hownottolearnalanguage

[hownottolearnalanguage]

Trying to figure out if the dragonfly Libellula depressa is depressed 😞 or depressed (smushed). Its French name is libellule déprimée btw

[hownottolearnalanguage]

My least favorite thing are language resources that are divorced from the culture the language is spoken in. I don’t want a list of fruits and vegetables I can find at my supermarket; I want to learn the foods that are a part of the culture’s cuisine.

[hownottolearnalanguage]

New favorite listening practice is ASMR in my target languages

[hownottolearnalanguage]

I learned “saor” in Scottish Gaelic to mean “free” (as in available) but now I am learning it also means “cheap.” This has the potential to lead to many misunderstandings 😂

[hownottolearnalanguage]

I just saw the verb agonizar and it wasn't what I thought. How do I use it?

Yes, it's a false cognate

la agonía is "agony" but it also means "death throes" or "a slow death"

That's why agonizar means "to die" or "to die slowly" or "to be on death's door"; it's like morir but slow... similar to the word moribundo which means about the same thing, "dying" etc

If you mean "agonize", it's usually atormentar(se) or angustiar(se) which are "to torment (oneself)" or "to be in anguish"

So if at any point you want to say "in the process of dying" OR "dying a slow death" you want agonizar

[hownottolearnalanguage]

[hownottolearnalanguage]

[hownottolearnalanguage]

Listening to a podcast about Colombian birds in Spanish and they keep talking about a “chulo” and I’m like ??? I don’t think that’s a nice word. Apparently it’s specifically a Colombia-specific term for vulture

[hownottolearnalanguage]

How Finns say ‘minä’ in different dialects around Finland

[hownottolearnalanguage]

[hownottolearnalanguage]

life advice in a dystopian world: cherish

[hownottolearnalanguage]

"this is too raw of a line to come from—" shut up. beauty and meaning is everywhere

[hownottolearnalanguage]

Whenever I have something copied to my clipboard I can feel it. I feel the weight of it on my mouse

[hownottolearnalanguage]

good morning and happy is it really tuesday tuesday

[hownottolearnalanguage]

so i'm reading this interesting book about the history of the spanish language through the people who were important in its development (will probably do a full review when i finish) and right now i'm on the part about different orthographies proposed in the americas. the author gives an example of andrés bello's proposed orthography (who, if you don't recognize him, is known for many things including being bolívar's teacher for a bit but like generally important to the independence era of latin american history)

anyway, the author wrote a whole paragraph in the proposed orthography and i just think it's fun to look at so i'm copying it here

"La ortografía de Bello no era mui diferente de la qe oi estamos aqostrumbrados a usar. Si este libro se ubiera impresa en ella usted se abría echo enseguida, en dos o tres pájinas, a sus partiqularidades, qe tampoco son tantas. Le resultaría ziertamente rrara y qaprichosa en un prinzipio, pero todo se abría rresuelto qon fazilidad, qomo imajino qe no abrá tenido muchas difiqultades para seguir este párrafo. Si qiere qe le sea sinzero, personalmente -salvo en lo de la q- me agrada más la ortografía qe se inventó Bello qe la seguida rregularmente a lo largo del presente libro. Qon la venia de la Aqademia. Por eso no me e rresistido a esqribir estas líneas. Esqritas qedan."

its just so fun and wild like. could you imagine if we wrote like that today? what a world

[hownottolearnalanguage]

to all my demotivated girls

[hownottolearnalanguage]