Whether you are learning a foreign language or expressing yourself solely with your mother tongue, you all have come across these idiomatic expressions which we all use at times. Today, I wish to list some of them along with the enriching lessons they can teach us.
Curiosity killed the cat...
You often get warned about curiosity, especially as a kid. Do you even know the entire saying, however ? I bet you do not : Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. One must be curious in order to keep growing as a person, this is the lesson I get from this idiom. Being too curious may be dangerous, but being thirsty for knowledge ends up more powerful than death in this short story, since the cat came back to life.
If I can give you a piece of advice : know the difference between being nosy and curious. Don't meddle into others' business, but always question yourself and search answers to all your interrogations. I have been striving to apply this on a daily basis for many years, and I cannot complain.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
Nothing good can come out of jealousy and comparing yourself to others. You are who you are, and you have what you have. The only way I know to be happy about it is to accept it. Everyone is talented in a different way and, there is something extremely funny (yet tragic) in this idiom. Indeed, if you are looking on the other side of the fence with envy, chances are your neighbor is doing exactly the same thing for their own reasons.
It is a blessing in disguise.
You most certainly all know this one, yet I doubt you use it half as often as you should. Disguised blessings are scattered throughout our days, sometimes so subtly it may be difficult to notice. One should, I believe, persevere in their efforts to notice them more often. They are there. They are hidden in all the terrible events occurring in your lives, even the worst of them. If you perceive their presence, they may bring a smile to your face, rekindle a long-awaited spark in your heart, appease your grief, chase off depression, heal your soul.
Every cloud has a silver lining : This one tends to remind me of a blessing in disguise, almost every time I come across it. You can also turn it around, by the way : every silver lining has a cloud. It is a tad less joyous, but life is as it is... It is a more poetic way of saying : there always is something positive within something negative.
Actions speak louder than words!
Since I have always been more comfortable with words, I wish this one was not true. It is, however, and one needs to accept it. It is much more effective to do something in the eyes of others instead of saying you will do it. Often, doing is also extremely liberating. Take the example of love. Have you ever written a romantic letter to a crush ? I know from experience how this beautiful gesture can be awkward. Yet, it is an action. If you do not try it out, you cannot know how the targeted person will react. Merely asking them out might sound like a better and simpler solution too...
Anyway, remember this especially if you ever offend someone (which is bound to happen sooner than later, right?) because an appropriate gesture will always be much more powerful than excuses.
Better late than never.
This one just reminded me of this is the intention which matters the most. It sounds connected to the above expression. At least to me. Would you agree ? Tell me in the comments !
Would you agree with this expression ?
I believe that most of the time, it is worth being patient. People always come through, even if it's later than you thought.
Avoid Beating around the bush.
We are all guilty of this one. Some things may be difficult to say, but one has to find a way to express them and preferably in a straightforward way. One should not be afraid of going straight to the point and frankly saying the truth as it is. If people love you, they will respect your honesty and love you even more for it. If they do not, then you only need find other people who will give you the love you deserve.
Biting off more than you can chew?
Be progressive with your goals. Don't be afraid, or ashamed, of starting small. If you go too hard straight from the beginning, you are going to burn your wings and it is unlikely they will grow back any time soon. I have a concrete example for you (again) : when you begin studying a new language, don't do five hours a day. Fifteen minutes to an hour would be more than enough already. Otherwise you may become tired far too quickly and will not last the marathon which learning a language is.
Good things come to those who wait.
Patience is a virtue, I have not invented it. Fellow bloggers and content creators, this one is dedicated to you! Fame, or wealth, does not happen in a day. It is a long process which requires an impressive amount of work. If you wait long enough, I am quite certain you will reach the goal you set!
No pain, no gain!
If you want to see the light at the end of the tunnel, you will have to make the necessary efforts. Life is full of tunnels, and you need to go through them to grow. You need to suffer to learn. I mean, I wish it was not like this, but I do not get to decide. Without pain, you would not appreciate the reward so much, right ?
The early bird gets the worm.
If you want to get things done, get up early in the morning. Otherwise there will not be any worm left for you to catch. I love this idiom, much more than most others. I have a rather organized life-style, and I enjoy getting up early. It is in the morning which your brain is the most likely to be efficient, right?
How about you ? Are you a night owl or an early bird ?
Let's discuss!
Which one in this lot is your favorite idiom ? Do you have others along with their lessons which you would like to share ?
Usual Boring Sign-Off ?
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post! If you liked it, feel free to let me know via email, by subscribing, liking, and/or commenting. You may also check out some more of my work. I also have a Patreon page, a YouTube channel, if you wish to support me there, and a GoodReads account.
It is well known that mastering a foreign language is key to thoroughly understanding its culture and, if you intend to stay abroad for a long time, you definitely want to consider learning the local language. If you still need to be convinced that learning a foreign language is in your best interest, I recommend you read up this article. If you have not decided which language is right for you, then this article may help you out.
Let's Deal With The Obvious
Before digging into the material I wish to offer you, I would like to point out something obvious. That is, learning a language can be broken into several skills :
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Your level in these main 4 skills will vary depending on :
Grammar
Vocabulary
Phonology / Pronunciation
All these skills need to be developed equally, although I would argue that each individual will always be better at one (or several) and worse at another. This is how nature works. Everyone has a different character, meaning some will be more fond of writing, whilst others will be better at speaking. Some have amazing ears, others have powerful eyes. This is how it is and, the sooner you accept it, the better.
Another obvious matter I wished to briefly discuss is that you need to keep having fun. Do not compare learning in a classroom to the world of possibilities you can have on your own. If you wish to learn Swedish with sports videos, be my guest! Have fun! This is the most essential part. Having fun, however, requires one thing : you need to vary which skill you work on. If you wish to efficiently progress in a language, you have to work on all your skills. Meaning if you write something one day, it would be ideal to listen to a podcast in the morrow, or to practice more actively and speak with somebody in your target language. Of course, you are free to design your path as you fancy.
Dictionaries
Some primary tools cannot be overlooked when making your first steps on such a journey, and the right dictionary is one of them. There is such a thing as a wrong dictionary, for those of you who were wondering : google translate. Do not boycott it entirely, but be careful how you use it. The mistakes you will make with it should be as great as the power it has.
If you want a quality translator, I recommend : DeepL. It is excellent, purely and simply. As excellent as Linguee, its fellow partner in crime. Another dictionary that I am quite fond of : wordreference. Check these 3 out and, if you are learning English, do not forget the Urban Dictionary (Use it correctly and it will always serve you right).
Along with dictionaries, do check out conjugations websites, especially when learning a Latin-rooted language : French, Spanish, Italian... These guys would make you cry much more without the-conjugation.com.
Courses
If having a more academical structure is reassuring for you, you have the option of signing up for online courses. It can get a little expensive, but a teacher, or mentor, will be there to help you step by step. Be careful however. Having a mentor does not mean that you do not need to put in the work anymore. No, it has the potential to give you a significant advantage over self-taught individuals, yet only if you do it correctly.
I don't have much experience with these platforms, since I have always preferred learning on my own. However, the experience I have had with them would convince me enough to recommend them to you. Many YouTubers I believe in, such as Lucy from English with Lucy, or Emma from Hmm English, recommend Lingoda and Italki regularly. As for Tandem, you should give it a try if you wish to have a native language partner. Same as Italki, you do not have to pay to speak with others, but only if you want private tutoring.
Vocabulary
I have several methods to build up my vocabulary. Generally, I work on my vocabulary with something else, such as a book, an extract (from a book or movie), a YouTube video... I also enjoy going outside and playing a game I like to call "What is this?", which basically consists in asking yourself the name of all the objects you come across and learn their names whenever you do not know. It is extremely effective but you better take notes quickly, especially when you are a beginner or an intermediate, because words can add up amazingly fast.
If you wish to be efficient, reading a word one time cannot work. You need to repeat it a lot of times, hear it and, if possible, visualize it. For that, there is nothing better than flashcards app. You can find a whole load of them on Android Play Store, but this is not what I would recommend the most. Surprisingly (because it is a program I have kept away from for a long time), I would seriously recommend Anki. With it, you can create your own decks of words and customize them as much as you can fancy. You can also follow your progress day by day with precise charts.
As a word of warning, I would just tell you not to spend too much time on it. The aim of a language is to communicate, not to lock yourself up into your bedroom and become antisocial. Do not exceed 10 minutes to an hour a day, it is already more than enough, in my humble opinion.
Learn With Books, Videos & Games
This one may be my personal favorite. I love movies, Japanese anime, cartoons, American TV series, video games... Needless to say it is rather time-consuming. This is why, one day in a long-forgotten past, I decided to turn these passions to my advantage. Thus I stopped watching anime with French subtitles and replaced them with English subtitles. I gave up on playing Nintendo DS games in French to play them in English. I drastically reduced what French book stack, and began reading almost exclusively in English.
This is how I created, day after day, an environment to study my target language. Today, I am striving to do the same with Italian and it is a struggle, because I have given so much of my life to English. Even switching from English to Italian on my smartphone was a dilemma when I arrived in Italy, but I forced myself to do it, because I knew I had to give space to Italian to truly learn it in depths.
Here is a list of online platforms you could use :
FluentU : Language app to learn with movies.
Netflix : Even better than Fluent U to learn on your own.
Youtube : Should I say any more ?
Lbry : A YouTube equivalent.
For games, emulators should do the trick :
Desmume : Nintendo DS
VBAM : Game Boy Advanced Games
PPSSPP : PSP games
Mupen64plus : Nintendo 64
Dolphin : Wii-U, Game Cube
Podcasts & Audio Books
Podcasts are most trendy these days, as one must be aware. I must even confess I have several times reflected upon the topic, considering having my own. What it would be about, that remains a mystery still.
If you wish to work on your listening skills (and vocabulary, by extension), these 2 new buddies are ideal :
You may also check out Audible, if you are into Amazon products. On YouTube, you will also find audio books and podcasts. Just type the name of a book you are fond of in the search bar (such as [Harry Potter + audio book]) and see what you get.
Practicing
Last but not least, I do not know why I left this one for the end. Do not ask in the comments, please (yep, I'm doing reverse psychology).
I know several ways to practice, and I have used all of them. Having a pen pal, also known as a language partner, is an amazing experience. You have to find the right person, and it may be tough, but everyone should give it a shot. It is most enjoyable and enriching. In case you would be interested :
If you merely wish to chat with someone, I have got you covered too :
Discord : Especially the language sloth server.
Other social networks : Enjoy it, I don't recommend them very often. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter... They are here to serve you, not the other way around!
Speaky : A language community especially revolving around chatting.
All of the above are great resources to practice writing, but also speaking. If you need a place dedicated to improving your writing : lang-8 is here for you. To digest vocabulary or learn new items, Duolingo is not so bad at all. It even is pretty good...
2 more magic tricks :
YouTube : You can practice in the comments of videos, on channels such as English With Lucy. Just find a channel for your target language and get to know the people watching the same content as you in said-language.
Movies : Listen and repeat what the actors say as well as you can. This is more effective than learning the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), although I would still recommend you check that thing out at some point.
Songs : Learn how to sing. Yes, you may make it rain a few times before you get around to it, but it is more than worth it. Sing in your target language to improve your pronunciation and accent. I do it, I know others who did or have done it, and it does work. True story.
Ending & Sign-Off
I hope this article was helpful. I have uncovered a lot of my secrets to learn a language. In the end, I just do whatever I feel like doing everyday. My goal is to practice everyday as much as I can and seize all the opportunities I have to learn something. Some days it works better than others, but it is rather efficient for me. If you need to be more organized, you can still have a notebook to organize each day of your week with the skill you want to focus on each day. Same for vocabulary items, you can have a notebook for them.
I have a notebook for Italian, which I use both for grammar and vocabulary. You may want to separate them but, seriously, it really is up to you! Remember that no method works better than your own, which you have built with your experience!
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post! If you liked it, feel free to let me know via email, by subscribing, liking, and/or commenting. You may also check out some more of my work. I also have a Patreon page, a YouTube channel, if you wish to support me there, and a GoodReads account.
Once upon a time, a fervent Arch Linux advocate desired to switch to Gentoo. Not only his own kin had recommended it to him, but his research had also led him to believe that it was the promised land from his wildest dreams. Yet he never once had dared and taken the first step on that formidable journey. His eternal thirst for knowledge, but also his quest toward absolute freedom eventually succeeded in convincing him. This is how, after many a year roaming through the Arch realm, dear Phil Wayne made up his mind and took the plunge down the rabbit hole, straight into the abyss of Gentoo Land. At first, there was no Xorg server, nor Wayland. Despite his awareness of the perils he might face, far was he from imagining his wings might get burned. He soon had to fire up a terminal, for darkness was all around and only he had the power to repel it.
N.B : Sit tight, this blog post is lengthy.
From Arch to Gentoo : A Short Reminder
If you haven't read my previous blog post, nor watched my latest video, I encourage you to check at least one of them out. If you desire to have some context for what is yet to come...
I shall remember installing Gentoo forever, for seldom have I faced so great an ordeal. Installing a GNU/Linux usually is such a straightforward process, how could I foresee I might meet my doom ? Such naivety nigh caused my loss. Fortunately, old-sport Google went to my rescue, when I had nothing but my smartphone's screen to cry on.
I may truthfully affirm that my life as an Arch user was not always peaceful. Issues did rise up, unsurprisingly, since it is such bleeding-edge a system. Yet I cannot complain, for a solution would always eventually emerge. I trusted that fact, and thus I became comfortable...
If I had known. Yes, if only I had known that everything which could possibly go wrong... would go wrong. This is no assumption, but a declaration, to say I would first have done it in a virtual machine.
I'm talking about you VirtualBox!
Monday 12th : Trouble On The Doorstep
I began the installation process on that fateful day. The first morning, things obviously did not go well because... It would not be so fun otherwise, right ?
So, it turns out I did not burn the ISO image correctly and my BIOS was not configured properly either.
Let us start with my ISO error. For the purpose of our demonstration, let us say that our device is /dev/sdb. The dd command should then be as follow :
dd if=/my-iso-file/path/bla-bla of=/dev/sdb
Well, I wrote something slightly different : dd if=/my-iso-file/path/bla-bla of=/dev/sdb1
Now, if you think it all wonderfully worked out when I solved that problem, you would be mistaken. Here is the link to the solution I was given by my most faithful follower : click here. The link will redirect you to Gentoo's wiki and show youhow to convert the ISO image tohybrid mode.
Let us now speak about the BIOS.
When installing a Linux system, there are several things to set up in your BIOS. The first one is, logically, the boot order. Indeed, you wish to give priority to the external device containing your new Linux distribution. All other devices should boot after that one device. For instance, I have Ubuntu on a USB flash-drive. I need to give priority to all USB devices at boot time. It is as simple as that.
Secondly, depending on the kind of boot partition the system you want to boot use, you need to enable legacy boot and CSM support (Compatibility Support Module). On modern computers, UEFI mode usually is the default, but it will not work for Gentoo. At least, it did not function for me. Indeed, it turns out the BIOS configuration I had carefully set up for Arch Linux was not enough for a Gentoo install.
In the afternoon, I did my part as an au-pair. I had no time to go back to the installation process before much later. At 10 pm, I started the actual install. I inserted the USB key and got into Gentoo. I connected to the internet, I set up my partition scheme, the time and date and extracted the stage 3 tarball. I could have done all of this in the morning, but the dd command just would not let me... So, as a conclusion of this first day, I would simply say this : please, do learn from my mistakes and do not reproduce them. Except if you enjoy wasting your time... If you wish to remove the random factor of dd, you can still use a USB installer such as the one you can find on Linux Mint or the Universal USB Installer.
Tuesday 13th: Riddles In The Dark
When you are stuck in a TTY without an X server for 3 days in a row...
That day, everything went rather smoothly. I did not set up LVM (Logical Volume Management) because I was not sure how and did not have the time to over-document myself. Moreover, LVM is of no use to me at the moment. If I ever have second thoughts, I will merely re-install the whole system. Hopefully, it will not be too soon, but I am quite sure that I will distro-hop at least once or twice before being happy. First, I intend to master Gentoo, and then... well, who knows what may come ?
At the end of the day, I was rather happy with myself. I had written manually my /etc/fstab after forgetting to mount a partition, I had set up the various use flags I was interested in, as well as the kernel, and I had also installed several programs I knew I would need : grub, network manager, vim...
I believed I was done with the base install. I could not be more wrong...
I suppose this is what happens when you're tired, but I made many unforgivable mistakes. The biggest one, as I would soon find out, was that my boot partition was actually a ghost partition (more on that later) and that there was no kernel to feed my grub.
Wednesday 14th : Impatience& Despair
Finishing the base install took forever. When I woke up on that day and rebooted my computer without the live cd... Well, there is a good news and a bad news.
The good news is that it booted into grub rescue mode.
The bad news is that it booted into grub rescue mode.
Yes, it is both a good and a bad news. It is bad because... well, obviously, it hasn't booted properly, which most certainly means grub cannot find the kernel where it should be and that, as a Gentoo user, you are going to have to recompile the dam* thing. Which is going to take 3 hours.
Happy birthday & merry Christmas at the same time!
It is a good news because it means you can keep everything from your base install, there is just a few things to tweak for the whole distribution to work.
When you have a blog and a youtube channel to maintain, you cannot afford to go many days without your computer, an internet connection and programs such as a web browser or ffmpeg... This is why I had to ask for help. There is no shame in asking for help, especially when you are a programmer or someone doing something even remotely related to computer-science. First, I read entries on forums. But then I had to ask someone who knows much better than I, especially when it comes to Gentoo. He will recognize himself.
We spent hours diagnosing issues together (from 9 pm to 1:30 of the next morning, approximately). In the end, we finally found what was incorrect : I needed to comment one linein my /etc/fstab. Just because of one lineabout my boot partition, which was not even recognized by Gentoo, my distribution would always boot in read-only mode. Gosh...
Have you ever experienced read-only hell ? Tell me in the comments !
Thursday 15th :A Glimmer Of Hope
After 3 long days in the dark, victory was mine. I could finally install programs with the emerge package manager and begin solving all the other minor issues I had. Package conflicts are quite different from Arch Linux, to be honest, so it did take me some time and explanations to get used to them. Because of them, even installing firefox might become an issue...
Anyway, I installed essential programs such as Audacity, Kdenlive, LibreOffice, LaTeX, Neovim, Ffmpeg, Moc, and countless others. I also transferred the backup of my home directory from my hard disk back to my computer.
Everything went rather well on that day. There was still much ado but it solving the issues I had went rather smoothly. It is the next day that I realized I was not yet done with my learning process.
Friday 16th :A Steep Learning Curve
This is the day I actually realized there was so much to learn on Gentoo. It is not only about reading the documentation. There rather is many subtleties with USE flags which may prevent you from using a program properly because it was, say, wrongfully compiled. Emerge installed it for you, indeed, but it did not install it with the options you wished and, hence, you may not be able to use said program however you intended in the first place.
This has happened to me with OBS, but also with mpv, vlc & moc, to cite but a few. For instance, moc was installed but it would only recognize playlists. Other music files simply were not recognized. It was also impossible to play music with it, which is quite a bother when you know it is a music player for console...
Last Stage &Conclusion
I still have to finish installing and configuring a bunch of things. For those of you who have had the patience to read until the point, I would like you to know that this was my excuse for taking more time to make my next video. Ffmpeg works on my local machine and my build of mpv finally allows me to use my webcam, after days trying to fix the issue. As for OBS-Studio, it does not yet recognize my video devices, and I have not figured out how to efficiently replace ffmpeg with it. It is no big a deal however, I can continue shooting videos with ffmpeg as long as it does not work properly.
I had to figure out a lot of things, whether with help or on my own, since I installed Gentoo. Overall, I must say I am satisfied with my learning curve. I did make some (significant) mistakes at times, but only those who never try anything new do not make mistakes. I am proud to have accepted this learning opportunity, since it had allowed me to grow both as a person and as a GNU/Linux user.
Gentoo is pretty similar to Arch in many ways, except it offers so many more possibilities. It is scary at the beginning, but if you practice in a Virtual Machine and read the documentation in advance, you have nothing to be afraid of. I, for once, was a little too adventurous...
Signing Off
I do not yet know whether Gentoo will or will not be the distribution I settle down on. Already, I am looking elsewhere. Nonetheless, I believe I will stay on it for a while, for the place is comfortable, and the view is great...
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I hope it was helpful to you! If you liked it, feel free to let me know via email, by subscribing, liking, and/or commenting. You may also check out some more of my work. I also have a Patreon page, a YouTube channel, if you wish to support me there, and a GoodReads account.
Are you using Windows, MacOS, Linux Mint, Arch Linux, Gentoo, any other thing ? Do tell me in the comments and let us share our experience! :)
Some of you may be thinking that this article will be about grammar, phonology or any other language skill you need to sharpen when learning a new language. As a quick disclaimer, I will merely say it will not be the case. I want this blog post to give you a few ideas of fiction books which you may enjoy reading from a beginner level to an advanced, or even proficient level. So, without further ado, let us dig in!
A Word Of Advice
When starting to learn a new language, it is important to create the habit of studying the target language on a daily basis for the amount of time which works best for you. In order to do so, one should progressively set goals. This means you should not do 5 hours one day, and zero the next. It is better to do 1 hour everyday, or you will quickly be exhausted.
It is exactly the same with books. It can be exhausting to read them in a foreign language, hence the importance of the notion of progressiveness. If you begin with an epic fantasy novel of 800 pages, you will not have finished it before months and hence will not get the positive effects (the satisfaction) of finishing said book before a long time.
This is why I would advise you to start slow. Learning a language is a marathon, remember ?
Beginners
Here is a list of what, in my humble opinion, is best for you :
Short stories and novellas
Graphic novels, manga, comics...
Newspapers (not books, I know)
Blog posts (not books, I know)
Children books (with pictures)
Book extracts
Bilingual editions of books
With all these formats, you will rapidly be finished and get the satisfaction of having done something rather difficult for your level. Do not be afraid of taking this one step. You did this when you were a child, and learning a language is quite the same as going back to childhood. You are back to square one and need to memorize all the words, the structure, the culture...
Some titles I would recommend when you get more comfortable:
* I added links to GoodReads, if you wish to know more about each book.
Harry Potter, J.K Rowling: It is a saga, so you have time to get used to the author's writing style and vocabulary. Plus, it becomes harder with each book. The first is short and rather simple, then the difficulty slightly increases with the second, and so on...
The Little Prince, Saint-Exupéry : A short novel which should touch your heart.
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Mark Haddon : This is the very first novel I read in English, and I always tell anyone who asks that this is THE BEST book to begin with. So, you know what you have to do. Check it out ;)
Intermediate learners
To give you a concrete example, I am currently reading Twilight in Italian. Since I do not have much time to read, one could almost consider it a bad move on my part, because I cannot get the satisfaction of having read it as quickly as one may want to. In my defense, I do not mind and, since I have enough experience with language learning, this is not going to discourage me and make me quit.
In my opinion, Twilight remains an appropriate novel for intermediary learners such as me, since the writing is rather easy. It is a first-person narrative, the font height is quite big and it takes no time to finish a chapter. Plus, it gives you a nice overview of most grammatical tenses, since you can find : present simple, present perfect, past simple, past perfect, and several others which you would encounter in a normal conversation.
In my case, it allows me familiarize myself with the present, the passato remoto, the passato prossimo, the congiuntivo... but also vocabulary items which I seriously need in order to rise from B1 to B2 one day. I do not intend to remain B1 forever, and setting ambitious goals is the only way I know to become fluent and, later, proficient.
With an intermediary level, all the books I advised for beginners are still extremely relevant and should not be neglected. It is very likely you still have a lot to learn from a children book, even with a higher level. If you do not believe me, try out for yourself.
Since I do regularly tell you to have a critical mind, I hope you will notice that these titles are mostly relevant for English learning. They work just fine for European languages as well, but I have little to no experience with Asian languages, so I can only tell you to make your own research.
Disclaimer
This article is especially relevant for people who learn languages with Latin, Greek, or German roots. My advice may also be less relevant to someone who has an Arabian or Asian background since they had to learn everything from scratch, even the alphabet. As a French native, I have always been more interested in languages close to mine such as English, Italian, Spanish, German... Despite our differences, our cultures and ways of thinking are still close. I am aware it is far harder to learn Japanese or Chinese as a European, like the other way around is just as true.
Advanced & Proficient Learners
I have kept for the golden bit. When you become more advanced and grow toward proficiency, your possibilities are endless. I expect most of you will not be interested, since I consider this the highest level you may reach when sharpening your reading skills.
Reading epic-fantasy :
I recommend reading The Hobbit first, since it is a single volume, instead of a long saga.
I could also advise you to read classics, such as Madame Bovary, by Flaubert. They would match your level, though you may not want to... well... if you do not see what I mean, just read more classics. Do not misunderstand, I do enjoy classics, it just depends on which one it is.
Some I would recommend (especially for English learners) :
Shakespeare's books : Romeo & Juliet, The Tempest, Hamlet...
Have you ever learned a second, a third, a fourth, a Xth language ? Tell me in the comments below !
I will soon be able to shoot a new video about my experience on Gentoo and I will publish an article when I release said video. However I have some technical problems at the moment due to my recent install and I have to make everything work before that.
I also need to learn how to use OBS, but I am not yet sure whether or not my next video will be with OBS. Perhaps I will use ffmpeg one more time.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I hope it was entertaining enough! If you liked it, feel free to let me know via email, by subscribing, liking, and/or commenting. You may also check out some more of my work. I also have a Patreon page, a YouTube channel, if you wish to support me there, and a GoodReads account.
Being a huge fan of both movies and books, I thought I would try and determine two things today : The first regards my personal preference; as for the second, it should be much more objective, since I wish to draw out the advantages and disadvantages of both formats. To compare these 2 sensibly different media, I have decided to answer several questions (in quite a biased way, if I may be honest with you, mydear fellows).
1. How Much Of A Pleasure Is It ?
If you are reading this blog post, then you must agree with me that both reading, and watching a good movie (or an anime, a TV show...) are most delightful activities. If you do not... It is a bit weird, because it is one the main subjects on this blog.
Moving on...
I cannot say which activity I enjoy the most without being biased, and I assume it is the same for most of you. So let us agree that both movies and books are equal in these terms. I do not know how it is for you (tell me in the comments ^_^), but I tend to read more for a few months, and then read less and instead watch movies... (or vice versa). At the moment, I am more into watching movies and TV series. A few weeks ago, I had what I call my anime moment and, even earlier, at the end of the summer, I was reading a lot. Do you go through these cycles too ? Please, do tell me! I would love to know :)
Most useful. To learn a language, expand your cultural and spiritual horizons... to heal a wounded heart. Now, some of you may argue that it is pointless to search a point in doing an enjoyable activity. I would agree. Yet, for the purpose of this article, I need to compare both media. I tend to think it is easier to learn a language with movies than books, since you can be "passive" and still enjoy a movie, which you cannot be whilst reading.
When you read, you are the architect. You have to design the whole environment around the story, you need to imagine the characters, how they look, make them good or bad depending on your interpretation of the author's words... To be able to do so, you need to gather as much as information as you can about all these things.
Books and movies are not only helpful when it is comes to learning a language. They are also entertaining and, even better, they are appeasing. Technically, they have what some like to name a cathartic effect. Catharsis is the purification of your emotions. So books and movies literally and directly heal your heart, if I may put it this way. They are a private place in which you can take refuge whenever you need.
As a little digression, I would merely like to add that the act of creating (writing, shooting a movie, drawing...) has these exact same properties. When I write, I always pour my heart into my writing. It is less true for today, but I used to write much more to purge my passions (or emotions, however you wish to call them). Creating is a powerful remedy to loneliness, depressions, for broken hearts, and all sorts of other issues you may be going through.
3. Which Skills Are You Working On ?
Both make you work on your comprehension skills. Of course, when reading you improve your various reading skills :
Skimming
Speed reading
Paying attention to details
You grow your vocabulary database
Depending on which book you read or which movie you watch, you may learn words related to diverse topics and which are more or less ancient. Some words may be archaic (this is an epic-fantasy reader writing from experience), others may be extremely recent. This is what I love so much about books and movies, they are ideal to work on a wide variety of skills when you are learning a foreign language. Plus, they complete themselves. What you cannot do with a book, you can do with a movie. Example : sharpening your listening skills, your accent, your pronunciation.
Hence my recent switch to Netflix to improve my Italian...
4. When Are You Most Active ?
The above word "passive" obviously is between quotation marks because in both cases you only are relatively passive. If you are watching a movie to improve one of your skills, such as you culture (e.g. watching a documentary), your vocabulary or your grammar (if the language of the movie is foreign to you), then you are not really passive. Same for reading (because many still consider reading as a passive skill).
I believe you are more active when reading, since you need to activate your imagination to create something following the author's guidelines. However, some may argue that you can actively watch a movie too. I would agree. You may take notes whilst watching, you may pause the movie to analyze a sequence... We should probably agree that you will never be active in the same way. There is nothing to imagine in a movie, except of course if some things only are suggested (such as the death of a character, for instance), but it merely counts as an exception which confirms the rule. What is your opinion ? Tell me in the comments ?
5. Are Movie Adaptations Better Than Books ?
Usually, movies are born out of books and not the other way around. It does happen, yet it remains rare.
I believe it can be a mistake to compare a book and its adaptation. If the movie intends to be faithful, then it is not one. Yet, most of the time, the movie needs to have an identity of its own and directors make choice which stray from the story in the book. If you take the example of The Hobbit (written by J.R.R. Tolkien and adapted by Peter Jackson), it is a 300-page novel which was turned into not 1, but 3 3-hour movies. When they were barely able to shoot a movie of one hour and half for Eragon, which is about 800 pages long, I cannot help but be skeptical.
Take Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. It was adapted by Steven Spielberg into an amazing movie which has given a second life to the book, yet it is not faithful at all. The characters are very different, all the challenges they have to go through are as well. The only similitudes there are, are the names of the characters, their roles in the story and the plot. Just like The Hobbit, this is a movie which has an identity of its own. It does not need the book to be enjoyed. Which is not the case for Harry Potter, in my humble opinion.
6. Have I Forgotten Something ?
How would you compare books and movies ? Would you agree with this comparison ? What is your experience with both medium ? Do tell me in the comments :)
Signing Off & News
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I hope it was entertaining enough! If you liked it, feel free to let me know via email, by subscribing, liking, and/or commenting. You may also check out some more of my work. I also have a Patreon page, a YouTube channel, if you wish to support me there, and a GoodReads account.
You will soon hear about me and Gentooin new technology-related articles and videos. I finished installing it very recently, so I will be shooting a video as soon as my environnement and I are ready. There still are quite a few programs to compile, to tell you the truth... This is why this article has been slightly delayed too. I only finished the installation yesterday and barely had time to finish it up this morning.
