#136: Bilingual Content Creator, Picking English Names, Publish Consistent Content and Live A Productive Life with Bear Liu
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卿然,你好 and hello. Welcome to the Chewy Journal Podcast. I'm your host, Camilia. My guest today is Beer Liu. Beer is a product designer and design mentor. He hosts an award-winning podcast show called Beer Talk, focused on sharing his learnings and ideas in design and personal experience in reading and parenting.

In today's episode, we talk about being a bilingual content creator, how Chinese people pick up English names, how to publish consistent content in English and Chinese, and live a productive life. I hope you enjoy the show.

Welcome to the show, Bear. Thanks for having me, Amelia. Just a little bit strange because we just transferred from Chinese to English. Yes, I know. Every time I interview a guest who can speak Chinese, I feel a little bit weird because since we all can speak Mandarin. We did the podcast in Chinese before, talk about our life in New Zealand and a lot of relevant content about China.

Being a creator so I'd like to invite you back again and talking English as a bilingual content creator Because I know not many people create in bilingual So I kind of wonder what makes you to start this journey. Yeah, that's a really great topic so happy to be happy to be involved in this conversation and also like there are some

challenges and probably some personal stories for every bilingual content creator that live started and yeah would be good and also like what you mentioned just a few probably the the amount of bilingual content creators are quite smaller compared to native creators so i think that would be

a good topic for us to share some experience and to discuss why we're doing this. Yeah, shall we start with your name? Because I know a lot of English people, they kind of wondering, ah, it's so nice. You can pick up your own name, your own English name.

So why do you pick up Bear as your English name? I know it's not a very common English speaking word. Yeah, that's a good topic, like conversation starter. Because every time when I introduce, hi, I'm Bear, people would say,

native English speakers will say, wow, what a cool name. And sometimes I just guess, what do you mean cool is real cool or just funny or strange or like other meaning? And yeah, at the beginning, it's just my nickname in Chinese, Bo Xiong, because I used to like really fat so that I used to like don't like any

outdoor activities much. So just prefer to stay at home and then people will say, oh, it's a typical bear. And then I got a nickname and then I kind of like it or get used to it and kind of like it. And then when I

come to a new country so you have the opportunity to pick up your own to pick your own name and then I think yeah why not why not to call myself Bear at beginning I still I considered some normal names and then I find yeah how about just name myself Bear and then

Kiwis are really friendly. So at the beginning, I asked a few people and they said, okay, yeah, you can pick whatever you want. I think they didn't give me the honest answer.

Feedback. Yeah. And I took it. I said, oh, yeah, probably just call myself Bear. And even my resume, my LinkedIn profile, every formal platform, I leave it as Bear. That's my name. I find now it's quite good because I have...

the confidence to call myself there. And also, it's easy to remember. Yeah, it's unique. Even for me, I pick up a camellia because I love the flower. And it's not very common in New Zealand because a lot of people call them camellia or camilla flowers.

But Camellia is also very unique, so people will remember me. So what's your career journey look like? Because I know you used to work and live in China and then move to New Zealand. Can you walk me through the whole story? Yeah, that's probably a long story. I try to make it as short as possible.

So when I was in China, I was an interaction designer. At first, I started from graphic design as my career starting point. After graduating from university, I got a job as a graphic designer and then started to do some packaging, package design,

marketing design and around 2010, that's the time the Web 2.0 started as a trend. And then web designer is quite popular, was quite popular. I started to learn web design for a bit and then get related job.

And in 2012, I started to do something like a design agency with my friend. And then we started to do some app design, interactive app design. Because at that time, Apple just released...

the SDK for iPhone, for iOS. And we saw it as an opportunity and started to echo Oyin. And it seems the right direction, the right vision.

And then after a while, did some apps and also some apps are quite successful, had a lot of downloads and the performance quite good. And around 2015 and 16, around 2015,

I got this idea of going to New Zealand because there is an available visa that I can apply. The Silver Fern visa. Yes, I started to do some preparation and applied it and very luckily I got a visa and then

I went to this new country with my wife. I started all the things from scratch because it's really hard to find a related, relevant job with your previous experience in another country. But in the mainland, you don't have the local experience. So I started as a marketing designer. I would call it multimedia designer, but it's more like auto marketing.

It's kind of like a circle back to 10 or 12 years ago when I started my design journey. But that first job in New Zealand was really good because that helped me to get food on the table. I started to learn things about the culture and all the things. And after two years later, I moved on to really focus on inter, like UX design, user experience.

because I think it's my passion and it's also quite hard because I need to transfer or transition from multimedia or website designer to UX designer and it's also challenging

need to start from scratch again another industry another domain but very luckily i applied a few jobs and then after five or six months i got a job

at a local company called Les Mills. Oh, the famous fitness club in New Zealand. Those people are really tough. They keep working out every day. So I got the first job as a UX and UI designer. And then after the first job, things would be much easier later. So I

Then I moved on to Vodafone as a senior UX designer. And now I'm currently working at Xero, a financial software as a product designer. How did you feel when you need to start from scratch again? Because I know in China, you're a very successful entrepreneur.

But once you move to a new country, an English-speaking country, you need to learn the language, culture, and start your career from a very junior level.

what did you feel? Yeah, it's, I think it's, it's definitely a journey, like with ups and downs. And also like the timing, it's also when I started to, to looking for new jobs in a new country. And also my wife was pregnant. So my daughter later, like a few months later when we moved to New Zealand. So which means that there are,

two major impacts happening at the same time. I have a new role as a father and also I need to start from scratch in a new country. That's quite challenging. I think maybe a new role is more challenging than looking for jobs. Most of the time it's just lack of sleep.

As a new father, new dad, it's really hard to sleep. But speaking of job and career and other things, I think I had anticipated that might happen because I moved to this new country. I know that's a

Because that's a new country and language was speaking, the culture, everything is different. And if you want to get settled, you want to really start your career here, things should start from the very beginning. So which means that all the previous experience, some experience definitely can bring.

from my previous career. But most of the credits, most of the, I don't want to say achievement, but just something done, it's not transferable to this new place. So which I already have the assumption or have the anticipation. So that's

That's the way and it's not easy. But one thing that's really helpful is that during that time, I'm not the only one who has this problem. So there are a lot of immigrants, a lot of people coming to a new country and then they got struggle. So what I need to do is just to

find some examples and try to learn or even just to get inspired by their story. Just one example, I borrowed a book from the local library which was written by Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's a very typical example that a young man comes from

Europe, Austria. And he went to America and language was really bad at that time. But then after a few years, he was really successful. And also I just tried to find out something similar, like, oh, something is there, something that I can learn or something. So just examples by examples, it takes a while to build knowledge.

the right mindset and confidence, everything, and then to set up the right attitude, I think, for the future steps. But at the beginning, it's really hard. Yeah, I read Arnold's biography and his attitude, he had such a strong self-belief. He believed he would win the fitness, the world champion of fitness, and he believed he would win

he will settle down in America and achieve success. I think it's very important.

And one thing also triggered me is although his accent, people probably say, oh, you don't speak perfect English, but his accent becomes his character. That's how he won the role in The Terminator because they need that accent. Yeah, exactly. Very, very. Yeah, that's also one of my biggest takeaways from his story. As Chinese, we probably...

family problem right like accent oh well i hope i can pronounce as a perfect uh in a native speaker probably that that that is a goal for most of english learners from china that people say oh i want to pronounce as close as native speaker as possible but then after i realized that's

That's not the right goal. You will always carry something from your past, like accents, one part of it. But you just try to get used to it or just get along with it, access it as your identity, and then try to maybe take advantage of it later, or maybe just try to utilize it.

in a later stage. But the first thing would be just accept that's part of that I've learned from his story as well. Yeah, because when I started my Chinese podcast, I am from Shandong, so I have a strong accent from my place. And people sometimes judge me like, oh, you don't even speak standard Mandarin. How come you become a podcast host? I don't care. As long as my ideas are worth spreading,

My accent, it doesn't matter. Because I know you started your podcast back to 2012. It's very early. So what made you to make your podcast and what kind of content were you doing back then? At the beginning, it was just an experiment or more like here's a new tool available like Apple release.

some tools from their keynote. I think it's from the i... GarageBand. GarageBand. That was the first time I realized, oh, here's a new tool and it's quite interesting. And also...

Because I did some web design, so I have a little bit understanding, a little bit knowledge on how to find a server, how to set up a podcast host, which at that time is really a podcast server, which is quite difficult if people don't know some web building knowledge. But for people who already got some experience, that's not that hard.

And because I learned something, I have some knowledge and also this is a new tool and I just try, yeah, let's make something fun and maybe use it as a personal experience or like as a personal audio blog or something. And I wrote some reviews on technology at first.

And then I remember it's quite popular because it was really popular because at that time, there were probably not many options. So people just listened to whatever they got in Chinese. It was downloaded like immediately 100,000 times. And then the next day,

a few thousand times. And then I thought at first I thought that's a problem. That's an issue. The number is not real. At first, I think maybe just false numbers. And then I recorded another podcast, another episode and updated. Also, it's got a lot of downloads.

And then I find, wow, that's interesting because it seems that this is a new thing and worth to try. It's also from the business perspective, I'm not a good business person or I don't have any business sense.

If I have, it could be quite a good business, but I just keep it as a personal habit or as a personal hobby, which is not good from a business perspective, but I'm happy that I'm doing that as a personal hobby because even podcasts have its high moments and also go up.

as a mature medium at this stage in English speaking world and also quite popular in China, in Chinese as well. But I still think the people who's making podcasts, who's podcasting by their own interests or use it as a way to explore the reality around them,

that probably keep it authentic, keep it true. And that's the beauty of this medium. So I'm happy that I didn't do much trying on business. And then it just goes according to my personal interest from

to travel because I just traveled through some places and find, oh, I have some feelings. I have some findings I want to share with you. And then record a few episodes on travel and then reading books with some book reviews. And even where I...

do some jogging or just attended, joined a few marathons, half marathons. I recall this is a personal experience that I want to share with you on my talk. So yeah, it just keeps going. And then recent episodes are more around reading books. So that's pretty much how it goes.

And now it's 421 episodes so far. So when did you start doing English content? Your Chinese content is very popular. What made you want to switch direction and do more English content? I think if speaking of time, it's probably around 2016.

2016 and 2017 because that was the time I went to New Zealand. So I went to New Zealand in 2016. But at that time, I just had this idea of creating something in English.

Really simple reason is that because I'm living in an English-speaking country, so I do something in English make sense, right? So that's just the idea at first, but the official trying I think is or maybe at the end of 2017, maybe at the beginning of 2019 because

My first job, even as a Kiwi company, it's an English-speaking environment. But still, part of the job is dealing with the Chinese market. So I'm still using Chinese to communicate and to think.

to solve the problem and even to think. So it feels a little bit gap between where I live and between what I'm doing, also between what I want to do in the future. So I think that's the first drive

that I think if I want to get closer to what I want to work as a dream job or as what I want to achieve, that's an English speaking environment. Because I don't want to move to a new country, but still live in the comfort zone of a Chinese speaking comfort zone, still consuming Chinese content.

still reading the same thing as one friend is reading in China. And what's the point of moving to a new country? So that's the first drive. And I think it's around 2019, I officially made this decision. So yeah, let's make it.

as regular as possible and do some serious content creating in English. And before I just think, oh, that's a secondary option. So create something in Chinese first, but then if I have capacity, create something in English as an option. But then 2019, I made this decision like, let's

prioritize English content creating first, even if I'm not good at it at all first. And I don't have any audience to compare to my Chinese platforms at that moment. But I think that's the drive of, I see it as a long-term goal.

or the long-term learning, personal learning and growing. So, compared to the Chinese content I'm creating, it also takes a few years, like maybe three to five years to get to a really good level on

speaking of the amount of audiences and the majority of the content. And also I did a lot of practice by doing it. I think after 100 episodes in Chinese, I started to have confidence and have the capacity to talk on the

topics of each podcast. And then I think that's something the same for English content creating. I need to get some practice first by doing it. And then ideal way would be I can create content in English and I can build my audience

group in English find my market. But more importantly, I want to use it as a way to help with what I'm working on in an English-speaking country. I don't want to do the day job and then switch to the comfort zone in Chinese-speaking area. And that's just a

divide the personal energy, like the personal focus and energy and time into different two parts. But these two parts are not helping each other. So I see if I create English content and also I can

when I'm working in English speaking environment and these two parts actually can help each other. Something I've learned from English from work or from my consumption in English can help me create content in English. And

And the way of creating content in English can practice my presentation and communication so that I can get my job done better. But if I do this in Chinese, it's actually just divided. There are two words separated. So when I see this as a

as how it looks like, like two words, I made this decision without any hesitation. So even the English content still like really small amount of views, small amount of like from the metrics is quite small compared to Chinese, but I think that's the right. So yeah, that's pretty much.

a really long answer for your question. Yeah, I resonate with you a lot because when I got my first job in New Zealand, my job, although I work for Air New Zealand, a Kiwi company, but my role mainly focused on China market.

So I do Weibo and WeChat content. So I feel divided why I'm in an English environment, but I'm still doing Chinese. So I feel it's weird. That's why later on I quit my job. I want to indulge myself in the fully English world. So I joined the bank, Westpac, to do English content.

And at the beginning, I feel very worried about my English ability. I'm not sure about you. Do you still remember when you first published your English content? How did you feel? Did you feel like very, will people judge me or this kind of thing? I think that definitely for everyone who created a language, the second content in a second language, that would be a really common thing.

for everyone. Definitely, I have that worry. And also, even now, sometimes I do have something similar, like, oh, maybe I need to recheck. I need to do something more to make sure it seems ready to share. But yeah, I remember when I shared the first draft in English, it was quite scary.

interesting because at that time there are two major formats of English content I'm creating even I'm creating right now part of one is just something as the English version of my Chinese content is out of interest out of curiosity and I'm using it as a personal medium so I create a

for example, YouTube videos and write some posts about what I found during the job or during the personal experience. So this is out of personal interest. But the other part at the beginning of creating English content is basically I was doing it for

finding a good job. When I quit my first job in New Zealand, I wanted to find a designer job as a UX designer. And I thought I need to share some, you know, say things out loud on social media and let people realize this is what I'm

working on and this is how like this is my interest and also just to raise the attention. So kind of like forced myself to share some posts on LinkedIn

as something I've learned from, for example, from a course or something I noticed on a daily basis about some design related example I want to share. So I'm just trying to force myself like I need to create one or two posts per week or even more frequent and then

get it shared. So it's not that formal, that long format, just a short post. But because I used to do some Chinese social media marketing, kind of like informal, but I had this

idea of doing things before you need it. I think just start to do that on social media before you're using it for finding a job because when you actually need it, you start to do that, that's probably too late. So I think that's the other direction or the other way I'm creating things in English. And

To be honest, I don't feel that worried about that because I think I need to check it and then make sure and then publish it. And because I know that there might be not many people reading it, so that's not a problem. Because at first I had some worries, but then I find things different because

At first I worried no one will read it, right? So this is what I worried about. Probably a small worry, a small concern. And the other concern is that maybe the grammar or the way I describe things is not correct, not standard. But do you find these two things actually conflict if no one's reading it?

then if you're writing better right so if you write it wrong or right nobody cares because nobody read it and if you read it that's actually a good thing even when you say things are not right but people get the idea and then what i realized realized this is this is just a thought this is just a

like a worry. And I haven't tested it. I haven't get the real feedback from English speaking people or just to say, "Oh, I have feedback, your grammar is..."

I haven't got any comments on that or any related feedback. And also, after I share a few posts, I do find people actually read it, even smaller amount of people, because you can see how many views, maybe 12, 15.

200 and there are a few comments or interactions. People will like it or people will support it. And then I think, oh, that's good. And let's correct something in the future. But yeah, that's the first step. And then it's getting better

Getting okay. Yeah, I get used to accept it's not perfect I can start to create things and then I can improve it by by doing it I think it's a like trust in the process. Yeah, because for me I started my English newsletter last year

And when I published my first issue, I was so worried. I was like, "Oh my God, my grammar, my vocabulary is probably not perfect." But actually, no one read it for your first issue. You just started. But with Keep Publishing consistent content, then you gather the audience.

So for now, I got 1,200 subscribers on my English newsletter. And the people, they all say good things. They all say, oh, I love this idea. No one criticizes my vocabulary or grammar. I find, yeah. Actually, I think ideas matter more than vocabulary. You don't even need to use a fancy vocabulary. Yeah, it will keep the message delivered in a clear way.

Yeah, and also, it's probably also relevant to industries or relevant to what types of the content we are creating. If we are creating something relevant to, for example, laws or financial issues as a financial consultant,

Probably, yeah, grammar or like keep things accurate is really, really important. But if it's something about technology, like personal experience, other things, I think it's have a high tolerance level of X and really encourage you to do some like ideas does matter, does work.

make more sense than keep the format in the right way. So luckily we are not creating something like for those restrict industries. What's your target audience in English?

what tools to help you to create English content? Right, that's a really good question. I think I'm still defining or just still making it clear who will be my target audience. Because at first I'm thinking to carry something from my Chinese content similar, like technology and travel and other things. But then after COVID,

travel is not a trend. It's not a really practical thing. And also as a family man, it's really hard to do that as well. And also technology is good, but New Zealand is not an ideal place for technology reviews. And we are like,

on the far away of the of the world right so i also uh exploring like as a designer so uh something that for people who want to be a designer that was my my target audience because i i find that things some of their questions i'm

I'm good at answering it because I was there and I can help. But now I'm starting to think something probably more related to productivity and the combining of life design, productivity and

and technology. So something around that would be good. Because something I find really interesting is about when I share things in Chinese, how I learn things and how I study or what my reviews on books or other things, some recommendations, personal recommendations. People really like to

like those types of the content. And when creating things in English, something similar happens and people care more around tools, techniques, and how we can improve our productivity, things like that. So currently I'm trying to go to that direction, but I haven't really confirmed. It's more like...

test and try. The other question is about the tool. Yeah, do you have any tools? Because for me, I use Grammarly to review my content. And I use Notion and Readwise to gather notes.

Yeah, get the quote, help me memorize all the content I read before, because my newsletter is focused on the book and podcast reviews and some learnings from the hundreds of books I read. So I need to read wise. So yeah, do you have any tips or tricks, the tools you use to help you create content?

Yeah, really good one. I think I also use Readwise, Notion, Abbey User and Grammarly. So that's all. Yeah. I think for learners, that's really, really essential. The other tool I'm using, this app named Libby. So this is a tool that you can borrow audio books or e-books for free.

with your local library card. And there are heaps of available great audiobooks. And before that, you'll find English audiobooks are really expensive, right? So one book for like...

20 bucks, 20 dollars or something. But many books are available on Libby. So that's my suggestion. Like some great audiobooks and books that are available. And the other tool that I'm using besides Notion, I use an app called Drafts. That's all the

all the information, like the first-hand information, I use it to capture any thoughts or any information and then share it from there. Maybe write a post later or maybe write a noting notion. But the first step would be capturing it in drafts. So that's kind of my deal inbox or information inbox, but always on text. And

And it has Apple Watch version, like you can audio, you can read it and transcript into text. I think Grammarly helped me a lot to boost my confidence to publish in English. So what are the three most popular episodes from your podcast or podcast?

some popular content from your YouTube channel? English or Chinese? Can both? Let's start with English first, then say Chinese. Yeah, English. I find...

The popular topics are related to how I use my iPad to read and take notes. So that is a really popular one. And before that, there are some book reviews. But I think it probably depends on the trends or the algorithm by YouTube. So I haven't found any pattern. For example, the book review I did for...

Just one book about Elon Musk, the highest, uh,

views, probably just because it's about Elon Musk. And still exploring what are the other popular topics. But the other way that I try to measure the performance or the outcome of the content is checking are there any actual feedback or actual

comments from people and it's related to my content like this is really helpful or this even better it changed some people's life and then I will I will value it as I think it's as a higher value than just those numbers and for for English content it's still working because there's not many

many content got the life-changing comments so far. And for the Chinese content, there are some comparing to those numbers because some numbers already, because it's published really early, already got 1,000 views.

One million one of them got 1 million views downloaded 1 million and I just because the algorithm and the timing was really good, but One of the episodes is about Ronnie Marathon. It's my first experience of Ronnie half marathon and I recorded an episode and

Two years later, a few years, one or two years later, I went to Chongqing Marathon and some people just

pat me on the back and say, I listened to your podcast. And that's the drive. That was the reason I started running. I started running. Now I think I will give it a go to join Modestone. Now I see you. So at that time, you know, it feels really, really good. Like you do something and share some experience. And that actually helped.

change people's life in a better way, in a good way. And I think that one really is really the highlight for me that brings some meaning of creating content. The other thing I'm thinking is, yes, around 2014, when I went to New Zealand as a tourist, I got a lot of impressed

feeling because that was my first time went to this beautiful country. And then after that, I recorded four episodes related to what my experience of traveling New Zealand. And even now, I still got some comments or some people sent the message like, oh, I listened to the podcast.

And some people here live in New Zealand, like, oh, I listened to your podcast and then I started to explore, is there any way I can go to New Zealand? And then I applied for like a study visa or something and then I can come to New Zealand. So yeah, that's another highlight. Yeah, probably that's the most, and of course there are other opportunities

different stories, but I don't want to make too many details. So far, I think those are something that I still remember and quite a good story to share. True. Because as a content creator, I think that's the most fulfilling moment when you receive meaningful feedback from your readers, from your audience.

That's kind of keep you going. You do a daytime job and also work as a content creator. How do you balance the time? And also you are a dad and you need to balance family life as well. So what's your tips to be very productive? Well, it's never be balanced. There's never a balance, a perfect balance for all the things.

And it's always the priority and the choice you make, the decision you make every day. Because I think I want to take a step back about not only about managing the time and personal energy on different things. It's more around to make the meaningful choice.

about your time and your focus because as people who live in a digital age, we have endless options. Everything will have multiple alternatives. And also like your to-do list is never ending. There are always things you can do. It's never ending. So what is more important to prioritize and to know what you want

At the right moment at the right time what is the best thing you can do to create the best value according to your personal value and according to Like the things you value like family or other things and that's the daily decision we need to make and

So the balance is more around those decisions and you should do what at that moment. And yeah, that's the high level. But on the detailed level, on the practical level, for my daytime job, I will focus to

on the work hours only worried about my job and get it done in that amount of time and also make sure I can achieve the goal for my job like the expectation of my goal

And then at the end of the day, when the work hours are over, I will switch off anything in the evening or during the weekend. I will not think anything about my job. So it's more like a switch off. And then for my personal stuff, I will try to blog maybe one or two blogs per week.

as my project creating period. For example, and during that period, I will really focus on doing things and try to get some output at the end of it. Even the quality or the standard haven't reached to

what I'm really happy, but I aim to create something even I'm not happy about the quality, but I will still get it close at the end of this period. For example, if I have two hours on Sunday morning, my wife and kid go out and then I'm the only person at home and I only have two hours and I will

think that two hours before that I will have a roughly plan like what I want to do within these two hours and make a goal like create for example create two videos or maybe just one videos and then I will aim to get it done within that time and then sometimes I'll batch

a few videos together and maybe recording two videos or three videos in the same morning and then do the editing or other things later. But it's more like always to

to time box things. Good to have a deadline. Yeah. You always need a deadline. And even if you're not really happy, 100% happy about it, at least reach to 80% that I'll move on. And I find this is really helpful to create more things with the

acceptable standard, acceptable quality level. A lot of people, they want to be a bilingual creator, but they always have an excuse. Maybe I am not very good at using other language or I don't have time. What was your advice for them? Just start to do it. At the beginning, as we mentioned before,

either nobody will see it or you make some mistakes. So you cannot run at both sides, right? So don't worry about that. So as soon as you start, you can start to get some real experience and start to get some experience

some tips and you might fall out in a few pits and then get some experience after. I think as soon as you start to do it as soon as possible, that's probably the suggestion. But I know it's really hard

Yeah, find your why. To start creating things in a second language. Probably would be good to think about why you want to do that and be really clear about the drive. Because if you really don't understand the reason you're doing it, it's probably not going long. It's probably just one or two years

trying and you will stop. You're really clear like that's for my career or that's for my personal interests or something that I want to do. If you get the reason really clear, it will be more likely to keep doing that without, you know, even without much feedback or much audience. And another thing is to start doing things that you are

that you love or you're good at or you are interested in or something you're familiar with. So it could be a really good opportunity to break the bubble, like reach to a bigger world or to reach to some people who can understand you. For example, if someone really

keen to learn things, or not learn, maybe just a personal habit. For example, if a guy, he's a Lord of the Rings fan, like a big fan of this topic, and as a Chinese, he probably can have some communities he can talk. Some people have the similar hobby as he himself. But consider this is a

like English culture at first. So you know that there will be more content in English about this topic, right? So if he can use it as a way or as an opportunity to create content or to read or consume English content or use it to reach out to other people with similar interests,

hobby or interest. So it will become the portal that he or she can reach to a more interesting world out of his or her small bubble. If people, anyone who's living in China or haven't got the opportunity to go to

go outside, that could be a really good way to try. And also focus on things you love will be more likely to keep doing it longer. And also maybe create things as drafts at first. Don't be professionalist and just create things as a draft and you will get better next.

my consideration on this, my thought on this is that your first 100 piece of work would be really rubbish. But as soon as you pass this step, this process, next one would be much better, like 101 piece would be much better than the first one. So our job is to get the first 100 pieces

Get this process as short as possible and then you can reach out to, you can reach to the level you hope you can do. But it's not happened at first. So yeah, just do it as often, as informally as possible and then you can pass this

this step as soon as possible. Yeah, there is a 10,000 hours rule. And also according to a Chinese saying, one minute on stage is 10 years effort off stage. Just keep doing it. Do you feel your Chinese background also helps you create English content? Yes. What do you think? Yeah, for me, I feel like...

I'm from an academia family background, so I read a lot of like Daodejing, Yijing, those kind of ancient Chinese books. So when I read the translation version of those ancient books, I feel like some of them lost in translation. So I can leverage my advantage to bring the Chinese culture

culture to the Western world. Because I know those wisdom are universal. So it doesn't matter where you're from, but the fundamental wisdom is applied to all human beings. So I'm curious to know what do you feel, what kind of things you, as your Chinese background, help you to create your content? It's definitely helpful.

at least for the same thing, we might have at least two different perspectives on the same thing. And if you only see things on one side, it's really easy to make the conclusion from your personal experience. But as we are creating things in another language, so you need to think things differently.

think the description or the delivering of the message in another way. So I think that's helpful with another perspective that we can remind or just

call out this is a consideration from another perspective and that's really helpful. Maybe the first barrier is the language when we start to get used to the second language and not see it as a blocker for us to

to express what we're thinking. And then all the understanding, all the knowledge in Chinese, that will be an asset we can use. But at the beginning, I think the first few years when I moved to New Zealand, it's really struggled. It was really struggled that to communicate in the second language because it's always a

like a delay or something. You will have more time to consume, to process information and you take more time to organize your thoughts in this language to describe it. And most of the time, you only have like

maybe 20 to 30% of the information you can describe, you can express. But other things, it just blocked in your mind. At that time, Chinese understanding, like the Chinese background is not directly helping you. It's more like to remind you

you're not that good. And then a lot of translation is not good. But when you break that limitation of language,

I think for me, it's happened on the third year or the fourth year while working, while leaving the new country. So it's definitely take longer or shorter for different person, depends on different person. But it's on the third year. And then I start to get used to it or like start to accept, describe things in the second language. And suddenly I find, oh, those words,

Chinese background is really helpful. And because I can describe in another ankle. So I think, yeah, for the answer of this question, definitely helpful. But maybe at first, you cannot realize it because you're more focused on the communication itself, on the language itself. Yeah. When it breaks, when the language is not a problem, yeah, it will...

very beneficial for creating content or even for communicating with other people. Yeah. I'd like to close this episode with a question. Because I know you have a lovely daughter. So what's the number one lesson you'd like to pass on to her? Wow, that's a really deep question. I think she might have...

more things to teach me because she's learning as she's growing in this new world with new water and a lot of uncertainties and I'm already like quite old. But one thing I might let her know just help her to see is that

There are things happening in something we can control and something we cannot control. I probably will

suggest her to focus on the things we can control or we can actually do something to improve and forgot or just don't care about things we can't. And that's pretty much what I find is really useful for me personally. And I just focus on the things I can change and forgot to caring about

don't mind other things I cannot change. Something, don't want to make a specific example, but personally, I think everyone will have something relevant, like something you can change, your efforts, the time you're spending on things, or your personal attention or other things, and something you cannot change, weather or other things like

Like people's interest, other people's interest, other people's opinion. And those are the things we cannot change, we cannot control, or we cannot even impact. And that's focused on the things we can do. Probably I would let her realize this would be a really good habit. But yeah, we don't know.

kids are really telling so it's probably she she won't listen to me they are so different yeah my cousin she was born in 2006 her generation is just so different yeah they're so used to digital technologies and their thinking is just like aliens sometimes to me

Yeah. Big gap between, between us. Yeah. But it's good to learn from each other, grow together. So, yeah. So where, where can people can find you and follow your work? Yeah, probably easiest to be check, uh, bear talk, uh, or check my, my, uh, website, bear talking.com B-A-R-T-A-R-I-N-G.com. And there are, uh, my blogs, uh, my blog and, uh,

YouTube channel, everything on that platform. Cool. Okay. Thank you so much, Bear. Nice to talk to you. Thanks for having me. Really glad to talking this topic with you, Camilia, and also as a

bilingual content creator a lot of things yeah i've learned also from and also i think that's a really good inspiration for me because i might reach out to more to create more english interviews or something similar because i used to do that but not as a priority during the covid and i think that could be a good way to

not only to create content but to interact, to reach out to other people. Yeah, make friends and reach out to people. Yeah, I agree. I will keep doing that. Thanks for your inspiration as well. No problem. Good luck.