What is the biggest lesson that life has taught you?

Emil Baltman

Lived in Prague2000–0

4.3M content views100.1K this month

Knows Czech

Joined November 2018

1.Everything happens for a reason. Once you start to believe that, life will become easier.

2. Trust that when the answer is “No”, there is usually something better along the way.

3. You have never known a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes.

4. A good deed each day can do a lot for someone.

5. Just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

6. You should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

7. Stop worrying about what everyone else thinks. Stop wasting time on things that are not your business. At the end of your day, just do you.

8. Trust the vibes you get, and listen to your gut. Energy does not lie.

9. Not everyone is going to like you, and that is okay.

10. You cannot control others. You can only control how you react to a situation.

11. It is okay to disagree with someone, but it is not okay to disrespect them.

12. Frame every so-called disaster with these words, “Will this matter in 5 years?”

13. You are never too old to need your parents.

14. Put your phone down for a few hours every day and interact with the people around you. You never know what you may be missing. After all, you cannot get back those hours that you are spending on your phone.

15, It is more important to have a few good friends, rather than many acquaintances.

16. Choose being kind over being right, and you’ll be right every time.

17. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

18. Remember the three R’s: Respect for yourself, Respect for others, Responsibility for all your actions.

19. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps.

20. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up your present.

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What is the most Filipino thing ever?

 

Joshua Parin

Quoran Teen in Quarantine

4.3M content views16K this month

Active in 7 Spaces

Joined June 2019

“Hssst”

I turned around.

“Hssst”

Everyone in Filipino class turned around.

“Hssst”

Every person under the age of 21 in every island of the Philippines turned around.

That’s how you get a Filipinos attention. You have to give them a sharp,

“Hssst”

It’s like a Psst except like this.

Hiss-tuh.

It gets everyone’s attention. No matter where you are and who you’re with they will turn around. It’s how all parents get their children’s attention. In fact, it’s how you get anyone’s attention.

They have to be Filipino though.

Everyone else will just think your being rude.

So remember,

Hsst

Oh wait sorry I thought someone called me.

I’m gonna go check.

How do the word orders of English, French, and German differ?

 

Steven Haddock

Compliance Officer

67,493 followers

38 following

Insufferable know-it-all, mostly law, science, politics and Canadian football.

English and French are largely “Subject-Verb-Object” languages, where the position of the nouns shows their grammatical sense. “I love Hockey!”

However, if you use a pronoun in French as the object of a sentence, its position switches to before the verb, so it becomes “Subject-Object-Verb”. “I it love”

German is largely “Subject-Object-Verb”. Technically, this means the verb can be the last word in a very long sentence. However, in most cases, German speakers will move the verb to a more convenient point and break up a long sentence into pieces. “I football love”

Adjectives

In English, adjectives almost always go in front of the noun. There is a particular order depending on the nature of the adjective if there’s more than one - e.g. “big blue ball” not “blue big ball”.

German, like English, puts adjectives before the noun they modify.

In French, adjectives can go both before the noun and after, depending on their function, e.g. “big house blue” not “big blue house” or “house big blue”.

How can I start to learn German?

 

Jason Bechtel

learning languages, working for social justice, traveling

Site Reliability Engineer (Technical Duty Officer) at ServiceNow2017–present

Studied at University of Toledo

Lives in San Diego, CA

Before anything else, I want to mention that choosing language-learning materials obviously depends on which languages you would consider your "base" languages, the languages you can learn a new language through. Of course it makes sense to learn through a native language. Since you're asking in English in an English-language forum, I'll assume that English is a native language for you. If it isn't, then you may have to adjust any advice you get to take this into account.

If English is available as a base language for you, then you're in luck. German has a lot in common with English. This will make the task much easier than it would be for someone learning German through, say, Mandarin or Arabic.

[Disclaimer: There are probably lots of people far more qualified than I am to answer this question. I am currently at about a B1/B2 level in German (CEFR). I learned through four years in high school, about a year in college, and then a year living in Germany. And now I am teaching beginner-level German in China. So, I didn't learn in a very straightforward way or use a lot of different materials.]

The first thing you should decide is what your goals are. Do you just need it for traveling, or do you need to be able to do business? Does "doing business" mean just being able to exchange pleasantries in German before switching into English, or do you need to be able to actually perform a job fully in the language (be "functional")? Do you need to be able to listen to the news, pop music, and watch TV? Do you need to be able to read the newspaper? (Note that I'm intentionally using the word "need" here rather than "want", because I think it's very important at the outset to establish what you want to achieve and then frame that as a need/requirement. "Wants" are often nebulous, shifty, and hard to pin down, so they can erode over time. And telling yourself that you need to reach certain goals will help to prepare your mind for the dedicated effort required to achieve them.)

Setting goals is actually a multi-stage process... In fact, I'm just going to direct you to Olle Linge's excellent article on goal-setting. Don't be distracted that it's on a site about learning Chinese. Every time you see the word "Chinese" just mentally substitute the word "German". The advice holds for anyone setting out to learn any substantial language. Here's the link: http://www.hackingchinese.com/goals-and-motivation-part-1-introduction/

Now that you've set your long-term, short-term, and come up with micro-goals you can use to populate your study schedule, it's time to choose learning materials. I would recommend having at least two or three materials going at any one time. It's important when you get bored with any one source to be able to switch to another one. You should also try to have materials that serve the various parts of the language that you have chosen to focus on at the moment (reading, writing, speaking, listening, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar). Try to keep reinforcing every of your target skills at least every other day.

And now I'll throw out some concrete recommendations (bearing in mind the disclaimer I made above)...

I recently signed up at http://germanpod101.com to check out their podcast. (There was a deal when I signed up, so I got a premium account for one month for USD$1.) I've listened to about 20 podcasts (mostly at the Absolute Beginner level) and looked at some of the PDFs that come with them. I also downloaded the entire archive of podcasts using iTunes, which they encourage. It seems like a nice, straightforward gentle introduction to the language. It focuses on speaking from the beginning. And I like that it touches on cultural notes and observations in the lessons.

I've also recently been looking at the German learning resources available at Deutsche Welle's website: German Courses | DW.DE

And the Goethe Institute has some free online courses available for various levels. There are currently 26 items at the A1 level: Deutsch für dich

If you're a highly dedicated and studious person, then you can try using the Assimil series, optionally with Prof. Arguelles' "shadowing" method...

As Prof. Arguelles points out, it depends what kind of learner you are. In general, try to get your hands on as many quality materials and expose yourself to as much input as possible. As soon as you get bored with something, switch. Stay interested and motivated. Cultivate your own curiosity around the language. In two words: have fun!

And welcome to the German-speaking world! Herzlich willkommen!

What are some Filipino superstitions?

Gerard Alain

13 followers

3 following

Here are some of the most ridiculous Filipino superstitions I’ve heard:

1. Don't trim your nails at night or else a family member will die.
2. When you get lost in the woods (or some rustic area), you have to take your top off and wear it inside out to find your way back.
3. Don't go to bed while your hair is wet or else you'll go blind.
4. Don't point your finger anywhere at night because you might infuriate an engkanto (environmental spirit).
5. When a child loses a tooth, they must throw it on a roof so the new tooth will grow nicely.
6. A lady shouldn't sing while cooking or else she won't have a happy marriage.
7. If you jump at exactly 12 am on New Year's Day, there's a huge chance you'll get taller.
8. A person with big ears will live longer.
9. If you curse at rats/mice, they'll bring severe damage to your clothes.
10. People with lucky charms or amulets are less prone to getting shot.
11. When your nose becomes itchy, it means someone is kissing your photo.
12. It's bad luck to leave your family members/housemates at the dinner table if you finish your meal early. But if you need to get up and do something urgent, you have to rotate your plate so nothing bad will occur.
13. Plucking one's grey hairs will only multiply their growth.
14. If it's sunny and raining at the same time, it means a tikbalang (a humanoid creature with a horse’s head) is getting married.
15. Don't wear red clothing on stormy days because red objects tend to get hit by lightning.
16. There should always be a single monetary item (bill or coin) in your wallet or purse so you’ll receive more money.
17. You'll get lots of head lice from too much sun exposure.
18. Dropping your spoon on the floor means you'll have a female visitor. Whereas, dropping your fork means you'll have a male guest.
19. Moles and their meanings:

• People with moles on their hands are bound to steal from others.
• Those with moles on their faces are lucky.
• Those with moles in the eye area attract more people.
• Those with moles on the forehead are geniuses.
• Those with moles around the mouth area are talkative.
• Those with moles on the genital area are perverts.

I’ve heard most of these beliefs when I was a little boy and yes, I’m still hugely weirded out by them.

What's your best writing advice?

 

Jean-Marie Valheur

"Oh Lord to be near you, to be free"

98,647 followers

26 following

I’ve never hidden any of my content behind a paywall, and I never will because I want every word I write to be available to even those who cannot afford a monthly subscription. But if you have a little more to spend and you still like to support me, you can send me something here and help me greatly:

BTC:

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I’m a simple dude. Father-of-five, complicated personal life. Trying to make writing, which is my passion, into my livelihood but can’t do it alone. :)

I’m just some random dude on Quora, I take my writing advice from my betters. Stephen King wrote a total of 65 full-length novels, 91 published items if we include shorter stories and various collections. The man is insanely productive. Now look at his office, where he does his writing:

It’s essentially a “work station”. King keeps office hours. His writing is a nine-to-five job. So he goes to work, does his thing, and then when he’s done for the day, he’s done for the day. You have to keep hitting the keys. You have to keep churning out material. It may be great, it may be awful, it may be anywhere in between but you have to produce. I’m by no means the next Shakespeare or Hemingway but when I compare my earlier Quora answers from five years ago, a lot of my more recent work is infinitely better…

…and a lot of it is mediocre, too. You can’t always hit a home run. But the only way to become better at writing, is to write more. The same way you become better at boxing or swimming or making love by doing more of it. It’s that simple.