neamhsplach

This creature is in fact a bittern!! Or me on day three of a music music festival trying to ease the pain in my legs while still getting a good look at the act playing.

I learnt about them from this tumblr blog

Explaining things. The further I go in life the more I realise that this isn't a skill everyone has. Either the explanations are too scanty, too detailed or not appropriate for the level. I used to do some very basic tech support back in the day and we were always told that if we taught the person needing help why and how to do what they needed to do, we'd be preventing countless future calls. Yet some people would just bulldoze through and fix the problem without explaining properly and lo and behold we'd have repeat customers.

I'm a teacher now, funnily enough!

You're right I'm all vaxxed up! It's a real head scratcher. I don't have any physical symptoms other than being tired and having a sore head but the mental symptoms are awful! And of course having no physical symptoms (no cold symptoms) makes me feel like I'm faking it ughhh.

I'm a huge believer of listening to my body when it's in distress so I'm HOPING all this couch time will speed up my recovery.

Make some posts in your favorite communities here. We need the content

Aye aye captain 🫡

Best of luck with all your language learning endeavours!

Agreed. Plus you can't see how much butter is in the sauce when someone else prepares it! Pure musselly bliss

I've been struck down by some mystery illness. My head hurts but mostly I'm just fatigued and my mental faculties aren't where they should be. I teach languages yet I can't remember words for basic things right now! So I'm taking a few days off to recover. Hopefully will be back in by the end of the week.

In other news, I'll be five months off alcohol this week. Social situations have become easier, I'm getting used to being a little bit goofy at parties and my friends have been super supportive! One even looked shocked when I held my partner's beer at a festival a few weeks ago and made a joke saying they couldn't remember the last time they saw me with a beer! It sounds small but it meant the world 😊

As I'm confined to my couch for the next little while I'm probably going to be a bit more active on beehaw! Hope you're all having a nice week!

Mussels ftw

Yo ni soy de Chile, solo estoy aquí porque no he encontrado ninguna otra comunidad hispanohablante.

This is not what anyone wants to hear, but the truth is as an adult you can't perfect a language without studying it. Obviously there are exceptions to every rule! Some people pick up language more naturally than others. But in my experience it's the students who put the work in outside of class that progress faster.

It's also true that we have strengths and weaknesses in language (sometimes even in our native language). A person who aces an oral exam might do terribly in their writing exam. A good student is aware of their own flaws and practices in the areas they find hardest.

In terms of how to study, it depends firstly on your level and secondly on the area you want to work most on: reading, writing, listening or speaking.

If you are at A1 level, you will benefit most from being exposed to language aimed towards that level, i.e. grammar books, language learning podcasts etc. When you reach around a B1 level I recommend looking at real life target language examples such as TV shows, books, news articles and so on. There's not much point coming to them too early and being discouraged by how little you understand.

If oral language is what you struggle with the most, try to find a conversation circle to practice with. Many of these can now be found online thanks to Covid!

Writing is one of the hardest areas to progress in, in my opinion, because realistically you want someone going over anything you write with a fine tooth comb to point out any mistakes. If you need to get better at writing in your target language I highly recommend hiring a tutor or trying out a class that focuses on writing.

Sorry if this isn't the fun answer you want to hear! But don't worry, my students think I'm a buzzkill too 😅

I'm a language teacher and I'm using Duolingo to keep me humble! Every language sounds like gibberish in the beginning.

That being said, it overstates its own benefits. I only learn when I take detailed notes alongside the app. When I don't, nothing really sticks

This pizza place opened in an area that is flush with well established takeaway spots. We ordered from it once and it was BAD. The bases were frozen and the meat was clearly sandwich meat from a supermarket. Whenever we pass it by, it's open but there are NEVER any customers.

The online reviews are bizarre, they're either one star reviews with detailed explanations of how shitty the food is or 5 star reviews with no comments.

Yet somehow this place is STILL open despite being surrounded by superior competition and always being empty. There is absolutely no way it's not a front for something.

Hi fellow teacher 👋