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documenting some of my language learning native: english learning: french; mandarin; japanese paused: korean, ASL

[welltbhidk]

Language Learning Progress

STATUS Language: • Time - Level

CURRENT English: • N/A - Native Creolese/Guyanese Creole: • N/A - Near Native familiarity (does this even count?) French: • 9+ yrs: 7 on/11 off/2+ on (casually) - A2/High A1 Japanese: • started: Dec. 24, 2025 - typing this on Dec 29th, whatchu think? Chinese (Mandarin): • Feb. 2025-present - tones, some characters, pinyin

PAUSED (indefinitely) Korean: • 2025/1 month - basic greetings, Hangul script ASL: • Unknown/time - very few signs

DISCONTINUED Norwegian: • 2018/1.5 months - forgot it all Dutch: • 2023/4 months - forgot it all Esperanto: • 2 days - :skull_emoji: PLANNED (CONSIDERING) • Spanish • Greek • Vietnamese • Old English

[welltbhidk]

Mnemonic Monday #2

Couldn't think of anything I learned this past week to share, so here are some mnemonics for hiragana characters I've had for a while:

1. せ (se) - sounds like: sedative; looks like a needle being administered to someone's arm.

Bear with me while I try to draw this. -.-"

2. つ (tsu) - A common mnemonic for this is that it looks like a tsunami wave. However, I also like that it looks like the letter U, so you can say "It's U shaped!" ("t's U" = tsu).

Credit: Flaticon (wave icon)

3. け (ke) - This one takes a bit more knowledge. "Kendo" is a Japanese sport of fencing usually with bamboo swords (Merriam Webster).

"Kenjutsu" is another term you may hear in anime, which refers to sword techniques (e.g. "Sasuke Uchiha is skilled in kenjutsu."). The character, け looks like a sword and its sheath.

Credit: Flaticon (katana/sheath icon)

[welltbhidk]

How Chinese Radicals Work

Radicals are the little symbols that make up the hanzi/kanji you see in Chinese and Japanese characters. Yes, even the characters have characters within them!

Recently, I learned that the radical "亻" is essentially a squished version of 人 (rén; person), and is typically seen in words specifically about people like 你 (nǐ; you) or 们 (mén; plural marker typically paired with pronouns to create: us, you all, they, etc.).

Additionally, I learned of some other radicals:

口 (kǒu; mouth) = 唱 (chàng; to sing), 吃 (chī; to eat), 喝 (hē; to drink), 叫 (jiào; to call)etc. Mouth-related terms using the radicals

女 (nǚ; female/woman) = 妈 (mā; mother), 她 (tā; she/her); 好 (hǎo; good, because women are good, especially Olivia Rodrigo)

木 (mù; tree/wood) = 林 (lín; forest), 树 (shù; tree), 森 (sēn; dense forest), 椅 (yǐ; chair - wooden item), 枝 (zhī, branch), 休 (xiū, to rest, looks like a person 亻leaning against a tree 木), 果 (guǒ, fruit, looks like a fruit on top of a tree. Although the radical 田 (tián) means field... but maybe we can tie that to fields of plants growing fruits/vegetables)

[welltbhidk]

Mnemonic Monday #1

Going to try sharing some mnemonics I've learned or found every week.

For this week, I'll go with some Chinese characters (Hanzi)

Note: I'll tag #kanji & #hanzi in posts where the characters share the same meaning in both languages.

I've been practicing Mandarin passively on Busuu, and I've started to recognize a few characters and can even read some super basic sentences.

学 = xué (to study)

Reminds me of the classic lightbulb (new idea!) element in cartoons/comics.

I also find it kinda cool that 学生 (student) is literally "study life" (生 meaning "life" or "born," it's usually paired with life/growth related words).

A common mnemonic I see for 生 is that it looks like a tree with leafless branches. Trees often represent or have ties to the concept of life in mythology.

(Image credit: Flaticon & Sonnakanji)

[welltbhidk]

French être vs avoir - passé composé

Passé composé is something I struggled with in high school, but it was likely due to my uncomfortability with school in general.

I think now, learning at my own pace with no deadlines, I'm more inclined to give it a try.

I'd like to list the verbs from the "Dr. Mrs. Vandertramp" mnemonic, just to document it for future reference.

So, in French, when you speak in past tense (such as "I looked" "I ran" "I went") you normally say "I have [verb]" or "They have [verb]" using the verb "avoir" first, then the next verb (with a special conjugation for past tense).

Example: I visit = Je visite, I visited = J'ai visité, I become = Je deviens, I became = Je suis devenu

Wait... a second... Je suis? devenu?

Yea, so that's what the topic is today. In some cases, French uses être instead of avoir for past tense. That's where the "Dr. Mrs. Vandertramp" acronym comes into play...

The acronym goes like this. These are the verbs that use être:

D - Devenir - to become - Devenu(e)(s) R - Revenir - to come back - Revenu(e)(s) M - Monter - to climb - Monté(e)(s) R - Rester - to stay - Resté(e)(s) S - Sortir - to go out - Sorti(e)(s) V - Venir - to come - Venu(e)(s) A - Aller - to go - Allé(e)(s) N - Naître - to be born - Né(e)(s) D - Descendre - to descend - Descendu(e)(s) E - Entrer - to enter - Entré(e)(s) R - Rentrer - to reenter - Rentré(e)(s) T - Tomber - to fall - Tombé(e)(s) R - Retourner - to return - Retourné(e)(s) A - Arriver - to arrive - Arrivé(e)(s) M - Mourir - to die - Mort(e)(s) P - Partir - to leave - Parti(e)(s) P - Passer - to pass - Passé(e)(s)

So for each of these, the verb that precedes it in past-tense would be "to be" (être) instead of the typical "to have" (avoir).

[welltbhidk]

French: Être vs Suivre

Recently learned that "je suis" has two different meanings.

"I am" & "I follow"

Être = je suis, tu es, il/elle/on est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils/elles sont

Suivre = je suis, tu suis, il/elle/on suit, nous suivons, vous suivez, ils/elles suivent

So, if you see "je te suis," it doesn't mean "I am you."

Je te suis = I follow you (literal) Je te suis = I'm with you, I understand you, I get you (figurative)

[welltbhidk]

Hiragana Mnemonics for き/さ/ち

I was recently struggling to find a way to relate all of these characters together to remember them easier—since they all look very similar.

This is what I've finally come up with.

き (ki) is a key. It opens locks/doors/safes/etc.

さ (sa) is a SAnded down key, the original key could not fit in the keyhole, so you had to refine the edges (remove one horizontal line)

ち (chi) is completely flipped, you wanted to get a new key, but instead of SAnding it to fit perfectly, you bought a CHI (CHEAP) key that didn't fit at all (hence why it's facing the opposite direction).

[welltbhidk]

Learning: JP #1

Today, I learned that to correctly insert "watashi wa" on a keyboard, you must write "watashi ha." The correct particle は is pronounced "ha" on its own, but "wa" in the aforementioned sequence.

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[thegoodvybe]