Love In Languages

common origins of suffering, euphoria, and ferret

しぶしぶ（言う）(to say) reluctantly

「あの人、感じはいいもんね」マーサはしぶしぶ言いました。「わかった」”She’s a nice lady,” Martha conceded.  “All right.”  

よちよち（歩き）to totter, walk with tottering steps

ソフィーはこの商売のことなら知り抜いていました。よちよち歩きのころから、店から中庭をはさんで奥に立っている大きな作業場に出入りしていたからです。Sophie of course knew the hat trade quite well already.  Since she was a tiny child she had run and out of the big workshed across the yard….

ぬくぬく　snug, cozy. Presumably related to ぬくもり, warmth

おかげでドロシーはとてもぬくぬくとして、朝までぐっすり眠りました。These kept her very snug and warm, and she slept soundly until morning.

なれなれしい　over-familiar, casual (of a way of speaking or behavior) And the antonym よそよそしい, aloof, distant, formal (of a way of speaking or behavior)

彼は私の妻になれなれしすぎだ。He is getting far too familiar with my wife.

その金持ちの友人は彼によそよそしい態度を取った。The rich friend gave him the cold shoulder.

ちょくちょく　now and then, occasionally, sometimes (often for visiting a person or place).  Can also be said ちょこちょこ, which also has other meanings (could be a regional difference, as I hear ちょこちょこ more often here in Osaka)

hi @stressedoutbutstillsurviving! i’m your secret santa for this year’s event organised by @langblrsecretsanta. since you like baking and are learning japanese, i decided to share this nice tofu matcha cake recipe i found! :)

材料

絹ごし豆腐 (150g)

ホットケーキミックス (100g)

卵 (1個)

加糖抹茶パウダー (大さじ2)

黒蜜 (適量)

きな粉 (適量)

作り方

オーブンを180度に予熱しておきます。 型にクッキングシートを敷いておきます。

ボウルに豆腐、卵を入れ混ぜ合わせ、ホットケーキミックスと抹茶パウダーをふるいながら入れ、さらに泡立て器でよく混ぜ合わせます。

1を型に流し入れ、180度に予熱したオーブンでほんのり焼き色がつくまで20〜30分程焼きます。1度取りだし、予熱温度を170度に下げ15〜20分アルミホイルをかけて焼きます。

粗熱が取れたら2を食べやすい大きさに切り、お皿に盛り、飾りをつけて完成です。

vocabulary

絹(きぬ)ごし豆腐(どうふ) - silken tofu

加糖 (かとう) - sweetened

黒蜜 (くろみつ) - brown sugar syrup

きな粉 (こ) - roasted soy flour

予熱 (よねつ) - preheat

混(ま)ぜ合(あ)わせる - to blend, to mix

敷(し)く - to lay out, to spread out

ふるう - to sieve (flour)

泡立(あわだ)てる - to whip, to whisk

ほんのり - slightly, faintly

なぜ右足が細いのかずっと考えてたけど、ポップコーン持ってたのねwww

listen, the studyblr community can be a wonderful place - but there’s this emphasis on absolute perfection that really doesn’t help a lot of students dealing with other issues on top of their studies. here are five unconventional study tips that might not fit the studyblr aesthetic but have helped me get straight as whilst learning to live with mental health and family problems too!

1. don’t study whilst commuting

i walk to school, so posts about studying on the bus just aren’t helpful - i don’t have the option to do that! even if i’m taking the train somewhere, the last thing on my mind is studying. i’m thinking about my bed and how early it is and whether or not my coffee is cool enough to drink without burning myself yet. not all of us can start working the second we’re awake, and that’s okay!

instead: record your lessons and listen to them as you travel!

even if you’re not paying attention, you’ll remember more than you think! this is especially useful for languages - i recorded myself reading a few essays and listened to them as i walked, which made noticing grammatical errors so much easier!

2. don’t rewrite all your notes

i love the studyblr aesthetic as much as anyone, but i honestly don’t have the time to write out pages and pages of notes in the hope of gaining a few followers. of course it’s nice to have pretty-looking notes, but when you have a huge list of tasks to do, it can become a way of procrastinating work that’s actually needed for a grade.

instead: organise your class notes!

check the material you’ll study before the lesson! if you’re into the brush lettering aesthetic, write out or print titles off ahead of class so you can stick them on your page without having to waste valuable lesson time drawing them. plus, knowing what you’re going to study before you actually come to it means you can prepare a list of questions to ask the teacher and improve your understanding of the subject! this way, you’ll have organised, clear notes from the beginning, so you won’t have to copy anything out at home.

3. don’t buy expensive stationery

i know everyone seems to have those tombow brush pens and leuchtturm journals. as someone who can’t afford them, trust me when i say i get how it feels. but spending money on expensive products (especially ones you don’t know how to use) is just counterproductive - your grades won’t magically go up if you start shopping at muji.

instead: try budget alternatives!

would you buy a £90 contour kit if you’d never used foundation before? the same goes for stationery! substitute for cheaper products from your local stationery stores whilst you get a feel for what’s helpful for you, not what anyone else has. for example, i tried so many types of pens before realising that my writing’s nicest with gel pens, so now i let myself get more expensive ones - but i didn’t waste more than £5 figuring this out because i’m #cheap. this list of popular studyblr dupes is constantly being added to if you really need to try something, but stressing about your stationery is not going to help you in the slightest.

4. don’t worry too much about being organised

look, we’d all like to be organised, but i’m an adult who’s lived with depression since i was thirteen, and i know it’s not always possible to have that pinterest-ready study den. sometimes your homework will be done on a bed that’s not been made in weeks of it’s going to be done at all, and that’s okay.

instead: do what you can.

had a bad day? stick on some guns n roses and do the work later. too exhausted to function? just finish that last maths problem and go to bed. it’s okay to not have a picture perfect lifestyle - most of the people who post those photos don’t have it either. just do what you have to do to get through the week.

5. don’t ignore your mental health

there’s such a weird culture of perfectionism here and it’s so damaging! of course no one has to post about their personal lives on their studyblrs - but please don’t let that lead you to believe it’s not important. this mentality of “everything is fine and i must be perfect” isn’t healthy.

instead: talk about how you feel!

it doesn’t have to be on your studyblr, but if you’re feeling suffocated by pressure to achieve, or you think you’re depressed, or you’re just going through a tough time and need to vent, talk to someone! bottling things up is not a healthy way to live life - believe me, i’ve tried it. it doesn’t work. there are so many impressionable young people here and we need to stop acting like our studies are all we can ever be.

6. Don’t study right before the exam. 

REST instead, I always found if i crammed i could remember well the last thing i read but nothing else. t. I used to play pokemon games while i waited to sit for my exams. It kept me low stress. Stress undoes all the effort you put into study

7. instead of writing your notes out again. or focusing on everything, bullet point the key stuff. its a good way to know if you’ve actually remembered something if you can look at a word or sentence and be like “ah i remember that”. it helps figuring out what you need to study more, because you can focus on the words or phrases you can’t remember a lot for and less time on those you know. Its also a good memory jogger closer to the exam. A lot of lecturers have a “key points to take away” or use headings, snatch these as a guide for what is important for you bullet summaries.