set a timer for five minutes and tidy up. (you’ll go past the timer.)
pack your school/work/lunch bag
pick out which clothes you are wearing tomorrow
prepare any food/drink you can (putting water in coffee maker, etc)
make a to-do list for tomorrow
check if anything on that to-do list can be done now
do one final email check
do one final planner update
relax
you’re gonna have a great week! you got this!
they’re toxic and prevent you from being productive and doing your best. change won’t come right away, but do your best to stop these bad habits.
comparing yourself to others. in anything, we tend to compare ourselves to others even though we know how unhealthy it is. stop comparing yourself to your friends and classmates because everyone works in different ways at different paces.
complaining. i get it. nobody wants to write multiple essays or do fifty math problems. it’s either you do it or you don’t. if you don’t do it, there’s nothing to complain about. if you do the assignment, why complain if you know you’ll finish it anyway ? complaining is counterproductive and honestly quite annoying.
being negative. “i’m gonna fail this test.” “i can’t do it.” everyone says these things to themselves, including me. sometimes i’ll say “i don’t understand anything” even though i’ve barely tried. speak your success into existence and put in the work. believe in yourself or at least accept the situation if you didn’t prepare enough so you can do your best.
cramming. if you know you have a test on friday, start studying a few days before. rather than spending a whole 3 hours studying the night prior, study in smaller increments several days beforehand. take your time to understand the concepts. cramming stresses the body by trying to force memorization which usually doesn’t end up well.
going out when you have homework. i get it. you want to hang out with your friends, but you really should get your work done. make an effort to finish most/all of your work before you go out. personally, the fact that i have work to do lingers in the back of my mind which lowkey stresses me when i’m trying to have fun. who wants that ?
procrastinating. you all know why you shouldn’t do it so there’s really nothing to say. it’s one of the worst habits to have, and i hope we can all work towards getting rid of it.
p.s. thank you to everyone who disagreed with my advice but gave me feedback in a polite way. i’ll keep editing slightly because i usually write these at the end of a long day so sometimes my intended meaning doesn’t get across to some people.
This should be reblogged by everyone. Even if you’re straight, you should be a supporter.
So, I’ve been hanging around the studyblr community for a couple of weeks now, and it hit me that I’ve never done an introduction or anything. So, here’s a little bit about me.
- Alex
- Australia
- Highschool
- Slytherin
- In my third year of learning German and am planning on going on exchange soon
- I play trumpet
Uh, and yeah, that's about it really, I’m kinda boring but it’s fine. Have a nice life!
OH! message me if you want to be friends or something.
I write this bcz I’m a huge language enthusiast and I’m frustrated about the way most methods and language classes/courses approach the process of learning. I’m not a professional but I have a lot of experience in studying foreign languages: I have taught myself Lithuanian and reached the upper intermediate level (B2) in 4-5 years without much help from others, and in Spanish reaching the same level took me only 2 years bcz I simultaneously studied it at school and already knowing French helped me a little. I want to help everyone who wants to start a new language, does not have the possibility to join a language course or just feels frustrated of the stagnation they might experience in the early phase of learning a foreign language.
So, if you want to learn a new language, I suggest following tips:
• Immerse yourself from the beginning! This is really important so that you can get yourself familiar with the intonation and pronunciation of the language. Listen to radio or tv and try to read whatever you can (ingredient lists from the food packages, newspaper articles, whatever!) it doesn’t matter if you can’t understand much yet, it will come! If you start a language with a new alphabet learn the alphabet really well first thing.
• Get an overview of the grammatical structure of the language! This is often not properly done in language courses where you learn some vocabulary and greetings but after 60 pages of the textbook you still have no idea how many verb tenses or noun cases the language has. Take a look even at the “hardest” topics, bcz they might not be that hard after all. (for example the Spanish equivalent of past perfect is much easier than the present tense)
• With that being said, learn to recognise past tenses even when you are still learning the present tense! I find it absurd that most courses expect you to master present tense _perfectly_ before even taking a look at other tenses. Most of the time, in everyday communication, past tenses are used more frequently than the present tense + in some languages mastering the past tense can also help you to form the conditional. So, learn the past tense earlier than most ppl would recommend!
• In general, study the easiest things first! If you find something particularly difficult you gain more confidence and knowledge if you first focus on what you find more interesting (however, you can’t postpone studying boring topics eternally, especially if you are preparing or hoping to prepare for an exam at some point) In Lithuanian, I taught myself a lot of grammar before learning how to tell the time… and it was ok.
• For material: usually the country’s universities have a reading list on their website which proposes what books one could use to study the language. These are often preferable to handbooks aimed for tourists and some language methods for beginners because those mostly focus on useless vocabulary you might only need when you rent a car or book a room in a hotel. The grammar is often also relatively poorly explained in those “tourist language books”, whereas books that are aimed at immigrants or university students usually focus more on the efficient language acquisition and are written by professors and specialists. If you are persistent enough and google all possible search words in both English and the target language, you can probably find whole textbooks in PDF format, which you can then save on your laptop.
• Don’t get stuck on vocabulary! Remember that grammar is the skeleton of the language and that vocabulary is the muscles hair and eventually the clothes you use to dress up and embellish your apperance. Vocabulary is useful once you know how to use it. For me, learning vocab is the hardest part of a new language, especially bcz I like starting languages that are not really similar to any other languages I know (consider Lithuanian and Greek when I previously knew Finnish, English, French and Spanish) ofc you need to learn some of it to be able to form sentences but most traditional methods focus on that too much. My suggestion is to read a lot: start by children’s books and comics and gradually get more advanced material. When you read them, make notes!! Look up the words you don’t know and don’t be afraid of using unconventional, seemingly challenging ways to learn, such as buying a bilingual poetry collection and trying to decipher what the original poem says and compare it to the translation. 100% recommend, even for the beginner level + it’s a nice way to connect to the culture but still focus on the language itself, not on the way ppl make breakfast in that country. (That’s something that irritates me a lot in most Youtube’s language videos where ppl are just discussing the traditions of the country in English when you had come there to look for the explanation of grammatical structures or just to hear the language being spoken. smh.)
• A really important thing about vocabulary is to learn all the abstract words, such as conjunctions, really soon! For example, if you find yourself in a situation where you have to use the words therefore and otherwise, it is almost impossible to try to explain those words without first translating them to another language.
• Make vocabulary learning more interesting and deep by learning about the etymology of the words you learn. It can be mind-blowing and it helps you to remember the words better.
That’s it!
I hope these tips inspire you in pursuing your interest in foreign languages and facilitate your learning process. I might add more to this if I remember I have forgotten something of great importance.
Studying for my finances exam. 💆🏻♀️
I tried to scroll past this. I really did
Bitches love to put things into lists. Moreover, bitches love numbered shit. Here’s some numbered shit in list format to help you not suck in higher education. You’re welcome.
1. Go to class. Like 210% serious. I don’t give a shit if you’re a get by on nothing, A+ slacker. You’re fucking paying for this crap so you might as well get the services owed to you. Take your ass to class even if you zone out 99% of the time. You know 1% more than you did when you walked up in there. Congrats, asshole.
2. All that free time you have during your first week of classes? Make it your bitch. Don’t just print the goddamn syllabus and be like all done. No motherfucker. Take a good fucking look at that assignment list. What’s due next week? Yeah, do that shit now bc I know you don’t have anything else to do. Then when you’re coughing up a lung six weeks into the semester and don’t feel like getting your ass up to do that calculus homework, you’ll remember this week. You’ll remember that you’ve been a week ahead this whole damn semester. Pat yourself on the back, ass wipe.
3. Prepare yo self. No seriously. You got notes to print for class? Sure you could be like all those other bitches and just shove them into your backpack, or you could actually /prepare/ for class. I’m talking looking that shit over, identifying key concepts, getting a decent grasp of the material before your ass is even in class. You a STEM major? Yeah, make this kinda shit your life because now class is like one bomb ass group review session. Again, you’re welcome.
4. Snack like a motherfucker, but save that junk food shit for the weekends. From now on, you are a fucking health guru during the week or if you’re a slacker like me, at least on the days you have class. Fruits? Hell yeah. Pack some of those. Mind wandering in class? Snack on some apple slices. Can’t stay awake? Keep eating some almonds or some shit, but don’t be that bitch with the potato chips. Just don’t.
5. Read. Yeah, you heard me. Read and I’m not just talking assigned reading. I bet my left butt cheek that your campus library has /something/ of interest to you. Commuting and don’t want to drive out there? Library databases bro. We’re in the digital age, motherfucker. I’d bet my other butt cheek that the shit you want is in a nice little PDF somewhere. But na man, you thinking maybe you want to go into computer science? Check out computer science books and eat them up bro. You don’t like reading them? Probably not the field for you. You a biology major in your second year? Yeah dumbass. Time to break out the bio books and not the ones your professor is shoving in your face. Amaze your friends and teachers with your out of class knowledge. Be a fucking star.
Requested by an anon, how to get over the fear and anxiety of public speaking/presenting. I struggled with this throughout middle school but kicked it to the curb in high school. Here’s how.
1. Know your topic like the back of your hand. A lot of presentation anxiety stems from getting up there and suddenly forgetting everything you practiced. If you know your stuff, you’re not going to have to worry about this.
2. Practice, practice, practice. If you have younger siblings or someone in your family who is willing to sit and listen why you rehearse, even better. They may be able to identify holes in your presentation such as clarification or comprehension issues. You want your audience to know your topic
3. Be organized. If your teacher allows, have flashcards or an outline of what you want to talk about. Now this shouldn’t be your whole presentation word for word in front of you because then you’ll never make eye contact with your audience and your teacher will count off. Trust me. The notecards/outline should be just key points you can glance at to jog your memory on what you want to talk about. So if I’m giving a presentation on Aphrodite my outline would look like this.
Aphrodite
Goddess of love, beauty, and sex
Born of white foam of sea
Venus in Roman culture
Daughter of Zeus
Married Hephaestus
Sexual relations with Ares
Had x number of children
You get my point. Short sentences to jog my memory and I would fill in the details in the presentation
4. Before you present, chew some gum. If your mind thinks you’re eating, it assumes you have no reason to fear danger (anxiety) so it helps you to calm down.
5. Take a big, deep breath before you go up. Seems cliche but it always helps me.
6. Focus on your content, not your audience. I promise most of them aren’t paying attention to you either. Be confident in yourself and in your material.
things you can do at any stage in life:
love yourself
have a fresh start
go back to school
recover
make new friends
fall in love
go to therapy
learn a skill
discover your passion
repair relationships
change the world
find a new hobby
be happy
it isn’t too late for you. you’ll be okay. there’s no time limit on happiness.
a list of simple yet beautiful things to live for:
the feeling of sunlight on your skin
the smell of pastries as you pass by a bakery
being wrapped up in a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate in your hands on a cold night
holding hands with the person you can’t imagine living without
discovering a new favorite song and listening to it on repeat
having a relaxing bath after a long exhausting day
secretly admiring a beautiful stranger you saw on the train