What I'm Reading This Winter

Hello dear readers, how are you all feeling today? I've been having a pretty good holiday so far - been shopping, went to see the Minions movie with my friend, been working on getting my etsy store up and running, and have been thinking up ideas for Camp NaNoWriMo in July. All in all, it's actually been pretty busy. And in other news, I'm excited for tomorrow because I'm going out for a lovely birthday lunch with a friend!

Anyway, I can't say enough how great it is to be on holidays until August. University is really tough, but you've got to admit, it makes up for it with all the breaks we get! Over the semester, I find that I don't get a lot of time for recreational reading. The books I want to read for my own enjoyment get pushed back by mountains of journal articles and textbooks, so these holidays I'm going to try and focus a good amount of my time off to progressing through my reading list. The three things currently at the top of this list are...

1. A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

I have been meaning to read this books for YEARS now, but it's just one of those things I've never gotten around to.

2. The July/August issue of Frankie

Who doesn't love Frankie?!

3. The Miniaturist, by Jessie Burton

This is a book my mum got me a couple of months ago. I have already started reading it, and it's pretty good so far, but I plan to finish it over these holidays.

As you can see, even Storm is interested in reading with me! Let me know what books/reading material you would recommend, or what books you are reading at the moment!

On Learning Dutch

My family on my father's side are all from the Netherlands, and for the last few years I have been really wanting to learn Dutch, but just haven't truly summoned the courage until recently. When we lived in the UK, we visited Holland several times, and I don't remember a lot of what we got up to, but the memories I do have are fond ones - going to the cheese market in Gouda, visiting historic sites, eating sooo many Stroopwafels and Speculaas... I would really love to be able to go back again someday, and be able to speak the language as well.

Resources I am using to learn Dutch:

• Duo Lingo - a lot of you probably know about this site already, but in case you don't, you can go on, create an account, and learn a whole variety of languages for free! I'm currently using it for Dutch and German.
• Future Learn - I'm currently taking part in a (free) 3 week Dutch course, which has been really helping out my speaking skills. It's not quite the same as being able to learn face-to-face, but it's giving me a good start, especially on pronunciation and day-to-day language skills.
• Quizlet - This place is a lifesaver for learning vocabulary! Whether you make your own flashcards, or search for sets that others have made, it has had great benefits for me.

Of course, there are many other resources you can use, the ones I listed are simply the ones I have found to be the most useful, informative, and easy to use.

Now, I'll be honest with you - after learning German for 6+ years, trying to learn Dutch is very hard, and I get the two languages mixed up A LOT! As one might imagine, this does admittedly, lead to some rather awkward situations. However, I also find the similarities between the two languages to be helpful, and I think that already knowing so much German helped me learn words and grammar faster as well.

I have such a great passion for learning languages, and although my schedule is going to be busy next semester with university, my friend and I are looking to do a class or two in Auslan (Australian Sign Language). So, we'll see how that turns out, and hopefully it will be much harder to mix up with the other languages I'm taking!

Apologies for the shorter post today, I've been a little short on time recently what with studying for exams and all, but my last exam is this wednesday, so things will be back to normal soon!