I want to take this man's voice and make it into an elixir that I will take a swig of every night so I am guaranteed a good night's sleep with nostalgic dreams of days gone by.

roma★
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
styofa doing anything

tannertan36

ellievsbear

Discoholic 🪩

Andulka
trying on a metaphor
Claire Keane

PR's Tumblrdome
dirt enthusiast

pixel skylines
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
No title available
One Nice Bug Per Day

Kiana Khansmith

@theartofmadeline
AnasAbdin
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
i don't do bad sauce passes

seen from Tunisia

seen from Germany

seen from Australia

seen from Germany

seen from Malaysia

seen from Türkiye
seen from France

seen from South Korea
seen from United States

seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye

seen from United Kingdom

seen from Türkiye

seen from Australia
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from Italy

seen from Hong Kong SAR China

seen from Türkiye

seen from Malaysia
@studybaer
I want to take this man's voice and make it into an elixir that I will take a swig of every night so I am guaranteed a good night's sleep with nostalgic dreams of days gone by.
‘is fheàrr gàidhlig bhriste na gàidhlig anns a’ chiste!’
[better broken gaelic than dead gaelic]
Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide
Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:
"I just want an identical experience to DL"
Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)
"I want a good audio-based app"
Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)
"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"
Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)
Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)
*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.
"I have a pretty neat library card"
Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)
Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)
"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"
AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)
"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"
AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone
"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"
lingory
"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"
ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)
"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"
Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)
a ‘hot minute’ can be both a very short period of time, and a very long one. however, a hot minute in the past (“It's been a hot minute since I've seen you!”) is most often a long duration, while a hot minute in the future (“I'll be with you in a hot minute!”) is most often a short duration. this suggests some very strange things about the temperature of time.
god actually baited us into creating the tower of babel so that He could create His most beloved children: autistic linguistics enthusiasts
i’m obsessed with these…
(From DepthOfWikipedia on Instagram)
hi!!! do you tv shows in swedish you can reccomend? i would try saying this in swedish but all i can come up with is du har rekomendationer för tv program en svenska? which is probably wrong?
Hey! Sorry for the late response!
These are some Swedish TV shows that i watched and enjoyed (i think i recommended most of these before, so i also added some that are on my "to watch" list):
Tv shows for teens/adults:
Bäst i test (season 1 and season 2 on Youtube)
Young Royals (on Netflix)
Folk med ångest (Netflix)
Kärlek & Anarki (Netflix)
Children's tv shows:
the "Mumin" tv show (on Youtube)
Pippi Långstrump (on SVT)
Fixa Rummet (on SVT)
Hatch! (on SVT)
Documentaries:
Skräp (on SVT)
Staden (on SVT)
Den svenska hiphopens pionjärer (on SVT)
De första svenskarna (on SVT)
Julen börjar i Gävle (on SVT)
My "to watch" list:
Sommarskuggan (children's tv show on SVT)
Det svenska modet (documentary on SVT)
Sverige! (documentary on SVT)
Sanning i sagorna (documentary on SVT)
Malmö - en resa i tiden (documentary on SVT)
Hockeyns historia (documentary on SVT)
language learning culture is the feeling of exhiliration when you see a newly acquired word out in the wild
LGBTQ+ terminology - as Gaeilge ☘️🌈
Now, pardon me, but before I get to the meat of this post, the LGBTQ+ stuff, which is what I know we're all looking for 😁 I gotta do a little rant first
😌🙏😙💨
While I deeply appreciate the efforts of several groups over the last couple of years to translate English-language terminology and understanding of gender and sexuality, and the digression and non-conformity belonging thereto, I believe that, ultimately, it's a placeholding wedge-in that contributes to the wider problem of Anglicisation, or more accurately "Béarlachas", as it affects the Irish Gaelic language.
(Yes, I do be calling the language Gaelic - No, I am not American. I have a reason for doing so which I'll elaborate on in another post*.)
Now, Béarlachas is *not* borrowing and loaning words from English and using them seamlessly in Irish - a thiarcais, Irish speakers have been under the yoke of that language for over nine-hundred years, stating that we cannot adopt and adapt its words to our language is tone policing and language oppression of minority language speakers at it finest 🤌.
No, "Béarlachas" is the enforcement of the English-language thought process onto Irish. It comes from a place where thinking that English is more advanced, and has developed ways of understanding, and assuming that no other language, or in this case, Irish, has not caught up, or needs to rely on English.
You can see how this is a problem, right?
Queer people have always been everywhere. People distorting gender and sexuality norms have always been around. I remember growing up and an elderly family member from deep deep rural Ireland saying "Them townies always be looking down and calling peeple transvestites - sure out here that's only Amateur Dramatics!"
One of my parents has a story of knowing an "Auntie Bob" in their local town, someone who lived on the edge of the village, but not shunned by any modern transphobia standards.
There are so many queer stories lying under the surface - so plentiful that I'd encourage anyone to talk to older family members, or elderly people in your community. Now obviously, they won't have our modern terms like "queer" and "transgender" for them, but the stories, the people, are there 🎊.
- rant ends -
Anois! What we've all been waiting for:
LGBTQ+ slang, slurs, terms and explanations in the Irish language 🏳️🌈🥳
Starting off, what does the Irish language call "gender" and "sexuality"??
Sex (the act) is usually referred to by learners, second-language speakers and official dictionaries as "gnéas" - but a lot of vernacular speakers refer to it as:
Collaíocht
The word comes from the word collaí, meaning "carnal / sexual", which itself comes from the word colla, which in turn is a variant plural form of the word colainn, meaning "body". So a way of understanding collaíocht, would be thinking of it as meaning "body-ing", which ultimately, I think, is a cuter, more accurate and reflective way of referring to the act than Sex.
Gnéas
This is the word most dictionaries have down to describe the act, but let's have a fresh look at the word. Just as teas (heat) comes from the word te (hot), the word gnéas comes from the word gné. The following is the entry from the Ó Dónaill (1977) 'Irish-English Dictionary' for 'gné':
1. Species, kind...
2. Form, appearance
Form, appearance... further down the entry, we also have the word "aspect", as in "every aspect of the matter"... I wonder... sounds an awful lot like gender here to me - and at the time of Ó Dónaill, Ua Maoileoin and de Bhaldraithe composing their dictionaries, 'sex' and 'gender' would have been interchangeable terms.
While I have yet to look into this further, I have to wonder whether ascribing "gnéas" to the act of sex, rather than sex as in "gender" is a case of Béarlachas: applying English-language understandings to Irish-language words.
Which brings me around to:
Inscne
The word that I suspect of being a definite case of applying an English-language understanding to an Irish-language word. Inscne comes from Sean-Ghaeilge "insce", meaning a saying, a statement or word, and was applied to the sense of grammatical gender, or 'noun class'. Modern groups and most second language speakers apply the word to the English understanding of gender (most vernacular speakers I know simply borrow "gender" from English). Again, my own opinion and proposition, would be to use gnéas for gender, collaíocht for the act of sex, and cineál for sex (body type).
Cineál
Furthermore, Scottish Gaelic 🏴 also uses 'gnè' for gender, and 'tar-ghnèitheach' for transgender. The word for sex as in body type is 'seòrsa' - which is equivalent to the Irish cineál, which also has been used to describe body types. I think this understanding of the word cineál would be great to separate the traditional understanding of gender = body, and help us in any case to destigmatise bodies 🤷.
*The above have been kinda the groundwork. Here come the slang and slurs™️ proper*
Piteog (derog.)
This is the one most people who've done a little digging will've come across. The explanation that usually comes with it is 'effeminate man, sissy' or 'fairy (derogatory)' - but let's break down this word more, and discover the misogyny, reductiveness, wlw-erasure and why it to really only refers to mlm and transfeminine members of the LGBTQ+ community:
Pit is the Irish for 'vulva'. -óg or -eog is a suffix that kind of implies "like" - e.g. a camóg is something that's kinda cam (bent), i.e. a hurley. Piteog literally means "something like a vulva" 🤷.
Buachaill bán
No, not the Whiteboys of 1800s agrarian agitation in Ireland 🤣, but again another term for men-loving men. I think it's kinda poetic that the rainbow 🌈, the modern global symbol of LGBTQ+ people, is made up white light through a prism, and that the colour white was used to describe a sector of LGBTQ+ people in Ireland fadó.
*The only reason I'm saying this is an mlm term is because I've never come across it being used to describe wlw or other queer identities - but perhaps it could be used in a broader context?? Idk.
Lúbtha ("lúpthaí" i gConamara)
Literally translates as "bent". Lúb as a verb means "1. to loop, 2. to enmesh /to net, 3. to bend". Those in/from the Gaeltacht that I've spoken to of an older generation use it casually, with no obvious negative intent behind it, tho I've come across several middle-aged people who are scandalised if you say it (to the same extent as saying someone's 'bent' in English) but I dunno if that is from intergenerational difference is use (whether it became a slur in the last half-century or so) or if it comes from Gen X aversion to calling people 'bent' in English, and them correlating it to Lúbthaí in Irish.
Cam (slur)
Cam is a slur. While yes, it simply means 'bent', it carries the connotations of "crooked, sly, conniving" and in its usage, it is almost always unmistakeably intended as an insult.
Aiteach
I just want to put this on the list to discuss it. "Aiteach" is a modern construction. If you look up 'queer' in the dictionary, one of the entries you'll get is "ait", meaning 'pleasant, likeable, comical, fine, queer'. Ait is still used in everyday language (we all know the phrase "Is ait an mac an saol"), and was never used to describe LGBTQ+ people, but because of its positive connotations and appearance under "queer" in the dictionary, -each was added onto the end to describe LGBTQ+ people without having to use the abovementioned slurs. Yes, it is borderline Béarlachas, but most young Gaeil (Gaeltacht natives / vernacular speakers) I know don't have a problem with it 😁.
Gearrán
I've noticed the conspicuous gap of wlw specific terminology in this list. What can I say, 100 years of Catholic nationalist censorship on top of a patriarchal organisation of society makes them hard to come by. However, while I've never heard this word used, I've been seeing Gearrán more and more in online spaces lately.
(No, it's not related to gearán (complaint), and the two r's change the vowel sound of the 'ea')
It translates to a gelding, or a pack-horse, and according to Ó Dónaill (1977), can also mean a "Strong-boned woman; drudge, jade", and if that isn't a euphemism for a butch lesbian, idk what is.
Alright, that is an infodump and a half!
And there's still so much I could say... Lads, let's just say there's loads more to come 🤣
Slán tamaill 👋
I'm white/a settler, can I learn a Native American language?
Of course, people can learn any language they can find resources for. So with this question, people are mostly looking for moral permission. Would it be harmful for me to learn one? Do I have the right to learn one?
The short answer: It depends. It depends on a lot of factors. Key things this post will focus on are:
Which one do you want to learn?
Why do you want to learn it?
How do you plan on learning it?
What are you going to do with it once you do get some fluency?
Some tribes feel very differently about outsiders learning it than others do. And individuals within tribes have an even wider opinion range.
There is no "one" correct answer, and I think if white people go about seeking to get a direct clear cut yes or no answer, that by itself is a sign that they are not very educated in Native American language activism and the needs of Natives.
To explore this topic, I organized a survey for Native people to share their thoughts. It involved questions about how they personally feel, how their tribe as a whole tends to feel, and how their opinion varies between white people vs other Indigenous people not from their own tribe. 53 respondents participated, and 3/53 choose to not disclose their tribe. Throughout the rest of this post, I use "Native" for short. Please see below the cut for all the results and exploration! Note: this is very long. But for all allies / people interested in learning these languages, it is well worth your time to read and learn from Natives.
Mandarin resources (free) Beginner.
Index for this post:
HSK word list
Tones
Pinyin
Web courses
Flashcards
Dictionaries
Sentences
Extensions (Chrome-Firefox)
Book recs
Input (Reading/Videos/TV shows and Films)
Other
Last edited/updated: 19 / Feb / 2022 = (edit 16)
HSK word list
HSK 1 Hsk.Academy Simplified and Traditional (with pinyin), exercises and sentences examples.
HSK 2-6
1500 Most Common Chinese Characters (edit 17): Definitions and audio pronunciations + search in the dictionary link.
TONES
Digmandarin *Tone explanation (but with words with more than 1 syllable, which is great because the hard part is when a word has 2 o more syllables)
Sinosplice More tones! (pair drills)
*Youtube vid explaining tones and exceptions (like tone modification and the half 3 and 4 tones) Link Link2 (edit 1)
** Tone pairs youtube vid by Yoyo Chinese (Individual tones 0:00-8:30 // Tone pairs 8:30-27) Link (edit 10)
Tone pairs chart + Exercises from said chart (edit 9)
Tone pairs + audio for all the tone combinations Link (Edit 11)
*Exercises: (edit 7)
which tones do you hear (tone pairs)
another which tones do you hear (single syllab or tone pairs)
match pinyin + tone to the sound
match the sound to the pinyin + tone
differenciate between tones
tone speaking practice (listen and repeat recording yourself)
Seguir leyendo
「習う」と「学ぶ」の違いは何?
what’s the difference between these two verbs for “to learn”?
well, as it turns out, the difference has to do with how you learned the information you’re referring to—namely, whether you learned from another person or not. check out this explanation from a hinative thread:
習う・・・人から教わる(おそわる)こと / to be taught by someone
学ぶ・・・知識や技芸を身につけること / to acquire some knowledge or skill
学ぶには、学習する、勉強するという意味もあります / 学ぶ can also mean to 学習する or 勉強する.
so, 習う is for things you learn from people and 学ぶ is for things you learn from books, etc., or as a synonym for studying. here are some examples (from the same hinative thread):
本を読んで英語を学びました。 (never 習いました)
ピアノを母から習いました。 (not 学びました)
example 1 specifies that the new information comes from a book, while example 2 specifies that it comes from the speaker’s mom. it seems like such a fundamental difference between the two, but i know i for one had never heard of it before!
anyways, i hope this quick little lesson was helpful. また今度ね!
this is definitely not the link to a google drive with free mandarin chinese practice books, definitely not
thinking about idioms now bc of that post so here are some fun swedish expressions and what they mean
att ha tomtar på loftet – to have gnomes in your attic (to have a few screws loose)
att ana ugglor i mossen – to sense owls in the mire (to smell a rat)
att glida in på en räkmacka – to slide in on a shrimp sandwich (to succeed with no effort)
att få sina fiskar varma – to have your fish heated (to get a stern talking to)
att lägga lök på laxen – to put onions on the salmon (to add insult to injury)
att vara ute och cykla – to be out biking (to be totally wrong)
dra dit pepparn växer! – go where the pepper grows! (fuck off!)
dra mig baklänges på en liten kärra – pull me backwards in a little wagon (i'll be damned)
det är ingen ko på isen – there's no cow on the ice (it's not a problem)
nu är det kokta fläsket stekt – now the boiled pork is fried (things have gotten really bad)
klart som korvspad – clear as sausage water (plainly obvious)
lika goda kålsupare – equally good cabbage-drinkers (one's as bad as the other)
det tar sig sa mordbrännarn – it's catching, said the arsonist (it's coming together) (i don't know how common this is but my mom says it)