04/17/2021

Alright, I just had my second and third interview for the nonprofit marketing job I was looking at.

The list for today is:

Write at least 3-4 pages for the Jane Austen draft

Get 3 annotated bib entries done for my American lit class

10 new words for conlangs class

Try to figure out a senior quote thing for graduation slide

I'm now flirting with the idea of becoming a librarian also. I just want to stay in academia. That's probably because it's what I'm comfortable with and I don't like change, though.

10 years of languages

Soon it’s going to be my birthday and I realized I’ll have around 10 years since I self-study languages. To celebrate this, I have decided to make a masterpost with tips: 10 years, 100 tips. The tips will be based on my personal experience over the years.

1st year (here we have 13 years old me who is very motivated to learn English, this section will be a mess)

You won’t know where to start, the internet is a great place to start with btw (tumblr and reddit have a lot of posts but ofc 13 years old me didn’t know of these so i didn’t use the internet...).

Your desire to learn fast will be out of control, you’ll be frustrated because you’re slow so accept that it will take some time.

After some weeks, maybe months, you’ll have a mental breakdown; in order to avoid it, don’t put pressure on yourself, don’t compare yourself, don’t hurry yourself and don’t belittle yourself because you can’t catch up with this fantasy you have of how things should go.

You will feel lost so don’t be afraid to start over (i re-started learning French for 5 or 6 times and guess what, i loved that; i got amazing basic skills because of that).

There might be people who will discourage you at this point, you’ll hear that not everyone can learn languages, that it’s hard, that you should focus on other things.

Your motivation will run out after a short while and this year can look like a mess because of that; this is the hardest year for learners because you need to 1) put yourself together every 2 weeks and 2) you need to learn about yourself.

Being stuborn and not asking for help will slow you down, really, if you found someone who learns languages, just drown them in questions. Who doesn’t like to talk about their passions? 

This year... is the year when you judge yourself a lot so my advance is, NO ONE IS BORN A MASTER, BE A SHAMELESS BEGINNER.

Everyone will have an opinion about you and your interests suddenly “i’m better than you at English”, “i don’t think you will be off any good with English” or “you aren’t special for learning it, so shut up” (yes, these are from my classmates from back then) so have a thick skin.

Towards the end of this year, you might feel more lost than in the beginning and also on the point of giving up.

2nd year

Find a study method you enjoy (reading fanfiction was the start of my interest in languages and this time i didn’t give up because i love reading).

You don’t need to know why you want to improve/learn a language; learning a language without a reason it’s okay (this was English for me).

There are no good or bad reasons to learn a language, learning a language out of spite is alright (French and Danish for this one).

Fewer resources = less confusion; choose 1-2 (max 3) for each skill (vocabulary, grammar, speaking, listening, writing, reading, culture).

Find your own study style, experiment!

You might have to adapt based on your language, resources, goal etc. There’s no reason to use the same methods every time.

Be consistent. 

You’ll sometimes avoid studying (for weeks, months etc) that’s alright. Everyone has such moments. 

Do not compare yourself to others unless it motivates you but don’t do it at the cost of your mental health. Sooner or later you start to feel the pressure.

Duolingo and memrise are very popular apps for beginners. Give them a try, you might enjoy them. However, they’re not enough on their own so make sure you study with some other resources as well.

3rd year

Don’t be afraid to give up on certain books, apps, methods etc. Not everything will work for you. 

No book, site, app etc is good enough. For example, textbooks don’t have all the exceptions, enough exercises, examples etc. it’s important to double check what you learn with other sources.

Studying with friends/other language learners can be fun. Just be careful not to compare yourself. 

When you read, don’t translate everything, sometimes you’ll figure out from the context what it means.

Based on your preferences or goals, focus on some skills or all of them; fewer skills = more time for each.

Not everyone wants to speak the language, don’t feel pressured to speak it if that’s not your goal or you don’t want that.

Hinative (or another place with natives) is great for clarifications. You got a question? Someone has an answer, just ask.

Your progress won’t be linear. Some days you forget what you study, it takes time and practice to remember everything and make it your second nature.

Sing! Songs help a lot with your listening and pronunciation skills. Plus, it’s fun.

Natives don’t always know the answer or they don’t know how to explain it. Go to an advanced learner in this case. 

4th year

Practice on to-go; there are several games, apps, videos etc you can use to practice while you wait in line or you have a break at school.

Explaining things to others is a great way to strenghten your own skills.

Having a schedule might work for you.

A schedule might not work for you, figure out how you can keep yourself accountable without having less fun.

Not everyone will support your language choices (you have no idea how often i got asked “why Danish???”).

Whenever you feel a burnout near, do not push through it; take a break!

Alternatively, study at a minimum if you want to make progress.

Reading about others’ habits can help you experiment new methods so talk with other learners, read books on language learning etc.

The speed of your progress depends on many factors (your experience with languages, your native language, your other languages, your resources, your schedule etc) there’s no formula for this that works for everyone.

If you study multiple languages, have a plan of some sorts; do you have a language that’s a priority? do you have a deadline for any of them? more languages = more attention to how you keep track of them.

5th year

Classes are a pain, they will not help you much.

At the same time, there are people who work best under a teacher but not everyone needs to attend a class (also, just because a teacher is teaching, it doesn’t mean they’ll work well for you).

You do not need “talent” to learn a language; you need persistance and a bit of self-awareness so you figure out what works best for you.

On the same note, people will dismiss your hard work by saying “you must really have a calling for languages” or “you are really talented”; in these moments, you see before your eyes all the hours spent studying dismissed by “talent”; my only tip for this is to either tell them not to dismiss your hard work or just give up trying to explain yourself to them.

How you study is more important than for how long you study; you can spend 2 hours doing reviews on words you are aware you know well or you can do 20 min of working in a workbook to practice a new grammar concept, this leads me to the next tip.

Know when you practice because you need that practice and when you practice concepts you mastered just to feel productive.

Mistakes will terrify you and that’s okay; they’re scary but they also show you where to focus more so embrace them because no one will make fun of you.

You’ll start mixing languages after a while, even forgetting words in your native language (other times you remember the word you need in only 1 language and no one understands it so you’re frustrated in the end).

The amounts of time you’ll get tips from people who don’t study languages is astonishing so don’t let those tips influence you unless you think they’re actually going to work (”your brain will fry if you keep studying languages”, 10 years in and i don’t smell any smoke yet).

Pretty notes don’t mean that they’ll work for you; write the notes in such a way they help you! 

6th year

The easiest formula for notes is this: [concept], [explanation] and [example]

The easier the explanations, the better for you.

There are people who don’t take notes, you don’t need to do that if it doesn’t work for you.

Writing practice helps a lot with your speaking practice.

Also, passive skills (listening, reading) are a bit less effective than active skills (writing, speaking), if you focus only on passive skills, increase the amount of study time.

Lingodeer is similar to duolingo but it’s a bit better for Asian languages.

Clozemaster is nice for vocabulary practice.

Beelinguapp great for listening and reading.

50languages does wonders for your listening skills.

Forvo is a great site if you need to see how you say a word, sentence, idiom etc.

7th year

You need to admit to yourself that you feel overwhelmed every once in a while.

Irregular verbs can be learned through practice; workbooks, speaking, writing, reading, whatever you choose, practice (yes, they’re a pain for everyone, irregulars and prepositions).

Not learning a particular language anymore is alright, stop if you need to.

You won’t be interested in everything language related, that’s alright.

You also won’t be interested in all languages and that’s also alright.

There will always be something to improve, don’t belittle yourself because you don’t know 10,000 words or you don’t know all the idioms, you’ll learn them over time.

Whenever grammar or vocabulary overwhelms you, think of it in chunks: grammar = 2-3 books, vocabulary = 500 words (A1), 1000 (A2), 2000 (B1), 4000 (B2), 8000 (C1), 16,000 (C2) [these are the CEFR levels for language learners, A = beginner, B = intermediate, C = advanced]

Don’t trust people to assign a level to you if they aren’t official instructors for an exam or a trust worthy person (i had a teacher who told me i’m B1 and the month after that i got a C1 certificate from Cambridge).

Slowly is great for chatting with people around the world and the app is very cautious with who you might talk to.

Not keeping up with your plan or schedule is alright. They're tools and you can always change your mind or adapt. Don't feel forced to respect something you decided if it doesn't fit the circumstances anymore.

8th year

Attending classes is not enough. Even if they're college level, you still have to practice/study on your own outside of the class.

Life happens. Sometimes you can't make languages a priority regardless of how much try.

Do not allow others to compare to you. I mentioned earlier not to compare yourself but there's also the trend of allowing others to use you as a comparison.

The more time passed, the easier it is to practice/learn/study a language. You have more knowledge, more experience. Basically you have an easier time.

You can always learn a new study method or find a new resource so be open to new things.

Your studies belong to you. Others can offer suggestions but you decide how you do things in the end. This is important because there are teachers who will take credit for your all of your skills even if they didn't help more than 10%. You can also lose interest in a language because of others and a way to avoid these 2 scenarios is to remember that your studies belong to you.

If you decide to teach someone, adapt to their learning style. Don't force your style onto them.

You can find many textbooks in a PDF format online.

You can also borrow textbooks from a library. There's no need to buy textbooks. However, if you want to have some sort of books, get fiction or something about culture. (I see a bunch of pictures with people having grammar books, stacks of grammar books and i don't encourage anyone to buy 10 books for the same language unless it brings something new. Getting 10 books on the same topic but from different publishers won't make you advance faster.)

Investing into apps, programs, books isn't necessary. Unless you know you'll use them, there's no need to buy anything. The internet has enough stuff for free.

9th year

The fastest way to learn how to use vocabulary is to 1) see how it is used in a text and then 2) use it on your own. This works with large amounts of vocabulary. However, if you learn 3-5words, choosing them randomly and then looking for examples online then making your own examples works as well.

Writing words with no translation (if you make vocab lists) makes it a bit more efficient to learn the words by recalling them.

When you don't remember a word, the fastest way to get over this is to reformulate the sentence or think for synonyms.

You can't start from where you left if you take a long break. (A few months) You need to at least look over everything you studied prior.

Everyone is stressed when they use their language skills. If it seems easy, it's not. Everyone has a hard time.

Having a blog about your studies doesn't bring you motivation, discipline etc. It might does for a short while but then poof, it's gone.

Any study related community can bring stress to you. You feel pressured by expectations or aesthetics you see around. It's better to minimize the contact if you notice your thinking shifting towards a toxic direction.

Everyone has an opinion about everything. Having an opinion doesn't mean you're also right. Everyone is unique so even if everyone seems to agree upon trend X, there will always be an exception. Experiment and see before forming an opinion based on others' words.

Drops is a minimalist app for learning vocabulary. It's quite nice if you're on to-go.

You can find texts in your target language on wikipedia but don't feel the need to check them just to do it. You can read on wattpad stories, you can find PDFs with literature etc. You'll always find resources if you know where to look for them.

10th year

A diary for your languages is next level. You can write texts and practice writing but you can also write down what you've done recently in order to keep track of your progress.

Having your progress written somewhere will always motivate you. Why? Because you see what you've done.

Do not feel pressured to learn certain languages because someone says so. Whatever reasons you have, make sure they're your choice.

There's no formula for studying languages. If something works for you, then that's all that matters.

You never stop learning a language. There's always something new to learn so don't put a time limit on your progress unless you know that will work for you.

You don't have to prove to anyone anything. If someone tells you to "say something" or other similar things, just say you don't want to and move on. It's no one's business what you study or how. Or just say the word for "something".

You don't need to know everything. I don't learn swear words for example. Do i see them every once in a while? Yes. Are they essential to my learning journey? Not for me. I don't plan to use them. If you don't want to learn about a certain topic, then don't. After all, how many people you know who can talk about advanced medical procedures? What about quantum physics?

Building consistency is difficult. The secret is to do something ridiculously easy like learn 1 new word or do 1 lesson on duolingo.

There will always be ups and downs. Sometimes the reason is external, other times is internal. However, every problem has at least 1 solution so think how you can solve it.

However you study, make sure you enjoy it and the process makes you happy.

17.04.21 // homework pics + nature + my bujo + my focus to do //

33-34-35-36/100 Days of Productivity(april 13-14-15-16)

W/@amareteur , @teaandbiscuitstudies & @chenxi-cultivates

April Studyblr Challenge

13. what’s your favourite way to take a study break?

By drinking water, streching & looking up the messages<3

14. make a mood board for your studyblr’s aesthetic

Done🧚🏽‍♂️

15. share a playlist with your followers – perhaps your study one, if you listen to music whilst studying

I love all the songs of this one🥺

16. show us some revision resources you’ve made recently

I only did some honework tbh😅

17.04.2021 ~ Oh my god when did that happen? Thank you so so so much for over 1,500 followers!

[4.17]

I felt bad today. I think I have gastric ulcer. Give me a break!

nana

room appreciation because I'm moving out soon and i'm v sad about it. this space has served me well, even if it is a total cave and gets no sunlight

17 april 2021

I know the end of the semester is close when database construction time begins!

「  Day 12 of zoomester studyblr challenge - Are you more into plant or flowers? What’s your fave type?」

I like both, but I think that I am definetely a plant person, because I grow up with my mom and grandmothers all having a really big love for it and our houses always have plants. For me, I love cactus and succulents and I have a giant collection of them!

「  Day 13 of zoomester studyblr challenge - Tell us the most eye-opening book you’ve read.」

Why I'm no Longer Talking to White People About Race, I feel that with all the events that happen last year and are still happening this was a book necessary for me to understand more from the issues that surrond the idea of race relations.

“The dialects of Finnish are divided into two distinct groups, Western and Eastern. The dialects are largely mutually intelligible and are distinguished from each other by changes in vowels, diphthongs and rhythm, as well as in preferred grammatical constructions. For the most part, the dialects operate on the same phonology and grammar. There are only marginal examples of sounds or grammatical constructions specific to some dialect and not found in standard Finnish.” - Wikipedia I speak the Western dialect of Finnish, more specifically North Ostrobothnian dialect. It is spoken in the area pictured below:

[The picture on the left show the area where Middle- and North Ostrobothnian dialects are spoken. The picture on the right shows the municipalities and cities where North Ostrobothnian dialect is spoken.] 

Characteristics of North Ostrobothnian dialect

• d → j or -

Meidän → meijän or meiän (our) Paidan → paijan or paian (genitive or accusative of “paita” shirt) Kaadan  → kaajan or kaa’an (I pour)  Hoidan  → hoijan or hoian (I take care [of]) Hidas  → hijas or hias (slow) Puhdas → puhas (clean, tidy) • ts → tt Metsä → mettä (forest) Otsa  → otta (forehead) Katsoa  → kattoa (to look, to watch) Etsiä  → ettiä (to search, to look for) Itse  → ite, itte (self, by oneself)  • long ä  Mää instead of mä (I, colloquial language) Sää instead of sä (you, colloquial language) 

Sää often turns into nää

• extra vowels  Kahvi → kahavi (coffee) Talvi → talavi (winter) Nälkä → näläkä (hunger) Lehmä → lehemä (cow) Ilma → ilima (air; weather) Kylmä → kylymä (cold) Pöljä → pölijä (stupid) Helppo → heleppo (easy) Vanha → vanaha (old) Paljon → palijon (much, lot) Ulkona → ulukona (oustide)  Kolme → kolome (three)

• gemination of some consonants Poliisi → polliisi (police, police officer) Hyvää → hyvvää (partitive of “hyvä” good) Sanoo → sannoo (says) Ei mitään  → ei mittään (nothing)

• -ea / -eä  → ia / iä Korkea → korkia (high)  Pimeä  → pimiä (dark)  Hakea → hakia (to fetch) Itkeä → itkiä (to cry)  • assimilation of tk → kk in questions Oletko → ookko (are you) Tuletko → tuukko (do you come) Puhutko  → puhukko (do you speak) • d  → h  Saada → saaha (to get; to be allowed to) Jäädä  → jäähä (to stay; to remain)

Example sentences:

Standard Finnish is [between square brackets]. 

Mitä kuuluu? Ihan hyvvää, entä sulle? Ei mittään erikoista. [Mitä kuuluu? Ihan hyvää, entä sinulle? Ei mitään erikoista.] - How are you? I’m fine, and you? Nothing special. (Yes, it is grammatically correct to answer like this in Finnish.) Meijän mettässä on palijon puita. [Meidän metsässä on paljon puita.] - There are lots of trees in our forest.   Talavella on pimiää ja kylymää. [Talvella on pimeää ja kylmää.] - It’s dark and cold in winter.   Juokkonää kahavia? [Juotko sinä kahvia?] - Do you drink coffee? Saahaanko me jäähä tänne? [Saammeko me jäädä tänne?] - Can we stay here?

And last but not least...

Ookkonää Oulusta? Pelekääkkönää polliisia? [Oletko sinä Oulusta? Pelkäätkö sinä poliisia?] - Are you from Oulu? Are you scared of the police officer?

reblog this and put the book(s) you wish you could read for the first time again in the tags

I started doing this paper, thinking I was going to do some incredibly boring work about how the order of Cistercians were cultivating the land and somehow I’m now fascinated by the XIIth century farming mafia, college is a wild experience 

I don't know bit however much i read however much i become articulate i would never understand language in its core form. How did it come to be? What was the need we felt when it first came? The concept of so many different languages? Yeah

My overly ambitious to do list as per usual. I have DnD club later today so that will be fun. Plus I'm bingeing Dreamworks movies for an upcoming youtube video

Thank you to my mom who just ordered a $150 frame for my diploma.

Research day✨

Hanging out at the coffee shop again working on my research paper for my American Literature final. I’m comparing and contrasting colonial narratives against Native Americans with the narratives put forward during the Native American Boarding School Era in the United States. Being Native myself, this topic is extremely important to me, and I’m excited to dive in.

Unless you can interact with others, hurt them and get hurt...while learning about them and yourself...you can't become the kind of man who is sincerely considerate of others. - Shigure Sohma

Today is a slow, quiet Saturday. Which is perfect. I'm going to read and do some creative writing. I just scheduled my first covid vaccine! I need to order a frame for my diploma. And I'm really happy with how my first journal spread for Fruits Basket, turned out.

cr: Milkman - Anna Burns. Yotsuba&! Vol. 1 - Kiyohiko Azuma.

🎵Motion Sickness - Phoebe Bridgers

(Click on photo for better quality)

Patreon | Ko-fi

Saw the biggest dog at the farmers market today

Source

Pick an umbrella word. A word that embraces how you want to feel, what you want to become. Your word is probably connected to what you're struggling with right now. Find an umbrella word for your year, your quarter or even your month. Really try to understand how you're really feeling. You shouldn't be setting any goals w/o a clear why behind it. This helps clarify what goals you want to achieve and increases your motivation to do so.

Make life clarifying activities. These are essentially big brainstorm sessions that could become goals. 

Start and Stop List: Make a timer for 30 mins and take two pages and write two lists. One with the things you want to start doing, and another with the things you want to stop and the branch out to ways you can start and stop those things.

The Antivision: An exercise where you try to picture what your life will look like in 3-5 years down if you don't take any of the actions that you want to take. Then turn it around and try to figure out the ways you can prevent this vision from coming to life.

The Perfect Day Exercise: Write what your ideal day would look like. Your morning routine, the little details in your life that excite you to wake up early, how you feel going to bed at night, what you do for work, etc.

Brainstorm. What are you avoiding? What makes you feel good, and should you be doing it more? What goals could you accomplish that, having done that, would make everything else easier or unnecessary? These goals will either: (a) create more time in your life allowing you to work on your goals and making them easier or unnecessary; (b) give you more money, so you can spend it on more meaningful things (long-term); (c) creating more energy in your life, so you have more time for other goals.

Decide what goals you want to pursue. Have one most important goal and two mini goals. You don't need to pursue all the goals you brainstormed - in fact, that is where most people fail when setting goals, because doing so is impossible and leads to failure. Give yourself 13 weeks or a quarter to achieve them. These goals are short-termed and, as such, help increase your motivation to achieve them. They also allow you to be flexible, since setting goals in January for a whole year could contribute to goals that in December no longer interest you (e.g. in January you decided to follow a Keto diet, but by December you've realized that intuitive eating is the best approach), so that's why this time frame is perfect.

Q: How doable your goals realistically. If you put in the effort, will you be able to achieve them?

Q: How impactful is this goal? Will it matter in 3 years time?

Q: How challenged do you feel by your goal?

Measure these questions on a scale of 1-10.

Create an outcome vision. Get highly specific on how you want your outcome to look like. You shouldn't be setting off to achieve your goals without having a clear idea of exactly what you want. What outcome is going to feel the best?

Detach yourself from the outcome. Focus more on the process of achieving your goal, on how you want to feel as your achieving your goal. Outline the present activities you want to focus on.

Creating a plan. What often looks like resistance, is actually a lack of clarity. Make clear what are the step by step actions you need to take next. This, however, does not need to happen once, but constantly, as re-clarifying your plan and next step actions is essential to continuing to take action. Firstly,

Map out the habits that will help bring your goals to life.

Map out the next action steps. Time creates fuzziness, so make sure you update it so it feels tuned to what you are right now and what you want to achieve.

Make clear what are the next few steps you need to take, not every single step. The point of a plan is to be helpful, and over-planning without action is not contributing to the achievement of the goals you set yourself.

Plan until you feel clarity. Then revisit it a few weeks or months afterwards when you need more clarity.

Staying consistent with your goals. This is the most difficult point of this list. Most people have no difficulty clarifying their action steps or planning how they want to achieve their goals. But the hard part is continuing to stay consistent even when it's been a long time since you created your plan.

Have an accountability partner: Find someone who holds you accountable, either on an online community, paying for a coach or by asking a friend. You meet every week, see how your goals are tracking and,

Do a weekly check-in: Ask yourself how you did in the last week and how you can improve. Don't focus on failures of will-power since it only leads to shame and prevents you from trying to find solutions that actually work. A weekly check-in should simply be a time of self-compassion and curiosity, that's it.  Ask yourself why something isn't working, if there's something holding you back or what you could to differently to improve.  We often don't look at all the possibilities that exist simply because we don't look enough. There's always another possibility, you just need to keep looking.  Experimentation is essential to goals.

Daily or weekly plan with your goals in mind: If you aren't planning out your weeks with to-do's related to your goals, time blocking with chunks of time dedicated to working on your goals, they aren't getting done. Write your goals daily, so you don't forget them and remind yourself on why you're taking these action steps.