#helenstudies

If the TL book you're reading is a translated version, you're able to see which words the translator used to convey the meaning. This answers questions such as: Did they translate words literally? Did they use localization instead? What did they do with puns or jokes from the original book? What kind of rephrasing did they do? The translated version tells you how the translator think about certain sentences and certain kinds of writing. Sometimes your TL is a very literal and direct language. Sometimes your TL uses a lot of metaphors or polite sentences instead of being direct. You will learn to absorb these lines of thinking by reading the translated version.

If the TL book you're reading is the original version, you're about to see all the things I've said but flipped. You've got the way the line of thinking goes in the translation. Now you're gonna see how they go about it. And most of the time, this path sort of takes you like "oh! I don't know how to read/interpret this word at all but the translator used x to say it so I'm just going to keep reading." You will realize that you can read much faster, since you remember how it went. (unless it's non fiction since you can't follow the plot in nonfiction, but I find that in language learning, non fiction reading is much easier because there's less flowery and literary language.) I mostly do this when I want to read fast and have no need to reach for dictionaries or to refer to the translated version. This helps me read other text in my TL extremely faster.

Another tip about reading that has nothing to do with language reading more about bookish snobbery: a book is a book is a book. If your purpose is to read in your TL, you don't need to pick up classics if it's intimidating for you. Pick any book. Hell, pick pamphlets if you need. I personally prefer to read adult's graphic novels. I don't mean 18+ graphic novels. I just mean comics that are not for children. I find that children's picture books are much harder because most of them are to teach vocabularies to children, which is taxing for language learners because apparently children love onomatopoeia so much. Also, they have adults to explain everything to them. Comics for adults have jokes and stories instead so I like then better but hey, if you like children's picture books, you do you.

Another another tip: You don't have to finish the books. At all. Ever, actually. Pick up, do twenty pages each and put down if you'd like. You're the boss. Do it your style.

People always ask me "how are you always so productive?" after seeing my achievements but the truth is I'm not. I only do my work for three hours a day and when I study I do it three hours a day at most as well. And I only do those every other day. Only deadlines or exams would make me work more hours than that.

This is what I have learned during the last year: work and money doesn't save me from pain. I've done so much during my teenage years and now I'm suffering the consequences. I get sick a lot, I am in pain most of the time and I can't enjoy things like I used to. So I'm not going to make that mistake again. I refuse to work myself to bones at this age. I'm young and in pain. But I wanna live. So I will work less, earn less, read more and study more. I will put my health and my quality of life first.

And what do you know, that mindset actually helped me with my productivity!

Since I know I can't do more later, I work hard in two to three hours. Since my social anxiety interferes with my ability to respond well to my clients, I employed someone else to do it for me as a part time job and now I don't have to worry about that. Since I know I'm not going to do things "later" I start things faster instead of procrastinating. I know I'm doing as well as I can, so I have such a better self-image of myself and my stress and anxiety dwindle.

I know being able to make my own schedule is a privilege. And I'm grateful for it. But I work less knowing I will earn less because I'm not going to die a workaholic.

To summarize: people think "productivity = busy" but it's really not that. This is especially true with studying. I am a bit sick today (my canker sore is making me cranky and sore. heh) so I will take things easy. I'll do a couple things for myself like stretching even though all I wanna do is sleep because stretching and exercising is the self care I need today. And I'm going to do less work today because I'm in pain and I need money, but I don't want to be making mistakes and I wanna put my health first.

Do not fall for toxic productivity. I've seen it destroy too many people my age. We should live while we can.