Anneysha Sarkar

7 years!!! Seven years ago, I started learning my fourth language, and the first foreign language of my life - French. I joined French classes a year after everyone began, as a result, I was very behind on the content. I absolutely hated learning languages back then. It was more of remembering how different letters came together, but none of that made sense.  I did not know the difference between e, è, é, ê or ë. Initially, I thought that my teacher had unique handwriting :O I was too embarrassed to ask questions in class. Signing up for Duolingo to catch up on French was a very desperate attempt to learn the language. For the first couple of months, I did not enjoy Duolingo either. It was words, words and sentences. So, I left it for a while, struggled even more with the language and forgot about Duolingo. I wasn't a huge fan of the UI either - it was not very kids friendly. Seven years ago, I was 12, turning 13. Probably the UI today would have been more appealing to the 12-year-

 If I could eat one and only one dish for breakfast for life, I would eat poha. (Actually, I lie, I love South Indian breakfasts - I would love to eat idli or dosa with sambar chutney too.) Idli/ Dosa is slightly harder to prepare because you would need to soak rice and pulses overnight and then grind them, but making poha is incredibly simple, therefore it is my preference.  Depending on where you come from, your poha could taste different, naturally. The best version of poha I had in my life was in Navi Mumbai. My mom also makes yummy poha, it has always been one of my favourite breakfasts. Ingredients - flattened rice (poha) * - turmeric (ground) - peanuts, whole and unpeeled * - mustard seeds, whole (optional) * - maggi masala - Hoyts herbs mix - lemon juice - curry leaves, 5-6 - coriander - onion, chopped - salt - potato (optional) - carrot (optional) * These ingredients are usually available in local Indian stores. A good place to get things in Canberra would be Bharat Internatio

 After the disastrous chicken recipe I cooked last month , I reattempted making chicken curry. This time, it turned out better than I had imagined! Here is the recipe (for record purposes in case I want to re-create the curry in the future). Ingredients - chicken thigh fillets, Aldi 4 pieces (could be literally any fleshy part of chicken) - salt - Hoyts herbs mix (from Coles) - magic Maggi masala - garam masala - pepper - lemon juice - soy sauce, I used the Japanese one but it could be Chinese light soy sauce too - chilli paste, 1 spoon OR green chillis - Chinese schezwan peppercorns (whole), 1 tbsp or less - curry leaves, 5-6 - onion, 1 chopped finely - garlic, 3-4 cloves chopped finely - tomato paste, or chopped tomatoes - light cream (could be whole cream too) - capsicum, 1 medium - OIL!!!!! Procedure Marinate the chicken: 30 minutes - Cut chicken to your preferred size. I prefer small-medium diced cubes.  - Add herbs mix, garam masala, salt, Maggi masala, curry leaves, soy sauce, p