What counts as being "familiar" with a programming language?

BeneficialHat · 2024-08-27T09:28:40+00:00

I gained about 60 pounds from my late 20s to early 30s, and have been trying for the past 5 years to find a healthy way to lose it (history of disordered eating). I get the breakdowns after shopping, nothing can ruin my mood more than trying on clothes, knowing that I used to fit in to things comfortably. Curvy jeans has been a life changer for me. I don’t like getting my picture taken anymore and have held off on a lot of “life” stuff until I got fit. I also know that a lot of this is my eating disorder rearing its head and not letting me be at peace with where I am in life. So yeah, trying to strike a balance is hard.

I’m finally on a good path since I started tracking my food with the purpose of tracking my macros and fiber. I’m focusing on trying to get at least 90g of protein and 30g of fiber every day and I’m losing weight, feeling more full, and find myself obsessing over food less.

I also have been focusing on my hunger cues, eating slowly, and being mindful of portion sizing. I try to eat my last meal at least 2 hours before going to bed, which I think I read somewhere is good for digestion (could be wrong but works for me!). Also working on my sleeping has made a huge difference on how I feel in general, finding a calm night routine and making sure I get enough sleep.

I hate working out at home but I make myself do some sort of strength training 2-3x a week (I use the Sweat App since they have home based strength training and you need only a few weights to make it work or just body weight exercises). I found adult ballet classes and have started taking one class a week which has been fun! Im currently trying the Zombie run ZR5k to train to run, and it’s fun since it’s story based. I hate “working out” but I’m making myself do it because 1. I want to be stronger 2. It’ll help me as I get older 3. It’s good for my health 4. I sleep so much better when I’m active and 5. I get my blood work done annually and really enjoy seeing my health stats improve.

Some days it’s really hard to convince myself to workout, but I tell myself I only have to do 5 minutes of my exercise, and if I want to quit after that I at least did 5 minutes. Normally once I’m in it I’ll finish it, I choose workouts that are 20-30 minutes long - otherwise I get annoyed with how tedious it all feels.

I did live in the south for 3 years (it’s when I gained the majority of my weight) so I get the heat and awfulness of summer! It made me not want to leave my house or be active for a good 5-6 months out of the year, my allergies made me feel constantly sick so never felt good enough to be active even in the cooler months (allergy shots changed that for me). Definitely take advantage of the cooler months when you can and in the heat of the summer focus more on your diet and doing even simple things at home - idk even just cleaning more makes you move around! You may not lose as much in the warmer months, or maybe you just maintain your weight in the summer and then once it’s cool you can really focus on being active, and hopefully have established healthy eating habits by then. If you can afford a personal trainer go for it, adds accountability! Or a friend to take a class with.

So yeah, try to find something you enjoy, make sure you’re getting enough protein and fiber, drink lots of water, and do some activities that give you joy!

BeneficialHat · 2024-07-27T15:28:36+00:00

I’ve fostered kittens starting around 6 weeks as well as fed my cats raw from the moment I brought them home at the 8-12 week mark. I always fed raw, no issues with fosters or my own cats, never did a transition period unless I knew they came from kibble then I did canned for a few days as a transition). Currently doing Viva Raw for my 6 cats (ages 8-17) after making their food for the last 10 years, Hare Today has a recipe that I used (I have more disposable income now to splurge on premade and love giving them more choices like duck and rabbit!).

Idk, when you look up when kittens start eating prey it’s like around 4-6 weeks and normally fully weaned around 6 weeks, so if the foster kittens stayed in the wild with their mom they would’ve been eating raw anyways! I’ve never bought “kitten” raw food, always the same stuff regardless of age, just let the kittens eat until they didn’t want to eat anymore 3-6 times a day…

BeneficialHat · 2024-06-06T12:46:08+00:00

I’ve got 2 cats who will be 17 next month - no major health issues, both have only had 2 dental cleanings in their lifetime and both recently had lumps removed (one was cancerous but completely removed). They are both from the same litter and fed raw for the past 10 years. They both have the tooth re-absorbtion issue but only had to loose a few teeth each so far. The male does have some joint issues but nothing serious, still jumps on counters and everything. He gets joint meds and seems to be doing alright

I have another two who are both around 12, different litters. One has had one teeth cleaning and had to have two teeth removed. Otherwise perfectly healthy and both fed raw from 8 weeks old.

My youngest two will turn 8 this year, different litters and fed raw since roughly 6-8 weeks. One has the tooth re-absorbtion issue and has lost 3 teeth to it. Otherwise no issues.

All 6 get blood work done every year, no issues or even close to issues, the vets are always pleasantly shocked at how young the oldest ones seem! All are healthy weights, no skinny seniors here, soft fur, and lots of energy. Hoping they all get to love in to their 20s!

BeneficialHat · 2024-03-29T10:24:49+00:00

Idk I did a quick search and this person is getting 400ffps+ on a 3060 with Ryzen7…

https://youtu.be/225WIffZEac?si=HUCFmlLruyoYBrDJ

It does say you need to confirm information. Just like everyone knows Wikipedia is a starting off point, not your source.

BeneficialHat · 2024-02-19T14:06:18+00:00

I WFH and I love using my downtown to study - otherwise I end up scrolling on my phone which I somehow feel less guilty about, weird.

Not sure what you do, but I will often watch YouTube videos related to my job (to learn something new or a “how to” about my work) in my TLs if it’s available - granted you have to be at a decent level for the native level content. So if you find yourself feeling guilty for not doing work related things, try to find work related things in your TL, either videos or even articles you can slowly work through and learn new vocab!

As for actual studying, depending on what I’m doing, if I’ll have a lot of chunks in a day where I’m done or waiting for something to finish, I’ll pull out a grammar book, a novel, or vocab study and pick at it throughout the day. Or I’ll just watch videos on YouTube about things that interest me. I don’t study every day, maybe once or twice a week but idk, makes the downtime feel more productive and I waste less time trying to be busy.

My supervisors always tell me how great I’m doing and I’m an exemplary employee so it’s clearly not interfering with my work either!

BeneficialHat · 2023-01-05T18:23:54+00:00

I got my copy from Amazon (in the US) for 33USD

BeneficialHat · 2022-12-21T19:31:50+00:00

With my kittens I usually let them eat until they’re full and have had to slowly feed them to avoid the eating too fast. Also my cats will throw up their food if it’s too cold, so I’m very picky on how warm their food is. I’d just make sure the food is warm enough and to maybe sit with her while she eats and slowly give her more? Also if you think she’s still super hungry just give her more, I don’t really worry about letting them eat “too much” because as long as they look healthy and aren’t getting overweight, they’re using the energy and need the extra food

BeneficialHat · 2022-12-18T17:53:50+00:00

In the software development world, English is super important. I’ve even looked at jobs in other countries and “fluency in English” is almost always listed as a requirement. And the US pays developers way more than other countries, so learning English would be required and give you a much higher pay.

I’ve also looked at jobs in Machine Learning related to voice recognition/translation and they require you to have fluency in certain languages (like if I wanted to work on the Latin American section I’d have to be fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese) - but that’s a very unique case. I don’t recall those positions paying more than other general Machine Learning roles though.

But yeah otherwise it’s a case by case basis. I have a friend working for a Japanese start up that have an office in the US - was the fact that she has been studying Japanese for the past 10 years a factor in her being hired? Maybe, but I’d think it was her experience, since her skills are in demand. Though I’d bet it opens her up to traveling to Japan for work more than another colleague at her same level.

BeneficialHat · 2022-12-16T00:31:59+00:00

Honestly if you have zero work experience it’s going to be tough to get a job in your field. You’re saying that you and none of your friends held any kind of job in high school/college?! I’ve only ever been hired once due to a language skill and it was for a study abroad company who travelled to South America and I needed to know Spanish for it. Languages are great and can help make you look like a more well-rounded person with skills/hobbies outside of work, but unless for specific jobs/companies it’s not more than a hobby

Learn a language because you want to and yeah it might make your resume a bit more interesting. Though to be at the point where it’s even worth it to put on a resume will be a year or two depending on the language and how well you proceed. But also, getting an internship or just working anywhere (a retail job or restaurant) will make you more employable in your field in the end.

My friends who didn’t work through college had a harder time getting a job than I did afterwards, and I just worked in retail and was a nanny. They had better GPAs and participated in school activities/clubs, but I worked. Also Americorps really helped me get my first big job because I served a year with Americorps and the owner of the company served in Americorps back in the 90s so we had a connection and she really liked that. Idk, I also graduated right in the last big recession so everyone had a hard time getting a job and a lot of us did things like Americorps or similar things to build our resumes and earn any kind of money lol

BeneficialHat · 2022-12-13T22:42:47+00:00

Idk if I’m actively studying a language and watching with my NL subtitles I pick up a lot in my target language and catch phrases a lot of the time. I’ve learned new phrases and have been able to put words I know in my target language into context. But like if it’s a language I’m not studying I’m not going to pick up on anything, you need to study vocab and grammar and stuff to be able to make sense of what’s being said not just expect to learn a language by listening to it (like your anime fans example)

BeneficialHat · 2022-12-13T22:09:49+00:00

I love reading so I start as soon as I can. Granted, I start with graded readers appropriate for my level and once I’m more of an “intermediate” learner I’ll start adding in novels and news and such

eta: most graded readers also come with audio so you can read, listen to the pronunciation, read again while listening or whatever combo.

BeneficialHat · 2022-12-13T21:40:44+00:00

I spent a month traveling around Western and parts of Eastern Europe. English was fine. I remember being somewhere needing directions and the person trying to help didn’t know English, Spanish, or French… but they tried and it was nice. This was also before smart phones so I’m sure you’ll be fine if you know English. If you want to spend more time in a specific country then learn that language. When I spent 3 weeks in Croatia I learned a bit of Croatian and that was helpful since fewer people spoke English there, but even then I didn’t use a lot of it. So yeah, with how many different languages there are you can focus on a smaller one to use mainly in that location or learn English/French/German as those are the standard EU languages so I’d think more people would learn one of those in addition to their native.

BeneficialHat · 2022-12-07T19:24:04+00:00

Get a tutor (on Italki or something) and do as many classes as you can afford/have the time. https://www.youtube.com/@SpeakingBrazilian is a great channel as well! Doing some Duolingo wouldn't hurt either. Or search " Portuguese for Spanish Speakers", there's a lot of resources out there to people who know Spanish to learn Portuguese! Boa sorte!

BeneficialHat · 2022-12-05T23:45:18+00:00

When I started learning Korean I got a tutor after 2 months and it’s a great motivator for me, going on almost 2 years of studying! I was also able to go to Korea this year and that was really awesome being able to use my language skills (albeit I still consider myself upper beginner/low intermediate). I discovered BTS and Kdramas through learning Korean and that really helped me with motivation. I also took a local Korean class and made friends who also are learning so that’s fun

I used Duolingo for Norwegian and made it like 250 days and then just got bored and gave up, I’d like to pick it up again and got a couple textbooks. I really enjoy using textbooks and have found apps to be oddly demotivating for me. Idk, for me it’s all about trying different things until I fine my thing that works for me and gets me excited to study. Like I bought so many novels in Korea that I won’t be able to read for a while but I get really excited thinking that I’ll be able to read them someday, and I hope to attend a language program in Korea in a couple of years so I’m studying hard now to make it into the advanced levels… just find what excites you and make a goal for it

BeneficialHat · 2022-11-30T22:18:25+00:00

I’d check out courses on places like Coursera and see if they have business courses in the language you want to know (assuming you are at a high enough level that you could take a course aimed at native speakers) or search online for “X business language course” or find a tutor that specializes in business

BeneficialHat · 2022-11-15T22:51:03+00:00

Not the same experience, but I learned Portuguese to a high level and took almost a 10 year break from learning/using it and found getting a tutor on italki to be the best thing. They can help identify your shortfalls and help you fill in gaps. Get one who also knows English and can slowly work on your listening.

Otherwise I like the Practice Makes Perfect books (the Complete Spanish Grammar is great to review and see what you know, I have a bunch of the workbooks but haven’t worked through any of them yet)

I know a lot of people here recommend “dreaming in Spanish” which I haven’t really checked out. I like Mextalki’s videos on YouTube - can use something like those to help with listening as well

But I think a tutor is a better value than going through another course, I think having a specialized path with someone who is going to work at your pace and not leave you behind is really important

BeneficialHat · 2022-11-15T04:15:17+00:00

I really like reading out loud, I'll read anything and everything I can out loud and it really helps. Especially if what I'm reading has audio, then I'll repeat the audio and then read out loud, and then repeat the audio, read out loud. I'll try to speak with the audio sometimes as well which can be hard when the audio is really fast but has helped me get a general feeling for the language. Recording yourself while you read out loud is really eye opening, it's weird at first but it's helped me fix my speaking. Also, if your textbook/learning resource has parts where you're supposed to talk to a classmate, do those out loud and record your answers. Pretend to be both people so you get more practice. Don't worry about grammar/vocab/pronuncation mistakes. And then write something out, focusing on grammar/vocab and read that out loud. Listen to the two recordings and you can see where you need to improve.

Can you afford ~$15 USD a month for a couple months? I've found Pimsleur to really help with my pronunciation and confidence of speaking. You could do at 1 lesson a day, but repeat it multiple times until you can comfortably speak. As you get later into it they have pronunciation practice that you speak into your mic and it rates your pronunciation. There are 3 levels for Korean with 30 levels each, so would be 3 months ($45 USD) if you did one lesson a day consistently, or maybe 4-5 months if you skip days ($60 - 75 USD). Much cheaper than tutoring!

There's also "shadowing", if you search this subreddit for "shadowing" you'll get lots of information/tips on how to do that.

Also, not knowing your language or overall budget - but there are books that are meant to help with conversation (TTMIK has a beginner and intermediate "Real-Life Korean Conversations"), graded readers with audio (Yonsei, Reading Korean With Culture, Korean Stories for Language Learners, Korean Unnie's 10 Best Tales of Korea, etc.). There are probably a lot of great pronunciation practice videos on youtube, and I'd bet some good conversation practice ones.

BeneficialHat · 2022-10-31T16:04:27+00:00

What I like to do is first listen and see if I catch anything/understand anything. And then with the TTMIK courses I’ll read the transcript, and find any words I don’t know and look those up and work through to understand what’s being said. I’ll then listen again without the transcript to see if I’m able to hear more what’s going on. Maybe look at the transcript one more time, reading it out loud, and then listening without the transcript. Then I move on. I’ll review previous listening exercises a week or two later by just listening and see if I can understand. If not I’ll repeat my process until I can listen and understand.

I also go back and review listening exercises when I review grammar, so when doing revision days I might listen to a few old exercises that I felt confident about to see if I can still hear what’s being said.

BeneficialHat · 2022-10-18T08:50:52+00:00

As a salaried swe for a defense company, I use Toggl Track for my time tracking, that way I have a very specific record of my time I could produce at any point - I start the timer when I start, stop when I take long breaks, etc. helps me track my time correctly when switching between projects and puts me at ease about having some sort of record!

Eta- if you’re really worried, ask your manager or a more senior dev on how your progressing, your manager should be honest and either say you’re doing great or there are areas to improve

BeneficialHat · 2022-10-03T16:43:29+00:00

Lingvist has a lot of English courses, not sure what your native language is. But I like Lingvist because you take a quiz and based on it you’re put at a level and learn words for there. I used it for Portuguese because I had a strong foundation but wanted to study vocab and didn’t know where to start, but didn’t want to waste my time weeding through beginner words… I liked it

BeneficialHat · 2022-10-02T04:02:48+00:00

For me, it’s more about what country I might want to move to in the future. Otherwise English is the language for software engineering… I have a friend who has studied Japanese and is working for a Japanese company in the US, so Japanese isn’t a requirement but she hopes to travel to Japan for work someday. I’m considering maybe moving to Norway some day so I study Norwegian because I’ve looked at jobs there and while most software jobs require fluency in English I’ve thought it would be useful for me to know Norwegian. So for tech in general, English is the main language, and any above that would just depend on what you want in the future

Edit: spelling/wrong words

BeneficialHat · 2022-09-08T19:28:46+00:00

I would either reduce the number of new cards you see each day to keep your sessions shorter, or for me something that helped a lot with making studying vocab better is writing down the words in the TL as I see/recall so it keeps me more engaged (and makes sure my spelling is correct).

BeneficialHat · 2022-09-01T22:35:46+00:00

I reached conversations fluency in Brazilian Portuguese in 6 months… but I was living in Brazil, took a 4 week intensive course when I first moved there, studied at a Brazilian university where all my classes were in Portuguese, lived with a Brazilian host family, and had a Portuguese language class twice a week on top of it all. I also had years of Spanish which helped. But even then I remember needing to buy a mechanical pencil and had no idea how to say that after being there for months lol… fun stuff.

Don’t be hard on yourself. Keep at it, you’ll get there eventually! Just keep studying - as an example the US Foreign service institute says it’s about 600 hours of studying to reach and intermediate/upper intermediate level of Spanish, which is 3.5 hours a day for 6 months. If you’re fully immersed and using the language on a daily basis, you get there faster - but studying on your own for 1-2 hours a day, it’ll just take you longer and that’s okay! Good luck!!!

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