20 Secrets To Surviving In Your First Semester At University or College

By admin On June 30th, 2011

Arriving at university or college will be daunting for everyone. For many it may mean living away from the parental home for the first time, which on it’s own may be daunting enough. You will most likely have a hundred questions and a hundred fears; what will it be like? Can I cope with the workload? Will I be able to fit in? It may help to know that everyone will be feeling similar, though some may hide it better than others.

Invariably the vast majority of freshers will be pleasantly surprised. The University or College will be populated by a broad variety of people, from many walks of life with a diverse range of outlooks and opinions. Look beyond the initial confines of your college, house or dorm, the establishment will have many more people who will share similar interests to yourself. Some of the tips we have received from other students:

1. Meet as many people as you can, introduce yourself, smile and be confident. Everyone is in the same boat whether he or she appears to be or not.

2. Be yourself. Real friends will want to know you for who you are, warts and all!

3. Keep your opinions about others to yourself until you know whom you can trust

4. Take your washing to the laundry. Don’t save it all up to take back home to mum at the hols. She really won’t want five minging black bags to see to.

5. Have a good time

6. Join a few societies at first week fairs. If you’re not sure it’s for you but are interested take note of an e-mail/ contact address to get more details later. Its sometimes hard to find the right contacts later, it’s a big place.

7. Phone home and let your family know you’re all right, (even if you don’t exactly feel it). They’re probably more worried than you are.

8. Everyone feels at least a little homesick at first, and worried or just on a down. Talk to new friends you feel you can trust, and maybe write/call friends at home.

9. You’re at Uni for a few years, make the most of it, it’s over before you know it. Then you’ll miss the freedom and long holidays.
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4 Tips For Learning Any Foreign Language Faster

By admin On June 30th, 2011

For many people, the idea of learning a foreign language is both exciting and intimidating, especially if the thought brings back memories of learning a second language in middle school or high school.

The truth is that learning a foreign language is a lot easier than most people expect particularly if you follow these tips which I have discovered after a lifetime of helping other people learn everything from Japanese and Arabic to German and French.

1. Make mistakes. The way to learn a new language is by making errors. That‘s right; your success will come from repeatedly failing. Give yourself permission to make mistakes and you will learn more than you ever dreamed possible.

2. Look for words your native tongue has in common with the new language you want to learn. For example, the word for American is Americano in Spanish, Américain in French and Americano in Italian and Portuguese. Interesting is interesante in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese and interessant in French. The words for chocolate and café also fit this pattern. Recognizing words that are familiar to you will help you build your new vocabulary faster.

3. Take chances. When you attempt to speak a foreign language you run the risk of not being understood but this is a risk worth taking. After all, it is better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly! And when you visit another country you will find that the native speakers will appreciate your attempts to communicate in their language–even if you make a mistake or two.
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We Live In A System Of Beliefs

By admin On June 28th, 2011

The following article about beliefs is just an expression of my thoughts. It is certainly not definitive.

In my opinion, we live our life on the basis of beliefs. We, literally live in a huge belief system. So seamlessly integrated (into our world) are some beliefs that most people assume that they are natural and accepted them without questioning.

The very act of reading this article is belief-based, because the very construct that is formed in your head now is conceptual & of the thinking mind. Perhaps, what really is does not just exist as concepts, but also exists in the NOW as experience. Although one is able to describe or conceptualize a truth, the conceptualization is itself a thought.

Beliefs can be very powerful, especially when the majority of the population buys into it. Sometime a certain belief when set in motion, causes catalytic reactions, triggering the formation of yet other beliefs. Gradually, layers upon layers of beliefs mire directness and truth. So thickly laden with beliefs and far removed from the original spontaneity that life becomes unnecessarily complex and ritualized.

Major beliefs operating in our world are:

Identification of self with physical body.
When in actual fact, we are much more than that. This belief can be very difficult to un-ravel. And it takes many series of self-discovery to realize our true nature. The entire scope of this belief is beyond what can be expressed within this article. So I will leave it as that.

War.
War is borne out of beliefs that justify aggression to others that is participated by large groups. War itself is a belief, because nature and animals do not engage in it. Only humans do it, because it was conceived in the human mind, and it isn’t natural or essential to human conditions. Military is an offshoot borne from War

Money buys happiness.
A belief that most thought of as true is that money gives one happiness. Happiness does not need money to fulfill, one merely made oneself believe so! The concept of Money set in motion the belief in status, status breeds competition, competition breeds the rat race, rat race cause one to slog a life time working and eventually few remembered the original purpose of life was for joy and fulfillment.
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Amazing New Hubble Pics

By admin On June 26th, 2011

New Hubble pics – how exciting! The latest of the new Hubble pics is of a black hole, which they’ve captioned as being in need of a home.

To get these new Hubble pics a team of astronomers, all from Europe, combined the power of the Hubble Space Telescope with that of the VLT (Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Cerro Paranal.

The new Hubble telescope pics are of a bright quasar that has no discernible host galaxy. The new pics show several quasars, strong radiation sources. The astronomers honed in on these quasars to study them by way of the Hubble because they know that quasars are often associated with active black holes. Only one of the many quasars they found delivered a black hole without a galaxy. Thus the new Hubble telescope pics.

Other new pics show the other quasars that these European astronomers found. In one you can clearly see the black hole’s host galaxy with its large spiraling tendrils.
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