-learning video like this one, I say speak whatever language you want! It was so cool to hear you speak Afrikaans here.

[nicholaslemosdecarvalho]

I think it is a breath of fresh air for the language community having videos that are not all in English. Granted, I barely speak 3 languages (Portuguese, English and French) and not all of them would be immediately accessible to me, but I intend to add more of them as times goes by. So, hope to see more videos like this in the future!

[lindaha]

As a German native I was amazed about how much words of Afrikaans I actually could understand.
And I definitely would like to watch polyglots' videos in languages I don't speak. In my opinion this is a nice way to be introduced to new languages :)

[andymounthood]

I'm not learning Esperanto myself, but I'm impressed by the willingness of Esperantists to make lots of videos in that language. One example is Aaron of Fingtam Languages, who has a second channel called Fingtam Esperanto, where he only speaks Esperanto on a variety of vlog-like topics. I believe that a few of the videos on the "Luke Truman 樂爾文 - Full Time Fluency" channel are exclusively in Cantonese, Spanish, or Mandarin Chinese.

Someday, I want to create a second YouTube channel where I speak exclusively in one of my other languages. I might talk about language learning, local history and geology, the sport of orienteering, or some of my favorite hiking trails. I'm just waiting for my vocabulary to get large enough for that purpose--except for French, where can post such videos already but won't because I don't feel comfortable with my pronunciation. I would also need to learn some video editing skills and learn how to create subtitles. So far, I've just recorded myself and posted raw videos.

I credit Aaron (mentioned above) for the idea of making short videos in one's target languages on Instagram for speaking practice. I think this would be a great way for me to prepare. Another possibility would be for me to plan and prepare for a conversation with an italki tutor on a specific topic, and then record that conversation with the tutor's permission and post it, like I did for the Add1Challenge--except that the goal would be to post a video in another language about language learning, not to demonstrate my progress.

[andrewgibler]

I'm glad you got to give a shout out to your Lindie in Afrikaans channel. You really put in a lot of work and this was such a pleasant video. Thanks for the subtitles :)

[thatotau]

As a South African, hearing you speak Afrikaans puts a smile on my face. Ek hoop jy sal meer Afrikaanse videos maak.👌👌

[natatapadron]

Like this is a taste of the wonders of being a polyglot! To my ears was pretty interesting never heard Afrikaans! I like what you say like studying an other language is a tough challenge and there are days one wants to give it up. But having someone sharing the struggles or remembering you how fun and rewarding is, that becomes a force of inspiration!

[BemPoliglota]

I'm so glad you've made this video, I have mentioned here and on twitter how I don't feel included in the language community because I make videos in Portuguese. The reason why I make videos in Portuguese it's because only 5% of the population in Brazil speaks English so I wanted to make content that is accessible to these people. But at the same time I'd like to be able to connect with other language learners/creators. I'll try to add subtitles to my videos to make my content more accessible to those who can't speak Portuguese but I really struggle with adding subtitles, any tips on how to make the "creating subtitles process" easier?

[ildikomelindacsabina]

Your Afrikaans is so easy to follow, with my Dutch knowledge! i have colleagues who speak Afrikaans but i don't understand them so well. Thank you for this video

[ChrisBadges]

Very much appreciated that this is in Afrikaans for us learners of this language. At the same time I hope it drives the content creator's problem home to those who are not in onze kleine gruppjie 🙂 I think we should all be grateful for good accessible content out there. Nobody has to prove anything, I think, least of all those who create videos.

[sylvialucero]

It’s so interesting how similar Afrikaans sounds to English at times! I love hearing you speak other languages, I think it’s also encouraging to us language learners to see the results of good language study!

[Izuuun]

Meer Afrikaans 🙌🏻👏🏻 im so tired of everything being in English I want to be challenged and put out of my confort zone! Also finding content I enjoy in my target languages can be difficult so I would looove more non English videos ☺️ L’amour du Canada 🇨🇦

[ofgodzeus]

I'm totally up for watching videos in other languages, even the ones I don't know or I'm not learning. It's very exciting, I love it. I mean, when I first discovered your channel I became so obsessed I watched all of your videos from the very start, literally ._. even the ones in Korean with no subtitles XDDD That's how much I love it.. You're one of the reasons why I started learning it in fact.. so thanks! and now I'm even more in love with the channel because of all the Korean related content that I can use as kind of practice or guidelines or whatever.. bottom line is, speak in whatever language you want, (even if you can't add subtitles) just keep making content ily ._.