The American Polyglot

Studying Hebrew & Hindi with my S.O. Learning a dozen other languages on the side.

[rainywhispersinternet]

Resources for Learning Gujarati

Reading & Writing

letslearngujarati omniglot learngujaratiwithme memrise:gujarati alphabet with audio learnmarathiwithkaushik

Grammar

learnmarathiwithkaushik learngujaratiwithme ilovelanguages.org

Vocabulary 

gujarativocabulary.pdf learnmarathiwithkaushik learngujaratiwithme memrise.com:gujarati for english speakers with audio anki: Basic Gujarati Words and Phrases anki: Colloquial Gujarati Glossary ilovelanguages

[southasianlanguages]

Resource List for Learning Gujarati

Hello! Do you want to learn Gujarati but don't know where to start? Then I've got the perfect resource list for you and you can find its link below! Let me know if you have any suggestions to improve it. Here is what the resource list contains;

"Handmade" resources on certain grammar concepts for easy understanding.

Resources on learning the script.

Websites to practice reading the script.

Documents to enhance your vocabulary.

Notes on Colloquial.

Music playlists

List of podcasts/audiobooks And a compiled + organized list of websites you can use to get hold of grammar!

GUJARATI RESOURCE LIST

GUJARATI RESOURCE LIST Join South Asian Languages server for learning more about the Gujarati Language https://discord.gg/southasianlanguage

[atamanoii-usagi]

Very relatable. ☕

[thebellekeys]

3 tips from an advanced foreign languages student and tutor

Immersion is key - You need to do things like listen to music in your target language, watch shows and movies in it, read books or fanfics in it if you can. And immersion goes beyond just that: try to use apps/social media to connect with natives. A lot of language learners aren't fortunate enough to spend vacation time in a country that speaks their target language, but surrounding yourself with the communication of natives in your TL absolutely helps you learn. In your regular fandoms for example, become mutuals with the fans who are natives in your TL and maybe try bonding over that! The passive learning that comes with just listening and reading, even if you can't translate line for line, absolutely helps with language proficiency.

Don't learn in a bubble - Listen, it's hard to learn new words and phrases if they're just sitting pretty on the page. It doesn't matter how aesthetic your vocab lists are- you need to use the new words and phrases you collect. Write a sentence using that new word you learnt and jotted down, so you have a way to remember the word used in an appropriate context. It becomes much easier to learn and remember vocabulary by by understanding their meaning and relating them to an actual situation. For visual learners, draw a doodle of the word! For aural learners, try saying it out loud on a recording or have a native/online dictionary say the word for you.

Literature/Culture is important - You need to do research and explore the culture/society of the countries/places that use your target language. Like, I don't mean traveling, but just, in English, research the art and writing and philosophy that were born in your target language. Language is inherently tied to culture/specific ethnic groups because they form the basis for how the language has evolved and is used. A decent understanding and big interest in the art and music and philosophy and the politics of persons from your TL's countries/regions goes a long way in your understanding of how to use the language, especially in formal ways.

[fungilangblr]

Groceries - Spanish Vocabulary 

(insp.) (photo source)  (Las) provisiones - groceries  (El) aguacate - avocado (La) berenjena - eggplant (La) cebolla - onion (El) jugo - juice (El) limón - lemon (El) maíz - corn (La) naranja - orange (El) pimento - bell pepper (La) piña - pineapple (El) pomelo - grapefruit (El) tomate - tomato

[hebrew-langblr-deactivated20230]

Hebrew Vocabulary List - מטבח

מטבח - mitbax - kitchen

Interesting fact, this is the same root for טבח - tevax - massacre

בישול - bišul - cooking

כיור - ki.ur - sink

ברז - berez - faucet

מקרר - mekarer - fridge

מקפיא - makpi - freezer

תנור - tanur - oven

The root is the Aramaic word for fire, נור - nur

כירה - kira - stove bur

The plural is כיריים - kira.im, which is still feminine. Thus, כיריים חשמליות

ארון - aron - cabinet

The plural is ארונות

כוס - kos - cup

An irregular feminine word, the plural is כוסות

צלחת - ʦalaxat - plate

קערה - ke.ara - bowl

Small bowls used for eating are often called קערית - ke.arit

מזלג - mazleg - fork

An irregular masculine word, the plural is מזלגות

כפית - kapit - spoon

A larger spoon for stirring is כף - kaf, the word for palm

סכין - sakin - knife

Either masculine or feminine

תבלינים - tavlinim - spices

בשר - basar - meat

חלב - xalav - milk

ארוחה - aruxa - meal

מדיח כלים - medi.ax kelim - dishwasher

סיר - sir - pot

מחבת - maxvat - frying pan

מכסה - mixse - lid

Despite it ending in a ה this is a masculine word! The plural is מכסים - mixsim

שפכטל - shpaxtel - spatul

The official word is מרית - marit but no one with a heartbeat says this

לבשל - levašel - to cook

לאפות - le.efot - to bake

לחתוך - laxtox - to cut

לשרוף - lisrof - to urn

טעים - טעימה - ta.im - te.ima

[lgbtunis-moved]

people that want to learn hebrew sweeties i am SO sorry

[lgbtunis-moved]

hebrew is like theres erev ( עֶרֶב ) which means evening but erev ( עֵרֶב ) means mixture and also arev ( עָרֵב ) which means pleasing, msotly a pleasing voice also theres arav ( עָרַב ) which means [he] guaranteed but don’t confuse that with arav ( עֲרָב ) which means arabia so obviously the language is aravit ( עֲרָבִית ), but the evening prayer in judaism is called arvit ( עַרְבִית ) and also no one uses nikkud you know those little fucking dots that show you how to read the words so you might as well just die!!!

[lgbtunis-moved]

all i’m saying that instead of translating “arabian nights” into ‘leylot arav’ (לילות ערב - arabian nights) it couldve easily been translated into ‘aravim aravim’ (ערבים ערבים - arab evenings) which in my honest opinion would’ve been much better.

[ursulaklegun-deactivated2024122]

ok no joke, that’s brilliant. it mirrors the musicality and repetition of the arabic title, alf layla wa layla

[lgbtunis-moved]

oooh!! the most common hebrew translation IS ‘elef layla ve-layla’ !! which means the same!

[ursulaklegun-deactivated2024122]

semitic languages handshake meme!!!

[savgogh]

cozy vocab in Hindi

inspired by @malteseboy​ ‘s  cozy vocab in Maltese

Nouns

किस (f) - kiss

फ़िल्म (f) - movie

स्वेटर (m) - sweater

तकिया (m) - pillow

कॉफ़ी (f) -  coffee

मोज़े (m) - socks

किताब (f) - book

आराम (m) - comfort

कंबल (m) - blanket

झपकी (f) - nap

अँगीठी (f) - fire place

बिल्ली (f) /  बिल्ला (m) - cat

गर्मी (f) - warm

सितारे (m) - stars

चाय (f) - tea

मोमबत्ती (f) - candle

झप्पी (f) - hug

Verbs

छाती से लगाना - to cuddle (to hold one close)

चुम्मा देना - to kiss

गले लगना - to hug

ध्यान रखना - to take care (of someone)

लेटना - to lie down

पढ़ना - to read

सोना - to sleep

आराम करना - to rest

Adjectives

कोमल - soft

नाज़ुक - delicate

मीठा - sweet

आरामदायक - comfortable

गरम - warm

[liketheghost-deactivated2015012]

so is it a thing in (american) english to use “texas” as a word for like, something that’s out of control or chaotic, or as like, “crazy”? like “that party last weekend was totally texas!”

because that is a thing people say in norwegian and i just think it’s important for americans to know that?

[galesofnovember]

this is the best thing I’ve ever heard

[minnielikes-deactivated20260215]

i’m sorry wHAT

[copperbadge]

This is like the time I found out that in Israel “Ma po ze, Chicago?” (What is this, CHICAGO?) is a saying for when people are acting unruly. 

[perilegs]

in finland if something is far away or in an unknown place we can say that “se on huitsin nevadassa” (it’s in nevada) you can also politely tell that you’d wish someone to fuck off by wishing that they’d go to nevada

[what-even-is-thiss]

It’s good to know that other languages do the “pardon my French” thing.

[thebelfry]

I just learned that the Russian word for “ladybug” translates to “God’s Little Cow”

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

It’s the same in Irish! bóín Dé!

[peniswizard69]

in hebrew it’s “our rabbi moses’s cow”

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

Oh I love this news!!!!

[shizukateal]

In argentina we call it St. Anthony’s little cow

[spswfrpoar]

Watch documentaries in your target language !!!

• the narrators talk sooo slow (especially in nature documentaries !!!)

• slow enough that you almost don’t need subtitles which makes you feel super cool

• it gives you a picture of how people actually talk (better than school or an app can) without being too slang-heavy (like a tv show or movie can be)

• lots of times they interview people who talk less formally which is the perfect mix of formal and informal!

• you learn cool cultural things

[inaslangs]

To everyone who wants to listen to their target language

There’s a website where you can listen to international radio for free.

I found it a few days ago and use to listen to Japanese radio.

Search for a country or language pick a station. 

Listening to a language is important to being able to speak a language.

[thepowertointerpret-deactivated]

LANGUAGE LEARNING MASTERPOST

For all of those who want to learn a language but don’t know where to start, need extra help as you learn it, or if you’re just bored. These are the resources I’ve gathered over the last few months (feel free to add to it!)

General sites with grammar/sounds/pronunciation for a wide variety of languages

My Languages

BBC Language

How to Learn Any Language

Effective Language Learning

Conjuguemos

The Polyglot Project

Linguanaut

More specific sites, targeted at one language

German here and here

Spanish here and here

French here here and here

Italian here and here

Japanese here 

Chinese here and here

Korean here and here

Vietnamese here

For all ya’ll auditory learners

an online radio/tv

spanish site w/ web series and programs

     -also, foreign language mixes on 8tracks

some german ones

a few spanish ones

some french mixes

some italian mixes

some russian mixes

some mandarin mixes

some japanese mixes

Interactive language-exchanging sites where you can make friends and meet natives wOWie

livemocha

interpals

polyglotclub

sharedtalk

couchsurfing

memrise

babbel

duolingo

Tips, advice, and motivation to give you that extra push

5 Tips to Get You Started

a blog on language-hacking tips

have some motivational videos that provide language courses (Speak from Day 1 and Pimsleur Approach)

6 ways to roll your r

another language blog

For those interested in linguistics, here are 15 interesting articles on the field

for funsies!!!

i’ve found quite a few resources for irish gaelic, a really beautiful but complex language that you can challenge yourself to learn

linguistic facts about the language and some study tips

here’s an online radio

pronunciation and a youtube channel

Irish Language Today

want to learn a language that doesn’t exist???? there are tutorials here here and here on how to write gallifreyan and a tutorial here on how to write the numbers

If i find more content, I’ll edit this and add it right away. Good luck and have fun!

[prototumblinguist]

Some of this stuff and more found here in my resources post :D

Resources are da best because then you can’t use it as an excuse not to learn a language :3

[limbile]

Little fact about French because I just learned that

The accent circonflexe (^) exists in French words to replace the “s” that no longer exists but used to be there in older French.

For example: fenêtre used to be fenestre

It is still possible to see the “s” at times in family words like “défenestrer”.

[culmaer]

knowing this, « être » becomes much more regular :

être  → estre (es, est, sommes, ê[s]tes, sont ; ser-)

some French derivations become clearer :

fenêtre   → défenestrer → L. fenestra

fête   → festival

hôpital → hospitaliser (E. hospital, ise)

intérêt  → intéressant (E. interest, -ing)

ancêtre  → ancestral (E. ancestor, -ral)

arrêt    → arrestation

épître  → épistolaire (E. epistle)

some English cognates become more obvious :

hôtel  → hostel (E. ‘hotel’ borrowed from French)

forêt  → forest (tipp to remember ^ goes on the ‹e›)

bête  → beast

côte  → coast

honnête → honest

pâte, pâté → pasta, paste

quête   → quest

enquête  → inquest

tempête  → tempest

vêtements → vestments (ie. clothes)

baptême → baptism

sometimes, the acute replaces the circumfex for phonetic reasons :

ḗcole   → escole → L. schola (E. school)

ḗtranger   → estrangier (E. stranger)

ḗtudier   → estudier (E. study)

dḗgoûtant → desgoustant (E. disgusting)

dḗbarquer → desembarquer (E. disembark)

rḗpondre  → respondre (E. respond)

rḗpublique → L. res publica

Also, where « c → ch » (eg. cantare→ chanter) :

château → castel (E. castle)

pêcher → L. piscare

and « w → gu » (eg. war→ guerre ; warden→ guardian) :

guêpe → E. wasp ! (this is my n° 1 favourite cognate)

bonus etymologies :

tête   → L. testa

fantôme  → L. phantasma (E. ‘phantom’ borrowed from French)

Pâques  → Gk. pásxa → Am. pésaḫ (E. Paschal)

Also just be aware that the circumflex has some other uses too, like distinguishing « sur — sûr » or « dû » and the vowel quality in « âge »

[hayley-studies]

Where was this post when I was doing A-Level French! This is actually a really interesting language change called “syncope” (the loss of a medial segment within a word) and what makes it even more interesting to me is that not only was the -s- dropped post vocalically and largely before voiceless stops, but that the circumflex was (unnecessarily but coolly) adopted as an orthographic marker of the lost -s-. Even more interesting is that syncope usually occurs in vowels. I love this.

[rivkahstudies]

@etudie-ante

[mylangbox]

The months and what they mean in Czech. Unlike the Western European languages, Czech names aren’t derived from the Latin and instead reflect the imagery of the month they name.

Interesting note on May : the original name was ‘máj’, which does come from Latin, but gradually changed to ‘květen’ which was an attempt at translating the French ‘lune des fleurs’.The word lives on thanks to a very famous Czech poem called ‘Máj’ by Karel Hynek Mácha

[asianhistory-blog]

General:

Lang-8 (Journal in another language, be corrected by native speakers. Do the same for others by correcting them.)

Livemocha 

Polyglot Link

FSI Language

BBC Languages

I Kinda Like Languages

GLOSS (Foreign Language Institute)

My Language Exchange

So You Want to Learn a Language

Mango Languages

Forvo

Learning with Texts

LingQ

South Asian Linguistics

F*ckyeahsouthasia #Language

Open Culture: Free Language Lessons (another masterlist)

Reddit Threads:

Arabic Language

Chinese / Chinese Language

Indonesian

Japanese / Learn Japanese

Korean

Hmong

Learn Vietnamese

Tagalog

Language Learning General

All in Chinese

Asian Dramas

SRS  (Spaced Repetition flashcards): 

Memrise (Iphone/pad app available)

Anki (droid/i-app avail)

Skritter (Paid: Japanese/Chinese; i-app avail.)

Mnemosyne

Arabic:

Books to Learn Arabic (Blogs list page)

Al3Arabiya

Mandinah Arabic (Free Printable E-books)

Bengali:

Fuckyeahsouthasia - Bengali .zips

So You Want to Learn…Bengali

Learning Bengali

Uchicago - Bengali

Peace Corps Bengali download

Bengala Instructional Materials

Learn to read Bengali

BBC Bengala

Bengali Podcasts

Burmese/Myanmar:

Burmese By Ear or, Essential Myanmar

Burmese Language

Chinese (Mostly/All Mandarin):

Chinese Grammar Wiki

Fluent Flix

Chinese Hacks

Social Mandarin

Hao Hao Report

Hacking Chinese

Reddit Resource List

MDBG

Why Chinese is so damn hard

sugoideas, Taiwanese dramas

Baidu radio, PRC radio stations

Mac TV, Taiwan TV

中文字譜, site for making mnemonics

Chinesepod

Reviewing the Hanzi

Perapera Chinese Firefox add on

Better Chinese (Paid)

China Sprout online retail

Chinese Grammar (eh, looks dull)

More Manhua

Chinese Rage Comics

English Slang in Chinese

Sentence Structure / Particles / Modals

Sinosplice

Pleco for iPhone

Chinese with Serge (he’s pretty clear)

Review the Hanzi forum thread

eStroke

Nciku (search characters by drawing them)

QQ international version / Weibo (Chinese “twitter”) / renren

Apps: Mindsnacks Mandarin ($5, personal recommendation), Manhua Reader App, Pleco, Word Tracer Learn Chinese, Chinese with Pengyou Pal

Books I own: (Far East) Illustrated 300 Chinese Character Dictionary, Reading and Writing Chinese (Tuttle), Chinese Link (favorite textbook so far), Integrated Chinese (Not as good as Chinese Link imho. Less organized/structured in a good format), Basic Spoken Chinese (Tuttle), Schaum’s Chinese Grammar

Gujarati:

Pronunciator

So You want to Learn… [Resource Masterlist]

Eye of India- Alphabet

Another masterlist

Gujarati Learner

Hindi:

Learning-Hindi

NYU - Virtual Hindi

Hindi-Urdu Flagship Resources (pdfs, textbooks, audio, etc)

A Door into Hindi

Indonesian - Bhasa Indonesian:

Indonesian-Online

Korean:

Hangul Type Attack

Seemile (Also learn Chinese)

Talk to Me in Korean

My Korean 1 & 2

Hangul

Busy Atom

Korean Wiki - Hangul

Dictionary

Grammar Dictionary

Radio Korea

Songang Korean Program

Hulu Kdramas

Airang “I Love Korean”

Seoul National University Korean Crash Course

Apps: Korean Letters Lite App (Free/Paid available), Korean Study Buddy App, Learn Sounds of Korean App (currently free)

Korean Champ

Korean Class 101

Hangukdrama and Korean

Learn Korean

Resource List (Also Japanese)

Books: Integrated Korean (Common textbook, friends used/liked it for class), Learn Korean for Beginner’s (Tuttle), Basic Korean: A Grammar and Workbook.

Japanese:

All Japanese All the Time (AJATT method; perhaps worth a read for other languages)

So You Want to Learn Japanese…

Perapera Firefox add on

Reviewing the Kanji

Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese / The app

Beginner’s Guide

Kanji Damage

Tofugu / Textfugu (Some-Paid)

Rikaichan FF/Chrome

Gakuu

Subs2SRS

Hiragana42

Lingualift (Paid)

I Know! (Paid)

Nihon Shock ($25)

Tagorin Dictionary

Read the Kanji

Nihongo Dekimasu

Before Breakfast

Kotodama Typing Game

Real Kana

The Japanese Page

All Kana Aesop’s Fables (Practice translating)

Manga RAWs

Apps: Kana iphone/ipad app (all Japanese game), Ninja worlds (free/paid $3 app), Human Japanese (Free/$10)

How to Read Manga/Watch anime (and understand) in 2 years

Pastebin Reddit Resources

Pera Pera Penguin

Nihongo e na

Jbox Study items

Other Books: Remembering the Kanji

Malay:

Learn Malay

Tamil

F-ckyeahsouthasia’s Tamil

UPenn Tamil

Thai:

Learn Thai

Learning Thai

TV Method Thai (Immersion oral learning)

Learning Thai

Thai-Language

Women Learn Thai — Check the detailed Resources Page.

So You Want to Learn… List:

Ainu, Arabic, Azerbaijani (Azeri), Balinese, Bengali, Burmese (Myanmar), Cantonese (Yue), Cebuano, Fuzhou (Foochow), Gujarati, Hakka, Hindi, Hmong, Indonesian, Japanese, Javanese (Basa Jawa/Jawi), Kannada, Kashmiri, Kazakh, Khmer (Cambodian), Korean, Kyrgyz, Lao, Malay (Melayu), Malayalam. Mandarin (Chinese), Marathi, Mongolian, Nepali, Oriya, Pashto, Persian (Farsi, Dari, Tajik/Tajiki), Punjabi (Panjabi), Shanghainese (Wu), Sindhi, Sinhala (Singhalese), Tagalog (Filipino, Pilipino)  Taiwanese (Minnan, Southern Min, Hokkien), Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Turkmen, Urdu, Uyghur (Uighur), Uzbek, Vietnamese

Other:

Tumblr tags: #learning _________ 

Can I become Fluent in ______ in ______ months/weeks/days?  No. You can’t. 

Can I learn Japanese from just watching Anime/Korean from Kpop/Chinese from Wuxia films? Not on your life. Do you only speak the english you know from Spongebob? N’SYNC? The 300? Didn’t think so.

What about Rosetta Stone? For $180-$399 dollars? Are you insane? The program is built to teach you the Romantic languages.  If you buy Rosetta stone for $400, and pass up every free resource on this list, I doubt your desire to actually learn anything. Don’t do it to yourself. That is a lot of money you probably won’t get back.

But I heard that Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Arabic/etc is really difficult: Well if over a billion Chinese people can speak Chinese, why can’t you? No really, don’t let something like this bother you. No, this is not the ease of moving from a English to a Romance language or German, but hey, if you wanted to learn German (and all those ridiculous cases) you’d be doing that. 

But what about ______? I have knowledge on resources mostly limited to JPN/CHI/KOR classes. This is a participatory list, which I am more than grateful to take submissions for.

[anotherlanguageblog]

I repost this every two weeks whether I need to or not. It too good not to and the original compiler deserves that much respect.

[lepluiedanslafentre]

Les adverbes