Is There A Skill Youve Always Wanted To Master Someday, But Kept Procrastinating On? A Language You Started

Is there a skill you’ve always wanted to master someday, but kept procrastinating on? A language you started learning – then abandoned? A topic in class you’ve never quite grasped? Or maybe you just want to expand your horizon and try something new? Distract yourself from your usual studies?

This challenge is the perfect opportunity to achieve that! Pick a skill and see how much you can improve and grow in 30 days – or really start working on your to-read list (I know those books have been piling up), your portfolio for that dream job in Illustration you want, or your blog you’ve been meaning to post more original content on.

Self-growth and development are so, so important, which is the main reason why I created this challenge.

The idea of this challenge is that people from all communities come together to gain knowledge, add skills and just have fun with the amazing amount of resources out there. This way, we can all support and motivate each other, whatever field you might be interested in.

Post an introduction with the hashtag #30dol with your goals and expectations for the month (starting June 1st), and what your current level is. (Of course, you can join in later as well, but it’s fun to start a the same time!) In the end, you’ll be able to compare and see how much has changed!

Rules:

choose a topic or field you want to concentrate on

post an introduction to #30dol 

define your goals or aspirations

update daily or weekly, we want to hear from you! ♥

post a picture, a sketch, or audio, whatever you deem fitting to show us all your progress for the day/week

Here are some ideas for you:

bullet journaling (read about it here on @emmastudies, here’s an amazing online course on it) 

books/reading (if you don’t have a personal to-read list, here is one with the best books of the 20th century, best series with a gay plot/subplot, and books everyone should have read at least once)

coding (here are some sites to learn html, css, data science, python 3, java, etc.: x x x x)

design/illustration ( stickers and illustration, character illustration, Ink Illustration, 45 best adobe illustrator tutorials, 

business/freelance/open your own shop (tips on how to open your own sticker shop, digital skills: web analytics and marketing)

languages (apps like lingodeer, duolingo, lingvist, busuu, blogs like @lovelybluepanda. there are also so many pdfs and amazing websites out there depending on your target language!)

online mass education courses (edx, coursera, skillshare, futurelearn where universities and professionals teach you about their subject - be that astronomy, engineering, ancient greek history, artificial intelligence or medicine!)

social media (learn to take iphone photos for your tumblr or instagram, and here’s a great post by @studyquill on how to start and maintain a studyblr!)

photography (travel street photography, find photographers you admire like annie leibovitz or henri cartier bresson and read about their path, or browse youtube channels like negative feedback which specialize on photography)

creative writing (there are tons of workshops online - you could also try to set yourself a piece or word limit similar to nanowrimo) 

culinary (check recipe websites, or challenge yourself to try one new recipe a day, or dedicate the month to a specific cuisine)

music (learn music production, andrew huang has also made a video on how to start making music here)

film and filmmaking (karsten runquist’s channel is wonderful for film analysis,  learn about cinematography basics here and film history here)

painting (acrylic painting, sketchbook illustration. you could challenge yourself to fill an entire sketchbook/create a piece every day or week, or to improve a specific technique) 

Every resource linked is free (if you click on the links you can get Skillshare for free for two months and cancel anytime), so all you need is some free time and lots of motivation!!

I’m very happy to be announcing this to you all, and will be working on my Japanese for this challenge – so excited to see what you all and I will do and how far we can come!

Use #30dol as the general tag, and add your field (your specific subject, or writing, painting, lang(uages), pho(tography), film, book, design) to find people doing something similar! Though honestly one of the things I’m most excited about is the multidisciplinary aspect - we are such a brilliant and colorful community :)

Have fun guys!!

Everything You Need To Know About MLA Format

General Format:

8.5 x 11 inch paper

Double spaced

Times New Roman font

12 pt font

Only one space after each period

1 inch margins on all sides

Indent the first line of each paragraph by half an inch

Use a header that includes your last name and page number in the top right hand corner

The First Page:

In the upper left hand corner:

Your Name

Your Instructor’s Name

The Class Title

The Date (Day Month Year)

The title of your paper should be one double-space down and should not be bolded, italicized, or underlined

The beginning of your paper should start one double-space down from the title with the first line indented by half an inch

What to Italicize and Quote:

Book titles are italicized

Play titles are italicized

Poem titles have quotation marks

Article titles have quotation marks

Chapter titles have quotation marks

In-Text Citations:

When you know the author’s last name

(Last Name Page Number) or

(Last Name Paragraph or Line Number)

When you don’t know the author’s last name

(Book Title Page Number)

(Article Title Page Number)

Remember to italicize the book titles and put the article titles in quotation marks

Works Cited Page:

Begin your Works Cited page on a separate page at the end of your research paper. It should have the same one inch margins and header as the rest of your paper

Label the page “Works Cited” (do not italicize or put in quotations) on the top of the page and center it

Double space all citations but do not skip spaces between entries

Indent the second line of a citation by half an inch

List sources in alphabetical order

If the source has more than one author, the first given name appears in last name, first name format and the following authors appear in last name, first name format separated by commas. The last author’s name should be preceded by an “and”

Citing Print Sources:

Book or Poem:

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book or Poem. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Print.

Magazine or Newspaper Article:

Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Periodical Day Month Year: pages. Print.

Journal Article:

Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal Volume.Issue (Year): pages. Print.

Citing Web Sources:

Whole Website:

Name of Site. Sponsor or Publisher, date of resource creation. Web. Date of access. 

Web Page or Web Article:

Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Name of Site. Sponsor of Publisher, date of resource creation. Web. Date of access.

Online Journal Article:

Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal Volume.Issue (Year): pages. Web. Date of access. 

Note: Don’t forget to indent the second line in the citation. I did not indent the examples because the indents on tumblr mobile and tumblr desktop differ starkly and I figured this was probably the less confusing way to write the information needed for a citation (trust me)

Unknown Information in Citations:

If the author is unknown, begin citation with the title

If the publisher is unknown, write “n.p.” in its place (no quotation marks)

If the publishing date is unknown, write “n.d.” in its place (no quotation marks)

I hope this guide is as useful for me as it it for you!

The Ultimate Study Masterpost (updated)

I decided to compile EVERY RESOURCE that I have found useful. I hope they help you too!

Motivation/self-discipline

A reality check

self-discipline

Setting smart goals

self-discipline > motivation masterpost

Useful tips cos its not easy

Honestly love this mindset soo much

Burn-out

questions to ask b4 giving up

what to do when u don’t want to study

how to survive a crappy day

When ur burnt out

Sometimes ya just need to take the time for your body

dealing with failure

Fun study tings

These concepts by studyblr always seem to make me want to study

More study moods

And more!

Idk why but these study moods all seem fun to try out/just relate to

hogwarts houses as students

bk 2 skl tips a la harry potter

Organisation

study space hacks

Getting ur shizzle together

Organisation!!

Being organised + studying

weekly scheduling

PLAN UR MONTH HUN

school organisation

How to plan for study

Getting ahead

What to do when you miss class

schedule ur study time

when you have TOO MUCH to do

Productivity

things to do to help you feel productive

productivity 101

types of procrastination and how to stop urself

The ivy lee method for productivity

being productive after school

Being productive in the mornings

Being productive in general

Self care and productivity

Masterposts

Honestly areistotle does the best masterposts

Nifty school masterpost

A studyblr masterpost

Tumblr resources 4 the school year

Masterpost of everything pt 1

And pt 2

Pt1 of a studying masterpost

And pt2

a huge masterpost

Some gr8 masterposts

Some oF THE BEst gcse resources

Good language science and maths resources

Printables

awesome free printables

Academic printables

Bullet journals

starting a bujo

ideas for bujo pages if ur into that

Study

awesome tips 4 studying

Straight from the horse’s mouth (no offense)

Another gr8 round of study tips

When to use what method

Study tips 4 exams

rare stoody tips

Studying smarter

effective studying

Studying successfully in college

study smarter,, not harder,,

study habits in and out of class

Study skills masterpost

Study methods to try this year

Studying like a straight a student

lazy kid’s study guide

Exams

studying for an exam in a short time

Exams don’t have to stink

advice for GCSE students

finals guide

School life

We all have a shit teacher so here’s how to deal with them

how to get a 4.0 and generally do well

tips for high schoolers

how to approach classes

homework help and hints

Foolproof guide to school success

school survival guide

How to get a’s without the frills

secrets of str8 A students

More tips for getting straight a’s

getting straight a’s in uni

Notes

taking efficient notes

Making revision notes

Upgrade yo notes

taking effective class notes

More on notetaking

Taking notes

lecture notes

More notes which is similar to what i do

taking notes from a textbook

Getting straight a’s yet again

Back to school

Making your life a lil bit easier this year ;)

brace urself for the new school year

More back to school

More back to school tips

this is great for back to school

Back to school masterpost there are so many of these but still

Back to school tips that acc help

What to do during summer

another one for the last days of summer

Back 2 skl r u ready??

going to school like a badass

Career/adult stuff

Really good for anything to do with jobs

Template for sending thx after interviews

THE BEST COVER LETTER ADVICE ADDAKFASK

Resume cheat sheet

Great personal statement guide (UCAS)

Bettering urself

how to live a better life

Some things that are easy to forget

Feeling strong and ready for anything

Things to do

Healthier habits

Life cleansing

Health tips to practice regularly

Some suggestions

Relax

productive breaks that AREN’T studying

Cute tips based on the senses

Ways to relax

Treat yo self without breaking the bank

100 tips woah

Style/skincare

Back to school glo up

how to feel like a nymph

how to feel like an ancient empress (my FAV)

how to feel like a faerie queen/king

How to feel like a dryad

How to feel like a princess getting ready for a politically important ball

how to feel like a star maiden

how to be a delicate angel

English

annotating efficiently

annotating a text

writing x characters when u aren’t x

how to get that 8/9 in an english essay

annotating literature

How to annotate an english text

ap lit terms and tips

ap lit review

list of literary techniques

Maths

GCSE maths youtube channels

super tips for maths my (least) fav subject

Science

Awesome for chemistry

lil biology masterpost

science resources

Languages

Spanish filler words

small talk in french

How to get an a in a foreign language

Essays

Essay writing websites for when ur normal program ain’t cutting it

how to structure essays

essay basics

Writing academically

Battling essays like mulan

Writing a 5 paragraph essay

Other subjects

a guide to new spec history

Morning/night routines

study in the morning

before skl checklist

nail dat afterschool routine ya feel?

morning habits to get into

more sleepytime

waking up easily

Morning habits for productivity

Getting up earlier when ur not a morning person

How to wake up

waking up happier :)

get up early and enjoy the day!!

Sleep

Morning and night routine ideas

Better sleep = better health = better grades

Tech

STAY OFF UR PHONE

Gr8 study apps

Food + drink

Recipes for students bc u gotta eat

study snacks

Drinks for diff moods

quick food recipes

5 easy recipes

Music

Some rlly good soundtracks here and also other misc songs

Haven’t tried this but seems cool

when you don’t want to listen to beethoven for the 67569540th time

ambient sounds for writers

melodic studying

concept playlists

Okay so thats pretty much every single useful thing I’ve ever reblogged. If you have any more suggestions please PLEASE let me know because I’m going to constantly update this list and any additions are welcome :)

What are your top 5 study tips?

Helloo!

These answers are slightly obscure (but they’re good!):

Have a bedside table and a lamp (with dimming settings). There’s casual ways to keep studying. This is one of them. 

I get in bed about 30/40minutes before I want to sleep. I put my phone on silent (and it’s out of reach). Then I sit up in bed and read (the dim lamp helps me doze off and I can just reach over and turn it off when I’m done, instead of getting out of bed). 

The bedside table gives me easy access to my current reads!

Buy a clipboard: print off the journal articles you need to read for tomorrow’s lecture and sit up in bed annotating them. Then turn the lamp off and sleep.

Keep your favourite snacks with you when studying:

To stop me from getting up and wondering around (aka scavenging for food) I keep treats near my desk (I like apples, sweets and water).

Make lists: not a list for the week, or the day but for the specific study session. Write down what you want to achieve in the next 2/3hours and do it! 

Use sticky tabs in your books:

But always write on sticky tabs! Don’t just stick them in, always scribble something. Why did you put it there? You will forget if you don’t write it down. 

I hope these are helpful. 

How should I study?

This is probably the most asked question. And I will be totally honest now and give you some advice on how you should and how you shouldn’t study.

The ideal way of self studying a language

doesn’t exist. Or at least I haven’t found it. But there is no method which will give you a 100% success. You know that everybody is different and everybody learns different. I have made my self study plan (here) for Korean. In my opinion, it works awesome for me, and I think that I’ve created this one with common sense. But in this post I don’t want to go deeper in “which plan should I follow”. I’d like to focus on the methods you might use to achieve your goals.

Let’s divide it into 4 (and optional 5) sections: Vocab, grammar, listening speaking (and eventually signs).

Vocab

Learning vocab is the foundation of your language. You can’t build a house only by a plan. You must also have the bricks. But I have some common “mistakes” people make. Here comes my list of what to avoid:

Long study sessions once a week

Reading the word 500x to think you might learn it this way

Letting the learnt words on the side

Not saying the words out loud

Never writing words out

Making vocab studying monotone

Learning the unuseful vocab you’ll probably never need

Those are so important points. In several books I’ve seen that the brain learns faster if it repeatedly does something. Also if you don’t use the things you’ve learnt after a certain time again, you might forget it again.

Try those things instead:

Study sessions over the whole week

Reading, writing and listening to the word

Make a record of the words you want to learn and listen to it

Once in a while repeat also your “good” words

Say words out loud which are complicated

Make studying fun (Use flashcards, post its, make it comfortable, make yourself a tea)

Learn vocab which is very frequent or which you will need specifically for your needs

Grammar

Grammar is a rather hard discipline. Also here common mistakes:

Learning the rules by heart and thinking “that’s it”

Only practicing the sentences in your book

Not making sentences on your own

Making grammar boring

Letting it be only because you’ve understood it once

Giving up on it just because it seems hard

Replace it by this:

Try to decode it before actually read the explanation.

Try to learn the sense behind the grammar.

Use what you’ve learnt and build your own sentences. You’ve got problems? Means that there are some points you should work on.

Grammar isn’t boring (okay sometimes) but you can make it fun if you use also like with vocab stuff you like. And also: If you always connect studying grammar with something what makes you happy, for example always make a smoothie if you study grammar, than it will also have an input on your studies. More about that in the next post)

Keep going and master the challenge

Sometimes it’s also good to take a break and try the next day. It might be that you’ve overworked yourself

Listening

And here again the top mistakes:

Not focusing on listening

Or listening to very fast music and complaining how stupid you are

Listening to “non real language”

Not listen at all

If I say that a language must be spoken, it also means that there are people which listen. And that means that you also have to study the other side of the language. So many people neglate this part. This was also my mistake in Japanese. But I have some good replacements:

Watch TV soaps or dramas (the most natural language)

Start from the very first day

Don’t get mad. It’s hard to understand things, but you will get better

Celebrate if you’re right

Take notes if you’ve heard something interesting

Listening will get your best friend. It doesn’t only improve your ear but also your writing. Because if you know how the pronounciation changes, you’ll also know how to write better.

Speaking

It’s hard to speak sometimes, but in this section you can also make mistakes by not even doing anything:

Being speechless

Not speaking from the beginning

Not learning the pronounciation properly

Not trying to get faster

It really depends on the person how fast the progress is in pronounciation, but if you don’t work from the very first day on it, it will get hard for you. Replace those methods by this:

Speak whenever you can

Talk to yourself

Try to find someone who might correct you

Learn the pronounciation properly

Try to get faster from time to time

Fluency comes where axienty goes (wow I should copyright that)

But don’t try to be perfect

Progress is made by many many little steps taken to get to a higher obstacle. Work smart and make those steps.

Optional: Signs

The probably hardest part for any Japanese/Chinese learner: the signs. I’ve seen and I’ve done even more mistakes. Use that and learn from me:

Writing a kanji over and over again

Thinking you might get along without signs

Buying course books which tell you how to learn “2000 kanjis in 2 months” or so

Not thinking when learning

Learning only one reading style

Learn a kanji and don’t repeat it

Okay guys. When I say that, please take me serious. You can’t learn 2000 kanjis in 10 days IF you don’t have a super brain. And I think it’s okay. Not everybody is talented, but there are other ways. And one way isn’t writing it 50 times per hour. Of course you have to write it, but not so many a day that you might get sick of them. And only because you’ve learnt one kanji, doesn’t mean that it will last for your whole life in your brain. Replace by:

Combine different methods 

Repeat signs

Buy if you are 100% sure you NEED that and if you’re not so sure about it, think while on work “Is it worth it that I am working for it now?”

Use what you’ve learnt. The feeling is so rewarding

Also here: Make it funny.

To self study a language it is best to develope his own style. But with some methods it will take you certainly much longer than with others. Try it out and see what works.

So you’ve learned Hangul. ‘What do I do now?’ is probably your next question. I would know because you all have asked me at least ten times a day. The people have spoken; a lot. So I shall give the people what they want. Here is a short masterlist for beginners who are endlessly stuck at Hangul and have no idea what to do next:

Typing in Korean:     ♡ Hangul (just in case you haven’t gotten that part yet)     ♡ Practice your Hangul: typing test     ♡ How to change your keyboard: language setting       ♡ Korean Fonts

Flashcards / Apps:     ♡ Quizlet     ♡ Anki     ♡ Apps

Websites:     ♡ Talk to Me in Korean (TTMIK)     ♡ How to study Korean (HTSK)     ♡ Lang-8     ♡ KoreanClass101     ♡ Haru-Korean     ♡ Learn Korean     ♡ Sogang Korean

Masterlists:     ♡ Study Korean 101     ♡ Fluentlee     ♡ From Ireland to Korea     ♡ Lost in Korean Translations     ♡ Flicker of Korean     ♡ Korean from Dummies     ♡ Bite Sized Korean     ♡ Bulletproof Korean     ♡ Sohee Studies     ♡ Hannah-DulSet     ♡ Korean Study Tips     ♡ Su-eop     ♡ GGKorean

My Resources / Recommended:     ♡ Textbooks          ~ I will always recommend TTMIK (textbooks here)     ♡ Korean Games     ♡ Websites     ♡ Apps     ♡ Webtoons

Beginner Need to Know:     ♡ Introducing yourself     ♡ Vocabulary (literally fill your brain with as much vocab as possible)     ♡ Batchim (받침)     ♡ Sentence Structure     ♡ Conversational Korean

Tips:     ♡ The romanized Korean is not a complete representation of the Korean alphabet. Understanding that pronunciation/spoken Korean is just as important as reading and writing will help your Korean flourish - so drop romanization.     ♡ You are literally free to do whatever you want. You could learn phrases, vocab, grammar - you could even start taking beginner lessons at a KSL school or find a tutor; your Korean language journey is your own. What works for me might not work for you.     ♡ There’s always a honeymoon stage. What I mean by this is sometimes people are caught up in the excitement of learning Korean that they forget to do the boring stuff - ie grammar and extensive studying. The honeymoon stage usually filters those who are serious and those who aren’t about learning Korean.     ♡ However you chose to learn Korean, own it. If you’d like to learn through KDramas/KPop, that’s okay. If you want to go to Korea and immerse yourself, that’s okay. Own it. And work hard while you’re at it.

Studying Korean is a beautiful and painful process. As a former beginner, I can tell you it’s a lot of work but it’s worth it. I hope that you have some guidance now when you’re done learning Hangul, but it’s really up to you the path you decide to take. Best of luck! I will always be here to answer your questions - don’t hesitate to message. Happy Studying :)

~ SK101