Time for a check-up!

The course has now been underway for a month, so I think it's a good time for me to do a little check-up and see what I've managed to do so far. Both of my support groups have recently started, and I've completed their first tasks – on time, may I add. My second counsellor's meeting is also scheduled for next week and that is what will really mark the halfway point for me.

So, let's see! I've practiced my pronunciation with the help of two different mobile apps, ELSA and Duolingo. So far, I have used the ELSA app a little more but that's only because I only have a 7-day free trial on it and I'm not planning on paying for further use – at least, not yet. Other ways that I've been practicing my speaking and pronunciation has been mostly by studying with friends in English. I think it's been helpful to us all but at the same time, it's been quite casual and we're definitely not too hard on each other. But I also feel like that's fine; not all learning has to be extremely strict.

Things that I'd put under the miscellaneous label, are listening to podcasts and exercising in English. I usually listen to just two podcasts, both in English, but they're for my own entertainment and I'm not sure mixing them with schoolwork is what I want to do. So instead, I started to listen to science podcasts but as I've found out, it's not too serious either. As for exercising, it's just nice to do something other than sit and study with a computer all day, and I think it's challenging in its on right to learn physical exercises with an English-speaking coach.

Aside from these more concrete ways to study, I've also been reading and listening to news in English. It's a nice change of pace from reading simply Finnish news because, in my opinion, the news is more international and the "voice" in them isn't always biased towards Europe, as it often is in Finnish news.

The only "challenge" I had in my plans, that I haven't been able to start on yet, is a creative writing challenge. I was planning on finding one on the internet since I can't join the Creative Writing support group, but I've been so busy lately that I haven't had the chance for it yet. I'm still going to do at least one challenge, so stay tuned for the day that appears on my blog!