#I tried with Russian and it just gives you sentences with no explanation and you're supposed to copy it

[pigeonstab]

Surprendre! Bird hugs!!

(The owl kicked me out for getting too many things wrong so that one's from google lol I couldn't find how you say "Surprise!" like you're jumping out at somebody so maybe that's not a thing over there)

Anyway hello!! How are you? I hope you're doing okay and your food from last night was good (>^-^|^-^<)

Haha we do have it. 'surprendre' is the infinitive of the verb you just yelled 'the act of surprising!!' though I guess you guys don't have verb infinitives do you? You just say 'to surprise'.

Anyway to yell surprise in french just say 'surprise!' ;] it's a transparent word when it's an interjection. (Which is like 'Oh' 'ah!' or even 'fuck!' but those are in both languages. Would be pretty stale if we didn't have those lol) Now then!

Birs hugs!!!! Yippeeeee!!! I love the gifs you find ^^ I'm alright! Got what I needed to get done today so I can go to work on my art shtuff lol. The croque monsieurs were very very good. I wish I'd taken a picture now. I might just make more now.

Ps. (You do find infinitives in some cases like 'je me suis fait surprendre' but in English you'd translate that 'I was surprised [by something]' that's really weird don't really know the rule for when to use the infinitive. I guess you guys can't make sentences like that, it's understandable that you had issues with it. I'll look it up for you.)

[volann-art]

Short comics I drew for uni with my OCs – Plamena (with darker hair, her family immigrated from Bulgaria) and Sonya (lighter hair, was asked to help Plamena adjust) (translation/explanation under the cut, I didn't translate the comics themselves bc with some it's literally impossible)

Digital:

Traditional:

These aren't in the order in which the tasks were given

1 – the task was to make a comic using 3x3 grid and static camera. Music is Baby Don't Dance by Mother Mother (see what I did there???)

2 – the task was to use sounds and a, like, more complicated grid that doesn't have a name. I hope it's obvious what the sounds mean, and the one speach bubble says "Well, at least it can't get worse" (I took some creative liberties with this translation)

3 – we had to draw 5+ iterations of the character in one space

4 – Had to use vertical/horizontal grid. It's just one person speaking, so monologue:

"Sonya, here you are! This is your new classmate, Plamena. She recently moved here with her parents from Bulgaria. Plamena knows the language pretty well, but she still needs some help to catch up with the program. And, well, you're always alone, it would be good for you to make a friend. You also happen to be the best in languages in the class. /next part is hand-written in white/ Can you help her with studying?"

4 – Oh boy, this is one of those impossible to translate. Let's start with the simple part, the task was to draw a dialogue and use different compositions to make it look less boring, and put it in a grid that goes in lines of the same height.

So, why can't I translate it? Bc this is an explanation of Bulgarian tenses by Plamena, who's native language is Bulgarian, for Sonya, who's native language is Russian, done mostly in Russian language (and compared to Russian tenses) except for several times when Plam accidentally starts speaking Bulgarian. Both are slavic languages written in cirrylics, so there are some similarities between them. Plamena's phrases in Russian are also spoken according to the way the same sentences would be structured in Bulgarian, and she avoids the forms of words that don't exist in Bulgarian. There are only three tenses in Russian, so when Plamena, after explaining three of Bulgarian tenses, says that she will explain the other six next time, Sonya is very surprised that there are that many. I don't know who my target audience is except for myself.

5 – this one is a sequel bc Bulgarian tenses deserve it. The task was to use frames that, like... go over/under grid. Anyway I can directly translate this one.

Plam: It's locked in here.

Sonya, after some time: What are you looking at?

Plam: Nothing.

Sonya: You sound suspicious, let me see!

The phone interface is in Bulgarian, the first result is Wikipedia. The search is "tenses in Bulgari-" (it cuts off)

Sonya: You don't understand them yourself!

Plam: Nobody understands them!

Moral of the story is I don't understand them.

6 – The last five are all one task to use five types of frame-to-frame transitions listed in Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. Most are without dialogue, but the one that is... Yes, it's another untranslatable one. Ъ in Russian is a letter that doesn't have a sound and only affects the letters that surround it. In Bulgarian, however, it's a vowel with a very distinct sound. Here, Plamena tries to tell Sonya how to say it, but Sonya doesn't get it and gives her a million of completely different sounds. Again, I don't know who my target audience is except for myself. Well, here it also is everyone that I've put in Sonya's position over the years, they get it too.

Since you're already here, some designs that I simplified anyway:

You can find how they look in several years in this post.

P.S. I would explain Ъ as a sound that is written down as "mmm", but usually it doesn't help.

[miffy-junot]

I'm probably just making a fool of myself by responding to this but oh well

"he was too lazy to do it"

Ah yes, so lazy that he rode all day and night from Lisbon to Austerlitz so that he could be there with Napoleon. So lazy that at the beginning of 1812 he left the spa town where he had been sent to recover from a serious injury and went to join the Russian campaign, even though nobody required him to. So lazy that in 1813, when his health was failing, he begged to go to war. Junot had many negative traits, yes, but laziness was not one of them.

"he totally depended on Napoleon's attention"

Firstly: name one man in the Napoleonic army who wasn't. Secondly: although Junot loved Napoleon he wasn't a sycophant, he often disagreed with Napoleon and occasionally disobeyed Napoleon's orders because he thought they were unjustified. (e.g. Junot being lenient on the Englishmen in Paris; Junot refusing to punish deserters from the Portuguese army).

"because he felt entitled to meddle"

Ohhhh so you're going to ignore the fact that Junot kept it a secret for nearly three years? You're going to ignore the fact that Junot liked Hippolyte Charles and didn't want to get him in trouble with Napoleon? You're going to ignore the fact that Junot merely confirmed Napoleon's suspicions which had been developing over the past few years? You're going to ignore any subtleties of character and blame nasty evil Junot for hurting poor innocent little Napoleon? okay.

"mental illness isn't a personality" etc.

Of course, let's ignore how severe brain damage (that Junot definitely suffered from) is often classed as a disability because of how much it permanently impairs cognitive function. Let's ignore how painful and destructive mental illnesses could be before modern medicine.

Nobody is excusing Junot's behaviour in any way. If you choose to interpret analysis and explanation as excusing, then that's your problem.

"he should have accepted help step back nonetheless"

And you should get help with forming sentences! If what you're trying to say is "he should have accepted help and stepped back nonetheless", here is my response:

What help could he have accepted? What help was offered to him? Medication for mental illnesses did not exist. Mental hospitals of the time were simply places for mentally ill people to live, they did not provide any effective treatment. As bleak as it seems, for severe mental illnesses there was simply no way to get better. Even in modern day with modern medicine, treatment is a long and difficult process that doesn't always work. With brain damage, it's impossible to fully recover as the nervous system is unable to heal itself in the way that the rest of the body can.

As for him "stepping back" - do you not think he tried? In the last years of his life Junot wanted nothing more than a peaceful retirement, but Napoleon's wars went on and he felt that he had to serve the Empire. Even if he had retired, he would have undoubtedly been shamed and slandered for "giving up".

Look, I get that for people who have always been mentally healthy it is difficult to understand mental illness. But I would really recommend doing some further research before claiming that in the 19th century a mentally ill man could simply "accept help and step back".

"[Napoleon] rewarded many undeserving people just based on affection and he did this to Junot too."

In studying history there is this interesting little thing called context. In early 19th century Europe, there was no such thing as a true meritocracy. Napoleon tried to establish one, but naturally he was biased towards people he knew and liked. Don't criticise him for that unless you are some magically enlightened person immune from feelings.

Was Junot really undeserving? Because of the catastrophic end of his career it's easy to focus only on his negative aspects, but he had proved his worth on the Italian and Egyptian campaigns, and somewhat in the Peninsular Wars. What about his triumphant success at the Battle of Nazareth, or the Convention of Cintra where he, as many contemporaries said, turned a French defeat into a French victory, causing turmoil in Britain? Napoleon rebuked Junot harshly for his failures too - for example his brutal denouncement of Junot after the battle of Smolensk, and his refusal to withdraw his comments even after evidence had been presented that showed Junot was not at fault.

I don't want to fight, I just want to correct some of the mistakes that you have made in this confession.