Weekend meme

I'm running late on this one; should have done it this morning...

List the last five things you've done most recently. Then tag five people to do the same.

1. Brushed teeth.

2. Snacked on leftover steak, tomatoes, steamed collard greens, and blueberries.

3. Did laundry.

4. Picked up some groceries. Yes, after midnight is chore time here. Thank heavens for 24-hour grocery stores.

5. Worked on revising an article for publication.


Hmm, no specific tagging from me. If anyone on my flist is bored, consider yourself tagged.

Fun with podcasts

I've discovered a new toy. Language lesson podcasts.

Despite a penchant for remembering details from some social conversation at a level that occasionally astonishes friends, I've always been a very visual learner. This was particularly evident in language classes, where I excelled at reading and writing and cowed in terror when it came time to do oral work. Speaking and listening were so difficult for me that I dropped French after grade 10 with a huge sigh of relief. However, I've always felt a certain amount of guilt about it because I think, as a good Canadian, I ought to be able to speak French. Consequently, I've borrowed and purchased various French grammar books and from time to time, I sit down and work at it. Unfortunately, grammar books don't really help much with my weak point: learning to listen. So it was with a great deal of pleasure that I discovered language podcasts. I've been spending downloading a bunch of French and Japanese lessons, and I'm going to see if I can use them to learn to listen. I don't think they'll be enough on their own to learn a language, but they might inspire me to pull out my textbooks again.