Heritage language learners can sometimes feel like a failure for not being fluent before they've even given themselves a chance to try. Finding the right tools, setting realistic goals and acknowledging existing skills can make the process of learning your parents' language more fun and fulfilling.

Learning A New Language

Many heritage language learners are taught that multilingualism is not a path to success, only to realize, much later in life, that it's actually a considerable asset.First things first, give yourself some credit!

Give Yourself Some Credit

<ul><li>Break down your language skills into four major categories: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and listening</li><li>Identify your strengths and then build on them to become better at your chosen skill.</li><li>You are less likely to stop trying to improve if you begin with strengths and build upon them.</li></ul>

Build On Your Strengths

<ul><li>Knowing what you want to do with your language will help you prioritize what you need to learn.</li><li>You're a heritage speaker, not a native speaker. The goal of native fluency is not practical, so take that pressure off yourself.</li></ul>

Decide What You Want to Do With Your Language

<ul><li>If an in-person class isn't an option for you, there are plenty of online tools.</li><li>There are hundreds of apps and websites available online.</li><li>They explore different cultures and languages around the world and share what they’ve learned.</li><li>Use online tools to help them learn their heritage languages.</li></ul>

Find The Tools That Work For You

<ul><li>Ignore the ads for language learning courses or apps that say you'll be fluent in no time</li><li>Remember what you love most about learning your heritage language</li><li>Have conversations with your mom in Korean instead of English</li><li>Sing along to your favourite salsa song in the car with the windows open so everyone can hear you learn all the words</li></ul>

Focus on The Joy

Heritage language learners are different from people learning a second language for the first time. They often grow up hearing it, but that can come with its own set of challenges. Experts offer their advice on how to learn your heritage language.

education

Learning & Education

communication

Communication

How to learn a heritage language : Life Kit

The terms “mental health” and “mental well-being” are often used interchangeably, but they are different concepts that should be addressed using different approaches.<ul><li>Mental health is a term to describe a clinical assessment of a person’s mental state of health and often involves a specific diagnosis to help identify an appropriate treatment plan.</li><li>Mental well-being is more comprehensive and preventative, requiring a fundamentally proactive approach that can be actively cultivated in daily life.</li></ul>

Mental health vs mental well-being

Anxiety, stress, and burnout in the workplace are frequently cited as major contributors to the Great Resignation, during which more and more employees have been voluntarily leaving their jobs. To retain talent and future-proof organizations, leaders must nurture an environment where employees feel valued and are offered resources that help them feel good in all aspects of their lives.

The major contributors to the Great Resignation

People need more than just reactive access to a therapist in times of mental health distress. What about all the other areas that positively impact the mind, body, and spirit?Thus, employers should now turn to more holistic employee benefits that address areas such as positive thinking, burnout prevention, sleep improvement, and even weight loss, as well as other factors related to family (dealing with parents, kids, significant others, and so on).

Reimagine employee benefits

Rather than unrealistically drawing boundaries between work time and personal time, professionals can handle work tasks at times that best suit them. It’s more about harmony than balance.Modern approaches to employee support allow employees to be authentic to their own lives within this new environment. They recognize that mental well-being is a set of interconnected building blocks, one influencing the other, all adding to a holistic state of being in a changed world.

Embrace the concept of "work-life integration"

We shouldn’t look at the pandemic as a crisis demanding better attention to employee mental well-being (eventually subsiding after the pandemic), but as a signal of what companies should be doing. A stronger focus on emotional well-being is both a moral imperative and critical strategy to deliver business results. It is simply the right thing to do, now and later.

Wellness is more than a trend

Without mentally healthy people, your business will not thrive.


corporateculture

Corporate Culture

mindfulness

Mindfulness

mentalhealth

Mental Health

humanresources

Human Resources

4 better ways to think about wellness at work

During the pandemic, the top two reasons employees cited for leaving (or considering leaving) were that they didn’t feel their work was valued by the organization (54%) or that they lacked a sense of belonging at work (51%).

Create simple approaches that teach managers how to shape meaningful conversations, asking how their people are progressing with their professional or personal aspirations. Taking interest in an employee’s whole life strengthens their sense of belonging and belief that they matter. Rather than worrying that such personal interests might distract from work efforts, smart managers realize that by taking an interest in the whole employee, you ensure that they bring that same creativity and energy to their day jobs.

Make personal aspiration a routine part of manager conversations

The isolation of working from home has fractured our sense of community. Fostering <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/03/what-a-year-of-wfh-has-done-to-our-relationships-at-work">belonging</a> requires creative efforts to help people feel connected without adding to “zoom fatigue.” One company paid for coffee gift cards for employees to reach out across team boundaries and make connections with new colleagues, broadening their networks and helping them maintain a wider organizational perspective.

Double down on social connection for remote workers

If your <a class="idea-content-link" href="https://hbr.org/2021/03/what-is-your-organizations-long-term-remote-work-strategy">WFH policy</a> offers minimal or no flexibility you are likely to experience disappointment from employees.  To minimize it, tie whatever guidelines you put in place to how you serve customers and how you make or deliver products or services, and demonstrate how certain forms of collaboration are measurably enhanced by in-person work. Also, involve employees. People feel greater ownership over policies they help create, which strengthens adherence across the organization. Further, when others don’t adhere, peers are more likely to graciously call it out.

Let employees co-create your workplace experience

Instead of making career and professional development a “separate” experience, build learning and advancement right into people’s roles. An eg: One organization started a program they called “Walk in their shoes,” intended to strengthen connections between employees from different parts of the organization. It consisted of weekly peer-mentoring sessions between people in adjacent functions that regularly worked together.

Design development into everyday experience

It’s not always natural or comfortable for managers to express care, they may feel awkward or unclear on boundaries. But demonstrating care doesn’t have to be intrusive, and not every employee will want or need the same degree of care. Give managers discretion and resources to offer small acts of <a class="idea-content-link" href="https://hbr.org/2021/05/dont-underestimate-the-power-of-kindness-at-work">care</a> as the need arises. (some eg: Gift cards for food-delivery apps, handwritten notes of appreciation or concern, etc) Also, model vulnerability to make it safe for others. When others see you asking for help or appropriately acknowledging difficulties, it shows them it’s okay for them to do so.

Coach managers on how to genuinely care for others

Three strategies to help people feel like their work matters.

To Retain Employees, Give Them a Sense of Purpose and Community

The marketplace for talent has shifted. You need to think of your employees like customers and put thoughtful attention into retaining them. This is the first step to slow attrition and regain your growth curve.
And this does not happen when they feel ignored in the fever to hire new people or underappreciated for the effort they make to keep business moving forward. They need to be seen for who they are and what they are contributing, and leadership needs to ensure this is happening. Here are four steps for leaders to implement.

The Great Resignation: After Effects

As leaders, people are watching you all the time whether you realize it or not. So, pause and consider how you are showing up in both your words and your actions. 
When you become aware of your impact, you can control it and steer it in the right direction.

Your Impact

Talent is going elsewhere, but your company still has great people working. This is a time to be grounded in pragmatism blended with possibility, gratitude, and recognition of what your people, old and new, are going through. 
You need to communicate to your loyal workforce what is in store for them in the future.

Focus on Potential and Possibility

In far too many companies, when an employee gives notice the reaction is akin to an emotional breakup — you’ve been left and you feel rejected. This triggers some not great behaviour like a tendency to make the person leaving “wrong” and doubt their trustworthiness or integrity — even though that was not the case before they gave notice. There is a penchant to dismiss their presence and devalue their contribution.
The talent pool is tight, and careers are long. End this phase of your time together with appreciation.

Make It Okay To Leave

Show that you value your employees by:
<ol>
<li>Talking to them with the intention of retaining them.</li>
<li>Rewarding them and giving them their due recognition.</li>
<li>Engage them by giving them authority, help, and keeping things result-oriented.</li>
<li>Ditch the micro-management.</li>
</ol>

Give Employees Attention and Respect

In the frantic need to hire for open positions, it can be easy to forget about the people who stick around.

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

With So Many People Quitting, Don’t Overlook Those Who Stay

The supplement industry is huge. In 2016, the global nutritional supplement sector turned over an estimated $132.8 billion. By 2022, some experts predict that this figure will exceed $220 billion.According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, in 2011–2012, 52%Trusted Source of adults in the United States reported using some kind of supplement. Almost 1 in 3 people (31%) took multivitamins.

Vitamins and supplements: the statistics

In fact, more can sometimes be dangerous. As vitamin and mineral supplements are available without a prescription, people can be forgiven for assuming that they are safe at any dosage.Large dosages of some vitamins can hamper the body’s finely tuned systems. Too much vitamin C can interfere with the body’s ability to absorb copper, a metal that’s needed by the body. Too much phosphorous can inhibit the body’s absorption of calcium. The body cannot get rid of large doses of vitamins A, D, and K, and these can reach toxic levels when too much is taken.

More is not always better

The term “natural” is fairly meaningless in relation to the safety or effectiveness of a supplement. To provide an extreme example, cyanide is a natural compound that ferns produce. Of course, we are not suggesting that any supplements contain cyanide.Some natural plant compounds do have medicinal properties, but there is more to it than that. For instance, dandelion roots are a laxative, whereas dandelion leaves are a diuretic.

If the label says ‘natural,’ it's not  always safe

Many of these products contain active ingredients that might interfere with other drugs. Supplements might, therefore, boost or reduce the effects of pharmaceutical drugs.

Taking supplements alongside normal medicines

The idea that taking vitamin and mineral supplements will protect our hearts is reassuring. However, a large review and meta-analysis published in 2018 could find no significant benefit.

Vitamin and mineral supplements

Although there is a grain of truth to this slice of “common knowledge,” the evidence that vitamin C can prevent a cold is weak.The scientists found that vitamin C supplementation did not prevent the common cold in the general population. However, they did conclude that it reduced the severity of symptoms and the duration of the cold.

Vitamin C does not prevent a cold

Scientists have carried out a large number of studies to investigate whether vitamin D might help reduce or treat cancer. A large meta-analysis published in 2019 concluded that, although vitamin D did not reduce the incidence of cancer, it did reduce cancer mortality. Similarly, a large clinical trial published a year later found that although vitamin D supplementation was not linked with decreased cancer incidence, it was associated with a reduced incidence of advanced cancer.

Vitamin D and cancer

Probiotics are foods or supplements that contain microorganisms, whereas prebiotics are foods or supplements that contain compounds designed to promote gut bacteria.In most instances, we still don’t know which probiotics are helpful and which are not. We also don’t know how much of the probiotic people would have to take or who would be most likely to benefit. Even for the conditions that have been studied the most, researchers are still working toward finding the answers to these questions.

Probiotics and prebiotics

Antioxidants are compounds that prevent oxidation, and they include vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and carotenoids, such as beta carotene. In general, fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants.Research has shown that people who eat more vegetables and fruits have lower risks of several diseases; however, it is not clear whether these results are related to the amount of antioxidants in vegetables and fruits, to other components of these foods, to other factors in people’s diets, or to other lifestyle choices

Antioxidants and longevity

In this edition of Medical Myths, we tackle some persistent myths about supplements, including multivitamins, probiotics, and antioxidants.

food

Food

health

Health

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

8 myths about vitamins and supplements

Many of life’s important truths are contradictory.
We normally think of contradictions as illogical and therefore useless. But if we prod a bit deeper, we find real wisdom below the surface.
For example, if we hate a certain trait in others, to the point of loathing it, we are in fact insecure and are avoiding the same trait in ourselves.

Life Is Paradoxical And Contradictory

<ol><li>A person who cannot trust anyone cannot be trusted.</li><li>People protect themselves from being hurt in relationships by hurting their partners.</li><li>The more we try to impress people, the less effective it will be.</li><li>Success comes from failure.</li><li>We should do more of what scares us or puts us in discomfort. It can be public speaking, starting a new company or calling someone for a job.</li><li>The more we hanker for life and try to escape death, the less we are able to enjoy life.</li><li>Learning is itself paradoxical, and the more we learn, the more we realize that we are not knowing much.</li></ol>

Paradoxes Of Life

<ol><li>People treat others like they treat themselves, and if one cares less about others, the same is done to oneself.</li><li>Communication and connectedness increase loneliness and depression as it amplifies feelings of isolation.</li><li>Life gives us what we are afraid of, as that is what we think of all the time. If we are afraid of failure, it is bound to happen.</li><li>Our expectations about something being difficult or easy make it so. Things feel hard because we auto-suggest ourselves the same.</li><li>The more in abundance something is, the less we want it.</li></ol>

Paradoxes Of Life: The Truth Shall Make You Dizzy

<ol><li>If we want to be in a relationship, the best way is to not need any relationship and invest in our own learnings, health and happiness.</li><li>A display of honesty and vulnerability makes other people think we are great to the point of perfection.</li><li>The more we cling to something, the farther it moves away. If something is done due to obligations or prior commitments, and not for the joy of it, it becomes meaningless.</li><li>Winning arguments does not convince the other person, as most if not all arguments are not logical but emotional in nature.</li></ol>

The Paradoxes Of Life: Black Is White

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt!"

<ol><li>The more convinced we are that we are right, the less likely it is. If we are not objective about our own knowledge and perception, we are less likely to understand the other side.</li><li>The only thing that is certain is that nothing is certain.</li><li>Change is the only constant.</li><li>More options mean less satisfaction. With multiple options, the opportunity cost of not choosing something rises.</li></ol>

The Paradoxes Of Life: Up Is Down

A lot of truths in life seem paradoxical on the surface. Here are 20 paradoxes that are true.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

20 Paradoxes That Are True

Our imagined moon has long inspired fear, excitement, hubris, and political ambition – fact and myth, science and science fiction have always intertwined. Some of the engineers who advised Fritz Lang on his 1929 film, Frau im Mond went on to develop the first rocket capable of reaching space, Germany’s V-2. When they later moved to Huntsville, they took with them not just their know‑how but also Lang’s anticipation-quickening innovation of counting down the seconds before the rocket’s launch.

When Science And Sci-Fi Work Together

Science fiction is often seen as anticipation – a fiction peculiarly expected to graduate into fact. But if technologies once found only in SF do sometimes become real they do not, in so doing, always cease to be science fictional. SF is not, after all, simply a literature about the future; it is a literature about the shock of new capacities and new perspectives, about transcendence, estrangement and resistance in the face of the inhuman. Its ideas shape and constrain the ways in which technological possibilities are seen, understood, and experienced long after those possibilities are first tentatively realised.

Sci-Fi: Not Just Literature About The Future

Fifty years after the first moon landings, a new generation of space travellers, from Xi Jinping’s taikonauts to Jeff Bezos, are racing to colonise our nearest neighbour. Is reality catching up with sci-fi?

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

Lunacy: how science fiction is powering the new moon rush

<ul>
<li>Children are exposed to about 10,000 hours of language in their first four years. But children are seldom experts in a language by then, suggesting that they find it harder to learn a language.</li>
<li>Very young children can distinguish between about 800 sounds that make up all languages, but monolingual infants lose this ability in the first year of life as they become more specialised. </li>
<li>Children can learn more than one language at the same time if they have practice in both.</li>
</ul>

Why children find it easier to learn languages

<ul>
<li>Research shows that you can effectively learn a language if you desire to learn it (and less if you are told to learn). </li>
<li>Studies suggest that being bilingual can help you learn a new language because you realise there is no intrinsic link between a word and its meaning.</li>
</ul>

It takes 400 to 2,000 hours to master a language

Currently, 40 per cent of the world's estimated 7,000 languages may go extinct, having less than 1,000 speakers.
Chinese is the largest language if we include only native speakers, but English is the largest if we include native and non-native speakers. English is the language of science, the internet and much academic research and is likely to remain important in the future.

The main language of the future

People often think that languages like Russian, Arabic or Japanese are harder to learn, but it is subjective.
Words from different languages have the same etymological origin, such as 'brother' in English and 'Bruder' in German. But languages with different phonetics will be harder to learn. For example, languages such as Thai, Chinese or Vietnamese use tones to change a word's meaning. If you already speak a tonal language, it would be easier to learn another tonal one.

The hardest language to learn

The key ingredient in learning a language is time—ideally, hundreds of hours. Then it would be best if you practise regularly.
Research shows the best approach to learn a language is being immersed in it - not just learning words and grammar. Reading magazines, watching TV and talking to native speakers will solidify the learning.

The best ways of learning a language

Are children really better at learning languages? And what will the language of the future be? An expert linguist answers all.


problemsolving

Problem Solving

What is the easiest language to learn? A complete beginner’s guide to linguistics

Many companies often don't allow themselves to go where the trend is or are unwilling to adapt to the times because of its newness.
There are multiple reasons as to why this happens:
<ul>
<li>There is a lack of self- or situational awareness;</li>
<li>Poor communication;</li>
<li>Undecided / unclear decisions;</li>
<li>Having pretentiousness or a big ego; and</li>
<li>There is a lack of accountability</li>
</ul>

Common Mistake on Trendiness

It is an important characteristic to have not only in ourselves but should also be encouraged within our teams and the entire organization in order to stay ahead of the times and prevent obsolescence.
For many organizations to stay afloat they need to think and act adaptively to their surroundings and digital stages.

Adaptability

<ul>
<li>Experimental because they have the mental fortitude to face uncertainty</li>
<li>Resourceful</li>
<li>Those who see opportunity where the other sees failure</li>
<li>Forward thinkers</li>
<li>Patient and understanding</li>
<li>Accountable for their own actions</li>
<li>Able to engage in positive self-talk</li>
<li>Humble and do not care about the temporary spotlight</li>
<li>Curious because it enables growth</li>
<li>Adaptable</li>
<li>People who tend to stay on trend</li>
<li>Who looks at the bigger picture</li>
<li>Open-minded to other people's point of views</li>
<li>Firm believers on what they stand for.</li>
</ul>

Adaptable People Are...

Wondering how you adapt to change? Here are 14 ways to tell...

Signs Of An Adaptable Person

Introduced by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, archetypes represent universal patterns and visuals that form the collective unconsciousness.
He identified four main archetypes: The Persona, The Shadow, The Animus, and The Self. These archetypes are not inferred directly, but by looking at religion, dreams, literature and art. The archetypes suggested by Carl Jung are universal, hereditary and play a significant role in our personality.

Archetypes In Jungian Psychology

Individual or personal unconscious is part of the three components of the human psyche, apart from the ego and the collective unconscious.
The ego represents the consciousness and the personal unconscious contains suppressed and repressed memories.

Individual And Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung rejected the theory of ‘tabula rasa’ which asserts that the human mind is completely blank at birth, ready to be programmed with life experiences and education. The human mind retains its fundamental biological aspects, the primordial images that provide a basic foundation for the individual.
Apart from the four main archetypes, Carl Jung also describes many other such identities like the father, the mother, the hero, the trickster or the child.

The Mind Is Not Blank At Birth

The persona is a kind of behavioural mask. It is the way we present ourselves in social groups and situations. Right from our childhood, we are taught to behave in a certain way to fit the expectations and norms of society. It suppresses all our primitive urges, impulses and feelings that are not acceptable in society.
People who start to believe in their own persona tend to move away from their true selves.

Carl Jung’s Archetype: The Persona

The shadow is part of the unconscious mind, made up of our repressed ideas, desires, weaknesses, shortcomings and instincts. In our attempt to portray a certain persona, we create this shadow, our cache of envy, greed, prejudice, hate and violence.
It is a darker side of our psyche that appears in dreams as a snake, a demon, or some other dark and wild creature.

Carl Jung’s Archetypes: The Shadow

The Anima (female) or the Animus (male) are the sex and gender identities/roles that behave like Yin-Yang. The male and female energies are a balance influencing one another at all times. The Animus represents the male aspect in females, while the Anima is the female aspect in males. Society enforces strict gender stereotypes, which constrains normal psychological development.
The combined energy is called ‘syzygy’ or the divine couple, representing completion, unification and oneness.

Carl Jung’s Archetypes: The Anima/Animus

<ul>
<li>The Self is a circle, or ‘zero’, which represents the unified unconsciousness and consciousness of an individual.</li>
<li>Individuation is a process in which all aspects of our personality are integrated and in harmony.</li>
<li>The ego is the center of consciousness, but the self is at the center of our personality. An ego is false most of the time, but a self is always authentic and real.</li>
<li>Our personality is not just our consciousness, but also our ego and our unconsciousness.</li>
<li>If the circumference of a circle is our self, the ego is just the dot at the center.</li>
</ul>

Carl Jung’s Archetypes: The Self

Carl Jung described archetypes as models of people, behaviors or personalities. Learn more about the four major archetypes that Jung identified.

How to learn a heritage language : Life Kit

4 better ways to think about wellness at work

To Retain Employees, Give Them a Sense of Purpose and Community

With So Many People Quitting, Don’t Overlook Those Who Stay

8 myths about vitamins and supplements

Asiya R