Achetez un cactus à Jūlija B

Welcome to my 🌵 BuyMeACactus 🌵 page!

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I'm Jūlija (or Ju), a multipassionate Christian INFP med student self-studying linguistics and a writer on a mission to help busy & curious language lovers to understand and acquire languages on their own the intuitive and leisurely way and multipassionates to create an aligned lifestyle that empowers them to be all that they are.

To summarize it quickly, here are four ways you can benefit from me:

➼ follow me on X (Twitter) to receive insights on language learning, linguistic frameworks, and updates on my work,

➼ subscribe to my free roughly-monthly newsletter for heart-led multipassionates,

➼ check out my articles and products,

➼ work with me one-on-one to decode the sentence structure of your target language.

To find more about my approach and offers on each of the two fields, you can skip right to the section you're interested in.

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FOR LANGUAGE LEARNERS

You know what really bugs me as a language lover? That people think of learning languages as this tedious work of memorizing vocabulary and rules. What's even funnier, many of the language teachers employing these kinds of methods are either natives or learned the language in their childhood from their playmates.

I have no formal education in linguistics. I am not yet a polyglot either, nor do I claim expertise in any language. I am, though, a language lover with a passion for frameworks (to whom rote memorization feels like sunlight, allegedly, to vampires) studying linguistics and acquiring languages on my own for fun. I may only speak three languages (Latvian, English, and Spanish, though I understand a portion of Portuguese and Italian, know medical Latin and learned the rules of the German sentence structure in two evenings with the right tool), but one thing I can say with certainty: I was always good at grammar, but I only learned each of these languages when I started (surprise!) using the actual language.

Still, even though a language can ONLY be learned the natural way, understanding grammar certainly speeds up the process. However, when I use the word grammar, I'm not referring to the boring lists of random if this, then that kind of rules you learned at school, I'm talking about the mental structure in every human being's brain. As a linguistics learner who's applied some theories to understanding my own target language with great results, I'm convinced that if language learners knew basic linguistics, for example, the basics of sound formation and combination, they would find it much easier to twist their tongue in foreign ways, or, what's currently my favourite topic, if they were taught how to apply the X-bar theory of universal syntax to the sentence structure of their target language, way fewer would struggle, let's say, with the word order of German.

To help you on YOUR journey to mastering your target language on your own or understanding Language as a system, I share practical learning-related insights and experiences and linguistic frameworks that explain language beyond the rules in my X posts and articles (see the Language category), the latest of which I make sure to share in my free newsletters. If you would like individual help reducing pages of unintuitive word order rules of your target language to a single tree structure common to all languages, we can arrange a one-on-one online Beyond the Rules Syntax Session.

If you like the thought of learning lanaguages through a combo of seeing the matrix (the unconscious code in the human mind that generates language) and travelling through it (immersion in the particular language), mastering the code to hack the game, and, most importantly, having fun in the process, I'll be happy to aid you with your goals.

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FOR MULTIPASSIONATES

If you feel burdened by the thought of sticking to one vocation as your identity, you're not broken. You're not even alone.

I've always had a naturally curious and imaginative mind brimming with ideas, which, like most personality patterns, is simultaneously a blessing and a curse. Even now, after lots and LOTS of time of my teenage years spent earnestly trying to figure out the ✨ONE✨ thing to do with my life, I have not even arrived at one main passion but four, namely, human biology & medicine (I'm a 2nd-year med student currently obsessed with signaling mechanisms, autoimmunity, sleep, and the microbiome), language & linguistics (addicted to seeing structure behind the rules and focusing on acquiring German), classical music (I play the violin and sing), and writing. And besides those, I love theology, maths (I tutored people for a while and enjoyed it greatly), natural sciences & growing things (if I could, I would live in a travelling orangerie-library-palace and take home any plant or fungus I found in the forest), and, of course, books.

This is not due to a failure to focus and think deeply, fear of commitment, or a scattered mind. The very thing of having many interests and ideas, and projects is our strength. We are meant for more than one thing: we were born multipassionate. And we can find a way to live and serve those around us as our full selves.

The problem is, deciding to become more than one thing means you'll have to figure out how to do something that nobody around you is doing, probably while hearing that your dreams are unobtainable and fanciful. Too few role models, too little multipassionate-specific advice out there, and a (neuro-?)divergent mind to begin with is not an easy starter pack, is it?

For this reason, as someone who treasures any advice from intrapersonally diverse people, I have started a roughly monthly newsletter to share insights from my own journey as a heart-led intuitive multipassionate / INFP / ADHDer with a scientific streak. Your journey will, of course, differ, but I hope that at least a fraction of my learnings is going to be useful to you in piecing together your own path or, at the very least, encourage you in the process.

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MISCELLANEOUS

Besides the obvious topics I focus on in my writing and tutoring, if you follow my work, you might find some random bits of other fields, like something related to getting the most out of the state of mind during sleep, brewing kvass, or poisonous mushrooms. Besides, when the muse strikes, I may write some poetry as well, in which I like to depict feelings, convictions, and ideas that, though often slightly exaggerated and at times entirely fictional, are nevertheless very true. I will try to keep them connected to the point, though perhaps the point is reminding you to notice and embrace the fact that you, too, are a beautiful mosaic of seemingly disparate pieces of color, and inspiring you to follow the path of curiosity.

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I'm thrilled to have you here!

On this page, you can find my work organized by categories with a little more background and behind-the-scenes. I'm glad for the opportunity to share with you ideas and pieces of information that have been valuable to me. I hope you find them useful and applicable in your life, too, or, at least, that they help you fill your life with wonder and passion.