Lately I’ve been feeling like my short-term memory is nearly gone. Maybe it’s the stress of midterms, maybe it’s the ton of classes, homework, meetings, my job (meta), but I often find myself searching through my purse for something that is immediately necessary, but can’t remember what it actually is so I just hope that I’ll know it when I find it. I tried googling solutions to Adult Onset Stupidity, but sadly AOS isn’t recognized by the American Council on Mental Disabilities. Yet. Thankfully, Brainscape already compiled a list with memory improvement tips, but I would like to expand on my own strategy to ward off dementia in my early twenties; I’ve started writing down everything I do in a day. The ironically tricky part is actually remembering to do it. (more…)
Karina Schultz
Karina Schultz's Posts
Looking Back for a Better Memory
How Phonology is like High School
As adapted from a post by the Lingusitic Mystic.
To people just approaching the field of linguistics, the subcategory of phonology might seem a little daunting. The phonology of a language is that which defines whether it’s ‘fishes’ or ‘fishs.’ It’s the part of a language that takes care of all the audible awkwardness. Officially, it’s the “study of how sounds pattern and interact within words and sentences in different languages,”1 which sounds vague unless you have a great way to make it more understandable. Lucky for us, the Mystic did all the hard work and we don’t have to lift a finger, we just have to scroll down. He explains that phonology is a field where there isn’t a whole lot of information, or at least good information, out there. The complex interrelationships of sounds are hard to describe, much like the unspoken rules, raging hormones and drama that plagued our lives for four grueling years.
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15 Foreign Words we use every day in English
English, just like any other language, is riddled with foreign words stolen from other tongues. Most of them are anglicized, but some have stuck to the original. Many of these phrases are common in literature and everyday speech–understanding these phrases is necessary for understanding what you read! Here are a 15 examples of those commonly found in conversation (that will also make you sound, like, totally smart), with language of origin and sample sentence, courtesy of How To Learn.Eddie Izzard on French
Several years ago, British comedic genius Eddie Izzard talked about the uselessness of some of the French phrases he learned at school. I think we can all relate
Video below the break (more…)
Why people from other countries think Americans are dumb, and other things TV is to blame for
When we got cable in my house, my life changed forever. In Venezuela, this means going from watching old TV shows in syndication dubbed in Colombian Spanish; to watching the same shows and more in their original language with Spanish subtitles. At first, I was somewhat apprehensive and complained loudly to my mom my genuine fear that Fran Drescher’s voice would not stay true to the nasal, whiny tone of the Spanish audio on Venezuelan national television. Hold back the vicious criticism, I was only nine years old at the time. It was important to me. But soon I came to appreciate the benefits of watching the Nanny in its original Queens English with somewhat mistranslated subtitles. (more…)
Sing Along and Practice Pronunciation and Listening
The sing-a-long learn-a-thon: For the language enthusiast.
If you’re learning a foreign language, no matter what your level of mastery of the language is, try listening to a song in that language! It’s a great way (and fun way) to work on your speaking, listening and pronunciation. (more…)
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