— Anne Carson, Penguin Modern Poets 1: If I’m Scared We Can’t Win

Personally, i agree with your point of view on the Japanese YouTubers community.It gets tiring and sometimes confusing.I have always been conflicted about whether the content is helofu4and informative for me or not.I am not condemning their content; it just seems to be aimed at entertainment seekers.(regardless there may be informative channels out there, but i haven't followed any for many years now). Please stay safe and remember that sharing your relationship is a double-edged sword of sorts.

That was when I finally decided to stop watching their content – when I realized it no longer felt healthy/beneficial for me. I just spent a lot of time feeling annoyed with it, or feeling like it wasn’t really entertaining anymore.

There are a lot of channels with informative content! Abroad In Japan (Chris) is great. He’s really honest about Japan, and he posts a lot about culture and travel. I also really love his sense of humor, and I love that he’s up to try new things and is respectful of the culture at the same time.

I also love Bilingirl Chika! Her fun mix of English and Japanese makes her videos both a learning tool for language and culture and entertaining to watch. She makes a lot of videos about Japan, life hacks, language tips, and more! Her personality is so bubbly and fun, and she’s really positive but realistic in her videos. She deserves way more followers than she has!

The final favorite is KemushiChan (Loretta). Her Japanese is really good, and she’s currently getting her masters degree in Japan! She has a lot of videos in Japanese, and she often features other Japanese YouTubers on her channel. She posts a lot of informative and helpful content about learning the language and “normal” life in Japan. I think she’s awesome!

I didn’t mean to turn this into a recommendation thing, but because I keep talking a bit negatively about foreign Japanese YouTube, I wanted to share a few channels I do love! A little positivity never hurt anybody, eh? Lol.

top played songs of october 2020! hope everyone had a fun october and halloween!

shop my stickers

don’t we love a hidden calendar?

Late anniversary present for myself.

Gotta love a new TTMIK book.

It like a diary/planner.

Challenge for next month I think

tag yourself as hogwarts houses, study edition:

slytherin:

into dark academia, can drink 100 cups of coffee in a day, competitive to a fault, most likely head of the school or school council, studies in libraries, night owl, listens to podcasts, loves mythology, is a teachers pet, is a perfectionist, probably is a tutor or has some education-related side hustle, opens the door for people.

ravenclaw:

loves the smell of old books, always on the go, fascinated by architecture, make pinterest boards of study notes, runs a studyblr, drinks herbal tea daily, secretly competes with slytherin, has surprisingly messy handwriting, gets stressed easily, shares their notes with everyone, helps their teachers if they are carrying too much stuff.

griffindor:

is 99% energy drink, watches tv in class but still manages to get good grades, procrastinates but manages their workload, makes beautiful flashcards, has a bujo, is friends with everyone, organizes after school study classes, calms everyone down before exams, studies last minute, listens to audiobooks, encourages their classmates to do their best

hufflepuff:

is trying their best, studies in groups, best friends with their teachers, writes poetry, collects cute stationery but never uses it, has the best study snacks, has their pet to keep them company when studying, loves making study playlists, thinks that taking buzzfeed quizzes counts as ‘studying’, sleeps in class, doodles on their notes

ig: lostpalette

some uni essentials ☁️

JULY 19 / 2019 

me: hey bud u have a lot of work to do 

also me: its fine i can watch netflix

me later: *gets stressed over the work i ignored*

me: :0 

How to practice speaking in a foreign language

Hi! I’m learning many languages, including French and Spanish, and I wanted to perhaps share some advice for practicing speaking, because it can be a very daunting task.

Listen! I know I sound like a broken record saying this, but input is everything. Listen to podcasts and watch TV shows and youtube videos. Listen as often as you can, and if you have a conversation coming up with a native speaker, then try and listen to your target language for half an hour or so before.

Shadow! This means listen to a recording of a native speaker, and repeat what they say after they say it. You could try using Easy Languages videos, as they usually have subtitles.

Keep on working on your vocabulary and grammar! For this, an extra tip would be to focus on your weak areas. For vocabulary, immerse, and look up words that you don’t understand, and maybe put it in a flashcard app if you think that it would be useful. Grammar-wise, just drill the rules into your head, and say correct sentences out loud. Try to understand them rather than just memorise them.

Make a native speaker friend! This is the best advice I can give. You can find a buddy on language discords, or apps like HelloTalk and Tandem. If you are a beginner to intermediate student, then just talk about whatever comes up. If you’re an upper intermediate or advanced student, then make an active choice to speak about difficult subjects like literature, music or politics. Make sure to look words up as you go!

Speak to yourself all the time! Narrate your actions, and try describing what is going on around you. You can also just talk about your thoughts and feelings about things.

Keep a notebook of words you don’t know when practicing, and look them up later! This is pretty self-explanatory. If you are speaking and forget the word for ‘toaster’, then write it down and look up the meaning later on.

Learn set phrases and fillers! This is very important if you are learning a language for an exam, because then you can find ways to use advanced phrases above your level. Try lifting them out of books, conversations, podcasts and TV shows, and put them in a flashcard app like Quizlet or Anki to memorise.

Avoid your native language! Using your native language as a crutch won’t serve you, as much as it will make things easier in the short term. Try to speak around words, using the words that you already know. You could say “a place where you do exercise” instead of “gym” if you forgot the word for it. Try doing stuff like that and eventually your speaking will become more fluid.

Be brave! People aren’t as judgmental as you might think, so put yourself out there!

Thank you for reading this post! I hope it was useful to you!