How to make friends during the pandemic

If you're like me and all of your friends are married with children than chances are you lack friends and need to make a few during this pandemic. I turned to Facebook to find a safe way, for me, at least to learn and make friends in the process. I've joined language exchange groups, art groups and photogprahy groups. 

By joining groups with similar interests you'll likely to find people who like the same things you do. You can strike up a conversation and get to know people from around the world. You'll learn about other cultures and pick up a few pointers from each other in conversation. 

I met a few people from my photography groups who are wells of knowledge. They know what they are talking about when it comes to techniques. They have been generous in sharing their knowledge with me and i feel smarter for applying the tips and tricks they have given me about photography into my own portfolio. 

One guy gave me pointers on long exposure. There are a few articles he shared that I'll link, here and here. After reading up on it I feel thankful for his grnerousity because I probably would have never found that information on my own. :)

Another friend helped me by sharing some books with me. I've been studying French and he has been learning English and German. He found some vocabulary books online and willingly shared that information with me. I'm grateful for that because I probably wouldn't have known about it otherwise. 

I've also had a lot of other encounters with people from France, Morocco, Belgium, Uk, Algeria, Honduras, Colombia; Venezuela, Spain and Italy to name a few. Each have exciting backgrounds and i enjoy listening to their stories as we each share something in common. 

So in conclusion, I've used Facebook groups to gauge my interests and find people to talk to and learn from from there. I've gathered greater knowledge from them and who knows, would even meet some of them in person in the future. 

How do you make friends or maintain your friendships during this pandemic. Do you have any suggestions? Leave them in the comments to grow in the community. 

Stay safe. Xoxo 

Why I love the French language

Disney's Madeline with her dog Genevieve was one of my favorite cartoons growing up. I used to watch hours of Madeline going on adventures and coming home to the twelve girls and her guardian at the manor covered in vines. She was smart, witty and resourceful. 

Then i grew up and went to school and learned Spanish. I still really liked French and took a course in high school. I studied for hours online using grammar notes and Duolingo. Pimsleure became my best friend and Assimil from Spanish to French led me on my way to fluency. I put in a lot of time and effort into learning this language of love and i there are just a few reasons as to why I like it so much-- so well because growing up I really liked listening to it, it's a beautiful language widely spoken and I love the culture. 

As previously mentioned, growing up I really enjoyed the language. I would watch Disney's Madeline. Then i found resources to help me learn the language. I put in a lot of effort to learning and realized that with hard work I did achieve results. Now I can speak at a B2 level and I want to get to native like fluency. I definitely have so much more to learn because there are still words I don't know in French. 

As I practice more and more, I get used to the sounds of this widely spoken language. The accents differ across regions and I've learned that France extends so much farther than the mainland in Europe. 

According to uk.france.fr, "Often named by the acronym DROM-COM, the ‘Overseas Departments and Regions – Overseas Collectivities’ refer collectively to all land under French sovereignty outside mainland France:

• The Islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon (Atlantic Ocean)
• Reunion island, Mayotte, the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Indian Ocean)
• French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna (Pacific Ocean)

The French Overseas Territories cover almost 120 000 km² and are home to more than 2.6 million people."

French is also the official language of countries

in Belgium, Benin, Burkina, Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central, African, Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte, d'Ivoire, Democratic, Republic, of, the, Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial, Guinea, France, Guinea, Haiti, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Monaco, Niger, Republic, of, the, Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, and Vanuatu. With so many places and people speaking French, it gives me even more reason to learn the language. I've had the pleasure of speaking with a few people from a few of these places and we've had language exchanges online. It was fun getting to know them and learning about their cultures along with the language.  Speaking of culture, with all the different French speaking cultures in the world I still like France. I've learned a few idioms, gestures, and about the dress and cuisine. I'd love to go someday and visit to see France for myself. It's a beautiful place filled with lots of art and design. It's definitely one of my favorite places in the world to be.  So my journey with French has come a long way as I grew up listening to it every now and then. I've realized it's a widely spoken language so that would open many doors for me as I excel in knowledge of this beautiful language and my love for this iconic culture swells as i admire the art that frames it's scene.

Some of my favorite languages

Growing up i recall having conversations with my parents about languages. I recall my Spanish speaking dad explaining to me the similarities between the romance languages and how cool it would be to learn how to speak them. (Those obviously include Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Catalan)  

As for me, I'm currently trilingual. I grew up learning how to speak English in primary school in Florida. Then when I was seven, i met one friend whose parents became best friends with my parents and we grew up speaking Spanish at home. When I was 12 i taught myself how to read and write in Spanish. To solidify my studies i took a Spanish class in high school and later learned to actually speak Spanish after I graduated from high school on mission trips to Costa Rica. I didn't know how to speak a word of Spanish but I understood most if it. However, in order for me to do daily tasks like go to the grocery store, go to the bank, pay for my phone bill, i had to speak Spanish and it was very rewarding to come back home having accomplished the goal after four years if spending summers abroad to become fluent in a second language 

Then, i met some people in Costa Rica who like to learn other foreign languages like French, German and Portuguese. I became inspired to learn French and found tons of recourses online, Facebook groups, and language exchanges.

So i started to study French, German, Italian and other languages on Duolingo. I really like this recourse because I can spend as much time on it as i like to every day and I can return to it whenever the inspiration strikes to learn a language. It's convenient and it's free. 

Once i became more fluent with French, i moved on to other resources i found in my public library. The library has grammar books and audio discs to help me learn grammar and phrases in French. Finally, i moved on to Assimil to help me get through my B2 level and i bought the C1/C2 DALF book for native fluency. 

Language learning for me hasn't always been easy. Sometimes things in life come up and i have to postpone my studies for a later time to take care of other responsibilities. But i find that when I get bored, i end up browsing on Duolingo and start racking points to make conversations online from home. It's not very hard and it's a fun outlet i like to turn to to help me gain knowledge of other languages and cultures. I feel smarter for being more open minded to cultures that are different than my own and that's special. 

What are some of your favorite languages? What languages do you aspire to learn and how do you achieve these goals? Maybe we can chat about it some day. Even though I like to learn other foreign languages, i feel most comfortable speaking English, Spanish or French. 

So feel free to leave a comment or message me on Facebook, here 

Have a great day!

Why I love language learning

Currently, I speak English as my first language, Spanish at an advanced level and French at an intermediate to advanced level. I've dabbled in a few other languages like German, Dutch, Italian and Greek. I would like to learn a few more at an advanced level to be called a Polyglot. I think language learning is fun because I feel smarter than everyone else, I get to switch languages quickly in my head and I get to meet lots of people from other cultures on Facebook groups. 

I learned english in primary school in the U.S. and Spanish was always spoken at home; however, i didn't learn how to speak Spanish until I was about 12 or 13 years old when I began to teach myself how to read and write in Spanish. Then i took some courses in high school and traveled to Costa Rica in the summer time where I got cultural immersion. I felt culture clash, definitely because even though I knew how to read and write in Spanish I didn't know how to speak very well. Therefore, using the language in everyday life definitely helped me improve my verbal communication and get over my fear of speaking. 

In Costa Rica, i met quite a few people who like to learn other languages. I never thought about learning more than one language at a time but these people like to learn multiple. I decided to pick up French on my own and began studying on Duolingo and Pimsleure back in the States. 

As I taught myself French, i surely but steadily improved my grammar and communication. I found language partners on Facebook groups and on apps like Hello talk and Tandem. 

Then my curiosity grew as I realized there are approximately 6,500 languages in the world and I wanted to learn a few more. I wanted to be smarter than most and have fun switching languages in my head.

So I realized German is another language that a lot of people ask to exchange for and I decided I would give it a try. I'm still at a beginner level and would like to improve my skills in this language. 

I also really like getting to know other cultures. As i meet people from the comfort of my own home on Facebook groups, i don't have to travel to learn about other people. I've made friends, talked about food, scenery and customs from different countries 

Now I feel all that much more open to other cultures as I embrace my own.