Because Two Languages Is Not Enough @otrapolyglot - Tumblr Blog

languages that don't distinguish between formal and informal you are missing out on so much petty drama. my grandparents have two neighbours who once got into a huge fight over something honestly pretty trivial, so neighbour A said he was going to revoke neighbour B's du (informal you) privileges. neighbour B was like "okay but can i use du one last time?" and neighbour A was like "yeah go ahead", and neighbour B said "du arschloch" (you asshole). incredible.

dragonofthedepths

Reblogs were turned off but I wanted to be able to find this again

klapollo

I will open the fucking TikTok app just to watch this video multiple times

klapollo

TIKTOKER: I swear to God, no one tickles my testicles more than the people of my own fucking country. Okay, so like WHAT HAPPENED was this year, this summer, I was in Korea. And I linked up with a homie that I haven't met in a long time, just catching up. "Oh my God, how are you? You GRADUATED? That's insane, where do you work!?" Whatever. Okay.

So there was a conversation about like, food and preferences. So I just asked him! I just asked him: (in Korean, pronoucing "asparagus" as a Korean loan word) "Hey, when you eat steak, do you put asparagus?"

(in English) And this BITCH. He looks at me DEAD STRAIGHT IN THE FUCKING EYES. Has the AUDACITY to just.... degrade, I guess! Ask me: (in Korean) "HAH! Hey, aren't you from America? Why are you calling it (emphasizing the Korean pronunciation of asparagus) ASPARAGUS?"

(in English, in an exaggerated stereotypical American accent) OH, I'M SORRY. I'M SORRY! Am I supposed to say ASS-PARA-GUSS? ASS-PARA-GUSS? DO I GO (says his question again in Korean, but breaks up the flow of the speech by pronouncing all the loan words with American pronunciation).

IT FUCKS THE FLOW!!! WHY ARE YOU BITCHING!? I'M TRYING TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY! YOU MONOLINGUAL FUCK!!!!

arctic-hands

Public libraries in Mississippi have cut off access to digital platforms like Overdrive and Hoopla to those under 18.

I never want to hear conservatives go on about repressive censorship in China, North Korea, and Iran ever again

ryanthedemiguy

To be clear to those unfamiliar: these are the companies that libraries use to lend ebooks.

They are literally cutting off library access to minors.

ayellowbirds

If you are affected by this or other bans and restrictions in the United States, be aware that the Brooklyn Public Library is offering free digital library cards to anyone age 13-21 nationwide as part of their Books UnBanned initiative:

Brooklyn Public Library joins those fighting for the rights of teens nationwide to read what they like, discover themselves, and form their

thefingerfuckingfemalefury

BOOOOOST

elfwreck

Seattle has joined them:

babbleismysuperpower

the article is from 2023 but this is apparently still a thing. in addition to brooklyn and seattle, digital library cards are also being offered by the boston public library (ages 13-26), the los angeles county public library (ages 13-18), and the san diego public library (ages 12-26). for the la card you need to live in california, but for boston and san diego you can be anywhere in the us.

thatswhywelovegermany

Gott, wenn du bist, rette meine Seele, wenn ich eine habe.

God, if you exist, save my soul if I have one.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860), German philosopher

batmanego

i do desperately need everyone on this website especially people who arent american but want to rag on america to familiarize themselves with the basic romanized spelling conventions of native american languages because every day i come on here and i see people making fun of massachusetts or connecticut or mississippi or passamaquoddy or mashpee or nipissing and its like PLEASE. PLEASE THEY ARENT ENGLISH WORDS. PLEAAAAASEEEEEUUUHHH. USE YOUR MINDS TO IDENTIFY WHEN A WORD LOOKS LIKE IT MAY NOT BE ENGLISH. I DONT CARE IF YOU MAKE FUN OF AMERICA JUST PLEASE STOP BEING RACIST WHILE YOU DO IT

adhdasfuck

Map I found showing which states got their names from where. Over half of the states come from Indigenous languages.

butyoutoldmeiwasfunny

mapsontheweb

19th century map of North America in Turkish language with Greek alphabet.

Karamanlides were Turkish speakers in Central Anatolia who adhered to the Greek Orthodox Church. They wrote Turkish using Greek alphabet and had an established literature. After the 1924 population exchange agreement between Greece and Turkey, they were moved to Greece and they got assimilated into Greek culture. Today, only a few speakers of the language remain.

iain-pm

My Argentinean housemate just got a book on proper American accents and I’ve never felt more attacked

like why’s it gotta be so accurate

jaspertheshark

What’s fascinating to me is realizing that we simply ignore the glottal stop in every word that begins with a vowel when we speak quickly. Like unless you’re enunciating or speaking slowly you simply tell that glottal stop “fuck you” and hook the vowel to the previous consonant sound. Amazing. Glottal stops more like waste of time amirite

glowingghosty

SUPER SALAD

headspace-hotel

Wtf we actually talk like this don’t we

assassinregrets

kayuripax

Some funny German words that are kind of hard to translate that are also not from the lexicon of obscure sorrows:

- Eigenart, Die. (Noun) Lit: the own-kind, meaning: Quirk

Usage example: "Ach, das ist dem seine Eigenart." (Oh, that's his quirk)

- Verschlimmbessern. (Verb) Lit: Worse-improving, meaning: trying to make something better, but making it worse in the process

Usage example: "Verschlimmbessern kann der gut." (He's great at making things worse while trying to make them better.)

- Sturmfrei. (Adjective) Lit: Storm free, meaning: having the house to yourself because your parents are away

Usage example: "Ich hab das ganze Wochenende sturmfrei." (I have the house to myself the whole weekend)

- Ohrwurm, Der. (Noun) Lit: Ear Worm, meaning: a song you can't get out of your head

Usage example: "Das Lied ist seit drei Tagen mein Ohrwurm." (That song has been playing on repeat in my head for three days)

- Schnapsidee, Die. (Noun) Lit: alcohol idea, meaning: An idea so stupid it could only have come from someone drunk.

Usage example: "Du weißt schon, dass das 'ne Schnapsidee ist?" (You do know that this is a stupid idea?)

- Treppenwitz, Der. (Noun) Lit: Staircase joke, meaning: coming up with a perfect reply for a joke or argument too late for it to be any use

Usage example: "Ich hätte in der Prüfung viel besser sein können, wenn mir die besten Ideen nicht erst als Treppenwitze gekommen wären." (I could have been much better in the exam if I hadn't thought of my best ideas afterwards while on the stairs.)

toothsalad

i found the second funniest map in the world today

snickerdoodle-factory

What’s the funniest map?

toothsalad

^ magic spell of get assassinated by the turkish government

joghurtbrot

friends I found a link where you can learn to read ancient languages (for free)

aloeveragel

I remember in my Arabic class we were going over the alphabet and the teacher was like there’s no ‘P’ etc and this white girl was like wait what but my names Paige and my teacher was like lol then we’d pronounce it as beige and she was so offended I’m crying thinking about it

dotted-sixteenth-deactivated202

One of my mom’s friends, Hugh, went to France and they had a lot of trouble pronouncing his name because the entire thing was silent.

melonbottle

salut je m'appelle [REDACTED]

ghulheim

lol when I lived in France my host family had a friend names Hugh. We saw him and his family a lot.

They pronounced it “oog” and I didn’t know until the day before I left France that his name was Hugh. I just thought he had some weird caveman nickname 😭

toebeens

that is hands down the funniest addition to this post

romanceyourdemons

if duolingo is going to insist on having a whole cinematic universe for its characters they should at least provide a chart establishing who addresses whom with the formal you because right now i’m having all of them use informal you to everyone in all relevant exercises and it feels. wrong

romanceyourdemons

if i was a bite-sized child addressing an ill-tempered talking bear i would be using Sie. i would call that thing 您 i would use the most formal register of language available even if the bear said i didn’t have to and i don’t like that duolingo doesn’t account for this