Bad blogger

Hello readers,

I return to being a writer because I have missed blogging that much. It has been more than a year now that I have been postponing writing, even though I have been gathering writing material and have many ideas. I can admit I haven't been able to keep up with many areas of my life but this is going to become my new homework - to revive this blog and fill it with the content that I had originally intended.

I even considered starting afresh a new blog but that would cause everything I've ever posted here to become invaluable. I'd compare this blog to a plant I bought but kept forgetting to water it...but that plant is a cactus so it will live long and survive arid conditions.

I put my writer cap back on, try to communicate using proper english and return to tell you about the world outside your front door. And now, some spam!

Da Rules

This video right here relates a bit to my rant post that I uploaded about a month ago. I literally just watched this video but found it too epic and deep that I just had to share it everywhere! This is really the world outside your front door as I feel a lot of people have no idea the racism in society especially against black people. Eyes need to be opened and though there have been several movements in the past that we all are reminded about during black history month, racism still exists.

  Being black often feels like walking on eggshells, how we have to be so careful not to 'scare' people, how so many stereotypes (stupid and offensive) are always brought to us and how we have to be careful that our 'blackness' or lack of it doesn't offend people. Check out this poem recited by these three young African Americans - Marvin Hodges, Em Allison and Saidu Tejan Thomas. "Da Rules"

In other news, exam period is approaching so busy busy busy I am. I am still having an amazing time preparing for my South Korea trip and am in love with the new Mfbty album "wonderland". 

If you do not know who Mfbty (my fans better than yours) are, they are a project group built up of 3 of the best, most famous, crazy skilled hip hop artists based in South Korea. They created Feel Ghood Music and are Bizzy, Tiger JK and Yoon Mirae (Tasha). Their sound comes from a variety of places and they have lived all over the world (including New Zealand, USA and of course South Korea). Tiger JK and Yoon Mirae, who is half African American, are married and the group is just amazeballs. The song I really recommend is 사랑과 평화 (love & peace) featuring Jeon In Kwon - it has a smooth reggae Maxwell type beat and is the tale of pride in love causing loss, the pain that comes after and realising it is time to apologise.

Best beach in Britain

Este artículo me hace feliz :-)

Manu Chao

In class one day, in 6th form, I had to do a 'fill the gap' and translation task of a song. That song was Clandestino by Manu Chao. A song about the life of illegal immigrants and the law against them. It was a nice different kind of eye opener song.
I then came across the same song a few months later and decided to Youtube the song...leading to coming across a stream of the album 'Clandestino' leading to me becoming addicted to that album. Now I have started to listen to 'Próxima Estación - Esperanza'.

I really enjoy Chao's sound and have never heard anything like it. Chao is a French born musician of Spanish blood and sings in Spanish, French, Portuguese, English, Arabic, Galician and Wolof (yes he is multilingual) and he usually mixes languages in his songs.

His sound carries many genres from punk, rock and French chason to salsa, ska, reggae and Algerian raï.

Chao's lyrics talk about immigration, love, living in ghettos and drugs, and often carry a left-wing message. [1]

One day I will have a proper sit down and listen to his songs whilst reading lyrics before I am nodding along to some nonsense, however I understand quite a lot of the contact as I learn Spanish, French, can understand some Portuguese and obviously know English. I really do recommend listening to his obras. It is somewhat refreshing.

The song of the moment, for me, is 'Me gustas tu':

Me gustan los aviones, me gustas tu. [I like airplanes, I like you]
Me gusta viajar, me gustas tu. [I like to travel, I like you]
Me gusta la mañana, me gustas tu. [I like the morning, I like you]
Me gusta el viento, me gustas tu. [I like the wind, I like you]
Me gusta soñar, me gustas tu. [I like to dream, I like you]
Me gusta la mar, me gustas tu. [I like the sea, I like you]

Que voy a hacer, je ne sais pas. [What am I to do, I don't know]
Que voy a hacer, je ne sais plus. [What am I going to do, I don't know anymore]
Que voy a hacer, je suis perdu. [What I'm gonna do, I'm lost]
Que horas son, mi corazón. [What time is it, my heart]

As you must know, when learning languages music is a big help to become aware of vocabulary and phrases and modern terms and the language you are learning in general. 

2 years!

Wow! I guess sometime this month is my 2 year outsideyourfrontdoor.blogspot.com anniversary. I am not sure the exact date but I am so happy that I was inspired to create this blog. It really helps me organise my thoughts and share them with all you readers and document so many amazing things I have come across and learnt.

Whether you have been reading for two years or two minutes, sincerly, thank you.

I hope I never forget to blog, thank you for reading 😃

English is such a terrible language

And tumblr shows us evidence why on this buzzfeed article. Enjoy this read...or end up really frustrated at how some English grammar and spelling rules make like 0 sense

10 Hardest languages to learn

10 Hardest Languages to Learn
Do you know / learn any of these languages? Do you think it that hard?

Sorry for the hiatus, but... are you ready!

Hello all! I welcome you once again to this blog that I have for a long time been neglecting. This summer has just been THAT crazily busy. Good news only; I got into university! 

University and A-Levels

So I am leaving my home to go study Tourism Management in a lovely lovely place! As I have said in the past, my geography grade has always been disgusting but luckily this year, the geography module that I completely failed last time, I got an A in that module - which was enough for my happiness. Another module I basically failed last time went up to a B grade. The rest of my grades were not as impressive (I was really disappointed by Spanish but I took that exam as a completely broken student...lol)  but I am now moving on from the A-Level world. I would have started my course by this time next week.

Spanish

So I finished learning Spanish in school. My sixth year finished of learning this beautiful language - and as some of you may already know - it will not stop there! I am definitely doing a Spanish module at university and hopefully can do a term abroad in Spain or even a placement year out there...when I get more knowledge on things I will decide; but that is all in the future! I have a friend who is like a sister that has gone to do a year of volunteer work in Peru so I am jealous her level of Spanish will overtake me really soon haha :) but I do wish her the best experience for this next year. I have another friend that studies Spanish at university and has gone to Spain for the year as part of her course . 

I went to my school to say goodbye to some teachers recently and had a really nice conversation with one of my Spanish teachers about keeping the language alive in my life, If anyone here is reading this and is a learner of a language, please remember to keep practicing the language or you will forget things more and more. Utilize it whenever you can! I have tried to keep Spanish alive by watching films in Spanish like 'nueve reinas' and 'perdon si te llamo amor'. I will soon watch 'diarios de motocicleta' which is about famous figure Che Guevara. I also have been listening to a wider range of Spanish / latin music (not just the Shakira I am used to) like 'bachata' and reading articles on 'BBC Mundo'.

There was one day earlier this summer I was on the bus and could hear several people having Spanish conversations in different accents and it was killing me because I automatically go to translate and listen to their conversations as if it is a listening exercise! 

I will try to improve my grammar but I think I am getting better with automatically responding in Spanish!

Korean

I must say I have made progress with Korean, mainly because I surround myself with many Korean things and ways to learn. Another mission I gave myself was to learn the meanings of those little things I do not know in a sentence instead of skipping them and translating the words I am used to; also, enriching my vocabulary and trying a bit harder with grammar. The next thing I need to try is stop mixing Korean and English in sentences when I have no idea what to say - I do speak in very broken sentences sometimes haha. 

Our class 'successfully' carried out our annual Korean event, though there were many difficulties that I will try to forget about (the stress was unbearable)! We filmed our drama parody video, performed a dance, cooked and served food and had a really good time. Our hard work paid off and so thank you to everyone that helped made it possible, my lovely Korean teachers and those certain few unnies and chingus that worked hard.

 

Like with Spanish, I cannot help overhear Korean conversations to test out translation skills. I did visit Korea Town a few times this holiday and on one occasion I was sat next to a father and his daughter. The father was teaching her Korean etiquette like how to wrap the meat in the lettuce, checking if she knew how to hold her chopsticks properly; as he spoke to her in Korean she would reply in English. I just found that situation really cute and funny - especially when the father told her to eat the hot soup slowly saying '천천히' which reminded me of a key line from a sketch from KBS's 'Gag Concert' called 'Hidden Masters'. I was mid conversation with my friend when I had to stop speaking in case I burst out laughing. Anyways, another reason I listen to others speaking their language is in case if they were to say something bad about me and I could surprise them by understanding. I wouldn't be surprised if that happened to anyone as with my friends we use Korean as almost a code (never for bad reasons) but for secret jokes which I find fun, or to warn someone about something in subtle way. 

Other languages

So at the start of summer I gave myself a challenge to also improve my Portuguese, Chinese and French (I am on absolute beginners for Portuguese and Chinese). I have basically done no French, I have not tried to learn anymore Chinese symbols last time but have worked just a tiny bit with Portuguese lol. I did meet a Chinese girl in a Korean class and she was surprised when I knew the meaning of three very basic symbols '男' '天' '美' when we were reading a Korean article about 3 members of Exo on the cover or a Hong Kong fashion magazine. With Portuguese I just have worked with my pronunciation and try to recognize the words that are similar in Spanish and French. I find that really fun and I just listen to my Portuguese music :)

I resumed reading my book about North Korea 'Nothing To Loose' and my Bible in Spanish. Still many more updates to happen...once I find the time in my busy schedule, but thank you for reading! See you soon!

Posts coming soon!

I have a lot to say and a lot to do. I have not blogged since the start of the summer and now the summer has almost ended! I will try my best to update pages as well and I also have new ideas haha...we will see if they will be unveiled soon!

A tiny greeting with a link

I have done it. I have entered the dreaded exam season. I had my first Geography exam on Monday and it went better that last years. The next is on Friday and then I have my 4 A2 exams after in June for English Literature, Geography and Spanish. Freedom arrives in exactly 1 month and 1 day! Then I am free to fix up this blog (which truthfully I have been neglecting since I started haha).

I am preparing for the annual Korean Event that my class hosts as I self-nomitated myself onto the organiser committee (no one else was going to do it!) It should take place mid July before the Summer break.

I feel my Spanish improved in my 15 hour Easter workshop over the 7 days I spent in Spain! I had my oral exam not too long ago and I feel more confident speaking. I really hope to do well with Spanish. To think I almost didn't take the subject for A-Level; now it has it's special area in my heart! You get out what you put in eh! If I do well with all my exams...or at least get into the university of my choice I will be over the moon! Results day is in exactly 3 months; a scary thought! I will be back to greet my readers whoever you are eventually. Until then, be well and do well and check out this interesting article below!

The visual contrast between Korea - North and South

I made a new page...again!

Photo Page!
I put my pictures from my Valladolid trip onto this page! I will update it more frequently. I thought the homepage looked a bit messy so the pictures are here now!