#language blogging

[glitterdustcyclops]

per my last reblog, a visual aid for those not familiar with hulu, or bottle gourd

according to my brief googling in traditional Chinese medicine they were used to hold...well, medicine lmao

you might also recognize it as the big ol gourd that one naruto dude carries around on his back

anyway, free fun fact for y'all

[electricprincess96]

Someone saying English using "old terms" as names of countries makes English a wrong and "racist" language. The example they used was German with is Deutschland in German but the term Germany is actually older than the country itself, it comes from the fact the area was called Germania during the time of the Roman Empire and the word evolved through the English Language to be Germany. The reason English probably never updated it is probably because Germany as we know it didn't form till 1871, very recent by European Standards like France as a country and concept existed since around the year 500, before that there was a Confederation of German States formed in early 1800s and before that the Holy Roman Empire. The name Germania just existed in the consciousness longer than Deutschland.

Which is why in Italian, Greek etc. it's still called Germania, in French it's Allemange apparently after one of the Germanic Tribes, Spanish is similar to French etc.

So basically 1. Stop singling English out for shit every language does (like Alba is Gaelic for Scotland, Scotland is English for Scotland, Écosse is French for Scotland it happens with almost every country and language) and 2. You can normally find the logic behind why a certain language will call a certain country by a different name if you do some research and reading and it can be fascinating rather than get mad over nothing go and learn something cool (like I didn't realise the Holy Roman Empire lasted into the 1800s admittedly I watched Hetalia so I shouldn have known that but I didn't).

[goldentshirt]

The language I know is failing to provide the language I need to describe my thoughts on languages

[longeyelashedtragedy]

wwoag’s top 10 languages to listen to

russian

german

danish

portuguese 

finnish

korean

arabic

spanish (not spanish spanish tho)

hindi

hungarian

[magewardensurana]

So, とり is ‘bird’, right?

My serious question is: what is the Japanese for ‘birb’?

[languagesperkele]

One thing that makes studying languages hard for me is that when I started studying my first foreign language (that would be English) I was nine or ten and by the time I got into upper comprehensive school I didn’t really need to study it anymore. I was already using it enough (and on a level that made this possible) that I didn’t need to put any effort into learning it. I didn’t even copy the vocab lists from my study books like I had done until then. I didn’t need to memorise anything anymore, I had kind of... started absorbing every new bit of the language with no effort. When it comes to any other foreign language I’m really bad at memorising words and despite having learned one foreign language well enough to be fluent in it I have no idea what is the best way for me to learn a language.

[glitterdustcyclops]

my other Chinese Fun Fact for the day:

you know the expression "long time no see"? that's actually a literal translation of the phrase in Mandarin!!

好久不见 (hao jiu bu jian)

[electricprincess96]

Talking with someone in work today and they claim French is better than Spanish as a language... now I would one day like to learn both (I did French at school and nothing will kill your love of a language more than high schools trying to teach it) but if I could only chose one I would 100% choose Spanish.