Learning Foreign Languages When Time Is Short

Some of us do not have the luxury to take a 6 month language course taught by a proper language tutor. For instance when my wife and I won tickets to watch the Champions League final all the way in Istanbul, Turkey many years back, we only had two weeks to learn what we could.

So we got the necessary materials - Turkish foreign language learning software, some language learning DVDs and a dictionary. We got them all from our usual source - www.wor.com aka World Of Reading.

Mind you, since we were on the fast track to learn Turkish, we decided to get some materials meant for kids with the idea that they would be easier to digest. So we ended up learning a few Turkish songs along the way. It was fun and I think it really helped.

The good thing about the new language learning techniques used is that they teach you to listen and repeat sentences which you would most often use. So you can put them into practice as soon as you learn them. This makes memorizing them less of a chore.

I remember 20 years ago, this wasn't the case. We had to memorize words and grammar before we could use words in a sentence. It was very unnatural. This made learning a new language very cumbersome and tie consuming. Fortunately, studies have shown that the best way to learn a language is by listening and mimicking, like how children learn languages.

Since my wife and I were short of time, we learned only the essentials and we carried a cheat sheet and a dictionary just in case. This saved us a heap of time.  

Scoring Concrete Floors Will Be My Next Project

I was introduced to the idea of stained concrete floors a couple of months back while visiting a friend's house. I've always used tiles or natural stone but after seeing that the finish can look quite impressive, I might want to explore this method of floor decoration.

As I was saying, I visited a friend's place a few months back. My wife and I thought he had a professional do it so we were quite surprised that he and his wife did the job all by themselves. They did everything from the application of the acid to the application of the sealer. I must say that they did a fantastic job.

They didn't just do the driveway, mind you. They took a few weekends to complete their DIY stained concrete floor project which also included the kitchen floor and garden walkway.

What got my attention was a certain technique that was used to add texture or rather, designs to the concrete finish. The technique is called scoring and you can create all sorts of patterns on your concrete floors. Scoring is basically scratching or cutting the surface of the concrete. Apparently, this is quite common and my friends were a bit shocked that my wife and I did not know about it.

Anyway, scoring concrete can create a wide variety of patterns. The concrete can be scored either prior to staining and sealing or after. If the scoring is performed prior to staining and sealing, the score lines will be stained with the rest of the floor.

Apparently, scoring concrete is done when the concrete is fresh. Sawcut lines are done after the concrete is hardened and can be straight or diagonal to the edges of the concrete or bands. Diamonds, stars, rectangles and even circles can be saw-cut or grinded into the concrete. I will still to straight lines for now although I have been told cutting circles is not as challenging at it sounds.

After you have decided on a pattern, mark the design onto the floor using a chalk (never use red chalk as it is a permanent marker). Then, using a straight-edged object, cut the lines with the circular saw.  Once all the cutting is over and done with, remove the concrete dust by cleaning the concrete surface with soap and water. Allow the surface to dry completely before applying the stain and thereafter, the sealer. Leave it to dry for at least 24 hours.

You can get all the supplies and tools for staining and scoring concrete floors at http://concretecamouflage.com.