ByeMonolingualism

Langblr, studyblr, undergrad linguistics student, yet to be bilingual

[ee-far]

when you see people like this on Duolingo and wonder what you’re doing with your life.

[sekaistudies]

I want to chill but I also want to learn 5 languages

[goodbyemonolingualism-blog]

Am I fluent yet? 

[visualsandvoices]

Who else spends more time looking at langblr tags than actually studying their target language? 🙄

[scandiblr]

Audio books in Nordic languages

Here’s where you can buy and listen to books in Nordic languages, but for some sites you have to use that country’s credit card

Icelandic:

Hlusta

Hljóðbók

Storytel

Penninn

Forlagið

Norwegian:

Ebok

Storytel

Lydbokforlaget

Fabel

CDON

Bokklubben

Danish:

eReolen

Mofibo

PolitikenBooks

Saxo

Swedish:

Storytel

Ljudböcker

Adlibris

BookBeat

Bokus

Nextory

Finnish:

eKirjasto

BookBeat

Storytel

Adlibris

Celia

[buffysummers]

me: *reads ONE page from a textbook* oh my god I am so tired that was so draining and so much work… I need to take a 2 hour break now, I /earned/ it

[thetenderpassion]

[maneki-kat]

It gets funnier the earlier in the semester you reblog it

[thepolyglotdream]

‘Learning Russian has given me a whole new life’ Mary Hobson: It took me about two years [to read War and Peace]. I read it like a poem, a sentence at a time. English writer and translator Mary Hobson decided to learn Russian at the age of 56, graduating in her sixties and completing a PhD aged 74. Now fluent in Russian, Hobson has translated “Eugene Onegin” and other poems by Pushkin, “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov, and has won the Griboyedov Prize and Pushkin Medal for her work. RBTH visited Hobson at home in London to ask about her inspiring experience. 

RBTH: Learning Russian is difficult at any age, and you were 56. How did the idea first come to your mind? 

 Mary Hobson: I was having a foot operation, and I had to stay in bed for two weeks in hospital. My daughter Emma brought me a big fat translation of War and Peace. “Mum, you’ll never get a better chance to read it”, she said. I’d never read Russian literature before. I got absolutely hooked on it, I just got so absorbed! I read like a starving man eats. The paperback didn’t have maps of the battle of Borodino, I was making maps trying to understand what was happening. This was the best novel ever written. Tolstoy creates the whole world, and while you read it, you believe in it. I woke up in the hospital three days after I finished reading and suddenly realized: “I haven’t read it at all. I’ve read a translation. I would have to learn Russian.” 

RBTH: Did you read War and Peace in the original language eventually? 

M.H.: Yes, it was the first thing I read in Russian. I bought a fat Russian dictionary and off I went. It took me about two years. I read it like a poem, a sentence at a time. I learned such a lot, I still remember where I first found some words. “Between,” for instance. About a third of the way down the page. 

RBTH: Do you remember your first steps in learning Russian? 

 M.H.: I had a plan to study the Russian language in evening classes, but my Russian friend said: “Don’t do that, I’ll teach you.” We sat in the garden and she helped me to remember the Cyrillic script. I was 56 at this time, and I found it very tiring reading in Cyrillic. I couldn’t do it in the evening because I simply wouldn’t be able to sleep. And Russian grammar is fascinating. 

RBTH: You became an undergraduate for the first time in your sixties. How did you feel about studying with young students? 

M.H.: I need to explain first why I didn’t have any career before my fifties. My husband had a very serious illness, a cerebral abscess, and he became so disabled. I was just looking after him. And we had four children. After 28 years I could not do it any longer, I had break downs, depressions. I finally realized I would have to leave. Otherwise I would just go down with him. There was a life out there I hadn’t lived. It was time to go out and to live it. I left him. I’ve been on my own for three years in a limbo of quilt and depression. Then I picked up a phone and rang the number my friend had long since given me, that of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London University. “Do you accept mature students?” I asked. “Of sixty-two?” They did. When the first day of term arrived, I was absolutely terrified. I went twice around Russel square before daring to go in. The only thing that persuaded me to do it was that I got offered the place and if I didn’t do it, the children would be so ashamed of me. My group mates looked a little bit surprised at first but then we were very quickly writing the same essays, reading the same stuff, having to do the same translations. 

RBTH: You spent 10 months in Moscow as part of your course. How did you feel in Russia? 

 M.H.: I hardly dared open my mouth, because I thought I got it wrong. It lasted about a week like this, hardly daring to speak. Then I thought – I’m here only for 10 months. I shall die if I don’t communicate. I just have to risk it. Then I started bumbling stuff. I said things I didn’t at all mean. I just said anything. The most dangerous thing was to make jokes. People looked at me as I was mad. I hate to say it, but in 1991 the Russian ruble absolutely collapsed and for the first and last time in my life I was a wealthy woman. I bought over 200 books in Russian, 10 “Complete Collected Works” of my favorite 19th-century authors. Then it was a problem how to get them home. Seventy-five of them were brought to London by a visiting group of schoolchildren. They took three books each. 

RBTH: You’re celebrating your 90th birthday in July. What’s the secret of your longevity? 

M.H.: If I had not gone to university, if I had given up and stopped learning Russian, I don’t think I’d have lived this long. It keeps your mind active, it keeps you physically active. It affects everything. Learning Russian has given me a whole new life. A whole circle of friends, a whole new way of living. For me it was the most enormous opening out to a new life.

[shewalksmanytongues-blog]

OMG!! My Hero!!! We need more people like her, who don’t let age stop them from learning and just do it. 

[obsessedwithlanguages]

This is actually beautiful

[theemergingjournalist-deactivat]

So inspiring!!!!!!!

[iprobablyspeakyourlanguage]

Here are some French YouTube channels I enjoy that you could check in order to practice and improve your understanding of French ! I will describe them a bit if needed, and I hope this post will be useful !

History

Les Revues du Monde - A channel about history and archaeology, more precisely about mysterious events

Horror Humanum Est - Animated videos about horrifying and bloody events in the world’s history

C’est une autre histoire -  Deals with mythology and arts, I would say

Nota Bene - Very interesting if you want to know about French history (but it is not the only thing the channel deals with !)

Sciences

Balade Mentale - The channel deals with many many things related to sciences but the thing I prefer about it is the fact that it deals with things related to the universe (among others)

Dirty Biology - It’s in the name

Dans Ton Corps - About health, health issues, human body !

Tu mourras moins bête - Animated channel about biology, physics, and much more

Languages 

Linguisticae - About linguistics

Le monde des langues - About language learning (you might find some tips to help you !)

Society (my absolute favorite category !)

Antastesia - Feminism, veganism, literature, travels… I also remember her talking about the LGBTQ+ community (my favorite channel e v e r !)

Data Gueule - Animated channel that teaches/proves you things about ecology, politics and so much more using A LOT of data

Antitésie - Education, feminism, books…

La Carologie - Feminism, spirituality, some videos deal with the LGBTQ+ community if I remember well

Esther - Weight, veganism, self love and just… Life I guess ?

Marinette - Femmes et féminisme - Feminism

Et tout le monde s’en fout - Humans, and their world

ASMR

PARIS ASMR

Elya ASMR

Tom ASMR - Might be interesting because he is from the south of France and has an accent 

[lalinguistique-blog-deactivated]

favorite language learning resources

duolingo- a lot of language learners have issues with it but it’s good to get a base on the language and they’re always adding new languages!

memrise- good for vocabulary and memorizing, they have a wide list of languages

babbel- really effective if you want to learn how to communicate with people or get around, costs money for the full version but they have sales all the time

hellotalk- language exchange app, i’ve had really good experiences with this app, the only downside is that you have to pay to select more than one language you want to learn

tandem- similar to hellotalk, i like it slightly less but it allows you to choose as many languages as you want!

forvo- you can listen to native speakers pronounce things! it’s amazing!

ipachart- interactive chart with the international phonetic alphabet

wordreference- online dictionary for french, spanish, german, italian, portuguese, dutch, swedish, russian, polish, romanian, czech, greek, turkish, chinese, japanese, korean, and arabic

bab.la- another online dictionary with 24 languages

linguee- really great for learning phrases and seeing words in context

omniglot- encyclopedia of writing systems and languages, really great for learning new writing systems & also basic phrases! also has links to other resources!

the great language game- game for testing listening comprehension to several dozen languages!

ba ba dum- fun vocabulary game

easy languages- youtube channel featuring native speakers speaking a variety of languages but mostly spanish, french, and german

wikitongues- youtube channel attempting to document every language in the world

languagepod101- offers podcasts and youtube videos in a wide variety of languages

verbix- verb conjugating website with a wide variety of languages

quizlet- flashcard website that’s great for compiling vocab lists

lingq- i’ve only used it a little but it seems helpful especially for beginners!

tunein- allows you to listen to radio in a variety of languages

wikipedia- they have thousands to millions of articles in various languages so it’s a great place to test your reading skills, and in addition you can read articles about the language you’re learning and get a grasp on the language’s structure and sound system

lyricstraining- allows you to learn languages using song lyrics, really helpful for comprehension

lang-8- you can post things and have native speakers correct them, and correct things from other people!

feel free to add!

[languagessi-deactivated20210423]

It is okay to progress slowly in your target language! It is okay to take weeks to learn the alphabet! It is okay to take months to be able to string the simplest of sentences together! It is okay to take years to be able to have a full conversation in the language! We all learn at a different pace and that’s okay! 

[havingfunlearninglanguages]

Pocoyo is a Spanish-British pre-school animated television series. It is about Pocoyo, a 4-year-old boy, interacting with his friends Pato (a duck), Elly (an elephant) and Loula (a dog). Viewers are encouraged to recognize situations that Pocoyo is in, and things that are going on with or around him.

Spanish

English

French

Swedish

German

Norwegian

Russian

Portuguese

Italian

Turkish

Indonesian

Danish

Finnish

Hungarian

Japanese

Korean

Chinese

[svensklangblr]

hottest language learning tip

write a diary

literally

just write a diary, it has helped me sooo much and i dare say it has been the most developing thing i’ve done while learning french, nothing else compares

1. you’re exposed to the language daily

2. you quickly see which words are missing from your vocabulary

3. you learn to write about the things you think about a lot

4. learning to actually think in your target language

5. having to look up words and when reading the entry back a couple of days later you can’t even remember which words you didn’t know

6. going back to the earlier entries and seeing all the mistakes and knowing how much better you’ve become

7. when you’ve been writing for a few months and your target language becomes a natural way for expressing yourself

8. when you’ve been writing for a few months and you start seeing the diary writing as a way of self-expression and stressrelief, and the language learning aspect becomes natural and secondary

9. filling out a whole book using only your target language and physically seeing how much you’ve accomplished

[aspoonfuloflanguage-deactivated]

I find that YouTube is one of the best ways to practise listening skills, so I decided to share a few Mandarin YouTubers who I enjoy watching. Feel free to add on!

Vlogs/Cooking/Beauty/Misc.

Amanda Tastes

Xinshidandan 信誓蛋蛋

Stopkiddinstudio

Rainie Tian

Oh Emma

Hithere街访

I’m Charlie

Learning Chinese:

Twins Chinese

Chinese Zero to Hero

Yoyo Chinese

[heyemmateach]

50 Language Learning Journal Prompts

Printable

You can print out the pages, add glue on the non-text side, fold on dotted line, and cut on the solid lines. Now you have a deck of journal prompts! You can carry these around for on-the-go writing, can put in a jar to pick out of for your journal time, or even use to quiz your friends. 

The green side is merely a title. The white side is a description. I figured you could title each journal prompt with the title from the green card.

They are not specific to any language, so anyone can use them! They are all beginner/lower intermediate level, too.

[afblearnfrench]

Usage du mot “chez”

[allthingslinguistic]

The International Phonetic Alphabet consonants found in English, with keywords and relevant parts of the mouth highlighted and colour-coded. (Source.) 

[pervocracy]

Pronouncing each of these in sequence is a very strange and amusing physical sensation, and I highly recommend it.