studymission

Skincare ingredients can get quite complicated (especially when trying to understand it in Chinese), so here's part of a vocab list to decode your labels and making sense of what’s actually in your products:

尿囊素 - niào náng sù - allantoin

变性乙醇 - biàn xìng yǐ chún - alcohol denat

杏仁油 - xìng rén yóu - almond oil

芦荟 - lú huì - aloe vera

果酸 - guǒ suān (or α-羟基酸 - α-qiǎngjī suān) - alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) (apparently there are a few ways to say this in Chinese)

氨基酸 - ān jī suān - amino acids

抗氧化剂 - kàng yǎng huà jì - antioxidants

苹果醋 - píng guǒ cù - apple cider vinegar

熊果苷 - xióng guǒ gān - arbutin

摩洛哥坚果油 - mó luò gē jiān guǒ yóu - argan oil

六肽 - liù tài - argireline

抗坏血酸葡糖苷 - kàng huài xuè suān pú táng gān - ascorbyl glucoside

Chinese is one of those languages where curse words are so commonplace that they lose a bit of their bite, but nevertheless:

Witnessing French:

Websites, social media

Online courses in French

French subreddits

Fanfictions

Buzzfeed

Improving your:

Pronunciation

Speaking

Things to listen to:

Music

Podcasts

Radio stations

TED talks

Things to read:

Graphic novels/comics

News

Ebooks + quizzes (by me)

Short stories

Vikidia - kids’ Wikipedia

Things to watch:

Cartoons

Kids shows

Imago TV - free activist Netflix

The Simpsons the movie

True crime

TV programs - sci-fi shows, travelling, etc.

Youtubers

Extra:

Antidote 10 + BonPatron - Grammarly equivalents

Conjugation by le Nouvel Obs

Deepl - very good at translating sentences/expressions

Forbo - natives pronouncing things

Lexicity - about Ancien/Moyen Français

Lingolden - Chrome extension that teaches vocabulary

Linguo.tv (french videos + subtitles)

Reverso - very good alternative to Google translation (single words)

contains 34 textbooks including etymology, language acquisition, morphology, phonetics/phonology, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, & translation studies

dropbox containing language textbooks

contains 86 language textbooks including ASL, Arabic, (Mandarin) Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hebrew (Modern & Ancient), Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovene, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh

dropbox containing books about language learning

includes fluent forever by gabriel wyner, how to learn any language by barry farber, polyglot by kató lomb

The dramatic “I’m done” at the end of a conversation for example cause we the French love the drama hehe

C’est bon = That’s it / I’m done

J’ai compris = I get it

Allez je me casse = Okay I’m out

J’me tire = I’m out

J’en ai assez là = I’ve had enough

C’est fini = It’s over

Allez ciao = Okay bye

J’en ai ma claque = I’ve had enough

Finished one poetry book and now hopping to another. I was taken in by the review on the cover by Diane Glancy: “There is heaven and hell in these heavenly poems.”

Monday, 13.02.23: Only three more days until holidays! I still need to prepare lessons though.

This last bonus chapter of the journaling 101 series is a list of some prompts and ideas to get you inspired when you find yourself wanting to journal but don't really know what to do. As I mentioned I am a big fan of journaling prompts, as I believe they can be very helpful to get you in the habit of journaling, or to just spice things up a bit. This list has no particular theme, so there might be something interesting for everyone:

Write about your favourite books, and how they influenced you. Try to remember what was happening in your life when you read them for the first time, and how that might contribute to your attachment to the book. (This could also work with movies and tv shows).

Gather ideas and organize you thoughts on some project you have, or you would like to work on. This could be about work/study, but also redecorating your room, tattoos you might want to get in the future, anything.

If you are in therapy, after your session, write down everything you worked on, the things you might want to keep an eye out for until your next meeting, thoughts you might have after your session is done. If your therapy session are distant from each other, you could plan check-ins, and also notes on things you might want to discuss during the next session.

Weekly reviews spreads, in which you write a small review of what happened and what you did, or a favourite memory. Also writing down what you are currently reading, listening and watching. At the end of the year you'll have a quick review of many things you probably wouldn't have remembered.

Write a letter to your future self and do not re-read that until the specific age you decided. (A fun way to remember about it could be to write yourself and email, and then schedule it to be sent in a few years time).

Travel journal spreads. I have a specific journal, but these would work both in a personal journal and in a bullet journal. I normally have a planning page, in which I list things I want to see, things I want to eat, and general informations on the holiday. Then I do daily entries on what I visited, I glue in tickets, and so on.

Rant about what you are currently reading and watching, follow the flow of your thoughts and see where they bring you.

Pick a random word generator, see what word comes out and then writes everything that comes to mind when you think of that word. Memories, people, feelings, images, anything. You could also do this with random songs from your playlists.

Write a letter to someone from your past someone who you were friends with, someone who hurt you, an old teacher, anyone.

If you are trying to be more fluent in a target language try to journal a bit in that language. Start by describing what you can see, and then move on your thoughts and feelings.

Read a poem or an article and write in your journal what if made you feel, and what it made you think of.

Brainstorm your aethetic by listing things, actions, images that feel like you. Imagine quick things that you'd like to use to describe yourself with, the less coherent they are with one another the more accurate it will be, and the more unique as well!

In this post I’ll discuss the 在。。。也 structure in Mandarin which means even if.

You can employ this structure when you want to express “even if X were more A (add adjective/adverb/verb phrase) the result will still be the same. Note that this structure carries the implication that you are already at level A.

Example: 这次考试太难，我在努力也没成功。

So, the example says ‘this time the test was so hard that even if I’d worked hard, I still won’t be successful.’ The implication is I did some work, may be even close to hard work.

风「風」feng1 wind

风土人情「風土人情」feng1 tu3 ren2 qing2 local conditions and customs

风和日丽「風和日麗」feng1 he2 ri4 li4 moderate wind and beautiful sun, fine sunny weather (especially in spring)

风尘仆仆「風塵僕僕」feng1 chen2 pu2 pu2 lit. covered in dust, fig. travel-worn and weary

风吹雨打「風吹雨打」feng1 chui1 yu3 da3 lit. windswept and battered by rain, fig. to undergo hardship

风平浪静「風平浪靜」feng1 ping2 lang4 jing4 lit. breeze is still waves are quiet, fig. tranquil environment, all is quiet

风中之烛「風中之燭」feng1 zhong1 zhi1 zhu2 lit. candle in the wind, fig. (of someone’s life) feeble, hanging on a thread

风口浪尖「風口浪尖」feng1 kou3 lang4 jian1 where the wind and waves are the fiercest, at the heart of the struggle

风声鹤唳「風聲鶴唳」feng1 sheng1 he4 li4 lit. wind sighing and crane calling, fig. to panic at the slightest move, to be jittery

风水轮流转「風水輪流轉」feng1 shui3 lun2 liu2 zhuan4 fortunes rise and fall, times change

风烛残年「風燭殘年」feng1 zhu2 can2 nian2 to have one foot in the grave, one’s late days

一路顺风「一路順風」yi1 lu4 shun4 feng1 to have a pleasant journey

两袖清风「兩袖清風」liang3 xiu4 qing1 feng1 lit. both sleeves flowing in the breeze, fig. uncorrupted, to be incorruptible 

只欠东风「只欠東風」zhi3 qian4 dong1 feng1 lit. all we need is an east wind, fig. lacking only one tiny crucial item

往事如风「往事如風」wang3 shi4 ru2 feng1 the past is vanished like the wind, gone beyond recall

A list of 625 words to know in your target language, inspired by the post.

Language >>> Mandarin Chinese

Format >>> Traditional Chinese (to write)│Pinyin (to speak)│English

금품을 수수하다, to receive money (in exchange for smth else)

취직을 알선하다, help sm1 get a job

비밀리에, secretly

공공연히, overtly

밀거래하다, to traffic/smuggle smth

은어, slang/jargon

공갈, extortion/intimidation

사형수, a convict on death row

절취하다, steal/take out

헌혈/매혈: donating blood/selling blood

콩팥: kidney (pure Korean)

신용불량자, a person with bad credit history

추궁하다, to interrogate sm1

급전이 필요하다, to need a large sum of money quickly

쓸개, gall bladder