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becca | 24 | she/her | main: @urlocalcultleader langblr (twitter refugee) | native 🇺🇸 be brave enough to be bad at something new

[songsortales]

Hello, everyone! I’m moving here from langtwt 💕

🍒 a little about me 🍒

aroace

intj 5w6

a bit antisocial but I’m trying lol

TEFL teacher

degrees in international business and international studies

later want to work in humanitarianism and/or diplomacy

🐠 languages 🐠

intermediate level in 🇲🇽 and 🇰🇷

elementary level in 🇫🇷 and 🇲🇦

beginner level in 🇯🇵 and 🇮🇹

want to learn 🇹🇭 🇮🇩/🇲🇾 🇹🇼 🇩🇪

🌈 interests 🌈

kpop

taylor swift

the lord of the rings

animals (cats!!!)

international relations

languages (obviously)

fashion & beauty

crocheting

traveling

💬 langtwt moots let me know who you are so I can follow you!

[writeitdownmaka]

ASKING ABOUT JAPANESE (IN JAPANESE)

****If there are corrections or additions I should make to this list, please send me a message!****

So I just started using HelloTalk for Japanese, and found out pretty quickly that asking people to help you IN Japanese gets you MUCH better answers so long as you’re up to the challenge of figuring out slightly more complicated explanations! Here are some ways to do that:

THINGS TO ASK

Can I ask you a question?

ちょっと質問していいですか？

How do you say “_____” in Japanese?

「＿＿＿」は日本語で何と言いますか？

日本語で「＿＿＿」はどうやって言いますか？

What does “_____” mean?

「＿＿＿」の意味はなんですか？

「＿＿＿」って、どういう意味ですか？

Could you please correct my sentences/check them for errors?

文章を直してください/くれませんか/もらえませんか

間違いがあるかどうかチェックしてもらえますか？

What is the difference between “__” and “__”?

「＿＿」と「＿＿」の違いは何ですか？

Which one sounds more natural?

どちらがもっと自然に聞こえますか？

どちらの方が自然ですか？

What kind of situation should I use it in?

どんな場合に使いますか？

Is there another way to say it?

日本語で同じような言い回しがありますか？

How would you say it?

___さんなら、これを何と言いますか？

Do people normally use this word/phrase?

このフレーズ/言葉を普段使いますか？

How do I use (this word/phrase)

「＿＿＿」をどうやって使いますか？

Is it similar to/Is it like “_____,” for example?

「＿＿＿」という事ですか？

「＿＿＿」と同じような意味ですか？

AND IF U DIDNT REALLY GET THEIR CORRECTIONS/COMMENTS:

I’m sorry, I didn’t really understand “_____.” Could you explain it to me?

（すみません、「＿＿＿」はよく分からなくて）、ちょっと説明してもらえませんか？

I’m sorry, would you mind explaining your corrections?

すみません、訂正を説明してもらえませんか？

OTHER TIPS

Say thank you afterward!

The sentences above are mostly starting points. The more you talk to people, the more you’ll notice how people ask things like “Oh, can you explain that thing on the bottom?” or “So it’s okay if I say this instead of this?” etc. etc. But these sentences will help you get on your feet!

What I sometimes like to do if they’re using really complicated Japanese to explain to me, it try to explain it in my own words and then add っていうことですか？ to find out if I’m understanding right!

Challenge yourself by answering Japanese-speakers’s questions in Japanese! You’d be surprised how much you can learn about explaining just by reading explanations!

Good luck! Please let me know if you have any questions! <3 頑張ってください！皆さん何か聞きたいことがあったら、何でも聞いてくださいね！<3

-Maka

[spanishskulduggery]

how do i go back to studying spanish after feeling depressed for a while? idk if i should review or what i should do i feel stuck

I find the easiest way to get myself back into Spanish is to review the fundamentals and work my way up. In my case it's usually reviewing the irregular verbs and stem-changing verbs and then sometimes making flashcards to make myself feel like I'm being productive

Sometimes I also take other people's little courses on memrise for flash cards

Or I do a deeper grammar review following the Bowdoin University Spanish page

Or, and this is me being advanced so I don't recommend it if you're not more advanced, I look up the grammar articles on the RAE, Fundeu, or Hispanoteca

I would also recommend checking out the WordReference forums for Spanish because there are lots of entries of people in real time asking/answering grammar questions

[a-pop-of-korean]

Semester in SK: Shopping Phrases

안녕하세요 여러분! I posted this list of shopping phrases on my Instagram that have been helpful during my semester in Korea so far, so I wanted to share it here as well! I hope you all find it useful as well! 화이팅!

My masterlist

Join my Discord chat here to practice Korean with others!

Follow me on Instagram here for more Korean content!

Get Drops Premium using my affiliate link to expand your Korean vocab!

Check out my Ko-Fi to support this blog and my studies! Thank you for your generosity!

[vocaloidstudent]

This might be a very niche take but I think we should take people's reasons for learning a language in mind when suggesting how they go about it

I've seen people in a lot of Japanese learning communities tell other to never watch fantasy anime (or anime at all sometimes) or read anything that's not slice-of-life or actual literature because "people in real life don't speak like that"

And while, yes, that's true, native Japanese speakers do not generally speak like anime characters, uhhhh... The probability of me watching a fantasy anime in the course of a month is significantly higher than the probability of me going to Japan in the next five years. So understanding anime character speech is in fact more relevant to me than, idk, business lingo

And, I don't think that's a bad thing personally? Learning a language because you want to better understand content you find fun is just as good a reason as learning it to live in the country where the language is spoken, and it's fine and reasonable to adjust your learning strategies according to your personal goals

[goodbye-tsugumi-deactivated2023]

If you’re learning Japanese and have a mailing address in the USA or Canada you can request a free online library card from the Japan Foundation and access their catalog via Libby. For the USA this process is completely online, unsure for Canada

They don’t have a large selection of books in Japanese at the moment, their fiction section is largely translated materials, but they do have a lot of Japanese textbooks and JLPT study books available.

Libby

[daily-hyosatsu]

Not a name but I just LOVE stuff like this :) An adorable interpretation of the character 鳥 (tori or chō), meaning bird.

Here's how the character may have evolved over time:

Also important to know: in a food context, 鳥 means chicken. There is also a character that specifically refers to chicken: 鶏, which is also read tori when referring to chicken meat (or 鶏肉 toriniku). For live birds, it's read niwatori,* and its on-yomi is kei, as in the chicken and rice dish 鶏飯 keihan.

*A good mnemonic for this is garden bird! 庭 niwa means garden or yard, so that makes the bird in your garden a 鶏 niwatori. It's also part of a famous tongue twister:

庭には鶏が2羽いる niwa ni wa niwatori ga niwa iru There are two chickens in the yard.

And if you're fucking awesome at tongue twisters (like I am!!!), here are some trickier versions. (And there's more here.)

裏庭には２羽、庭には２羽、鶏がいる ura-niwa ni wa niwa, niwa ni wa niwa, niwatori ga iru There are chickens, two in the backyard and two in the yard.

庭には鶏、裏庭にはワニ niwa ni wa niwatori, ura niwa ni wa wani There are chickens in the yard and an alligator in the backyard.

[songsortales]

So I found out a couple days ago that I’m probably moving to Korea around March? I was planning to *maybe* move late next year sometime so having that schedule moved up so much is a little jarring.

This means that my priority is now improving my Korean rather than improving all 4-6 languages at once. I’ll still do a little studying for each regularly, but I have so many Korean textbooks to go through and so little time.

Maybe I’ll make my goal for next year to reach 5급. I’m currently 3급 and in desperate need of reviewing old materials since it’s been a good while. Last time I was in Korea, my social anxiety was extremely bad so I got barely any speaking practice. Not anymore! I’m determined to go out of my comfort zone to improve.

화팅!

[songsortales]

December 3 language update

I have three things to finish by the end of the year: my french course, my beginner’s japanese course, and my korean textbook. I’ve been working on the french course this week and it’s going really well. I’ll write reviews when I’m finished with all that.

I’ve also been planning my goals for 2023. Since I don’t really know what I’ll be doing next year, it’s kind of difficult to know which goals will be realistic for me. I’m going to find a teaching job in Korea so I’d like to finish all of my physical textbooks/readers before I go since I don’t have to worry about packing my electronic resources. 

So far, I’ve come up with a good structure for my monthly plans so that all of my languages get the attention they need without it getting boring. I may need to adjust it a bit though so that darija gets more time. 

I don’t really have any plans for lessons with tutors/teachers because I need to save money, but I still have about 20 hours of darija lessons left that I’ve already paid for. I’ve been taking a break from my lessons because I wanted some time to solidify all of the information I’ve already gotten. I feel like I still have so much that I need to memorize and organize, so it will be a little while before I start those again. I have been using Glossika to practice/study darija and it has really helped me pick up the language easier.

That’s all for now <3

[anochezca-deactivated20221105]

For those of you studying Spanish (or those who just like to read): just in case you don’t know about it, I want to make sure everyone’s heard of Biblioteca Digital Ciudad Seva – they have tons of classic short stories, both from the Spanish speaking world and translated into Spanish. They also have poetry and theatre. This resource is what I used in undergrad to access texts for class but really there are so many great texts here, so be sure to check it out!

[anochezca-deactivated20221105]

And of course, I’ll leave you with some of my favorite short stories you can find on the website:

“La salud de los enfermos” y “Bestiario”, Julio Cortázar, Argentina

“Paseo nocturno” y “Feliz año nuevo“, Rubem Fonseca, Brasil

“Chac Mool“ y “Un alma pura”, Carlos Fuentes, México

“Feliz cumpleaños”, Clarice Lispector, Brasil

“Míster Taylor”, Augusto Monterroso, Guatemala

“La lluvia de fuego”, Leopoldo Lugones, Argentina

“El cansancio de Rosabel”, Katherine Mansfield, Nueva Zelandia

“Un hombre bueno es difícil de encontrar”, Flannery O’Connor, Estados Unidos

[theloverspeaks]

montclair state university, 2016

[liliisokay]

the universal experience of reading texts in another language is mentally buffering every time you come across a number written in digits

[adhd-languages]

Duolingo just described “つ” as “tsu, like in catsuit” and as much as I hate to admit it they’re 100% right.

[poetry-siir]

IG: ousíapoeticaok

[fluencylevelfrench]

The relative pronoun lequel

You use the relative pronoun lequel and its other forms (see below) when talking about things and people, but there has to be a preposition in front of it!

lequel: masculin, singulier

laquelle: féminin, singulier

lesquels: masculin, pluriel

lesquelles: féminin, pluriel

C'est la maison dans laquelle il y a une petite fille.

->laquelle = la maison

C'est le banc sous lequel il y a un petit oiseau.

->lequel = le banc

Il y a deux maisons entre lesquelles on trouve un arbre.

-> lesquelles = les maisons (f, pl)

Il y a deux bancs derrière lesquels on trouve une maison.

->lesquels (m, pl) = les bancs

prépositions: sur, sous, entre, derrière, devant, dans, ...

Attention: prépositions avec de/ à du de + lequel = duquel de +lesquels/lesquelles = desquels/desquelles

C'est la maison à côté de laquelle il y a une petite fille. C'est le banc à côté duquel il y a un petit oiseau. Il y a deux maisons à côté desquelles... Il y a deux bancs à côté desquels..

Same goes for à: à + lequel= auquel à + lesquelles/ lesquels = auxquelles/ auxquels

Let me know if there are any mistakes! Grammar masterlist

[sunriseverse]

i have no idea how to structure this post but i wanted to let any language learners following me to know about pronunciator! it's a programme i just found out our local library gives us access to, but i think that you can also register for it on your own. it has a massive number of courses for over 160 languages—even kurdish, which is really hard to find courses on! some other languages they have that i saw just from a quick glance at their languages page are armenian, mexican sign language, hmong, and amharic. i don't have a catchy tagline here, i just think you should consider looking into if you can use it.

[moami]

if you’re learning a language you’re either “I have the vocabulary of a pretentious old literature professor but grammar is a sinful mistress who shall never cross the threshold of my house” or you’re “I only know what ‘strawberry’ and ‘to go’ mean but by ye gods I can make them jump through conjugation hoops and declension parcours that would peel the socks off your feet”. no in between