Brush Up on Your Spanish

I’m not typically terribly fond of About.com (their PHP lessons can be a little rough if you don’t know what you’re doing), but I’ve found an acceptable section of the website. Gerald Erichsen has done Spanish right on About.com.

The subdomain contains resources for beginners, increasing your vocabulary, grammar help, a word of the day service, and much, much more.

Particularly helpful to me today were his pages on idioms using tener, which I tend to have some problems with. If you find this helpful, but need to brush up on your conjugation, he has that, too.

With some help from my friend in Chile, I was able to get a reasonably working knowledge of these idioms in about two hours, with her input of, “that is sooooo(…) Hispanic” on, for example, “…pero no me las tango todas conmigo.”

Her response: “We just say, ‘pero estoy nervioso.’”

Overall, the site seems to be pretty helpful if your Spanish skills aren’t so great. If you’re in the “advanced” category, however, the lessons may seem a little slow for you, and you’ll probably want to find something along the lines of turbo Spanish (Oh, hey, I think I just came up with the name for your brilliant new book!).

Learn Czech the Not-Really-Easy Way

After nearly four years of randomly dabbling in the Czech language, I’ve learned that it’s not an easy language to learn at all. From tons of declension of nouns and verbs to the millions of little intricacies in grammar, and even beyond to “do prdele,” or, “to the ass,” meaning, more or less, “oh shit,” Czech is a rather confusing language that requires dedication and patience.

However, the good news is that this wonderful language has at least two even more wonderful websites dedicated to learning:

LocalLingo and Bohemica.

These two sites comprise most of the extent of my knowledge of the Czech language, and have helped making the pronunciation of “Naše lomenice je mezi lomenicemi ta nejlomenicovatější” just a little less intimidating. Mind it’s still incredibly difficult (i.e. it’s a tongue twister even for native speakers), but given 30 seconds I can sound it out reasonably well.

While not a catch-all for any language, or even useful for learning everything about Czech, they’re two amazing places to start, and between them, a vast knowledge of the language and culture can be gained.

I encourage any readers to give it a try. I’d love a friend or two to practice with.

Until next time,
Na shledanou!

Hone Your Journalism Skills with Poynter

“Everything you need to be a better journalist” all concentrated on one site, Poynter.org offers free resources for journalists in nearly any form of media, offering tip sheets, interviews, and articles covering a range from graphics to ethics. Additionally, they do many seminars nation-wide, which my personal source says most news-related companies will pay for. Poynter also does job listings, resume postings, and provides resources for developing your career.

So if you feel you’re well on your way to being the editor-in-chief of Redbook or an executive producer of a major-market news broadcast, head on over to Poynter.org and hone those skills.

Pre-Pre-College Advice

A close friend of mine, a freshman in high school, asked me today what he could do now to prepare for college (college…) in the future.

Paraphrased: “I’m only a freshman, so I’m not eligible to apply for scholarships or fill out the FAFSA. I can’t apply now. Test scores won’t be the greatest, as I haven’t learned nearly enough to score well on the tests. I’m not old enough to work. What can I do?”

My best advice? Nearly every statement is incorrect. Here’s a breakdown:

“I’m not eligible to apply for scholarships.” This is inaccurate. Website Brickfish.com organizes a wide variety of scholarship contests, which, according to website Fastweb, are open to high school students ages 14 and older at the time of submission. The awards are rarely huge sums of money. However, any little bit helps. Additionally, you can sign up for Fastweb.com, a website dedicated to high school and college students which lists scholarships, advice, colleges… Anything you can imagine. This website will help you not only narrow down your choices in colleges, but also provide you with a huge list of scholarships to choose from. Some are available to freshmen, but mostly, you’ll be getting help by learning what scholarships are available and what the essays will be like.

“I’m not eligible to … fill out the FAFSA.” For those of you who do not know, the FAFSA is highly-helpful Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Though you typically won’t file one until your senior year, three years later, any experience in filling it out will help you in the future. An example is knowing what information your parents or guardians should keep handy for when you fill one out, such as tax information and gross income.

“I can’t apply [to colleges] now.” This is true. However, like scholarships, many college applications outside of state schools will require essay submissions. It will be helpful to learn what kind of questions will be asked, especially with schools like the University of Chicago, which is well-known for its obscure, thought-provoking essays. It will also show what kind of information colleges are looking for. Chances are, if there’s a lot of fields for extra-curricular activities, you should be able to fill a lot of fields for extra-curricular activities.

“Test scores won’t be the greatest…” No, but taking the ACT and SAT early and taking the tests multiple times will increase your chances of getting a high score. Additionally, the PSAT is a good test to take as a freshman and sophomore, as in junior year, if you take it, you will be eligible for a potentially very large amount of scholarship money. Any experience in what kind of questions are asked will help you to study for it in the future, and you may even be surprised by how well you end up scoring.

“I’m not old enough to work.” This actually depends on your area. Many areas allow 14-and-15-year-olds to work (with certain restrictions) with a permit. Try researching this. Also, you don’t necessarily have to work at an actual business. Maybe you can find other ways to raise money, like walking dogs, cleaning houses and lawns, babysitting, etc. Earning money of your own will help you learn about savings, interest, and, most importantly, temptation to spend.

To sum it up, there are many things you can do: Research scholarships, colleges, essay questions, test questions, work on getting your grades up and maintaining that 4.0+ GPA, join activities through the school and outside the school (a non-profit organization such as the Humane Society would look pretty snazzy), make contacts on college boards to help you get accepted, work on personal development, raise money in any legal way you can manage, and even build up a reputation online (This is the google generation: Don’t post it on MySpace if you wouldn’t want your [parent/boss/admissions committee/god] to read it).

It Takes a Village to Learn a Language

One of the better methods of learning a language people don’t often consider is actually using it – learning by immersion. When somebody goes to another country, he or she picks up the language quickly because it’s all over the place. It’s a matter of survival.

This is almost the situation with language learning site Phrasebase, a free (I don’t even see an option for premium) alternative to other programs with support for “over 90 languages.”

Start out reading their translations in phrase book format, and by the end of the day you can have a tutor.

Phrasebase will set you back nothing more than a twenty-second registration and a couple hours of browsing. Not bad for a site to help somebody get a good root system set up for learning another language.

The website can be accessed at http://www.phrasebase.com/english/