astra, dearest

[astradearest]

'cho chang'

NO, okay?? just no.

cho chang was wronged in so many levels by so many people (and that's not even including the characters) that it just makes me wanna die. BUT, all is not lost. we can save her! especially from the goddamn writer.

it's common knowledge by now that cho chang is, in fact, a racist as heck name. 'cho' is a Korean surname and Chang is a Chinese surname, which is actualy the romanization of a Korean surname.

and she's meant to be chinese.

CHINA, a country with such rich culture- imagine what could have been written with that? chinese variation to spells?? culturally accurate attire??? don't even get me started on the patil twins.

sooo, you know what we can do?? start writing cho chang with the name 'Zheng Qiu (秋)' , which is what her name was adapted to in the Chinese version of the Harry Potter video game, if i'm not mistaken.

it's more culturally appropriate, and has such a pretty meaning (autumn, and if that doesn't describe cho chang's characterisation in the series to a 't' i don't know what does).

by the way, i'm not chinese, so feel free to call me out on any and every mistake

[astradearest]

"It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea,

But we loved with a love that was more than love—

I and my Annabel Lee—

With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven

Coveted her and me."

- Perseus Jackson, son of the god of sirens, and forced immortal. Once upon a time, lover to Annabeth Chase, (wine-given name: Annabel Lee)

[astradearest]

"my child is fine"

your child is, in fact, fine. who is not fine is the big part of society that in plain 21st century sun still blame Helen for the Trojan War

[astradearest]

"and when he died, all things soft and beautiful and bright would be buried with him."

AND YOU HAVE THE GUTS TO STAND THERE AND TELL ME THEY'RE STRAIGHT??

[astradearest]

me: *listening to older people complain about how lazy my generation is because we have everything 'easier'*

me: isn't that the point??

[astradearest]

i- i just realized that during 'yorktown-the world turned upside down' hamilton keeps mentioning going home to meet his son. not to win, not only to eliza, but to his son. and then i remembered hamilton is a bastard (on this case, on the literal meaning (he cheated on his wife people)) and that his father probably never met him, or even knew his mother was pregnant.

[astradearest]

you know what annoys me?? when characters go "oh, i don't deserve to be loved, bla bla bla" . like, sweetie, do you think anyone does? that anyone is a good enough of an angel to deserve someone that will see everything in them- flaws, mistakes, faults- and adore them anyway?

no.

but are we loved anyway? yes.

because the goal isn't to be worthy of love, but to accept yourself fully and hope someday, someone will, too.

[astradearest]

re-listining to 'the Schuyler sisters' is like watching the news:

Angelica/America: blood!

Eliza/rest of the world: war!

Peggy/Canada: no thanks.

[astradearest]

honestly, the fact that some people still wonder why we need to stand with Black Lives Matter is exactly why we stand with Black Lives Matter.

[astradearest]

kay, hear me out:

I don't think Icarus regretted the fall. Sure, he was reckless. Sure, he was stupid. Sure, he was doomed.

But doomed or not he was free.

Icarus, that spent his whole life underground. Icarus, that wanted to see the world. Icarus, that fell in love with the sun.

Icarus, who I can't blame.

There is something unnervingly beautiful about being willing to die for a dream. And there is something beautifully unnerving about loving something that you can never touch.

hear me out:

maybe Icarus was happy.

He died a free man, an explorer, a lover.

And who am I to judge him.

(sides, no one ever said Apollo wasn't waiting for him in Elysium, with a sunny smile and a "welcome home" )

[astradearest]

but, hold on....

I’ve seen many people, inside or outside the Percy Jackson/HOO fandom, bash Aphrodite for not being loyal to her husband, Hephaestus. 

Now, I get that disloyalty and cheating is never alright, regardless of the reasons, but allow me to play the devil’s advocate:

Aphrodite of the sea, Aphrodite of beauty, Aphrodite of love. 

Aphrodite of love that, by the myths, was denied the choice of who to marry. Aphrodite of love that married a man that was in love with his machines. Aphrodite of love that probably tried her best, but Hephaestus couldn’t love her the way she wished to be loved: eternally, adoringly, passionately. 

But Ares could. Love and war always walked side-by-side, both driven by passion. So Ares and Aphrodite love each other even under the disapproving gaze of Hera, and the disgusted scoffs of Artemis and Athena, making something beautiful out of their broken hearts.

Now, I have a cannon that Aphrodite and Hephaestus are best friends, two people with no romantic chemistry whatsoever, but that still love each other- dearest Aphrodite is a goddess of love, not like Eros, but goddess of all love. Platonic, toxic, everlasting, heartbreaking, star-crossed, romantic, all of it. 

idk, never seemed right to me that someone had to spent a eternity in a loveless, arranged marriage, goddess or not.

[gunvolt]

im going to have a stroke

[prideling]

Instead try… Person A: You know… the thing Person B: The “thing”? Person A: Yeah, the thing with the little-! *mutters under their breath* Como es que se llama esa mierda… THE FISHING ROD

[artykyn]

As someone with multiple bilingual friends where English is not the first language, may I present to you a list of actual incidents I have witnessed:

Forgot a word in Spanish, while speaking Spanish to me, but remembered it in English. Became weirdly quiet as they seemed to lose their entire sense of identity.

Used a literal translation of a Russian idiomatic expression while speaking English. He actually does this quite regularly, because he somehow genuinely forgets which idioms belong to which language. It usually takes a minute of everyone staring at him in confused silence before he says “….Ah….. that must be a Russian one then….”

Had to count backwards for something. Could not count backwards in English. Counted backwards in French under her breath until she got to the number she needed, and then translated it into English.

Meant to inform her (French) parents that bread in America is baked with a lot of preservatives. Her brain was still halfway in English Mode so she used the word “préservatifes.” Ended up shocking her parents with the knowledge that apparently, bread in America is full of condoms.

Defined a slang term for me……. with another slang term. In the same language. Which I do not speak.

Was talking to both me and his mother in English when his mother had to revert to Russian to ask him a question about a word. He said “I don’t know” and turned to me and asked “Is there an English equivalent for Нумизматический?” and it took him a solid minute to realize there was no way I would be able to answer that. Meanwhile his mom quietly chuckled behind his back.

Said an expression in English but with Spanish grammar, which turned “How stressful!” into “What stressing!”

Bilingual characters are great but if you’re going to use a linguistic blunder, you have to really understand what they actually blunder over. And it’s usually 10x funnier than “Ooops it’s hard to switch back.”

[cricketcat9]

I use Spanish and English daily, none is my native language. When I’m tired or did not have enough sleep I loose track of who to address in which language;  I caught myself explaining something in Spanish to my English-speaking friends more than once. When I’m REALLY tired I’ll throw some Polish words in the mix. 

[justgot1]

There is nothing more painful than bad fake Spanglish by an American writer. Bilingual people don’t just randomly drop words in nonsensical places in their sentences ffs. “I’m muy tired! I think I’ll go to my cama and go to sleep!“ Nobody does that.

From my bilingual parents:

- Only being able to do math in their original language. “Ok so that would beeeeee … *muttering* ocho por cuatro menos tres…”

- Losing words and getting mad at you about it. “Gimme the - the - UGH, ESA COSA AHI’ CARAJO. The thing, the oven mitt. Christ.”

- Making asides to you in Spanish even though you’ve told them to not do this as lots of people here speak Spanish. “Oye, mira esa, que cara fea.” “MOM FFS WE’RE IN A MEXICAN NEIGHBORHOOD.”

- Swears in English don’t count.

- Swears in Spanish mean you’d better fucking run, kid.

- Introducing you to English-only Americans using your Spanish name so that they mispronounce your name for all eternity because that’s what your mom said your name was. “Hi Dee-yanna!” “sigh, Just call me Diana.” “Yeah but your mom said your name was Dee-yanna.” 

- Your parents give you a name that only makes sense in Spanish. “Your name is Floor?” “No, my name is Flor.” “FLOOR?” “Sigh.”

[silentwalrus1]

 - conjugating English words with Russian grammar and vice versa. Sometimes both at once, which is extra fun.  самолет ->  самолетас ->  самолетасы

- when vice versa, dropping English articles entirely. The, a, an: all gone. e.g. “I go to store and buy thing, I fix car and go to place.” This also happens when i am very tired 

- speaking English with heavy accent you don’t actually have - when my family and I are switching over fast, we say the English words in a very heavy Russian accent that mostly doesn’t show up otherwise 

bonus: 

- keysmashing in the wrong language when your keyboard is still switched over

- using ))))) instead of :))) or other culture-specific emoji/typing quirks

[cobaltmoony]

all of the above

[lourdesdeath]

I don’t actually speak Tagalog, but my mom’s Filipino. One of my favorite things is when she forgets how to preposition, so something is ‘in the table’. 

[theleakypen]

SOMEHOW I NEVER REBLOGGED THIS?!?!?!?!? this is one of my absolute favorite posts on all of tumblr also, to add to the pile of fun things bilinguals do: cackling over bilingual puns that nobody else in the room will get and then being completely unable to explain why this is funny

[theboywhocan11]

Interesting. Reblogging this for future reference.

[eg515]

my favourite is that feeling when you have the perfect response to something but halfway through saying it you realised it’s in a language the other person doesn’t speak so you either just kind of… fade out, or try desperately to make it make sense in the other language

[lordiedams]

trying to explain something that only makes sense on your native language. 

[entitiy-4]

Ive take French for about seven years and had one friend who would laugh at my pronunciation. Then he took French and came to me and said “I understand now.”

[silverstardust666]

I’ve been taking Spanish classes for three years now. I will not even try to pretend that I’m fluent. I still have a long ways to go. However, I accidentally adopted a habit my first Spanish teacher had which was to ask questions like “where is the [blank]?” Or “how do you say…?” So, occasionally, I’ll be in the middle of a conversation with a friend or family member who only speaks English, and I’ll just stop and go ¿cómo se dice? And get so many weird looks. It’s very fun.

[trekkienatural]

What happens a lot for me is that I’ll be in spanish class and I dont know the word in spanish and for some reason can’t remember what it is in english so I’ll say it in arabic and confuse everyone.

Also a big bilingual mood is not knowing the english translation of food that only really exists in your native language. Like, what the fuck is طعمية‎ in english????? I could say falafel, but this is something technically different

[jaredwormsboyslizardsquad]

this reminds me of the eu sunt не femeie incident,,,,,,

[officialsupervillain-deactivate]

i think the funniest thing about this post is that this is the ao3 font. someone screenshotted this from ao3.

[brancadoodles]

One of my best friends speaks two languages I can speak, though neither is my native language. We usually write in English, out of custom, even though her native language is actually Spanish. When we’re in voice/video calls, however, I often have trouble understanding English sometimes, so she switches to Spanish mid-sentence and we continue the convo in Spanish with mixed switching to English when needed. Or I can’t remember a word in one of the languages and switch to the other and simple begin speaking the the other. Or I mix in Portuguese hope she’ll figure it out from closeness to Spanish and context.

Reading entire books and watching entire shows and being unable to identify, sometimes right afterwards, in which language was it on

Panicking in the native language. A classic. Will never understand how some ESL youtubers don’t switch to English when playing horror/anxiety-inducing games. Also counts to frustration. (”Are you okay, Link?” “NÃO. I’M NOT OKAY. NÃO TÔ BEM NÃO FILHO DA PUTA DO CARALHO”)

Related to the one above and already mentioned: cursing is only valid when in your native language. Sure, you can offend people using English, but if you resorted to “vai pra puta que te pariu seu desgraçado de uma porra, enfia um rojão no cu e voa” shit got serious

Related still, cursing heavily under your breath and making something up when caught

Getting an accent out of nowhere. I can speak American English without an outsider accent but sometimes I just. Get tired of rolling the “r” and I can’t do it anymore for some reason. Alternatively, speaking once with someone with an specific regional accent and adopting it for life.

Struggling to make people pronounce your name right when they are unable or unwilling, giving up, adopting a nickname not to be bitter (hi, hello, that’s me)

Puns and wordplay that only work in your language. You want to share them. You cry.

Having trouble with propositions. It seems like a common issue but “on, in, at” etc aren’t that easy to figure out. I mistake them constantly.

Inadvertedly glitching out and switching to another language when talking to someone, sometimes mid-sentence, and having them look at you in awe and confusion like they pressed a button in reality or something before you realize (or they point out) they can’t understand what you’re saying

Having to deal with (mostly US) native English speakers bolstering the strength and difficulty and poetry of their language, oh it’s one of the hardest languages to learn in the world because we have so many words from so many roots, when. No, it’s actually not. English grammar is incredibly easy compared to most languages. But because you have 5000 noninterchangeable words that mean the same thing, but are used in different contexts (safe/secure, see/watch, etc), an astounding number of verbal expressions instead of one-word verbs (pick up, look out, look after, etc) and absolutely no rule or logic regarding pronunciation and written language (WHY IS “RECIPE” WRITTEN/SPOKEN LIKE FRENCH, YOU’RE NOT FRENCH), you might think so. But English isn’t hard, it’s cheating. It has no logic. It’s not fair.

On the other hand, the ridiculous amount of different words you can use makes bullshitting in English a lot easier once you get a bit more savvy. Up to and including academic essays, facebook arguments, and fanfiction.

Watching in horror people adopting English barbarisms in the most despicable way, by using false cognates as actual cognates.

Posting in all languages you’re comfortable in + English, and telling people to use the fcking embedded gtranslate when they complain

(I’m making this all too personal)

Always learning something new. Which is amazing, honestly. (”Oh you mean it’s spoken like that?! That’s so cool! Okay: *repeats sentence correctly*”)

Parroting your friends whenever they use a word or term you’re unfamiliar with until you learn it

Pronouncing words like you read them following NONEXISTENT RULES and getting frustrated

[lady-charinette]

To add to these relatable posts:

In the middle of an argument in another language while putting together a winning argument of your own in English, but unable to translate bc you cant remember all the words and it lacks the heat it has in English

Going to the grocery store in search of something which you only remember the name for in English, but you have to speak German, so you try to awkwardly explain, instead you get something completely different

Sometimes when I try to be sassy, I abandon the accent free English and switch to a heavily Croatian accented English like some cliche villain

Talking to your only english friend in english but forgetting to translate some words to non-English speaking friends so you end up with “(Sentence) (Sentence) (ENGLISH WORD) (Sentence)” and half of the group doesnt know what you’re saying

Trying to translate an idiom but failing miserably and ending up with something awkwardly hilarious (I.e. the expression in Croatian “Zdrava kao dren” means basically “as healthy as an ox” but when I once tried translating it to German it ended up as “So gesund wie eine Kornelkirsche” and everyone stared at me in confusion and mild horror on why someone would be as healthy as a cornel cherry (also another difference: the dialect. If I were to translate it in Austrian German, “cornel cherry” can also be translated as “dirndl” which is a dress in Austria. Now explain to your friends why someone would be as “healthy as a dress”)

[anjuschiffer]

These are all so damn relatable cuz this actually happened to me just last week.

I was helping my sister with her spanish homework and they had to come up with idioms in English and I knew some, the only problem? I knew them in spanish.

So here I am, telling my sister the idioms and she goes “I need English idioms, not spanish ones.” and I go okay, cool, I just need to remember the English versions of them…which I couldn’t remember at all.

Our older brother walks in and I begin to ask him. “How do you say ‘Hay parjaros en el alambre’ But in English?” He opens his mouth to answer only to blank out as well. 

“Ask Ma.” 

Sadly, she didn’t know either.

So here we are, three almost-fluent spanish speakers (despite it being out first language) struggling to remember the English equivalent of that phrase.

Literally an hour afterwards, I remembered.

“The walls have ears!”

“Too late. I already asked Google.”

[pl-panda]

Two words: False Friends. I so hate this little buggers. All the words that sound virtually the same in both language but have drastically different meaning. I once spent good five minutes shouting at my mother that she needs to be more specific since I forgot the Polish word. Except I ‘Polished’ it into “Specyficzna” which means something closer to ‘Odd’. And so I spent five minutes telling my mother to be more odd because I didn’t understand what she told me. Finally I got tired and just told her to be less vague and only then I understood that I’m an idiot.

Also, I can relate to the original picture. I’m the only one at our home that speaks English. And at the same time I use English for everything but communication with group of no more than 10 people in my life. My brain just… thinks in english since it’s easier and so when I’m focused on something, I do sometimes answer in english since it’s just… there. 

[astradearest]

oh, and I, as a bilingual person, can say I speak my native language when tired and to insult people under my breath.