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lizzibennet · 4 years

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it's so cool that ur multilingual!!! do u have any tips on how to learn a foreign language? i've been trying to learn another one for the longest time but it never seems to stick :(

my one and most important advice is: immerse yourself in the language. personally, i find the process of learning another language similar to the process of learning maths/physics in school: you can watch all the classes you want, write down every formula possible, but if you don’t actually sit down and learn how to apply this theory you will never do well, no matter how much of the material you have memorized - the how is what cases it to ‘stick’! in fact, i’ve found that when i go into it not really having anything memorized and have to work to remember the tools to understand what i’m doing and solve my problem, i’m a lot more productive and end up learning better.

language learning is similar: you can take all the classes you want, but if you do not work to actually apply that knowledge, all you truly have is a bunch of random factual, punctual knowledge and not much else. when you have a wide panoramic view of the language, though, it’s much easier to make sense of that more strict knowledge. i have never taken a single english lesson in my life, yet i understand it perfectly and am able to assimilate the concepts of its grammar because i’ve seen them all applied before. it’s grounded in things i’ve seen and know instead of just random theory, so it’s easier for me to remember. it’s a little bit counter intuitive - we want to be able to study the material before we’re ‘tested’ on it - but what i’ve found works (for any subject really, not only language) is to completely immerse yourself in it and identify your weaknesses. you can identify pronouns easily and understand why they were used in a particular way? great, skip the pronouns lesson. you understand the general gist of the verbs, but not the conjugation? then it’s not vocabulary that is your problem, it’s verb structure. you feel well acquainted with the language, enough that you kinda know what’s going on like maybe half the time, but it’s specific words that ruin your understanding because you’ve never heard them before? then you need to widen your vocab. i hate seeing how language schools present language learning as linear - it’s much more likely that you already have your strengths and weaknesses in the language, and that’s what needs to be worked on.

a really good place to start is material you know well, or very straightforward material. for me, my first real contact with english (and later most of the other languages i learned) was music/tv. if you watch music videos/shows with subtitles, then you have a simultaneous translation, and that is SO enlightening. a really simple example: in portuguese ‘i am beautiful’ translates to ‘eu sou linda’. when i was younger and watched christina aguilera sing that and read the simultaneous translation, after a couple times of listening i learned four things at once: i/me is eu, the present of ser/sou is am, the structure of subject + verb is the same in portuguese and english (the order is the same), and beautiful is linda. you see how much i was able to extract from a simple sentence? next time i need to say ‘eu sou ___’, i know that the structure will be ‘i am ___’. it’s really simple but in figuring out the general structure of the language (where do verbs go? how are they flexed? how do pronouns relate? where does the complement go?) you have like 60% of the language figured out already. at first it may all sound like gibberish but that is just because you’re not used to the sound of the language! it’s really important to lose that fear of not knowing what’s being said, you WILL figure it out eventually. music/tv is really useful because it’s dynamic and fun, but newspapers are also your friend (global themes means you kinda know what one article will be talking about and you’re able to figure things out from context, and the language tends to be objective and clear) and books that you know and love help too! (for me, my first book in english was percy jackson LOLOL obviously. knowing the context of what was happening and also specific scenes from my first language reading really helped! i may not have known a demigod was a semideus if i’d just seen the word randomly, but in context there was nothing else it could be ygm?) also changing the language of your phone to your target language is absolutely frightening but wonderful. you learn SO much from just context!

so in short, jumping headfirst into the language is what i think is most useful. everything else - grammar, punctuation rules, irregular verbs - can be figured out later. or it can just not be figured out at all! most of the rules i know from the languages i’ve learned were absorbed from sources other than grammar books. if you think about it, that’s how we learn a lot of the grammar in our mother languages too - how many times have you used a comma just because you feel there should be one there, because you’ve seen it used in other similar sentences before, or written two spellings of a word side by side and chosen one because it just Looked right? it’s the same concept. language is a living thing, in my opinion (as someone who’s learning their fifth! wut wut!) it just can’t be taught in a classroom. you have to go out and grab it by its tits and be like HEY LANGUAGE. GET IN ME. eventually it will fold and get into your brain lol it’s gonna be fun! you guys are gonna be friends!!! and when it’s fun it is gonna stick in your brain!!!!! gosh this is rambly but i hope i helped!!!

#Anonymous #what is my ask tag again #language

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callioope · 4 years

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Good Things in 2019

@theputterer and @the-strongest-stars tagged me in the awesome annual end-of-year Good Things meme! I’ve done this in 2018 & 2017 and always think it’s a fun exercise of both reflection and looking forward.

Oh boy, though, my first thought was, what even happened in 2019? (Looking at a calendar helped! It reminded me of a few things I forgot)

It’s been a Rough Year, friends. Between OCD and basically travelling almost every weekend in the latter half of 2019, I am very much ready for a new year and hopefully a new slate.

But this is about the positives!

Personal

Played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons! I am now officially in two campaigns. This year, I endeavored to recruit more women to play, including the wonderful @allatariel. I play both my beloved cleric, Maritsa (who I’ve been playing her years now) and my new character, Noara, a ranger elf with a red panda familiar (yeah, my DM let me do that for funsies, so I could get an animal sidekick but also still try out the Horizon Walker subclass).

Speaking of red pandas, I accomplished my LIFE GOAL of meeting a red panda face-to-face. I got to feed Harriet at the Cincinnati Zoo for 30 minutes. She was adorable.

Completed all my dental work and had a clean bill of dental health two cleanings in a row!

Attended DC’s Around the World Embassy Day event, always fun

Attended Star Wars night at a local library, where I got to participate in a short demo/lesson on how to fence with a lightsaber!

Attended 50th Anniversary Celebration of Apollo 11 / landing on the moon (dude they projected the rocket on the Washington Monument and it looked so cool)

Returned to the NY Ren Faire and upgraded my ren faire garb

Celebrated at THREE friends’ weddings and got to catch up with old friends I hadn’t seen in awhile

Ate ice cream at the Ben & Jerry’s Factory in Vermont

Went to NYCC for the third year in a row. Got to wear 2 costumes this year: a 1920s flapper interpretation of an occamy and my Endor!Leia costume (repeat of 2017). Learned the True Pain of sewing. Created feather shawl for my occamy costume. Learned the True Pain of crafting.

Celebrated one year anniversary with hubbie down where we got married: visited the museum we got married in and actually got a chance to enjoy the exhibits, went to our favorite brunch place down there, got to check out Fleet Week and tour an aircraft carrier and uh... I think it was a missile cruiser?

Went up to PSU for a women’s hockey game for sister’s birthday (made embarrassing HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign for the cameras); also it was an absolutely wonderful fall drive on the way up there

Got to see The Rise of Skywalker in IMAX at the Smithsonian Air & Space Center with the awesome @allatariel! (thank goodness we had each other to get through that movie lol) also got to reuse my Endor!Leia costume. I did my own braids for the first time ever! (usually my talented sister does them) They looked like braids done by a n00b, but I didn’t care because they were passable and I did them myself and that was a Big Thing for Perfectionist Me (to not just... say screw it and undo it and just. give up. but to just let them be as is)

Worked hard at therapy and self care

Got a Sleep Number bed and holy shit let me tell you. i can actually sleep now.

OH! I almost forgot!!! Started playing Assassin’s Creed! I’ve only ever really played the LEGO Star Wars and Harry Potter video games so like. This was big for me.

Writing

Finally finished Learning Curve. TBH I was a bit shocked that this was in fact the only fic I published in 2019. What a travesty.

However! I have been writing

@allatariel & I sat down, overanalyzed You’ve Got Mail, and drafted up the outline for my in-universe AU, something I’ve been dreaming of starting for years. Have about 4300 words so far.

Just under the wire, I did manage to start my NatGeo AU, which I’ve been dreaming of since my honeymoon in Nov 2018

Started editing/revising my original young adult fantasy novel

Poked a little at my epic fantasy pirate travel novel idea

Books

I read exactly one book, Among the Red Stars, which I enjoyed. It’s about women fighter pilots in Russia in WW2. Inspired by real people.

Music

Saw Panic at the Disco! in concert. I went along with my sister. Not like a huge fan, but they put on a pretty fun show!

Saw Waitress on Broadway!! OH MY GOD. And Sara Bareilles was starring in it. Amazing. I freaking love her music (”How does she know / what a heart sounds like?” gahhh). She was so good, and the show was so good. I literally cried all the way through it just because I was so happy to be there, but also because of the content. Man.

Saw Sara Bareilles again, in concert, in Philly. I love her so much.

Television

Finished Critical Role Campaign 1! Oh man, what a ride. Gosh, I love that show. I really need to catch up in C2 now. I’ve started it but I’m only on episode 26 or 27.

I’m not sure whether I finished The Clone Wars in 2018 or 2019. I think it was early 2019. This show was amazing and this was the character development that Anakin Skywalker needed. I love Ahsoka Tano. I cannot wait for the last season.

Finished Rebels!!! AGAIN, what a ride!!! I still love Ahsoka Tano. I also love Hera Syndulla and Sabine Wren. Sabine’s Darksaber arc was fantastic.

The Mandalorian OMG BABY YODA!!! Yes, I have succumbed to the adorableness of Baby Yoda. Most adorable SW character forever. But also just an enjoyable story in general. This, this is how you craft a story. still NOT over the darksaber omg.

The Good Place is continuing to be good. Not as crazy about season 4, but I’m so glad they decided to limit the seasons.

Got my sister to watch Rebels!! And then even a few episodes of The Clone Wars!!! Mwahaha >)

Finally got around to watching The Great British Bake Off, what a sweet show!

OMG I ALMOST FORGOT Anne With an E!!! Gosh what a wonderful wholesome delightful show. No I haven’t watched S3 yet because I am Lawful Good to a fault and just patiently waiting for it to come on Netflix

Film

So, I woefully neglected to mention The Aeronauts in this post about my favorite movies in the 2010s and that was a Mistake. Because I really enjoyed this one

But otherwise probably check out that list. Because I don’t go to the movies that often, actually, and anything I really loved from 2019 is most definitely listed there.

Did I meet my 2019 Goals?

Writing: Fandom

Finish Learning Curve YES

...and How to Lose a Spy in 10 Days Uh, no, not so much

Begin and complete the in-canon universe You’ve Got Mail AU YES, it is begun but no it is not complete

Try to knock out a few other projects on my 30+ SW ideas Umm, I did start / poke at a few things in addition to the YGM and NatGeo AUs, but nothing really “knocked out”

Try my hand at creating more visual fan works (like moodboards/photosets, step 1, learn proper terminology) ahahahah, no.

Writing: Original

Query more agents for my completed original novel YIKES, No. But I wasn’t anticipating that I’d decide to heavily edit/revise my manuscript.

Actually get around to deciding which idea I want to work on next and work on it Yeah, sure, I decided. How nice of past!Liz to make this goal so reachable as “deciding” lol

Reading

Be more supportive in helping my friend run Book Club so that it can actually meet more regularly HA, oops. Book Club died, but kind of in favor of being able to start a second D&D campaign. At least that’s the trade off I’m looking at. I had some OCD-related glasses issues this year that inhibited reading a lot.

Try to read at least one book for myself outside of Book Club lol WELL the one book I read this year was not part of Book Club sooo

Goals for 2020

Writing

I’m not going to make this a completion goal, but instead...

...I’d like to just focus on creating a regular writing schedule/habit. Whatever the project, I just want to make sure I carve out significant time each week just to write. I don’t want to set a specific goal like “x hours a week” for now, but I want to make sure that I am writing each week.

To achieve that (because what are goals without maps):

If the words don’t immediately jump onto the page, then I’m going to try outlining or summarizing. I’m going to let go of overthinking how sentences are phrased, and just pretend I’m describing the story idea to a friend.

That blank page is staring at me and I’m just going to fill it with words no matter what I might think of them!

And I’m going to let everything else expand from there. And see how that works.

Edit my original manuscript

Query more agents re: original manuscript

Look into the idea of perhaps forming or joining a writer’s group for original writing oh gosh that is so scary

Other

Get back into reading

Develop a routine for working out

Eat healthier

Continue focusing on therapy goals

Get around to watching: Black Sails, Mad Max: Fury Road, Arrival

Get better at responding to things in general

Tagging: @allatariel, @magalis, @mythologicalmango, @skitzofreak, @threadsketchier, @brynnmclean, @ruby-red-inky-blue, @siachti and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it!

Happy New Year y’all!

#tag meme #the latest with liz #annual good things post #happy thoughts #for future reference #goals

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