C O D E S P O

Since my classes begin tomorrow and it is mostly online I thought I'd share some simple study/self care tips that I will be sticking to.

Decide where you will work - even if it is at your kitchen table, having a designated work spot is so important for online classes and study. I understand that for some people this can be difficult, so you could break up your day instead of sitting down for a few hours straight.

Get enough sleep - Summer is over, it's time to settle back into a semi-normal sleeping pattern. Being tired can be a terribly difficult roadblock for concentration.

Get up early - by this I don't mean "get up at 6am every day". I mean don't stay in bed until five minutes before your class starts. Get up maybe an hour or so beforehand, which leads me to my next point-

Eat breakfast! - it will help you concentrate on your study. Plus, now you're at home you can snack throughout the day as well!

Hydrate! - It is SO important to drink water regularly. Try to keep a tall glass or a bottle nearby when you're working.

Wash and Dress - if you don't have the time or energy to shower, you can brush your teeth and wash your face. Trust me, it will makes a world of difference. It also might be tempting to throw a sweater on over your pyjamas for lectures, but you will feel a lot more alert and ready to work if you change out of the clothes you slept in. A change of underwear and even clean joggers and a shirt can freshen you up a lot.

Take your breaks! - even a 15 minute break for you to stretch your legs and grab some air will help so much!

Stay in touch with your friends and classmates - working alone can feel very daunting, so it might be a good idea to reach out to friends and organise a study session on a group call or video chat. You needn't be lonely just because you're alone.

Keep any medication you take close to where you work - I started doing this not long ago. It can be frustrating to have to break the flow of work to get up and take it, so it may be tempting to leave it until later. If you have it within arms reach you can take it without disruption. It also might help to set an alarm if it is time sensitive.

Hi it’s werelivingarts, I return to school already and I can feel that homework start running in…

Pomodoro technique is such a popular and efficient way to organize and manage your time, no matter if you are studying or working. Keep in mind that this is not ‘ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL’, this may not a suitable method for people who have ADHD.

Hoping that the graphics can provide you some helpful hacks! 😉❤️

Introduction

I've studied Spanish at school for 3 years and now I'm at a low B1 level. I can actually understand pretty well while listening or reading but I can't communicate fluently.

This plan will include vocabulary build up, some grammar revision, a lot of listening, reading and writing. And could be used for the most languages, not only Spanish.

Plan

Every day:

Conjugate one verb in present, past and future tenses

Make a list about 10 - 30 words long

Create flashcards with them and start learning them (I use Quizlet for flashcards)

Revise yesterday's set of flashcards

2-3 times a week:

Read an article or a few pages from a book

Write a few sentences about anything in your target language

Listen to one episode of podcast (at least one)

Once a week or every two weeks:

Watch a movie in your target language, preferably animated movie as the language used there is easier. You can watch with subtitles

Grammar exercises

Translate some short text

Once a month:

Write something longer, like an essay or report, on chosen topic

Additionally:

Talk to yourself, to your friends, to your pets

Text with someone

Look at the transcription while listening to the podcast for second time

Repeat what you hear (in podcast or movie)

Check words you don't know from the listening and reading

Read out loud

Listen to music in your target language - you can even learn the text and sing along

Watch YouTube in your target language

Change your phone language to the one you're learning

Think in you target language!!!

- waking up early in the morning to watch the sunrise, even though you don’t actually need to

- staying up late to read or paint because you don’t have to get up early

- handwriting assignments that should be typed and submitted digitally

- having a coffee cup with you, rather than a thermos because you don’t have to take it anywhere

- still getting ready and dressed so that you can feel focused on your work in the mornings

- emailing your teachers to see if they have any extra reading related to the topic

- turning in all of the assignments for the week earlier than the rest of your class because you wanted to finish them early

Hi all, it’s werelivingarts. I just stumbled across this method called ‘eat the frog’, which means you get the most difficult or important task out of your way first. I actually have been using this method for a long time, hope this post gives you a new way of managing your time and productivity! 😜

Autumn Equinox 🍂

19.09.20

This first week of the semester has been chaotic, because we have online classes but there are some exceptions and organising is being really difficult 😔 That's why I've been offline these past three days, I needed time for organising and for myself to relax ✌🏻 Hope everyone is doing well 💛

You heard me. Perfect. Pronunciation.

Drumroll….

Boom.

[Retrieved from wikipedia]

I present the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). ( IPA website)

Basically this here is the cheat code for all pronunciation of every language

E v e r y.  L a n g u a g e.

How?? Well, each symbol corresponds to one sound.

The table shows you where the sound is located and what your tongue has to do to pronounce that sound.

Example:

æ is said at the back of your throat while your throat is around halfway closed (indicated by its location relative to the words “open” and “front). This sound is found in “back“ (in the Standard/General American dialect).

ŋ is said by touching the base of your tongue to where the roof of your mouth gets soft (the velum) and exhaling through your noise while making noise (indicated by “velar” and “nasal”). This sound is found “song”.

As you can see, “ng” in “song” is made up of two letters that have different sounds while separate, but together they make a different sound. And English has some letters that correspond to several sounds all on their own! This is the case on many other languages, and trips up a lot of foreign language learners.

IPA ELIMINATES THIS DIFFICULTY BECAUSE EACH SYMBOL = 1 SOUND

lol sorry for all caps but im excited and this is important so

But how will this actually help you? Because dictionaries are amazing.

See that? That’s the entry for “language” in Merriam-Webster.

It shows two ways of pronouncing the word: ‘laŋ-gwij\, and \’laŋ-wij\, and indicates which syllable is stressed by putting a ‘ in front of the stressed syllable.

Pretty cool, right?

Here are some examples of IPA in action in different languages:

French: deux -> /dø/

Korean: 내가 -> /nɛ-ɡa/ or /ne-ga/

Afrikaans: seun -> /sɪøn/

Standard Arabic:  عَيْن‎ -> /ʕajn/

Ready to try this out for your own?

If you just want to only know how to pronounce your target language’s sounds:

Have a dictionary that uses IPA

When you want to look up a sound, go to the interactive IPA chart here

Learn how to say the sounds in your TL by understanding the column/row titles that they are in on the IPA chart (consonants here and vowels here)

Optional (or if you don’t have a dictionary):

Get the IPA charts for your target language (usually on its wikipedia page at “_target language_ Phonology”. If it’s not there then look up “_target language_ IPA transcription”) 

Example of an IPA chart (Afrikaans):

[Retrieved from Wikipedia]

It’s a lot less intimidating when it’s the sounds for only one language, right?

REMEMBER: you don’t need to be able to pronounce every sound in IPA to make use of this chart, just know

how

to make them and what these symbols sound like (more or less) and your life of learning pronunciation will be so much easier

So there you have it:

The Secret to Perfect Pronunication in Any Language

Go, be free my language-learning friends, go pronounce things like natives!

and get rid of that nasty romanization for all my fellow korean learners

(oh and if anyone has any questions about this, send em my way! i know there are a couple linguistics blogs that follow me so if any of yall wanna add smth, plz do!)

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