#language studies best studies

[juliamccartney]

i've been watching videos of native speakers of different but related languages try and understand each other when speaking their languages and comparing and making connections and theorizing and ahhh i love language so much

[deadlydelicious]

Everytime The Witcher appropriates the welsh language but the has the GALL to mispronounce it, the power of my rage grows

do you know how seldom Welsh gets a fucking look in?! and the you have the gall to pronounce it like its fucking English

[vivicantstudy]

Dopamine Imbalance Will Sabotage Your Studies!

Dopamine addiction and deficiency can seriously undermine your academic performance if left unchecked. When you’re constantly seeking quick dopamine fixes from social media, gaming, or other instant gratifications, you condition your brain to crave immediate rewards. This severely impairs your ability to focus and engage in activities that require sustained effort, such as studying. Essentially, you’re sabotaging your own success.

Low dopamine levels are equally detrimental. They lead to a lack of motivation, making it difficult to find the energy or desire to start and complete academic tasks. This creates a vicious cycle of procrastination and poor performance, leaving you overwhelmed and unproductive.

Why This Can Ruin Your Studies:

1. Decreased Focus and Concentration: Constantly seeking quick dopamine hits reduces your capacity to concentrate on complex tasks. This will make it nearly impossible to engage deeply with your studies.

2. Chronic Procrastination: The desire for immediate gratification will cause you to avoid studying in favor of more instantly rewarding activities, leading to last-minute cramming and increased stress.

3. Declining Academic Performance: With impaired focus and motivation, your ability to retain information and perform well on exams and assignments will inevitably suffer.

Strategies to Combat This:

1. Implement a Digital Detox: Limit your use of social media and other distractions. Set strict time limits and stick to them to break the cycle of constant dopamine-seeking behavior.

2. Regular Physical Exercise: Exercise is a proven way to increase dopamine levels naturally. Incorporating regular physical activity into your routine can significantly improve focus and mood.

3. Nutrient-Rich Diet: Consuming foods high in tyrosine—such as lean meats, eggs, and dairy products—supports healthy dopamine production and brain function.

4. Adopt the Pomodoro Technique: Break your study sessions into focused intervals (e.g., 25 minutes of work followed by a 5-minute break). This method can help rebuild your attention span and increase productivity.

5. Practice Mindfulness and Meditation: Mindfulness techniques can improve your ability to manage distractions and reduce the compulsion to seek instant rewards, enhancing your overall concentration and self-control.

Addressing both dopamine addiction and deficiency is crucial for maintaining effective study habits and achieving academic success. Take control of your habits now, or risk letting them dictate your future.

[kindaeccentric]

'Blood and Gold' Anne Rice + 'Lolita' Vladimir Nabokov (fragments)

Marius talking about Armand // Humbert Humbert talking about Dolores parallels

[mydaylight]

At that moment, Meizhuang's face held the same peaceful smile as Wen Shichu's. I was holding her hand, and in her smiling eyes I once again recognized the past like in a dream, the innocence of childhood, the sincere hopes of girlhood, the sisterhood and companionship in the palace; after a lifetime of twenty and more years, she had finally obtained her lifelong desire. All of the family clan's honour, the Emperor's favour, the luxury of a high position, a life's worth of love and hatred and the invaluable glory brought about from open and hidden rivalries; put together, they could not surpass the sincerity of this moment. I took two steps back and whispered: "Jiejie, I am not as fortunate as you." She did not answer. She would never answer me again. I slowly stepped out into the deep night, the pre-dawn cold in the air chilling my body unexpectedly. I felt as if in a nightmare, with the unease and helplessness clinging to my body like sweat, and almost making me collapse. Endless dark drops dibbled down my neck, the cold rain sliding down and wetting the moss under the palace walls, as my heart was sharply filled with a death-like iciness. Meizhuang is gone, Meizhuang who accompanied me for 20 years is gone. There will never be another person to treat me as she did, to laugh for me, cry for me, to share my happiness and grief as she did. I walked on numbly, until from far behind me came the sound of mourning gong. The piercing death announcement resonated through the silence of the gloomy black night of the harem. "Hui Fei Niang Niang has passed away- ". The rain was beating down more and more heavily, and the icy old rainwater seemed to be trying to bury me down. I collapsed on the cold blue stones of Yongxiang, sobbing silently.

-Legend of Zhen Huan, Book 6, Chapter 19

[fidgetspringer-art]

✧ The Ardal stars ✧

[la-galaxie-langblr]

Year abroad declaration of intent due in 12 days and I'm kind of freaking out about it 😭

[peregrination-studies]

📖September 28, 2024 - Day 3📖

Edited for a friend

Practiced Spanish

Caught up with a few friends

Practiced some self-reflection exercises

Worked on new piano piece

Completed some paperwork for work

Some days really do feel like they’re made up of less time than others. It’s always odd to to blink and realize four hours have passed.

📷: Myths and Legends of Hawaii by William D. Westervelt and rain on the nandina (Nandina domestica)

📖: Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by GennaRose Nethercott

🎧: Into the Unknown (Over the Garden Wall Theme) by (Composer: Brandon Armstrong, J.R. Kaufman, Patrick McHale, Justin Rubenstein, Vocals: Jack Jones)

[eirenses]

watching a spanish stream long after the qsmp is so weird. like why do i kinda understand what they're saying?

[kindred-spirit-93]

neoptolemus be upon ye

tried something new. at this rate i will literally teach myself how to sculpt & master 7 languages before finishing my studying goals omfg

[studyingselene]

hello

hi :) i'm selene!

i'm a second year ib (international baccalaureate) student who created this blog to record my academic life & share the things i've learned

my subjects are: chem, bio, psych HL & eng, spanish ab, math aa SL

some posts will include a spanish translation under the "keep reading" section, since i'm trying to practice & improve my spanish. if there's any grammar, syntax, etc. errors, please let me know - i'm open to constructive criticism

༊࿐ ͎. ｡˚ ° ⊹ ˚.

[kippeo]

₊✩‧₊ Cute capybara faces ₊✩‧₊

Don't worry, be capy.

Remember to cherish capybaras as they love you.

₊✩‧₊ ₊✩‧₊ ₊✩‧₊ ₊✩‧₊ ₊✩‧₊ ₊✩‧₊ ₊✩‧

Let's learn some Korean grammar:

When we want to sound polite, in a daily conversation,

and we conjugate "to be", we can use form:

"Noun-이에요" or "Noun-예요".

So, what's the difference?

We attach "-이에요" after a noun that ends on consonant:

이것은 잎이에요. (ㅍ is a consonant)

This is a leaf.

On the other hand, we attach "-예요", after a vowel:

저 동물은 카피바라예요. (ㅏ is a vowel)

That animal is a capybara.

Simple, right?

So, what form do we use after "사과" (an apple)

-이에요 or -예요?

[saelterlude]

Us, In(tense)

Summary: On a random day in the studio, high school seniors Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang are studying for their exams. The subject they’re studying? English. 12 short prose, exploring Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang’s thoughts and relationship through the English tenses.

Read my new fic!! I worked really hard on it. Click on the title!

It is exactly what it said on the tin, a Link Click fic seen from all the 12 English tenses.

It's a little bit of slice-of-life with a flavor of humor, fluff, and angst. Right before shiguang fluff week starts in 2 weeks.

[rigelmejo]

Something that always annoys me is the idea only 1 language learning method works. Which is not true. While it may be possible that, for a particular individual, only a few out of many study methods may work well enough for That Individual to make progress and stay motivated... that doesn't mean all the other study methods won't work for anyone else out there, or that those few methods will work for every other given person.

Obviously if you've been studying a while, then you already figured out what kinds of things work for you and don't. If you're a beginner, just wading into studying?

I would suggest you simply look for study methods that: 1. Teach you new things regularly, 2. Review and practice things you've learned, 3. Include studying things you need for your particular goals (for example if your goal is to read X book then the study materials at some point should involve reading practice and some words the book contains, if your goal is to talk about Y then the study materials should include some information about pronunciation and words you'll need to be able to say).

As you can imagine, a TON of study materials will meet these requirements. And you can study a given skill in a LOT of ways.

(Reading is my focus lol so just for reading, a beginner might: do vocabulary study with lists or conversations with native speakers or watching shows and looking words up or listening to dialogues with a transcript like in a textbook or graded readers or a picture book with word labels in the target language or a video game with labelled objects in target language, all of those things as long as your vocabulary is improving or reading practice is happening would help you make progress). So to improve reading skill as a beginner: you could study with a textbook, a podcast with transcript, a classroom or tutor with words written down in target language (like TPRS), a video game, a TV show and a translate app on your phone, a friend you talk with (who either writes words down or you look up words you hear with a translate app), a friend you text with, srs flashcards like anki (provided there's text) etc. As long as there's new words, and/or you're practicing reading, the study method may work. If it works will come down to if you can stay motivated doing it regularly, and make sure you regularly learn some new things and review/practice things you've already studied.

So consider those things when you see people selling a study method as a product (especially when it's costing you money). Consider if it teaches you NEW things, and are those new things related to your goals, and how MUCH new stuff will it teach you before you finish it? Consider if it provides review or practice, or if you can use it's materials to review on your own making up your own method, or if you'll need to do separate review/practice.

So examples:

LingQ. Can it teach you many new words? Yes, thousands, since you can import any texts you want when you get done with their provided material (I have no idea how much their beginner material covers though in terms of words... I would hope 1000-3000 words but that can be researched). Is your goal reading? It's suited to reading, so you will practice and review often with it. Cost? I think it was $12 a month when I last had it, and the price may have increased. Is it worth it? Depends on a learner's needs. I found it was wasting my money, so I chose to use free tools like Pleco and Readibu apps - since those apps are suited for Chinese learners and have better translations, Pleco has better paid graded reader material if I was going to spend money, and both Pleco and Readibu let me import texts so I can learn thousands of new words just like LingQ but free. Now that I'm not a beginner, I often use Microsoft Edge to read chinese... since I can still click-translate words easily (all my web browsers have that tool free), and Edge's TTS voice is helpful for pronunciation and sounds quite good. I read webnovels online so Edge works well. But it's translations aren't as good as Pleco or Readibu, so if I still needed translations more I would use them. So... is LingQ a good study method? Its certainly a study method marketed to buy. Well... the method is suited to improving reading skill, at least. It costs money, which is a negative, but it does offer a lot. However: everything it does regarding reading can be done free with other apps or sites or web browsers on their own. So if paying money motivates you to read... sure. LingQ does have a few word tracking features a learner may find worth the money, keeping in mind the actual read-to-learn method can be done free without lingq. (Also... while LingQ is a valid option for improving reading, if the learners goal is speaking then it would be important to think of what study activities the learner will do OUTSIDE of LingQ to improve speaking... because I've seen how LingQ is marketed as "how to learn a language" but it's only focused on some skills. It has vocabulary and grammar in some sense, since you'll read a lot and encounter new words and structures. But it doesnt have speaking or writing practice at least last time I was on it. Those activities would need to be worked on, on your own).

You can do that kind of cost/benefit contemplating with any study method material you see being sold. Amother example: there's a beginner Mandarin course called Mandarin Blueprint. It teaches like 800 words. Thats all. It may be worthwhile for a beginner... who still needs to learn 800 common words. But if you already know a few hundred words, the benefit of the course is less, you'll need to find a new material to teach you more new stuff soon. And the price was like a few hundred for the course... which for me personally was too much to spend, when I had already learned 800 hanzi from a book that cost me 12 dollars and 2000 words from a free user made memrise deck. The course claimed to get a person speaking, competent, but anyone not a beginner would say speaking basically with 800 words is nowhere near the level of working in Chinese or just doing a lot of daily life stuff, or reading/listening to media. (Although for the motivated beginner if you're learning 800 words on your own like I was, its definitely close to the point of jumping to learn more words and start reading kids and teenager books, and watching easier shows if you're willing to look new words up). So to me... Mandarin Blueprint felt like overselling some basic beginner materials. (Again when I know several other things that teach beginner stuff either more in depth so HSK test prep classes, and college courses, or that teach beginner stuff to the same depth as Mandarin Blueprint but free).

Some study materials aren't going to act like they teach everything. I've seen chinese courses just for learning to speak tones better and general pronunciation - probably worthwhile if your goal is to improve speaking and a teacher could help improve the issues your having. But a learner needs to be aware for that course that they'll need to study vocabulary on their own, its JUST a pronunciation improvement course.

[brown-little-robin]

あ

[feelingthedisaster]

that awkard moment in which my teacher says "your english is so good and you have a really wide vocabulary" and i have to pretend it isnt because of fanfiction