Learning English
Do you want to learn to speak English fluently? Here's the big secret to learning English well:
The more time you spend with English, the better you become!
That's why native English speakers are so good at it: they've spent thousands of hours listening, talking, reading, and writing English. Why did I write "spend time with English" instead of "study English"? Because you shouldn't spend all of your time studying. You should talk with people, watch movies, listen to podcasts, write emails, surf the Internet, and do things in English. Treat English like it's your best friend - one who follows you everywhere.
Tip #1: Find a fun way to learn English
Your goal is to spend as much time as possible with the English language. That's why it's very important to find study methods that are fun for you. If you try to make yourself do something boring, you'll eventually get tired of it and quit.
  • Are you social and outgoing? Then it's important for you to find English speakers to talk to.
  • Do you love to watch TV? Sit on your couch and watch some English-language TV shows for hours at a time.
  • Do you hate sitting at a table and studying with a book? Then get some English podcasts and
  • Don't like grammar? Don't study it! You'll eventually start to understand it if you follow these suggestions for the best way to learn English grammar. 
  • Combine English learning with something else you love. If you're an athlete, join a recreational sports team with members from English-speaking countries. If you like computer programming, read programming books written in English.
Tip #2: Use English every day
If you spend 10 hours a week studying English, what's the best way to spread that time out? Should you spend all day on Saturday reading English books, speaking with a conversation partner, and doing flashcards, then do nothing for the rest of the week? 
No! Of course not! By the time you return to studying, you will have forgotten most of what you learned the week before. It's much better to spend a little time each day practicing. It's even better if you can split it up so that you're 
Make "English time" a routine. Find something that you can do every single day. For example:
  • Sign up for the PhraseMix daily newsletter and read each day's new English phrase.
  • Read the news headlines in English each morning on the Internet while you're eating breakfast.
  • Keep English podcasts on your phone or music player, and listen to them while you drive or ride to work.
  • Find some easy English novels and read for 10 minutes before you go to sleep every night.
  • If you have a chance to study or work abroad, take it. Immersion is the very best way to learn.
Tip #3: Learn natural English
A lot of textbooks teach you English that isn't natural. Textbook writers do this because they feel that they need to make the language easier for English learners to understand. That's OK at first, but it's not good to learn too much unnatural English. if you're able to read this page then you should be learning from "authentic" sources. Try to expose yourself both to formal English (books, speeches, news broadcasts) and informal (conversations between friends, dialogue in TV shows).
If you have trouble understanding people speaking at a natural speed, try listening in shorter bursts. For example, if you're watching a video on the Internet, you can pause it after each sentence to try to figure out what the people were saying.
Tip #4: Use the power of phrases
This website is called PhraseMix.com because memorizing phrases is a really powerful tool to help you learn advanced English quickly. Phrases teach you how to use words and put them together. Here are some of the reasons:
  • You can learn more than one word at a time. For example, by memorizing the PhraseMix lesson, "The  jury found her 'not guilty'" you can learn the words "jury", "find", and "not guilty". 
  • You can learn which words go well together. For example, if you just learn the word "impression", you might not know that the verb "leave" goes well with it: “A limp handshake leaves a bad impression.” And although you know what "pleasant" means, you might not know how common the phrase "pleasantly surprised" is.
  • Lots of phrases have their own meaning that you can't predict based on the individual words. There are phrasal verbs such as "put in", "bring up", "think over", and so on. There are also idioms like "a fine line between __ and __".
Tip #5: Review and repeat
Our brains are very selective. They don't remember every detail. Instead, they remember the things that seem important, and forget the rest. If you just learn a phrase once, and never read or hear it again, you probably won't remember it. That's why it's important to review.
Here are some tips to keep in mind for reviewing what you've learned:
  • It's good to review once within a few minutes after you learn something, again in about a day, and again in a week or so.
  • Flashcards work really well for review. Flashcard programs like Anki and Brainscape work even better.
  • If you're living in a completely English-speaking environment, it's not as important to review because you will probably see or read the same things again naturally. But if you're only studying English for an hour or two a day, review becomes very important. 
Tip #6: Listen > speak > read > write
You should focus most of your time on listening to English. This is how you're going to learn to learn new phrases and pick up native-sounding habits. Once you've heard something 15 or 20 times, you'll start to be ready to use it yourself. At least half of your English practice should be listening.
However, listening passively, without speaking, can sometimes be a waste of time. If the language-learning part of your brain doesn't think that it needs to learn something, it will forget it. That's why it's important to combine your listening practice with speaking. Talk to whoever you can; if you can't find anyone, talk to yourself!
Reading and writing are important skills too, but you've probably already gotten a lot more practice with those. Just make sure to read more than you write.
Tip #7: Have the right attitude
Remember that learning a foreign language takes hundreds of hours! Mastering one takes a lifetime. To keep learning, you need to have the right attitude:
  • Treat English like something that you want to do every day, not like something that you have to do.
  • Forget about your old habits. Try to sound, act, walk, laugh, and think like an English speaker.
  • Remember that there is always more to be learned about every word or phrase. Never believe that you completely "know" something.
  • When you're in a conversation in English, be confident. Don't focus on your flaws.
  • Remember Tip #1. Have fun!



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Theme : Eat Junkfood
10 reasons to stop eating junk food right now!
Do you know why all your favourite food items including pizzas, chaat,vada pav, bhajiyas, samosas, burgers, frankies, french fries, rolls and wraps are called ‘junk food?’ Well, the dictionary meaning of the word ‘junk’ is useless, extra or something that is not needed. And all these fast food items that have invaded every nook and corner of our country are called junk because they completely justify this meaning.
Today, junk food businesses are dominating the food industry to a great extent, with each huge food chain generating multibillion dollar revenue, creating thousands of employment opportunities and influencing diet globally. But all this comes at the cost of health and well-being of millions of consumers. The consequences that these junk food can have on your health are terrible, regardless of whether you have them once in a while, twice in a week or every day.
Have a look at how these junk food play a crucial role in deteriorating your health.
1# It can cause type 2 diabetes: One of major contributing factors for the emerging diabetes epidemic is unhealthy diet full of junk and fast food. When you eat a healthy diet, your body gets a steady supply of glucose, which helps maintain insulin sensitivity. On the other hand, when you eat only junk food, the excessive stress exerted on your metabolism affects the ability of your body to use insulin properly. Since junk food lacks fibre content, its consumption directly results in a spike in sugar levels. Further, junk food consumption leads to obesity, one of the main reasons for insulin resistance and development of diabetes.
2# It can trigger digestive problems: Those who are addicted to fatty junk food are bound to suffer from digestive problems like gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). That’s because junk food is deep fried. The oil soaked in junk food gets deposited on the walls of the stomach lining, increases acid production. Spices loaded in them irritate the stomach lining, worsening GERD and digestion. Lack of fibre in them hampers digestion, increasing problems like constipation and haemorrhoids. Try this  yoga pose to improve digestion.
3# It causes fatigue and weakness: Junk food lacks most of essential nutrients like proteins and vitamins required for maintenance of overall health and functioning of all the systems in your body. Although it makes you feel full and satisfied, it fails to provide you with instant energy, making you feel weak and tired after a while. If you eat junk food items for all your meals of the day over a period of time, you could be suffer from chronic fatigue. Junk food can lower your energy levels to an extent that it may become difficult for you to even perform your daily tasks.
4# Causes depression among teenagers: A lot of hormonal changes occur in teenagers, which makes them susceptible to mood swings and behavioural changes. And a healthy diet plays an important role in maintaining that hormonal balance. Because junk food lack those essential nutrients, the likelihood of teenagers to suffer from depression is increased by 58 percent. Here are some facts you need to know about depression.
5# It causes fluctuations in blood sugar levels: Junk food is high in refined sugar which exerts stress on your metabolism. Refined sugar causes the pancreas to secrete more amount of insulin in order to prevent a drastic spike in your blood sugar levels. Because junk food lacks sufficient levels of good carbohydrates and proteins, the levels of blood sugar drop suddenly after you eat. This makes you feel irritable and further increases you craving for more junk food.
6# It affects the brain function: A study published in the journalBrain, Behavior, and Immunity shows that one week of eating junk food is enough to trigger memory impairment in rats. Recent research suggests that bad fats (trans fats) from junk food tends to replace healthy fats in the brain and interferes with its normal signalling mechanism. Studies in animals have also shown that fats from junk food slow down the ability to learn new skills. Try these home remedies to boost your brain power.
7# It increases the risk of heart disease: Junk food items are loaded with saturated fats and trans fats that directly increase triglyceride and bad cholesterol (LDL) levels in the blood, contributing to plaque formation and heart disease. Further, causing a sudden spike in blood sugar level increases, junk food damages the linings of the blood vessels causing chronic inflammation. This inflammation causes bad cholesterol to stick to the walls of the arteries, blocking blood flow to the heart.
When they’re blocked enough, heart attack occurs. Fats from junk food can accumulate over a period of time in your body to make you obese. The more weight you put on, the higher your risk of suffering from heart attack. Refer to these heart healthy diet tips for people with heart diseases.
8# It can cause kidney disease: The reason why you can never say no to fries and chips is because they contain high amount of finely processed salt which increases salivation and secretion of enzymes that enhance your cravings for these foods. High amount of bad fats and sodium from salt disrupts the sodium-potassium balance of the body and causes hypertension.
Since the kidney have to filter all the toxins from the blood, eating a lot of junk food has a direct effect on the kidney functioning.
9# It can damage your liver: Surprisingly, junk food consumption over a period of time can have similar harmful effect on the liver as alcohol consumptions does. A study reported that people who ate junk food and shunned exercise showed changes in liver enzymes within four weeks. These changes were similar to those observed in people with alcohol abuse. According to some studies, it’s the high level of trans fats found in a number of junk food which cause liver dysfunction due to deposition in the liver.
10# It increases your risk of cancer: Lack of fibre is the main reason why junk food consumption is linked to an increased risk of cancers of the digestive system. A study published in European Journal of Cancer Prevention revealed that consuming too much of fast food that are high in sugar and fat can increase your chances of developing colorectal cancer.
Another study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle showed that men who ate fried foods more than twice in a month had increased risk of developing prostate cancer.  So simply, switch to healthier options from junk.


( source : thehealthsite.com : Jan 08, 2015 at 02:55 pm )

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Firdaus Harianja. Diberdayakan oleh Blogger.

Bersyukur bukan hanya kunci menuju kebahagiaan batin, melainkan juga cara untuk tetap berhubungan dengan-Nya.