It’s Monday afternoon. I have two papers and a programming assignment due Wednesday, and an exam on Friday, not to mention two homework assignments I haven’t started on. But I’m sitting in a cafe with my earbuds in, listening to The Moth Radio podcast while I drink my cup of Cafe Au Lait and occasionally bite into my vanilla macaron. I’ve been sitting here for nearly 45 minutes and I don’t plan to start working again until another 15 minutes.
What am I doing? Shouldn’t I be working right now? Why am I wasting my time? Well, I’m taking one of my mandatory midday coffee breaks.
Why take a midday break?
You probably think you’re too busy to take breaks. You think there are way too many things on your to-do list that you can’t afford to lose even five minutes of time away from doing them.
This is how I used to see things, too. Even though I’ve been using the pomodoro method for a relatively long time, I discovered that I needed something more, especially since my daily college schedule very much tempts me into studying for long stretches of time. I used to think that whenever I didn’t have class, I had to study, but that was just harmful to my overall productivity.
These mandatory coffee breaks serve as a sort of mental reset, a time to wind down just a little bit so I can get back up refreshed and ready to tackle on more tasks. They help me stay sane and not feel stressed and overwhelmed by all the things I have to do, and they also help me restore focus so that I can achieve full concentration on my tasks after the break.
Sometimes we don’t realize how draining all the chaos of studying and working can be until we stop doing those things, so taking these breaks can definitely help you recenter yourself.
I’m sure you can see how these breaks are helpful, but how exactly do I take these breaks?
When?
I take my coffee breaks during the time of day when I would feel sluggish and slow, from 3:30 to 4:30 pm. This is of course different for everyone, but regardless of the exact time, if I chose instead to work during my slow hours, I wouldn’t get much done, and I’ll only end up feeling too tired to do much else the rest of the day.
Where?
As much as I can, I’d go someplace where I don’t normally study so I can get the entire ‘busy mindset’ out of my system. This place could be a cafe on campus, or even one of the quads or something.
One of my favorite ‘break spots’ is the art museum on campus. I could walk around the museum during my break, maybe even go to the fifth floor where there’s an amazing view of Ithaca, and then I’d have a cup of coffee in the lobby (you can make one for $1), and then continue studying or doing schoolwork in the lobby.
Another great place for a break is anywhere with outdoor seating. This also allows you to take a breath of fresh air and re-energize your brain to take in more information after your break. However, as the weather’s getting chilly here in Ithaca, outside’s not the best place to be when it’s not a very nice day out.
If you’re in high school, I realize you might not have the freedom to go wherever you wanted to; I wasn’t even allowed to leave school grounds during the day. You could simply go outside or again, go somewhere you don’t usually study – this would be the best option if you’re at home by the time you want to have your midday break. (I would go out to my terrace or sit in my living room.)
What to do?
During these breaks, I’d usually write in my journal, read a book, listen to music or podcast, or sometimes make music on my phone (with airplane mode turned on so I don’t get distracted by any notifications). Sometimes, if any of my friends are free, I’ll ask them to come along and we’ll chat (in practice, this is actually very difficult because my friends and I have vastly different schedules, so yeah).
If I’m feeling especially tired, I’ll go back to my dorm to take a nap. However, with the weather getting colder and the sky growing darker, it’s very very tempting to extend my power nap, so I just settle for a cup of coffee.
What if I don’t?
Sometimes you might feel guilty for taking such a long break, and I admit I sometimes still feel that way, but you have to remind yourself that taking this break will have a greater net positive effect than if you continue working.
I’ve noticed that on days that I don’t take a break – or even shorten my break – I perform less effectively on my tasks and I’m less productive. This could actually lead to sleeping later (which it had a couple times) and as you all know, lack of sleep reduces cognitive functioning.
I’ve definitely experienced physical consequences of not taking breaks: one time I was working on an assignment for my computer science course, but since I was a little behind, I didn’t take the midday break in fear that I wouldn’t finish it on time. However, by the time I finished, my head was so hazy and my vision was blurry and I couldn’t really do much else afterwards. The worst thing was, I also had a philosophy paper due that night which I’ve finished but still needed to revise one last time. I knew this was bad, so I took a 45 minute break afterwards, before I revised and submitted my paper.
I know it can be difficult to stray from your tasks once you’ve achieved a certain momentum, but trust me, you need to take that break. Like, ok, I managed to study for my philosophy midterm in 4-5 hours, but it could’ve easily taken me 10 if I hadn’t taken a midday break that one Tuesday afternoon.
Take a while every day to detach yourself from school or work. Don’t try to excuse yourself from having a break. Make time for a break. By mentally resetting your brain, you’ll achieve greater productivity for the rest of the day, and be able to tackle your remaining tasks more efficiently.
So yeah, mandatory midday breaks are one of the strategies I’ve been using to maintain wellness in my college life, and I hope you’ll consider making it a part of yours, too!
As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me an ask 🙂
You like a language, learn it. Don’t give up on learning it only because it’s not popular, “useful” or your friends don’t like it.
Sticky notes, sticky notes everywhere. If you can’t remember a grammar rule or a word/structure, use sticky notes.
Study daily, even if it’s for 5 min or less.
Learn the first 100-300 most common words, they are like everywhere.
Duolingo, Memrise and Forvo are the holy trinity for every language learner; everyone uses them at some point.
HiNative will save your ass when you have questions.
“Hakuna matata mais quelle phrase magnifique” Disney is your friend, sing disney songs to improve your pronuniation.
Also, watch disney movies. You know the story already so you can focus on the language.
Watch movies with subs in your target language.
Write daily a short text about whatever you want, even about your socks. In 1 month you’d have learned a lot of new vocab.
Talk, talk, talk. If you aren’t a soial person, talk to yourself, to your pet, to a wall; it doesn’t matter. Just force yourself to think in your target language.
If you are busy, Semper is a good app for learning vocab while doing your daily activities.
Use your target language for basic stuff like counting, groceries, complaining etc.
Change your settings on social media. Many people learned English through twitter, facebook, tumblr etc. This can work for other languages too.
Change the settings of your phone too. You use it 24/24, you know what every thing does there so you could learn the name of those setting in your target language.
If you lost motivation, take a break and remember why you started.
If you hit a plateau, that’s most probably because you don’t know enough vocab.
Understand that your progress will be slow after a while. Accept it and keep going.
Lang-8 is a great place if you want natives to correct your texts.
Langblr community is amazing, if you need any advice/explanation, ask a langblr.
Try out many resources but choose a handful that you’ll use daily.
If you don’t know a word in your native language, you don’t need it in your target language.
Accept the fact that you can’t translate every word one by one. There are special structures, word order, particles etc. your target language might not be as your native one.
If you’re bored, look around and name in your target language what you see.
Try to find a language/motivation partner. You will support and help eah other.
You’ll make mistakes, love that! That means you’re learning and you’ll have funny stories to tell in a couple of years.
If you don’t remember a word, make a mnemonic or write it with your other hand; you’ll focus more then.
Learn words in context; you’ll remember them easily after. Clozemaster and WordBrewery are 2 great sites for this.
When you want to read if you are a beginner, choose a book you know. If you are an advanced learner, choose a new book.
Find online a native to talk to. Tumblr is full of natives and langblrs will love to help. Another choice is to find a chat group.
For slang words check out the youtube comment section. Twitter is a good alternative though.
Don’t waste money on fancy programs. Some can be found for free and some aren’t so good as they claim they are.
When you learn a new word, try to make a couple of examples in your head.
Read articles. They use simple structures and actual expressions; also, they aren’t boring.
Youtube is your friend, don’t be afraid to use it. Watch movies in your target language so you can get used to how real people talk; most programs/apps speak slowly and they try to make themselves clear but that’s not real life.
You’ll have an accent; don’t worry, it will go away after a while.
Age doesn’t matter, everyone can learn a language; you can be 5 or 50, the only difference is how you learn.
Don’t just learn, revise as well.
As a beginner you will translate everything from your native language and that’s okay. People will correct you and you will learn.
If you like to read fanfiction, read it in your target language and use the ReadLang extension when you don’t know a word; it’s faster than google translate.
Beware of those vocab lists you see on tumblr. Not everything might be right.
Flewent is an extension that translates a certain % of what you read in your target language. It’s a fast way to learn new words while doing your homework or whatever.
Prepositions are a nightmare to everyone. To have a more pleasant life, try to find a list with verbs and what prepositions they require.
Children songs are catchy, use them to learn vocab faster.
Pay attention to false friends. They might look the same with a familiar word but they have another meaning.
Try not to learn 2 languages at the same time, especially if they are from the same family. (e.g. French and Spanish)
If you decide to study 2 languages at the same time, try to study in different places and use different colors for your notes.
You learn faster if you use your target language than if you learn Nth vocab lists.
Try to avoid making the same mistake until it becomes a habit.
Idioms can impress anyone but don’t start learning them too early or too late.
If you have to learn irregular verbs, try to find patterns and part them in groups.
Hard work beats talent but when it comes to learning a language, there’s no one who has talent. There are people who have a good memory or can figure out patterns but that can be improved so no need to worry if you progress slowly.
Don’t compare yourself to someone who studied a language for years. Everyone progresses in their own way.
Everyone has another method, if it doesn’t work for you, it’s not the end of the world. Just experiment and figure out what works for you.
Classes are a waste of time, don’t think to pay for one.
Try to learn vocab that interests you. You’re a Harry Potter fan? Learn magic terms. You like cooking? Learn cooking terms. etc.
Flashcards are a nice way to learn vocab. Make some and study them before going to bed.
Learn chunks of vocab, not single words. (e.g. Buy a bottle of milk; Brush your teeth; Wash the red car.)
Learn cognates.
Use the diglot weave technique. Basically you
insert foreign words into a sentence of a language you already know
Taking breaks is fine but try not to take a break of Nth months.
Decide what skill you want to improve first. You can never improve everything equally so try to focus on what you need/want the most.
Set a big goal (e.g be advanced in French) but remember to have small goals too. (e.g. read Harry Potter by the end of this season)
Watch people talking. Join a chat and “spy” others if you don’t feel like talking yet.
Associate word – image – sound. Don’t just learn plain words, if you learn the word for tree, think of a tree or search an image with one.
Learning a language takes time, don’t expect to know it perfectly after only 1 week.
Immersion is hella frustrating but it pays off in the end.
Don’t study when you are too tired. You have many chances to learn nothing then.
Find someone you admire so they can motivate you.
Use a bilingual dictionary not only for finding specific words but just for the sake of reading.
After you’ve read 1 page/chapter from a book, try to make a summary in your target language.
When you read books, try to see if you can find the audiobook as well. (Youtube might have it) In this way you know the correct way of saying certain words.
Try to make it fun. If it’s fun to have a schedule do that, if you enjoy more watching movies, do that. Don’t make your learning journey a burden.
Break study time into smaller chunks
Know your learning style.
Try to have a notebook/diary/agenda where you write down what you did daily to improve.
When you feel like giving up, think how many new stuff you have learned.
Your attitude plays an import role. Try to avoid thinking how “difficult” a language is, instead think how good you will feel after you learn it.
ReadLang and Linguarana have videos with subs in many languages, if you like learning with videos, give them a try.
Anki is an amazing app with flashcards for several languages so you don’t waste time making them and they have a daily limit of cards so you don’t burnout.
Physically writing down a word can help seal it in your memory.
Say new words out loud and pay attention to your pronunciation.
If your target language has another alphabet or a writing system, don’t be afraid to learn it. Take a couple of days and master it.
Always have an app or a dictionary/notebook with you. While you wait for a taxi you can study a bit.
If you don’t understand a grammar rule, search some articles about it, take 2-3 days to understand that concept.
Greetings, Polyglots! I’m back with another post about how to use movies to learn languages!
I’ve noticed a trend among language learners. Especially among those learning English. Those who spoke English the most natural and fluently have all said that they frequently use movies to learn English. I’m telling you, it’s uncanny! I’ve taught English in three countries and in every country the most standout students have always said that they watched videos and movies for idioms and phrases. The result was almost always natural and fluent sounding English. So I began to wonder do movies work to help you learn a language and how do you watch a movie to learn a language anyway!? Movies are like an hour to two hours long! I don’t have the patience for that.
Movies can, however, help you learn languages in a more natural and casual way. Depending on the genre of the movie, you can learn some interesting vocabulary as well. Movies and television shows are very important for language learning, because they not only teach proper use of grammar and vocabulary, they also introduce you to the humor and culture of the people who’s language you’re studying. After only one or two weeks using movies learning Chinese, my casual Chinese has certainly improved and I have learned a few funny phrases to keep things light too. So how do you use movies to learn languages? Here’s how:
When Russians get tipsy they say “У меня вертолёты.” Lit. “I have the helicopters.”
There are two kinds of envy in Russian. “белая зависть” or “white envy” which is the good kind, where ultimately you are genuinely happy for the person and their good fortune. I think you can guess the other kind.
Russian’s terms of endearment are the best. “Солнышко” lit. “my small sun” and “Дорогуша” meaning “dearie” are among my favorites
Your first semester as a uni student is called “Боевое крещение” lit. “baptism by fire.”
When a Russian person feels like you are pulling their leg, they might say “Не надо мне лапшу на уши вешать” which means “don’t try to play me.” The literal translation? “Don’t hang noodles on my ears”
Russian people like to show their love for something by using diminutives, so phrases like “Буду кусочек этого тортика” lit. “I’ll have a teeny tiny piece of that cakey” and “Мне очень понравился этот супчик” lit. “I really liked that soupy-soup” are a common thing. My favorite diminutive, though? It’s “cпасибочки!” which literally means “Thankie!”
Hello everyone! We wanted to do an Accent Challenge so that we could really get to know each other in the Discord. This is your standard accent challenge, with a couple language things thrown in! Find the Challenge under the cut.
べんきょうしなければならない 