And What About Japanese? Can You Recommend Some Accounts That Study Japanese?

Conversation topics for incoming college freshman

(Here’s a link to my tips for college freshman worried about how to make friends)

Hey! I’m Em, a socially awkward person who has yet to master the art of conversation. To help all you people who might feel the same, here are some questions to ask beyond the basic ‘where are you from?’ and ‘what’s your major?’ I hope you find it helpful and I hope you kill it at college!

1. What dorm are you in? Do you like it so far? 2. Did you know your roommate before you came to college? 3. Are there any clubs you’re looking to join? 4. What is the farthest place you’ve heard someone here is from? 5. Why did you choose your major? 6. Which dining hall is your favorite so far? 7. Do you have any pets at home? 8. What other colleges where you looking at before you chose this one? 9. Which class are you most excited for? 10. Have you gotten lost yet? 11. Do you know of any haunted buildings on campus? 12. Do you know any upperclassmen? 13. Are you interested in rushing/do you have any family involved in Greek life? 14. Opinions on astrology? (For some reason, college peeps are big on zodiac signs) 15. Biggest fear for the upcoming semester? 16. Do you have a car on campus? 17. Have you climbed the rock wall yet? 18. Are you looking to get a job this first semester? 19. Whats your favorite thing that you bought specifically for college? 20. Do you have a favorite meme?

Now, these are all pretty basic starting points, so remember that after they answer, give them a two part response. First, react to what they said. Then, add onto it to provide the other person with something to respond to. Good luck!

thank god for muji

instagram / youtube

hello july 🕊

im not a fan of pink but this month im feeling girly with a hint of brown. i guess u can call me down to earth gal 🤍 also if u like to see more back the scene of how i create my spreads, follow my ig! @nochascorner

it’s giveaway time!!

over the years I’ve accumulated a ton of tumblr-recommended stationery and there’s no way I can possibly use it all now that I’m out of school. I’m putting together a goody bag full of (unused, of course) stationery from my personal collection, plus a few hand-picked new items!! 

prizes

a fun grab bag of stationery that will include at least:

Notebooks

A collection of pens, highlighters, markers, etc

Washi tape

Stickers, sticky notes, or other fun goodies

Supplies will be from my favorite brands, including: Muji, Rifle Paper Co., Ban.Do, Zebra, Stabilo, Staedtler, etc 

rules

open to US followers only 

must be 18+ or have parental permission to enter

must be following me

reblog this post 

each reblog = 1 entry

i may pick multiple winners based on how many entries there are !!

winner(s) will be randomly picked on August 15, 2020

faq here

I’m so excited to put together this prize and share my favorite stationery with you!! good luck!! 

What did you learn about people? How might a person who is not studying develop their bullshit-ometer?

“What did you learn about people” is much too broad to answer given how much is covered in a three year bachelors degree. Everything from theories of the self, errors biases and heuristics, attitudes and emotions, theories behind behaviours, social influence, group affiliation, psychological development from childhood to adulthood and its effect, models of personality and individual differences, memory, how we learn, the psychology of choice and decisions, and the genetic/biological/social/environmental factors of all of the above and what happens when it goes wrong and becomes pathology.

In terms of developing a bullshit-ometer, or improving your judgement and understanding of evidence, the key is practice. For a module in my first year we were given a paper every week and a prompt sheet to fill in that effectively helped you tear the paper apart. Prompts included everything from the method and sample size, to the statistical tests used, whether they were used appropriately, and whether all of the assumptions of each test were met, etc. It would take me upwards of two hours to get through a ten page paper, and even then I’d miss things. Three years on, I can skim a paper or article or hear a person’s argument, spot any major red flags, and tear it apart under exam conditions in thirty minutes. It takes a lot of time and work to be able to do it quickly. Having it embedded as a philosophy into everything you’re learning helps as you start doing it unconsciously eventually.

Resources:

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. To me, an absolutely essential read.

The Art of Statistics by David Spiegelhalter. Spiegelhalter is a statistical genius, and he’s now spending his time trying to change the way statistics is taught, moving it away from learning loads of formulas and then trying to figure out how they relate to evidence, towards the PPDAC (problem, plan, data, analysis, conclusion) model. To understand evidence and pick up the misuse of statistics (aka bullshit) you need at least a basic understand of stats. This book does it perfectly, in plain English, with interesting examples. I wish it had been published when I first started my degree.

I Think You’ll Find It’s A Bit More Complicated Than That by Ben Goldacre. This is a collection of most of Ben Goldacre’s columns which used to appear in The Guardian, in which he takes a claim in the media or a new study and tears it apart. It’s an interesting read, might change your perception on a few things, and is him tackling bullshit in practice.

Reckoning With Risk by Gerd Gigerenzer. There are lots of complex statistics in this (which he signposts and you can just pass over), but understanding how statistics of risk work, and what they mean, will completely change how you read and assess a lot of claims made in the news.

The Students 4 Best Evidence blog. It mainly covers evidence based medicine, but the key concepts transfer to all research and claims outside of medicine. Anything under the bias, critical thinking, intro to evidence-based practice, and statistics topics is relevant. Particularly anything tagged ‘tutorials and fundamentals’. Their Key Concepts Archive is a good place to start.

The Testing Treatments website. Again, covers medicine, but most of the points generalise out. Under each concept, say ‘association is not causation’, there is a ‘find learning resources’ link that will find papers, online courses/modules, and books about that concept.

Cochrane Training. Cochrane are the gods of the systematic review. All their online learning modules surrounding assessing evidence are here.

Think Again: How to Reason and Argue, either the book, or the online course. The perfect crash course in reasoning, arguing, avoiding fallacies, picking apart other people’s arguments, and finding bullshit.

The Clearer Thinking website has a range of tools/mini modules. Relevant ones here:

How well can you tell reality from B.S.?

Interpreting evidence

Belief challenger, making your views more accurate

Guess which experiments replicate

More books.

A Field Guide to Lies and Statistics: A Neuroscientist on How to Make Sense of a Complex World by Daniel Levitin

How To Lie With Statistics by Darrell Huff

Do you know any Japanese Language tumblrs ?

Here are some!

@themoonwascrimson

@orenjisupeesu

@japaneselangblr

@mellolearnsjapanese

@nihongonogakusei

@japanese-langblr

@shubsx

@aidoku

@miro-yo

@twiguyslangblr

@travellingtojapan

@kohi-kumo

@study-stream

@jpnlangblr

@miuna-lngblr

@mango-learns-nihongo

@errgative

@keytoanothergalaxy

@strawblondiestudies

@bakadesu-studyblr

@learnjp

@esterse

x

so, you're taking a class and you hate it: how to make a bad class suck less

as i struggle through my spring quarter classes, i thought i may as well make a post about something currently relevant to me: taking classes that you don't like.

maybe you're taking a degree or distribution requirement; maybe you signed up for a class because it's exactly in your field of interest, but the professor is a really bad lecturer (not that this is personal experience or anything); maybe, you just...........don't enjoy your class for whatever reason.

so, you have two options: drop the class, or continue on.

since you're reading this post, i assume you can't drop the class for whatever reason—something from above, or maybe something else. i'm not going to judge you! but here's some things that, in my experience, have made bad classes, well, less bad (in no particular order).

one: find ways to make your time before and after the class in question as enjoyable as possible. likely this class drains your energy horribly—so doing something that makes you happy or calms you down before the class, and something to destress afterwards, you'll feel a bit better almost immediately. this can, in my experience, take me from hating an entire day of my week, to being frustrated but able to deal with it. examples of things i do, depending on my energy levels and time:

take a nap

read some of a book

draw

take a walk

write

two: schedule your week so you finish everything up until the day of the class (both for that class and your others) before the day of the class. for me, there's nothing more stressful than getting out of my second to last class, and realising i still have to do five types of homework before i can even think of relaxing or calming myself down about the class i'm dreading—assuming i even have any time to do so! this is a more long-term strategy, so if you can, you should start to do this as soon as possible. for me, this looks like making to do lists on my blog to keep myself accountable, or setting alarms to remind myself to do things (since i'm not very good at keeping a planner).

three: talking to your friends or family! the power of complaining before or after a really draining experience can be very cathartic. oftentimes, your friends or family will be very sympathetic to your frustrations. they can also help distract you if you need it!

four: somewhat similar to one—reward yourself for making it through the class! on wednesdays after my dreaded class, i buy myself a cookie and watch bad book reviews, because i am both food- and gossip-motivated.

five: keep on top of classwork. if nothing else, you have to make sure you don't fall behind in your least favourite class. it'll make everything feel fifty times worse. if you have a required presentation and a final project, start working on them or thinking about what/how you're going to do them as soon as you find out about them. get these done as soon as possible, or at least start working on them, so that when the due-date approaches you don't panic.

hopefully my experiences will help you!

old digital planner layout.

Beginner Japanese Resources

I’ve seen quite a lot of these going around, and have definitely taken quite a few pages out of their books, but I thought I had some bookmarks I’d like everyone to know more about, even if they already did. ^^ If you think something is wrong, or know something is wrong, then please tell me!

g r a m m a r 

Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese Grammar (easy acquaintance with grammar, but not much in-depth)

IMABI (best free grammar resource but too much information for beginners, or so it’s said. still very helpful.)

Tim’s Takamatsu/ Tim Sensei’s Corner (also good. i heard of someone who printed out the older website and got fluent in Japanese with this, so it’s probably worth checking out)

Dictionaries of Japanese Grammar (hands down the best grammar resource, bit pricey or you could just download these PDFs).

Bunpro (good for interactive grammar studies, free until may 10 and there’s a one month free trial for subscription after that)

g r a m m a r / b l o g s

Japanese Ammo (native speaker and tutor’s blog, she also has a Youtube channel here)

Maggie-Sensei (grammar articles are a bit mismatched but good for little references)

Tofugu (probably the best culture and resources blog I’ve come across. a must.)

Romy-sensei (Japanese teacher, blog is VERY helpful)

DJT Guide (for a beginner outlook on how to start and where, named because of the daily japanese thread that I don’t have too much information on but it’s a daily thread where people learning japanese shared resources/ progress/ motivational whatevers)

i n t e r a c t i v e  l e a r n i n g

Delvin Language (shows clips and asks you to identify what’s spoken. Very good for listening and you can slow them down, though use that sparingly. kinda spammy tho.)

Japanese Class (found this a few years ago, but it’s a gamified site that helps you learn vocabulary with regular exposure. recommended.)

Japanese in Anime and Manga (for fellow otakus. a bit hard for me to navigate, but it’s along a similar vein as the above site. offered in spanish, chinese, korean and french, besides english.)

Erin’s Challenge (recommended for upper beginners, or lower intermediates, but there’s a lot to do now as well! very good for listening and reading- with transcripts and subtitles- in the form of a school life role-play. offered in quite a few other languages.)

Duolingo (not a lot of information, nor is it very in-depth. good for dabbling in, maybe. try the website, not the app, if you really want to use it.)

LingoDeer (BEST app for learning the language. You could do a lot on it alone, and it can probably take you up to a little above N5, but don’t keep using it standalone for long! also offers chinese, korean and now vietnamese!)

t e x t b o o k s

TextFugu (tofugu’s online textbook, made specifically for self-study, though it works good in conjunction with classes and tuition)

Genki (widely used, most recommended by people)

Minna no Nihongo (also very popular. some consider it better than genki.)

Japanese for Busy People (especially if you’re a little short on time)

Japanese for Everyone (generally good reviews, with a lot of vocabulary - an estimated 2500 maybe? convert djvu to pdf to use.)

k a n j i (course books)

Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course aka KKLC (a kanji learning course with vocabulary in it.)

Remembering the Kanji (aka the acclaimed ‘Japanese learner’s beginning holy grail’. but it totally depends upon what you’d prefer tbh. can make you recognise kanji and what they could stand for, but that’s about it.)

Kanji Damage (aka remember 1700 Kanji with offensive yo mama jokes. ridiculous? hilariously, it does work for some.)

WaniKani (people swear by this. you can try out the first three levels to see the magic, even if you don’t think it’s your style.)

l i s t e n i n g

mykikitori (for Genki 1 apparently)

Japanese Pod 101 (a good online course in itself, but the podcasts are the most helpful of the lot. @lovelybluepanda has made them available here.)

o t h e r s

DJT Resources (sub-link of DJT Guide but probably has all the Japanese resources you could ever want!)

Nihongo e Na (more resources, probably worth checking out)

Nihongo Resources (along a similar vein with the purpose in its name)

Jakka (the site is entirely in Japanese, but it has kanji for grade school, broken up appropriately)

Happy Lilac (kind of the same as above with kanji stroke order practice material, meant for Japanese children)

This may be repeated, because similar, if not the exact same, resources in DJT are categorised neatly here. @lovelybluepanda again.

check more masterposts, some of which have been compiled here by @languagesandshootingstars

日本語の森 (Nihongo no Mori) (Good Youtube videos for beginners and advanced learners alike! They even have their lessons separated by JLPT levels!)

While that’s it for all the Japanese resources I feel do not go around a lot now, I did compile some points Japanese beginners might be doubtful in and what I had found from my own research. 

Genki or Minna no Nihongo?

Minna no Nihongo has more vocabulary (2100-2200 for 初級 levels i.e. the beginner books) while Genki boasts a little lesser (1700 for genki 1+2). Minna no Nihongo has allegedly more grammar coverage ( 〜ように、〜ために- used in native speech). However, the book is entirely in Japanese (there is a separate book for English explanations) and there is a separate book for Kanji too. The Answer Key is at the back of the book, unlike Genki which has a separate Answer Key. 

Genki is said to be more beginner-friendly than Minna no Nihongo, but if you put your mind to it, you can do either tbh. Just choose any book and stick with it!

** If you’re planning to study in Japan anytime, remember that Japanese teachers usually use Minna no Nihongo. But better do your research as well. 

Kanji?

Everyone can put in all the work they like in Kanji, but at the end of the day, Kanji is not the only thing about Japanese. You can totally use Anki or Quizlet or Memrise to drill it in, maybe even make your own flashcards and put in extra work! But to really get fluent in the language, talking to native speakers (helpful guide by @jibunstudies) is very important. Even if you don’t fully understand what they’re saying, you acquire more vocabulary and will get the nuance of basic sentences! And you get friends too, if you’re lucky!

Just for reference and no pressure, here’s the general requirement to pass JLPT levels, if you’re ever planning to take them!

Level  Kanji Vocabulary  Listening               Hours of Study N5     ~100   ~800         Beginner                 150 (estimated) N4     ~300   ~1,500        Basic                     300 (estimated) N3     ~650   ~3,750     Lower Intermediate 450 (estimated) N2     ~1000 ~6,000     Intermediate           600 (estimated) N1     ~2000 ~10,000   Advanced               900 (estimated)

(… yeah, that looks way better on a computer ok.) Remember, estimated doesn’t mean it will take you that much time exactly. Everyone learns differently! And ‘talent’ can be overcome by enough hard work so  ファイト!

頑張れ !

A GUIDE TO JAPANESE PITCH ACCENT

Japanese pitch accent is something so rarely taught in Japanese language classrooms – or textbooks for that matter – that learners from beginner to advanced levels have no idea what it is. Pitch accent is called 高低（こうてい）アクセント in Japanese, and it refers to the high and low pitches placed on Japanese words in order to help distinguish them from other, similar-sounding words.

For example, let’s look at 橋 端 and 箸. All 3 of these kanji are read “はし,” but the difference is that the first はし means bridge, the second means edge, and the third means chopsticks. But how are you supposed to differentiate these words outside of context or reading their kanji?

Pitch accent.

There are a lot of Japanese natives that don’t even understand what 高低アクセント is, but it’s what makes or breaks native- versus foreign-sounding speech. While in context a native will understand that the かえる you mean is 帰る (to return) and not 蛙 (frog), one is pronounced differently, and using 蛙’s pitch accent where 帰る’s would be used is something a native will notice.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a full lesson on pitch accent, but merely an introduction and overview. At the end I’ve listed additional resources to further Japanese pitch accent study, but it’s something that takes time and effort. A single Tumblr guide will not teach you Japanese pitch accent.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction & FAQ 2. Essential Vocabulary 3. Indicating Pitch Accent 4. Golden Rules 5. Examples 6. Additional Resources 7. Conclusion

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