Revolving stars

I really need to curb this impulsive side of me. I signed up for baking classes at ABC cooking studio! :) I shall share my experience in a separate post as I think it warrants a post of its own. The learning side of me got quite a good dose in March. Did Ocarina classes, japanese and a smattering of Russian here and there. +baking lol Started preparing dinner on a regular basis at home too. I super duper love having my own house without nagging parents. 😉 Discovered this picnic area that overlooks the indoor stadium! So pretty!! Work was a bitch though, with all the year end closing and a mad rush for events. But we gotta enjoy life~ Stay tuned for my April updates and the baking classes posts!

Feb was a busy month, with all the Chinese New Year's family visiting. Granted, I have not been doing my share of visiting (ahem) but still busy nevertheless. Work has been hectic recently. Honestly, whoever said that working in the government sector is chill work has not worked in my department yet. So, I only managed to clock 6.5hours of Italki lesson time in Feb, which fell short my 12 hours target. I shall try better next time. On a brighter note, I am picking up ocarina lessons, which I am hoping really hard that it would get me into SSEAYP this year. If I get better at it, maybe I should post a video of me playing (the current me sucks at it for now lol)

Signed up for Italki's Feb 2018 language challenge despite knowing the Feb is probably one of the busiest month this year! (but I should be able to spare 12 hours for the online classes, I think :P) This challenge is to take 12 hours' worth of Italki's classes (3 times a week for 4 weeks) and I have been keeping up so far. It is easier to slot in 1/2 hr or 1 hr in my busy schedule than to travel to town to take a 3hr class every week. Or maybe it's just that I'm lazy. I have been brushing up on my language skills quite a fair bit on my own too! Resources that I have been using: Japanese: Nihongonomori youtube channel:  JLPT N1、N2　音の言葉、、動きの言葉 Korean: Listening to Hwayugi  (I watched the episodes on netflix on my way to work though) I hope these will be enough to last the week :D,

I have been using Italki since the start of the year; new year resolution :P and it seems to be working quite well for me. Till date, I have started on 2 packages and the teachers are pretty good. I think it pays to look through the reviews and get somebody that you think you would be comfortable with. The only drawback is that the skype connection is sometimes bad and eats into the lesson time, but it's a technical issue that can't be easily solved. But so far I have no complaints. So, my resolution for this year for language learning is: 1) to sustain the korean lessons for 1/2 hr each week 2) to sustain the japanese lessons for 1hr each week Hopefully by the end of the year, I would be able to pass my N1 (I totally know that I have been dragging this since forever!) and TOPIK 2. I am so contemplating if I should take up the Russian classes too, since it is not as expensive as taking it in Singapore, but I shall KIV till I have more spare time. Time is a luxury...

bad news - I was informed by KLC (SKIS) that there are not enough students for a class they will be refunding me my fees. Because of this, I have to search for alternatives and with my hectic schedule, there are really not too many options. While surfing the net trying to look for a suitable class, I chanced upon italki that seems to have pretty good reviews. The gist of this platform is that it is a marketplace that links foreign language teachers and learners up and payment is through the website's platform. To round up the pros and cons, now that I have used it: Pros - Pay per lesson (which is good for people with irregular schedule) - different types of teachers (you can choose a teacher that you have chemistry with and they have trial lessons!) - cheap! My lessons are about SGD13 per hour, which is cheaper than normal tuition fees for common subjects in Singapore - 1 on 1 tuition which means that I can focus on the areas that I am weak at instead of being bored at ...