#ask langblr

[michelle-languages]

hey everyone! ✨

today I’d like to celebrate my +1000 followers here on the blog, is there anything you’d like to see / have from me to celebrate this amazing and huge milestone?

[stupid-serendipity]

Dear #Langblr,

I speak Spanish fairly well (it’s not my native language). I listen to Latin music often to practice, and I’ve come across songs like Corazón and Latinoamérica. Both are mainly in Spanish but have a few verses in Portuguese.

This is a stupid question and I’ve mainly been joking when I say this but like...

Is the main difference just instead of “oh” or “ón” you say “ow”?????? 😂😂😂

Like guys:

Corazón = Coração

No = Não

Mi = Meu

Sincerely,

Wtf???

Traducido:

Hablo español (o castellano) bastante bien (no es mi lengua materna). Escucho a música latina a menudo a practicar y yo he se topado con canciones como Corazón y Latinoamérica. Los dos son mayormente en español pero tienen algunos versos en portugués.

Esta es una pregunta estúpida y principalmente he estado bromeando cuando digo esto pero...

Gente:

Corazón = Coração

No = Não

Mi = Meu

Sinceramente,

¿¿¿Wtf???

[midwinterarchives]

i have to say hindi is the toughest thing *i* had to endure in school and i dropped it as soon as i had an option to lol but i wish you good luck on your journey buddy! and you're learning Japanese and Russian too??? like i have nothing but respect for you *salut*

Good morning! 🌿 I totally get your experience of not clicking with a language! In school I really did not enjoy studying French and dropped it as soon as I could. Thankfully I chose Hindi myself and have an actual goal I am striving for!

Unfortunately, I had to put Japanese and Russian on the back burner for a while. University has gotten intense and I want to truly dedicate my energy and focus on what I am doing. Not half ass through multiple languages and forget everything within a week.

I hope you have a great day! ✨

[midwinterarchives]

Here's a little fun fact tho. Almost all the north Indian languages like Hindi, Punjabi (these two are my mother tongue), Bengali, Bhojpuri, all these originate from Sanskrit and/or Prakrit. Meanwhile, Urdu originates from completely different languages, Arabic and Persian. Yet, for some reason Hindi is WAYYY more similar to Urdu than to any of those languages, like I can distinguish between most north Indian languages but I cannot usually distinguish between Hindi and Urdu. As a native speaker.

That's such an interesting fun fact! I didn't know that since my teachers don't do language history. Thank you for the input - I hope I can try my luck distinguishing the languages myself later this year. 😊

[midwinterarchives]

Hello! I saw you're a Hindi langblr and I think that's so cool, most langblrs in my opinion are very eurocentric. I'm a native speaker. I read some of your posts and lemme tell you, once you learn how to speak Hindi, you already know 95% of spoken Urdu and vice versa. I've never studied Urdu for a day in my life but I can speak it, thanks to Hindi being one of my mother tongues. Writing is a whole different story, cuz the script is entirely different. Knowing Hindi also makes learning Sanskrit easier, I studied Sanskrit for four years for school (only because the other option was french and I wasn't gonna do that) and it's an infinite times easier going from Hindi to Sanskrit than English to Sanskrit (this is mainly because Hindi originated from Sanskrit so there's many similarities). There's a lot of resemblance in north Indian languages because most of them originate from Sanskrit so once you've got a hold of one of them, it's pretty easy learning others. It's sorta like a cheat where you can put in the effort of one language and flex about learning three 💀💀

Thank you for putting in the time and sending me a message! 🌿

I started with Hindi because my professor too thought it would be an important stepping stone for Urdu and Sanskrit. Yet I have only begun studying it at the first of March so I am still a long way from becoming fluid! It is a goal of mine though and I am very excited about this journey. If you have any recommendations for media or helpful resources, I'd love to hear about them!

Have a great week! ✨

[galwaygremlin]

probably no one will see this but i have a question for langblr- how do y’all do it? i’m autistic and experience a loooooooot of anxiety and roadblocks in communication. my native language is english, and i live in a place where learning other languages is a Weird Thing To Do. 

i LOVE learning new words, new sentence structures, cultures and histories other than americentric ones, but it’s so discouraging when i’m practicing to have everyone around me tell me i sound funny/like i’m speaking “gibberish”, that i’ll never use what i’m learning, that “people in other countries just learn english so who cares”, or whatever other stupid take they have on my interests and my skills. they also do the “can you say [x] in [language]” and then if i can’t “oh haha you’ll never be fluent at this rate”

i already get nervous speaking english because i’m constantly misunderstood and conversations often move too fast for me. even sitting alone at my computer taking duolingo lessons or watching youtube videos in my target languages feels awkward and scary- what if i mess up when i try to speak them? what if no one understands me/i don’t understand what i hear and i just look like a stupid american? what if i come off as insulting?

does anyone else experience this, and if so, how do you deal with it?