do you ever look back at your aesthetic development and feel contented with the change it underwent and your current sense of beauty acquiring a certain depth and color, a slightly greater sensibility in perceiving the world around you and learning to appreciate things for their resonance with your personality, not because of their superficial prettiness but because of striking a chord right within your mind, finding pleasure in phenomena you would not even have noticed in the past, ceasing the chase after outwardly pure beauty and abandoning the boring perfection, not minding to be a little tainted with ugliness and mischief, cherishing the decision and the way of falling in love with things by your own intellect, thus creating the beautiful within yourself instead of passively accepting what is pre-made to be externally beautiful, being the one who adds the true meaning and appeal to what is visible and composing the symphony out of coinciding sounds, places, words and emotions.

a small guide on how i battle my essays! (click on an image to view it clearer) 

(keep in mind: i’m an english major so a majority of my essays are literature-focused!)

these are just some of the methods i want to share that work for me when i write my innumerable amount of essays! i’m definitely a huge planner so it’s no secret that i spend a lot of time on an essay. if you’re a deadline fighter, these tips might not necessarily be helpful (especially the handwriting one). but i hope this gives you an insight on how i write my essays! 🌈

this is the perfect grade of good luck

reblog in 5 seconds and all of your grades will inch ever closer to perfect

1. Getting your self esteem from others.

2. Constantly attacking and putting yourself down.

3. Thinking that others are better than you.

4. Expecting things to not turn out well.

5. Living in the past.

6. Fearing the future.

7. Being afraid of change.

~this guide is for language learners or future language learners, however, some of these tips/methods apply to memorization in general~

Recently i’ve got many asks about memorization and since there are several methods i thought to make a post about them, (I might update this post in the future when i find out new ways of memorizing) 

Flashcards

I think everyone heard of this method. You write on one side of the card your word and on the other side the translation. You can also make digital flashcards with Anki or Memrise. 

Columns

(I actually forgot the name of the method so i improvised.) Similar with the flashcards method but you don’t waste so much paper. You write your words in a column and the translation on the other side, when you want to practice, you cover the translations and try to recall how you say the word in your target language.

Apps

Many apps like Memrise offer sets of words already, all you have to do is to play. Some apps like this are: FunEasyLearn, Babadum, Lingo, 50languages but i think we can all agree that Memrise is the most popular.

Contextual Learning

It’s easier to learn in context and the easiest way to learn words in context is to either read or use an app. The most popular apps are Clozemaster, WordBrewery and Linguabee.

For reading, you can upload your pdf on ReadLang and just click on the unknown words. The words will be saved so you can review them later. If you choose to read articles instead, then ReadLang extension or Linguarana are the best choice for this tast.

Avoid learning 1 word

It’s easier if you learn structures or sentences instead of individual words. However, many apps give you only 1 word so i know that this rule isn’t very easy to follow. So… let’s go to the next tip.

Examples

When you learn a new word, try to make a sentence with it. Try to use more than 3 words though because “Anne has apples” isn’t a very complex sentence so you might forget it. Choose something that’s unforgettable to you when you make up examples.

Stories

If you’re a bit more advanced, make a story with your words. Choose 5-10 words and try to include them in your text.

Grab the dragon by its tail

(I forgot the name again, okay?) This method is used for tongue twisters usually but it works on difficult words to remember too. Basically, you write the word down but you start with it’s end and you keep adding 1 new letter after you learned the previous form. 

e.g. dragon => on - gon - agon - ragon - dragon

Listen to songs for kids

There are many songs on Youtube and they are made to be catchy. You can learn several new words at once if you learn a bit of the song.

Syllables

I’ve read recently about this method. Basically, you focus on the main syllable and when you need to remember the word, that syllable will help you remember the whole word.

Replace it

A very interesting method is writing in a language and then replacing the mot. (word) You’ll have an entire sentence in a sprog (language) except 1 word.

Use as many senses as you can

You can write the word, pronounce it and look at it in a dictionary. At the same time, if you repead this a couple of times, you will remember the word in no time.

Sticky notes

You just write the name on a sticky note and stick it to the object. This method is good because it’s like immersion, you associate the word with the object and no translation is in the way.

Be forgetful

You probably know that moment when you have to remember something so you just write on your wrist what you have to remember, you can do this, and at the end of the day, you can wash away those words. (however, if you don’t like people paying attention to you or talking about you, avoid this method, your hands will be full of words, everyone will notice, eventually)

Be talkative

If you talk to someone in your target language, you’ll more likely remember the new words or just post a text to be corrected. You have the perfect amount of stress and so, your memory pays more attention.

Memory palace

I disn’t use this one but i do know that Sherlock Homes uses it in the series and many people at the memory championships use it so i’ll include it in this list. Here you’ll find more informations about this technique.

Mnemonics

You choose a word/phrase to remind you of something else.

e.g. afslutte = to end, to conclude, to finish
mnemonic: If you don’t study, you’ll end up as a slut.

Here you can read more about mnemonics.

Write them weirdly

No, i don’t mean to use a funny font but to write them with your non-dominant hand. If your right handed, use your left hand to write. You’ll focus more on your word and you’ll learn it. 

Mind maps

If you’re a visual person, it’s easier to make a mind map because you learn while you make it and you can even color every word with a certain color that you think it will match.

Be dramatic

Ever wondered how you can memorize lines from movies? (or am i the only one who knew lines from 3 seasons of Merlin?) Those actors make you associate the words with an action, they are dramatic or funny. When you learn words, try to imagine that you’re an actor and make funny voices and faces. In the end, you’ll either remember the funny voice, your feelings or the actions you’ve done but they will all make you remember the words you learn.

Try to hand write the words

You’ll remember the words better/faster if you write them down than if you type them.

Le climat : The weather

L’hiver : Winter
La neige : Snow > Neiger : To snow
Le vent : Wind
La pluie : Rain > Pleuvoir : To rain
La grêle : Hail 
Le froid : The cold
La glace : Ice > Une stalactite : Icicle
Le verglas : Black ice or icy patch

Exemples : Aujourd’hui c’est le premier jour de l’hiver. Il fait très froid et il neige. (Today is the first day of winter. It is very cold and snowing.) 

Etre confortable : To be cozy

La couverture : Blanket
Le feu de cheminée : Chimney fire
La bougie : Candle
Les chaussettes : Socks
Le thé : Tea
Le chocolat chaud : Hot chocolate
Le pull : Sweater, pullover

Exemples : Comme il pleut, j’ai décidé de rester à la maison. Je suis sous ma couverture, près du feu de cheminée. Pour avoir chaud, je porte des chaussettes et un pull. Je bois un chocolat chaud en regardant la pluie tomber par la fenêtre. (As it is raining, I have decided to stay home. I’m under my blanket, near the chimney fire. To be warm, I am wearing socks and a sweater. I am drinking hot chocolat as I watch the rain fall through the window.)

write a diary

literally

just write a diary, it has helped me sooo much and i dare say it has been the most developing thing i’ve done while learning french, nothing else compares

1. you’re exposed to the language daily

2. you quickly see which words are missing from your vocabulary

3. you learn to write about the things you think about a lot

4. learning to actually think in your target language

5. having to look up words and when reading the entry back a couple of days later you can’t even remember which words you didn’t know

6. going back to the earlier entries and seeing all the mistakes and knowing how much better you’ve become

7. when you’ve been writing for a few months and your target language becomes a natural way for expressing yourself

8. when you’ve been writing for a few months and you start seeing the diary writing as a way of self-expression and stressrelief, and the language learning aspect becomes natural and secondary

9. filling out a whole book using only your target language and physically seeing how much you’ve accomplished