Learning Resources - Blog Posts

Just found some old pictures of the wands my mum and I made for a Fantastic Beasts event at the college LRC (library) where I used to work.

We made them out of newspaper, toilet roll, PVA glue, acrylic paint, beads and plastic gems, and a glue gun.

These were hidden around the LRC and students would hunt for them every day for about two weeks until they found them all. Those that found them got to take them home and we also had some other activities to promote some of our Harry Potter audiobooks, ebooks and physical books and movies.

Bonus points to whoever spots the atrocious spelling mistake I made on the promotional material. Had to remember where we hid them all so I could break out the tipex

Edit: I Would like to mention as an afterthought, I am in no way in support of She Who Must Not Be Named (aka JK Rowling's) personal opinions regarding trans people. In my opinion she has turned into a vial and loathsome individual who has thoroughly tarnished my love of the fictional world she created. Her actions are pointlessly decisive, and harmful to cis and trans women alike.

Though the fanfic + fanart and the diverse community which created it and enriched that world is still incredibly dear to me. Even though I was never an active member (beyond, reading, giving kudos where it was due and occasionally commenting) I still felt like I was part of a friendly welcoming community full of talented (& not so talented), inspiring individuals.

If you are trans then please know that I support you. What is going down at the moment is utter bull. It might not feel like it sometimes, but people are on your side.

Free tactical medicine learning resources

If you want to learn first aid, emergency care or tactical medical care for real, you will need to practice these skills. A lot. Regularly. There’s no way to learn them just from books. But if you’re looking to supplement your training, can’t access hands on training, are a layperson doing research for your writing or otherwise just curious, here are some free resources (some may need a free account to access them).

TCCC

The current gold standard in the field is Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), developed by the US army but used by militaries around the world. There is also a civilian version of the system called Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC). Training materials, Standards of Care, instructional videos, etc. can be accessed at deployedmedicine.com. You’ll need a free account. This should be your first and possibly only stop.

There’s also an app and a podcast if those are more your thing, although I haven’t personally tried them.

More TCCC (video) resources

STOP THE BLEED® Interactive Course

TCCC-MP Guidelines and Curriculum presentations and training videos

EURMED’s Medical Beginner's Resource List has suggested list of video materials (disclaimer: I haven’t watched the playlists, but I have been trained by nearly all of the linked systems/organisations and can vouch for them)

Tactical Medical Solutions training resource page (requires registration; some of the courses are free)

North American Rescue video downloads

Emergency medicine

WHO-ICRC Basic Emergency Care: approach to the acutely ill and injured — an open-access course workbook for basic emergency care with limited resources

Global Health Emergency Medicine — open-access, evidence-based, peer-reviewed emergency medicine modules designed for teachers and learners in low-resource health setting

AFEM Resources — curricula, lecture bank, reviews, etc.

Global Emergency Medicine Academy Resources (links to more resources)

OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology textbook

Open-access anatomy and physiology learning resources

OpenStax Pharmacology for nurses textbook

Principles of Pharmacology – Study Guide

Multiple Casualty Incidents

Management of Multiple Casualty Incidents lecture

Bombings: Injury Patterns and Care blast injuries course (scroll down on the page)

Borden Institute has medical textbooks about biological, chemical and nuclear threats

Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers

Prolonged field care

When the evac isn’t coming anytime soon.

Prolonged Field Care Basics lecture (requires registration)

Aerie 14th Edition Wilderness Medicine Manual (textbook)

Austere Emergency Medical Support (AEMS) Field Guide (textbook)

Prolonged Casualty Care (PCC) Guidelines

Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines

Austere Medicine Resources: Practice Guidelines — a great resource of WMS, PFC, TCCC, etc. clinical practice guidelines in one place

The Wilderness and Environmental Medicine Journal (you can read past issues without a membership)

Prolonged Field Care Collective: Resources

National Park Services Emergency Medical Services Resources

Guerilla Medicine: An Introduction to the Concepts of Austere Medicine in Asymmetric Conflicts (article)

Mental health & PTSD

National Center for PTSD

Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers

Combat and Operational Behavioral Health (medical textbook)

Resources for doctors and medical students

Or you know, other curious people who aren’t afraid of medical jargon.

Borden Institute Military Medical Textbooks and Resources — suggestions: start with Fundamentals of Military Medicine; mechanism of injury of conventional weapons; these two volumes on medical aspects of operating in extreme environments; psychosocial aspects of military medicine; or Combat Anesthesia

Emergency War Surgery textbook and lectures

Disaster Health Core Curriculum — online course for health professionals

Médecins Sans Frontières Clinical guidelines

Pocket book of hospital care for children: Second edition — guidelines for the management of common childhood illnesses in low resource settings

Grey’s Quick Reference: Basic Protocols in Paediatrics and Internal Medicine For Resource Limited Settings

The Department of Defense Center of Excellence for Trauma: Trauma Care Resources (links to more resources)

Learn ASL

These are some online resources, but ASL is a three dimensional language. The best way to learn is in person with a Deaf teacher. Check your local Deaf center for more resources and events. These resources provide a good place to start and build your vocabulary

Lessons, Quizzes, Dictionaries

ASLDeafined.com (Lessons in ASL, Deaf Culture/History, Interpreter information, and Dictionary) This one is $36/year. It's my favorite because it's structured well and asl includes lessons on Deaf culture and historical figures. When I took ASL classes from my local Center of the Deaf, they used this resource to structure the classes.

SigningSavvy.com (ASL Dictionary and beginner's info)

Lifeprint.com (Dictionary and beginner’s info)

aslpro.com (ASL dictionaries; and quizzes)

Videos, News, Vlogs, Podcasts

Watching native signers sign, even if it's above your current level, will help you learn much faster and more naturally

aslized.org (stories, jokes, poems and speeches in ASL)

Sign1News (News stories in ASL. They also have a YouTube channel and app)

The ASL Lab (YouTube channel; goes into depth about specific signs and grammatical structures)

What the Deaf?(podcast by two Deaf women explores different perspectives and challenges. Season 2 focuses on the film industry. You can listen in English and/or watch in ASL)

ULTIMATE Japanese Language Learning Resources List

Symbol Guide:

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More resources available here. 

Certified Irish person here with my own tried and test resources for learning Irish! Disclaimer, I am not fluent but you could call me a lifelong learner.

General Info

I could say a lot here but I'll start with some general info. I encourage anyone interested to go and look up these things and learn more, you'll be well on your way if you do!

We refer to the Irish language either as Irish or as Gaeilge.

It's taught as a mandatory subject in schools in the Rep. of Ireland from primary all the way to secondary level. In my opinion however, while there are genuinely good teachers out there, the syllabus leads a lot to be desired, many are backing its reform. Most of us have a similar level of Irish unless we have an Irish speaking background or have put in a lot of effort.

Irish has a different alphabet to English, some letter combinations will sound different than expected to English speakers, e.g., bh is a 'v' sound. We also use accents called fadas: á, é, í, ó, ú. The YouTube Channel Gaeilge i mo chroí is great for these kinds of explanations (see below).

We have a unique sentence structure: verb, subject, object.

There are 11 irregular verbs. All others have a predictable structure.

There are special mutations known as séimhiú and urú, these create differences in words depending on the situation/sentence structure. For example, Dublin in Irish is 'Baile Átha Cliath,' but if I wanted to say I live in Dublin it's 'táim i mo cónaí i mBaile Átha Cliath.'

There are three different counting systems, you'll find a good explanation here. Once you've read this, there are plenty of YouTube videos that teach you each one.

We don't have proper words for yes and no. Positive and negative replies to questions will use the verb back at the question asker.

There are three primary dialects but we tend to understand each other alright most of the time!

Online Resources!

I promise you Irish isn't dead, there's a lot to get your teeth into!

Get used to how it sounds! TG4 is the name of our national Irish language TV station and the Irish is usually very clear. I'm partial to documentaries myself, I recommend Fíorscéal (general topics) and Domhan an Dúlra (nature). It's all available online but you'll likely need a VPN to access it. I can also recommend a Raidío na Life, a radio station based in Dublin. You can listen back to shows of your choice or listen live.

Bitesize Irish: They have short explanation and pronunciation videos on YouTube, interspersed with some culture. On their website they also have a free learning challenge called Gaeilge Gach Lá (Irish Everyday), they will email you every day with a small assignment for a calendar week and send you a newsletter every week thereafter. This is highly beginner friendly and mostly gets you used to the idea of daily practice and effort. For those who really want to get stuck in, they have some paid resources including connecting you with other learners so you can practice.

Gaeilge i mo chroí: A really great all-rounder of a YouTube channel. They explained some grammar rules that I'd never quite got my head around in school.

Úna-Minh Kavanagh: I cannot sing Úna's praises enough. I'm sure my knowledge of her only scratches the surface of her achievements but she's translated Among Us into Irish, she streams games in Irish (she's Yunitex on Twitch), she forages in Irish and she teaches you how to use existing online resources and communities in your learning journey. She really specialises in the "how" of learning the language today. She is also a published author and she speaks out against racism in Ireland.

Online dictionary: foclóir.ie

Similar resource to the above with more explanation and pronunciations in the three dialects for learners: teanglann.ie

Books:

Gaeilge gan Stró! by Éamonn Ó Dónaill at beginners level and Gramadach gan Stró by the same. These books helped me return to Irish as an adult and are geared towards adults.

These books and other physical resources can be bought from siopa.ie, which ships worldwide.

Courses:

Gaelchultúr, the publishers of Gaeilge gan Stró offer group online courses. There are others but this is one I've tried myself. They use Gaeilge gan Stró as their course book.

Well, this post was longer than I expected it to be but for any of you who decide to give Irish a go, go n-éirí libh!