toomanylanguages - Tumblr blog

[toomanylanguages]

Study tips that i learned through failures!

1. It's so important that you do a first read thru of the text as fast as possible. Stick to annotations and brief summarizing notes/outlines. Our brain is constantly making connections even when we're sleeping, so even if you don't understand something at first, getting stuck on it is a waste of your present time AND sleep time. Some things will click while you're doing chores because your brain is still working in the background! But it can't happen if there is nothing to click. Try to expose yourself to all the material as early as possible. [If you're studying math, skip the derivations and proofs in the first read thru and just do the example problems and focus on the underlying assumptions. Depending on the class/exam objective, you might not even be tested on the proof]

2. The breaks. Even if you know you can study 4 hours straight - don't. I used to do this especially when I was anxious, but it just burned me out. Even as quickly as the next day! If you're doing your first pom of the day and you feel really fresh to the point that you feel like you can skip that first break - dont.. it will pile up!

3. The water and the sugar!! This might sound really obvious, but studying burns up so many resources. On days I don't study, I might be okay with 60-70 oz of water, but on days I do, it's normal for me to hit 100 oz. I also ate way more food in general and ate more sugar too, and I think that's pretty normal.

4. Flashcards and practice problems > annotations > having nice notes. It kills me to say it, but the last exam I took (and passed!), I relied on my very disorganized notes/screenshots on my tablet. I didn't have time to organize and transfer them nicely onto paper in order even though every perfectionist cell in my body wanted to soo badly. Making your own textbook can be helpful but I seriously just didn't have the time. Focus on what will actually get you that pass score!

5. Find the note-taking app you like BEFORE your study period or exam season and practice using it! The last thing you want is to fight the syncing mechanism as you're trying to study. I like to use Flexil because of the split screen feature, the linked screenshots, and the cross-platform sync. If you are studying math, either learn latex over the summer/off period so you can use it in Obsidian/Anki or commit to manually written flashcards and notes the whole way. Dont try to switch halfway through because that will be a waste of your time. I personally think writing out the math is faster than typing it out in Latex, but it's your poison (they're both poison). (And if you study any type of math, I 10000% recommend using a tablet)

6. Unless you are studying for fun, orient everything around the class/exam objectives. Unfortunately, you're not gonna have time to be curious. If you don't think something will be tested, quickly cut it out and move on.

7. Figure out what your exam taking weaknesses are. Out of every 10 missed problems, I realized I'd miss a question solely because i input the wrong number into the calculator. Now I say the numbers in my head as I put it in, do it at a relatively slow pace, and break up large formulas into itsy pieces and make sure the output is close to what I expect it to be. I write out all the steps on paper sometimes to make sure every calculation is as expected. You only get once chance during the real thing, so it's important to come up with a policy to reduce risk and to stick to it every time.

[toomanylanguages]

Hey, friends with poor memory. This is a sign to go ahead and learn anything you want, even if you're afraid you're going to forget it all. Read Wikipedia articles, watch documentaries, take free classes, and delve deep into books and lore. Maybe I'm the only one who has this fear, maybe not. But learning for pleasure is just as much--if not moreso-- about the joy of the experience as it is about memorization.

[toomanylanguages]

I think I have a language learning tip

I understand that this tip is not for everybody bc it’s tied to religious traumas and stuffs

If you don’t have any negative feeling towards the Bible and are above B1-B2 level in your target language (especially a European one), you might want to consider using it as your language learning material

Pros

1. Translations are almost always of high quality, both in your native language and in your target language

2. Because of the verses being numbered, you can always pinpoint which sentence corresponds to which when comparing the translations

3. If you want to deal with older texts in your target language, there’s a high possibility that there’re older versions of translations lying around, especially with European languages

4. There’s a Bible app which gives you a “Daily Verse” every day, and the shortness of the verses are perfect for me to get some daily practice without it being a heavy burden

5. “Daily Verse” I get is more of a meaningful ones, so I can avoid the part with unnecessarily specific vocabs (like the part where they gather foreskins)

JFYI, my method with Daily Verse

1. Check the modern version of my target language, look up the word I don’t understand, and assume the meaning roughly

2. Check the verse in my native language, make sure that I correctly understand the one in my target language

3. Check the older translation paying attention to what changed and what didn’t

[toomanylanguages]

I'm so fascinated by languages with different levels of formality built in because it immediately introduces such complex social dynamics. The social distance between people is palpable when it's built right into the language, in a way it's not really palpable in English.

So for example. I speak Spanish, and i was taught to address everyone formally unless specifically invited otherwise. People explained to me that "usted" was formal, for use with strangers, bosses, and other people you respect or are distant from, while "tú" is used most often between family and good friends.

That's pretty straightforward, but it gets interesting when you see people using "tú" as a form of address for flirting with strangers, or for picking a fight or intimidating someone. In other languages I've sometimes heard people switch to formal address with partners, friends or family to show when they are upset. That's just so interesting! You're indicating social and emotional space and hierarchy just in the words you choose to address the other person as "you"!!

Not to mention the "what form of address should I use for you...?" conversation which, idk how other people feel about it, but to me it always felt awkward as heck, like a DTR but with someone you're only just becoming comfortable with. "You can use tú with me" always felt... Weirdly intimate? Like, i am comfortable around you, i consider you a friend. Like what a vulnerable thing to say to a person. (That's probably also just a function of how i was strictly told to use formal address when i was learning. Maybe others don't feel so weird about it?)

And if you aren't going to have a conversation about it and you're just going to switch, how do you know when? If you switch too soon it might feel overly familiar and pushy but if you don't switch soon enough you might seem cold??? It's so interesting.

Anyway. As an English-speaking American (even if i can speak a bit of Spanish), i feel like i just don't have a sense for social distance and hierarchy, really, simply because there isn't really language for it in my mother tongue. The fact that others can be keenly aware of that all the time just because they have words to describe it blows my mind!

[toomanylanguages]

learning languages and traveling the world are both important for broadening your horizons but they are MORE important for reminding you that no matter how many years you've been on earth you are still a wide eyed bumbling clown

[toomanylanguages]

Jos tää on siellä vedessä ni meen veneeseen ihan käskemättäkin

[toomanylanguages]

Niin runollista

[toomanylanguages]

No joo, niinku, What The Fuck, niinku...

[toomanylanguages]

not specific to one piece, and i know i've only been back for a little bit now, but honestly if there's anything i'd really like people to take away from my blog it's that every language and culture has the level of complexity that could lead a person to spend thousands of blog posts talking about the details of its translation.

i think english-speaking anime/manga fans can fall into the trap of attributing a unique level of complexity to japanese as a language, you know? which obviously isn't to say that there's anything wrong with thinking the japanese language is really cool or beautiful or interesting- it is all of those things! but, like, a story originally written in japanese doesn't lose more in translation than a story originally conceived in arabic or euskara or thai or navajo.

in every story you consume in translation, there are linguistic details that will be lost, that will not be neatly translatable, clever wordplay and subtle implications that translation just can't communicate.

and my point here isn't to be discouraging at all! i love reading poetry in translation! i love subtitled films! the proliferation of art is always to be encouraged! but if there's any language or any particular foreign-language work you've ever been curious about... hey, consider studying it! why not? the world is huge and beautiful and with every new word you learn you'll expand your own understanding of the range of human experience!

[toomanylanguages]

Took me until about halfway through college before I realized “study” means “play with the material in a variety of ways until you understand it” and not just “read the assigned chapters and do the homework” and I think that probably should have been discussed at some point prior to that.

[toomanylanguages]

learning new languages is so fun, but also hard at some points. i have a 460 days streak on duolingo but it’s not enough, do you have tips for learning languages ?

[toomanylanguages]

if i see one more article, post, or news anchor talking about how joe biden is old, i'm putting my fist through a window. i feel like i've gone through the fucking looking glass.

this is project 2025, trump's plan for what he'll do if elected. whatever you think is in there, it's worse. watch a breakdown of the highlights here. this man wants to unravel the fabric of our democracy for good - this all aside from his vitriolic hatred of poc, his determination to start ww3, and the fact that he can't string a sentence together without telling outrageous and easily verifiable lies. his administration will start their crusade to exterminate trans people on day one, and they won't stop there.

do not talk to me about how joe biden is old, as if that could ever matter to me more than my life or the lives of my friends and family. my little sister is 14, she's trans, and i don't know what to tell her when we talk about politics, because one of these people wants her dead and the other one is old and some of you are still acting like those problems are equals.

i can't fucking stand this. i'm not hearing it this time, we are not repeating 2016. refusing to vote is not an act of protest, it is an act of complacency, and our most vulnerable will suffer for your negligence. vote like your life depends on it, because for some of us, it really fucking does.

[toomanylanguages]

Are you lonely?

Tired of working alone? Don't want to make decisions?

Organize a meeting!

You can:

meet people

show graphs

feel yourself important

point with a stick

eat donuts

make an impression on your colleagues

Meetings

A practical alternative to working!

[toomanylanguages]

hauki on koira

[toomanylanguages]

you would think my attempt at learning multiple languages at once would lead me to a path of enlightenment and wisdom but in reality I'm just one step away from totally losing my mind and I can't devote myself to a single language because it gets too boring

[toomanylanguages]

It’s so weird listening to a podcast in a language you don’t quite understand yet with just enough vocabulary to be invested in it despite not knowing what they’re actually saying

[toomanylanguages]

A grammar point that's a bit rarer in Finnish:

Olla [VERB](infinitive) - to almost X (past tense)

EXAMPLES with the verb tehdä:

olin tehdä olit tehdä oli tehdä olimme tehdä olitte tehdä olivat tehdä

This is a grammar point that at first glance feels wrong, but it isn't.

Example Sentences:

(Yle Uutiset) Kevin de Bruynea häiritään lasereilla – on silti tehdä maalin vapaapotkusta - Kevin de Bruyne is distracted by lasers - is still almost scoring a coal from free kick

Olin tippua kielekkeeltä. - I was almost going to fall down the cliff.

Olit päästä sisään, muttet päässytkään. - You almost got in, but you didn't.

Olimme juuri kysyä! - We were just going to ask (you etc.)!

Hän oli sanoa jotain. - He/she was just about to say something.

Olin sulkea oven. - I was almost about to close the door.