Thoughts on using ACTFL Can-Do Statements

Given that I’ve studied primary Indo-European languages, I’ve become well familiar with the Common European Framework of Reference (CERF). Japanese has its own equivalent (JLPT), but Arabic lacks a concrete exam, and I’ve often used CERF levels to monitor my progress.

Project Updates: Web Development, Course Revision and More

While being nestled near the Western Ghats in an Indian high-rise suburb appears relaxed, I can tell you that it this isn't the case! It felt as if the final months of the year might have been swept out with the pre-Diwali cleaning.

After a series of viral and a short respite in Hyderabad in September, I found myself frantically trying to finish or resume projects started in August.

First there was my personal website, which I have used as a lab rat for different CSS3 and HTML5 principles since last October. Finally I settled on a design, at least for the time being, and cut 75% of what I had built. All that was left was to edit the content, finalize fonts and colors, and finish the media queries. Granted, my PHP form abruptly stopped working, possibly because of an addition of another script, and so it was back to the drawing board for my contact form.

Given that I enjoy numerous creative pursuits, I wanted a place to showcase my development project, translation, writing, and design. However, I also wanted the website to be simple, not overbearing, and possibly interactive. Therefore, I borrowed code from this fullscreen layout with page transitions as shown on Tympanus.net and tweaked it to create a one-page interactive layout. In the process, I learned quite a bit about JQuery and clean CSS3 styling, which I hope to use in my future projects.

I’m hoping to experiment with the layout of this blog, as well as delve into some WordPress development.

Next, I wanted to focus on my online grammar course. Although I am proud of my first course, I have wanted to expand and improve on it. Back in March I had made a list of possible improvement areas based on feedback from a test class, and I continued to add to this throughout the year. Finally in October I sat down and organized my list and created a general timetable. As I plan to nearly quadruple the size of my course, I have estimated it will take about eleven months to write, film and edit it. While I’ve gone ahead and done some work now, I’m officially starting in December.

Of course, all of my projects will take the passenger seat for 20 days in November, during which time I will learn stick shift! While I’m not too fond of driving, depending on autos and Ola cars has become rather impossible at this point. Waiting for our area to develop simply isn’t a decent option. This became especially clear in September, when a viral was making its rounds about the house, and we had no way to get to a doctor without a vehicle.

As for my German and Hindi – both are slightly off schedule. I’m still planning to take my German exam in February-March, as my work through Aspekte has appeared promising. My Hindi, finally, is starting to pick up. On a typical day I can understand most of what people say around me, or at least get the gist. I can maybe understand 30 of Bollywood dialogue, which is expected, as I haven’t quite hit the 1000 word mark yet. Currently I’ve stopped at chapter 14 of Teach Yourself Hindi, of which I’ll give a proper review in a future blog post.

Writing wise, I have three short stories in the works, a novel outline, and a draft of a comic. I’ve also had time to write a few poems here or there, and I’m hoping to make it a regular activity.

Once I finish driving school in November, and take my C2 exam in early 2017, I’m hoping to have more time to lend to these other projects. And once my Hindi reaches a more natural conversational level, I’m estimating sometimes early next year, I’m hoping to start some Marathi (the local language) and Bengali (home language).

Then, perhaps, I can finally reacquaint myself with my other languages.

How To Conquer Anxiety When Speaking

Whether you become nervous speaking in your native language or not, many second language learners have anxiety speaking to target language speakers. You may stay silent or stumble over your words. These reactions are generally associated with a lack of confidence. You may believe your not competent, you can't recall the words quick enough, or perhaps you have general social anxiety.

Learn a Language With YWriter

There are many softwares and applications that claim to "teach" a language. But what about immersing yourself in software you already use?

As the free PC equivalent of Scrivener and a writing software, it may surprise you that YWriter can be used to learn a language. But this method is really no different from shifting from native language to target language on your computer.

Transitivity and Language Learning

Transitivity was a concept I struggled with in elementary school, and then promptly forgot about. Even when I began learning new languages, I was far more preoccupied with perfective verbs and tenses to even think about how transitivity may matter.

Build Your Portfolio As A Novice - Part 1

Having only recently graduated college, I am still living through that "transition" period - partially because I was a liberal arts major, and mostly because I have varied interests and projects. But whether I am working on translation or web development, I still need one thing to get my career going - a portfolio.

The concept is nothing new  - but my experience has been in the art world. So now that I'm experimenting in a different venue, I've written down a method that I (and others) can reuse when trying to figure out how to start their portfolio without much experience.

There are general tips: use whatever you already have, for example. But there are many cases (especially if changing careers), when you may need to create a few new items.

3 Amazing Instances of Cultural Exchange

An Arabic translation of a Greek text.

One of the most underrated joys, at least for me, is noticing the vast amount of cross-cultural sharing that exists in society. Modern views of "Globalism" that resound in the media tend to portray the topic as some mystical development springing from the advent of advanced communication. It's true that the internet has widened the scope of the world for the ordinary man, but cultural exchange has been around since the beginning of time.

Now, some may point out that cultural sharing can be the byproduct of violent colonialism. And that's true. But much of it also developed through other means, such as trade agreements or scholarship. Here are some of my favorite examples of successful cultural exchange.