This Nerdy Potato

18 - Student & nerd - Bridging course at uni - Learning Korean & French - Perpetually fatigued

[thisnerdygrape]

My pronunciation when it comes to language is awful.

I try pronouncing Korean words with French accents, French words with Korean accents, and both languages with an Australian English accent.

[language-and-stuffs-i-guess]

me: *barely studies the languages im learning now*

also me: hmmm maybe i should start learning another language

[thisnerdygrape]

I've literally had conversations with myself explaining that I cannot learn 8+ languages at once, especially since I can barely keep up with the two I am studying

[thisnerdygrape]

I think I accidentally found someone to teach me basic French at 1am... Nice

[thisnerdygrape]

When you try to force yourself back into learning French by attempting a full-blown conversation with a French person online but your knowledge is so basic that you rely on translation apps...

[trishtakesphoto]

[thisnerdygrape]

Me though

[thisnerdygrape]

I'm considering posting about one thing I learn everyday, be it at uni or otherwise.

Honestly idek what I'm doing with this studyblr ATM. Hopefully I'll be back on track by the end of this week. Sorry!

[thisnerdygrape]

What I need/want to get done by Sunday week

-Bioscience Week 4 and 5 notes

- Bioscience Week 5 worksheet

- bioscience online quiz 2

- English essay body draft

- Computing week 4 and 5

- Math week 4

- Math week 5 work

- Print math assignment

- Make a better daily routine

- Work on novel

- Clean room (which really should have been done weeks ago... Oops)

That's the main stuff ATM. We shall see if I actually get any of it done

[thisnerdygrape]

That moment when you check your calendar and find out you have an assignment due this Sunday for a class you keep forgetting you have...

Good work me.

[thisnerdygrape]

I'm so good at procrastinating that I procrastinate procrastinating

[thisnerdygrape]

Yesterday was a relatively busy day for me. I had two assignments due, one of which I hadn’t even started yet. One assignment was for Academic Language and Learning, which is essentially a unit that teaches basic communication and English-based skills that is required for further university studies. The task was to write three paragraphs based on the impacts of smartphone technology, with between 120-170 words for each paragraph. I struggled with the word limit since I have a habit of writing a lot, but I managed to stay within it. The second one was for the Bioscience unit, which was to complete a few worksheets around the ‘scientific method’ and science in general.

I spent most of my day working on them, which was incredibly draining. For those of you who hadn’t read my post from a few days ago, I’ve been diagnosed with the Ross River virus, and I’ve been battling symptoms for quite a while. Yesterday was a bad day in terms of the virus symptoms, with chronic fatigue, muscle weakness, and joint pain distracting me. I managed to finish the assignments and submit them, but I ended up in so much pain and exhaustion from forcing my body to do so (even when I knew I shouldn’t). 

Anyway, today I was suffering the consequences of pushing myself too hard against my body, so I’ve had an unrelenting headache, been severely fatigued, and have been in pain in places I never even knew could hurt, haha. I decided to take a break from academic strain, but I needed to do some cleaning so I forced myself into tidying up and moving furniture around (nearly passed out in the process, but I’m stubborn).

I know I need to be nicer to my body, and that pushing myself isn’t healthy, but things need to be done.

[thisnerdygrape]

I have a quick story to share that really opened my eyes to how I treat myself when it comes to my education.

So, as previously mentioned, I’m currently undertaking a bridging course that will enable me to go onto further studies. One of the units in this course is ‘Computing for Tertiary Studies’ which is essentially a course that ensures students are able to use computers effectively (creating Word documents, using internet browsers, etc).

Anyway, so I was on my university site page and it showed I had been graded on my latest submission for that unit.

When I went to check it, I felt my stomach physically drop and I was so frustrated at myself with the words “stupid” and “you could have done better” circling my head. It took me around 20 seconds of self-hatred until I actually realised…

I had gotten 52.0/52.0

There is literally no way I could have done better

I had gotten a perfect grade

And it honestly made me realise how horribly I treat myself when it comes to grades and school/university.

I have literally conditioned myself into truly believing I’ve done poorly regardless of how well I’ve actually done. I was both physically and mentally reacting to something that hadn’t even happened, but I have subconsciously forced myself into believing for the entirety of my educational career.

Anyway, I don’t have much more to add. I still feel that odd “You could have done so much better you stupid girl,” even though I know I have literally gotten the highest grade I could possibly have.

[pokejeon]

This is so important. There’s so many people that think like this and it’s really sad. I’m one of them.

Friday night I checked the grade of a test and I scored 1.2/1.3. I felt really bad, stupid and frustrated. And I wished a better score.

Only 0.1 is enough to make someone hate themself. This is not right. We should love ourselves more.

[thisnerdygrape]

Exactly! We need to learn to celebrate our achievements instead of beating ourselves up. I have gotten so used to hating myself over imperfect scores that I neglect to see how well I’m actually doing. 

Good work on getting 1.2/1.3! That’s amazing, even if it doesn’t feel like it yet. 

[thisnerdygrape]

I have a quick story to share that really opened my eyes to how I treat myself when it comes to my education.

So, as previously mentioned, I’m currently undertaking a bridging course that will enable me to go onto further studies. One of the units in this course is ‘Computing for Tertiary Studies’ which is essentially a course that ensures students are able to use computers effectively (creating Word documents, using internet browsers, etc).

Anyway, so I was on my university site page and it showed I had been graded on my latest submission for that unit.

When I went to check it, I felt my stomach physically drop and I was so frustrated at myself with the words “stupid” and “you could have done better” circling my head. It took me around 20 seconds of self-hatred until I actually realised...

I had gotten 52.0/52.0

There is literally no way I could have done better

I had gotten a perfect grade

And it honestly made me realise how horribly I treat myself when it comes to grades and school/university.

I have literally conditioned myself into truly believing I’ve done poorly regardless of how well I’ve actually done. I was both physically and mentally reacting to something that hadn’t even happened, but I have subconsciously forced myself into believing for the entirety of my educational career.

Anyway, I don’t have much more to add. I still feel that odd “You could have done so much better you stupid girl,” even though I know I have literally gotten the highest grade I could possibly have.

[thisnerdygrape]

Updates and Answers

[Note: This is just a personal update and will have little to do with language study, so feel free to ignore]

Hello everyone! I haven’t posted anything in a while so I thought I’d update everyone on how I’m going (and give myself a chance to complain/rant, haha).

So, I’m currently in my 4th week of my university bridging course. I’m doing fairly well, but am kind of bored since everything is very basic. I did very high-level subjects in year 12, so most of the concepts in this bridging course are more than familiar to me. It has been helpful in understanding how this university works and the expectations of me as a uni student, but I’ve been struggling to stay focused for long and get work done for reasons I shall explain in the next paragraph. I’ve been graded on a few assignments so far though and am doing fairly well, so that’s good.

Anyway, so... People who have read my previous posts may remember I’ve been struggling with fatigue and general joint point for a while now. Often when I go to the GP I’m met with “It’s just mental health, talk to your counselor” and a list of ‘sleep hygiene’ habits to adopt to help improve my fatigue. Anyway, after a lot of doctors and a lot of explaining and confusion and frustration, my doctor ordered a blood test to investigate my iron levels, as well as a few other fancy names of things I couldn’t quite understand at the time. A week later, I go back to see what the results show. She looks at the results, turns to me and says “you have the Ross River virus.” For those of you who don’t know, the Ross River virus (or Ross River fever) is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause chronic fatigue, severe joint pain, dizziness, as well as a plethora of other ‘flu-like’ symptoms. All of which I’ve been experiencing. I honestly nearly cried because I finally had an answer. However, the problem is that there’s no current treatment for it. Sufferers can experience symptoms up to weeks, months, and for us lucky few, a year or more. I was given some strategies to manage the chronic fatigue and joint pain as a result of Ross River, though there’s nothing much I can do besides just wait til I get better. It could be a week, a month, a year, or even a decade, I don’t know. I just know that this is something I’ve had to live with for so many years, and this is something I feel I’ll be figuring out how to manage for quite a while more.

So, with this in mind, I haven’t really had the energy to focus on my language studies. I shall try to start a new, more flexible, routine that will allow me to complete my uni work and study both Korean and French. I’m sorry for not posting for a while, and shall try to update this page more in the future :)

[thisnerdygrape]

Hey! I haven’t posted in a while and I figured I might update you all on my life I s’pose? I’ll break it up into 3 categories so you can skip to the one you feel relevant.

LIFE

First off, I’d like to note that it’s 3:30 AM (ish) at the moment for me and I’m completely exhausted but I can’t sleep. Yayyy insomnia :|

I went to see my doctor (yet again) about my severe fatigue issues, and after a while of trying to convince her that it’s not mental health related (in my very strong opinion), she listened to my symptoms more openly and suggested I get some different blood tests done to see if they show anything.

I’ve really been trying to figure out what I want for this blog. Like, I initially set out for this blog to motivate me in my Korean language studies and to give me that push to start writing the book I’ve always wanted to write, but I don’t want my blog to be purely a langblr. I want to post more studyblr stuff for uni, plus other just random stuff too?

UNIVERSITY

I’ve officially started my university course! Like I’ve mentioned, it’s only a bridging course, and I’ve looked through the material and it’s so easy. I’ve nearly gone through the entirety of this next week’s suggested readings for the 4 units I’m doing.

LANGUAGES

I haven’t done anywhere near as much study as I’d like to for Korean and French. I am finding French so much easier to learn than Korean though (understandably so, since French is so closely related to English as opposed to Korean). I keep feeling the urge to start learning more languages, but I need to keep reminding myself that I need to pace myself to learn effectively. I did decide that I want to start learning the Japanese alphabets, as well as the Russian alphabet, to aid me in future studies when I am able to study these languages. It kind of decreased the initial hurdle of having to learn the alphabets from scratch as soon as you start learning the language, if that makes sense.

[killianhasmehooked]

Hi tumblr friends!

I have to do a survey for my linguistics class, and I’m looking for people who have learned a second language at some point. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or fluent- anyone can respond. I’d love to hear from you!! Even if we’ve never talked before or you don’t even follow me, I’d still love your response! I’m gonna post the questions below and you can respond if you want. I’d really appreciate it!!!

- At what age did you started learning another language?

-where did you learn that language (what level of school, study abroad, etc)

-how well can can speak the language (are you fluent, advanced, intermediate, beginner?)

-how well do people understand you when you speak the language?

-what was your biggest motivator for learning a second language?

It should only take a minute or so to respond!! Thanks in advance to anyone who replies!

[thisnerdygrape]

I started learning Korean this year (so I was 18).

I'm learning through self-study through online resources.

I'm only a beginner so far.

I'm definitely not very understandable, so I'm understood maybe 10% of the time.

I just really love the language, and being able to speak a language I love is a big motivator

[bitesizekorean]

I have prepared a personal guide on how to self study Korean! So, if you are interested in learning Korean, and have no idea where to start, give this a read and hopefully it should give you some encouragement!

I should hopefully keep this guide updated. Updated on: 160521

Warning: LONG POST

Keep reading

[thisnerdygrape]

I’m starting a bridging course at uni very soon, so I thought I’d mention how I plan to take notes and study the material I’m given.

Lecture notes: During the classes, I’m going to take typed notes on my laptop. There are a few reasons for this. I cannot write and listen at the same time, and if a lecturer says a key point and continues to talk, I forget what the original point was a few words into writing it down. For me to effectively absorb and understand the information being presented to me, I need to be able to write key points down quickly whilst still listening to the lecturer. Since I struggle with purely listening to large chunks of information and/or only reading notes, being able to take typed notes allows me to remember the topic the lecturer is teaching, absorb the information, and develop a more intimate grasp on the subject. This also applies to if I’m just required to copy down notes on a PowerPoint, because typing gives me time to read over and absorb the notes, as opposed to purely just printing the information in a notebook and having to reread them to actually know what was covered in the lesson.

Textbooks: I usually read over the chapter/topic at least once, so I understand what the main points are. From there I just lay out these main points, and summarise key information.

I haven’t been progressing with my Korean studies as much as I’d like. I’m struggling to get a grasp of the grammar and actually remembering vocabulary words. This is mainly just due to fatigue, which hopefully will be less severe soon.

Also, despite my better judgement, I’ve decided to start learning French. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but all of my Aunts and Uncles, and my mother is fluent in French because my grandmother is French. None of them actually raised their offspring bilingual because they wanted to be able to talk amongst themselves without us understanding them. Anyway, so one of my younger cousins and I have decided that we’re going to secretly learn French together and once we are conversationally fluent, we will surprise them by joining in one of their French conversations.

Will I regret learning two languages at once? Probably. Will I reach ‘fluency’ in both languages? Eventually. How am I going to balance uni, learning two languages, other commitments, AND severe fatigue with a currently unknown cause? I have absolutely no idea, but we shall find out together!