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Best Resources for Learning Another Language

Jim Ross: Are you biliginual?
Triple H:There are many bi things I am JR but linguals not one of them. Wait did I just mean to say that?
Jim Ross:I don’t think you did, but be that as it may, we’re live
King of the Ring 98

INTRODUCTION
When I was in middle school they gave us one of two choices to learn a second language. Spanish or French were the only two things you could pick from. Now, in Salem, there used to be a major French population, but that dwindled by the time I was born. Salem, Massachusetts was high in Puerto Ricans when I was growing up, so I opted for Spanish, since this would be a more practical language to use, plus it would allow for more immersion as well as better job opportunities abroad. You took 2 years in middle school and 4 years in high school, if you passed the middle school aspect. This is way too long to be teaching a language and for some people it is too short to be able to learn a language. I always hopped for a better way, especially as a autodidactic person. Sadly, books were never enough to just learn a language and most programs were and are uber expensive. I still think Rosetta Stone is too costly, even coming down in price from the $500+ dollars in my late teens and early twenties to about $200ish. That said, it is a worthwhile program to use, if you can get past the initial price tag. So recently, I set out to use Duolingo to learn German and search for other resources that would supplement its use. Here is a review of the best resources to use in learning another language.

BEST RESOURCES
Duolingo is amazing and fun. It makes learning the language a breeze and helps to cement thing in better than just rote memorization. This isn’t without its faults though as it will only get you so far in your target language. The Duolingo plus is alright but relatively expensive for what you get, which is just no ads and the ability to repair streaks. If you pay the monthly until you’re finish, you’ll be all set.

LingoDeer is much like Duo but with a deer mascot and it is just as fun, but I wouldn’t say better than Duolingo. Its best aspect is in price point, for less than a year’s service on Duolingo, you can have lifetime access to everything and this, I believe, extends to all languages you could learn.

Busuu is amazing for learning a language as they have people who actually speak your target language which can help you with pronunciation. It is more like a helpful social media than an app. Included with the service is McGrawhill certification, which, if you didn’t know, if you’re American, made all the textbooks you used in school growing up, so the certification is worth more than you’ll pay for the service and probably far cheaper than most others you could get from anything else and with such a trusted name in education, well worth the price.

Clozemaster is another great resource to learn but I don’t think it is overly helpful past Duolingo or LingoDeer unless you’re willing to pay for the service. It is alright but not the most amazing way.

YouTube is surprising more amazing with learning a language than it is for anything else. The majority of teachers are well worth paying for and very helpful. In fact, I would go so far and say this is the most helpful and useful of online communities on Youtube. Worth spending your money on any and all and even the weaker channels tend to offer great content.

Idiots/Dummies guide
I have both idiots and dummies guides and I think the Dummies guides are way better than the Idiots guides. This things have been around for years and with their trademark wit and humor, they’re a great resource for anything one could desire to learn.

Collegiate dictionary is a must due to the amazing amount of words they have. Some can be expensive, but their digital counterparts are often very cheaper and well worth the investment.

Amazon is fantastic for digital books as it can offer thousands of no to low cost books to buy to help you learn the language. Add in the aforementioned dictionary and you will be learning new words in no time.

Twitter may not seem like it, but it is an amazing resource that gives you access to native speakers all over the world, not to mention thousands of brands in the country of desire. Well worth using to see updates in your Twitter feed daily to help you learn.

Fluent forever is a book which, isn’t really mind blowing as he basically just explains a lot of techniques that the accidents civilizations used in order to remember better, personal connections to make remembering words easier for you. It isn’t a bad book and for those of you that may have never read the ancient philosophers or went to college, this book will be gold for you in helping you out.

Conclusion
Learning a second language is fun and worthwhile endevenor and the ability for everyone to learn one at their desired pace is exquisitely amazing in today’s age. We’re afford so many luxuries that our ancestors could only dream of and there is really no reason to give it a go and with the resources provided above, it shouldn’t be too difficult for anyone of any age to accomplish.

Ich wünscht du glück in learnen ein zweiten sprache!

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Minor corrections to the text 31 July 2019 10:01

Halloween: A movie review of Blumhouse’s H40

Introduction

I don’t want to start off with the typical cliché of the fact that the Halloween movies are 40 years old at this point and go through all the old bullshit about how so many movies have been made, including the remake and all that other fun stuff. I’m going straight to the point and talk about the fact that this is the movie people have a wanting for a long time.

Synopsis / Plot

Michael Myers breaks out of sanitarium, terrorizing Haddonfield, 40 years to the day of the original babysitter murders.

Characters

The characters are only kind developed but once we get into the bottom below where I praise the acting you can find yourself being like well, the acting makes up for only so-so character development.

Acting

I think it’s spot-on even from the most bit characters, which is a new trend in Hollywood that has been happening the last couple years, which I find to be an extremely interesting and very much a pleasurable thing. Backround characters are treated as something of note. The annoying aspect of background characters being bad actors always make for a weak movie and this is definitely moving in the right direction from all those old sequels.

Kills

I highly enjoyed all of the kills. Now, none of them are particularly interesting, you’ve seen things like this before but I enjoyed that because lately, especially with the Saw movies, Hollywood has been getting very over-the-top with their kills in horror movies and it’s ultimately destroying the entire horror industry. None of it is scary, and it’s absurd as I pointed out. This movie got it right! it had some up front and personal kills mixed with the Quentin Tarantino aspect of shying away from showing everything but letting you build it up in your mind. This is the right way to do a movie! Afterthought on this: a lot of people complained about the infant crying after his mom was killed was a missed opportunity. I disagree, it was more brutal than a kill would of been. A newborn left to fend for itself is 10x more evil than stabbing it.

Subtext

None of note but we don’t need that in this movie.

Conclusion

Most of her critics were completely wrong about this movie. I find the gripes to be unfounded. A lot of people came away from this with a version of the Mandela effect because they aren’t remembering it correctly. They still entitled to their opinion but they really should have bothered to have paid more attention in my mind. The acting was superb, the Kills were nothing new but still decent, the characters were okay but the acting more than made up for it, the tension was there, which lately is a new trend, is actually great. My only real gripe is super nitpicky, with one exception, most of the actors in this movie are hot but just kind of mediocre looking. Not a single one is overly photogenic, which is weird for Hollywood, but I don’t see anything wrong with hiring Hot or ugly people, even in horror movies, provided they can act. it works because all these people can act even if they’re not all Brad Pitt and I’m okay with this trend overall. Ultimately Halloween hits on all the right notes and is really done a great fan service 40 years later. In my mind Laurie Strode was done well, so much better than H2O or Halloween resurrection. This is the movie that I’ve been waiting to see since I was a kid.

Over all this movie gets 4 out of 5 stars and I hope it gets a sequel ASAP.

Heffalumps and Woozles: A Review of Stephen King’s book, IT

     32 years ago, a book was released by a pretty well-known writer. The book was called IT and the author is Stephen King. Maybe you heard of him? Stephen King is the guy who wrote fantastic books like Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shinning and The Stand. When it comes to his early professional works, 1974-1980, King really knew what he was doing. He developed great characters, top tier concepts, vivid but accessible prose and took on subjects like an author of Literature.

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The Shining:Book Review

     I grew up loving the horror genre. I saw all the classic films growing up from each decade and imbibed on the words of many a classic horror novel as well. To say I love horror would be a severe understatement. I had toy caskets in my room and one pewter casket in my room from a trip to Nashua, New Hampshire and a stop at Headlines. I love mask, having gone as multiple horror characters over the years. I’ve been Freddy Kruger twice, I’ve been Ghostface from Scream, I had he haunted mask from Goosebumps, which was also my two favorite of the series.

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Cubanacan Mederos

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Tabacallera Serrano

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