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mollymarymarie · 3 years ago

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20 questions Writer’s Edition

Thanks @blitheringmcgonagall for tagging me in this!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

696,047

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Harry Potter (Marauders Era) Marvel (Stucky, Bucky/OC, Pietro/OC) And then one about Sam Kiszka from Greta Van Fleet (that I wrote as a commission, sort of) and one I wrote about Lee Pace (cause I saw it in a dream lol)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Lad That Loved You - sort of canon Hogwarts-era fic with a twist on The Prank (Remus and Sirius pretend to fight to cover up their relationship)

When It Counted - Remus gets spiked with Veritaserum and makes Sirius (and everyone else) believe it was Amortentia to cover up the truth

Vow Under the Covers - Remus is getting married. And not to Sirius. And Sirius has to decide if he can live with that.

Save Me, Save Me, Save Me - Remus thinks Sirius is in love with his neighbor and offers to help cook her dinner (Sirius and Marlene have to pretend to be attracted to each other, despite being VERY GAY, to cover up Sirius’ feelings)

Heavy In Your Arms - Sirius is the Slytherin prefect and has to nurse Remus Lupin back to health after a vicious full moon

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

ABSOLUTELY - comments make my whole day, my whole week, I want people who take the time to comment to know that I LOVE THEM DEARLY

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

It’s a one-shot, but the angstiest ending is definitely in Where The Willow Don’t Bend (the story is about Remus becoming one of the ghosts at Hogwarts, so it’s OBVIOUS that it is not going to exactly end ... happily)

7. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Generally, I tend to write all my fics with happy endings? Real life has enough terrible endings on its own AND I’M HERE TO ESCAPE FROM THAT OKAY

But honestly, I think the ending in Heavy In Your Arms is QUITE happy :)

8. Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I’ve never written a crossover! I don’t write for enough fandoms to have done that, I guess. Mostly just HP and Marvel and there isn’t a lot of room for crossover there, lol (besides, I haven’t written for Marvel in ages)

9. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Somewhat. In Show Me Everything I Missed, I had someone tell me they were disappointed with how I made Remus be the emotional weight-bearer of the fic. But it was DIRECTLY after Sirius had gone through a VERY traumatic event, so of course Remus would be trying to help him through it. I get where they were coming from, and I guess I should be honored that my characters made them upset? isn’t that kind of the point of angst??

10. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I do. For me, I went to private school (read: religious), so it was heavily instilled in me that sex is bad and disgusting and dirty, but then you get married and suddenly it’s beautiful and holy and important? So it took me a long time to be comfortable with sex in general, even more so with the idea of writing it down, but the idea of “smut” is kind of nonsensical to me. We go through all these things as human beings and those are all okay to write and to read and to experience, but a BASIC HUMAN NEED for most people is something to be hidden?? I’m going on a rant, but basically, I’m tired of the stigma, I guess.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not ... directly?? I have had people tell me, after the fact, that they posted my fic on a site outside of AO3 but it was still listed as being written by me, but I didn’t have an account with that site. I was still sort of weirded out by that one.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes! I had someone ask my permission to translate to ... Italian? I think? I can’t quite remember, but that was kind of cool, I guess. Again, it’s sort of iffy with those things because I think this was on a third-party site, too, so I was kind of indirectly attached to it.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I never have! I have a problem with deadlines and working as a group looool I think i have control issues?? hahahahah

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Wolfstar, hands down. I’ve been writing Wolfstar for, gosh, almost ten years. Which, comparatively is not that long, but it’s longer than any other ship for me

15. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I have a couple WIPs for characters that are NOT Wolfstar that I’d like to finish (mostly the one about Cassidy from Preacher, because I have a MASSIVE Joe Gilgun crush) but I haven’t written on it in YEARS so it’s probably not happening

16. What are your writing strengths?

oh gosh. okay, so i’m not good at answering these. I think I write smut relatively well? I do pretty good angst I think?? My characterization is usually something people enjoy? (honestly, i just write them as MY own versions of the character, but people seem to agree with me for the most part??)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I FOUND THIS OUT RECENTLY - i am not always good at following through with a plan for a fic and also i am not good at writing down what i see in my head. for example, if a character has black hair and glasses in my head (but maybe not necessarily in canon), i often have to go back and add these details because halfway through, i’ll be like DID I EVEN TELL THEM WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE AT ALL???

18. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

oh i’m SHITE at it. I wish I could speak another language well enough that I could incorporate it into my fics, but I doubt that will ever happen for me! (I had quite a bit of French dialogue in We Can Pretend and it went okay, but I did have someone tell me I had a grammatical error because I just used Google Translate lol)

19. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

this is going to be a HILARIOUS answer, but ... the Good Charlotte fandom. I never posted it, just my friends read it (I had quite a few fics about boys in bands back then, I was sixteen) but yeah it was a total soap opera. Like. outrageous.

20. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

They all have uniquely special places in my heart, but I have two favorites:

We Can Pretend - Remus and his father are the butlers for the Black family, and Remus has to figure out how to take care of Sirius while hiding his feelings

Heavy in Your Arms (the Slytherin!Sirius one, and also Ravenclaw!Remus!)

#tag game #Thanks Mia!#fic asks

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rigelmejo · 4 years ago

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Just a bit of a self reflection:

Studying Multiple Languages at Once:

French and Japanese were generally easy to keep separate in my mind, because they are quite different, and also because I had a good 6 months of French study to the point where I was in the A2 area of using the language before I started Japanese. So, they were at different levels - my french was getting close to intermediate when my japanese was starting at bare bones beginner.

And that is a tip polyglots have often given, if someone plans to study multiple languages at once: to get some level of skill in one language before starting another, and/or to have each language you’re studying at different levels. In this way, you’re rarely studying the exact same skills in both languages at the same time. For example, when you’re first learning japanese pronunciation, you are well past basic pronunciation in french and more focused on intermediate grammar. When you are learning basic everyday conversational skills in japanese, you’re learning how to write letters and essays and talk about special topics, etc. When you’re learning how to read kana in japanese, you’re already past basic reading in french and moving onto slightly more difficult reading etc. And then theoretically, you’d wait until you’re japanese (or equivalent 2nd language) is past those beginning learning tasks before adding another language to study.

For a short time I did have a 3rd language I was studying - Russian. At that point, my French was pretty solid, my Japanese was in the “starting to struggle to read manga” stage lol (but that was beyond absolute beginner, since I already knew many common words, basic kanji, all of Genki 1 and some of Genki 2, some other grammar etc). So Russian was the only language I was an absolute beginner in. I only needed to learn Russian because I was dating someone who spoke russian, who’s roommates all spoke russian, who’s family and baby brother all spoke russian, and it was helpful for me to be able to understand basic russian so I could understand all the daily household conversations I ran into. Also, so I could understand texts, and help babysit their baby brother. So I really just focused on basic everyday conversation skills. I learned high frequency words, words they used, the writing system, glanced through a summarized grammar guide, and listened to a podcast focused on speaking conversationally (and some basic grammar I’d need to speak/listen to others). In a few months I got where I needed to be. I ended up dropping Russian when that relationship ended later, since I didn’t need Russian anymore (although one day I might study it again so I can read, since I’d just started managing to read stories in Russian toward the end). My point though is, it was not hard to study it in addition to the other two languages.

I think that is because: Russian’s different enough from both French and Japanese in order to not cause confusion, I was not a beginner in either other language so I was never studying the same level or topics in two languages at once, and my French was advanced enough that I could put it on “pause” or only study 20 minutes every few days for some moderate improvement over time. Most of my French study at that point was just immersion reading/watching. Japanese in contrast was more difficult, I had to spend either most of my time on Japanese or on Russian to see significant progress in either - so of course both were slowing the study of the other down. I didn’t make significant gains in Japanese until I dropped Russian. So ultimately, I think it’s easier to study multiple languages, if only one language needs large amounts of study for improvement - and the other language(s) just need maintenance and improvement through immersion (so improving listening skills, or reading skills). I once had some success just working on French grammar, while more actively studying Japanese - but that was because the grammar study was mostly review and me formally filling in “blanks in knowledge” so it wasn’t very intensive.

Another tip polyglots tend to give: try not to study two similar languages at the same time. And, if you do, see the above point about AT LEAST making sure those languages are at significantly different levels so you don’t further add to your own confusion by studying the same “level” similar pronunciation/grammar/writing system topics etc at the exact same time. So like, do not start French and Spanish at the same time. You certainly can - and I think any progress is good progress. But I have tried to do this, and it definitely made everything more confusing for me. I tried to start Spanish after a year of French study. That was TOO SOON for me to try. I still did not have a solid grasp on French pronunciation, because I hadn’t studied it enough. Likewise, I had a vague recognition of French spelling but could not really easily differentiate it from Spanish or Italian. So when I started studying Spanish at that time, everything just meshed together in my head and both languages confused my understanding of the other. I did not make much progress. So I put off Spanish for another time. The upside of that experience is that I definitely realized where I should be focusing my goals in French - I read a lot more grammar at that point paying much more attention to conjugation endings and spelling, and I made listening a main goal of mine and did listening/shadowing practice regularly after that until I improved a bit. I still think my French listening, and pronunciation, is pretty basic at best. But I’m a lot better at differentiating between French and Spanish and Italian now. I am much better in my own internal mind voice, at sounding out words differently depending on the language - they’re no longer one “meshed” sound in my head, but very distinctly different sounding languages. A lot of that had to do with lots of French listening practice, and then when I started Spanish again I did a lot of Spanish listening practice to really hammer home how different they sounded. At 2 years, Spanish was a lot easier to start studying. I no longer ran into the confusion issue between the languages nearly as much.

At that time, there was no great concrete need for me to progress in Spanish - I was not trying to read, watch, or speak with anyone in Spanish regularly. I had mostly been studying out of a simple broad desire to learn some Spanish. So I ended up putting that off for a later time - for when I’ve got more concrete motivations and goals for the language. Meanwhile, at that point, I’d been doing French mostly just through immersion and comprehensible input - very easy to do or not do, just over time picking up more words, and since i’d accomplished my goal of being able to read the novels I wanted to read, I was fine with that “mostly maintenance and a bit of listening improvement/vocabulary improvement.” I had also been doing Japanese - as usual, intensively, as either 30% or 70% of my time depending on the day or my goals for the month (versus spanish for the other portion). I’d been doing Nukemarine’s LLJ Memrise Flashcard Set, still chipping away progress at improving my reading comprehension. Eventually I got burned out from flashcards (because I TRULY hate flashcards, and while I APPRECIATE how much SRS seems to help people learn, I deeply desire a spaced repetition study method where I don’t have to touch any flashcards at all...)

So I paused my japanese study a bit, moving it to just ‘immersion’ like french - every once in a while playing Kingdom Hearts in japanese, and slowly chipping my way through some of my simple manga.

Then Chinese came in like a surprise. A big megalith of a surprise. Weirdly enough, I had deja vu of seeing a clip of Guardian, in a dream I had, like a month before I ever actually saw or heard anything about it in real life. Then I got into SOTUS and the thai drama community on tumblr by extension, and Guardian popped up occassionally as a show mentioned - which I had zero recognition of. Then, one day, that video clip from my dream was on my tumblr dash in real life, and I felt mega deja vu upon seeing it. And I played it, and it was just like my dream. Which was bizarre. So, since I’d seen this show name dropped a few times, and it’d been in my dream before I ever knew about it, and deja vu finally happened as I ran into the exact same thing in real life - I decided I might as well check it out.

So I did. And it was exactly, specifically, everything I love in a story. It also immediately reminded me of that one semester in High School I took of Chinese - because when I was watching the show, the words learned back then were all I recognized (the numbers, ni hao, xie xie, zai jian). So while I watched I picked up some words, since it was frustrating (and a disappointment to my old Chinese class and teacher’s efforts) that I clearly knew so little. I used google translate to look up some characters and phrases. I looked into the hanzi a little in my spare time. By the time I finished the show, I was aware there was a novel for the book and at the time it was only 1/3 translated into english. So BAM - there was one giant motivation to learn chinese. So I could read the book.

Nothing interests or motivates me like characterization and stories, and the details that build those things. Nothing in my whole life, for any of my life, ever captures my attention and my passion like these topics. So yes, wanting to learn to read in a language JUST to read a novel and get the full story, the characterizations and metaphors and themes the author originally intended with their creation, is exactly the kind of thing I do.

(Incidentally, that’s also what drives me to study Japanese - some of my favorite artists and writers from childhood to adulthood create japanese stories, and at some point in my life I WANT to experience them in japanese with their most authentic intent and delivery... because often nuances are changed from a small to quite large degree in translation, and I want to also get to experience the original story closest to how it was intended.)

So with Chinese, once I was sure I wanted to learn, I made myself a somewhat solid study plan - since I’ve studied languages enough now to have a rough idea of what helps me most. I stuck to it. And I dropped all other language studies, except as passive immersion (on occasion I pick up a French or Japanese book and just read a bit to make sure I’m retaining what I know passively, even if the ability to actively recall words is fading a bit). I have been intensively studying Chinese.

A great thing about Chinese, is it has so much art - shows, novels, music, active fandoms, communities around the world. The chinese internet feels as vast as the english one, with just as many endless things to discover. Even if I only ever had wanted to read priest novels - Priest has written a TON, and a TON are going to be adapted into dramas, and MANY have audio dramas if I ever want to listen to them! That’s years, decades, of content I already know I’m interested in! Then if one expands the content they explore, like I did, there’s so many other artists to run into and fall in love with! I ran into MXTX’s The Untamed, then mdzs, and that’s yet another megalith of content and fan communities and other novels by that author! That’s also an intro into a genre I didn’t even know existed, and there is SO MUCH MORE in that genre to be discovered! It’s an endless treasure trove of fantastic beautiful breathtaking creations, and efforts, and art. It’s bottomless, and once it caught my interest it ensured I’d have ample motivation to keep studying, and knowledge that whatever improvements I make will pay off for years and decades because I’ll have all of this content to enjoy over time. I’m guessing... for english learners, a similar thing is experienced. I would imagine, if I’d been as passionate about Japanese content, then I might have experienced this with Japanese. (However, for me, I’m not actually interested intensely in very much content in japanese except for my specific lifelong favorites... I imagine that might change if my ability to read improves, then maybe I WILL discover jdramas and jnovels that capture my overall lifelong interest more overwhelmingly... another big difference between my interest levels surely has to do with me being able to usually find english translations of the japanese stories I love, whereas with Chinese probably 40% of the things I’m interested in have no english translation - some of Daomubiji, some dramas with actors I like, some audiodramas, many novels, and FAN CONTENT which is HUGE is often untranslated like amazing fanvideos and fanfictions and fancomics).

I knew based on my Japanese studies, how long I should estimate it was going to take to do absolutely anything BASIC in chinese. So I dropped any other intense language studies, focused all my attention on chinese, and am still doing so. I knew both Japanese and Chinese are considered Category 5 languages by FSI, taking a minimum of (88 weeks) 2200 hours to learn. I knew based on my personal experience with Japanese, just how long it took me in that language to hit what I consider milestones for my personal goals.

Like: how long until I know the 1000 most common words, how long until I understand past/present/future tense, how long until I can parse what sentences mean if I have a dictionary (recognizing the different sentence components), how long until I can understand the gist of short captions and lines in daily life situations, how long until I can watch short basic videos for the gist of meaning, how long until I can read very simple stories like short daily life comics, how long until I can read straightforward summary texts (like wikipedia, news articles), how long until I can read Graded Reader stories for gist meaning, how long until I can read short stories in general for gist meaning, how long until I can read short things for complete/near complete comprehension, how long until I can read a page of a novel for gist meaning, read a page of a novel for near/complete comprehension, then a chapter, then a book, how long until I can watch a show in the language for gist meaning, how long until I can navigate a game menu screen or website navigation in the language, how long until I could talk about basic A1 topics, how long until I could discuss most any topic on a basic level, how long until I could start discussing topics more in depth, etc.

In French, I had the “easy” baseline of how long these things took me. In Japanese, I had a “hard” baseline - because these things took YEARS in japanese and I only ever reached a few of those milestones in japanese. I still have a long way to go in Japanese. But, for the milestones I did reach in Japanese, I had an example of how long it took me in a Category V language to reach them.

I planned my Chinese study accordingly. I knew what helped speed me up in Japanese the most, so I added those study methods to Chinese immediately - learning common characters, listening. I knew what helped with all my language studies and added those too - learning most common words, past/present/future tense, reading a grammar guide, and READING/consuming target language content frequently. I immersed myself in French often when I’d studied French, but with Japanese I rarely did that until 2+ years into studying the language. I knew it was a good way to gauge my progress, and suspected I’d improve in reading/listening faster than I had in Japanese, if i DID IT MORE this time around for Chinese.

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Reading Specific Tangent:

I was right. My Chinese has been steadily improving about half as fast as my French. The slower speed is to be expected, since Chinese generally takes much longer for native english speakers to learn than French. But my Chinese is also improving significantly faster than Japanese - twice as fast so far. Which is extremely motivating for me, and exciting. I could not be more grateful. I am so absolutely ecstatic that I can currently watch Chinese tv shows without subtitles if I want to and follow the gist - I still can’t do that in Japanese! I’m so excited I can read Chinese sometimes without a dictionary, and often with a dictionary - my Japanese lags behind at basic-reading-with-dictionary and absolutely NO ability to read complex text like paragraphs or light novels or news even with a dictionary.

I plan to keep focusing a lot of structured study on Chinese until I can read Priest novels comfortably with a dictionary. Right now, I can read them with a dictionary, but the speed is so slow because I have to look up too many words per page, so it’s not comfortable. I think, if I’m being optimistic, I’m about halfway there. As long as I keep studying consistently. Measurably, I’m in the middle of HSK 4 knowledge wise, and while I think getting to HSK 6 will only make me ‘intermediate,’ I do think that should be enough knowledge to be able to read what I want with the help of a dictionary a bit more comfortably than I am doing so now. If I’m supremely lucky, all the reading I’m doing right now will pay off, and maybe reading will be very comfortable with occasional dictionary lookup once I get to that rough HSK 6 goal. (I definitely think personal ambiguity tolerance matters - in Chinese, the statistics I’ve often found indicate readers at HSK 4 go in generally knowing only around 50% of words in target language texts, which is brutally low compared to the statistic of 98% comprehension to comfortably read extensively. Now... when I was first starting to learn French, I immediately dived into reading when I had pitifully little comprehension, like 50%! So I’m used to it feeling brutal at first, and still trying to do it! Then as my French improved, I experienced 70% comprehension and up as so refreshingly easier, that I didn’t personally see it as a slog (even though it very much still is a slog of ambiguity, dictionary use, and accepting you can only understand the gist usually and only occasionally specific details).

With Chinese, pessimistically you hit the 70s percentage of comprehension in HSK 4 - HSK 6, and don’t get to the 90% at all. Optimistically, you hit the 70s% in HSK 3, and by HSK 5-6 you’re at 95-98% comprehension which is MUCH more comfortable for pretty much everyone. Which.... I can say from my own personal experience, that lines up. Once I passed HSK 3 knowledge and in the middle of HSK 4, I feel much more comfortable reading anything I want. Yeah, it’s still BRUTAL. But it’s more the slog French was at 70% comprehension - it’s hard to read for more than a few pages if the material is difficult, and its easier for me to read difficult materials for ‘gist meaning’ rather than precise details, and it’s easier for me to read simpler-materials for longer periods of time. But I can, technically, read any material with a dictionary without feeling lost and incapable of comprehending the main ideas. So if this trend continues, by HSK 6 I should actually be closer to the 90s% comprehension wise, if not well into them, at which point reading will genuinely feel comfortable in comparison to the difficulty of it so far. In contrast, if someone has a lower tolerance for slogging through ambiguity than I do, they might find 70% comprehension absolutely unbearable and give up.

According to studies (one is “The Percentage of Words Known in a Text and Reading Comprehension” by Norbert Schmitt, XiangYing Jiang, William Grabe), people generally do not feel comfortable reading to learn new words/for enjoyment until around 98% comprehension. Even in the 80s% and low 90s%, often people will find it too frustrating. So for a language like Chinese... where often the official study levels like HSK may theoretically get you to the 90s% but not always the high 90s%... then even after the highest HSK level some people will find it too frustratingly ambiguous to read! And with the pessimistic estimate, HSK 6 will only get them to 77% comprehension - so if they’re uncomfortable with a level of ambiguity I am used to, they’re going to hit a wall at how frustrating it will be at first to start reading! And all these percentages are based on spoken language comprehension - its likely all novels/long text are going to be at least somewhat more difficult, further lowering the % likely comprehended.

So... for a Chinese language learner, it is beneficial to either have a high tolerance to consuming content despite high ambiguity, or else to get yourself used to it. Because no matter how high an official level like HSK you study to, you’re likely to have to start off at a frustratingly low comprehension level when you first start diving into target language content. A comprehension level low enough that it’s expected for you to be frustrated. I... already went through this kind of intense frustration and just kind of slogged my way through it in French, and thankfully I studied French long enough to see what the payoff down the line was for such an attitude. I personally think my reading comprehension in French improved as rapidly as it did, precisely because I did start reading immediately (even when I was reading stuff I only comprehended 50-70%). I was fortunate to experience in real time that comprehension % increase through the months as I read more. This gives me an example of how the process should work with Chinese and other languages eventually, if I do the same thing.

With Chinese, my comprehension % has increased half as fast, so the difficulty is harder for longer, but ultimately I’m still seeing the difficulty slowly lessen as my comprehension slowly improves. In my own experience, I also feel I had to consume a lot more chinese content than I did French content, in order to see my comprehension increase. So: Chinese is taking 2 times as long to improve, and also I am consuming content almost every day in comparison to about half with the once-or-twice-a-week French content I used to consume. So not only am I bearing the less comprehensible % levels longer, but I’m also dealing with it more often with more content regularly. Of course it is going to take a tolerance to bear ambiguity... in order to make yourself do this the way I did. A tolerance where, even if you had it for another (in theory easier) language, you will have to exercise that tolerance more for Chinese. At least, once you’ve decided to start reading.

My point is that... one should try to be willing to tolerate to a higher degree of ambiguity when consuming content in Chinese, then they would normally tolerate in their native language. Because it seems like whether one starts at a low level, or a ‘high’ level, they’re going to eventually have to dive into content with a higher ambiguity than they’d probably prefer at first. And it will take practice building up that comprehension level through consuming real content, until that level finally gets up to what is considered more universally ‘comfortable.’ And if you, like me, can view what’s less comfortable as ‘more comfortable’ in comparison to where you started, that perspective has made the experience feel more bearable for me. It might help make it more bearable for others?

When I browse Chinese learning forums, I usually see a few kinds of approaches to this steeper comprehension percentage, in comparison to say a language like French. 1st approach some people do is to learn ALL the characters they can beyond HSK (usually 3000-4800), and learn 5000-10k most frequently used words (if 5000, then some words outside of what HSK covered) - before they dive into reading. 2nd approach is those that decide to dive into reading at HSK 4-6, and make flashcards for the new words they come across - deciding that they’ll have to keep learning new words/characters anyway, for a significant amount of time, until they can read comfortably. This 2nd approach further splits into people who use software to make unknown-word lists ahead of time and pre-study all of them, and people who use SRS flashcard software to either pre-study those words or study while reading. The SRS flashcard crowd usually either also bases their cards on all the new unknown words they’ll need, or at least the words that pop up frequently in the new material they’re reading. A 3rd approach is people who rely on graded readers and learn words mostly through reading (outside of focused HSK/course/other study), then eventually get to the HSK 5-6 level and get frustrated by the low comprehension % they have of native target language material, so they move next to drama subtitles/comics/simple novels and either bear through the low comprehension for a while, or also use approach 1 and/or 2 above once they branch into the more complicated stuff.

These approaches all overlap each other a bit. The big differences are just how some people deal with the low comprehension % by pre-studying huge amounts of material (to boost their comprehension at least for the one material they’re trying to consume) - like pre-learning all the new words in a book before trying to read it, or learning all the new words in the first chapters of a book so that in the future your comprehension % of the book is a higher level then it was at the very beginning. And the other people, who decide they’re going to bear with lower comprehension % for the sake of wide exposure and volume of material consumed. This second group would be - people following the Massive Immersion Approach, people who read for gist comprehension of main ideas rather then near/full comprehension of text (so 2nd approach SRS people who might add new words to study if they pop up frequently, but will also skip studying a lot of unknown words they run into), 3rd approach people who generally don’t make pre-study lists or plans and just kind of brute-force consume the content until it gets easier, etc. While I’m sure there’s MANY arguements out there about which way works better, which ways are more ‘efficient’ - I personally think either way eventually results in improvement in comprehension. The big difference is a decision on trade off: do you decide to study much bigger BULKS of information upfront, in order to temporarily make comprehension % higher for a specific new material you’re trying to comprehend, or do you study nothing upfront and bear with lower comprehension % for a longer duration of time as you consume a specific new material? Over time I would assume both approaches will result in future content eventually being more comprehensible, until it eventually becomes a high enough comprehension % that the learner no longer feels it requires bulk study ahead of time or high tolerance for ambiguity.

I feel that, at least with studying Chinese, that question above about trade offs is relevant for a longer duration of time than it is for languages categorized as ‘easier’ for a learner to study. Like, French? I would guess, that if UNLIKE ME, you learned the 3000 most common words immediately, then started with graded readers (either during that word learning or after to increase vocabulary level more), and worked your way up to native target language content, you would generally find reading to be a comfortable level of comprehension all the way through. 3000 high frequency words in many languages gets you to about 95% comprehension. That’s still a little under the 98% comprehension you need to start reading and picking up most new words comfortably from context. But the 95% would get you close enough that graded readers, and simple texts would be easy to read extensively. And hopefully eventually, even more complex texts would be bearable with a dictionary and you’d quickly get to a point where your comprehension eventually increased to that comfortable comprehension % level.

#rant #language study #japanese #chinese #french #if u ever read my long rants let me know #i realize they're way too long and a little weirdly structured #since they're mostly notes for later #but yeah #if you're trying to study multiple languages maybe some of this is useful #also if u study chinese just like #be aware the % unknown words is just kind of #steeper when learning chinese compared to a language considered 'easier'

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redbeanboi · 5 years ago

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Miss Juno! I’ve been reading your work since it was first uploaded and I was wondering how you’ve researched all these different dialects? It really helps with immersion and I love how you include it so much in the fic. ❤️❤️🥺 thank you for writing Business before pleasure!

Hello anonymous bean!!!!! first of all, I want to say thank you so much for giving BBP your love and continued readership ! <3

As someone who speaks two dialects of one language and is pretty conversant in one that has multiple dialects... it just seemed a natural thing for me to include !! :D Plus, there’s just so many differences across the board when it comes to the different dialects in Italy. here’s a video that I think is pretty good at demonstrating the differences in the different Italian dialects (basically what it might sound like if Giorno and the Reader were to attempt a conversation in their own respective dialects) !

youtube

as for the dialects! I used to study at a school with a ton of international students from Italy and I was lucky enough to befriend one of them! I’ve kept in touch with this person and have asked them questions about phrases and slang and cuss words in certain dialects. If it’s a dialect they don’t speak themselves, they’re kind enough to ask around until they get me an answer. I try not to pester them if I can get away with it, though dhdbdksksms 😅

if I’m not pestering my kind friend, I simply look up phrases !!! You can also use the glosbe dictionary and find out what certain words are in say, Napoletano vs. Tuscano/Fiorentino. It’s been helpful, to say the least! Mother is typically pronounced like Madre in Tuscano/Fiorentino (which are considered the “standard” dialects), but in Napoletano it sounds more like Matre. Sometimes words don’t even sound the same across different dialects. The words “Family, duty, honor” in my fic are translated to Siciliano, and become “famigghia, obbricu, unuri,” as opposed to the standard Tuscano translation to “famiglia, dovere, honore.” Quite different! I used glosbe to figure those out (translated to standard Italian first and figured out what each individual word was in siciliano). I’m still learning the grammar for Siciliano and Napoletano because linguistics is so interesting to me and I realize that I cannot simply use glosbe to translate whole phrases. That’s been my biggest hurdle. Luckily, Giorno and Reader speak in Tuscano with each other (because neither can really grasp the other’s respective dialect well enough)!

As for the swear words.... you’ll find a ton of references online! It’s much easier to find swear words/phrases online than regular phrases or resources for grammar in certain dialects. My best advice is not to google “neapolitan swears.” You’ll get only a few results. I’ve had a lot of luck by google searching “Parloacce e insulti in siciliano” and likewise for napoletano.

Again, I’m still learning and teaching myself the language, so I’m not an expert by any means! I really do enjoy this aspect of writing the fic though, LOL. It’s definitely a callback to my own love of language and a nod to my love of the fantasy genre (looking at you, Tolkien, with your Elvish and all....). :-)

If you have any more questions, feel free to send more questions in !

#long post #very long post #asks #anon #dialects #and stuff #fic: business before pleasure

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aftgonice · 7 years ago

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What I would like to know: are there any operas you could recommend? :)

*cracks fingers*

I’m SO glad you asked :D

Some boring disclaimers first:

Obviously not everything works for everybody and this is a list of personal favorites or operas that are usually recommended for getting started to the opera world.

Be aware that some of these might have trigger warnings but I haven’t been able to find a list and I don’t feel comfortable trying to label the warnings myself. They also depend a lot on the scenes and direction used in any particular production. So if you’re afraid of a particular trigger being present in one of the operas I list here, feel free to send me an ask and I’ll try to answer you.

I honestly can’t write much about every single rec I write here as far as plot and music goes. I’ll include YouTube links to the full opera if I can find it - some of them won’t have English subtitles but I tried my best. Google has all the translated librettos anyway so a quick search should do. Also, I haven’t seen some of versions I’m linking so I can’t always guarantee that they’re the best ones but often it’s just the best I could find. (Also let me know if the links don’t work because every country has different copyright laws)

And let me just say that regardless of what you want to see, the best thing for starting out would probably be find a theater next to you and go see something live.

Let’s start wit my personal Holy Trinity brought to you by the amazing duo Mozart - Da Ponte. Basically what you need to know about these three operas is that they’re the best in the whole world. They’re all in Italian and Da Ponte was the best librettista ever and a really interesting person, but I digress.

Le nozze di Figaro

From the French play La Folle Journée, ou Le Mariage de Figaro by Pierre Beaumarchais (I read it a bit in French and the opera’s libretto seems very similar). It’s clever and funny and the music is obviously glorious, but that goes for everything that comes out of Mozart (and Da Ponte).

Don Giovanni

This is my most favorite opera and composition forever and ever. The protagonist is amazing and is one of the best and most iconic anti-heroes of the whole literature and everyone should watch it at least once in their life. The version I linked was the best one I could find in video even though I think some of the tempo is weird (too slow at times and too fast at other times :/), but here’s my favorite recording of it.

Così fan tutte

Contrary to the other two above, this is an original story by Da Ponte and it Does Not Disappoint. The plot is so modern and you wouldn’t think it was written in 1789.

Let’s move on to my second favorite opera composer: Gioachino Rossini. He’s done both opere buffe (funny) and dramatic ones. He’s done operas both in Italian and in French but the ones I’m linking are all in Italian. I’m more into his comedies than the tragic ones and I also think they’re a better rec for someone who’s just starting out, but anyway here’s a short list in popularity order:

Il barbiere di Siviglia

The plot is actually a prequel to Le Nozze di Figaro, so some of the characters are the same. There’s a couple popular pieces that everyone has heard at some point in their lives.

La Cenerentola

Literally “Cinderella”. There’s a few differences from the original story and the Disney one that everyone knows (even though this one by Rossini has been my “original” Cinderella since I never watched that cartoon as a kid lmao).

L’italiana in Algeri

This opera is so funny and so underrated but it has some of the best comical situations in the whole history of opera.

Il viaggio a Reims

This one is really funny too -it has a couple more serious parts but overall it’s just pure fun from start to finish.

Let’s move on to my third fave, Gaetano Donizetti. He’s done so many but to start out I’m only going to rec two:

Lucia di Lammermoor

This is a dramatic one but it’s one the best and most popular ones from its time period. It has one of the most iconic examples of belcanto and even if you don’t want to see the whole opera you should just listen to this scene followed by this one because boy can the human voice do some amazing things!

L’Elisir d’amore

Probably his most famous opera buffa, it’s really popular and for a good reason. I personally love some parts but I’ve seen it too many times to really want to listen to it on my own again, but it’s a really good choice for starting out.

I noticed my favorites also follow a chronological order, so I’ll just continue following the same order with a couple more recs from popular composers:

Georges Bizet:

Carmen

The only French opera from this list lol, I love it so freaking much and it might not be the easiest opera to start with but there’s at least a couple of pieces that you should definitely listen to.

Giuseppe Verdi:

La Traviata

Probably one of the most popular dramatic operas out there. Not my favorite, but a really good start if you’re new to this world.

Macbeth

Yep, like the Shakespeare one. It’s actually my favorite opera by Verdi even though it’s not his most popular one. It’s dark and Lady Macbeth is a fucking badass.

Rigoletto

Inspired by Le Roi s'amuse by Hugo but eh, not really my favorite one either, but also a really popular and “easy one” to listen to. The female main character pisses me off but whatever.

Aida

This is one of my favorites by Verdi together with Macbeth. Not only is the music wonderful but the story has one of the best female characters imo (not the protagonist but her rival actually).

Moving on to Puccini:

La Bohème

Tosca

Turandot

Madama Butterfly

They’re all sad and dramatic (only Turandot has a somewhat happy ending). The music is more modern (we’re in the late 1800s - early 1900s) and my personal favorite is la Bohéme because it portrays some realistic situations that were unseen until that point in an opera (like a group of friends living together and joking with each other, couples fighting, people just hanging out at a café and so on). Madama Butterfly is my second favorite and it always makes me cry so much.

I could mention many more but I’m just dropping a final one by Leonard Bernstein:

Candide

Obviously inspired by Voltaire’s Candide, ou l'Optimisme. It’s in English and it’s everything you might expect from something inspired by Voltaire’s work. Even if you don’t want to listen to the whole thing please listen to this aria called Glitter and be gay because it’s hilarious and just…yeah listen to it. (And here’s a shameless promotion of a fandom-related post that I did a while back and that nobody saw lmao)

Anyway, I could go on and on but if you or anyone has more questions I’m always happy to help if you DM me or send me an ask!

(I didn’t even begin to talk about all the possible AUs that one could make out of any of these operas because I want to keep this post relatively clean but I already have a couple in mind - one of which I already outlined actually - but again, if anyone’s interested feel free to send me an ask.)

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sbit546789 · 5 years ago

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day 12, Amalfi walkabout and too many pictures

Woke up at 5h00 feeling amazingly refreshed and well rested and heard one of the staff come in to start the day. The light rain from the evening turned in to a real gully-washer around 06h30, but it lightened up before breakfast started around eight.

Since the rooftop patio was wet and it was still lightly raining, Rita gave me a tray to take my breakfast selections and coffee back to my room to enjoy. No egg here for breakfast, but a selection of pastries and delicious cakes as well as meats and cheeses.

I was hoping to do the Path of the Gods today, but everything was really wet and it wasn’t until midmorning before the rain let up so I didn’t think was a wise choice. I guess I’ll just have to come back and plan a longer stay to accommodate the vagaries of the weather.

I did wonder if I’d be able to start extra early the next day and make it back in time to get to Salerno to catch my train, but it would depend on transport back to Amalfi from Positano. Hmm. Or maybe it’s just a reason to come back

I decided to check to see if the ferries were running and maybe I’d head to Positano for part of the day and see what there is to see, but unfortunately the ferries were not running at all, so it was more bus or a long walk there and hopefully the buses wouldn’t be too full for the return. Or, I could just hike around the area and see what there is to see.

Ummm, FYI: hiking won!

Well, actually, it didn’t start off as an intention to hike. I looked up the directions from Amalfi to Positano on foot and saw it was only about 6 hours via the Path of the Gods, but with no ferry service and yesterday’s crowded bus experience, I was reluctant to find myself in Positano with limited options for my return before dark.

So, I decided to explore more of Amalfi and maybe head up toward some of the buildings I could see clinging to the mountains above us.

On my wanderings I stumbled upon a staircase and decided to head for the heights to get some more pictures. I kept going up at every opportunity, until I was following a staircase into the woods and up a mountain. Hmm, a path to the Dwarrowdelf? Well, no, but I certainly chuckled at the thought!

As I enjoyed the easy climb, the smell of the trees, and the truly vibrant green of my surroundings, I couldn’t help wondering why the staircase was built, when was it built, was it ever the main “road” from Amalfi to somewhere else, and whose footsteps was I walking in now?

At one point I noticed a faded number painted on one of the steps, but I didn’t know what it could mean. A while later I looked down from all the trees and the incredible views glimpsed between the leaves and I noticed another, the number 400, painted on the steps. Eventually, a “few” steps later the painted numbers reached 700 and I got a little more curious and started to count. Fourty-six “steps” later I saw the number 746 painted on a stone step and concluded that the count was probably of the number of stair steps.

By now we’d left the forest behind and the steps were now climbing through a populated area with homes and businesses. I didn’t know where I was, but hey, that’s why I’ve got google maps and GPS on my phone!

I was pretty high up, but still not at the top of the surrounding mountains and I was feeling awesome. There’s something so invigorating and inspiring about climbing mountains and it’s especially easy when there are paths or even stairs.

At the end of these stairs, I picked a direction and started to explore. It looks like I came out close to the Grand Hotel Excelsior, it’s just around the little valley below me and there’s a road that circles toward it near my current elevation. Wow. Nice views!

I wandered around for a bit until it was time to head back and initially thought I’d find the road back to town, but then realized that I wanted more nature and less asphalt, so I went back to the stairs.

When I got back to town, I checked the hours on a local laundry service and went back to my hotel to collect stuff to wash. I made it to the laundry place just as they opened after siesta/lunch and managed to convince the lady there to have it ready tonight for 19h00. Yay!

It’s entertaining sometimes to observe tourist behaviour. Most tourists here are simply walking the street as though it’s a pedestrian thoroughfare even though it’s not. There are cars and carts that run on the main street, just not many.

Moving around Amalfi there are other passages including a covered one to the right of the main street after the main square as you head in from the sea that goes for a few blocks. They’re often not as crowded as the main street since tourists don’t seem to notice them and you encounter more locals that way.

I’ve smiled at a lot of elderly women here and been buongiorno’d and buonasera’d in a nice, friendly, enthusiast way all about town.

Oh, and I don’t want to stereotype, but I must say some of these local women certainly enjoy debates with each other! Since I don’t speak Italian, I have no idea what they were talking about but on more than one occasion when there were two women walking in one of those covered passageways, it got very spirited. Once, they even giggled as I passed by. Friendly, but weird.

Experience tells me that Amalfi is a very nice friendly town, not sure why the friendliest were the older women; it must be a traditional hospitality type thing.

After dropping off my laundry, I went down to the shore to relax, sit by the sea and read a bit, even though the breeze was a little cool. I did see some people walking around in parkas, but most were less encumbered. Personally, I thought the temp was just right with the occasional cooling breeze, but not everyone is Canadian. LOL.

At the appointed time, I picked up my laundry and brought it back to my room before heading out to scrounge dinner.

Sometimes it’s tough figuring out what to eat. I’m trying to stick to certain dietary principles, follow my own likes at least a little, and still enjoy things. The weather was looking iffy again, so I didn’t want to sit outside and after walking for a bit and reading menus, I determined I was in the mood for take-away pizza. I bought a bottle of wine and walked around trying to figure out what restaurant would have what I wanted and chose Pizza Express, a little hole in the wall (almost literally), on the main street of Amalfi town.

I don’t know what I actually ordered, but she translated the menu for me, and I picked something with “bacon” and onion then added more meat (ham). LOL. So, you could say I got a mostly meat pizza to go, brought it home, popped the cork on the wine and sat back to enjoy just as the clouds tried to lighten their load and climb over the mountains. BEAUTIFUL! It was a moment to make my heart sing: delicious food, good wine, amazing view, and a day so filled with joy, fun, and discovery that I felt sated in a most delightful way.

It didn’t matter that the day didn’t happen as originally planned, nope! The day was just right.

After enjoying the pizza, I spent that evening on the couch in my room watching the rain, listening to the sound of it and the almost imperceptible sound of people. No passionate serenade this evening and the sax practice was a bit muffled with more song and less scales. LOL.

You know, there are different kinds of rain and we saw all types while here in Amalfi. There’s the light or light mist sort and there’s the dark grey, kinda heavy, gotta-piss-on-everyone-to-get-over-the-mountain variety. Of course, it all pales compared to the black cloud, super heavy wall of water falling from the sky kind too. But we had them all in the short day and a half here.

Far, far, too little time in this place. Wow, I almost hate to leave for Rome tomorrow; I wish I had another couple of days here.

I really like this part of Italy. I’d love to hike this coast and even explore some of the national parkland here some day soon. It’s so awesomely vibrant and the air feels and smells so fresh and alive!

I’m hearing church bells through the rain, lots of church bells. Happy sigh.

#Vacation2019 #day12

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ceciliawyu · 7 years ago

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Time has passed rather quickly in the last few years, I’ve been busy with so many different projects, international travels and film school in the last year, that I suddenly realized I’ve neglected my public art exhibition side. Even though the whole time I’ve been busy working in my art studio, at arts club and attended private art residencies; it did not feel like I was at all reclusive with the art, but I guess I was.

It dawned on me when Professor Sebahattin Devecioglu got a bit annoyed with me as he said that he kept sending me his ideas for a world innovative fashion day and I kept saying I would read it but never got back to him. Well, the idea did not quite capture my imagination. But I told him I will keep an open mind and think about it and he knows what that means. Haha.

Anyway, so by and by, he very kindly invited me to “do something” at the upcoming International Conference of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Dance Education. I always knew Prof Devecioglu was a specialist in Sports Management, so it did not surprise me that he attended the 2017 conference in Shanghai. We had a chat about it and I told him to try to avoid answering the telephone in his hotel room especially if it rang late at night, as sometimes, escort agencies in Shanghai “cold called” for clients at major international hotels. He thought I was joking about China. I was not. Luckily for him, nothing like that happened in Shanghai at the 2017 conference. Hahaha.

Anyway he back from Shanghai in one piece and with his colleagues at the Neo-technology Campus at Nisantasi University in Istanbul, it was their turn to host the conference for 2018.

Somehow I was given carte blanche to “do something cultural & artistic”. I really appreciated the creative freedom they gave me. I know I have my artistic temperamental swing but they know that when I agree to do something, I usually come to some interesting conclusions, it might take me a while to say Yes. 🙂

Anyway 6 months of talking back and forth later, I finally came to the conclusion that given the academic nature of the events and the many intellectual panels they had that was being televised….some will be interviewed on National Turkish TV….I decided I would like to do something more creative and laid-back which I believe was more conducive to innovation and creative brain-storming. So in the end I suggested that an Arts Salon, where I could present the last few years of “Kel1st and Yu” sketches and art development, along with a keynote talk about “Intangible Cultural Heritage & how athletes and artists are often creators of ICH” was would be true to the direction my art was going.

All the different Professors at the neo-tech campus were behind it. I wanted to thank Professor Ergun Yurdadon from Ohio State University for offering to contribute with music and helping to translate my english into turkish. I really appreciate the kind offer.

Anyway, the final title for the art exhibition was “Kel1st and Yu; a chino-americano art fusion experiment”

And the title for the Keyhote talk was: “Intangible Cultural Heritage as a vital component of Global Sustainability”

I liked what we came up with. I do apologize for Sebathatin nearly pulled out all his own hair, when we had a weird misunderstanding about the word “Salon” and “Saloon”. Needless to say one is enthusiastically embraced in all intellectual circles and the other might be slightly frowned upon in many strict Muslim circles. Hahaha. So lucky for us then that modern Turkey which began with the secularization of education by Ataturk can easily accommodate both without too much drama in a progressive setting. 🙂

Anyway, I found the noetech campus at Nisantasi Unversity, wonderfully equipped. It is a large university, new and modern, designed in the same architectural style as the Louvre. It is surrounded by wonderful cafes, bars, organic grocers and had its own star bucks, traditional food, burger joints and juice bar in-house. I loved the many workshops space in the giant campus and I would love to do an artist residency at the fashion design and textile school one day as they do not have a Fine Art department. I just love how well equipped and technologically advanced the campus is. I’m used to the underfunded public universities of Theresa May’s Britain where they spend more time cutting the budget of doctors, police, teachers and fire services, than they are at investing in education, so it is so refreshing to see a new private university campus that is beautifully equipped with the latest ….everything! It must be a pleasure to teach there and not have to worry about government’s constant removal of teaching resources like in many American and British universities. It is always a good thing when the investment in objective, secular education is a priority in a country! I am so happy I could see that at Nisantasi University during the International Conference. I thank everyone at the faculty for that kind welcome and the wonderful Gala provided for all of us who were invited as keynote speakers at the conference. It was a wonderful opportunity to discover one another’s specializations.

I wanted to say a special hello to the Italian sports management expert as we had many hours of interesting discussions about my ignorance about soccer and his experience in coaching various high profile teams like Tottenham Spurs, Milan, Barcelona and a few other ones whose name I did not really know. In turn I feel honored to introduce the artistic experience of El Greco, Southern Chinese Calligraphy Art school and New York Wild Style Graffiti to him! Needless to say, there were moments where we were sure we were not living on the same planet! We laughed as we agreed,”Yes, Art and Sports share the same planet but exist on totally different planets!”

I also want to send my best wishes to the Iranian scholar who came with the support of his university to present his Doctorate paper about the national sports of Iran. We had some trouble understanding one another. But we managed and I hope that sports will break down the barriers of understanding to his culture in the way that he hoped it would. For it is a shame that much of what the average person knows so very little about his country except in the exaggerations of the media which gave us all “Trump’s porn star sex scandals” (what a vile trashy little man) and Brexit Britain’s “Fear of Muslamic Ray Guns” (google all this if you do no believe these are things considered important in trashy western media these days!)

While most educated people tend to look at the dystopia of media propaganda with intellectual skepticism, it still has a subtle effect of undermining perceptions of people from certain cultures. For example, I was quietly warned about travelling to Istanbul as some of my acquaintances believed that it was unsafe with a lot of bombs going off everywhere! The western media has a lot of lies to answer for…..

Well, I had a pleasant time when we were all taken on the tour of the city. We visited the Tokapi Palace, had lunch at Miniature World and went on to a river cruise down the Bospherous. It was a pleasant day. Afterwards we dined with my friend at the private Tarsus Culture Club at Taksim which served the most wonderful South Turkish food, The club room was an understated memorial to the times of Ataturk. At first I thought one old photo on the wall looked like a still image of Laurence of Arabia. Then I figured out it was the real life context to the film itself. The private club was both hidden and very accessible with an overview of the bars and restaurants area of Taksim. I really enjoyed the intimate dining experience and the fact that while everywhere it was very crowded, the club was a calm and relaxing atmosphere of only a few small tables. Afterwards a few of my friends went on to Klein’s, one of the best nightclub in Istanbul but after staying up for nearly 14 hrs, I really had to sleep.

The remaining days in Istanbul were spent in convivial company with my friends walking their dog at Nisantasi district, all around Macka Demokrasi Park. We also spent a day and evening at Ortakoy Sahili by the waterside, eating all kinds of Turkish street food and watching a turkish wedding by the moonlight. Gentle days and enjoyable evening spent with great company.

I had a wonderful time. I really like the secular Turkey that began with Ataturk….always have….and I don’t really want to see little girls running around with full headscarves. If one is an adult woman and choose to wear head covers for work advancements or religious devotions, I have no problem with that. But I believe that little girls should run free, dance, play sports, make a mess and play as children do. That should be the primary concern of a secular education to enable informed choices from childhood into adulthood.

Over 200 research papers were submitted for publication at the International Conference in Istanbul and I am glad that my research was published as part of all that endeavors to pursue knowledge and independence of thoughts!

For a copy of the published summary of papers at the International Conference, please download the Full pdf Here

P.S As you all know I recently had my hair dyed Mermaid Pink and Purple for fun…it was hit with the kids on the boat and at the Tokapi palace, where many of them were on tour with their school teachers. They were really well behaved and came in pairs to ask to take selfies with me. I have no idea how many selfies of me with Turkish schools kids are out there! Lol. I didn’t bother to check as it was all just for fun and spur of the moment! 🙂

Arts Salon and Keynote Speaking: International Conference of #Physical #Education, #Sports, #Recreation, #Arts and #Dance, #NeoTechcampus #NisantasiUniversity #Istanbul 2018 Time has passed rather quickly in the last few years, I've been busy with so many different projects, international travels and film school in the last year, that I suddenly realized I've neglected my public art exhibition side.

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