Are You Ever Too Old to Start with Spanish for Beginners

Are You Ever Too Old to Start with Spanish for Beginners Is There an Age Limit for Learning Spanish for Beginners? ChaptersWhat Does the “Critical Period Hypothesis” Say?Learn Spanish for Beginners: Advantages for Adults over ChildrenLexical Similarities with English: Spanish Vocabulary and Much MoreFrom Private Tutors to Spanish Books for Beginners: How to Learn Spanish When you're OlderThere are many things that people start to regret as they get older; not travelling more, not picking up a musical instrument, and never learning another language. When it comes to the latter, it is never too late.Spanish is a language spoken by around 400 million native speakers worldwide. It is a language of huge importance, not just because it is an official language in 20 different countries, but also because it is one of the official languages of the UN.It is therefore no surprise that many people opt to learn Spanish, with a lot of schools teaching Spanish to kids from a young age. But if you want to learn to speak Spanish, you don't necessarily have to be young. A beginner setting out to learn Spanish as second language can be of any age.Obviously those who choose to study Spanish will need to have a plan of action for learning Spanish, and this will change based on each person's individual goals, as well as their age.Whether you want to master the Spanish language, take Spanish lessons near me to make new friends, learn Spanish online in your free time, or just learn a new language because it's something you've always wanted to do, age is just a number and everyone can enrich their lives by learning a language.Over half of English vocabulary is either from Latin directly or from French, which itself evolved from Latin. Spanish is also a language that evolved from Latin. This shared lexical history means that there are similarities between English and Spanish that you wouldn’t find if you were learning a language like Chinese.As you’ve guessed, the same goes for most non-European languages, too. This is great news for anyone interested in learning Spanish. However, don’t th ink that this means that Spanish is really easy to learn. It also means that you can’t just put “o” or “a” on the end of every word in English, either!Are you starting Spanish from scratch? You probably know more Spanish than you think you do. You’ve probably heard a few words, already.From Private Tutors to Spanish Books for Beginners: How to Learn Spanish When you're OlderNow that we know there’s no age limit to learning Spanish, even if it can be difficult the older you are, we need to move on to the next step! This is the part where we give you a few tips and tricks on how to learn Spanish quickly and effectively.As a beginner, you'll need to know how to go about learning Spanish, so here are our suggestions...Get Private Spanish TutorialsYou probably could have guessed we were going to say that but it’s true! It’s probably not worthwhile going back to college! A undergraduate degree can take a long time and you want to learn Spanish as quickly as you can.Shoul d you learn Spanish online or with a more traditional book? (Source: pixabay.com)We recommend going straight to a private tutor and focusing on learning Spanish. Learning Spanish with a dedicated personal tutor or Spanish teacher means that the lessons are tailored to you and you can make progress much more quickly than you would in a class. Don't forget that there are also online Spanish tutorials available over Skype if you live in a rural area or can't make it to your Spanish classes.Rather than sitting in a massive lecture hall and blending into the crowd, get personalised  classes! You’ll learn Spanish in no time at all. Your tutor has the freedom to focus on any gaps in your knowledge or things you’re struggling with.If you're lucky enough to be retired, you might not even want to become fluent in Spanish. Maybe you just want to speak conversational Spanish with friends or family members in Spanish speaking countries. If this is the case, there are plenty of conversational language courses available  that can help you hold a conversation with a native, and in doing so you will work on language skills such as comprehension and speaking.However, if you want to learn to speak advanced Spanish, you are going to have to do a lot more than read a few basic Spanish phrases before you go to bed. That said, intensive language lessons can help you learn about Spanish culture as well as all the intricacies of this fascinating language.ImmersionWe often mention this when talking about foreign language learning. Immersion is magic when it comes to language learning. That's why so many young people decide to travel abroad during their studies.There’s nothing stopping anyone from moving abroad to learn a foreign language. You can go to Spain, Central America, or South America. The choice is yours!Once you’re surrounded by Spanish speakers, you’ll have a chance to train your ear and get used to speaking Spanish every single day.Spanish is spoken in plenty of d ifferent places. (Source: Amanda Kerr)There is no black and white answer for how long it takes to learn Spanish, but if your goal is to learn Spanish as quickly as possible and get a good level in a matter of months, immersion is really your only option!Join Speaking GroupsNot everyone can just move to a Spanish-speaking country whenever they want. We know that!  If you don’t want to do tutorials or go back to college, what else can you do?In cities all over the country, there are groups where you can practise speaking a language with other learners. These groups are often found in student towns (where large numbers of students are learning foreign languages) and are operated by students.There are also exchanges organised by those who’d like to practise English with a native speaker in exchange for helping someone else practice a foreign language. They also organise events for people to meet Spanish speakers. However, the main objective is to practise Spanish with as many people as possible. On your first night, you’ll probably have more conversations in Spanish than you’ve ever had up until now.You should try the site meetup.com. This site specialises in getting people together based on their interests (learning Spanish, for example). Members meet up and go for picnics or walks, for example, during which you can practice and get better at Spanish.If you practise enough, you might even end up having dreams in Spanish, too. This is when you really know that you are making great progress!Learn Spanish Basic Vocab by Watching Spanish Movies and TV ShowsFinally, the last tip for those who’ve just begun learning Spanish and are sitting in front of their TV, computer, or tablet: movies and TV shows! With so many streaming sites popping up in recent years, everyone has access to media from all over the world.  You could use this to find TV shows and movies in Spanish.Whether you’re learning new words by reading the subtitles or training your ear with them turned off, films and TV series are great for learning languages.Get a Good Book to Help you Learn SpanishWhichever method you think is the best to you, it is probably advisable to get a Spanish textbook to accompany your studies. This won't be your only learning method, but it can act as a good way to practise outside of the classroom, or in a different way to your principal Spanish learning method.

fraction word problems 1

fraction word problems 1 Word problems are the problems in math which are expressed in words and the required data should be taken from the questions and further be solved. Fractions are numbers that can be expressed in the p/q form. Here p the numerator and q is the denominator of the fraction. Different mathematical operations can be used to solve such questions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Fractions are very common and are regularly used in different branches of mathematics. Example 1: There are 15 cookies in the cookie jar. If a group of children eat one-third of the cookie jar, how many cookies are remaining in the jar? Solution: Total number of cookies in the cookie jar = 15. Fraction of the cookie jar eaten by the children = 1/3. Amount of milk = Fraction of milk * number Therefore, amount of cookies reining in the cookie jar = 15 x 1/3 = 15/3 = 5 Hence, number of cookies remaining in the cookie jar = 5. Question: Multiple choice question (Pick the correct option.) There are 20 students in a classroom. If two fifth of the students are absent on a snowy day, how many number of students are absent on that day? a) 12 b) 5 c) 8 d) None of these. Correct answer: option c. Explanation: Number of students in a classroom = 20. Fraction of the student absent = 2/5. Therefore the number of students absent = 20 x 2/5 = 40/5 = 8.

Feedback and Links Page

Feedback and Links Page Check your feedback and links on the feedback page. Start by clicking on the feedback link on the navigation menu at the top right, under the share icons. Feedback Tab This tab shows the latest text you submitted to the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker. Each text is dated. The Virtual Writing Tutor keeps your feedback and links for you for 1 year. You can delete all the information listed by clicking Delete all. You have the right to be completely forgotten. Feedback and links tab Feedback tabLinks tabPDF tabDelete all of your feedback. You have the right to be forgotten.Delete feedback from each dated submission. Not everything is worth keeping, right?The last submission you made to the grammar checker, showing the date, the number of words, the number of sentences, the number of errors, the error density, the text you submitted, the feedback you received, and a link (if any) to a remedial online practice exercise or resource. Links Tab The Virtual Writing Tutor generates an instant curriculum for by counting and prioritizing the links shown with the feedback you receive. Obviously, understanding the errors you make most often should be your highest priority. Sometimes, the link will take you to a page listing 50 common errors. This page will give other examples of the same error and further information about the error. Other links on the Links Tab will take you to a page listing remedial online practice exercises. Links tabThe number of times a link was triggered by an error detection rule The link to an online remedial exercise or resource PDFs Tab The Virtual Writing Tutor can generate PDFs that you can send to your friends, students, clients, or your teacher. If you lose a link to the PDF you want to send, dont worry. A copy of the link is available on the PDFs tab. PDFs tabThe link to the PDFWhat service generated the PDFThe date the PDF was generatedDelete the PDF forever and remove the entry from the list Conclusion If you havent used this page before, check it out. I created this page to help the users of Virtual Writing Tutor recover lost texts and to prioritize which online exercises to do. Many users have written to me in a panic to ask if a copy of their text has been saved in the database. Dont worry, I say. Check your feedback and links page. If you were logged in, it is there. It is a big relief to be able to recover an essay you were working on when the power suddenly goes out. Your Other Stored Information The Virtual Writing Tutor also stores other information to serve you better. Your first language preference is stored in your profile, which is what the system uses to translate your feedback. The Virtual Writing Tutor also stores essay outlines you create. To review your essays on the Community Forum, head over there and scroll down. Please follow and like us:

English Past Progressive Video

English Past Progressive Video In this lesson Frank and I talk about the past progressive, also known as the past continuous. I ask Frank if he has ever rescued a person or animal. He tells me a story about when he helped a co-worker. You can listen to him use the past progressive. We use the past progresive when we are talking about a longer action in the past that was interrupted by a shorter action in the past. Example: I was sleeping when the telephone rang.We also use the past progressive to set the atmosphere of a story. Example: It was raining and I was waiting at the bus stop.We form the past progressive with the past of the verb ‘be’ (was or were) + Verb INGCommon mistakes:Using the present progressive form am/are/is. Remember that present progressive is for an action happening now. Past progressive is for an action that started and ENDED in the past. Not using the correct form of the verb ‘be’ ‘I was running, You WERE running, She was running, we WERE running, they WERE running. Not using the v erb ‘be’ I running to the car. INCORRECT. I WAS running to the car. Using the past progressive when you should use past simple. We use the past simple when we talk about a repeated action in the past. When we were on vacation we went swimming everyday.

Tips From an Irvine Academic Tutor 5 Apps for ESL Students

Tips From an Irvine Academic Tutor 5 Apps for ESL Students Tips From an Irvine Academic Tutor: 5 Apps for ESL Students Tips From an Irvine Academic Tutor: 5 Apps for ESL Students These days there are students from all around the world learning in US classrooms. These students will find it challenging to take all of their classes in English and can benefit from any extra help to improve their English language skills so that their academic and social life becomes easier. There are tons of apps out there for ESL students that they can use to practice on their own or in the classroom. Regardless of the students age or skill level, ESL apps can make school life easier for both student and teacher. 1 SentenceBuilder for iPad Sentence builder is aimed towards students in elementary school. This app helps students create sentences that are grammatically correct and focuses on connector work. There was a huge part of American English and can help a student speak and write more clearly. When students are learning English they can benefit from images, and this app offers several pictures to help students create sentences around. The app also offers animation and audio clips to make the experience more fun. SentenceBuilder has three levels to help students encounter more challenging content as they progress. $5.99. 2 Intro to Letters, by Montessorium This app is aimed towards students of varying ages and allows users to record their own voices and save the recordings for future study sessions. The instructions for the recording studio portion of the app can be translated into over 40 languages. Children can benefit from this app by working on basic consonants and vowels, or ABCs, phonics, and the basics of the English language. $4.99. 3 Conversation English Conversation English represents basic situational English in a cell phone text format. There are over 20 situational/conversational English scenarios. One of the most important things for ESL students is to become fluent and to understand idioms and slang, topics covered throughout this app’s lessons. Each lesson contains elements of the following five skill sets: conversation listening, conversation reading, vocabulary, comprehension, and sentence completion. $2.99. 4 Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5th Edition This app presents definitions in plain language English and provides photos and images to help ESL students understand the correct usage of the word or term. The dictionary offers over 200,000 words, terms, and phrases to help student vastly improve their vocabulary. This app also highlights words that are most commonly used in the English language, helping ESL students choose which synonym they need to get their point across and become fluent. ESL students studying for the SAT or ACT may benefit from the academic word list, which is geared towards students looking for improvement in the academic environment. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English also offers vocabulary words from colloquial English to help students understand how American Speakers talk in everyday common conversations and eventually improve fluency. This app is very expensive as compared to other apps and is priced at $29.99. 5 Hello-Hello Complete This app offers 30 lessons on conversational English to help students improve their speaking skills. It also offers 1,000 vocab words to help users progress through their English language vocabulary. To keep users interested, this app offers animations and interactive elements. Students will also be able to create their own customized notes that they can save and come back to later for review. This app is free to Hello-Hello subscribers. Tutoring “English as a Second Language” (ESL) students requires a specific type of background; a type of background our ESL tutors have! Call us today to learn why our Orange County ESL tutors are the best in SoCal. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at pr@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us write.

June Language Challenge Tracys update learning Esperanto AND time management

June Language Challenge Tracys update learning Esperanto AND time management Tracy is taking the Language Challenge with the goal of learning Esperanto, but shes got a long way to go. Does this apply to you as well?  Dont give up! A photo posted by Italki (@italki) on May 22, 2015 at 6:12am PDT What’s your goal? I want to talk with others about  language learning in Esperanto (and to see how quickly  I can learn it). Ive heard that a large proportion of the people at the Berlin Polyglot Gathering speak Esperanto, and that it’s very easy. I’m curious to see how much I can learn in a short period of time, and  Id really like to be able to have a 15-minute long conversation with an Esperanto speaker, especially about languages, language learning, and their reasons for learning Esperanto. I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to make it, but this is my goal. At the beginning of my first class, the only words I knew were “saluton”, “dankon”, and “lernu” (because of the Esperanto community lernu.net), so this will be a fun test to see how far I can go after starting with practically nothing. After my first hour of class, Id already gained a reasonable understanding of basic grammar and phrases for asking basic information about another person (and how many languages they are learning)! A secondary goal is to learn Esperanto  through my second language (Chinese). All of the languages I’ve studied previously, I learned through my native language, English. So, my Esperanto classes are a no-English zone. Just in the first hour of class, I was already very amused by the ways that the 3 languages I’m most familiar with: English, Chinese, and Spanish, are variously influencing my attempts at Esperanto! How’s it going? Esperanto is great! It’s been a long time since I started a new language, and I love it! It’s like giving my brain a shiny new toy. I’ve heard that someone else in the office has studied Esperanto before and I’m already excited to try out my 1 hour of learning on him. As for the 12 hours… Between my family visiting, a music festival, going-away parties, a generally demanding schedule, and the fact that at the beginning of the Challenge, there was only one Esperanto teacher, I knew that I’d have a hard time scheduling lessons. I was, sadly,  correct. That being said, I really do want to learn as much Esperanto this month as I can, so I’m glad that now I just have to figure out a way to fit my next …11.5 hours into 1/2 a month. Deadlines make things happen. Im still committed to finding a way to fit my hours into  the next  two weeks. The fact that my classes are so fun is definitely going to help me put in the time. However, if I have trouble scheduling Esperanto hours, I might fall back on scheduling more time to practice Chinese or maybe even start dabbling in other languages that Id like to focus on later. How are your classes? Really fun! My teacher Teddy Nee has an obvious passion for languages and language learning. I’m very fortunate in that he’s also fluent in Chinese so I can avoid using English (my native language) during my lessons. I’m really looking forward being able to talk with him (and others!) about language learning in Esperanto! Someone commented before that Esperanto was so easy that you can learn quickly without a teacher. But, the way I see it, if Esperanto is that easy, then I should be able to learn EVEN FASTER with a teacher! Since my goal is to talk others, then I might as well jump into practicing that! What are you doing outside of class? At first, my daily goal was to write one question and answer pair that I want to be able to say in Esperanto. I’ve been discovering that actually, a better way to do this might be to write out my questions and answers for the week all at once and then make sure I look at at least one every day. This method would let me get all of the “thinking” done in bulk and then during each day of the week, I can just relax and follow my own instructions. So, I might change that to have a weekly goal of generating my desired questions and answers for each day of the week and then a daily goal of reviewing my notes on the way to and from work + before bed. Duolingo has recently opened an  Esperanto section, and I’m excited to start using  it as a supplement, but (this is embarrassing) it actually seems to be incompatible with the device that I have right now ?? (an old iPod that is incompatible with the current iOS). So, I’ll have to either use it on my computer or hurry up and get a new device. [Edit: Actually, its because the Esperanto Duolingo is still in beta version, and was unavailable on mobile devices. ] Other than that, I just discovered some old videos for Chinese speakers learning Esperanto on Youku, and I walk around on my commute to and from work, reading from my notes and asking myself questions out loud, mumbling like a crazy person.  I should also start making use of the lernu! community and resources. Tell us more about Esperanto: Even though Esperanto doesn’t have a country, I’m learning that it does have a sort of culture. For example, I learned that since almost everyone who speaks Esperanto does so as a second or third language, Esperanto speakers are attentive to taking into account each others’ native languages and how different native languages may influence the way a person speaks Esperanto. I appreciate that level of consideration for others! I’ve also heard that some people have suggested learning Esperanto before learning other languages. After the very little bit that I’ve learned so far, I already agree with this for 2 reasons: Since Esperanto is a “Conlang” a ‘constructed language’, it’s very well organized. There are no exceptions that I know of. There is a pattern to the vocabulary and to the grammar that just snaps into place (it was designed to). It’s very elegant. Since Esperanto IS so well-organized, the basics can be learned very quickly. This means you wouldn’t have to spend much time training your language learning skills on Esperanto before moving on to a different language. If you’ve never studied a language before, I think learning Esperanto would be a great way to make it very plain to yourself how a language is structured. Then, when you begin learning other languages, you will already have a sort of abstract language “blueprint” in mind that I think would make it much easier for you to approach learning other languages. Esperanto seems it could be a kind of training wheels for mastering the process of language acquisition. Maybe I’m just a little over-enthusiastic about my classes right now, but I’m on the verge of saying that everyone (at least, English speakers or Europeans) should try Esperanto before they learn any other languages, even if just as a sort of language learning boot camp. Tips for other Challengers? Really, I think the hardest part (for me, anyway) is scheduling the lessons. I often get anxious about scheduling my time because I try to anticipate what else might be going on. I easily over-plan things. But, once I just bite the bullet and put the time on my schedule, it actually is easier than I think, and I actually feel much better knowing that the hours are there on the calendar. Its actually kind of a relief. I would highly recommend just buying packages for the amount of time you need to finish and then just requesting the sessions all at once and getting them on your calendar. Its so much easier than having to decide hour by hour when to have class. Get the decisions out of the way and then just do it. This is actually very good time management practice for me, so not only am I learning Esperanto on italki, but I’m learning some good life skills as well! I’m also very glad to be reminded how much fun it is to start a new language this is definitely a positive addition to my life. June Language Challenge Tracys update learning Esperanto AND time management Tracy is taking the Language Challenge with the goal of learning Esperanto, but shes got a long way to go. Does this apply to you as well?  Dont give up! A photo posted by Italki (@italki) on May 22, 2015 at 6:12am PDT What’s your goal? I want to talk with others about  language learning in Esperanto (and to see how quickly  I can learn it). Ive heard that a large proportion of the people at the Berlin Polyglot Gathering speak Esperanto, and that it’s very easy. I’m curious to see how much I can learn in a short period of time, and  Id really like to be able to have a 15-minute long conversation with an Esperanto speaker, especially about languages, language learning, and their reasons for learning Esperanto. I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to make it, but this is my goal. At the beginning of my first class, the only words I knew were “saluton”, “dankon”, and “lernu” (because of the Esperanto community lernu.net), so this will be a fun test to see how far I can go after starting with practically nothing. After my first hour of class, Id already gained a reasonable understanding of basic grammar and phrases for asking basic information about another person (and how many languages they are learning)! A secondary goal is to learn Esperanto  through my second language (Chinese). All of the languages I’ve studied previously, I learned through my native language, English. So, my Esperanto classes are a no-English zone. Just in the first hour of class, I was already very amused by the ways that the 3 languages I’m most familiar with: English, Chinese, and Spanish, are variously influencing my attempts at Esperanto! How’s it going? Esperanto is great! It’s been a long time since I started a new language, and I love it! It’s like giving my brain a shiny new toy. I’ve heard that someone else in the office has studied Esperanto before and I’m already excited to try out my 1 hour of learning on him. As for the 12 hours… Between my family visiting, a music festival, going-away parties, a generally demanding schedule, and the fact that at the beginning of the Challenge, there was only one Esperanto teacher, I knew that I’d have a hard time scheduling lessons. I was, sadly,  correct. That being said, I really do want to learn as much Esperanto this month as I can, so I’m glad that now I just have to figure out a way to fit my next …11.5 hours into 1/2 a month. Deadlines make things happen. Im still committed to finding a way to fit my hours into  the next  two weeks. The fact that my classes are so fun is definitely going to help me put in the time. However, if I have trouble scheduling Esperanto hours, I might fall back on scheduling more time to practice Chinese or maybe even start dabbling in other languages that Id like to focus on later. How are your classes? Really fun! My teacher Teddy Nee has an obvious passion for languages and language learning. I’m very fortunate in that he’s also fluent in Chinese so I can avoid using English (my native language) during my lessons. I’m really looking forward being able to talk with him (and others!) about language learning in Esperanto! Someone commented before that Esperanto was so easy that you can learn quickly without a teacher. But, the way I see it, if Esperanto is that easy, then I should be able to learn EVEN FASTER with a teacher! Since my goal is to talk others, then I might as well jump into practicing that! What are you doing outside of class? At first, my daily goal was to write one question and answer pair that I want to be able to say in Esperanto. I’ve been discovering that actually, a better way to do this might be to write out my questions and answers for the week all at once and then make sure I look at at least one every day. This method would let me get all of the “thinking” done in bulk and then during each day of the week, I can just relax and follow my own instructions. So, I might change that to have a weekly goal of generating my desired questions and answers for each day of the week and then a daily goal of reviewing my notes on the way to and from work + before bed. Duolingo has recently opened an  Esperanto section, and I’m excited to start using  it as a supplement, but (this is embarrassing) it actually seems to be incompatible with the device that I have right now ?? (an old iPod that is incompatible with the current iOS). So, I’ll have to either use it on my computer or hurry up and get a new device. [Edit: Actually, its because the Esperanto Duolingo is still in beta version, and was unavailable on mobile devices. ] Other than that, I just discovered some old videos for Chinese speakers learning Esperanto on Youku, and I walk around on my commute to and from work, reading from my notes and asking myself questions out loud, mumbling like a crazy person.  I should also start making use of the lernu! community and resources. Tell us more about Esperanto: Even though Esperanto doesn’t have a country, I’m learning that it does have a sort of culture. For example, I learned that since almost everyone who speaks Esperanto does so as a second or third language, Esperanto speakers are attentive to taking into account each others’ native languages and how different native languages may influence the way a person speaks Esperanto. I appreciate that level of consideration for others! I’ve also heard that some people have suggested learning Esperanto before learning other languages. After the very little bit that I’ve learned so far, I already agree with this for 2 reasons: Since Esperanto is a “Conlang” a ‘constructed language’, it’s very well organized. There are no exceptions that I know of. There is a pattern to the vocabulary and to the grammar that just snaps into place (it was designed to). It’s very elegant. Since Esperanto IS so well-organized, the basics can be learned very quickly. This means you wouldn’t have to spend much time training your language learning skills on Esperanto before moving on to a different language. If you’ve never studied a language before, I think learning Esperanto would be a great way to make it very plain to yourself how a language is structured. Then, when you begin learning other languages, you will already have a sort of abstract language “blueprint” in mind that I think would make it much easier for you to approach learning other languages. Esperanto seems it could be a kind of training wheels for mastering the process of language acquisition. Maybe I’m just a little over-enthusiastic about my classes right now, but I’m on the verge of saying that everyone (at least, English speakers or Europeans) should try Esperanto before they learn any other languages, even if just as a sort of language learning boot camp. Tips for other Challengers? Really, I think the hardest part (for me, anyway) is scheduling the lessons. I often get anxious about scheduling my time because I try to anticipate what else might be going on. I easily over-plan things. But, once I just bite the bullet and put the time on my schedule, it actually is easier than I think, and I actually feel much better knowing that the hours are there on the calendar. Its actually kind of a relief. I would highly recommend just buying packages for the amount of time you need to finish and then just requesting the sessions all at once and getting them on your calendar. Its so much easier than having to decide hour by hour when to have class. Get the decisions out of the way and then just do it. This is actually very good time management practice for me, so not only am I learning Esperanto on italki, but I’m learning some good life skills as well! I’m also very glad to be reminded how much fun it is to start a new language this is definitely a positive addition to my life. June Language Challenge Tracys update learning Esperanto AND time management Tracy is taking the Language Challenge with the goal of learning Esperanto, but shes got a long way to go. Does this apply to you as well?  Dont give up! A photo posted by Italki (@italki) on May 22, 2015 at 6:12am PDT What’s your goal? I want to talk with others about  language learning in Esperanto (and to see how quickly  I can learn it). Ive heard that a large proportion of the people at the Berlin Polyglot Gathering speak Esperanto, and that it’s very easy. I’m curious to see how much I can learn in a short period of time, and  Id really like to be able to have a 15-minute long conversation with an Esperanto speaker, especially about languages, language learning, and their reasons for learning Esperanto. I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to make it, but this is my goal. At the beginning of my first class, the only words I knew were “saluton”, “dankon”, and “lernu” (because of the Esperanto community lernu.net), so this will be a fun test to see how far I can go after starting with practically nothing. After my first hour of class, Id already gained a reasonable understanding of basic grammar and phrases for asking basic information about another person (and how many languages they are learning)! A secondary goal is to learn Esperanto  through my second language (Chinese). All of the languages I’ve studied previously, I learned through my native language, English. So, my Esperanto classes are a no-English zone. Just in the first hour of class, I was already very amused by the ways that the 3 languages I’m most familiar with: English, Chinese, and Spanish, are variously influencing my attempts at Esperanto! How’s it going? Esperanto is great! It’s been a long time since I started a new language, and I love it! It’s like giving my brain a shiny new toy. I’ve heard that someone else in the office has studied Esperanto before and I’m already excited to try out my 1 hour of learning on him. As for the 12 hours… Between my family visiting, a music festival, going-away parties, a generally demanding schedule, and the fact that at the beginning of the Challenge, there was only one Esperanto teacher, I knew that I’d have a hard time scheduling lessons. I was, sadly,  correct. That being said, I really do want to learn as much Esperanto this month as I can, so I’m glad that now I just have to figure out a way to fit my next …11.5 hours into 1/2 a month. Deadlines make things happen. Im still committed to finding a way to fit my hours into  the next  two weeks. The fact that my classes are so fun is definitely going to help me put in the time. However, if I have trouble scheduling Esperanto hours, I might fall back on scheduling more time to practice Chinese or maybe even start dabbling in other languages that Id like to focus on later. How are your classes? Really fun! My teacher Teddy Nee has an obvious passion for languages and language learning. I’m very fortunate in that he’s also fluent in Chinese so I can avoid using English (my native language) during my lessons. I’m really looking forward being able to talk with him (and others!) about language learning in Esperanto! Someone commented before that Esperanto was so easy that you can learn quickly without a teacher. But, the way I see it, if Esperanto is that easy, then I should be able to learn EVEN FASTER with a teacher! Since my goal is to talk others, then I might as well jump into practicing that! What are you doing outside of class? At first, my daily goal was to write one question and answer pair that I want to be able to say in Esperanto. I’ve been discovering that actually, a better way to do this might be to write out my questions and answers for the week all at once and then make sure I look at at least one every day. This method would let me get all of the “thinking” done in bulk and then during each day of the week, I can just relax and follow my own instructions. So, I might change that to have a weekly goal of generating my desired questions and answers for each day of the week and then a daily goal of reviewing my notes on the way to and from work + before bed. Duolingo has recently opened an  Esperanto section, and I’m excited to start using  it as a supplement, but (this is embarrassing) it actually seems to be incompatible with the device that I have right now ?? (an old iPod that is incompatible with the current iOS). So, I’ll have to either use it on my computer or hurry up and get a new device. [Edit: Actually, its because the Esperanto Duolingo is still in beta version, and was unavailable on mobile devices. ] Other than that, I just discovered some old videos for Chinese speakers learning Esperanto on Youku, and I walk around on my commute to and from work, reading from my notes and asking myself questions out loud, mumbling like a crazy person.  I should also start making use of the lernu! community and resources. Tell us more about Esperanto: Even though Esperanto doesn’t have a country, I’m learning that it does have a sort of culture. For example, I learned that since almost everyone who speaks Esperanto does so as a second or third language, Esperanto speakers are attentive to taking into account each others’ native languages and how different native languages may influence the way a person speaks Esperanto. I appreciate that level of consideration for others! I’ve also heard that some people have suggested learning Esperanto before learning other languages. After the very little bit that I’ve learned so far, I already agree with this for 2 reasons: Since Esperanto is a “Conlang” a ‘constructed language’, it’s very well organized. There are no exceptions that I know of. There is a pattern to the vocabulary and to the grammar that just snaps into place (it was designed to). It’s very elegant. Since Esperanto IS so well-organized, the basics can be learned very quickly. This means you wouldn’t have to spend much time training your language learning skills on Esperanto before moving on to a different language. If you’ve never studied a language before, I think learning Esperanto would be a great way to make it very plain to yourself how a language is structured. Then, when you begin learning other languages, you will already have a sort of abstract language “blueprint” in mind that I think would make it much easier for you to approach learning other languages. Esperanto seems it could be a kind of training wheels for mastering the process of language acquisition. Maybe I’m just a little over-enthusiastic about my classes right now, but I’m on the verge of saying that everyone (at least, English speakers or Europeans) should try Esperanto before they learn any other languages, even if just as a sort of language learning boot camp. Tips for other Challengers? Really, I think the hardest part (for me, anyway) is scheduling the lessons. I often get anxious about scheduling my time because I try to anticipate what else might be going on. I easily over-plan things. But, once I just bite the bullet and put the time on my schedule, it actually is easier than I think, and I actually feel much better knowing that the hours are there on the calendar. Its actually kind of a relief. I would highly recommend just buying packages for the amount of time you need to finish and then just requesting the sessions all at once and getting them on your calendar. Its so much easier than having to decide hour by hour when to have class. Get the decisions out of the way and then just do it. This is actually very good time management practice for me, so not only am I learning Esperanto on italki, but I’m learning some good life skills as well! I’m also very glad to be reminded how much fun it is to start a new language this is definitely a positive addition to my life.

Best Online Resources for Chemistry The best science web sites for chemistry help and learning chemistry for free

Best Online Resources for Chemistry The best science web sites for chemistry help and learning chemistry for free While one-on-one tutoring and instruction like we do here at Frog Tutoring is the best way to learn, online supplemental resources are great for any subject. This is especially true if you're stuck on one concept--which is easy to have happen in a chemistry class. Here are some free resources on the internet that are reliable and helpful.1. Khan AcademyKhan Academy is a website from Salman Khan who decided to create Youtube videos after tutoring his niece. He thought that it would be beneficial for people to learn in a practical manner and for all to see. Khan Academy is a great website for all math and science classes due to the in depth problems he goes into as well as the depth he goes into each subject. Khan breaks down each section in an easy to understand way which is extremely helpful for the visual part in chemistry. Now, there is a whole team who actually teach other subjects as well--business, finance, economics, and many more science courses.javascript:nicTemp();2. ChemTub e 3DThis website is great for understanding a bit more on how organic reactions work. The website gives a visual representation of each part of the reaction and show how the electrons move around during each step. This is good for visual learners who have trouble visualizing the mechanisms that go on in organic chemistry. The website also gives an explanation as to what happens during each reaction.javascript:nicTemp();3. MIT OpencoursewareIf you have a problem with the way your professor teaches, maybe you just need another lecturer. MIT opencourseware gives tons of course lectures in many subjects given at MIT. They prepare each lecture around more advanced chemistry courses that follows the class structure found in most universities. Why not learn from the smartest in the field?javascript:nicTemp();4. Interactive Periodic TableThis website gives you everything you need for a periodic table. It tells you the melting and boiling points to the electronegativity to even the amount of valence electrons. It even gives you a list of compounds where you can find everything you need. Everything is right at your fingertips without even looking at the back of a book over and over for your information.javascript:nicTemp();If you've tried these and are still stuck, contact a tutor in your area today by visiting the Frog Tutoring website. We even have pages for your city/area, and if you use the menu or search function. If you don't see a page for your city, don't worry--we have instructors nationwide and many of us also use Skype to help students at a distance. Happy learning!