Take your time

Alex | USA | Native English Speaker | German | I reblog a lot of stuff :)

[snakeater-deactivated20260130]

you may think it’s no big deal but every sweet interaction is actually the most important thing in the world. sooo. take that

[wholeheartedsuggestions]

you can start anytime.

you can brush your teeth in the middle of the day. you can wash the dishes at 2am. you can do things outside the normal times assigned by society.

[wonderstruck]

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

[thethirdromana]

Just learned this absolutely delightful bit of etymology:

During the 15th century, the English had an endearing practice of granting common human names to the birds that lived among them. Virtually every bird in that era had a name, and most of them, like Will Wagtail and Philip Sparrow have been long forgotten. Polly Parrot has stuck around, and Tom Tit and Jenny Wren, personable companions of the English countryside, are names still sometimes found in children’s rhymes. Other human names, however, have been incorporated so durably into the common names that still grace birds as to almost entirely obscure their origin. The Magpie, a loquacious black and white bird with a penchant for snatching shiny objects, once bore the simple name “pie,” probably coming from its Roman name, “pica.” The English named these birds Margaret, which was then abbreviated to Maggie, and finally left at Mag Pie. The vocal, crow-like bird called Jackdaw was also once just a “daw” named “Jack.”  The English also gave their ubiquitous and beloved orange-bellied, orb-shaped, wren-sized bird a human name. The first recorded Anglo-Saxon name for the Eurasian Robin was ruddoc, meaning “little red one.” By the medieval period, its name evolved to redbreast (the more accurate term orange only entered the English language when the fruit of the same name reached Great Britain in the 16th century). The English chose the satisfyingly alliterative name Robert for the redbreast, which they then changed to the popular Tudor nickname Robin. Soon enough, the name Robin Redbreast became so identified with the bird that Redbreast was dropped because it seemed so redundant. 

[parentless-suggestions]

Someday I will have my own place. My world won’t be confined to my room. I will stumble sleepily through the house in the morning, opening the blinds. I will sit out in the backyard and look at the stars. I will go out whenever I want to. I will survive long enough to have that.

[sonderoo]

For anyone yearning for this, i just want you to know it’s so lovely when it happens. You will come home and feel relief because it is a safe place. You will actually feel at home. You will decorate it with things that make you happy and cook meals for people who love you and play your favorite music whenever you choose. You will have a life there but you will also have a life beyond it. It will be yours. You will make it yourself. 

This morning i went up to my rooftop and watched the sun rise over the city. i ate breakfast at my little table. The window is open and i need to do the dishes today but nobody is yelling at me about it. i am happy here. It’s so beautiful. It will be so beautiful.

[we-are-the-reckless-youthhhh]

[explanatorypower-deactivated201]

i dont understand this at all and america scares the fuck out of me

[free-market-pluralist-deactivat]

This is the america they don’t want you to see

[robloxgf-deactivated20190515]

i love america

[dalaisa-katili-deactivated20170]

This is what you call Waffle House at 2 am when the bars close and everyone is drunk and hungry

[rasec-wizzlbang-blog]

*group of people having fun* this site: wtf this is so scary

[wilfulwayfarer-deactivated20220]

People having safe fun at a waffle house is scary for most Tumblr bloggers, reports say.

[inkandcayenne]

Some context for those not familiar with Waffle House Culture: 

Waffle House is one of the few chains in America that’s open 24/7/365, and where you can get both breakfast and lunch/dinner options at any time (I have had so many Breakfast Cheeseburgers at Waffle Houses). The food is really good, and people eat there at all times of the day or night, but it’s particularly popular as a late-night post-drinking spot because it’s all that’s open and it’s the kind of food that tastes especially good when you’re hammered.

Part of Waffle House Protocol is that all the servers and cooks greet every single customer as they come through the door. It sounds lame, but I’ve never been to a Waffle House where that greeting didn’t feel completely heartfelt. My mom is a health nut who could barely find anything on the menu she was willing to eat and yet she describes the Christmas Day lunch we had there one year as one of the nicest meals she’s ever had because everyone was so warm and welcoming. That sense of camaraderie gets turned up to 11, of course, at 2 a.m. when everyone’s shitfaced.

The jukeboxes have Waffle-House-themed songs on them (once you have heard “Raisins in my Toast” you will be earwormed forever) and there is an arcane system of hash brown ordering: scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, topped, diced, peppered, and/or capped. The hot sauce bottles say “Casa de Waffle.” 

Once, in Oxford (UK), my husband and I walked past a kebab van very late one night and he said “why do I smell Waffle House”

The location of most Waffle Houses means there’s some… classism that tends to get tied up with Anti-Waffle House Discourse, which is probably lending itself, in part, to this being such a fraught topic. (I’m looking at a map and apparently I was born and raised right in the middle of the Peak Waffle House Density Zone)

It is, in the words of chef Anthony Bourdain, “indeed marvelous— an irony-free zone where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts; where everybody regardless of race, creed, color or degree of inebriation is welcomed.”

[postmarxed]

We’re not even gonna mention FEMA’s Waffle House Index where they determine how bad a natural disaster is by calling the local Waffle House to see if they’re open?

[darringtonshorthalt]

that last bit isn’t a joke

[steponmepinkjun]

It’s not a Waffle House, it’s a Waffle Home.

[best-cranberry]

Nothing hits harder than double hash browns covered and a nice waffle

[join-the-dutch-clan]

Office Supplies Vocabulary

Balpen (de) = ballpoint pen

Beeldscherm (het) = computer screen

Beeldschermbril (de) = computer glasses

Bureau (het) = desk

Bureaustoel (de) = office chair

Computer (de) = computer

Gum (de) = eraser

Marker/markeerstift (de) = highlighter

Nietje (het) = staple

Nietmachine (de) = stapler

Laptop (de) = laptop

Lijm (de) = glue

Map (de) = folder/binder

Muis (de) = mouse

Pen (de) = pen

Plakband (het) = tape

Potlood (het) = pencil

Punaise (de) = push pin

Rekenmachine (de) = calculator

Schaar (de) = scissors

Schrift (het) = notebook

Stift (de) = marker

Toetsenbord (het) = keyboard

Vulpen (de) = fountain pen

[awed-frog]

WHOA

[dulcewhisperlea]

[join-the-dutch-clan]

Hi everyone!

I wanna recommend two YouTube channels that I discovered that might be fun for you learners.

The first channel is: joseffatrip

It's a Dutch girl living in America with her American husband. A lot of their videos are in English, but they have series like "speaking Dutch to my American husband" and often put aspects of Dutch language and culture into their videos.

And the second channel: learn Dutch with Kim

She is a Dutch as second language teacher and explains many aspects of Dutch grammar and word use. The most interesting thing is that she explains everything in Dutch, but unlike many other channels she really mastered the skill of talking Dutch in a clear and slow way to make it easier to understand. On top of that her videos have subtitles in both Dutch and English.

[dialect-warrior]

GERMAN DIALECTS MASTERPOST (pt. 1)

Grias enk!

Soooo ages ago I promised to create a masterpost of resources for those interested in dialects. Finally did it! I’m sorry about the wait.. life, y’know.

I’m splitting this into two posts because I wanted to share something at least, but I’ve not had time to cover everything. So, pt. 2 will come later. Sorry!

Anyway.. enjoy what I have so far!

a:     General dialect info/resources

Wikipedia article on dialects

Pretty damn good rundown of dialects

Links for dialect learners

Memrise courses for various dialects

Book of maps showing word differences and origins

Another book generally on dialects

b:     Austro-Bavarian German

Bavarian guide, including grammar

Vocab and basic grammar of different Bavarian dialects

Hochdeutsch-Bavarian dictionary

Bavarian Wikipedia

Viennese dictionary

Viennese vocab list

Da Fraunz - memes in Viennese dialect

Austrian dialect subreddit

Hochdeutsch-Austrian dictionary

Small Austrian course

Info and links about Salzburg dialects

Basic guide to Tirolerisch

Südtirolerisch dictionary

c:     Alemannic German

Alemannic Wikipedia

Swabian dictionary/guide

Another Swabian guide

Swabian word list

Swiss German guide

Swiss German courses on Memrise

Swiss German dictionary

Swiss German beginner’s phrase book

Vorarlbergerisch guide, vocab and grammar

Vorarlbergerisch dictionary

[athenastudying-deactivated20220]

Hi everyone,

learning a language should be fun, so I’ve compiled a list of German comedy things - movies, scenes, poems, everything! I haven’t seen all of these (mostly just the old ones haha) because I don’t watch a lot of movies but the ones on here are quite popular. Of course humour is subjective, so I can’t guarantee you’ll like everything on here. 

I’ll put the level of German you’ll need for these in brackets, because especially comedy which relies on word plays etc can be very hard to understand, and I don’t want this to be frustrating for anyone :)

Older Things/Classics 

Heinz Erhardt, Rudi Carell, and Loriot were the masters of Comedy in Germany. You can search them on Youtube and you’ll find millions of videos, probably. 

Sketches/Poems based on word plays (level C1):

1. Loriot:

Weihnachten bei Hoppenstedts (B2): Scenes from Christmas at a family’s home. It’s so ridiculous that it became a classic.

Skat (B2, it helps if you know the game Skat): A man is asked to play a round of Skat by two strangers, but he has no clue how to play. Instead of saying so, he tries to play it, but Skat isn’t really to be learnt on the go.

2. Heinz Erhardt:

Die Schachpartie

alles mit G

Wie die Zitronen sauer wurden 

3. Peter Frankenfeld: 

Die Wetterkarte

der Portier (both C1/2, a LOT of dialects that even I have a hard time understanding)

Movies:

Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank (7 movies in total, B1-B2): I love these movies! They’re about teenagers in a school who cause all kinds of havoc. The leader of that group is played by Hansi Kraus, and the headmaster Oberstudiendirektor Dr. Gottlieb Taft is played by Theo Lingen, who is a legend, basically. His acting is A+. Many other famous actors are in those movies, for example Uschi Glas, Hannelore Elsner, Gustav Knuth, and Peter Alexander. Here’s an example scene. (the students prank their teacher, pretending to destroy his violin and making him think he hallucinates). 

Die Feuerzangenbowle (B2-C1): A man (played by Heinz Rühmann) imagines what it would be like if he disguised himself as a student and went to school again. It’s a classic and really great, though a little harder to understand due to the dialects. Here’s an example scene (the students play a prank on their teacher pretending to be drunk).

Papa Ante Portas (B2 - C1): A man quits his job in his fifties and is now annoying his wife at home because he wants to “help” in the household. Everything kind of spirals into chaos the more he tries. 

Newer things

If you want movies, look for pretty much anything Matthias Schweighöfer is in (What a Man, der Nanny, Vier gegen die Bank, der Schlussmacher). Til Schweiger directs and stars in a lot of movies (some would argue, too many) which also have some dramatic aspects (Honig im Kopf, Keinohrhasen)

Some other movies that were somewhat successful:

Wir sind die Neuen

Groupies bleiben nicht zum Frühstück

Fack Ju Göthe (Fuck you Goethe, phonetically)

Maria, ihm schmeckt’s nicht

Willkommen bei den Hartmanns

Sieben Zwerge - Männer allein im Wald

If you have anything to add, let me know! :) 

[languageoclock]

books i used to learn german

☆ = fav

grammar german verb drills collins easy learning german grammar langenscheidt german grammar in a nutshell teach yourself german grammar you really need to know ☆ textbooks feuerwerk 1 / 2 / 3 ☆ genau / ganz genau ☆ katzensprung 1 / 2 dictionaries langenscheidt großes schulwörterbuch en-de / de-en schülerduden rechtschreibung und wortkunde ☆ viamundo taschenwörterbuch englisch ☆ misc lonely planet german phrasebook ☆ teach yourself essential german vocabulary

[dungeons-and-danis]

Accents 101

So if you’re a dm like me, you probably want to be relatively skilled in some typical fantasy accents for your game to make things feel that much more real. So i’ve decided to throw together a little master post of “how to” videos on some various accents. This is mostly for my own reference, but if you’d like to save this for yourself too, go right ahead. Feel free to add on to this, as well!

General Accent Tips

How To Learn Any Accent (1)

How To Learn Any Accent (2)

How To Do 12 Different Accents

US/UK/Aussie English Vocabulary Differences

One Woman, 17 British Accents

How To Lose Your Native Accent

How To Learn A Different Accent

Fun Tour of American Accents

Scottish

Scottish In Under 2 Minutes

How to Speak With A Scottish Accent

HOW TO DO A SCOTTISH ACCENT

Speaking Scottish 101

Scottish Slang

Gerard Butler Teaches You Scottish Slang

Scottish Insults

English or “British”

How To Do A British Accent

3 Ways to Sound More British

HOW TO DO A BRITISH ACCENT CONVINCINGLY (1)

HOW TO DO A BRITISH ACCENT CONVINCINGLY (2)

HOW TO DO A BRITISH ACCENT CONVINCINGLY (3)

Henry Cavill and Simon Pegg Teach You English Slang 

French

How To Speak With A French Accent 

How To Do A French Accent In UNDER TWO MINUTES

Tips on how to do a French Accent

French Accent Tip

Irish

How to do an Irish Accent

How To Do An Irish Accent

How To Do An Irish Accent

Guide to Irish Accents

How To Do An Irish Accent In UNDER TWO MINUTES

Russian

How To Speak With A Russian Accent 

How to Do a Russian Accent | Accent Training

How to speak with a Russian Accent

How Russians Speak English

How To Do A Russian Accent 

German

How To Have A German Accent 

How to do a GERMAN ACCENT?

Get the Perfect German ACCENT

Me speaking in 12 GERMAN DIALECTS!

How To Do A German Accent

5 Steps to a perfect German Accent

Canadian

How To Do A Canadian Accent

All aboot Canadian accents

How To Speak Canadian, Without Knowing How!!

Is There A Canadian Accent?

The Canadian English Accent

[learningbirdie]

A bit of an update, since I just recently logged in again and want to continue with this blog.

I’m no longer in college! After my first year of enjoying courses I decided that it wasn’t for me! Or at least, not for my career plan. As much as I love the experience of a college class I think I’d rather make it for fun. I’m now looking into starting a trade program so I can start a career sooner and be able to financially support myself and my pets!

I’ve only just recently decided to keep trying to learn German, and I’ve taken interest in Dutch and Finnish too. For now I think I’ll focus on rebuilding my German vocabulary and see how I feel about learning the others later!

I’m going to reblog more than just languages and feel-good stuff! I’ll put any new and prominent subjects in the tag post in my navigation bar.

For now I don’t have the most ambitious goals as I try and figure my life out, but I hope you all don’t mind! I have a very small following but I still care about what I put in front of your lovely faces.

Thanks for listening!

[languagessi-deactivated20210423]

Coronavirus vocabulary in Finnish [UPDATED]

Previous version of the vocabulary list here.  Koronavirus - coronavirus Virus - virus Sairaus - disease, illness Kansainvälinen terveysuhka - global health emergency Epidemia - epidemic Pandemia - pandemic Poikkeustila - state of emergency Sairaalahoito -  hospitalization, hospital care Tehohoito - intensive care Tartunnan saanut - infected (person) Potilas - patient Kuollut - dead Tarttuva - contagious Tartunta - contagion, infection Pisaratartunta - droplet transmission, aerosol transmission Kosketustartunta - direct contact (transmission through touching an ill person or a surface touched by an ill person) Itämisaika - incubation period Oire - symptom Oireeton - symptomless  Kuume - fever Yskä - cough Aivastus - sneeze Hengenahdistus - shortness of breath Lihassärky - muscle pain Väsymys - fatigue Ripuli - diarrhea Oksentaminen - vomiting Äkillinen hengitysvaikeusoireyhtymä - acute respiratory distress syndrome Keuhkokuume - pneumonia Riskiryhmä - risk group  Iäkäs - aged, elderly  Vanhus - old person Perussairaus - underlying health condition, chronic health condition, pre-existing condition, underlying disease Ehkäiseminen - prevention Hygienia - hygiene Saippua - soap Käsihuuhde - hand disinfectant, hand antiseptic, hand sanitiser Hengityssuojain - mask Nenäliina - tissue Rajoitus - limit, restriction Ulkonaliikkumiskielto - curfew Matkustuskielto - travel ban  Karanteeni - quarantine Etätyö - remote work Etäopiskelu - remote study Pysyä kotona - to stay at home Pestä kädet - to wash one’s hands Peittää suu - to cover one’s mouth Yskiä hihaan - to cough to one’s sleeve Käyttää hengityssuojainta - to use a mask  Välttää sosiaalisia kontakteja - to avoid social contacts  Levitä - to spread Tarttua - to be transmitted Sairastua - to get sick, to come down with, to catch Parantua - to recover Kuolla - to die Sulkea - to close Perua - to cancel Kieltää - to forbid, to ban, to prohibit, to disallow Rajoittaa - to limit, to restrict  Hamstrata - to hoard Pelko - fear Ahdistus - anxiety Paniikki - panic Paniikkiostaminen - panic buying Vessapaperi - toilet paper Säilyke - canned food  Pullotettu vesi - bottled water Wuhan, Kiina - Wuhan, China Huananin ruokatori - Huanan Seafood Market Kiinalainen - Chinese Aasialainen - Asian  Ksenofobia - xenophobia Rasismi - racism

[lily-learns-finnish]

Temporal postpositions in Finnish

siitä lähtien: since then

tästä lähtien: from now on 

siihen aikaan: at that time

siihen asti: until then 

sen jälkeen: after that 

sitä ennen: before that

viimeisellä kerralla: last time 

seuraavalla kerralla: next time 

tähän mennessä: so far 

toukokuuhun saakka: until May

[lily-learns-finnish]

These could take some time to master….

puutua - to go numb  puuttua - to lack, to be missing pyytää - to request, to ask, to demand päättää - to decide päästä - to get, to reach, to arrive päästää - to release  päättyä - to come to an end, to finish päätyä - to end up (somewhere)