#lia learns

[lias-musings]

I've taken a hiatus from learning Korean as I need to improve my ability to create a routine and juggle all that I decided to do this year but that doesn't mean I'm not learning anything.

I shared that not only I've decided to learn Korean but also to sing and dance and I've been doing and it's easier than learning something new through an online course since I need to leave the house.

This week I've practiced for 20-30min both for my singing and dancing classes and I've seen improvement in my skills, which is nice but also awful in the sense of it's true when people say that "practice makes perfect". I was able to hold a difficult note from She Used to be Mine from the Waitress musical that I've been struggling since day 1.

Whereas for the dancing, I've stretched my body 2-3 times this week and practice some basis/fundamentals from hip-hop (which are the pillars for k-pop dance) and yesterday the new choreography (Walk from NCT 127) felt easier to grasp.

I still struggle, you know? Mainly because I'm fat and grounded, literally - something I've always been when comes to dancing, regardless of my weight; my feet always struggled to leave the floor. But as people said, and I've found to be true, practice does make perfect.

So now I need to understand how to adapt my routine to add 20-30min of dance practice, 20-30 of sing practice and keep learning and studying Korean - that might be the most challenge of all that I set up myself to do this year:

Discipline myself better.

[lias-musings]

Unrequired update about my journey on learning a new language with a complete different writing system — Korean.

I might not know the meaning of words but now I now how to pronounce* them and how to write them, which is big news! Especially because Netflix is getting lazier and doesn't even bother to translate the k-drama episodes to Portuguese or any other language.

Knowing how to write Korean words means I can open my Google Translate, write whatever that episode title is and get a notion of what that episode is titled. Which is nice.

I remember watching True Beauty (the first k-drama I've watched knowing I was watching a k-drama lol) and I didn't know what was those thing written with numbers that matched the episode number until episode 15, when they decided to translate the title and I was like ...wtf those things were the titles?! and only now I get a translation?! Revolting.

*I want to add a Korean song to the list of songs I'm practicing in my singing classes by the end of this year. I think it's a doable timeline.

Also, when I start to learn vocabulary and how to form sentences, I'd love to practice with native or people who also speak the language.

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

[lias-musings]

I've decided that I would learn Korean because why not, am I right? I bought an online course last year and only started this Saturday as I had purchased the sticker Hangul letter for my keyboard.

I'm already hooked! I was already able to write my name and my last surname (in Brazil we normally have two surnames, one from our mother and one from our father but this might differ depending on when someone was born - anyway, not at all relevant for the post)!

Also, I'm excited because some of the things I said to myself I'd do this year I'm already doing which is:

singing lessons

dancing lessons - k-pop dance to be specific

learning Korean

Now I only need to take better care of my health in many many ways but I'm truly excited for being able to set a goal and starting it!

[flowers-ferns-and-feathers]

okay! just over a week in and thoughts:

romantics; i am enjoying this paper as expected. same lecturer as my gothic paper, we started with defining the romantics, and went over robert burns and charlotte smith. then moved onto william blake! he's one of my favourite poets so i was excited (started with songs of innocence today, going to cover songs of experience on thursday). overall nothing too new on that front, but we got to look at a whole load of his illustrations too, which is always great. tutorial is tomorrow, which will be interesting!

classics lecturer did immediately frustrate me; it might be my literature focus, but he, in the introductory lecture, within fifteen minutes, was like "textual evidence is useless and archaeology is the only proof we have", which. hmm. i massively disagree, but oh well. (my stance here is that archaeologic evidence is incredibly valuable, don't get me wrong, but textual evidence provides important societal context, even when it is fictional). outside of that, looking at minoan work right now. i haven't managed to find a copy of the textbook, but i am looking and it's in our library so i'm relatively okay on that front. tutorial on thursday.

i went on campus today for the first time this semester and i did immediately deal with someone being Weird about me being visibly disabled and making a whole load of assumptions. (context being i was making and using crutches.) "oh you poor thing, you must be suffering right now" and he gestured to my mask then crutches, "and this on top; what on earth happened?" and I didn't have the energy so responded, "i'm chronically ill and I am doing my best not to get sick." and he looked at me like i'd wounded him. i promptly exited the elevator. i guess this is a psa to not make assumptions and also not ask invasive questions (because yes, calling me (a grown ass adult) poor thing, and asking me what on earth happened for me to be masking and on crutches is invasive as fuck!)

[flowers-ferns-and-feathers]

deeply funny to me that i was like, yeah! linguistics! and then realised i needed to change that paper. anyway. no longer taking that class for scheduling reasons, i am now taking a classical studies paper on art and architecture!

[flowers-ferns-and-feathers]

hello! my name is camellia and i'm a disabled university student. i'm an english major in my fourth year of university, and i'm here to chronicle my experiences and talk about managing study and my health. i study part time, to rest and recover.

i also occasionally work in editing and as a sensitivity reader for . i am currently working on a manuscript with a group of writers, though i am not able to say much about this project at present!

this semester i am taking two papers; art and architecture in ancient rome and greece, and the romantics.

in the past, i've studied religion, science and magic; medieval literature; gothic literature; recontexualised literature; creative writing (first and second level); shakespeare; creative writing for video games; controversial classics; introductory psychology; speaking te reo māori; and fantasy and the imagination. i'm happy to talk about any of these topics, or discuss anything that might cross your mind-- send me an ask!

course reading lists:

[unreleased]

[flowers-ferns-and-feathers]

hello everyone!! i am returning after. almost a year.

updates on myself; fourth year of uni begun successfully-- had a summer paper on religion science and magic, which was fun! essay got an a-, and still waiting for exam results to be released. got wayyy better at taking notes because of this paper, which is super cool, and i felt really prepared by the end. actual learning was really interesting (learnt i have a vendetta against galileo... the bastard) and the history of (european) magic was really fascinating. i want to do some more digging on it actually. it was fun because i studied dante's inferno last year second sem, and i got to have a different angle on dante from a religious and scientific perspective rather than a literary one!

i had a medieval lit paper and a shakespeare paper at the end of last year (a+ and b respectively). loved med lit, liked shakespeare less (super disorganized lecturer really soured it for me), and i passed my first sem papers by aegrotat because i was super ill for the exam and couldn't go.

first semester has just started (as of monday), and i am taking an introductory linguists paper, and then a paper on the writers in the romantic period (lots of william blake! very exciting because i love his poetry and artwork). little worried about linguistics because there's a big group project and i'm out of the country for a wedding for our mid-sem break and the following week. so i might have to drop it and swap out for another english paper, which puts some pressure on my graduation plans.

on a more personal note, health has been super unpredictable in the last few months quite suddenly. i've been using filofax for journaling, which has helped my memory issues a lot (yay!), but brainfog has been worse.

hopefully i will. be better with this this year. need to keep myself accountable

[flowers-ferns-and-feathers]

been some radio silence from me, i apologise! i've been pretty unwell for the last few weeks and am only really just back on my feet.

i've submitted all my assignments for this half of the semester, and i had a test yesterday which i think went okay. literature recontextualised is going well -- my professor is incredibly lovely and completely happy to work around my illness which is amazing. she's been the best with it so far of all my lecturers (to the point of making a private zoom class for me because i missed something important!).

i have a tutorial for gothic lit. tomorrow so i'm catching up today with a lecture and finishing up the book we're studying right now (justified sinner, james hogg), and i'll have a little bit of work to catch up with next week -- which i have off!! -- just to get myself ready for the second half of semester. we start up again with carmilla, though! which i'm incredibly excited for, because it's possibly my favourite novel of all time? in any case, we have a good selection, like jekyll and hyde and dracula as well, so right up my alley.

the cold has kicked in, and so i'm a lot more tired and sore already, and i've definitely slipped in my work but i'm hoping i can keep up once i'm more used to the weather.