#essay???

[omelette-the-anomaly]

I write essays (and analysis’s) about my special interests (ROTTMNT and Abnormal Psych) for fun. Should I start posting them here?

I’ve always been better at essay writing over creative, though I like editing creative writing. So ig it’d kind of be a way to contribute to the fandom while indulging in the things that make me happy, plus it’d be a nice audience for my infodumps. What do you guys think?

[valeriehalla]

thoughts about language-learning

i'm going to tell you something that you may find kind of cringe, especially coming from the mouth of a native english speaker. however, it's true. the trueness of this statement will become clear to you shortly. for now, you're just going to have to lay eyes upon it and accept it.

here it is:

"I like manga and anime" is actually a pretty good reason to learn Japanese.

okay. alright? are we good? let's talk about it.

maybe you read that sentence and your immediate thought was something like, "that seems like a shallow reason to learn a language." maybe you feel that learning a language for the fulfillment of mundane desires is in some way disrespectful. you might think of it as akin to becoming catholic just because you can't get enough of those little biscuits.

well: maybe it is? like, sure. it might be like that. i think that's a discussion you can have. language is, after all, culture.

but here's the thing:

the only way to acquire a language is through thousands of hours of exposure. and the only reason anyone commits to that sort of thing is if it gets them something that they really really want.

if you want to know what i mean, please follow me to my chambers.

listen:

nobody acquires a language out of pure academic curiosity.

did you know most linguists are monolingual? a linguist might know the grammar, history and even vocabulary of a half-dozen languages like the back of their hand, yet not necessarily be able to speak any of them in a way that's useful on a day-to-day basis. this is because there is a fundamental difference between having an academic understanding of a language and being fluent in a language.

some linguists distinguish between these two kinds of knowledge. they say that the former is the result of "learning" a language, and the latter is the result of "acquiring" a language.

language acquisition is the reason you can read this post and understand it without each sentence feeling like a mental sudoku puzzle. for most of the people reading this, including many of the ones for whom english is a second language, i'm willing to bet that you're not translating what i'm saying word-by-word as you read it. you simply read the words, and the meaning appears in your head, unbidden.

you just get it.

that's what fluency is. that's what it means to acquire a language.

but here's the thing, and it cannot be stressed enough: language acquisition only happens through long-term exposure.

and we're not talking about a little bit of exposure. we're talking about, like, a lot. how many words does a baby have to hear before they figure out how to say their first grammatically-correct sentence? how many before they can understand a whole bedtime story?

of course, your prospects as an adult aren't quite that grim. i mean, a baby also has to learn every single other thing about the world in addition to their first language. a baby has to learn what the hell a dog is before they can truly appreciate the majesty of a Big Red One Named Clifford. in this respect you already have a foot in the door of every language on earth.

still: you don't acquire a language without exposure. and the amount of exposure required is so huge that within a rounding error of zero people will ever get off their ass and do it—unless they have external motivation.

consider two guys:

guy A wants to learn Japanese because it's an interesting language with a rich history and it'll look great on his résumé.

guy B wants to learn Japanese so he can read untranslated yaoi.

maybe this will come as a surprise to you, but it's simply a fact: guy B is about 10,000× more likely to actually acquire Japanese.

if he does, guy B will definitely come to understand that japanese is an interesting language with a rich history, and it will look great on his résumé. but he'll get there because he's going to read millions of words' worth of raw japanese input, as much as he can possibly stuff his head with, and he's going to do so happily because it's what he wanted to do anyway.

nobody gets good at anything without a good reason. and if acquiring a language is your goal, then what counts for a "good reason" is just whatever gets you to use the language, as much as possible, as often as possible.

∗ ∗ ∗

one more analogy, just to really hammer it in:

i could stand to exercise more. i know that exercise is good for me, and i already own a bike and everything. but the fact of the matter is that abstract rewards like "it's healthy" aren't enough to motivate me to get on my bike.

you know what does get me on it?

the fact that i don't own a car!!

if i want to go somewhere, i gotta get on that freaking bike! the bike is the means by which i am able to fulfill my base desires, such as "food" and "beverages" and "being anywhere at all other than my house".

yet though my desires are base, the benefits of riding a bike nonetheless attend their fulfillment. my stamina is way up, my resting heart rate is down, and my pant legs keep getting caught on my big-ass calves.

as with the bike, so with japanese.

∗ ∗ ∗

over the past few weeks i've read a half dozen novels in japanese. for the most part, it's all stuff i would have been thrilled to read in english. but most of those books had no english editions; and for the ones that did—well, that would have amounted to Buying A Car.

i've been learning japanese for a long time, and almost 100% of that time has been spent on immersion. when i first started this process, it was like pulling teeth in a haystack. i understood maybe 10% of what i was reading at any given moment. but, i had important business to attend to that absolutely required that i read japanese. and yes, that business was untranslated yuri VNs.

it turns out that 10% is enough. that 10% is the working end of the crowbar. 10% becomes 20% easier than you'd think. many years later, i'd say i'm up to about 98% depending on what i'm reading. i couldn't tell you when it happened; it happens slowly and unconsciously. you never feel like you're making progress, the same way you never feel the earth spinning.

∗ ∗ ∗

anyway, that's all i wanted to say. if i were you, i wouldn't construe anything in this post as advice, per se. these are just observations of things i believe strongly (and from experience) to be true.

in particular, one thing i don't think you should take away from this post is the idea that academic language study is pointless. it's super pointful! it's just that it's step one of a multi-step process.

it's been my experience that a lot of people—most people—get stuck at that step and never move on. they study and study and study, but they never get to a point where they feel like they're "ready" to "move on" to reading "real stuff".

if you want my two cents, it's this: i don't think you can get to that point through study alone. i don't think most people are ever going to feel like they're "ready".

you just have to want to do it, and you have to be patient enough with yourself to put up with doing it badly for a long time.

so, like, you might as well be reading about boys kissing or whatever while you work on it, is what i'm saying.

[mxbitters]

Modify.

Ashton Hamre

Modify, change, create, destroy, draw, dye, rinse, repeat.

I am told by my eleven-year-old brother that I worry too much about clothes and makeup.  I get in trouble with my father on a regular basis for the sharpie drawings of eyes, stars and flowers my friends and I put on my hands and arms.  I am told by strangers on the internet that putting glitter on my face and painting my nails black contradicts my identity as a transgender person, that if I am happy with presenting in such a feminine manner that I must not truly want to go through with changing my body so it fits me better.  

I can’t help but wonder, though,

what is the queer body meant to look like?

I will admit to the sin it apparently is to crave modification, to wear so many layers my body appears shapeless, to put so much color on my arms that I cannot see the color of my skin, to compile Pinterest boards full of tattoos and dye my hair bright red because I cannot stand the natural brown it reverts back to.

People joke a lot about people like me, the stereotypical white-passing androgynous kid who dyes their hair, listens to mildly angry music, wants a stick-and-poke and refuses to conform to the gender binary.  I don’t get that.  I read an analogy somebody came up with, that if you’re incapable of renovating a house, you’ll at least try to change the paint.  And that’s what I think modification is for me.  If I must live in this body, why can’t my arms look like Van Gogh paintings and my hair be like David Bowie’s?  Being a sixteen-year-old who cannot make any important decisions or changes to my body, I am going to try and give it life and turn myself into a work of art in any way I can.  

And to be quite honest, I don’t think I will ever truly change.  I’ll transition, I’ll walk around shirtless and sparkling brighter than snow in the morning, I’ll dye my hair nearly every color I can think of, I’ll wear whatever the hell I want, I’ll decorate my body with sunflowers and butterflies and tarot cards and Greek gods and Ghibli characters and whatever I feel, and I will not regret it.  I cannot guarantee I will ever stop being the subject of ridicule, but I know that the day will come that I stop giving a damn.

“And I don't care what anybody says; I like doing it, and it's what I shall continue to do” - David Bowie

[tododekunn]

Midorya is NOT weak.

It probably doesn’t make sense

I’d like to expand it and add facts supporting it, I’ll do it when I have time in a reblog

I really hate how people who have watched BNHA say Midoriya is a weak character. As a fan of shounen, I’ve come across many MCs. Yes, you could argue that BNHA is cliché, in which that the MC has no superpower and gains a powerful quirk. But he doesn’t randomly get a power quirk, he has to work for it. This kid spent a long time (I honestly forgot) moving rubbish from one side of the beach to the other. What drove him down that path was his determination and passion to become a hero.

He was going to take all the chances he got, he wasn’t going to waste them.

Midoriya isn’t naïve or weak in general. We’ve seen many MCs who get easily swayed by things around them. Power, Fame, Money or just being stupid in general. Even though Midoriya was quirkless at a young age, he did not let it get to him. This just made him strive for his dream goal even more.

And he never let go of that dream, no matter what he has to do to achieve it.

Midoriya weak? Hah lol what a joke

Midoriya isn’t weak because he was never weak in the first place.

Midoriya is actually stronger than we think he is.  It’s your power, so hone it.”