Logophile101

希望有一天，你像你假装的那样快乐。

I hope one day you’re as happy as you’re pretending to be.

HOW TO TEACH YOURSELF LANGUAGES SUPER EFFICIENTLY

I write this bcz I’m a huge language enthusiast and I’m frustrated about the way most methods and language classes/courses approach the process of learning. I’m not a professional but I have a lot of experience in studying foreign languages: I have taught myself Lithuanian and reached the upper intermediate level (B2) in 4-5 years without much help from others, and in Spanish reaching the same level took me only 2 years bcz I simultaneously studied it at school and already knowing French helped me a little. I want to help everyone who wants to start a new language, does not have the possibility to join a language course or just feels frustrated of the stagnation they might experience in the early phase of learning a foreign language.

So, if you want to learn a new language, I suggest following tips:

• Immerse yourself from the beginning! This is really important so that you can get yourself familiar with the intonation and pronunciation of the language. Listen to radio or tv and try to read whatever you can (ingredient lists from the food packages, newspaper articles, whatever!) it doesn’t matter if you can’t understand much yet, it will come! If you start a language with a new alphabet learn the alphabet really well first thing.

• Get an overview of the grammatical structure of the language! This is often not properly done in language courses where you learn some vocabulary and greetings but after 60 pages of the textbook you still have no idea how many verb tenses or noun cases the language has. Take a look even at the “hardest” topics, bcz they might not be that hard after all. (for example the Spanish equivalent of past perfect is much easier than the present tense) 

 • With that being said, learn to recognise past tenses even when you are still learning the present tense! I find it absurd that most courses expect you to master present tense _perfectly_ before even taking a look at other tenses. Most of the time, in everyday communication, past tenses are used more frequently than the present tense + in some languages mastering the past tense can also help you to form the conditional. So, learn the past tense earlier than most ppl would recommend!

 • In general, study the easiest things first! If you find something particularly difficult you gain more confidence and knowledge if you first focus on what you find more interesting (however, you can’t postpone studying boring topics eternally, especially if you are preparing or hoping to prepare for an exam at some point) In Lithuanian, I taught myself a lot of grammar before learning how to tell the time… and it was ok.

• For material: usually the country’s universities have a reading list on their website which proposes what books one could use to study the language. These are often preferable to handbooks aimed for tourists and some language methods for beginners because those mostly focus on useless vocabulary you might only need when you rent a car or book a room in a hotel. The grammar is often also relatively poorly explained in those “tourist language books”, whereas books that are aimed at immigrants or university students usually focus more on the efficient language acquisition and are written by professors and specialists. If you are persistent enough and google all possible search words in both English and the target language,  you can probably find whole textbooks in PDF format, which you can then save on your laptop.

• Don’t get stuck on vocabulary! Remember that grammar is the skeleton of the language and that vocabulary is the muscles hair and eventually the clothes you use to dress up and embellish your apperance. Vocabulary is useful once you know how to use it. For me, learning vocab is the hardest part of a new language, especially bcz I like starting languages that are not really similar to any other languages I know (consider Lithuanian and Greek when I previously knew Finnish, English, French and Spanish) ofc you need to learn some of it to be able to form sentences but most traditional methods focus on that too much. My suggestion is to read a lot: start by children’s books and comics and gradually get more advanced material. When you read them, make notes!! Look up the words you don’t know and don’t be afraid of using unconventional, seemingly challenging ways to learn, such as buying a bilingual poetry collection and trying to decipher what the original poem says and compare it to the translation. 100% recommend, even for the beginner level + it’s a nice way to connect to the culture but still focus on the language itself, not on the way ppl make breakfast in that country. (That’s something that irritates me a lot in most Youtube’s language videos where ppl are just discussing the traditions of the country in English when you had come there to look for the explanation of grammatical structures or just to hear the language being spoken. smh.)

• A really important thing about vocabulary is to learn all the abstract words, such as conjunctions, really soon! For example, if you find yourself in a situation where you have to use the words therefore and otherwise,  it is almost impossible to try to explain those words without first translating them to another language. 

• Make vocabulary learning more interesting and deep by learning about the etymology of the words you learn. It can be mind-blowing and it helps you to remember the words better.

That’s it!

I hope these tips inspire you in pursuing your interest in foreign languages and facilitate your learning process. I might add more to this if I remember I have forgotten something of great importance. 

没有斗争，就没有进步。

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

弗雷德里克‧道格拉斯 Frederick Douglass

好好活、多多爱、常常笑。

Live well, love much, laugh often.

真正的朋友愿意理解你的过去，相信你的未来，接受你的现在。

A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are.

Hi, I’ve been getting messages about how to get motivated/sustain motivation in school. However, I was not sure about how to answer them because I’m a certified Lazy Ass™ whose motto in school is “SLEEP WHEN YOU CAN”. I  tried my best to come up with a decent answer, though, and I hope this post will help someone ^_^ Soooo, here it goes:

1. Understand the concept of motivation.

Motivation is the drive to do something. It is important, because it helps a person (re-)focus their goals. Through (re-)examining the forces that drives a person to achieve, one can uncover one’s reasons for achieving something.

There are two kinds of motivation: extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from outside forces, as in, one is motivated to get high grades to make their parents proud. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within, as in, one is motivated to answer math problems because one feels satisfaction in solving those problems. Different instances necessitate different kinds of motivation, and one person’s motivation may not really be effective for another.

“Motivation” is so much more complex than that, though, so here are some readings on the topic: x x x x x

Personally, I believe that motivation can only take a person so far, because what happens when you literally have no drive to do anything? My banner says “discipline outlives motivation”, because I’ve learned that there’s something better than to wait for peak motivation to hit, which is to:

2. Develop good study habits.

Turn studying into a behavior. The goal is to make studying a natural part of one’s routine, as natural as, say, opening Tumblr or Instagram. (Because you don’t need much (or any) motivation to check social media).

Here’s a long answered ask on how to make a study plan in three easy steps and another answered ask on how to balance tasks.

3. Discover how you best study.

Every person learns differently. For example, I’m a visual learner, and I learn best by seeing and arranging information on a page. I rewrite notes to make them pretty, and I doodle all the time. Audiobooks and lecture recordings don’t really work for me (but they can work for you). Discovering how one studies would tremendously help anyone, since it can be frustrating to study without retaining information. Conversely, it is motivating when one understands what one is studying.

Learn what kind of learner you have by taking this quiz or answering these questions, then take a look at these posts to see some studying tips based on how you learn:

Learning styles

Types of learners

Four types of learners

Study methods and what suits you better

4. Surround yourself with people who support what you’re doing.

Studying is difficult enough as it is, and you don’t really need to make it more difficult by having people around you telling you that you don’t really need to study for that test. I was really lazy in college, and I would rather sleep than study, but I was able to get good grades, because I lived with people who persevered in their studies. Because they were studying late into the night, I also got into that habit (albeit grudgingly at first). We all inspired each other, made cups of coffees for each other, and even took naps together. Having supportive people around will make you realize that you are not alone in this struggle to study, and that you’re all going to make it out alive.

5.  Do things apart from studying.

You’re a person, not a studying machine. Studying is only a part of life, not your whole life itself. Find a hobby, stay true to your art, volunteer at a dog shelter—it’s your call. Just keep being passionate about something else other than studying. This “something else” can help you release stress as well as motivate you. You must also understand that millennials, more than any other generation, mix work and play, sometimes to the point where the two are indistinguishable. Playing is not a crime, millennials. It’s only natural. (Remember it’s okay to take a break. Alexander Hamilton was asked to take a break, he refused to, and you all know what happened to him >_>)

Whew, that was a mouthful uwu I really hoped I made sense. Feel free to add to this post! :)

The Hogwarts Houses as Langblrs

Gryffindor: 

- Has an obsession with romance languages  - Backpacks (or wants to backpack) around the world  - Does a lot of 100 days challenges  - Loves talking to natives  - Uses tons of different study materials  - Reads out loud in their target languages  - Highlights everything in their textbooks  - Goes on Duolingo every day to keep their sreak - Spends way too much time planning their next trips  - Listens to podcasts in their target languages while working out  - Is better at their target languages when they’re drunk  - Fights anyone who says that you can become fluent in three months  - Visits (or wants to visit) all their friends abroad  - Whises to visit every country in the world  - Loves roadtrips, hiking and sleeping in tents  - Tries local alcohols everywhere they go 

Languages: Spanish, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Arabic 

Hufflepuff: 

- Gives language classes to refugees in their city  - Volunteers abroad  - Spends more time daydreaming than actually studying  - Watches a lot of TV shows in their target languages  - Studies their soulmate’s native language  - Listens to music in languages they don’t know - Loves translating lyrics from their favorite songs  - Cooks food from foreign countries  - Give nicknames in different languages to their friends  - Shares all their travels on social media  - Talks to their pet in their target languages  - Posts pretty pictures of their study space  - Laughs at dumb duolingo sentences  - Always writes postcards to all their friends when they go on vacation  - Makes new friends every time they sleep in hostels 

Languages: English, Japanese, Afrikaans, Norwegian, Hindi  

Ravenclaw: 

- Makes loads of flashcards - Studies way too much languages  - Loves linguistics  - Makes study schedules and bullet journals  - Works on their aesthetic  - Uses the pomodoro technique  - Shares PDFs of textbooks with all their friends  - Reads Harry Potter in all their target languages  - Has an obcession with buying textbooks  - Talks to themseves in their target languages all the time and then gets confused when someone talks to them  - Starts a new language just because it sounds nice  - Uses a different color for each of their target languages  - Makes bucket lists with all the places they want to visit one day  - Makes travelbooks to remember their travels  - Can read five different alphabets  - Dreams of spending a semester in a foreign university  - Has ten different keyboards on their phone and doesn’t use half of them  - Can spend hours looking at memes instead of studying 

Languages: Latin, German, Chinese, Romanian, Persian 

Slytherin: 

- Makes slang masterposts in their target languages  - Studies super hard to be better than their classmates  - Gets really competitive  - Teaches insults in their native language to foreigners  - Studies a language in secret to surprise people by speaking it  - Works on their pronunciation while working out  - Loves trying new food when they go abroad  - Can say “hello” in twenty different languages  - Works super hard to get a C2 level  - Send memes to their friends in languages they don’t even know  - Acts annoyed when their friends asks them to translate something but is secretly very proud to be the official translator of the squad  - Gets mad when they want to tell a joke but it doesn’t translate  - Pauses their music so they can hear a conversation in their target language in public transportation  - Pretends not to know the language a group is speaking so that they can spy on them 

Languages: French, Dutch, Russian, Hebrew, Vietnamese 

Me when I get a 5/10 on a science test: oh well shit happens

Me when I get a 8/10 on a language test: I’m a disgrace to my family shame on me do I dare to go home with this I will forever be an outcast of this society

Hey everyone! I’m really excited to (formally) introduce my first real “big” project / post here on tumblr! It’s called the “Reasons to Learn a Language” Project, and it’s something that everyone can be involved in!

What is it?: This is a community project where tumblr users can send in their  “reason(s) to learn a foreign language” to my blog (@cactii-studies) via ask. The reasons can be long or short, and as in depth (or not) as you’d like them to be. The reasons that I’ve received will then be compiled into one large post with the sender’s username by the reason. The final setup will be similar to @study-well‘s “100 Reasons to Study” post. 

Why?: My hope is that this will serve as a motivational list of reasons for taking up foreign language studies. I personally think that foreign language studies are incredibly important, and I’d like to compile everyone’s thoughts in one place for people to look at, and hopefully inspire others to take the leap into learning a new language. 

Who?: Everyone! I’m not kidding! You don’t have to be a langblr to send in a reason. This is a community project that is open to everyone who has a tumblr account, no matter the content of your blog. Whether you’re learning Arabic, German, Japanese,  Afrikaans, or American Sign Language, you’re welcome to participate. This project is not language specific. Therefore, it would be nice if your reason did not include a specific language. (Perhaps those of you in other language communities would be interested in making posts like “Reasons to learn (insert language here)”? That’s up to you guys though, and would be a separate project!) Also, you don’t have to be learning a foreign language to participate! Just send in a reason why you want to start learning one! 

When?: This project starts November 19, 2017, and will end on December 27, 2017. I will be using December 28-31 to compile the final list, which will be posted on January 1, 2018, in order to kick off a new year of language learning! 

I’m going to tag some blogs that showed interest when I initially mentioned this idea in order to get the word about this project out there. That being said, most of my connections are to Japanese langblrs or studyblrs, so please please please spread this around! 

@uni-venture | @yoimosezu | @languagesque | @hinodestudies | @lovelybluepanda | @the-notegarden | @peraperagengo | @ccstudys | @the-delusion-polyglot | @worldapprentice | @jpnstudynet | @milkastudies | @fuckstudy | @mochiilang | @therenoplaceforus | @emmastudies | @phctcsynthesis | @studyquill | @studyflwr | @smallstudyblrsunite | @equaticns | @focusign

If you have a question, please ask, and I’ll answer as quickly as I can! I hope that this project is something that people are interested in, and will participate in! 

Oh, all posts regarding this project with be tagged with #rtlalproject