Language Reading/Listening App

Beelinguapp is a fun, new app I have found that I love. :)

Download links: Website; Android

What is it: According to the website, “Beelinguapp shows the exact same text in two languages; side by side. At the same time, it is an audiobook, and with its unique karaoke reading, you follow the audio in the text on both sides. There are many texts available in 10 languages, they go from fairy tales, news, to science papers and novels; and new ones are added every week.” The app comes with several stories that are free, with additional ones available for $0.99 each.

Languages Available: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish.

Who is it for?: Beginner to advanced students of the languages.

I highly recommend it for listening practice and to learn correct pronunciation. It is also immensely helpful in helping you to improve a 3rd, 4th etc language through another language. For example, learn Hindi stories with the reference text in French. Overall, this is a great tool that will help you out in the passive areas of language learning.

a v. important, no frills post on what you should do on exam day. just a few tips from a medicine student :)

food

eat: protein (high energy), fresh fruit (low GI + fructose), any other common breakfast staples (don’t be adventurous with your food today! keep it simple)

have eggs/tuna, apples (makes you more awake than caffeine), wholemeal toast

avoid: heavy carbs/turkey (makes you sleepy), caffeine (excess can make you jittery), excess gum (laxative effect), excessively greasy/dairy/spicy/sugary food (nauseous effect), alcohol

don’t have pasta from last night, energy drinks, curries, bacon

what to bring*

water bottle! (pls sip if you feel tired/stuck on a question! it helps i swear)

transparent pencil case

student ID

2 pencils (eraser tips would be good!)

2 pens

clear ruler

eraser 

calculator/protractor etc. for certain subjects

* check your exam notification on the type of pen/pencil, whether calculator is allowed etc. DON’T bring white out- usually not allowed in exams, but again check for your school.

on the way

goal: stay calm and quiet

action: sit in a quiet carriage of a train, play white noise in headphones, avoid noisy/stressed out fellow exam-takers

reason: boosts your focus, confidence and calmness. enables you to utilise any last minute revision time effectively

on the way: revision

goal: active revision (avoid just reading over stuff!)

action: redraw diagrams, verbalise definitions, solve harder past paper questions from scratch.

reason: it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking ‘i know this already’. revising like this solidifies what you know and ensures clarity and depth in your answers.

reading time

this depends on which subject the exam is for but here’s a general guide

1. reading over long response/essay type questions and think about your stance/arguments to support it. 

2. skim through whole paper for questions on hard/difficult-to-memorise topics. keep a mental note to do those first (brain dump the info first while the knowledge is fresh!)

Staying on top of all your to-dos, errands, tasks and due dates can get complicated but luckily there is an app for everything! If you’re looking for app to wake you up in a morning, manage your priorities or soothe your anxiety, you’ve come to the right place. Here is a list of all the top apps that students are using:

Organisation

Wunderlist

Planner Pro

24me

Remember The Milk

Google Calendar

Pocket Schedule - Class Schedule, Homework Planner

AwesomeNote2 - All in One Organiser

AnyList

The Homework App - Your Class Assignment & Timetable Schedule Planner

My Study Life

Calendars by Readdle - Event and Task Manager

Class Timetable

Countdown+

Due - Reminders, Countdown Timers

Do! - The Best of Simple To Do Lists

Workflow: Powerful Automation Made Simple

Glass Planner

Productivity

RescueTime

Streaks

Forest

ToDoIst

Tide - Stay focused, be peaceful

Focus Keeper

Habitica

Productive habits and daily goal tracker

Plant Nanny

Note taking

Microsoft OneNote

Evernote

Quizlet

Notability

Byword

Flashcards+

Goodnotes

Outline

Boximize - Structured notetaking, personal database, form builder, manager and organiser

RefME - Referencing Made Easy

Sleeping

Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock

Sleep Genius

Rain Rain

Pillow: The sleep cycle alarm clock for sleep tracking

Sleepytime Sleep Scheduler

Mental health and self care

Headspace

Stop, Breathe & Think: Meditation and Mindfulness

Pacifica - Anxiety, Stress, & Depression relief

Centered

Buddhify

Calm: Meditation techniques for stress reduction

Moodnotes - Thought Journal/Mood Diary

Colorfy

7 Cups Anxiety, Stress & Depression Chat & Therapy

Companion 

Health and fitness

Sweat with Kayla - Fitness & Bikini Body Workouts

Yoga Work Out

Freeletics

7-minutes workout

Waterlogged - Drink More Water, Daily Water Intake Tracker and Hydration Reminders

Finance

UNiDAYS

Pocketbook Personal Finance Expense Tracker

Splitwise - Split bills and expenses the easy way

Pocket Expense - Personal Finance Assistant

Daily Budget Original Pro - Saving Is Fun!

Mvelopes

PocketGuard

Mint

The Coupons App

Groupon

I’m reaching the end of my time at university and it’s got me all sentimental. and regretful. There are a number of things that I had learned during my time at university that I wish I’d known during first year. 

Read everything. The only valid excuse for not reading everything on the reading list is that you didn’t have time, not that you found it boring, or that it wasn’t useful. Because there’s nothing scarier than trying to write an essay on something you studied a month ago, and you have no notes on the topic. 

Revise constantly. I wish I’d revisited everything I did a week after I did it, just as a recap. I tended to focus on what I was doing in the moment because it felt the most important thing at the time. Well, during exams, everything is equal. And it’s so frustrating not quite being able to remember something. So, revise. Even just for ten minutes.

Don’t spend all of your money on impulse. I’ve bought so much rubbish that I really don’t need. And if I’d saved that money, I could have gone on holiday. Save every last penny you can. 

Eat well. I just said that you should save all the money you can, but I think that food is one exception to that rule. Try and save money where you can, obviously, but don’t go for days and days without fresh vegetables because you’re saving money for a holiday. Your mind, as well as your body, needs food.

Go and talk to professors in their student hours. I used to find this so awkward. To be honest, I still do. But if you’re going sending them an email and asking for clarification on a topic, consider maybe popping into their office when it’s open to students. And tell them if you’re struggling! If you don’t let them know, then they can’t help you.

Take hot drinks with you, to your lectures or to the library. Don’t spend all your money in the library cafe. Bring a flask of tea, and loads of study snacks in a packed lunch box. Trust me on this.

Make time to meet up with friends you haven’t seen in ages. Don’t wait for them to ask you. I make sure to socialise with my friends at least twice a week. And by socialise, I don’t mean getting blind drunk and going clubbing. Sit down and have lunch together. Chat. Get to know each other properly. Friendships formed over alcohol never last as long as friendships formed through actual conversation.

Do stuff that the university puts on for students. Join societies. Get involved. One of the best nights I ever had at university was a masquerade ball that my college put on. And for some reason, I’ve never done anything like that since then? And I don’t understand why! University is for making memories, and I don’t really have many!

Travel around your university town. If you’re university is on a campus, don’t let your life revolve around that one place. If you’ve travelled away from home to go to university, then make it worth your while! See the sights, be a tourist, get on a bus and go to a random town and buy ice cream. 

Experiment. This is the time. Dye your hair blue, join a weird and random society and take up a hobby you’d never dreamed of.  If you want to try drugs, make sure it’s a safe environment and do your research before hand. If you don’t want to do that kind of thing, then don’t judge other people for doing so.

Give yourself a day off per week. When you’re at university and you’ve got loads of work, it’s tempting to just work constantly - or at least, to work every day, if not all the time. But it’s so much better for your mental state to take a day off to just relax. 

Keep up with your chores. When you’re stressed about an assignment, you don’t want to be also stressed about that pile of washing up accumulating by the sink. Keep your room tidy too - clear space, clear mind.

Be kind to everyone. You’re going to meet a lot of people at university, some you’re going to hit it off with immediately. But there will be some who really rub you up the wrong way. Don’t worry about it, it’s completely fine to not like someone. But don’t be mean to them. This isn’t high school, you’re all here to learn and there’s just no need to make them feel bad about themselves. It’s just petty and childish.

Think about the future. I know that you’re completely wrapped up in your university life right now, but you’re going to have to venture out into the real world at some point. Do things that might help your future career: volunteer, get a job, join a sports club, make connections. University isn’t, sadly, forever.

While language learning apps and websites such as are plentiful online, places to practice are less easy to find! Here’s a few you can try out, none of which are limited to just one or two languages:

Chat

HelloTalk (iOS/Android): an app with 100+ languages that lets you chat with native speakers of your target language from around the world with voice + text. It’s the one most geared towards just conversation!

WeSpeke (iOS/Android): an app and website with probably the largest variety of languages at 130, with text, audio, and video chat.

Conversation Exchange: this one’s a little different, as it not only allows you to get a pen pal and has text, video, and voice, but it also lets you meet up with native speakers in your area to practice!

Speaky (iOS/Android): a web and mobile app which is pretty much social media for language learners! It has 110+ languages and you can make video/audio calls and message from your browser.

HiNative (iOS/Android): not exactly for chatting with people, but instead you can ask native speakers about their culture/language in your target language!

Read

Duolingo Immersion: lets you translate articles from your target language into your native language, or vice versa.

Readlang: read articles, books, and other texts online, with vocab support, and it will create vocab lists and flashcards based on the words you needed help with.

All You Can Read: a selection of magazines and news websites from 200 countries, offered in a wide variety of languages.

Worldpress: a directory of worldwide newspapers and magazines, sorted by country, region, and also political affiliation.

Listen

Live-Radio: a collection of thousands of worldwide radio stations in a multitude of languages.

Every Tongue: 7,000+ recordings of all different languages, readily available online.

Omniglot: a massive listing of online radio stations in languages from A-Z!

Hi guys! Today I’m going to share with you some of the apps and websites I have come across/use myself. I divided them into categories!

All apps are free unless stated otherwise. I’ve never paid for an app in my life!! Anything marked with a * is a favorite of mine.

Calendar/Organization:

* Plan: amazing calendar app; syncs with Google Calendar; easy to use (iOS app; website); will probably make a whole post about this app

My Study Life: calendar app that helps with organizing your time (iOS; Android; website)

Wunderlist: list making; you can share tasks, etc; access literally from any device, even Kindle

Sunrise Calendar (iOS; Android; Mac; website)

Google Calendar

Productivity/Avoiding Procrastination:

Forest: not free, see free Chrome extension below (iOS; Android)

FocusNow: similar to Forest, but free (iOS; Android)

Pomodrone (iOS)

Pomodoro Time (iOS)

ClearFocus (Pomodoro timer for Android)

Self Control (Mac)

Cold Turkey (Windows)

Chrome extensions:

Some of these are mentioned in other categories

* Momentum

* Embark

Currently

* Lanes

* Forest

My Study Life

* Noisli 

StayFocusd

Language learning:

⇢ Multiple languages

* Duolingo: most major languages (iOS; Android; Windows Phone;website)

TinyCards: flashcards by Duolingo (iOS)

Duolingo test center: for English Language Certification; you can actually pay for a certificate; reviews say it’s very difficult (iOS)

* Memrise: most major languages; teaches programming languages (iOS; Android; website)

Conjuguemos: a few (mostly Romance) languages; teaches Latin verbs

Lingoda (paid): English, German, French, Spanish

L-Ceps: tons of different major languages; teaches Hindi, Malay, Burmese, Tagalog and Thai

Hello Talk: over 100 languages; learn with native speakers, and teach them your own language (iOS & Android)

Multilingual Books: a lot of resources for learning American Native Languages

iTalki (paid): literally any language you can think of; I’ll probably apply to be a teacher there soon

Radio Guide: listen to radio stations from tons of different countries

Babbel (paid): 14 major languages

* Forvo: a pronunciation dictionary for TOOOONS of languages

⇢ Specific languages (alphabetical order)

Arabic

Arabic alphabet

Learn Arabic Online

Holy Quran in Arabic

Al-Arab newspaper

Cherokee 

Rjholton

French

Bonjour

About French

@awesomefrench , a fellow blogger who teaches French

Watch the movie Paulette (2012), it’s absolutely hilarious. French is a bit tricky, so watch it with subtitles (in French, preferably)

France24 newspaper

German

Deutsch-Lernen

Learn German Easily

Spiegel newspaper

Hindi

Learning Hindi: link for beginners

Dainik Bhaskar newspaper

Italian

One Word Italiano

16 free Italian lessons

La grammatica italiana

Corriere della sera newspaper

Japanese

Guide to Japanese

Free Japanese lessons

Japanese-Online

Asahi newspaper

Korean

Learn-Korean

* Talk To Me In Korean (iOS & Android)

Korea Herald newspaper

Portuguese

Oneness 

BBC UK

Learn Portuguese with Rafa

Diário de Notícias newspaper

Russian

Learn Russian

Russian alphabet

Izvestia newspaper

Spanish

About Spanish

Watch the movie Chico y Rita (2010), it’s great and easy to understand! (I watched it in class)

El País newspaper

⇢ Sign languages

American Sign Language:

LifePrint

British Sign Language

MobileSign

School of Sign Language

Deaf Work Mate

Finger Spell

French Sign Language

Dico LSF (dictionnaire)

Web LSF Lexique

Terminologie scolaire

WikiSign

Multidico (lexique)

German Sign Language

WikiSign

Spanish Sign Language

Lenguaje de signos (libro)

Curso online gratis

Català y Español: WikiSign

Portuguese Sign Language

Escola Virtual LGP (inclui os básicos; só temos que criar conta)

Note taking:

Evernote (iOS; Android; website)

* OneNote (iOS; Android; Mac; PC; website)

Studying:

Quizlet: create/use other people’s flashcards (iOS; 

* Khan Academy: various subjects; basically a team of amazing teachers (iOS; Android; Windows 8/10; website)

* Crash Course: another team of amazing teachers; partners with Khan Academy; it’s a Youtube channel; see their playlists for different subjects

Shmoop (paid): courses, test preparation and learning guides

Brightstorm (paid): similar to Shmoop

Background noise:

* Noisli: you can choose between productivity and relaxation (apps aren’t free, but the Chrome extension is: iOS; Android; website)

* Coffitivity: you can choose between different ambiences (iOS; Android; website)

A Soft Murmur (Android; website)

Fonts:

Dafont

1001Fonts

* FontSquirrel

* Fount: for when you want to know what font someone is using on their blog/website

Stationery shopping:

Mochi Things

Jetpens

* AliExpress: ships from China; super cheap stuff, I mostly buy washi tape and stickers but they have everything there; make sure to filter your search by selecting free shipping and price low to high (they have the same exact products for completely different prices, depending on the seller)

Alright guys, that’s all the apps, websites and tools I have to share with you. I hope you find this useful!

Let me know if you have any requests for posts. Check out my previous masterposts:

Back to School: general tips and advice

[1/100 Days of Productivity] – First Post