Goldieslearning - Big Plans, Baby!

it’s always amazing to watch adults discover how much changes when they don’t treat their perspective as the default human experience.

example: it’s been well-documented for a long time that urban spaces are more dangerous for kids than they are for adults. but common wisdom has generally held that that’s just the way things are because kids are inherently vulnerable. and because policymakers keep operating under the assumption that there’s nothing that can be done about kids being less safe in cities because that’s just how kids are, the danger they face in public spaces like streets and parks has been used as an excuse for marginalizing and regulating them out of those spaces.

(by the same people who then complain about kids being inside playing video games, I’d imagine.)

thing is, there’s no real evidence to suggest that kids are inescapably less safe in urban spaces. the causality goes the other way: urban spaces are safer for adults because they are designed for adults, by adults, with an adult perspective and experience in mind.

the city of Oslo, Norway recently started a campaign to take a new perspective on urban planning. quite literally a new perspective: they started looking at the city from 95 centimeters off the ground - the height of the average three-year-old. one of the first things they found was that, from that height, there were a lot of hedges blocking the view of roads from sidewalks. in other words, adults could see traffic, but kids couldn’t.

pop quiz: what does not being able to see a car coming do to the safety of pedestrians? the city of Oslo was literally designed to make it more dangerous for kids to cross the street. and no one realized it until they took the laughably small but simultaneously really significant step of…lowering their eye level by a couple of feet.

so Oslo started trimming all its decorative roadside vegetation down. and what was the first result they saw? kids in Oslo are walking to school more, because it’s safer to do it now. and that, as it turns out, reduces traffic around schools, making it even safer to walk to school.

so yeah. this is the kind of important real-life impact all that silly social justice nonsense of recognizing adultism as a massive structural problem can have. stop ignoring 1/3 of the population when you’re deciding what the world should look like and the world gets better a little bit at a time.

A Resource for Reading Practice: The Chinese Reading World

I wanted to share a resource for reading practice that I stumbled across recently. It’s called the Chinese Reading World, and it was a project led by the University of Iowa.

The site was put together from 2005 to 2008, so it’s not super up to date. However, there is a ton of content! Everything is sorted into 3 levels: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. 

Each level has 30 units, and each unit has 10 lessons. The lessons begin with a vocab pre-test, then there is a reading with some comprehension questions. Lastly, there is a vocab post-test, which is the same as the initial test (at least for the lessons I’ve done so far). There’s audio for each lesson text, but unfortunately it can’t be streamed—you have to download it. There is also an achievement test at the end of each unit.

My experience has actually been that I already know all the words on the vocabulary tests, but the reading passages contain other words that I’m not familiar with.

So far, the readings I’ve encountered are not very long. This is nice since reading longer pieces can be frustrating at times. With shorter readings, you can just read 1 or 2 on some days and read more when you have more time/patience. I believe the readings are taken from Chinese newspapers.

Also, every unit has a theme. With 90 units total, there are bound to be themes that interest you. Example unit topics:

Directions and Asking Direction 方向和问路

Sports and Outdoor Activities 体育和户外运动

Chinese Music and Musicians 中国音乐和音乐家

Chinese Minorities and Local Customs 地方习俗和民族风情

Chinese Sports and Olympic Games 体育和奥林匹克

Contemporary Chinese Literature and Writers 中国当代文学和作家

The 3 levels also each come with 5 proficiency tests. They seem to be based on vocabulary knowledge, so expanding your vocab is clearly a huge focus of this site. The only thing I’m unclear is about is I’m not sure exactly when the proficiency tests are meant to be taken. After completing all units? Or are they spaced out so you are supposed to take test 1 after the first few units, test 2 after the next few, etc.?

I’ve started working my way through the advanced section this week. With 300 advanced lessons alone, it really feels like I have an infinite number of articles to go through!

Source

actually really fucking funny that sometimes the little guys on the wet speck close their curtains because that thing got annoying

juujuucake_

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjYTI7EO67v/

I always wondered why the Western Zodiac and the Chinese Zodiac were both called zodiacs if one was associated w astronomy and the other w time in general. Like what defines a zodiac that the word is only used to describe these two things? Looking up the word “zodiac” in the dictionary didnt help bc it only talked about the western one.

Well, I decided to look up the etymology for zodiac and it turns out it comes from the Greek for “circle of little animals.” I love humans

UGC 9391 by NASA Hubble

Doses of Glamour ⚜️

Networking and the Social Hierarchy

Some personal background on my upbringing, both my late grandfather and father were influential in the political and business sector. We’d host politicians, two of whom are presidents today actually, their business colleagues and we were constant fixtures at society events.

The importance of networking is one of the most valuable things both the men in my life taught me. They were constantly building and nurturing relationships, irrespective of the individuals place on the totem pole. My father never failed to mention that it was the biggest component to his success.

If you’re not making an effort to expand your network and climb the social ladder, I can only assume you have no desire to advance in your career or improve your dating prospects. The sooner you understand that everyone is trying to achieve some kind of upward or social mobility, is the moment you’ll no longer pedestalize individuals in a higher social class and move through the spaces that once intimidated you with ease.

Hierarchies are omnipresent in all societies weather you’re aware of this or not. The social hierarchy is defined as an implicit or explicit rank order of individuals or groups with respect to a valued social dimension. Social hierarchies are influenced by income, wealth, education and occupation.

Based on where you presently rank in the social hierarchy the strategies you’ll implore for your advancement into a higher social class and the circles you’ll target will differ. As you advance up the pyramid your strategies for further advancement will have to be reevaluated and adjusted.

With that being said, here are the key factors that will determine your upward mobility in today’s social hierarchy as well as

How to navigate the challenges that come along with these factors.

How to achieve upward mobility through networking strategies.

Education:

I can’t emphasise enough how important it is that you get an education. If you have the opportunity to go to college weather it be an Ivy League or a community college please do so. If neither of those options are financially accessible to you, make use of free online courses, paid certifications and YouTube university.

There are a lot of well paying job opportunities that don’t require a college degree (I’ll do a post on this if anyone is interested) What’s important is that you become an expert at something, find what you’re skilled at and master it. Focus on mastering your skills through internships and practical training programs as it will equip you with experience making your transition into the workforce easier.

Where to find online courses and certifications:

Hubspot Academy

Edx

Coursera

Udemy

Future Learn

Stanford Online

Alison

DataCamp

Cybrary

Codecademy

On that note when you’re pursuing your education you must be networking by:

Connecting with professors, when they are well connected they could refer you for internship opportunities and write recommendation letters for you.

Making contact with professionals in your desired industry for guidance and mentorship opportunities through LinkedIn

Attending networking events related to your desired industry, to build a network of industry professionals thus opening doors for career opportunities in the future.

Joining industry and role specific Facebook and LinkedIn job groups, a lot of career opportunities are posted there by company employees and recruiters.

It’s always a plus when the job posting in the group is posted by a company employee, if you ask kindly most don’t mind putting in a good word for you to get your resume at the top of the pile of resumes.

Career:

Finding a well paying job at a entry level (entry level refers to 1-2 years of experience) can present as a challenge for many but it is not impossible.

Here are two ways to combat this challenge:

By mastering high paying hard and soft skills within your desired field. Hard skills are learned abilities acquired and enhanced through practice, repetition, and education. Hence why outside of your educational pursuits you should be acquiring these hard skills through online courses, training programs and internships as mentioned above.

Soft skills include attributes and personality traits that help employees interact with others and succeed in the workplace. Showcasing and highlighting both hard and soft skills in your resume will help you stand out with recruiters. ( I’ll do a post on resumes if anyone is interested as I’ve got HR experience) So it’s imperative that you research hard and soft skills within your desired industry for long term success.

I will always reiterate that the key to succeeding at any goal isn’t to work hard but rather to work smart. The second way to land a well paying job at a entry level is by targeting emerging or growing industries with a low-medium entry barrier. Research these industries, the roles that are most in demand and the skills required for that role then pursue the role that aligns with your personal career goals.

A obvious example of such an industry is the tech industry, there are plenty of technical and non technical roles that pay an average of 60k and upwards from customer success,sales,operations and digital marketing ( digital marketing skills are high in demand due to the technological age we live in). I am highlighting the tech industry because a lot of the opportunities in the tech industry are remote, meaning you have a shot at a well paying job regardless of what country you live in (Remote work from all industries can be found on LinkedIn)

As a career woman you should be networking by:

Attending top industry events hosted by successful companies and recognized industry professionals.

Ensuring that you purchase the best tickets for these events as they normally grant you access to VIP lounges, granting you the opportunity to expand your network into the realm of managers, directors and executives.

Joining a master mind group, a master mind group being a peer-to-peer mentoring group used to help members solve their problems with input and advice from the other group members.

Joining business organizations, as this will expand your network and offer you opportunities to grow in your career.

Where to find networking and industry specific events:

LinkedIn

Eventbrite

Meetup

Allevents.in

Event Browse

The Business Journals

All conference alert

By joining your city’s chamber of commerce

Conclusion:

We all have different starting posts, by no means does that imply that you will not be successful at the goals you’ve set for yourself. I am simply stating that your goals should be paced in terms of your present circumstances, so that you are fully equipped for the position you desire to hold in society. There are two other key factors in addition to the ones mentioned above that I will expand on in another post.

Signed

Doses of Glamour ⚜️