What Is The Best Tutor Software For You?

What Is The Best Tutor Software For You?Tutor softwares are basically programs that are designed to help you with your studies. A lot of tutors also have a lot of programs to offer, which is why they can be so difficult to choose one. There are many software programs out there, but the best ones are usually the ones that are offered by the local college.So what does this have to do with choosing a tutor? Quite a bit, in fact.College faculty generally come from different backgrounds and this can result in different teaching styles. Even though the instructors at your college may be different, the educational philosophy, a way of communicating and their approach to learning are all likely to be similar. In this case, your choice of tutor may not necessarily be the right one. Your tutor will probably be the one who will be able to be flexible in learning styles.Some of the main aspects that will determine the quality of the tutor can be what kind of certification they have, as well as t he licenses they hold. If you are not very confident about the way that your tutor teaches, it is always better to go with one that has more experience than one who is new to the job. The person who is new to the teaching field may have less experience in that aspect, but may still be able to know what he or she is doing.Once you have decided on a tutor, they should also offer you with some form of evaluation. This evaluation should only include a few basic things, but should cover areas such as whether the tutor has enough knowledge to teach you, as well as how long they have been teaching.One thing to note is that there are different factors that go into choosing the best tutor for you. It is easy to choose one you like, but if the tutor does not understand the things that you need, you might end up wasting your time and money.Just remember to always do your homework, make sure that the tutor is qualified, and check all the information that they give you. Tutor softwares can reall y make a big difference.

Things You Have to See in China

Things You Have to See in China China’s Unmissable Sights ChaptersWhich Cities in China Should You Visit?China’s Most Beautiful Tourist Attractions and MonumentsChina’s Most Famous Natural ParksUnusual Chinese Attractions for European Tourists“Great souls have wills, weak ones have only wishes.” - Chinese ProverbIf you want to visit China, you need to stop wishing! Unsurprisingly, China is visited mostly by Asian tourists; there were 4.7 billion tourists in 2018. That said, it doesn’t mean British tourists can’t go.  Europeans are fascinated by Chinese history and culture and more and more are going to see China.Which are the most popular things to see in China? Which monument and buildings do you have to see?In this article, we’re going to look at the cities you should visit, the most popular tourist attractions, natural parks, and unusual attractions worth visiting. NingChinese Teacher 5.00 (10) £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors LorraineChinese Teacher £10/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors YuweiChinese T eacher 4.33 (6) £19/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors JoyceChinese Teacher £15/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors NicoleChinese Teacher £60/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors KatyChinese Teacher £16/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors YangChinese Teacher £18/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors ChengChinese Teacher £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutorsWhich Cities in China Should You Visit?China is a country in eastern Asia and it’s the one with the biggest population. It covers a huge area and is home to coasts, mountains, prairies, and deserts. In fact, China has over 8,000 miles of coastline!China is home to ancient customs and modern technology. (Source: sherisetj)Before we start talking about Chinese buildings, we need to have a look at China’s most important cities and the ones you should visit. There are massive metropolises, secondary cities, and iconic towns. For example, the most popular cities for international tourists includ e:Beijing, the Chinese capital.Hong Kong, a former British colony and world financial centre.Shanghai, a cultural and tourist centre.Hangzhou, a romantic city located on the Jingâ€"Hang Grand Canal.Here are some other noteworthy places to visit in China:Xiamen, a city in the south of China with many temples.Shenzhen.Yangshuo, famous for its beautiful rice fields.Zhangjiajie, in a region of natural beauty.Suzhou, with its canals.Chengdu, a beautiful city in the centre of China with many historic remains.Guilin, home to limestone hills and colourful grottos.Lijiang (Yunnan Province) where you can see the Tiger Leaping Gorge, a great place for a trek.Whether it’s for the beaches, impressive skyscrapers, historic sites, or the cuisine, the People's Republic of China has got it!Keep in mind that China is divided into:Provinces, like Yunnan and Sichuan.Autonomous regions, such as Xinjiang.Municipalities, Beijing and Tianjin, for example.Special administrative regions, including Macao.Ch ina’s a country with plenty of beautiful cities and places. For example, the Yunnan Province is famous for its beautiful treks in the lakes, rice fields, and mountains while Lijiang is home to ruins from the Song Dynasty.The Sichuan Province, in the south of China, is famous for its breathtaking countryside by the Yangtze River, especially in the Jiuzhaigou Valley or the forest where the Leshan Giant Buddha resides.As you can see, there’s a wealth of things to do and see in China.  Now let’s see China’s most beautiful tourist attractions!Find out more about the best cities in China.China’s Most Beautiful Tourist Attractions and MonumentsInterested in travelling off the beaten path?Luckily for you, China is full of ancient treasures and modern activities. Whether you’re in the north or south of China, there’s so much discover.The Forbidden City isn't actually that forbidden. (Source: Andyw1803)TripAdvisor lists plenty of things to do in China: 300 sites and monuments, 6 5 museums, and 151 outdoor activities.Here are some of the best sites in Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an:The Great Wall of China, the most visited tourist attraction in ChinaThe Temple of Heaven, a UNESCO World Heritage SiteThe Forbidden CityThe National Museum of ChinaJingshan Park, a great place to relax after a day in the heat of the cityThe Bund, a pedestrian area on the banks of the Huangpu riverThe Jade Buddha TemplePeople’s SquareThe Shanghai Grand Theatre, where you can see many beautiful local showsThe Yu Garden, a great place to relax after a long dayThe Pearl Tower, a television towerLingyin Temple, a 4th-century Buddhist templeLeifeng PagodaQinghe Lane, a great place to shopDreaming of the Tiger Spring, where you can have a nice walkTianmushan Nature ReserveThe botanical gardens.In China, you can enjoy ancient customs and modern marvels next to one another.Visiting China during the Chinese New Year is something else. Most of these sites can be visited at any time of the year. Whether it’s a day trip or a week in a resort, you can also go with a travel agent.Do you prefer nature?Visit China’s parks.Find out more about planning a trip to China.China’s Most Famous Natural ParksChina is a modern country but it’s also very rural, agricultural, and home to many national parks that are worth visiting. The most impressive parks are in Zhangjiajie in the Hunan Province. It’s home to:Quartz-sandstone pillars (Zhangjiajie National Forest Park)Tianmen Mountain (in the Tianmen Mountain National Park)Baofeng LakeThe Yellow Dragon CaveThere are 246 natural sites and natural parks in China including lakes, mountains, forests, and geological formations.If you want to see pandas, China is home to most of them. (Source: skeeze)China’s most famous natural parks include:Huangshan Park, in the Anhui Region, where you can see the sunset over the “Sea of Clouds”.Mount Wudang National Geopark, in Hubei, where you can find magnificent Taoist temples.Zhangye Danxia National Geological Park, famous for its red cliffs.Li River National Park, in Guilin, whose river is considered to be “one of the ten wonders of the world”.Jiuzhaigou Valley, with its beautiful lakes.There’s also the nature reserves in Wolong and Bifengxia where you can see wild pandas! These black and white fur balls can be seen in their natural environment and are cared for by researchers. There are 4 natural parks where you can see them and they’re all under 100 miles from Chengdu:The Wolong National Nature Reserve is home to 30 pandas.The Dujiangyan Panda Base, home to 20 pandas.The Bifengxia Panda Base, also home to 20 pandas.The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, with 50 pandas.These are all great places for tailored trips to China!Find out more about how long you should spend in China.Unusual Chinese Attractions for European TouristsIf you’re dreaming of taking a trip to China to discover something unusual, these sites should be worth a gander.F ancy something a little different? China's got you covered. (Source: yyyoe)In the Fujian Region, visit Hakka, a town where you can find traditional roundhouses. The Hakka people, a subdivision of the Han people, still live here. These houses are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and you can even spend a night or two in them.If you love photography, you might want to go to the Zhangye Danxia mountains where you can see coloured rock formations. They’re even more impressive at sunset and during the golden hour.Do you love beautiful photos? Want to get some yourself?If you’re looking for unusual places to visit, you might like the Panjin Red Beach in the north of China. This magnificent natural marsh is home to 300 wild species.Its unique colour is due to marine algae, Suaeda, but do you know what’s even weirder?It’s red in autumn but changes to green from April to August. It’ll take your breath away.If you’re wanting to have a laugh during your trip to China, why not visit the c ountry’s weirdest hotel?The Tianzi Hotel in Yanjiao looks like three 416-metre tall Taoist characters.  It got the award of China’s ugliest hotel in 2012.With everything to see and do in China, there’s no shortage of unusual and breathtaking sights and attractions to enjoy.So are you ready to pack?If you'd like to learn some Chinese before you go to Shanghai, you could consider enlisting the help of one of the many talented tutors on Superprof! The tutors on the site offer three types of private tutorials to help you learn the lingo: face-to-face tutorials, online tutorials, and group tutorials.Face-to-face tutorials are taught with one student and one tutor and tend to be the most costly per hour because you're paying for both bespoke lessons and a bespoke course. However, they're arguably the most cost-effective.Online tutorials are similar to the face-to-face tutorials but take place either on a call or over webcam. Of course, online tutorials can lack intimacy and while no t ideal for hands-on subjects, they're great for language lessons. Your tutor might even be from China!Finally, group tutorials are more like the classes you'll have had in school with one teacher and multiple students. While these tend to be the cheapest per student per hour since the cost of the tutor's time is shared, you'll also get far less one-on-one time with your tutor.Each different type of tutorial has its pros and cons and it's really up to you and your budget to decide how much you'll need to learn, how you want to learn, and what your budget is going to be for Chinese language lessons before you go.

Phrasal Verbs for Everyday Actions - Intermediate Level English

Phrasal Verbs for Everyday Actions - Intermediate Level English Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Phrasal Verbs for Everyday Actions - A Day in My Life This morning, like most mornings I woke up at around 6.30 am and got up  (rose from bed after sleeping)  quickly. Another busy day. I jumped into  (went to)  the shower and then dressed  quickly and put on  (got dressed)  my clothes. I went into the kitchen and put  together  (prepared)  a quick breakfast of porridge, toast and orange juice to kick start  (to begin)  my day.I noticed that the rubbish bin was full so I went to the garden to put out  (dispose of)  the rubbish and dropped it into  (placed it)  the correct bins as we recycle  everything. Once I had put away  (disposed of)  the rubbish I made up  (prepared)  my  plan for the rest of the day. There were many tasks to carry out  (to do). A friend had  called me yesterday and I had promised to call him back  (return his call)  and give him  some information. He was looking for some help with a project. I said I would look  into  (investigate)  it last night and call him today with my opinion. Phrasal Verbs for Everyday Actions - Infographic Enjoyed this infographic? Here's what you can do next: I spent several hours researching his problem and at last came up  with (discovered or  found)  a solution I thought would work. I sent him a text and told him I would drop in  (visit him)  on the way to the park. I usually go to the park most mornings for a quick  work out  (exercise). I also wanted to catch up  with (meet)  my friend as we had not met  face to face for a few weeks.Later I promised to call into  (go to)  the supermarket to pick up  (buy)  some food for the  next few days. I made a list of the food products that my wife wanted. She called  them out and I took down  (write on a list)  the details. I usually go to the same  supermarket every week but shop around  (visit several places before choosing)  for  the best quality meat and fish.When I returned home I switched on  (turned on)  my computer and logged on to the  internet. I had a lot of emails to go through  (to read)  and it took me several hours to  complete them. I looked through  (read)  a few reports and fl icked through  (looked  quickly at)  my presentation before my meeting scheduled for the next day.Time to relax. I usually chill out  (relaxed)  listening to some music either on my phone  or the radio. It was my turn to cook that night so I wanted to try out  (to cook)  a new  recipe I had come across  (found or discovered)  recently. It didn’t turn out  (it didn’t  taste too bad)  too bad and the family enjoyed something different. List of Phrasal Verbs for Everyday Actions to get up to rise from bed after sleepingto jump into to go toto put on to get dressedto put together to prepareto kick start to beginto put out to dispose ofto drop something into to place somethingto put away to dispose ofto make up to prepareto carry out to doto call someone back to return a telephone callto look into to investigateto come up with to discover or to findto drop in to visit someoneto work out to exerciseto catch up with to meetto call into to go toto pick up to buyto take down to write a listto shop around to visit several places before committing to buy somethingto switch on to turn onto go through to readto look through to readto flick through to look quicklyto chill out to relaxto try out to cookto come across to find or discoverto turn out to have a particular result

Asking for a Refund in English Useful English for everyday use

Asking for a Refund in English Useful English for everyday use Im sure that most of you at least once bought something that was the wrong size or colour, it didnt fit properly or youve simply changed your mind. Sometimes, the service was not as you expected. What did you do? Did you have to take an item back to a shop? Here are some useful expressions for asking a refund in English.   Asking for a Refund in English When you purchase an item in a shop or contract someone for their services (engage someone to  do some work) you expect that everything will work out well and the product you buy will work and  the service you contract for will be delivered satisfactorily. However, it is not always like this.There  are legal definitions that cover your rights in relation to refunds so I am not trying to challenge  those rights (I do not dispute people’s rights to a legal refund). What I am covering are the different English words and phrases you may need to use when asking for a refund in English. We usually start off in a very pleasant mood hoping the request  (when we ask) for a refund will be  easy and simple. This first request is usually recommended to be polite (well mannered)Could I  please have a refund/full refund. In most situations such a request will be met with a favourable  response (agreed).If you feel that a polite simple request may be ignored you might either pleadfor  (ask with tears in your eyes) or beg for  (almost down on your knees) your refund. However,  when such requests are refused (denied) you may need to up the anti (become a little more  forceful).You can then demand (a little stronger than polite) a refund with words such asI want  my money refunded immediatelyIf this also fails then you may need to go legal (threaten to refer  the matter to your solicitor/lawyer). This usually gets a response as companies may not wish to get  involved in a legal battle which could ultimately end up in court  (in front of a judge).In this situation  someone may n eed to go as far as to send a solicitors letter where a solicitor (your legal representative) will write on your  behalf to the individual or company involved requesting an immediate refund or the matter will be  taken further (this could mean trying to get a court appearance to make a claim for the loss).  The easiest way to avoid all of this is: insist on a receipt when you purchase a product or service, ask  about their refund policy before handing over (making any payment) any money.Other ways you can request a refund in English: I feel you should, at the very least, refund the sum of €50 I paid for (strong) I insist that you refund my money at once (strong) I must insist on a full refund immediately (strong) Id like a refund I want to have my money backEnjoy your shopping  experience! Making Complaints in English How to complain about something in English:I want to complain about (starting a complaint)Id like to make a complaintSomething needs to be done about this (emphasising your discontent)Im sorry, its just not good enoughIm really not happy about this Im running out of patienceIts a disgraceThats just not acceptableI shall expect a reductionHow to reply to a complaint in English:I do understand why youre unhappy about this (sympathising with a complaint)Im very sorry to hear thatIm sorry to hear theres a problemIll see what I can do (agreeing to act)Ill do everything I can to sort this outIll sort it out immediatelyThats really beyond my control, Im afraid (declining to act)Theres really nothing I can do about itI must apologise

Revision Courses

Revision Courses With less than two months before exams are here again, many students will be looking for revision courses to boost their chances of obtaining the grades they dream of. What are revision courses? Revision courses can provide students taking core subjects, a well-organised and highly structured course that can greatly boost a student's potential. They are designed to improve a student's performance in GCSE, AS, and A-level exams which focus on key subject areas and practice with exam-style questions. Revision courses can help with subjects that students have traditionally found difficult. Maths has a very high demand but English, Chemistry and Physics are also very popular requests for revision courses. Classes are usually small which allows some time to be spent on individual needs. How are courses structured? From intensive one day courses or courses that last more than 3 weeks there is plenty to choose from. Depending on the number of subjects a student wants to enrol for, time spent in class could range from a minimum of 90 minutes to several hours including scheduled breaks. Whether you are looking for intensive revision courses online or face to face group/class tuition, First Tutors now offer the chance to find companies that specialise in revision courses. Make a search with your postcode and subject, select either group tuition, centres or online courses to bring up a list of options. This FREE service lets you send a message to the company who will contact you by your preferred method. Take some time over the Easter holidays to revise. You will be surprised by how fast you progress and master exam technique after attending a revision course and ultimately, this could shape your career path.

Work Smarter, Not Harder The Most Efficient Way to Learn a Language, Summed Up in 4 Steps

Work Smarter, Not Harder The Most Efficient Way to Learn a Language, Summed Up in 4 Steps The Most Efficient Way to Learn a Language, Summed Up in 4 Steps Raise your hand if you hate wasting time.Now keep your hand up if you want to not only learn a language quickly but actually be able to speak and use it in your daily life.While there are nearly as many learn a language fast hacks as there are language learners, one factor  learners should be considering alongside speed is efficiency.If you learn your target language in four quick weeks of vocabulary drills and memorization exercises, you havent spent awful  much time on the language. Youll almost certainly have little or nothing to show for those four weeks you did spend studying.By the same token, as much as we want to be able to actually use and speak our languages, nobody is relishing the idea of five years of classes and daily practice to reach fluency.To learn a language well, learning should be fun,  focused and, most importantly, it shouldnt be wasting a minute of your time.This is where efficiency comes in.Efficient, according to Oxford Dictionaries Online, means: (Especiall y of a system or machine) achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense, and as language learners, its what we should all be striving for.If you want to not only learn a new language fast but also impress the natives with your mastery of it, youve got to stop wasting your time on counterproductive attitudes and activities now.Four steps can take you from frustrated aspiring bilingual to efficient multilingual machine, and it all starts with attitude. The Most Efficient Way to Learn a Language, Summed Up in 4 StepsStep 1: Boost Your Language Learning Efficiency with a Quick Attitude AdjustmentLanguage learning is literally all in your head, so to do it right, youll need to make sure your head is screwed on straight.All the research tells us  that attitude is one of the most important factors in language learning, and that yours can make or break your language learning  aspirations.Most of the stumbling blocks that trip up learners on their linguistic journeys  come from being misinformed or making  inaccurate  assumptions about language learning and languages in general. Getting started learning  a new language can seem like an impossibly daunting task at the outset, especially if you havent mentally prepped for it.For that reason, before you start any kind of learning routine at all, touch base with yourself on attitude.Let these four fundamental facts of language learning orient you when youre feeling lost or overwhelmed:1. Multilingualism is individually and societally normal and anyone can achieve it.Too many language learners have this odd idea that speaking multiple languages is something reserved for geniuses and savants, but if thats true then well over half  of Earths population is incredibly gifted.In most countries you see on todays map, the majority of people speak multiple languages, whether theyre local dialects, world languages learned in school or other important regional languages.Furthermore, youre born with all the eq uipment youll ever need to learn a language. Your brain is designed to keep learning and learning! Its just a matter of learning how to tap back into those parts of your brain when you havent used them in a couple decades.2. Its impossible to learn anything well without assigning purpose to it.Your short-term memory can retain data for a little while, but itll never convert information  to long-term memory without giving some kind of meaning or purpose to that data.This means that you can repeat your second person future subjunctive verb endings every day, but until your brain recognizes what those endings mean, theyre probably not sticking very well. Its why youll always remember an elephant named Butterfly, even when basic verb conjugations seem impossible to get down.But once youve started using that second person future subjunctive in Portuguese to wish your Brazilian colleagues a nice evening, your brain can start working with these curious verb endings, their relationships to things going on in the real world around you and how they might apply to other verbs.3. Language isnt a finite thing that you can learn and have; its an infinite process in which you can learn and participate.Theres no magic number of vocabulary words that together, when all memorized, add up to completely learning a language.As the eager learners we are, we get so  caught up in progressing from simple present to past to perfect tenses that we start to think that compiling enough of these pieces will eventually make us perfect at the language, but every language is much greater than the sum of its parts.Instead of thinking of a language as some concrete  thing with black-and-white boundaries and hard-and-fast rules, think of it as a living  process by which its speakers communicate and accomplish tasks socially. Instead of trying to collect all the pieces, focus on using the pieces you have, watching how other speakers of the language mix and match their own pieces, and then pick up new pieces from other speakers as you learn them organically in context.4. Native speakers pay way less attention to your mistakes than you do.Foreign language anxiety is real and it can be crushing.The first few times trying to speak a new language in front of people feels like singing naked in front of a room of strangers, and for many this results in failure to launch.While anxiety is natural and all of us deal with it, youll be glad to know that youre usually the only one in the room judging your every word and your pronunciation. Natives arent looking at the language like you are; instead, they see through it as they use it to communicate with you.Try paying attention for a couple of hours to your own odd grammar mistakes, slips of the tongue and not-quite-right word choices  in your native language, and youll realize that you hardly ever notice these sorts of things from yourself or anyone else.These four ideas are crucial for clearing  away the mental stumbling blocks that y ou didnt even see lying in wait.Countless would-be polyglots doom themselves to eternal monolingualism when they think its too hard, when they force themselves through tedious classes, when they mistakenly think that a language can be memorized or when theyre simply too afraid to make mistakes.The efficient language learner doesnt waste their time, and once theyve got this pro-learning attitude down, theyre ready to move on to the second step.Step 2: Tap into Your Brains Natural Capacity for Statistical LearningDespite the seemingly stuffy  name, statistical learning is generally the most enjoyable and easiest part of learning a new language.If youve ever tried to learn a language by immersing yourself, by watching TV or any other input-based language learning strategy, youve used statistical learning methods. But what is statistical learning, and how do you apply it to learning a new language?Whats statistical learning?Statistical learning is the process by which your brain compile s mass amounts of data and then uses this enormous sample to extrapolate super accurate and nuanced patterns within  the data.As it relates to language learning, statistical learning basically means soaking yourself in a language and literally filling your head with countless  numbers of observations and examples.Were talking data so numerous youve never met the computer that can handle them, but thankfully your human brain comes factory-ready for this kind of information gathering.When babies are born, they almost immediately start compiling linguistic data on speech sounds and frequencies, words and meanings, and eventually sentence structures and grammar rules.  But babies arent the only ones who can exploit this process.When, for example, a speaker of English as a second language has spent enough time interacting with other users of the language, their brain will start to compile countless  instances of phrases like I had fun and I had a good time. Eventually (usually subconscio usly), the learner picks up on the pattern that phrases like I had a fun are never used by native speakers, while phrases like I had fun are.Alongside all the other countless examples of different kinds of nouns, some that can be counted (like one time, two times) and others that cant (like two funs), all this data can be generalized into rules about not only how the words fun and time work, but how other words like them in the language might work.How does focusing on statistical learning enhance your language learning efficiency?Think of it as the sponge factor: The vast majority of statistical learning activities can be either seamlessly integrated into your daily routine or practiced from your couch in sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt.Statistical learning is easy because you dont have to take any special time to do it. Listening to your target language from a radio app on your phone while you wait for the bus or integrating it into your relaxation time with a TV show or movie means that the language isnt disrupting your day but instead blending into it.  All those hours you would have been spending in class (and on getting there and back) can instead be your chilled-out linguistic osmosis time.Its also a more effective approach because it focuses on the language as a whole instead of memorizing its parts in the hopes of later building them up into something useful. Simply observing a language in its natural state is much more efficient than isolating single words and rules and isolating yourself to study them.Productive  ways to practice statistical language learningThe goal of statistical learning practice is building up that corpus of data youre carrying in your head, and anything you do to that end should be focused on exposing yourself to natural instances of the language at a level at which you can understand part or most of it. An Oscar-nominated thriller with lofty, poetic language will be a waste of time for  many  beginners, but that doesnt mean you cant find something at a level youll understand and flesh out your sample of the language.Like we said, statistical learning covers almost any activity in which youre exposed to a language. That said, the possibilities are limitless, but here are a few suggestions to get you started:Read a familiar book in translation. Your familiarity with the storyline will give you a huge comprehension boost, allowing you to retain even more from the text.Watch a TV series thats right for your level. Challenge yourself with a Netflix binge, or tune into a plain and slow-talking kids show.Read a Wikipedia page about a familiar subject in your target language.  Wikipedias a language learning goldmine, with millions of articles in dozens of languages. Just like reading a familiar story in a foreign language, this is one of the easiest and most efficient vocab-building exercises.Watch a Disney movie dubbed in your target language. Got an animated film youve seen a hundred times in English? Chances ar e youll understand a lot of it in your target language too.Eavesdrop in a park. Stake out on a bench and actively listen to passersby, seeing what you can understand and what you notice about their language use.Have a focused conversation. As soon as youve got your basic conversational vocabulary down, you can get some of your statistical input from real, live natives. Ask about subjects youve recently read about  and observe how the speaker talks about them.Statistical language learning is an efficient way to cut out the memorization drills and start seeing and hearing what your target language really sounds like and what you can do with it. Its organic, effective and costs little or no extra time out of your busy day.But youre  not gonna get very far without actually using what youre learning.Step 3: Apply the Statistics with Social LearningRemember all those formulas you learned in high school algebra?yeah, didnt think so.Data gathering is all well and good (and necessary), but   if you dont make that data  matter  to you somehow, its gone as soon as the exams over.During and after all your data compiling, the real magic happens right here in the use-it-or-lose-it phase of efficient language learning.Whats social learning?More or less, its exactly what it sounds like.Social language learning is putting to use all that linguistic material youve been soaking up by using it for its intended purpose: socializing and communicating with others.If statistical learning is data gathering, then social learning is applied statistics, using effective repetition to make organic connections between the words youre learning and how they relate to the world around you. Its how you take the lessons and patterns youve drawn from all that data and convert them into new synapses and strong, deep, lasting connections in your brain.Remember fundamental fact  #2 above: to learn anything well and retain it, you have to give it a use or purpose. And with language learning, that purp ose normally broadly falls into one of two categories:Using language to accomplish a task socially, from discussing where to go for lunch to explaining your problem to the computer repairman.Developing social relationships through which you experience the language, including those with friends and significant others, but also the postman who visits  your home abroad or your overseas business partners.These two different kinds of activitiesâ€"accomplishing tasks and building relationshipsâ€"give you meaningful investments in the language.By getting important stuff done  in another language, your use of that language will be more focused on practical things, like setting up the Internet in your new apartment and getting to know your new friends better.In short: Youll learn it because youll have to  and  youll want to.Whats so efficient about social language learning?In a nutshell, its unavoidable: No human being will ever learn a language without social interaction.The perfectionist w ill struggle with the urge to stay home and study their noun declensions for just one more hour before going to their language exchange, but most of the time thats a super inefficient use of time. Once youve gathered a decent statistical sample of the language, your time is best spent on the ground, playing trial and error with all the new rules and patterns your brain is testing out on the data.Furthermore, just like with statistical learning, most of the ways you practice it are fairly normal everyday activities for most of us, thus saving the time of constructing a big, artificial, inefficient study routine.Productive ways to practice social language learningThe  secret is simple: Talk and listen.Heres a list of suggestions to get you started:Make a new friend.  Meeting a person is always a good chance to chat, but the real social learning goldmine is investing in friendships and relationships that lead to important social, personal and emotional bonds in the language.Go on a dat e.  You use your native language differently with a significant other than you do a friend or parent, just like you will in a second language. Dating gives you chances to explore the language from different angles while also adding an important social tie to your repertoire.Cook a meal together with someone.  Organizing to accomplish a focused task is mega practical and also mega social. Join your new housemates in the kitchen and explore not only how you use the language to communicate with each other, but to talk about and interact with all the ingredients, dishes and appliances in your environment.Play a game with other speakers.  Playing games for language learning is not only fun, its super efficient.Remember that social learning by definition is always going to involve another person, and that learning implies youll need to think about things at least a little bit.Something like going to a café or restaurant and repeating the phrase youve memorized to order your food, or even just rehashing  the same get-to-know-you conversation every weekend, isnt learning so much as memorization or parroting. You need to get more flexible and spontaneous than that.As a rule of thumb, if a parrot can do it, it probably doesnt count as social language learning!Step 4: Achieve Maximum Language Learning EfficiencyOnce youve updated your attitude and learned a bit more about learning, youre already well on your way to a  super  efficient language learning routine.But heres the catch: None of these previous three steps does much good all by itself.Instead of finishing one step, wiping your hands clean and moving on to the next, think of efficient language learning like a big circle, a continuous process just like the language youre learning.This final step requires you to  combine  your can-do attitude with both statistical and social learning.  This means that you now need to integrate all three of the previous steps!Statistical learning builds the foundation and supplies the fodder for your social learning endeavors. Those social encounters will often give you new data which send you back into the statistical learning zone, leading you to give a closer listen to something you thought you understood or learning new ways of talking about or doing the same thing.  To support your ongoing statistical and social learning, youll need to frequently check your attitude, ensuring that you stay sailing smoothly and efficiently forward.Every now and then in your efficient language learning cycle, take a minute to  revisit your attitude and put those four fundamental facts from before into action:1. Squash I cant thinking. You can do it and anyone can.2. Understand your purpose. What kind of communicative tasks do you want to accomplish with your language, and how can you best train for those tasks? Let the answers to these questions guide your learning.3. Dont expect to learn a language by memorizing the magic number of vocabulary words. Instead, learn how nat ive speakers use the language  in their daily lives, and learn how to participate in that process.4. Never let fear of failure keep you from speaking. Nobodys paying enough attention to your language use to notice most of your mistakes, and if they do notice, they dont care!Use these principles to guide how you think about and approach your language, and make efficient decisions based on them. You know what you want out of your language, and you can decide what kind of practice and studying works best for you.Here are some examples of how you can combine statistical and social strategies with your good attitude in your language learning endeavors:Join a book club. Online or in person, find a book (or magazine, or newspaper) to read and discuss what youre reading with other speakers of the language. Go out of your way to use new words and structures youve learned from your reading, and pay attention to how others are using the same words of structures.Watch a romantic comedy or two a nd hop on Tinder. Pay attention to how the characters use language to flirt and get to know each other in your movie, and try imitating it a bit in real life. Youll probably sound corny at first, but if youre lucky itll make you seem even cuter.Watch a new series with a friend. Find a series you want to watch, or better yet, ask natives what theyre watching and join in. Observe the characters speech, and try some of it on for size as you chat with your friend while the credits go by.Combine an online study tool like FluentU with language exchanges and real-life meetups. Need a bit more structure? FluentUs massive library of video content is perfect for statistical learning, and you can use it in the way most efficient for your own language learning needs.Remember, everyone loves to learn quickly, and perfect grammar is never a bad thing, but dont lose focus of what really matters: Efficiency.Learning a language is a huge commitment, so you want to spend your time and energy wisely.S oak your brain in your target language, use it fearlessly in social situations and never lose focus on having a positive attitude.Do all that, and youll never waste a minute of your time on your journey to fluency.Jakob is a full-time traveler, obsessive language learner, and dedicated language teacher. He writes about language, travel, and the many places they meet on the road at his blog Globalect.

Get It Right How to Apply Error Analysis to Your Language Learning

Get It Right How to Apply Error Analysis to Your Language Learning Get It Right: How to Apply Error Analysis to Your Language Learning Today, we’re going to learn how  to turn errors into lessons.We’ll turn bad into good  and wrong into right.Nope, it’s not going to require any magic. It’s going to tap into a  branch of applied linguistics called Error Analysis.But  what does this have to do with you, the language learner?Everything! Whats Error Analysis?Error Analysis  (EA) is simply the systematic study of language mistakes. This analysis is  done  so that  the identified errors can be systematically learned from and weeded out.Stephen Pit Corder is credited with  revolutionizing the field of applied linguistics in the 1960s, pointing out the utility of errors in language learning. Yes, language learners have always sought to learn from their mistakes, but Corder bolstered the effort of identifying and evaluating errors. In short, he made it less chancy and haphazard.The steps of Error Analysis, as suggested by Corder, are:a. collection of samplesb. identification of errorsc. description of errorsd. expl anation of errorse. evaluation of errorsLinguists basically comb through materials that have been produced by language learners, such as written tests, composed paragraphs and recorded audio. They then identify errors in the content and see if there are patterns that emerge. With the errors displayed in the light of day, explanations for them  are  posited and some prescriptions for course correction can  be given.Perhaps you arent a professional linguist, it’s true, but as a language learner you can actually use Error Analysis to inform  your learning.What linguists do for a class of Middle Eastern students learning English, you can do for  yourself. Youre both the linguist and the subject at the same time.Granted, you wont necessarily use the rigor of statistics to assess your errors like linguists might, but casually following the above steps can still yield a ton of great information.Even then, it’s no walk in the park, that’s for sure. This will  involve the brutal honest y to admit both your strengths and weaknesses. It’ll require some metacognition on your partâ€"an awareness and understanding of your own thought processes. But the fruits of your labor will be worth it.Want a little taste of those juicy fruits? Here are some of the benefits of applying Error Analysis to your personal language learning experiences.Get It Right: How to Apply Error Analysis to Your Language LearningYou Can Identify Your  WeaknessesThe most obvious value of Error Analysis is that it unequivocally points out your weaknesses. By looking through your mistakes, you can say to yourself, “Ah, this is where I need work.” For example, if you notice plenty of errors in verb conjugation, then you can decide to focus your effort more on that. If the verb conjugation errors are mainly  related to  certain tenses, then you can plan to hone in on those.You Can  Identify Your StrengthsPerforming your own casual Error Analysis  double-checks your knowledge of the target language , giving you a good sense of what you’re already good at. You can always review the topics youre better at, but you wont end up devoting an excess of time to these topics anymore. In short, Error Analysis guides the focus of your study, saving you valuable time and effort.You Get an Honest Look at Your ProgressError Analysis provides you with added insights that arent easily obtained from other learning approaches. With Error Analysis, you dive deeper. By following the steps of Error Analysis laid out earlier, you can seek overarching patterns. Instead of cursorily looking at overall exercise scores, youll carefully look at each one of your  slip-ups, then figure out if theyre at all connected, getting a better understanding of your current problem areas.For example, doing this might  help you realize if  the grammatical rules of your first language are negatively influencing your acquisition of the  target language. By looking at all your errors in a series of exercises, you migh t discover that a pattern of errors emerges: You’re still applying first language rules of syntax to your target language.You Gain  a Deeper Understanding of the Language Youre LearningFinally, Error Analysis increases your ability to recognize nuances in the target language. Noticing, thinking about and studying your errors  allows you to split hairsâ€"which can be an excellent thing in language learning. Youll find yourself thinking things like, “Why is this word appropriate in this context and not in that one?” or  â€œWhy is this case an exception to the rule?”As you can see from the above benefits, theres much to be gained here. With  Error Analysis, you can really make significant leaps in learning and avoid making the same mistakes over and over. Hopefully this will result in you  becoming fluent in your target language  faster.So, now that you know about the objectives and benefits of trying Error Analysis out, here are some tips on how to use it all on your own.5  Ho t Tips for  Using Error Analysis to Improve Your  Language Learning1. Complete  Plenty of Tests, Drills and ExercisesIf you’re going to make the most out of Error Analysis, youd better give yourself plenty of data to work with.The only way you can get  sufficient results  is  to give yourself a  significant amount of material from which to draw conclusions.A 10-item exercise on prepositions where you get 7/10  items correct doesn’t necessarily mean youre 70% of the way home. You might need to do much moreâ€"or much lessâ€"work to really master prepositions. Go through  as many exercises as possible on each topic so that you can get a clearer benchmark. Dont stop until youre scoring 10/10 consistently.Written material is the type that best lends itself to  Error Analysis, because youll actually have a record of the errors and mistakes. Audio recordings comes second, but theyre harder to keep track of and assess accurately.The good thing is that you can find plenty of exercises an d drills onlineâ€"just like this one for French learners. This resource  is certainly not the spiffiest of sites, but what it lacks in finesse it more than makes up for with the great number of tests and exercises you can take. You can easily rack up a solid number of completed French exercises on this site. Another advantage is that it shows you all the questions at the same time, not following the usual one-question-at-a-time format thats so common on similar sites. There’s also the easy print feature which could come in handy for keeping records and reviewing later. Find a site like this for your target language, and get going!2. Group Your Errors for Easy IdentificationWhats an “error” in the first place? Is it the same thing as a “mistake”?Linguists have differentiated the two.  Do you know the difference?A mistake is a slip-up, a one-off. Its situation-specific and can be easily corrected. Even native speakers commit them. A native English speaker could unintentional ly blurt out “I drinks the juice, even though he definitely knows the correct form. Maybe he was just sleepy or distracted. He just made a one-time mistake, and  hell probably  never make the  exact same mistake again.An error is more serious. It signifies a level of incompetence and cant  be corrected quite as easily. The error is part of a  pattern and not a one-time event. The person  may have intentionally chosen to use  that language, thinking its perfectly correct.  For example, if someone says, “I ate the juice,” “I ate wine and I eat milk every day, theyre consistently confusing two verbs, to eat and to drink. They still need to study these two verbs and how to use them when differentiating between imbibing liquids and masticating solids.So, now you know what an error is. Thats what youll need to be looking out for. Once you find them,  what do you do with yours?Group them  up!There are tons of potential errors that a language learner could make in any given language . You need to create a system of categorizing your errors that makes sense to you. Coming up with a logical grouping will help you understand where youre making most of your errors. Seeing the connections between your errors will allow you to  keep your focus on a few key areas.You can group the errors in any manner you like, as long as the groups make sense to you. Maybe you can group similar incidences. Is an error vocabulary-related, or is it grammar-related? If its grammar-related, then perhaps you can jot it down next to other errors made with the same part of speech. For example, you can  note down all your verb problems together. You can  note down all your conjugation problems together. You can  note down all your gender-agreement problems together. If one group is getting large, you can even start to create smaller sub-groups.As you can see, there are many ways to group errors. Youre free to build your own nomenclature. It just has to be personal and meaningful to youâ€"aft er all, youll be the only one to use it.3. Keep a Visual Record of Your Thought ProcessesNow we’re really getting into the deeper levels of Error Analysis here. This will require a certain level of self-awareness on your part. Like I said earlier, Error Analysis requires metacognition, an understanding of your own thought processes. Why do you tend to make the same errors? What was your thinking behind these errors?Heres how to go about keeping track of errors and the thought processes behind them.For example, when youre speaking and you suddenly take a long  pauseâ€"not for effect or for thoughtful reasons, but because youre unsure of what to sayâ€"that could be a sign of lacking knowledge or confidence in your language. You’re probably drawing a blank. What word are you unsure about? What caused the pause? What were you just thinking about?Indicate this moment on a sheet of paper, using your very own words. You could write something like:forgot the past tense of the word cut. didn’t know what the word for sleep is in Chinese.got tongue-tied trying to pronounce the rr sound in a Spanish word.When youre answering the questions in a multiple choice exercise and youre alternating between the choices, this indecision betrays a knowledge gap. It means you still havent gotten  a good handle on the subject matter in question. Mark down those numbers with a star or a question mark  so that when you review you can remind yourself that you had difficulty with that particular itemâ€"even if  it turns out that you got the correct answer.It’s these little marks on a sheet of paper that give you a visual of your thought  process, heretofore unseen. It’s a record of the areas that are challenging to you and a great way to discover patches of weakness.4. Evaluate Your Errors by Asking Yourself These 3 QuestionsWhen you do personal Error Analysis, you dont have a team of linguists positing explanations of why you made this or  that error. You only have yourself to i nvestigate and yourself to do the investigation.You need to ask yourself these questions as you evaluate the error.a. What rule or principle did I miss?Asking this question forces you to think about the grammar rules that exist in your target language. It checks if youve been the wiser this time and are now aware why an error exists. If you cant  answer this question, then you cant  be sure that the error wont  haunt you some other time.Note: When considering rules and principles, you should also consider their exceptions.b. Why did I think my initial answer was correct?This is another important question to ask when you evaluate the error because it looks into your incomplete understanding of the target language. When you completed  the exercise, you did it using your present and personal understanding of the language. Comparing your original reasons to the correct answers hones more of this understanding, eliminating faulty impressions and replacing them with accurate ones.Note: If you answer this question with, “I only guessed,” then it counts as an even bigger knowledge gap.c. What should I do so I won’t make the same mistake?This is the proactive part of the evaluation process. Not only are you now aware and wary of your  errors, youll be taking active steps to weed out your  weaknesses. Think of this part as the “New Year’s resolution” of the process.Your answers to this question could be something like:Create flashcards  for the rules of this verb conjugation.Memorize five new words a day. Review them before going to sleep.Use my language learning app every day, for at least 10 minutes.Listen to an audio course or podcast  on my daily commute.Most important of all, have the nerve  to follow through with your plan. There’s no point in making a resolution and an action plan if you’re not going to resolve to act on it.5. Enlist the Help of a Native SpeakerYouve probably had the experience of listening to an English beginner, right?The mistak es and errors are evident to you, and they poke you like a string out of tune. As a native or fluent speaker, youll have a sharp ear for language mistakes in English.If you’re looking for someone to spot the mistakes and errors you make in your target language, a native speaker will do a great job. Even  minor grammatical errors will  ring loud bells in their heads.A native speaker can guide you towards mastering the  nuances of your  target language. There may be instances when a certain word you’re using is grammatically sound, but to a native speaker itll sound a bit offâ€"a little less than natural. They can point out things like this and give you a more appropriate lexicon.A native speaker can also highlight some of the exceptions to grammatical or syntactical rules that go beyond what can be offered in any textbook. And if you want to learn the most contemporary way of speaking the target language, youll certainly want a native speaker to keep you updated.Luckily, native s peakers in any major language are readily available on any language exchange site. A language exchange site is a place where you can trade your innate knowledge of your native language  for another persons native knowledge of your target language. For example, lets say youre an English speaker who wants to learn Spanish. You can find a native Spanish speaker who wants to learn how to speak Englishâ€"thus, an “exchange” takes place. Youre helping another as that person is helping you.If that sounds great, youll definitely want to  check out the best online  language exchange sites to find your learning partner!So, there you have it!Don’t be too hard on yourself and always remember that linguistic errors are never fatal. Nor are they permanent. Theyre but signs of an incomplete understanding and can be remedied with a little study.You’re now ready to face the music and tango with your  own  linguistic errors.

How Have Men Been Interacting With #MeToo

How Have Men Been Interacting With #MeToo Image from pixabay.com In case you need some background information The original use of Me Too is credited to  Tarana Burke, who first used the phrase in 2007. In an interview with Ebony Magazine, she said: “It wasn’t built to be a viral campaign or a hashtag that is here today and forgotten tomorrow. It was a catchphrase to be used from survivor to survivor to let folks know that they were not alone and that a movement for radical healing was happening and possible.” A decade later actress Alyssa Milano shared #MeToo on Oct. 15, encouraging women to share their experiences with sexual harassment or assault in order to show the world how widespread of an issue this really is. In just nine days the hashtag had been used over 1.7 million times  and had reached 85 countries! And that’s just the numbers from Twitter alone. If we had numbers from Facebook, Instagram, and other forms of social media, I expect the numbers would show that #MeToo has made contact with at least several million more. Presumably, these posts have led to millions of real, face-to-face conversations about sexual violence. Some people are even taking the phrase to the streets. The woman  in this video  took the bed she was raped on and made a powerful public statement out of it. Most importantly, as Tarana Burke originally intended,  Me Too is a way of uniting victims and letting them know that they are not alone. But at the same time, it has also been a call for women to stand up against misogynist behavior. It is as much a tool for healing as it is a battle cry for change.                                                                                    How men have interacted with #MeToo   Infographic composed by Jared Hammer Expectedly, men had difficulty fitting into the conversation. While the majority of men chose not to speak up at all, there was considerable backlash for those who did. Some men opened up about their own experiences as sexual victims, while others admitted their role in the sexual oppression of women with #IHave. From the conversations I saw, male victims of sexual violence who used the hashtag were primarily met with support from women. These women recognized that while this issue affects women on a much greater scale, sexual violence is in no way exclusive to women. According to rainn.org, the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the U.S., approximately 10 percent of rape victims are male. Still, with women being affected on such a wider scale than men, some felt that the focus should stay on violence against women, at least for now. The other side of men speaking up in the #MeToo campaign  was the men who spoke up using #IHave,  the idea being that for every #MeToo, there is someone on the other end of the equation. The intention of the effort has been for men to openly acknowledge ways they have been a part of the problem. By confessing their own role and promising to stand up against sexually oppressive behavior, these men were trying to be a part of the solution. A lot of people found #IHave highly distasteful. The majority of #IHave posts are primarily from men admitting to behavior that would be classified as sexual harassment  or admitting a failure to stand up against it. Generally, these posts are accompanied with a vow to change this behavior. Despite their intentions, these men are often finding themselves lumped into the same category as the men who have committed serious sexual crimes. I found it disheartening to see these men treated like rapists. Although they are admitting their contribution to rape culture, finding men who never have contributed to the problem are few and far between. The men who use #IHave are trying to start a conversation about changing that narrative. I think we should be encouraging this behavior. I expect many women who spoke out against #IHave were reminded of past traumas and/or slimy experiences theyve had with sexual harassment. Thinking through this lens, it makes sense that a simple #IHave and Im sorry doesnt feel like enough. The simplicity of posting a status, without seeing it backed up by action, implied to critics that these men expected their past crimes to be absolved if they just made a post about it. While I dont think men should be discouraged from participating in the conversation, and I think #IHave is a conversation that needs to be had, I can agree that a social media status is not enough. For those who want to do more than a status update and need a stronger starting point,  this article from CNN has a lot of great advice for men who want to be a part of the solution. With time, sexual education, and a willingness to change, we can help end sexual violence.

All About Algebra Functions

All About Algebra FunctionsAlgebra functions are used in all the math classes. We are in school to learn mathematical formulas and know how to analyze them and solve problems.Algebra functions help us to find solutions for all the problems in mathematics. This is also helpful in predicting the future.The most commonly used are the imaginary, real, and geometric, and numerical integrals. These three functions form the basis of all the problems that arise in different areas of mathematics. Each of these is very useful in the work of mathematicians.There are many types of algebra functions and most of the students find it difficult to understand and use them in their studies. The method to use them is through problems that have solutions. Most of the students start solving problems by hand and use other methods to solve them, but this makes it difficult for them to solve them by the help of algebra functions.Solutions for all the problems in mathematics have to be provided by the teache rs so that the students can be familiar with the process of solving problems. It is important for them to understand the concept of algebra before they understand any problem. Before they know the concepts, they cannot solve them.Algebra functions help you to solve all kinds of problems in mathematics. They are used in solving equations, inequalities, solutions for quadratic equations, plane, spherical, and cylindrical equations, circle, quarter, and hyperbolic equations, analytic function, binomial and quadratic functions, exponential, logarithmic, power, and logarithmic functions, linear, and polynomial functions, integral, and trigonometric functions. Many other mathematical problems need help in solving them. It is not surprising that many students are stuck at the problem and have failed in solving all the problems of mathematics.These are used for different purposes like solving quadratic equations, plane inequalities, solutions for quadratic equations, solving equations, solv ing inequalities, solve quadratic equations, solving problems of analysis, solving problems of function of, as well as solving problems of geometrical functions. Algebra functions are also used to solve problems of solving them analytically. They solve problems in many of the fields of mathematics.