☆ Spanish Words/phrases I Learned In Class Today ☆

CEFR test

Hey guys, if you wanna check your language level of English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian (bokmål), Arabic, Arabic (Syria), Turkish or Danish, here’s the CEFR test! It does take a lot of time (for me it took more than half an hour), but you can test your grammar and vocabulary, reading and listening comprehension so it’s definitely worth it!  read more about the test here

I love this generation. I hope we all die.

Polyglot Punishment

Did you hear about the french chef who committed suicide? He simply lost the huile d’olive.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.” - Helen Keller

How to Study Like a Harvard Student

Taken from Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, daughter of the Tiger Mother

Preliminary Steps 1. Choose classes that interest you. That way studying doesn’t feel like slave labor. If you don’t want to learn, then I can’t help you. 2. Make some friends. See steps 12, 13, 23, 24. General Principles 3. Study less, but study better. 4. Avoid Autopilot Brain at all costs. 5. Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time. 6. Write it down. 7. Suck it up, buckle down, get it done. Plan of Attack Phase I: Class 8. Show up. Everything will make a lot more sense that way, and you will save yourself a lot of time in the long run. 9. Take notes by hand. I don’t know the science behind it, but doing anything by hand is a way of carving it into your memory. Also, if you get bored you will doodle, which is still a thousand times better than ending up on stumbleupon or something. Phase II: Study Time 10. Get out of the library. The sheer fact of being in a library doesn’t fill you with knowledge. Eight hours of Facebooking in the library is still eight hours of Facebooking. Also, people who bring food and blankets to the library and just stay there during finals week start to smell weird. Go home and bathe. You can quiz yourself while you wash your hair. 11. Do a little every day, but don’t let it be your whole day. “This afternoon, I will read a chapter of something and do half a problem set. Then, I will watch an episode of South Park and go to the gym” ALWAYS BEATS “Starting right now, I am going to read as much as I possibly can…oh wow, now it’s midnight, I’m on page five, and my room reeks of ramen and dysfunction.” 12. Give yourself incentive. There’s nothing worse than a gaping abyss of study time. If you know you’re going out in six hours, you’re more likely to get something done. 13. Allow friends to confiscate your phone when they catch you playing Angry Birds. Oh and if you think you need a break, you probably don’t. Phase III: Assignments 14. Stop highlighting. Underlining is supposed to keep you focused, but it’s actually a one-way ticket to Autopilot Brain. You zone out, look down, and suddenly you have five pages of neon green that you don’t remember reading. Write notes in the margins instead. 15. Do all your own work. You get nothing out of copying a problem set. It’s also shady. 16. Read as much as you can. No way around it. Stop trying to cheat with Sparknotes. 17. Be a smart reader, not a robot (lol). Ask yourself: What is the author trying to prove? What is the logical progression of the argument? You can usually answer these questions by reading the introduction and conclusion of every chapter. Then, pick any two examples/anecdotes and commit them to memory (write them down). They will help you reconstruct the author’s argument later on. 18. Don’t read everything, but understand everything that you read. Better to have a deep understanding of a limited amount of material, than to have a vague understanding of an entire course. Once again: Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time. 19. Bullet points. For essays, summarizing, everything. Phase IV: Reading Period (Review Week) 20. Once again: do not move into the library. Eat, sleep, and bathe. 21. If you don’t understand it, it will definitely be on the exam. Solution: textbooks; the internet. 22. Do all the practice problems. This one is totally tiger mom. 23. People are often contemptuous of rote learning. Newsflash: even at great intellectual bastions like Harvard, you will be required to memorize formulas, names and dates. To memorize effectively: stop reading your list over and over again. It doesn’t work. Say it out loud, write it down. Remember how you made friends? Have them quiz you, then return the favor. 24. Again with the friends: ask them to listen while you explain a difficult concept to them. This forces you to articulate your understanding. Remember, vague is bad. 25. Go for the big picture. Try to figure out where a specific concept fits into the course as a whole. This will help you tap into Big Themes – every class has Big Themes – which will streamline what you need to know. You can learn a million facts, but until you understand how they fit together, you’re missing the point. Phase V: Exam Day 26. Crush exam. Get A.

push yourself to get up before the rest of the world - start with 7am, then 6am, then 5:30am. go to the nearest hill with a big coat and a scarf and watch the sun rise.

push yourself to fall asleep earlier - start with 11pm, then 10pm, then 9pm. wake up in the morning feeling re-energized and comfortable.

get into the habit of cooking yourself a beautiful breakfast. fry tomatoes and mushrooms in real butter and garlic, fry an egg, slice up a fresh avocado and squirt way too much lemon on it. sit and eat it and do nothing else.

stretch. start by reaching for the sky as hard as you can, then trying to touch your toes. roll your head. stretch your fingers. stretch everything.

buy a 1L water bottle. start with pushing yourself to drink the whole thing in a day, then try drinking it twice.

buy a beautiful diary and a beautiful black pen. write down everything you do, including dinner dates, appointments, assignments, coffees, what you need to do that day. no detail is too small.

strip your bed of your sheets and empty your underwear draw into the washing machine. put a massive scoop of scented fabric softener in there and wash. make your bed in full.

organise your room. fold all your clothes (and bag what you don’t want), clean your mirror, your laptop, vacuum the floor. light a beautiful candle.

have a luxurious shower with your favourite music playing. wash your hair, scrub your body, brush your teeth. lather your whole body in moisturiser, get familiar with the part between your toes, your inner thighs, the back of your neck.

push yourself to go for a walk. take your headphones, go to the beach and walk. smile at strangers walking the other way and be surprised how many smile back. bring your dog and observe the dog’s behaviour. realise you can learn from your dog.

message old friends with personal jokes. reminisce. suggest a catch up soon, even if you don’t follow through. push yourself to follow through.

think long and hard about what interests you. crime? sex? boarding school? long-forgotten romance etiquette? find a book about it and read it. there is a book about literally everything.

become the person you would ideally fall in love with. let cars merge into your lane when driving. pay double for parking tickets and leave a second one in the machine. stick your tongue out at babies. compliment people on their cute clothes. challenge yourself to not ridicule anyone for a whole day. then two. then a week. walk with a straight posture. look people in the eye. ask people about their story. talk to acquaintances so they become friends.

lie in the sunshine. daydream about the life you would lead if failure wasn’t a thing. open your eyes. take small steps to make it happen for you.

Weather Vocabulary in Spanish and French

Nouns

Weather – El clima – La météo/ le temps

Temperature – La temperatura – La température

Forecast – El pronóstico – La prévision

Sun – El sol – Le soleil

Wind – El viento – Le vent

Cloud – La nube – Le nuage

Snow – La nieve – La neige

Rain – La lluvia – La pluie

Storm – La tormenta – La tempête/ l’orage (m.)

Thunder – El trueno – Le tonnerre

Lighting – El rayo – L’éclair (m.)

Heat – El calor – La chaleur

Cold – El frio – Le froid

Ice – El hielo – La glace

Hail – El granizo – La grêle

Humidity – La humedad – L’humidité (f.)

Adjectives

Sunny – Soleado - Ensoleillé

Windy – Ventoso - Venteux

Cloudy – Nublado – Nuageux

Rainy – Lluvioso - Pluvieux

Stormy – Tormentoso – Orageux

Hot – Caliente – Chaleureux

Cold – Frio – Froid

Icy – Helado* – Glacé

Humid – Húmedo – Humide

Dry – Seco – Sec

Frozen – Congelado – Gelé

Slippery – Resbaladizo – Glissant

*Can also mean very cold

Verbs

To shine – Brillar – Briller

To rain- Llover – Pleuvoir

To blow – Soplar – Souffler

To burn – Quemar – Bruler

To freeze – Congelar – Geler

To check the weather – Revisar el clima – Vérifier la météo/ le temps

To fall – Caer – Tomber

To slip – Resbalar – Glisser

To hail – Granizar – Grêler

To predict – Predecir – Prévoir

Reading in different languages

Spanish: couldn't be easier, we can tell exactly how to pronounce a word based on its spelling

Russian: ok, we have to memorize where the stress falls on every word because that changes pronunciation completely, but other than that we're good!

Arabic: ok the vowels aren't really written but at least we have the consonants so we can figure out how to say it with practice and memorization

Chinese: well now we have to memorize the pronunciation of every character that gives us pretty much no clues for how to say it, but at least every character only has one reading

Japanese: AAAAAAHHHHHHHH-

me too always open!

Reblog if...

… your chat is open to talk about cultures, languages, social topics, or anything you want to talk about with new international friends!

tips for when you think you’re stagnating

watch this youtube video to let yourself wallow, but also discuss and maybe even feel better

read this article

stick this quote up somewhere

read, here’s the rory gilmore reading challenge

on that note, read milk and honey, or if you’ve already read it, give it a reread 

read this if you don’t know what to do with your life pt. 1

read this if you don’t know what to do with your life pt. 2

make this quote your wallpaper or something.

keep these gifs very close to your heart

write a small to do list, here are some nice little things you can do: wash your hair, do your nails, watch a movie, read a book, run a bath, organise your notes etc

here’s a nice little list of things you can do to pick yourself up in general

hope this is helpful!