Knowing Languages Give You Options
By Cheval John
The United States (USA) were favorites to win the CONCACAF Nations League this season after they won three consecutive titles since it creation in 2018.
They got rid of Gregg Burhalter due to the horrendous run in the copa america last season despite leading the USA to their last nations league title.
They brought in Mauricio Pochettino, an Argentine who managed clubs like Tottenham, Paris Saint German and Chelsea, to change their fortunes to be prepared for the 2026 FIFA World Cup hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico.
They got knocked out in the semifinals by Panama 1-0 on a injury time goal by Cecilio Waterman which shocked the soccer (football) world.
You would be devasted by the loss if you are a fan of the united states which in reality should not expect much unless it is the nations league or the gold cup
If you are a neutral the last minute goal will be iconic due to the celebrations because waterman ran straight for thierry henry, an arsenal legend who was there covering the nations league for paramont plus, a live streaming platform of cbs network.
Video Courtesy of TUDN USA
Now lets look at this from a language perspective.
Henry is a french national and everyone in the soccer world knows he is one of the best strikers of his generation.
If he did not know spanish along with his native french and english he probably would be wondering why is this player here.
However he realized everything was all right when waterman told him in spanish “eres mi idolo” which means “you are my idol”
After the match the crew who was covering the nations league along with henry wanted to do an interview with waterman to find out the reason behind the celebrations with henry.
Of course the broadcast was to an english speaking audience and the interview would be in spanish.
Henry could not multitask with speaking spanish with waterman and translate into english on a live show.
That is where host Kate Scott came in because she is also multilingual with her native english, german, french and spanish.
Video Courtesy of CBS Sports Golazo America
Now this is not the first time Kate or Thierry have done translating live on the air.
Here is a clip of her translating an interview from german to english
Video Courtesy of CBS Sports Golazo
And the interview with Jhon Duran, who was with Aston Villa at that time before joining Al-Nassar in the Saudi Pro League during the Janaury transfer window, where Thierry was conducting the interview in Spanish ans Kate was translating into English.
Video Courtesy of CBS Sports Golazo
These examples shows why it is important to learn foreign languages
Now you might wonder why go through the trouble to learn a foreign language when the world is learning english
It is true english is the most taught foreign language in the world and have close to 2 billion total speakers.
However the number of native english speakers is close to 400 million.
Plus there are over 8 billion people in the world today.
So in reality the number of native english speakers are in the minority and if foreigners decided not to learn english we probably would be in trouble.
Now if you are one of the native english native speakers who decided to learn a foreign language or two you have open yourself up to a world of opportunities to enrich your life and have greater work prospects.
Going back to Kate Scott.
She got an internship in the foreign language department at Deutsche Welle, a German public international broadcaster.
Since then her career took off to where she is now today.
Is it difficult to learn a foreign language?
It depends on your attitude.
If you believe you can’t learn a foreign language because you took years of it at school and still can’t put together a pair of sentence and you come to the conclusion this is not for me.
On the other hand, if you took years of foreign languages and still can’t put together a pair of sentence and you still have the believe I can learn a foreign language, then you will find a way to learn a second language.
Once you master the foreign language you will be inspired to learn a third language, then a fourth language, etc.
Then you will have options on whether to watch a sporting event in english, spanish or other languages you know and can avoid the tourist traps while traveling and get an authentic experience of the foreign country you are traveling.
The Standout Moment of 2024
By Cheval John
December 31st,2024
The year 2024 should be considered a year where a lot of first happened
West Ham United, the club which I became a fan of last year, conceded 74 goals in the 2023-24
It broke the previous record of 70 goals conceded in the 2010-11 season which got us relegated from the premier league where we spent one year in the championship before getting promoted back to the “most watched league in the world via the playoff.
However, west ham did not get relegated last season because we scored 60 goals to finish 9th last season in the premier league while simultaneously knocked out of the quarterfinals of the carabao cup and the quarterfinals of the europa league
It also to a large degree led to the decision of the board not renewing the contract of david moyes because the football (soccer) was not to the standards of half the west ham fans
Real Madrid became the first club to win the uefa champions league for the 15th time in the competition history after they defeated borussia dortmund 2 to 0 at the final in London.
Video Courtesy of TUDN USA
Atalanta won their first ever Europa League trophy after beating Bayer Leverkusen 3 to 0 in the final in Dublin
Video Courtesy of CBS Sports Golazo
And Olympiacos won the Conference League final after defeating Fiorentina 1 to 0 in extra time in Athens.
The result led them to become the first greek club to win a European trophy
Video Courtesy of CBS Sports Golazo
I will remember 2024 to a large degree because of Weslaco High School becoming the first team from the Rio Valley to win the University Interscholastic League (UIL) State 6A softball championship
The reason why I chose this result as the most memorable moment of 2024 is in the manner they won the championship
Weslaco made it to the final of the State 6A softball championship facing Waco Midway in Austin, Texas
They were trailing Midway 9-3 going into the bottom of seventh and final inning of the game.
Midway got an easy first out to start the inning which makes you believe they would be on cruise control to win the state championship.
Weslaco kept chipping away at the lead where they all of a sudden trailing 9-7 with the bases loaded.
Then Andrea Ortiz, who was 0-3 in her previous three at-bats, sent a 3-2 pitch over the left field fence for the walk-off grand slam to win the state championship by the score of 11-9.
Video Courtesy of Max Preps
This manner of how Weslaco won the state title is like the manner Manchester United won the Champions League against Bayern Munich 25 years ago.
Manchester United were trailing 1 to 0 for the majority of the match going into the final three minutes of stoppage time.
Then they scored two goals on set pieces to win the trophy and becoming the first english club to win the treble.
Video Courtesy of UEFA TV
This is why Weslaco winning the state title is arguably the standout moment of 2024.
Lessons Learned In 2021
By Cheval John
(@chevaljohn)I am thankful for 2021 because of the valuable lessons we have learned.
Earlier on, we saw the protocols of the “pandemic” being applied to many activities.
From the limitation of fan attendance in many sporting events
To college football at the FCS level, volleyball and other winter sports being played in the spring time which was a double work load for the administrators in the conferences.
As the year progressed, they allowed full attendance in the majority of sporting events.
September 3rd’s matchup between North Carolina and Virginia Tech was a full house.
And the atmosphere was electric.
That was when I knew we are getting close to being back to normal.
Then the tradition of Wisconsin Football’s fourth quarter stretch of “Jump Around” really made us feel we are back.
As we enter 2022, here are some of the lessons I have learned along the way in 2021.
Your Health Is Very Important.
Getting enough sleep, exercising, eating in moderation and walking in the sun will allow your body to fight off any illnesses.
The United States of America Is The Unique Country In The World
I took for granted how important this country.
I had the opportunity to live in Mexico and Chile for extended periods of time and I enjoyed it.
I am curious to see how others see the world in through the eyes of their culture.
I thought it was better to live overseas due to believing the “narrative” racism is happening in the USA for most of the 2000s and 2010s.
When the “pandemic” started last year, I was thinking I would have been better off being in the countries where they were doing the lockdowns.
Thankfully, I woke up in time last summer to realize this wasn’t as bad as it seems.
This “crisis” really allowed many of us to understand the uniqueness of the USA as the governors of the 50 states and territories shares the same power as the federal government.
And we have seen the results of those decisions.
Florida has more people moved to their state while California lost a bunch.
The Importance Of Being Around Like Minded People
Though it is important to have disagreement, the main thing you should have in common are core values.
If you want to improve your life and you hang around people who only sees negativity, then you will not get anywhere.
Thankfully, social media has allowed many of us to find like minded people who wants us to succeed.
The fitness community has been beneficial to me since I am not around many people who are making an improvement in life.
Time Is Valuable
Working full time while running my business has taught me the importance of time management.
It allowed me to understand if I really want to get something done, I will find the time to do it.
Since I have limited time, I am able to do an average of 20 minute weight training and 30 minute cardio.
And I was able to do a yoga for an average of 12 minutes thanks to videos on youtube.
In conclusion, it is important to prioritize your time to the best of your ability because if you don’t, you will not be able to get that time back.
Happy New Year
Yoga: The Most Underrated Exercise
By Cheval John
I had done yoga and pilates with my weight training while I was in college for two years.
Unfortunately, I didn’t keep up with my exercises in the final years of my undergraduate education.
When I started weight training again in 2018, I didn’t even think about doing yoga until watching the episode of Wagle Ki Duniya-Nayi Peedhi Naye Kisse (Wagle’s World: New Generation New Stories) focusing on yoga during the “international day of yoga”
In searching for yoga videos on YouTube, I found a channel called Yoga With Adrienne.
She had videos from beginners to advanced yoga.
Since I had a busy schedule of working full time while running this company, I decided to do the mini-sessions which lasted for 23 minutes.
Afterward, I incorporated yoga into weight training.
Later, I found another channel called Sara Beth Yoga which had 10 minute yoga sessions and 14 minute yoga sessions for beginners.
This fit better for me.
Then I decided to challenge myself to do yoga consecutively for 30 days after my birthday after watching a video on those who did yoga consecutively for 30 days and 365 days, respectively
I ended up doing yoga for 67 consecutive days.
What I can share after doing yoga consecutively for 67 days is:
Yoga calms the mind and block out the noise
Yoga relaxes the body.
What it also did was allow me to do my exercise routine the right way.
Now you might think you don’t have time to incorporate yoga into your exercises.
With the internet and social media, anyone can find the time to do yoga at the comfort of your home.
Options To Choose From In Language Learning
By Cheval John
Now that you know the importance of learning foreign languages, the question is how do you start?
They are plenty of options to choose from.
You can look to youtube to see which content is out there in the target language you want to learn.
If you are looking to learn italian here are some channels to get started
Easy Italian
This channel allows you to follow along the conversation they have with the locals while having the subtitles in it.
They ask questions ranging from what is your favorite food to sports.
If you are interesting in sports then I would suggest
DAZN Italia
It is a sports channel targeted to the italian language.
They have pregame shows live before the soccer match occurs
Here is an example of live show from dazn italia
Listen to music in the target language
At first it will sound like jibberish at the beginning because you are getting use to a different language.
Over time you will get use to the rythm of the language and it will get easier if you are consistent.
I would suggest starting out at 30 minutes a day listening to the music so you would not get overwhelmed.
One app I would recommend is tunein radio app.
They have a selection of music channels you can choose from in the target language.
If you like music from the 70s 80s and early 90s, they are channels dedicated to that.
No matter the language you can find the music in those genres.
I would also suggest using apps like Babbel Memrise and Pimsleur
Babbel and Memrise are those apps where you learn new words in the target language.
I started learning a third foreign language using babbel at first
However I believed that did not fit me and I switched to memrise.
Though both of those apps have the same features with learning new words in different situations and space repitition, I believed memrise was the better fit for me.
Now babbel have a great blog regarding languages which I like
Pimsleur has been around since the 70s and it get you used to speaking.
They have 30 lessons in each scenario where you repeat after the speaker to practice your target language.
Each lesson is for 30 minutes and the best way is to do each lesson everyday to keep up with the consistency of practicing speaking.
Some languages like spanish french and italian have five levels of lessons for 30 days. So if you complete all five levels you would have spent a total of 75 hours in about 6 months of practicing speaking.
If you have any other resources or advice in learning languages, leave them in the comments below
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