Showing posts with label Language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Language. Show all posts

Thursday, 23 May 2013

Getting the Most out of Language Perfect

It's halfway through the Language Perfect World Championships and there has already been more than 70 million questions answered! Today I just want to write about how you can get the most out of this awesome resource. There are many things you can do to get the most out of Language Perfect in your studies, with your friends and for recreation. Language Perfect really is an awesome resource for all LOTE students and I recommend it to all schools to get involved. It actually does improve test scores and it becomes a competition between students to a point where they forget that they are actually learning. Language Perfect really is your unfair advantage.


Studying for a LOTE subject? Language Perfect is the site for you. There are so many different languages on this site so whether you are studying Japanese, Chinese, French or Italian there are lists for you to study. Often if you have a school that signed you up you will have the words from your textbook loaded under your language and so if you have a test you can often just study the lists for these subjects. However, there are times when you may only need to know a few words from this list and so on the home page where it tells you your scores there is a yellow box that says edit lists and from here you can search for the words you need to learn and add them to your own list which you can name and save. This way you can study only the words you need to know and not the extra vocab that you would find in the textbook. I use this a lot when I am studying for vocab tests in French and it helps me so much that I rarely get more than two words wrong and usually get full marks. So next time you want a fun technique to study, look no further than Language Perfect.


Language Perfect is also a great resource to use with friends. My own friendship group actually use Language Perfect a lot and it is one of the things that link us together. It is something that we can talk about such as who is beating who and who has done which list. It has just become something that we have become accustomed to. The best way to use Language Perfect with friends is to set goals for each to achieve such as earning 1000 points and the first person to do this will win. Another way to do this is to set a list and the first person to finish it wins. Working with friends is also a good thing because you enjoy yourself so much that you actually forget that what you are doing is study. At first, Language Perfect seemed more of a tedious task but since working with friends it has become a lot more enjoyable. It just goes to show that doing things in groups can be a whole lot better than individually.

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Language Perfect is not just a study tool but also something to be used for recreation. Look at all the people already on 18, 000 points in just 4 days! These people must really enjoy Language Perfect and they are not alone. I too use Language Perfect for recreation and it really is just fun to get that extra thousand points and a certificate for the trouble. It can be so fun that you do not even realise you are learning new vocabulary. Just through trying to get points I have learnt just as many new words as I have revised old ones. To get the most out of recreation on Language Perfect I suggest having a look around at all the different languages to find one you might enjoy learning. It doesn't have to be the one you are studying in class. Just this year I have looked at Italian, Japanese, Maori, Latin and French when I only actually study one of these at school. So do not forget that just because something sounds like a study tool does not mean it cannot be used for fun as well.


May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!

Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Competition

Competition can be a good thing as well as a bad thing. It can be used to motivate people to aim for something higher. It could even be used as an incentive such as if you do this you will beat that person you have always wanted to beat. However, it can also be used as a de-motivator and can sometimes cause more harm than good. Sometimes too much competition can lead to psychological issues which are certainly not good.

Competition is one of the best motivators around. It acts as an incentive for someone to do something just for that thrill they get when they win or beat someone. Sometimes we have people we have never been able to beat and so when the opportunity arises to change this, we take it. I know some people who wouldn't do something unless it meant beating someone. A good example of this is my friend Xavier and Language Perfect. Xavier is obsessed (and I mean me to Hunger Games obsessed) with beating me in Language Perfect. Even though he cannot access it from home he still spends hours during school to gain points. Currently he is beating me but by a very small margin so I will overcome him pretty shortly. So competition can be used as something to motivate a person to do something, it is quite an effective motivator as well.


However good competition may be too much of a good thing often leads to a bad thing. Too much competition can have a big effect on a person's life. Sometimes competition can even control their lives to the point where things are being ignored just so that they can beat that one person they have always wanted to beat. Again, I use Xavier and Language Perfect as an example. Xavier, as he is unable to go on at home, has to go on during school and this does not mean just lunch time and recess. He does it during class time which means he is missing out on prime revision material (it's revision week for us) which could have a negative impact on his exam scores next week. Other cases of competition being a bad thing is for those around the person (or even the person themselves) who might develop psychological issues from this competition such as trauma, obsession or depression. So no matter how good competition may be, too much is not good. Competition is very important but we need to keep careful watch on how much competition we have. Some competition is good but too much is bad.


May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!