Learning a new language over the summer is always a great way to be productive and is a great use of your time. Here are some tips on how you can get started:

1. Start with a goal.

It can be hard to start to motivate yourself to start learning a language, which can be strenuous. So to start off, making a goal or plan with realistic and specific timelines to discipline yourself can be a great idea.

2. Learn the basics.

When you are learning a language, you should start with the roots of it, no matter how intimidating it sounds. For example, maybe start learning the verbs and what they mean to make sure you know the fundamentals of the language before exploring into more difficult tasks such as speaking it.

3. Learn Common Words.

After you get familiar with the verbs, you can get started on learning the common phrases in the language. Learning to say “hello” or “how are you” as well as saying “I am fine” and “thank you” can be great starting points.

4. Consume Media & Engage With that Culture.

After you begin to understand more of the language and how to speak it, a more interesting form of learning the language can come from looking at the media of that culture. That may come from watching a movie in that language or even trying to connect with the other more fluent speakers of that language.

5. Keep Practicing & Continue Learning More.

Once you start becoming confident with that language, it is important to keep with it and not lose touch. Always remain true to your goals and keep practicing the language- once you are completely confident, you can eventually make it to the point to start advanced parts such as to read and writing the language.

The key to learning a new language is to be disciplined with your goals, to preserve through this difficult task of learning, and to enjoy this process. Bonne Chance!

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As Pride Month comes to an end. Here is what pride means to me. Regardless of whether you’re part of the community or not, this is why I think pride month is crucial for our societal developmental growth.

Safety and belonging in streets

I feel like cisgender people tend to regard the privileges’ they have in todays society. To me, cisgender people usually lack the acknowledgement that they wont ever face discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation. For example, only 29 countries out of the 195 countries in the the world legalized same sex marriage.  So Pride to me means safety and belonging, it means that every person regardless of their sexual orientation feels safe in public. feels comfortable, regardless of what country they live in, feels they have the same rights as every other straight person in the world, and just feel a sense of belonging from their loved ones and their community.

Safety from Hate Crimes

This kind of correlates with the title above, but pride to me means that every person has the right to live in our world safely without ever getting hate-crimed, for purely living. Pride month is a celebration of all the amazing hard efforts our ancestors put in to give us a better opportunities and a safer life. people should never die on the basis of who they love. Although the past can not be reversed (For all the lgbtq+ members who died) it can be improved. I believe it should be improved.

Safety At Schools

Pride means that every person regardless of who they are wont and get bullied at school for literally being a minority. Like come on its the 21st century we shouldn’t be bullying someone because their different than the group. As social media became more popular, it also became vital place for teens to bully their classmates. So pride to me means that they wont get bullied. It means that regardless of you’re opinion on the lgbtq+ community, you leave them alone. because at the end of the day words sting, and will stay with us for the rest of our lives. Like for example, a couple of years ago I wore a dress to picture day, (it was the first time I ever wore a dress to this new school) I was feeling really insecure that day, and while we waited for our pictures to be taken, I had a male friend tell me “you look pregnant,” that was followed by a bunch of giggles from my “friends.” I was mad, (obviously) so I confronted him but that was followed by “Its a joke.” so after that day, I went home and threw out the dress. And it has been over three years, and only this year have a worn a dress in public, and its been over two and a half years since I even owned a dress, (this year I bought a dress) this just shows that words hurt. That day what my friend told me, led me on an endless spiral of whether I was deemed worthy, and to me, and many girls being deemed worthy was being a size 00 I was a size 0 so I felt worthless. So pride to me means that regardless of what your sexual orientation is, or who you are, you won’t and should never get harassed on the the basis of who you are.

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Recently I’ve been contemplating whether the phrase ‘treating others how you want to be treated’ is valuable. So here are some reasons I think treating others how you want to be treated is beneficial.

1. It leaves people thinking. For example, recently I’ve been treating everyone at my school, in public, etc. how I would want to be treated. For me, I would want people to be socially aware of what could be going on in my life. Typically when I am stressed I  seem mad, distant, and mean. I know this is not good, (I’m working on it), but if I was, I would want someone to ask me if i was okay, or just leave me alone. Not like how usually people treat me such as “must be her time of the month” or “why are you acting like this?!?!” or just straight up giving me a dirty look.
2. You don’t know what people are going though. I feel like this is the most valid point. I won’t ever know what anyone is going though, so I found that no matter how mean someone is to me, it usually is due to some underlining problem that they could have. It’s not their fault. I’m a teenager, all teenagers are trying to do is figure themselves out, and unwrap the underlining problems of their ancestors, or just of the environment they grew up in.
3. It could better their day. I recently been more smiley and outgoing. i.e. If we made eye contact i would smile (which not a lot of teenagers do) and usually I found that it made my classmates day. Just giving them a simple compliment such as “I like  your shirt” made such a big impact on their life. For example, my friend recently got complimented on his outfit by a worker at Calaway, and he was overjoyed. He mentions it every now and then, as well as saying “that’s the first time anyone ever complimented my whole outfit.” Now opposed to me, I get compliments on my outfit, my hair, my smile daily. It doesn’t better my day as much as his. So treating others how you want to be treated could in end better their day, and who doesn’t like bettering someone’s day?

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