kaisstudyblr

[kaisstudyblr]

Cognates in Korean Japanese and Mandarin🇰🇷🇯🇵🇨🇳

I have always liked Korean but I just now have started learning it seriously. I noticed that some of the vocab sounded familiar. I’m just so excited! T ▽ T So here are some cognates I noticed! I’m sure there’s loads more haha~ 

Coffee - 카피 - コーヒー - 咖啡

Coffee - Keo pi - Kohi - Kāfēi

Tea - 차 - 茶 - 茶

Tea - Cha - Cha - chá

Library - 도서관 - 図書館 - 图书馆

Library - Do seo gwan - Toshokan - Tú shū guǎn

Zoo - 동물원 - 動物園 - 动物馆

Zoo - Dong mul weon - Dou butsu en - Dòng wù guǎn

News - 신문 - 新聞 - 新闻

News - Shin mun - Shin bun - Xīn wén

Chair - 의자 - 椅子 - 椅子

Chair - Eui ja - i su - Yǐ zi

Teacher/ Mister - 선생님 - 先生 -先生

Teacher/ Mister - Seon saeng nim - Sen sei - Xiān shēng

Doctor - 의사 - 医者 - 医生

Doctor - Eui sa - i sha - Yī shēng

Tank - 전차 - 戦車 - 战车

Tank - Jeon cha - Sen sha - Zhàn chē

Here’s some that are similar to the Chinese or Japanese word

Car - 차 - 車 - 车

Car - Cha - Kuruma - Chē

Bag - 가방 - 鞄 - 包

Bag - Ka bang - Kaban - Bāo

Bank - 은행 - 銀行 - 银行

Bank - Eun haeng - Gin kou - Yín háng

-My brain when I heard the vocabs hahaha ≧ω≦ 

안녕~★ 

[kaisstudyblr]

I believe in free education, one that’s available to everyone; no matter their race, gender, age, wealth, etc… This masterpost was created for every knowledge hungry individual out there. I hope it will serve you well. Enjoy!

FREE ONLINE COURSES (here are listed websites that provide huge variety of courses)

Alison 

Coursera

FutureLearn

open2study

Khan Academy

edX

P2P U

Academic Earth

iversity

Stanford Online

MIT Open Courseware

Open Yale Courses

BBC Learning

OpenLearn

Carnegie Mellon University OLI

University of Reddit

Saylor

IDEAS, INSPIRATION & NEWS (websites which deliver educational content meant to entertain you and stimulate your brain)

TED

FORA

Big Think 

99u

BBC Future

Seriously Amazing

How Stuff Works

Discovery News

National Geographic

Science News

Popular Science

IFLScience

YouTube Edu

NewScientist

DIY & HOW-TO’S (Don’t know how to do that? Want to learn how to do it yourself? Here are some great websites.)

wikiHow

Wonder How To

instructables

eHow

Howcast

MAKE

Do it yourself

FREE TEXTBOOKS & E-BOOKS

OpenStax CNX

Open Textbooks

Bookboon

Textbook Revolution

E-books Directory

FullBooks

Books Should Be Free

Classic Reader

Read Print

Project Gutenberg

AudioBooks For Free

LibriVox

Poem Hunter

Bartleby

MIT Classics

Many Books

Open Textbooks BCcampus

Open Textbook Library

WikiBooks

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES & JOURNALS

Directory of Open Access Journals

Scitable

PLOS

Wiley Open Access

Springer Open

Oxford Open

Elsevier Open Access

ArXiv

Open Access Library

LEARN:

1. LANGUAGES

Duolingo

BBC Languages

Learn A Language

101languages

Memrise

Livemocha

Foreign Services Institute

My Languages

Surface Languages

Lingualia

OmniGlot

OpenCulture’s Language links

2. COMPUTER SCIENCE & PROGRAMMING

Codecademy

Programmr

GA Dash

CodeHS

w3schools

Code Avengers

Codelearn

The Code Player

Code School

Code.org

Programming Motherf*?$%#

Bento

Bucky’s room

WiBit

Learn Code the Hard Way

Mozilla Developer Network

Microsoft Virtual Academy

3. YOGA & MEDITATION

Learning Yoga

Learn Meditation

Yome

Free Meditation

Online Meditation

Do Yoga With Me

Yoga Learning Center

4. PHOTOGRAPHY & FILMMAKING

Exposure Guide

The Bastards Book of Photography

Cambridge in Color

Best Photo Lessons

Photography Course

Production Now

nyvs

Learn About Film

Film School Online

5. DRAWING & PAINTING

Enliighten

Ctrl+Paint

ArtGraphica

Google Cultural Institute

Drawspace

DragoArt

WetCanvas

6. INSTRUMENTS & MUSIC THEORY

Music Theory

Teoria

Music Theory Videos

Furmanczyk Academy of Music

Dave Conservatoire

Petrucci Music Library

Justin Guitar

Guitar Lessons

Piano Lessons

Zebra Keys

Play Bass Now

7. OTHER UNCATEGORIZED SKILLS

Investopedia

The Chess Website

Chesscademy

Chess.com

Spreeder

ReadSpeeder

First Aid for Free

First Aid Web

NHS Choices

Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Please feel free to add more learning focused websites. 

*There are a lot more learning websites out there, but I picked the ones that are, as far as I’m aware, completely free and in my opinion the best/ most useful.

[kaisstudyblr]

Free Online Language Courses

Here is a masterpost of MOOCs (massive open online courses) that are available, archived, or starting soon. I think they will help those that like to learn with a teacher or with videos.  You can always check the audit course or no certificate option so that you can learn for free.

American Sign Language

ASL University

Sign Language Structure, Learning, and Change

Arabic

Arabic Without Walls

Madinah Arabic

Moroccan Arabic

Armenian

Depi Hayk

Bengali

Learn Bangla (Register to see course)

Catalan

Parla.Cat

Speak Cat

Chinese (Mandarin)

Beginner

Chinese for Beginners

Chinese Characters for Beginners

Chinese for HSK 1

Chinese for HSK 2

Chinese for HSK 3 I & II

Chinese for HSK 4

Chinese for HSK 5

Mandarin Chinese Level I

Mandarin Chinese Essentials

Mandarin Chinese for Business

More Chinese for Beginners

Start Talking Mandarin Chinese

UT Gateway to Chinese

Intermediate

Intermediate Business Chinese

Intermediate Chinese Grammar

Mandarin for Intermediate Learners I

Dutch

Introduction to Dutch

English

Online Courses here

Resources Here

Faroese

Faroese Course

Finnish

A Taste of Finnish

French

Beginner

AP French Language and Culture

Elementary French I & II

Français Interactif

Vivre en France - A1

Vivre en France- A2

Intermediate & Advanced

French Intermediate course B1-B2

Passe-Partout

Travailler en France A2-B1                    

Vivre en France - B1  

German

Beginner

Deutsch im Blick

German Project

German at Work

Goethe Institute

Gwich’in

Introduction to Gwich’in Language

Hebrew

Biblical Hebrew

UT Austin

Hindi

A Door into Hindi

Virtual Hindi

Icelandic

Icelandic 1-5

Indonesian

Learn Indonesian

Irish

Irish 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107

Italian

Beginner

Beginner’s Italian I

Introduction to Italian

Intermediate & Advanced

AP Italian Language and Culture

Intermediate Italian I

Advanced Italian I

Japanese

Genki

Japanese JOSHU

Japanese Pronunciation

Marugoto Courses

Tufs JpLang

Korean

Beginner

First Step Korean

How to Study Korean

Introduction to Korean

Learn to Speak Korean

Pathway to Spoken Korean

Intermediate

Intermediate Korean

Norwegian

Introduction to Norwegian I, Norwegian II

Norwegian on the Web

Persian

Easy Persian

PersianDee

Polish

Online Course

Portuguese

Pluralidades em Português Brasileiro

Russian

Beginner

A1 Course

I speak Russian

Intermediate

B1 Course

B1+ Course

B2.1 Course

B2.2 Course

Spanish

Beginner

AP Spanish Language & Culture

Basic Spanish I, Spanish II

Spanish for beginners  

Spanish for Beginners 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Spanish Vocabulary

Advanced

Corrección, Estilo y Variaciones 

Leer a Macondo

Swahili

Online Course

Turkish

Online Course

Ukrainian

Read Ukrainian

Speak Ukrainian

Welsh

Beginner’s Welsh

Discovering Wales

Yoruba

Yorùbá Yé Mi

Multiple Languages

Ancient Languages

More Language Learning Resources & Websites!

Last updated: May 2019

[kaisstudyblr]

Learning Languages and How to Make it Fun

(gifs not mine, credit to the artist)

How does a child learns? Immersion

So you gotta dive deep

Find songs that you like. You don't have to understand, you just have to enjoy the song.

Listen them at least once a day. The idea is for you to get familiar with the sounds.

Once you have already heard them too many times (without getting tired of them) look for the lyrics. In their native language, not a translation.

If you can read in that language, then try reading them. Print them if you have to or write them down (this is better) and as you listen to the song try to sing.

If there's a word/sentence you like because it sounds pretty, mark it.

If there's a word you don't know how to/can't pronounce, mark it.

For example, I have a journal in which I write Japanesse Kanji that I find beautiful (whether is because of the meaning or the symbol itself is pretty)

Once you are familiar with the song look for a translation.

Check those words you have marked with the translation.

While looking for definitions it's better if you find images (so can have an idea of what that word is) instead of a definition in your language (unless is a long/complicated concept).

Movies, you must watch movies in that language. Better if they are from that country. (It can also be a doubled movie, perhaps you could look for one of your favorites)

Watch them with subtitles (in your language) once or twice. Then watch them again but this time without subtitles or with subtitles of said language. (You already know the plot, so you can still understand what's going on)

If you like to read, look for children literature. It's easy and fun.

Keep reading even if you don't understand a single sh*t. It doesn't matter.

Mark again those words you like, don't know the meaning or can't pronounce.

Write at least one sentence every day. It doesn't have to be right, it doesn't have to be long or poetic, you just gotta write.

If you still don't know much about grammar (enough to formulate a sentence on your own) then write a quote from one of those songs, movies or books you read. Again it doesn't matter if you don't understand what are you writing.

If you already know another language, try to learn the new language with that one. For example, I learn german from english instead of my native language spanish.

Videogames. In my experience this is amazing. You have no idea idea how much I learned english just from games.

You have fun playing, engaged with a story, while constantly hearing the language. You don't even have to pay attention at what they are saying, eventually you'll figure it out. It's very intuitive.

And because games, usually, requires that you spend many hours playing you will have a lot of practice without actually studying.

Some games, if you look on the settings menu, even have other languages instead of english. For example I played Assassin's Creed Brotherhood in italian and french and AsC III in russian and japanese (the voice actors are fantastic).

Seriously, videogames are freaking amazing for learning.

The idea of this, is that you can imitate the learning process a child does, while also having fun and enjoying it. Kids learn by making mistakes, by playing with words and by being constantly surrounded with the language. At first, kids have no idea what they are doing, they just repeat what they see and hear. So it's okay if you don't know what are you doing, take that pressure off. This is not school/college, this is just you trying to learn a culture. So be kind and patient with yourself.

LEARNING SHOULD BE FUN, be creative with your methods and try everything (so you can find what you are comfortable with). It is scientifically proved that if you like what you are studying and having fun it will be 10x easier to assimilate and remember the knowledge you are acquiring.

[kaisstudyblr]

Mixture of plants, mixture technique on paper

[kaisstudyblr]

[kaisstudyblr]

[kaisstudyblr]

TIPS FOR LEARNING A LANGUAGE

Your brain has no word limit. “Memorise every word you encounter” That’s not a requirement, that’s an impossible goal you should set for yourself. Learning vocabulary is like a plate that slowly turns into a bowl the more water you pour in it(weird metaphor I know but bear with me). You can learn 100 words and you’ll quickly forget a lot of them. You can learn 10 words and you’ll quickly forget some of them. But learning 30 words out of 100 is much better than learning 8 out of 10(you feel me?). The plate will overfill regardless of how much water you pour in there, so just pour as much as you can and turn that sucker into a bowl.

Simply put: The more you learn, the easier it gets to learn. 

There’s no such thing as a useless word. Vehicle. Spaceship. Run. Skedaddle. Are all important words. Never ignore a word because you think it’s useless. It’ll come to you, maybe in the next test, maybe in a conversation with a stranger, maybe written in scary red paint on the wall of a sketchy neighbourhood telling you to skedaddle. You need it.

Speak your target language*duh*. *Imagine if you will, you’re in France with little to no vocabulary. You walk into a hotel, worried as to how you’re gonna communicate with the person at the desk. As soon as your eyes meet he greets you saying in the most fluent english accent “Hello there! How may I help you?” You sigh a sigh of relief, however you remember that you’re in France, you’re committed to learning the French language. You take a deep breath and respond with “Salut! je maple Timothy je want une casa” Now obviously there’s so much wrong there. But it’s so much better than speaking english because you’ll learn what a room is, and you’ll even learn a word in Spanish. 

You’ll embarrass yourself in conversations.  No advice here just telling you a fact. A Chinese guy once asked me if I understood something and I simply replied with “I am bread” So yeah good luck.

Idioms. Learn them. They’re awesome. 

Think in target language. Weird I know. But seriously if you know how to think a sentence in your target language, do it. You’ll be more comfortable saying it and you’ll revise what you’ve learnt. As well as discover what you forgot.

Lie. When it’s harmless. Try telling a taxi driver you’re Sri Lankan see where that takes you. Unless you are Sri Lankan in which case you’re Cambodian. Say you married an Austrian pilot, or own a pet rock, or maybe related to the queen. You’ll have much more fun and useful conversations.  (P.s. If you’re half-Sri Lankan half-Cambodian you are officially Martian.)

Helpful Apps: 

HiNative: Allows you to ask native speakers what something means, how it’s used, whether your sentence is correct, or simply any question you have about said language or even culture. 

Flashcards: Pretty self explanatory. Make your own flashcards, one side in your language, one side in target language. Perfect in revising words. You can also download decks that other people have created and made public. Obviously you can use it for other subjects too. 

HelloTalk: Texting people of target language who want to learn your native language.  Help each other learn each other’s language and has great features for correcting sentences and grammar. 

(dictionary): No that’s not the name of the app. Having google translate is helpful and all but try finding a language specific App(e.g French to English). It’s also good to have a dictionary. All words. Easily accessible. Works offline. (For Chinese that App is Pleco)

[kaisstudyblr]

bugs in mandarin

昆虫 kūnchóng insect

蚂蚁 mǎyǐ ant

白蚁 báiyǐ termite

蜜蜂 mìfēng bee

蜂蜜 fēngmì honey

黄蜂 huángfēng wasp

甲壳虫 jiǎkéchóng beetle

蛾 é moth

蝴蝶 húdié butterfly

茧 jiǎn cocoon 

毛毛虫 máomáochóng caterpillar （毛虫 is also okay）

蟋蟀 xīshuài cricket

蚱蜢 zhàměng grasshopper 

螳螂 tángláng praying mantis

蟑螂zhāngláng cockroach 

小强 xiǎoqiáng cockroach (slang)

蜈蚣 wúgōng centipede

蜻蜓 qīngtíng dragonfly

苍蝇 cāngyíng fly

蚊子 wénzi mosquito 

瓢虫 piáochóng ladybug 

蜘蛛 zhīzhū spider

萤火虫 yínghuǒchóng firefly, lightning bug

蚯蚓 qiūyǐn earthworm (i don’t think this is an insect but who cares)

害怕 hàipà to be afraid

我害怕蜘蛛 (I’m afraid of spiders)

[kaisstudyblr]

Chinese Measure Words

个 gè: for people, abstract things and objects | Ex: 我有一个老师。

口 kǒu: for family people | Ex: 我家有四口人。

只 zhī: for animals | Ex: 我爸爸家有三只狗。

条 tiáo: for long and narrow things | Ex: 她有两条鱼。

张 zhāng: for flat things | Ex: 教室里有五张桌子。

把 bǎ: for objects that can be grasped by hand | Ex: 我房间里有一把椅子。

本 běn: for books | Ex: 桌子上有四本书。

支 zhī: for long and thin things | Ex: 笔袋里有一支笔。

家 jiā: for establishments (house, hotel …) | Ex: 我哥哥开了一家公司。

块 kuài: for portions or pieces | Ex: 来吃块西瓜吧。

岁 suì: for years (old) | Ex: 我今年40岁。

棵 kē: for trees | Ex: 这棵树又高又大。

台 tái: for machines | Ex: 这台电脑是新买的。

双 shuāng: for pairs | Ex: 一双筷子。

辆 liàng: for vehicles | Ex: 一辆汽车。

篇 piān: for articles and texts | Ex: 这篇报道是我写的。  

节 jié: for time periods | Ex: 我们下午只有一节课。

杯 bēi: for liquid (glass; cup) | Ex: 我有一杯牛奶。

[kaisstudyblr]

Chinese New Year Vocabulary

新年快乐 xīnnián kuàilè happy new year

春节 chūnjié Spring festival

猪年 zhūnián pig’s year

新年 xīnnián new year

除夕 chúxī new year’s eve

农历 nónglì lunar calendar

初一 chūyī the first day of a month in the lunar calendar

红包 hóngbāo red envelope with money

好运 hǎoyùn good luck

烟花 yānhuā fireworks

鞭炮 biānpào firecrackers

窗花 chuānghuā paper-cut for window decoration

福 fú good fortune

对联 duìlián couplet

灯笼 dēnglong lantern

饺子 jiǎozi dumplings

年夜饭 niányèfàn family dinner on the chinese new year’s eve

[kaisstudyblr]

I thought it was time to show all of you my desk :) I put some personal annotations on it, if you have any more questions you can just send me a message! Anni

[kaisstudyblr]

“i didn’t sign up for a goddamn history/literature/art course” as a complaint about languages courses absolutely baffle me because history, culture, everything is important when learning a language, not just the grammar, karen

[kaisstudyblr]

space vocab in mandarin

so i’ve had this in my drafts for ages and i just never got around to completing it, but then i saw @malteseboy ‘s post and was reminded that, instead of sitting around doing nothing during my summer break, i could actually finish this list i started almost seven months ago so here it is

宇宙空间 yǔzhòu kōngjiān space

宇宙 yǔzhòu universe

星星 xīngxīng star

星座 xīngzuò constellation

星系 xīngxì galaxy

星云 xīngyún nebula

小行星 xiǎo xíngxīng asteroid

彗星 huìxīng comet

黑洞 hēidòng black hole

流星 liúxīng meteor

日食 rì shí solar eclipse

月食 yuè shí lunar eclipse

行星 xíngxīng planet

太阳系 tàiyángxì solar system

太阳 tàiyáng sun

水星 shuǐxīng mercury

金星 jīnxīng venus

地球 dìqiú earth

月球 yuèqiú moon

火星 huǒxīng mars

木星 mùxīng jupiter

土星 tǔxīng saturn

天王星 tiānwángxīng uranus

海王星 hǎiwángxīng neptune

冥王星 míngwángxīng pluto

轨道 guǐdào orbit

绕地 ràodì to orbit the earth 

送上轨道 sòng shàngguǐdào to send into orbit

盘旋 pánxuán to circle, to go around, to orbit

重力 zhònglì gravity

满月 mǎnyuè full moon

新月 xīn yuè new moon

弦月 xián yuè crescent moon

太空探索 tàikōng tànsuǒ space exploration

宇航员 yǔháng yuán astronaut

太空服 tàikōng fú space suit

航天飞机 hángtiān fēijī space shuttle

人造卫星 rénzào wèixīng satellite

发射 fāshè to launch/fire (a rocket)

发射架 fāshè jià launch pad

空间站 kōngjiānzhàn space station

天文学 tiānwénxué astronomy

天文学家 tiānwénxué jiā astronomet

望远镜 wàngyuǎnjìng telescope/binoculars

天文望远镜 tiānwén wàngyuǎnjìng telescope

三脚架 sānjiǎojià tripod

[kaisstudyblr]

Mandarin Romance Vocab

As a hopeless romantic, there’s no vocab list that comes easier to me! 浪漫 - romance [làngmàn] 浪漫的 - romantic [làngmàn de] 爱情 - love [àiqíng] 夫妻 - couple [fūqī] 婚礼 - marriage [hūnlǐ] 权宜婚姻 - marriage of convenience [quányí hūnyīn] 婚礼 - wedding [hūnlǐ] 巧克力 - chocolate [qiǎokèlì] 花 - flowers [huā] 礼物 - gift [lǐwù] 心脏 - heart [xīnzàng] 心形物 - heart (shape) [xīnxíngwù] 感情问题 - matters of the heart [gǎnqíng wèntí] 使某人伤心 - to break somebody’s heart [shǐ mǒurén shāngxīn] 心碎了 - to have a broken heart [xīnsuìle] 是某人所关心的 - to be close/dear to one’s heart [shì mǒurén suǒ guānxīn de] 调情者 - flirt [tiáoqíngzhě] 风流韵事 - affair [fēngliú yùnshì] 情人 - lover [qíngrén] 丈夫 - husband [zhàngfu] 妻子 - wife [qīzi] 男朋友 - boyfriend [nánpéngyou] 女朋友 - girlfriend [nǚpéngyou] 心上人 - sweetheart [xīnshàngrén] 亲爱的 - darling [qīn'ài de] 喜爱 - affection [xǐ'ài] 亲爱的 - sweetheart [qīn'àide] 亲昵 - intimacy [qīnnì] 情爱 - passion [qíng'ài] 情人节 - Valentine’s Day [Qíngrén Jié] 吻 - kiss [wěn] 拥抱 - cuddle [yōngbào] 一起 - together [yīqǐ] 吸引力 - attraction [xīyǐnlì] 宝贝 - baby [bǎobèi] 亲密的关系 - relationship [qīnmì de guānxì] 爱 - to love [ài] 和 … 约会 - to date [hé … yuēhuì] 结婚 - to marry [jiéhūn] 调情 - to flirt [tiáoqíng] 接吻 - to kiss [jiēwěn] 吻某人一下 - to give somebody a kiss [wěn mǒurén yīxià] 搂抱 - to cuddle [lǒubào] 引起 - to attract [yǐnqǐ] 关系亲密 - to have a good relationship [guānxì qīnmì] 喜欢某人 - to feel affection for somebody [xǐhuān mǒurén] 赢得某人的爱慕 - to win somebody’s affection [yíngdé mǒurén de àimù] 迷恋某人 - to have a crush on somebody [míliàn mǒurén] 受到某人的宠爱 - to be somebody’s darling [shòudào mǒurén de chǒng'ài] 发生暧昧关系 - to have an affair [fāshēng àimèi guānxi] 恋爱 - to be in love [liàn'ài] 爱上 - to fall in love [àishàng] 做爱 - to make love [zuò'ài] 一见钟情 - love at first sight [yī jiàn zhōngqíng] 我爱你。- I love you. [Wǒ ài nǐ.] 你没事吧？- Are you okay, love? [Nǐ méi shì ba?] 我想你 - I miss you [wǒ xiǎng nǐ] 我想跟你在一起 - I want to be with you [wǒ xiǎng gēn nǐ zài yīqǐ] 我喜欢你 - I fancy you [wǒ xǐhuan nǐ] 你愿意嫁给我吗？ - Will you marry me? [nǐ yuànyi jià gěi wǒ ma?] 我的心里只有你 - In my heart there is only you [wǒ de xīnlǐ zhǐ yǒu nǐ] 跟你在一起真开心 - I’m so happy with you [gēn nǐ zài yīqǐ zhēn kāixīn]

Shoutout to fluentinmandarin, particularly in the phrases section of this list!

[kaisstudyblr]

Study organization- notebooks

I love stationery of all kinds, especially notebooks. And when you’re planning on studying, of course you need notebooks for taking notes and practicing! In this post, I’ll talk a little about my notebooks.

What kind(s) of notebook(s) do you use?

My personal preference is for spiral notebooks. I used to use notebooks that just opened like normal books, but they never liked to stay flat and they took up too much space on my desk. It’s funny because I used to hate spirals back when I was younger and way into drawing because the pages were more free to move against each other which led to more smudging, but I love spirals so much for note taking. They lay flat with no problem, which is the biggest thing for me. The spiral does get in the way of my hand sometimes, but it’s a minor annoyance.

I also consider the quality of the paper when buying my notebooks. It doesn’t have to be super high quality, but I just can’t deal with paper the quality of standard US looseleaf. It’s too thin and, more importantly, the surface is too rough. Paper with too rough a surface has led to the early death of too many of my pens—if you use fine-tip pens, size 0.5 or lower, and find they stop writing before the ink runs out—little bits from poor-quality paper probably got into the tip and ruined it. The paper I like the most feels a little bit weighty and nice and smooth!

Hardcover or softcover is also a choice to make! I use both, types:

Left to right- hardcover lined notebook, softcover lined notebook, softcover 원고지 squared paper notebook

How many notebooks do you use?

I have three main types of notebooks! I’ll go over each type:

Grammar notebooks

My grammar notebooks are all hardcover. I use them to collect grammar explanations and other important notes. I write them as cleanly as possible and even use my many colorful highlighters to make them look a little nicer. If I need to know about a grammar point that I have already learned, I open my grammar notebook for the right language and find it. This way, I don’t have to remember which textbook or source I saw a certain grammar point or explanation in—if it’s important, I write it down in my grammar notebook! So, my grammar notebooks are mashups of multiple texts and sources. These are for reference only; I don’t do any practice or extra writing in them. Nothing but the facts!

Practice notebooks

My practice notebook is where I write down definitions of new words I learned, practice sentences for my vocab flashcard words, breakdowns of articles I’ve studied on my Chinese reader apps… I guess calling it a “practice notebook” makes its purpose pretty self-explanatory. It’s nothing special; I write quickly and messily in it, and when it gets full, I can just throw it in the recycling bin and start a fresh one. My practice notebook is a softcover spiral.

Chinese article notebook

Korean squared paper—or I guess any squared paper—is wonderful for writing Chinese characters. Once I’ve encountered an article in a Chinese reader app and broken it down in my practice notebook, I rewrite it cleanly in my article notebook so I can easily find and read it again later.

I don’t always have all of my notebook types with me. If I plan on studying grammar, I will bring the correct grammar notebook along, and if I plan on studying Chinese articles, I might have my article notebook with me, but not always. However, my practice notebook is always in my bag!

How do you organize your notes and all? For those of you who might be struggling to get your notes together, I hope this helped!

Happy studying~

[kaisstudyblr]

How To Use Movies To Learn a Language

Greetings, Polyglots! I’m back with another post about how to use movies to learn languages!

I’ve noticed a trend among language learners. Especially among those learning English. Those who spoke English the most natural and fluently have all said that they frequently use movies to learn English. I’m telling you, it’s uncanny! I’ve taught English in three countries and in every country the most standout students have always said that they watched videos and movies for idioms and phrases. The result was almost always natural and fluent sounding English. So I began to wonder do movies work to help you learn a language and how do you watch a movie to learn a language anyway!? Movies are like an hour to two hours long! I don’t have the patience for that.

Movies can, however, help you learn languages in a more natural and casual way. Depending on the genre of the movie, you can learn some interesting vocabulary as well. Movies and television shows are very important for language learning, because they not only teach proper use of grammar and vocabulary, they also introduce you to the humor and culture of the people who’s language you’re studying. After only one or two weeks using movies learning Chinese, my casual Chinese has certainly improved and I have learned a few funny phrases to keep things light too. So how do you use movies to learn languages? Here’s how:

Keep reading