LL 2022

Ideas on Learning Languages in 2022

At the end of the year, many people reflect on the different goals and their progression in those areas. They think of whether they have met or have not met goals during the year and decide what to take on next. Due to this being a large scale issue, I will focus on some reflections on a topic that is important to myself and others with similar perspectives. This would be the topics of language learning.

Many individuals, particularly those who are on the younger side of the life spectrum have a lot of excitement for learning new languages. This is a great thing; however, a lot of people don’t really understand how to develop a sound program to get themselves to the goals they want to achieve. For some, the idea of “fluency” and reaching that is the goal, but they don’t know how to start or how to continue towards that path, so today I will attempt to lay down some elements, some methods to help them get there. On the other hand, some need to learn a language because of workplace employment opportunities or requirements. For them, it can be hard to maintain a proper motivation to keep to their goals.

To be clear, it is evident that those who have a genuine interest and discipline will do much better than those who don’t. These suggestions put forward won’t be a quick path, but an effective one for progress; therefore, here are observations and suggestions for language learning for the new year.

To start, perhaps the most important part of language learning in the new year, is to realize that your ideas now will likely change as the year progresses. For example, you might be interested in German, French, Spanish and Italian. This hypothetical person might do 3 months of German and then decide to work on Spanish. For the rest of the year, they work on Spanish until December. This individual may think they have failed, but what they don’t realize is that, they are just are on a different time scale then they had set about. Unless, they decide not to learn those other languages, whose to say that you must learn those 4 languages in a year’s time. Chances are, getting that strong foundation in one or two languages can give you the opportunity to learn the culture and cover more topics than learn 4 languages to a basic level. In the Romance languages, they build upon each other in the scheme of learning, so if you want the majority of them, then progress in one will lead to progress in others. Patience is a virtue as they say.

For the daily route, spending 10 minutes a day is much better than spending 70 minutes on one day. If you think about how you learn in school or something you are interested in, then it’s clear there is a lot of repetition. For some situations, grinding can be effective, but not when you’re just beginning. What comes to mind is taking an exam or going for an interview, grinding can be useful. If you are doing this a side project for fun or even in a productive capacity, repetition is key.

For watching shows, if your language level in a given language is intermediate or above, then casually watching shows is just fine. That being said, if it’s not there; which you can evaluate by watching without subtitles, then there is little profitable time happening if you don’t work while watching. According to material and studies supporting this conception of repetition, it is necessary to understand at least 90-95% of material to grasp and gain from watching or reading a material. If one writes or records vocabulary during a show, then it can be useful.

On number 4, I think a rounded program of the three major elements of reading, writing and listening is crucial to give you the overall usage for interacting with native speakers. I doubt that only knowing how to read will be satisfactory for those who like to communicate with others on a daily bases.

Finally, for your learning project. Find out what works for you. I like lists since I don’t prefer to be told when and what to learn. Creating my own schedule is much more fulfilling to me; yet for some, they like being told what to do. Nothing wrong with either of those tactics.

In conclusion, don’t be hard on yourself about learning a new language. If you want to learn a new language, then you will get there if you keep at it. Depending on your schedule, you can always adjust your schedule to increase or decrease your time involved. Taking an outline such as the common framework for languages with the references of B1, B2 and so on is very useful. Anyways, everyone have a great new year!

Film Review for Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln

Check it out below.

Link

Space Gas Station 20

*ding dong*, “welcome!”. Announced the cashier, a man in an asteroid 753 suit approached the center, “the usual please”, as he glanced at his watch, “and what would that be sir?” asked the cashier. The man looked up and rubbed his forehead, “new huh, well Ceres Menthol then”, “alright”, the cashier walked to the back and grabbed the cigarettes. “Here you are, will that be all for today?”. “Yes, that and 20 Zeno on station 9”, “okay, that’ll be 30 Zeno please”, as the man pulled out his hologram wallet, he looked outside and saw a car stop at station 8; 2 cops left their spacecraft and began inspecting the stationary craft on station 9, ‘shit’, “sorry, kid nothing personal”, the man pulled out a laser pistol from his belt and pointed it at the cashier, “you’re coming with me” yelled the man. The cashier raised his hands and led the sketchy man out the doors, the cops noticed the pair and raised their weapons “freeze! That’s enough now!”. “Don’t move, if you approach any closer I’ll splatter his head across the galaxy”, the cops relented and allowed him to enter his spacecraft and he booked it, once at a far enough distance. The man turned to his captive, “list to me, I need you to pull up a station, I need to contact someone”, the cashier hesitated, “it's a complicated situation, I won’t hurt you unless you try any trouble,” the cashier complied and pulled up a stream. “Enter 666666,” told the man, the cashier looked at the man in shock, “oh, don’t give me that look, the guy who I need to call is a bit out there, '' once the numbers were entered the stream began. “Hello, Reznovski” stated the voice, “come on Viktor, no need to be so formal with me, I know we’ve had our differences, but I need your help”, “if you pay 1 and a half times the normal price, then I’ll supply you.” Reznovski gritted his teeth ‘you son of a…’, “alright; I need some fuel, I got some guys tailing me and I had to resort to taking this kid as leveredge to get out of there”, “tell me the coordinates and I’ll see what I can do”. The cashier in haste, sent a message with their position, “ah, galaxy… quadrant…, sector…”, you are in luck, there is a station, 5 light years away; I can divert the police for you… but that will be extra of course.” Viktor smiled, showing golden teeth, Viktor sent them the coordinates and the duo jumped to the correct speed, once they arrived at the station, Reznovski looked over to his captive, “here’s the plan, I'm going to fuel the vessel up, you’ll stand watch; once I finish, i’ll hand you a charged credit; it’ll be enough for the taxi ride home and then you’ll forget everything that happened today, do you understand?” The cashier nodded and when Reznovski finished fueling; the screens of the other fueling consoles turned red, and began beeping then.. “What the?”, *kaboom* the entire station exploded in flames, after the flames settled, Reznovski pushed the ruble to the side. The flesh of his face had melted off, along with the rest of his body; he looked over and saw the cashier’s organs spread out crushed among the wreckage, “alright, Viktor I’m going to hunt you.” He waited in hiding until a group came to confirm the job had been completed, after they left the spacecraft, Reznovski rushed to the vessel and got into the drivers side; he gunned it out of there among a hail of laser fire.

Reznovski arrived at the new Tarntanya City, South Asteroid Cluster.
Once at the port, Reznovski walked down mainstreet among a haze of lights advertising this and that sin overhead, he proceeded to a bar on Suleiman road; there he entered a passage into a shadow filled building; he ascended the stairs and knocked on a door where he was asked “what is the password?” asked the voice behind the door, “Trabzon'' stated Reznovski and so, the voice replied “very well” and after a short pause the door opened, there Reznovski leered around the room and approached a mahogany bar. A madam server asked him “what can I do for you this evening?”, “what is the price on Viktor this evening?” asked Reznovski, the women walked to the other side of the room and typed information into a console and then returned, “the price on Viktor Parshenkov is 500,000 credits alive, 350,000 credits dead.” Reznovski paused and then stated “what leads are there?” The women approached Reznovsk and activated a Radio frequency that emitted into Reznovski’s brain. “Alright, thank you” and so Reznovski left the bar and entered main street. Once Reznovski approached the building where Viktor Parshenkov was stationed at, he took cover behind a concrete barrier in order to mask his surroundings; he waited until nightfall and then made his move, outfront of the establishment, there were two guards patrolling between the perimeter; once one of the men turned. Reznovski approached behind him and covered his mouth, as the victim struggled; Reznovski snapped his neck and dragged the man into the covering. Reznovski took cover and waited for the other guard to approach and once he repeated the fateful maneuver; Reznovski covered the man's mouth and gave him a piercing blow to his 4th vertebrate, the victim dropped and laid still. Reznovski went to the second story door, he laid a wire under the door. Once peering through, it appeared to be multiple people occupying the establishment, Reznovski kicked the door open and rushed into the corner room next to the door and chucked a flashbang into the room, once the occupants were disillusioned, Reznovski blasted the three members with a hail of bullets, he ran to the nearby wall to take cover from the onslaught of bullets from the other rooms. Reznovski rolled into the next room where he found Viktor using the refrigerator as a shield, Reznovski lit the ice box with many rounds until Viktor shouted “alright, I give up!” and left his cover. Reznovski smirked and retorted “good on ya, let’s get down to business” Reznovski held Viktor by his handcuffs and threw him down into a chair in a dim lit room, “tell me, how me how much did they pay you?”

Filipino Language Announcement

Hello everyone! Today, I am announcing that with the cooperation of a good friend of mine, Ms. Lagare that she has completed a translation of Lingq's 60 mini stories into the Cebuano language.
Cebuano, referred to by most of its speakers as Bisaya or Binisaya is one of the important languages of the Phillippines, despite this, it does not have the educational internet presence of its neighboring languages such as Tagalog or Indonesian in the English language, therefore, for the interest of expanding that presence, we've come up with the translations. These translations are in the public domain. Audio for they do not exist as of yet, but that may come in the future. I hope for those of you interested, that these will be of help when learning more about the Cebuano language and Filipino culture.
Sincerely,
Hikari.
Link: https://archive.org/details/cebuano-translation-docs