languages lover

Ligia (she/her). Languages enthusiast and aspiring polyglot. Languages I hope to be able speak one day: Portuguese (native), English, French, Russian, German, Serbian, Turkish, Korean, Polish and whatever else life allows me to.

[hermeneutica]

a lil folk tune i wrote abt almost-loves & cemeteries. 

clínicas is a subway station in são paulo, brazil, by the way, but the rest of the song is in english. the lyrics are in the link’s description.

[polyglotic]

hi this is my friend clara and she’s sooo good and i’m so proud

[unfugged]

me: combining german and english with each other is actually a great way to expand our vocabulary and establishing those new sentence structures and words actually develops the language in a new and interesting way

friend:

me: nevermind

[lavidapoliglota]

You were sent to heal the contrite of heart, Sir, take it easy

[mapsontheweb]

German Stereotypes

[rivoluzione--sottovoce-deactiva]

In Italian we don’t say “pineapple pizza”, we say “Vade retro, Satana” and I think that’s beautiful

[onlyusefulphrases]

Rude

[living-languages]

Has anyone here ever taken/is planning on taking the DELF French proficiency exam? I want to take the B2 level in June but I’m not really sure how to prepare.

[polyglotic]

Yes! I took the Delf B2 about three years ago and I used internet resources to prepare (mostly for the listening part because I found it really hard at first to understand since there are always noises in the background to make it more complicated). If you feel comfortable with you French at this level there isn’t much to worry though, and I’m sure you’ll do fine without stressing too much about studying :) If I were to do anything differently I’d probably prepare a bit better for the speaking session though, because I tend to get nervous in this kind of situation and it was my lowest score haha 

[your-casual-langblr]

What is Silesian?

As you know I’m from Poland, more specifically from Silesia. Here we speak a dialect/language (it’s not considered a language officially) that differs a bit from Polish, called Silesian. Is there anything interesting about it?

Silesian belongs to the Lechitic group of West Slavic languages. It’s highly influenced by German, a bit by Czech (because of the fact that Silesia belonged to all three of those countries during the years). It’s based on Polish, the grammar system is very similar (so there are cases, the same number of tenses etc) but the vocabulary has its roots in Old Polish rather than the Modern one.

On this picture you can see the area where it’s spoken in Poland. Look at the brown coloured “dialekt śląski”    source: x

Silesian wasn’t really a language that was meant to be written, therefore there’s no one official alphabet. The newest one and the one I personally like the most is:  A Ã B C Ć D E F G H I J K L Ł M N Ń O Ŏ Ō Ô Õ P R S Ś T U W Y Z Ź Ż Notice that there are no Ą or Ę like in Polish, they’re marked as “on” and “en" instead (that difference is noticeable in pronunciation)

There’s a Silesian Wikipedia, radio stations, a TV channel, all those things help to keep it alive. Nowadays either older people speak it fluently, or young people like me whose whole family comes from Silesia and they learned it at home. Hopefully the government agrees for the status of a regional language soon so it could be prevented from becoming endangered better. In the 2011 census 529 000 people admitted they use Silesian at home. 

Please give me some feedback whether you’d like to read more posts about it, there are a lot of possibilities like the alphabet, differences from Polish or even vocabulary lists! I’d love to share some stuff about it as there is not much of it on Tumblr :D

[polysprachig]

me, overly trying to convince people that English is actually my native language:

[polyglotic]

Someone: polish is the hardest language in the world!!

Me, learning irish and japanese, where i can't string a sentence together without stupid amounts of grammar and thinking about it for ten years: hahahahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHSHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[zenpencils]

James Rhodes - Is that not worth exploring?

[melo-maniaco]

This is beautiful

[inahiddenplace]

i literally wear the same three outfits every week i’m only a tier or two above a cartoon character it makes me sad

[gegen-kapital-und-nation]

Words and Phrases used more often in Islay Gaelic

Found this this here on the Ionad Chaluim Chile Ile website (The Columba Centre of Islay). Do any Irish Gaelic speakers recognise these words too?

Here is a small selection of words, collected for Seanchas Ìle, that are more commonly heard in Islay Gaelic than in other Gaelic dialects.  Some are unique to Islay Gaelic.

Abair - say (normal for ‘can’)baibheil - excellent (normal for ‘sgoinneil’)

Baideal/an (m) - large cloud/s (more common than ‘sgòth’/‘neul’)

Bàtan (pl) - boats (more common than ‘bàtaichean’)

Bolgam (m) - a mouthfulbolg/an-losgainn (m) - mushroom/s (nas cumanta na ‘balgan-buachair’)

Bròdail - proud (normal for ‘pròiseil’)caineab (f) - hemp (normal for ‘cainb’)

Ceathramh  - quarter (normal for ‘cairteal’)

Ciabhag/an (f) - long beard/s (more common than ‘feusag’)

Cìob (f) - sponge (normal for ‘spong’)

Clis - quick, swift (normal for ‘luath’)

cneap/an (m) - button/s (normal for ‘putan’)

Coimheach - shy, timid (normal for ‘diùid’)

Colbhag/an (f)- index finger/s (normal for ‘sgealbag’)

Cosail ri - similar to (normal for ‘coltach ri’)

Crannag/an (f) - pulpit/s (nomal for ‘cùbaid’)

Creic, a’ creic - to sell (normal for ‘reic’)

Cuisdeag/an (f) - pinkie/s (normal for ‘lùdag’)

Daonnan - always (normal for ‘an-còmhnaidh’)

Deifir (f) - hurry (normal for ‘cabhag’)

Dhèan - did (normal for ‘rinn’)

Drùin - close (normal for ‘dùin’)

èibhinn - strange (normal for ‘neònach’)

èidheannach/èidheantach (f) - ice (normal for ‘deigh’)

Fànus (m) - skyline

Fairge/annan (f) - sea/s (more common than ‘muir’)

Fan, a’ fantail - to stay, to wait (normal for ‘fuireach’)

Fìdeag/an (f) - pinkie/s (normal for ‘lùdag’)

Figheadair/ean (m) - spider/s (normal for ‘damhan-allaidh’)

Fìneagan (f) - woodworm (normal for ‘raodan’)

Fionna fada - middle fingerflat/an (f) - saucer/s (normal for ‘sàsar’)

Flinne (m) - sleet (normal for ‘flin’)

fuathasach - wonderful

Gaodhachail - doing odd jobs

Gealbhan/an (m) - fire/s (in the fire place)

geannaire/an (m) - hammer/s (normal for ‘òrd’)

Glè  - quite (rather than very)

Gort/oirt (m) - field/s (more common than ‘achadh’)

Gun stuth - free of charge (normal for ‘saor an asgaidh’)

Gun robh math agad - thank you (normal for ‘tapadh leat’)

Imir/ean (m) - lazybed/s (more common than ‘feannag’)

Ladhar/dhran (m) - toe/s (normal for ‘òrdag’)

Liathnach (m) - hoar-frost (normal for ‘liath-reothadh’)

Manadh/aidhean (m) - ghost/s (normal for ‘taibhse’)

Mand, a’ mandadh - can (i.e cha mhand mi seo a dhèanadh: I can’t do this)

Maorach/aich (m) - limpet/s / shellfish (normal for ‘bàirneach’)

Mothaich, a’ mothachainn - to feel (normal for ‘faireachdainn’)

Muineal/an (f) - neck/s (normal for ‘amhaich’)

Patach/aich (m) - child/ren (more common than ‘clann’)

Peitear/an (f/b)- pictures (more common than ‘dealbh’)

Piocach/aich (m) - saithe (normal for ‘saoidhean’)

Pollag/an (f) - nostril/s (more common than ‘cuinnean’)

Prois (f) - prude (àbhaisteach airson ‘neach-nàrach’)

Rèidh - ready/finished (normal for ‘deiseil’)

Sè - six (normal for ‘sia’)

Sgrog (m) - a bite (to eat)

Siop/aichean (m) - shop (more common than ‘bùth’)

Sìthmhearach/aich (f/b) - fairy/ies (more common than ‘sìth’)

Siubhail, a’ siubhail - to die (humans only, ‘bàsaich’ / ‘caochail’ for animals)

Siùdaich, a’ siùdach - to begin

Sparraich (pl) - household furnituresreann-chor (f) - whirlwind

Suc!suc! - call to sheep

Sùgan/an (m) - horse’s collar/

Ssulasach - over-joyed

An teanntachd (f) - asthma (normal for ‘a’ chuing’)

Thalla! - come! (normal for ‘trobhad’)

Tioram/tiomailt air - about (more common than ‘timcheall air’)

Tòrradh/aidhean (m) - funeral (normal for ‘tiodhlacadh’)

Trasda - across (more common than ‘thairis air’)

Trusgan/an (m) - suit/s of clothes (normal for ‘deise’)

[sleepbby]

non-native english speakers are so intelligent and beautiful pass it on

[sznoosker]

Ofc most of the worlds population is intelligent and beautiful what is this self-centered english speaking bs

[lingasms]

learning a language related to a language you already speak

[polyglotic]

Italian Grammar Book: Some nouns are masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural

Me: Literally what

[chaoticum]

I believe in free education, one that’s available to everyone; no matter their race, gender, age, wealth, etc… This masterpost was created for every knowledge hungry individual out there. I hope it will serve you well. Enjoy!

FREE ONLINE COURSES (here are listed websites that provide huge variety of courses)

Alison 

Coursera

FutureLearn

open2study

Khan Academy

edX

P2P U

Academic Earth

iversity

Stanford Online

MIT Open Courseware

Open Yale Courses

BBC Learning

OpenLearn

Carnegie Mellon University OLI

University of Reddit

Saylor

IDEAS, INSPIRATION & NEWS (websites which deliver educational content meant to entertain you and stimulate your brain)

TED

FORA

Big Think 

99u

BBC Future

Seriously Amazing

How Stuff Works

Discovery News

National Geographic

Science News

Popular Science

IFLScience

YouTube Edu

NewScientist

DIY & HOW-TO’S (Don’t know how to do that? Want to learn how to do it yourself? Here are some great websites.)

wikiHow

Wonder How To

instructables

eHow

Howcast

MAKE

Do it yourself

FREE TEXTBOOKS & E-BOOKS

OpenStax CNX

Open Textbooks

Bookboon

Textbook Revolution

E-books Directory

FullBooks

Books Should Be Free

Classic Reader

Read Print

Project Gutenberg

AudioBooks For Free

LibriVox

Poem Hunter

Bartleby

MIT Classics

Many Books

Open Textbooks BCcampus

Open Textbook Library

WikiBooks

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES & JOURNALS

Directory of Open Access Journals

Scitable

PLOS

Wiley Open Access

Springer Open

Oxford Open

Elsevier Open Access

ArXiv

Open Access Library

LEARN:

1. LANGUAGES

Duolingo

BBC Languages

Learn A Language

101languages

Memrise

Livemocha

Foreign Services Institute

My Languages

Surface Languages

Lingualia

OmniGlot

OpenCulture’s Language links

2. COMPUTER SCIENCE & PROGRAMMING

Codecademy

Programmr

GA Dash

CodeHS

w3schools

Code Avengers

Codelearn

The Code Player

Code School

Code.org

Programming Motherf*?$%#

Bento

Bucky’s room

WiBit

Learn Code the Hard Way

Mozilla Developer Network

Microsoft Virtual Academy

3. YOGA & MEDITATION

Learning Yoga

Learn Meditation

Yome

Free Meditation

Online Meditation

Do Yoga With Me

Yoga Learning Center

4. PHOTOGRAPHY & FILMMAKING

Exposure Guide

The Bastards Book of Photography

Cambridge in Color

Best Photo Lessons

Photography Course

Production Now

nyvs

Learn About Film

Film School Online

5. DRAWING & PAINTING

Enliighten

Ctrl+Paint

ArtGraphica

Google Cultural Institute

Drawspace

DragoArt

WetCanvas

6. INSTRUMENTS & MUSIC THEORY

Music Theory

Teoria

Music Theory Videos

Furmanczyk Academy of Music

Dave Conservatoire

Petrucci Music Library

Justin Guitar

Guitar Lessons

Piano Lessons

Zebra Keys

Play Bass Now

7. OTHER UNCATEGORIZED SKILLS

Investopedia

The Chess Website

Chesscademy

Chess.com

Spreeder

ReadSpeeder

First Aid for Free

First Aid Web

NHS Choices

Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Please feel free to add more learning focused websites. 

*There are a lot more learning websites out there, but I picked the ones that are, as far as I’m aware, completely free and in my opinion the best/ most useful.

[k-c-amador]

IF THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY!!