Choose Your Academia!

managed to grab a nice spot in my school’s library before i went for training!

☆04.25.20☆

My journal spread for this week | Hope you guys are doing well!

𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐲 𝐯𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐬. journal spread 29|04

i'm not journaling as often as i used to and i'm really okay with it. i guess what i want to say is that you don't have to be creative when you don't feel like it. it's as simple as that. to be able to enjoy your journey, you have to listen to yourself and honor your process.

tag yourself as hogwarts houses, study edition:

slytherin:

into dark academia, can drink 100 cups of coffee in a day, competitive to a fault, most likely head of the school or school council, studies in libraries, night owl, listens to podcasts, loves mythology, is a teachers pet, is a perfectionist, probably is a tutor or has some education-related side hustle, opens the door for people.

ravenclaw:

loves the smell of old books, always on the go, fascinated by architecture, make pinterest boards of study notes, runs a studyblr, drinks herbal tea daily, secretly competes with slytherin, has surprisingly messy handwriting, gets stressed easily, shares their notes with everyone, helps their teachers if they are carrying too much stuff.

griffindor:

is 99% energy drink, watches tv in class but still manages to get good grades, procrastinates but manages their workload, makes beautiful flashcards, has a bujo, is friends with everyone, organizes after school study classes, calms everyone down before exams, studies last minute, listens to audiobooks, encourages their classmates to do their best

hufflepuff:

is trying their best, studies in groups, best friends with their teachers, writes poetry, collects cute stationery but never uses it, has the best study snacks, has their pet to keep them company when studying, loves making study playlists, thinks that taking buzzfeed quizzes counts as ‘studying’, sleeps in class, doodles on their notes

How do you take your picture? Like they are very aesthetic and the lightning is just really good adhfkgkjkgk !!!! Can you tell me any tips for the lightning ??? Thanks so much !!!

ahh thank you so much! currently i take all my photos using my dying iphone 6s! real talk tho, i’m terrible at editing pictures consistently :( i’m still learning and trying to nail down an aesthetic BUT!! i do have a few tips that i’ve picked up! 

natural light is your best friend! i try and take all of my journal photos on the same white table i have set up next to bedroom window. i also usually take them somewhere between 9-10 am, which gives me slightly more consistent lighting that isn’t as harsh. experiment to find the best lighting of the day where you are!

move to the light! is your desk too far from your window? or is the best light somewhere else in the house? no problem, just pick up a sheet or something you can lay out as your backdrop and arrange your supplies wherever the light is best, whether that’s the living room by the french doors, your brother’s huge desk that he only uses for gaming, the dining room table…wherever dude! a white pillowcase is mobile and you can even carry your stuff in it lol.

edit brightness using the app snapseed! i upload the raw photo with no filters or edits to snapseed first, and i usually just let the curves tool do the lightening of the shadows in my photos for me. i think it washes out the whole photo less than just upping the overall brightness in like vsco or something.

only apply filters/color edits after you’ve adjusted your brightness! a lot of preset filters on apps like snapseed or vsco are going to automatically adjust the contrast, shadows, highlights, and temperature of your photo. you don’t want to spend time on an edit only to discover that when you change the brightness it suddenly looks funky. not fun :( also, always edit with your screen at max brightness so you can see clearly what you’re doing!

hopefully that was helpful, but i’m still learning as well! best of luck friend!

Hope the school year has been treating everyone well :-) Stay safe friends!

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Japanese Reading Resources for Absolute Beginners

A question I encounter often is "How much Japanese should I study before I can begin reading in Japanese?"

From my experience as a learner and reader myself and from managing a Japanese book club for other learners I can honestly say that you can start way earlier than you probably think!

There are many resources that only require knowing hiragana. Those texts usually teach vocabulary through pictures and only use basic grammar.

Some are even simpler than that: The Japan Foundation's Hiragana Books are great for those, who are still remembering hiragana characters. Every short book introduces only 1-2 new characters, so it's a great reading exercise for those who've just started.

The free graded reader 「どうぞ、どうも」 by the NPO Tagengo Tadoku only uses the words 「どうぞ」 and 「どうも」 to write an entire story. Again, this makes for a great exercise in reading hiragana and understanding context. Another "level 0" recommendation by the same NPO would definitely be 「しろい？くろい？」. This book uses the full range of hiragana characters but the grammar is simple and all used vocabulary is illustrated.

Another site with great resources for absolute beginners is Nihongo Tadoku Dōjō. If you have memorized both hiragana and katakana and know how the particles を and で work you will be able to read this text about stationary (ぶんぼうぐ) and understand everything by looking at the pictures!

The resources linked so far can all be accessed completely free on the linked websites. If you have the money to spare, please also have a look at the box 「スタート」 from the series reberubetsu nihongo tadoku raiburarī published by the NPO Tagengo Tadoku and ASK (affiliate link). This box includes 8 little books in very simple Japanese.

All these texts for absolute beginners will get you started reading in Japanese with very little knowledge of characters and vocabulary.

Reading in Japanese is a skill that requires practice. But once you get used to it, it can be such a valuable tool to reinforce new vocabulary and grammar. So please don't wait until you're "ready" before you start reading - start early at your own level!

𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒚, 29𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒖𝒈 || made a fav songs spread recently, can't believe I haven't done it by now but thanks to that studygram event? [someone please tell me what are they called] I got a chance so here it is after 2 breakdowns of song selection lmao

🎧: 𝑭𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓_𝒆𝒏𝒉𝒚𝒑𝒆𝒏 [not over this and never will be]

types of study breaks for every situation

if you realize you’ve been studying for hours: grab a snack to refuel your body and watch a sitcom to refuel your brain. then back to the books.

if you’re feeling stressed out: take some deep breaths, text your friends, maybe stare at a wall for a few minutes. gather yourself.

if you can’t seem to focus: get moving and get outside. take out the garbage, check your mail box, maybe walk your dog. just get moving and get fresh air. it’ll help bring you back.

if there’s something else going on in your life and you can’t get it off your mind: write down what’s going through your head, sort of like a diary entry. it’ll help you work things out.

if you’re just mentally and physically exhausted: set a timer for 25-30 minutes and take a nap. any longer and you’ll hit REM and you’ll wake up feeling just as tired. once you wake up, get some caffeine in you.

if the material is boring as hell: find another way to study. see if there’s a crash course video online about it or draw out what you’re trying to learn in diagrams and pictures to make it fun.

if people around you won’t shut up: listen to some music. soundtrack and classical music is always good because they won’t absorb you as much as music with lyrics. white noise (like ocean waves, rain sounds, etc.) also works.

if you only half understand a concept: call/message a friend who’s not in the class and try to teach the material to them. this will help you mentally work through the material and will help you remember it as well.

↳ 05.20.19.

i always make my new weekly spread monday mornings, look how blissfully empty :’) currently annotating chinese textbook readings while watching “love is a bonus book” on netflix, i loooooove it so far ✨