STUDYING In French

Japanese starter pack

SO you’ve finally said okay, I want to learn Japanese. If you’ve never learned a language before then it can seem daunting but it’s a very rewarding experience! I’m gonna lay out what helped me start and stuff that I think would’ve been helpful for me even early on! But I still recommend doing your own research and trying lots of different methods bc language learning especially by yourself is a very personal experience! This is also meant for absolute beginners just looking to get started so I will try to keep it simple. 

First I just want to say I think your first goal should be “I want to be able to read and write kana fluently” because even just that will open so many doors and send you well on your way, but most importantly because: romaji will not be there for you. At all. And to be able to learn to read efficiently you need to read! Just like when you first learned the alphabet you must try to read everything, try to read tweets, posts, articles from NHK news easy, candy packaging, anything! You don’t have to understand what you’re reading at all, you just have to be able to read it right. And learn this with all the sources I will list in the post don’t try to learn it completely in isolation. Some tofugu kana resources to get you started/supplement other resources: Hiragana guide, Katakana guide, kana charts

Getting started immediately with apps There’s lots of language apps to pick and try out but I think the 2 best options right away are Duolingo and Lingodeer. Duolingo has improved its japanese course so much since I first did it in 2017, finally more lessons so you can use it beyond the beginner stage, separate lessons for katakana finally, and it uses more kanji to really give you a headstart on that front! Its still kind of inefficient in isolation but its so good for getting you started. If you’re fine with spending some subscription money then Lingodeer, a recently paywalled app specially made for asian languages like Japanese, Chinese, and Korean is worth giving a try! Here’s a video review of it by Miku Real Japanese

Textbooks The most famous textbook used in classrooms is Genki! A good book, its concise, streamlined, and efficient! but it’s not really designed for you to study by yourself. Its designed for the classroom and doesn’t really include a lot of content to help you become fluent in reading kana and some kanji. This can make starting feel more daunting and overwhelming for some so a lot self learners myself included recommend starting with Japanese from Zero! Specially designed for self learners and does a slow and thorough approach with an incorporated workbook section! There’s lots more options to explore tho and cough cough pdf versions to check out before you have to settle with a purchase

Youtube  There are so many good youtube channels both old and new to help you at every step! If you need to hear someone explain things for you bc you want to practice listening/pronunciation, you just like lectures, written explanations didn’t help then youtube is a great asset! Japanese Ammo has lessons starting with absolute beginners, if you want to try your hand at doing lessons with no english at all, then Sambonjuku’s basics can help. Japanesepod101′s youtube is also a great place for beginners! This is just a tiny sample of the many youtube channels dedicated to teaching you japanese so if none of these clicked with you then there’s many more channels to try! All linked channels also have videos on kana! 

In summary simply getting started is the first step and when you conquer kana then that’s already big progress! These are the basic tools that helped me simply start so I hope at least one of them can be helpful, and if not then there must be some tool or resource out there that will work for you! And quick note: a book I’m reading right now that I also want to recommend as supplemental reading is Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner. Its really good advice on how to approach and start language learning and I agree with everything I’ve read so far, and its just a really encouraging book! I also recommend checking out Tofugu.com which has a lot of great reviews, articles, advice, and resource roundups for you to explore. also shoutout to my fav langblr on here @ohitoyoshi just because. and if anyone reading want to share what helped them get stared then feel free to add on!

Links to PDFs of French Language Books

The Great Gatsby (Gatsby le magnifique)

The Fault in Our Stars (Nos étoiles contraires)

Twilight (Fascination)

New Moon (Tentation)

Eclipse (Hésitation)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter à l'École des Sorciers)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets)

The Book Thief (La voleuse de livres)

The Notebook (Les pages de notre amour)

Sense and Sensibility (Le cœur et la raison)

The Little Prince (Le petit prince)

The Girl on the Train (La Fille du train)

Animal Farm (La Ferme des Animaux)

1984 (1984)

Romeo and Juliet (Roméo et Juliette)

Me Before You (Avant toi)

The Secret Garden (Le Jardin mystérieux)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Les hommes qui n'aimaient pas les femmes)

Hunger Games (Hunger Games)

Divergent (Divergent)

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (À tous les garçons que j'ai aimés)

All of my templates are free to download following the links under images provided below. I hope they can help you as much as they have helped me. Originally designed by me for study with the Open University. 

Study Plan - Monday Start.

Download free here

Or Saturday start - Download here

Definitions list - Download here

Priority board - download here

Project/assignment plan - Download here

Assignment tracker - Download here

Essay plan - Download here

Key points and summary - Download here

Assignment tutor remarks - Download here

Weekly learning outcomes - Download here

What is the difference between Est-ce que and Qu'est-ce que?

Asking questions is something fundamental in French, especially if you want to know more about something or get more information.

French people use Est-ce que and Qu'est-ce que to start their questions. They look alike but are not used the same way.

So, what is the actual difference between both question words? Find out more here and also practice with the Quiz at the end of the lesson.

Learn French With Chanty

Writer Beware makes posts on which publishing houses to avoid at all costs, which words to look for and which words to watch out for in contracts, and several other things that will keep you in control and knowledgeable about the publishing process.  I’d suggest reading through the website if you want to avoid getting ripped off, cheated, or scammed.

Cozy Vocab in French

Some cozy vocabulary in French… so you can have a cozy evening!

une couverture - a blanket

une bougie - a candle

une tasse de café -  a cup of coffee

un thé - a tea

un chocolat chaud - a hot cocoa

les biscuits - cookies

une guimauve - a marshmallow

une pâtisserie - a pastry une cheminée - a chimney

les chaussettes - socks

un oreiller - a pillow

un livre - a book

un pull-over - a sweater

un nounours - a teddy bear

prendre une douche chaude - to take a hot shower

10 Things: How to Photograph a Meteor Shower

Taking photographs of a meteor shower can be an exercise in patience as meteors streak across the sky quickly and unannounced, but with these tips – and some good fortune – you might be rewarded with a great photo.

These tips are meant for a DSLR or mirrorless camera, but some point-and-shoot cameras with manual controls could be used as well.

1. The Photo Op: Perseids Meteors

The Perseids are dusty remnants of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle.

Earth passes through the comet’s invisible, multi-billion mile trail of tiny debris each year around August, creating a meteor shower of so-called “shooting stars” as the particles are vaporized in our atmosphere.

Perseid meteors already are streaking across the sky. This year’s shower peaks on a moonless summer night -from 4 pm on the 12th until 4 am on the 13th Eastern Daylight Time.

Read more on the Perseids ›

2. Get away from city lights and find a place with dark skies.

In this 30 second exposure, a meteor streaks across the sky in Spruce Knob, West Virginia, during the 2016 Perseids meteor shower. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Too much light and it will be hard for your eyes to see fainter meteors, plus your image will get flooded with the glow of light. Turning down the brightness of the camera’s LCD screen will help keep your eyes adjusted to the dark. The peak of the 2018 Perseid meteor shower occurs just after the new moon, meaning a thin crescent will set long before the best viewing hours, leaving hopeful sky watchers with a moonlight-free sky!

3. Use a tripod.

In this ten-second exposure, a meteor streaks across the sky above Washington, DC during the 2015 Perseids meteor shower, Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Meteor photography requires long exposures, and even the steadiest of hands can’t hold a camera still enough for a clear shot. Heavier tripods help reduce shaking caused by wind and footsteps, but even a lightweight tripod will do. You can always place sandbags against the feet of the tripod to add weight and stability. If you don’t have a tripod, you might be able to prop your camera on or up against something around you, but be sure to secure your camera.

4. Use a wide-angle lens.

In this 30 second exposure taken with a circular fish-eye lens, a meteor streaks across the sky during the 2016 Perseids meteor shower as a photographer wipes moisture from the camera lens Friday, August 12, 2016 in Spruce Knob, West Virginia. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

A wide-angle lens will capture more of the sky and give you a greater chance of capturing a meteor in your shot, while a zoom lens captures a smaller area of the sky. The odds of a meteor streaking past that small patch are lower.

5. Use a shutter release cable or the camera’s built-in timer.

Long exposures are not just for meteors. In this shot taken at Joshua Tree National Park, a hiker’s headlamp leaves a trail of light along a twilight path. Credit: National Park Service / Hannah Schwalbe

A tripod does a great job of reducing most of the shaking your camera experiences, but even the act of pressing the shutter button can blur your extended exposure. Using the self-timer gives you several seconds for any shaking from pressing the shutter button to stop before the shutter is released. A shutter release cable (without a self-timer) eliminates the need to touch the camera at all. And if your camera has wifi capabilities, you might be able to activate the shutter from a mobile device.

6. Manually focus your lens.

In this 30 second exposure, a meteor streaks across the sky during the annual Perseids meteor shower Friday, August 12, 2016 in Spruce Knob, West Virginia. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

At night, autofocus will struggle to find something on which to focus. Setting your focus to infinity will get you close, but chances are you’ll have to take some test images and do some fine tuning. With your camera on a tripod, take a test image lasting a few seconds, then use the camera’s screen to review the image. Zoom in to a star to see how sharp your focus is. If the stars look like fuzzy blobs, make tiny adjustments to the focus and take another test image.

Repeat until you are happy with the result.

If your camera has a zoomable electronic viewfinder or live view option, you might be able to zoom to a star and focus without having to take a test image.

7. Aim your camera.

The Perseids appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus, visible in the northern sky soon after sunset this time of year.

Even though we don’t know when or where a single meteor will appear, we do know the general area from which they’ll originate.

Meteor showers get their name based on the point in the sky from which they appear to radiate. In the case of the Perseids, during their peak, they appear to come from the direction of the constellation Perseus in the northern sky.

8. Calculate your exposure time.

In this 20-second exposure, a meteor lights up the sky over the top of a mountain ridge near Park City, Utah. Even though this image was captured during the annual Perseid meteor shower, this “shooting star” is probably not one of the Perseid meteors, which originate from material left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. Instead, it’s likely one of the many bits of rock and dust that randomly fall into the atmosphere on any given night. Credit: NASA/Bill Dunford

As Earth rotates, the stars in the sky appear to move, and if your shutter is open long enough, you might capture some of that movement. If you want to avoid apparent star movement, you can follow the 500 Rule. Take 500 and divide it by the length in millimeters of your lens. The resulting number is the length of time in seconds that you can keep your shutter open before seeing star trails. For example, if you’re using a 20 mm lens, 25 seconds (500 divided by 20) is the longest you can set your exposure time before star trails start to show up in your images.

9. Experiment!

In this 30 second exposure photo, hikers find their way to the top of Spruce Knob in West Virginia to view the annual Perseids meteor shower, Friday, August 12, 2016. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Once you know the maximum exposure time, you can set your shutter priority to that length and let the camera calculate other settings for your first image. Depending on how the image turns out, you can manually adjust aperture (set it to a lower number if the image is too dark) and ISO (set it to a higher number if the image is too dark) to improve your next images. Changing only one setting at a time will give you a better understanding of how those changes affect your image.

10. Enjoy the show.

The crew of the International Space Station captured this Perseid meteor falling to Earth over China in 2011. Credit: NASA

With your camera settings adjusted, capturing that perfect photo is just a matter of time and luck. The highest rate of meteors visible per hour is in the hours after midnight and before dawn. Set up your camera next to a lounge chair or a blanket to witness the wonder of a meteor shower for yourself – and, with any luck, you’ll take home some envy-inducing shots, too!

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Les nationalités

1. American▪︎américain/américaine

2. Argentinian▪︎argentin/argentine

3. Algerian▪︎algérien/algérienne

4. Australian▪︎australien/australienne

5. Austrian▪︎autrichien/autrichienne

6. Belarusian▪︎biélorussien/biélorussienne

7. Belgian▪︎belge/belge

8. Brazilian▪︎brésilien/brésilienne

9. Bulgarian▪︎bulgare/bulgare

10. Canadian▪︎canadien/canadienne

11. Chinese▪︎chinois/chinoise

12. Colombian▪︎colombien/colombienne

13. Canadian▪︎canadien/canadienne

14. Cuban▪︎cubain/cubaine

15. Czech▪︎tchèque/tchèque

16. Dane▪︎danois/danoise

17. Dutch▪︎néerlandais/néerlandaise

18. Egyptian▪︎égyptien/égyptienne

19. English▪︎anglais/anglaise

20. Estonian▪︎estonien/estonienne

21. Finn▪︎finlandais/finlandaise

22. French▪︎français/française

23. German▪︎allemand/allemande

24. Greek▪︎grec/grecque

25. Hungarian▪︎hongrois/hongroise

26. Icelandic▪︎islandais/islandaise

27. Indian▪︎indien/indienne

28. Irish▪︎irlandais/irlandaise

29. Italian▪︎italien/italienne

30. Japanese▪︎japonais/japonaise

31. Korean▪︎coréen/coréenne

32. Latvian▪︎letton/letonne

33. Lithuanian▪︎lituanien/lituanienne

34. Macedonian▪︎macédonien/macédonienne

35. Mexican▪︎mexicain/mexicainne

36. New Zealander▪︎néo-zélandais/néo-zélandaise

37. Norwegian▪︎norvégien/norvégienne

38. Pole▪︎polonais/polonaise

39. Portuguese▪︎portugais/portugaise

40. Romanian▪︎roumain/roumaine

41. Russian▪︎russe/russe

42. Scottish▪︎écossais/écossaise

43. Slovak▪︎slovaque/slovaque

44. Slovene▪︎slovène/slovène

45. Spanish▪︎espagnol/espagnole

46. Swede▪︎suédois/suédoise

47. Swiss▪︎suisse/suisse

48. Turk▪︎turc/turque

49. Ukrainian▪︎ukrainien/ukrainienne

50. Welsh▪︎gallois/galloise

i will do another fifty soon to include the ones i left out. please correct me if i made any mistakes!

Words to use instead of manger

1. manger- to eat( just getting that out of the way)

2. mordre- to bite

3. mâcher- to chew

4. dévorer- to devour

5. dîner- to dine

6. ingérer- to ingest

7. grignoter- to nibble

8. picorer- to pick at

9. avaler- to swallow

10. digére- to digest

11. engloutir- to scarf down

12. mordre dans- to munch on

13. paître- to graze

14. grignoter- to snack on

15. engloutir- to gobble up