Polygot in the Making @imalwaysaslutforlanguage - Tumblr Blog

I'm a teacher assistant for spanish grammar and the professor was explaining epícenos (single gendered words that encompass masculine and feminine beings) and he was using iguana as an example and he said: "there is only one gender... iguana" and i had to mute my microphone

ravenlesslangblr

I have heard and researched this question so so many times, but you always sort of arrive at the same conclusion - it depends. And the answer is never clear, because it is true. It does depend. It depends on you as a language learner and it depends on the languages you are learning, it depends on how you learn best and how fluent you want to be in those languages.

So, with this guide, I am going to try and figure out why you, specifically, should or should not study multiple languages at the same time. We’ll weigh up the pros and cons, we’ll look at a few standpoints and I have included a little test at the end of this! Buckle up, kids. Long post ahead, quiz is at the bottom!

Keep reading

wonderful-language-sounds

Free Online Language Courses

Here is a masterpost of MOOCs (massive open online courses) that are available, archived, or starting soon. I think they will help those that like to learn with a teacher or with videos. You can always check the audit course or no certificate option so that you can learn for free.

American Sign Language

ASL University

Sign Language Structure, Learning, and Change

Arabic

Arabic Without Walls

Madinah Arabic

Moroccan Arabic

Armenian

Depi Hayk

Bengali

Learn Bangla (Register to see course)

Catalan

Parla.Cat

Speak Cat

Chinese (Mandarin)

Beginner

Chinese for Beginners

Chinese Characters for Beginners

Chinese for HSK 1

Chinese for HSK 2

Chinese for HSK 3 I & II

Chinese for HSK 4

Chinese for HSK 5

Mandarin Chinese Level I

Mandarin Chinese Essentials

Mandarin Chinese for Business

More Chinese for Beginners

Start Talking Mandarin Chinese

UT Gateway to Chinese

Intermediate

Intermediate Business Chinese

Intermediate Chinese Grammar

Mandarin for Intermediate Learners I

Dutch

Introduction to Dutch

English

Online Courses here

Resources Here

Faroese

Faroese Course

Finnish

A Taste of Finnish

French

Beginner

AP French Language and Culture

Elementary French I & II

Français Interactif

Vivre en France - A1

Vivre en France- A2

Intermediate & Advanced

French Intermediate course B1-B2

Passe-Partout

Travailler en France A2-B1

Vivre en France - B1

German

Beginner

Deutsch im Blick

German Project

German at Work

Goethe Institute

Gwich’in

Introduction to Gwich’in Language

Hebrew

Biblical Hebrew

UT Austin

Hindi

A Door into Hindi

Virtual Hindi

Icelandic

Icelandic 1-5

Indonesian

Learn Indonesian

Irish

Irish 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107

Italian

Beginner

Beginner’s Italian I

Introduction to Italian

Intermediate & Advanced

AP Italian Language and Culture

Intermediate Italian I

Advanced Italian I

Japanese

Genki

Japanese JOSHU

Japanese Pronunciation

Marugoto Courses

Tufs JpLang

Korean

Beginner

First Step Korean

How to Study Korean

Introduction to Korean

Learn to Speak Korean

Pathway to Spoken Korean

Intermediate

Intermediate Korean

Norwegian

Introduction to Norwegian I, Norwegian II

Norwegian on the Web

Persian

Easy Persian

PersianDee

Polish

Online Course

Portuguese

Pluralidades em Português Brasileiro

Russian

Beginner

A1 Course

I speak Russian

Intermediate

B1 Course

B1+ Course

B2.1 Course

B2.2 Course

Spanish

Beginner

AP Spanish Language & Culture

Basic Spanish I, Spanish II

Spanish for beginners

Spanish for Beginners 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Spanish Vocabulary

Advanced

Corrección, Estilo y Variaciones

Leer a Macondo

Swahili

Online Course

Turkish

Online Course

Ukrainian

Read Ukrainian

Speak Ukrainian

Welsh

Beginner’s Welsh

Discovering Wales

Yoruba

Yorùbá Yé Mi

Multiple Languages

Ancient Languages

More Language Learning Resources & Websites!

Last updated: May 2019

tiktoksthataregood-ish

mockwa

🎼 Нетспасибо

kacsanova

Mit nézek

thechekhov

Is…. That a contrabass balalaika….?

galadhir

#the closest thing to Eurovision we’ll get this year

themythicalcodfish

The most disturbing part is that it totally works

brofligate

@bardofnyeh

ilovepeppers-deactivated2019122

teqk

When English isn’t taught correctly…

ilovepeppers-deactivated2019122

mangaluva-deactivated20220930

Check this bellend who doesnae ken that Scots, and indeed all “improper” dialects an accents ay English, arenae incompatible wi intelligence oar eloquence ay expression

(I mean, the original post insnae exactly the most poetic ay thoughts, but neither’s fuckin off tae bed wioot gien yer mate a cover, whit the fuck’s wrang wi you, were you raised in a fuckin shed)

professorjawn

Scottish Tumblr ™ came through

algrenion

we’ve been robbed ae wir language n culture by the English fur seven-hunnert year and i’ll be damned if am lettin’ some arsehole like Tumblr User Teqk goan an continue that tradition ae takin’ the piss (though right enough looks like they pissed right aff after this post)

even if it wisnae Scots - only twats that rip the piss oot yer patter n caw ye a daftie fer yer accent or manner ae speakin. Only bampots rip the piss oot yer spellin. Ableists, classists, racists, and most of aw just cunts.

get it right up yersel’, ya fuckin weapon

algrenion

i feel like it’s essential to add (perhaps in English this time) that when i was writing the above, i did write about the racist elements of “correcting language” - which is something i really feel personally as not only Scottish, i’m proudly black/mixed race

but i accidentally forgot to paste that back in after having edited some spelling mistakes. By the time i edited it to include even the word racism, my reblog was blowing up and it was too late (ahhhh)

so please, with all due respect, keep in mind that the correction of languages and dialects can have DEEPLY racist undertones when you’re being so flippant and disrespectful

french-romarin

To note:

FR: concentrer /EN: focus

FR: écureuil /EN: squirrel

FR: pingouin /EN: penguin

FR: câlin /EN: hug

bat--country-deactivated2026032

the “PINE-GUINE” fucking killed me asfgashasfg

maya-tl

Google Translate: focus

This man, with extreme amounts of self-confidence: fUCK US

silentauroriamthereal

As someone who spent five years attempting to teach adult French speakers how to speak English, I can confirm with tears of laughter in my eyes that this is 1000% accurate. Not a single sniff of exaggeration! 😂😂😂👌

dynastylnoire

The scream🤣🤣🤣🤣

awed-frog

WHOA

dulcewhisperlea

tywysogannwn

this is one of the reasons it’s so hard to translate on the fly 😭 monoglots just don’t understand and think you’re bad at the source language 😟

sinnahsaint

What is UP with Russian?

jacob-the-gun

Also doesn’t help that German has rules allowing for practically any sentence structure your heart desires.

sartred

snorlaxatives

no offense to people named aaron but who the fuck decided two a’s were necessary??? now i can’t converse with someone named aaron without calling them a-aron

unculture

not to be That Bitch but it’s another example of an anglicized disaster of a name from biblical hebrew, which was aharon and imo infinitely more badass than aaron others in this cursed category: elisheva (elizabeth), yirmiyahu (jeremy), mikha-el (michael), matisyahu (matthew), shoshana (susanna)

snorlaxatives

you really are that bitch huh i feel educated as fuck right now

ground-zoro

arán is Irish for bread :)

hilariously--tragic

Two types of people

antiandrogen

if you can read this rn learn american sign language

antiandrogen

as a place to start i strongly recommend Dr. Bill Vicars’ free lessons on youtube and at lifeprint.com (which also has a huge ASL dictionary and lesson plans/outlines). there are also freelance ASL tutors online who can help personalize your learning experience and give you opportunities to observe and practice signing naturally, if you don’t already have Deaf friends/family

lesbianjaxa

Gallaudet University, a university designed for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, offers a few online lessons for ASL! https://www.gallaudet.edu/asl-connect/asl-for-free

I also have used this website to practice fingerspelling, https://asl.ms/. You can select the speed, and though it’s designed to help your receptive skills in knowing what the spelling was, you can practice your own fingerspelling by signing along with it.

The ASL App is also pretty good, though you do have to pay for most of the lessons, beyond the basics.

crazy-languages

I found this online and I love it.

#deutsch

witch-of-habonim-dror-blog

Fingerspelling in Japanese sign language

#sign language

creatingaquietmind-deactivated2

the speech impediment of the 21st century (by Marc Johns)

lyctorgideon

I’ll fuck you up buddy this is not a speech impediment it’s linguistic evolution!! the existence of the phrase “Aisha was like” allows the speaker to convey whatever Aisha said without making the listener assume they’re quoting Aisha directly while still maintaining the FEELING of what Aisha said.

ie, Aisha said she didn’t want to go out with me VERSUS Aisha was like, “I’d rather kiss a Wookie”.

the addition of “XYZ was like” lets the speaker be more expressive and efficient and it is a totally valid method of communicating information!!

corvidaedream

With the way language has evolved, this is one of the few ways I can even think of to express in casual conversation what someone said.

“So I said to Aisha,” is certainly used, but if you remove the “so,” which implies casual tone (“and” can be used in the same way), you get

“I said to Aisha,” which is really formal in most English dialects/variations. I don’t know about all, but in New England dialects, you sound like you’re reading aloud from a novel.

“I told Aisha,” is really only used when you continue to describe, not tell, what you told her. Ex: “I told Aisha that James was too punk for her” works while, “I told Aisha, ‘James is too punk for you’” crosses the line back into formalness of the “I said.”

Things like “I asked” or “I answered [with]” are similar levels of casual and efficient to the “So, I said [or say, as many conversations about the past take place in present tense anyway, as if the speaker is giving a play-by-play in the moment]” but are specific to only certain situations.

“I was like, ‘Marc Johns, what is your obsession with restoring archaic speech patterns and interfering with the natural progression of English from complex to efficient?’” envelopes all of these easily and is accessible and crisp, and allows for more variations on inflection than the others.

Of course, James is probably like, “I already fucking said that.” But eh, I tried adding on.

axonsandsynapses

#linguistics #a.k.a. how I learned to stop worrying and love the evolution of the English language without being a discriminatory elitist jerk (via crystalandrock)

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

which country was it whose population was so intermarried they had to make an app to help people prevent from accidentally hooking up with their cousins

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

Iceland

kavesinisukka

To be fair, they have like 360,000 people and don’t use surnames

maybelia

What do you mean they don’t use surnames???! How the fuck does that even work??

kavesinisukka

Their names are patronyms and matronym, meaning formed from their parents names. Like so: Luke Anakinsson and Leia Padmesdottir (Padme’s daughter). Phone books and other directories are organised by first name. I think it was only recently they allowed foreign immigrants to keep their last names once they got the nationality

anarkissa

You left out the best bit: while the convention is that males use patronyms and females matronyms, you can choose which parent you want to honour with the -nym; you could also be Luke Padmesson or Leia Anakinsdottir if you want.

Also just to point out that for many places, surnames are a relatively recent thing for most social strata. Patro/matronymics predate them in almost every part of Europe, and in many places surnames started out as patronymics. This is why you have all the surnames ending in -son/-sen in the UK and Scandinavia, -ex in Spanish, -vich (or a variation thereof) in Slavic languages, Mac- in Gaelic, O’- in Irish etc. All these are patronymics that predate the use of surnames.

Plus, the arrival of the surname is a very recent thing in many parts of Europe. In the Nordics, only people belonging to the estates (so nobility, clergy, bourgeoisie and land-owning peasantry, a small minority of the total population) had surnames before the 19th century. The vast majority of people would only have a first name, using either patro/matronymic (or in Finland the name of the house or village where they worked and lived) to distinguish themselves from those with the same name if needed. In Finland, people have been required by law to have a surname for only a century (exactly: the first law on surnames came into effect in 1920). Iceland never did that.

And ultimately, why should they? A surname is just a convention that people have at some point decided on – and one that emphasises your patrilinear family over you as an individual and the rest of your relatives.

anarkissa

Also, since I only now noticed one of the previous rebloggers observing in tags that the Icelandic system must be hard on non-binary people, I give you this further gem:

In 2019, changes were announced to the laws governing names. Given names will no longer be restricted by gender. Moreover, Icelanders who are officially registered with non-binary gender will be permitted to use the patro/matronymic suffix -bur (“child of”) instead of -son or -dóttir.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name

strangewomanwithanefariousagenda

love the addition!

swimmingblue

I’d like to add that a lot of surnames for ordinary people originally came about in cultures that don’t have patronymics/matronymcsc and they still wanted to tell people with the same name apart. So we have an English village with say, 5 people named John. It’s a bible name, very common. So they get a name that’s directly or indirectly about something that sets them apart. Like their job (John Smith, John Potter), where they live (John Fields, John Wells), or something about their looks (John Black who has black hair, John Short who’s short, etc). There are a lot of surnames that started off like this and that just sort of stuck around in a family, in English and in other languages.

coto524

as a welsh person i want you all to accept that W is a vowel because honestly it makes pronouncing acronyms so much easier. wlw becomes ‘ooloo’, wjec becomes ‘oojeck’, love yourselves and stop giving us shit when we tell you welsh has 7 vowels. english actually has 15 vowel sounds but because y’all only use 5 letters you have to rely on a spelling system devised by satan

saethwr-blog

and please, enough with the “keyboard smashing” jokes. not original, not funny.

coto524

“ #okay but can any of y'all even pronounce your own town names tho? #bye”

yeah, we can actually because the spelling is phonetic. meanwhile english folks have placenames like bicester or keighley or beaulieu, which you have to learn the pronunciation for individually because the rules are so inconsistent. i mean people can’t even agree how to pronounce marylebone but sure welsh place names are the weird ones

coto524

“#But are you aware your language literally looks like a potato rolled across a keyboard”

fun fact: for decades children were beaten for speaking welsh in school, even in areas where english was barely spoken, because the government decided in 1847 that the language made people lazy and immoral

fun fact: welsh orthography is actually easy to read if you take your head out of your arse for one minute and learn our alphabet - just like french, or spanish, or korean, because surprise! languages use different spelling systems that are not based on english. novel, i know - and in the 18th century, travelling schools were able to teach people to read and write welsh in a matter of months, so that wales enjoyed a literate majority, a rare thing in europe at the time

fun fact: the english have been taking the piss out of welsh for years, just like they’ve been doing for irish, and scots gaelic, and cornish, and british sign language, and a hundred and one other languages, because evidently the fact that the whole world isn’t anglophone and monocultured and Still Part Of The Empire is a problem, and something that needs to be corrected

sithofren-blog

(quietly cheers in support of the Welsh, and your language sounds beautiful, too)

tiocfaidharlulz

drag them, wales!

lizimajig

Go Wales

thebaconsandwichofregret

the thing people need to get through their heads is what the original statement is:

W is a vowel, and LL and FF are single letters not two Ls or two Fs. Saying LL is two letters is as dumb as saying W is two letters just because it looks like two Vs.

We have a different alphabet, it just looks a lot like the english one.

systlin

Welsh is, in addition, one of the oldest surviving indo-European languages. It dates back as far as 4,000 years and is one of the few surviving Celtic languages.

ceruleancynic

HELL YES WELSH.

dottewa-deactivated20200728

In English, y is sometimes a vowel and sometimes not. This makes far less sense than “w is a vowel,” because the letter belongs to one thing.

In Spanish, l is a consonant and ll is a different consonant and a single letter. This is exactly the same as Welsh using ll as a single letter.

The fact these are seen as strange even though there’s very, very simple parallels everyone who speaks two of the most common languages in the world, with a very very high overlap between casual phrase usages, is entirely propaganda meant to destroy people’s interests in relearning their culture as it’s being systematically repressed and destroyed. And it’s working. Because we can’t be bothered to think, “w is a vowel, just like y except it’s always”.

kyraneko

Making fun of something for being hard to learn when you haven’t even tried to learn it and thus have no idea how hard or easy it is to learn, is the pinnacle of laziness as assholery.

Make fun of English instead; most everybody knows it and the mockery is much more deserved.

stammsternenstaub

I was going to add this in the tags, but actually I won’t.

The violent suppression of Welsh in schools lasted until about the 70s, by which time it had done so much cultural damage that we’re still unpicking it literally here on tumblr dot com in 2019. If you’ve ever laughed at Welsh for how it looks or sounds, or whether or not its native speakers can actually speak it, you’re literally participating in that damage splash zone.

The specific method for suppressing Welsh in schools was a wooden sign called a “Welsh Not”, used in the 18th - 20th centuries, until about the 1940s. If a child was heard speaking Welsh (or reported to a teacher for speaking Welsh by another child) then they would wear this sign around their neck, humiliating them for speaking their native language. This sign would be transferred from them if another child was heard (or reported for) speaking Welsh. At the end of the day, the child wearing the Welsh Not was beaten. This, as you can imagine, fosters an environment of shame and isolation, and destroys any natural solidarity between Welsh children in schools as it literally encourages them to turn on each other to avoid corporal punishment.

(Fun “imperialism is awful” fact, this method was so effective that Japan adopted it (in the form of a “dialect card”) in order to violently suppress the Ryukyuan languages, which has left most of them critically endangered.)

kirkspocks

odin is like “when thor was born the sun shone bright upon his beautiful face. i found loki on the sidewalk outside a taco bell”

chromalogue

Oðinn spake:

Bright the sun shone | at the time of Þor’s birth, And bathed his count'nance fair. Loki, wolf-father, | the trickster, the liar, I found on the cold pavement While returning in glory | from a grand hunt For a 3 AM quesadilla.