occasionally setting aside time to learn languages

ani | 20 | she/they | creator | native english speaker | language enthusiast | currently studying: spanish | also interested in: italian, french, mandarin, and swedish (among others)

[learnlanguageswithani]

hi!!!

hello!!!

my name is ani, i'm 20 and going into my second year of uni to study costume for performance. i'm aromantic, asexual, and i use she/her and they/them pronouns.

i started this blog in my senior year of high school (2021) to share my journey through learning italian. when i finished the semester, i didn't have time to continue learning and posting, so i abruptly left. for a really long time. i really want to pick it up again, now with the ability to post about multiple languages.

so, this may come as no surprise but i adore studying languages. i think language learning has the ability to connect people and cultures across boarders and boundaries. i think it's so important to be able to understand and connect with people who are different than you, and studying language is a huge way for me to do that! i don't have all the words to explain why i love it so much, but language is just! so! interesting!!!

i want to focus on spanish right now, because i've taken it the longest in school, but some of the other languages that i'm most invested in right now are italian, french, and mandarin chinese. i studied these four languages in school, so i figured they would be a good place to start. other than that, i'd like to learn portuguese, latin, greek, asl, japanese, korean, german, and a slew of others.

update (16 november 2022): my brain has decided to hyperfixate on swedish, so for the time being, that's what i'll be posting about! blame young royals, honestly.

update (09 june 2023): unfortunately i am no longer hyperfixated on swedish (i still want to learn it though). instead, i'm getting back into spanish. my current project is translating the most used vocabulary list i made.

languages featured on this blog:

(go here to filter for a specific language or topic)

spanish

italian

swedish

+the occasional post about english

other blogs i run:

@chaotic-and-neurodivergent

—sharing discussions regarding adhd and neurodivergency and my experiences with a neurodivergent brain

@anis-book-club

—sharing my thoughts about the books i read

@the-costume-chronicles

—sharing my experience on the costume for performance program while studying at the london college of fashion

instagram

pinterest

spotify

swedish header image [source]

spanish header image [source] (current)

[poppy-in-the-woods]

Hablas español? Do you speak Spanish?

Sí, soy de España

Sí, soy de LATAM

Sí, como 2ª lengua / Yes, as a second language

No, why should I?

Not fluently, but I can say a few sentences

No, but I'd love to learn

Voting ended onAug 2, 2023

Just trying to check something. Please, reblog if you vote so it reaches more people.

[learnlanguageswithani]

why does looking at the most common vocabulary list fill me with dread over the seeming monotony and overwhelm of actually filling it out

i'm determined to get through it but we might have to come up with some creative ways to make it a bit more fun than just gradually filling in 1,000+ translations

[nelsonakis]

This little neon green man from Finland is so powerful, he convinced me to start learning Finnish on Duolingo

[learnlanguageswithani]

i am struggling to get my assessment portfolio turned in on time but it’s almost done and then after tuesday, i have a two week break from devoting my every waking moment to uni

hoping to start posting about spanish by this time next week!

[d-archive1948-deactivated202303]

*Switches languages in mid-sentence while talking to myself*

[jacelearnslangs]

imagine… not having the strong urge to learn all the languages in the world. can’t relate

[soulbutterlanguages]

How to build a language self-study plan

So I’ve noticed, upon combing through pages and pages of youtube videos and google blogs, that rarely does anyone ever actually tell you what you should be studying. There’s a reason for this ! Everyone is different and at a different level, different motivation. It’s impossible to create a study plan that is perfect for everyone… which is why it can also be agonizing to make one for yourself. 

“How am I supposed to know what’s important to study, if I don’t speak the language?” 

Well that’s a good question! You need to gauge how far you’ve come so far and how far you’d like to get. It’s easiest when you are starting from zero because you can learn the alphabet, numbers, basic phrases, and basic grammar. Easy peasy. You can go cover to cover in a text book. 

Here’s a check-list to create the perfect study plan special to you. 

1. What do I know already? What do I need to work on?

- is it worth starting a textbook, if you feel like you already know half of it? It might be worth completing the given exercises and if you achieve an 80% or higher (or you could give that lesson to someone else) then you can move on from that specific point.

- create a list of the points that you still need to master

2. What do I need to include in a study session?

- naturally there needs to be a focus or a few different focuses of a study session, whether it’s a specific activity or a grammar point. I recommend creating a list of things you want to get done (a.) every day, (b) every week, and © every month. These goals must be quantifiable. For example, every week I read two news articles in German. As a reflection, I then write a summary of the event of the article as well as a personal opinion. That’s an easy box to check.

- you need a reflection. It’s important to really take time to reflect on how you feel about the time spent and the materials used. What could you do better next time? What went well? 

3. When is the best time to study? 

- are you more active/focused in the morning or in the night? The key is consistency. If you have a routine, you’re far more likely to adhere to it. I know that my own schedule is highly changeable and that can make it very difficult, but I’ve found if I wake up in the same period of time every morning, brush my teeth, make my bed, and then sit down to my work, I feel far more productive. 

- how much should I study at a time? The recommended period is 25 minutes from the Pomodoro Method with a five minute break. You can research time-management techniques but ultimately it comes down to you. 

4. How do I take notes ?

- IT”S ALL ABOUT YOU! What I do is take messy notes in classes or on my own and then I transcribe the finished page to my Notion page. It gives me a chance to make the notes neater and also to review a little bit. I will say though statistically, you will remember better if you write by hand. 

- I like to have a column on each page for words I didn’t know

[thebellekeys]

3 tips for learning Spanish and doing well in it based on my experience

Invent ways to use the subjunctive instead of avoiding it - The subjunctive mood is a big part of the Spanish language, and using it, especially in writing, is the key to sounding more spanishy when speaking. See, for native English speakers, we don’t have a unique subjunctive in the way Spanish does, and so, it’s not exactly second nature to conjugate in a whole new mood in certain situations. You hear a lot of Spanish teachers showing you ways you can avoid the subjunctive (if you must), but avoidance of the subjunctive is gonna slow you down in the long-run. Try intentionally writing with subjunctive triggers to practice the subjunctive, so it’ll become easy and less intimidating after time. Don’t worry about misspellings too much - that’s all part of the learning process!

Choose an accent (or a few) to help with your pronunciation and speaking style - Every country and region has their own Spanish i.e. Mexican Spanish sounds different from Puerto Rican Spanish from Castilian Spanish, and so on. Choosing a certain Spanish accent to help guide you when speaking is really helpful. For me, the majority of content I’ve consumed since I was a kid in Spanish has been Puerto Rican (shows, celebrities, music, etc). So when I speak, it was easier for me to sort of latch on to the way Puerto Ricans speak to help guide my pronunciation, my flow. It also helped that I knew a few Puerto Rican teachers. There’s no one single “proper” Spanish you necessarily have to imitate to be proficient.

Try using grammar structures in writing - Yes, it's true, Spanish grammar can be really complex. But, on the brighter side of things, you'll be able to show off your mastery of the language the more you demonstrate your ability to use grammatical structures in your writing, especially in formal writing, like in letters and essays. Try learning how to use these structures, for example:

- no sólo ... sino también, to say "not only [factor x] but also [factor y]"

- present tense + future tense for realistic propositions

- imperfect subjunctive + conditional mood for hypothetical propositions

[ramosotero]

advanced learner's toolbox: spanish

a lot of the resource lists that are out there are generally geared towards beginners, which makes sense. more advanced learners + native speakers have already used these resources and can vouch for them, whereas if you're an advanced learner you've probably already stumbled upon some of these already. that said, i figured i would compile my favorites here :)

diccionario de la lengua española, also known as the rae dictionary. it's probably the most referenced dictionary in spanish

diccionario panhispánico de dudas, another resource from la rae, meant to handle specific common doubts within the language

corpus de referencia del español actual (crea), a linguistic corpus. i personally like using this to find examples of words and phrases. it contains examples from the last 25 years so you can have up to date examples

corpus diacrónico del español (corde), another linguistic corpus, but for examples from the beginning of the language up until 1974. both of these corpuses are a little clunky, but they do the job well

bonus: if you're looking for a corpus from a specific country, look up the website for the academia (nationality) de la lengua and you'll usually find a corpus from that specific country. examples: corpus del habla del ecuador, corpus diacrónico y diatópico del español de américa, you can even see a corpus from learners of the language: corpus de aprendices de español

wordreference, a forum for language use. whenever i have a specific question, i look up the phrase in question + 'wordreference' and i'm able to get opinions from different countries and not just the rae opinion

asihablamos, which is basically urban dictionary but in spanish, but unfortunately not as large. still, a helpful resource for learning slang from different countries. you can even sort by country!

fundeu, a site that does some more niche grammar and usage explanations. its whole bit is that it does more current usage questions, like this one on gaslighting

español avanzado, a site like the fundeu that explains random advanced grammar topics. i rank it below fundeu though because of the paywall.

biblioteca digital ciudad seva, aka my professors' favorite site in undergrad. full of short stories and poetry in spanish, both originally written in spanish and translated.

católogo de voces hispánicas, these are just linguistic descriptions of different dialects of spanish both in spain and latin america. i've always found it pretty cool to look at, but if you're looking to imitate a certain way of speaking check here!

and that's it! if you're already at this stage i'm assuming you know how to find interesting content (if not, let me know! i love finding media recommendations in spanish for people) <3

[ana-actually]

How I’m approaching Swedish as a beginner and a linguist

Duolingo: Like many people right now, if I’m thinking about starting a new language, I start by checking it out on Duolingo if possible. 

I spent a few weeks doing lessons and getting a feel for the grammar, morphology, and prosody of the language. 

Slow Swedish with Katrin Berndt: To work on listening comprehension, I watch these videos. 

The first time, I watch without subtitles and see how much I can understand from knowing the title and from the context of the words that I already know. 

On subsequent views, I will put on the subtitles in Swedish if necessary. 

Academia Cervena: Since I find it helpful and interesting to know the technical aspects of a language, I like watching these videos. There are videos about tricky sounds for Swedish learners, Swedish pitch accent, and more.

Alexander Skarsgård Teaches You Swedish Slang: Apparently Vanity Fair has done a series of celebrities teaching slang from different places, and if you look up enough YouTube videos about a language, it starts suggesting this sort of thing to you.

This one was actually really well done and fun. Not only do you correctly learn how to pronounce “Skarsgård”, you learn other useful Swedish slang, idioms, and bits of culture.

If Alexander ever decides to give up acting, I think he could be a stellar language teacher.

Fakta i Frågan: These short videos are definitely a challenge for my beginning-level Swedish skills, but I like them for a couple of reasons.

They are subtitled, and the presenter speaks very clearly. I’ll usually watch the first time to look/listen for spelling-pronunciation-pitch connections. 

On subsequent views, I will pause while viewing to look up words. This is easy because, as I said, the videos are subtitled. 

Even better, at the end of each video, the speaker reiterates the main points of the video which also appear written on the screen. So even if I don’t understand the whole video, I can grasp the main ideas.

[spanishskulduggery]

often i come across sentences in spanish where i know what the words mean separately, but they mean something a bit different when put together so i don't understand it. i can only think of one example right now and it's "qué lindo"

i've seen "qué lindo" often and would translate it as "that's pretty", but my mom said growing up she always understood it to mean "how pretty, so cute!"

i was just wondering if there is a common list of Spanish sentences where the words have different meanings when in a sentence altogether.

So, this may be difficult for me to fully explain [not your question, it's the exact linguistics of it] but I'll do my best

I believe what you're describing is in fact an idiomatic expression; although in my head the qué + something expressions are different than what I'm imagining when I think of idiomatic expressions [I'm thinking like "raining cats and dogs", that sort of thing]

But you're right that it would translate as "how nice/cute" etc

I'll include some of the qué ones - essentially, in this context qué comes out like "how/so" not "what"

qué bien = how nice / that's good / wonderful, great

qué bonito/a = how nice / how cute / lovely qué lindo/a = how nice / how cute / lovely [generally masculine, but could be feminine in some contexts with feminine nouns, because bonito/a and lindo/a are adjectives]

qué lástima = what a shame

qué pena = how sad / what a shame / what a pity

qué asco = how disgusting / that's disgusting / gross

qué rico = delicious, tasty

qué susto = what a fright / that scared me / that was surprising

qué horror = how awful / how horrible, how horrifying / how terrible, how terrifying

qué sorpresa = what a surprise

qué fuerte = so strong / so loud [qué fuerte can also be an expression of surprise or disbelief sort of like saying “oh my God!” or “wow!”; in general though, fuerte means “strong” or when talking about the volume of things it’s “loud”]

qué alivio = what a relief

qué barbaridad = what nonsense

¿Qué más da? = Who cares? / What does it matter? [lit. “what more does it give?”, it’s like “whatever” or an expression of disinterest]

You'll also see them in longer expressions like qué amable eres "you're so nice" or qué asco me das "you disgust me" or "you're gross"

There are quite a lot of these; and with adjectives it can be a little trickier. By themselves like qué bonito could be “so cute” or “how lovely”; if you’re talking about a person or a thing specifically it might change like qué bonito estás or qué bonita estás “how cute you look”; another one is qué guapa estás “you look so pretty” for women

And some other idioms that show up that are more... I don't know, "idiomatic adverbial phrases". They’re idiomatic but it’s less like little sayings and more “oh I need to know this”:

no hay de qué = you’re welcome [more formal than de nada; it’s kind of like “there’s no reason (to thank me)”]

a duras penas = hardly, barely, “by the skin of your teeth” [also seen as apenas which is the same thing]

a lo largo de = throughout

en sí = “in and of itself”

entre sí = amongst themselves

en balde = in vain [also, en vano, but el balde means “bucket” or “pail”]

por lo visto = apparently

de toda la vida = lifelong

a plena luz del día = “in broad daylight” [actually pretty literal, it’s “in full light of day”]

sin rodeos = bluntly, “no beating around the bush”

a tientas = “fumbling”, grasping, by touch [lit. “by touching” or “by reaching out”]

de moda = in fashion, fashionable [used with estar]

a solas = one-on-one, in private [lit. “by alone”]

a espaldas = behind someone’s back, in secret [lit. “by/at backs”]

de oídas = (from) hearsay, he-said-she-said, indirectly, “through the grapevine”

a la vez = simultaneously, at the same time

a su vez = in turn (used as “regarding” or “concerning these” if that makes sense)

a secas = plainly / with nothing else added

sin embargo = nevertheless

no obstante = nevertheless, notwithstanding

por eso = therefore

por supuesto = of course

por consiguiente = consequently, as a consequence

por lo demás = otherwise

por otro lado = “on the other hand” 

en cambio = in exchange, swapped (for), in return

de ida y vuelta = round-trip

de vuelta = on the way back

(el) libre albedrío = free will

(el) ser humano = human being [el ser is “a being”; ser humano can thus be “being human” as a verb or “human being” as a noun; a decent pun]

ni en sueños = “not in my wildest dreams” [lit. “not even in dreams”]

las bellas artes = fine arts [not “beautiful arts” which is everyone’s first instinct]

a largo plazo = long-term

a corto plazo = short-term

mientras tanto = meanwhile

de todo corazón = with all your heart, wholeheartedly

a (la) medida = custom-made, customized

por cierto = “by the way...”

¿Cómo? = Huh? [when it’s not “how”, cómo is the commonly used word for “huh?” or “what’s that?” when you don’t hear someone]

de vez en cuando = from time to time [lit. “from time in when”]

menos mal (que + predicate) = “at least + predicate”, “thankfully...” [lit. “less bad”; you say this very often it’s like looking on the bright side... like menos mal que llegamos temprano “thankfully we got there early” or menos mal que no ha llovido todavía “at least it hasn’t rained yet / at least the rain didn’t start yet”]

de perlas = “(coming) in handy”, useful [lit. “of pearls”; usually used with venir, it’s like me viene de perlas “I could really use this” or “this is really handy (right now)”]

English tends to make a lot of compound words while Spanish doesn’t so much - so recién nacido/a is “newborn” [lit. “recently born”] or recién casado/a is “newlywed” [lit. “recently married”]

All of that to say, they may come across as a bit strange or a LOT strange depending on your current vocabulary and your circumstances

-

Also I’m not including the tener expressions which are common across all Romance Languages; but tener hambre for example is “to be hungry” or tener sueño is “to be sleepy” but literally mean “to have hunger” and “to have dream/sleepiness”... different from tener un sueño “to have a dream” like a goal

The ones that are coming to mind a lot are related to prepositions and there are plenty I’m not including BUT I like scanning wordreference for the ones with a or certain prepositions like a, de and por

And then some basic idiomatic expressions you should maybe know that are kind of like sayings:

(llover) a cántaros = to be raining cats and dogs [lit. “to rain by the bucket/pitcher”]

la media naranja = soulmate, better half [lit. “half an orange”; you may also see this as el alma gemela which is “kindred spirit” or literally “twin soul”]

el mundo es un pañuelo = “what a small world” [lit. “the world is a handkerchief”]

de tal palo tal astilla = chip off the old block, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree [lit. “from such a stick of wood, such a splinter”]

el pez gordo = “important person”, “the boss”, “VIP”, “fatcat”, “head honcho” [lit. “the fat fish”; anyone important could be el pez gordo and it can be said in a tongue in cheek way or seriously; sort of like saying eres el pez gordo “you’re the boss”]

(de) carne y hueso = “flesh and blood” [lit. “flesh/meat and bone”]

entre la espada y la pared = between a rock and a hard place [lit. “between the sword and the wall”]

valer la pena = to be worth it, to be worth the effort [lit. “to be worth the pain/trial/ordeal/sorrow”]

meter la pata = to mess up, to screw up [lit. “to stick one’s foot (in it)”]

la químera = a pipe dream, a fantasy [not just a “chimera”]

(el) terreno pantanoso = “thin ice”, dangerous terrain (sort of like “watch yourself”) [lit. “swampy terrain”]

a lo hecho pecho = what’s done is done [lit. “to what is done, chest”; kind of like “just deal with it” probably related to the heart]

agua pasada no mueve molino = “let bygones be bygones”, “it doesn’t matter now” [lit. “passed water doesn’t move the mill”]

(costar/valer) un ojo de la cara = “(to cost/be worth) an arm and a leg” [lit. “to cost/be worth an eye from the face”]

el príncipe azul = “prince charming”, “knight in shining armor” [lit. “blue prince”, probably related to blue bloods, or nobility]

estar en paz = “to be even”, no one owes anything / debts are settled [lit. “to be at peace”]

tomar el pelo (a alguien) = to fool someone, “to pull someone’s leg” [lit. “to grab the hair (of someone)”]

la flor y la nata = “the best of the best”, “best and brightest” [lit. “flower and cream”]

(de) mala leche = “bad blood” / “in a bad mood” [lit. “bad milk”; it is used very generally and widely, but anything mala leche immediately conjures up extreme negativity when describing people]

(ser) pan comido = “easy-peesy”, (to be) very easy  [lit. “(to be) eaten bread”]

como uña y carne = “thick as thieves”, “the best of friends”, to be inseparable [lit. “to be like a nail (fingernail/toenail) and the flesh/meat”]

a flor de piel = “thin-skinned” / “heart on your sleeve” / “close to the surface” [lit. “to the flower of the skin”... it means that something is very close to the surface of your skin, so it can be that someone’s reaction to something is very obvious, or it can mean that someone is feeling very vulnerable, OR it could mean that someone’s nerves are frayed - it all depends on the context and the other words used. In Spanish if someone has no poker face you can use this expression, or if someone is really on edge you could use this expression. All it means is that something is more obvious than normal and you can clearly see someone’s reactions emotionally]

As always let me know if there are more examples or explanations of things you’d like. I’m not 100% sure I talked about the same things you were asking about

[motsimages]

If I may, and just in case this is what Anon was asking when they said "often i come across sentences in spanish where i know what the words mean separately, but they mean something a bit different when put together so i don't understand it. i can only think of one example right now and it's "qué lindo""

That happens when you are a beginner of any language. If you observe your native language, you will notice it happens the same thing, the difference is that you are not struggling to understand the words, you barely notice them because you capture the whole sentence, the global meaning.

Words on their own mean different things depending on the context, which is why usually, reading and translating word by word doesn't help. It's best to read the full sentence, even the full paragraph, go from big to small, from general to concrete. That way words will make sense *in context*.

Just as an example with a word from this very text: "mean". Out of the blue, if I ask you what does "mean" mean, what do you think? Probably, because we are speaking about languages and meanings, you will say "what the word represents", "the sense of what I'm saying" or something like that. You might think it's a verb. You are getting the idea of my question from the context of the situation in which we are. But I could be asking about the adjective "mean" as in "you are mean to me". Those are homophones, but to a foreigner, they are the same word.

When I was a teenager, we were asked in English class to translate a story into Spanish (I'm Spanish). There was a sentence that was something like "He wasn't like the other officers" (Él no era como los demás oficiales). A friend of mine, with her understanding of English at the time translated it as "He doesn't like the other officers" (Los otros oficiales no le gustan). Because she knew "like" as in "I like you", not as a word used for comparison and she made sense of it with what she had.

In English, and copying your example, you also have "how nice" and "how are you". "How" is exactly the same word but it doesn't mean the same, those two "how" aren't doing the same thing. You don't notice, because it is your native language, but it is confusing for a foreigner too.

There are idioms, of course. Things that are usually said in that order to mean a very specific thing, which is what OP gave you. You can also look for lists of "collocations". Those are words that are frequently used together to mean something specifically. You can read about this here, with examples in English: https://www.vedantu.com/commerce/collocations

There is this Dictionary of Collocations in Spanish. It's not very intuitive and it's all in Spanish of course, but you can play around to get examples about it: http://www.dicesp.com/paginas

I hope this helps. I think that this whole conversation is another excellent example of what I meant when I said it happens in your native language and it depends on context. What OP explained is as good as an explanation as what I explained. We need more info (=context) to know which of us is actually replying to your question because we are interpreting your message according to our experience, to our knowledge ;)

[germanlang]

Hot Language Immersion Tip

I find it super hard to find the content to consume but one thing that works quite well on youtube:

searching "interview with" in the language you're learning (as in: "Interview mit" (for german), "interview met" (for dutch), "interview avec" (for french), ...

Pros:

You learn about the coolest/craziest/weirdest people

You get to know who's trendy in the country right now (like singers, politicians, etc) as well as what topic

The videos are typically posted by target-language channels (I for example found out about "vice nederlands" through an interview with the dutch singer Froukje)

Typically, interviews are done with quite interesting topics/people AND they're 10-20min long (thus not overbearing)

Many have subtitles!

Hope this helps someone!

[willowlearnslanguages]

Free bilingual books. Multilingual books. Public domain side by side e-books. Multiple languages available: Catalan, Czech, German, English,

Hoping to get started making original posts on this blog, but for now I wanted to share this little website I found!

It contains side by side versions of 5 literary classics in multiple languages. A couple even have audiobooks you can play.

Posting this as it might be helpful for those looking for a little reading practice ^^

[sebslanguageblog]

The funniest thing about learning a new alphabet is when you can finally read words but have no idea what it says

[amillionlanguages]

2+ Months of Language Learning Prompts!

Sometimes it can be tricky to know what to learn if you are teaching yourself a language. Here are some ideas for what you can focus on learning each day for the first two months of learning a new language! I formatted it so there is the general topic for the day and then in parentheses are some ideas to get you started but you can definitely learn a lot more than what I’ve written down! These are just to help generate some ideas!

This definitely would move pretty quickly if you covered all this material in 2 months so you could definitely spend more time on each topic if you need! This would require quite a bit of time each day in order to learn it all. This could totally work for a 4 or 6-month challenge where you spend 2 or 3 days on each of the topics I listed if you don’t have enough time to cover each topic in just one day!

Polite phrases (thank you, please, yes/no, you’re welcome, I’m sorry)

Introductory phrases (hi, my name is, I’m from, I speak, how are you?)

Pronouns (I, you, he, she, they, we)

Basic people vocab (girl, boy, man, woman, person, child)

Basic verbs in present tense (to eat, to drink, to walk, to read, to write, to say)

Sentence structure (how to form some basic sentences)

Negative sentences (I do not __)

Question words (who, what, where, when, why, how, how to form questions)

Numbers (0-20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 1,000, 1,000,000)

Time (hour, minute, half hour, reading the time)

Meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, dessert, appetizer)

Basic foods (apple, banana, rice, bread, pasta, carrot, soup, water)

More foods (beef, pork, fruit, vegetable, juice, coffee, tea, chocolate, cake)

Kitchen (stove, oven, kitchen, fridge, table, chair, bake, boil)

Eating supplies (knife, spoon, fork, plate, bowl, cup, glass)

More verbs (to make, to have, to see, to like, to go, to be able to, to want, to need)

Family (father, mother, son, daughter, aunt, uncle, cousin, grandmother, grandfather, parents, grandparents)

Transportation (car, train, plane, bus, bicycle, airport, train station)

City locations (apartment, building, restaurant, movie theater, market, hotel, bank)

Directions (north, south, east, west, right, left)

Adjectives (good, bad, smart, delicious, nice, fun)

More verbs (to give, to send, to wake up, to cry, to love, to hate, to laugh)

Colors (red, yellow, blue, green, purple, black, white, brown)

Emotions (happy, sad, calm, angry)

Physical descriptions (tall, short, blonde, brunette, redhead, eye color)

Body parts (arm, leg, hand, finger, foot, toe, face, eye, mouth, nose, ears)

Descriptors (rich, poor, beautiful, ugly, expensive, inexpensive)

Basic clothing (shirt, pants, dress, skirt, jacket, sweater, skirt, shorts)

Accessories (belt, hat, wallet, gloves, sunglasses, purse, watch)

More verbs (to keep, to smile, to run, to drive, to wear, to remember)

Animals (cat, dog, horse, cow, bear, pig, chicken, duck, fish)

More animals (turtle, sheep, fox, mouse, lion, deer)

Months (January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December)

Seasons (fall, winter, spring, summer)

Weather (sunny, cloudy, hot, cold, snowing, raining)

States of being (I’m hungry, I’m tired, I’m thirsty)

House (bedroom, living room, bathroom, stairs)

Furniture (bed, lamp, couch, door, window)

Electronics (phone, TV, computer, camera, radio, headphones)

Nature (tree, flower, plant, animal, grass, animal, outside, sky, sun, moon, clouds)

More verbs (to teach, to learn, to understand, to know, to listen, to hear)

School (classroom, elementary school, high school, college, student, class, grade, homework, test)

School subjects (math, science, English, art, music, chemistry, biology, physics)

School supplies (book, pencil, pen, paper, notebook, folder, backpack, calculator)

Classroom features (student desk, teacher desk, whiteboard, chalk, clock, bell)

Jobs (teacher, scientist, doctor, artist, dancer, musician)

More jobs (surgeon, manager, engineer, architect, lawyer, dentist, writer)

More verbs (to buy, to sell, to work, to ask, to answer, to dance, to leave, to come)

Comparisons (less than, more than, same, __er than)

Languages (French, German, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, English, Japanese)

Countries (France, Germany, China, Russia, Spain, Mexico, United States, Japan)

Religion (church, temple, mosque, to pray, Judaism, Christianity, Islam)

Past tense (I was, he ran, she wrote)

Hobbies (shopping, sports, soccer, chess, fishing, gardening, photography)

More verbs (to describe, to sleep, to find, to wish, to enter, to feel, to think)

Art (paint, draw, painting, gallery, frame, brush)

Morning routine (to wake up, to brush teeth, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, soap)

Future tense (I will run, he will write)

TV + internet (online, internet, to watch TV, TV show, movie, documentary, cartoon)

More verbs (to look for, to stay, to touch, to meet, to show, to rent, to wash, to play)

[lunalolligo]

noticing as I learn different languages I tend to think using the shortest word from any of those languages, so for example instead of "this is" or "dette er", I'll just automatically think "c'est"

So my proposal is a creole of every language in which we find the shortest syllabic way to say every single word and speak at maximum efficiency