#Tho depending on your skill level when you start out reading might be fairly challenging

[thyandrawrites]

You mentioned being Italian, how did you learn to speak or at least write English so well? Your Japanese translations are also pretty good too! I want learn Italian so what would you recommend that would help learn to read and write another language?

Thank you!

The genuine answer? Fandoms. Really. I've been studying languages for most of my life (english since elementary school, french in middle and high school, german since hs and japanese since college) but so far I've only gotten truly fluent in the only language I didn't just approach from a textbook learning angle. My fluency probably also comes from speaking english the longest, but what really improved my proficiency was consuming and engaging with my passions in my target language. Something that I struggle a lot with is staying motivated in the long run. I tend to run out of steam after a while, and I lose all the progress I made. But fandoms feed on my passions, so engaging with them helps me find the motivation to keep going, while also making it less like a chore that needs to be taken care of.

I was a B1 until I graduated high school, but then I started reading copius amounts of fanfic and meta in english, and began writing my own. Reading taught me a lot of common new words I had never encountered before in my textbooks, as well as several idioms, and the longer I kept at it, the more stuff I assimilated into my vocabulary. I spent a couple of years just reading ff, not thinking I had it in me to truly begin writing in my second language, but then it sort of... Just happened. I got a fic idea late at night and wrote a 6k oneshot in one sitting during an all nighter. The fact that I was tired and inspired probably lowered my remaining inhibitions and temporarily muted that part of my brain that was self-conscious. But suddenly, english didn't seem so scary anymore. When I reread what I wrote the next day, after getting some sleep, it wasn't as agrammatical and terrible as I had feared, and that motivated me to keep doing it. I find that a lot of the time what stops us from improving is the fear of making a fool of ourselves. I also didn't comment on fanfic for years in fear of outing myself, and on the rare occasions I did, I always prefaced my comments with an apology for my english. But when you finally get in the mindframe that people don't really care about any mistakes you might make, it was really liberating. Honestly, just have fun! Who cares! Native speakers make tons of mistakes too! I can see that so clearly now.

This was around the time I got into Tokyo Ghoul meta and timidly approached my first analyses. Meta is fairly different from creative writing, but it also helped me improve because it taught me essay writing better than my english teacher marking my mistakes in angry red. When you're trying to explain a concept so that others understand it, rather than just to get a passing grade, you will attempt to break it down into easier concepts and pace it better, instead of just paying attention to SPaG. This also had the side effect of teaching me how to better sort my thoughts and get them across clearly, which has always been a struggle for me in spoken conversations. My thoughts tend to be messy, and I trip over my words a lot (in my native language too), but thinking about going from point a to point b like I'm writing an essay helps me a lot, personally.

The last step was joining a discord server in 2019. I can't stress enough how language is constantly evolving, and how slang and everyday language isn't something you can passively learn from textbooks or online courses. Those are only good as the foundation of your skills. They teach you the grammar and the basic vocabulary, but then you have to engage with real people, you know? I've always struggled to hold a conversation because I'm socially awkward, but discord is useful to me because it is a group chat, so there is less pressure on my end to keep a conversation going. Interacting with people from all over the world taught me to be less self-conscious about my skills, and meeting people of different age ranges taught me a variety of slang expressions to pass for a not-boomer myself, at least at first glance :'D

Moral of the story, do follow courses and use textbooks (those are important!), but also keep in mind those are not the be-all end-all of language proficiency, like school and academia tries so hard to teach you. If you find yourself hitting a wall and not getting any better anymore, take it as a sign your grammar is good enough to take the next step in your journey. So then, try to think of something you have fun doing. A hobby of yours. And then think of ways you can engage with it in your target language.

I had different phases in my life where I explored various things thay way. I got obsessed with a band in middle school and started watching and rewatching the videos they posted online, trying to understand everything they said. This improved my listening skills considerably. Years later I got really into WoW and I learned vocab by playing it and by looking for tutorials online. If you read a lot, consider looking for titles in that language you want to learn. Stuff like this. Listening to music, watching movies or tv series with subtitles (esp if the subtitles are in your target language too). All this stuff helps a lot! And the added plus is that for however challenging it might be at first, you'll stay motivated because it relates to something you already enjoy

[dancerstudying]

first semester: grades + some thoughts

hi friends! so, I just finished my first semester of college (aka university to those of you not in the US). after a week of finals and lots of stress, I’m now at home, safely ensconced in the couch doing as little as possible. however, final grades were due today, so I thought I’d take a moment to run through what my grades were and kind of reflect on them. I wanted to do this both bc I thought it could give people a better idea of the transition b/t high school and college grades-wise, and also as a record for myself.

a note/disclaimer:

if you don’t want to know what my grades were, you don’t have to read this! I’m not trying to brag and I don’t want this to be something to compare yourself to! everyone is on their own path and has their own definition of success -- a bad grade for me might be a great one for you, and vise versa.

also, this will probably get pretty long. grab a snack.

some background about grades in the US

grades are given on a scale from A to F, with A being the best and F being a fail (we skip E tho idk why). grades are based on a combo of exams, quizzes, assignments, and essays, with the specific percentage/which of these counts determined by the professor. this varies from school to school or even from class to class but generally the scale is

A: >93.3%

A-: 90-93.3%

B+: 86.7-89.9%

B: 83.4-86.6%

B-: 80-83.3%

ok I’m tired of typing things out but you get the point. this pattern continues in the 70s for C and the 60s for D. usually anything below a 60 is an F (fail) but again this can depend. some classes are graded on a curve, where the grade boundaries are moved either up or down so that the majority of students get a B-/C+, which is supposed to be the average. this prevents grade inflation and also helps you out if the class is very difficult and test averages are in the 50s or 60s (pretty common for classes like organic chemistry).

some background about my grades in high school

I feel like this info is important for context and also to give an idea of the academic level I generally operate at (okay that sounds v pretentious). anyway, it’s pretty generally expected that you can expect to see a drop in your grades from high school to college. this differs based on a ton of things, but almost everyone experiences it so it’s totally normal and to be expected! anyway, I went to a fairly competitive and well-ranked public (government funded) high school, and I grew up in a well-educated university town, so I felt I was pretty prepared for college. I took mostly AP/honors courses and ended with a 3.95 GPA (unweighted) when I graduated. basically, I was almost a straight A student with a few Bs in there (thanks to pre-calc and AP Spanish). 

I’m now at a fairly selective school, though not anything close to the Ivy League -- I think the acceptance rate for my class was 17-18%. of course, selectivity is not a great indicator of how difficult classes are, as many selective schools (particularly Ivy Leagues) have rampant grade inflation.

my majors are neuroscience and dance and I’m on a pre-med track.

anyway, let’s get down to the nitty gritty: my grades this semester.

early modern England (3 credit hours): A- 

I took this course because I placed out of introductory writing but still needed a writing-intensive course and it seemed interesting enough. honestly, it was much more difficult than I expected. I consider myself a fairly good writer, but the professor I had for this course was a tough grader for papers. I did manage to get an A on my final paper which was a victory. after easily getting all As in writing and history classes in high school, an A- is a little hard to accept. however, I worked really hard in this class and am honestly satisfied with my grade as I know most people do not do as well in this class. it was also a 2000 (sophomore level) class, so I was definitely being challenged.

intensive ballet IV (3 credit hours): B+

so, this is my lowest grade. at first, I was really disappointed by it, but it is a 4000 level course (mostly juniors and seniors) and we’re graded based partially on skill, so I have to accept it and move on and just hope to do better next semester as I’m taking ballet IV again. I know I could have worked harder in this class so I’m not going to complain about it, just learn from it and try to improve.

intro to cell & molecular biology (3 credit hours): A

this is probably what I’m proudest of. this class is known for being a true weed-out course for pre-meds and most people just hope to pass, but I got an A! it feels especially good because I know I worked hard for it and didn’t just skate by on natural intelligence. I also hadn’t taken biology since freshman year of high school so there was a steep learning curve. I didn’t just do well, I honestly learned so much and doing well in this class confirmed for me that pre-med is the right choice.

general chemistry I - lecture (3 credit hours): A-

I have such a complicated relationship with chemistry, and honestly, I’m really glad I’m done with this class. I hate to blame professors but sometimes you just get a really bad one and this was one of those cases. his lectures were extremely disorganized and he didn’t explain things clearly at all. it’s partially my fault that I didn’t get an A, though, as I definitely could have put more time and thought into studying, especially for the final. it was just so hard to stay motivated when I could barely follow lectures. I have to take gen chem II next semester but thank god I have a different professor.

general chemistry I - lab (1 credit hour): A

not much to say about this one. I’m happy to have gotten an A since it really intimidated me at first -- lab in college is way more serious than in high school. I learned how to write a proper lab report which is an important skill as a science major.

honors colloquium (1.5 credit hours): A

I loved this class soooo freaking much. everyone in the honors program has to take a first year seminar and I chose one about modernism and if it’s still relevant to the contemporary world. it was also a discussion based class which I love and I got to write my final paper on literally any topic I wanted and how it was related to modernism (mine was about the modernist search for identity in The Handmaid’s Tale, and I’m so proud of that paper, especially considering I wrote it the day it was due). anyway, not a super hard class, but still proud of that A.

urban sociology (3 credit hours): A

another class which I loved. I found it kind of easy as it was mostly memorization of concepts and theorists and I have a good memory, but I did put more effort in than I would have to an “easy” class in high school, and was rewarded by getting 100% on the final! would highly recommend sociology to literally anyone -- I’m taking another sociology class next semester and am considering a minor in it.

dance company (1 credit hour): A

this is like, not a real grade because dance company isn’t even a real class -- it’s just on my schedule so I can get credit for performing in the fall dance show. I’m pretty sure everyone who shows up to rehearsals and performances gets an A. regardless, I’m happy for the boost to my GPA.

so that’s it! overall, I ended with a 3.7925 GPA. I have to confess that it is slightly lower than I would have liked, but I’m overall happy with my efforts considering this was my first semester of college. my class load next semester is a little bit lighter, both in terms of credits and in terms of difficulty of classes, so that will hopefully make things a little more manageable. I have to have a 3.6 by the end of this year and a 3.8 by the end of sophomore year to stay in the honors program, and considering I’m almost at a 3.8 now I think it’s completely doable. 

I hope this was useful to those of you who are starting college soon. obviously this differs from school to school and especially if you’re not in the US, but in general you can expect a slight dip in your grades. it shouldn’t be anything dramatic if you can keep organized and on top of things, but there are a lot of transitions associated with starting college so don’t feel badly if things don’t go according to plan! you have time to make up for it, and med schools/law schools/grad schools know that grades your first semester of freshman year are not necessarily fully reflective of your abilities and will likely pay more attention to your grades later on.

thanks for reading this whole rambling thing! also, I might make a separate post about differences in grades between high school and college (how things are weighted, harshness of grading, etc.) so let me know if you’d find that helpful!