#study guide

[nihilistem]

adhd study tips.

by a stem student with adhd.

disclaimer!!! I’m by no means an expert in mental health or adhd but I do happen to have it. My intention with this post is to help others with adhd get more comfortable with studying so the process will be smoother for them!! At the end of the day, despite having the same disorder our brains will still work differently so do keep in mind that these may or may not help you, but are something you can try out if you’re stuck on not being able to study efficiently.

here’s some adhd study affirmations + tips on straying from discouragement if you’re experiencing burnout.

(And here’s part 2 of adhd study tips.)

I’ll start this off by listing more commonly known study tips that also work well with adhd.

change up your environment every now and then. we seek novelty even more than neurotypical people already do so switching it up will definitely help in our studies, especially if the place is well lit!

try some questions of the topic you’re trying to learn even when you know nothing about it. both neurotypical and neurodivergent brains are hardwired to remember things when we are proven wrong, and this is a great way of utilizing this neurological response!

take walks, exercise or stretch during your breaks. this tip is very effective at satiating our hyperactivity and also keeps us energized throughout our study session.

keep a notebook for your brain dump / ideas. we always either think of really stupid things or the most brilliant ideas in the middle of our study sessions and it almost always leads to distraction, but writing it down somewhere lets your brain know that the idea isn’t going anywhere and you can continue studying.

now, onto the tips that have personally helped with my adhd (and I haven’t seen many others talk about.)

alternate between various study plans, routines, schedules and techniques and always be open to finding more of them. majority of the time people always say ‘have a routine that works for you and stick with it’ but our adhd brains get bored very quickly, especially when it comes to repeated routines and schedules. I personally never stick to the same routine or plan more than three days in a row and sometimes I even make a plan on the spot and I’ve been more productive doing that than when I had only one or two study routines to switch between.

do not time yourself at the very beginning. Instead, focus on something in your studies you’re interested in and start there. what do I mean by this? well, since starting is always the hardest, when we begin our very first pomodoro we might find ourselves spending the first 25 minutes zoning out on a textbook just to get that ‘study time’ in even though you didn’t actually learn or recall anything. So to combat this, begin with something you’re genuinely curious about, or ask a question you can’t help but wonder the answer to. Once you find the answer, you might find you’re more in the zone and can continue from there. If not, take a short break and begin the pomodoros afterwards.

if you’re zoning out while reading up on a topic, try walking around while reading, looking at different sources on it or do some questions on that topic. again, novelty always gets us every time. sometimes the problem may be that the explanation in front of you isn’t making sense in your head and other sources may phrase things in a way that is better for your understanding. perhaps the problem is that you’re staying too still and you need to satisfy the hyperactive part of your adhd. or maybe your brain subconsciously believes that they already know what needs to be known about this topic, and there’s no better way to test that by trying out some questions on it.

switch between lyrical and non-lyrical music playlists, but make sure the lyrical music inspires you to excel. this definitely won’t apply to a lot of people but I found that when I constantly listened to piano, lo-fi or just non-lyrical music while studying in general, it actually promoted my likelihood of zoning out. but recently I found a playlist I deeply resonated with that was related to my studies called, ‘pov : a try-hard mid student who wants to ace everything’ and because I related very deeply with both the title and the lyrics of the songs, I was actively being encouraged to study as I was studying. but I also recognize when I really need to think in certain areas and that’s when I switch back to the non-lyrical music.

this is all I have as of right now but please do lmk if you guys want more of these!! I really wanna help out as much people as possible because my studies suffered greatly due to both my adhd and my late diagnosis of it and I’d love to help out others going through something similar.

[thelailasblog]

[er-cryptid]

Chemistry Notes (December 2021)

Acid-Base Equilibrium Side Ex 1

Acid-Base Equilibrium Side Ex 2

Arrhenius vs Bronsted-Lowry Acids and Bases

Calculating [OH-] with Kw Ex 1

Change in Entropy for a Change of State Ex 1

Classification of Amines

Complex Lewis Structure Formal Charges Ex 3

Constitutional Isomers Ex 1

Finding Percent by Mass Ex 2

Identifying Functional Groups Ex 2

Intermolecular Force of Water

Moles of Product Ex 1

Naming Cycloalkanes Ex 1

Naming Cycloalkanes Ex 9

Nonmetal Listing Order

Order of a Reaction Ex 2

pH from [OH-] Ex 1

Products of an Acid-Base Reaction Ex 1

R,S Naming of Fischer Projection Ex 1

Spin Quantum Number

Stereoisomers with Multiple Chiral Centers Ex 1

Stronger Acidity and Electronegativity Ex 1

Vanadium (III) Oxide

Weaker Acidity and Electronegativity Ex 1

Weaker Acidity and Electronegativity Ex 2

[bfpnola]

Abolition For Beginners (2023 Edition)

In honor of Tyre Nichols and all others we have lost to policing and imprisonment. In honor of Black History Month. In honor of Better Future Program's mission to educate and serve marginalized youth globally... Let's break down abolition, again. (As usual on Tumblr, tap for better quality.)

Better Future Program's Linktr.ee | Donate | Liberation Library | Open Leadership Positions | Staff Application | Discord Server

Image description below. Written by @reaux07. Proofread by the volunteers and supporters of @bfpnola.

Image Description:

[ID: All of the following slides use a wrinkled, black fabric as their background with black text (bolded red added for emphasis) on top of white boxes with rounded corners. “@bfpnola” is written in the top right corner and the sources for the slide are in the bottom left corner. 

Title Slide (No. 1):

Written in red text, “UPDATED FROM 2021 EDITION.” The outlines of the word “ABOLITION” is written line by line 8 times in light grey with the year “2023” written on top in bold, white lettering. Below, written in red within a white bubble and red arrow, it reads “FOR BEGINNERS*.” Across from the bubble, “@BFPNOLA” is in red. Below, in red again, the asterisk mentioned before leads to the following note: “This post is heavily text-based so if you do not learn best by reading, feel free to utilize our Abolition Study Guide in our bio under "Social Justice Resources" instead!” Lastly, white stars and outlines of grey circles can be seen in each corner of the slide.

Slide No. 2 reads:

Abolition is an anti-capitalist, intersectional framework that aims to not only destroy the cages created by various “industrial complexes,” but to create inclusive, effective alternatives for addressing harm. As defined by Dr. Jennie Wang-Hall, an “industrial complex (IC) is a system that creates profit through embedding into social inequities and providing an ineffective product that keeps consumers under-resourced and returning for more.”

The most common examples of such systems? Prison and policing, psychiatry, foster care/family policing, the military, and even the Family (as an institution, not kinship altogether).

Despite common misconceptions, abolition is not just a negation of what currently exists, but an active evolution of what community-based support can and has looked like. Abolition is about the radical working-class imagination, about Black and Indigenous imagination.

If individualistic, reactive, punishment-based strategies are maintained, true accountability and rehabilitation will never exist. Instead, we can choose to be proactive, analyze the circumstances that perpetuate violence, and address harm at the root! Of course, no one is saying that harm will completely cease to exist, but to paraphrase butch anarchist Lee Shevek, wouldn’t it be a profound improvement to expand our capacity to respond to harm and challenge our abusers, rather than being restricted to system-granted authority? Especially when such systems deliberately ignore the suffering of marginalized communities (e.g. people of color, queer and trans folks, women and femmes, Mad and disabled folks, and so on) to begin with?

Sources: @Dr.JennieWH, @ButchAnarchy, Stella Akua Mensah, Erin Miles Cloud, @WokeScientist

Slide No. 3 reads:

Before we continue any further, let’s destroy the myth that cops actually stop violence. First off, we can’t depend on crime stats at face value because this begs the question of who exactly gets to define what counts as a “crime” and why (e.g. drug possession and sleeping in public vs. tax evasion of the wealthy and wage theft). Continuing, crime rates often only reflect violations that have actually been reported, chosen to be shown, and deemed out of line. By this logic, crime rates are simply reflections of cops’ perceptions, not of the material and emotional realities of the proletariat (i.e. the working-class).

As for perpetuating violence, “US law enforcement killed at least 1,183 people in 2022, making it the deadliest year on record for police violence.” (And those are just the deaths that were reported. In our home state of Louisiana, turns out the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, as of January 12, 2023, has been unlawfully destroying records of officer misconduct for at least 10 years.) Many (69%) of these murders were cases in which no offense was alleged, were mental health or welfare checks, or involved traffic violations and other nonviolent offenses.

This is, of course, without even touching on the involuntary servitude (i.e. enslavement) and maltreatment ongoing in American prisons. How many more deaths must occur before the general public says enough is enough? Or is this acceptable since these are working-class, disabled, Mad, non-white, queer, and trans lives being lost?

Sources: @InterruptCrim, The Guardian, Mapping Police Violence, @VeriteNewsNola

Slide No. 4 reads:

So we agree police are harmful. Why abolition instead of reform? Historically, reforms have either provided further funding to the prison, foster care, and psychiatric industrial complexes and/or just reinforced harmful ideologies surrounding policing as a whole. And trust us, these systems already have more than enough money. In the fiscal year of 2021, at least $277,153,670,501 were spent on federal law enforcement and prisons as well as on police and prisons by state and local governments. Can you even conceptualize a number that large? We could end all American medical debt with that much money. We could even provide clean water and waste disposal to everyone on Earth!

Continuing, reforms like body cameras are pitched as making officers more accountable, that if “done right” policing will actually keep people safe, and that those who do not use excessive force are suddenly no longer guilty of perpetuating centuries worth of systemic oppression. In reality, body cameras require further funding and increase surveillance!

Similarly, civilian oversight boards and the push to “jail killer cops” reinforce the belief that cases of murder, assault, falsifying information, and so on are exceptional occurrences rather than intrinsic to the very nature of policing itself. This is where the phrase “All Cops Are Bastards” comes into play, stating that while the individual character of some officers may be morally permissible, all cops are part of a “bastardized,” or corrupt, system.

Sources: Security Policy Reform Institute, Matt Korostoff, @CriticalResistance 

Slide No. 5 reads: 

Even laws don’t prevent police violence, e.g. the murder of Eric Garner despite the NYPD passing a policy against chokeholds, or the murder of Daunte Wright despite the passing of the George Floyd Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act and a separate Justice in Policing Act of 2020.

Alternatively, we can advocate against the expansion of policing “responsibilities,” i.e. not allowing officers to address Mad individuals in vulnerable states, the housing crisis, or people who use drugs (PWUD). We can reroute funding into non-coercive, peer-led initiatives for harm reduction, de-escalation, first aid, and self-defense. And maybe most importantly, we can reaffirm that EXTENSIVE power can, in fact, be found amongst everyday folks like you and me!

Abolition is not a one-and-done sort of deal but rather a progression of steps toward an infinite future of improvements. The act of building parallel infrastructures and modes of governance while the previous ones still exist is known as dual power. Abolition must begin as dual power. We can start today!

And in building such, these steps cannot: legitimize or expand oppressive systems we aim to dismantle, create divisions between “deserving” and “underserving” people, preserve existing power relations, or utilize exclusionary, one-size-fits-all, standardized treatments.

Sources: @ProjectLets, @HarmReductionCoalition, CrimethInc., Survived & Punished NY

Slide No. 6 reads:

One of the main questions brought up, though, is what abolitionists plan to do in the case of homicide, rape, domestic violence, and other harms. While this is entirely valid, this question seems to imply that 1) police are already effectively responding to such harms rather than perpetuating and/or ignoring them and 2) that there is one collective abolitionist response.

For one, the majority of sexual assault, for example, goes unreported and less than 0.5% of perpetrators are incarcerated. (And this assumes that through the reporting process and incarceration, survivors will somehow find healing, perpetrators will find understanding, and that sexual assault does not continue within prisons.) Meanwhile, let’s use our hometown as one example of many, a complaint of sexual violence is filed against a New Orleans Police Department officer every 10 days and nearly 1 in 5 NOPD officers have been reported for sexual and/or intimate partner violence. 

And secondly, we have a plethora of organizations like Critical Resistance and cultures like that of the Diné (Navajo) to learn from and build upon. We don’t have to be stuck within this false dilemma fallacy, that there is only policing or total chaos. Don’t you see that that is the state’s way of constricting communal power?

Sources: @RAINN, @CopWatchNola, @WokeScientist

Slide No. 7 reads:

To expand this conversation, abolition heavily aligns with the political ideal of “anarchism.” Anarchism supports the absence of government and absolute freedom of the individual. And despite its negative connotations, anarchy also reflects an evolution of community-based care rather than just a deconstruction of what currently exists.

A simplified version of its 6 agreed-upon principles are:

Autonomy and Horizontality: define yourself on your own terms, we stand on an equal footing

Mutual Aid: bonds of solidarity form a stronger social glue than fear, support your community

Voluntary Association: associate or don't associate with whomever you wish

Direct Action: accomplish goals directly rather than depending on representatives or authorities

Revolution: overthrow those in power who enforce coercive hierarchies (ex. white supremacy)

Self-Liberation: you must be at the forefront of your own liberation, freedom must be taken

While being an abolitionist does not require alignment with anarchism, it is worth considering how the state plays such an enduring role in various social harms. Concurrently, whenever you treat other living beings with consideration and respect, come to reasonable compromise rather than coercion, and decide to share or delegate tasks, you are already living by anarchist principles.

Sources: Peter Gelderloos, David Graeber

Slide No. 8 reads:

So, how can you get involved? How do we continue the efforts already being made by activists worldwide? After such an overload of information and even more to learn, we understand how political frameworks like abolition can seem daunting, but they don't have to be! Here are some general next steps:

Read the "8toAbolition" steps.

Look into "podmapping" so you know whom to run to when you have been harmed or perpetuate harm.

See if there are any pre-existing mutual aid networks in your community, and if not, start one with your neighbors or peers!

Begin to research issues affecting communities other than your own. Abolition is intrinsically tied to all of us as we are all surveilled. For example, do you understand how prison and policing further ableism, transphobia, or the sex trade? What about policing internationally (see our allies in: the Kingdom of Hawai'i, Palestine, Artsakh, Kashmir...)?

Research the differences between capitalism, socialism, and communism. Abolition and anti-capitalism are foundational to one another as well.

Look into the other industrial complexes we named in the beginning (psychiatry, foster care, the military, the Family...).

Volunteer (remotely or in-person) with organizations like Better Future Program (@bfpnola) to both educate yourself and directly serve your community!

And if you're looking for further reading/listening, BFP offers over 3,000 FREE social justice, mental health, and academic resources in our Linktr.ee, including study guides for beginners. While we can't promise that the struggle for liberation will always be easy, BFP will always do its best to support you in whatever way we know how.

End ID.]

[voyage-of-venus]

FREE | Greek and Roman Art Study Guide Notion Template

[thatdelicateangel777]

LOVE HER!

[writingwithcolor]

Last Chance for Questions on our Academic Research Guide!

At the beginning of the month, Writing With Color published A Beginner's Guide to Academic Research.

Some of you might have questions or comments about academic research, researching for creative writing, or the guide itself. How did we do? Did we miss anything? We will be going over your questions in a Q&A post in the coming days.

Please enter your questions in the notes of this announcement post here!

Share this post with anyone who might be looking for help researching for a creative project or for school!

We'll catch up with you soon.

- WWC Research Guide team

[sadie-the-dragon-slayer]

Self / Independent Learner's Guide to Language Learning From Zero

-a mini study plan I used this for Spanish, French and Italian, it is my favourite way of starting to learn. It won't teach you the langauge but if this is your first time, if you feel confused and don't know where to begin, this is for you! -this is kinda romance langauge based but might give you ideas if you are learning from a different family too -this is very notebook / writing based since i prefer learning that way Step 1: Preperation

First of all, ask yourself "do i already have some amount of immersion in this langauge?" As humans, we learn from immersion a lot. Songs, but especially visual media is incredibly heplful. I never studied japanese but after watching a few animes i picked up 5-10 random words. Passive vocabulary, being familiar to most common words will be your biggest friend. If the answer is no, before start studying ANYTHING do some immersion. e.g. I watched dix pour cent for French and learned arrêt which means stop because characters were shouting to each other all the time.

After making sure you have some immersion or if you already have some, PREPARE YOUR RESOURCES. Make a file in your computer, reblog tumblr posts, save links. Search for pdfs in google. (x language a1 pdf / x langauge a1 grammar book / x language a1 reading) Free PDF's and and useful websites. The more the merrier. Why? Because when you actually start learning you will slowly realise them half of them are not actually useful, too advance, too simple, not in your preffered style etc. You will en up using same handful amount of resources again and again but before that, you have to TRY EVERYTHING. You are unique and so will be your learning process.

Google x language A1 curriculum. (you can try adding "pdf" at the end of sentence as well) It "probably/ hopefully" exists. If you can't find that way, learn which offical exam is necessary (e.g. for French it's DELF/DALF, in english there is IELTS and so many more) If you are lucky, you can find a langauge teaching enstitute's curriculum and you can find in what order they teach things. This was very helpful for me because sometimes you don't know what to study next, or just want to visualise what do you need to learn, it is helpful. I printed one out and paste it to the back cover of my notebook. You won't need this one YET. I'll explain in a second. Keep reading.

Get a notebook. I don't prefer books while learning from zero because it will be filled with vocabulary you don't know. My pereference is no squares no lines empty ass notebook and colorful pens. I'm a person of shitty doodles. I love to draw and visualise things. It really helps my brain. In A1, your knowledge is absouletly zero and your brain is about the explode with realising GREAT MASS of knowledge you need to learn in order to be "fluent" . So keep things away from being "too much" if you want to avoid a burnout.

Set a timer. If you want to avoid burnout, the secret is always quit when you feel like you can go another round happily. Quit when you are dopamine high. If you study too much, next day you'll wake up tired, want to rest etc. and make it harder for you to create a habit. I did this mistake with French by studying 4-5 hours everyday for around 30 days. I completed my challenge, completly quit and then didn't come back for MONTHS.

You will be re-studying A LOT. Language learning is repetition. You will start by studying "the A1 curriculum". But, because this is your first time your focus will be on the vocabulary and general comprehension. You are trying to re-wire your brain, and learn a different way of thinking and living. It's not easy. It will take time. It will be painful at times. But it is 100% worth it.

After you finished studying your curriculum, you'll take a short break and then study the curriculum AGAIN. For a second time. Because you already know the basics, this time you will be able to focus more on the little things you weren't able to comprehend the last time. e.g. articles or whatever little frustaring thing your langauge has. Also focus more on basic prononciation and especially reading aloud. Find a realistic text-to-reader. Copy-paste a text. Listen and repeat.

Get a new Youtube and Instagram account dedicated to langauge study. How many good resources exists and where they are is really depens on which langauge you are learning. For english, youtube is better. For French, instagram is better. You have to see for yourself. If you get a seperate account for your langauge algorith will learn faster and you won't be distracted by other stuff. Short form engaging videos are the best for absolute beginners. Re-watch things and try to repeat them out loud. It's called shadowing and is your future best friend.

If you want to learn how to speak, you first need to how to write. If you can't write sentences without looking at google translate (or reverso) you won't be able to make up sentences in your head. If you want to learn how to write, your first need to learn how to read. You need to start in this order but also don't be perfectionist. Do it even if you do it wrong. They will be fixed eventually and won't stick. Record yourself speaking even if the text you are reading is 90% google translated. Why? Beacuse speaking will enhance your vocabulary in a way no other thing can and that's the core of reading. So this isn't a linear thing. It's actually a circle!

Step Two! Ok, Sadie, i got my notebooks and read through all the warnings where do i start? *First page: [] means written is target langauge

[x notebook] x= your target langauge

Add something cute and make you feel happy to open up the notebook. It can a drawing, a picture, anything. First page is your entrance to your new home. Make it welcoming.

*[My name is X. I am Y years old. I live in Z.] *Greetings. Main articles if there are any. Yes, no, please, thank you. *What is your name, what do you do for living, how are you, where are you from, how old are you, how many langauges do you speak, numbers from 0-100. If there are multiple way of saying these things and probably there are, just write one. You will eventually learn others. Baby steps. *write a basic ass text of two people having a conversation asking and answering these questions.

*the alphabet and how to pronounce the letters. basic letter combinations that change into a different sound. a youtube video about this 100% exists.

*personal pronouns and if there is a "am/is/are" verb the conjugation of it. (in spanish there is two unfortunately) *artciles and basic noun endings. a couple exemples of nouns in x form but takes y article. *first 5 most common verbs. learn the conjugation, try writing basic ass sentences. (e.g. to come, go, have, speak)

*three more verbs (e.g. to eat, can, to want)

*take some time to fully comprehend. check your curriculum list to look and see if you want to add anything. e.g.for spanish that can be ser vs estar, for spanish is can be "how to ask questions in french" becaue it's way harder compared to other langauges.

*take some break from grammar and learn some vocab maybe. it can be colors, or feelings. (i am sad, i am hungry etc.)

*start studying most common verbs. usually a form of categorization exists. usually it's verb ending. (unless it's a language like turkish where every verb either ends with -mek or -mak lol.) Start with 10- 15 most common verbs. You will also be learning some vocabulary by default. (try to stick to regular verbs if you can, if not that's fine) (Do not learn any verbs you won't be able to use immediately.)

*Learn basic adjectives and how they work so you can form more detailed sentences.

*After comprehending how to form basic positive negative sentences and some verbs, congratulate yourself, because you deserve it! *Learn how tell time. "What time is it? It's x'o clock."

*learn clothing and how to simply describe physical look e.g. hair color, eye color, beard, glasses...

*learn the verbs of daily routine. be able to write a generic ass "i wake up, i do breakfast, i eat lunch at school, i sleep" sort of text.

*demonstratives. this that. these. those. you can add some vocabulary you like. this is a cat. this is a tree. you can add placement adjectives now or later. (the cat is under the sofa. the bird is on the table etc.)

*Now you know a lot of things! Take some time and focus a bit more on the vocab, let your brain process things, do some passive immersion. avoid a burnout at all costs. *learn how to say "there is" (if you want more vocab transportation and city centre themes can be included.) *learn how to talk about your hobbies. This is the generic A1 curriuculum. You are able to understand basic things, you have a generic comprehension. That's all it takes to be considered A1. If you want to pass it though, what you need is a good grammar source. For French and Spanish Kwiziq was very useful. I couldn't find a good online grammar resource for Italian yet. (please ask more experienced langblrs for recs.) Slowly learn more vocab (since A1 is more vocab based. If you hate Anki and Quizlet stuff check Linguno. Actually check Linguno anyway it's a banger and i'm gonna die on that hill.)

If you don't have have native friend to ask questiones and you don't have any ethical concerns ChatGPT can be useful. I'm using it for French for months. Why are we using this particle here, why this and not that, can you give me some example sentences.... you can play guess the animal, ask for writing prompts and then make ChatGpt find and explain your mistakes to you. It's very handy.

*Don't be scared to share about your journey on Tumblr and most importantly ENJOY!

[cecils-ghost]

seeing all the lovely people on my feed, all these hardworking, motivated individuals who are trying to do better, to do their best, really make my heart happy.

just know that I'm really grateful and hope you get wherever you want <3

[rigelmejo]

Some beginner language learning study tips:

Many study methods work. You will see so many advertisements arguing their courses or materials are the best, or people saying what they did works and other methods don't. In the end, most study methods work. So pick study methods you personally CAN GET YOURSELF TO DO REGULARLY.

If you improve or not will mostly come down to: how much time you spend studying. If you want to see progress milestones in a shorter period of days/months, then you need to study more hours regularly. If you want to see SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS, aim to study at least 1-2 hours a day, or 7-14 hours a week, most of the time. For some language learners, you can progress faster than others in the same time period. But for the general person, regardless of language you're studying, you'll notice improvements in your language skills every 3-6 months or so as long as you're studying 2 hours a day. If you want to make progress FASTER? Study more hours per week. A lot of beginners who study say 15-30 minutes a day (or maybe even only 1 hour study a week), may end up quitting because their progress is not where they expected it to be in a year. You can make progress at 30 minutes of study a day, but it will be 4 times slower than the people studying 2 hours a day. At 2 hours of study a day, I was able to learn about 2000 French words in 6 months (and basic grammar), and able to learn around 500 words (and beginner grammar) of chinese in 6 months. So in French I became capable of reading A2ish level materials in about 6 months of 2 hours daily study, and in Chinese I became capable of reading A1 graded readers of 300-500 words in about 6 months of study. In both cases, 2 hours of daily study let me progress FAST ENOUGH to hit some learning milestone every 3-6 months, so I could see progress in a reasonable time frame. If you see progress milestones taking you more days/years then you personally can tolerate, then you may want to give up. If you find yourself 'learning nothing' after 6 months or a year, evaluate how many hours a week you are actually studying, and then plan to increase it if you want to keep studying. Increase weekly study time until you're reaching progress milestones regularly enough to stay motivated.

Study time can be hard to carve out: find places in your daily routine you could switch to the language you're studying, or add in the language you're studying. I suggested 1-2 hours of study time because it's significant, but still small enough that you could find a way to squeeze in at least an hour of study a day. Finding study methods you WANT to stick to, also helps. Other things you can do to fit more study time in your day: consider replacing some of your normal watching shows/videos time with doing that in your target language you're studying. Play video games? Replace some video game time with lets plays or your own playthrough of games in the target language. Listen to audiobooks, podcasts, music? Replace some of that time with target language audio. Do you do household chores, drive, walk, take baths, work in a place you can listen to headphones? Consider adding audio lessons/audio in the target language to your day during those activities. An example of a study plan for 1-2 hours of study time a day might be: drive/commute to work and listen to audio lessons 30 minutes, drive/commute home and listen to audio lessons 30 minutes (or listen to target language music playlist), watch the normal show you would watch, and watch 30 minutes of a show in your target language, browse social media like tumblr as usual and spend 30 minutes glancing through a graded reader in your target language (or a youtube video, any internet goofing-off you'd normally be doing). That is now 2 hours spent on language learning in a day, and at least 1 hour on the days you come home and don't do any target language activities outside of your commute.

Make sure you are REGULARLY STUDYING NEW STUFF, and PRACTICE using what you've learned. Time spent learning a language will be mostly looking at new stuff and learning what it means, a little time reviewing things you looked at before so you Remember what you learned, and some time doing activities that USE the stuff you learned and force you to recognize it faster while also taking in NEW unexpected stuff. Example: you might spend 30 minutes a day looking up new words in a graded reader/youtube video/anki/word list, 30 minutes looking up grammar points because you saw a sentence with grammar you recognize but forgot how to interpret, and 1 hour reading/watching a video (being forced to remember stuff you've studied, and guess the meaning of brand new stuff the video has in it like new words and new grammar and new accents). The main thing is to: regularly study NEW stuff (it's how you expand what you know), and regularly practice skills that make you recall what you've learned (so you remember that stuff Better) and that force you to confront new things (so you have new things to guess, learn, and to let you know what else you still need to study eventually). Personally, the times i feel like "I am not making any progress" even when I put in hours of study time in a day, is when either A. I am reviewing a ton, but avoiding new stuff - this limits how much more I'll improve. Or B. I am studying plenty of new stuff, but I'm avoiding PRACTICING my recall and understanding of it: such as avoiding audiobooks, avoiding videos, avoiding materials made for native speakers, avoiding conversations, avoiding challenging myself, avoiding attempting activities Without using tools like dictionaries to lean on.

Make specific short term and long term goals. For some people, that will look like finding official language levels on tests that measure it (like A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 or HSK 1-6 or JLPT) and reading the test rubrics and material, and aiming to learn X amount of the material by 6 months then by 1 year etc. For some people, it may look like finding 1000 common words and saying "I will learn 200 this month and have studied all of these words in 5 months." For some, it will look like "I found a 500 unique word Graded Reader, my goal is to learn enough words/hanzi/grammar to start reading this book soon" and then they'd practice trying to read that book every week, base what they study according to what in the book they don't know yet, and see reading the book get easier over time, with them being able to read the book in perhaps 3 months. Your goal might be anything, from "have a conversation about drawing in my target language with a friend for 10 minutes, be able to ask questions and ask the definition of words I don't know" to "watch a show episode and understand the main idea enough to not need to look up words" to "read 200,000 words by the end of 1 month" or "know all the words and grammar on the HSK 4 exam in 4 months" etc. The point is: you pick a goal, that you can then 'test' how much of it you can currently do, and then test again every month or so, and see if you ARE improving or if you're stalling. A goal where you can look AT your goal, to figure out what is new stuff you still need to learn, in order to complete the goal.

For example: say your goal is to read The Little Prince in chinese in 6 months (this was one of my goals). First, I tried to read The Little Prince, when I knew 500 words - I failed. I saw which words I didn't know, and how many of them I didn't know. I saw how slow my reading speed was, and how often I needed to look up words. You only have to do a little test - I only tried to read one chapter. Second, I looked up how many unique words were in The Little Prince (around 2000).

So my new sub-goals were: learn 2000 common words so I would not need to look up as many words in The Little Prince, and practice reading easier Graded Reading (at 500 unique words at first, then more as I learned more words) so I could improve reading speed. I could test those sub goals: how many words was I learning each month? I could check as I got closer to 2000 words learned. How many graded readers had I read in a month? In 2? finally, several months later, I was reading The Little Prince and only looking up a handful of words per chapter. I could decide how well I'd studied for my goal, what to do different next time, which study methods I did that I stuck to better and made good progress with. Goals will help you figure out what 'new stuff' to study next, what skills to 'practice doing' more, and help you figure out if your study plan is giving you the progress you desire or not. Goals also make it obvious if you're studying enough hours regularly to see the progress you want: with my goal "read The Little Prince with only a bit of word lookups, at a reasonable speed" I had to learn 1500 more words IN A TIMELY MANNER. I had to read around 5 graded readers, progressively more difficult, in a timely manner. If I wanted to reach my goal in 6-12 months, I need to study words OFTEN every month, and read OFTEN every month, and studying for 2 hours was necessary to reach my goal of reading The Little Prince in several months (instead of years). If you do pick goals you know will take years (like say learning to read novels for adults), then pick sub-goals that will take 1-6 months, that will build toward the years' long goals. Goals help you measure your progress. If your goal is "learn all material on HSK 1 curriculum in 6 months" and it's been a YEAR and you still haven't learned it, then you can look at your study plan and study hours and see what you need to change.

And then there is this post I wrote a few months back, with some really basic tips on How to Find Language Learning Materials and Make a Study Plan, if you don't know where to start looking or what kinds of things you'll need.

Basically: to learn a language you generally learn the 4 skills of: read, write, speak, and listen. If you have particular language learning goals, some of thise 4 skills will matter to you more than others. Usually, good beginner materials made to teach language learners will have 1000-3000 common words, basic grammar, cover the basic Beginner language skills a Beginner official test may require (such as introducing yourself, describing what you did today, buying things, asking basic questions), and have some built in exercises for reading and listening (such as dialogues). Then you the learner may either make up exercises to practice speaking and writing (such as speaking the dialogue yourself as close as you can to its sound, writing example sentences), or the learning material will automatically provide Exercises it suggests for all 4 skills. When you pick out 1 or multiple Beginner Learner Resources to study with, the above are what you're looking for. Examples of decent beginner learner resources: Genki 1-2 (covers around 1700 words, beginner level language skills, basic grammar), Glossika (covers 3000-6000 words IF you go at least up to the first 3000 words, at least basic grammar), Dreaming Spanish (IF you go through enough videos to learn up to 1000-3000 words), Anki decks (if you pick ones with sentences, basic grammat points covered, and at least 3000 common words taught), Teach Yourself books (2000 words covered, basic language skills, basic grammar, my personal example of bare minimum what a well rounded textbook should have: most languages have specific textbooks which teach a language better than Teach Yourself, but if Teach Yourself is a cheap option and you want a beginner material that covers what you need then it will work). As you can see, a variety of learner materials work fine for beginners. You can pick an audio only method like say Dreaming Spanish, and it will work fine as long as you either use spanish subtitles for reading practice (and make up your own writing and speaking activities), or as long as you plan to work on those other 3 skills later (or with additional materials). Anki decks may have audio for listening, text for reading, and you'll come up with your own speaking and writing practice. Textbooks may have reading, maybe even writing practice, but you may have to make up your own speaking practice, and look up listening resources (or find a textbook with audio fot the dialogues). Most beginner materials will cover basic language skills (introductions, buying, asking questions) so the important part is to pick LEARNER MATERIALS WITH ENOUGH WORDS AND GRAMMAR POINTS COVERED. You'll want to aim for learning 2000+ common words, and basic grammar points (look up a list of them for your target language online if you are unsure if the resource you picked has them, such as looking up a "chinese grammar guide" or "chinese grammar guide summary" or "basic chinese grammar summary").

Once you have used 1 or multiple study resources to learn those things, you can start looking for Intermediate study materials. At that point, you'l want to start trying to learn to read (possibly graded readers first, or reading material for learners, then try material for native speakers like novels and sites), start trying to listen (learner podcasts, graded level podcasts like News in Slow French or Easy NHK news, then videos and shows and podcasts for native speakers), and you may wish to do writing and speaking with others (as well as continue doing practice exercises with more intermediate grammar and vocabulary). Once you hit intermediate level, you'll be able to study by DOING stuff in the language, at least relatively easily. As a beginner, it may be hard or feel draining to learn from native speaker materials (unless its purposely what you decided to do - and Im not counting material made FOR learners like Comprehensible Input Lessons on Youtube such as Dreaming Spanish). As an intermediate learner, it will feel hard at first but will be POSSIBLE. Use graded reading/listening materials to bridge the gap from beginning learner material, to using content for native speakers. At intermediate level, you'll know enough words to watch things like Peppa Pig, simple daily life romance shows, to read comics for pre-teens and kids, to guess the main idea of a lot of content (especially content you've seen before with translations), and be able to look up some words for meaning but also be able to guess some words (so you no longer feel you need to look up words Constantly to follow the main idea). As that gets easier, your options for study material get broader. You can branch out from primarily materials FOR learners, and start including shows, video games, novels! For conversations and writing, you may do well with a tutor at the intermediate level: since you can now ask "what does this mean" and "what can i use to say X" and follow basic explanations in the target language. At intermediate level, you may either keep focusing on personal goals (you may never need the advanced skill of public speaking about scientific topics in your target language, but you may wish to learn to read with a wide vocabulary in the target language). Or you may look up Intermediate Language Learning Skills (such as on official tests like CEFR, JLPT) and see what you'd need to pass on a test to get X certificate you want to work in Y country, or be certified as proficient. Then you'd decide on your new study resources, based on how much the resources teach what you need to learn to pass the test (or work in the country, or accomplish your personal goals).

[yang-jin-seo]

Day 48 🐇

2023.8.7

[thelailasblog]

[er-cryptid]

Patreon

[studentbyprofession]

Update!

I'm all set with my new study gears 💻 👩‍💻 📚

Hopefully will be back here soon (wish me luck!)

Details on the gears

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 (with an S pen)

A bookcover keyboard

It's got an 11 inch screen and taking notes with Samsung Notes is much easier, which can be modified and rearranged any time. More updates later 📲

[voyage-of-venus]

[chinesefoot-ball]

welcome! ~ 🫂

you can call me bibi, im a student from brazil.

im obsessed with moomin and everything related to him, and i love listening to music and studying. you can message me anytime you need a friend or a study buddy!