How To: Learn a Language (ish..)

As a bit of personal background, I like to describe myself as a linguist, as I currently speak Spanish and German to A Level standard, and plan to study Spanish at Uni (with the hope of some day reaching fluency!). I've always found it really cool to be able to communicate with someone from another country in their native tongue and enjoy the challenge of keeping up with native speakers who talk ridiculously quickly and in a strong dialect (yep, I do love a challenge!). It's what I feel my strength has been throughout high school! So this is why I've decided to compile a list of tips for those planning on learning a language, or those who have already started and may benefit from some refreshing, based on my 7 years as a dual linguist!

1. Are you really committed to learning a language, or is it a spur of the moment decision? First of all, you need to figure out just how much time and effort you're willing to put in to keeping up a new skill - it's like anything else, exercise perhaps. How many people start a gym membership on a new year's whim and end up ditching the fitness a couple of weeks in? Sadly I feel like this is the case for so many potential linguists; at school it's pretty much compulsory to take a foreign language to GCSE level but so few continue with it beyond a couple of barely useful phrases (such as 'on my holiday to Italy I ate pizza and swam in the sea') which, if anyone didn't already know, doesn't really qualify you as a fluent speaker.. Sorry to disappoint! So what I'm trying to say is if you'd like to take up another language, stick with it and work hard at it! 

2. Set aside an amount of time per day to practise. This is where apps like Duolingo come in really handy! They send you pesky little reminders if you're neglecting your vocab which inevitably make sure you end up doing your fair share (so I guess they're not so pesky after all!)! Honestly, I wouldn't have come this far linguistically if it weren't for studying my languages at school almost every day and you can hardly go wrong if it's a regular part of your day, just like brushing your teeth or watching your favourite soap.

3. Ensure you practise all 4 key skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening. This is so crucial! Picture coming to England and being able to converse with speakers perfectly well, but not understanding a word of the signs, papers or physical directions. Focussing solely on one skill is a sure fire way to weaken your language ability, which is why I believe music and YouTube videos have aided me so much in Spanish and German, with regards to diversity of media. Due to growing up with a cousin fluent in Spanish (shout out to Mel, my original Spanish inspiration!), I was constantly surrounded with little phrases and more importantly, songs of artists such as Maná, Juanes, the Gipsy Kings, Julieta Venegas and much more. Even now, at a fairly proficient level, I do sometimes have to consult some song lyrics to remind me what a certain phrase or word means, or even how the subjunctive works! Similarly with German, the YouTube videos of Snukieful, BarbieLovesLipstick (yup, I do like my German beauty bloggers!) and the music of Emma6 has kept up my listening skills over the years, hence I found myself to be so much more confident when it came to completing work experience in Dortmund!

4. Don't give up when it all gets on top of you!! This is probably the most heartfelt piece of wisdom I can offer you. Trust me when I say that I've had so many moments in life when I've doubted my linguistic abilities, wanted to just switch to English speaking when abroad or found German grammar too much to bear (I apologise profusely to my school German teachers. They tried their best with my limited grammatical ability but I reckon adjectival endings and cases will always be beyond me :() but it's ridiculously rewarding when you have a breakthrough or get into the swing of things! For instance, last week in Spain, I had a waiter ask me why I could speak Spanish so well - he wondered if I lived there! My friends will testify that this was a defining moment of my life :') It really does pay off and I have no doubt that my year abroad in Spain for my degree will be one of the most difficult, testing yet fantastic experiences of my life so far. I just can't wait *to be King* (okay someone stop my Disney references now..)!

5. Don't be afraid of making mistakes! It honestly won't matter that much and it's far better to try and get something slightly wrong than hold back from attempting anything. If anything, you'll find that any errors you make will stick in your mind even more, and to a certain extent, failed attempts really are the best way of learning! I have a rather funny anecdote about a time in Germany when I confused numbers and left my employers in stitches at my idiocy.. anyone interested in finding out the whole story, comment below!!

So that's it - all I have left to say is happy language learning and please do keep me posted as to how you get on! If anyone has any more tips or questions, I'm always more than happy to chat with you, just leave me a comment :)

Y para mis amigos que hablan español, espero que no haya sido demasiado difícil tolerarme durante los últimos años, con referencia a la cantidad de tiempo que paso hablando sobre idiomas. Vosotros sois fantásticos :) 

P.S. ¡Si alguien quiere que escriba artículos en español, lo haría con mucho gusto!

P.P.S. Disclaimer: none of this blog post, or any other post I've written, has been sponsored!

The One Where I Say Hi!

Hi world!

So this is my 4th blog post now and I've realised that those of you who don't know me on a personal level may like to find out a bit more about me and what my blog aims to promote. 

If I'm totally honest, I don't know where this blogging will end up taking me, but all I can say is that it started out through a series of summer evenings when I started contemplating life's deep issues (this is what the holidays do to me!). Hence the "Midnight" aspect of the title came about because so far, all of my posts have been written in the early hours of the morning - I don't know if anyone else agrees but this is definitely the time when thoughts flood my mind, and so I write at my best then! 

Now, any good friend of mine will be able to explain the "Tea" part of the blog name - I'm completely tea obsessed, drink around 4 cups of the stuff a day, and any period of anxiety/stress/happiness/deep thoughts generally involves a big mug of PG tips! Plus, so far all my blogs have been written in around 20 minutes, roughly the same amount of time it takes me to get through a cup of tea! And yes, this definitely resembles Carrie Hope Fletcher's YouTube videos which always show her drinking tea; she's a definite inspiration of mine, writing wise :)

So that explains the name, but what's all the purpose to all this caffeine drinking and early morning "brain splatters", if any? Well in part, I guess you could consider it to be an outlet for my frustrations and confusion with life issues, from exams, finishing school to social pressures, but more importantly, this blog isn't aimed to be just about me. Its main purpose is to advise, inspire and provoke thoughts among readers, following the lessons I've learned so far, and I'd love it to be interactive so feel free to comment with blog ideas/concerns/musings! From discussions I've had with friends, it seems like it's not just me who's struggling to cope with factors such as change, growing up, and finding yourself (when Location Services doesn't cut it! I refer to maturity and personal development here, not geography!). I also really enjoy helping people, whether it be through volunteering, teaching or giving words of advice to those who need a bit of uplifting. So take this little corner of the internet as my take on the big wide world and how I'm surviving in it!

Now a little bit about who I am, aside from being a lost soul who enjoys scrolling through blogs, watching YouTube videos (and recently featuring in one!!), and aimlessly tweeting, I'm a teenager who's recently finished Sixth Form and I'm hoping to study Spanish with some Linguistics at Uni, starting this October! Cue the reason why at this stage in my life I'm starting to explore new opportunities, embrace change and learn to move from childhood to adulthood *shudders and jumps onto swing to bring back the good old days*. Some friends may even describe me as "funny" (this is widely debated and most come to the conclusion that being a comedian is not my calling in life) and my side comments tend to feature some appallingly bad humour.. apologies in advance! 

On Twitter, I describe myself as a "Christian, tea lover, radio presenter, reader, writer, Lushie, musician, linguist and generally a partly positive, mostly crazy character (:" which I feel just about sums me up. Some would say "Jack of all trades, master of none" and I'm inclined to agree. Only change the "Jack" to "Jackie" for good measure!! To a certain extent, I have no idea what I plan to do as a career, but at the moment I'm perfectly happy that way. Roll on the new exciting opportunities and a future in which anything could happen *sings Ellie Goulding*!

I couldn't write a post about the inspiration for my blog without mentioning a certain blogger who put the whole idea in my head, and has featured my first post, "Why Are We Waiting?" on her page a few weeks ago.  The lovely, inspiring Paula has in recent times become a great friend of mine, a source of wisdom, reminder of priorities and someone whose religious faith has led me to become much more spiritually minded. She's simply awesome and her posts have sparked off my creative side! For her spin on the world, check out her blog http://paulapacesetter.com/ and tell her that I sent you!!

I think that's about all I have to ramble about for now! But please share these posts if you enjoy reading them, and let me know what you'd like me to write about - I'd love to hear from you!

Jenna
:)

'Change' and how to embrace it

You only have to look at where you were five years ago to realise that characters, places and priorities are changing at dizzying rates. And sometimes it can feel a bit like you're losing your grip on it all, as if you're sliding down a hill with your fingers gripping the land in front of you, trying to keep a hold on the past. But it's important to understand that the cycle of all things involves decay, endings and new beginnings, which inevitably cause hurt, but this is all aided by the healing power of time.

I was recently chatting to a friend of mine about the amount we've developed and altered over the years, which led me to a moment of complete panic. Do we ever really know anyone? Just because our paths once collided, and we walked together for some of the journey, sharing our experiences with each other, that doesn't mean they'll follow you for eternity. The concept of 'drifting' friendships, that is, when the two paths diverge, I guess, quite frankly terrifies me. I've been a hoarder of material possessions since a young age (much to my mum's dismay, as the house is descending into clutter and junk!) because I can't bear the thought of losing what may once have been the centre of my universe. Doesn't it terrify you when you can barely remember a name or face that was once the most familiar thing to you? That's change in action, and it's not to say that those memories are gone forever. It just means that every now and again, our mental 'inbox' needs to be sorted out into sections, and while some events end up filed into the back of our minds, others take priority. 

Some people naturally embrace changing relationships and circumstances, and while this has never been the case for me, I realise that myself (and fellow change-detesters) will someday have to face up to the fact that you can't cling on forever. Some friendships, career paths and interests just don't suit you anymore, and believe me when I say it does you much more harm than good to keep something close when in your gut, you know that it's not working out. You can descent into a world of self doubt, asking 'is it my fault that this isn't what it used to be?' when most of the time, it's the natural process of 'ebb and flow' to walk away from certain paths and into new opportunities. Most of the time, it's nobody's fault at all. Especially at the point I'm at now, having left school and preparing for a whole new world *sings Aladdin* of university, you can blame yourself for not putting in the extra effort to pull the past towards you again, whilst still running parallel with the present. We are only human! Though the past, present and future versions of yourself may differ, there's no need to try and live all three lives at once for the sake of maintaining an old persona to keep up a relationship. Use your words, as Carrie Hope Fletcher says all too often! If change goes hand in hand with communication, then everyone is completely aware of each other's feelings, similarities and differences. 

Change doesn't have to mean running on a completely different track. Perhaps for some it just involves a change of attitude, a new environment, or simply realising that though in the past doughnuts were their snack of choice, cake has overtaken its place. (I hope I'm not the only one experiencing this traumatising tea time dilemma. Maybe this sugary change crisis is too much to bear!)

Most importantly though, even if two people who were once close decide they are different individuals leading different lives, in no way does that signify the end of mutual respect and affection. 

Some memories are treasured forever, even if its occupants are distant and may even seem strangers now. 

It's time to keep moving forwards, recognising that the future you, though perhaps slightly altered, is still very much you. Allowing yourself to change and go with the tide doesn't have to mean forgetting the past and how much it once meant to you. 

"Tinted glasses" or perception

How many times have we held ourselves back from making an instinctive comment, because of a little voice in our head that says 'wait a minute. I can't say that, they'll think I'm XYZ..'. Or worse still, how often have we decided against wearing a certain outfit, going out to an event, being friends with someone, because we fear external perception? 

And isn't it a shame to think of all the wasted moments that pass us by due to this mentality? It seems to me that whilst social media, such as Twitter, seems to encourage instinctive, carefree thoughts, sadly, our generation  appear to be increasingly self conscious and afraid of perception. I realise that was a sweeping generalisation but it's serving here as a premise for my argument! Be that physical perception due to appearance, overthinking our texts so we don't get perceived the wrong way (the eternal debate of whether to send a winky face, a smiley face, a kiss, two kisses, a  :* emoticon?!) to someone we may like, or the way our actions may be judged in the future.

Now this all seems to tie in with the previous post about the importance of living for today, and not thinking about a future version of you that may or may not regret this decision.

So, we make mistakes. So, some people do think I'm an absolute nutter. So, people have probably talked about me behind my back, and they probably will do for plenty of time to come. So what?! We can only tread on eggshells so much before realising we can't predict future responses or what anyone else is thinking (just think about all the times autocorrect thinks it knows what you're typing but is just way off. Telepathy is far from being the most reliable way to judge responses). Overthinking things will, bit by bit, lead us to leave behind our true selves, if we're constantly altering ourselves to fit in with how other people think.

Another form of perception that deserves a mention is self-perception, which now more than ever is less a matter of seeing all the positive, amazing qualities we hold but all too often putting ourselves down, and perceiving ourselves in regard to others. We see the world through these tinted glasses, noticing only the negatives in how we view ourselves and admiring the best traits of those we look up too, whilst ignoring that they too have faults.

All this perception stuff is pretty complicated, right? It seems nobody will ever know what anyone else thinks unless it's well communicated, and I think it's about time we just throw the towel in with all this predicting how future situations may or may not come about and why and how and when and who with. It's time to take off the glasses and learn that yeah, people will judge me for my actions, they may criticise me and pick out my bad qualities. But wouldn't anyone much rather just live their life as they want to rather than eternally asking themselves 'what if?' (You know, the sort of pondering what if's that can only ever lead to questioning every little mistake you've made and why you're a terrible human being and what if you'll never achieve anything ever again?). It's just not worth it! 

Perception is another word for awareness, senses, taking things in. So surely the best way to go about life isn't to fear perception, but embrace it. Living for the now, and for you, not a million other people who you feel are judging you, means soaking up every experience, dancing on the train even though you're going to get those funny looks, making a decision that may not fit in with your peers because you're more interested in experiencing things at your own pace than how others will perceive you for not following the crowd. Perception is about gaining insight, seeing the world in a new way, and if you have to make a few unpopular decisions along the way to make the most out of life, then that's going to benefit your development far more than it will harm you to hear external criticisms that may surround your choices. Go perceive and discover! 

Why are we waiting?

It seems to me that in the modern age, everyone is in some sort of rush. And it’s understandable, I guess. With social media, the Internet etc., everything is always instant and available at the push of a button. This is only ever going to lead to a constant sense of restlessness and a generation obsessed with phone checking (don’t worry youth, I feel you. I’ve just described myself!)

But why, then, does nobody appear to rush to do the things that matter, before it’s too late? We only have to watch a romcom to know that sadly, people can lose touch, either by distance or unfortunate circumstances, and fail to be reunited until it’s too late. I’m not trying to provoke feelings of guilt or regret here, but maybe the right word for the sentiment is realisation, or, the expression ‘carpe diem’.

Another phrase we hear a lot is ‘yolo’. More often than not, it is associated with reckless actions of possibly drinking (a world I’m most certainly unaware of), taking risks for the sake of impressing others and looking cool, or even denying responsibility altogether. But this is not the meaning of the phrase in my book.

I feel that the answer lies deep down, as it always does, with faith, and with putting everything into perspective. It’s a sad scenario, but picture being trapped on the other side of a glass window from someone you care about, unable to communicate except through facial expression and eye contact. What would you want to say? And is it something they don’t know already?

I guess this has gone onto a darker path than I intended. Maybe this derives from the fact that I’ve been watching a little too much Call the Midwife lately, or maybe it’s the documentary I saw last night, ‘Before I Kick the Bucket’. It was an inspiring programme about the value and reasons behind ‘bucket lists’.

Personally, I don’t think bucket lists are the best way of living at any stage of life, because since when has ticking boxes made us feel truly satisfied (says the girl with a list for everything!)? By satisfied I mean truly content with life, you know, that warmth you feel in your heart when you touch someone or, even warmer, when someone touches you emotionally. That’s the sort of feeling you can’t get from ticking off bucket lists (by that I mean the kinds of lists that involve lots of high energy, adrenaline filled physical sports). It’s very likely that I’m wrong on that front, though. After all, satisfaction is such a personal thing.

But moving onto what I think is the solution, if there ever can be, to these feelings of regret that we all seem to experience at times (we need only look at @ALevelProblems to understand the dissatisfaction associated with the education system) mentioned by a psychologist on the bucket list programme. It’s people. After all, isn’t that what everyone thinks of when they’re in their time of need? As well as, crucially, our religious faith, I think people hold the key to making us happy! We’ve known this all along and it’s been said decade after decade. Regrets won’t be needed if you’ve told the closest people to you how much they mean to you, and sharing your ups and your downs with them. In a religious sense, I feel that God often reveals Himself in the form of wonderful human beings that we meet in our lives, and we have something to learn from each of them (Side note: listen to For Good from Wicked for more in this vein). It isn’t easy for anyone to wear their heart on their sleeve and share emotions with others, sometimes especially those closest to you, when it could hurt them. But the sense of sharing your life, your sorrows and your joy, with others, is such a precious and valuable gift. I realise this may not entirely link in with the initial point about rushing life, but in a way it does. We’re forgetting the things that matter in this whirlwind of instantaneous responses, and that’s the physical presence of our loved ones.

So I think the conclusion of this complete "brain splatter" is that though instant messages travel fast, they’re often short lived and temporary. Make more time for the physical memories that we tend to hold in our hearts forever. Cheese alert!!

Thanks for reading :)