Succulents And Studying

if you are currently taking ap literature or you plan on it in the future (or just want a list of books to read) take note of the following books to help with the class/ ap exam:

books that show up the most on the ap exam:

1. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

3. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

4. King Lear by William Shakespeare

5. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

6. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

7. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

9. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

10. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

my personal favorites that can be used on the exam:

1. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

3. The Stranger by Albert Camus

4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

5. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

6. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

7. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

8. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

9. East of Eden by John Steinbeck

10. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

11. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

12. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

13. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

14. Out of Africa by Isaak Dinesen

15. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

16. The Crucible by Arthur Miller

other popular works of literary merit to use:

1. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

2. Light in August by William Faulkner

3. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kid

4. The Color Purple by Alice Walker 

5. Emma by Jane Austen

6. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

What’s Wrong? || どうしたの？ Hey guys, today we’re gonna look into how we can ask our friends “What’s wrong?” in Japanese! There are a few ways we can ask this in Japanese, as in English:

What’s wrong?・どうしたの。／どうした。・どうしたんですか。

What happened?・何があったか。・何がありましたか。

Is there a problem?・問題があるか。・問題がありますか。

どうしたの： To ask the question ‘what’s wrong?’ you can simply ask 「どうしたの」or 「どうした」, and if you want to be a bit more formal make sure to use polite です・ます ending by asking 「どうしたんですか」. You can use this question to ask what’s wrong with both animate an inanimate objects. You can also ask “What’s wrong with (someone)?” by using 「(name)はどうしたの」. Examples・例「れい」：

サラ、どうしたの？・Sarah, what’s wrong?

泣いてるの。どうしたの。・Are you crying? What’s wrong?

どうしたの。ちょっと顔色悪いよ…・What’s wrong? You look a little pale…

昨日学校休んだけど、どうしたんですか。・Yesterday you didn’t come to school, what’s wrong?

サラはどうしたの。なんで叫んでるの。・What’s wrong with Sarah? Why is she shouting?

このテレビどうしたの。・What’s wrong with the TV?

「どうしたの」can also be used to mean something more casual like “What’s up?” / “What’s happening?” depending on the context.

Examples・例「れい」：

どうしたの。なんでみんなここにいるの。・What’s happening? Why is everyone here?

サラ、ちょっとだけ時間ある。・Hey Sarah, do you have a minute? もちろん。どうしたの。・Sure. What’s up?

It’s amazing how someone can teach themselves a whole new language by themselves. I self-studied Japanese and never used a textbook. There are so many resources for learning, online and free. You can learn just using the online or free resources listed here and beyond. But where do you start?

First, start with hiragana. There are many ways to learn it.

flashcards, or use quizlet to drill it into your head

Dr. Moku app ( has one for katakana too) I highly recommend this but $

hiragana quiz

hiragana alphabet game

hiragana writing sheet

tofugu hiragana

videos:

hiragana song

The Easiest Way To Learn Hiragana

Next, learn Katakana

Dr. Moku katakana app

katakana alphabet game

katakana writing sheet

tofugu katakana 

videos:

Japanese Alphabet Song - Study Hiragana katakana Chart - Learn to read japanese alphabet table

Learn ALL Katakana in 1 Hour - How to Write and Read Japanese

Next understand more about hiragana like long vowel sounds, muddied sounds, The Small や、ゆ、and よ, the small つ、the long vowel sound with Tae Kim.

Then more with katakana. Learn the long vowel sound and the small ア イ ウ エ オ with Tae Kim again.

Then additional sounds using whatever method helped you learn hiragana and katakana.

Done with all that?  Now, drop romaji. It’s dead to you. A little reluctant? Practice more.

Learn grammar next with vocab and kanji on the side. It’s hard to learn grammar without vocab and it’s hard to learn words without understanding some kanji. I know it’s tough but once you ride it out through grammar learning Japanese becomes much smoother and easier. It’s not as frustrating. It’s so fun.

Grammar

Tae Kims Guide to Learning Japanese

imabi

http://maggiesensei.com/

Vocab

memrise

JLPT N5 vocab list ( recommend learning other JLPT vocab later too)

learn the words in the grammar lessons too!

Write down new vocab you come across and make flash cards or quizlets to learn them

kanji

get a Japanese kanji book

tanoshiijapanese kanji lessons

my post on how I learn kanji

Tae kim’s kanji explanation 

Dictionaries

Dictionaries are helpful for vocab and kanji.

imiwa?

jisho

Japanese ( This is my main dictionary)

Download Japanese dictionary and Japanese-English dictionary on iPhone in settings, go to dictionary on settings

After all that just keep practicing. Go to your best free resource, your public library and find books in your level, watch videos in Japanese, read manga, watch a film in Japanese etc. 

Also, here’s a good masterpost that also lists other good masterposts and more.

Here’s some miscellaneous advice I want to give beforehand I really hope you'll take:

Try using the Japanese dictionary the most, not the Japanese-English one but the completely in Japanese definitions of words one. Use Japanese-English when you can’t understand the Japanese definition to help yourself. I found English words given to define Japanese words seem to be similar words or/and words the Japanese word is usually translated in. It’s hard to really understand the word exactly. To really understand the word I find myself having to read the Japanese definitions. This is literally what I give the most credit for my progress in Japanese. ( some good ones are kotobank and goo辞書 as well as the iPhone one.)

Learn loan words. Sometimes they aren’t used like the language it originally came from uses it.

Understand what radicals are so you use them to look up kanji. Lots of Japanese dictionaries let you look up by radical.

Practice stroke order. I mean my handwriting is messy but a least it’s legible and not as messy as it could be.

learn Dialects!

Some words use a couple different kanjis. Learn the nuances of using those different kanjis in the word.

Read news in Japanese

learn the culture. It’s impossible to learn Japanese without understanding the culture.

learn kanji by learning how its used and vocab. Here’s a post I made about that. It’s the same one above.

Change your phone into Japanese.

follow Japanese people’s accounts on social media, whether that’s here on Tumblr, Twitter or Instagram.

And lastly, Don’t lose yourself to discouragement. Keep going. I can’t tell you how good it felt to watch Jdrama completely in Japanese or read a whole adult novel in Japanese. I could see anyone getting there too. It takes time but it’s very possible.

Followers, feel free to recommend any resource in the notes:)

lumos 🌟

AND GET SHIT DONE FOR REAL (part 1)

1. Study your syllabus. 

 In there you’ll get all the important information: books, assignments, scores, goals, due dates, deadline, you even get a planner. You can’t overlook any of this. Nowadays most syllabi are full of crap, they have more pages than they did a couple of years back, yet students are still confused or don’t even use it. These are the things I look for in the syllabus: 

Books. Yeah, you get a list at the beginning of the semester but some courses have readers or make use of articles as materials too. Which you are likely required to download or print yourself. I like to be 101% prepared and that means getting all my reading materials. I download all my books, readers and articles and organize them right away on Google Drive so I don’t have to look for them at the last minute. 

Learning objectives. My syllabi have a section dedicated to the objectives of the course. This is a lifehack by Shirou, folks. So listen carefully. If the syllabus says “create a marketing communication plan based on the marketing policy”, YOU 👏 WILL 👏 GET 👏 THAT 👏 SHIT 👏 IN 👏 YOUR 👏 TEST. 👏 NO 👏 ARGUING. You better start looking at what a marketing communication plan consists of. So write the objectives down in your notebook, in a document, somewhere you’re sure to look, so when the professor starts explaining that objective, you’ll paying 200% of your attention. I like to write them down with checkboxes. That way, if I see we’re getting close to exam week and the professor still hasn’t explained that objective, I’ll take the opportunity to ask and not lose any time. The entire course is likely to go around these objectives. So if you understand them, and can explain them, then you’re likely to pass that course. It has worked for me these past 2 years. 

Test. What kind of test will I get? Is it a written test, digital, presentation, essay? A combination of these? If it’s written or digital, you know it’ll most likely be individual. If it’s a presentation or essay, chances are high it’s in a group. I have the most difficulty with group works. They give me a hell of a time and I want nothing more than to avoid them. So I take this opportunity to see how hard I will have to work for the subject. And of course, if there are multiple exams within a course, I take a look at the percentage of each one of them so I get to prioritize the most important examination. If I have a presentation that counts for 20%  and I have to write a report that counts for 80%, I’ll work my ass off to get a perfect score for that report. Ultimately, that’s what’s going to raise my score faster. So it will be downright stupid to do a mediocre work on the report, hoping the presentation will raise my final score. 

Take a good look at the planning. Are there any due dates or deadlines for things you have to deliver before midterms or exam week? Highlight those! In my first semester, I overlooked those in between due dates where your professor gives you feedback. Bad decision, people. I could have had a higher score if I had delivered things as planned and get feedback. But nope. 😥

ig: doestudies

uni graduation: d-133 !!!