i don't always study. i don't even usually study.

1 - Watch native films/dramas

This is not only fun, but will also help your ears adjust to the speed and tones of native speakers. You will start to differentiate individual words and sounds. This is not a voice over or language teacher speaking - these are natives who speak rapid-fire, and with lots of slang thrown in. You'll also learn about the country's culture, etiquette rules and general way of life.

Matt vs Japan (YouTube) learnt Japanese through watching anime. You can also learn through native resources like manga. And this is how babies learn naturally - through an endless stream of language input. Eventually they recognise word, intonation and grammar patterns.

For free Korean/Japanese/Chinese dramas check out Viki, or you can find a variety of languages on Netflix, or even YouTube (good for Russian ones!)

2 - Find a translated version of books/films

If you know a book series by heart, find the translated version and go through them slowly. Since you already know the plot, you'll associate new words with their meanings much faster. You can also do this with films you've watched repeatedly, like the Disney classics.

3 - Chat with natives

Use apps like HelloTalk, Tandem or Hilokal to chat (for free!) with native speakers around the world. Honestly, this is the fastest way to learn, especially because they use everyday expressions/slang. It's also the most fun way because you're essentially just making foreign friends.

4 - Browse the internet in your TL

YouTube, twitter, Tumblr, forums, whatever. Google a recipe in Spanish. Check the news in German. Create a YouTube account specifically for Arabic. You can also make Spotify playlists in your TL, and listen to them instead of your usual native ones.

5 - Create content

Compose a song

Keep a diary

Start a blog

Create a YouTube channel

Write a passionate essay

Write a short story

...in your target language.

6 - Latch onto something cultural you love

Fall in love with Russian literature and start wading your way through Crime and Punishment. Get obsessed with Hindi Bollywood movies, or Italian opera, or Japanese anime/manga. Research into your TL country's history in that foreign language. Binge Korean dramas or kpop idol interviews. Anything, as long as you're passionate about it.

this is a poster i made for my call to action assignment in humanities! it's a bunch of basic and easy stretches for people who sit and work at a desk all day (me)

the idea is that you'd put the poster up above ur desk and do the stretches every 30 minutes or so,, the whole routine won't take more than about 6 minutes to complete and when done regularly it can prevent wrist, shoulder, neck and back pain! :)

all these stretches can be done while sitting (although i HIGHLY recommend you stand up and move around while taking a break from working)

holy shit

Artists, creators, students, and researchers of all types, take note:

Digitized photos and text. 2D and 3D object renders. Music and other sound files. Videos. Research datasets. Collections metadata.

On a Creative Commons Zero license: Take what you want. Use it. No permission or attribution required. Yes, even for commercial use.

We extract 30 tons of materials each year to support the consumption of the average American. That’s 82kg of fuels, minerals, crops, and timber taken from the land per day to feed, clothe, comfort, and entertain each person. It’s more than anyone’s fair share, and more than the planet can sustain.

But since material use and GDP are intimately linked, physical shrinking would probably bring economic shrinking. Thus, degrowth must involve reorganising society to meet people’s basic needs regardless of what happens with GDP, so the economy can decelerate justly, without the suffering recessions bring.

This sometimes causes confusion. To be clear: degrowth is not about decreasing GDP. And it’s not about reducing every person’s individual resource use (poor people might need more resources to meet their needs). Instead, it’s the hypothesis that radically reducing environmental damage and carbon emissions – and making other changes in the direction of sustainability and justice – entails producing and consuming less overall. That reduction needs to focus on today’s sources of overconsumption, primarily by rich countries.

Take a hypothetical moratorium on new fossil fuel extraction. Ending fracking, drilling, and coal mining might be our best shot at saving the stable climate, and it would likely mean wealthy nations like the UK would not be able to keep expanding their economies year after year.

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change cites studies showing that ‘only a GDP non-growth/degrowth or post-growth approach’ can limit warming to 2°C without deploying risky or imaginary ‘negative emissions technologies’. That two-degree target is the maximum global temperature increase to which human societies are thought to be capable of adapting, but there’s no guarantee that we’ll be fine if the planet warms that much. The less warming, the better our chances.

You're right. School is bullshit, homework is bullshit, waking up early is bullshit, going to bed early is bullshit. Some adults are just pointlessly cruel, even those in positions of authority over you. Sometimes adults are wrong, and, in fact, sometimes you are right

You were born with an innate sense of justice and fairness and adults have spent your entire life trying to beat it out of you so you'll shut up and do what you're told in an unjust and unfair society. Don't let them. Many of us have to take effort to relearn the wisdom you have right now, the ability to tell when something is bullshit even if you can't articulate why yet

You deserve happiness, fulfillment, and liberation just as much as any adult. Those first 18 years are just as important as any other time in your life, and it's time you'll never get back. Don't let anyone take them from you just because you're too young to fight back

Question everything, and never take "that's just the way it is" as an answer. Sometimes when things don't make sense to you it's because they just don't make any goddamn sense

Pick your battles, and be strategic. Don't take this post as permission to go starting fights for no reason. But remember that you have worth, and our society tends to not respect that. And you're right: that is bullshit

Forest school

Unschooling

Emma Goldman

Leo Tolstoy

Mikhail Bakunin

John Holt

Free to learn by Peter Gray

The Pursuit of happiness by Daniel Greenberg

Andrew Parker on Unschooling

Mindset by Carol Dweck

Pedagogy of the oppressed by Paulo Freire

The education system is broken by Andrewism

Teach your Own by John Holt

Hunt, gather, parent. By michaeleen Doucleff

I love learning, I hate school by Susan D Blum

Changing our Minds by Naomi Fischer

Primate Change by Vybarr Cregan Reid

Hey Japan - comes with a cute shiba inu bc fuck that aggressive owl. its basically duolingo made specifically for japanese and much better at teaching you HOW the language works.

Kanji Study - its the grey one, made by one person. it covers the first 80 kanji plus the main radicals that make kanji up, PLUS hiragana and katakana FOR FREE. you can practice by drawing, flash cards, multiple choice, and you can decide whether you read or select the romanji/character/meaning. i learned hiragana in 5 days using this. the upgraded version (one time payment) with higher level kanji goes on sale a few times a year, consider supporting the app if you find it useful

Todai - more advanced but good for reading comprehension. japanese news in... japanese. highlights which JLPT level words are and gives percentages of each level for each article. has inbuilt dictionary to check words you dont know.

Takoboto - my preferred japanese dictionary but there are loads out there. i like it bc i can search in english, romanji, kana, or kanji and it breaks down kanji compounds into individual characters. it also shows different conjugations eg: to eat, eating, ate, to be able to eat, etc

those are just the phone apps i use, there are so many other resources out there that are free and not pulling bullshit like skipping one of the 3 'alphabets' of a language

*to be clear the reason i think duolingo is shit for japanese is that it doesnt follow the JLPT pathway. which... you dont NEED exactly, but i think the country that had to make a new, easier language profiency test bc not enough people were passing the existing one will know how to build courses that teach their language. plus duolingo is doing *gestures* whatever shit that is up top.

if you seriously want to learn japanese, memorise your kana (drop romanji asap or youll forever struggle and I'll come to kick your shins) and find the ebook of genki 1 that someone uploaded, or some other JLPT N5 course. but NOT duolingo.

Hyplern

Language Crush

Readlang

Vocab Tracker

I have restructured the folders to make them easier to use and managed to add almost all languages requested and then some

UPDATE because apparently not everyone has seen this yet the new and improved version of this is a MEGA folder: https://mega.nz/folder/kQBXHKwA#-osWRLNCXAsd62ln8wKa8w

hi everyone! because i put tutoring on hold while i am working full time but still want to provide help to those who want to start learning/want to practice their korean, i am continuously compiling material for free learning :)

resources are totally free!

most are typically aimed at children (which is great for beginners!!)

hangul practice

vocabulary building

printable/downloadable

example of scans:

example of grammar breakdowns:

i will be adding material over the coming weeks and continuously as i come across material! updates may be frequent or slow down at times.

note: resources are free, and they’re totally free to share and use! but please do not repost without credit, and because i buy these from my workplace with my own money and spend time scanning them and cleaning them up and organizing them, please consider tipping me as much as you’d like ♥️

here is the link to the drive! (sorry, can’t hyperlink on mobile currently)

enjoy, and thank you in advance! have fun and feel free to ask me any questions—i am a korean studies grad and was a tutor for the beginning korean classes at my university. i am happy to help however i can!

(previous editions) bold = favourite

class, race, & labour

the philippines’ dangerous dependence on the exploitation of its people

the blackstone rebellion: how one country took on the world’s biggest commercial landlord (denmark)

reliance on hi-tech solutions to climate crisis perpetuates racism

china’s army of retirees seek return to work as economic toll on their families mounts

how professionalism is used as a tool for racism

gender, sexuality, & intersectionality

reclaiming dignity, reasserting agency: female labour migration in indonesia

for transgender students, a safe space in university halls is ‘great comfort’ — but not a given (singapore)

you should have been listening to octavia butler this whole time

how to be a slut

politics & current affairs

peru lawmakers propose bill to strip indigenous people of protections

the night raids (usa/afghanistan)

how a massacre of nearly 300 in syria was revealed

the cartel, the journalist and the gangland killings that rocked the netherlands

hundreds of members of extremist group oath keepers worked for us department of homeland security

japan’s militarisation gets a boost from ukraine war despite pacifist constitution

history, culture, & media

barbara johns: the us’ forgotten civil rights hero

‘i’m afraid one day it’s going to go’: saving singapore’s old buildings one photograph at a time

drugs killed 8 friends, one by one, in a tragedy seen across the us

seventy-five years after indian partition, who owns the narrative?

aristocrat inc.

👏🏾Education 👏🏾is 👏🏾a 👏🏾right,👏🏾 not👏🏾 a👏🏾 service 👏🏾

(Ill update this as I post more, but here is a master post of tons of links to language resources to help you study a language from my site (Plurilingualism) so far! 💜)

Before you start:

- A guide to making S.M.A.R.T goals (and why goals are so important!)

- A complete guide to self-studying a language

Resources and tips:

- Website resources page (with links to tons of resources for general language learning)

- 5 must-visit sites for language learners

- Master list of language challenges (vocab, reading, journaling, etc)

- 10 unique resources (I’ll bet you haven’t heard of even 3!)

- Where to find good foreign language books (+ links to several recommendations)

- Master list of YouTube channels in 50+ languages (With almost 500 links!!)

- All about the animedoro study method (my favorite way to study anything, but especially a language)

- All about Memrise (a great app and website)

- All about Busuu (one of my all time favorite resources)

- All about italki (a must-have resource for any language learner!)

- How to perfect your pronunciation (+ links to guides in several languages)

- How to actively and passively learn a language via TV and movies

- The best 15 apps to learn a language with (+ links to full reviews for each)

+

If you are studying Korean:

- 10 amazing Korean resources (with descriptions)

- Korean resource master post (with almost 200 links)

If you are studying German:

- German resource master post (with almost 200 links too)

If you are studying Spanish