End of Military Service and an Upcoming Trip to South Korea & Taiwan
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Announcements, Lifestyle
It’s been a while! I hope everyone enjoyed the summer. I certainly did, even though I spent most of it at the office (and the army barracks). But as I’m writing this post, I’ve got 10 days left in the military. It feels incredible to have 260 days under your belt.
There’s also another announcement to make. I’ll be heading off to South Korea and Taiwan at the end of October, and I’m planning to share my experiences through Twitter so be sure to follow me at @ericnishio!
You are reading this post because you want to start running. Nice. Running is a great sport. The reason why I particularly like it is because of its simplicity. You don’t need to invest a whole lot of money in order to start running; there’s no need for a gym membership, or any expensive equipment. All you need is a body that can withstand the shocks that result from stamping your feet against the ground.
Now, I’m not certified to offer any kind of medical advice, so I’m only going to share what I’ve personally learned from running. (And I’m still a beginner.)
Although you can choose to run barefoot, I recommend that you get yourself a decent pair of running shoes just to avoid unnecessary injuries. Barefoot running requires conditioning and is not recommended for beginners. For a newbie it’s extremely important to start safe, because once you get injured it can take months to recover and get back in the game. Every person’s feet are different so you’ll have to do some research online or ask the store staff which type of shoe to buy.
When you have your gear in order, it’s time to start.
If you have an iPhone (or an Android phone) and are looking for a way to memorize Chinese words you can use the free Google Translate app to create your own custom-made flashcards. Google Translate doesn’t come with the bells and whistles that paid apps might have, but it perfectly serves the purpose if your objective is to simply memorize new words.
You can create flashcards in any language supported by the app, but I’ve found it to be particularly useful with Mandarin Chinese. One of the reasons why you’d want to use flashcards with Chinese is that it’s a tone-based language, meaning that there are five different ways a syllable can be pronounced, e.g. qīng, qíng, qǐng, qìng, and qing. In order to be understood by other people you have to get the tones right. And flashcards happen to be a brilliant way to to practice them.
For this purpose Google Translate is very convenient because the app displays the pinyin tones automatically. As long as you can recognize the word or phrase written out in Chinese characters, the app does the rest for you.
For the past month or so I’ve been learning Mandarin Chinese from three sources: a Mandarin Chinese course for beginners on YouTube (taught in Japanese), another set of excellent Mandarin lessons on YouTube, and by watching a Taiwanese drama called 海派甜心 (Hǎipài tiánxīn), which is viewable on YouTube as well.
I’m going to Taiwan in November so I’ve made it my top priorty to learn how to speak Mandarin. It’s also a personal experiment for finding the best approaches and techniques for learning a foreign language.
Love is Simple. Life is Simple. You Must Simply Learn to Love Your Life!
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Lifestyle, Positive Thinking
Today, I’d like to introduce you to Meg who will be sharing some great tips on how to live a simpler and more authentic life.
You see, most of us are driven to follow the consumerist trends and lifestyles that govern modern society. We’re tempted to buy the newest gadgets (yup, I have an iPhone and a MacBook), eat at fast food joints or lavish restaurants while forgetting the art of cooking. Instead of living our own lives, we spend our weekends watching how the wealthy (whom we so envy and admire) squander their riches on Louis Vuitton shoes and suitcases…
Although I would never let go of my MacBook, I’ll admit that there are many areas in our lives that seriously need some rethinking. So how can we break free from the fetters we’ve allowed on ourselves, and start living a more rewarding life?
(Hands the mic over to Meg…)
The following is a guest post by Meg Rain of Eat Breathe Blog
Self-Learner is a blog about self-education and self-improvement based lifestyle design. Goal? To become the best "version" of yourself, and feel excited to jump out of your bed every morning.