However, also follow @blangblog on Twitter and check out my updates whenever you like. I use Twitter rather frequently, so this is easier for me for now. Once time permits, I’ll be sure to post more actively on the full blog here.

So Know Your Social Media isn’t dead, but Part 2 may take some time. I’ve also started thinking about the topic of the language of memory. In fact, I think I’ll tweet about that first! Keep an eye out!

I’d love to know the topics you’re interested in. Leave me comments.

Talk soon,
Kevin

P.S. What is taking up my time? Mostly, it’s client work under WizOne Solutions and improving and selling subscriptions for Fill PDF Service. The latter is starting to take off, and that should help free up my time some, but it’s not quite there yet. If you are a Drupal Developer or have Drupal Developer friends, spread the word! Stop generating PDFs from scratch! Make fill-in templates where you can and use Fill PDF to fill them in! And then offload the processing to Fill PDF Service, which still is only a one-time fee for life…which won’t last forever. OK, time to end that advertisement to the entirely wrong crowd

It has to do with a few guidelines you can follow to stay motivated and learn effectively. It is written with Chinese in mind, but it applies to any language.

Without further ado, here it is:

“You need to make a PACT with yourself throughout the learning process.

–PATIENCE: Be prepared to take at least a couple years or more to learn the language. Take a long distance running approach. Do not be too anxious to learn it too quickly. Take it easy and slow. It takes time to learn a language. Remind yourself to enjoy the process of learning, and have patience.

–ASSURANCE: Whenever you hit a plateau and even have a feeling of despair that you will never be able to master it, you need to remind yourself that if you keep on treading on patiently, what you do will accumulate and will let you come out on the other side where things will become a lot easier and let you taste the fruits of your efforts. Tell yourself that you will someday surely become fluent in this language. Hold on to your hope and sense of assurance.

–CURIOSITY: Find out more about the culture and people. Keep up your interest level high and motivate yourself to learn the language. It is important to maintain high level of interest and curiosity.

–TRANSMUTATION: Think of yourself as Chinese. Think that you are already a fluent Chinese speaker, even when you have to babble through your conversations at the beginning. You need to make as much effort as possible to identify with the people who are the speakers of the target language. You must become them. This should be your goal as a language and culture learner. You must become transmutated into a Chinese. You must cast a magical spell on yourself and turn yourself into a Chinese in acting, thinking, feeling, talking, grunting, sighing, laughing and dreaming. Let go of your mother tongue and sense of national identity, and constantly self-hypnotize yourself into transmutation.”

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Like glass in the sand
Strike two words, spiting your time
“Standard deduction”

So much for all those records you kept, eh? At least business expenses still take a nice chunk out of that dreaded taxable income

A recent mistweeet by yours truly led to a suggestion that I write a blog post so that you don’t have to make the same mistake. You could also think of this post as, “How to Avoid Foreign Language Oopses in Social Media.” That said, you’ll be able to apply these tips to many other areas as well.

What I want to do in this post is walk you through how I find out the right way to say “hashtag” – you know, #TheseThingsYouEitherLoveOrHateOnTwitter, in Norwegian, French, and Spanish. What’s extra cool is that I haven’t done this yet, so I’m going to do it in real time and take you with me. Screenshots included! Ready? Let’s go.

First, Norwegian. Messing up the Norwegian version of this was what led to this post, so it makes sense to start here.

Naïvely, I’ll first search in English: “what is hashtag in Norwegian?” Let’s see what comes back…

Ehh…that doesn’t look very promising. But while I was typing the query, I saw something good…let’s see if I can back up a bit and find it…OK, this is what I thought might be it:

When I clicked, through, though, it was just a description of the actual hashtag #spill, and how spill in Norwegian means “game.” So that wasn’t quite it.

It seems like English isn’t working so well! In part 2, I’ll try searching in Norwegian…stay tuned!

Merriam-Webster, are you reading? Word candidate right here.

Incidentally, Urban Dictionary seems to have a different idea. I find their definitions a little “sweek” though. Comment if you get the joke!

Bad sleep patterns are
The sun rising in the north
And then in the east

Before this becomes true for me…good night!

(P.S. I still owe you guys a post about how to learn specific terms for things like social media, basically walking you through what I would do. I’ve got it as a draft and will complete and post it as soon as I can. “Thanks for being patient.”)

As the sun touches
The earth, so  touches my pen
pa…wait, what’s today?

All the guys reading this are probably one part laughing, one part cringing. But one thing’s for sure; it was a pretty good Oops.

Chime in with your thoughts! Also, can anyone decipher the original phrase?

• My Spanish comprehension is better than my ability to start speaking from a cold start now. This is different from before. I’m still fluent.
• I think it’s because I’m in L.A., where I hear it more and speak it relatively more. I also listen to it on the radio about once a week.
• I usually find that when starting out with a language, my speaking ability is better than my ability to understand speakers.
• I’ve heard the opposite from others; for them, it’s easier to understand than speak.

Have you had the same “shift” as me happen to you in a language? Why do you think it happened?

Are you from the other side? Why do you think that’s the case for you (understanding more than you can speak)?

Even more interestingly…are you from the other side and have had the “shift” happen in the opposite direction?

Looking forward to hearing back.

Want to share your own haiku about Haiku Tuesday being late? The comments are always open to you! If you want to have your haiku featured AS Haiku Tuesday, please get in touch.