lilac-studies

[lilac-studies]

my friend and i were going to study a language together and wound up having to cancel our plans due to scheduling pressures, but! through research we came across a really cool resource for reading in a TON of languages: bloom library!

as you can see, it has a lot of books for languages that are usually a bit harder to find materials for—we were going to use it for kyrgyz, for example, which has over 1000 books, which was really hard to find textbook materials for otherwise. as you can see it also has books with audio options, which would be really useful for pronunciation checking. as far as i can tell, everything on the site is free as well.

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— Kató Lomb + 10 requests for language learning, from Polyglot: How I Learn Languages (p.159-161)

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beauty & the beast aesthetic

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17th century astronomical art of Maria Clara Eimmart; celestial splendor from a forgotten woman who broke the bounds of her time.

(brainpickings.org)

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we are the universe experiencing itself

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@floweroflaurelin \\ june jordan directed by desire: the complete poems of june jordan: "intifada incantation: poem #8 for b.b.l" \\ @destielgaysex

kofi

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#me when I’m in thesis mode

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Last weekend I went with my colleague to this wonderful bookshop/museum/cafe right beneath the Sacré Cœur! A tasty treat break was exactly what I needed to complete my psych assignment~

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having a tumblr blog is for those of us who could never manage to keep a diary for more than two weeks when we were twelve

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“once upon a time” in other languages

korean: “back when tigers used to smoke” (호랑이 담배 피우던 시절에) [x]

czech: “beyond seven mountain ranges, beyond seven rivers” (za sedmero horami a sedmero řekami)

georgian: “there was, and there was not, there was…” (იყო და არა იყო რა, იყო…)

hausa: “a story, a story. let it go, let it come.” [x]

romanian: “there once was, (as never before)… because if there wasn’t, it wouldn’t have been to told” (A fost odată, ca niciodată că dacă n-ar fi fost, nu s-ar mai povesti…)

lithuanian: “beyond nine seas, beyond nine lagoons: (už devynių jūrų, už devynių marių)

catalan: “see it here that in that time in which beasts spoke and people were silent…” (vet aquí que en aquell temps que les bèsties parlaven i les persones callaven…) [x]

turkish: “Once there was, and once there wasn’t. In the long-distant days of yore, when haystacks winnowed sieves, when genies played jereed in the old bathhouse, [when] fleas were barbers, [when] camels were town criers, [and when] I softly rocked my baby grandmother to sleep in her creaking cradle, there was/lived, in an exotic land, far, far away, a/an…* (Bir varmış, bir yokmuş. Evvel zaman içinde, kalbur saman içinde, cinler cirit oynar iken eski hamam içinde, pireler berber [iken], develer tellal [iken], ben ninemin beşiğini tıngır mıngır sallar iken, uzak diyarların birinde…)

[lilac-studies]

Tuesday morning felt so special to me. I’m always so busy with work and studying and seeing loved ones that I rarely ever go out by myself. It was nice to wander through some bookshops and enjoy the sunlight ☀️

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[lilac-studies]

Now that we’re about a month into the new year, I find myself losing steam on my resolutions around this time. I thought I’d start a little challenge that is open to anyone to join to help us stay on track and have some fun together! This is the 30-Day New Year Momentum Challenge (#30nym)

What you need to know (but none of this is mandatory to be clear!!):

Open to absolutely anyone, and you can start whenever and post at your own pace

So you can post as often or as little as you want - this is by no means designed to be a 30-days-in-a-row thing (I actually expect this challenge to take up most of my year)

Answer each prompt as a caption to a photo post OR as a standalone prompt (or you can answer a batch of questions as one caption/post, whatever!)

The ultimate goal here is to learn about others’ goals and methods of achieving them + create a teeny little community for our goals

TAG YOUR CHALLENGE POSTS WITH #30NYM and reblog this so more can join/so you can share with the community! Not required at all but this way we can all follow along with each other!!

psst you can also tag em #heyshef if you want me to see them

If this sounds like something you’d be into, prompts are below the cut ↓

please feel free to DM me with any questions/etc about this challenge! and remember to tag your posts with #30nym! im really looking forward to doing some of these challenges over time together ^^

[lilac-studies]

Some journal prompts I like (writing and creative) :

I’m going to do a separate list for some chronic illness journal ideas bc I’ve found it’s so helpful!

Write out the lyrics to your favourite song and/or do a drawing / painting / collage of your interpretation of the song

Books you want to read

Films you want to watch

Diary entry about your day

Bujo style - plan out your week or month

Pressed flowers

Scripting (manifestation)

Vision board (manifestation)

Notes on a topic you’re learning about (for example I like to watch lots of nature or history documentaries and sometimes I make notes on them in my journal or if it’s witchy stuff I write it in my grimoire)

Letter to past you / future you / someone in your life (remember they don’t have to read it, this has helped me so much in certain situations so I can get out whatever I want to say without upsetting people) / someone you love who has passed on / the god or deity you worship if you worship one / to your future children / future partner

Wishlist

Ideas for things (like stories you want to write, photo shoots, fashion, films, art etc)

Poetry (either that you’ve written or that someone else has written that you like)

Get to know me page so if you want to look back on your journal in the future you can see what you were like then

Films you’ve watched / books you’ve read / favourite songs from the past month

Positive affirmations

Shadow work

Sticker / photo dump

Recipes

Go sit in nature and draw or write about what you see or feel when you’re there

Draw out your alter ego

Stick in scraps from throughout your day (such as receipts, labels from things, stickers, pictures etc)

Book reviews

To do lists

Design your dream room

Your childhood (draw or write about childhood memories, hobbies, things you used to collect, stick in childhood photos, the toys you used to play with etc)

Travel bucket list

Life bucket list

Family tree

Write a list of things that make you happy

Stream of consciousness

Write about your dreams and what you think they might mean

Brain dump (I sometimes do this before I go to sleep if somethings going on)

Doodle page

Stick in notes your loved ones have written to you

List of favourite quotes

Self care ideas

List of songs / playlist

Goals in life / 5 year plan

Plan a day out or a holiday

Plan content you want to make for social media

Tattoos you want to get

Things that make you happy

Outfit ideas

Hobbies you currently have

Hobbies you want to try

List of things you collect

Yoga / exercise routine

Seasonal bucket lists

Things you want to learn or research

Mood tracker

Stick in any colouring pages you’ve done

Daily skincare routine

List of Studio Ghibli films and tick off the ones you’ve watched

List of your favourite things

List of things to do when you’re bored

If you normally write about your day, draw pictures of all the things you did instead of writing (a bit like in a comic book)

Advice people have given you that has been really helpful

Ideal morning / night routine

Notes from therapy / hospital appointments

Page of all your cinema tickets

List of people that inspire you

Angel numbers

Crystals and their meanings

Your favourite artists

Worry tree

Favourite memories

Write your dream wardrobe

Reasons to stay alive

Stick in photos and write a bit about them

Names you like

Favourite words

Write about an event (a description of what happened, how it left you feeling, who was there and what they said and did, what you wish had happened instead, the reasons why you find it hard to let go, steps you could take to start to move on)

Notes on a language you’re learning

Collage about a film you’ve recently watched

Glow up check list

Write about a tarot reading you did

What does heaven and hell mean to you

Flip through a magazine and do a collage of pictures from it

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Learning a language = learning a culture

To truly understand a language and the people speaking that language, you also have to make a conscious effort to learn about the culture and history of these people. I know that the cultures of the countries where a language is spoken can be very different (e.g. Mexico vs. Spain, France vs. all African states where French is spoken, and even England vs. Ireland vs. Australia), so these suggestions work best if you have a specific target country in mind.

Here are some ideas on where to start: 

look at the political system of your target country/culture: how does it work? Who are the most important people right now? Is there a monarchy? 

look at the (broad) history of your target country/culture: since when is it an official country? Has it been in any wars? If so, with who and why? Was this country ever colonised or a coloniser? 

research the most popular TV shows from the last 20 - 30 years and watch some of them

find out the most popular sport of this target country/culture and the culture surrounding it 

research the holidays and how they are celebrated and whether there are any special holidays & what they mean to your target country/culture

watch some movies and TV shows that were made in your target country/culture, so you can get insights into the everyday lives of these people and how they interact

watch/read some news of your target country to find out what’s happening there right now & what the most important topics are for them

research how the school & education system works

research how the healthcare system works

research the typical cuisine of your target country/culture

find out whether there is some kind of traditional wear, its history, and what it means to the people

find out whether there are any indigenous people living in your target country, what their history is, and how they are perceived/treated in the country’s society nowadays

are there any stereotypes about this country/culture? Research whether or not they are true and why they exist in the first place

find out whether there is some kind of traditional folk music. Listen to it and find out its history and what it means to your target country/culture

what are the main religions of your target country/culture and how incorporated are their practices in society?

are there any social divides in your target country/culture? If so, what are they based on?

how is your target country’s relationship to its neighbouring countries?

.

If you have any other ideas or suggestions, feel free to comment or reblog!

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Honestly? My recommendation for how to tackle the big subject that is kanji?

Start with sight recognition and meaning, but use a resource that also breaks the kanji down into radicals. Learn radicals as it makes sense, to aid in better recognition/memorization of the kanji.

Try to learn vocabulary alongside learning kanji. This will also help you in being able to remember and recognize them because it’ll give you context.

Once that’s a bit under control, you’ll probably start to associate on’yomi and kun’yomi readings with the kanji from learning vocabulary. Good. Keep that in the back of your head for now.

Then, depending on how all of that’s going for you, learn stroke order, readings, or radicals, based on what you feel makes most sense for your situation.

I’m moving up into N1 kanji and need to be able to better differentiate the kanji from each other, so stroke order is what I’m working on, because I want to see the kanji more as its individual parts. After I’ve got that, I’ll probably move onto readings, and then if I really feel I need to, I’ll learn the radicals.

Recommended apps for learning kanji:

Renshuu

Kanji Teacher - Learn Japanese

[lilac-studies]

Masterlist for learning languages

Brick-by-brick language learning challenge

Best language learning tips & masterlists from other bloggers I’ve come across

my tips for a language study plan

topics for new vocabulary

how to find a language partner

my tips for how to practice writing in your target language

Recommendations for Learning Languages & Other Stuff

Learning a language = learning a culture

Vocab list templates: #1, #2, #3

Some easy Fantasy books to read in your target language

Language Learning Tips: #1, #2

6 tips for learning languages

App for organizing your language-learning (and anything else): Trello

Apps i use to learn languages

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Requests / Asks:

-> you can find all my answered asks by searching for #ask, #ask response or #request

Indo-European Language Families

Improving your vocab

German infinitive & when to use it

English word order

How to find a language learning partner

Changing a game to your target language & "harmful" learning strategies

Can you get away with just using "das" the majority of the time in Germany?

Do you have any tips on how to improve your writing in your target language?

Do you have any resources/methods about how to reach an academic level in the language you’re learning (& how to improve your writing)?

Do you have any linguistic recourses on Ruhrpott-Deutsch?