(Part 4) Top products from r/AMA

Sorry for the delay! Here comes a long response.

> How did you become an exchange student? What did you do? Was it with a school or was it an external thing?

While taking Japanese in high school, my teacher told us about Rotary International. They do all kinds of charitable work and whatnot, and one of the things they do is sponsor students for foreign exchange. Here's a link to find your nearest club. Of course my parents helped me pay for it, but the cost was relatively low. Around $3k if I remember correctly, for a whole year of living abroad with a host family and going to school over there. I was 17 at the time. Highly recommend checking it out.

> Will 100 words a day be enough to be fluent in a year?

If by "100 words a day", you mean memorizing 100 words a day, then no, of course not. Memorizing vocab is important, obviously--and I'd recommend starting with something like this: 1000 most common Japanese words.--but you'll hit a wall very quickly if that's your only source of study.

If you just want to speak 100 words a day that you already know, then yes, that's an awesome place to start. The secret to learning languages is to speak the words that you know every day, as often as possible. I recommend finding someone to talk to, and there are a million websites out there to help you out with that. Check out /r/languagelearning and /r/Japanese, if you haven't already.

> How is memory retention after not being exposed to Japanese after a month?

Hard to say; that's a pretty subjective question. My memory retention after a month was phenomenal; now after 10+ years, not so much. But again, that's going to change with the individual, how much exposure he had previously, etc etc. Type of exposure is important too, I think. After I lived in Japan for 11 months, for example, my memory retention was obviously much better than it would have been after taking four years of high school Japanese and then never looking at another hiragana after graduation.

> How much do you think emotion affects learning? How much do you think desire affects learning, as opposed to no desire at all?

These are interesting questions, and I'm not sure I'll be able to get as deep into answering them as I might if we were talking face to face. Learning is a fascinating topic--check out The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin--and one's capacity for learning can be affected by all sorts of things.

To address your question specifically, both desire and emotion can affect learning, and it's my opinion that emotion plays a larger part in that effect.

For example, take a student who hates going to school and doesn't want to learn a goddamned thing. That student still recognizes the importance of getting his diploma, so he puts his nose to the grindstone, sits through his awful classes, and he graduates.

On the flip side, a student who wants nothing more than to graduate with a 4.0 might have a hard time paying attention if he's constantly distracted because he is depressed, anxious, angry or melancholic.

See the difference? Our brains will take in information and force us to learn things whether we want it to or not. But if our mental energy is being sapped by our negative emotions, that job becomes a lot more difficult. What you are really referring to here is focus. If you can get around a lack of desire and your conflicting negative emotions and find a place of focus, you'll learn.

(On that note, if lack of focus is an issue for you, start meditating--check out headspace. They have a fantastic app that will give you 10 free 10-minute sessions. I use the app all the time and have cycled the 10 free sessions probably 100 times. No need to buy the premium version to reap the benefits. Just do one session at night before bed. We can definitely get more into the other benefits of meditating if you're ever interested.)

Hi, not the OP, just a parent of a child with autism. I wrote a blog post on how to find good therapists and make sure ABA is helpful and productive.

My son was also terribly shy at that age (he started ABA at 18 months). We did ABA in our home and the therapists came and played with him for at least a week or two just to get him used to them before we started any sort of therapy. I stayed right by his side until he became comfortable with them. They brought fun toys and bought new ones once they found out his likes and dislikes.

I highly recommend you get An Early Start For Your Child With Autism. It is based on the Early Start Denver Model and teaches you how to do ABA in a fun, play based way that has simple instructions and clear steps. You can give to the ABA therapists to help them do ABA therapy in a fun way. My ABA therapist loves it so much she's doing it with her NT daughter.

I also like Engaging Autism, which teaches you how to do the Floortime Method.

I always recommend books. Scroll down for four book recommendations.

Can you make time to meet with your pastor?
Could you email, or phone-video-chat?

One of my favorite prayers is from Mark 9:24 when a parent frantically brings his son to Jesus for healing and cries out, "Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief!"
You are not alone in having a crisis of faith. But go through, don't stop. Do participate in the life of the church -- not just the worship service but study and service as well. Do repeat that Mark 9:24 prayer -- put it on a mental loop.

I'm also happy to keep on talking.
Now the books:

Lately I've been recommending Joshua Ryan Butler's The Pursuing God, as he re-frames the story of God interacting with people.

I also appreciate how William Young deals with belief in The Shack.

Perhaps my strongest recommendation for you at this time: Girl Meets God: On the Path to a Spiritual Life

One other recommendation, a memoir from a British satirist named Tony Hendra, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul.

First off, you made a massive step just going for therapy. That takes courage even in itself. Have you tried different techniques, such as hand tapping or auditory tones? It may reduce the anxiety a little. Sometimes you will need to have therapy but not EMDR, like one week on one week off to let reprocessing occur. I upped mine from once a week to twice a week and that was hard so I imagine that going from once a week to once every two weeks may help with reprocessing.
Usually the therapist has a method of calming you down at the end of the session, mine showed me a 'healing light' meditation. Now this sounds like hippy bs but its just another form of relaxation meditation in which you visualise a healing light quenching your negative emotions and feelings.
I would speak to your therapist about using a calming technique towards the end of the sessions or if you become overwhelmed, if they haven't already.

Your sleep will improve and so will eating habits, trauma is difficult and can be complex. I found regular mindfulness meditation really helps with anxiety. There is a book based course which greatly reduced/reduces my anxiety if that helps too :)

I do have To tell you the truth, you seem to be doing a great job! Just continue to let him know that he can always come to you for answers.

As far as resources go, Dr. Laura Berman has an excellent book about this very topic.

And, of course, Planned Parenthood is a fantastic source as well.

John Bradshaw's books are classics and a good place to start - I'll link you to it here. You are also free to subscribe to my Youtube Channel where I discuss related material that might be helpful for you (depending on what topic I am covering that week). Link to my channel here - Feel free to subscribe if it looks possibly helpful for you.

Bradshaw's book, 'Healing The Shame That Binds You': https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Shame-that-Binds-You/dp/0757319130/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3KKNOZI0P5Q5R&keywords=john+bradshaw+healing+the+shame+that+binds+you&qid=1555973807&s=books&sprefix=john+bradshaw%2Caps%2C290&sr=1-1

You have to learn how to deal with your mental illness while finishing your degree. Know what your limitations are and communicate with your psychiatrist. Right now, he's your best ally.

Have you thought about seeing a therapist who specializes in bipolar and/or schizophrenic clients? It'll be nice to have someone to talk to in order to help you guide through this unfamiliar territory. Meds with therapy seems to be the gold standard in treating this disorder.

You're not a failure. Life knocked you down but don't let it defeat you. Read books on how others dealt with it and know what you have. Knowing how other people successfully deal with it will make it less scary. https://www.amazon.com/Unquiet-Mind-Memoir-Moods-Madness/dp/0679763309/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541529869&sr=8-1&keywords=kay+jamison%27s+an+unquiet+mind&dpID=41UI%252B2nA8OL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
https://www.amazon.com/Bipolar-Disorder-Survival-Guide-Second-ebook/dp/B0057YW78W/ref=pd_sim_351_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0057YW78W&pd_rd_r=26dd095b-e1f4-11e8-b11f-43d90393fb78&pd_rd_w=NOpfA&pd_rd_wg=NwUem&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=18bb0b78-4200-49b9-ac91-f141d61a1780&pf_rd_r=1NWVJHAXQ684E0BTRNNT&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=1NWVJHAXQ684E0BTRNNT

Go to your local public library. They have many books on this topic.

Good luck.

There are some really cool things about the Masons and Washington D.C. This book and this dvd are both pretty good.

I chose C# because I have few MS devices (WP phone, Windows tablet, Windows PC) and I was always curious about their technology.

Then I saw that this language gives me a opportunity to code in one language and deploy on multiple platforms thanks to Xamarin.

I didn't try anything else because it suited my needs.

Books (mainly this book and this book ), videos, tutorials etc.

It depends on what aspect of them you're looking to learn. I'd start out with getting a basic idea of a guns operating system or how the gun functions. Learn the difference between things like gas operated,
blowback, and bolt action. Then once you have a general understanding of that you can move on to parts. Learn how to identify a guns parts and what purpose they serve. There is a wonderful book on guns from the 1950's on up.

Here's a link- https://www.amazon.com/Small-Arms-1950-Present-Weapons-War/dp/0785829989/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497927133&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Small+arms+1950%27s+to+the+present

https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Snow-Nailed-League-Coke/dp/0741405601/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527230096&sr=8-1&keywords=dr+snow i read this book on him and it was really good!

Ever read this? Found it quite interesting.

I wouldn't recommend that book. If you'd like a factual, well-researched look at the masonic significance of the District, I'd recommend Solomon's Builders by Chris Hodapp (who also wrote Freemasons for Dummies). I can't comment on the DVD, since the link was broken.

Not a question, but this could be worth a try:

https://www.amazon.com/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Stop-Smoking/dp/0615482155

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helped a lot of people I know quit.

It also tripped out Ludwig Wittgenstein in his last piece of writing. I'm colorblind and think about it often. This is a collection of thoughts about what makes color color and how its qualities differ from other perceptions. Worth checking out, imho, if you're color blind and interested in perception.

Have you read "I Am Not Myself These Days?"

https://smile.amazon.com/Am-Not-Myself-These-Days/dp/0060817321/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501641869&sr=8-1&keywords=i+am+not+myself+these+days

I'm not a prison librarian but this book is a good insight into prison libraries. http://www.amazon.ca/Running-Books-Adventures-Accidental-Librarian/dp/0767931319

Given the lack of living survivors I doubt you'll find an answer.

However, during a period when I had no internet, I came upon this book that shed some light the atrocities (mind you, guy has a JPN wife, so take it with a grain of salt).

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679753036/ref=wp_dp_3

Not OP, but...that's not entirely true from a factual perspective. I'm not going to debate whether ghosts are real or not, only that your facts are wrong.

There are plenty of "Paranormal Sightings" in big cities. I'd say there's at least a dozen books on paranormal activities in the city... PER city.

To use an example from a big city I know... The O'Connel House at Boston University is notoriously haunted.

In fact, here is a book about haunted universities.

So you claimed:

1. Ghosts never "appear" in big cities - provably false
   
2. ...with "scolarized" people (assuming you mean educated) - provably false