Learning multiple foreign languages- help please!!

Hi guys! I would really value your opinions on my topic here!!


I am currently trying to learn German from scratch by myself (from books and a vocab CD), and am also revising Middle Egyptian and need to start revising French soon, too.
I am finding that it gets a bit overwhelming and confusing learning (or revising) more than one language simultaneously. Especially when there are different rules in the grammar between the languages, I am worried that I will get confused over which rules apply to which language! So I am wondering whether those of you who have learnt multiple (2+ foreign languages) recommend learning just 1 at a time, or is there another method you can recommend?

Some background:
Until Year 10, my schools didn't teach languages well. They didn't teach us language properly, whether it was French or English language classes (rather than English Literature classes), and although I was above my age-range in my reading level and loved creative writing, I couldn't tell you what an adjective or a verb was! In French (and then in Spanish in Year 9), all we learnt was (mostly useless) set phrases "Je joue au foot", "J'aime mon chat" etc.

Then, just before Year 10, my family and I moved to France. Although I went to an International School, where the main language was English (even the Spanish, French, Italian etc students had to speak English to attend this school), in French classes we weren't allowed to speak English at all. My poor French teacher had to deal with lots of different-level (beginner to almost fluent) French-as-a-foreign-language students, so the classes weren't custom-made for me, but I loved learning it, in particular the grammar. I wasn't brilliant at French, but the grammatical skills I learnt in French class at school in Years 10-11, and in Years 12 and 13 (French A-Level) in school back in the UK set the foundations for me to be able to learn other languages.

In my undergraduate university degree, we had to learn Middle Egyptian (Hieroglyphs), which obviously you can't exactly have a GCSE or A-Level in as a foundation! We had excellent teachers, world experts, who have literally written the book on it! It was so much fun to learn, and being a very different language to either English or French (obviously), that added an extra layer of challenge to it! At the start of my MA, I also learnt Old Egyptian (which has slightly different grammatical rules to Middle Egyptian). In my university degrees, I really learnt HOW to learn a language.


I am trying to teach myself German, because along with French, it is one of the primary languages of Egyptology. I am learning it from books (I have an amazing German grammar book), and also have a cheap CD from Aldi with German vocab, which I will mainly use to help me learn how to pronounce German words. I'm also revising Middle Egyptian and should start revising French too soon!
I'm not struggling to learn or revise these languages, and I don't need something like Rosetta Stone (wayyyy too expensive!!). I just want to know whether I should only learn one at once- which I am reluctant to do, because I think if I postpone learning one, I will never get back into it- or if there is another way to separate them in my mind, so I don't get confused with them!!

So what do you think?

Thanks!!

Lists, lists, and more lists!!

Does anyone else find that their life (i.e. Filofax) condenses down to a long series of lists?
This is what I am finding more and more as I look through my Filofax.

I have to say, my Filo is the most developed and mature it has been for a while. This is mostly in my 2nd section, 'Organisation', because since I restarted using my Filofaxes around Christmas (after all my planner fail) I have tried hard to get my life sorted inside my Filofax, and the way I naturally do that is to write many lists!. I also stopped splitting things between my filos, for example I had lists in both my personal which I use on a daily basis, and my A5 Purple Malden which I hadn't opened for months!!!, so I decided to put them into my life-in-one-place personal. I also made an effort to get other things down on paper that were floating about in my head, that needed to be written down, in order for me to maintain my sanity!!

I LOVE lists- I think very linearly, so they really help me to get my thoughts on paper. And most importantly, they really work for me!

Here's a list of the lists!! that I have in my filo:

• A list of the sort of things I should include in my Organisation section 

• My 2013 resolutions 

Not finished yet

• A rough list of my 2013 goals (still in progress of deciding what they should be)
• A diagram of how I should break my yearly goals down into weekly tasks (not really a list!)

• A list of my morning routine actions
• My night routine actions
• A list of monthly recurring tasks to help me in planning my monthly actions
• Things to consider putting into my weekly planning in my Plannerisms planner
• A list of things to do when doing my daily 10 minutes of quick tidying in my room
• My master to-do list
• January to February goal of sorting my room out- list of things to do
• A quick list of my projects
• A list of next actions for sorting out my itunes
• A list of things that are currently in process/in progress
• A list of things that I must keep in mind or remember
• A list of things that are currently on my mind (so I can brain dump and not worry about them!)
• Waiting For list
• The ubiquitous shopping list!
• Wish list (things I want but shouldn't buy yet!)
• A list of blog post ideas/posts to do
• Vlogs to do
• My bucket list

Definitely a work-in-progress! I'm leaving room for other things

• Books I want to read
• Recommendations of books from other people
• Favourite books/series/authors
• A list of my favourite TV programmes
• TV programmes to check out
• A list of fun things to do when I am bored
• A list of wages from my old job, to check against my bank balance
• A list of things to do when I go to London!

And then in my Reference section I even have a list of things to consider taking with me when I leave the house, and other stuff like that!

So my life really does condense down to lists!

But I also realise that lists, lists and more lists wouldn't work for me for daily planning. I am the sort of person who stops seeing/reading things when they look boring or the same every day. So if I were just to rely on all of my lists to get me to do what I need to do (such as just looking at my master to-do list for things I should do today), I would ignore them all, and instead do what I want!

I am also the sort of person who needs some sort of time reference for my day. I can easily lose hours of my day by being engrossed in something, not realising where my day has gone, and therefore not getting the stuff done in the time I should have done it in! As I have a linear brain, I find the best tool for me to organise my time is a diary insert with appointment slots. This means that I can visualise my time, when to do the things I need to do, and when  I have free time in between those things in which I can do the things I want to do!

I use DPP inserts because although I have a set of 2013 WO2P with appointment slots, there isn't enough space on them, they only go up to 4pm, and they don't have appointment slots for the weekend. The reason I don't use regular WO2P is that I know it would just turn into a day space filled with lists, and no time reference, so it would just turn to mush in my brain!

I do make lists (to-dos) on my DPP, in the right-hand column, but the most important thing for me, to actually make me get things done, is to schedule a time to do them in the appointment slots, or at least in the general time frame (early afternoon, late evening etc).

I sometimes don't stick to these appointment time slots, but at least if I have them written down and visible, it shows me that I don't have all the time in the world to do what I want, and I have to get things done by a certain time today!

February's 365/30 Filo Lists!!

Hello all!!

Here is February's 365/30 Filo Lists list!! It is from the amazing, brilliant and lovely Tracy of one of my ALL-TIME favourite blogs, http://www.crazysuburbanmom.com/

1)  Goals for this month

2)  What books have you read more then once (for pleasure)?

3)  What thing(s) on your bucket list can you do/have before summer?

4)  Today would be so much better if yesterday I had _________.

5)  Tomorrow will be so much better if I ______ today!

6)  What colors do you look best in (and commit to wearing them more!)

7)  My favorite books on organizing are...

8)  My favorite apps are...

9)  What are your favorite guilty pleasure foods?

10) My top must have pens are...

11) 5 things on my amazon.com wishlist (make one if you don't have one already!)

12) Things that make me crabby...

13) I'm at my best when.....

14) Who can I send an unsigned Valentine to just to make them feel loved!

15) My dog (cat, bird, etc) would describe me as...

16) 5 things I can do anytime, anywhere when I feel anxious...

17) Things I want to be better at in March...

18) Things I lie about...

19) Fashion trends that make me say, huh?

20) The excuses I use (way to often) are...

21) My planner/organizer crushes are...

22) What were the last five things you bought that you didn't need (and knew it at the time) but bought anyway?

23) My favorite restaurants are...

24) The best reasons you can think of to convince someone they should own a Filofax...

25) Start your Christmas list today!

26) 5 Movies I can watch over and over...

27) What are you favorite funny words?

28) Review of the month

Crazy Suburban Mom - Don't judge me till you've gone a mile in my minivan.

Philofaxy Exeter meet-up

Hi everyone! 

I have just finished planning the Exeter (South West UK) meet-up!

It will be on Saturday 9th February, meeting at 12pm at a lovely cafe called The Boston Tea Party on Queen Street in Exeter! We will have some lunch, Filofax chat and show and tell, and then in the afternoon we will go to Paperchase etc!

If you want to come, please leave a comment below! Thanks!

Filofax dividers Poll: Results!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post and held a poll to ask you all what sort of dividers you use in your Filofax, and how many dividers/tabs/sections you use.

I was really pleased with the response to the poll, as 50 votes were placed! Thanks for answering! Here is the response:

1) What sort of dividers do you use in your Filofax?

Filofax standard dividers      24 votes
Homemade dividers             27 votes
Hand made dividers made by someone else e.g. from Etsy     0 votes
Dividers made by another planner brand       3 votes

2) How many dividers/tabs/sections do you use?

I don't use dividers or tabs        1 vote
1 divider/tab/section                  0 votes
2 dividers/tabs/sections             2 votes
3                                              2 votes
4                                              5 votes
5                                              5 votes
6                                              17 votes
7-10                                         8 votes
10-15                                       1 vote
15-20                                       2 votes
20+                                          2 votes


I also asked people to leave a comment to describe their divider/tab set up, and which divider types they use. These are worth a read on my original blog post!
Obviously, their dividers/sections reflect how they use their Filofax. Typically, several of their sections follow the 'normal' sections/uses of a Filofax- Diary, Projects, Finance etc, but then the users customise their sections or add extra sections (even added onto the standard dividers you get in a Filofax) to match their lives and their daily needs. I love how customisable Filofaxes are! Traditional-style side dividers are most common, but top-tabs are becoming very popular, especially for subsections within divider sections!

I am quite surprised at the amount of people who use the Filofax standard dividers, especially the ones with section names (rather than the 1-6 numbered dividers), as these dividers prescribe what you should use these sections for, which in my opinion goes against what a ring-bound planner is meant to be- customisable for your own life; however I wonder if you guys rename the sections? This is obviously easier with the 1-6 dividers!

I am very surprised that no-one voted for the hand made dividers made by someone else. Personally, I use a set made by someone else, which I will be talking about in my next blog post. Also, I know of a few other people who have bought hand made dividers made by other people, but I guess they didn't vote on this poll!
I think the reason there were so few people buying hand made dividers made by someone else is because dividers are so easy to make yourself! You can make them out of a range of materials, in particular scrapbooking card, which you can choose beautiful designs of, which reflect your personality or even the section contents! 27 people voted for homemade dividers, the (narrowly) most popular choice in the poll, as you can see by reading many of the Filofax blogs out there!

Looking at the 'How many dividers do you use?' section of the poll, I'm not at all surprised that the most common answer was 6 dividers/tabs/sections, because that parallels the Filofax standard dividers, at least in a personal and an A5! Only 1 person voted for the option 'I don't use dividers or tabs', and I'm not surprised that no-one voted for '1 divider/tab/section', because just 1 divider wouldn't be very useful!! A few people use a small amount of dividers, 2 or 3, which doesn't surprise me, because I only use 3! Quite a few people use between 7 and 10 dividers, and then a few people use a large amount, 10+ or even 20+, which surprises me, because I really didn't think 23mm rings could hold that many dividers (although 30mm A5/personal grand/Franklin Covey gigantic rings could!).

A Christmas poem!

The lovely Susannah has made a competition on her wonderful blog, Belzira's Corner!

The task is to draw, write or craft and Christmassy/Wintery scene! So here is my entry!

NB: I haven't written a poem in 6 years, so please bear with me ;b

Santa Clause's Filofax

Santa Clause's Filofax is bulging at the seams,

Filled with lists of girls and boys, nice and kind or naughty and mean?

Millions of letters fill the rings: 

A bike for Tommy, a doll for Jean;

"Please, dearest Santa, won't you bring, 

the gift I've craved since Spring!"

Hundreds of Elves make the candy, Christmas decs and toys;

Thousands of tin soldiers and teddies for all good girls and boys!

Baubles on fur trees and strings of tinsel decorate the workshop,

While jingle bells and Christmas carols make such a lovey noise!

Til the checklists have been finished, the Elves cannot stop;

Then finally, with a hot cocoa, off to bed they hop!

I hope you liked my little poem :)

Filofax Dividers... A Poll!!

Hi everyone!

If there's one thing in my Filofax that I've changed more than my diary inserts, it's my dividers! I am going to do a post on them soon, but first I'd like you guys to answer my little poll!

The poll is composed of 2 parts.

1) What sort of dividers do you use in your Filofax?

2) How many dividers/tabs/sections do you use? (This includes subsections, which are perhaps subdivided using sticky tab)

Please answer both sections of the poll :)

I'd like you to answer with what is your most common or favourite answer. E.g. if you use 6 tabs most of the time, but sometimes have a couple extra, answer 6. If you mostly use your homemade dividers, but sometimes switch back to Filofax's standard ones, answer 'Homemade dividers'!

It would be great if you could also comment on this post listing which sections you have in your Filo :)



I'm really interested in what types of dividers people use, what your sections are, and how many you use! I will write a blog post soon with the poll results, and also show you my array of dividers :)


Thanks!!