#bee studies

I love wondering around the library, looking at books people have left scattered on the tables wondering what made them pick them up.

100 days of productivity 1/100

Hey, I have decided to do 100 days of productivity. The first month of university is officially gone and I need to step up my game in order to keep up. The weekdays are fine but I tend to slack of during the weekends.

I'm also posting this super late since yesterday I studied till 11 pm and then talked with my friend on the phone for over 2 hours. I miss him so much. 🍋🍰

Yesterday I did:

went to an interview and was asked to come again of Friday

did my chinese homework a studied for a test for the next day

caught up on my latin notes and did my homework

listened to an entirety of an audio book

won kahoot on 20th century Chinese history in a class of almost 50 people

🎼 Swiss und Die Andern ft. die Atzen - Kuhle Typen

- I really like Mondays because I get out of school at 8 pm and then I can just go home and go to sleep.

- Wow, your student life must really suck if getting home past 8 and having no homework for the next day is the easiest day.

(a conversation I had yesterday)

100 days of productivity; 2/100

I forgot my wallet at home on Tuesday, so I didn't get groceries that day and just finished what I had left in the fridge, but then I didn't get groceries on Wednesday either because it was to late to shop for them when I was supposed to leave in 2 days and I didn't want it to go bad. That day I have also found out I'll be staying here longer than I thought so for the past 2 days I have been going to the store every day to get ready-made food.

I also took a lot of pictures of y legs yesterday. 🍋🍰

Yesterday I did:

revised some phonetics (didn't help though)

did my chinese homework (in advance)

did my latin homework

did theory of literature homework

did most of my chinese characters homework (stayed up until 1.30am)

did spanish duolingo and two duolingo stories and actually made notes (rather than just passively clicking)

finished an audiobook

🎼Set it Off - Breathe in, breathe out

🎥 Gilmore Girls (created by Amy Sherman-Palladino)

Hey guys! I have just recently started university and I'm hoping to get back to using this blog after the summer holiday has ended.

I'm a Chinese major, minoring in Latin language and literature and I'm hella excited since this combines both my love for an eastern script and dead and basically useless languages.

I also have a ton of subjects since the introductory term in Chinese is really subject-heavy on grammar and script and stuff. I also have to fit in as many Latin subjects as possible every term in order to finish it in two years; so I have made a decision to list all my subjects here! 

In a vain of revamping my blog, I am hoping to write a new introduction to my blog soon and thought this might be a fun thing to link.

So, the subjects I'm taking this term:

Chinese studies

Introduction to Chinese Studies

Chinese Script

Chinese Grammar I

Chinese I

Chinese Phonetics 

Chinese history (till 18th century)

Drill I 

Latin language and literature

Latin Grammar I

Introduction to Classical Philology

Ancient Greek Literature

Introduction to Theory of Literature

Other (subjects required for students of Faculty of Arts)

Philosophy

My goal: to learn as much Italian as possible (read more about my goals here), spending as little money as possible (check out my italian langblr @soldi-soldi)

Daily goals: 

do 2/3 duolingo lessons every day - I should be able to finish the entire tree by the end of the month

do corresponding tiny cards to duolingo lessons

do 30 words a day on memrise Italian course

go through one grammar concept/review one - I am going to use several textbooks and duolingo layout as my guide

do daily updates

write a dairy in Italian (start with simple stuff and track my progress this way)

listen to an audio course

Long term goals (as long as 22 days can be):

finish duolingo tree

be able to string together basic sentences

be able to ask for something/order something when in Rome

be able to understand a simple text/recording (such as the Simpsons which I have seen a thousand times and know basically by heart/children show/a story written for learners)

learn 1000 most used words

Books I'm planning on using:

Carmela Forte - Italian Essentials

Colin Hann - Danny Duck Tames the Lion - Danny il Papero Doma il Leone

Francesca Romana Onofri, Karen Antje Möller and Teresa L. Picarazzi - Italian for Dummies

Michael P San Filippo - Learn Italian in a Hurry

Olly Richards - Short Stories in Italian

Immersion (cause this is a key part of learning a language):

change my phone settings to Italian  ✓

listen to Italian music (feel free to leave me some recommendations)

follow accounts that post in Italian (please leave some recommendations)

use Italian TV shows/movies/whatever as background noise when using social media/writing/etc.

try reading children books

post-its, everywhere

write to-do lists in Italian 

IMPORTANT RULES:

don't burn me out, which includes not overworking myself or studying when I really don't feel like it - this is supposed to be fun

don't feel pressured to spend money - there is a ton of free resources if I don't feel like buying expensive textbooks then I won't

enjoy myself 

Rewards (to motivate me):

tons of fun stuff I'll be able to do in Rome at the end of the month

Harry Potter in Italian (I collect Harry Potters in different languages I'm learning - it also makes for a great souvenir)

Ok, so, I know I'm already late but I was at work yesterday and honestly, that was enough. Anyway, this is my belated introduction.

What is my goal?

My goal is to learn Italian. Are 30 days enough to learn a language? No. I am not delusional. However, I am aiming to get as proficient as possible in 30 days. Since I am already finished with school this year, I have no other responsibilities this month other than going to work, so I can dedicate all of my free time to learning.

And at the end of this month, I’m going to Rome so I can practice my Italian there. I am very excited and honestly, can’t wait!

What are my secondary goals?

Before I jump head first into Italian, I still have a state exam from English so I need to focus on that. I have to go through all my materials about the UK and the USA and I have to finish 2 books. However, I am positive that I can make it. 

I want to write more. I have been writing since I was 13 but for the last 3 years, I didn’t have as much time as I would have wanted to focus on writing. Since I’m done with high school I would like to go back to writing and focus also more on that. I promised myself that I’ll write a lot when I got this laptop, yet I have writer exactly 9 things since then (such as reviews, poems or short stories - stuff I enjoy writing the most).

What is my game plan?

From now until 6th I’ll put all my time and effort into preparing for my state exam, but I'm still planning to do 2 duolingo lessons (if I do 2 every day, I’ll finish the tree by the end of the month; seems pretty doable) and listen to the Italian boot camp as much as possible.

I’m also using other resources to learn and immersing myself as much as possible, but I’ll make a post about it when I’ll have more time to focus. 

today was a pretty good day. i slept almost until noon but i still managed to do almost everything i was hoping to do. i cleaned the flat, ironed three loads of laundry, studied dutch and revised some japanese (post about my august plans hopefully coming soon) and also started drawing again! 🍋🍰

🎥 Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san (dir. Hiroaki Akagi)

📕Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J. K. Rowling)

🎼 Cavetown - Boys Will Be Bugs

Update:

For a past few days, I had a hard time doing stuff since I was struggling with waking up at 4.30 for my 6 am shift but everything's fine now and I'm back. I actually managed to do something with my Italian, just struggled with my daily updates since I just dozed off pretty early every night.

I kept my duolingo streak, did some memrise and some reading as well. I am still behind on my duolingo plan but now I have 2 days to catch up before I go to work again. 🍋🍰

Writing:

I bought a new journal to start writing something in Italian, but I admit I haven't started yet, but I did jot down some notes and stuff I have screenshot and wrote a ton of practice sentences for new vocab.

Listening comprihension:

Still only listening to italian music but I'm actually actively listening and trying to find lyrics to get the most out of it. Still, haven't found any artist I am particularly interested in so I always welcome recommendations!

Reading comprihension:

I read a mirror children's book (Danny il Papero Doma il Leone) and currently, I'm in process of rereading it just in Italian and writing notes. I also read a Wikipedia article about the Italian language in Italian and picked up some new vocab (you can check the vocab list I made at my side blog here). It was surprisingly easy since I knew what I was reading about and fun.

Grammar:

Learned some prepositions and grammar surrounding them and I'm still battling irregular verbs. I also bought a new notebook just for grammar. Yes, I went on a shopping spree.

Speaking:

Still nothing. Nicht. Nada. Nulla.

📕Harry Potter and the order of Phoenix - J. K. Rowling

🎼Per Un Millione - Boomdabash