Studyblr

| Sierran || senior in cambridge aice program | | aspiring biochemistry major || I follow as legendarytacosaur! || hufflepuff & pukwudgie |

[nihongogogo]

[strawblondiestudies]

Beginners Japanese textbooks

So I get a lot of questions here and on Instagram about the books I use for Japanese and what I would recommend to beginners. So I thought I’d put together a little list of books I would suggest you start off with as a beginner in Japanese (these are all books I have used myself or had/would consider using) Obviously I’m not saying you need all of these books, pick one and see how it goes (although I do recommend using more than one resource)! I may do another post like this for intermediate learners if there’s enough interest (with the textbook series they will take you to a higher level, but this is just recommendations as a starting point) ^^ 

Learning Hiragana and Katakana Flashcards

Japanese Kanji Flashcards Volume 1

Japanese Kanji for Beginners

Japanese From Zero Series

Kana From Zero | Hiragana From Zero | Katakana From Zero | Kanji From Zero

Japanese From Zero 1 | Japanese From Zero 2 | Japanese From Zero 3 | 

Japanese From Zero 4

Genki Series

Level 1 textbook | Level 1 workbook | Level 2 textbook | Level 2 workbook

Japanese For Busy People Series

Kana workbook | Level 1 kana ver | Level 1 romaji ver | Level 2

Basic Japanese

Japanese for Beginners

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

Essential Japanese Grammar

Essential Japanese Vocabulary

600 Basic Japanese Verbs

[macaronic-lang]

Hiragana and Katakana tips for Beginners

A little snapshot of my own hiragana and katakana characters. 

Many beginners encounter problems while learning Japanese writing systems: hiragana and katakana. I decided to take a look at the most common, in my opinion, mistakes made by learners.

Remember, the stroke order isn’t there to make your life harder (although it does most of the time). It is really important to write the characters the certain way as any other way makes them look slightly or completely different. 

Before I begin I would like to explain the particular way I write き・さ・ふ・そ.

There are, as far as I know, two different ways to write a character. The way I write them is more of a caligraphic approach (the second line). Mostly, learners tend to choose the first approach. 

I switched the way to write this characters as ふ is faster to write (three strokes instead of four). そ・さ・き plainly look better to me. 

Getting to the gist of the post now - common mistakes made by beginners.

1. Mirroring

Even though hiragana is more complicated (more strokes and more curvy ones), the characters are fairly more distinguishable. Learners might however make mistakes by mirroring the characters (き・ち・さ・く are the trickiest ones among them).

2. Confusing hiragana り and katakana リ

The hiragana ri り is shown at the left side. The first stroke should go down and then a little up (shown at the bottom). Because of this ri り could be written in hiragana as the 2nd and 3rd example on the left side show. 

The katakana ri リ however doesn’t have a pointed end in the first stroke (as shown on the right).

While writing a word in hiragana or katakana, you must make sure you write the correct ‘ri’. You musn’t write a word in one system and the throw a character from the other system! 

e.g. Writing リんご ( リんご ) instead of りんご

3. Mixing up similar characters

I think this mistake applies more to katakana. The most common mistake is writting shi シ insted of tsu ツ and n ン instead of so ソ.

Confusing so ソ and n ン

You should start by writing the small line first. Then the longer one. The longer line in so ソ should be pointing high, while the one in ン should be lower. 

Many Japanese people tend to make n ン really flat and so ソ higher (like me in the first picture).

Notice that the longer line is written from different sides!

Confusing shi シ and tsu ツ

The same goes for this characters. Shi シ is n ン with two small lines, while tsuツ is so ソ with two small lines. 

Confusing ko コ (the first one) and ユ (the second one)

Ko コ and yu ユ have similar writing patterns. The last stroke in yu ユ should be long and going past the first one. 

Confusing ku ク(the first one) and ke ケ (the second one)

Ku ク consists of two strokes, while ke ケ of three. The first and second line in ke ケ aren’t connected with their ends. The same goes for the second and third line. 

Confusing wa わ and re れ (and ne ね)

Easily mistaken characters in hiragana. 

From left to right: ne, re, wa

Plainly, wa わ should have a round stroke (like a belly) and re れ a little pointed end (like a leg). Ne ね has a little circle inside.

Notice that all three of them consist only of two strokes!

4. Ro ロ and its stroke order

Ro ロ has the same stroke order as the kanji for mouth 口. Don’t write it like a plain square. It has three strokes, not four! It looks different than normal when written using four or even two strokes.

Notice that the kanji looks bigger than ro ロ in normal digital font. 

Hope I cleared up some things for you. If you have some questions regarding Japanese writing feel free to ask me!

以上。

[studylustre]

ig: studylustre

[sierranstudies]

i really want to get back into bullet journalling, but i literally dont do anything ever. i also have no idea how i would want to set it up... i guess maybe i could use it more for trackers? for my vitamins and sleep and moods and how many meals a day i eat. 

[eintsein]

Redefining My Bullet Journal System

The bullet journal is probably something you’re no stranger to. It’s been circulating around the internet for a while, and it’s one of the main subjects of studyblr posts. However, when I started college last semester, I found that I no longer relied on my bullet journal to organize my tasks and structure my responsibilities anymore. Instead, I tried out a bunch of productivity/task-organization apps: Taskade, Actions by Moleskine, Any.do, Todoist, Wunderlist. None of them seemed to have what I needed, so I decided to give the bullet journal method another try.

The first thing I reflected on was why I stopped in the first place. At first I thought it was because the method itself allowed for a lot of freedom and I’d get confused as to what things to include and how to structure everything. But then I realized that it was in fact because I had previously been bullet journaling for other people instead of myself. Since I had what one could call an ‘artsy bullet journal’, I tended to focus more on the artistic aspect so that it would get more likes and reblogs after I posted it, when I should have been focusing on how it can organize my life. I realized that the bullet journal is a tool; the focus should be on life itself, not the bullet journal, but you can use the bullet journal to add value to your life.

At the beginning of the year, I deconstructed my organizational needs and attempted to apply that to my bullet journal method. I stopped looking at other people’s bullet journals and started thinking about my own needs and preferences. I thought about how I would best organize my time so that I could accomplish all of the things I want to accomplish in the different aspects of my life.

Supplies

The fact that I only have 2 main supplies allows me to bullet journal anywhere, anytime.

The Structure

The Practice

Simply having the tool to organize your life isn’t enough - you should also have a practice, a habit, for using it.

Going Forward

One thing I’d like to work on is future logging. As of now, I think in terms of months, since the my main commitment at the moment is my education, and monthly planning has worked out for me. But I think if I’d like to tackle on larger projects - e.g. my YouTube channel that I just started - I’d need to do a lot more future logging.

Another useful thing I want to try out is to summarize my journal entries in the form of notes. Recently I’ve been audio journaling (15-20 minutes of me talking to myself), and it’s been pretty effective. However, I have no way of ‘skimming’ the entries like I would a written journal entry. Summarizing them would help me retain main ideas of each entry and remember the things I said that are or could potentially be important and useful.

Final Thoughts

If you don’t think your bullet journal is adding value to or improving productivity and organization in your life, I think you should reconsider the way you’re approaching the system. I found a method that works for me; yours might be different. While it can be beneficial to draw inspiration from other people, do whatever helps you the most, not what other people tell you you should be doing. After coming up with an appropriate structure, make sure you maintain the practice.  

[helplessgermanstudent]

How to know which language level you’re at and tips for improving your skills - divided by proficiency level!

These are all my personal thoughts and experiences from reaching a proficient level in one language, and an intermediate in another!! Feel free to correct me or add whatever you wish<3

 1. A0 - Knowledge Level: Nothing

At this stage, you have absolutely no knowledge or very little knowledge about a language. My advice is to start out slow: the alphabet, pronunciation rules, basic pronouns, colors, etc. At this point, there’s not much you can improve on (Reading/Writing, Listening and Speaking) since you’ve got no actual knowledge to expand upon. Try apps like Duolingo, have fun with translating words such as your favorite animal, plant, or swear word. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself at this point, it’s all in good fun! Try starting a notebook in which you write down new words, (i.e. all of them) or watching a couple videos on Youtube, even if you don’t understand much.

2. A1 - Knowledge Level: Just a Bit

This is when you slowly exit the stage of “is this even a language” and enter the “beginner” world. You know a couple basic verbs (to be, to have, eat, sleep, walk, talk, etc) and some sets of basic nouns/pronouns. (weekdays, months, numbers, colors, objects you find around the house, and all that fun jazz.) You can string together a couple sentences you’ve heard twenty times on Duolingo! Regardless of the fact that “The boys drink milk” is not really something you’ll need in irl conversation, it’s good that you’re getting familiar. By this time, you should start looking into proper grammar rules such as verb terminations, tenses, noun declinations, pronouns, etc. Children’s books are a good way to learn a lot of stuff you’d need. The language is simple and it goes straight to the point, which is the only type of writing you understand, mostly. Right now, speaking is not really an option aside from learning to pronounce words right. Listening, on the other hand, can be done really easily! If you find that Youtube channels in your target language are boring or too hard to understand, music is the way to go. You’re especially lucky if you’re a Disney fan, because most of their songs are easy to remember and are dubbed in a lot of languages, so have fun with finding what fits you best!

3. A2 - Knowledge Level: Basic/Preliminary

Now we’re beginning to see some major improvements. You pick up words easier, you can read almost perfectly even if you don’t understand everything, and you can form really basic sentences by yourself. For speaking, by now you should be able to say your name, the place you live in, and maybe talk about your hobbies or your favorite stuff! It depends on if you’ve worked with a teacher until now or not, so don’t worry if you’re still struggling. As a stepping stone between beginner and intermediate, this level can either be the one when you slowly improve or make a really big jump in your skills. Listening to songs and youtube videos should be easier, but nobody is expecting you to actually comprehend everything. As for vocabulary and reading, learning new words should come more intuitively by now, but again, you’re still in the early days. Writing is still something that can be difficult, so try maybe linking a couple sentences together to make a short story and translating some simple texts. But it you don’t find it difficult, writing a hundred words once a couple days may be the way to go.

4. B1 - Knowledge Level - Intermediate

Finally, we’ve reached the intermediate stage! By now you should be able to hold very basic conversation and reveal information about yourself. You should be able to pick up words you know from the people around you, and understand mostly everything if spoken slowly and clearly to. Reading light books or magazines should be challenging but okay, while you should be able to remember certain words without making too big of an effort. By this stage, active learning is still essential, as you probably have a lot more ahead in your language learning journey. I encourage you to write short stories or several sentences about your day in a diary, depending on what works for you. Watching Youtube videos should be something you do often, because it improves listening skills greatly and gets you accustomed to informal speech patterns and filler words.

5. B2 - Knowledge Level - Advanced Intermediate

Yay! You have officially reached the advanced intermediate stage! You should be able to hold everyday conversation without too big of a headache, listening probably isn’t a breeze for you but still, if you watch a basic youtube video you can pretty much get all of it. YA books should be a regular part of your reading, since they’re not too hard to comprehend but still a good reading exercise. Vocabulary probably isn’t a bother anymore, since you know most of the words you need and the ones you don’t, you hear them once or five times and they stick to you. At this level you can probably write some basic fanfiction, or anything that doesn’t require advanced language skills but is still challenging. Congrats! You’re almost at an advanced level!

6. C1 - Advanced

If you’re still here, means you’ve got a strong sense of dedication. C1 is the advanced level, where you have pretty much everything that you need to comfortably live your life in a country which speaks your target language. If you’re already here and most of the above things seem far, far away to you, then maybe it’s time to get down on some serious reading. Look up local classics, or contemporary works that stimulate your mind. Writing essays, reviews, reports, etc, should be something you are able to do, as you have a good grasp on both formal and informal language, both literary concepts and idioms/phrasal verbs/slang. Listening should come easily, with the ability to understand everything that is spoken to you without worries, as long as they don’t have an alien accent. Speaking, too, should be a breeze by now, with everyday conversation being a piece of cake and more formal conversations not posing too big of a challenge. If you want to reach the next– and last– level, it can be done through thorough preparation of skills that are usually required by exams or for language-related jobs. If you don’t care about either of these, congrats! You learned a language! 

7. C2 - Proficient

Long past fluency, you now wish to master a language, down to its very core and history. Pick up some of the big classics to read. Watch a bunch of those complicated videos explaining complicated concepts. Write poetry and prose,and speak to people in contexts which require more than the average range of vocabulary. If you’re still not satisfied, get a damn teacher. Tumblr can’t help you now.

[eintsein]

A Small Guide to Journaling by Eintsein

Something you may or may not know about be is that I journal. However, only recently have I gotten the hang of it and stayed loyal to the habit of journaling. Here are some tips and tricks on how you can journal successfully. Hope you like it :)

[plentaeful]

here’s my spread for last week 🤗🌸 — ig: plentaeful

[yukkuristudies]

[emmastudies]

honestly reading the original creator of bullet journals book is so different to how i see it in the community on tumblr etc

its crazy how simple and effective this seems to be, yet i had so much trouble trying to do it how tumblr/instagram told me

:p 

[phuckphragmites]

My mom bullet journals all the time and does it really well. She brought up a point with me yesterday that a lot of people online are turning it into more of an illustrated planner than a simple, effective way of managing your stuff. It can be pretty, totally, but its prettiness shouldn’t get in the way of its usefulness. I think that’s why it never worked for me, because I tried so hard to get it pretty and crazy, and I think that’s why so many people I know who would love it and want to get into it are too intimidated to try.

[emmastudies]

100% agree with this (and it is lovely your mum uses it!). Ryder is very much focused on it being effective and manageable, rather than artistic which is where I think bujoing and DIY planning get blurred, especially online. To me, bujo was always a really thought out planner and to me, it just seemed too much work - because my expectation was to create this entire design from scratch and be happy with it. As someone who doesn’t draw/isn’t artistically talent/nor can be bothered to learn, it was so hard for me to start because I didn’t possess any of these traits I assumed where needed. When I did get around to trying it, I basically limited my ‘bullet journal’ so much in an attempt to keep it pretty and it really ruined my thoughts about the system as a whole. I was so focused on it being neat, it was in no way an effective planning method. But now, I really have a new appreciation for the system. I feel in my mind I’m going to stop seeing the artistically driven planners as ‘bujos’ and call them DIY planners :P xx

[calicofaery]

I think that’s a brilliant, and incredibly important, way to separate the two. “Bujo” is the skeleton frame work, a way to stay organised and plan your month or week, or track habits and moods. DIY planners are building upon the framework and making it individual and unique to the creators, choosing themed layouts and spreads, or even entire themed journals! (Props to those that have that commitment btw, I struggle finding a theme each week lol)

For beginners, it’s about getting a grasp of the framework of what a bullet journal means to them. And from there they can choose if they want to embellish each spread, or decide what to doodle into the pages if they so wish to. Just how an Art Journal is different to a daily writing journal, DIY bujo/journal is definitely different to the simple bujo system and making that point very clear for newbies will surely help people that want to pick this system up but are afraid of it not being “pretty” enough.

As long as it works for you - you keep coming back to it inspired, using it in a way that works for you each day or week, and aren’t afraid to get messy - then who cares if it’s “pretty” or not? 

[emmastudies]

Exactly! It is really good to see the basis where all of the planners may have begun and how people have adapted it to their needs! Absolutely about the commitment haha! That was something I struggled with when I was trying it out the first time - I just couldn’t bring myself to design a plan for week after week :’-) 

I do think had I started from the basis of a bullet journal and grown to add in the extra bits out of choice, it would have been much better suited to me! I think it was the unclearness of the system’s base (a fault of mine) and thinking it does have to be pretty that skewed with me the first time around - but I’m glad just a few parts into the book that it’s clearing it up :D 

It is a tough one to balance your productivity and effectiveness when you’re trying to consider keeping it neat and potentially ‘photographable’ but this back to basics is definitely teaching me the difference between what works for me and others! xx

[pompadourpink]

animal related expressions

dogs :

avoir du chien : to be elegant, seductive

ce n’est pas fait pour les chiens : it’s there for a reason

un caractère de chien : when someone’s aggressive

entre chien et loup : when the night’s coming

comme chien et chat : when people hate each other

être d’une humeur de chien : being in a bad mood

un mal de chien : a lot of pain

un temps de chien : bad weather

en chien de fusil : curled up (sleeping position)

cats :

appeler un chat un chat : to speak openly

pas un chat : nobody (il n’y a pas un chat dans la boutique)

jouer au chat et à la souris : when people can’t manage to get in touch

avoir un chat dans la gorge : being hoarse

donner sa langue au chat : giving up on guessing something

avoir d’autres chats à fouetter : to have other things to do 

wolves :

à pas de loups : walking silently

un froid de loup : very cold weather

une faim de loup : being very hungry

crier au loup : to call for help when facing a danger

se jeter dans la gueule du loup : getting right into a trap

un vieux loup de mer : an old, experienced sailor 

monkeys :

on n’apprend pas aux vieux singes à faire la grimace : you can’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs 

être malin comme un singe : being very cunning

faire le singe : being silly, doing stupid stuff

flies :

prendre la mouche : to get pissed 

tomber comme des mouches : drop like flies

une mouche à miel : a bee

(someone) ne ferait pas de mal à une mouche : that person is harmless

faire mouche : to hit the target (literally or in a conversation)

quelle mouche te pique ? : why are you getting upset ? 

une fine mouche : a sly person

entendre les mouches voler : to be in total silence

rabbits/hares :

courir comme un lapin : to run very fast

poser un lapin à quelqu’un : to not go to an appointment

un chaud lapin : a horny man

un coup du lapin : a rabbit punch

une cage à lapin : an ugly block of small social flats

en peau de lapin : cheap, of mediocre quality

courir deux lièvres à la fois : pursuing two goals at the same time

courir le même lièvre : two people pursuing the same thing

[emmastudies]

December printables & downloads :-)

Happy December and holidays hehe! Here is all the content for this month :-) I hope you enjoy it!

2018 yearly overview + monthly breakdown (also includes daily + weekly + monthly planner, 30 habit tracker, class overview and timed worklog)

2019 calendar printables (2018-19 overview, 2019 overview, 2019 key dates, year in pixels, monthly portrait planner)

2018 monthly printables [3 designs, 6 colours]

2019 coming soon! keep your eyes peeled :D 

all my free printables!

2019 student printable planner

Etsy shop digital files and printables (2019 coming soon as well!)

Facebook student discussion/study group

Free downloads for Desktop/Tablet (all Monday and Sunday start)

Serif minimalist [black or white]

Sans serif minimalist [black or white]

Christmas houses [4 colours]

Christmas patterns [3 designs]

Christmas wreaths [3 designs]

Christmas Harry Potter [5 colours]

Christmas glitter [3 colours]

Hanukkah [2 designs]

Christmas trees [4 designs]

Cabin and cities [4 designs]

Snowy forests [4 designs]

Summer [2 designs]

Motivational quotes [3 designs]

Pastel quotes (The Office, B99, P&R, The Good Place) [4 colours]

Marble and pastel [6 colours]

Floral [3 designs]

Tropical leaves [3 colours]

Swatches [3 designs]

Bees and wasps [3 designs]

Luna [4 designs]

Marvel / Infinity Stone / Gemstones [2 colours]

Animal Crossing [3 designs]

Succulent/Cactus [2 designs]

Cats & Dogs [2 designs]

The Office & Riverdale [2 designs] (navigate through the folders)

Constellations [3 designs] (navigate through the folders)

Free downloads for Phone (all Monday and Sunday start)

Serif minimalist [black or white]

Sans serif minimalist [black or white]

Christmas houses [4 colours]

Christmas patterns [3 designs]

Christmas wreaths [3 designs]

Christmas Harry Potter [5 colours]

Christmas glitter [3 colours]

Hanukkah [2 designs]

Christmas trees [4 designs]

Cabin and cities [4 designs]

Snowy forests [4 designs]

Summer [2 designs]

Motivational quotes [3 designs]

Pastel quotes (The Office, B99, P&R, The Good Place) [4 colours]

Marble and pastel [6 colours]

Floral [3 designs]

Tropical leaves [3 colours]

Swatches [3 designs]

Bees and wasps [3 designs]

Luna [4 designs]

Marvel / Infinity Stone / Gemstones [2 colours]

Animal Crossing [3 designs]

Succulent/Cactus [2 designs]

Cats & Dogs [2 designs]

The Office & Riverdale [2 designs] (navigate through the folders)

Constellations [3 designs] (navigate through the folders)

Hope you like them! I’d love to see them in use, so please share and tag me in any pictures on Tumblr or Instagram (@emmastudiess) or Twitter @emmajane1103). If you have me on Snapchat (@emmastudies) and would prefer to send a private picture, please do! :-)

Whilst these printables and wallpapers are free of charge, it would be amazing of you to check out my Ko-fi account!

If you’re looking for more organisation, planner or study printables, check out my Etsy Shop! I sell individual and large printable/download packs which are easy to use. Remember to add ‘student10′ at the checkout for a 10% discount! 

Connect with me on YouTube and Pinterest!

Big love,

Emma xx

[dragonfruitdays]

some study tips from my psychology teacher 📖

STOP Cramming

cramming is good for the short term, such as just before a test (i’m talking like an hour before), but shouldn’t be used as an effective study method. you only learn the information in the exact way you read it, so any practical application on your test won’t be easy to answer. you also will struggle with answering the same questions you studied for, but asked differently.

Spacing Effect

the spacing effect is essentially the opposite of cramming. instead of doing a 4 hour study session, break it up into groups of 30 minutes. do 30 minutes, take a nice long break, go back for 30, and repeat. that break in between gives your brain time to encode and store the information. this can be done in either one day, or over the course of a few days before the test.

Mnemonic devices are your best friend when dealing with lists of information

any sort of rhyming scheme, letter association, acronyms, etc. is proven to help you. any american can say ROY G. BIV and know exactly what they’re talking about, another example is HOMES for the great lakes. another major example is “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally”/PEMDAS for the order of operations. this helps with lists, i use it all the time in biology for stuff like the Levels of Classification or Characteristics of Living things. for AP Euro i remember “Descartes with a D” because he “Doubts and wrote Discorse on Method”.

Hierarchy Organizing for Midterms and Finals

by breaking information down into a hierarchy, you can figure out how to study all your chapters at once. these are often called “graphic organizers” and it takes the whole topic, then breaks it into subsections, then subsections of those subsections. here’s an example i found for my Memory unit

the whole unit is memory, the subtopics are sensory memory, short term, then long term. then comes the subdivisions of long term memory and so on. this is wonderful for study planning in regards to large information tests.

these are just some of the tips we talked about, and obviously they won’t work for everybody, but it’s really helped my studying process because it’s literally how the brain processes information best for long term storage and retrieval.

[starshinejournal]

it’s been a while…

[milkyboos]

the softest saturdays <3

(my insta: @milkybujo)

[dungeonstudy]

And its begun..

@studyrellablr