Mishellaneous Topics

💡 Here are 3, maybe four, steps to improving your target language skills with "trash" TV

"You’re not gonna be picking up on rejoinders right away especially if it’s your first time doing this exercise. It might take you a couple of episodes to start picking up on patterns. That’s when you’ll start jotting stuff down. Don’t go and start using your phone to translate. It’s super stimulating for the brain and fun for you if you make this a game of deciphering with context clues. The phone can help you confirm later."

📖 Read more: https://mishellaneous.substack.com/p/watching-reality-tv-is-a-great-way-to-learn-a-language

УРАМ ХАЙРЛАХ (phrasal verb)

I happen to also be half-Mongolian and thus speak enough Mongolian for conversations with friends and family though perhaps haven’t developed the formal register for professional life.

A phrase I think about often is “урам хайрлах” (uram hairlah) which nearly untranslatable into English. It means something like encouraging someone in what they care about.

The word урам (uram) could be most closely understood as “enthusiasm” and хайрлах (hairlah) means to “love and nurture”. Therefore, урам хайрлах (uram hairlah) means something like:

⭐️ to nurture one’s enthusiasm ⭐️

As always, as the true TCK that I am, my mind is perpetually looking for equivalents in my other native languages (Spanish and English). I think in Spanish, it would be “mimar” or “halagar”.

—What does it look like to урам хайрлах?

When your best friend surprises you with a chessboard because you mentioned it once. When your SO doesn’t personally care about your project, but asks about it because it makes you happy to share.

Because I was raised knowing this phrase in these specific terms, I believe that to nurture (water, tend to, cultivate) the other’s enthusiasm (ardor, zeal, passion) is vital in any relationship. Without this, it wilts.

Perhaps it’s because I was raised by my mother who is a Mongolian woman who was born and raised in Ulaanbaatar, but the words in Mongolian just hit different in my mother’s language than in Spanish or English.

Happy holidays! Remember to tend to your loved ones’s enthusiasm this season! 🎄

📸 La Selva Taurina Los Arcos, Querétaro, MX, 2024

🇭🇰 Thanks to "In The Mood For Love", I now have a newfound appreciation for Hong Kong even if my life in Asia is very much in the past. In much the same way that the film spoke to me through every transfiguration of culture and emotion that it depicted, so did the city itself when I was there 2017-2018.

❥ 25 minute episode
❥ Photos from my trip
❥ A beautiful song

Remembering Hong Kong through "In The Mood for Love" About the film that made me fall in love with cinema

I like notes. More than that, I like handwritten notes. More than that, I like handwritten notes in different languages.

Happy Wednesday everyone! 🍑😇

👓 My reads today.

🎙 "...this kind of interconnectedness with those spaces, really makes me hopeful, for someone who grew up with very little or almost no community in Switzerland. It gives me hope that there is more possibility in that sense for people to find a place where they belong. And I for a really long time did not feel like I belonged anywhere and places like LockChuck in China and Hercules makes me feel welcome."

In this episode, Amy and I sit down to talk about what brought her to Mexico, her unique Swiss-Korean background, and how she fell in love with hospitality and the power of "spaces". She is currently the owner of BLAU, formerly known as Indigo Cafe, in Calle Ignacio Allende N. 44, Centro Historico, Queretaro where you can pop in for ceremonial grade matcha, coffee, and home-made meals by Amy herself as well as goodies from the Irish Bakehouse.

Creating Spaces Out of the Blau Social Media💌 https://mishellaneous.substack.com/📸 [at] mishellaneous.topics🔵 [at] blau.queretaro Calle Ignacio Allende 44Centro, Santiago de QRO, 76000...

🌏 In this more intimate podcast episode, I share what I've learned so far in the 10+ years of traveling and dealing with different groups of people from all walks of life. Well, in a nutshell, I’ve gathered that we tend to judge people for three things:

1) how we express our self-regard when relating to others
2) how we go about getting what we want from others/giving to others
3) whether we smile too much or too little in unfamiliar spaces

I talk about events that took place in three different kinds of spaces namely work, home, and coffee shops in countries like Shanghai, the US/"the West", and Mongolia. Some examples are more personal than others. And of course, I'm curious to know about what kind of experiences you've had while abroad!

But we are a many splendored thing 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞In my 10+ years of traveling and dealing with different groups of people from all walks of life, I’ve gathered that we tend t...

💌 This episode is my solo debut on my own podcast where I talk about arguably one of the easiest yet toughest aspects of expat life: friendships. Well, in my ten-plus years of moving in ex-pat spaces, the fears, anxieties, and grief that I've experienced and seen others experience can be summed up in the following points: expat friendships tend* to be:

1) short-lived
2) superficial and
3) easily forgotten post-departure.

That’s not to say that there aren’t friendships that last, but to ignore the tensions would be silly. I talk about it more in-depth in this episode.

The Fleeting Beauty of Expat Friendships Instagram: mishellaneous_talks TikTok: mishellaneous_talks 📣 Disclaimer: A word on vocabulary. I’m aware that the word “expat” comes with a connotation that...

🎙 “One of the beautiful things about identity is that you’ll never ‘finish’ [developing] it until you die and you’re always in a process of discovering what you can and can’t do, what you can change, what you can’t change; what’s there because people told you that’s what you are and what’s there because you actually are that. It’s a never-ending adventure.”

In this episode, my friend Tim and I candidly discuss our relationship with our Asian heritage which affords us with the best of both worlds but isn't without it's existential crises. On a lighter note, Tim tells us why he decided to come to Mexico, his honest opinion about the food in Queretaro, and what he plans to do after his work contract ends.

Will the Tim Shady Please Stand Up? (feat. Tim) In this episode, my friend Tim and I sit down to talk about one of our most personal relationships ever: the one we have with our Asian heritage. A math, Eng...

Housekeeping updates 📣
All podcast episodes can be found in my brand spanking new newsletter of the same name where you can find show notes and posts about movies, books, and my day-to-day shenanigans in Queretaro, Mexico (or wherever I am)

Stay tuned 📣
The next podcast will be featuring Tim where we discuss negotiating our Asian identities (Chinese and Mongolia respectively). On my end, the topic is just in time for the Mongolian National Festival of Naadam which was this week on the 11th of June.

⭐️ “𝐈 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬."

Founded by Chris and his best friend Yoreh in 2021, Pub Quiz QRO has quickly become a successful event for both foreigners and locals here in Queretaro. Currently run by Chris after Yoreh's departure from Mexico, the event aims to bring together the community in a friendly and sometimes competitive language exchange (with beer!) alongside his favorite customer turned co-host Gamba. In this special podcast episode, Chris and Mishell go from discussing the ins and outs of making a quiz event to contemplating the real hard hitting topics like the lack of color in The Netherlands. When Chris isn't hosting pub quizzes, you'll likely find him planning his next travel adventure, hiking with friends, or playing soccer with his team. If you're listening on YouTube, make sure you stay tuned for the video segment featuring Gamba at the end of the podcast segment.

To drink and to know things in Queretaro (feat. Chris) 🍻 How to sign up for Pub Quiz Queretaro:- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pubquizqueretaro- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pubquizqueretaro/- Whats...

🍨 "𝐒𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞, 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐦 𝐈 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞?"

In this episode, the founders of Monte Gelato Troy and Lu talk to us about how they went from making donuts in Mexico City to making gelato in Queretaro. Since October 2021, Monte Gelato has been delivering quality gelatos in the bellybutton of Mexico. Moreover, we learn about how Mexican ingredients have pushed the boundaries of traditional gelato and created brand new flavours for us.

Sweet Dreams Are Made of Gelato (feat. Monte Gelato) 🍨 "𝐒𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞, 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐦 𝐈 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞?"In this episode, the founders of Monte Gelato Troy and Lu ...