New Blog

Here you go everybody! My new blog's address: http://lauryngjournal.blogspot.com/

Just a heads up, I won't be posting on here anymore, but this blog will remain public.

Learning a new language

Hi there! I started teaching myself German three years ago, because I wanted to become a flight attendant for a German airline (Lufthansa). I started losing interest in being a flight attendant, but I absolutely loved studying German and I continued even though I didn't want to be a flight attendant anymore.

I never bought a crazy expensive language learning program or anything. I used free websites, free Youtube videos, and I bought some grammar books at a good price.

I thought I'd share some tips about learning a language, so I hope this will help you in your language learning journey!


Don't:

1. Use Busuu.com or Livemocha. They kept messing up a lot of the grammar and words. Or, at least, in the German lessons I took.

Solution: Use Babbel or Duolingo. (There are still some minor issues with those too, but they are better). If you are learning German, you can also use this website  or this one too.

2. Use book dictionaries. This may only be a German dictionary problem, but I've come across a lot of problems and even had some French in my German dictionary! The word I needed was "airplane" and in German it's "Flugzeug," but what my dictionary said was this really long French word.

Solution: Find a good online dictionary. I use this one and it's awesome. I had a German pen-pal who told me that German people use it all of the time. Also, it's not just for German. You can use it for most languages.

3. Use the English phonetic that is under the language that you are learning. The English phonetic is not trustworthy because most languages have sounds that English doesn't have, so the English phonetic is often wrong. Recently I was looking at a chart that showed you how to say "I love you" in ten languages and I saw the German one. Omg. In German you say/write "I love you," like this, "Ich liebe dich." The English phonetic, "ISH lay-bah dish." Ugggggghhhhh. No. That's not even close to how you pronounce that.

Solution: Learn the alphabet the second you decide to learn a new language and watch Youtube videos or find websites that teach you how to pronounce each word.

4. Put grammar off. You cannot put grammar off until you know "enough" vocabulary. Because the truth is, there is always going to be more vocabulary to learn.

Solution: Buy a grammar book and get to work. Oh, and don't flip through the whole book when you first get it because it can get a little daunting to a beginner. :)

5. Get frustrated when you can't understand something. Yes, there will be times when you get very, very discouraged and frustrated, but don't let your frustration make you lose interest in learning the language.

Solution #1: When you feel yourself getting frustrated, take a break. I don't mean an hour break, or even a day break. I mean a long break. I've taken a three month long break before. Heck, I pretty much took the whole year of 2014 off.

Solution #2: You can stop whatever your working on, say a chapter in your grammar book, and go back to something you already know and something that is easy. Like, the alphabet. I've gone back to the alphabet a million times and I've gone back to beginner stuff multiple times. I don't know why this helps, but it helped me.

And last but not least:

• Don't think you are too old for anything. And by this I mean, it's totally okay for a teenager or an adult to pretend like they are a toddler learning how to read and write by using kindergarten resources. I've used a bunch of flashcards and worksheets that were for kids. I've also suffered through watching terrible toddler movies in German. You don't have to do this, but keep an open mind. It helped me. ;) 

Other tips:

Any "Demystified" grammar books are awesome. (French Demystified, German Demystified, Japanese Demystified, etc.)

The "Practice Makes Perfect" books are also really cool. At least, the German ones were awesome.
They have Practice Makes Perfect Spanish, French, German, English, Italian, Japanese, and more.

Find Vloggers, Bloggers, or Instagrammers that vlog, blog, or Instragram in the foreign language that you are studying. That way you can read or listen to the language regularly and learn colloquial talking and also learn everyday slang and idioms used in the language.
Remember, the language you are learning probably won't have the same idioms or slang used in English.

Evaluate what kind of learner you are here, and study according to whatever way works best for your "learning type."

Think in whatever language you are learning! It may take a while, but eventually you will get to a point where you can switch what language you think in without having to translate each word in your head.

Final note:

Have a purpose to why you are learning the language.

Ask yourself, "Why do I want to learn (insert language)?"

Are you wanting to travel to a foreign country?

Are you wanting a job that requires you to speak a foreign language?

Do you know someone that speaks a foreign language and you want to talk to them?

Or do you just really enjoy learning languages?

Whatever the reason is, let that be your inspiration to study the language.


I just want to understand what people are saying in their language. To me, not being able to understand people that speak a different language is kind of frustrating. I don't want to be one of those, "I'm sorry, I don't speak (insert language)." I want to be able to understand and help other people that don't speak English.
It kind of feels like a big barrier between me and people if I can't understand them.


That's the end for all of the tips I have for this blog post, but if you have anymore questions on language learning, comment in the section below and hopefully I'll be able to answer them!


I also thought I'd share where I am in my language learning process:

I am training myself to read things in German without automatically translating them to English in my brain and so far it's working. I am understanding things I read in German a lot better because I'm not trying to translate them into English. Like, even words that I have never looked up make sense to me. However, I still need to look them up so I know how and when to use them.

My grammar is good, I just need to write more and talk more to practice my grammar more.

Something I am struggling with is when I read a blog post (or anything) that's in German, and the sentences and all are really long,  I can't figure out the right tone I should do with each sentence. Like, on some words you need to stress or make them sound higher or deeper, some sentences are sarcastic, some are funny, and so on. So, I'm just needing to listen to and speak more German to figure all of that out.


Thanks for reading!

Lauryn G.

February Favorites

Hey everyone! Today is the last day of February, so I'm going to tell you what my February Favorites are!


1. Movies.

The three best movies we've watched this February:

Bridge of Spies . I really liked this movie! I probably wouldn't have liked it if Tom Hanks wasn't the main actor, 'cause he's an awesome actor. :)

A Knight's Tale. Okay, so, I grew up watching this movie, but I never understood how funny it was until the other day when we watched it.

The Book Thief. We watched this in 2014 and I really loved it then, and I love it now. :) Also, all the actors/actresses that aren't German, they did good German accents.


2. Music.

"October: Written in the Stars" by Tim Meyers.

"Home" by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros.

"Turn Away" by Beck.

"You're Not Coming Home Tonight" by First Aid Kit.


3. Instagram accounts.

Travel. Run. Play.  She is my travel inspiration.

David Powell.  His art is so simple and so pretty!

Carlotta Cisternas. I love her blog and all of her Instagram photos.


4. Youtube channels.

K Werner Design. Gah, her designs are so pretty!

Joy Womack. She's a daily vlogger, who vlogs about her life as a ballerina in Russia.


5. Memories.

• My friend, Callah, and I spent one Saturday designing our new blogs together, and then we goofed off and I played The Last of Us for her. :)
• Going out to lunch with some friends and spending the rest of the day playing video games the whole day with one of my friends. 
• We filmed a movie the other day with our friends, and that was fun! 

 
February has been a good, but hard month. There were some really fun, good memories, but I'm glad it's over. I've never been a fan of Februaries.

Here's to March 2016! (Omigosh, it's already March, guys!)


Lauryn G.

In which I have teddy bear bros

I thought it would be fun to write a Then vs. Now post about my old rooms vs. my new room.

So, this photo was taken in 2012 when I shared a room with Yuliya.

Back then I had so much clutter on my walls, on my window, on my bed and on my floor...yeah, I was a messy little thing. 

I had stuffed animals crammed in all the nooks and crannies of the room, and I had clothes everywhere! 

I don't know how Yuliya put up with my junk, because she likes things to always be clean. 

This clean of a room was a rare sight. 

Uggggghhhh, all that clutter on the walls! *Screams internally* 

Back then I loved cutting pictures out of my horse magazines and tacking them to my wall. 

I also crammed things under my bed, however in this photo you can't really see anything. 

In 2014, before we moved to WA, I moved down to the basement and I threw a lot of my posters and junk away. I put all of my stuffed animals except two or three into a bag and threw them into the "yard sale" pile. 

However, I still hung stuff on my walls, but not even close to how much I have hanging on my wall in the picture above. 

basement room and a messy bed.

A week or two before moving to WA.

Other than my bed being messy, I always kept my basement room clean. If I ever put junk on my floor, it was cleaned up ASAP. 

A week before we moved to WA, we cleaned our basement and I cleared out my room. I filled up three full trash bags. Of papers and drawings. Yikes. 

I crammed all my clothes and everything into three normal sized boxes and then put my small trinkets into two tiny boxes. 

When we moved, I unpacked one box (which was all my clothes) and left the other two boxed up. I still have those boxes boxed up. :) 

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of my WA room when we first moved here, but I have two of when it was the Christmas season in 2014. 

See, less and less stuff.

My Christmas lights Christmas tree. Lol, and my pants hanging on my footboard.  

My room has been rearranged multiple times since we moved here, and I actually switched rooms with Yuliya last summer, then we switched back.  

When we switched back, I was really lazy and didn't want to hang my stuff on the walls, so I only hung my calendar and a poster or two up. 

I realized that I really liked having less stuff on my walls, so I left it like that. Then I wanted less, so I moved my dresser into my closet, which made my room a lot opener. 

And my family was like, "Your room looks a little bare, but if you like it...." 

The other day, I was getting really bored with my room and decided to rearrange it in a way I hadn't done yet, so I opened my Pandora app to get my tunes playing, then I got to work. I cleared the stuff off my walls, cleaned my floor, moved my bed, washed my sheets, got rid of my lamp that I've always hated (I dunno even know how I ended up with it in the first place), and got rid of of the stand that my fish tank was sitting on and used my mini bookshelf to put his tank on, then I started on "decorating" my walls. 

After Christmas, Walmart had all of their long, white Christmas lights on sale (I bought three packs for a dollar!), so I used them for my room. 

I am not quite finished with my room yet. Or maybe I am. It depends on whether or not I want to add more in my room. I like it empty.

*Sigh* my comforter is not covering my box spring. Ugh. 

The Christmas lights go around my entire room, and other than my calendar, there is nothing on my walls. 

Yesterday Matt said, "I like your room...It's empty, but I like it." 

So, I guess you can say I have become a bit of a minimalist. ;)

I wish I had more new pictures of my room, because it looks SUPER pretty when the sun is shining through the window, but my room is messy. I haven't been able to clean it recently because I have a fever and sinus nonsense going on right now. Ugh. 

So, my friends, that was the transformation of my room(s), I hope you enjoyed reading! :)


Oh! I two more things to add, but not about room stuff.


1. I was on Spotify a few days ago and wanted to see if Rachel Platten's new album was up yet, and it was. So, the first song I listened to, was called "Beating me up."

via

Even though I can't really relate to this song, I really like it because for some reason it gives me the nostalgic feeling of 2012 and 2013 summer. There were some really, really good memories during both of those summers. :)

Here's the link to it if you would like to listen to it.


2. Valentine's Day is in three days!
I kind of keep forgetting that it's almost here because it seems less of a big deal this year. Like, I haven't heard any talk about it, haven't gotten ANY Valentine's Day ads online, nobody's been pinning Valentine's stuff on Pinterest, and I haven't seen a lot of decor in stores either...except for Target. Target has a big corner of the store that is for Valentine's decorations. Or decoration for what ever holiday it is during the year.

Target has some really "nice" bears that "invite" people to sit with them!

The real story:

 

There were two teddy bears on the ground and two on the shelf, and the two on the shelf had a perfect gap between them. So, while Morgan was taking her time admiring something, I chilled with the bears. ;)

Morgan turned around to what you see in the picture, and started laughing. "Lauryn!"

One of our friends couldn't believe I did that in public, when we told him.

And I shrugged and was like, "Who cares? I was having fun!"

January is already over!

Hi everyone! I am sorry I did not post during January, but here is a type of a review of January for you! 

Enjoy!


Good movies I watched this January:

I've watched a bunch of Ghibli movies this month. :)

Note: These movies are not in a particular order, 'cause I don't have a favorite between these "good movies."

I really enjoyed The Secret World of Arrietty because it took me back to when I was younger and had fairy friends that I took care of and I imagined them really small and creative like in Arrietty. It was just a really cute movie, full of color, and nature. It was really pretty.

 

I loved Spirited Away. It was a little odd, but it was really good. It had a good main character that had development. The characters were just really good and I think Chihiro (the main character) was admirable because she always remained kind, even to her enemies. And I don't mean in a Cinderella way. Yuck. No. 

I have a lot of thoughts about Spirited Away, but I won't write them all because I could go on forever. :)

All I'll say is that it was a really good movie. 

The Cat Returns was really weird, but I really liked it. The main character was just okay, but the Baron (The cat on her shoulder) was awesome. 

There wasn't much of a big story or anything, but it was a really entertaining movie and it was fun.

From up on Poppy Hill. This movie was the most "normal" Ghibli movie. Well, "The Secret World of Arrietty" was pretty "normal" too. See, most Ghibli movies are a little odd and they target younger viewers, but Poppy Hill wasn't odd to me. It was fun to watch and the style was interesting. They mixed Japanese and French culture together. 

This movie was a roller coster of "This is a sweet story," "Okay, wait, that is weird," "Ummmm, hm, how do I feel about this?" "Wait, so...blah blah blah (I don't want to spoil it if you watch it)," "Yay!" "Hahaha!" Yeah, it was interesting. 

The Wind Rises was a really good movie. It didn't have a big story or anything, it was just an inspirational life story. It was really good, and sad. This movie is really long, but I thought it was good and it wasn't a cheesy romance. It was actually kind of sad/depressing. 

The movie takes place during World War II, and the creators did a good job of making you experience how it would feel to be a normal person who isn't actually in the war. So that's unique.

This movie was really interesting because it was the first "space" movie that I liked. This may sound weird, but whenever I use to watch "space movies" they kind of creeped me out. I have no idea why. I am still trying to figure that out. 

This movie was funny, and really entertaining. 

I really like all of the science in this movie, and appreciated that this movie didn't make it sound like a bunch o' mambo-jumbo science stuff. :) 

Ok, so I saw this in December and I really wanted to like it, I was just SO CONFUSED with the story. 

Yesterday Morgan and I watched it again, but I paused the movie to read an analysis about the story and the whole movie made WAY more sense to me! I actually liked Howl (the male character) a lot better since I understood that he understood way more than I thought. 

The first time I watched the movie, I thought that Howl was a really selfish and kinda dumb character.  I thought when he was being "romantic" it was REALLY cheesy and eye roll worthy. But! Yesterday, after reading the analysis, I actually appreciated him being "sweet" to Sophie (main character) even though it was a little cheesy. 

Howl is still selfish, but not as much as I thought. In fact, Sophie is the most selfish character in the movie! I didn't understand that until, again, I read that analysis! 

Thank you, random internet dude, for writing that analysis!! :) :) 

If you have watched the movie, or are going to watch it, here is the article: 

http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.arts.anime.misc/2005-08/msg02424.html

OK movies I watched this month: 

I thought this movie was cool, but I found it really repetitive and it kind of got boring to me because of that reason. There wasn't really any character development or anything. It was purely an action movie. Don't get me wrong, I love a good action movie, but I kind of wanted there to be more story. I was confused in this movie. 

Okay, this movie had some really funny moments and I really liked the boy character (The boy with the yellow hat), but the main character (the girl) was ugggghhhh. I think the movie would have been great if she wasn't in it! Or if they had just changed her character. She was a really boring character. She was really wimpy and her voice had that whiney, wimpy girl voice that irks my nerves. 

Other than the main character, it was alright! :) 

I liked this movie for the funny parts and the funny quotes, but this movie was really long and the characters didn't have any development, really. 

The movie was entertaining though. 

Man, this movie was really pretty! At first I didn't know if I could stand watching a movie with that type of art style, but I did and I really enjoyed it. 

The movie is really long, and the ending is not at all what you think it is going to be. Actually, the ending was not very good and it was depressing.

I found this video that explained a scene to me and I really liked it: http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.arts.anime.misc/2005-08/msg02424.html

Conclusion: a good, but sort of depressing movie. I love the art in it and I really liked when Kaguya was younger and was playing in the outdoors.

"Bad" movies I watched this month:

Omg. I couldn't stand this movie. I walked out of the room to make my lunch because it was so boring. The blonde chick in the picture, yeah, that's Marnie. Her voice drove me insane and I thought she was super annoying. 

I don't remember the main character's name, but she was weird too.

While the movie was playing, I was imagining up my own versions of the story to make it more interesting and creepy. I wanted Marnie to be a bad "guy" and, like, threaten to kill the main character. There was a scene when they were in the forest picking mushrooms...that would have been a great scene for an epic fight to happen. lol. 

Whisper of the Heart. Okay, I honestly wanted to like this movie. I did. And if I was into cheesy, cute-ish, lighthearted romances, this is the movie I would watch. But I'm not usually in the mood to watch romance-like movie. Sometimes though. 

There were some scenes in this movie that I really enjoyed, but overall it wasn't my favorite. 

The family were not very nice to each other at all and I don't think the message of the movie was that good. The main character wasn't the greatest either. It's like, the movie had potential, and the movie was going to have a good message, but the creators of the movie didn't follow through with the good idea. I might watch it again one day just to give it another chance because I seriously wanted to like it. 

In conclusion, I did like some parts because there were some really humorous things in it, but other than that, meh. 

Okay, so my sisters were watching this and I happened to be in the room at the time watching my own TV show on my iPad, so I didn't see every single part of it, but I watch most of it and I heard all of it even with my headphones on. 

Ok. It was entertaining, but **siiiggghhh** American Girl has a way of making every single thing go right for the main character and everything is all sunshine in rainbows. 

They make super duper excited and happy characters and "perfect" characters, and the "bad guy" always becomes the main character's best friend in the end. 

Everything goes just right for the character, and that is annoying. 

The good thing about American Girl movies though, is that they make a story and stick to it. They don't have unnecessary parts or get off track and confuse the viewer. 

January songs: 

Good songs I have heard:

I'll list the Japanese songs I've been listening to first:

Kazi Ni Naru

Arrietty's Song (I like the Spotify version better)

Laputa credit song

Sayonara no natsu

Asagohan no Uta

One Summer's day

Instrumental song I really like: 

Arrietty's song

English songs: 

Keeping Your Head Up

Soldier, Poet, King

Dear Wormwood

Love Someone

Walk Unafraid

German/English song I heard last year, but love it because it's from "my" TV show:

So ist es immer

There is another song I heard recently that I am ashamed to say that I love. It's by P!nk, but that's all I'm going to say. ;) 

Books of the month: 

Okay, I admit, I haven't read hardly anything this year. :( 

But the one and only book that I have started reading this year so far is:

So far it's really good and interesting, and I can't say much else about it because I'm not that far in it. 

January news: 

I have been studying some about vlogging, experimenting with my camera, and I've been working really hard on my German. 

Soon I will be making a Youtube channel of weekly or daily (not sure yet) Vlogs and they will be in German. But so that my English speaking friends can understand I will put English subtitles in the video. :D 

I'm really excited to be working on this project, and have already made a practice Vlog in public, and I've learned some things from that. Yay! 

The first Vlog will be coming soon, as well as my new blog, so keep an eye out! :) 

Lauryn G.

Blog moving

Hey there! So, I've been working on a new blog since November. I wanted to launch a new blog because I have felt really stuck with "Capture this moment" for a while and the way I usually get unstuck is by starting fresh.
So, my new blog is going to be slightly different, but I'm hoping to start posting more regularly.

I'm not sure on what day I'll be launching the new blog, but it will be soon! However, until that day, I will be posting here. :)


Anyway, so, how has 2016 been for everyone so far?!

Have you done or gone anywhere new?
Do you have new favorite songs?
Seen any new movies?
Have you had anything weird, funny, or interesting happen?


2016 for me so far has been a "laid-back busy" year. Like, it feels like I haven't done a lot this year, but my calendar says otherwise.

My family took a "long" road trip up to Squim and Port Angeles, Washington and that was interesting. However, it was an incredibly cold and cloudy day, so we spent 95% of the time in the car.
The other 5% was in a pizza restaurant and walking on a dock.

I've seen a bunch of new movies (mostly Ghibli films) and I have heard quite a few new songs. :)

I also took my learners test Wednesday...I failed. But that's okay, it's really comedic now, however that means I got to go back and take it again. Ugh.
Tip: Washington's learners test asks questions that are never even mentioned in the manual, so if you take your test, keep that in mind. ;)

I feel like I haven't seen our friends a lot this month, but I have seen them every week (sometimes multiple times a week), so I dunno why I feel that way.

Hm, what else?

Um. Well. I had a dream last night that it was my wedding day.
Everyone was setting up the whole vendor and everything, and my brother in-law was making the reception food, which is hilarious because his cooking skills are ordering pizza, anyway, so everyone was getting everything ready and I was just, like, playing outside. Splashing in the puddles. In my wedding dress.

After I finished playing outside, I went inside, and my brother in-law was, like, "You need to get completely ready! The ceremony starts it a few minutes!"

And I was like, "lol, okay. So, who am I marrying anyway?" !! What in the world? XD

I woke up before I got to the ceremony, but I never found out. However, I think it might have been one of the dudes from a TV show I watch, but I'm not sure.


Um, so yeah! XD

Peace out, 2015.

2015. I cannot believe it's already over! **Insert squeal**
How? I feel like just yesterday we started working on our LCC entry!

2015 has been an awesome year, filled with awesome times and fun adventures! Definitely a year of change and learning.

I am thankful for all the times family from GA got to visit us this year and that we were able to fly to GA and visit!
I am thankful for all the things the Lord has been showing me throughout the entire year.
And I am thankful for all the awesome, funny, crazy memories from the summer with our friends.

I am really excited to see what 2016 has in store for me and my family!

Here is a little video I made of 2015 according to my Instagram account. Unfortunately it doesn't have any pictures of our adventures with friends, but that's okay! :)

Click this link to view the video. :)

Well, my friends, this is my last blog post of this year, but I will be back next year! :D :D

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

PS- Random fact: 2015 filled up about 500 pages in my journals. :)