(get over the) hump-day inspiration

Posted in French, inspiration & encouragement by

KEEP CALM AND KEEP ON KEEPING ON.

This is what it all comes down to, as I sit here too on-edge to go to sleep and too tired to force myself to. My rent is nearly doubling and I need to move within a couple of months, which puts a huge dent in my plans to save all my money and get the hell out of this city. Since I found out a few weeks ago, I’ve been really good about looking into all my options and staying on top of the apartment search, but the search itself is so anxiety-provoking that the more I do, the more stressed I become.

I suppose this could be part of the reason why it’s so hard to keep up with my language learning. Bigger fish to fry at the moment. The only thing to do is just breathe deep and carry on. The chips will eventually fall where they may, and life will go back to normal.

[Breathing break…….]

Encore, en français:

GARDEZ LE CALME ET CONTINUER.

On y va!

 

well, at least I tried

Posted in French by

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As I was walking to the French Meetup this evening I realized I hadn’t gotten an email reminder about the event. I wondered if the weekly meeting was not actually happening this week. By the time I reached the hotel bar, I allowed myself to fervently pray this would be the case. When I peeked in and saw the occasional couple here, threesome there, but no big group anywhere, I breathed an enormous sigh of relief… Followed immediately by guilt about how good I felt to be going home without saying a word of French.

Zut alors! I was supposed to get back in the groove with this Meetup. Now how am I going to motivate myself?

On that note, off to bed…

please let it be the weekend already

Posted in foreign food festival, French, travel by

 

In addition to my French slump, I am finding it impossible to work at my actual place of work this week. The weekend cannot come soon enough.

In the meantime, I just read this mouth-watering article (yes, I am slacking off) and my stomach literally grumbled aloud. An extremely good reason to learn French: so I can take a food tour of France and gorge myself on galettes (gluten-free!!) and choucroute garnie, which sounds like just about the best thing on earth.

On that note, time to find some lunch!

Til Monday…

in a slump

Posted in French, inspiration & encouragement, Spanish by

It’s been about three months since I committed to doing an hour of French and/or Spanish every day. I kept it up almost every one of those 90-something days – I guess that’s a good run. But now I’ve hit a period of sluggish, zero-motivation, would-rather-be-doing-anything-else apathy.

I know enough about myself to know that this happens whenever I take on challenging projects, and that most of the time I come out of my slump and get back on track, until the next dip, from which I eventually emerge, ad infinitum. There are highs and lows and I just need to take the lows with a grain of salt and the assumption that I will get back on the horse when the spirit moves me.

So for now I am giving myself a reprieve from my hour-a-day rule because I’ll only get mad at myself for inevitably breaking it. But this coming Monday I will force myself to attend a French Meetup and try to use that momentum to start up those Anki flashcard thingies soon thereafter.

Avec Dieu comme mon témoin, j’apprendrai le français! Because after all, tomorrow is another day.

I have like five readers but I would welcome your words of keep-on-keeping-on, even from strangers! Especially from strangers. That would be neat.

(get over the) hump-day inspiration: Ram Dass

Posted in inspiration & encouragement by

“I see my life as an unfolding set of opportunities to awaken.” – Ram Dass

Something like 13 years ago, soon after I had moved to Los Angeles to start my career in documentary production, I attended a screening of “Ram Dass: Fierce Grace.” The man blew my mind. He seemed to embody peace and empathy and a calm mind. For 13+ years that sort of peace and empathy and calm mind eluded me (especially in Los Angeles!), but lately I’m realizing it takes much more of an effort than I have been giving it. The nice thing – as this quote rightly points out – is that you can start at any time.

So here’s to opportunities to awaken, ever-present, just waiting to be grasped.

done with duolingo

Posted in French, learning tools by

wooden human looking out window

Finally made it through Duolingo’s French exercises last week so now I have to figure out what’s next. I think I’m going to start doing vocabulary flashcards using Anki and/or sign up for an online language chat buddy. And keep forcing myself back to French Meetups.

Spanish has pretty much fallen by the wayside at this point, except for the occasional Destinos episode. I don’t want to lose the very little progress I made over the two months that I spent studying it but on the other hand this linguist told me that trying to learn two related languages at once is inefficient and will only result in confusion. So I’m taking his advice and focusing on French, which is the one of the two languages in which I am way further advanced.

I had been whiling away my time with Duolingo far longer than I probably should have. Now I turn to the great unknown, wistful already for the zany phrases I won’t be hearing again: ‘Pour qu’il vive je dois mourir.’ / ‘So that he may live I need to die.’ And: ‘Vous mangez des frites bien que vous soyez riches.’ / ‘Even though you’re rich you eat fries.’

Adieu, Duolingo! Parting is such sweet sorrow.

(Photo: Abdulrahman BinSlmah, Creative Commons license)

it’s le week-end!

Posted in le week-end by

jumping for joy on the beach

I’m so excited for three days off! I’ll be hiking in the Bronx, going to a Mets game in Queens, taking in rooftop films in Brooklyn, and brunching in Manhattan. The only borough left untouched this weekend will be Staten Island and no offense but I am not shedding any tears over that.

Here are some interesting things to read over the weekend – though not what I’d call beach reads…

How to overcome the fear of speaking a foreign language. (I need to take this advice.)

Who knew? This phrase is apparently more lowbrow than classy. 

9 habits of highly effective polyglots

See you on Tuesday!

(Photo: Jamie Henderson, Creative Commons license)

why learn Spanish

Posted in Spanish, travel by

Spanish speaking corzuela pardas

There are a million reasons to learn Spanish. Here are some of mine:

Let’s start with the obvious. Because it is the second most spoken native language in the world, because it is the official language of 20 countries, because it is one of the UN’s six official languages, and because 20% of my hometown speaks it for god’s sake.

Then the practical. Because once you know English and French you’re only a hop, skip and a jump away from knowing Spanish, too. It would be quite a waste to have such a jump-start on a language and not bother to learn at least a little.

The aspirational:

Because the Mediterranean is, when it comes down to it, the best place on earth. And quite a large chunk of the Mediterranean runs along the Spanish coast.

The personally appealing:

Because my favorite genre of literature, magical realism, has distinctly Latin American roots and I wish I could read it in its native language. Especially my beloved Gabriel García Márquez.

Because Spain seems to operate on my night owl clock.

Because then I could live in Barcelona and visit Gaudí houses every day. (I know they speak Catalan there. I know that is different from Spanish. I’d work it out.)

Because Argentine men are beautiful. All of them. I know this from personal experience.

provoleta grilled cheese

Because provoleta – a grilled hunk of cheese with a crunchy outside and gooey inside, seasoned with oregano – is the best invention in the history of food.

And finally, because I started learning it and now I want to finish learning it. Simple as that.

(get over the) hump-day inspiration: Ray Bradbury

Posted in inspiration & encouragement by

“Jump off cliffs and build your wings on the way down.” – Ray Bradbury

Beautiful poster design by The Half and Half. A limited edition of 50 prints will be on sale from June 2 to 30. So, should the spirit move you, you can jump off the art collector cliff and figure out how you will pay for it on the way down.

(get over the) hump-day inspiration: Brené Brown

Posted in inspiration & encouragement by

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change.” -Brené Brown

Brené Brown is the only person whose self-help Kool-Aid I drink. She strikes me as vastly different from self-styled how-to-live-your-life-with-purpose gurus – more wise, more authentic, more inspiring and more useful. I love her so much that even when she joined the cult of Oprah, I chose to look the other way. As long as she keeps speaking the truth about vulnerability, shame, empathy, courage and what she calls ‘wholeheartedness,’ she can worship Oprah all she wants.