I am getting fed up with getting ims, emails, and now, seeing even ads with the spelling of “ur” for You’re/Your and “U’ for you. To some people it isn’t a big deal, either to use it or to see it, but it’s soo widespread now. Oops. Did I transgress the laws of spelling when I said “soooo” with more than the called for amount of ‘O’s? Ok, so I guess we’re all guilty of breaking the rules sometimes. I guess the reason I’m not yet accustomed to spelling words that way is because I’m not a mobile messenger. I didn’t even have any messengers installed on my new laptop until a few weeks ago I downloaded Skype.

By the way, for any of you who have Skype or are going to get it, are you aware that in their user agreement they have the rights to record all audio, text, or video communication that is received or sent by Skype? I think they can use it as they see fit, or however they word it.

I have to yet again mention LiveMocha.com even though it feels like I blog about this once a week. I usually go there at least once a day and do some Spanish (and lately German.) It’s a great way to learn a language. If you’ve been thinking about taking up a language , why not go and check it out? I was thinking I wanted to learn French, but I discovered learning how to pronounce certain sounds that don’t occur in our language was too painstaking. So I decided German was a better choice. And then, when I read up in the book I have on it I discovered that the definite article changes based on the context! (In these three sentences: The man is here. The man’s hat is here. I gave the man a hat. I see the man. The definite article (the) would be different in all three cases!). For now though, learning German articles beats learning French sounds.

For anyone here that does visit live mocha, look me up: Authorized77 One note of interest - the site doesn’t function well with the browser Opera. I use Firefox when visiting livemocha and it works fine.

Be careful who you talk with, though, and be aware that cultural and language differences might result in some quite strange conversation. Someone from Brazil asked me if Americans shower every day, and do they smell OK? I later found out from a different, more globally aware Brazilian, that there is a myth in some parts of South America and in Africa that people in cold climates don’t shower.

One more word on language learning. Don’t worry if all you learn is a smattering. I know that I want to be able to converse in Spanish and my goal is to become at least halfway fluent. But I don’t really have an immediate use for German, I may just learn a bit and then move on to something else. Learning languages is almost like learning music. Once you learn how language works, it’s much easier to learn how to speak more than one. It’s not quite as simple as it sounds, but it is a whole lot easier if you know about the structure of languages - even your own language. Hey, if I had studied more English in high school I would have already know about all sorts of things that I am just starting to learn in Spanish! So whatever you find yourself studying, just apply yourself and chances are, whether you remember it or not, it’ll help out down the road. When you go over drills of verbs, or multiplication tables, or memory verses, or anything else, you may not be consciously memorizing it, but it often happens that later on it just pops into your mind when needed. And I’m convinced the more you do, the better your brain becomes at memorizing.

So if you’re bored, and want something relaxing to do? Go over your verb conjugations and don’t make it a point to memorize them. Just read them, study them, make observations if you can, and let the material seep into your brain while you’re having a fun time. If you forget them, it doesn’t matter. You can’t erase what you continually put into you.

:D Do I sound nuts? If so, you’re drawing a completely logical conclusion ;)

I’ve been struck with a desire to write more music. I know I’m not that great of a flat picker in the big realm of flat pickers, and I don’t know that I’ll ever be really good. Good, maybe someday, but not really good. So I got to thinking, if I’m not going to be up there playin’ with the big boys, I may as well try to do something behind the scenes. If song writing is an art that can be learned, I want to learn what it takes. Someone told me once to write every day. If I had done that since he told me, I’d have just about 100 songs written I reckon. Out of those 100, I’m pretty sure that ONE would have been decent enough to play. But no, I’ve let a lot of times pass, a lot of emotion just waste away without one word to describe it. Like painting, every piece doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. If it sharpens your skills in some way then it wasn’t a failure. So if you feel the urge to write a song, don’t push it away because it might not be any good. Of course, it might not be any good (I’ve written loads of the bad ones!) but just write it down, get the chords down, etc, maybe record it in *“rough draft style” and put it away. Ah, yes, it’s exciting! But don’t play it for anyone. Just keep it in a safe place and continue to write when the urge arises, or if you can make yourself write. Then go back to it in a few weeks, or months, and see how it feels. Are there any things that pop out that make you cringe? Should you change a few words at the end of the line before the chorus? Then, if you’re satisfied with it, share it with people if you have the hankering to. It‘s really painful to play a song for someone and realize that you can hear a bunch of “mistakes,“ and you know the person you‘re playing it for can hear all those things too. Correct and revise before you let people hear it. I’m not saying you can’t get some help or advice from someone you trust, but it’s a shame that you lose the urge to write because you think you’ve failed and all you can remember are those embarrassing moments of putting yourself out on the proverbial limb. It’s hard to tell if you’re comfortable with a song immediately after you write it, which is why I suggest waiting a little bit before appraising it.

Posted by Bonnie under english, learning, spanish, world