“Everyday of your life, is a chance to learn something new. And today is surely a good day to learn something!”
It’s that Pandemic time which is still not gone and is here to stay. So, what to do? We look after our sleep. We do things we enjoy (indoor). We have, to some extent learnt to relax and focus on the present and also set goals for the future. We look after our physical wellness by eating right and exercising. We are taking care and nourishing our spiritual self by yoga and meditation. But what about our mind! LEARN NEW SKILLS!
There is one thing that I can assure you about learning new skills is, that you stop aging. An open mind makes you child-like and allows you to admit that you aren’t ‘I know it all’, kind of person! It has been more than a month that the outburst of Covid19, had made us impose social distancing on ourselves, and therefore we are literally stuck at home. This pandemic is no-doubt, an anxious and uncertain time. But this too is true that being stuck at home is inducing stress and one-in-ten people around the world are suffering from a mental health disorder.
pc : @Engin_Ekyurt
Learning New Skills
To simplify for you, learning new skills during this time can be of two in nature. One that will help you upgrade professional skill and lead to advancement in the specialized field that you work in. You can read about courses and workshops, HERE. These are courses by LinkedIn Learning and most of them are FREE of cost until the end of the lockdown period, (Until 30th April 2020 as announced by the Government Of India). Yayayay isn’t that cool!?
The second type of skill development that you can consider is what I am going to elaborate on, in this blogpost! These skills are more of those, which you always wanted to learn but never had the time to enrol, because of the demanding professional commitments in life. You can either take these training to practise them as a hobby or brush-up to add value to your moon-lighting and having a parallel career options!
Photography
Nikon’s mission has always been to empower creators. To help creators stay inspired, engaged and growing, Nikon’s free online classes, is just perfect for the aspiring photographers. You can stream every course for free for the entire month of April. Just learn from any corner of your home! 😉 Just stay indoor!
Digital Masterclass on The Art of Nature Photography by Shivang Mehta, a Canon EOS Ambassador is something you aspiring nature photographer may not want to miss! Just register yourself immediately as the free webinar is scheduled for 21st April 2020 at 11am. Apart from this Canon has continuously been conducting digital masterclasses on Professional Guide to Water Art Photography. Register here for the free masterclasses they have scheduled for the duration of this trying times of Covid19.
I really suggest you can go through Udemy for varied courses which they offer at a good discount and are enriching to all kind of classes you may be interested in! Read here for more about Udemy.
Dance
For dance the market is flooded. With every dance style, you have hundreds of online courses (some free/some chargeable), that offers to amazing masterclasses. You can check out ShiamakIndia’s Dance Anthem that is starting from 20th of April until the end of the month! These are live sessions the instructors will conduct on their channels on YouTube and Instagram. Keep yourselves available for the timeslot as per your age group!
Foreign Language
You can download either of the following free, language learning applications. These apps allow you to study a new language at your own pace and on your own convenient time. DuaLingo is perhaps the most popular free language learning app. It is fun and addictive. The learning is two way, which means there are sessions wherein you speak out the words and they say if the pronunciation is right. Memrise claims, you can put the world of learning in your pocket, so staying indoor and logging onto this app for some learning is surely going to be fun! Busuu: the name itself makes you inquisitive, right! This app has grabbed popularity because of its level of interactivity. With 12 languages, full courses, exercise reviews from native speakers, and accent training, you get a complete experience with Busuu. Download Busuu for Android and IOS for free.
Art and Craft
Apart from the 5-Minutes Craft that is super-populous on YouTube and in numerous IGTV dedicated to ‘Creating Art’ , there are few avenues where you can do an online course and specialize in a particular skill in arts, in a more organised way! Creativebug is a crafter’s paradise with a repository of over 1,000 on-demand videos and classes. The site is owned by JOANN Fabric and Craft Stores, with premium members receiving special in-store discounts. Skillshare is a learning community where anyone can take or teach a class, and it specifically focuses on “creators and makers.” Bluprint is another online resource for all things crafty. Most remarkably, they offer lessons that teach different handmade arts and crafts. You can simply download LBB to keep a track of free Art and Craft workshops that are conducted by experts in your respective cities. OR simply follow them on instagram (city- vise) so that you get a time-to-time alert from there as well!
Culinary Classes
Similar to that of creating art, one can refer to so many YouTube channels dedicated to culinary art! But just like a gustatory system or the sense of taste is very respective in nature, so is favouritism of these cooking channels. My bet is on Hebbars Kitchen which has more than 3.5 million subscribers and is fashionably dedicated to Indian Cuisine. Nisha Madhulika makes scrumptious vegetarian Indian recipes that are easy to cook, and palatable to your taste bud. So considering the scarcity of grocery during the lockdown, you may want to check her YouTube channel for more variation in cooking! DO NOT hesitate to follow these FoodTubers on instagram and/or subscribe to their YouTube channel and bon appetite folks! (I am not naming the popular chefs like Sanjeev Kapoor, because I know if you are read this blog for culinary skills, you have surely visited his website 😉
During this trying time of COVID-19, when most of us are quarantined and things are extremely uncertain and vague, it’s very natural for the stress level to rise. Engagement of our mental faculties to learning new skills, is certainly one of the best way to stay positive. I earlier read an article of Forbes namely, ‘ The Perspective Less Taken During Quarantine : 10 Tips To Raise Your Spirits’ and trust me guys, I feel, it isn’t that bad to be house-arrested. Enjoy Quarantining by learning new skills! Make this phase memorable in a good way. After decades, when the generations to come, will read about COVID-19 Pandemic in their text books, WE will be the ones to share with them, how we stayed home to keep the world safe AND did some amazing stuff, for ourselves too 🙂
“Life is about becoming and unbecoming, about learning and unlearning”
