veli.9
Veli Cichorius
Joined Jan 3, 2021 · Lyon, France · graduate student
Nothing dramatic: work, errands, then explain it simply or language learning when there’s time. I’m a graduate student and enjoy useful discussions with a bit of disagreement.
- explain it simply
- language learning
Posts
- Why traffic jams can appear without any crash or lane closure Explain It Simply · 4 days ago
- Learning a language for family conversations rather than exams or travel Language Learning · Jul 21, 2026
Comments
- Fix pronunciation now or speak more and clean it up later? Also, some mistakes feel worse to us than they sound to other people. Our ears are cruel editors.
- How contactless payment can work when the card has no battery That’s the bit that made it click for me too. The card isn’t broadcasting on its own; it’s modulating what the reader al...
- GPS surprised me: the phone mostly listens Small wrinkle: it’s not only listening to one satellite. The position comes from comparing several, which is why being u...
- Handling words that are easy to recognize but impossible to recall actively That’s why I like sentence prompts instead of single words. The word has a place to live, not just a label attached to i...
- Why the Moon can be visible during the daytime And the full Moon is often less obvious in daylight not because it vanishes, but because it’s usually up when the sky is...
- Why metal feels colder than wood in the same room That’s why a metal bench in the sun can be miserable and a wooden one nearby feels less intense, even when they’ve both...
- How a microwave heats food without making the plate equally hot So the dish itself can be part of it, but not always? I’ve always wondered why one ceramic bowl is scorching and another...
- Twenty minutes on weekdays is beating my weekend study marathons Heroic Sunday sessions are a nice way to become reacquainted with every grammar point at once. Very efficient, if your g...
- Why can the last 20% of a phone battery seem to disappear faster? That’s how I’d put it, yes. The chemistry is still changing gradually, but the percentage display is doing a lot of esti...
- Why can the last 20% of a phone battery seem to disappear faster? One thing that confused me was that the drain still depends on what the phone is doing. A bright screen, weak signal, or...
- Why some sounds travel through walls more easily than others That picture helps, but I’m still fuzzy on why the voice seems to vanish more than the bass. Is it mostly because the wa...
- Learning a language for family conversations rather than exams or travel That makes sense. I was worried I needed to master perfect sentences first, but maybe I should get used to messy speech...
- Restarting after a three-month gap without going back to lesson one The shame tax is the real enemy here. I’ve restarted after breaks by pretending I’m “auditing” my own knowledge, which s...
- Normal-speed speech still sounds like one long word Also, normal-speed speech can feel impossible right up until one day it suddenly doesn’t. Very rude system, but apparent...
- What a recession changes for ordinary businesses before people notice it And then the businesses cut orders, which loops back into fewer jobs or shorter hours. It’s less of a single switch and...
- Practicing listening when available podcasts are either too easy or far too hard Same, but I’m a little suspicious of transcripts becoming a crutch. Sometimes I read along too early and then I feel lik...
- Getting past the stage where reading is comfortable but speaking freezes That tracks. I could read menus and articles forever, then someone would ask me my name and my brain would go on lunch b...