#ESL problems? I guess?

[pomeraniandancer]

How the fuck does this even happen...

There are a number of languages you can search for works in on AO3, including Eald Eanglisc of all things, but the one language on there that really throws me for a loop is...American Sign Language.

Like, is there even a video option on AO3 for this to be possible?

I once picked a really big fanfic collection to search for ASL fics in and the only one that categorized as ASL was *written* in English. No videofile too be seen.

The most you can do in ASL in writing is write English words with ASL syntax. But that's still not ASL. ASL does not have a written alphabet or syllabary.

Genuinely bewildered about how this came about. Can people just post something and write in an "other" language and AO3 just adds that language to the list of languages they have fics written in?

I can't think of any other way that this might've happened, and as much as I adore AO3, this is pretty problematic.

[drysauce]

i mean it in the best way possible (to u) but wow from what u've been posting ur uni friends sound like fucking cunts. hope it gets better :/

haha well, yeah no i agree with you

the thing is it's not really uni friends. those just either don't reply or reply that they're busy when it's about something esle than school, they're clear with us that they have their own friend groups they value more and outside of the university setting we don't really keep in touch too much. i mean i tried befriending one girl but it eventually backfired at me so i decided it's not worth to spend my time and health on that

the thing that's happening lately is with people i have known before for ~5 years out of which one of them is my rommate. and only around january/february this year it started becoming clear what we stand on. that's probably why the whole thing is so frustrating to me now, especially that situationship with my roommate/best friend that we ended up in. it's such a complicated and multilayered situation at this point that it's just simply more tiring than upsetting

but in any case thanks for nice words, i hope it gets better too

[andypantsx3]

Hi, English is probably your first language but is there any advices you can give to someone who is struggling with writing essentially because of the language barrier? Aside from reading a lot in the target language, what else I can do? While writing I feel like I can't convey what I think properly, can't find the right phrases or words corresponds to what I have in my head in English. It creates a work which does not have much depth. What is the scale (?) of language proficiency one must have in order for their writing to be decent/accepted in your opinion? I am sorry for the long ask and I am aware of the few things I can do but I really love your content and value your opinion and I hope this is not a bother. Quick mention your Shouto makes me kick my feet and twirl my hair and many of us find solace in what you choose to present us. You and your mind are very much loved and thank you for all your hard work! 💞

Hello my love!!! Your English sounds amazing to me, I can't imagine that you have any problem writing in it!! I would never know English wasn't your native language!!

You are correct that I am a native speaker and I've never had to figure out the mechanics of writing in a second language. I'm curious if any of my friends & followers who are ESL speakers have recommendations here?

My uninformed two cents are, however: yes, continuing to read in your target language is going to do wonders for you. The more exposure you get the more natural it's going to feel, and the deeper the well of expression you have to draw from!! I also think possibly working with a beta reader who is a native speaker can help you tighten things up. Asking them to help you target natural expression can help you learn where you're most often missing the mark (although again from your message I would guess you do not often miss the mark)!!

The last thing I will say is that simple language is often all you need to convey an idea. One of the most repeated descriptions of my prose I see is that it is simple, especially in the early days of my writing. But to me, simple, straightforward language is the most natural way of communicating—it's how we talk to each other off-page!! There is no doubt in my mind that you could tell the most beloved story of all time with the level of proficiency you have now!! People have been very kind about my simple prose, they will be good to you too!!

Anyway good luck, and I hope this helped even a little bit!! I am rooting for you, and I'm looking forward to reading your work if/when you're ready to share!!!!!

[cealesti]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

(though as far as I can tell there's just 19 questions? is the 20th question the tagging?)

Thank you so much for the tags @00queasy00 and @izharmilgram !!! this was a blast!!

1. how many works do you have on ao3? 15!

2. what's your total ao3 word count? 221370.... wow that's wild

3. what fandoms do you write for? mostly harry potter, but i also have some bnha works!!

4. top five fics by kudos: (from most to least) "with eyes like these (who sees anybody else)", "Ridiculous", "with friends like these (who needs anybody else)", "Curious", "can't commit to anything but a crime"

5. do you respond to comments? ....i've been trying to but i'm generally not very good at it ;v; i think i've managed to respond to all comments on "with eyes like these"!

6. what is the fic your wrote with the angstiest ending? uuuh that'd be "it's my problem, it's my problem (if i feel the need to hide)", a hurt/no comfort bakugou-centric oneshot

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? oh i'm not very good at those. "hope is a four-letter word" i suppose!

8. do you get hate on fics? not really!

9. do you write smut? i've recently started dabbling. i find it very difficult ngl lmao

10. craziest crossover? no official crossovers, but i guess all the AFTG characters i slipped into "with eyes like these" lmao

11. have you ever had a fic stolen? not that i know of :^)

12. have you ever had a fic translated? not that i know of!

13. have you ever co-written a fic before? uh. kinda? not in the way you think :p i'd like to give it a shot though

14. all time favorite ship? tomarrymort <33 though i'm very much not normal about a handful of ships

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? NONE i will finish ALL of them!! (fingers crossed i get to "can't commit to anything but a crime" next year!)

16. what are your writing strengths? i think i'm quite good at writing distinct narrative voices. it's something i enjoy reading and so it's something i put a lot of thought into when writing

17. what are your writing weaknesses? i've grown better at dialogue, so right now my main struggle is with describing actions? i tend to over-explain or explain things awkwardly and only realize it later. probably an ESL thing that i have to work on

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language? if it's mean to be understood by the readers and/or pov character, then it should be used in moderation. if not, then i have no opinion :p

19. favorite fic you've written? oh man. i genuinely can't pick. the "anybody else" series is obviously my baby and i've poured a lot of blood sweat and tears into it. but "hope is a four-letter word" is my greatest writing success and i think "fly high" will be extremely fun to write whenever i go back to it so.... hard to pick!!

i'm tagging @saintsenara @atlantablack @shadow-of-the-eclipse @officialsporkintheroad @obsidianpen and anyone else who might want to do this!!

[shararan]

Visual kei, Anime & Arlecchino: a (light-hearted) design analysis.

While I haven’t talked much about it, Arlecchino has driven me crazy since the trailer for A Winter Night’s Lazzo dropped. Not only is she a welcome breath of fresh air to Genshin’s female cast, but her entire design and every single element of it speaks to one of my greater joys in life, that joy being Visual Kei. And so with the Fontaine trailer out I thought I’d do an attempt at going through what aspects of Arlecchino can be compared to common styling elements within visual kei, but also how they can be potentially attributed to the influence visual kei has had on manga/anime as a whole.

‼️ I want to proceed with the disclaimer that this whole post is only intended to point out elements of Arlecchino’s design which are common style elements in visual kei. I’m someone who has been into visual kei and its other related branches for about two decades, wore the style myself (among other japanese street styles) for a very long time, but ultimately I am also just one nerd raving about why this character design brings me joy. Visual kei as a style is by definition very hard to define as being any singular thing, and so my only intent is to compare for fun’s sake!

(I also want to point out that any potential errors, be they spelling or just wording, might escape my notice as an ESL-speaker with eye problems.)

➻ With all that out of the way, let’s start with a brief rundown for anyone who might not be familiar with the heart of this entire analysis: What is visual kei?

‘Visual kei’ as a term encompasses many things. While there are disagreements regarding the validity of calling it a musical genre, visual kei can nonetheless be summarized as an alternative musical genre and movement from Japan dating its origins back to the 80s. Influenced by contemporary glam rock, visual kei has since grown into its own distinct thing over the years with many various sub branches flourishing alongside it.

The ‘visual’ part of its name is the simple concept which defines it: The style is all about conveying the utmost possible of theatrics and extravagance, and it’s in fact just as important as the music itself. Combined these two things turn into the ultimate visual performance, an experience never to forget.

The factor which makes visual kei stand out from many other subcultures and genres is the way it deals with gender presentation. Given its theatrical nature, many looking in from the outside might be shocked by just how chaotically gender and expression is displayed.

Back in the old internet days you would occasionally stumble into memes poking fun at how you could never guess the gender of a performer at first glance; If it looks like a man it’s a woman, if it looks like a man it’s a woman and any other variety of that kind of notion. And it’s true! In fact, some of the most famous artists within the genre are also known for effortlessly turning gender expression on its head (Mana, Hizaki to name but two).

➻ So how does this relate to Arlecchino?

Not only has manga and anime sought inspiration from visual kei bands and artists for a very long time (and thereby influencing a lot of stylistic choices we typically associate with those forms of media), Arlecchino is also designed with that exact type of gender nonconformity all over her!

Let’s start with her hair:

Her hair is THE most obvious example to trace to visual kei. Not only is it one main color together with separated black sections (a very common dye combination), it’s also asymmetrically styled with typical spray straightened spikes and V-shaped/spiked bangs covering only half of her forehead.

Some were discontent to find out that she has a long ponytail, describing it as “feminine”. To me this only further strengthened her visual kei vibes, as it’s pulled back and down the back, separated from the shorter parts like a mullet. It’s not uncommon to see artists wearing hair extensions (both matching and mistmatching to the main hair color) in this exact manner, and the few but dramatic accessories she wears around the knot tying the hair on itself only serve to further enhance it.

Moving onto her face, Arlecchino might at first glance look just like any other anime styled character. However, I want to note that there’s a lot to the details here worth highlighting!

First off, she wears eyeshadow with very dark and sharp lashes and thin, upturned eyebrows. While there isn’t any one specific way of doing visual kei makeup, the fact remains that her eyes does resemble the typical key features that’s become commonly associated with the style since 00s. Her cross shaped irises also resemble the types of contact lenses some artists use.

As for her outfit, there are clear and obvious similarities to bands of the late 90s/early 00s: Ornate outer coat with ruffled sleeves, long pants with similar ruffle gathered around the shoes, waistcoat and fancy collar, as well as the highly decorated heels and claw-like nails on her gloves + rings.

While I couldn’t locate a specific picture unfortunately at the time of writing, gloves with metal claws or outright clawed gauntlets aren’t an unknown sight among very flashy visual kei bands.

This type of overall outfit silhouette displayed is, within the genre, obviously related to Elegant Gothic Aristocrat and western style Romantic Goth. Bands with this type of look might choose (but not always) to incorporate classical instruments and opera like vocals into their sound, as well as put a lot of emphasis on stage performances through the use of props, dancers and choirs. The first major bands to come to mind are Malice Mizer and Versailles, but I’m also reminded of ones such as Megaromania, Art Cube, Phantasmagoria etc.

However, in the case of Arlecchino there’s a somewhat “rugged” air to her overall look, which brings to mind bands during the mid 00s who would opt for a slightly trashier look, as well as a more chaotic heavier, sceamier sound. Leather and latex, shredded sleeves, chains, you get the picture. Bands coming to mind are the GazettE, (Old school) Dir en Grey, D’espairsRay, Born, Saruin, Exist Trace etc. If you combine the two types of flavours mentioned, I also want to mention UnsraW.

We also gain a peek of her ears between the spiked sections of her hair. While she has very simple style earrings, this of course is another common deliberate choice when styling the hair, particularly for artists whose ears are quite literally fully covered in jewelry.

While no particular look has any bearing on someone’s role in a band, this specific type of look is one I personally associate a lot with singers and front men. Highly fitting for Arlecchino whose presence demands your attention!

➻ Conclusion

Arlecchino mostly reminds me of bands that emerged and flourished during the mid 00s, but with strong 90s vibes as a cherry on the top. It’s also worth mentioning how aesthetically similar she is to the band Exist Trace, aka the arguably most famous female band in the genre.

It’s an extremely good mesh with the Fatui as the Tsaritsa’s theatre troupe, and its only more than fitting that Arlecchino debuts alongside Fontaine!

Obviously I cannot say for certain whether or not any of these points I made where deliberate design choices on Hoyoverse’s side (not just for Arlecchino but also other characters in Genshin who all have various degrees of the same influences) or if they’re simply a result of unknown influence. The influences visual kei has had on manga and anime cannot be understated, with many mangaka having drawn inspiration from visual kei bands and artists throughout the years (as well as other related but technically not visual bands such as BUCK-TICK and Guniw Tools) .

Many people assume that visual kei and other alternative japanese fashion subcultures drew inspiration from manga and anime, but it’s rather these styles that have served as the influence instead! Numerous bands have even lended their talents to create opening and ending songs to anime series. Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler is an obvious example of a series inspired by visual kei/ouji/lolita/aristocrat fashion and with visual kei bands performing for it.

All in all, this entire analysis is once again only meant to point out the various elements which makes Arlecchino so enjoyable to me personally as a character. Her look with the large coat in the trailer for A Winter Night’s Lasso made me super nostalgic to when I myself dressed that way on the daily, and when I styled it with a very similar jacket I had at the time. I don’t think people realize just how much contact they may have had with visual kei at first, and I tend to point this out often to people I meet when the topic comes up. I guess this was the essay format of that HAHAHA.

All in all, Arlecchino really speaks to me, both from a fashion but also (bi)gender point of view, and I literally cannot WAIT to finally meet her ingame once and for all!

[the-bjd-community-confess]

i wish DoA was more transparent about bans, but i guess then they’d show how much they seem to ban people for completely asinine reasons, and i’m not talking recast stuff. i don’t have a lot of confirmation, just rumours to go by but damn man if even half of these are true it’s such an eye roller, especially when a lot of people in the hobby are ESL which can make interpreting the rules kind of hard. and for whole companies too like having it look like you’re blacklisted from DoA and put up on a list that also has recasters for like. a Posting (TM) violation or accidental account bungle is crazy, why not a slap on the wrist and a polite but firm talking to before removing the offending content like damn. i’ve never had problems with it personally, over ten years and just fine but i do think at some point they’re actively driving people away with shit like this to the detriment of the site and the hobby as a whole. it’s become all but a ghost town with only the most dedicated users still posting. like every active thread is like a few newbies trying to meet their marketplace goal and like five people with like a thousand posts under their belt lol

~Anonymous

[doevademe]

Hi! Sorry if you’ve already been asked but how do you feel about people hand binding your fics? You’re an amazing writer and I’d love to have a physical copy of something you’ve written. I guess also I should ask if your cool with non profit commissions of a hand bound fic, it’s cool if your not okay with it!

Oh, I have no problem with people hand binding any of my writings, although I'm not sure what "non-profit commissions" entail (maybe because I'm ESL), but at the end of the day, so long as there's no money being made out of my fanfiction, you can use it however you like!

[beautifulpersonpeach]

BPp do you think the western style promotions are still effective, especially for other k-pop acts? For BTS, the most standout appearance they’ve done so far (for local-> fan conversion) seems to be the James Corden car episode. Followed by, I think, the MTV cover for Fix You and the Jimmy Fallon BTS week. By that point, the locql is well into the rabbit hole lol. I think BTS is big enough that just their name alone sparks curiousity in locals to check them out.

I can’t say the same for the other acts??? I think for Seventeen their own show is still the biggest converter, and the other acts are still very much confined in the k-pop sphere where only fans of the genre are aware and there are comparatively still fewer fan conversions. I guess I’m asking if the western promos they do are worth it? I remember stans using Wonder Girls (or was is SNSD) going to Colbert to downplay BTS’ paving the way, but it really didn’t amount to anything more for the group and the industry, did it? I guess I’m wondering if the same will happen to the rest, if it’ll just continue to be appearances that don’t really make enough of a dent to push the industry forward???? Or are we reaching the ceiling when it comes to how much the western industry is willing to give to k-pop and how much the k-pop industry is going accomplish (outside of continued ‘fan’ achievements- like increased album sales and streams)?

Because I feel like the industry as a whole has already reached the ceiling when it comes to Korea. Their tried and true methods like having idols go on variety have shifted to groups doing their own shows (good for retaining fans but maybe bad for capturing the gp?) and doing those idol shows have been suffering these past few years. Korean GP seems to not care anymore except for the true breakouts like New Jeans and Aespa.

Im sorry I’m ESL, I dunno if I worded my point right 😭 Hipefully you understand what I’m trying to say

**

Hi Anon,

Your English is great and please don't ever apologize for it. 💜

You've said a lot so I'll try to keep my responses brief as I mostly agree with you.

"BPp do you think the western style promotions are still effective, especially for other k-pop acts?"

Yes. But not for all.

I think all your questions are related to the evergreen debate k-pop stans have on BTS 'paving the way' where a common rebuttal is that if BTS did indeed make it easier for k-pop to break out internationally and especially in the West, why aren't many groups achieving BTS-levels of success (or even anything close to it)? Why aren't many groups, despite doing US promotions, getting sizable exposure and a noticeable growth in committed fans the way BTS does?

The problem here is that, like clockwork, the k-pop industry wants to replicate BTS's success but misidentifies the cause of that success, so they try this gimmick after that tactic and then they wonder why they're not achieving the same results. To be blunt, there's no point going on a Western talk show if your music is shit to begin with or if the idols aren't good entertainers and performers.

BTS at their core, (1) actually make good music and (2) they're fantastic top class performers and (3) they have great interpersonal chemistry. (And this is before getting into world-building in their music which encourages people to dig deeper, their beautiful lyrical expression, just how oddly sweet the chemistry between the guys actually is, the fact that they write their own music and the sincerity that flows through their sound, and so on and so forth).

So, groups that have (1), (2), and (3) that go on to do Western promotions, will see more success in getting exposure that results in new fans, while groups that miss any or all of those three factors, will have less success doing Western promotions. Groups that have benefited from Western promotions include: TXT, Stray Kids, and Seventeen, and with those 3 factors, it's understandable why they're more successful.

Everything I've said above, apply to the rest of things you mentioned too. Meaning, there's little point making variety shows for idol groups, if those groups aren't all that entertaining or if they have poor chemistry anyway.

The long and short of it all is, the k-pop industry still relies a lot on marketing, fancy props, and mediaplay to promote their groups enough for those groups to survive the minimum 6-year group lifetime. But there comes a time when you cannot market and mediaplay your way out of bad music, bad performers, and/or bad chemistry. Most k-pop fans who have already bought into that culture might be fine with it, but gp and/or new converts need to be persuaded with actual quality. And there's no amount of pushing on Western platforms or individual variety shows, that will change that in the long run.

[edelgarfield]

ugh one of the players in my game yesterday kept calling a character a "psychopath" and worse he was doing it in an attempt to comfort ME.

like it turns out my character's son is super amoral (he like. only does good stuff to make his mother proud but doesn't have any morals of his own)

and I/my character was understandably distressed over this & the player said "hey it's okay, sometimes people's kids are just psychopaths and it's not their fault."

and like. it's unfortunately still incredibly common to call people psychopaths, sociopaths, or narcissists on the internet. I hate. I think those words are constantly used by armchair psychologists with no qualifications to basically make Being An Abuser diagnosable when like. I would argue most abusers are just shitty, selfish people. And imo the constant association of those words with abusers makes it so that anyone struggling with any "bad" mental illness gets labeled an abuser. The big ones are ASPD & NPD obviously, but I think BPD often gets caught in the crossfire too, which especially hits close to home for me.

so anyway. I think this person meant the """clinical""" definition of psychopath, which imo, I don't think you should use unless you're a professional or reclaiming it for yourself. and furthermore, wouldn't even be accurate to describe this NPC, bc he clearly DOES care about and love mine.

the first time I just kinda ignored it & moved on bc like. I'm used to it & I really don't want to stop someone and explain ableism to people that, imo, should know better. like. maybe I'm being harsh and this is my chronic empathy affecting my viewpoint, but I feel like if you understand "some words have ableist connotations & we should be careful about using them" you should be able to make the next logical step that "perhaps i should examine these popsci internet buzzwords that are used to describe intrinsically Bad, Erratic, Evil people." and if you haven't made that connection on your own for some reason, I have no reason to believe you'll listen to me explaining it and I'm not going to stick my neck out and put myself in the line of fire "oh the crazy chick with BPD thinks it's okay to be a narcissist 🙄"

But then this guy says it AGAIN a few minutes later and I just. I was like. Okay this guy is ESL, maybe he doesn't know better. So I say as gently and diplomatically as possible "I feel like you shouldn't use that word."

And instead of like. Agreement or asking further questions I get. "Ehhhhhhhh 🤨" and after a couple seconds another player chimes in with "Well I think he's killed people."

And I just. "..........Okay. 😐 Anyway."

Like at the time, I thought they were objecting to my discomfort at calling ANYONE a psychopath. Writing it now I realize they probably thought I was objecting on the grounds that this specific character doesn't fit """the definition""" of a psychopath. which he doesnt. but also part of my problem with throwing those words around to pathologize abuse is now they're so watered down that they're practically meaningless. what's a psychopath? any violent white man apparently. which like, imo, also defers personal responsibility, it's not that we have a society that rewards and fosters white male violence, these specific individuals just have something intrinsically wrong with them.

and like. normally if I have a weird interaction in game people will reach out to me afterwards to check in but this time no one did, so I guess my objection didn't even flag on anyone's radar even though like. telling ANYONE that they shouldn't say ANYTHING, especially in a serious tone is BEYOND out of character for me. I NEVER put my foot down about ANYTHING.

and this whole interaction just supports my belief that Trying To Stick Up for "violent/manipulative/bad" mentally ill people like me is just a waste of breath because I can't be bothered to hold someone's hand and explain ableism is still bad even if it's against people you don't like. just waiting for the day that I tell a friend about my BPD and they suddenly realize they no longer have to listen to anything i say bc I'm manipulative.

anyway if you have ASPD or NPD you guys are great

[aditijainportfolio]

Observation Report #4

Name: Aditi Jain

Class: TESOL Methods for children 5-12 years: Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking

Date: 11/2/23

In- person or online: In person

Class subject observed:  ESL

Class level: Undergraduate/Graduate 

Teacher’s name: Dr. Evan Yingliang He

URL if online:

Amount of time in observation: 1hr 50mins

General 

Please use the Things to Notice sheet for guidance during observations 

Pay particular attention to: 

Learner Engagement:

The professor asked questions to the student before class started about his discipline, learning about the student and connecting with them. They had a long conversation up until the class started, and the teacher was asking him active questions about his discipline and having a complex discussion about it. 

Voice is clear and loud, appropriate level of enthusiasm (charisma?) not overly enthusiastic, very friendly environment (in terms of students speaking up, almost as if the professor is a peer but with marked respect) 

He’s so nice to the students a student came in late and he did not pressure her to do the assignment/call out that she missed an assignment, told her to chill and see what the other students are doing

Very personal 1:1 helping students and asking questions

The atmosphere is markedly different from my previous observation: I feel like when I was at my last observation, the professor was really grasping at straws to keep the students engaged, almost(?) forced enthusiasm which didn’t engage as well as this professor did. It’s really interesting, I think that there was a forced hierarchy between the professor and the students whereas this environment is much more casual and relaxed, but still promotes a learning environment (even moreso than the last observation in which students seemed to not take their assignments seriously) 

Using pokemon as a relatable word

Interested when students bring up their own word si.e teal can be a color but also a duck learning from the students 

Students feel comfortable making jokes with the professor 

Assessment / Student Understanding:

I think that the handout vowel practice was used for assessment 

Explaining that he will only lightly review the concept because everyone seemed to get the words right– informal assessment

Assessment through seeing the students answers to the assignment (not graded) 

For the word sound that was wrong, he asked students to guess where the word would actually be then explained where it was on the chart

Asking the students to shout out the answers to the pokemon problem 0 informal assessment not graded, explaining the vowel pronunciation 

Asking if different vowels are the same sound (group assessment, informal) 

Using this assignment because he wanted students to use words that they don’t know so that he can assess whether the students were able to understand/read the pronunciation of unknown words (english/made up words, american english pronunciation) 

Using games/relatable category game

Strategies:

Individual work that is placed onto a group document for review 

For the word listening assignment, the words were repeated multiple times

Students seem to be struggling, taking a long time, so the professor stepped in with the words that were on the read aloud assignment, and had all of them do the assignment together/explained further 

Allegory about the word ‘mite,’ “the smell of sunshine on your pillow is dead mites, showing a photo of ‘molting’ animals, explaining the definition of words (i.e mourn, moot: giving the example of moot point, giving words that have the same meaning i.e mope versus upset and giving a usage example, “don’t mope around,”)

Went over the answers to the vowel chart assignment

Repetition of the vowel sounds “i in mitten”  

Being encouraging and commending their work

Recall to previous classes, explaining that the difference between letters is not just how long you hold them (i.e o versus oo, there is a tiny difference in the way we pronounce them because of the consonant, book versus moot) 

Reference to a student’s culture (asking how to stay muslim in persian to give the example of how to say it in a ‘short oo’ versus ‘u’ sound)  

Broke down the hand out into parts (17 questions, do 5-6 at a time then review rather than all at once to make it more doable) 

Explanation of cocoon in relation to Kukuna

Lesson:

Reading the words aloud and writing the spelling of them

Dictation exercise: Meat, mat, mitten, mate, mop, molt, mouth the words become progressively harder, mite, mock, met, muslim, mope

high/mid/low vowels (using the chart, categorize the words by vowel sound)

The students did not know the word ‘mitten’ so the professor brought up a photo of mittens and related to how we live in california so we don’t need them but he explained exactly what they are verbally as well 

Repetition when explaining combination letters (i.e owl, mouth) 

Explained the meaning of the words

Informal assessment, asking the students informally where the words go on the chart 

References to real life (tiktok) referring to the tiktok about mockingbirds then explaining the tiktok to those who don’t know (the students did know, and laughed– I think that these students may have a higher english comprehension, this class has a focus on grammar where the previous one had more of a focus on practical use) 

Asked for students to shout out where they think a word is on a chart, student asked for repetition 

Explanation of pokemon and how the pokemon names are japanese words that have been americanized with american english pronunciation so they are made up/real words very creative 

bulbasaur/charmeleon, blastoise - put the IPA vowel symbols in the word structure form on the handout 

Putting the IPA vowel symbols on the whiteboard and telling the students fill in the blanks in the pokemon names

/Bʌlbəsɔr/ bulbasaur

//t/ar’miyliyən/ charmeleon

Comparing words to more common words i.e wigglytuff to city

Teaching:

Explaining the goals for today, the agenda so that the topic of today is clear, as well as the assignments for today.

Asking the students if they were ready, then the students signaled they were not ready, so he waited until they were

Students seem open to speak to the professor on a personal level about problems they have (a student walked up to the professor to tell him about some problem that he had and the professor was open to accommodate 

Transitions to the next assignment included a verbal transition

Transition to next assignment: hook vowels and pokemon 

Materials:

A chart that displays the vowels 

Uses a laser pointer to point out on the chart physically (the vowel chart/map might help people visualize the vowels and their sounds) the map has a curious configuration - vowel quadrilateral" roughly represents tongue position, with positions to the left of the diagram representing vowels produced with the tongue moved towards the front of the mouth and with positions to the right of the diagram representing vowels produced with the tongue moved towards the back of the mouth.

Classroom Management:

Displaying the handouts on the board, students allowed to sit wherever they want to in the class 

He wrote the words down so that the student that came late could put them on the chart (maybe she doesn’t have technology?) 

Students are spread out, individual work then the class comes together for group discussion of the answers to the questions (individual discussion not present, only discussion during the class review) 

Learning Strategies

The lesson had a very clear trajectory from the beginning to the end. In the beginning, the professor went over the agenda for the lesson, so that the students would know what exactly to expect. This exhibited a high quality lesson. He then reviewed the concept that the students had learned in the last class, which had to do with spelling words from just hearing them. In this class, he turned that concept around and also had students practice doing the opposite in which they had to guess the pronunciation based on the spelling of the word. I think something that stood out to me was how students participated more in this class than in the last classroom I observed, which had a much more structured environment. I think since this class was for college students, they benefited more from a peer-like relationship with the professor rather than a strict hierarchical environment. I don’t think older students respond well to authority and tend to feel more comfortable and engaged with a professor that is on the same level as them. I think in a classroom with children, it might be better to create a slightly more hierarchical environment to create structure in the class, but as you get to teach older students (i.e high schoolers) they might benefit from having a friendlier and more approachable professor. 

The professor utilized a lot of question/answer activities, and then would go over and explain what the students got right/wrong, without singling out anyone and he was very casual about the assessments. Although these assessments were kind of given in a traditional assessment format (students filling out worksheets on their own), the professor lessened the anxiety around the assessment by cracking jokes, asking the students questions in regards to the words (whether they’ve heard them before or not). This is one of the fundamentals of teaching theory according to the textbook. There was a very casual atmosphere in the classroom, and the students felt very comfortable reaching out to the professor about whatever questions they had– even often just shouting the questions out without being called on. I think that this fosters an environment of collaboration and relaxation since speaking in a second language is already such a daunting task, having that anxiety-less atmosphere allows for students to ask many questions. 

Discuss in detail the classroom management of this particular lesson. As this is a college classroom, the classroom that the professor was using was a temporary classroom and hence he could not modify it to enhance the students’ learning. As such, there was not a lot that could be done in regards to classroom management. However, the way the classroom was set up was very intimate. This class only had about 7 students in it, and the students mostly sat apart from each other. The professor made use of the projector, the whiteboard, canvas, and handouts to distribute information. He would have information projected on the projector, and would also write it on the board. In the case that a student could not access canvas, he would write the information on the board for accessibility. He also created a Google Doc and told the students to access it from their devices so they could edit it together then display it on the projector. The students also seemed very casual with the professor, in the sense that they came late without really any qualms about it, and they were comfortable going up to the professor and telling him that they were going to leave early. The class itself seemed very laid back and there was no pressure involved. However, the students were still actively participating in the lesson.  

The informal assessment that the professor used was quite clever. The lesson that he was teaching that day was vowel pronunciation. After going over a more technical lesson using a vowel map, he came up with an idea to apply the vowel pronunciation strategies they had learned earlier in the day to pronounce the name of Pokemon. For those who don’t know, Pokemon is a game where you can catch fictional monsters. The names of the monsters are technically ‘real words’ that people use/say, but they are also made up words. Hence, he showed the class the names of pokemon and asked them to write down the corresponding IPA symbols of how they thought the name of the pokemon would be pronounced. i.e the Pokemon “Bulbasaur” is pronounced /Bʌlbəsɔr/, using the -saur suffix from the word dinosaur. He did this to test if the students had understood the material and would be able to apply the pronunciation rules on words that they had never heard before. I thought this was a very clever informal assessment because he showed the photos of the Pokemon on the board and it felt more like a game rather than an assessment. However, although it seemed very laid back, the students were forced to use higher order thinking to apply what they had learned in the assessment. 

Things to Remember 

I think the main things that really stood out to me were the pokemon assignment as well as the IPA chart that the professor used. Looking into the IPA chart, it is very cleverly created to represent the inside of the mouth, and it shows what part of the mouth different sounds come from. I think being able to see the way that the sounds are produced visually is a very useful tool for students who are unable to hear the differences in sounds due to the synaptic pruning that occurs when children are babies. We learned that although children are born with the ability to hear sounds from all languages, i.e the Japanese L/R versus the English R and L respectively, after the 6-9 month mark we lose the ability to hear sounds from languages that we are not exposed to. As such, students who learn English as a second language often lack the ability to hear the intricacies of English language pronunciation. By giving them a map that represents the mouth and allows them to see where the sound is getting produced from in the mouth will allow them to produce the sound even without hearing it, and hopefully eventually train them to pronounce difficult words. 

Current Classwork- Methods course

What teaching methods did the teacher use?

Some of the methods that the professor used included visual scaffolding and sorting activities to bolster the students’ understanding. In terms of visual scaffolding, the first activity that he did with the students was a listening test. In the test, he read out words that start with ‘M’ and tasked the students with trying to spell the words based on the pronunciation of the words. After finishing the assessment, the professor explained all the words and showed pictures associated with the words to bolster the information. For example, one of the words was the word Mitten and so he showed a picture of mittens and explained exactly what it is/when it is used so that the information stayed with the students. Furthermore, the Pokemon exercise mentioned above can be considered a phonic sorting exercise (as described in the book) because the students were told to sort the words based on which IPA symbol would best fit in the word. For the //t/ar’miyliyən/ he showed a picture of the Pokemon and asked the students to sort out which IPA symbol fit best for the pronunciation.

[vergess]

Okay look, I'm one guy making one tumblr post not a fucking doctorate, and I know the format of this website if abhorrent for reading other fucking threads of a post so I'm going to ignore the fact that I've discussed ESL and ASL and DDs and disabilities to death in other versions.

A lot of you fuckos are getting real cozy with swarming my notes to talk about how I'm a hysterical freak of nature, when meanwhile this is such a real problem that literally american politicians are being forced to move to address it EVEN IN THE FASCIST ASS CURRENT CLIMATE so sticking your head in the sand to pretend this post is ~~~oooooh forgetting ESL and disabled people exist~~~ while being written BY AN ESL DISABLED PERSON.

Does not. Make you. Look. Morally or intellectually superior.

Oh boo hoo you didn't like a post I made months ago, cited to death, because you couldn't be assed to do your own followup research and you wanted me to spoon feed it to you. I get that.

But if you could at least PRETEND to stay on topic in good faith, that would be cool.

Because I'm fucking exhausted, and I swear to god this post goes in waves through the most obtuse shitfucks on the planet.

"Oh these stats aren't real they're a conspiracy" to "oh homeschool all children the government can't be trusted" to "proof that socialized education is a failure" to "proof that disabled people are somehow being miscounted as illiterate in such a large quantity that it has effected the US labour force now I fucking guess."

So, one last time from the top.

The reading stats are slightly better for ESL kids who learned to read in their native language than those who only learned in English.

The refusal to teach actual reading skills means that genuine disabilities are not noticed or screened for, so kids go for many years without accomodations as a direct result of this failing.

YOU created this notion of the horrible illiterate strawman. I pointed out a REAL PROBLEM WHICH IS CAUSED BU THE VERY SYSTEMIC FAILINGS YOU ARE DISCUSSING, INCLUDING EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES ON HOW TO DIRECTLY COMBAT THOSE FAILINGS and y'all just

WOOSHED right on by.

Fucking honestly, the amount of condescending trash people are pulling lately, and I know y'all aren't actually part of this week's "kill yourself you faggot freak" brigade but the fucking TIMING.

DO you fuckheads grasp that I am a HUMAN PERSON WITH A HUMAN LIFE AND THAT IF YOU WOULD LIKE FOLLOWUP QUESTIONS ANSWERED YOU COULD ASK THEM WITH ONE OUNCE ONE MODICUM ONE PUTRESCENT IOTA OF RESPECT

Also NO your ass is not ~one of the horrible illiteral adults~ I'm discussing, you literally wrote coherent arguments in response to a text that fucking long, you just willfully misinterpreted it as obtusely, insultingly, and bastardly as fucking possible.

Get bent!!!!!!!

Quick question, genuine question:

Why on earth does "more than half of US adults under 30 cannot read above an elementary school level" not strike horror into the heart of everyone who hears it?

Are the implications of it unclear????

I'm serious, people keep reacting with a sort of vague dismissal when I point this out, and I want to know why!

If adults in the US cannot read, then the only information they have access to is TV and video, the spaces with the most egregious and horrific misinformation!

If they cannot read, they cannot escape that misinformation.

This obscene lack of literacy should strike fear into every heart! US TV is notoriously horrific propaganda!

Is that???? Not??? Obvious???????

I know this sounds sarcastic, I know it does, but I'm completely serious here. I do not understand where the disconnect is.

[fingertipsmp3]

I just had an idea and I’m honestly mad that this didn’t come to me before

[salad-juice-enjoyer]

Why is it that I always spell the englidh version of my name wrong? (ISSac with double s, rather than IsAAc with double a)

Wouldn't be too much of a problem if I could mass edit the tags.

Edit: clarified the spelling.

[beeseverywhen]

Ah yeah there's a bit of a bias there I guess with esl speakers as... they're people who are good at languages anyway. They are good enough and have practiced and worked enough to master at least 2 languages to even get to a position to discuss English punctuation with me lol.

I'm pretty familiar with the schooling in a few English speaking countries as I've got close family, several of which are young kids, in multiple countries and I'm always outstanded by the differences in what they are teaching, even year by year in the same country. My English classes pretty much entirely skipped a lot of what was considered at the time to be 'old fashioned' but which turned out to be pretty integral lol and yeah a lot of formal grammatical terms I learnt in French class not English. Computers were becoming a thing and everyone was a little taken aback by the potential of spellcheck which led to quite a lot of what they were teaching to be pretty inconsistent year on year (they'd decide we'd never need something and then a year later go back on that)

I was raised in a pretty big multigen family all of them very in to reading and words in general (tho no-one with a formal education) so it's always been pretty obvious when things have changed in the teaching year on year as there will be bizarre gaps in different generations knowledge. Which actually... thinking of it, I wonder how much of a difference how long ppl are in school for from country to country?

In the UK you start school at 4, but formal schooling ends the year of your 16th birthday, after that you chose what/ how you study. I haven't had an English class since I was 15 and that's pretty common here, I went in to sciences instead, so while I continued my education, there were no more chances for grammar lessons! It's my understanding that in America, they have a basic curriculum including stuff like that well in to university? What they did have time to teach me, is considered to be pretty advanced amongst other English ppl (at least in working/ middle class workplaces. I've always been the person ppl go to for help with formal writing in the offices I've worked in.) But I wonder if that would be the case if we all had a few more years of English class???

Adult literacy is...a bit of a problem here tbh. I used to work in finance and one of our biggest projects was trying to work with legal to make documents simpler because so many people being unable to read their paperwork was such an issue. There's a big class gap here, with private schools doing far better with language teaching, and teaching very differently (a lot of them still teach Latin for example), which really muddies the water when trying to compare these kinds of things as the education state schools are giving is supplemented by private education for those that can afford it (its very common for middle class families to use tutors and most kids that get in to selective state schools are middle class too). There's probably quite a lot of factors that come in to it thinking about it, interesting to consider.

I just recently saw a post that made me wonder if it's a fanfic thing or if a lot of books have them (I haven't read a lot of original novels by the way, they're too expensive to get a lot of). So, are em dashes mostly a fanfic wiritng thing? I read and write a lot of fanfic so it's normal for me to keep seeing it used but I've seen funny post saying it's not usually used and fic writers just won't let go of it and would use it.

--

It's a real piece of punctuation, certainly. Offhand, I think I've seen more of them in convoluted 19thC novels than in modern things.

The real reason they're so popular in amateur writing is that most people don't actually know how to use a comma, a semicolon, or a colon. M-dashes have easy rules, or at least people think they do.

[goron-king-darunia]

Eggtober 9 Mushroom and Cheese Omelet (Featuring Green Onion and Black Pepper) Clip Studio Paint, Gouache Brush, Dry Gouache Brush and Freckle Pen. 10 Colors, 30 Minutes. I’ve got a few little idiosyncrasies about how one spells omelet/omelette (all of them personal and not at all serious,) but I do enjoy omelets, however you want to spell them or make them. I don’t care if it’s an officially named recipe like the Denver Omelet or something you throw together with scraps and leftovers. All omelets are valid. A personal favorite of mine is just some nice sautéed mushroom, melty cheese, and whatever onion is on hand. I’ll never say no to some bacon or ham, but honestly, even the humble mushroom shines all on its own, and they’re fun to draw. So mushroom omelet it is! Gonna drop a little extra below a cut because it’s mostly me musing on personal stuff and whinging about spelling, but big thank you as always to @quezify for giving me an excuse to draw all sorts of tasty egg dishes. These warm ups are really helping me with other projects! I took something that normally takes me several months to finish and cranked it out in a matter of days. Once I started doing eggs, it was so much easier to just open that other piece and finish the sketches, the line art, and the coloring! Been sitting on my computer for a month and I did the majority of the work in this last week! (It’s not even a hard project, I’m just ADHD and a perfectionist and my phone is full of games and I cannot get off the free dopamine machine to use my BIGGER free dopamine machine to do art when art feels like work and I’m terrified of failure. But you cannot “fail” Eggtober. You just draw an egg. And every time, it’s fun. Every time it’s low pressure. Every time it’s a small reminder that even if it’s not perfect, it’s an egg. And eggs are always worth it.)

I was a little late on today’s egg, but my sleep schedule keeps getting pushed back because, again, I have ADHD and I do not control the sleep. I just exhaust myself and then lay down and then wake up 8-12 hours later and it’s anyone’s guess when or why or how. Anyway, I do have the luxury right now of just sleeping like I’m alternating shifts at a 24/7 convenience mart so I just roll with it. Art doesn’t abide by time constraints and most of my current projects can be done no matter where the sun is. Enough about that though. Omelets. Or Omelettes. (It will forever irk me that USA American English decided to spell half of its words differently because hurr durr telegraph and print press charge by the letter, we’re just gonna invent the predecessor of text speak but make it official and now all word processors are angry. Forever irked that we in the USA insist on spelling “omelets” the truncated way, making me confused every time I get the red squiggle under what’s technically ALSO a correct English spelling. [I read too much Brit Lit as a kid and now I type like a foreigner according to every single word processor I own and also according to my ESL Aunt. “You type like an English person. Or a Britain? However it’s said.”] Anyway screw American English, sometimes the Brits are right, LOL. [I am 90% teasing and this is 100% a me problem and I’m blowing the silliest anthill into a circus tent of a mountain because I am angry when machine tell me to spell different.]) I want to consolidate the Englishes where we just have Brit English, American English, and Consolidated English. And I want consolidated English so that the word processors STOP TELLING ME THAT I’M WRONG. No, I will never write color as colour. Brits are wrong on that one. But Brits are right about “judgement” and “omelettes” and several others. Sorry, not sorry. “Judgment” looks like a combo of judge and augment and my brain reads it dumb and “omelettes” is just objectively better, damn it! 😂

[pocketramblr]

i think in ancient times i could have swung the job of prophetess yeah

pros: i got God to tell me where the single remaining packet of plasticware in the entire school, lost at the bottom of an esl room storage closet, was for me to use at lunch

cons: my deitysona might cause some problems with conflict of interest/blasphemy i guess