I think I just need to surround myself with writing, and my niche will find itself. After all, I'm still an amateur blogger. I'm still learning things about posting, themes, tags, traffic, and a lot of other stuff. It's not like if I started a big blog now it would be very successful, with my meager skills.
So I'm just going to keep posting here whenever I can. The first step to finding success is to look for it!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
For Learners of Japanese
Just thought I would make a post about this... because I spent MONTHS looking for this.
I'm learning Japanese and one of my favorite resources has got to be Let's Plays. Basically, a player gives commentary on the game they're playing and uploads the video to NicoNico or Youtube. Simple, right? But it took me forever to find them in Japanese because, unlike say Finnish or Swedish (and you can find LPs in those languages!), they go by a different name: 実況プレイ (Jikkyou Purei).
Simply put that into your searchbar and you can find TONS of listening material. Of course, you have to be at a level where the material will be useful, and you have to take everything you hear with a grain of salt. You're not going to learn Japanese from Let's Plays anymore than you are with solid anime, so don't fool yourself into thinking this is an easy way out of studying. However, it is a good way of incubating vocabulary words!
It's passive learning, but it's good learning, and it'll drain a lot of your free time. So be sure to cram in those vocabulary words before pressing play!
I'm learning Japanese and one of my favorite resources has got to be Let's Plays. Basically, a player gives commentary on the game they're playing and uploads the video to NicoNico or Youtube. Simple, right? But it took me forever to find them in Japanese because, unlike say Finnish or Swedish (and you can find LPs in those languages!), they go by a different name: 実況プレイ (Jikkyou Purei).
Simply put that into your searchbar and you can find TONS of listening material. Of course, you have to be at a level where the material will be useful, and you have to take everything you hear with a grain of salt. You're not going to learn Japanese from Let's Plays anymore than you are with solid anime, so don't fool yourself into thinking this is an easy way out of studying. However, it is a good way of incubating vocabulary words!
It's passive learning, but it's good learning, and it'll drain a lot of your free time. So be sure to cram in those vocabulary words before pressing play!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Blogging outlets
I feel like I need a better outlet for my blogging. A personal blog will do for now, but I want something substantial that I can make into a solid business venture or something. Everyone talks about how there are so many niches out there, the hard part is choosing one. And yet I can't find anything that would apply to me! I'm not good enough at video games, art, languages, gardening, any of my hobbies to provide any new information, and certainly not for an extended period of time.
I guess it's a bit early in this blog to be talking about my "blogging future." But I wish it were simpler to find things to write about that were actually productive. Seems like the only things people can write about these days are money and website design.
Neither of which I'm good at, by the way.
I guess it's a bit early in this blog to be talking about my "blogging future." But I wish it were simpler to find things to write about that were actually productive. Seems like the only things people can write about these days are money and website design.
Neither of which I'm good at, by the way.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Going Abroad... or not.
Learning new languages is a huge hobby for me. I'm currently learning Japanese and Swedish, but I have over ten others on my "to-do" list.
Anyway, I've been learning Japanese since I was ten, entirely self-taught. That makes it six years. Let's assume that I half-assed a lot of it (because I did) and it's perfectly reasonable that I'm still at an advanced level after all these years (though it's supposed to take 4-6 years to reach fluency). And I've always wanted to take a trip to Japan.
On top of that, I'll be getting my diploma soon. That means I'll have a year off before I'm expected to go to college.
The immediate solution to this problem is GAP YEAR! TAKE A GAP YEAR!
Basically, a gap year is a year someone takes off of school or their job. A lot of kids who graduate "early" take one. And best of all, there are programs to take you all over the world studying language and culture for that one year (or a portion of it).
So I've been counting on going to Japan next year for a while now. Only thing is, I've discovered
Anyway, I've been learning Japanese since I was ten, entirely self-taught. That makes it six years. Let's assume that I half-assed a lot of it (because I did) and it's perfectly reasonable that I'm still at an advanced level after all these years (though it's supposed to take 4-6 years to reach fluency). And I've always wanted to take a trip to Japan.
On top of that, I'll be getting my diploma soon. That means I'll have a year off before I'm expected to go to college.
The immediate solution to this problem is GAP YEAR! TAKE A GAP YEAR!
Basically, a gap year is a year someone takes off of school or their job. A lot of kids who graduate "early" take one. And best of all, there are programs to take you all over the world studying language and culture for that one year (or a portion of it).
So I've been counting on going to Japan next year for a while now. Only thing is, I've discovered
- I don't have the money
- I can't drive
- I haven't taken the SAT
- I've basically never been away from home
And it's looking like a worse and worse idea. Chances are, I'm going to work my ass off and go the year after next regardless. Maybe I'll wait until college and go to school abroad. At any rate, you'll hear about it once I'm there, and it will be fun as hell.
Welcome to Blogger?
Well, nice to meet all the bloggers out there! As you can see, I'm trying out Blogspot for just about the first time. I'm also experimenting with a blog over at WordPress. So I guess the two platforms had better step up before I decide which one I like best!
An introduction?
Well, this is my personal blog, plain and simple. My name's Adriana, I'm happily 16, and I'm experimenting with blogging. I'll share my personal experiences here, anything that I'd like to share with the world, anything I just want to throw out there. Hopefully I'll meet some new people and learn more about myself this way. Now let's see, do I get an "About" page...? Guess it's off to take care of that first hurdle.
An introduction?
Well, this is my personal blog, plain and simple. My name's Adriana, I'm happily 16, and I'm experimenting with blogging. I'll share my personal experiences here, anything that I'd like to share with the world, anything I just want to throw out there. Hopefully I'll meet some new people and learn more about myself this way. Now let's see, do I get an "About" page...? Guess it's off to take care of that first hurdle.
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