Como aprender uma língua? Entre outros temas discutidos de forma clara e honesta.

Como aprender uma língua?

Veja nesta nova série de vídeos alguns mitos sobre aprender línguas, entre os tópicos tratados estão:

- Eu não tenho tempo.

- Crianças aprendem mais rápido que adultos

- Eu já sou velho para aprender uma língua.

Entre outros temas discutidos de forma clara e honesta.

How to learn a language?

Watch this new video series about some myths on learning languages​​, among the topics covered are:

- I have no time.

- Children learn faster than adults

- I'm already too old to learn a language.

Among other topics discussed in a clear and honest way.

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Formas + inteligentes de se usar o YouTube / Smarter ways to use YouTube

A partir de agora este blog vai ser em Inglês e em Português, e as bandeiras irão mostrar-lhe qual você deve ler:

From now on this blog will be in English and in Portuguese, and the flags will show you which one you should read:

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Formas + inteligentes de se usar o YouTube

Hoje vou falar um pouco sobre formas mais inteligentes para driblar a "falta de tempo" e otimizar seu precioso tempo enquanto navega na internet. Se você é daqueles que fica com aquele papo de não teve tempo de estudar, mas que encontra sempre um tempinho para ver aqueles vídeos engraçados, ou não resiste a dar um "Curtir" no facebook, veja uma pequena seleção de videos fantásticos para aprender sueco (minha atual missão), que além de muito engraçados e super didáticos, vão lhe ajudar a aprender novos termos em sueco, além de aproveitar para relembrar algo do idioma inglês, uma vez que a grande maioria dos vídeos para outras línguas está em inglês.

Eis em seguida o episódio 02:

O próximo vídeo é ainda mais engraçado, nele encontramos uma serie de palavras que embora tenham a mesma escrita ou som em inglês são completamente diferentes no significado, e mais uma vez provando que você pode até aprender, por exemplo, sueco e inglês ao mesmo tempo.

Bem, acho que deu para vocês terem uma ideia de como aprender um pouquinho a cada dia, e sem muito esforço. Que tal ao invés de ficar no YouTube vendo vídeos engraçados, pegadinhas ou câmeras escondidas, você não aproveita para aprender alguma coisa da língua que está estudando? Lembre-se estudar uma língua nem sempre significa ter em mãos um pesado livro de gramática ou um chato dicionário, o aprendizado pode acontecer enquanto você faz outras coisas.  

Siga-me no 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mellojimmy

twitter: @jimmymello

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Smarter ways to use YouTube

Today I will write about smarter ways to overcome the "lack of time" and optimize your precious time while surfing the internet. If you are one of those who get that old stuff that you have not time to study, but that always find time to watch those funny videos, or cannot resist "Like" something on facebook, take a look on this small selection of great videos to learn Swedish, they are very funny, super didactic and will help you to learn new words in Swedish.

Now, the episode 02:

The next video is even funnier, in it we find a number of words that although having the same sound or written in English, they are completely different in meaning, once again proving that you can learn, for example, Swedish and English at the same time, providing English is not your mother tongue.

Well, I guess this has worked to give you an idea about how can we learn a little bit every day, and without too much effort. How about instead of being watching funny videos, pranks, or hidden cameras on YouTube, learn something in the language you are studying? Remember to study a language does not always mean that you have at hand a heavy grammar book or a boring dictionary, the learning process can happen while you do other things.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mellojimmy

twitter: @jimmymello

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Missão: Aprender Sueco, Norueguês e Dinamarquês ao mesmo tempo.

A partir de agora este blog vai ser em Inglês e em Português, e as bandeiras irão mostrar-lhe qual você deve ler:

From now on this blog will be in English and in Portuguese, and the flags will show you which one you should read:

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Missão: Aprender Sueco, Norueguês e Dinamarquês ao mesmo tempo.

Tema de hoje: A escolha dos livros

Coleção Assimil: Norueguês, Dinamarquês
e Sueco.

Agora o grande desafio é separar as três línguas uma vez que a proximidade entre elas é bem grande. A memorização das palavras não é muito difícil, já  que elas guardam grande proximidade com o alemão e com o Inglês, línguas que domino. Mesmo a gramática destas línguas não é realmente algo difícil. Para o estudo de vocabulário eu geralmente uso uma ferramenta chamada "Flash Cards", mas desta vez como estou usando outra abordagem, que é aprender simultaneamente línguas semelhantes não farei uso desta ferramenta, vou fazer uma memorização por comparação e associação com outras línguas.

Sei que esta missão pode falhar, devido exatamente ao fato de estar estudando línguas semelhantes, mas como este é um estudo teórico e pratico, sei que ao final chegaremos a algumas conclusões, sejam elas contra ou a favor do estudo simultâneo de línguas de mesma família linguística. 

TeachYourself e Phrasebook de Noruegûes,
Gramática essencial de Sueco, e Pimsleur.

Vamos ver algumas frases nestas línguas, e observar alguns pontos:

Sueco: Hej, jag vill tala svenska nu.

Norueguês: hei, jeg vil (ønsker) å snakke norsk nå.

Dinamarquês: hej, jeg vil (ønsker) at tale dansk nu.

Você consegue notar as semelhanças entre as três línguas? Elas tem muitos pontos em comum, a pronuncia varia um pouco em alguns momentos, mas ainda assim são entendidas entre elas. Ao contrario do que muita gente pode acreditar, não trata-se de uma mesma língua.

No vídeo a seguir, eu falo um pouco sobre os livros que escolhi para estudar, e porque eu escolho tantos livros para estudar ao mesmo tempo, e não somente um. A razão, eu já vou adiantar, é simples: ao contrario de alguns poliglotas, eu acredito que o estudo de uma língua tenha varias facetas, e ao estudar sozinho, preciso de englobar todas elas. Assim, se eu me dedicar apenas a um livro eu ficarei limitado ao vocabulário e aos conhecimentos daquele livro, ao passo que se eu diversificar conseguirei alcançar um grau bem maior de conhecimento. Outro ponto importante é a gramatica, muita gente foge da gramática quando o tema é estudar outras línguas, será que a gramática é realmente a vilã? ou será que ela pode se tornar uma grande aliada?

Eu realmente acredito que a gramática, se bem dosada, pode ser uma grande aliada no aprendizado, pois ela é na realidade uma ferramenta de organização, e pode economizar horas, dias e até anos de estudo. Se eu esperar até que eu tenha interiorizado determinado conteúdo para começar a usa-lo, posso perder muito tempo, agora se eu tiver um conhecimento mesmo que limitado de gramática eu consigo facilmente manipular o vocabulário e frases aprendidas e construir novas frases. Mesmo que eu cometa alguns erros, se eu conhecer a gramatica eu conseguirei mais objetivamente corrigir-los.

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Mission: Learning Swedish, Norwegian and Danish at the same time.

Today's theme: The choice of books

Assimil books

Now the challenge is to separate the three languages, ​​since the proximity between them is very large. The memorization of words is not very difficult, because they they hold a close proximity to the German and the English languages ​​that know. Even the grammar of these languages ​​is not really something difficult. When I study vocabulary I generally use a tool called "Flash Cards", but now in this mission, as I am using another approach, that is simultaneously learn similar languages, I ​​will not make use of this tool, I will make a memorization by comparison and combination with other languages.

I know that this mission might fail, exactly due to the fact that I am studying languages very similar among them, but as this is a theoretical and practical study. I know that at the end some conclusions will arise, whether "for" or "against" the simultaneous study of languages ​​of the same family linguistics.

Let's see some phrases in these languages, and observe a few points:

Swedish: Hej, jag vill tala svenska nu.

Norwegian: hei, jeg vil (ønsker) å snakke norsk nå.

Danish: hej, jeg vil (ønsker) at tale dansk nu.

TeachYourself, Phrasebook and Pimsleur.

Can you notice the similarities among the three languages? They have many common points, the pronunciation varies a bit at times, but they still are understood between them. Many people may believe, they are the same language, but they are NOT.

In the video below, I talk a little about the books that I chose to study with, and why I study with so many books at the same time, and not only one. The reason is simple: unlike some polyglots, I believe that the study of a language has several facets, and when we study by ourselves , we need to cover all of them. Thus, if I devote to just one book I'll be limited to the vocabulary and knowledge of that book, whereas if I am able to diversify, I will, for sure, achieve another degree of knowledge. Another important point is the grammar: many people flee when the subject to study is grammar, is the grammar really a villain? or can it become a great ally?

I truly believe that grammar, if well dosed, can be a great ally in learning because it is actually an "organizational tool", and can save hours, days and even years of study. If I wait until I have internalized certain content to start using it, I can lose a lot of time, but on the other hand if I have even a limited knowledge of grammar I can easily manipulate the vocabulary and phrases previously learned and construct new sentences. Even if I make some mistakes; if I know the grammar I'll get more accurancy to correct them.

        

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Como aprender 3 línguas ao mesmo tempo? How can we learn 3 languages ​​at the same time?

A partir de agora este blog vai ser em Inglês e em Português, e as bandeiras irão mostrar-lhe qual você deve ler:

From now on this blog will be in English and in Portuguese, and the flags will show you which one you should read:

Como aprender 3 línguas ao mesmo tempo?

Novo desafio (ou missão):

---Que tal aprender uma língua?

----Fantástico, não é verdade?

---Agora, que tal aprender duas línguas ?

----Uau, isso deve ser muito legal!

----Mas, vou tentar ir mais longe, já imaginou aprender três línguas ao mesmo tempo?

Isso mesmo! Depois de estudar varias línguas e ter me familiarizado com algumas técnicas vou tentar um novo desafio: aprender três línguas com grandes semelhanças entre elas ao mesmo tempo. E vou tentar dividir com vocês cada detalhe desta missão, desde a escolha dos materiais, a rotina de estudo, o treino de audição e leitura e a pratica com nativos ou estudantes desta língua.

Não tenho a menor pretensão de me tornar um exímio falante destes idiomas, mas desejo alcançar o nível de A2 ou B1 em um curso espaço de tempo, especialmente tratando-se de três idiomas, e poder posteriormente viajar para estes lugares e poder comunicar-me na língua local.

Meu intuito aqui é lhe motivar a estudar alguma nova língua, você não tem que aprender mais de uma ao mesmo tempo, mas quero lhe estimular a começar agora mesmo este estudo, driblando toda e qualquer desculpa que possa lhe afastar deste objetivo.

Aqui no Brasil estamos vivendo um período de grande desenvolvimento econômico, além de estarmos às vésperas de receber grandes eventos esportivos, desta forma precisamos estar preparados para receber  bem nossos convidados.

Que tal você entrar neste novo desafio e aprender pelo menos uma nova língua até a Copa do mundo de 2014?

Abaixo o primeiro vídeo da Serie:

 How can we learn 3 languages ​​at the same time? 

New challenge (or mission):

--- How about learning a language?

---- Fantastic, isn´t it?

--- Now, how about learning two languages?

---- Wow, that must be really cool!

---- But now, I will try to go further, have you ever imagined learning three languages ​​at the same time?

That's right! After studying several languages ​​and have become used with some techniques I will try a new challenge: learning three languages ​​with great similarities between them at the same time. And I will try to share every single detail with you about the mission, from the choice of materials, the study routine, practice listening and reading and oral practice with native speakers or students of the language.

I have no intention of becoming an accomplished speaker of these languages, but I want to reach level A2 or B1 in a short length of time, especially in the case of three languages​​, and can subsequently I could travel to these places and be able to communicate in the local language.

My intention here is to motivate you to study any new language, you do not have to learn more than one at a time, but I want to start right now to stimulate this study, dodging any excuse you can do away from this goal.

Here in Brazil we are experiencing a period of great economic development, besides being the  of host of some major sporting events (Football World Cup and Olimpic Games) , so we must be prepared to welcome our guests.

How about you? Let us get this new challenge and learn at least one new language before the World Cup of 2014?

Next you can watch a video in Portuguese about the new mission:

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Are there polyglots only in Europe?

Famous Linguists – Polyglots – Polyglot Conference

Are there polyglots only in Europe?

Russia - Mexico - Brazil - Japan - India - China - ETC...

From a point of view this is almost unfair.

Every day I receive a new follower and several fans. I really do not understand why we are seeing only a small “selecting” group organising things in the "language comunity" by themselves, oops, it´s not like this, they ask comments (and for sure donation) but never take them into consideration. Besides the European group there are several polyglots in North America, Latin America and Asia. Why should we give our attention only to the Europeans? Are they smarter than the rest of us? In fact they have an advantage: they have as their next country neighbors the native speakers of the language they are learning, (skype is not the same as face to face) and from this point of view this is almost unfair. A real merit should be given to polyglots from monolingual big countries like Mexico, USA, Russia, China and Brazil. In big American and Asian countries we do not have human language resources, and we do not have contact with natives, except in large touristic places, like NYC, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow and Tokyo.

Are there Polyglots in the rest of the world?

Have you ever seen any publicity about the great Mexican group? And How about the Russians? There is a genius Russian Polyglot, called Dmitri Petrov - a polyglot that has in his portfolio of over 30 languages and a TV reality show about learning languages, have you ever heard about him? NO. And do you know why? Because there is only a small group that maybe is a afraid of sharing their “fame”, with the rest of the world. This is a group that is really talented in languages and is now trying to become its members international celebrities. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not! They are doing their very best for themselves.

Why the other polyglots do not do anything?

I am not absolutely sure, but I dare say that we, with our tendency to be colonialists and accept “the good” example from the old continent simply admire them as they were idols. We become very happy with the crumbs of attention we receive from them. If we are not a close friend of one them we will be ignored, or being very positive we will be accepted as their “facebook” fan or only follower, but without interaction. SORRY to some of you,  there are some exceptions to this rule.

 

  

Ok, we have an important issue here, so what should we do next?

Follow their example obviously (lol, lol, lol). POLYGLOTS from the rest of the world, and even the Europeans that are not a part of the “select” group, let’s gather together.  Let´s do a real language community, not putting them out but also strengthen their community in other directions. Instead of creating several groups and blogs how about one shared blog, where everyone can write his/her own experience and methodology. Why should we expect a virtual or real conference be organized? Let´s do one ourselves!The best moment is right now! Bilingual, Trilingual, Polyglots, or hyper polyglots. Let´s share our experiences, even if you have mastered one language you already have a great merit.

The things have been changing since the first time I published this post. 

Here we have some extra things: after "Polyglot Gathering 2014" in Berlin, many people started to "appear" in the language learning community, the organiser Judith Meyer was very open to receive different topics, languages and people in the gathering, and being like that, and some anonymous from different countries could be seen and listened. In the upcoming year (2015), there will be a conference in NYC, I really hope to see more people there: Brazilian, Mexican, Canadian, Argentinian, and why not Russian, Japanese, Chinese and other nationalities. Will the European attend to the "American" conference, or will they wait for the next one in Poland?  Get out of of box! Come to the new continent and get new perspectives.

Looking forward to the next one.   

We are only doing a perfect job right now from where we are, but no-one knows about it. A good job without support is like sending a kiss to a person in a darkroom: you know that you sent, but nobody else knows.

Send me an e-mail, let us start doing something: EVERYONE is welcome!

Jimmymello (at) gmail (dot) com   or even jimmymello (at) brazilianpolyglot (dot) com

facebook.com/mellojimmy

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It is not hard to learn a foreign language, neither several of them, but it is absolutely hard to maintain them all.

Hello There,

Wow, since a long time I do not have a time to write something here, but it does not matter, because in this post I decided to share a video of mine speaking some languages. As you will see I am “rust” in some of them. It is not very difficult to learn several languages, but it is really quite hard to keep them all at the same level. Fortunately I am a language teacher and maintain a language school in Brazil, so for me some of them I can keep updated.

Some people have said and asked why I did not put them together in a flow. I really know that some internet polyglots can deal with this easily, but I CANNOT, I really need at least 5 minutes to “turn off”  a language and “tune in” another one. If I do not do this I will do some unpleasant mixtures like “Spanglish”, “Portuñol” , “Franglais” and so on, But many of them were recorded in the same day except Dutch, this one was recorded when I finished I “challenge” to learn it in only  3 months, and as I supposed despite of having learnt a lot, I lost the “flow” and it will require more than 5 minutes (maybe a week to review it).

So, I will categorically state that: “It is not hard to learn a foreign language, neither several of them, but it is absolutely hard to maintain them all” so I hardly believe that I polyglot can really maintain a reasonable high level of more than 15 languages, like stated by the former Guinness Book of World Records Ziad Fazah. He is now known as the man who does NOT know 59 languages. I will after write more about him, but I truly believe him,  maybe he has studied 59 languages but it is a huge amount of information to keep updated, even if you dedicate your whole time on this subject.

So, let´s go to my videos:

I made two versions one with English subtitles and the second with Portuguese subtitle, so enjoy them. And fell free to comment and subscribe my YouTube channel and this website. 

With English subtitles

With Portuguese subtitles

Fell free to comment and subscribe my YouTube channel and this website. 

Best wishes,

Jimmy Mello

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Before starting a course take an International Certification of foreign languages

Is it important to have an international certification? 

Everything will depend on what you want to do with the language. There are several international certificates for virtually all the languages in he world, the most famous are:

For English:

TOEFL, TOEIC, Exams of Cambridge and of Michigan.

For Spanish:

DELE, CELU

For French:

DELF, DALF, TFL

For Italian:

CELI

For Russian:

ТРКИ

And so on...

As it can be seen, there are a large variety of certificates, and the most interesting is that I could continue the list and you will be surprised on how many certificate for each of the main languages still exist.

So, should you really take this one of them?

This is one of the main questions I heard from my students, as we are an authorised TOEIC, TOEFL and TFL centre in my Country, and my answer is: Yes, absolutely!!!

Specially,  if you:

-want to prove to some else your ability,

-want go get a career in languages, or at least in the language,

-want to get a job where a certain level of fluency is required,

-want to improve your confidence in yourself and in your language skills, because some people tend to believe that they do not know the language, and by doing such tests is like having a real "photograph" of your level,

When should I take this exam?

If you can afford it, take it at the very begging stage, so that you can check after some months of you have learnt something, or if it was just what we call "monkey score", that is a note that e everyone that has your mother tongue will get by doing this exam. To get clear, if a Brazilian person takes the Spanish test, specially in the reading and in the in the listening part, it is almost sure that he/she will get a some reasonable answers, and the same is true with the pairs French/Italian, Dutch/German, Swedish/Danish/Norwegian, Spanish/Catalan, and even depending on how smart you are Russian/Polish, and Italian/Romania.

Even despite of the language pair, in multiple choices questions exams everyone runs this risk of "guessing" instead of knowing, for this reason it would be perfect if you could take one of those tests when you first start doing a language course, if you cannot afford it, try a mock test in the Internet for free, and keep the score in save place, so that you can compare results in the near future.

When I present this idea to people, they react saying that they will not understand anything, and I reply that this is the goal, check, prove and record in a real form this truth, and later on check again of you got any piece of real knowledge, this is useful for several reasons:

-you can be focused on what is really important, in international standards, not only in your teacher or book's opinion.

-you can be motivated to overcome yourself, it is a kind of self challenging.

-you can control closely if your studies are reaching their real goal, or just losing your time,

-you can have a statistical improvement, not only idea,

-you can answer accurately when asked about your level,

I could continue this listing, but I think you got what I mean.

CELI - Italian Language

DELF - French Language

DELE - Spanish Language

TOEIC - English Language

And so?

Well, not matter what language you are studying now, check in google for mock tests of it, and evaluate how good you are, and then check it again after 3 or 4 months, you will be surprised with your results.

Keep in touch!

Jimmy Mello

Brazilian polyglot

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Polyglots are language specialists!!!

Future of the learning 

When I look back I realise how difficult was the learning process, I dare say that I am a veteran in this area, when nobody else was in YouTube showing his talents I already helped people to learn languages. In the time I started learning languages, and specially in my country, people had a great difficulty to get material, specially audios, and the handbooks were of a very poor quality. To Find a person who was able to teach a language was an adventure, and if we manage to get one this could be a very expensive investment, in my country people tented to prefer native speakers to teach language despite of the fact that they were not teachers, that is, they could not teach no one. So, time after time, it was established a culture of expensiveness and lack of quality, and the sad part id that this Era has not finished yet,  Brazil is the biggest market for learning languages in the world, it is common to find in just one street three or even four language schools. Is this good? Is this bad? Like always there is not just one answer for this question, Internet fortunately has increased a lot and the quality of courses and virtual lessons over Skype has become a reality in many countries, therefore this has forced the some schools get updated.

Is there any future for language schools?

Nowadays we can have lessons with native-teacher over Skype, we can get a friend from all over the world and practice with them the language we are learning, and all free of charge. Why should you get enrolled in a language school? Why should you lose your precious time in commuting to the school? Why should you be in the hands of schools directors that just want your money? The answer is that nothing is more important than the human contact, schools will always exist, the difference is that nowadays we have more choices, and with a competitive market the quality of the schools tends to improve. So, in my opinion as a linguist and pedagogue, schools will keep a part of our lives, but more alternatives will be added.

Internet reality

Nowadays we are bombarded with publicity from all the sides, there are polyglots being born in many YouTube channels, some are really gifted, but others not so good, but the fact is that the community has been increased a lot since I began in this area. And together  with the polyglots we see a new market, everyone is trying to be polyglot, and every time I go to a library I see "magic pills" for learning languages, the editors of nowadays took the role of the old greedy language schools directors, what they really want is to sell, and sell, and sell more. People now can learn easily, and it is even easier to find material to buy or even download, but the quality is not always good,  if you take some minutes to see the reviews of material in YouTube, you will be surprised to notice that all of them review the same ones, so why do we have a so huge market if the polyglots are using just the small group of three or four publishers, like "Assimil", "Colloquial" and "Teach yourself"? The answer Is: the general public has not knowledge about that, is like asking a mechanic about a the treatment for heart-attack, that is "non-sense" at all.

How to choose the best languages resources?

How to know the treatment for a heart attack? You might say, obviously by asking a medical doctor. So, how to choose the language resources? The answer is obvious again, the only way is by asking the polyglots, they can be considered the "owners" of the language. Do not believe, in linguists that claim to know everything about languages, I am a linguist, but I am qualified to tell you about languages not because of that, but because of the fact that I am polyglot as well. So, never a a book, or language kit, based on the advice of a seller in a bookshop, not even of a friend or a family member. Ask the advice of a person who really knows about that, and who really tested the methods.

How about the future of learning?

The future of language learning will be something hybrid, smart and successful people will be able go to language schools, but will use by themselves the other available resources. And the most important thing, there is no miracles, hard work will always be the most important part of this fabulous personal adventure.  

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Belo Horizonte, my city, in Christmas time

Chistmas Tree in Liberdade Square

Entrance of Liberdade Square- Praça da Liberdade

This is just a short post to show my city, Belo Horizonte, in Christmas time. Brazil is a huge country, but people when hear the name Brazil, the only thing that springs their minds are Rio de Janeiro, and beaches. I live in a beautiful city, and there are no beaches here. Belo Horizonte is the capital of Minas Gerais, in the Heart of Brazil, very close by Rio and São Paulo. The Portuguese spoken here in Belo Horizonte, together with Rio and São Paulo, is considered the standard Brazilian Portuguese. It is a city famous for the bars and its food is considered one of the best in the country, many famous writers and poets are from this Region, Gimarães Rosa and Carlos Drummond de   Andrade are some examples. I am very proud to be born here.

As it can be see in the photos, we are not as marvellous as Paris or London's decoration, but we are a very "young" city compared with those centenarian cities, only 115 years, we still have time to improve, but for sure it is very beautiful.

If you are wondering to come to Brazil, put Belo Horizonte in your list!!!!

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