Procrastination Nation

♀  | 18 | INTP-A | Studyblr/Langblr | Spanish Native - Romanian Native - English C1 - French B1

[treestomeetyou]

This feels like when you’re finally invited to sit at the Adult Table and learn all the family lore in the most surreal infodump of all time

[obake-learn-stuff]

Anyone have tips and idk book to recommend for learning japanese !???

I can't find anything ?!

And like every youtuber i watch give different advice ?!

[jpn-langblr]

Hi, welcome to tumblr! I noticed your post didn't have any "langblr" tags, so I'm gonna start by recommending you look into those tags, especially the specific ones for the language(s) you're studying (i.e. "japanese langblr" or "japanese studyblr" as opposed to the wider "langblr" or "studyblr" tags). Tip no. 1 is always, always, to start by learning your kana (hiragana and katakana) by heart. You can memorize them in two weeks or less if you dedicate yourself to it! Having these characters down pat before you do literally anything else will save you so much trouble. Practice writing these by hand, it really does help with memorization. Get a gridded notebook to help you with even character size and weight.

Next, I don't recommend focusing exclusively on learning either grammar or vocabulary, I really think they go hand in hand. When you find some material to work with - example sentences that illustrate grammar points, for example - take notes on the words they're using. Keep them. Make some flash cards. Use them to construct example sentences of your own when you're practicing.

Get some listening practice in early to help you get a natural intonation. Music, anime, YouTube videos by native speakers, news broadcasts, anything is fair game here! The goal is just to listen, and listen a lot.

My personal favorite resources, in no particular order, are

Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese (free; online textbook/lesson plan)

Imabi (free; online textbook/lesson plan)

WaniKani (kanji; free trial; subscription or lifetime payment thereafter)

Bunpro (grammar; option to match furigana to your WK level; free tiral with subscription or lifetime payment thereafter)

Basic Kanji Book (kanji; paid unless you can find pirated PDFs somewhere)

10ten (browser extension for Firefox and Chrome; hover dictionary)

Comprehensible Japanese (listening exercises; also has a YouTube channel)

There's also the #beginner tag on my blog if you're looking for more inspiration, but here are some highlights for you:

How to make a self study plan by @soulbutterlanguages

Duolingo sucks: Now what? by @ruhua-langblr (it really does; avoid it for Japanese)

Textbook recommendations for beginners by @tokidokitokyo

Tips for writing sentences in a foreign language for beginners by @tokidokitokyo

Kana phone wallpapers by @mars-langblr

Easy Japanese 2015 by NHK, mp3s and PDFs released for free (resource shared by @theanishimori)

Cheers, and have fun!

[elbiotipo]

what the fuck did I just download

[elbiotipo]

Context: I downloaded what's called simply "Encyclopedia of Religion" by Lindsay Jones because I found some articles online and they seemed well written in the style I like. I was like, okay, it must be one of those thick reference books, like, 500 pages long.

No. Apparently it's a 15-volume masterwork made by what I think are a hundred experts covering everything from Muslim Sufism to the Hindu Vedas to Slavic gods to the beliefs of the peoples of the Chaco to recent Afro-American religious movments to the structure of the papacy to Selkam religion and back. There are even individual articles on animals like bears and cats. It's honestly scary.

God must be in there, somewhere.

[elbiotipo]

Bro just the preface + list of contents + list of contributors is 100 pages. I still haven't reached the index.

There's a Japanese dude who wrote articles about foxes, toads and frogs, hedgehogs, cocks (direct quote..). There's also articles about.., just reading titles: scholasticism, a lot of Muslim terms I'm not familiar with, theriantropism, that weird Japanese cult who did those sarin attacks, ancient canaaite religion, humor and islam, Jenovah's Witnesses, Gender in Celtic religions, an overview of prehistoric religion, and a lot of things I have never heard about. This is all from different collaborators listed on the same page.

This is just the table of contents. The encyclopedia starts in page 152.

This is scary. Did God write this.

[elbiotipo]

If you want a link, you can find it on Anna's Archive by searching Encyclopedia of Religion, apparently by the Macmillan Library Reference.

It's 170mbs. I am not responsible if your PC crashes.

[elbiotipo]

The thing is that every single article, even if it's half a page short (and they're all well written) has annotated bibliography and primary sources on it. You could seriously get lost forever here.

[hamletthedane]

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

[hamletthedane]

Want to learn something new in 2023??

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

[hamletthedane]

Want to learn something new in 2024??

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Full beginner mechanics technical training, if you want to go more in depth

Playlist on how car engine physics work if you want to go ultra in depth

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

Yucatec Maya

[wildsurvival]

[bear--hearted]

This is a beautiful graphic but it doesn’t explain the pros and cons of each fire type.

The Swedish torch is good for an efficient and contained fire, it’s controlled and good for cooking over and produces less light and heat than other fires. It can be difficult to keep going once you burn through the original log

The teepee is your traditional campfire. Good for heat and light not great for cooking, burns through fuel fairly quickly

The star fire is one of the slowest burning and not well protected but provides an even heat good for slow cooking and is excellent if you have limited fuel and need the protection a fire can provide

The lean to is a compact and efficient fire that evolves into a dense and hot bed of coals. The structure creates a good source of air flow which can help damp wood burn. A slightly better cooking fire that isn’t as bright. It also provides protection from wind on one side

The platform fire is incredibly hot and will create a very thick bed of coals but it doesn’t have a lot of air flow and is a little harder to get started.

The log cabin is big and bright and has lots of air flow which again is good for damp logs. You can also use this structure to start a smaller fire in the middle while drying out bigger logs. This fire will crumble into a messier bed of coals that don’t produce particularly even heat for cooking.

The modified leanto is excellent if you need it to perform multiple functions. The side with more fuel will burn bright and hot and the side with less fuel will burn less hot but more evenly and controlled, this gives you different cooking options.

[rinitachan]

reblogging for writing purposes. the exact reason will come soon enough.

[kornwulf]

For starting a fire, the Log Cabin is probably one of, if not the, most consistent and reliable kindling setups. It’s tighter packed and has more protection against wind than a teepee, but still has sufficient airflow to get a good ignition, and enough structural stability to prop up the bigger logs long enough to get them burning consistently.

[dspd]

Source: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8uVHQp2/

[thoughtportal]

5 simple exercises to awaken dormant muscles

{source}

[onemillionwordsofcrap]

I appreciate this video a lot--people don't realize how important it is to start slow if you're trying to come back from a completely sedentary lifestyle, and they get really hurt as a result. Straining your muscles too much, too suddenly can land you in the E.R. and the wrong joint injury can permanently affect your mobility, so please start with absolute basics and easy stretches!

[ruhua-langblr]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and all endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[happyheidi]

𝗂𝗀: 𝖻𝗅𝗎𝖾𝖼𝗁𝗈𝗋𝖽𝗌

[hamletthedane]

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

[hamletthedane]

Want to learn something new in 2023??

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

[hamletthedane]

Want to learn something new in 2024??

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Full beginner mechanics technical training, if you want to go more in depth

Playlist on how car engine physics work if you want to go ultra in depth

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

Yucatec Maya

[emmastudies]

Free Weekly Mood Tracker

It's Day 7 of the 12 Days of Giving! Tracking your moods, sleep, productivity, etc can be a great way to identify how your days are going, and how they could get better! This is an easy way to do that! With 3 different designs to suit a variety of tracking styles, one will suit you! Includes Monday & Sunday start options. Plus 25 mood stickers!

Download Free Here

Check back in each day for a new free item! Hopefully they're all useful and a fun way to end the year 🥰🎁

[ampervadasz]

[catchymemes]

[tiralatele]

[itwashotwestayedinthewater]

this is the biggest plot twist of our generation

[ruelukas22]

I thought there was no way he could come out of that looking like a winner and he proved me wrong so hard

[everythingfox]

“On a picnic with my new friend”

(Source)

[yourfonts]

Vintage fonts

Please, like or reblog if you download it

Controwell - Casino - Carrington

Breamcatcher - Excalibur - Freudian one

Retroholic - Hazel deco - Volan

Hermione - Instan zen - Made cannes

Metric - Passion - Rhumba

Dymaxion - Sunset boulevard - Tostada

Verve - Vintage warehouse - Vintages

Showtime - Maddison - Hamburger heaven 

[soulbutterlanguages]

What should you be reading to maximize your language learning?

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of literature we can learn from. Baby books bore you, but you’re not ready for any type of novel, so what’s left?

Here are some tips 

For beginner/A1/A2 learners

Watch a YouTube video in your target language, then read the comments

you’ll already have vocabulary from watching the video, most of the comments will probably use that vocab

it’s a short enough text that you won’t get fatigued

the only downside is that sometimes people utilize abbreviations and slang terms, but even these are good to know

Read news headlines and if you find one you understand almost fully, try to read the full article

sometimes the vocabulary used is not common in everyday usage, but it’s a total win for an A1 learner to fully read and mostly understand any text

while vocab is not used everyday, it will give you the ammunition to talk about that particular topic

Watch Netflix in target language with subtitles in the same language

believe it or not, you will learn to read better, especially because you don’t have to understand written description of visuals (usually uses very niche vocab) or emotion

and now you can slow down or speed up 

I watched DARK in German before I felt like I could read a book, and I understood 85% of it. This is because I looked up some vocabulary in the first episodes and they continued to use it throughout the show so it really cemented in my head to the point where I don’t even think about it. Now, I had to rewatch some conversations the characters had, but that’s much better for understanding than switching it to English or looking up full phrases and sentences. 

For intermediate/B1/B2 learners

read fanfiction

it’s ALWAYS good to read about something you’re interested in so if you like any major movies, books, television, this is the perfect option for you

most people use relatively basic language and you can choose the length 

find a comic book or graphic novel

like watching tv, that visual aid really helps with understanding of the plot without all those tricky descriptions

read a book in your target language that you’ve read and loved in your native language

this is by far my favorite way

you don’t have to worry about trying to understanding the bigger picture because you already know what’s happening/what will happen, you really have to discover the meaning of each sentence and then you begin to picture the scene using only your target language

Check out my other post for methods of how to get the most out of reading !