FOR A HAPPY MARRIAGE, LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS _ The key to long-lasting marital happiness sounds a bit jaded, but researchers (Ohio State University and the University of Florida) found this to be key: lower your expectations for marriage, and you won’t be so disappointed with the relationship’s normal ups and downs. 82 couples who had been married less than three months participated in the four-year study in which each spouse was independently questioned. Seventeen couples divorced by the end of the four years. Those who believed their partner would be unfailingly kind and loving and agree with their every word, managed to retain this positive outlook by being forgiving and having charitable explanations for their partner’s negative behavior. But those individuals who had extremely high expectations and did not have these excellent relationship skills, were more likely to be sorely disappointed with their one true love.
WANT TO LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE? SPANISH OR ITALIAN ARE EASIEST _ If you’d like to learn a second language, writer John Malathronas knows German, Greek and English and suggests you should learn a language because you’re also interested in the culture and the country. He also suggests trying the free language learning courses available from the US Foreign Service Institute.
… Malathronas says along with Dutch and Norwegian, the popular Latin languages Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese require about 600 hours of study to achieve “general professional proficiency” in speaking and reading. Of these, Spanish and Italian are the easiest for native English speakers to learn, followed by Portuguese and finally French.
… At around 750 hours of study, German is the next easiest for English-speakers to learn.
TEXTING IS THE DEADLIEST DISTRACTION _ Texting is the deadliest distraction, says a study (published in Scientific Reports). What’s interesting about the report is that the act of texting distracts the human brain like little else. According to the study, texting is a completely unique distraction when it comes to driving. Things like driving while emotional or even absent-mindedness don’t hold a candle to how distracted one gets when texting while driving. When a driver is naturally distracted, the researchers said that a sort of hyper-focus, or what the researchers called a “sixth sense” kicks in that corrects driver deviations. However, when a driver is texting, the researchers found that the sixth sense doesn’t kick in.
