Personal Ghosts.

2012-12-04

The limits of my language are the limits of my world.

— Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)

I am using some videos on Youtube, to learn about using the IPA and how we use our mouth in different ways to pronounce different words. One of the recommended videos was this realtime MRI scan of someone talking, it’s actually pretty freaky… :S

2012-11-27

Learning French

Posting this here for future personal reference, plus for anyone interested in language learning. :)

French? I taught myself most of my french, so here is what I did. One, get a hold of teacher’s copies of workbooks/textbooks. There really just the best. I would stay away from the Bien Dit! books: I found the vocab to be farfetched and the methods just incompatible with me.

Two, podcasts podcasts podcasts! Go to iTunes (they’re free) go to the iTunes U section. In the language learning section there is a huge assortment.

Three, if you are looking to spend money Elisabeth Smith works with a company called Teach Yourself. They make CD and book combos- or you can just buy the CD. Her Spanish addition really helped my pronunciation and definitely helped my comprehension. Another teacher working with the company started my bases of knowledge of the Arabic Language. The set is $17,99 and the single CDs $7.99. They literally have a humongous language and levels selection so make sure to get one that is either beginner or level two. They are very similar. This isn’t something to use by themselves, but are an excellent tool.

Four, read! Go to conjuguemos.com. It’s free, just make a log in and use their online games and books. By kid books in French, the ones that are for French beginners. It helps so much. Progressively get harder and harder books - use a french lit classic like Les Miserables as your goal book to work up to. In a class room setting they’d read this in French IV, but it didn’t take me anywhere near that long. Maybe even buy your copy now to use as a motivational book.

Five, French music. First, turn on http://www.radiofrance.fr/[1] . Basically steaming live french radio stations. Use that as your back round music for chores, other work, even while doing different french work. It doesn’t matter that you don’t understand; your subconscious is getting into the french pronunciation rhythm. Plus, there is a huge range of stations in France (like anywhere) so there is bond to be one you like. They even have their own oldies and classical discussions.

Part Two of Five, Pick one French song, start out with children’s ie sur la pont d’avignon, and days of the week song etc, and print of the lyrics and either download/buy the song or find a youtube vid you can trust to listen to over and over and over. Slowly, you’ll learn the lyrics. Do one of these songs a week. Don’t do less or more, it can mess up remembrance.

Six, the easiest. Submerge yourself in french. Change your computer, phone, iPod, everything electronic to french. Watch french movies with English subtitles or without, watch English movies switched to french audio and English subtitles. Or audio and subtitles french. Any combination to add some french. Do not stress over learning from the movies/TV shows - enjoy it! I promise you you’ll learn twice as much that way. I swear I learned all my direction french vocab from one of the underworld movies, and I don’t even like them all that much. Put stiky notes with the frech names for things when you get to the vocab set and leave them there. Put the words La fenêtre on all your windows when you do something with household vocab.

Seven, get any workbook and textbook that catches your eye and budget. It doesn’t matter a huge amount so long as you are doing all the other things, so long as you have a set book to work through. I don’t have a recommendation for that because I used a textbook set that, looking back, wasn’t the best. Pick one that has 3 or 4 in the set, but you don’t need to buy all of them right now, and have a companion workbook. I teach my brothers French for their home school program, and we hardly use them, but that’s only doable because I’m actively teaching them everyday. Plus everything else.

Eight, the last and most important. Have fun. Don’t pressure yourself. Learn at your pace -do it as strict or free as you want.

Er, this is really long and so not what you asked for, but if you want more feel free to ask. So sorry about the wall of text. So sorry. Honestly, ask any questions though; I just love French!

2012-11-16

The Boring World Of Niels Bohr: Clinical: Take Two.

theboringworldofnielsbohr:

So I’m back to clinical placement pretty soon. I’m looking forward to it and hopefully i’ll have some interesting stories / pathologies to sate your voracious appetites.

I hope i’ll have a bit more impetus to post some more original content, its quite easy to get into the habit of just…

I wanna basically want to say the same thing, so I am just going to reblog you. Who’s unoriginal now? ;)

Source: theboringworldofnielsbohr

2012-11-09

I don’t know any perfect people - only really really flawed people who are still worth loving.

— John Green (via rara-land)

(via naturalnightnurse)

Source: perfectionistpolarbear

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J’adore Mdm. Skłodowska-Curie! <3

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radiographynerd:

chordae—tendineae:

Happy world radiography day! Sure they could have found a better lateral knee than that though… #xray

Source: chordae--tendineae

2012-10-31

Happy Birthday to me!

Twenty today, feck off teen years: good riddance to bad rubbish. ;)

2012-10-30

Styrofoam Plates: Honestly...

swall0wedins0und:

Can people stop filling my dash with radiographs trying to be all clever* and cliché. Currently studying for an exam, and everytime i see these images, a part of me dies.

For Example: A terrible chest/abdomen with butterflies. Now, I get it’s supposed to be “oh ma gawd, i have butterflies in my…

Saying what we’re all thinking. I like you. :)

Source: swall0wedins0und

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(via communitythings)

Source: communitynbc