always procrastinating

French

50 Ways To Improve Your French

Barron’s French Idioms

Learn French: The Fast And Fun Way (This book has tons of great worksheets and everything. It’s great for learning French!)

2,001 Most Useful French Words

Say It Right in French: The Easy Way to Pronounce Correctly 

Streetwise French

Berlitz Hide This French Phrase Book

Italian

50 Ways To Improve Your Italian

Berlitz Self-Teacher Italian (Personally, I don’t really care for these types of books, mainly because I don’t the things you learn in the first few chapters. Unless you have a base in the language, I don’t think this book will work for you.)

Learn Italian: The Fast And Fun Way (This book has tons of great worksheets and everything. It’s great for learning Italian!)

Barron’s Italian Idioms 

Easy Italian Phrase Book: 770 Basic Phrases for Everyday Use 

Correct Your Italian Blunders

Spanish

50 Ways To Improve Your Spanish

Correct Your Spanish Blunders 

Just Enough Spanish

Dirty Spanish - Warning: This is really vulgar.

Barron’s Complete Spanish Grammar Review 

Making Out in Spanish (I think this title is great. I’ve never read this book, but if you’re looking for slang/everyday Spanish, this seems like a pretty good book.)

Ven Conmigo! Grammar and Vocabulary Workbook: Level 1 (This is the actual workbook I use in my Spanish 1 class. It is great and I love it. If you want to teach yourself Spanish, I highly recommend getting a workbook like this.)

Hide This Spanish Book (This has a lot for a small book. Mainly just some basic phrases, along with some that are more vulgar.)

Hide This Spanish Book for Lovers (The title speaks for itself…)  

Mierda! The Real Spanish You Were Never Taught In School

Say It Right In Spanish

German

50 Ways To Improve Your German

Dirty German - Warning: This is really vulgar.

Say It Right In German: The Easy Way to Pronounce Correctly

Easy Way to Enlarge Your German Vocabulary

Barron’s German Idioms

The Tell-Tale Heart - If you want to read in German, this seems like a pretty good book to get. 

German-English Visual Dictionary

Scheisse!: The Real German You Were Never Taught In School - I love all these books. They have them in every language (The title means “Shit”). Although it doesn’t have the pronunciations, its still pretty great for the vocabulary it has. It’s a bit vulgar though, but not too bad.

Portuguese 

Just Enough Portuguese: How to Get by and Be Easily Understood

Portuguese Verb and Essentials of Grammar

Berlitz Portuguese Phrase Books & Dictionary

51 Portuguese Idioms - Speak Like a Brazilian 

Arabic

Arabic-English Visual Dictionary

The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read and Write It

First 100 Words In Arabic

Learn Arabic: The Fast and Fun Way

Making Out In Arabic  

Instant Arabic!

Japanese

Berlitz Concise Dictionary

Essential Kanji: 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters

Colloquial Kansai Japanese: The Dialects and Culture of the Kansai Region

Speak Japanese Today 

Making Out In Japanese - I just bought this book, and it seems pretty great. 

More Making Out In Japanese 

Korean

Say It Right In Korean 

Korean Made Easy

Instant Korean

First 100 Words In Korean

Making Out In Korean

More Making Out In Korean

Korean For Travelers - I think this might only be a Nook book, which kind of sucks.

Dirty Korean -  Warning: This is really vulgar.  

Basic Korean: Workbook

Intermediate Korean: Workbook - I’m not sure if this is worth getting because of the price, but it seems like a helpful book

Korean At A Glance

Teach Me Everyday Korean

Chinese

Making Out In Chinese (I think this title is great. I’ve never read this book, but if you’re looking for slang/everyday Chinese, this seems like a pretty good book.)

Mandarin Chinese - English Visual Dictionary

Survival Chinese 

Get Talking Chinese - This book is so great. It’s kind of like a children’s book, but for learning basic Chinese, it’s great.

Hide This Mandarin Chinese Phrase Book 

Instant Chinese!

Polish

Say It In Polish 

Berlitz Polish Concise Dictionary

Berlitz Polish Phrasebook and Dictionary

Polish: An Essential Grammar

Russian

Learn Russian: The Fast and Fun Way

Say It Right In Russian

Russian Vocabulary

Dermo!: The Real Russian Tolstoy Never Used

Russian At A Glance

Just Enough Russian

General Language Books

Barron’s 501 Verbs (comes in French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Latin, Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, English and German)

Some will say,

“aren’t you too old to studying again?”

“what is it for, learning new language when you’re living in the small city with less common foreign encounter?”

“are you trying to run away from this city and move to Japan?”

“don’t be so stoked over anime or manga or drama, just because you like them you start to learn their language? That’s pretty obsessive”

“Isn’t it wasting time to studying at your age? Why aren’t you seek for a husband material instead? You’re turning 30 in months”

Yeah. Yes. Right. That kind of comments comes and goes in the moment I started learning Japanese again. People around me tend to be pessimistic about any possibilities. I don’t know why.

I learn Japanese language because I’m basically interested in languages. I’ve learnt English, Korean, Arab, and now Japanese. Though I’m not fluent in any of those yet. At least just yet. Lol

Comparing Korean and Japanese, I found it easier to learn Korean. They only have one kind of letter: 한글 (hangul). And the pronouncation similiar in many ways with my native languageㅡSundanesse. So to memorizing the letter and attempting to read sentences, is relatively friendly on my tongue.

Meanwhile Japanese have three types of letters: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Hiragana, as expected, the easiest among all three. I’m currently memorizing katakana. And I can’t imagine how do I start the kanji.

So far I learnt from an imperfect guide book I bought years ago when I was in high school. I just figure out as of late, as I’m more fluent in the letters, that there were so many errors in the book. The amount of typos goes to the extent of misleading the student.

It feels like I’m reviewing the book instead of studying. Haha

It’s tiring though. And confusing. I hope this book never gets to be reprint. Or even if it could, they should check again every single part of the book. What’s the editor has been doing anyway?

Another help I’ve got are from apps on play store called LingoDear and Easy Japanese. It’s quite helpful and fun to learn on the apps when I wasn’t able to practice writing with the books.

I have another three books for practicing with vocabulary and grammarical, but I think it still have to wait until some time later, until I’m confidence with both hiragana and katakana.

Someone says, “the older we are the harder for brain to learn about something new”. Well, in my case, even though I’m no longer in the blooming twenties anymore, my brain still can understand knowledge pretty fine.

TAGS:

studyblr (=smartblr) - study blog

studyspo  (=smartspo) - study inspiration (e.g., quotes, pictures of studying or stationery…)

appblr - university (college) applications blog

archblr - architecture studyblr

artblr - art studyblr

astroblr - astronomy studyblr

bioblr - biology studyblr

businessblr - business studyblr

chemblr - chemistry studyblr

engblr - engineering studyblr

historyblr - history studyblr

langblr - languages studyblr

lawblr - law studyblr

litblr - literature studyblr

mathblr - mathematics studyblr

medblr - medicine studyblr

musicblr - music studyblr

philoblr - philosophy studyblr

physicsblr - physics studyblr

psychblr - psychology studyblr

stemblr - science, technology, engineering, maths studyblr

APPLICATIONS/ EXTENTIONS/ WEBSITES:

(If there’s no price written next to something, that thing is for free)

- Forest  android | iOS ($0.99) | Windows Phone (€0.99) | Chrome | Firefox (FocusNow - a similar free version for iOS)

- Momentum Chrome

- Fliqlo Mac/Windows | iOS ($0.99)

- Habitica website | android

- Duolingo website | android | iOS

- Khan Academy website | youtube | android | iOS

- Cold Turkey (program that blocks websites) website

- Todoist website | android | iOS | Chrome

- Quizlet website | android | iOS

- My Study Life website | android | iOS | Windows Phone | Chrome

- Lanes website | chrome

STATIONERY:

TESTS/ PROGRAMMES/ CERTIFICATES, ETC:

GSCE -  General Certificate of Secondary Education is a two-year programme in a specific subject taken by school students in UK. Students start GCSEs at age 14 in year 10 and then they take the public examinations at age 16 in year 11. A level -  a qualification in a specific subject typically taken by school students aged 16–18 in UK (after GCSEs). A Levels are worked towards over two years and split into two parts, with one part studied in each year:

A1 Level or AS Level - the first part of the A level.

A2 Level - the second part of the A level.

Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the USA and Canada, which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities often grant placement and course credit to students who obtain high scores on the examinations.

International Baccalaureate (IB) can refer to the international educational foundation, any of the 4 programmes it offers, or the diploma or certificates awarded at the end of the programme.

IELTS -  International English Language Testing System is an international standardised test of English language proficiency for non-native English language speakers.

TOEFL - Test Of English as a Foreign Language is a standardized test to measure the English language ability of non-native speakers wishing to enroll in American universities. Though, it is accepted by many English-speaking academic and professional institutions.

ACT - American College Testing is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in USA. 

SAT -  Scholastic Assessment Test  is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in USA.

EDUCATION STAGES/ DEGREES:

Major - is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits in USA and Canada. A student who successfully completes the courses prescribed in an academic major qualifies for an undergraduate (Bachelor’s) degree.

Double major -  a student who declares two academic majors is said to have a double major.

Undergrad student - a student taking up undergraduate education.  

Undergraduate education - is a level of education between secondary education and a master’s degree. When a student completes an undergraduate education they get a Bachelor’s degree.

Grad student - a student taking up graduate or postgraduate education.

Graduate education - is a level of education taken up after getting a Bachelor’s degree. When a student complete a graduate education they either get a Master’s or Doctorate degrees.

It goes something like this:

Beware, things vary from country to country and from subject to subject.

Tide app had a great quote today.

6.13.19

For those of you who graduated this spring: Congrats! We did it!

Studying for the med school entrance exam

Day 59/80

I’ve legit spent the whole day in my room, trying to and kinda succeeding in understanding physics, my greatest enemy

Decided to turn on the pretty, but friggin electricity consuming lights, because I wanted to spoil myself a bit for my birthday :)

For real tho, I don’t feel like I’m 20 at all, like?????? I think I got stuck at 12 and never grew up afterwards?????? What do 20 year olds do????? Halp????

I was tagged by @camillatee (thank you so much! 😊). Tag about 20 people you would like to know better!

Nickname(s): Bug, Cake

Gender: Female

Astrological Sign: Libra

Height: 5′10″ (177 cm)

Sexuality:  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Favourite Animal: Hedgehogs

Number of Blankets: Just one, usually with at least two limbs hanging out

Where I’m From: United States

Dream Trip: Scottish Highlands

Tag about 20 people you would like to know better! Nickname(s): Vera/Vero, or Syl Gender: Female Astrological Sign: Taurus Height: 156 cm (🙁) Sexuality: Pansexual (or when I'm with certain people “🥞✨”, fortunately they never understand :> ) Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff Favourite Animal: Seal (more like my spirit guide lol) Number of Blankets: 0, with 34°C outside. In winter 2: one heavy blanket and one light. Where I’m From: Italy Dream Trip: Norway or Japan When I created this account: about two months ago, to meet new people and to try to overcome my procrastination ahaha

the beauty of standing up for your rights is others see you standing and stand up as well   -cassandra duffy

12.06.2019

So I got accepted for an REU at a really nice university doing computational micromagnetics research. Now I was particularly excited about this because all of my background so far has been in experimental work. I figured that seeing what computational research is like might help me decide which path I want to go down for grad school.

So I started one week ago and I have been tasked with spending the past week reviewing literature and learning the concepts applicable to the simulations I would be working with. I also had to introduce myself to matlab as I’ve never used any coding languages before.

I was all excited and everything was fine and dandy but I quickly tumbled into imposter syndrome hell.

Another undergraduate student that goes to the same university I am working at is working under the same professor as me doing similar work. He is generally pretty nice and agreeable and we had several conversations. I found out that he is only one year ahead of me and has already finished his physics degree and mathematics degree and is finishing up a fast tracked masters in mathematics next year. He also has experience in coding and computational work.

Why does this matter you might ask? Well it shouldn’t, but I fell into a slump for a few days where I inadvertently let it matter. I worried about things like “what will my advisor think when she realizes she picked the wrong student” or “maybe the only reason I’m here is because my professor from my home university helped me make this connection with my REU advisor.”

This. Is. Not. Okay.

The hardest part so far hasn’t been reading articles or learning to code, but rather allowing myself to start from where I’m at and learn to the best of my abilities.

I can’t let someone else’s experience should not invalidate my self worth.

I am here and that’s that so the best thing to do is be gracious to the individuals willing to help me. The other best thing to do is be gracious with myself.

I’m not gonna lie it has been really difficult to fight imposter syndrome. I can come up with a thousand and one reasons I don’t think I should be here and it’s a mental war zone.

Just imagine the incredible things I could be doing by applying that mental energy to more productive things!

I recently started an online social psychology class and this is the introduction page in my notes for module one. Here I have organized my objectives into two sections and my readings are listed at the bottom.

I typically will use 2-3 neutral colored mild liners to accent my notes and washi tape to make things a little more artistic.