[dogpuppy]

[classicjdiesandgoestohell]

i study 2 languages, norwegian and swahili, and the differences between their resources kind of drives me insane.

norwegian has 5 million speakers. it has courses on any language learning platform you can think of. the norwegian learning subreddit has 58k members - a bunch of passionate learners and natives who answer questions. in the last year ive managed to find 12 books in norwegian at thrift stores, book warehouses, etc. never even bothered to get some online because of this! you can watch basically any show you want in it, or at least with subtitles.

what does swahili have? swahili has around 100~ million speakers, making it the most spoken language in africa (excluding colonizer languages like french and arabic). most platforms dont have a course for it, but the few that do are incredibly poorly made and almost impossible to use to learn with. the swahili learning subreddit has only 6.7k members (and most of these people have personal ties like family, as opposed to norwegian where people just learn it randomly for fun). i have never found ANY books IN swahili. ive found two dictionaries, and they were both at speciality stores (unlike norwegian which ive found at my usual medium sized town thrift store). virtually nothing is translated to swahili. not even the fucking Lion King, which uses words from the swahili language (hakuna matata, simba, rafiki, mufasa).

im not expecting tanzania and kenya to translate every western movie ever, they have their own stories to tell (as well as some government censorship), but thats not the whole story. the west has no interest in giving their stories to africa and they have no interest in translating african stories to english.

and like. I understand Why these disparities exist. due to colonization and therefore lower education levels, there are less books in swahili in the first place. people would rather learn a language with grammar and vocabulary similarities to their own, like an indo european language. but the difference is actually fucking absurd. a language with 100 million speakers should not have this few resources. with norwegian, i could always google any niche grammar question i had and find someone online asking the same question. with swahili, i have to search through decades old grammar guides in search of an answer on my own.

swahili is a beautiful language. it has the most consistent grammar of any language ive studied. i wish more people were interested in it, in ANY african language. i cannot imagine what resources are like for literally any other african language! i want people to care to learn these languages the way that people randomly decide to learn lithuanian, estonian, and other smaller european languages. i want their resources to be greater, more courses to be created, more books to be written, more translations to bridge the gaps between cultures.

[m0tel6mxzzy]

i’m learning swahili myself and it’s just so disheartening. my mom is a native speaker so i’m often asking her to correct my grammar and fact check the resources. the ones ive linked are consistent with the structure and pronunciation, but changes in pronunciation and new vocabulary varies across newer generations. i have a link that i’ve found to be helpful for english to swahili translations!

💬 0  🔁 17  ❤️ 31 · swahili language learning resources: (books) swahili: a foundation for speaking reading and writing teach yourself swah

[latriviata]

Swahili learning fistbump - no family or particular connection but I just find it such a lovely language, and an interesting window into East African and coastal Indian Ocean history with the influences from both Arabic and various Indian languages in addition to its Bantu linguistic neighbours. I ended up shelling out again for classes this year because I’d reached the tiny limit of what I could practice myself and I’m glad I live somewhere where that’s an option because it’s often not the case.

In the UK at least the main textbook seems to be this which comes with audio resources, but the first edition (unsure if the audio was the same so it might not sync up) is available on Internet Archive or a smaller file I found via duckduckgo. Bonus: McGrath teaches online and is just a stupidly nice man.

A Routledge Companion Website

Also MobiTuki is the online dictionary he recommended AND if you add it to your homescreen (at least on iOS) it works offline!

MobiTUKI Swahili to English Kamusi ya Kiswahili online

TUKI, kamusi kuu ya Kiswahili-Kiingereza yenye vidahizo 14000+, zikiwemo nahau, misemo, etimolojia na vinyambuo.

[jannacalendar]

Jenny Calendar, to me

[socratesgirl]

computa show me a fic where faith after waiting for buffy all night at homecoming sees her walk in with cordelia looking a mess

[lilyelisabeth]

i just had my last day at work, it is midsommar and my ma thesis has been handed in.

in other words i am going to get absolutely plastered at a house party today

[renebriller]

cant believe a bunch of english kids go through a fuckin cupboard and find a magical kingdom full of wonder and they go “yeah we’re the royal family now”

typical english behaviour

[vampirewillowrosenberg]

How are there literally zero Willow/Buffybot fics what the hell

[vampirewillowrosenberg]

How is there literally one Willow/Buffybot fic what the hell

[inadvertently-biblical]

Anthony Stewart Head as RUPERT GILES

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - 6x04

[lilyelisabeth]

i am done with my thesis!!! i will never have to do a school/uni assignment ever again (technically a lie cause i have to do a report on my internship thats a part of my MA but that’s different)!! i am now the second woman in my entire family to have gotten a masters!!! (if i pass and finish my internship but still!!!)

[rabbitmotifs]

doodling buffy but in this smg fit

[fancyhalloran]

I wish we got to see more of Anya and tara together. I know it would never happen because they’re both defined by their roles as love interests but they have such similar experiences as outcasts who aren’t really understood by the other members of the group. tara has an easier time getting integrated but that dynamic is still present for her.

the thing is too is that we do get glimpses of their friendship. a couple moments of them interacting without willow or xander participating, the sort of easy cameraderie and sense of familiarity between them. you get the sense that there’s more offscreen maybe. it’s something that amber benson is good at as tara; she does it with dawn as well early in the season. you get these small moments where it’s kind of implied that tara tries to reach out to the other people on the periphery of the scoobies so they don’t feel forgotten or unwanted like she sometimes does.

[tau1tvec]

Funny how originally The Sims was considered to be a satire on consumerism and late stage capitalism, and 26 years, 3 games, and thousands of dollars in DLC later, it might be getting in-game ads.

Full circle moment if the circle was on fire, and also the portal to hell.

[getinthecoffin]

you can watch buffy the vampire slayer but watch out! it gives you a disease called buffy summers in your brain

[roycohn]

happy donna sheridan unprotected sex day (1/3), everybody!!!

[angelthemanspanker]

the thing about xander I think is that getting fucked in the ass once would fix HIM but there's not a single dude in the cast that wouldn't become worse as a result of being The Guy Who Fucked Xander Harris

[angelthemanspanker]

Oz: it could feasibly only happen in the aftermath of the WillOz/Cander Breakup Extravaganza and it would absolutely just be the Oz-equivalent to angry sex (which is to say regular sex but his brow is furrowed) and afterwards Oz would be like I was a man unhinged I can never unleash that rage-filled beast again and Xander's like wait were you mad. still?

Larry: he'd get high off of the buzz of justifying bullying Xander for years with "hey man I guess we're just soulmates drawn together by fate" and try too hard to get involved in Xander's life and inevitably get eaten by a monster for being a scooby love interest and a gay guy in 90s tv

Riley: riley would literally accuse xander of seducing him with magic like five minutes after the fact and xander's like what no man we just got really riled up watching team america world police but riley's already yelling over at his pants on the floor like THIS IS AGENT FINN WE GOT ANOTHER WITCH and graham's voice comes through on a little speaker like ry you can't keep doing this

Spike: we saw how mad Spike was when he realised he wanted to fuck certified-hottie Buffy. If he fucked Xander bad-fashion bad-jokes no-powers no-game Harris Spike would have crossed over to AtS like three seasons earlier like I can't show my face on the hellmouth ever again I put my dick in a basement dwelling pizza boy

Angel: good lord. jesus christ. if perfect happiness releases angel's soul do you think realising he just had sex with xander would attach it permanently. as if angel needs more reasons to pretend all his gay thoughts come from the demon

The entire Sunnydale High Swim Team in that one sauna scene: this one would be fine actually

[aspirationallybutch]

My answer to many situations in the Buffyverse is “try polyamory” but not because I think most of them would handle that well, but it be fun

[lilyelisabeth]

i think i’m going to be done with my ma thesis this weekend?!?

im gonna be unstoppable once it’s been handed in, i already have four fanfics planned for this summer