7 BENEFITS OF LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

These days, it’s easier than ever to teach yourself something. Learning materials are quickly accessible, from YouTube videos to books and smartphone apps. You can go school (or college), but it’s possible to teach yourself certain subjects at home. The only hard decision is choosing what to learn.

One subject you can study that will have positive effects on your life is a foreign language. It doesn’t matter which one you pick. Learning a second (or third) language has various personal, professional, and cognitive benefits. And it’s something that you can definitely learn on your own. Having a teacher helps, but it’s not indispensable. Learning a new language doesn’t have to be a major time commitment, either. Experts agree that even 30 minutes of active learning per day go a long way. If you can spare time to peruse Instagram and Facebook, you can spare time to learn something. Here are 7 benefits of learning a new language:

BOOK REVIEW: FLEE BY J.A. KONRATH & ANN VOSS PETERSON

Title: Flee
Author: J.A. Konrath, Ann Voss Peterson
Genre: Thriller
Published on: February 22, 2011, self-published

CODENAME: CHANDLER

She's an elite spy, working for an agency so secret only three people know it exists. Trained by the best of the best, she has honed her body, her instincts, and her intellect to become the perfect weapon.

FLEE

Then her cover is explosively blown, and she becomes a walking bulls-eye. Stalked by assassins who want the secrets she holds, and those who'd prefer she die before talking.

Now Chandler has twenty-four hours to thwart a kidnapping, stop a psychopath, uncover the mystery of her past, retire five equally-trained contract killers, avoid a tenacious cop named Jack Daniels, and save the world from nuclear annihilation, all while dodging 10,000 bullets.

Buckle up. It's going to be one helluva ride. 

If I had only one thing to say about this book, it would be wow! This was like an action thriller movie in book form. There were so many action scenes and adrenaline that you can barely catch your breath. Flee will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat.

Flee’s protagonist is an elite super-spy known only as Chandler. According to the synopsis, she works for a government agency so secret only three people know it exists. They have trained Chandler to the peak of human endurance and taught her a wide array of stuff. This goes from martial arts to survival to world languages and sharpshooting. We meet Chandler moments before her cover is blown. Things snowball from there, and Chandler is soon unable to even count on her handler. Chandler has never tackled a mission alone.

AN OVERVIEW OF ONLINE CLOUD STORAGE

For the better part of last decade, the Cloud has become a very popular technology. Even if you don’t know what it is, you’ve likely already heard of it. The “Cloud” refers to online services that let you store your digital files to avoid losing them. The companies offering these services have their own servers, which they keep in secure locations. These servers have iron-solid protection against physical and cybernetic threats.

Perhaps one of the best-known cloud storage services is Dropbox. It was one of the first to become available for average users. The creators envisioned it as a convenient alternative to USB flash drives. Today, there are several more options to choose from. Most of these cloud services offer basically the same features. Prices vary too, aimed either at regular consumers or business users. Cloud storage services work on almost all computer platforms and smartphones, too.

BOOK REVIEW: LOST IN YOU BY HEIDI MCLAUGHLIN

Title: Lost In You
Author: Heidi McLaughlin
Genre: New Adult, romance

Published on: May 5, 2013, self-published

Ryan Stone is a less than average teenager. He doesn’t have fancy clothes. He doesn’t carry around the latest smartphone and he definitely doesn’t have an MP3 player. Instead, he goes to school, does his chores and dreams of a new life away from Brookfield where he’s expected to follow in his blue collar family’s footsteps.

Hadley Carter is America’s Pop Princess. A successful recording artist living her dream with a sold-out tour and a handful of Grammy’s there isn’t much that she wants for, except love. But finding love on the road is near impossible when all she longs for are romantic dinners, a nighttime stroll on the beach and holding hands with someone who isn’t going to exploit her.

When a chance encounter introduces Ryan to Hadley, will he be like her adoring fans looking for a way in, or will it be Hadley who pursues Ryan even though it might cost her the only career she's known.

Lost in You is a story about following your dreams, taking risks and getting lost in love

Is there a guy out there without a celebrity crush? There’s something about movie stars and pop singers that we find appealing. They’re not only attractive, they’re…admirable in a role model way. What if you had a chance to meet one of them? As for me, I’d die happy if I were to meet Dakota Fanning or Lily Collins in real life. They’re incredibly gorgeous.

That’s sort of the premise of this book. The main character, Ryan Stone, couldn’t be more average if his life depended on it. He’s pretty much unremarkable. Ryan also doesn’t own a smartphone, or even an iPod. He lives in the small town of Brookfield, wishing for graduation to come so he can leave. As if that wasn’t enough, Ryan’s parents hardly care about him. Ryan is particularly wary about his father, who's the definition of ‘strict’.

LES CHOSES QUI ONT INSPIRÉ MON APPRENTISSAGE DES LANGUES

Image par Tessa Kavanagh de Pixabay

Hello! This is the French translation of my post from last Friday. I will be doing this with future blog posts as well. I intended to start with my post on Windows computers, but I'm not familiar with tech terms in French. That means I'll only translate some posts that aren't tech-related.

Bonjour ! Je suis de retour avec ce dernier post du mois. J’ai pas toujours écrit un post sur les langues, donc j'ai décidé de couvrir ce sujet. C'est l'un des trois sujets principaux de mon blog. Aujourd'hui je vais écrire sur mon parcours d'apprentissage des langues et comment j’ai commencé. Je ne vais pas offrir des astuces tout de suite. Ça sera réserve pour des articles futurs.