✧･languages･✧

Brazil, 18 | English, Italian, French, German and Spanish

[linguisticperspective]

tho fr learning languages is such a great source of reinforcement, you can do the bare minimum & still feel like you’re progressing in a meaningful way. came across a new word you haven’t previously heard of? learned an irregularity in conjugating a particular verb? figured out how spell something you’ve heard but never read? bam! you’ve increased how much you know by just that little bit & it’s so. intrinsically. rewarding!!!

[theorangepdf]

dictionary

[typodescript]

[text ID: I wanted to kill the spider until I gave it a name. As if the intimate knowledge of word, synthetic string of syllables, made everything alright. And in 3rd grade I wrote a dictionary of words I needed-- words that didn't exist. What do you write about when you know nothing? What do you call the feeling of swimming till your stomach hurts and eating grilled cheese by the edge of jeweled pools? There isn't a word for how the tire swing became a time machine. You think it's magic or fantasy. But it wasn't. It isn't. This is why we cry when plants die, mourn when the month changed from July to August, the season from summer to fall. When children cry because they don't have the word for hurt, their hands grasping at the space around language. What do you write about when you know nothing? You feel and feel and feel and feel till your mouth fills with the feeling, and you give it a name. end ID]

[sappharah]

my skills include reading an entire page of an academic text without absorbing a single word

[lovecrumbss]

in Italy when we want to describe a caring, loving boy with a very good heart we use to say “è buono come il pane” which literally means “he’s as good as bread” and I think it’s beautiful.

[secifosseluce]

we also say “bello come il sole”, “as handsome as the sun” to compliment their physical appearance. i usually hear it used for bright, warm-looking men! 

[words-in-starless-skies-studies]

German Vocab: Encouraging Phrases

Du schaffst das! ~ You can do it!

Ich bin stolz auf dich. ~ I’m proud of you.

Mach weiter so. ~ Keep up the good work.

Gib nicht auf! ~ Don’t give up!

Glaube an dich selbst. ~ Belive in yourself.

Ich glaube an dich. ~ I believe in you.

Es ist nie zu spät. ~ It’s never too late.

Gut gemacht! ~ Well done!

Es wird alles gut werden. ~ Everything is going to be alright.

Niederlagen machen dich stärker. ~ Defeats make you stronger.

Aus Fehlern lernt man. ~ You learn from mistakes.

Lass dich nicht entmutigen. ~ Don’t get discouraged.

Jeder Tag ist eine zweite Chance. ~ Everyday is a second chance.

Du kannst nicht negativ denken und Positives erwarten. ~ You can’t think negatively and expect positives.

Nur weil es nicht jetzt passiert, heißt es nicht, dass es nie passieren wird. ~ Just because it does not happen now does not mean it will never happen.

[0rb-it-deactivated20231206]

je suis struggling

[crazyforlangs]

the concept of seeing bad movies/tv shows just to practice your target language

[languagessi-deactivated20210423]

This is your friendly reminder to not to give up on your target language

[jabber-walkie-talkie]

Me: *studies the same words over and over again.*

Me: Yes, I am learning a language! I am unstoppable! This is a walk in the park!

Me: *looks at new words and grammar rules*

Me: I am a fool and a sham. I’ve been lying to myself this whole time. I know nothing. 

[music-of-learning]

From Beginner to Intermediate: an intense plan for advancing in language

Introduction

I've studied Spanish at school for 3 years and now I'm at a low B1 level. I can actually understand pretty well while listening or reading but I can't communicate fluently.

This plan will include vocabulary build up, some grammar revision, a lot of listening, reading and writing. And could be used for the most languages, not only Spanish.

Plan

Every day:

Conjugate one verb in present, past and future tenses

Make a list about 10 - 30 words long

Create flashcards with them and start learning them (I use Quizlet for flashcards)

Revise yesterday's set of flashcards

2-3 times a week:

Read an article or a few pages from a book

Write a few sentences about anything in your target language

Listen to one episode of podcast (at least one)

Once a week or every two weeks:

Watch a movie in your target language, preferably animated movie as the language used there is easier. You can watch with subtitles

Grammar exercises

Translate some short text

Once a month:

Write something longer, like an essay or report, on chosen topic

Additionally:

Talk to yourself, to your friends, to your pets

Text with someone

Look at the transcription while listening to the podcast for second time

Repeat what you hear (in podcast or movie)

Check words you don't know from the listening and reading

Read out loud

Listen to music in your target language - you can even learn the text and sing along

Watch YouTube in your target language

Change your phone language to the one you're learning

Think in you target language!!!

***This is very intense plan for self-learners, you don't have to do all of these things in the given time. Adjust it to your own pace. I'll try to stick to this, if I have enough time.***

[crazyforlangs]

I'm going to try this with german!!

[iloveyou2]

good morning notes app poets, lesbian intellectuals, self-loathing americans, art school dropouts, brown eye supremacists, robert pattinson stans, hunter-gatherers, spiritual neophytes, sourdough addicts, false prophets, and bisexuals with a preference for men

[discover-german]

“wissen” vs. “kennen” - What’s the difference?

Both “wissen” and “kennen” mean “to know”,  so what is the different usage of these two words?

“wissen” is used when you are talking about some kind of information, for example:

“Ich weiß, dass Berlin die Hauptstadt von Deutschland ist” - I know that Berlin is the capital of Germany

“Ich weiß, dass er angerufen hat” - I know that he called

“Ich weiß nicht, wo mein Hund ist” - I don’t know where my dog is

“Weißt du was sie gesagt hat?” - Do you know what she said?

“kennen” is used when you are talking about nouns (unfamiliar/familiar people or objects),for example:

“Ich kenne diese Frau” - I know this woman

“Ich kenne dieses Lied nicht” - I don’t know this song

“Kennst du diese App?” - Do you know this app?

[germanlanguagerocks]

German vocabulary list: moods & feelings

aggressiv: aggressive 

ängstlich: afraid

beleidigt: offended

besorgt: worried

beschämt: ashamed

böse: evil

dankbar: grateful

deprimiert: depressed

eifersüchtig: jealous

enttäuscht: disappointed

erschöpft: exhausted

freundlich: friendly

friedlich: peaceful

froh: glad

frustriert: frustrated

gedemütigt: humiliated

gelangweilt: bored

gelassen: calm 

gleichgültig: indifferent

gierig: greedy

glücklich: happy

gütig: kind

heiter: cheerful

hilflos: helpless

klug: clever

nervös: nervous

melancholisch: melancholic

neugierig: curious

offen: open

optimistisch: optimistic

pessimistisch: pessimistic

schockiert: shocked

schuldig: guilty

schüchtern: shy

traurig: sad

trübsinnig: blue

unsicher: insecure

verängstigt: anxious

verärgert: annoyed

verlegen: embarrassed

verrückt: crazy

verwirrt: confused

wütend: angry

zickig: bitchy

zögerlich: hesitant

[languageoclock]

* Weak masculine nouns decline -[e]n in every case except the nominative; only a few decline -[e]ns differently in the genitive. der Junge, den Jungen, dem Jungen, des Jungen der Friede, den Frieden, dem Frieden, des Friedens

^ Masculine and neuter nouns decline -[e]s in the genitive, with the exception of some weak masculine nouns (see above). der Hund, des Hundes der Vater, des Vaters das Haus, des Hauses das Auto, des Autos

̃ Dative plurals decline -[e]n unless the plural already ends with -n or -s. die Äpfel, den Äpfeln die Bücher, den Büchern die Bananen, den Bananen die Fotos, den Fotos

̄ There is no plural form of the indefinite article. The negative plural form is shown for explanatory purposes. † Possessive pronouns decline in the same pattern as the indefinite article.

German case declensions - download as PDF

[blacklinguist]

anyway linguistics is not and never will be apolitical because it studies languages that are 1) governed by politics and 2) spoken by political beings (humans) 

politics and humans are married. therefore, politics and language are married. therefore politics and linguistics are married.

to make linguistics ‘apolitical’, you’re going to have to get rid of politics, which is not going to happen on this earth because it’s a component of the human psyche at this point and there’s no identity or way of life that can avoid it.

[possessivesuffix]

This line of argument seems to me to prove a little bit too much. Is biochemistry political because humans have biochemistry?

There are parts of language that are indeed governed by politics and correspondingly linguistics topics that are necessarily political, but at the same time some other topics like instrumental phonetics are also clearly apolitical unless you’re using some absurdly expansive definition of “political”.

Mostly though I think the important point is to recognize this as a continuum. Lexicography, say, probably cannot be 100% apolitical (e.g. around the time you come around to writing entries for slurs), but then it’s still a whole lot less steeped in politics than fields like language planning or sociolinguistics.

[blacklinguist]

go make your own post, oh great Ladefoged wannabe!

[justhereforthepies]

I run into these people in academia all the time, but linguistics was crawling with them.

They take the words from your argument, but use different word senses, and blatantly ignore premises of your argument (as possessivesuffix blithely ignored the “spoken by” in premise 2 to make a slippery slope to Biochem).

Language is political. Therefore any thorough study of it will include politics. Who uses the language you are studying? People. Politics is the study of power - the normal definition is plenty expansive.

@blacklinguist didn’t imply there couldn’t be a continuum of political importance in their post either - why not illustrate or elaborate their arguement instead of poorly criticizing?

& Heads up @possessivesuffix - if the Biochem is in humans and differs between different types of humans… then Biochem is political too (see HeLa cell lines for an excellent example).

[eloquentdreams]

YES BIOCHEMISTRY IS POLITICAL, BECAUSE THE CENTRAL QUESTIONS MOTIVATING A HYPOTHESIS ARE ALWAYS DERIVED FROM A SUBJECTIVE POSITION!!!! THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD IS DESIGNED TO REDUCE BIAS BUT IT CANNOT ELIMINATE IT COMPLETELY!!! THIS IS WHY THE PASSIVE VOICE IS SO QUESTIONABLE IN SCIENCE WRITING!!

RESEARCHERS ARE HUMAN BEINGS. THERE IS NO UNIVERSAL SUBJECTIVE HUMAN POSITION FROM WHICH TO DO RESEARCH. RESEARCH DOES NOT JUST HAPPEN!!! ERGO ALL RESEARCH IS “POLITICAL.”

[crazyforlangs]

might fuck around and learn chinese 😅🤪🤪 why am i like this

[blazeofgold-deactivated20190921]

i know this isn’t really original but im obsessed with how english words that refer to the bodily, the tangible, the elemental etc are so often of anglo-saxon/germanic origin e.g. (heart, blood, jaw, flesh) or observable phenomena, like adjectives describing light (glisten, gloaming, glitter, gleam, gloom, glow, dark, fire) or places (hearth, hall, hill), and the most stark, primal emotions or states (hate, love, life, lust, death) and of course fuck, shit, bitch, cunt etc– these often monosyllabic, consonant heavy words…and then you have the lilting, limpid romance/latinate, words like acquiesce and exacerbate and agrarian and pellucid and clemency and lucidity…and how maybe the secret of all great english language poetry is a textural balancing of the push-pull of the germanic and the romantic/latinate, a balancing of these two energies. like some of the most powerful moments in shakespeare are where the verbosity falls away and you have these plain utterances (“to be or not to be” or lear’s dying “look there look there”– all anglo saxon words) that are so powerful precisely because the language is so ornate elsewhere. i once came up with an elaborate wildly incoherent theory about this in the pub with some drunk american masters student who was dressed like harry styles