#this is the third language and third different learning method i've had

[hjbender]

Maybe it's me. I don't know. But I feel like Duolingo is trolling me.

I've been using the app for six months now. I still don't know how to count any numbers, the days of the week, the names of the months, essential verbs like "to be" or "to know", or important phrases like "Can you please speak slower?" or "I need help," but by God I can tell you "My crocodile is already at the theater" in perfect Russian.

[dreamer2503]

Finally, after almost two years, I found what really works for me.

I finally learned and understood what truly helps me manifest everything I want. I'm sharing this because it might help someone who is in the same situation I was in—until yesterday. So, here’s my story with manifestation.

First, during the pandemic, I was a Law of Attraction girl. I tried a lot of methods and techniques, stayed positive every second of the day, but nothing seemed to work. I also discovered shifting during that time, so I've known about shifting since 2020. I tried everything, but nothing worked. I had a lucid dream here and there, but never experienced a real shift to a different reality. For a long time, I believed nothing would ever work.

Years later, I discovered non-dualism, which actually made things worse because I didn’t understand it and thought I was failing. Then, I learned about the Law of Assumption, which I felt much more comfortable with and found easier to understand than non-dualism. But again, I tried everything, and nothing seemed to work. I even felt anxious using techniques like robotic affirmations—but I kept doing them over and over.

I realized I was stuck in a very specific cycle: I’d start trying to manifest something, already thinking it would take forever to show up in the 3D—or maybe not show up at all. By the third or fourth day, I’d start to feel demotivated, anxious, frustrated, and sad because I wasn’t seeing results in the 3D.

This week was tough. I felt frustrated with manifestation and shifting again, and I also got a bad grade in college. Out of desperation, I went back to robotic affirmations. But then I stopped. Yesterday, I took a moment to reflect and asked myself: what actually helps me?

That’s when I realized that every time I had manifested something almost instantly, it was because I used just one affirmation and then let it go. I completely forgot about it. That’s how I manifested my brother (yes, I manifested my younger brother), that’s how I manifested my dog, and yesterday, that’s how I manifested a message I had been waiting for.

Now I understand what the bloggers mean when they say it’s only up to you—that YOU are the key. I finally see how unique each of our journeys is. I was so focused on what worked for others that I didn’t even consider what worked for me. I wanted to be like those people who affirm all day and get everything they want, or those who completely ignore the 3D. But in reality, the 3D actually helps me manifest, because it helps me let go—it distracts me, and then the manifestation shows up (like the message I wanted, which came the same day).

So, my advice is: look within. Forget about the techniques, the methods, the meditations. Focus on yourself. Focus on what works for you, on what has worked in the past. That helped me so much. I feel such relief knowing what works for me—I finally know exactly what to do now.

I hope this helps someone out there. Please keep going. Don’t give up. You have so much to do in this universe, and you deserve everything you want.

P.S.: Sorry if anything is still off—English is my second language.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Reading the book, and I'm already loving it. I agree with a lot of the things y'all say in it (players control the characters, not the narrator, etc.), but I was surprised at the strong insistence on 3rd person play.

Personally I like 1st person play because it helps me with immersion. If I play in 3rd person then my mental camera goes 3rd person, which feels more like playing a video game and removes that thrill of embodying someone else and living in a new world.

Usually I see people either take a strong pro 1st person stance, or a noncommittal stance, but this is the first time I've come across a game that insists on the 3rd person. I'm curious about the reasoning behind it. Was it just a philosophical decision, or did it bear out in playtesting that 3rd person was the better method? In the book y'all acknowledge that 3rd person play doesn't eliminate the threat of griefing from bad faith players.

Y'all clearly put a lot of thought into the game, so that really interested me. Could be a good learning opportunity!

I passed this on to one of our team and this is what she had to say:

In addition to our own home table just preferring to play in 3rd person, we believe that perspective is an important element of TTRPGs that doesn't get explored very often in the modern landscape. The games we play are composed of language - not just the words on the page, but the words we say at the table. Changing the verbiage will create a different emotional space, and a different experience. That zoomed out mental camera you describe is part of the point! In any TTRPG, players are always two things: participant, and audience. The narration we employ at the table affects the game world, yes, but we are also the only people there to see it play out. Eureka strongly emphasizes the "audience" side of that equation, and wants to frame the "participant" side as an act of authorship and discovery rather than one of inhabiting the world.

Just on a fundamental level, perspective is a defining part of any media - the camera angle in a movie or video game, the person of a book's prose, who tells the story, and who they tell it for. The way we frame a story changes the response it evokes. As you say, you've seen either strong pro-1st-person stances or neutral ones, but not a strong pro-3rd-person stance. I don't think that's because 1st person is inherently better for this sort of game, I think its because there is a tendency in the hobby right now - for a variety of reasons - to treat TTRPGs like a form of improv theater. That's not a problem in isolation per se, but I think it's one that limits what the medium can be or do. TTRPGs can be improv theater, but is that all they can be?

On a final note, we have also seen the insistence on 1st-person play and the approach of "embodying" a character occasionally cause real harm when the people involved have trouble separating player and character. That's also part of the reason we're so insistent about these being two separate people, because investigators tend to do some pretty messed up things (this being a horror focused game, after all), and we don't want people equivocating their friends with the characters they play when that level of emotional intensity is involved. Many people who play in 1st person are able to engage with that in a healthy way and understand the difference, of course, but I think it's hard to deny that the language makes that equivocation easier.

- @ashweather (person from out team who doesn't normally run this blog)

Adding on myself, another thing that I always like to bring up in this discussion is that first-person verbiage did not used to be so universal! Playing in the hobby even 4 or 5 years ago, you'd see (or at least I would see) a mix of third and first person verbiage at tables, and even people who used both interchangably. It's only in the past few years that third-person verbiage for TTRPGs has gone practically extinct, and i think most of the blame lies at the feet of big-budget "actual play" shows like Critical Role being many people's only reference for how a TTRPG can be played. Critical Role uses first-person, so therefor that's how TTRPGs are played.

I've even had people tell me on multiple separate occassions "that's wrong" when I'm trying to use third-person verbiage for TTRPGs, when playing with rulebooks which explicitly say in their text early on "you can use 1st or 3rd person to describe your character's actions"! (most, if not all, D&D edition rulebooks say this!)

In closing, yeah, if Eureka were a video game, it would be in third-person. Eureka doesn't want you in its world, it wants a character.

[ettawritesnstudies]

Hi Etta! Sorry if you already mentioned this, but where/how did you find your editors? (If you don't mind sharing)

Don't mind at all!

I know there are companies like Reedsy and the Writers Digest which have databases of editors, but that seemed really overwhelming. At the end of the day, the best way to get resources is to network (make friends, and hope their mutuals like you too).

Last year, I did an interview for Amanda Auler on Instagram and she boosted my account, so months later I ended up doing an interview for Addison Horner. He does editing for indie authors, so I asked him for a sample edit and liked it, but I wanted to get other points of comparison first, so I asked around and came up with a short list of editors. I contacted them, and when I had enough to compare, I ended up deciding I liked Addison best and drew up a contract with him. God moment that I found him so quickly.

But if I had to give this advice to someone else I'd recommend following these steps:

Read books in your genre. Read INDIE AUTHORS in your genre. Review their books. Follow them on social media. Be a friendly fan but don't make it weird.

Indie authors are one person publishing teams desperate for engagement and positive attention. They will thank you for your help and be willing to pay it forward when the time comes.

Once you have a handful of books you like that have similar vibes to your book, flip to the acknowledgements and find the editors name.

Google the editor, find their site, submit your inquiry, email works better than a form.

If you can't find the editor online, DM the indie author and ask "hey I really liked your book and it's a good comp title for my WIP. Who's your editor and what was your experience with them like? Do you mind pointing me their way?" Follow the author's advice. Repeat as needed.

(I've only ever received nice responses to this, don't be anxious. If they don't reply they're probably just busy, not annoyed).

When you contact editors, ask about their availability, rates, and be specific about what type of editing you need. Ask for a free sample edit. Mine were 250-2500 words.

Supply details about your WIP. Mine looked like this:

Title: Runaways

Genre: Middle Grade Portal Fantasy. I'm not labeling it as "Christian Fiction" as religion isn't a focus point of the story, but there are significant underlying Catholic themes.

Premise: When Cecelia goes missing one stormy Halloween night, her older sister, Hannah, must venture into the faerie courts to learn the truth about their past and bring her home. (Linked WIP Page with additional information)

Length: About 86,000 words, 180 pages (Times New Roman, 12pt, double spaced, standard 1in margins formatting). 21 chapters with an epilogue

Style: 3rd person limited, present tense. 3 POV characters: primarily Hannah at first, and then Cecelia and the third added later, alternating.

Status/Timeline/Availability: Currently with a 2nd round of beta readers, and I'll be getting feedback by March 31st. After editing the draft to reflect their feedback and doing my own line edits, I'll be looking for a line/copy edit around April/May or early summer.

Types of edits needed: As I understand, every editor uses "line" and "copy" edit slightly differently, but I'm looking for a combination of both styles if possible: checking for internal consistency, logical choreography, adequate descriptions, minor plot or worldbuilding errors, as well as language concerns like cutting crutch words, making sentence structure more dynamic, choosing the right verbs, etc. Developmental editing not needed. Waiting to do proofreading at the moment

When perusing at the editors site, look for credentials/certifications, their backlog of works, and testimonials

If you don't have enough options following this method, join some discord servers! I'm in a local NaNoWriMo group and a Catholic Writers Guild called Inkwells and Anvils which were both useful. I think there might be some writeblr ones as well. Find the critiques channel and send the same information there^^

Compare sample edits. Who respects your voice? Who supplied the most insightful comments? Do you vibe over email? Are they willing to do a stylesheet? Do they like your book? Can you set up a 15 minute zoom call to see if you vibe and discuss details?

Look at prices. My rate is $.015 a word but that's pretty cheap for the industry. Most of the rates I saw publicly were between $.02-.03/word for line editing.

Pray/sleep on it

Once you pick your best option, set a date to send them the manuscript, sign contracts, and make payment.

Send a polite email to the other editors and say "I regret to say you're not quite the right fit for this book, but I appreciate all your time, help, and advice! I hope to work with you in the future" or something along those lines. Don't burn your bridges.

Celebrate!

This whole process took me a couple weeks, everyone was very punctual and professional and friendly. I ended up going with Addison not only because he was the cheapest but also because he made 3X the number of comments as any other writer, and his comments were specific and useful. He understood my characters immediately, I think in part because his writing style is similar to mine, based on his debut novel, Marrow and Soul. We're both Christians who like YA dark fantasy. It's a good match. He's still taking clients for later in the year if that's your vibes. I also worked with Amber Burdett and Sariah Solomon, who were both lovely.

I wish you the best of luck finding an editor who fits your story! I hope this was helpful and not overly long.

[jeffrey-beaumont]

tagged by @glyphsmash

Last song?

https://open.spotify.com/track/3VwLD5o1r0YBLkjUfgSEYg?si=RTBtObd0S32OefW16CSCNA

Currently watching?

Monster (needs to be finished).

Currently reading?

Finished Bryan Cranston's autobiography A Life in Parts and started Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, which is another autobiography. Its about growing up during Apartheid as an interracial boy. He was born to a Xhosa (one of the many ethnic groups of South Africa) mother and a Swiss German father and therefore did not fit into the legal racial categories of Apartheid. Brings to mind how arbitrary the concept of race is, and how demographics alter perception of individuals. There were three races the Apartheid government categorized people in: Black, White and Coloured. The definitions were literally based off of subjective appearance and all of their laws were warped around these categories and incredibly intricate and bureaucratic.

"Coloured" had a different connotation compared to the category of the same name in American Segregation, because it was distinct from Black. Basically Coloured was made up of the descendants of foreign enslaved Africans, assimilated indigenous African ethnic groups and early European colonists. Because of this combination of ancestry, the people who fall under this category do not have connection to the identities of other ethnicities in the country (like language, cultural heritage, etc.) and make up their own racial category. Basically Trevor did not look either Black or White, so he was considered "Coloured" because he physically resembled them, but he was ostracized from that category socially because he had connection to his Xhosa heritage through his mother's family. Therefore he fit into no category at all. The book is about his experiences. I highly recommend the audiobook because he does impressions and speaks multiple languages from different ethnic groups, which are very important to hear when he explains certain features and situations. The way he tells some of the stories is hilarious too.

Current Obsession?

Learning about African history and politics. Mostly been interested because of work, first researching information about climate and industrial processing methods since we get shipments from multiple African countries (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda). Primarily I've been learning about Ethiopia (formerly Abyssinia) and Haile Selassie (the last Emperor). They are one of the few African civilizations that were not colonized by Europeans. Also they were the third civilization to officially adopt Christianity after the Roman Empire and Georgia.

Rastafarianism, which originated in Jamaica is the belief that the prophezied second coming of Christ was in the form of Haile Selassie, who represented the salvation of oppressed black peoples globally, being a king of a sovereign black nation. This ideology was influenced by Pan-African political movements. I want to sit down and learn more about Pan-Africanism, specifically in the US so I'm planning on reading Malcolm X's biography next.

Other things I've been learning about is German history in the World Wars, and some Holocaust literature. Quite depressing stuff, but important things. I'm trying to consume more of this information from direct German language sources so I can get practice at the same time. And then some brief things about Zionism movements in Europe before/after the wars. Been trying to wrap my head around the relationship between ideology, racism, nationality and war. I'm not sure there's a conclusion.

tagging: @morutopiya @calculesterhp @4184 @ocke @mnmix

[magneticgroup]

A Day in the Life: Training Coordinator

As a brand, Magnetic Training is known for providing technical training courses globally. But who runs the day-to-day operations? To answer that, Iryna Usenko, Training Coordinator, introduces us to her daily routine and the behind-the-scenes of her coordinating role.

Could you please briefly share your background?

For education, I have graduated from National Aviation University. I've always had this growth mindset, which helped me pursue various opportunities and overcome challenges throughout my career path. I worked as a translator, secretary, and manager of international economic activities, among others, all leading to this day, where I'm currently working as a training coordinator at magnetic talents, a sub-brand of Magnetic Group. 

As a training coordinator, what are your primary responsibilities?

As you would guess, with a coordinator's role comes plenty of planning and detailed work. My primary responsibilities are the preparation of type training courses, including course records, online meetings, learning sessions, certificates, and exam records. I also support trainees and instructors, handle customer correspondence, prepare agreements and all the needed paperwork, invigilate exams, and attend office duties.

What does your daily work routine look like?

My day starts with a morning run and a cup of coffee while checking the mailbox and prioritizing my tasks. No day goes by without correspondence to our trainees and preparation of the required exam records. This also includes course records, on-site meetings, and remote exams. Before calling it a day, I take a moment to think about what went well and what I learned. It's like wrapping up one chapter and getting ready for the next day's adventures. 

What advice do you have for individuals aspiring to become training coordinators or enter a similar field?

Every case is individual, but generally, I would split my advice into four steps. First, develop strong communication and organizational skills as you will communicate a lot with people of different nationalities, organize training courses, and provide support during diverse types of training. Second, be on top of your management skills. Third, stay up-to-date with contemporary training methods and technologies. Fourth, learn foreign languages, which always comes in handy.

Since 2024 is fast approaching, what can newly-joining trainees expect in the year to come?

Magnetic Training is going to introduce two new types of training courses that will be available from January 2024, such as B777 (GE 90) B1&B2 type training course, and Engine High-Pressure Compressor Blend Repair Training. All important information about the courses can be found on our website.

[kazoosandfannypacks]

Splendid! I am also a graduated homeschooled kid, so I'll be speaking from that perspective. I am also speaking from a place of some sort of "privilege," in a way, as my parents both have a healthy relationship with each other and with their kids, so I'm speaking from that context. I also do have some experience within the public school system, as I've been a program aide at an afterschool program for the past year or so.

Let me be clear in this, though: there are some parents who do not have a firm handle on their responsibility as parents, and there are some families where this model is not feasible. I am not saying that every family in the world should be homeschooling their kids. What my argument is is that an individualized education is better for every child.

An individualized education can take many forms, because, of course, every kid is different. There are some kids who learn better by sitting still and listening to someone teach. There are some kids who learn better by reading. Some kids learn best through experience. Some kids learn best by other methods, and some kids learn best by one of the above methods, but with aids like fidget toys and music, while some kids need absolute silence, and others need other kids around them to help them stay on task. Obviously, one wouldn't expect a teacher in a classroom setting to be able to identify and accomodate all these needs for all sixteen to forty-five kids in their class (but if they can, kudos!)

But one-to-two parents teaching their one-to-twelve kids absolutely can.

When kids are schooled at home, you can more easily meet their individual needs.

For literature courses, my mom would often assign reading based on some of our interests, alongside our standard literature curricula. Both my brothers took Portuguese for their language credit because they have camp friends from Brazil. For gym class, we could ride our bikes or play football in the backyard. These were things that kept us interested and engaged while still allowing us to gain our necessary education.

We also had the opportunity to learn how we needed to. We could go to our rooms and be by ourselves in the middle of schoolwork, if we needed to. We could listen to music in our earbuds if it helped. If we had a particularly distracting stim that helped us focus, we could work in a different space than our siblings. We could sit down and read on the couch, in a comfortable environment, and if we wanted to keep working ahead, we had the space and time to do that.

In eleventh grade, I had done enough of my school requirements that I would only have two classes in twelfth grade, english and history. My eleventh grade english and history courses finished quickly (one of them was a college level course that was only eight weeks) so I was able to cram in both credits for my twelfth grade year by adding an extra year's worth of both into my schedule. It was a lot of work, but I chose to do it, worked at it, and was able to finish school at sixteen (graduating at seventeen because the summer was busy.) I had the freedom to customize my education to fit me, and I succeeded in a way I might not have been able to if I were in a public school.

Another question that comes up with homeschool is that of having multiple grade levels learning in the same place. Haven't we moved past one room schoolhouses?

When I was in kindergarten, my brother was in third grade, and my sister was in fourth. Was anyone academically challenged because of our shared learning enviornment? Not at all! Most of our work was us quietly reading out of textbooks anyways, and if mom had to read something out loud and it distracted our siblings, we could just go to another room and focus. I would argue that working at the same kitchen table as my siblings made me smarter— I'd overhear concepts for three or four grade levels ahead of me, and I had a remarkable memory as a kid, so when I got these subjects years later, I'd already be preapred with the framework for these topics because I'd heard them from my siblings.

Another point I'd like to add, though it's not talked about a lot, is that homeschool can also be individualized to match the needs of every parent. My mom had us on a very strict schedule because that's the kind of person she is. Her friend, on the other hand, tells her kids, "you can get started with your school whenever, but if you have any questions, don't ask me until after 9 am." One model gets kids used to rigid schedules, another gets kids learning how to function on their own schedule, and neither one is wrong.

There are some parents who don't know much about every subject in school and use that to argue that they could never homeschool, but you really don't need to know everything. My mom almost never had to "teach" us anything once we'd learned how to read. We would read the lessons out of our textbooks, write down the answers to any questions or problems the material gave, and then mom would use the provided answer keys to check our work.

And yes, there were times we had questions, and there were times mom would need to look it up with us and learn with us to help explain it to us, and there were times we had to wait for dad to wake up (he worked the night shift) and explain math to us. But, by now, my mom has been doing this for almost two decades and has learned a lot of the secrets to it. There's video lesson courses for lots of subjects, where you can watch a teacher explain the material. My little brother is doing a video math series right now, and my mom watches along, so she's re-learning alongside him, and it helps her help him work it out. My older sister and I still live at home, so when something comes up that we understand but my mom and brother don't get but we do, we can help explain them in ways that make sense.

One might be tempted to say "well, if it takes two decades for parents to figure out what works, only the youngest kids in the family will be able to succeed," and this thought brings me to the other main point of my thesis: though it may seem ironic, homeschooling is about community.

When my siblings and I first started school, my mom got a lot of advice from my aunt about what worked with her kids. My mom passes along her old textbooks to one of her friends whose kid is a grade behind my brother. Whenever someone posts online that they want to start homeschooling and are looking for advice, there's almost a dozen mothers from my church who come in the clutch with support, advice, and encouragement. If a kid is struggling with learning from one specific textbook, their parent can ask around and get recommendations for dozens of curricula that might work better for them. Community spirit is critical to the homeschooling process. It takes a village!

Remember earlier when I said some kids learn better surrounded by other students? That's possible with homeschooling. When I was a kid, my church offered two different bi-weekly art classes for homeschoolers. Now, they've expanded to a full-on co-op, where students can meet for classes on creative writing, art, history, or whatever courses experienced parents in the co-op are willing to offer, and there's monthly field-trips to local businesses and museums! They also have an annual fair (in the past they've done science fairs, history fairs, art fairs, and culture fairs) where the kids research a topic and give a presentation about it, with a booth where they can show their research about a particular topic.

Community learning doesn't have to be so official, though. What's to say a parent can't team up with a friend who's also homeschooling their kids? Maybe they can meet together for classes on topics one parent doesn't understand as well. They could even alternate which house they meet at for school to get their kids out of the house and around other kids more. A few families' kids can meet for an organized sport in the biggest backyard, while the parents sit on the porch with their coffee and discuss how their week has been going. They can even come up with field trips and outings to go on together, or work on projects together as a group.

Now, are there struggles related to homeschooling? Of course. Is anyone going to do it perfectly? No way! Why do I care so much?

I work with kids. The kids I see at work go to school for eight hours every day. They then spend three or four hours at our afterschool program. They go home for dinner and a couple hours with their family, then go to be by eight so they can do the same thing again. Some of them have parents in separate houses they jump in between. A lot of them see their teacher more than they see their own mom or dad.

And it shows. It really does. Sure, it's not always the case, but I have noticed that many of the kids in our afterschool program have parents who don't know their own kids. We don't call home to parents often, but when we do, it's because their kid has had a consistent disruptive or harmful behavior that we haven't been able to handle. We tell parents when an issue arises and they seem surprised. We ask how they help their children manage behaviors and emotions, and they tell us simply that they don't. We let them know what their kid did, and they say "oh, he's just like that at home; we usually just let it happen."

Hoemschooling, to me, largely falls under the umbrella of the theory I call "raise your own kids." Obviously, there's some situations where this is impossible, where families are struggling to make ends meet, or parents are separated, or something prevents parents from staying home with their kids, and I get that. There are also some home enviornments that kids should be away from as much as possible, and, by all means, let's avoid that.

But also? There are some families where one parent's entire paycheck goes to daycare services. Read that again. One parent is working full-time to pay someone else to raise their kids. Why? Isn't it better for your kids for you to simply be at home with them?

But, I digress.

The point is, one teacher should not be expected to know everything about each and every one of their students. But, every good parent should be held accountable to know their kids' unique learning abilities and challenges, and to help discipline and raise them. Sure, this might look different for every family. But, doesn't a world where every kid has an education that's designed to work for them sound better?

As a footnote, I know a lot of people say homeschool gives kids poor social skills and gaps in education, so in case anyone's wondering, I'll answer both of those for me, personally.

I will say that my education, admittedly, did lack the social aspect. I do struggle sometimes with my people skills. I wouldn't say that's a fault within homeschooling, though, it's just the result of one child of one parent not doing it all properly, and may be the result of asd as well. By contrast, my older brother is great at socializing. It depends on the kid, really, and maybe there's some stuff that could have been better indiviualized toward me, like getting me involved in more groups of kids my own age when I was younger.

As far as learning gaps, I don't know about most state, but New York makes sure it's homeschooled kids are getting their necessary education. Every quarter, parents are required to write a report of everything their kids learned and how many credit hours they had. If they don't send these in, the school board sends them several emails about it until they're sent in, at threat of the kids being put in the school system. Parents need to submit a letter of intent to homeschool their kids. Every year or two, we were required to go to the school and take a big standardized test to make certain that we knew everything we were supposed to.

As far as how well I personally fared, academically? Well, on e time, my siblings and I were told we were doing our standardized testing over a course of three days, but there was a slip-up and the teacher gave us the whole three days' worth of tests in one day. I managed to finish well before my siblings and sat down reading magazines for at least an hour, and the teacher let me take them home because I enjoyed reading them so much. All three of us kids passed this big test with flying colors, and despite mom's warning that these tests were often written with questions above their grade level that I wouldn't know yet, fourth grade Kazzy still managed to land a perfect 100%.

Later in life, as mentioned above, I graduated high school a year early, and I made it through an associate's degree in college with a 4.0 [technically, it was a 3.997, but they rounded it up in the grade books, and the only class I had less than a 4.0 in was a class where the teacher had beef with me and I got a C on the final paper because I couldn't be present for the peer review session of class due to quarantine.] Sure, most of my courses were not Gen Ed courses, but the ones that were, I excelled in, and even helped some of the other students once or twice, and since I only had one paper that was below an A- in my whole college career, I'd say I had a pretty firm grasp on academia as a whole. My older siblings also graduated with high honors, too.

me: done properly, an individalized education for every child is better than public schooling.

someone: you know, that could lead to abuse and educational neglect!

me: i cannot stress enough that that is not doing it properly.

[mithliya]

Hey! Just wanted to ask you a few questions about Germany if it's not a problem! 😊

First things first, how are you doing there? I hope you're doing good, immigrating to a different country doesn't sound easy and personally I've been thinking about doing the same once I'll get my bachelor degree, but... I'm really scared and anxious...

I also wanted to ask you how did you learn German, if you studied it in school or if you took extra classes or something, because I would like to use an effective method to learn the language 😅

And also, if you don't mind the question, which level did you reach? (I mean the CEFR level, if you're acquainted with that scale)

Lastly, I wanted to tell you that your English is amazing and if you had any tips on how to improve my English skills (I speak English as a third language) I would be really grateful! ♥️

Have a nice day! 😊❤️

hey sure thing!!

im doing well, im really lucky that this time ive moved to a country where my gf is and where i also have family in the same city. being near my aunt has really helped make me less homesick! she will often invite us over and make bahraini food for us. she also often invites us to events about arabs in exile and middle eastern events which also make me feel not too far from my culture while also making me feel lucky that i can see stories that wouldn’t be allowed to be shared in my country.

i can imagine how you feel for sure bc i also felt similarly! but don’t let that angst and fear take over. focus on what you want to do with your life and what you want to achieve and remind yourself this is a good opportunity you wouldn’t want to lose out of fear.

for how i learned german, i finished A1 in university but didn’t have the ability to learn more german then. last year i learned some german in online classes while waiting to move to germany and once moving here, i started taking real life classes at a language school. outside of that id consume german media and read some books in german, as well as watching german shows and movies. also used the apps duolingo and drops on the side. things i didn’t understand i would search up on youtube bc there’s many videos of ppl explaining language stuff on there! also ppl on here would send me anons in german to help me practice and that also helped. in real life i also often will approach people in german, they’ll notice im not a native speaker bc im slower but when they ask me if i prefer english i insist on german instead and having convos in german with people also really helps!

im currently at the C1 level. last year around this time i was at A2! i hope eventually i can be at C2

id say in general with languages, it helps to just keep practicing it by using the language, reading stuff in that language, being acquainted with native speakers, and also writing in that language helps. find people who are very annoying about every mistake you make, my english only got this good bc i was among several westerners in middle school who would mock me whenever i made a slight mistake in english 😭 besides that, reading and writing a lot in english really helped me improve!

[sootbird]

Hi sootbird :) I was wondering how you study Japanese, like, what materials or books do you use, do you attend a class or are a disciplined self-study person? I've tried several methods and apps and such and so far, nothing really turned into a routine for me...

Hello!! To answer your question about my own personal Japanese study, I took five years of Japanese classes at my university and have a bachelor’s degree in it. Right now, I’m self-studying, because I’m still not where I want to be in terms of fluency. It takes a fair bit of discipline, but I think it’s fun and I’m a big nerd so I like to study it every day. ;;

I’m so excited you’re interested in learning Japanese!! It’s such a neat language. I’m not entirely sure how to advise self-study straight from the beginning, but I can try! I’m sure there are lots of resources online for learning Japanese (it’s a fairly popular language to learn these days), but I also have a slew of books that I can recommend to you. Some are books that I used at school in my classes, and others are books that I acquired on my own over the years. The textbooks tend to be more expensive bc they have a lot of material, but I do think they’d be useful for beginning self-study, because you do need some sort of foundation before you can branch out on your own. I do think that having materials made me feel like I was properly studying it and I think has encouraged me to keep up with my self-study!

Textbooks:

Nakama books

These are the textbooks I used in my beginning classes. Nakama 1 was for first year, and Nakama 2 was for the second year. I think they’re pretty good books, and you can rent them for a semester on Amazon it looks like.

Genki books

I haven’t used these textbooks, but I have friends who did use them in their Japanese classes, and I’ve heard good things about them. I recommend checking the reviews and seeing which book series (Nakama or Genki) you wanna go with. Of course, if you feel like splurging, you can always get both and cross-reference them.

Other books: These are other books that I use to supplement my study. AKA you don’t need them right away.

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar -- Makino/Tsutsui

A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar -- Makino/Tsutsui

The Handbook of Japanese Verbs -- Kamiya

A Dictionary of Japanese Particles -- Kawashima

All About Particles -- Chino

The Handbook of Japanese Adjectives and Adverbs -- Kamiya

Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication -- Kamiya

The first step you wanna take before anything else is learning how to read and write the Japanese syllabaries. Japanese doesn’t use an alphabet like English does. Instead of the written characters representing individual sounds, they represent syllables. Let me illustrate this with an example: the Japanese word for “heart” is こころ. As you can see, there are three characters there. When written in Roman letters, it is spelled “kokoro.” Six letters in our alphabet, but only three Japanese characters. The syllables in that word are “ko,” “ko,” and “ro.” You can see how the writing system is syllable-based.

Japanese has two syllabaries. The first is called hiragana. The second is called katakana. The syllables represented by these two systems are exactly the same, but the syllabaries are used differently. Hiragana tends to be used more, and katakana tends to be used for loan words (words from other languages that have been integrated into Japanese). I’ll use “kokoro” as an example again.

Here is “kokoro” in hiragana: こころ

Here is “kokoro” in katakana: ココロ

The use of hiragana versus katakana is something you’ll get used to with experience, but it’s important to know BOTH syllabaries. I didn’t learn katakana well enough at the beginning and it haunts me to this day. Don’t rely too heavily on romaji (the writing of Japanese words in Roman letters) because the Japanese don’t use it. Only use it as a pronunciation tool at the beginning. I do use romaji on a romaji-to-Japanese keyboard I have on my phone, but that’s really just a matter of convenience and for quicker typing.

Learn both of the syllabaries and practice writing the letters as you go. I recommend using a fun pen! After that, the textbooks can tell you what to do next. (The textbooks do tell you how to learn hiragana and katakana as well at the start, if you need more guidance than the internet gives you.)

Here are some other important resources that will be a big help to you:

Dictionary app: A Japanese dictionary is gonna be really important and I find that it’s handy to have one on your phone. I don’t know about Android, but the App Store has a few of them. I use one that’s just called “Japanese Dictionary” and it’s got a red icon.

Online dictionary: If you can’t get your hands on a dictionary app or if you’re on the computer, you can use this great online Japanese dictionary called Jisho. I use it frequently when I’m on my computer.

Flashcard app: Flashcards are gonna be your best friend. I recommend getting a good flashcard app. The one I use is Anki, and I have it on my phone and on my computer. You can download it for free on your computer and I think it’s free for Android. I have an iPhone and I had to pay 25 bucks for the app but I’ve heard that there’s a free version on the App Store too? It might just have ads, but I’m not sure. Anyway, Anki is great because it will make note of the flashcards you’re having trouble with and give them to you with more frequency. There are also a lot of decks that people have uploaded to the Anki website, so you can find all sorts of community-made Japanese decks that you can import (I think you have to import a deck on the desktop version, but then you can sync it up to your phone). 

And finally, some things to keep in mind before starting Japanese. 

Japanese is generally agreed upon to be a pretty difficult language to learn (for English speakers at least). As a native English speaker, I would agree that it is kinda hard. The general sentence structure of English is subject-verb-object. In Japanese, that structure is subject-object-verb. Since the verb is at the end of the sentence, it can be tricky to switch your brain around to the order.

A lot of people will also tell you that kanji is a nightmare. Kanji are the third element of the Japanese writing system, and are characters borrowed from Chinese. In fact, Japanese did not have a written form until the 5th century, and all of it came from Chinese. Kanji characters however, have mostly retained their resemblance to Chinese characters. They more closely resemble traditional Chinese characters, and visually look like a step between traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters.

Anyway, they may look quite complicated and there are a lot of them. But you will learn to love them, and they’re so fun to write. This is a kanji-positive zone so if you ever get stressed about kanji come chat with me and I will reassure you.

Here is a book I am currently using to effectively memorize kanji, and I highly recommend it. It’s beginner-friendly.

So, you may get stressed out by Japanese and maybe by all the information I just gave you, but don’t worry!! It’s a very fun language to learn and anyone can learn it if they put their mind to it! I believe in you! Come back and ask me if you have any questions.

Thank you for the ask and I hope this helps!!