What Are The Letters In Organic Chemistry?

What Are The Letters In Organic Chemistry?There are more than a hundred different types of letters in organic chemistry, and they each serve a specific purpose. For example, the acidity of an alcohol is measured by the amount of hydrogen and oxygen that are present in the molecule. The volume of gas that is in a room is the size of the room. The number of electrons in a molecule, or the number of atoms, is what is used to measure the speed of electrons in a molecule.Oxides of minerals are composed of lighter and heavier elements. These atoms are arranged in a sequence, but not in a regular pattern. When you look at a piece of chalk, the individual pieces are arranged in a hexagonal pattern. A flat sheet of paper is considered flat when it has the same amount of surface area as the edges. Gravity is defined as the tendency of the material to pull toward the center.Molecules composed of molecular nitrogen are found to be highly unstable. All molecules have this trait, and all atoms hav e the capacity to be attracted to each other with such force that their collective mass collapses under their own weight. This is what causes molecules to get bigger and denser as they grow older.Determining the charge of an atom depends on the number of protons in the atom. Electrons are extremely tiny particles that are charged to the right. These particles are held in place by electromagnetic forces. A potassium ion is classified as an electronegative element. If there is an ionized plate on a piece of glass, the electron density is known as how much charge the ion possesses.Although it is considered to be one of the most complex elements on the face of the earth, it is very easy to understand its behavior on the theoretical level. The chemical equation for N-H bonds is still being written today. Atoms are typically grouped in three groups, and each group has a specific physical characteristic that helps determine the properties of an atom.The structure of a chemical bond is dete rmined by the unique combination of intermolecular attractions and repulsions. Like other elements, molecules are made up of smaller units. However, molecules are only separated into these smaller units by interactions between atoms. An atom is defined as the basic unit of matter and is generally considered to be the smallest known constituent of an element.Letters in organic chemistry to describe the properties of atoms. Every element has letters attached to it, such as 'O', 'F', 'N', 'S', and so on. When you're learning the letters in organic chemistry, make sure that you're familiar with the meanings of each letter, and how the letters inorganic chemistry can help you better understand the properties of atoms.

Improve Your GPA by Training Your Brain

Improve Your GPA by Training Your Brain Improving Academic Performance Have you ever caught yourself being too critical of your abilities in a given area? Students in particular can be their own worst enemies. They don’t realize how powerful an influence mindset can be on day-to-day actions. In reality, what we think about ourselves and our abilities will determine what we can achieve, especially academically. In fact, there’s evidence that, if you believe you aren’t good at standardized tests, or aren’t very good at math, your brain is actually looking for ways to reinforce that belief, so that it can put the belief on autopilot, and spend more of its energy figuring things out that it’s not sure of. So, let’s talk about the power of thinking differently to improve your performance in class, standardized exams, or undergraduate and graduate institutions. We call this phenomenon the cycle of perpetual same-ness, which is a term and concept we borrowed from Dana Wilde, creator of the Mind-Aware brand. So-called facts and ideas that you think about yourself might very well be holding you back in ways that you don’t realize. Your thoughts may be reinforcing unsupported, mostly negative assumptions regarding your abilities that, paradoxically, your brain naturally wants to keep reinforcing, even though they negatively affect your performance. This occurs in a sequence of reinforcing steps over the course of months or years. Step 1: It begins with an event in the actual world. At some point, some specific event causes you to react and begin to believe something about yourself. For example, in second grade, you do a math exercise in class and get it wrong. Immediately, you wonder if you’re “bad” at math. You look around and notice that all of your friends in class are smirking, and you have trouble following your teacher’s explanation of why your answer is wrong. Step 2: This is followed by a reaction, and a conscious belief in your mind. You consciously think about the situation, and conclude that you must not be good at math. Not only did you get the question wrong, the teacher tried to explain it to you, and still you couldn’t understand. It seemed clear that everyone else understood. It seems apparent that the other students had an easier time with the question. They are better at math than you. Step 3: Eventually this belief enters your unconscious mind, and becomes part of the lens through which you view the world, affecting how you behave and reaffirming the belief. That initial run-in with math may happen a few more times. Perhaps by chance, or perhaps because your confidence with math has eroded a bit. Eventually, you decide that yes, you aren’t good at math, and that belief slips into your unconscious mind. It is just part of who you are. Being bad at math is a little frustrating, and uncomfortable to think about at first. But, you resign yourself to not being a math person. After all, you’ve been told we all have different talents, and people that are good at math may not be good at things in which you excel. After you come to believe that you’re just generally not good at math, your brain may try to fit its internal subconscious belief into the external world around you. So you’re going to find yourself automatically reaffirming your belief that you are bad at math again and again through behaving in a way that will endorse it (i.e., by not studying very hard or much, by avoiding difficult math problems that build math skills, etc.). The brain is trying to make sense of the world efficiently and effectively. Why would the brain work like this? Imagine the first time you rode a bike. Your mind was intently focused on every step of the process, putting your feet on the pedals, moving one foot forward, then the other, keeping your balance, grasping the handle bars. If you had to consciously go through all of that every time you rode a bike, it would get pretty overwhelming and you’d have trouble productively thinking about other things while riding that bike. The way our brains work, we have to constantly take a lot of information and put it into our subconscious to make room to bring in new observations. That’s why you can easily ride a bike or drive somewhere you’ve been a million times without thinking about it. Your brain has already catalogued it into your subconscious so that you don’t have to actively think about it to make room for new things. Why is this relevant to you or your child’s academic success? Let’s say, once again, you get a bad grade on that math test. We have the tendency to then say to ourselves, “I’m bad at math”, especially after witnessing other kids excelling. That opinion sticks with you until it becomes a fact. You do poorly on another test because of your already existing low confidence, and the cycle perpetuates itself. You need to break that cycle. Just as you stop thinking about how to ride a bike after the first few times, you stop thinking about how badly you believe you are at math and it becomes a part of who you are. From now on, your brain rejects any thoughts that you would rather be good at math or the possibility that you could be a natural with numbers. Your brain rejects these ideas in an attempt to make your daily life easier and go about it with as little stress as possible. You continue believing that you are lousy at math because it’s effortless. You form these beliefs early on in life, they influence your personality, your personality influences your behavior, and you grow old always ‘knowing’ you were never a math person. And, surprisingly, you’re completely comfortable with that because your brain automatically accepts it as fact due to your early experience and observations of others’ experiences around you. However, in reality, you can train your brain to behave differently by breaking that cycle. How can you do this? There are a variety of ways to go about breaking this cycle. Here are some options: Actively question your own assumptions about your abilities. Use positive “self-talk” in place of negative self-talk. If you catch yourself saying “I’m horrible at math” consciously stop yourself and just say “I have the potential to become much better at math than I currently think I am” Choose one academic area that you don’t consider a strength, and devote an extra hour per week to practicing in that area. All you need to do is apply practice - the right kind of practice - to a new belief that you can improve your math skills, or English skills, or creative skills, or whatever it may be that you seem to lack natural talent in. It is up to you to decide whether you are going to be a math person or not. It is up to each of us to decide where we place our passion and our focus and our hard work; don’t let your brain’s attempt at efficiency stop you from becoming great at something, or just getting generally better grades in school and higher scores on standardized tests.

Thinking in a Foreign Language Made Easy

Thinking in a Foreign Language Made Easy Thinking in a Foreign Language Made Easy We’ve all heard that thinking in a foreign language is a sign of  real fluency.But I bet you havent heard that its the  fifth key language skill  that all learners must developâ€"falling right in line with speaking, listening, reading and writing.But is thinking really a skill?Yes, yes it is.After all, thinking is a constant and intimate process. If you can think in a language, surely you must have assimilated the language to such an extent that it’s now a part of you.You’re no longer translating from your native language to the new one. Thats why someone who thinks in their target language will speak faster  and more smoothly, and they won’t have any lag when they’re trying to understand something.Sure, all of that is true, but what people don’t often realize is that thinking in a foreign language can be its very own path to fluency, not just a result of fluency.What does this mean for you?It means that thinking in your target language is absolutely learnable. Its someth ing that you canâ€"and shouldâ€"start working on  right now. All it takes is some practice! Just like speaking, listening, reading and writing. And the best part? Thinking is naturally the root of all those other skills, so you’ll see them all improve drastically in turn.Here, were going to show you how to make this happen. Thinking in a Foreign Language Made Easy1. Translate Your ThoughtsYou could have thought of this one, right? Sure, it seems like the most obvious step to take, but not everyone does it. Some people are very visual or quantitative, meaning they dont have streams of words constantly going through their brains.If you don’t already narrate your life in your head, then start doing it consciously! This kind of active exercise is where you’ll get the most practice.When you remember conversations, translate. When you think about your daily schedule, translate. When you’re cursing the weather, your neighbors, the long line at the grocery store… translate!Pract ical StepsIs this easier said than done? Here are some mini-steps you can take to start working toward narrating your life in your target language.If you’re a beginner, try simply taking some time out of the day to describe what’s around you. When you see a tree, you could think “tree” in your target language. If the correct word for tree isnt coming to you, think “green,” “wood” or anything else that can describe it. Same goes for buildings, animals, clothing, whatever. If you’re really limited in terms of vocab, you could even count people, animals or objects in your head. Anything helps!Soon enough, though, you’ll graduate to wanting to translate two-word phrases and beyond. When you’re able to start doing this, you’ll want to double check everything you’re translating, either with a native speaker or by googling the phrase with quotation marks to see if lots of native speakers are phrasing it just like you are. (Hint: If you get less than 1000 hits or h its that include only learners’ dictionaries and forums, you probably have something funky going on.)If you can’t figure out how to say what you’re thinking, make up an approximation that you’re still absolutely sure is 100 percent correct. Because you’re thinking much, much more than youre speaking or writing, it can be easy to fall into bad habitsâ€"thats why double checking your language usage is still key. Concrete nouns, verbs and adjectives are quite easy to translate, but idiomatic phrases get trickier, so youll want to  be especially sure that you’re using the correct idioms and expressions all the time.2. Start Using Monolingual DictionariesNow we’re getting to less direct but oh-so-essential steps to making the language yours.A monolingual dictionary is just what it sounds likeâ€"instead of translating your target language into your native language and  vice versa, you’re looking up a target-language word and getting a target-language definition, just like when you pick up a dictionary to check a word in your native language.Using a monolingual dictionary can mark an important step in your language learning journey because it means that you’re using the language itself to learn.A small caveat, however: Monolingual dictionaries are most useful if you try them out at the mid- to high-intermediate stage when you can already understand a mainstream novel or follow formal news radio. Otherwise, youll spend a lot of time looking up words in the definitions of other wordsâ€"though that can be a valuable exercise, too.You’ll be pretty amazed at how monolingual dictionaries help you think in the language. While studying, you’ll no longer be translating back and forth. Consciously using a monolingual dictionary while filling out SRS flashcards,  reading novels or working through a textbook will pay off in all your other skill areas. Youll even start to think in terms of the language itself, rather than  only within the framework of your n ative language.Practical StepsFirst of all, find a good monolingual dictionary! WordReference has a great online Spanish-Spanish dictionary (plus monolingual options in many other languages).  I’ve personally used Larousse for French. Guoxuedashi is a good example for Chinese. Searching “dictionary” in your target language will land you with something, but quality is pretty important, so try asking other learners on sites like Quora or Language Learners’ Forum.Now what? Monolingual dictionaries work great when paired with sentence flashcards on SRS. Thats rightâ€"each flashcard will have a whole sentence on the front, and then you can use  your monolingual dictionary to define words you don’t know on the backs of your cards. You can embed definitions if there are words you don’t know in the original definitions.  Check out the blog  All Japanese All the Time  for a  complete explanation  (and a great post on monolingual dictionaries!).  This unconventional approach to fl ashcards  is a great way to learn vocabulary and grammar in context.If the definition is impossible to understand (think: definition for “oak” or “ladder”… simple concepts with confusing, convoluted definitions), paste in an image so that you get the meaning without any interference from English!3. Write in a JournalBecause journaling is writing down your thoughts, it gets you into the habit  of thinking in your target language, especially if youre finding thinking itself to be difficult at first.Basically, it’s just another way to practice Step #1, but it’s slower and you’re in one spot so you can look things up. Its also a good option if youre busy most of the time and dont have the freedom to glaze over and think purposefully in your target language. It doubles as writing practice, too!I discovered this myself when practicing writing in Spanishâ€"I found myself thinking in Spanish for some time after I completed a quick writing session and put down my pen. Spendin g some time deliberately formulating thoughts in Spanish definitely got me into that “zone” of thinking in my target language.Practical StepsTry writing a daily monologue. This can include whatever’s on your mind! Stuff about your work, about your familyâ€"it doesn’t matter. Opinions work well, too, because you might have a lot to say about them. You can just keep a diary in your target language!Get corrections and feedback from natives and learners on  services like italki. On italki, you can even hire a private tutor to work with you one on one, to get the best feedback possible. No matter how you get them, corrections will help you avoid writing things down wrong and cementing bad habits in your mind.Despite the importance of staying away from bad habits, I recommend keeping a private, hard copy journal on good stationery. It’s a great break away from Internet-heavy language learning, and the privacy gives you free reign to write about whatever you want!4. Read More Fir st Person LiteratureReading is so important when it comes to learning a language. If you read books written in the first person, you’ll see direct benefits when it comes to thinking in the language.Obviously, first person books give you the main character’s thoughtsâ€"you get to read someone else’s thoughts so that you can think your own! How cool is that?For all those hard-to-translate idioms and phrases from Step #1, you’ll get solutions from books. You’ll learn how native speakers express abstract concepts, which vocab they use and how they use it.Practical StepsGet some young adult fiction, stat!  Why young adult? Because fiction aimed at that age group loves first person perspective right now, and the language is casual and very realistic. Even if you’re not into reading in that age group normally, I highly recommend you check it out for this purpose (and you might find some new favorite books while you’re at it).As always, translations of books you’ve already r ead work wonderfully because you already have that crucial context that makes understanding a target language so much easier. But if you’re at a loss for what to find, I recommend translations of the Percy Jackson  books or The Hunger Games.  Both are popular (and thus widely translated) and both have fun stories that will keep you engaged.To find the translated titles of these books, simply translate the Wikipedia page into your target language. Then you can search for the title on Amazon!Commit to reading 20 minutes a day to get into the habit of thinking in your target language. It won’t be long before you start remembering phrases you see over and over, but to speed things up, dust off that SRS once again. Enter the sentences or phrases you think you might want to use in your own thoughts, and over time, you won’t forget them!And that’s that! With these four steps, you’ll get past all that clunky translating you’ve been doing in your head.You’ll be well on your way to thinking in your target language and making it your own.Once you’ve gotten the hang of thinking in your language, the rest is smooth sailing!

One for the Road! A Comprehensive Language Study Guide

One for the Road! A Comprehensive Language Study Guide Plotting Your Way to Fluency: A Flexible Language Study Guide Hindsight is 20/20.Looking back, well always see that it was at the beginning where we went wrong.Its when we set out on a journey of some kind that we can benefit the most from preparing ourselves for whats to come.But it may only be later that we understand just what we were missing at the start.When I started teaching myself French, I had no idea what I was doing.I bounced between different resources and techniques for more than a year, just picking up a few words and phrases here and there.Sometimes Id study like crazy. Sometimes Id put the language out of my head for a week.I finally enrolled in a great French class at school and realized that I could barely speak French.On top of that, Id been making some very ridiculous grammar mistakes.If Id had a study guide or a study plan to show me the way, I could have aced that class the minute I walked in.So now, Id like to give you the advantage I didnt have and show you a complete map for learning a language that you can adapt to you r own individual preferences.Ill show you what to study at each stage of learning and  how to keep your study time balanced over days and weeks where you might have a lot of other things going on.The key to learning success is consistency. As long as you keep at your studies and keep moving ahead, everything else will fall into place.And in this post, well look at how to ensure that things fall into place as quickly as possible. How Long Does It Take to Learn a Language, and How Can a Language Guide Help?But how long do you need to keep at those studies? Thats a question thats been asked many, many times over.It depends on a few main factors:The frequency of your study sessions.The familiarity of the language.The interest you have in the language.If you only study once a week, youll barely get anywhere. You need to give your brain a chance to absorb the material by frequently thinking in or about the language. More frequent and more consistent study means faster learning.A languag e that’s closely related to others you might know, or that shares a lot of vocabulary, will fit easier in your mind because you can guess how to apply your previous knowledge.Finally, if youre fascinated by it and the people who speak it, any language can become childs play, because youre intrinsically motivated to understand and communicate using it.You may not have as much control over the last two factors, but you do have some control over the first. Additionally, if youre disorganized in your learning, youre likely to retread old ground or run up against walls. Youve got to have something to help you along and show you what you should be focusing onâ€"like a language learning guide!A dedicated, motivated self-learner following a good guide should be able to achieve a comfortable intermediate level in about 300-500 study hours, spread over a period of roughly 10-14 months.That means averaging around an hour, or at least 40 minutes, of learning time every day. Its hard for most people to set aside that kind of time, but cut it into two or three chunks of 20 minutes and suddenly it seems far more doable. You might even spend 20 minutes reading posts or articles like this one today.An audio course in the car, a book in the bus, a video before bedâ€"thats how you fit those study hours into a busy day.You want to get in the habit of never really letting the language out of your sight.So youve got the time, but what should you do with it?Plotting Your Way to Fluency: A Flexible Language Study GuideBeginning: Pronunciation, First Words PhrasesPronunciationOne thing polyglots tend to do differently from the average learner is starting with pronunciation.Because practice doesnt make perfectâ€"practice makes permanent.If you get the wrong patterns in your head, youll have a devil of a time getting them out later on.Youre going to want to do some research on the sounds of the language youre learning and make sure you know how to make them and distinguish them.Wikip edia has articles on the sound systemâ€"called the phonologyâ€"of virtually every language out there, big and small. The articles are a bit technical, but in my opinion its some of the best technical knowledge you can pick up when it comes to language learning.If the Wikipedia articles are beyond you still, then go to YouTube and look for videos about the pronunciation of your target language. Try looking for more targeted, academic videos instead of just quick two- or three-minute overviews.If youre learning French, for instance, search for specific features like French R or French vowels.Once youre confident about the individual sounds, move on to words.Words PhrasesYoull need to practice listening and repeating words in isolation and in the context of an example sentence to understand the rhythm of the language.Rhythm is one of the most important parts of accent, and it really cant be ignored. Think of a toddlers speechâ€"they might have trouble with some consonants, but nobody would ever say they have a foreign accent. Thats because theyve already mastered the rhythm. They were hearing it even before birth, every time their mom spoke aloud!And so most dedicated learners will look high and low for courses with audio or good audiobooksâ€"they want to get as much exposure as possible to the sounds of the language and really soak the rhythm into their heads.A lot of these course books or guides will tell you to avoid memorization as if its something that might hurt your learning.At the true beginner stage, though, youre going to have to memorize something if you want to start understanding this language.The advice should really be something like dont memorize lists of words without context. Youve got to connect what youre learning to feelings or memories.So start with a simple game of pretending: Imagine the very first things most people will say to you.That means greetings, certainly.Lets assume youre using the language for travel. Youll want to know how to say hello, how to get someones attention, how to politely step past people in a crowded space, how to say thank you. If you still dont know exactly where to begin, these words and phrases are a good bet.After you pick these things up, you should branch out and learn some verbs, nouns and adjectives from dictionaries, phrasebooks or vocabulary lists.At this very early stage, its a great psychological boost to be able to recognize and understandâ€"so dont stress out if you cant produce very much in the language.High Beginning: Constructing Sentences, Listening to DialoguesConstructing SentencesPretty soon, youre going to want to move beyond the phrases youve learned and begin to express yourself.For that, youre going to need to know how to construct sentences.In many languages, you can start picking up these rules intuitively just by looking at a handful of examples.If your phrasebook tells you that What is your name and What is his name are identical except for the pronoun, theres a good chance that What is her name follows a similar pattern. Keeping your eyes open for these patterns is going to boost your learning significantly.But when its not clear from context what the next word should be, youre going to have to move beyond the phrasebook and begin with a grammar resource.The very concept makes a lot of people cringe. But these days, you can sample many simple, free online courses with an emphasis on sentences.Your local library may also have well-known coursebooks in its collection. Try books in the Teach Yourself  or Dummies series for a solid intro to the grammar.An extra-easy alternative is to start learning with FluentU, as it starts you off putting words and phrases into grammatical context immediately. FluentU takes real-world videosâ€"like movie trailers, music videos, news and inspiring talksâ€"and turns them into personalized language lessons. Youll find content on FluentU for complete beginners, but itll continue to fit right in with your learnin g as you make your way all through the rest of this guide and beyond, starting withListening to DialoguesAt the same time, youre going to want to begin your long listening journey around this point. Listening is incredibly important for learning languages at really any level, for all kinds of reasonsâ€"from getting used to different accents to improving your reaction time with new vocabulary.Use FluentU, search through YouTube to find beginner lessons or dialogues in your target language, or look for a textbook with companion audio that you can get at a low cost (or from a library!).Listen to these dialogues again and again over a period of a few days.You want to be giving your mind two simultaneous tracks to learning the language: naturally, through examples and dialogues, and systematically, through overt explanations of grammar rules.Low Intermediate: Improving Vocabulary, Listening, Speaking WritingAs you progress through the stages, youre naturally going to become a better and better self-learner.Because of that, you probably dont need this guide to tell you, Repeat after your dialogues. Keep an eye on your pronunciation. Of course, youre going to continue doing the things that make you progress onward.So take these next several steps as additional suggestions rather than all-encompassing instructions. Stay well-rounded in your learning, and even go back and review older material for as long as you want.Improving VocabularyNow that youve got some of the basics down, the whole wide world of vocabulary out there is yours to conquer. The only question is, where to start?Again, one of the best ways to learn vocabulary is to really connect with what youre trying to memorize. If you watch an interesting video or read an interesting article in your native language, look up some of the main vocabulary points and youll remember much better than if you learned those same words from a list.Continue to follow the guidance of whatever grammar resource youre usingâ€"i deally, your resource should challenge you enough as you move on that you dont grow bored and try to jump ahead too fast. If you bite off more than you can chew, youll likely lose motivation.ListeningAt this point, you should be looking for as many listening resources as you can.Its difficult at this point to pick up new words from listening aloneâ€"so dont shirk on the vocabularyâ€"but unless you plan to mostly read and write your target language, listening is the core skill.And it takes a lot of time to develop.That means enjoyment is the key to progress. Dont waste your time watching things you don’t like. If youre into photography, watch camera reviews. If you like makeup, there are makeup tutorials in hundreds of languages on YouTube.One of the most valuable resources at this point in your learning is audio with transcripts, such as videos with subtitles.Again, this is something you can turn to the trusty learning tools on FluentU for.Outside (and occasionally inside) of Flue ntU, the YouTube project Easy Languages is an outstanding collection of street interviews with subtitles in both the target language and English.Watching short, entertaining videos is a great way to keep yourself focused and on task during this important study activity.Speaking WritingIts tough to speak when you dont have much you can say.Thats why we havent mentioned speaking too much until now.Some language acquisition experts believe that you learn most effectively if youre not pushed to speak or write until you can understand a lot of what you read and hear.And that makes senseâ€"its demoralizing to enter a conversation and constantly be lost as to what your partner is saying.At this stage in your learning, however,  you should be itching for some speaking practice.The single best free place for speaking practice online is a language exchange site called Hellolingo. Its got a huge community of people from all over the world, waiting to help you with their native languages.If yo ure willing to spend a little money, though,  iTalki cant be beat for finding tutors. The selection of professional teachers and skilled enthusiasts is truly unparalleledâ€"plus theres a large community that will help you with writing practice as well.Writing is daunting, especially in languages with lots of grammatical forms to memorize. But writing practice always has a positive effect,  even if nobody corrects your mistakes.  Just the act of writing on its own helps you recall words better. As you continue reading, youll develop more and more of an intuition for the grammar as well, and before long youll even be able to correct your own mistakes.Scheduling your output practice is something youll have to do on your own depending on how comfortable you are with it and how important it is for your purposes. If you enjoy it, try to work in some speaking and writing at least twice a week so you dont get too rusty.Intermediate: Grammar and ReadingGrammarAt this point, youre going to ne ed to shore up any remaining leaks in your grammar knowledge.Your general online courses and book guides may not cut it here. Luckily, for commonly studied languages like French, Russian, Japanese and German, the internet is awash with free and in-depth grammar guides.Heres where I actually wont recommend YouTube, though there are of course some gems to be found, as the best resources tend to be single-purpose grammar overviews like Dartmouths German grammar page or JGram for Japanese.Beyond that, the publisher Routledge has a whole line of Modern Grammars  for ten major languages. Theyre some of the best reference grammars and workbooks around, and can really help you figure out what youve been missing. If your language isnt on that list, try their Essential Grammar line or looking around for a reference grammar at a library or online bookstore.Grammar is so important at this stage because youre likely to start internalizing mistakes soon. If you dont nip these in the bud, your gra mmar mistakes will become bad habits later on that are harder to break.ReadingNow you can slowly but surely work your way through simple native texts.I really like the NHK World news site for its no-frills daily news reporting (in 18 languages). The articles are written for natives, not learners, but theyre short and digestible enough to be very helpful reading practice.Every major city around the world has newspapers or other media outlets in their own language as well. For just one of scores of examples, check out Público,  a popular news source from Portugal.Now, its likely that the feature articles and opinion pieces on these websites will still be too hard for you at this point.But thats just fineâ€"most have all kinds of lighter content like recipes, entertainment news, sports scores and lifestyle tips. Usually with video included, too!Check out the topics that most interest you. Its fine if you end up only looking at pictures and their captions. The most important part is th at youre immersed in the language wherever you go on that site.Offline, you should look for translated books from your native language. If theres a best-seller youve read cover to cover tons of times, thats a perfect tool for diving into literature.Translated books are easier to start out with because the plot and characters are likely going to be more familiar to you, culturally speaking. With a more accessible story-line, you can focus on absorbing the language through your extensive reading.High Intermediate and Beyond: Expressing Yourself and Understanding OthersExpressing YourselfThe more you read, the more you listen, the more you expose yourself to, the more youre going to learn.Understanding complicated, authentic native speech is not an easy task. And at the high-intermediate stage, it really can seem like youve plateaued because the gains are harder to see.Going from a vocabulary of 100 to 500 words feels amazing, but from 4000 to 4400, the effect barely registers, since y ou can already understand most of what you encounter.The key is to keep going and to branch out. Challenge yourself with material you might not normally think of, such as cooking shows or comedy routines. When you come back to material you saw earlier, it wont seem nearly as hard.Understanding OthersRepeating after dialogues, writing on your own and reading aloud are all excellent learning strategies, but if your goal is fluent communication, theres no better way to get there than communicating.Whether its with a tutor, a friend or even strangers on the street, you should take whatever opportunities you can to have conversations.Ask your speaking partners to strike a balance between correcting your mistakes and allowing you to speak freely. Schedule some sessions as tutor sessions and some as conversations.You need a mix of these two practice styles to get into the flow of a natural interaction while also continuing to work on your mistakes.After that… its up to you.The intermedia te-advanced stage of language learning sometimes seems like itll never end.Even if youre continuing to study, it might not seem like youre making progress until you really challenge yourself.But then all of a sudden, you look back at an old piece of writing you did or a book that was giving you troubleâ€"and you see how far youve come.Consistency is the single most important part of any personal improvement.When you put in the time and effort on a regular basis, you simply cant fail to see results. And One More ThingLooking for engaging material for developing your language skills? Then youre going to love learning with FluentU!FluentU makes it possible to learn languages  from music videos, commercials, news and inspiring talks.  Its all stuff that native speakers  actually watch.  With FluentU, you learn real languagesâ€"the same way that natives  speak them. FluentU has a wide variety of videos like movie trailers, funny commercials and web series, as you can see here:FluentU A pp Browse Screen.FluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.Didnt catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.Interactive transcript for Carlos Baute song.You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentUs Quiz Mode. Swipe left or right to see  more examples for the word you’re learning.FluentU has quizzes for every videoAnd FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.Start using FluentU on the website  with your computer or tablet  or, better yet,  download the FluentU app from  the  iTunes  or  Google Play  store.

Irvine Tutoring Tips 4 Finals Week Pitfalls to Avoid - TutorNerds

Irvine Tutoring Tips 4 Finals Week Pitfalls to Avoid - TutorNerds Tips from an Irvine Tutor: 4 finals week pitfalls to avoid Its finals week and students are studiously preparing for these important exams. This is the time of year when students are being tested in every subject, and their final grades will be immensely affected by their performance. Many students become overwhelmed and forget the big picture at this point in the school year and may experience some pitfalls that can make life more difficult than it needs to be. Although each student is an individual and their experiences will vary by grade level and classes, there are some common situations that nearly every student experiences our private Irvine tutors are here to help you score high on your finals. 1. Panic Its normal to be a little bit stressed out about testing week and, in fact, a healthy amount of stress can help students focus on studying and make good choices when it comes to priorities. However, excess stress can lead to all-out panic, which does not help students concentrate or perform well. Students can best avoid becoming panicked by planning and having a backup plan in case their first strategy doesnt work out. Students can organize their study time, work with their tutor to review important information, and put social plans on hold while theyre working towards finals. Students should also take adequate brakes and make sure theyre getting enough sleep as well as eating healthy meals during this time, so both their brain and body are awake and alert for their exams (READ: How to Keep Your Grades High During The Holidays). 2. Excess socializing Although having good friends at school is part of a healthy and balanced childhood, there should not be too much socializing during finals week. Its just one week out of the year, so theres plenty of time for students to get together with friends once theyve taken their exams. Students my appropriately socialize during a study group or a group tutoring session but should not make lots of weekend plans when theyre about to take important tests on Monday morning. Students who dont prioritize well at this point in the term will often find that their final exam grades are lower than they couldve been and this can affect their entire GPA. 3. Cramming Many students procrastinate and put off studying as long as they can, then they end up cramming until the early hours of the morning before taking exams. This is one of the worst ways for students to study because it fatigues their brain right before taking the test and also prevents the brain from having enough time to absorb new information. Rather than cram, students should prioritize how theyre going to study for each course, allocate a certain number of hours and prioritize which subjects need more of their attention. Tutors can be a great asset when it comes to this studying because they can help students determine how much they need to improve to reach their GPA goals and how much each test is worth about other assignments in the course. 4. Skipping review sessions Many teachers will hold a review session which will cover important points from the entire semester. Many students do not attend these sessions because they think they only need to remember a few key points or that the review session will take up too much of their time. However, review sessions contain the most valuable information a student can get before taking an exam. The information is coming straight from a teacher who is administering and grading the test. Many teachers will give students hints on what will appear on the exam and go over important information that hasnt been covered for a few months. Every student should attend review sessions offered before finals week. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at pr@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us write.

King Mongkuts International Demonstration School

King Mongkuts International Demonstration School King Mongkuts International Demonstration School OUR VISION KMIDS students will be Masters of Innovation, full of inspiration and imagination. Our vision is to be a forward-thinking and leading international school that specializes in producing elite-level graduates who are motivated and ambitious stewards of the future, ready to contribute to a global society in a practical and positive way. As a recently-established international demonstration school in Bangkok, KMIDS is all-embracing of the challenges that come with developing outstanding learning opportunities forallstudents. Alongside a diverse and experienced academic team, our unique curriculum and extra-curricular activities have been designed to promote a vibrant, dynamic and progressive environment here at KMIDS. OUR MISSION Our mission is simple to embed a love of learning and help students to capitalize on their potential both inside and outside the classroom. In addition to this, we aim to: Be a leading international school in science and technology Incubate graduates who are, Imaginative, Innovative and Inspired the 3 Is. Create and develop our challenging educational system. Nurture learners with 21stcentury skills Instill among students moral and ethical practices, self-confidence and respect for oneself and others. OUR EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY Our educational philosophy is geared around ourDiscover Life, Discover Futuremissionthat ultimately reflects our deeply-rooted ethos and values. As a community, KMIDS is passionate about nurturing students who truly understand their prospects as leaders of tomorrow. Our hands-on and learning-by-doing approach accurately reflects KMIDSs pedagogy as we continually strive to provide students a platform to share their talents and efforts. Providing a safe and happy environment where students feel comfortable and open in expressing themselves. View our Brochure

What is Single Displacement Definition Chemistry?

What is Single Displacement Definition Chemistry?Single displacement chemistry is the branch of chemistry that deals with the movement of molecules in a substance. It consists of three fundamental elements of chemical reactions: an anion (the atom that attracts an extra electron) and two cations, which are negatively charged atoms. The first two elements combine to make a compound or a substance by means of a chain reaction, where one element combines with another to form new compounds or substances. A single displacement is where a new compound or substance forms from the same parent molecule and not the existing one.You should know that the term single displacement might sound odd to you, but it is actually a popular term in chemistry. When you hear it, you should understand that it is a molecular substitution, a chemical process that is quite complex. The chemistry that creates a single displacement in a substance does not always involve moving one atom. Sometimes it involves two. In any case, this phenomenon has much to do with materials science.For example, when you put water into a normal environment, it turns into a liquid. However, if you put it into a glass, you will find that the liquid turns into ice. The mechanism behind this is that water molecules are unable to reach their resting place on the surface of the glass as they are attracted to it. The lone atoms are then forced to choose between the ice surface and this act of so called 'surface attraction' is known as a single displacement.Another great example of a single displacement is in the operation of photocells. An ideal lens takes photons from a bright light source and then focuses them onto a detector. If you are using a dark colored detector, then your dark lens would give you a bright image. However, if you use a bright detector, the dark lens would also be produced. In this case, the single displacement is created when the bright lens absorbs the light instead of allowing it to reach the detector.There are other ways in which the single displacement occurs, but it is most commonly found in the chemical changes of substances. A single displacement is caused by the application of heat. When a substance cools, one or more of its electrons become free. They are forced to change the substance's structure, and this change in structure is what creates a single displacement.As you can see, there are a lot of very different areas that can be affected by single displacement chemistry. You may have heard that this is a great way to add a life force into things, since the life force is such a vital component of life itself. Also, it can be used to create electronic devices that are made out of organic materials, which can have long-lasting effects in the long run.Single displacement chemistry can be applied to help you in many areas of science. This type of science can help you with the creation of materials, electronic devices, semiconductors, and even DNA. If you are interest ed in such a type of science, I recommend you take a look at it.