#Langblr

[spanishskulduggery]

There are a handful of these that I've seen in Spanish so I'll just list some of the more common ones:

el esmoquin = tuxedo [this comes from a "smoking jacket" which you would not see in anything outside of Downton Abbey today it just feels very antiquated Edwardian era]

el váter / el wáter = toilet [in some countries; this is another term for WC or "water closet"]

el vagón = train car [all of the "cars" on a train are a vagón and this comes from "wagon" - though this isn't a covered wagon which you'd probably see as either el carruaje "carriage", el carro "cart" (now "car" in lots of places), or la carreta / carretilla or some variation - this is ONLY used for trains]

la cotufa = popcorn [Venezuelan; las cotufas are the Venezuelan word for "popcorn" but it's derived from "corn to fry" which would literally be maíz de/para freír... different countries have different words for "popcorn" in general though, the default word people are taught is las palomitas which is literally "little doves"]

There are also a handful of words in Spanish that are from brand names; el klínex/clínex or el kleenex is the word for "tissue" but it's Kleenex

Another is el rímel which is "mascara" but it's named after Rimmel (though that's a surname and French but still)

And I know of a handful of words that are close but would sound off to an English speaker:

el parking = "parking lot" [we do say "parking" like "oh there's no parking" meaning "nowhere to park" but some Spanish-speaking countries uses it as "parking lot" - a place designated for cars to park]

el kínder = kindergarten [some countries say el kínder which is technically from German but we would say "kindergarten" because if you wrote "kinder" it would sound like "more kind" - and in German kinder is plural "children"; but Spanish can use it as singular]

The other word that sort of surprised me when I was learning Spanish was el daltonismo or daltónico/a which is "colorblindness" and "colorblind" respectively

In my head, I assumed it would be something related to la ceguera "blindness" or ciego/a "blind"

But it's named after John Dalton who researched colorblindness and the term for red-green colorblindness and the umbrella term for some variations of colorblindness is "Daltonism" but I had never heard that particular term in English until much later

@ people in non-English speaking countries, does your language use things that “come from English” that are just… not actually used widely in English at all?

Like some places in E and SE Asia will abbreviate “WC” for restroom, especially for English translation, but I don’t know a single person in the English speaking world who still calls a bathroom a water closet, and I’ve never even heard of it abbreviated to WC even though it’s obvious how this came around

[icemanzek]

Based on a conversation between me (studying Japanese) and my friend (fluent in French)

[wittywords]

𝐂𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭

Impudent, presumptuous; impertinent, cheeky.

[myeyesarentwonkyjusttiltyourhead]

Apparently people are not sure if this is correct or not but I enjoy the formatting :)

[spanishskulduggery]

Another Anglicism [word derived from English] that you will see is el cóctel which is "cocktail"

It's used pretty much exactly the way English uses it, both as an alcoholic drink "cocktail" and also used to mean "mixture" like la mezcla but usually it's liquids or medicine

...

Although, and this is a bit weird, "fruit cocktail" is either el cóctel de fruta(s) OR the other word is la macedonia (de fruta/frutas)

The term la macedonia does come from Macedonia (though the term came from French macedoine); probably related to Alexander the Great encouraging a mixture of Greek and Persian/Indian peoples and culture when he was conquering

But la macedonia can sometimes mean something like "hodgepodge"

Whenever it's food it comes out like "medley"... You can see la macedonia de hortalizas or la macedonia de vegetales/verduras which is roughly "vegetable medley"

And sometimes you see it as la macedonia de legumbres which is a bunch of different kinds of beans/legumes

And some places will use la macedonia as a kind of knife cut that means something like "small dice" - though that's really specific terminology because it usually is the term used for fruit when making a fruit salad [ensalada de frutas] which is ALSO sometimes called la macedonia

[useless-catalanfacts]

(enllaç a la font)

Com n'és de preciós saber que parlem com parlem perquè som el resultat de segles i segles de creació popular, de totes les cultures que han passat per la nostra terra, de l'enginy dels qui han viscut a casa abans de nosaltres, dels nostres pares i dels nostres avis i de tantes i tantes generacions que ens han anat creant, a poc a poc, cada paraula, cada accent i cada expressió. I una llengua que compartim des de Salses a Guardamar i des de Fraga a l'Alguer, però cadascú amb característiques pròpies de la seva terra. I que ara la puguem parlar i en cada frase estiguem, sense adonar-nos-en, expressant tota aquesta riquíssima història que ens ha dut fins aquí. Parlem-la amb orgull, parlem-la amb tothom, i que mai no ens la facin perdre. Perquè la nostra llengua és casa nostra.

Visca les llengües, visca els pobles, i visca el català ❤️

[manasseh]

prev you might like 오디오클립 [play store / website]!! It's Korean radio clips incl news, podcasts (and audiobooks but i think the good ones arent free lol)

I mainly use it to listen to the news. YTN updates local news every couple hours, CBS has 5 minute morning news, and KBS has a longer 오늘세계는 segment ~ if u log in w naver u can save channels u like.

But there's a lot of cute radio programs too about many different subjects. No music though.

And to all of my language learners out there, check out Radio Garden if you haven't yet! It's a direct access to so many different radio frequencies from all around the world! You can listen to music, sports, casual conversations and debates, news, and so much more!

For me most of the time things are almost impossible to understand, but every so often I understand a word, or part of a sentence, and it's such an encouragement!!

[salvadorbonaparte]

I told my students they're allowed to be creative and don't have to be factual when writing about themselves in German because I keep getting questions like "what if I don't have roommates or what if I don't have hobbies" and I'm like guys just make something up! Have fun! I won't fact check you!

So now I am grading homework where a student is claiming to be from North Korea and his hobby is tax fraud

[tayalla]

there's this word in Serbian 'vukojebina' which literally means 'the place where wolves go to fuck' but they use it to mean 'in the middle of nowhere'. it sure does the job well, but the visual stayed with me longer than I would have liked it to.

[marilearnsmandarin]

Ok, fun fact:

I kept "mispronouncing" (in my head, when reading) 珍珠 as "zhizhu" instead of "zhenzhu", and I only realised it when I tried to type it the other day and it came out "蜘蛛奶茶"

I am addicted.

[wittywords]

𝐂𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐧

Esp. of a club or society: admitting, composed of, or otherwise involving both men and women. Now historical.

[mehilaiselokuva]

Why did you learn Finnish?

To communicate with my parents and extended family. At age 1 I started to feel a bit hungry and decided I should start speaking so that my parents would feed me.

Hope this helps!

[gwendolynlerman]

Some of these are also used in Spanish:

after work: a meeting for drinks after the workday is finished

footing: jogging

smoking: dinner jacket, tuxedo, or smoking jacket

videoclip: a music video (I was today years old when I realized that "videoclip" is not the correct term in English 🙃)

water: toilet (But we spell it váter.)

Here’s a list of some false anglicisms!

A false anglicism, or pseudo-anglicism is a word in a language that sounds English but doesn’t actually carry the same meaning in English.

Wikipedia has a very very good list of examples; pretty much all of these come from there

In multiple languages:

autostop: hitchhiking (French, Italian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Greek, Russian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Hungarian)

basket: basketball (Danish, French, Indonesian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Greek)

camping: campsite or campground (French, Dutch, Greek, Bulgarian, Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish)

smoking: dinner jacket, tuxedo, or smoking jacket (Danish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Dutch, Greek, Russian)

Korean

one shot: bottoms up (원샷)

hand phone: cellphone (핸드폰)

skinship: platonic hand-holding, hugging, etc. (스킨십)

French

baby-foot: table football

baby-parc: playpen

before: drinks before a party/"pregame" (opposite of after)

blind test: music quiz / 'name that tune'

brushing: blow-dry and styling

box: wifi router or parking space

dancing: dance hall

footing: jogging (though the real English word is also used in French with the same meaning)

pressing: dry cleaning shop

recordman/recordmans/recordwoman: record holder, especially in sports (also in Russian)

relooker/relooking: to makeover/a makeover

speaker/speakerine: rradio or television announcer

Italian

autogrill: rest area

beauty farm: spa

jolly: the joker in a pack of cards

pullman: a bus

smart working: remote work

water: toilet

Portuguese

outdoor: billboard

home office: work from home

Danish

butterfly: bow tie

cottoncoat: trench coat

doorstep: a short and informal press conference

monkeyclass: economy class

speedmarker: a felt-tip pen

timemanager – a calendar or notebook in which one writes down appointments

Dutch:

beamer: a video projector (also in German)

box: a playpen or a music speaker

videoclip: a music video

German

Bodybag: a messenger bag

Dressman: a male model

Flipper: a pinball machine

Funsport: a sport played for amusement, such as skateboarding or frisbee

Handy: a mobile phone

Jobticket: a free pass for public transport provided by an employer for employees

mobbing: bullying

Swedish:

after work: a meeting for drinks after the workday is finished

pocket: A paper-back book

[ruhua-langblr]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[adhd-languages]

i’m obsessed with these…

(From DepthOfWikipedia on Instagram)