Apr 21, 2024
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My attempts at learning everything there is to know about Ophthalmology in 3 days and working on my german and having a social life are taking a toll
As someone casually learning both Japanese and French, I've gotta say that Japanese feels like speaking a language and French feels like drowning. You can prime yourself for Japanese by practicing the basic sounds—ka ke ko ku ki ba be bo bu bi (hehe), but you have to prime yourself for French by tilting your head back and gargling hot coffee. Why are there so many sounds waaay at the base of the throat. Why is the R like that. Why france
Crime and Punishment
✧ Spanish vocab - Tomodachi Life (3/?) ✧
Chat wake up time for another Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream vocab post! Once again keep in mind that these are mostly colloquial and probably Spain-specific! 🌷💕
✧ Words ✧
Culminar - To culminate, to peak, to reach the highest point
El proyecto de expansión ha culminado con la obtención del permiso para ampliar la isla hasta el máximo de su potencial. - The expansion project has peaked with the granting of a permit to expand the island to its full potential.
Juicio - Trial || Sanity, right mind, sense, judgment
> Perder el juicio - To lose one's mind, to lose one's cool
He perdido el juicio por un momento... - I lost my mind for a moment…
Corazonada - Hunch, gut feeling
¡Tenía la corazonada de que ibas a saludarme! - I had a feeling you were going to say hi!
Pupa - Pain, bruise
¡Menos mal que no nos hemos hecho pupa! - Thank goodness we didn't get hurt!
"Pupa" is baby/kid speak for "pain, bruise, wound", but you can hear some adults use it with each other. It can also be used in a mocking way, if you want to make fun of someone's pain. To be extra baby talk-ish/extra mocking, you can use the diminutive form "pupita".
Pelota - Ball || Yes-man, brown-nosing, toady
No es por ser pelota, pero... ¡te elegiría a ti! - I don't mean to suck up, but… I'd pick you!
> Hacerle la pelota a alguien - To suck up to someone
Boquiabierto - Open-mouthed, surprised
¡Me dejas boquiabierta! - You've left me speechless!
Zanjar - To dig || To settle, to resolve
Vamos a zanjar el debate de una vez por todas. - Let's settle this debate once and for all.
✧ Expressions ✧
Ser uña y carne - To be joined at the hip, to be like two peas in a pod
Hacerle tilín a alguien - To like, to fancy
En teoría me gusta Ana, pero... sospecho que Lina también me hace tilín. - In theory, I like Ana, but… I suspect I also fancy Lina.
Empezar algo con buen pie - To get something off to a good start
Está compartiendo mucha información sobre sí mismo, en un intento de empezar la relación con buen pie. - He's sharing a lot of personal information in an effort to get the relationship off to a good start.
Dar guerra - To be a pain in the neck, to cause trouble, to fight
No pienso rendirme sin dar guerra. - I'm not going to give up without a fight.
Solo tener ojos para alguien - To only have eyes for someone
Tener algo muy visto - To be too familiar with something, to be too used to something
Te lo agradezco, pero no es necesario. Es algo que ya tengo muy visto. - I appreciate it, but it's not necessary. It's something I'm already very familiar with.
No querer ver algo ni en pintura - To not stand the sight of something
Cogerle tirria a algo - To get fed up with something, to grow sick of something
Le he cogido tanta tirria a la minestrone que ya no quiero verla ni en pintura. - I've grown so sick of minestrone that I can't stand the sight of it anymore.
Tener los ojos como platos - To be wide-eyed
Coger el toro por los cuernos - Grab the bull by the horns
El público tenía los ojos como platos y vaticinaba un auténtico desastre, pero Tuul cogió el toro por los cuernos y comenzó a engullir como una auténtica fiera. - The audience was wide-eyed and expecting a total disaster, but Tuul took the bull by the horns and began to devour it like a true beast.
Lukewarm take but there's no objectively beautiful or ugly languages. It all depends on your perception of the speakers or more broadly the context in which the language is usually spoken. This isn't only influenced by your personal experience but things totally out of your control like the media or history. This is how German went from being perceived as an elegant language which was spoken by the elite during the monarchies to it being seen as harsh after the world wars to now being the key to a better life for many people thus slowly turning into a status symbol again in many places.
Or why Romanian isn't seen as romantic like the other latin languages. Being Eastern European it doesn't have the same status in the world as the rest of them and it has very little to do with it's actual sounds.
I haven't made a post about Russian in a while so I thought I'd drop some links for stuff I'm currently using and enjoying! (1 Year ish update :)
Feel free to add your own reccs. I would esp love some good books for like B1 maaaaybe B2. And films that you think are good!
Learning materials:
Russische Grammatik by Dr. Elena Minakova Boblest
This one's German but really good. A complete and consize overview of all major Russian grammar topics with exercises. The same author has also published Russisch mit System for Langenscheidt which I can't attest for but I assume is good judging from this.
Short stories in Russian for beginners by Olly Richards and Alex Rawlings
These are not the best stories for sure story wise but they're definitely for beginners and interesting enough! Contain a lot of basic vocab. I started these a few months in and with the questions at the end and the vocab they were comprehensible. I'm almost done now but I don't know that I will finish cause I can now just read something good.
Russian for free case exercises
They're case exercises. I've done all of them multiple times at this point 👍 I still love this website. So much.
Anki Deck: Top 5000 - 1,395 Russian Verbs
It's verbs with example sentences and audio. English to Russian only. Occasionally the English translations aren't the best but you will notice this. Sometimes you also need to or check the Pefective imperfective pairs. But it's genuinely so extremely good for building vocab I really recommend it.
Entertainment
Podcast: Почему мы ещё живы
A medicine history podcast going over various medical topics. I recommend the one on Acne. Episodes are 45+ min. Published by libo libo which has other things that also seem interesting if you don't happen to care for medicine.
Podcast: Главный медицинский
Another medicine podcast, this one is more about here's what x illness is and what we do about it. Less interesting but still good, shorter episodes (10+ min) I liked the one about migraines.
YouTube: филолог всея Руси
I love this one! Shorts and videos around language and linguistics topics. Also occasionally books tho I haven't watched any of those. Very fun presentation, very interesting!
Video game: Stardew Valley
It's available in Russian has a load of dialogue thats written fairly naturally with a bunch of expressions. A lot of every day vocab. It's cute I like it and already know it. It's available in a bunch of languages ppl may be learning so I do think that's a great bonus. A downside for sure esp if you're starting out is that it's text only, no voice over.
Films:
I've not started any Russian films mostly been rewatching Ghibli movies in Russian which has been good. Also ofc Чебурашка. And there's an underwater documentary on Netflix in English it's narrated by Obama???? Anyways the Russian subtitles fit the Russian audio (rare) so that's also a rec.
Copybooks for learning Russian cursive