natmalango

Native language: Italian Now learning: Japanese (intermediate), and English (trying to achieve C1) Occasionally flirting with: Korean and Swedish (both basic)

[natmalango]

Some English idioms that are similar to Italian ones

English idioms are taken from Collins' Work on your idioms.

To get the picture - Avere il quadro della situazione

To go in one ear and out the other - Entrare da un orecchio ed uscire dall'altro

Not have a clue - Non avere alcuna idea

To jump to conclusions - Saltare alle conclusioni

Put two and two together - Fare due più due

Read between lines - Leggere tra le righe

Off your head - Essere fuori di testa

On the tip of your tongue - Avere qualcosa sulla punta della lingua

Out of your head - Essere fuori di testa

Go off on/at a tangent - Andare per la tangente

In black and white - Nero su bianco

In the loop - Essere nel giro

Put someone in the picture - Fare il quadro della situazione

The icing on the cake - La ciliegina sulla torta

The tip of the iceberg - La punta dell'iceberg

Break the ice - Rompere il ghiaccio

Get off on the wrong foot - Partire sul piede sbagliato

Get on someone's nerves - Stare sui nervi a qualcuno

On the same wavelength - Essere sulla stessa lunghezza d'onda

Save face - Salvare la faccia

Be there for someone - Esserci per qualcuno

Give and take - Dare e avere

In the same boat - Essere sulla stessa barca

Lend (someone) a hand - Dare una mano (a qualcuno)

Look the other way - Guardare dall'altra parte

A tower/pillar of strength - Essere il pilastro di qualcuno

Jump on the bandwagon - Salire sul carro del vincitore

Keep a low profile - Tenere/Mantenere un basso profilo

Not lift/raise a finger - Non alzare un dito

Not beat around/about the bush - Non girare intorno a qualcosa

Below the belt - Colpo basso

Lay/put your cards on the table - Mettere le carte in tavola

Stab someone in the back - Dare una coltellata alla schiena a qualcuno

To someone's face - Dire in faccia a qualcuno

A white lie - Una bugia bianca

Make your blood boil - Far ribollire il sangue

A bundle of nerves - Essere un fascio di nervi

Butterflies in your stomach - Avere le farfalle nello stomaco

Give someone the creeps - Far venire i brividi a qualcuno

The last straw/The final straw - La goccia che ha fatto traboccare il vaso

Be shaking like a leaf - Tremare come una foglia

Fight like cat and dog - Fare come cani e gatti

Be fighting a losing battle - Combattere una battaglia persa

Win hands down - Vincere a mani basse

Light at the end of the tunnel - Vedere la luce in fondo al tunnel

The calm/lull before the storm - La calma prima della tempesta

Castel in the air - Costruire/fare castelli in aria

Like looking for a needle in a haystack - Cercare un ago in un pagliaio

Out of/From the fraying pan into the fire - Dalla padella alla brace

A vicious circle - Un circolo vizioso

Be playing with fire - Giocare con il fuoco

In the black - Essere in rosso (i.e. Not having any money)

Tighten your belt - Stringere la cinghia

Be breathing on someone's neck - Avere il fiato sul collo

Wear the trousers/pants - Indossare/Portare i pantaloni (i.e. To be the one who makes decisions)

Off limits - Essere off limits

Step/Tread on someone's toes - Pestare i piedi a qualcuno

Your hands are tied - Avere le mani legate

An old flame - Una vecchia fiamma

Break someone's heart - Spezzare il cuore a qualcuno

A shoulder to cry on - Essere la spalla su cui piangere

End it all - Farla finita (i.e. Suicide)

A shadow of your former self - Essere l'ombra di se stessi

Skin and bone - Essere pelle ed ossa

[salvadorbonaparte]

Hey did you know I keep a google drive folder with linguistics and language books  that I try to update regularly 

[salvadorbonaparte]

**UPDATE**

I have restructured the folders to make them easier to use and managed to add almost all languages requested and then some

Please let me know any further suggestions

[salvadorbonaparte]

[clockworktardis]

….holy shit. You found the holy grail.

[kittydesade]

….. is this a DIFFERENT person keeping gigabytes worth of language books on google drive? Holy crap.

[wyvyrn]

This. This here. Is why I love Tumblr.❤️❤️❤️

[bard-llama]

Update from OP:

UPDATE because apparently not everyone has seen this yet the new and improved version of this is a MEGA folder: https://mega.nz/folder/kQBXHKwA#-osWRLNCXAsd62ln8wKa8w

2411 files and 819 subfolders

[flootzavut]

Holy shit. OP you are a wonderful human being.

[surohsopsisofclouds]

O.O Linguistic Holy Grail…

[lang0331]

idiomatic expression 품절녀/품절남

literal translation: sold-out woman/man

actual usage: newly married woman/men, off the market woman/men

품절: out of stock

녀: female

남: male

[thelanguagecommunity]

this post is meant to be a directory of every resource I come across for Hebrew. it will be a continuous work in progress so thank you for your patience! if you have any issues or things to add, please reply to this post!

info

a short history of the hebrew language

difference between biblical and modern hebrew [video]

hebrew vs. yiddish: what’s the difference

history of the ancient and modern hebrew language

“in hebrew, we don’t say…”

introduction by @ayearinlanguage

intro to hebrew by @the-caravan-languages

jewishencyclopedia

overview of the revival of hebrew

playlist of samples

the emergence of spoken israeli hebrew [pdf]

wikipedia

Keep reading

[sciogli-lingua]

Vieni a ballare in Puglia || Caparezza || Italian lyrics + English translation

[This is not an easy song to translate, nor to understand without context: in this 2008 hit Apulian-born Caparezza addresses some serious issues plaguing this southern region, such as occupational fatalities, pollution and exploitation of immigrant workers. I added a couple of notes to clarify the passages that I felt needed further expalation.]

I delfini vanno a ballare¹ sulle spiagge Dolphins go dance on the shores Gli elefanti vanno a ballare in cimiteri sconosciuti Elephants go dance in obscure graveyards Le nuvole vanno a ballare all'orizzonte Clouds go dance on the horizon I treni vanno a ballare nei musei a pagamento Trains go dance in museums that charge an entry fee E tu, dove vai a ballare? And you, where are you going to dance?

Vieni a ballare in Puglia, Puglia, Puglia Come dance in Apulia, Apulia, Apulia Tremulo come una foglia, foglia, foglia Trembling like a leaf, leaf, leaf Tieni la testa alta quando passi vicino alla gru Keep your head high when you’re walking by the crane Perché può capitare che si stacchi e venga giù Because it might as well come off and fall down

Ehi, turista, so che tu resti in questo posto italico Hey, you tourist, I know you’re staying at this Italian place Attento, tu passi il valico, ma questa terra ti manda Careful, you’re crossing over, but this land will drive Al manicomio, mare Adriatico e Ionio² You nuts, Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea Vuoi respirare lo iodio You want to breathe some iodine Ma qui nel golfo c'è puzza di zolfo But here in the gulf you can smell the sulfur Ché sta arrivando il demonio For the devil is coming Abbronzatura da paura con la diossina dell'ILVA³ [Get] a sick tan thanks to ILVA’s dioxin Qua ti vengono pois più rossi di Milva⁴ Here you get polka dots redder than Milva E dopo assomigli alla Pimpa⁵ And then you look like Pimpa Nella zona spacciano la moría più buona In the area they push the finest blight C'è chi ha fumato i veleni dell'ENI⁶ Some have smoken toxins from ENI Chi ha lavorato ed è andato in coma Some worked and went into a coma Fuma persino il Gargano⁷, con tutte quelle foreste accese Even Gargano is fuming, with all those lit up forests Turista tu balli e tu canti, Tourist, you sing and dance, Io conto i defunti di questo paese I count the deceased of this country Dove quei furbi che fanno le imprese Where the wise guys leading the enterprises No, non badano a spese Spare no expense, no Pensano che il protocollo di Kyoto⁸ They think the Kyoto protocol Sia un film erotico giapponese Is some Japanese erotic film

Vieni a ballare in Puglia, Puglia, Puglia Come dance in Apulia, Apulia, Apulia Dove la notte è buia, buia, buia Where the night is dark, dark, dark Tanto che chiudi le palpebre e non le riapri più So much that you shut your eyelids and never open them again Vieni a ballare e grattati le palle pure tu⁹ Come dance, and you can touch wood, too Che devi ballare in Puglia, Puglia, Puglia Having to dance in Apulia, Apulia, Apulia Tremulo come una foglia, foglia, foglia Trembling like a leaf, leaf, leaf Tieni la testa alta quando passi vicino alla gru Keep your head high when you’re walking by the crane Perché può capitare che si stacchi e venga giù Because it might as well come off and fall down

È vero, qui si fa festa, It’s true, we party here, Ma la gente è depressa e scarica But the people are depressed and burned out Ho un amico che per ammazzarsi This friend of mine to had to be hired by a factory Ha dovuto farsi assumere in fabbrica To finally kill himself Tra un palo che cade ed un tubo che scoppia Between a pole falling and an exploding pipe In quella bolgia s'accoppa chi sgobba In that mess who slaves away kicks the bucket E chi non sgobba si compra la roba And those who don’t slave away buy themselves some dope E si sfonda finché non ingombra la tomba And stuff themselves until they clutter their tomb Vieni a ballare, compare, nei campi di pomodori Come dance in the tomato fields, buddy Dove la mafia schiavizza i lavoratori Where the mafia enslaves workers E se ti ribelli vai fuori And if you fight back, you’re out Rumeni ammassati nei bugigattoli Romanians piled up in closets Come pelati in barattoli Like peeled tomatoes in cans Costretti a subire i ricatti di uomini Forced to be blackmailed by men Grandi ma come coriandoli As big as confetti Turista tu resta coi sandali, non fare scandali Tourist, keep your sandals on, don’t raise any scandal Se siamo ingrati e ci siamo dimenticati If we’re ungrateful and we’ve forgotten Di essere figli di emigrati That we’re the children of emigrants Mortificati, non ti rovineremo la gita Mortified, we won’t spoil your trip Su, passa dalla Puglia, passa a miglior vita¹º  Come on, stop by Apulia, pass to a better life

Vieni a ballare in Puglia, Puglia, Puglia Come dance in Apulia, Apulia, Apulia Dove la notte è buia, buia, buia Where the night is dark, dark, dark Tanto che chiudi le palpebre e non le riapri più So much that you shut your eyelids and never open them again Vieni a ballare e grattati le palle pure tu Come dance, and you can touch wood, too Che devi ballare in Puglia, Puglia, Puglia Having to dance in Apulia, Apulia, Apulia Dove ti aspetta il boia, boia, boia Waiting for you is the hangman, hangman, hangman Agli angoli delle strade spade più di re Artù¹¹ On street corners, more swords than at king Arthur’s court Si apre la voragine e vai dritto a Belzebù The pit opens and you fall straight to Beelzebub

O Puglia, Puglia mia, tu Puglia mia O Apulia, Apulia of mine, you, Apulia of mine Ti porto sempre nel cuore quando vado via I always carry you in my heart when I leave E subito penso che potrei morire senza te And right away I think I could die without you E subito penso che potrei morire anche con te And right away I think I could die with you, too

Notes ¹ Throughout the song, ballare (“dancing”) is used ironically to mean morire (“dying”). ² These are the two seas bordering Apulia. ³ ILVA is an Italian steelworks company. Here Caparezza is referring to the pollution caused by the industial area of Taranto. ⁴ Italian singer, also known as La Rossa (“The Redhead”). ⁵ A red-spotted dog, the main character of the Italian comic strip of the same name. ⁶ Italian multinational oil and gas company. ⁷ Well-known Apulian area; here Caparezza is alluding to the many summer forest fires that sadly plague Italy. ⁸ It was an agreement negotiated in 1997 to mandate country-by-country reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. ⁹ A literal translation of grattati le palle would be “scratch your balls”; not the classiest saying ever, but touching your testicles is believed to keep bad luck away in Italy. ¹º While passare a miglior vita literally means “to pass to a better life”, it’s actually an euphemism for dying. ¹¹ Spada (“sword”) is a slang term for the syringe used by heroin addicts to inject themselves.

[leatherstar]

check out this beautiful cuban/italian singer! 

his name is einar ortiz and he’ll be the purest, most delicate and yet stronger artist you’ll listen to today.

(if anyone gets curious i’ll be delighted to provide an english translation!)

[natmalango]

I'm not the one who usually does this kind of things, but @ everyone learning Italian or just likes how Italian sounds please check out this song!

It's really beautiful ❤️

[goazen]

Russian learning outline

I made this outline after reading a couple of posts by @lovelybluepanda on how to study & make a language learning schedule and this post by @wonderful-language-sounds (thank you! <3)

Beginner A1-A2

Grammar. New Penguin Russian Course (A1) + Schaums Outlines of Russian Grammar (A2). 30-60 minutes daily

Take notes of rules, verbs/conjugations etc. in notebook1

Solve exercises in notebook2

Vocabulary. Quizlet, Memrise, 50Languages. 30-60 minutes daily

Learn about 5-10 words/day + review the rest

Add vocabulary lists to notebook1

Writing. 10 minutes daily

Write a paragraph everyday in notebook2 using what you have learned

Listening + Reading. 10-20 minutes daily

Watch childrens cartoons with subtitles or read-along stories

Continua a leggere

[overfalls]

IT’S NOT ‘PEEKED’ MY INTEREST

OR ‘PEAKED’

BUT PIQUED

‘PIQUED MY INTEREST’

THIS HAS BEEN A CAPSLOCK PSA

[owlbearcounter]

THIS IS ACTUALLY REALLY USEFUL THANK YOU

[ranetree]

ADDITIONALLY:

YOU ARE NOT ‘PHASED’. YOU ARE ‘FAZED.’

IF IT HAS BEEN A VERY LONG DAY, YOU ARE ‘WEARY’. IF SOMEONE IS ACTING IN A WAY THAT MAKES YOU SUSPICIOUS, YOU ARE ‘WARY’.

ALL IN ‘DUE’ TIME, NOT ‘DO’ TIME

‘PER SE’ NOT ‘PER SAY’

THANK YOU

[tassiekitty]

BREATHE - THE VERB FORM IN PRESENT TENSE

BREATH - THE NOUN FORM

THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE

WANDER - TO WALK ABOUT AIMLESSLY

WONDER - TO THINK OF IN A DREAMLIKE AND/OR WISTFUL MANNER

THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE (but one’s mind can wander)

[fairywails]

DEFIANT - RESISTANT DEFINITE - CERTAIN

[melancholicmarionette]

WANTON - DELIBERATE AND UNPROVOKED ACTION (ALSO AN ARCHAIC TERM FOR A PROMISCUOUS WOMAN)

WONTON - IT’S A DUMPLING THAT’S ALL IT IS IT’S A FUCKING DUMPLING

[proletariatbitch]

BAWL- TO SOB/CRY

BALL- A FUCKING BALL

YOU CANNOT “BALL” YOUR EYES OUT

[soggywarmpockets]

AND FOR FUCK’S SAKE, IT’S NOT “SIKE”; IT’S “PSYCH”. AS IN “I PSYCHED YOU OUT”; BECAUSE YOU MOMENTARILY MADE SOMEONE BELIEVE SOMETHING THAT WASN’T TRUE.

THANK YOU.

[everylineeverystory]

*slams reblog*

[leonawriter]

IT’S ‘MIGHT AS WELL’. ‘MIND AS WELL’ DOES NOT MAKE GRAMMATICAL SENSE.

[penbrydd]

SLEIGHT - DEXTERITY, ARTIFICE, CRAFT (FROM ‘SLY’) SLIGHT - VERY LITTLE, FRAIL, DELICATE

IT’S ‘SLEIGHT OF HAND’.

[maverlok]

[celynbrum]

DISCRETE - SEPARATE, DISTINCT, PARTED

DISCREET - SUBTLE, STEALTHY, DIPLOMATIC

[ceruleancynic]

AND TO CONTINUE THE OP’S THEME

IT’S SNEAK PEEK

NOT SNEAK PEAK

A SNEAK PEAK WOULD BE A MOUNTAIN ENGAGED IN ESPIONAGE

THEY ARE VERY LARGE AND WOULD FIND THIS GENERALLY DIFFICULT 

THANK

(OH AND ONE OTHER THING

BULLION = PRECIOUS METAL

BOUILLON = STOCK, FROM THE FRENCH “BOUILLER,” TO BOIL)

[jumpingjacktrash]

SHUDDER:

SHUTTER:

NOT SAME NOT SAME

[the-real-seebs]

sleight of hand: magic tricks slight of hand: President-Elect

[lilacandgoooseberries]

I love this post so much oh my god 😂

“A MOUNTAIN ENGAGED IN ESPIONAGE” I’m losing my shit

[stephrc79]

I would just like to point out that you CAN ’ball your eyes out’, you just need a really good melon scooper and a willingness to try hard enough.

[squeeful]

Oedipus agrees you can indeed.

[onemuseleft]

Every time this goes by my dash the coffee one drives me batshit. 

Guys.

Complimentary coffee is free.

Complementary coffee goes really well with the bacon.

[squeeful]

Complimentary means both free and praising. Because English.

[shanatical]

Reblogging this for the discreet v. discrete rule, which I can NEVER remember.

[languagesaregay]

📝 italian connectors in spanish and english📝

affinché: con el fin de - so that.

anche: también - also.

anzi: en cambio - actually.

bensì: sino - but rather.

ciò nonostante: sin embargo -  nevertheless.

cioè: es decir - that is to say.

con tutto ciò: dicho todo esto - regardless everything.

dopodiché: tras lo cual -  after which.

e: y - and.

frattanto: mientras tanto - meanwhile.

fuorché: excepto - unless.

innanzitutto: en primer lugar - first of all.

inoltre: además - moreover.

in più: además - and additionally.

insomma: en conclusión - in conclusion.

malgrado: a pesar de - despite.

né: ni - nor.

neanche: ni aunque - neither.

nemmeno: ni aunque - not even.

nondimeno: no obstante - nevertheless.

o: o - or.

oppure: o - or.

ossia: o sea - that is.

oltre a: además - besides

oltre a ciò: además de esto - besides this.

oltretutto: además - besides.

pertanto: por lo tanto - therefore.

però: sin embargo - however.

poiché: puesto que - since.

pure: también - also.

purché: con tal (de) que - as long as.

purtuttavia: sin embargo - however.

qualora: en (el) caso de que - in case.

quindi: luego -  therefore

sebbene: si bien - although.

tranne: excepto - save.

[spanishsecondlanguage]

WordBrewery is great for improving your vocabulary.  It gives you a random sentence at either beginner, intermediate, advanced or master level, and you can make lists of words or sentences that you’d like to learn.   It includes the following languages:

Spanish

English

Chinese

Arabic

Portuguese

Russian

Japanese

German

French

Italian

Polish

Ukrainian

Korean

Serbian (Latin)

Serbian (Cryillic)

Hungarian

Greek

Swedish

Norwegian

[hungarian-explained]

Daily routines in Hungarian

felébredni – to wake up felkelni – to get up fogat mosni – to brush your teeth megfésülködni – to brush your hair megborotválkozni – to shave felöltözni – to get dressed reggelizni – to have breakfast

elindulni (otthonról) – to get going, to leave (from home) iskolába menni – to go to school dolgozni menni – to go to work (dolgozni = to work) ebédelni – to have lunch könyvtárba menni – to go to the library tanulni - to study felkészülni (egy dolgozatra / a másnapi órákra) – to prepare (for a test / for next day’s classes) megírni a házi feladatot (“házit” for short) / leckét – to do your homework edzésre menni – to go to a sports practice különórára menni – to go to a private class hazamenni – to go home

vacsorázni – to have dinner pihenni – to rest (inter)netezni – to surf the Internet zenét hallgatni – to listen to music barátokkal beszélgetni – to talk to friends filmet nézni – to watch a film zuhanyozni – to take a shower aludni menni – to go to bed

A short sample text about daily routines:

Minden reggel fél 7-kor kelek. Először felöltözöm és megfésülködöm, utána reggelizem. Reggelire mindig kukoricapelyhet eszem. Fél 8-kor elindulok az iskolába. 8-tól 2-ig az iskolában vagyok. Iskola után minden hétfőn fociedzésre megyek, csütörtökönként pedig franciaórára. A franciaóra csak 4-kor kezdődik, ezért előtte el szoktam menni a könyvtárba. Délután először pihenni szoktam egy kicsit, és csak utána tanulni. Este 8-kor szoktunk vacsorázni, azután már inkább csak netezek és a barátaimmal beszélgetek. Este 10-kor általában elmegyek zuhanyozni és aludni, de előtte még fogat mosok.

Every morning, I get up at 6:30. First I get dressed and brush my hair, then I have breakfast. I always eat cornflakes for breakfast. At 7:30, I leave for school. I’m in school from 8 to 14. After school, I go to football practice every Monday and French class every Thursday. The French class only begins at 4, so I generally go to the library before that. In the afternoon, I generally rest a bit, and only study after that. We generally have dinner at 8, after that I tend to only surf the Internet and talk to my friends. At 10, I generally take a shower and then go to bed, but before that, I brush my teeth.

[doinglanguagestuff-deactivated2]

Before I start I want to mention a few things about this post.

The easiest language will always be the one you like learning, because if you have fun, it’s not really hard. Also, if you are motivated you will learn much faster.

This post will show you how long it will take to learn a language based on their difficulty. That just means, how DIFFERENT it is to the English language. More different = “harder”. It does NOT take into account if you are interested in a language or not. The condition of these groups are that your interest in these languages are ALL THE SAME!

The numbers I will give you are “just around this” numbers.

Based on which other languages you already speak, some languages will be easier (means faster) for you.

There are many factors that can change the pace of your language learning journey. (I will also make a post about this topic soon)

So first we will take a look at the groups. Which language are the easiest and hardest for English speakers?

_________________________

Group 1 (575-600 hours): the easiest languages because they are very similar to English. This are languages like Italian, Spanish, French, etc.

Group 2 (750 hours): still similar to English. In this group is just one language. German. (I guess because our articles are a pain in the ass. Seriously, I have friends that came here 10 years ago, don’t even have an accent anymore but still switch up some articles.)

Group 3 (900 hours): different to English. In this group are languages like Indonesian or Swahili. 

Group 4 (1100 hours):  significant differences to English. In this group are languages like Bulgarian, Croatian, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Russian and many more.

Group 5 (2200 hours): very different to English. In this group are languages like Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

I made a post about many more languages, so if your target languages is not mentioned here, you can look it up on my other post here.

_________________________

And why did I tell you about these groups? Because the thing we care about are the hours it takes to learn a language from one of these groups! 

But that’s not all, we also care about the amount of words you have to learn to be fluent in a language. I also made a post about this, so if you want to know more about how many words you need to be conversational, fluent, etc. or if you are A1, A2, B1, etc. then you can check it out here.

So based on this post we want a vocabulary of 5.000 words. You also have to keep in mind to study listening, speaking, reading and writing to cover everything up. If you just learn a language from a textbook you probably won’t understand native speakers at all and you will also won’t find words when it comes to speaking it. The following numbers are for people who want to be fluent. Like REAL fluent like a (low educated) native speaker.

_________________________

How long will it take to learn a language from…

Group 1 (600 hours):

studying 1 hour per day: one year and 235 days.

studying 2 hours per day: 300 days.

studying 3 hours per day: 200 days.

studying 4 hours per day: 150 days.

studying 5 hours per day: 120 days.

Group 2 (750 hours):

studying 1 hour per day: 2 years and 20 days.

studying 2 hours per day: 1 year and 10 days.

studying 3 hours per day: 250 days.

studying 4 hours per day: 188 days.

studying 5 hours per day: 150 days.

Group 3 (900 hours):

studying 1 hour per day: 2 years and 170 days.

studying 2 hours per day: 1 year and 85 days.

studying 3 hours per day: 300 days.

studying 4 hours per day: 225 days.

studying 5 hours per day: 180 days.

Group 4 (1100 hours):

studying 1 hour per day: 3 years and 5 days.

studying 2 hours per day: 1 year and 185 days.

studying 3 hours per day: 1 year and 2 days.

studying 4 hours per day: 275 days.

studying 5 hours per day: 220 days.

Group 5 (2200 hours):

studying 1 hour per day: 6 years and 10 days.

studying 2 hours per day: 3 years and 5 days.

studying 3 hours per day: 2 years and 4 days.

studying 4 hours per day: 1 year and 185 days.

studying 5 hours per day: 1 year and 75 days.

[natmalango]

That feeling when... you want to ask a friend help in learning their native language but then you remember you're actually learning it as a surprise for them and you have to ask strangers about it.

[ricardastudies-deactivated20170]

This post is to remind you that

if we are studying the same languages, we can be study buddies

if you’re studying my native language, you can ask me questions regarding vocab and grammar, ask me to proof-read something you wrote, ask me to translate something or just write me if you want to practise writing

just let me know :)

[japanesetest4you]

Learn Japanese Grammar: をこめて (o komete)

[queenofglitchesstudies]

N2 grammar - “old words”

I’ve only been properly maintaining this blog for about a month, although I’ve technically had it for possibly over two years now. And yet, I have somehow hit 50 followers today! I’m incredibly grateful and amazed that all of you decided to follow me.

My post for the day is another grammar one, which my book simply described as 古い言葉. They are pieces of grammar based on some older ways of speaking in Japanese that have remained in common usage.

～ず ～もかまわず Something that someone would normally care about is ignored, and an action is taken. This action is not considered a normal one and is based on expected emotions. Not used to give the speaker’s intentions, desires or requests. 値段もかまわず買い物する。

～を問わず Whatever is mentioned before the phrase has no bearing on what comes after. This is best thought of as “without question”.This phrase uses words that show a gap (年齢, 国籍, 天候) or opposing points (男女, 内外, 有無). この仕事は男女を問わすできる。(Man, I do not like this example. I might add some more later.)

～にかかわらず Similarly to the last point, what comes before the phrase has no bearing on what comes after but in this case, what comes before the phrase is “without influence”. Again, this uses words that should gaps, such as 距離, 全額, 大きさ. It also uses words that oppose each other, like 行く, 行かない, 多い, 少ない and 疑問詞か. 総量は重さに関わらず２００円だ。

～にもかかわらず Again, what comes before the phrase has no effect on what follows but in this case, what follows is surprising.  勉強したにもかかわらず、点数は悪かった。 彼は熱があるにもかかわらず、無理して会社に出てきた。

～すじまいだ Something ended without someone being able to do something or someone intended to do something but ultimately couldn’t. The phrase shows the speaker’s regret towards not being able to do something. 連休はどこへも行かずじまいだった。

～ずにはいられない A double negative that gives a very strong positive meaning someone not being able to restrain themselves from doing something, no matter what they do. If this phrase is used in the third person, it uses phrases like そうだ, ようだ or らしい. のどが渇いて水を飲まずにはいられない。

～ざるを得ない The speaker does not want to do something but because of some condition, they have no choice but to do it. This phrase uses volitional verbs. It is generally in the first person and won’t appear in the middle of a sentence. 週末も働かざるを得ない。 I used to struggle to remember this one, but the example I tend to remember is from the third opening of My Hero Academia, 空に歌えば, which contains the line 行かざるを得ない.

I’m going to end this post here, because it turns out there’s a lot of points to cover and making sure the ず ones alone made sense was tough. 

[citrine-studies-deactivated2020]

🌼how to restart learning a language🌼

i’ve recently gone through a language break, taking 5 months out to reassess my future. i really want to get back to learning Japanese, so here are my tips for restarting that language you might have been neglecting!

reassess your goals. its likely that if you’ve taken an extended break, your life has changed a little and there may be some new priorities taking over. reassess what you want to get out of restarting your language journey so it’s easier to plan around your day

make small targets that can be reached easily. for a short while, you’ll have to work hard to get your head back into the swing of learning a language. making small goals can really up your productivity because you wont be discouraged by big expectations at first!

slowly immerse yourself. immersion is widely known as a good supplement to your language learning. while you’re in the early stages of relearning a language, it’s really fun to start rewatching that subbed anime you lost track of, or listen to that spanish band you loved so much. it will help your brain get back ‘into’ the language, and you’ll have fun along the way!

revisit your notebooks. if you’re anything like me, you have a ton of notebooks and stacks of random note paper lying around untouched since you dropped out of your language. do your best to collect them up, sort through the useful stuff and then, get a blank notebook and rewrite all of your notes. your brain wont have forgotten everything but starting a new notebook will give you incentive to learn, as well as solidifying the information you already learnt!

take it slow. your brain is a muscle that needs exercising. if you havent been using your language brain for a while, don’t try and run a marathon without training first! there’s no rush. your journey is yours, and yours alone. take it as slow as you need to to start learning your language again and get back into the studying swing of things

🌼good luck on revisiting your language journey!🌼