Hi, @feministhotline ! I’m your secret Santa! I went for the cultural aspect of Spanish (from Spain) and French (from France).
I want to thank @iamactuallya-cat for the French point of view and @langblrsecretsanta for running this amazing presents exchange again this year!
🎁Giving and receiving the present
Gifter: Toma, esto es para ti (Here, this is for you) / Hey ça c’est pour toi (hey this is for you)
Giftee: ¡No tenías que haberte molestado! (You didn’t have to bother with it!) / Tu n’aurais du! (you shouldn’t have) No matter how glad you’re for the gift, you say that!
🎁Opening the present
Giftee: ¿Qué es?/ Qu’est-ce que c’est? (¿What’s it?)
Giftee: De verdad, no tenías que regalarme nada. (Seriously, you didn’t have to give me anything!) / J’avais besoin de rien (I didn’t need anything). Even if it’s your birthday you play modest! In France they do accept the gift quicker than in Spain, it’s more like ‘i didn’t need anything but i’m glad you bought me a gift’
Gifter: ¡Ábrelo para que veas lo que es! ¡Venga, venga! (Open it to see what it is! Come on!) / Allez ouvre! J'espère que ça va te plaire (Come on open it! I hope you’re going to like it)
Giftee: Wonders aloud what the package might be
Giftee: If you can’t open the package, you have to say how pretty the paper is, that you don’t want to break it, or that it’s very well wrapped. You can also say you’re nervous, so that’s why it’s taking you so long to open it. Es que no quiero romper el papel/J’ai pas envie de casser ton emballage ou de déchirer le papier cadeau! (I don’t want to break the wrapping or to tear the wrapping paper)
🎁Once it’s opened
Giftee: ¡Oh! ¡Qué bonito! ¡Muchas gracias! ¡Es lo que quería! ¡Me encanta! / C’est si beau! Merci beaucoup! C’est que que je voulais! Je l’adore (It’s so beautiful! Thanks so much! It’s what I wanted! I love it!). Time to say how much you love it and say thank you for it!
Gifter: ¿De verdad? Si no te gusta puedes cambiarlo… (Really? You can return it, if you don’t like it…)/ Vraiment? J’ai gardé le ticket de caisse au cas où (Really? I kept the receipt just in case). You insist on how it was nothing, even if you’re exploding with excitement too.
Giftee: Say thank you again and insist on how much you like it. Kiss/hug the gifter if you really liked it. In France you kiss everyone invoveled in the gift: faire la bise.
Merry Christmas @queerlingual! Here’s your gift for the @langblrsecretsanta Based on your interest and your passion for activism, as well as your intermediate level in Dutch, I wanted to combine immersive language learning methods with resources on human rights in our small but surprisingly diverse country.
Literature
Hallo witte mensen van Anousha Nzume Een heel populair boek over racisme in Nederland dat redelijk wat losmaakte in de maatschappij toen het uitkwam (vooral in negatieve zin).
Witte onschuld van Gloria Wekker Dit boek gaat over racisme in de media in Nederland en natuurlijk over Zwarte Piet.
Roofstaat van Ewald Vanvugt Een heel ongecensureerde versie van de Nederlandse geschiedenis, vooral over slavernij en het koloniaal verleden.
Max Havelaar van Multatuli Dit is een onderdeel van de Nederlandse literaire canon en het is oorspronkelijk geschreven tegen de Nederlandse koloniale administratie in Indonesië.
Kartonnen dozen van Tom Lanoye Een literair boek over een gay jongen op de middelbare school.
Welkom bij de club van Thomas van der Meer Een luchtig boek over een transjongen.
Nog veel meer queer boeken op queerboeken.nl.
Podcasts
Spectrum Deze podcast gaat over queerness in Nederland, vooral onder mensen van kleur. Het is een relatief nieuwe podcast over zowel persoonlijke als politieke onderwerpen (vaak allebei tegelijkertijd!).
Dipsaus Dit is een podcast waarin drie vrouwen met elkaar praten over hun ervaringen als zwarte vrouwen in Nederland. Ze nodigen vaak gasten uit om met hen te praten over identiteit en een scala aan politieke onderwerpen. De drie presentatrices zijn ontzettend sympathiek en zijn goed bekend met de onderwerpen die ze bespreken. Ik ben redelijk verslaafd aan deze podcast.
Fufu en Dadels Een vergelijkbare podcast over vrouwen van kleur in Nederland, maar dan vanuit een Zuid-Nederlands perspectief. Ondanks ons kleine formaat zijn er regionale verschillen, die in deze podcast ook mooi naar voren komen, vooral in vergelijking met de Randstad (the metropolitan areas around Amsterdam, Utrecht, and the Hague).
Jurre’s Date Spuiten en Slikken Dit is niet expliciet een social justice gerelateerde podcast, maar raakt wel vaak aan onderwerpen zoals seksualiteit, fysieke of mentale beperkingen en sekswerk. Het is een beetje theatraal, maar soms wel interessant om naar te luisteren.
Queerstory Dit is een heel nieuwe podcast over queer personen in de geschiedenis. Er zijn op het moment van schrijven drie afleveringen.
De Groene Amsterdammer Het is eigenlijk een nieuwspodcast, maar wel aan de linkerkant van het politieke spectrum.
Series / Documentaries
Hij is een zij Serie waarin transgendermensen gevolgd worden in hun dagelijks leven en transitie.
Geboeid: terug naar de plantage Deze documentaireserie volgt Nederlanders die op zoek gaan naar de slavernijachtergrond in hun familie en zich verdiepen in het slavernijverleden van Nederland in het algemeen.
#Boos: Terug naar je eige land Deze documentaire gaat over asielzoekers die teruggestuurd worden door de overheid naar een gevaarlijk land. Het maakte heel wat los in de samenleving en het is een ontzettend belangrijke discussie in Nederland wie hier wel en niet mag blijven.
Verdacht Deze documentaire gaat over etnisch profileren, vooral richting mannen van kleur in Nederland door de politie.
Vrouw op Mars Een documentaireserie over het feminisme in Nederland.
Oogappels Een geweldige serie over een aantal families en hun problemen. De personages zijn super realistisch en er is redelijk wat representatie.
Gewoon vrienden Een romantische komedie over twee jonge mannen die smoorverliefd worden. Cute.
Dunya en Desie Dit is een vrij oude sitcom over twee vriendinnen. Een van de twee heeft Marokkaanse ouders en is volgens mij een van de oudere representaties van Marokkaanse families op TV.
Over het algemeen kun je heel veel films, series en documentaires vinden op npostart.nl.
Feel free to ask me for more specific recommendations as you get through these (especially documentaries are my jam)! I hope you love them as much as I do!
🎆Merry Christmas🌟!!! I hope you are having a wonderful Holiday season!!!!
Hey @azaharperezoso,
I hope this holiday season finds you in great health and prosperity 😊🎁 I’m your Secret Santa from @langblrsecretsanta
I was told you like learning quite a lot of languages. I decided to focus on Hindi (and a little Arabic if you squint) because I’m most familiar with them. I hope you’ll enjoy this read!
I learned Hindi for 11 years in my schooling before I dropped it. I am by no means an expert, but I hope you’ll find my observations and tips helpful (even though it might be very basic).
Hindi, an Indo-Aryan language, is like a blanket language that is officially used to refer to and cover most dialects and variations of it spoken by people living in North India or the Hindi speaking belt. Most Indian kids have to learn Hindi at school either as their 2nd or 3rd Language. Add that to the prevalence and unescapable😂nature of Bollywood, it is spoken and understood by a good chunk of the Indian Subcontinent.
Despite it being one of the 2 official languages of India, Hindi isn’t the mother tongue of a good portion of Indians. The South Indian states are ethno-linguistically Dravidian, and their languages are derived from different sources and all the different South Indian languages have their unique Scripts and Speech. (But if you can understand one South Indian language, chances are that you can understand the rest, as they’re from the same linguistic group).
So, I have to caution anyone planning a trip to India to look up which State they are traveling to and research the State Language before going. You wouldn’t want to offend the native speakers by speaking in a different language and expecting them to understand you, especially since most non-Hindi speaking states hate having to deal with ignorance and cultural erasure. (Trust me, it gets ugly). Plus, it endears the native speakers to hear a non-native speaker make an effort to learn their language!
While we talk about Hindi, it is pertinent to mention Urdu as well because both Hindi and Urdu together make up what’s called Hindustani. Although Urdu and Hindi follow different scripts, with Urdu vocabulary being close to its Arabic and Persian roots and Hindi staying close to its Sanskrit roots with a sprinkling of loanwords, a native Hindi or Urdu speaker can understand the other language without much trouble because both languages are derived from Sanskrit and they use quite a lot of loanwords and phrases from Persian, Arabic, Turkish, etc., in vernacular use.
I hope you don’t mind that I’m going to be focusing a bit more on Hindustani because of its close ties to Arabic. I am hesitant to stick to just Hindi and its Sanskrit vocab here because if you can understand Urdu, your chances of understanding Arabic become higher. They have a few variations like:
· Thank you - Shukran (Arabic) – Shukriya (Urdu/Hindi)
In fact, there are quite a few Arabic loanwords that are commonly used in Hindi like:
(Ok I know you said no Vocab lists, but I couldn’t resist :P)
And many more!
Most Arabic derived words end with an -at (त) sound. The typical Hindi synonyms of those words don’t do that. For Example: Bravery is Himmat, and its synonyms are Saahas, Veerta, and Bahaaduri.
Some interesting Hindi idioms, proverbs and expressions that are used are:
And these are a few ways you can go about meeting people and making small talk!
This is a polite greeting that you’d generally use when greeting guests, shopkeepers and even your friends and family. Depending upon your relation/closeness to the person you are addressing, this is followed up with some small talk,
📔 Some things to note here:
Shukriya is an Urdu word and is similar to the Arabic word for Thanks (Shukran).
Aap (आप) and Tum (तुम) are both used to address someone as ‘You’ but Aap is formal and is used to show respect, with elders, your superiors at work, etc. Tum is informal and is generally used with close friends and family, who are younger than you. Despite this, I’ve had friends whose parents addressed them with ‘Aap’ so it’s pretty subjective within families. But a general rule of thumb is to use ‘Aap’ when in doubt about your relation to someone or regarding your closeness to them. The worst thing that they’ll assume is that you’re a bit too formal, but at least you won’t offend or disrespect them.
Since English is the lingua franca in most Indian cities, it isn’t uncommon to reply with “Thanks,” “Bye!” or “Hello” instead of their Hindi counterparts.
💾 Resources to Learn Hindi:
This might seem childish and you might brush it off because it isn’t the professional way to learn, but the easiest way to learn Hindi is by watching videos made for kindergarten children. These videos are made with smol children in mind and explain the stroke order of alphabets, pronunciation and give good examples so that you can understand the letters and words easily. I’m linking a YouTube Channel and a few videos for learning the Hindi Varnmala (That’s what the Hindi Alphabets are called). Plus, I’ve used this Company for help back when I was a kid, the only difference is that I had to buy CDs to access them 😅 (oof I’m old)
Pebbles Hindi - They are a Youtube channel that focus on teaching children (smol babies) through very well explained videos and stories and more. I’m linking the video for the varnmala (1) (2) (3) (4) and this is for barakhadi (1)
A Door Into Hindi - A site with a lot of daily scenarios and video examples
NCERT Texbooks from Grade 1 onwards - NCERT is the government approved board that creates and publishes standardized textbooks for Grades 1 through 12. While they are pretty simplistic compared to private publications, the biggest and best thing about these textbooks is their availability and simplicity. It helps you out with the basics and are easily accessible in PDF format. Unfortunately, I can’t link their official website due to Terms of Use, but you can directly Google them ‘NCERT PDFs’.
@currylangs on Tumblr have cool resources to learn many Indian languages. This is their Hindi tag
💾 Resources to Learn Arabic:
I can’t confidently recommend Arabic learning resources, but this one covers the things I consider important when learning a language.
https://www.madinaharabic.com/learn-arabic.html
I am going to make a very bold declaration and say that Duolingo is NOT GOOD for Hindi or Arabic. The reason I say this is because both these languages have pretty darn difficult scripts with difficult pronunciations for the average native English speaker. And in my not-so-humble opinion, you NEED to get the alphabets and pronunciations right for you to be able to comprehend the language. The old-fashioned way where you sit and practice by writing for hours, until the script and sounds become second nature, is the way to go.
So pleaseeeee don’t use Duolingo as the sole source of your language learning, especially if the language has a completely different script from the ones you familiar with. You can use it as a supplement like a flashcard or trivia quiz to see if you know your stuff, but even then, its use is limited with regards to non-Latin script-based languages.
And now onto my favorite bit! Movies, Songs and Shows!!!
🎫Shows/Movies/Videos (in no particular order):
Raja, Rasoi aur Anya Kahaaniya (lit. Kings, Kitchens and Other Stories) – Netflix. This is a show that takes you on a culinary journey through the different states of India, while talking about how the history of that region came to influence its cuisine and culture. It has been one of my most favorite finds this quarantine! I highly recommend it because you’ll be introduced to different dishes that are not covered in mainstream media. Further, the whole show is narrated in Hindi (a more sophisticated kind, not your regular vernacular like in Bollywood) so you can switch on subtitles to learn more!
Queen – Oooohhhhhh boi! This movie took the cinema goers by a storm when it first hit the big screen! It follows the journey of a young, shy, meek, woman finding herself after her fiancé jilts her before their wedding. Features wonderful and strong characters, amazing acting and direction. Truly a must watch when you feel low.
3 Idiots – A comedy that deals with life in Engineering College. It leans to social commentary talking about Indians and their obsession with making their kids Engineers or Doctors. Its really nice and is a must watch. It has pretty cool songs and romance is also a sub-sub-plot (not that important imo).
English Vinglish – It shows the hardships faced by a mother who doesn’t know how to speak English and is constantly ridiculed by everyone around her. This movie is an wonderful social commentary about quite a lot of things experienced by an average woman. I want to recommend this because you follow the main character on her journey to learn English and as language learners, we can all take pride in her drive and spirit.
Jab We Met – This is one of my Top 10 movies of all time. It takes the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope and beautifully crafts a masterpiece with well-written characters and commendable acting. The songs in this movie are a bop too!
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara – A movie of 3 friends on a road trip and how they deal with all that is going on. Stunning locations with heartwarming and well-written characters and songs.
The Lunchbox – A soft, bittersweet movie about a love. It isn’t a commercial film, but a really nice movie that will tug at your heartstrings.
Haider – A Hamlet Remake. Features brilliant acting from the leads in an Indian setting.
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge – A cult classic of the 90’s.
Sholay – Another OG movie to watch with many iconic lines and songs.
Devdas (2002) – Based on a Bengali novel and this is just one of the many remakes of it, but this 2002 version is probably one of the most well-known.
There are quite a lot of children's cartoons that are dubbed in Hindi. If you were to Google them or search for them on YouTube, I’m sure you’ll find tons of shows to binge.
🎼Songs (In no particular order):
Dil Ibadat
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s Songs – All of them! They are all very melodious and lyrical and an absolute treat to listen to. This is a 90 mins top 20 of his songs, this is one of my favourites! (Jiya Dhadak Dhadak Jaye)
Shukran Allah
Pee Loon
It's Rocking
Bhar Do Jholi Meri Ya Muhammad (the original Qawwali version 20 mins) (the recent Bollywood one 6 mins) A beautiful song. I don’t know how else to explain this.
Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai
Jashn-e-Bahara
Tum Se Hi
Channa Mereya
Zehnaseeb
Ishq Bulaava
I would recommend listening to songs by singers like Shreya Ghoshal, KK, Arijit Singh, Sonu Nigam, etc, for more earworms. (I’m missing sooooo many good ones but I can’t possibly link all of them here😥)
Filmy Quotes is a cool site to go and look up song lyrics translations (as long as they were featured in a movie). The lyrics aren’t translated word for word, but by keeping the essence of the song in mind (unlike some websites that give you a Google Translate version of the songs). So I’d highly recommend this site if you feel stuck on the meaning of a song.
Most present day Bollywood songs lean towards Punjabi so they are different from the traditional Hindi you’d expect when you listen to them.
(ok so I may have mostly recommended songs with a Hindustani influence cuz I just wanna help familiarize Arabic feels through Hindi songs)
💃Some Fun Stuff!!!
I found a Hindi Audiobook for Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone and thought you might like it!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a free Arabic version for the same. But you can check out the Storytel App for the Arabic version (but you’ll have to pay to access them).
I guess that all I have for you. I hope you like my gift.😊 And Merry Christmas!!!💕
Hi @fruzsislangblrstuff, I'm your @langblrsecretsanta ! Here's a little something for you :)
You mentioned Russian as your target language and that you like painting and poetry so I prepared some vocabulary and a list of a few Russian artists that seem interesting. Hope you enjoy!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Poetry vocabulary:
поэзия (f.) - poetry
вдохновение (n.) - inspiration
поэт (m.) - poet
стих (m.) - poem, verse
строфа (f.) - strophe
ода (f.) - ode
эпос (m.) - epic poem
баллада (f.) - ballad
гимн (m.) - hymn
лихорадка (f.) - threnody
сонет (m.) - sonnet
метафора (f.) - metaphor
описание (m.) - description
рифма (f.) - rhyme
слог (m.) - syllable
слово (n.) - word
пунктуация (f.) - punctuation
Artists:
Ivan Aivazovsky - a painter of Armenian origin, one of the representatives of Romanticism, he was mostly famous for his marine art; he was so appreciated that a saying “worthy of AIvazovsky’s brush” was coined and it means that something is very lovely
Here is one his works, “Among the waves”
Konstatntin Korovin - one of leading Russian impressionist painters, he lived in Moscow and St Petersburg but was also enchanted by Paris where he eventually moved
Below “Paris, Arch of Saint Denis”
Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov was an avant-garde painter who was not afraid to work with radical exhibitors; together woth Natalia Goncharova, he invented Rayonism
Here is one of his works, “Red Rayonism”
Marianna Wladimirowna Werewkina or Marianne von Werefkin spent much of her life in Germany and Switzerland; she was an expressionist painter who faced many difficulties on her road to become an artist since her right hand was once shot by accident and took a lot of time to recover
Below her work titled “Ice skaters”
Nina Petrovna Valetova - a Russian-American painter whose style may be described as metaphysical realism but in fact she is a representative of SYnthesis Painting Movement, which derives from abstract, figurative arts with cubism, suprematism and surrealism
Hello, my lovely @fluencylevelfrench! I loved your blog for the longest time, maybe you know me from your notifications, so I was super excited when @langblrsecretsanta told me that we’re partners. Unfortunately I do not know anything about Norwegian and I fear that your French is already better than mine, so I decided to share one of my favourite ways to train a bit of French with you: Baking!
A channel I follow very closely is Les Pépites de Cloé and I wanted to share her perfect Madeleine Recipe with you. The video is very beautiful and a good listening excerise as well. And here is the link to her blog, on which the recipe is written down in more detail.
As already said, I fear your French is better than mine, but I still decided to write down the recipe with a (freely translated) English version. Maybe someone else will enjoy it!
Happy Yuletide @leda-japanesetime ! This is my gift for you for this year’s @langblrsecretsanta
Since you like music and are interested in Finnish I made you a playlist of Finnish female artists (all the songs are in Finnish), you can find it here on Spotify.
I hope at least some of the songs are to your taste! I’ve included music from the following artists:
