#language studies

[baudouinette]

@aurianavaloria and I talking abt Old French

old French playlist

[aspiringpickle]

Linguists are odd creatures. Because what do you mean it's my profession and I use it for fanfics.

(I'm actually thinking about fanfics in a linguistics lecture currently...)

[rozitastudy]

[helenstudies]

Reading Books in Your Target Language

My favorite way to read in a foreign language is to take a book and read it in my native language or english first, and then pick said book in my target language. This technique is even more helpful if you also pursue translation studies but that's a plus, not a requirement. Since I've already read it in a language I can fully comprehend and critically analyze, I am not only able to read the book in my TL much quicker, I'm also able to fully grasp how a native speaker would rephrase or interpret the same sentences.

If the TL book you're reading is a translated version, you're able to see which words the translator used to convey the meaning. This answers questions such as: Did they translate words literally? Did they use localization instead? What did they do with puns or jokes from the original book? What kind of rephrasing did they do? The translated version tells you how the translator think about certain sentences and certain kinds of writing. Sometimes your TL is a very literal and direct language. Sometimes your TL uses a lot of metaphors or polite sentences instead of being direct. You will learn to absorb these lines of thinking by reading the translated version.

If the TL book you're reading is the original version, you're about to see all the things I've said but flipped. You've got the way the line of thinking goes in the translation. Now you're gonna see how they go about it. And most of the time, this path sort of takes you like "oh! I don't know how to read/interpret this word at all but the translator used x to say it so I'm just going to keep reading." You will realize that you can read much faster, since you remember how it went. (unless it's non fiction since you can't follow the plot in nonfiction, but I find that in language learning, non fiction reading is much easier because there's less flowery and literary language.) I mostly do this when I want to read fast and have no need to reach for dictionaries or to refer to the translated version. This helps me read other text in my TL extremely faster.

Another tip about reading that has nothing to do with language reading more about bookish snobbery: a book is a book is a book. If your purpose is to read in your TL, you don't need to pick up classics if it's intimidating for you. Pick any book. Hell, pick pamphlets if you need. I personally prefer to read adult's graphic novels. I don't mean 18+ graphic novels. I just mean comics that are not for children. I find that children's picture books are much harder because most of them are to teach vocabularies to children, which is taxing for language learners because apparently children love onomatopoeia so much. Also, they have adults to explain everything to them. Comics for adults have jokes and stories instead so I like then better but hey, if you like children's picture books, you do you.

Another another tip: You don't have to finish the books. At all. Ever, actually. Pick up, do twenty pages each and put down if you'd like. You're the boss. Do it your style.

Happy learning!

[iseetheworldinmetaphor]

“The development of Patwa expresses the refusal to imitate a colonizer, their insistence on creation, their movement from obedience towards revolution. Not to nurture such a language is to retard the imagination and power of the people who created it. For Patwa to be treated with the respect it deserves, a conscious decision would have to be taken to treat it as a language, probably by a state body.

Such a decision would mean that Patwa would then be able to evolve without being limited by arguments demanding its perpetual reduction to its relationship to English. It would be constructed day-by-day and would develop in a literary dimension as well as an oral one.”

— excerpt introduction from an anthology of short stories by Jamaican Women titled Lionheart Gal

[sysy-studyblr]

wednesday 24/01/24

gotten back to work w my planner! did a practice writing task but not sure my use of language is perfect yet

♫ houdini - dua lipa ♫

[queriesntheories]

Make a Wug

This creature is called a Wug. Imagine there are two of them. There would be two... If you answered "wugs", congrats, you know how to form

Hello linguistics side of tumblr! I present thee with an offering:

A Wug Picrew! Featuring many hats, a wug that can sit on your head, fairy lights, feet, a bonus linguistics reference, and many pride flags!

Share 'em far and wide! Have fun making your own wugsona :D

If Jean Berko Gleason does want me to take this down for any reason I will happily do so- I'm just trying to make the linguistics community a little more fun lol