Phan's Lab

I am fascinated with natural, homemade skin care regimes. I would like to share with you what I have learned through using and testing them. Also, I am addicted to learn new languages. My goal is to self-study German, Japanese, and Chinese. I'll describe my journey all the way through. I am happy to have advice and comments from everyone who has the same interest with me.

[phanlab-blog]

Is Baking soda skin friendly?

As I introduce a bit about myself and my interest in my first post, I am fascinated in learning new languages and learning about natural skincare methods. I would like to make this blog as a place where I share and learn about them both. It seems a bit odd to put these two unrelated subjects into one blog, but, yep, why not?

If you are okay with that, let's first get start with Baking soda, one of the most controversial ingredients for beauty.

Oh, I think I should let you know what are my beliefs in beauty regime so that you could identify if your share any relevance to it or not. 

First of all, I only believe in the efficiency of a product including both natural or synthetic cosmetic after I have a time to test it out on my own skin. I learn a hard way that there are so many things that are too good to be true out there. Also, the ways to use the produce and the amount are the key factors leading to success. I learn that if I have bad experience from a product in the first time, possibly, I use it incorrectly.

Now, back to baking soda, there are a lot of confusing information for the use of baking soda on skin out there. Some say good, and some say bad. I am not going to talk much "theoretical" information about it. Instead, here is what I have been experiencing with Baking Soda on my skin:

I have been using baking soda as my primary exfoliant for almost 9 months, twice a week, at night. I experience good results so far, however, only when I use it correctly. 

How did I use it?

First, when I use baking soda for exfoliating, I do not wash my face with anything, not even water. Because baking soda is quite harsh, so I don't want to over exfoliate my face with it. I start with a teaspoon of baking soda on my left hand, then slowly pour some drops of water in the hand to make a base of baking soda. Then I use my right hand fingers to gently spread the baking soda base on my face like a face mask. The key is " to gentle", don't rub it on your face.

After you done the face mask, leave it there for about 5 minutes.  Then wash it off. Washing the baking soda off your face is also a crucial step. Please don't rub! Since the baking soda is supposed to be dry on the face right now, I take a bit of water on my both hands and damp the whole face. Haft of the baking soda mask is supposed to be remove by water alone. Again, don't rub at this step.

Then, when with the rest of baking soda left on your face, now use your fingers and gently massage the face all over for about 2 minutes. You will notice a lot of death skin come out at this step. Wash everything off after you done the massage.

I always, always, always, follow the baking soda mask with a honey mask. I put pure honey on my face right away when my face still a bit wet. Honey will bring back moisturize and other good stuffs for your skin. Some people advice that you should not leave any mask on your face for more than 30 minutes. However, I often leave the honey mask as long as it all dried, or as long as I want to, normally up to 1 hour. 

I used to have terrible white heads, but now they all gone. This combination of baking soda exfoliator and honey mask work wonderful for me.

Next time, I'll take about my experience with another controversial beauty ingredients: Coconut oil

[phanlab-blog]

How do I start with my languages?

As I introduced you a little bit of my background and my goal for studying German, Japanese, and Chinese at the same time. Now, I would like to show you how I get started. I have been doing this for a week, and feel quite comfortable with the procedure. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions since I know a lot of you are expert to language learning.

Here are what I have been doing with the languages that I target to master

For German language, I bought an account of Germanpod101.com which cost me about 99 U.S dollars.  I find their site is pretty good, good service, and quality. I hate learning language through textbook, so their method of teaching with videos and audio suit my learning style well.

I also enjoy listening German songs, especially German version of famous English songs. I find that since I already know the lyrics of the songs in English, listening become more comfortable. 

This channel is what I've been listened to 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDC4sfXhyHg

 Also, I listen to a lot of Disney songs with German version such as Let it go, and bla bla, you name it. Just key in "Let it Go German version," for example, on youtube and you get what you want.

For Japanese, I have been using the document of the same company which sell me the German language package: Japanesepod101.com. However, I did not buy them. I am using the free sources they post on youtube. I will consider buy the package or finding another free source after I finish their free series for absolute beginners. 

I also listen to quite a lot of Japanese songs on youtube. My goal is to familiar to the sound and the stop of each word first, so I did not care much about understanding the lyrics.

I am not studying writing and reading Japanese at this time. I believe, I should start with the sounds, and speaking the language first. This belief is applied for all 3 languages that I've been learning so far. 

For Chinese, source from the same company Chinesepod101.com, free series for absolute beginners on youtube. I find down that Chinese language source is quite abundant out there, so I think I could learn the language completely free without buying any package from a professional company.

I also find this series of show is really awesome for language learning. It's actually designed for language learners. It is posted by ChineseCorner. I actually do not know who she or he is. Anyway, thank you so much ChineseCorner! Here is the link

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Hah5R7xxdrbqDqAm8eWTQ

Yep, that's it. I will try to stick around with these channels for a while and search for more, new, greater sources. Thanks for stopping by!

[phanlab-blog]

Pham's Lab

I am a girl who excessively interested in learning languages, and learning skin care tricks. I know it is so easy for us today to have tips and tricks from other people who we have never met in persons through out the world. That's is such an amazing environment to learn. However, just like a coin which always has two sides, not every popular tips and tricks which are easily found in the internet creditable and practical. 

I want to make this blog as a "lab" for  my case in learning German, Japanese, and Chinese at the same time, by myself from scratch, and where it is going to take me to. I am going to write report about what works for me and what doesn't.

A bit about my background, I am Vietnamese, 27 years old female. My mother tongue is Vietnamese. I've lived in the U.S for roughly about 4 years. I learn a lot about linguistics, and language learning theories in school. Sadly, I don't really believe those theories which sound academically would work in  practice. So, why  not test them out by myself, I thought a month ago? Now, here I am. 

I have been studying and using English for more than 11 years. Long enough for me to forget how I did start with English. So, now I want to refresh and challenge myself a little bit by learning new languages on my own. No formal classes are taken.

Why do I pick German, Japanese, and Chinese?

Japan is my favorite country in the world. I definite visit it someday. Because of the love to the country, I love the language as well.

China is growing so fast. I see Chinese people almost anywhere I have been so far. I think mastering Chinese would be one of an important skill in the near future.

For German, I may have to move to German for work soon, so it becomes a must- have skill for me now.

So, in general, my motivation towards each of these 3 languages is totally different. Also, I am an absolute beginner for all of these 3 languages. Let's see how much time it is going to take me to self-educate these three languages and how far I could go. I am willing to spend at least 2 years for them.