[alexispasalexis]

langblr re-introduction post

Hi ! 

My name is Alexis and I’ve always been an active viewer of the langblr community, but I find that it can be a great way to keep consistent of your goals thanks to all of the great langblr challenges that are posted!

About me :

My pronouns are she/her

I am 22 years old

My birthday is July 12

I am Filipino-American-Canadian (?) 

I was born in Seattle and I moved to Montréal, QC when I was 18 for university 

I studied Political Science and French and will be obtaining my diploma in June 2023 !

I currently work as a barista at an independent cafe (my starbucks days are LONG GONE) and I can make some pretty bad-ass latte art (don’t get too excited tho, I can’t do a swan but there’s plenty of time for that)

Languages I learn in the order that I learned them

English (fluent)

Spanish (A2 - B1) I started learning spanish in high school (oh, the American education system, how you taught me so little and so much at the same time) and Spanish was still kind of in my life because it helped me to learn French, then I stopped speaking it, took an intensive intermediate class during Summer 2021 because I needed to fill in elective credits, then stopped again

French (B2) Since I lived in Montréal, I wanted to be better integrated into Montreal society and not feel bad whenever I had to respond with a “HI!” after someone greeted me “Bonjour!” I loved French so much that it became my second major, which was a good thing and a bad thing because it made me hate French sometimes but then love it again! I look to make another post explaining my relationship with French as this is only an introduction post, but look where we are now. 

Tagalog (A1) I am Filipino and my parents speak Tagalog, but I never learned it growing up, which I regret DEEPLY. 

Goals !

Spanish: become conversational ! At my cafê, there are a few hispanohablantes that come in and I would love to be able to take their order and even start small talk with them. 

French: talk about more diverse subjects and be more comfortable speaking to natives. I know that I can speak it, but it just comes to a matter of me having the courage to say what I want to say.

Tagalog : …become conversational. Yeah, I may sound like a broken record, but isn’t that the point of learning languages? To be able to speak with people in their native languages so you can understand them better?

Welp, that’s all for now, if you made it this far, I think you’re pretty cool. 

[logogreffe]

How to use "chier" in French

If you have to learn one bad word in French, I'll recommend "chier" (to shit). Even though it's a bad word, people that usually don't swear still use it in a few expressions. (to be used in informal settings only) 1) faire chier quelqu'un : (lit. to make someone shit) = to annoy somebody / to piss off somebody - Tu me fais chier ! // You're pissing me off ! - Cet exo* me fait chier // This exercise is pissing me off *exo = shortened version of exercice - Arrête de le faire chier ! // Stop pissing him off ! - Thomas fait chier Stéphanie // Thomas is pissing off Stéphanie 2) se faire chier : (lit. to make oneself shit) = to be bored Je me fais chier // I'm bored (The formal way of saying this would be "Je m'ennuie") tu te fais chier, il/elle/on se fait chier, nous nous faisons chier, vous vous faites chier, ils/elles se font chier. 3) se faire chier (à faire quelque chose) = to make a tiring effort (to do something) for nothing - Je me suis fait chier à aller jusque chez lui à l'autre bout de la ville et je ne l'ai même pas vu. // I made the fucking effort of going to his house across town and I didn't even see him. A : Je vais faire les courses, t'as besoin de quelque chose ? B : Te fais pas chier, j'irai moi même cet aprèm * ! *aprèm = shortened version of après-midi A : I'm going grocery shopping, do you need anything ? B : Don't bother, I'll go myself this afternoon ! Note : Be careful with this one ! If you want to say : "I've helped you for nothing then" and you say "je me suis fait chier à t'aider pour rien alors" it implies that helping that person was a really tiring effort that you didn't want to do in the first place (not really nice) "Je t'ai aidé pour rien alors" is more neutral 4) Chiant (lit. to have the ability of making somebody shit) = boring or annoying Ce film est trop chiant // This movie is so boring Note : if you're talking about a person, it will mean (for most people) that this person is really annoying (and not boring), unless the context implies otherwise. - Il est trop chiant, il parle super fort, ça me donne mal à la tête // He's so annoying, he talks really loudly, it gives me headaches. - Il est super chiant, il ne parle que de lui et de ses compléments alimentaires // He's so boring, he only talks about himself and his supplements. Final Notes : - (There are a few other expressions using "chier" but I don't like them so ...) - Of course, "chier" can also be used if you want to say "to shit" "I have to shit" = "J'ai envie de chier". As mentionned in the intro the expressions I've presented are really common, (still slang), I would recommend that you learn them. BUT "chier" to say "to shit" is another level of slang. I personnaly never use it . Growing up I could say "c'est chiant" in front of my parents without them batting an eye, but if I had said " j'ai envie de chier" ............🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️💀⚰️💀⚰️💀

[sunbathe]

“Bilinguals overwhelmingly report that they feel like different people in different languages. It is often assumed that the mother tongue is the language of the true self. (…) But, if first languages are reservoirs of emotion, second languages can be rivers undammed, freeing their speakers to ride different currents.”

— Love in Translation by Lauren Collins from the New Yorker, August 8 & 15, 2016   (via waltzingwithmidnight)

[alexispasalexis]

life update

when i was in seattle, i found that i was more motivated to learn french. i found it to be kind of like an escape. however, now that i'm back in montreal, i'm finding learning french to be a punishment than anything else. okay, punishment is a bit too harsh, i suppose it feels like an obligation, and when something is an obligation, it's hard to get any joy out of it (at least speaking personally).

i'm going through changes with life, so i haven't been as active here. i haven't found a routine because my life is very messy rn.

things i'm proud of this week :

i had two tagalog lessons this week

i got my gym membership and spoke entirely in french

i had a job interview in french !

i should be proud of myself and i am. i just wish my life had more structure.

[alexispasalexis]

day 7/365 no zero days challenge

français

i worked the brunch service at my restaurant, so inherently i did speak french yesterday

español

spoke a bit of spanish my coworker

tagalog

said two words in tagalog

tip for life : don't work the next three days after you get back home. i'm already getting burnt out and ça se voit.

[logogreffe]

Hi there ! If you are learning French and feel like you might give up because the grammar is too hard, or you feel like you might never be able to speak it properly, I just wanted to tell you that I'm a French speaker and

- almost every time I have to write an important email I have to check some obscure grammar rules (un grand merci à l'Académie française)

- I have had multiple debates with people on whether or not we should add an "e" at the end of a participe passé.

So don't worry too much, take your time, and go listen to Charles Aznavour.

[alexispasalexis]

day 6/365 no zero days challenge

français

spoke with customers at work ! it's incredible, i can talk about the problems of the US in french, but stumble over asking someone if they want water :-)

español

one of the customers who came in was from mexico city, so i spoke a bit of spanish !

this was really good because it reminded me why i wanted to take up spanish again - to be able to speak with hispanohablantes ! ...like duh but it frustrates me whenever a hispanohablante comes in and i want to be able to speak with them in their native language, but i lack the vocabulary to do so

tagalog

i said "salamat" to one person today and...that's all

tomorrow i plan to spend more time with tagalog !

today was my weakest day of the whole week, but i did work for 8 hours, so i'll give myself a break.

[alexispasalexis]

turns out I wasn’t in need of more caffeine to energize my body, I needed to eat food !! 🤯

[alexispasalexis]

day 5/365 no zero days challenge

i am absolutely jetlagged. normally, im chilling when i get back from seattle, but this time was different. probably also because i went to sleep at 3am and had to wake up at 8:30am for work :)

français

i worked. practically all of the clients at the cafe today were francophone, so i got back to having to switch been french and english all day, and it's a pain in the ASS. i did small talk with a few clients, which turned out to be nice interactions !

learned that "to be jetlagged" in french is "souffrir du décalage horaire"

español

while cooking dinner, i listened to a quick podcast in spanish

tagalog

i decided to walk back home from work today, which meant that i could spend time listening to podcasts !! i listened to these two tagalog podcasts (that i highly recommend !)

balitang pilipinas

yellow space

today was my first day back, and i really got to figure out how to balance work, life, and languages. but that'll come with time. everyone needs to be kind and forgiving to themselves.

*bonus ! latte art i made today :)

[alexispasalexis]

language learning with movies

first, you must watch a movie in your target langage. remember, it is much more affective to watch the film with the subtitles of your TL rather than those of your mother tongue. in fact, it's better to watch the film without subtitles than to watch the film with subtitles in your mother tongue. basically, no interference from your native language!

after watching, the film, great! you did the first step and you've done some work for your listening comprehension, and hopefully you learned more about the culture of the country where your film was made :) language is one of the many doors to learning about a culture!

there are many more paths you can take after :

read reviews and analyses of the film made by native speakers ! look up words you don't know or try to get the meaning from the context.

watch reviews and analyses of the film ! equally, you may also listen a podcast !

BONUS POINTS FOR SHADOWING ! no way am i gonna not include a way to practice speaking

write the transcript for the video

write your own review or analysis

if you don't agree with the one you read written by another author, argue against them !

[alexispasalexis]

Day 4/365 no zero days challenge

today, we did language learning ✨airplane edition✨. today was my flight back to montréal from seattle, and i am writing this post from the comfort of my appartment. everything is in balance. bon, the flight is 5 hours long, which means MOVIE TIME !! i wanted to do 2.5 hours of french content then 2.5 of spanish, but it turned out more 3:2.

voilá les films que j'ai regardés :

à quoi tu rêves léon ? (2022)

Il n'y avait pas beaucoup de dialogue dans ce court-métrage, car le film est d'un point du vue d'un chien. C'est pas un court-métrage dont les animaux parlent ou peut-être sont les narrateurs. Pour dire la vérité, je suis pas une personne animale. Donc, je recommande ce court-métrage aux personne qui aiment des animaux, évidemment, surtout les chiens.

fanmi (2021)

Le description de ce court-métrage m'intriguait parce qu'il propose un mère qui rend visite à sa fille et bien sûr il y a quelque chose que le mère cache. En fait, j'ai presque pleuré parce qu'il m'a fait penser à ma mère et le fait que, comme les personnages dans le court-métrage, on est loin l'un de l'autre. Ce que je déteste sur les courts-métrages, c'est que parfois, il n'y a pas une "vraie" fin. Bien sûr, c'est subjectif, qu'est-ce que c'est une fin ? Je vais revenir sur ce point plus tard.

lignes de fuite (2022)

WAOUH CE FILM LÀ. okie je me souviens avoir vu des publicités partout à montréal pour ce film quand il est sorti, donc, quand j'ai vu qu'il était disponible dans la sélection des films d'Air Canada, j'ai su que j'allais le regarder, et c'est pas du tout ce à quoi je m'attendais. je recommande FORTE ce film. les acteurs sont magnifiques et je me sentais comme je les connais. en fait, dans le film, l'une de personnages avait une copine qui n'était pas née en parlant français à la maison. elle comprend parfaitement le français, et elle parle les deux dans le film. je me voyais dans ce personnage parce qu'il était évident qu'elle avait du mal à s'identifier avec le Quebec : la culture, la cuisine, les gens., etc. cette répresentante des anglophone a une magnifique dialogue où elle insulte le Québec, et, franchement, je l'ai adoré. le film touche aussi les gens woke qui aiment évoquer toujours ce qui ne va pas dans la vie. l'un de personnages est un chargé de cours de philosophie et il est vraiment désagréable. REGARDE CE FILM LÀ

competencia oficial (2021)

ce film… était intéressant. bien sûr, penelope cruz et antonio banderas sont déjà connus dans la presse occidentale, mais c'était le premier film où je les voyais jouer dans leur langue maternelle. en tout cas, ce film a confirmé que je ferais n'importe quoi pour penelope cruz.

le test (2021)

j'ai vraiment adoré ce film. au début du film, un test de grossesse est trouvé dans la poubelle et la mère s'est mise à trouver à qui il appartient. le fils aîné commence à paniquer parce qu'il a apparement beaucoup de partenaires sexuels à 19 ans. donc, ce film m'a fait réfléchir : putain, les ados français sont actives ! cependant, en comparant les parents dans le films aux parents américains, il me semble que les parents français sont ouverts et n'arrétent pas forcement leurs enfants d'avoir des relations sexuelles. le film se déroule aussi à montpelier, et je trouve que les gens qui vivent dans les climats chauds sont plus détendues que ceux qui n'en vivent pas. les enfants ont dit à leur mère de fermer la gueule, et j'étais vraiment choqué. j'ai beaucoup ri dans le film et je l'ai trouvé tellement mignon.

alors oui

i hope y'all enjoyed that, my brain hurts, but it was good to challenge myself to write in french

[alexispasalexis]

day 3/365 no zero days challenge

français

spoke to my language exchange partner today (30m in French/30 in English)

español

…

tagalog

discovered a filipino podcast similar to "journal en français facile" BUT IN TAGALOG !!! i found it on tagalog.com, which is basically the mecca for anyone wanting to learn tagalog. the subtitles synchronise with the podcast and i love it. my happiness increases tenfold whenever i find tagalog learning content. anyways, i listened to one episode of that

wrote a small text about my life the past few days and learned a few new verbs !

[alexispasalexis]

Day 3/365 no zero days challenge

français

Gained 180 XP on Duolingo

(Unrelated to French but related to the above point) I turned off notifications for when I go down on the dashboard because I would get so stressed about wanting to advance to the next level but that’s not necessarily what language learning is about. Because I would want to stay in top 7, I would direct a lot of energy doing Duolingo when I could be doing more effective language learning (no offense). 

I responded back to my French penpal. One of the lasting topics of our conversation is Twilight and right now our subtopic is that Twilight is fucking weird and it's so fun to be talking about this and in a foreign language.

tagalog 

I was supposed to have a 1-hour long class at 10am, but since I got back home around 3am and didn’t get any sleep, guess who slept through their alarm ? Language learning during the holidays really is an extra challenge

I wrote a small introduction text. I began by writing what I wanted to say in English, then, using tagalog.com (the BEST) and google translate, I rewrote the text in tagalog.

Reviewed how to conjugate -um verbs using this lovely video

Overall, spent around 1 hour studying :)

español 

Did a journal entry! (Did I look up every word? Yes. But did it help to jog my memory and get re-acquainted with the language? YUP.)

Began my quest for a language exchange partner for Spanish! I'm currently speaking to someone, but I'm not sold quite yet on if we're compatible. At first, I was gonna wait to find a partner, but speaking is the best way to improve a language so I'm putting myself out there.

Did the italki language test and I received [drumroll] B2 ? I really though I would get A2 MAYBE B1 if a miracle happened. If you are not familiar with the Italki Language Test, I included my results down below :

It is interesting how A1+ and B1-B2 makes B2. It's as if it's rounding up rather than finding the average.

I found myself laughing a lot throughout the whole test because I realized how SHIT my speaking is, but, hey, I'm all about that abundant mindset and I guess I got a lot to catch up on.

Although italki thinks that I am at B2 level (hilarious), I am still gonna consider myself A2

[funnytwittertweets]

[alexispasalexis]

I wish I was gods favorite and was a notion girly

[sol-nocturno]

Josué Maychi on teaching Maya to the Wakanda Forever cast and a word play in one of Namor's lines.

The actor told us about a word play that only Maya speakers can understand. ---spoiler ahead--- “There is a phrase that Namor says that I had to translate that goes: 'Máansa'ab u nej miis tin wich' which in Spanish literally means 'They passed the cat's tail in front of my face with the hope of an alliance'. If you see cats, jaguars or panthers wag their tails when they go hunting because it is a way of hypnotizing their prey, so that image is what happened to Namor, that someone did that to him with their tail. I proposed it to the director and he loved it, because it refers to the panther that warned Namor, ” he said. Josué Maychi told us that in English the phrase was translated as: "I was blinded with the hope of an alliance", which in Maya metaphorically means that someone was deceived, since in Spanish or English it is not literal.

Compillation of Namor's lines in Yucatec Mayan In the interview for Cultura Colectiva, Josué Maychi, who plays the shaman in Black Panther : Wakanda Forever, spoke about his experience in the film in which at the same time, he collaborated as the Yucatec Maya coach for Mabel Cadena and Tenoch Huerta, every day for a period of seven months. “No one knew anything about Maya and my first approach with the actors was to ask them if they could pronounce the consonants and sounds that do not exist in Spanish, English or other languages, and I was very happy to discover that they could pronounce them” he commented.

How was the process of teaching Maya? “We had sessions by Zoom and then in Atlantla we had scheduled meetings because I needed to listen to them. The first thing I taught them was the sound of the words, because in Maya there are five types of vowels that have to do with time, and if if they prolongued (a vowel) it can mean one thing or another. I asked them to imagine their lines as a melody and also gave them recorded audios to listen to, read and even write. For example, Mabel created her own way of writing, she created her own writing to have a personal approach to the language, ” he said.

Do you remember any funny anecdote? “There is a phrase that we say in the film that is Líik’ik Talokan, (there's Wakanda Forever) which is said by the people of Wakanda. Once, Álex Livinalli wrote to me and asked what we could say for the world we were creating, about the new universe and in Maya. I thought about it and thought it might be that phrase, which means something like 'Long live Talokan' or 'Rise Talokan'. I proposed it to them, they proposed it to the production, they loved it and it was integrated into the script, ” he said. Finally, the actor pointed out that the representation of indigenous languages ​​IS very important to him and mentioned that there are Mayan people who have proudly written him messages of gratitude, since they understood what they saw on the big screen.

[evalanguages]

random thoughts on langblr from a newbie

after being here for a couple days, i’m just gonna rant on what i think about langblr. i’m mostly talking to myself cause this is more of a “it-would-be-fun-to-remember-this-in-the-future-if-i-do-happen-to-stay-here-for-long” post, lol. from what i’ve seen, langblr can be more of a place where you self-reflect on your language journey and/or share compilations of resources/notes, etc. in comparison to twitter or instagram… which is something i LOVE. long texts, long messages, long theories, long reflections. not gonna lie, i did think everything was a little too long at first. however, now that i think i’ve come to understand how it works, i really wish i had found this earlier (i also love writing and blogs, which probably matters)!! i usually just rant to my friends but never on social media cause it feels out of place— so it looks like i’ll stay around (lol). anyways, any tips on how tumblr works will be more than appreciated and, as i said in my introductory post, i’m always happy to chat!

i don’t know if langblr is just reviving now because of the twitter drama but i’d love to keep it alive even when the drama’s over! so i’ll happily join any challenge or anything that may contribute. again, any tips are more than welcome :)