Tennis Racket Replacement For a Successful Sport

Tennis Racket Replacement For a Successful SportOne thing you need to think about is whether you need a tennis tutor and if you have already put your child on the waiting list, you might not be eligible for a tennis tutor and, if so, you need to replace your tennis racket battery, or your new tennis racket. There are some common reasons why someone might not get what they want or need.Many people are under the impression that you can't move from one city to another or even from one state to another, but they may be surprised to find out that it is possible. If you can find a replacement tennis racket for your child, you can take them with you anywhere in the world.Tennis is a sport that teaches you patience and responsibility. If you are an adult, you may think that you have more patience than your children do, but if you watch children play the game you will see that they get frustrated with their games because they are not playing it correctly. A tennis racket might seem like it is very easy, but all of the little things that go into it, are things that you must teach your child how to do on their own.If you have ever watched the professional tennis players at your local park or stadium, you would know that they practice every day and you can often find them practicing a game or two before a match. There are other professional sports that actually pay their players to be professionals, which could be the best money making endeavor.A new tennis racket replacement should not cost more than $100, but if you want to get a good price, you can always get the batteries from the manufacturer and do the work yourself. These type of players also have to buy their clothing separately so they have to keep the shirts clean at all times.Your child will grow up with a career of walking down the street and playing the same simple things as the others around them. If you have a child who needs the skills of teaching others to play tennis, they need to do it all by themselves. If they are very good with their racket at the beginning, they may need to learn to speak a few words of the language before they can play for a living.If you think you need a new tennis racket replacement, think about the time, energy and effort that go into teaching your child how to play this wonderful game. If they need a chance to earn money and you can offer them that, they will find that it is very rewarding.

How to Jumpstart Your Spring Semester

How to Jumpstart Your Spring Semester Were you hoping to earn a higher GPA than what you ultimately received at the end of this last fall term? If so, this can understandably feel quite disappointing, but the promising news is that the school year is only half over! If you approach the spring semester armed with the correct study tactics and a positive attitude, you can easily redeem yourself. In order to succeed during your second semester, exercise strong study habits from the first class meeting. Here is a great study tip on how to create a good study environment. Every day counts, especially if your marks last term were lower than you intended them to be. The first week of a semester is often filled with syllabus overviews, but you shouldnt use this as an opportunity to be idle. Review your notes or begin on homework assignments if you find that you possess more free time than usual. However, do not enter the spring semester with such force that you burn out early on. Working at a steady pace is healthiest. You may also want to take a look at thisstudy tip on how to organize your notes. One of the simplest methods for remaining current with your assignments is by tracking due dates. To do so, maintain an agenda pad or calendar where you record approaching deadlines. Submitting a paper or project late can be just as detrimental to your grade as selecting the wrong answers on an important test. Thus, organizational skills can have a significant impact on how well you do during the spring semester. Do not underestimate the value of being orderly. If you did not do as well as you anticipated last term, invest in new binders, notebooks, and other supplies for the upcoming spring semester. This enables you to begin with a clean slate. It always feels refreshing to open a blank notebook and to see that you have another chance to prove yourself. However, do not dispose of your past assignments, exams, and notes unless you are absolutely certain you will not require them again! Keeping such materials as reference could aid you considerably with future class material. Its possible that some of your spring semester courses may be continuations of classes you completed during the fall. For example, you might have completed Anatomy Physiology I during the first term and now have to take Anatomy Physiology II in the springtime. If this is the case, it is particularly beneficial to review your notes from the previous course before delving into more complicated subject matter. Sequential courses typically build and expand upon previously learned information. For this reason, it will often be highly essential to save all papers youve accumulated from a preceding course. A new semester signifies a new beginning. Thus, you are also presented with the opportunity to join a student organization at your school. Consider participating in an extracurricular club that interests you and/or is related to your intended field of study. This is some great information on how to choose your extracurricular activities. You never know with whom you may network or what you may learn about your prospective career. Student organizations also enhance your resume significantly. Now, use this self-reflection, organization, and optimistic approach to enter this semester armed and ready to succeed. Good luck!

Word Counter

Word Counter How to Use the Word Counter on the Virtual Writing Tutor When you want to know how many words are in a particular text, paste the text into the text area and click the Count Words button. The system will count your words and sentences, and calculate your average sentence length. The text you enter can be any length. There is no limit. Contractions of two words with apostrophes are counted as one word. For example, words like isnt, its, and dont are counted as one word each. Numbers without spaces between them are counted as one word. For example, 1, 10, 100, 1000 are counted as four words. Just so you know, the word counter does not count numbers alone without words. If you try to count numbers only, the VWT will tell you, You need to enter some text to make this work. Average sentence length is calculated by counting the number of words and dividing it by the number of sentences. The minimum number of sentences it will count is 2. If you enter This is one sentence. This is another sentence. the system will report a sentence count of 2 and an average sentence length of 4. If you enter This is one sentence. This is one more sentence. the system will report a sentence count of 2 and round up the average sentence length from 4.5 to 5. Click the Count Words button below to return to the main page to count words now. Please follow and like us:

Understanding My Grandmothers English

Understanding My Grandmothers’ English We travelled to Eastern Montana to see my Grandmothers. I couldn’t help imagining my students meeting them and trying to understand their English. They speak in an older way and use tons of idioms and strange colloquial phrases.The mountains near Lewistown, where one of my grandmothers lives.I’m going to review a few here and talk about some of the idioms that you might hear an older American use. This is the ultimate test of your English level. Next time we visit them I will record them talking about something and post it to see if you can understand. They are also very good story tellers and as old Montanans they have some fascinating stories.Here are some idioms and colloquial English phrases my grandmothers from Eastern Montana commonly use:See if you can’tthey use this when they are suggesting something or want you to do something. For example: See if you can’t find the news station on TV. She is asking you to find the news station. I think this is a way of being polite and is a bit of colloquial English.Say.This is like the old version of hey. It is to get your attention. For example: Say, Teauna did you hear about your cousin? They always use it at the beginning of a sentence, just as an attention stopper.DrinkMy grandmother uses this for any body of water, the kitchen sink, the swimming pool, the lake, or the bath. For example: Just put your plate in the drink and I’ll wash it up later (kitchen sink). Well, I’m going to go get in the drink before bed (bathtub). This summer we made it to the drink every weekend (lake).Hotter than a pistolthis is used when it is hot outside. This fall it was hotter than a pistol.Madder than a hornetthis is used to describe when someone is very angry. He was just madder than a hornet when he found out about his paycheck.

Micro Language

Micro Language Micro Language Micro-language, founded in 2012, aims to build an open public service platform, which can offer professional, international education to Chinese people by breaking the limits of educational resources, time and geography. Workplace Our workspace is another harmonious home for us. We preserve a vivid and motivating working atmosphere, holding the faith of being simple and efficient. Our Team We are a group who is extremely enthusiastic about language education. Elites from education, Internet technology, e-commerce fields constitute this unique and outstanding team. We are pursuing a brighter future through professionalism, efficient working and respect for education. We redefine work and cooperation We strive to create a three-sided mutual benefit community among students, teachers and schools by sharing integrative resources with our Internet platform as our tool. This is an innovative combination of education and the Internet, we are not only warmly welcoming overseas teachers to join us, but we will also do our best to achieve cooperation with well-known overseas colleges and universities. Seeking English Teachers We are hiring online foreign teachers to teach English. This is your chance to emerge yourself into Chinese Culture. For University Institutions We share resources, we share achievements. Cooperate with our English teachers and students as academic consultants.

5 Ways to Survive Spring Semester of Senior Year

5 Ways to Survive Spring Semester of Senior Year Spring Semester of Senior Year: 5 Ways to Survive Spring Semester of Senior Year: 5 Ways to Survive Spring semester of senior year in high school is now underway. This can be a time of mixed emotions and huge life changes that can strongly affect a students ability to concentrate. Although it seems like high school is pretty much over, its important for students to be able to survive and thrive through this last term so they can keep their grades up and maintain stability. If seniors can look at a few of the common problems they may face, theyll have a better idea of how to survive spring semester. 1. College letters One of the things that will affect high school seniors the most this term is the arrival of college acceptance (and denial) letters. This will be a big issue for any student who applied to a college or university. Once students know their options for attendance, they will have the big decision of narrowing down their choice to just one school. Each student will have a different experience, and its important that they are able to maintain their concentration throughout the anticipation and decision-making process (READ: Tips from a Fullerton tutor: how to overcome senioritis). 2. Maintaining focus One way students can maintain focus is to get a little bit of help with organization. This may come from any number of apps, their classroom teacher, a parent, tutor, or study group. Its important that students think about both the small picture and the big one. Students will have any number of assignments, tests, and quizzes that they have to complete this week but they should also look at the remainder of the academic year as a whole and make sure theyre meeting all of their goals. Most seniors will be enrolled in an AP course, and will still have to maintain their focus so they can perform well on that exam in May (READ: Best 5 math apps for high school students). 3. Staying within a routine Seniors are encouraged to stick to the routine that has been working for them up until now. Once students know they have been accepted into college, it can be easy to give into the temptations of senioritis and stop trying altogether. However, students who have a strong dip in GPA right at the end of their high school career may be denied the opportunity for scholarship-based financial aid or graduation honors. Additionally, seniors are encouraged to remember that their university acceptance is conditional; meaning that if their GPA changes significantly, the college may revoke their acceptance. Students can stay within their routine by continuing to meet with their tutor and study group, continuing to participate in any volunteer or after school clubs, and arranging for social time on the weekends. 4. Getting ready for next year At this point, seniors shouldnt look too far into the future when it comes to making specific plans because it may distract them from their current applications. However, there are a few things seniors need to look at sooner rather than later. Financial aid and scholarship applications will require immediate attention and students will need to make sure they have done everything required to enroll in their chosen university. Other than that, students are encouraged to make a checklist with due dates for everything they need to do during the summer so they can get started as soon as high school ends (READ: 4 differences between high school and college that may catch you by surprise). 5. Spend quality time with friends and family One of the most important things seniors can do is simply spend quality time with friends and family who they wont see as much next year. Most college freshman will be making all new friends in a few months so its nice to enjoy current high school friendships so they can survive the distance of college life. Additionally, when students are off at college, they may miss their family more than they think. Spring semester is a great time to participate in social activities with family and friends before going off to the big adventure that is the university experience. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at pr@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us write.

June Language Challenge Update Ivans Update

June Language Challenge Update Ivans Update The italki June 2015 language challenge has not gone smoothly for me, and that in itself has taught me a great deal about achieving my goals and learning a language. It was an exciting, difficult, but ultimately rewarding journey. There are many things that I have re-asserted to myself throughout the process of the challenge: taking notes, importance of review, fundamental advantages of speaking with a person to learn language. Still, I want to make the emphasis on sharing some of the more unusual insights from the experience: Ivan who is on our #marketing #team is struggling taking the #languagechallenge #learningchinese. His goal was to learn #HSK level 4 #chinese and hes almost there! #worklifebalance #scheduling #pressure #goalsetting A photo posted by Italki (@italki) on Jun 28, 2015 at 11:45pm PDT Lesson 1: My main struggle was caused by poorly picking my goal The way I formulated my goal was simple: cover HSK 4 Level vocabulary (This is somewhere around C1 level, and combined with the previous levels of the test covers approximately 1200 Chinese words). Since starting the challenge I have realized that this was definitely too ambitious. What’s worse, I have procrastinated for two weeks before finally starting classes. I have managed to compress my language challenge into a 2-week battery of lessons with several teachers. The goal wasn’t granular enough. I was lazy, and decided to attach my goal to a testable standard. Though, I imagine that instinctual decision was not a bad one, it did lull me into a false sense of security. I didn’t break my goal down into quantifiable pieces. What’s worse, I didn’t design my goal give me any feedback of my progress. By this I mean that my goal didn’t give me any feedback about my performance. In the future, I plan to make smaller sub-goals. I also plan to phrase the goals in terms of proving an ability instead of consuming material: “Discuss social change in context of education using a set list of vocabulary” “Be able to read through this passage naturally with correct tones” “Be able to provide three example sentences for each of the vocabulary words in today’s vocabulary set” Lesson 2:  â€œLe mieux est l’ennemi du bien” There seems to be a natural tendency in us to avoid action, when the embarrassment of being unprepared is expected. I imagined myself striving into the challenge in control, relaxed, confident, and breezing through the month. A week passed, and I haven’t scheduled any lessons. Every day something seemed to come up, I haven’t looked at the vocabulary independently, I haven’t made the right flash cards, I haven’t reviewed the Anki deck, and ultimately, I had 3 more weeks to make sure that I will do my studying according to the perception of a well-planned experience in my head. The second week passed with touches of panic, though I still held onto my mental model of how I will study language. By the time I took my first lesson, this fantasy has been shattered and evaporated. I realized that I would have to take lessons almost daily to complete the challenge. I went on a lesson-requesting binge, requesting lessons with teachers primarily based on their time availability and willingness to teach lessons specialized for HSK. I have wound up with a schedule that had me take a class almost daily, with a team of teachers and the rest of my week booked. There was no going back, I was going to finish the challenge, even if it meant I would drag myself through the hours kicking and screaming. I took my first lesson, worked through some vocabulary with my teacher, some basic conversation (the necessary “Who are you and where are you from?”) and I started feeling good about the class. Half an hour into actually doing the challenge, my level of panic and anxiety subsided, and then disappeared. Somehow in the process of imagining doing the challenge I had managed to create a mental model that actually got in my way of actually learning. Over the course of two weeks I had reinforced that feeling. Lack of preparation, not being mentally in the mind-set to study, not finding the time to do the review beforehand all these are barriers to entry, not reasons not to attend the class. Once I started actually doing the work, speaking with the teacher and taking notes, I have noticed not only the improvement in my feelings about the learning process, I started noticing progress in my ability to recall the vocabulary, use it topically, and actually finding it easier to engage in Chinese conversation outside of the study sessions, spontaneously. I think this is a great take-away to find in this challenge: Having a perfect lesson is less important than just having lessons, consistently, without abandoning the process or or letting self-doubt creep in. Lesson 3: Try different teachers I had scheduled many classes, primarily orienting myself towards the pace of lesson-taking rather than trying to concentrate on any specific facet of content. This turned out to be a great idea. My assumption has always been that sticking with the same teacher will limit my exposure to variety of styles, or even individual peculiarities of pronunciation. Still, I noticed a bit of psychological friction when scheduling lessons with multiple teachers. This seemed uncomfortable primarily because I could already feel the awkwardness of speaking with a stranger for the first time. I had to distance myself from the process and followed a simple algorithm: Pick the time, filter by price and willingness to teach HSK, send lesson request, schedule the next class. Quickly my schedule filled up and I was on-track to finish the challenge. Whatever awkwardness I felt about meeting half a dozen new teachers in the span of two weeks I had made a commitment to it, which seemed to help somehow. After finishing hour 4 or 5, I realized how helpful it is to have multiple teachers in a short period of time. Each one had a different approach, and a natural propensity to concentrate on a specific aspect. After a particularly intense hour concentrating on tones, I realized how useful it is to have a team of teachers, rather than picking one and sticking to them only. I’ve realized that I want to take more classes with each one of the teachers I’ve tried, and I’m designing my future class schedule with purpose: reading a grammar with one teacher, casual conversation and organic use of vocabulary with another, intensive tones and pronunciation practice with a third. I can’t recommend trying this enough, as it seems like such a counterintuitive approach. So, did I reach my goal? No, I wouldn’t say that I have, and that is actually a good thing. I have learned to create a plan better, and opened myself up to more diverse experiences in terms of language-learning. I’ve realized the importance of making achievable, feedback-oriented goals, which is crucial if I plan to stay motivated in my language-learning. Above all, though, I have discovered several great teachers that can help me practice specific skills in my quest not just to pass a test, but to gain a comprehensive and deep understanding of Mandarin. June Language Challenge Update Ivans Update The italki June 2015 language challenge has not gone smoothly for me, and that in itself has taught me a great deal about achieving my goals and learning a language. It was an exciting, difficult, but ultimately rewarding journey. There are many things that I have re-asserted to myself throughout the process of the challenge: taking notes, importance of review, fundamental advantages of speaking with a person to learn language. Still, I want to make the emphasis on sharing some of the more unusual insights from the experience: Ivan who is on our #marketing #team is struggling taking the #languagechallenge #learningchinese. His goal was to learn #HSK level 4 #chinese and hes almost there! #worklifebalance #scheduling #pressure #goalsetting A photo posted by Italki (@italki) on Jun 28, 2015 at 11:45pm PDT Lesson 1: My main struggle was caused by poorly picking my goal The way I formulated my goal was simple: cover HSK 4 Level vocabulary (This is somewhere around C1 level, and combined with the previous levels of the test covers approximately 1200 Chinese words). Since starting the challenge I have realized that this was definitely too ambitious. What’s worse, I have procrastinated for two weeks before finally starting classes. I have managed to compress my language challenge into a 2-week battery of lessons with several teachers. The goal wasn’t granular enough. I was lazy, and decided to attach my goal to a testable standard. Though, I imagine that instinctual decision was not a bad one, it did lull me into a false sense of security. I didn’t break my goal down into quantifiable pieces. What’s worse, I didn’t design my goal give me any feedback of my progress. By this I mean that my goal didn’t give me any feedback about my performance. In the future, I plan to make smaller sub-goals. I also plan to phrase the goals in terms of proving an ability instead of consuming material: “Discuss social change in context of education using a set list of vocabulary” “Be able to read through this passage naturally with correct tones” “Be able to provide three example sentences for each of the vocabulary words in today’s vocabulary set” Lesson 2:  â€œLe mieux est l’ennemi du bien” There seems to be a natural tendency in us to avoid action, when the embarrassment of being unprepared is expected. I imagined myself striving into the challenge in control, relaxed, confident, and breezing through the month. A week passed, and I haven’t scheduled any lessons. Every day something seemed to come up, I haven’t looked at the vocabulary independently, I haven’t made the right flash cards, I haven’t reviewed the Anki deck, and ultimately, I had 3 more weeks to make sure that I will do my studying according to the perception of a well-planned experience in my head. The second week passed with touches of panic, though I still held onto my mental model of how I will study language. By the time I took my first lesson, this fantasy has been shattered and evaporated. I realized that I would have to take lessons almost daily to complete the challenge. I went on a lesson-requesting binge, requesting lessons with teachers primarily based on their time availability and willingness to teach lessons specialized for HSK. I have wound up with a schedule that had me take a class almost daily, with a team of teachers and the rest of my week booked. There was no going back, I was going to finish the challenge, even if it meant I would drag myself through the hours kicking and screaming. I took my first lesson, worked through some vocabulary with my teacher, some basic conversation (the necessary “Who are you and where are you from?”) and I started feeling good about the class. Half an hour into actually doing the challenge, my level of panic and anxiety subsided, and then disappeared. Somehow in the process of imagining doing the challenge I had managed to create a mental model that actually got in my way of actually learning. Over the course of two weeks I had reinforced that feeling. Lack of preparation, not being mentally in the mind-set to study, not finding the time to do the review beforehand all these are barriers to entry, not reasons not to attend the class. Once I started actually doing the work, speaking with the teacher and taking notes, I have noticed not only the improvement in my feelings about the learning process, I started noticing progress in my ability to recall the vocabulary, use it topically, and actually finding it easier to engage in Chinese conversation outside of the study sessions, spontaneously. I think this is a great take-away to find in this challenge: Having a perfect lesson is less important than just having lessons, consistently, without abandoning the process or or letting self-doubt creep in. Lesson 3: Try different teachers I had scheduled many classes, primarily orienting myself towards the pace of lesson-taking rather than trying to concentrate on any specific facet of content. This turned out to be a great idea. My assumption has always been that sticking with the same teacher will limit my exposure to variety of styles, or even individual peculiarities of pronunciation. Still, I noticed a bit of psychological friction when scheduling lessons with multiple teachers. This seemed uncomfortable primarily because I could already feel the awkwardness of speaking with a stranger for the first time. I had to distance myself from the process and followed a simple algorithm: Pick the time, filter by price and willingness to teach HSK, send lesson request, schedule the next class. Quickly my schedule filled up and I was on-track to finish the challenge. Whatever awkwardness I felt about meeting half a dozen new teachers in the span of two weeks I had made a commitment to it, which seemed to help somehow. After finishing hour 4 or 5, I realized how helpful it is to have multiple teachers in a short period of time. Each one had a different approach, and a natural propensity to concentrate on a specific aspect. After a particularly intense hour concentrating on tones, I realized how useful it is to have a team of teachers, rather than picking one and sticking to them only. I’ve realized that I want to take more classes with each one of the teachers I’ve tried, and I’m designing my future class schedule with purpose: reading a grammar with one teacher, casual conversation and organic use of vocabulary with another, intensive tones and pronunciation practice with a third. I can’t recommend trying this enough, as it seems like such a counterintuitive approach. So, did I reach my goal? No, I wouldn’t say that I have, and that is actually a good thing. I have learned to create a plan better, and opened myself up to more diverse experiences in terms of language-learning. I’ve realized the importance of making achievable, feedback-oriented goals, which is crucial if I plan to stay motivated in my language-learning. Above all, though, I have discovered several great teachers that can help me practice specific skills in my quest not just to pass a test, but to gain a comprehensive and deep understanding of Mandarin. June Language Challenge Update Ivans Update The italki June 2015 language challenge has not gone smoothly for me, and that in itself has taught me a great deal about achieving my goals and learning a language. It was an exciting, difficult, but ultimately rewarding journey. There are many things that I have re-asserted to myself throughout the process of the challenge: taking notes, importance of review, fundamental advantages of speaking with a person to learn language. Still, I want to make the emphasis on sharing some of the more unusual insights from the experience: Ivan who is on our #marketing #team is struggling taking the #languagechallenge #learningchinese. His goal was to learn #HSK level 4 #chinese and hes almost there! #worklifebalance #scheduling #pressure #goalsetting A photo posted by Italki (@italki) on Jun 28, 2015 at 11:45pm PDT Lesson 1: My main struggle was caused by poorly picking my goal The way I formulated my goal was simple: cover HSK 4 Level vocabulary (This is somewhere around C1 level, and combined with the previous levels of the test covers approximately 1200 Chinese words). Since starting the challenge I have realized that this was definitely too ambitious. What’s worse, I have procrastinated for two weeks before finally starting classes. I have managed to compress my language challenge into a 2-week battery of lessons with several teachers. The goal wasn’t granular enough. I was lazy, and decided to attach my goal to a testable standard. Though, I imagine that instinctual decision was not a bad one, it did lull me into a false sense of security. I didn’t break my goal down into quantifiable pieces. What’s worse, I didn’t design my goal give me any feedback of my progress. By this I mean that my goal didn’t give me any feedback about my performance. In the future, I plan to make smaller sub-goals. I also plan to phrase the goals in terms of proving an ability instead of consuming material: “Discuss social change in context of education using a set list of vocabulary” “Be able to read through this passage naturally with correct tones” “Be able to provide three example sentences for each of the vocabulary words in today’s vocabulary set” Lesson 2:  â€œLe mieux est l’ennemi du bien” There seems to be a natural tendency in us to avoid action, when the embarrassment of being unprepared is expected. I imagined myself striving into the challenge in control, relaxed, confident, and breezing through the month. A week passed, and I haven’t scheduled any lessons. Every day something seemed to come up, I haven’t looked at the vocabulary independently, I haven’t made the right flash cards, I haven’t reviewed the Anki deck, and ultimately, I had 3 more weeks to make sure that I will do my studying according to the perception of a well-planned experience in my head. The second week passed with touches of panic, though I still held onto my mental model of how I will study language. By the time I took my first lesson, this fantasy has been shattered and evaporated. I realized that I would have to take lessons almost daily to complete the challenge. I went on a lesson-requesting binge, requesting lessons with teachers primarily based on their time availability and willingness to teach lessons specialized for HSK. I have wound up with a schedule that had me take a class almost daily, with a team of teachers and the rest of my week booked. There was no going back, I was going to finish the challenge, even if it meant I would drag myself through the hours kicking and screaming. I took my first lesson, worked through some vocabulary with my teacher, some basic conversation (the necessary “Who are you and where are you from?”) and I started feeling good about the class. Half an hour into actually doing the challenge, my level of panic and anxiety subsided, and then disappeared. Somehow in the process of imagining doing the challenge I had managed to create a mental model that actually got in my way of actually learning. Over the course of two weeks I had reinforced that feeling. Lack of preparation, not being mentally in the mind-set to study, not finding the time to do the review beforehand all these are barriers to entry, not reasons not to attend the class. Once I started actually doing the work, speaking with the teacher and taking notes, I have noticed not only the improvement in my feelings about the learning process, I started noticing progress in my ability to recall the vocabulary, use it topically, and actually finding it easier to engage in Chinese conversation outside of the study sessions, spontaneously. I think this is a great take-away to find in this challenge: Having a perfect lesson is less important than just having lessons, consistently, without abandoning the process or or letting self-doubt creep in. Lesson 3: Try different teachers I had scheduled many classes, primarily orienting myself towards the pace of lesson-taking rather than trying to concentrate on any specific facet of content. This turned out to be a great idea. My assumption has always been that sticking with the same teacher will limit my exposure to variety of styles, or even individual peculiarities of pronunciation. Still, I noticed a bit of psychological friction when scheduling lessons with multiple teachers. This seemed uncomfortable primarily because I could already feel the awkwardness of speaking with a stranger for the first time. I had to distance myself from the process and followed a simple algorithm: Pick the time, filter by price and willingness to teach HSK, send lesson request, schedule the next class. Quickly my schedule filled up and I was on-track to finish the challenge. Whatever awkwardness I felt about meeting half a dozen new teachers in the span of two weeks I had made a commitment to it, which seemed to help somehow. After finishing hour 4 or 5, I realized how helpful it is to have multiple teachers in a short period of time. Each one had a different approach, and a natural propensity to concentrate on a specific aspect. After a particularly intense hour concentrating on tones, I realized how useful it is to have a team of teachers, rather than picking one and sticking to them only. I’ve realized that I want to take more classes with each one of the teachers I’ve tried, and I’m designing my future class schedule with purpose: reading a grammar with one teacher, casual conversation and organic use of vocabulary with another, intensive tones and pronunciation practice with a third. I can’t recommend trying this enough, as it seems like such a counterintuitive approach. So, did I reach my goal? No, I wouldn’t say that I have, and that is actually a good thing. I have learned to create a plan better, and opened myself up to more diverse experiences in terms of language-learning. I’ve realized the importance of making achievable, feedback-oriented goals, which is crucial if I plan to stay motivated in my language-learning. Above all, though, I have discovered several great teachers that can help me practice specific skills in my quest not just to pass a test, but to gain a comprehensive and deep understanding of Mandarin.