ruspeach

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vanesastudies

How I Use OneNote for University

Hey, all! I thought I’d share how I use OneNote, for any students who might want to use it for school organization. I have used this since the beginning of my university career and have found a method that works for me, after nearly three years.

I provide templates for what I use as .one files that can be imported into OneNote, and you’re free to use & modify them however you wish.

Semester Calendar Template: Download (.one) / Download (.docx)
Customized Syllabus Template: Download (.one) / Download (.docx)
Cornell Outline Template: Download (.one) / Download (.docx)
+ Outline inspired by How to Use Cornell Cornell Note-Taking Method on OneNote by @strive-for-da-best

+ How to insert templates + read if you’re on a Mac

(further information in my #OneNote tag)

As a student with learning disabilities, I found that using a computer, rather than writing everything out, is the best method for me to learn. I type up notes in class so as to not worry about keeping up with a professor, handwriting, or neatness. OneNote is my favourite note-taking application for this, because it’s essentially an upgraded version of Word that’s free and syncs automatically across devices. When my computer crashed, I was still able to access my notes online.

OneNote isn’t all typing. You can use it on a tablet or use a drawing tablet, in my case, to handwrite notes for a more natural feel. A very efficient way of taking notes is to import the lectures slides in OneNote and to write directly on them. I found that very useful in math-heavy courses, such as statistics and chemistry. The equation tool, while nifty, isn’t efficient.

By no means whatsoever is this the only way to use OneNote! In fact, I’d recommend you find a way that works for you, because while this may be highly organized, it takes a bit of set-up time and is tailored specifically to my needs. You can use my example as inspiration, but play around with it! The beauty of OneNote is that it can be used in a variety of different ways.

Download OneNote for Windows | Download OneNote for Mac

Source: vanesastudies

ruspeach

russian

jaimetalangue

RU- Verbs of motion!

Every learner of the Russian language will be confronted to the verbs of motion at some point, and it’s not the easiest part. This ppt isn’t going to be a full course about these, because I’m only a beginner myself, so I wouldn’t be able to explain everything clearly and accurately just yet.

So here I tried to make neat tables to learn them more easily! But first, I advise you watch these great YouTube videos I found about verbs of motion, and prefixes of motion verbs:

So yeah, my ppt is:

Non prefixed motion verbs
Prefixes (3 detailed slides + 1 summary)
Prefixed motion verbs (through 1 example: ходить)
Derived nouns from ходить and its prefixed counterparts

I hope that helps people, and if there is anything to be corrected please tell me asap!!!

reblogging because i think of it a lot even though i haven't done russian for ages

interlingva

How to improve your skills in your target language

lovelybluepanda

Reading

Use extensions like:

Flewent - translates a certain % of your article in your target language
ReadLang - translates the words you click on and adds them to a flashcards deck
Linguarana - same as ReadLang but it also translates expressions

Read as much as possible daily. Try to set a certain amount of pages daily/weekly.
When you listen to music, find the lyrics and follow the singers while they’re singing.
Use wattpad if you like fanfiction. The site/app allows you to receive stories in a certain language if you look at the settings. Bonus: if you add the story to the library, you can read offline on your phone.
When you watch movies, find subs in your target language; regardless the language of the movie.
Find an app/site with manga. Many apps/sites have a pretty large selection when it comes to languages and if you are a fast reader, you can read quite a lot in 10-15 minutes. Bonus: many apps allow you to read offline.
Beelinguapp is an app with fairytales in different languages. It’s pretty useful for beginners or for people who don’t feel confident enough to try something else.
How to choose a book and study with it

Listening

Use audiobooks. If you want and have time, try reading the book at the same time. If you listen and read at the same time, you have more chances to remember the words and their spelling, pronunciation.
Choose a song in your target language. Read the lyrics and their translation once or twice. Then sing the song trying to remember the lyrics. Optional: listen to the song with the lyrics. I wouldn’t really recommend this because you might focus too much on the spelling and less on the pronunciation at some point.
Many movies and videos. It will be frustrating at first but after a while, you will get used to it and focus on what you know so you can guess what’s the meaning of what you don’t know.
Try using audiocourse or courses that focus a lot on interaction and listening like Pimsleur.
Use apps like HelloTalk, Tandem, Skype, the audio messages on Facebook etc. if you want to practice with natives.
When you learn vocabulary, try to find the pronunciation on Forvo or just choose resources with audio.
Apps/Sites like 50languages, awabe, duolingo, memrise, busuu, babbel, lingodeer etc. have audio for most of their languages so they are worth your time.
Change the speed of the videos you are watching. Youtube has such a setting.

Writing

Read a lot. When you read you pay attention to what kind of structures are used in a text and the more you read, the more you get a “feeling” if the spelling of a word is right or if the strutcure makes any sense. If i ask an advanced learner why they write “i think of” they won’t be able to explain why “of” is there and not something else but they will know at any time that it’s a construction that need to be like that.
Write daily something. A short text about anything. Topics to write about
Keep a diary. How to keep a journal/diary in your target language
Talk daily to someone on facebook, tumblr, hellotalk etc.
When you watch a movie/video or read a book/chapter, write a summary.

Speaking

Sing. This will help you more or less with your pronunciation.
Talk to someone over skype or over voice messages on facebook/other sites/apps.
How to improve your speaking skills without a native

Source: lovelybluepanda language learning resourses

ruspeach

russian

interlingva

How to choose a book in your target language

lovelybluepanda

Note: This post is about books for reading when you want to improve your reading skills in your target language.

First thing you need to do is to figure out what your level is. If you are a beginner or an advanced learner because the classic “choose a book you know” won’t really work for both. (well, it might, but someone will get bored at some point)

For Beginners

Books for children
They use basic vocabulary and they are also pretty short. When you are a beginner too many new words will make you tired pretty fast and also frustrated because after 10-15 minutes when you have already 1 page of new words you lost motivation to finish that book so these stories for children are perfect.
Children’s Digital Library has books in various languages so if you ever need books for kids, this is the perfect place to choose one.

Books you know
You know the story already so you can focus on learning vocabulary. If you decide to read daily 1 chapter or 1 page, it doesn’t matter too much because in the end you’ll still be learning and you will enjoy studying that book since you decided to read again.

Classics
I kept debating if i should add this or not so i added it but i’ll warn you about something. Since last year i didn’t find Danish books to read, i started to read some stories by Hans Christian Andersen and when i started to ask a friend of mine questions, he told me that no one uses those terms anymore because they are too old. And then i remembered that even in my native language people don’t talk like they do in classics so this choice is risky since you might learn vocabulary that isn’t in use anymore.

Advanced learners

I hope i’m not the only one who gets bored easily and can’t focus on books i know. I love them but after a couple of chapters i can’t focus anymore and in this case, new books are a better choice. You keep reading because you find the story interesting and you want to know what happens. However, if you are reading a serie of books, read your next book in your target language instead of the one you usually use.

How to deal with unknown words

If you are lucky, memrise might have a course about your book, if not, you have to make digital flashcards (or paper ones if you prefer them; or maybe just write in a notebook)

For verbs i’d suggest to write it down as you found it, then the translation and right next to it with another ink, the infinitive

e.g. dormirai = to sleep, dormir

Reading methods

I have 2 methods because i can’t use the first one always so, the first one.

I just read and try to guess the meaning of a word and if i can’t, then i search it. It’s easier somehow to do this and i can guess very well the meaning. Sometimes i even highlight words and search the meaning later just to analyze them more.

The second method requires more energy because it’s for languages that you don’t “master” too well. For such languages i have to read once the entire paragraph and then see what i understood from it. If there is a certain word that it’s unknown, i’ll search it. I tend to use HiNative to translate what seems unusual or sounds like an expression because normal online translators aren’t good for these. After i have all the unknown words, i will look over the paragraph again.

With all these unknown words, i usually make flashcards on Quizlet and practice them from time to time.

Also, if you want to be sure you understood everything, write a summary after a page/chapter and in this way you practice your writing skills too.

How to figure out what words you need

The most common question when you want to read is “do i translate everything?” and the answer is no. I have never met a single language learner who bothered to check out every single word. Usually i translate the key words or those words i see a lot. If a certain word appeared 2-3 times, then i’ll translate it. I’ll also translate it if i don’t understand the sentence because of it.

How to learn this new vocabulary

You can be an angel and make a Memrise course for everyone.
You can make flashcards on Quizlet.
You can make mnemonics.
You can use them in various sentences, maybe write a short story using as many new words as you can.
You can write them on sticky notes and place them everywhere in your house.
You can write them in a notebook and read them every night and every morning while staying in bed.

Source: lovelybluepanda language learning language resources

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Assimil

lovelybluepanda

Note: Yes, they are free.

What is Assimil? Assimil is a French program. It’s a pretty expensive way/method for learning languages. It contains 1 book and several audios.

In English

Spanish
Russian
Japanese
Italian
German
French
Chinese
Arabic

In French

Hungarian
Japanese
Polish
German
Swedish
Danish
Norwegian
Hebrew
Indonesian
Portuguese, Brazil
Italian
Occitan
Spanish
Hindi
Chinese
Greek
Armenian
Russian
Czech
Swahili

Enjoy your studies!

Source: lovelybluepanda language learning ressources resourses assimil

interlingva

British English vs. American English: Spelling

sprachensalat

English is my second language, and I often struggle with spelling certain words because of these differences between British and American English.

-our / -or

British English: colour, labour, favour

American English: color, labor, favor

-re / -er

British English: centre, theatre

American English: center, theater

-ce / -se

British English: defence, licence,

American English: defense, license

-se / -ze

British English: to analyse, to organise, to criticise

American English: to analyze, to organize, to criticize

-ogue / -og

British English: catalogue, dialogue

American English: catalog, dialog

-t / -ed

British English: spelt, spilt; burnt

American English: spelled, spilled; burned

-dgem- / -dgm-

British English: judgement

American English: judgment (also used in British English)

-mme / -m

British English: programme

American English: program

-que / -ck

British English: cheque

American English: check

-ae or -oe / -e

British English: gynaecology

American English: gynecology

Punctuation

British English: Mr, Mrs, Dr

American English: Mr., Mrs., Dr.

I guess you should pick one form of spelling and stick with it for consistency!

Please let me know if there is anything to correct/add!

Source: sprachensalat

Greek nuts

I was innocently thinking about peanuts and asked my Greek boyfriend how to say it in (modern) Greek, and it almost initiated WWIII.

Nuts in general are called ξηροί καρποί (lit. dry fruits; not to be confused with αποξηραμένα φρούτα which are dried fruits), which btw comes from ancient Greek καρπός meaning fruit, which gave karpuz in Turkish (via Persian, “xarboz” meaning melon) meaning watermelon, which gave back in turn in modern Greek καρπούζι (watermelon). But I’m losing track.

So amongst nuts you’ll find καρύδια (walnuts), φουντούκια (hazelnuts), αμύγδαλα (almonds; Greek and other languages took this word to name tonsils), πεκάν/ελαιοκάρυδα (pecan), κάσιους (cashew), κάστανα (chestnuts), κουκουνάρια (pine nuts), ηλιόσποροι (sunflower seeds), μακαντάμια (macadamia nuts). But something got me very confused: I was looking for peanuts and only found the word φιστίκι, which means pistachio.

Well I’ll have you know that φιστίκι does mean both pistachio and peanut, but if you want to be more specific about peanuts you can call them Arabic (αράπικο φιστίκι). It comes from the Turkish word fıstık, meaning pistachio.

I’m officially going nuts.

vocab mine languages greek modern greek ελληνικά fruit & veg nuts

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

More you might like

How I Use OneNote for University

+ How to insert templates + read if you’re on a Mac

How to improve your skills in your target language

Reading

Listening

Writing

Speaking

How to choose a book in your target language

For Beginners

Advanced learners

How to deal with unknown words

Reading methods

How to figure out what words you need

How to learn this new vocabulary

Assimil

In English

In French

British English vs. American English: Spelling

-our / -or

-re / -er

-ce / -se

-se / -ze

-ogue / -og

-t / -ed

-dgem- / -dgm-

-mme / -m

-que / -ck

-ae or -oe / -e

Punctuation

Greek nuts