Tips To Have A Nice Routine

waiting for a text back 

:❤️ : … 

:❤️ :❤️

Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple.

J.k. Rowling

language learning tip: an interpreter’s guide to learning vocabulary

If I had a penny for every time someone told me they had trouble memorizing words, I’d probably had hundreds of pennies, which is not very helpful in terms of paying rent but hey, could just possibly lure a tiny dragon under my couch, so.

Anyway, if you’re one of those people and feel like you don’t have a good head for words, here are a few tips.

1) Sounds silly, but stop focusing on how bad you are at this. Vocabulary is most of what you need in any language - if you’re serious about speaking that language, you’ll need to find a learning technique that works for you, and if you keep convincing your brain you just can’t do it, you’ll end up believing it. Not helpful.

2) Learning anything gets much harder with age, and also when you’re stressed. Be patient with yourself, and manage your mental health. if you’re learning for school or for some important test, give yourself time to get there and plan ahead, because vocabulary learning is not the kind of studying you can get done by pulling an all-nighter. And if you’re an older learner, just remember what you’re doing is extremely healthy for your brain, so however long it takes you to achieve some results, you’re doing something really good for yourself: kudos!

3) Whether you’re writing your own material or studying with online apps, keep vocabulary lists short. You’re not going to learn 100 words in one go. It’s much better to work with groups of 20, or even 10, so if you’ve been given a list from a teacher, or are compiling one from your textbook, remember to chop it down in smaller units.

4) The sad thing is: many people learn better by writing things down, especially by hand*. Personally, there are still words I write down fifty times, but thanks to the current magic of technology I mostly go on websites like Memrise or Quizlet and use the ‘write’ function. As a warning: it’s going to be difficult and irritating, especially at first, because obviously these programs won’t forgive you spelling mistakes, but in the long run, I find writing things forges a direct path to your brain that’s not easily undone.

(*This is also why you shouldn’t use a computer when taking notes in class.)

5) Another good way of learning is creating context. You can simply associate a word to another (for instance, noun + adjective, which also helps you memorizing gender if gender is a thing in your target language), or you can write lists centered around specific themes (animals, family, the nuclear winter we’re all headed towards). One thing I find helpful are lists based on clusters of similar words - think stuff like sun, sunrise, sunny, sunglass and so on.

6) Speak as often as you can - not necessarily with people. A conversation with a potted plant can be just as helpful, and placing a new word you’re learning in the context of a sentence is a very good way to give life to it.

7) If you have access to an etymological dictionary, use it. Remembering words is much easier if you understand how a specific word was born, and the logic behind it. 

8) Use post-its or change your computer’s wallpaper to difficult words. Seeing stuff all the time is an excellent way of making it seep into your subconscious. I used to write on my arms, which is Quirky and Interesting, but also not very kind to your skin, so maybe stick to the bathroom mirror.

9) Remember there’s a difference between active and passive knowledge, and that both are normal and good. Active knowledge are those words you’d use in conversation; passive knowledge are words you recognize and understand, but wouldn’t use yourself. Depending on your level, education, linguistic curiosity and reading habits, the number of words in each category and the ratio between them will vary, but your passive knowledge is always going to be much deeper than your active one. Don’t be stressed about that.

10) Finally, some good news: you need fewer words than you think. Many native speakers around the world function on as little as 500 words of active knowledge; 2000 words is considered a good base for reading most texts. If you find it helps you, keep track of how many words you’re learning, but don’t let it obsess you. Human brains are built to fill in blanks with reasonable solutions, and the more familiar you become with grammar and basic words, the more you’ll find that you’re able to guess the meaning of new words simply by their context or what they look like.   

Oh, and since this is tumblr -

11) Don’t learn an excessive number of ‘weird’ or ‘cute’ words, especially if you’re a beginner. Writing lists of elf-related words can be fun, and a way to keep yourself motivated, but ultimately what you need are normal words - stuff you can use in conversation, in a restaurant, and to read the news. I met people who stubbornly fill their notebooks with absurd lists, and it’s all very nice and instagrammable, but what tends to happen is that sooner or later, they feel they’re not making any progress and get discouraged. So please remember - whatever language you’re learning, it’s most probably a human language human people use to speak to each other, which means you’ll need all sort of boring words to understand them and make yourself understood. Embrace the boring, the average and the mundane - they’re never as boring, average and mundane as you fear.

this ones for the girls

the water warriors fighting for access to clean water for all

the teenagers imprisoned for fighting back against oppressive regimes 

those fighting for access to education for all

for the future of the planet 

for gender equality 

for safety and protection from gun violence

for governmental representation and engagement for youths 

for the rights of immigrants 

for syria and the rights of refugees 

for literacy and the representation of WOC in books

for trans and queer rights 

for protection of girls against forced marriage and child slavery

i hope that one day we live in a world where children are allowed to just be children, where they dont have to fight tooth and nail for their rights and their futures, but i could not be prouder of this generation 

(from top to bottom: Autumn Peltier, Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny, Ahed Tamimi, Malala, Greta Thunberg, Melati and Isabel Wijsen, Artemisa Xakriabá, Ridhima Pandey, Jamie Margolin, Rowan Blanchard, Jaclyn Corin and Emma Gonzalez, Shamma bint Suhail Faris Mazrui, Sophie Cruz, Bana al-Abed, Marley Dias, Jazz Jennings, Sonita Alizadeh, Payal Jangid)

dark academia on a budget

(because not only rich people can be dark academics)

-thrifting with friends for old sweaters that someone’s grandfather must have worn

-getting second (or third or fourth) hand books and reading the notes that other people left in them

-making sure everything is tidy and clean, no matter what

-adopting a minimalist aesthetic

-or making your own decorations (which then makes you better at lettering and art)

-sitting in a local cafe and buying the cheapest thing so that you can study there (and making sure that you tip as much as you can)

-reading poetry online, printing your favorites, and posting them on your walls

-taking as much of your family’s clothing that they’ll let you have

-rotating the same few shirts, pants, and shoes without anyone noticing

-a lack of jewelry (because there are more important things)

-sitting outside at a park to read or write

-looking outside windows on public transport while listening to somber music

𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓬𝓱𝔂 𝓪𝓬𝓪𝓭𝓮𝓶𝓲𝓪

Burning candles while you study. 

Watching storms. 

Wearing velvet. 

Singing poems to yourself. 

Writing calligraphy. 

Wandering the graveyard. 

Hidden coffee shops. 

Misty afternoons. 

Listening to the same songs on repeat. 

Herbal tea. 

Late night stargazing. 

Cloak like jackets. 

Feeling the presence of life in old buildings. 

Being quietly strong. 

Homeschooler Culture:

The Top 7 Lies About Homeschoolers Video

Literally every lie from The Top 7 Lies About Homeschoolers Video

Shakespeare

The Iliad/The Odyssey

Getting to sleep in

Watching High School movies and thinking “Thank God I missed that”

Doing homework at the Library

Online Classes

That one classic book you will defend to the death

That other classic book you would rather burn in hell than read again

Minecraft

That feeling you get when an adult asks you “Why aren’t you in school?”

This might not be a universal experience, but one time my sister told someone she was homeschooled and he said, “Oh, Home School, that sounds nice, where is that?” and everyone in my family died inside

When a fictional character is homeschooled and they’re portrayed as having no friends/no socialization/overly-strict parents and also probably brainwashed and you just… why

idk if Life of Fred is homeschooler culture, but it should be

Calling vacations “field trips”

“What school do you go to?” uuuuuuugh