#Totally Normal Grammar Lesson

[gummybugg]

Grammar Lesson

In this Totally Normal Grammar Lesson, we will be learning about misplaced modifiers! What are those, you might ask?

A misplaced modifier lacks a subject! This can cause confusion in a sentence! It makes us wonder "who" is doing "what."

Any modifying phrase that does not attach itself clearly to the word it's supposed to modify qualifies as a misplaced modifier!

Read on for 2 examples and 3 practice problems!

Example 1

Dangling modifier:

Burned to a crisp, I could not eat the toast.

Better:

Burned to a crisp, the toast could not be eaten.

Why? Because the toast is burned to a crisp, not "I". That would hurt, and that was not the intention of this sentence!

Example 2

Dangling modifier:

Before making another decision, the evidence should be destroyed.

Better:

Before you make a decision, you should destroy the evidence.

Why? Because the evidence isn't making a decision—"you" are!

Ready for some Normal practice problems?

Choose either A or B to indicate the logical placement of the modifier shown in parenthesis!

(in the trunk of his car) A Blair always carries duct tape, zip ties, and a burlap sack in the event someone disagrees with him B.

(from the top of the stairs to the bottom) A Blair watched in anticipation as his neighbor tumbled B.

(from inside the house) Blair watched A as the two dogs dug up the neighbor's remains from under the flower bed B.

Ready to know the answers?

.

.

.

A

B

A

Did you get them all right?

Anyway, that is all for now! I would like to thank Donald Emery's English Fundamentals, 16th edition for the help!

[aklxojjk]

Chica Tímida

[ Gekko x Fem!Reader ] Gekko looks through your phone and finds the Spanish lessons Reyna was giving you.

note - This has the smallest amount of lore, reader understands Spanish but doesn't know how to speak very well, i got most of my Spanish from my Mexican friend so if its wrong please let me know. ALSO ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE SORRY FOR THE GRAMMAR.

w/c - 2k

warnings - Smut, praise, dirty talk, dirty talk in Spanish, very passionate, riding, fingering.

purple text is Reyna and green is Gekko in case y'all get confused.

MDNI

You sit up in your small but comfortable bed rubbing your eyes, looking at your clock it shines a bright 7:00 AM at you. Groaning slightly you get up and make your way to the bathroom, turning the lights on you start brushing your teeth immediately. After getting done with your daily skincare routine you change into more acceptable clothing, since you sleep with just panties and a shirt on every day.

Making your way to the kitchen you see a bare-faced Reyna drinking some black coffee. 

"Good morning chica." She says in between sips.

"Morning... I just had the worst sleep ever, felt like I just took a nap, you?" Yawning you make your way to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee and some scrambled eggs with bacon.

"it was alright, our work has been pretty complicated lately" She looks at you with a sly smile. 

"Why are you looking at me like that Reyna... What did I do this time?" you give her a smile taking the seat in front of her, taking a sip of your coffee.

"How have you and Gekko been?" Her tone is playful.

"We've been good unless he told you otherwise…?" your statement comes out more like a question.

"No, he told me you guys were closer than ever... but he wishes you were closer if you know what I mean." she sips her coffee nonchalantly.

"I see, I mean the only reason I've been hesitating is because I wish I could talk to him more you know... sensually but in Spanish." looking away from her, you feel your cheeks grow warm. 

Your relationship with Reyna has always been really good even before Gekko joined the team, but recently you noticed that she has been talking to him more, and that made you feel as if you couldn't share information with her about your relationship with Gekko. Maybe it was the fear that she would disapprove of you guys relationship or perhaps you were just too timid to share all the details.

"How about I teach you some phrases?" 

"Please do" Pulling up the notepad app on your phone you give her a nod as if to say 'I'm ready'

"Just give me your phone I'll write them down for you"

You immediately give her the phone and finish your breakfast, grabbing her empty plate and putting it in the sink. When you come back she puts your phone in front of you, smirking.

"'Okay let's see if the pro has game" You smile at her and pick up the phone.

qué guapo estás

me encatas

estoy loca por ti

Estoy pensando en ti todo el tiempo

estás bueno

cógeme

https://www.spanish_pillow_talk.com

You can understand most of these except for the word before the link, they were normal compliments one would give their partner.

"What does cógeme mea-" Your sentence is cut short when wingman jumps in your lap, meaning Gekko is not too far behind. 

"Hola amiguito" 

"Hi wingman" you say before squeezing the poor little guy.

"Hola mi Reyna, hola mi cariño" his arms wrap around you from behind and you feel his head on top of yours, before you could look up he gives you a quick kiss on the forehead and heads to the kitchen to grab his breakfast.

"Te ves guapo hoy." you immediately shift your gaze to Reyna looking for some sort of approval, and she nods slowly. 

"Only today? I thought I looked good every day." His laugh can be heard from far away, that laugh that you so loved. 

"You know what I mean" Rolling your eyes you click on the link that Reyna had left on your notes, the website took a while to load so you just went to get water. 

"Gekko you've got training later today with Harbor, I totally wish I could stay pero yo tengo una meeting con brimstone" Reyna stands up making her way out the door.

"So I was thinking we could hang out before you have to train" You come back to the table water in hand, and as you sit down you notice your phone is missing. 'Where is my phone?' you thought lifting the table cloth and checking all of Gekko's pets to see if they had it, but your phone was still missing.

"So what exactly do you mean by "hang" before I train" he has a slight smile on his face, he's holding your phone reading something off it.

"just hang out in your room- Oh." you quickly snatched your phone off his hand, checking what he was reading. Your phone read: 'Pillow talk in Spanish' 

“just hang?”

"I was asking Reyna how to uhm compliment you in Spanish and she… she recommended that website!" your nervousness gave it away, he knew you were lying.

“so Reyna recommended you to talk dirty to me? no necesitas mentirme, estoy tan duro pensando en ti” He’s no longer interested in his food but rather you.

You look down at your notes analyzing everything you could say to him right now. “okay maybe we won’t just hang, but please speak slowly so I can understand you.” Eyebrows dropping as if begging him for mercy. 

“Of course,” He took his time throwing all the trash out and leaving the dishes in the sink, but once he was done he lifted you making your legs wrap around his waist. “I’ll do whatever you ask me to”

As he walked to the room he kept giving quick pecks on your lips and cheeks, making you blush as you looked him deeply in those brown eyes of his. Gekko is okay with PDA but knowing you don’t like it, he chose to not embarrass you in case someone comes out of their room.

Stopping the kisses to get the door open, he sits down on the edge of the bed with you still in his lap. He pushes his lips against yours again when all of a sudden he bites your lip softly and you open your mouth just enough to let his tongue in, the heat is intensifying and your moans start getting more audible. Your hips can’t help but grind against his clothed dick, which he responds with helping hands deepening the friction. You both break the kiss to catch your breath but when you are about to go back in he makes you stand, then spins you around so your back is facing him and he sits you down again on his lap. 

“Relax cariño,” You feel his warm breath as he gets closer to your neck, then your shoulders, then up to your face… teasing you slowly as he leaves a trail of kisses. His hands caress your hips just above your panties, his digits twirl around the cloth, he subsequently slides it off your thigh then drops it on the floor. “Estas tan mojada” he whispers in your ear as his hands roam all around your thigh but not where you need him most. One of his hands leaves your thigh and you feel his digits go up and down your slit, spreading it, collecting some of your wetness.

your hand covers your mouth making it very hard for him to hear you, you didn’t mind that since this whole situation made you so timid.

 “Why are you so quiet.. am I not doing this right?” You feel Gekko’s frown as he kisses your neck before he pushes his fingers inside you, gently pumping you, curving them ever so slightly trying to find your sweet spot.

“Cojame porfa..” You didn't mean for it to come as a whimper but you’re glad it did because he started fingering you deeper and faster, every pump hitting your sweet spot and making you huff and whimper out his name. 

“I will as soon as you cum” his voice low as he concentrated on making you feel good, his free hand stops roaming your hips now cupping one of your breasts fidgeting with your nipple. He knows you’re close and that's turning him on. “Tan hermosa” his whispers in your ear tickle, you turn your head to look at him with eyebrows furrowed and lips parted. 

“I’m about to- “ his glistening wet fingers slide out of you leaving you with a feeling of emptiness, but that's instantly replaced with pleasure when he starts rubbing circles on your clit. You can’t manage to get any words out as your orgasm takes over you, leaving your legs trembling and your eyes closed shut. 

His fingers start rapidly rubbing your sensitive spot as you're coming down from your high, the movement makes you throw your head back against his shoulder. Once you’ve stopped trembling you hide your face on his neck, kissing it and marking your territory.

He once again makes you stand up only this time though he stands up with you sliding his pants down, he sits back down on the bed with his arms behind him to support him. 

You try to be sexy by leaning down and rubbing him through his boxers but he pulls you in by the waist forcing you to fall on top of him, you lift yourself off of him and pull his boxers down. One of his hands is firmly gripping your waist and the other is still behind him. 

“Me encanta cuando me miras así” This is probably the most you have used your brain to speak Spanish but it pays off seeing the look he gave you. 

“yeah?” the hand on your waist forces you down on him earning a moan from you as he took you by surprise, you both let out a groan as more of him slides inside. Both his hands grab a hold of your ass and start moving you, making you grind on him. You speed up as he adjusts himself inside you, thinking the grinding isn't enough you start to bounce on him. He lays back down pulling you with him, kissing you passionately as his back hits the mattress. 

“qué rico mami, me encantas” He whispers sweetly in your ear while his hands rub your back, his lips giving you a small kiss on the cheek, then your lips, then down your neck. “I love you”

“I love you too” You’re drunk off his love, eyes closed, smiling at anything he says, craving his touch as you push your body against his. All of that comes to an end when you open your eyes and go back to riding on him, he pulls you down just enough to be able to grab your boobs. You look at him sweetly and he does the same to you, he adores you.

His eyebrows furrowed as you picked up a pace and his hands left your torso and are now on your hips again, making you grind faster. One of his hands leaves your side and holds your face making you look at him as he’s about to cum. He wants to see your face when you finish with him inside, he wants to see you throw your head back, your mouth part open, and he wants to hear you moan his name.

His eyes are closed but he tries to keep them half open as he's about to cum, your mouth agape slightly as you feel your second orgasm arrive. You push your lips against his own as you both moan in each other mouth, his hands never leaving you.

Gasping for air you part ways, getting off him and lying next to each other you both stare at each other. Nothing but love in both your eyes, smiling wide you giggle a bit.

"¿qué~?" he hugs you as you both laugh

“you should speak Spanish more often, you sound so sexy” You say with your face in his neck

“you should too, i loved it.”

[soleilnomoon]

Hi Kaia could i order white chocolate,fruit tart,glazed Donut,nougat,Donut hole,with caramel and whipped cream for one piece men: (Luffy ,Rayliegh ,Ace, Zoro, Sanji ,Shanks,and Law) plz and thank you

hihi ty for being patient angel 🥰️ i def took some liberty w. this one, but i think i like how all of them turned out; you gave me a tall order but *clenches fist* i survived 💛💛💛 anyway, ty for requesting hope you like it :)

3.2k words, fem reader, nsfw, 18+ mdni; smut, some angst, fluff (wow i know), hurt/comfort; feat. luffy being a total menace, rayleigh being the dilf we all want, ace being mischievous as ever, zoro being a dumbass, sanji being overwhelmed, shanks being the absolute worst, and law trying to teach reader a lesson. also feat. cute stuff like: ass grabbing, rough (consensual sex), exhibitionism & public sex, lil bondage, jealousy, orgasm denial, some sof smut™ (who am i), oral (f receiving), fingering, oral (m receiving), idk other stuff probably. y/n has no self preservation ofc, these men are ridiculous (i love them). (if u see grammar/spelling mistakes no u didn't <3)

it isn’t your intention, but somehow you and your captain get separated from the group one afternoon while canvasing a new island. you normally don’t get lost, but luffy was teasing you all morning — pulling you aside for impromptu kisses, grabbing onto your hips from behind, his lips curled into a devilish smile against your neck with each kiss he left behind. luck was usually on your side during those instances, except it seems it’s suddenly run out.

“don’t give me that look,” you say as sternly as you can, eyes glancing around to see if any of your crew mates doubled back to look for you. luffy’s really to blame for you both getting lost, but he doesn’t want to admit that just yet; it’s more entertaining to tease you, because you’re cute when you’re annoyed. luffy wraps a hand around your wrist and pulls you further away from the path you came from.

in between kisses, you remind him that you’re both pressed for time.

“don’t worry,” he says in a low voice, “it’ll be fine, probably.” you’d slap him if he wasn’t already kissing you again, tongue licking inside your mouth hotly; you arch against him, face flushed from the heat. his kisses remind you of summers and warm breezes; your mouth still tastes like the mangos you consumed with him earlier — sticky and sweet, a taste he’ll always covet.

you squeeze your thighs together when his hand roams lower and take a shuddering breath once he backs you against a thick tree. you hike a leg around his hip, holding him close to you, humming pleasantly when you feel the growing bulge in his shorts. being this close to him makes you impulsive and you know that all you have to do is rub against him once and he’ll fuck you against that tree. but your conscience wins out and you pull away, ducking out of his hold quickly, panting lightly as you touch your lips with the tips of your fingers.

“we need to get back to the others,” your voice is a bit too high when you say that. luffy laughs at your act and plants a wet kiss on your cheek; you bicker with him playfully on the walk back while holding his hand and lacing your fingers together with his.

“i don’t normally do this. i have to go.”

that’s what you said twenty minutes ago, after you’d gotten tipsy enough to have the courage to flirt with the older man sitting next to you. the pub was crowded and you only ever came by if you didn’t want to be recognized. rayleigh had a dangerously devilish charm, one that extracted information out of you with ease.

his voice is thick and rich, his words a pretty distraction — hypnotizing you as you find yourself nodding along to his impetuous plans. he hadn’t intended on sleeping with anyone tonight, but he couldn’t resist himself once he saw you sitting there by yourself, swaying on the bar stool while humming a nameless tune.

you seemed so content to be alone, it was admirable.

he had a bright smile and a laugh that came deep from the soul; you felt your body flush at the thought of kissing him suddenly. you blamed the alcohol for making you foolish, but you knew that wasn’t exactly true.

now you’re seated atop a sink in the upstairs bathroom, whimpering softly as you keep your legs spread for him. your skirt is hiked up, panties discarded somewhere — they were ruined once rayleigh whispered in your ear and suggested you carry on the conversation elsewhere; his hands were skilled, his mouth even more so.

he liked how pliable and supple your body was, how plush and soft your thighs were under his calloused hands. you shivered as he ran a finger along your slit, making you tremble as you keep as still as possible. rayleigh, you come to find, is experienced and passionate; you grow impossibly drunk from all his teasing — to the point that you’re panting and begging him to fuck you.

“all in good time.” his voice is gravelly when he nips at your exposed clavicle, cock hard and heavy; he knows he should hurry up, but something about you makes him want to take his time — so he can see all the frustrated expressions on your face. you pull him close and wrap your hand around his cock, stroking his length, rattling his nerves until he finally gives in.

he buries his cock to the hilt, hips pulling back and snapping forward roughly against you. letting out a breathy moan, you can feel just how slick your pussy is from your arousal. legs wrapped around him, you lean up to kiss along his jaw; he chuckles and indulges you, hands gripping your thighs, fingers likely to leave bruising marks behind from how tight he’s holding you. rayleigh fucks with you with fervor and selfishness that serves as a daunting reminder — that you’ll never find someone else like him after this.

“ace,” you pant as quietly as you can, but you’re struggling badly. the 2nd division commander has you in a back hallway on the ship early in the morning. he’s grinning like a fool, clearly entertained by your insistence on keeping quiet. he kisses you as he knocks his hips against yours, his cock sliding deeper inside your pussy; he holds you up against the wall as your legs stay wrapped around him.

you buck your hips against his, doing your best to match his thrusts, but his strokes are deadly and frenzied.

“wait, wait, ace slow down,” you whisper, sighing pleasantly when his cock reaches a sweet spot that has you clenching around him tightly.

“can’t,” he says in response, breath warm against your jaw, “stay. unless you want to get caught.” he gives you a meaningful look that’s accompanied with a smirk. you purse your lips but shake your head. it would be easier if you could stay mad at him, but he’s too cute and funny and attractive — plus, you like that he’s bold enough to fuck you in public without a care in the world. you hear voices off in the distance and panic, eyes widening as you look back at him.

but ace only winks and tells you to hold on tight.

as you bite down on the fleshy part of your palm to keep yourself from screaming, ace pummels his thick cock into your cunt mercilessly, balls slapping against you loudly. the sound is lewd and tantalizing; you find that you can barely keep up with his thrusts, but you do your best anyway.

apparently, he’s determined to make you cum before your crew mates catch you. and as much as he jokes that he wouldn’t care if someone saw you, a small wave of jealousy passes through him at the thought of anyone seeing you like this. he wants to finish up quickly so he can take you somewhere more private. it’s when he bites your neck roughly and pants against your skin that you cum unexpectedly, a blinding, white hot flash filling your vision as you forget yourself and scream his name.

the rain has yet to let up, not that it matters to you since you’re trapped in yet another argument with your thick-skulled boyfriend. you can’t even remember what triggered the argument in the first place, and because stuff like this makes you extra sensitive, you end up crying.

he sighs at the sight of your face flushing and eyes closing as you try to wipe away the tears, as if they were bothersome and unnecessary. guilt eats away at his chest, making it hard to swallow or breathe; he knows he should apologize, but he’s just so terrible at it. so, he does the one thing he knows how to do — apologize with his hands and mouth.

the mattress is soft beneath him as you straddle his hips and slowing sink onto his cock; you both shed your clothes some time ago, lips swollen from kissing him hungrily, an insatiable need seeping into your pores and making you greedy. you place kisses along the base of his throat, hips rocking forward as he thrusts into your cunt slowly. and while he’d love to just fuck you senseless — something quick and dirty — he knows that you’d appreciate his apology more if he took his time.

so, he does.

you sigh against his lips, fingers threading through his hair, tugging on the short strands. his chest is broad and firm, your nipples harden each time they rub against his light brown skin. slipping your tongue into his mouth, you cradle his face in your hands as he continues to give you broad, sensual strokes that have you whimpering in the most pathetic way against him. he likes you like this, though, and tells you as much when he presses a kiss along your jaw.

he finds forgiveness when you bounce on his cock a little harder, his hands rough against your skin as he grabs onto your ass to thrust into your pussy at a devastating pace. tears coat your eyelashes, but they primarily because zoro’s fucking you like he loves you. and maybe he does; you don’t want to think about that too much, because the intimacy behind it scares you.

jealousy, you think, looks good on him.

sanji rarely likes to show his true jealous side to you, it’s less playful and much more charged, possessive but you don’t mind that at all. earlier, zoro had offered to help train you and before you could turn him down — you’d seen firsthand just how brutal he is with his workouts — sanji was already up in arms over it. they argued for the entire afternoon, but by then you were already annoyed over the situation and dragged sanji off to calm him down.

his face is flushed when you kiss him suddenly and pull him into a broom closet without thinking too much about it. you can’t remember if you locked the door, but it doesn’t really matter. all you care about is wanting to give your silly boyfriend a little bit of attention.

your idea of giving attention is rubbing his half-hard cock through his pants, smiling slyly against his lips when you feel him shiver. in one fluid motion, you sink to your knees, fingers quickly unzipping his pants and tugging it lower. you pull his cock out and admire the shape of it, the slight curve always made your mouth water; before he can say anything, your tongue darts out and swipes at his slit, the pre-cum slightly salty in your mouth.

you make a big show of licking your lips, which only causes another flush to stain his cheeks. whenever you get like this, he has no choice but to follow your whims; he likes that about you, a lot. that you take charge and keep him grounded whenever his feelings get to be a bit too much for him to handle.

he opens his mouth to apologize, but you kiss his tip and he forgets all about it, mind short-circuiting momentarily, which gives you the opportunity to take him by surprise again.

“i don’t care that you’re jealous,” your voice is honeyed and sweet, wrapping itself around him comfortably, a lust-filled haze taking over his mind when you wrap your lips around him and suck. you run your tongue flat along his length, taking your time to lick all over before you take his cock into your mouth completely.

sanji’s breath slows and he does his best to not fuck your face, but then you’re massaging his balls and bobbing your head faster — so he does the most impractical thing and bucks his hips forward and thrusts his cock further down your throat. you gag around him, the pressure intense but welcomed; if he didn’t already know that you like it rough, he’d feel bad — and he still does, but he hasn’t voiced that out loud just yet. you don’t care though; truly, you don’t. you just want him to feel as relaxed as possible, but how can he relax when your mouth is warm and wet, when you’re looking at him tenderly, like you’d be on your knees for him every day if he asked you?

you let him have his way, and he doesn’t last very long, but you keep still, hold onto his thighs, nails sinking into his skin when his cock goes a little too deep. when he sees the tears roll down your cheeks, it ignites something in him and he cums in your mouth, your name a soft chant that tumbles out of his parted lips. he feels feverish and dizzy, but very much alive. you rub your thighs together as you swallow the thick load, smiling prettily at him, head tilted slightly while you boldly ask, “do you feel better now?”

he knows better than to piss you off, but he does it intentionally anyway. the captain of the red hair pirates loves pushing your buttons; he likes when you roll your eyes at him, when you pout cutely and demand he take you seriously; he likes when you don’t stop him when he kisses you openly, mouth possessively staking its claim against yours.

if you weren’t so used to his whims, you’d have the decency to act bashful.

you have a short temper that he’s been warned about time and time again; except, shanks doesn’t fucking listen — nor does he care.

so when he has you bent over one of the tables in the kitchen late one night after you both argued and drank and argued again, you have no choice but to forgive him. especially when he his thick cock is buried deep inside your pussy, his large hand pressing down on your lower back as you grip the sides of the table. your legs shake, but you know better than to complain right now. shanks fucks you hard, the wooden table scraping against the floor every time his hips knock roughly against yours.

“shanks, fuck,” you cry out, chest heaving as you try to keep your sanity intact. his chuckles annoy you, but he knows that you only pretend to act annoyed with him because you like the way he makes up with you. your ass bounces back against him, jiggling from the ferocity behind his thrusts.

“careful, doll,” he grabs your hip to power into you — his strokes turning you into a mumbling, delirious mess, “thought you didn’t want us to get caught.” he sounds so fucking pleased with himself, and you hate that your pussy is wet enough that you can take him without much prep. you blush at the thought of being caught and remind yourself to keep quiet.

“oh, don’t stop now on my account,” his voice lowers substantially, you crane your neck to hear him better, and you just know without having to look at him that he’s got a pleased smile on his face. that man works every nerve in your body, but you like him too much to leave him properly.

you press your lips together to stifle another moan, but then shanks keeps his hips close to yours and gives you short, rough thrusts that you struggle to keep up with. with your back arched, you make for a pretty sight; he knows he should finish quickly, but he likes watching you hold onto the edge of the table like it’s your only lifeline. you don’t even have time to process the orgasm that passes through you because it happens so suddenly.

he teases you mercilessly and without remorse, but you take it; you take the rest of his frenetic thrusts, take the way he slides his hand underneath you to rub your clit. your body is much too sensitive, and when you moan his name like that, it flips a switch in him. you doubt you’ll be able to walk properly after this, but you’re not too worried about that; shanks bullies his cock in and out of your needy hole until he’s satisfied, successfully wrenching another orgasm out of you that makes you slump over the table weakly.

“don’t tell me you’re all done,” he presses a kiss on the side of your neck, lazily grinding against you, every bit as greedy as he always is. you can barely stand, but you feel alive in the best sort of way, already forgetting that you were mad at him in the first place.

you knew better and you still didn’t listen.

the restraints around your wrists dig into your skin a bit, but they don’t hurt that much; you squirm around on the bed, not liking that you can’t touch yourself or him. but he told you earlier to behave and you still chose to ignore his warning.

now you’re paying for it.

although, you wouldn’t exactly call this sort of thing a punishment.

law’s mouth latches onto a patch of skin on your inner thigh, teeth and mouth leaving behind marks that serve as little reminders for later. you whimper softly, but he pays you no mind, instead moving to the other thigh, tongue running along your skin. you buck your hips forward to get him to touch you properly, but all he does is click his tongue at you in faux-disappointment.

“seems like you still need to learn,” he says sharply, his eyes a dark amber, the look he gives you is equal parts fierce and mesmerizing. you want to kiss him, to run your hands down his chest, but he won’t let you and you’re upset about it.

when it looks like you’re about to say something that’ll piss him off, he stuffs your panties inside of your mouth to keep you quiet. your pleas are muffled but he pulls your hips close, mouth brushing along your slit, making you tremble with need.

he knows he should probably ease up, but if he doesn’t teach you now, then you’ll keep the same bad habits and he can’t have that, now, can he? you’re nearly in tears when he finally flicks his tongue against your throbbing clit, hips jerking forward when he swirls his tongue around. you can feel your saliva dampen your panties. you close your eyes briefly, ecstasy filling every part of your body when he stops and says, “keep your eyes on me.”

you want to tell him that it’s damn near impossible, but you try to follow his instruction anyway.

law eats you out with purpose and vigor, his mouth a sinful delight as he french-kisses your pussy without restraint. he teased you for so long that your nipples ache from being hard and untouched. you could kill him for that. and law is smug in his own way, enjoying you at his leisure, slurping and licking your pussy with fervor.

you thrash against him and he holds you steady; you can barely keep your eyes open and you feel like you’re having an out of body experience when he glides his lithe fingers inside your cunt. law fingerfucks you lazily, sucking on your clit like it’s his favorite piece of candy. when you cum, your moans are strangled and garbled, vision blurring as you ride his mouth shamelessly, a sharp pain on your wrists from the way you keep tugging fruitlessly.

he could let up but won’t, taking pleasure in watching you fall apart for him; you tell yourself that once you’ve calmed down, you’ll just have to pay him back in kind later when he least expects it.

[oliviax727]

Language Update #1

I'm writing this post on the day my duolingo streak has reached 30. Combine that with rosetta stone, and I've done approximately 10 hours of language learning total, or 20 mins/day.

Now it hasn't all been exactly 20 mins per day, some days it's a lot less, some days it's a lot more, but what I also have to add is that I only did 10 days of rosetta stone.

Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone

Generally, I've found that duolingo has been better for my education than rosetta stone. Yes, the funny bird app works better than the "serious" language course. Here's a few reasons why:

Flexibility

Rosetta stone is not very flexible. It's very rigid in it's structure. You are typically required to spend 30 minutes per day on learning, 5 days a week.

Not just that, but you don't really have much options outside of progressing forward, there are auto-planned revision, speaking, reading, writing, and listening lessons.

This, at least to me, is unsustainable.

There are going to be a lot of days where I won't have the time, capacity, or drive to do much learning.

Often I want to change what I'm doing. Instead of continuing forward, I might want to brush up on speaking or revise previous words etc.

With duolingo, the only requirement is that I learn for at least a 3-minute lesson each week. And I don't even need to do a lesson, I could choose that time to review a previous one for example.

Encouragement to Learn

You might think that a minimum of 3 minutes a day is not substantial to learning a language.

Duolingo is gamified, it is full of these little jingles, and animations, that hit your brain right in the dopamine pathway. It's addictive, and that's a good thing.

It encourages you to keep going, to motivate yourself to do more. I end up spending an average of 10 minutes a day thanks to this. Which is much more manageable than 30 minutes.

Rosetta stone on the other hand is slow and cumbersome. It feels like it takes longer to complete a lesson and often becomes a bore. In everything, from the speed of the animations, to how long it takes to turn on the microphone ....

Overwhelming Pace

When learning, well, anything that involves memory, the best way to do it is not to overdo it. You need to be constantly going back and reinforcing old ideas and terms.

Rosetta stone throws waay too much in your face too quickly, and then because it did so much, it can't take the time to allow you to go back and revise.

One day, I 'learned' about 25 words and 3 new grammar rules in a few minutes, most not related to eachother in the sense you could put them in a sentence. Then the next 3 days I did not see most of those words come back up again until suddenly I get introduced to more words.

Duolingo has done something similar, but it did it in a better way. When you're exposed to a barrage of new words, either:

A) It's made very clear that you don't need to remember the word right now, and it's just to pad sentences into looking "normal"

B) Exercises involving that word are repeated, again and again, so you are sure to remember it

When duolingo threw me into the deep end, it was often productive. I learned how to read sentences and piece together their meaning via context clues - even if I didn't know every word in the sentence.

Unclear Instructions, Help, and Translations

I'm certain that a baby could use duolingo. It's not too difficult to understand what the app is asking you to do.

Not just that, but duolingo offers a lot in lieu of translations, they incorporate translations in five ways:

Exercises asking you to translate phrases in Spanish into English

Exercises asking you to translate phrases in English into Spanish

After you answered a question in Spanish, your answer will be translated into English

You can tap/click on a word in English to reveal its translation

You can tap/click on a word in Spanish to reveal its translation

The first two are common ways in which duolingo tests your knowledge, or introduces new concepts to you. The middle one is a way of giving you conformation "oh good I said what I meant".

The last two act as hints, to be used when you're struggling or decipher a specific word's meaning.

Rosetta stone, on the other hand, does not offer any translation aid. In fact, there are no translations involved at all in the app.

Not just that, but in the 10 days I've used rosetta stone, I did not see a single English word within lessons at all (of course the app's interfacing and menus use English).

So how do you learn Spanish? Via images.

Now, given that the app's goal is to teach natural language acquisition, it makes sense. Because it prevents the ability for your mind to immediately back-translate new phrases and words.

The disadvantage is that it prevents the ability for your mind to immediately back-translate new phrases and words, a rather crucial step in learning a new language I'd argue.

Oh, and, using images only is severely limited when it comes to teaching you words that are:

Dynamic verbs (e.g. running)

Abstract verbs (e.g. want)

Abstract words in general (e.g. is, this, that)

Prepositions and tense

Adverbs

Abstract nouns or adjectives

Most grammar rules

This is probably the straw that broke the camel's back. Especially because there's no way to confirm that what you think a word means is what it actually means (as there are no translations).

Pricing

Duolingo is free, and has a 2 week free trial of its premium version (I recommend subscribing to premium). This allows you to try the app, and pull out if you don't want to learn the language or want to switch.

Rosetta stone charges you upfront for 3 months of use. No trial, no nothing.

Not to mention that super duolingo is less expensive than basic rosetta stone, on a per-month basis.

Using two apps is just a bad idea

Surprisingly, using two apps is harder than one. Especially when both aren't equally flexible to time.

The problem isn't that they teach you different words at different rates ... I was learning approximately the same amount (outside of rosetta stone affomentionedly blasting me with new words).

The problem was that it becomes a bit overwhelming with the time and brainpower requirements.

It felt like rosetta stone was a time sink, preventing me from using duolingo more often and learning more productively. So I stopped using rosetta stone after the first 10 days.

Still won't get back that money though ...

What Have I learned?

Alright, so now for what I've actually learned.

Grammar

Generally I've learned a few decent grammar rules that are different to english. For example:

Grammatical gender is a thing, and more prevalent

Adjectives come after a noun

Está and es both mean the same thing, "is", but one describes temporary properties and the other describes static qualities

There are several words like "well", "too", "you", "I" that have several translations in Spanish

Verbs change based on what the subject is

Diacritics exist ...

Of course, things are slightly easy because I don't need to learn a different word order. It's still SVO like in English.

Really what throws me off the most is the fact that adjectives come after the word. That and the many different ways you can say "you" or "I". Other than that I've got a lot of grammar under control.

Currently I have not actually learnt tense in Spanish. But I will, actually tomorrow probably.

Other than that, gender is difficult to learn. Mainly because you cannot always use the "ends in a" vs. "ends in o" rule. For example you say el agua instead of la agua.

Words

There are many words in Spanish that are very similar in English, about 50% of them.

Because the amount of words I have learnt are small, I will list them, all! Which will be a great learning exercise for me.

Do not expect me to spell every word correctly - I can't even spell in English correctly without spellcheck.

Common Phrases (or components of phrases) Hola; Adiós; Gracias; De nada; Disculpe; Dónde; Qué; Por favor; Lo siento; Buenos días; Buenas noches; Como estás; Qué tal; Bienvenido; Vamos

Short/Simple Words Es/eres/soy, está/estás/estoy, ese, este, mi, yo, tú, tu, para, de, o, a, y, demasiado, bueno, hoy, un/una, el/la, él/ella, ellos/ellas, en, muy, aquí, sí, no

Verbs (in 3rd person form) Corre, lee, escribe, quiere, paga, compra, bebe, come, necesita, nada, tengo/tiene, habla, vive

Adjectives Azul, rojo, verde, marrón, gris, elegante, bonito, caro, cómoda, barato, bueno, inteligente, grande, cerrado, favorita, diferente

Nouns (Food) Pan, agua, leche, manzana, naranja, queso, huevo, tomate, carne, pescado, jugo, café, sándwich, hamburguesa, ensalada, chocolate

Nouns (People/Pets) Persona, niño/niña, mujer, hombre, hijo/hija, esposo/esposa, hermano/hermana, padre, madre, abuelo/abuela, gato, perro

Nouns (Places/Vehicles) Aeropuerto, hotel, hospital, restaurante, baño, banco, tren, autobús, carro, bicicleta, casa, calle, tienda, supermercado

Nouns (Apparel) Ropa, camisa, camiseta, reloj, cinturón, vestido, falda, chaqueta, abrigo, zapatos, pantalones, sombrero

Nouns (Objects) Vaso, taza, mesa, maleta, regalo, reserva, dinero, boleto, teléfono, pasaporte, cartera, videojuego

Other (Countries/Languages) Español, Inglés, Francia, España, Australia, America, Argentina

That should be about it. Obviously, some words in Spanish are direct translations in English, e.g. Australia, hospital, chocolate.

Pronunciation

I included them because while they are spelt the same, they may still be pronounced slightly differently.

Spanish is slightly easier in terms of pronunciation in the sense that vowels (without diacritics) are always pronounced the same way. This is why diacritics appear - as to tell a speak when to pronounce them differently.

Diacritics are always in the form of the uptick, á é í ó ú, with the only exception of ñ. Which genuinely changes how the n is pronounced.

For example, baño is pronounced "bahnyo" (depending on your own accent the h there may not be needed).

Conclusion

So, I'll be switching to exclusively using duolingo. I do intend on maintaining the streak for as long as possible, as at least it keeps me motivated for the rest of the day.

Outside of that, things are going well! I'm planning on surprising my grandmother with my newfound Spanish skills much earlier, by Christmas. Because I am afraid she might not be around by next year, depending on her health.

My next post will be at ... maybe 60 days? There'll be less information in the next post because there's less stuff to talk about.

[an1d10t]

Yea okay I’m gonna do the Dutch school niveau thingy

(If you don’t want the explanation, go to the green text. It starts there-)

Let’s start with what what means and Dutch people. Please help me with Mavo and vmbo. I rarely interact with them and don’t really know-

So, is dutch people normally go to a primary school for about 8 years. We’ll get tests and at the end a Cito toets. Then they give us an advice.

If it is a little in between (een twijfel geval) we get a mix. For example, I have Havo/vwo and a friend of mine has Havo/mavo.

We have different levels amd different kinds of names for those levels. (If I can’t explain it, I am sorry-)

Vwo- vwo is the highest you can get. This prepares you for the university. It lasts 6 years in total

Havo- Havo is, in my experience, a bit easier than vwo. You can also get onto university with this. This lasts 5 years

Mavo- im pretty sure you can also get into the university with mavo. This lasts 4 years

Vmbo- vmbo is the lowest and you mainly get physical lessons. Like baking, taking care of animals, ect. This also lasts 4 years

(listen, I don’t know shit about this vmbo and had to redo this post like 10 times already. I’m sorry😭-)

Also, these are just the things my school has, so if I missed any, PLEASE CORRECT ME

There are also a few special classes.

Tto- tto stand for ‘twee talig onderwijs’ or in English, bilingual education. Most of the lessons with this are in English and you sometimes travel to another country. There are also exchange programs. Sadly tto is only for Havo and vwo

Sport klas- sport klas is for sporty people. Sometimes the second years prepare sport days for the school. They also get to skip lessons some times to do the sport

Kunst breed- kunst breed is with art. In my school, every Friday the people who filled in the papers for this go to the ACD classroom and make art.

Now finally onto what I think the people would do:

Will: probably Havo or mavo/havo. He might do sport klas but I’m not sure

Horace: mavo sport klas. Listen, this man is pretty good at grammar and begrijpend lezen. He seems like a person to be very good in Dutch if he was dutch

Crowley: havo/vwo tto. If I can do it, this guy can do it too.

Halt: also havo/vwo tto. But I feel like he’d also do kubstbreed

Alyss: vwo tto. Do I even need to explain??

Pauline: vwo. Really liked languages

Arald: mavo and I feel like he and Rodney really liked medieval history. Because you know, knights and sword fights

Rodney: mavo sportklas

Jenny: Vmbo. She is really, really, REALLY good at the cooking and likes to do things with her hands

George: vwo tto. He’s good at languages. Really good. (Please give me your skills, George)

Gilan: he either has like havo/vwo or vmbo. I cannot decide. But of course he does sportklas

[corvid-language-library]

Norwegian Bokmål for Total Beginners (January 2024 Crash Course)

21. Common Adjectives

Welcome to another day of Norwegian! I hope your studies are going well. Today we're looking at some basic adjectives:

ung/ungt/unge - young

gammel/gammelt/gamle - old

ny/nytt/nye - new

fin/fint/fine - nice, fine

god/godt/gode, bra - good

dårlig/dårlige - bad

lang/langt/lange - long

kort/korte - short (distance)

høy/høyt/høye - high, tall (height)

lav/lavt/lave - low, short (height)

liten/lita/lite/små/lille - small, little

stor/stort/store - big

Grammar: Declining Adjectives

We've talked about grammatical gender before and how adjectives are affected by this:

en gammel mann (an old man)

et nytt tog (a new train)

store lastebiler (big lorries)

For a recap, have a look at day 8's Colours lesson.

Unfortunately, there is no "one size fits all" rule for declining adjectives. As with everything, you'll get a feel for it as you go along, so don't panic if you don't get it all today. Here are a few rules:

To make an adjective neuter, add -t. To make it plural, add -e

Adjectives ending in -sk and -ig don't add -t in the neuter form. But they do add -e in the plural form.

Adjectives that end in consonant + t/d don't get an extra -t in the neuter form

Adjectives ending in -el, -er or -en lose the e in the plural form (gammel -> gamle)

^Adjectives with a double consonant before -el, -er or -en also lose one of those consonants

Short adjectives that don't end in 'e' usually add -tt in the neuter (blå -> blått, grå -> grått, ny -> nytt). With the exception of ny, you don't normally add 'e' in the plural form with these adjectives (you can, but it's mor common not to)

Adjectives ending in -a or -e often don't change forms (rosa, bra, oransje, ekte)

There are a couple of other rules, but we can look at them later when you learn more adjectives. If you're ever unsure, go to ordbøkene.no and look up the word, then click on 'vis bøyning' to check the declension.

Liten

Liten is an irregular adjective in many ways. It's one of very few adjectives that has a separate feminine form, as well as a totally different plural form and a totally different definite form. These are as follows:

Masculine: liten (en liten bil = a small car)

Feminine: lita (ei lita gulrot = a small carrot)

Neuter: lite (et lite hus = a small house) [rarely: smått]

Plural: små (små sykler = small bicyles)

Definite: lille (den lille flaska = the small bottle) [rarely: vesle]

[rigelmejo]

Things I'm interested in comparing:

Thanks to finding r/DreamingSpanish on reddit, people have shared their progress over X hours on learning Spanish through an ALG method. So one can check and see when some people started speaking (300 hours to 1500, along with some outliers), and speaking comfortably (800 hours to 2000, along with some outliers). Comprehensible Thai (youtube) has shared in their recommendations to their learners, to not try to start speaking until it comes 'on it's own' around 1000 hours (so one could perhaps guess Thai progress might be: starting to speak 1000-2000 hours, starting to be comfortable speaking 2000-3000 hours?). Dreaming Spanish is easier to gauge learner progress in hitting milestones of language ability, since learners both have a detailed roadmap of what language ability they should have at each X hundred hours AND many DS learners tend to share their in-progress experiences. Searching r/DreamingSpanish with "progress" shows these. (Thank you all Dreaming Spanish learners! You are really awesome, tons of people appreciate seeing your progress and experience and opinions on the process!). Any learner using only comprehensible input lessons and material for native speakers eventually (once they understand the main idea), would also roughly fall into this category of experiences (although ALG method has certain expectations in HOW a learner thinks, that a Comprehensible Input lesson user who guesses a lot of translation meanings is not aligning with, so there are some significant differences...).

An interesting semi-related experience, was the person who wrote the paper about learning French entirely from watching French shows and no word lookups: he did NOT do ALG as the material he watched was NOT 90%+ comprehensible to him for a while, he actively tried to determine equivalent english meanings to french words and tried to puzzle out the grammar. And yet, surprisingly, he started speaking around 1200 hours (within when a Dreaming Spanish ALG learner also would according to the roadmap guide), and he passed a B2 test after 1500 hours (which is when the Dreaming Spanish ALG learner should also be roughly B2). This is interesting to me, and indicates that to some degree, whether you intentionally 'try to figure out the meaning of words/grammar' or just 'try to understand the general main idea conveyed without thinking specifically about language' you will still have the same progress in the end. So that could be a comfort: if you're an ALG classes taker, a Dreaming Spanish learner, or using some other Comprehensible Input classes, you should see good progress whether you intentionally think about the language meaning or not.

(I have a personal theory, that 'just thinking about main idea' works speedily in a situation where lessons are DESIGNED to be understood by total beginners - as in ALG lessons like Dreaming Spanish, Comprehensible Japanese, Learn Korean in Korean, Comprehensible Input French, etc, BUT if you just start trying to watch normal television shows in a new language then failing to try to figure out grammar and vocabulary specifically may make progress slow or nonexistent. The guy who learned French from TV did not watch comprehensible input lessons made for beginners, he didn't even watch children's cartoons - which are more understandable visually - for a few hundred hours. He may have made no early progress if he hadn't been trying to figure out the language while watching those difficult shows, and even the kids cartoons where he made the most progress - he often replayed every line multiple times and rewatched cartoons multiple times to break down the cartoons into something he could figure out the meaning of as much as possible. So my personal guess is... if you try to 'immerse' to learn a language, either use materials MADE FOR LEARNERS for the first 300-500 hours like Dreaming Spanish, Comprehensible Thai, equivalent type materials, OR you probably need to try visual-context shows for children and put in effort trying to figure out the meaning of words/sentences you hear for a while.)

It's also relatively achievable to find people sharing their progress when doing Mass Immersion Approach (now called Refold if you got into it in recent years or through Matt vs Japan). But to be generous here, if a learner is studying with both SRS flashcards to learn words in sentences (like anki, memrise, Wanikani, Clozemaster, Pleco flashcards etc), and by immersing in content for native speakers and looking up key words for understanding the main idea of that content (anywhere from barely any word lookups to looking up every single unknown word), then their study experiences are similar to the Mass Immersion Approach. There are some people who did MIA/Refold who've shared how many hours it took them of study to read, to start speaking, to confidently speak, and how many anki study hours and hours of immersing in content for native speakers to see progress milestones. Searching r/Refold with "progress" shows some results. Here's some Progress at 500 hours of input (B1 level, has been speaking a little bit, progress seems similar to DS hours - which makes sense given this person is studying French, and may not be counting flashcard study time, although to be fair... perhaps MIA is a bit faster progress?). I am seeing some similar results to what's expected after pure immersion: MIA learners of languages similar to their own tend to see some big improvements comprehension of content for native speakers around 500-600 hours, and start speaking around then or up to 1000 hours after. MIA learners of languages very different from their own (like an English speaker learning Japanese or Chinese) tend to see a big improvement in comprehension of content for native speakers around 1000-2000 hours and then start trying to speak 500-1000 hours later.

Sort of interesting to also compare, is FSI estimates languages like Spanish taking 750 hours for english speakers to learn PLUS 2-3 hours for each class hour. This would result in 1500-2250 hours to roughly B2 fluency if you take classes in a language along with 2-3 hours of self study and/or immersion per class hour. The 1500-2250 hours it's estimated to take is actually fairly close to DreamingSpanish learner's progress, and MIA/Refold learner's progress. For English speakers learning Japanese or Chinese, it's estimated to take 2200 hours PLUS 2-3 hours of self study per class hour, which is 4400-6600 hours. The 2200-4400 hours time seems to be fairly in line with MIA type learners, usually 4400 hours for languages like Japanese. I would say... from what I've seen, some people make great progress using ALG for languages very unlike english like Thai in about ~2000 hours, and there are some MIA/Refold learners who make good progress in languages unlike english in around 2000 hours too (although if we count their anki study time it may be higher). FSI is the estimate I tend to look up when considering how long progress should take if studying explicitly with classes/textbooks/grammar study/word lists/flashcard apps.

I think sometimes ALG methods and Comprehensible Input methods are considered 'inefficient and slow' compared to traditional methods of textbook study/classroom drills/tutors, but looking at the end results, it appears both traditional and Automatic Language Growth methods result in ~B2/Upper Intermediate fluency around the same number of study hours. (As does MIA method).

My personal theory on all of this comparison stuff is... perhaps traditional learners hit A1-A2 progress milestones faster? I definitely think through explicitly studying (a textbook, or anki flashcards, or word/sentence lists in a self study book) one can learn small talk and tourist-navigation phrases in a couple months, compared to the year it may take to say such basic stuff after ALG/CI lessons. I think with the help of a GOOD textbook, or a good anki deck, you can be reading novels within 2-6 months especially if you're willing to look things up with a dictionary (so high A2 level), you can cram study for 100-300 hours then READ. Whereas if you do ALG/CI method you're going to be encouraged not to read much, and not to look words up much to help yourself understand when reading, until your pronunciation/listening is decent which is going to be 600-1500 hours in. If you cannot look words up to help yourself, you won't be able to read or watch as advanced material (which is the same as in our native language... you couldn't read a novel for adults at age 8 unless you were willing to ask someone what some words meant, or look words up in a dictionary, it was just too hard). So I do think explicit learners (textbooks, dictionaries, translation tools, anki etc) can engage with more complicated material FASTER because they can rely on tools to help them understand (dictionaries, translators, flashcards, teachers, textbook reference for grammar etc). However... the explicit learner may still fail to grasp any more than the implicit learner (ALG method/CI method) if they are try to watch a show or read a book with NO tools to aid them. That's my theory... my theory is it just takes a rough X number of hours to hit language ability milestones, no matter HOW you're studying (as long as you're learning some new stuff and practicing some prior-stuff regularly). Without the tools to aid you, most English speaking learners of Spanish are still looking at ~1500 hours to be able to navigate most conversations and shows and books without tools to aid them. I do think the explicit learners (classroom/textbook/anki flashcard) can start Doing things in a language faster, because they're willing to use tools (dictionaries, translators, grammar reference) and because if you're learning drills (such as in a classroom or from a podcast) then that will give you memorized key phrases you can say to get through daily life situations as a tourist/in small talk etc. It will still take roughly the same amount of time for ALL learners to get to a point of not needing to use any aids to understand, to speak with native speakers at normal conversation pace and not think too hard mentally to figure out how to respond, to read and listen with similar ease to their native language.

My point with all this is: it looks like even for an 'easier' language, you're looking at 1500 hours to upper intermediate. For a 'harder' language you're looking at 2200-4400. So you are going to take thousands of hours to get to upper intermediate, whether its just 1000 or 4000+. No matter HOW you study, you're going to eventually spend hundreds of hours listening to, watching, and reading in the target language. To develop speech, you'll eventually be spending hundreds of hours practicing speaking. Same with listening, reading, and writing (although some people seem to progress in just dozens of hours writing after a basis in the other skills). My point is also: looking words up or not, learning grammar or not, trying to experience versus parse language, it's mostly up to you on what you decide you'd like to do and what works best for you. As far as I'm seeing... you're going to learn either way, and get to upper intermediate either way (as long as you put in the study time, expose yourself to some new stuff, and practice comprehending some not new stuff regularly).

There may be some initial speed gains to beginner milestones if you learn explicitly (with translations, grammar explanations, flashcards, teachers) or use tools to accomplish those milestones. There may be some thousand hours shaved off your time later, if studying through ALG method (people learning Thai in some programs seemed to take 2000 hours to read Upper Intermediate if studying using ALG method, versus potentially 4400 hours with classroom study+self-study), but you won't necessarily be able to read/listen/watch/have small talk as quickly as the explicit methods learners (who can start doing those things - especially with tools to aid them - in as little as a few hundred hours). Using SRS (spaced repetition system) to study words/sentences/grammar may also potentially shave off some thousand of hours of study time, my guess here would be that it allows some learners to pick up the explicitly studied material a bit faster than learners with no particular review schedule... which, in a similar vein, I would guess ALG lessons that purposefully include spaced repetition of words you've been exposed to before will result in Faster progress and could also shave some time off of how long Upper Intermediate ability takes to reach (and in contrast, poorly designed CI/ALG lessons that rarely repeat words - especially if you don't rewatch old lessons - could result in it taking the longer amount of time to get to Upper Intermediate since you aren't getting timely reinforcement of things you need to review).

So yeah. Expect 1500-2000 hours of study time to reach Upper Intermediate in target languages similar to a language you know, 2000-4400 hours for languages less like one you know. That's the conclusion I'm taking for myself.

Things we can use to our advantage:

The more study time you do per day, the less years your language goals are going to take. If you reliably study 1-2+ hours a day, you're already set up to get to Upper Intermediate in a more timely manner. 365 days multipled by 4 years is 1460 hours at 1 hour a day, so if you're learning a language more like your own then 4 years of 1 hour commitment a day can see you to Upper intermediate. 365 days multiplied by 2 hours a day, for 4 years, is 2920 hours. So if you're learning a language unlike your own, a 2 hour daily commitment will see you to Lower or Upper Intermediate in potentially 4 years. And up to 6 years if you need the full 4380 hours to get there. 1-2 hour commitment a day for something you care about is doable. And once you hit a certain point in that journey you will be able to listen to the language like podcasts, which will allow you to fit in more study time while multitasking so you do more per day than 2 hours if you want to. If you are dedicated, you can speed up this timeline too if you've got the space in your schedule to do an initial study year of 3-4 hours a day or something. (As always... I'm beginning you to consider the time it will take to hit your goals. If your goal as an English speaker is to read within 6 months in Chinese, and you study 20 minutes a day... you probably won't reach your goal. If you study 1-2 hours, and are willing to look up words when reading, you may reach that goal of 6 months. And if you study 4 hours a day, you might actually reach your goal and not need word lookups for some reading materials by the 6 month mark. There are some people who study 15 minutes a day and wonder why in 4 years they aren't fluent in spanish... it's because at that pace, they'll need 16 years to reach Upper Intermediate. If they want to reach Upper Intermediate in 4 years, they need to study ~1 hour daily on average).

If you can build in review of stuff you recently were exposed to, into your routine, you may progress in less hours. So this could mean: reviewing old vocabulary lists in your textbook once a month, SRS anki flashcards, rewatching old ALG/CI videos once in a while if the words in the video are foggy in your memory, reading or listening regularly to a LOT of content (so it hopefully mentions words/grammar you've already learned so you can practice recognizing it and get review), re-listening or re-reading material you've already gone through before to review things you learned the last time you went through them. (Note: you can make progress without purposeful review, it just may be on the slower side since exposure to already-learned information will be random in the content you study with).

If you start with material you can understand the meaning of, you will make faster progress as a beginner. This is as simple as it sounds: textbooks are UNDERSTANDABLE because they explain everything's meaning, Comprehensible Input youtube lessons or ALG lessons are made to have visual hints so you UNDERSTAND the main idea even as a complete beginner, SRS anki flashcards with translations are UNDERSTANDABLE because they have translations, any books with translations where you read and compare, any tutor who either tells you translations or visually uses pictures/gestures to make their meaning understandable. As a beginner learner, pick something where you can understand THE MAIN IDEA being communicated. Most material made for beginners does this by default (textbooks, classes, and ALG and CI lessons). But if for some reason you want to begin learning by reading a book you love in the target language immediately, or watching a show, then either look up word translations OR read/watch something you know the plot of SO well that you remember the main ideas and can try to mentally map those main ideas to the target language sentences you're hearing.

When you are no longer a beginner, it is still going to be true that you will make progress faster with material you UNDERSTAND the meaning of. Again, very simple to follow. Either use lessons MADE so you understand the main idea (CI/ALG lessons, textbooks), or engage with content in the target language (books, shows, podcasts etc) where you can UNDERSTAND the main idea. You can look up words, to understand the main idea. Or choose not to look up words and only pick content you can already follow the main idea of with no aid. Either way, picking material you can (through some means) understand the main idea of is what will help you learn many new things, and review old things, with that material.

If you desire to do a specific task quickly with aid, explicit learning (textbooks, classroom, anki, memorizing lists, using dictionaries/translators) may help you accomplish a specific task quicker. So if you're planning a trip in 1 month, memorizing phrases may serve you better than ALG/CI lessons. Or if you aim to read a novel at the end of the month, you're likely going to need to use some method of cram studying words and/or be willing to look up translations of MANY words when reading, in order to make the novel's main idea understandable to you.

No matter how you study, you'll eventually have to read and listen to material made for native speakers, to improve your ability to understand it. So, assuming you've spent a few hundred to thousand hours learning thousands of words and grammar with learner materials (anki, textbook, or ALG/CI lessons, Crosstalk etc), you will still initially find content for native speakers difficult. Because even if you know the words/grammar, you'll need to get used to the fast speed and variety that's not in learner content as much. Getting used to reading/listening to material for native speakers takes hours of practice, hundreds of hours. You're not a failure if you don't immediately understand a podcast for native speakers, with words you 'should know,' if you've only ever listened to material made for learners beforehand. It's going to take hundreds of hours of practice.

In the long run, if you wish to be good at a specific skill (listening, reading, writing, speaking), you'll need to put potentially a few hundred hours into practicing it. Beyond the time you do the skill to learn words and grammar. So if you wish to be good at speaking, you'll spend thousand/thousands of hours working on learning words and vocabulary. But you'll also need to spend some hours specifically starting to speak, and then practicing. Listening and reading, being passive skills, will develop over time as you do them more while learning words/grammar. But speaking and writing will take hours of practice.

Do study methods you LIKE to do, and can get yourself to do REGULARLY for 1 hour or more, as much as possible. The goal is to study for thousands of hours... so do what you can actually get yourself to do. By the end, any study method will take a similar amount of time. But the methods you CAN do, you'll find success with. The 'best' method is worth nothing if you can never get yourself to do it. You are also more likely to hit your goals in less time, if you pick study methods you enjoy and can do regularly. Why does ALG take some people 2000 hours and some 4000... part of it is how different their target language is from one they know, but another part of it is how focused/engaged they were while doing their lessons and crosstalk. If you're very focused, and happy, to be doing your study activity, you will zone out less and retain more.

If you have already studied a language, you will make faster progress. Why? Because you already have learned (probably) 1. How to get yourself to study regularly, and for enough hours per day to satisfy the speed of progress you wish to make. 2. You already know what study methods you enjoy doing and that seem to result in faster progress for you. 3. You already know how to determine if you 'understand' a material enough to learn from it, and how to make content more understandable for you with aids (if you desire to). 4. You already know, for you personally, what you plan to prioritize learning first (an example would be that someone learning a language for the first time might not know if they need to learn the word 'bank' now or in 3 years, whereas a person who's learned a language before and needs to go to the bank in 6 months and speak that target language may already know they with to prioritize learning the word bank and words they'll need to do banking activities within the next few months. A new learner who wants to read may not know graded readers exist, or what vocabulary they'll need to make reading easier, but someone who's already studied a language is going to be more likely to immediately look up Graded Readers, translation tools to use, and look up words that frequently pop up in novels but not conversation).

Set goals. Especially if you're learning a language for the first time, on your own. If you can't think of goals, just find someone else's progress journey and make goals similar to theirs. So if you like reading, find a learner who learned using a lot of reading and try to aim for the goals they had. If you want to be conversational quickly, find a learner who accomplished that and see what smaller goals they had, and try to aim for them too. You can get study ideas from the people who already reached their goals, and you can get smaller goals to aim for every couple months to check your own progress and keep yourself accountable. If you use an explicit study material like a textbook or anki, you could make your small goals to get through X chapters or 500 anki cards per month. And you could look up how fast other people got through the textbook, or anki deck, and make a goal to complete the material in a similar time frame.

[vijaymadhukar]

IELTS Coaching in Noida: A Road to Global Opportunities

Noida, an ever-growing education and development hub is gradually gaining momentum as one of the major IELTS coaching centers. Hence, Noida has now grown as the favorite destination of aspirants amongst the dreaming students and professionals intending to go abroad for studies or jobs. The International English Language Testing IELTS Coaching in Noida System, in short, is more popularly known as IELTS. Normally, this is the requisite test for emigration into countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, or the United States of America. IELTS is considered a key for opening up a whole world of opportunities regarding higher education or employment prospects.

Why Preparation for IELTS is Important

The IELTS test takes into account four important skills of your English ability: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Each has demands in question types and assessment criteria and hence requires comprehensive preparation. More than general knowledge in the English language, targeted preparation in a specific way regarding the fine details of the test format and the way to execute the required skills to gain a high band score is r IELTS Coaching in Noida equired.

With increased competition, one has to be thoroughly prepared to match or perform better than the benchmark standard set by any international institution. The better one prepares, the greater the chances are of scoring well-as it directly influences the chances of admission or employment abroad.

What Makes Noida Ideal for IELTS Preparation?

Considering Noida as a commercial and educational hub, a high rush of students for quality IELTS coaching has been observed. The proximity of this city with Delhi, coupled with modern infrastructure, encourages test preparation in this city. This city seems more affordable to many while availing of high-quality training resources and academic support compared to any other nearby cities.

The city of Noida provides an extremely favorable learning environment, full of top-notch libraries, resource centers, and zones for the quiet study. Amidst such surroundings, it is considerably more possible to achieve focus on IELTS preparations. Whether your aptitude tends toward IELTS Coaching in Noida organized class lessons or individualized private tuitions, Noida affords you enough opportunity to reach learning support matched to your needs.

Major Features of IELTS Preparation in Noida

1.Focused English Language Training:

A complete IELTS preparation strategy followed in Noida underlines the enhancement of your total linguistic grasp of the English language. It includes grammar, vocabulary, sentence structuring, and the capability to express yourself well. Extra concern is rendered towards reading comprehension and listening skills development because these sections form the foundation for acing in this examination.

2.Mock Tests and Regular Asses

sments:One of the major highlights of getting IELTS preparation in Noida is the regular mock tests or assessments. These practice sessions emulate real exam conditions and help students feel at ease with the time constraints and pressure of the actual test. Regular feedback by experienced trainers will show a student his strengths and weaknesses.

It's a daunting section for many test-takers who are not used to speaking in English in formal situations. Most of the IELTS programs offer personalized one-on-one speaking practice with experienced trainers in Noida. This really helps in building fluency and confidence. Constructive feedback enables IELTS Coaching in Noida students to improve pronunciation, vocabulary, and conversational skills.

4.Writing Task Support:

Writing tends to be the part of the IELTS test where most problems occur. Students need to write a great deal in order to develop coherent writing skills, and also to learn how to fulfill the particular requirements that the test possesses-things such as structures for essays and reports. Local preparation courses can offer expert advice on how to approach efficiently both the first task, report writing, and the second task, essay writing.

Self-Study Resources in Noida

Apart from classroom programs, a lot of self-study resources are available within the city limits of Noida. Libraries and other websites offer ample opportunities for studying IELTS practice materials-sample questions, mock tests, and video tutorials-all of which provide immense flexibility, which means the student learns at his own pace and can schedule his learning IELTS Coaching in Noida as his routine permits.

Success Tips for IELTS

1.Practice on a Regular Basis: Have regular practice of all four components of the test. Allot specific times for reading, listening, writing, and speaking practices.

2.Improve from the Feedback Given to You: Take positive feedback from trainers and work upon your weak areas. Regular practice will improve you in the area.

3.Practice in a Mock Test Environment: Practice mock tests in a real-time environment to get a feel of the actual test and time available for each section.

4.Reading and Listening: Read as many newspapers, books, and listen to English podcasts or news channels to develop better comprehension skills.

5.Keep Yourself Updated: Keep an eye on IELTS-related news for any latest changes in test patterns so that you will be better prepared.

Conclusion

Therefore, it will be advisable that one prepares for IELTS in Noida so that one can leave a mark in this world. With the right strategies and resources to prepare for the exam, the thriving educational ecosystem in Noida provides just the right IELTS Coaching in Noida environment to achieve success in this test of IELTS.

[poppy-in-the-woods]

A few conclusions after the end of this poll:

- Most people understands the language and reads it better than they speak it. Which is totally normal. Don't worry about it, and don't worry about not having your grammar or orthography perfect. Also don't worry about your accent, we appreciate others trying.

- Most of the people that said they would like to learn live in areas with hispanic population or now someone who speaks it, often someone close to them (friend, significant other, etc). Some even took some classes in high-school but have totally forgot because lack of practice. Again, totally normal. If you want to improve, conversation is your best route.

- Most people doesn't decide which language they want to learn because they think it sounds good or because they like the culture it's from, but because of its usefulness. Which makes sense, and me not thinking about it it's probably a proof of my neurofivergence.

- Some people that are very against other forms of bigotry like homophobia, transphobia or racism in all environments are fine about engaging in casual xenophobia online. And let me be clear, I am the first one to say my country is not perfect and we need to do better in every sense, but I honestly was not expecting the amount of hatred in the tags.

- Most people, if not everyone, took the "no, why should I?" as the mean option, or the dismissive one, when it was more like "No, but give me motives and I might change my mind". That is totally my fault for not wording the sentence better.

- Yes, I know I didn't take every single possibility into consideration, and yes, I know the poll was very America and Europe centered. Apologies for that, I really didn't forsee how much this poll was going to spread.

- I obtained more than what I had bargained for. Which fair enough, I guess. I learned a lesson.

Just trying to check something. Please, reblog if you vote so it reaches more people.

[hanluex]

♡ GOLDFISH ATTENTION SPAN — GAR LOGAN

gar x gn!reader | wc : 1.3k words | content : possible grammar and spelling mistakes, lowercase intended, boarding school au, tooth-rotting fluff, petnames (love, honey), tutor to bestie to lover, essays and math x_x, a kiss scene (omg scandalous ik)

“hi, i’m y/n. thanks for offering to tutor me. i really hope it’s no trouble.”

you bowed politely as the green-haired male entered your dorm, greeting you with a cute smile which made your heart skip a beat — or maybe two.

“i’m garfield logan, but you can call me gar! and it’s no trouble, really! anything for a classmate.” he waved off your thanks, taking a seat as he prepared his things. “miss watson says you have the potential to get a scholarship to sheffield university.”

“oh? did she?”

“she’s said the same thing to me, too. let’s study hard and get into sheffield together!”

a smile adorned your face at the male’s words, finding his enthusiasm totally contagious. you always had issues with focusing, resulting in you zoning out during lessons, and thus, missing out on the work. all the student tutors your teacher recommended were never this excited to work with you, and it made you think if things with this tutor would be any different.

will you give up on me halfway, just like the others, gar logan?

it was one week of tutoring you, and gar logan was still showing up for your lessons. there wasn’t much progress, but gar would not give up that easily.

“this is pointless. drafting a ten-thousand-word essay is pointless. i can’t deal with this now … or ever. i’ll just become a stri–” you whined, surprised when gar threw himself against you, slapping his hand over your mouth as he widened his eyes in horror.

“not in the library, y/n! have a filter, would you?!” he scolded, playfully flicking your forehead. “you can do this, okay? trust me.” gar slowly took his hand away from your mouth, giving you an encouraging smile as he nodded.

you returned the smile. “i trust you. thanks for helping me out, gar,” you thanked, linking your arms with his as you looked over the books on the table. “if i’m gonna pass this test, it’s gonna be because of you.”

“we haven’t started studying yet, y/n.” he chuckled, shaking his head. “let’s just go through the work today and see what areas you don’t understand, okay?” gar smiled, ruffling your hair at the way you looked at him. “and if you understand the basics well, i’ll let you use my pretty colored pens you like to make your notes,” he explained, earning a grin from you.

“yes, score! let’s get started!”

gar traced the words with his pencil. “yep, so when the positive moves to the other side like this, it becomes a negative. but if it just moves within, it remains positive,” he explained, looking at you to make sure you were listening.

he snickered at the way you were leaning your head on your hand, eyes fluttered close. if there was one thing he learnt within the two weeks of tutoring you, it was that you had the attention span of a goldfish — and you could sleep anywhere at any time.

and just like he did normally, gar reached out to pat your head, running his fingers through your hair to wake you up. you sheepishly smiled as your eyes opened, meeting gar’s kind gaze and apologizing softly before rubbing the sleep out of your eyes.

“are you getting enough sleep, y/n?” he inquired, a tinge of worry clear in his tone as he looked at you. “you’ve been falling asleep during our lessons a lot these days.”

your brows furrowed, the question taking you off guard. your tutors rarely cared about you — only scolding you when you fell asleep during lessons before complaining to your teacher and giving up.

“i’ve been getting the night shifts at work, and the early morning classes don’t help, so i’m struggling a little,” you replied, looking at your book when you felt gar’s eyes on you. “nothing big, though!” you waved it off, tracing random numbers as you pretended to study.

“do you have work today, too?” gar inquired, his smile never fading, even for a second. “you have an exam tomorrow, you know? we can’t have my y/n falling asleep in the middle of their exam.” he laughed, avoiding the playful punch you threw his way.

“i do. in three hours, actually.”

“i’ll cover your shift for you. just stay home and study.”

your eyes widened at his words, shaking your head vigorously as you declined his offer. “no, no. it’s completely fine!” you waved your hands. “i won’t fall asleep. i’ll down three espressos as soon as i wake up. you don’t have to do that.”

“i wasn’t offering, love.” gar chuckled, poking the side of your head. “i was telling you. i will cover your shift so you can study and get some rest before the exam.” despite the smile on his face, his strict tone told you there was no arguing with him.

“alright, alright.” you surrendered, nudging the male when he smiled victoriously. “thank you, gar. i owe you one.” you leaned forward, placing a chaste kiss on his cheek as a token of gratitude.

“if that’s your way of thanking me, i would’ve taken up your shift two weeks ago.”

“y/n … honey, when was the last time you left your desk?” a very concerned gar would ask when he came to see you after coming back.

your assignment was due in two weeks, and gar was an absolute angel in helping you out through every step. so when the weekend came where he was supposed to visit home, you urged him to focus on his family for the two days, letting him know you could handle the work — after all, you had a lot of time.

well, unluckily for you, the two days without gar were when everything went downhill.

your teacher sent everyone an email stating they were collecting the assignments after the weekend, before also mentioning a few more pointers that needed to be included in order to get a passing grade on your assignment.

but of course, you being you, didn’t want to interrupt gar’s weekend with his family, so you took up everything yourself, pulling constant all-nighters to work on the assignment that was due the next day.

“i don’t know. you should ask miss watson,” you grumbled under your breath, typing furiously on your laptop. “she’s the reason i’m stuck at my desk, anyway.”

gar sighed, noting the red splotches on your wrist, realizing you were forcing yourself to stay awake by pinching yourself. his gaze darted towards the orange medicine container and the countless power drinks that littered the floor.

“y/n, take a break now. i’m here, right? let’s just rest for an hour.”

you shook your head, scoffing as the thought of resting sounded ridiculous to you. “no, i can’t just ‘rest’, gar! my teacher thought it was logical to pull back a deadline by two weeks and add even more pointers. i need to do well if i have to get into sheffield with you, and i know i’m lacking but–” you blabbered, anxious about the deadline that was approaching with each passing minute.

before you could register it, gar held your face between his hands, pulling you closer as he placed a soft kiss on your lips. the kiss was over before you knew it, eyes wide as gar looked at you with a nervous smile.

“i’ll stay up with you and help you with the assignment.” he promised, softly grasping your hands, his smile widening when you didn’t deny his touch. “just take a break for an hour, that’s all.”

“y-you are just gonna act all normal with me?” you avoided his gaze, pretending to be annoyed with the way the male kept smiling at you. “after what you just did?”

gar grinned, pulling on your hands so your face was closer to his. “why? do you want more of that?” he asked, laughing when you pushed him away. “i didn’t want to do it like this, but i really like you, y/n.”

“i really like you too, gar. and i’ve never been more thankful for my goldfish attention span since i met you because of it.”

taglist: send an ASK or DM to be added!

[jade-parcels]

Miscellaneous Fatui hcs 🎭

Keep in mind, we don’t know much about them!! And I haven’t delved into the lore or whatever :) this is just for fun!!! It won’t be accurate!! :) This was an old warm up draft thing so might as well post it! It’s really just one big ramble page :)

The Fatui and their titles are inspired by the Italian commedia dell'arte. So I believe the Tsaritsa is very into the Genshin equivalent of Italy, if there is one. (If they’ve got Mondstadt(German) and Fontaine(French) then there must be some sort of Italian sounding dialect then? Maybe?)

If she’s into theatre and “Italian” culture/history, I like to think that the harbingers had to learn Italian as well as other languages as they trained to become harbingers. It’s fun to think about Ajax, the stutterer and the fool, having to sit and be tutored for Italian lessons as a heavily accented Snezhnayan! He’s got Pulcinella and Capitano looming over him, lecturing him about grammar…All the kid wants to do is go out and slaughter enemy camps. Is that too much to ask?

I love the idea of the Tsaritsa throwing a ball (or multiple?) every so often. Here, she shows off her soldiers, diplomats, riches, weaponry and harbingers to all she invites. It’s a huge event that the normal, everyday people of Snezhnaya wish they could see in person and not just photographs in their newspapers. Zapolyarny Palace has tons of carriages outside and those who make their way inside are all dressed to the nines

^^ at these balls, the harbingers are decked out in their formal uniforms which are saved for occasions like this. They all wear their masks and wear sashes that display their countless pins and badges that they earned. Their uniforms don’t exactly match in style since they’re inspired by their theatre roles, many of these uniforms include ruffles, puffy sleeves or bells, but they’re not ridiculous by any means! They’re just cool, cool enough that guests’ eyes tend to go wide when they see them for the first time

In addition to learning Italian, the harbingers also had to learn all kinds of etiquette. This is usually hard for them since they want to fight all the time or do their own thing. Scaramouche was a sight to see during his etiquette training, he was so insufferable that he failed his course three times. Part of this course is ballroom dancing. The Tsaritsa expects her harbingers to engage with the guests at the ball! And if she wanted to dance with one of them, they better know how to dance or they’d be a terrible embarrassment to her

Capitano, Signora and Dottore have beautiful singing voices. They can’t stand each other, they want to rip each others’ throats out, but when it’s time for the first dance of the night and they’re called upon to sing with the band as the Tsaritsa dances with a lucky guest to start the night off…They don’t exactly hate each other in those moments. It is quite the honor to sing in front of everyone this way. And they just look THAT much better than everyone else. They’re practically super soldiers, they have their best uniforms on, they dance like they were made to do so and on top of that, these three can sing like angels. Is there anything they can’t do? All it takes is months of grueling training :)

Ajax is the youngest harbinger. When he went to his first ball while still training under Pulcinella, he was totally flabbergasted. He came from a smaller town so seeing the grand ballroom of the Zapolyarny palace all gussied up and full of guests…He’d never seen anything like it. Even now, after attending many of these stupid balls…He still feels that little spark of magical, childlike admiration when he steps into the room for the first time

I love the idea of the harbingers having their own wing in the palace. They all have separate rooms, labs and offices but there’s one parlor where they can go to play chess, strategize or relax. They could go anywhere else in the palace if they wanted to but some will go out of their way to annoy the others in the parlor just for fun. Dottore will flip the chess board while Pantalone and Sandrone play, Signora will play the piano off key to annoy Scaramouche while he tries to read, Capitano will put his feet up on the coffee table while knowing how much it bothers Pulcinella. Sometimes they’re like one big rabid family who hate each other. The Tsaritsa likes that a lot

Something else I like to imagine is ‘family dinners’. When all of the harbingers happen to back at the palace, it’s rare for them to all be there at the same time, the Tsaritsa will call for them to have dinner with her. It won’t be a formal affair, no mask required, just the twelve of them at the table together. Sometimes they sit and strategize, sometimes they tell stories, sometimes they sit in silence as the Tsaritsa glares at them when plans are ruined. These ‘family dinners’ are either somewhat pleasant or absolutely dreadful

What about their military uniforms? They must have uniforms of some kind right? From the harbingers we’ve seen so far (Childe, Scara, Signora and Dottore), they pretty much just wear whatever they want! I love the idea of them having 2 actual military uniforms. One for winter, kinda like the Russian uniforms with the cloak/capeish looking coats. And another for…Well, not winter. It’s still long sleeves and long pants, combat boots, sashes, masks and gloves. They rarely wear those uniforms unless 1. They’re all together in the public eye 2. They’re going to see the Tsaritsa all together

Ooo something else, it would be so cool to see maybe a little old lady who makes masks for the harbingers. She’s just a sweet old Russian grandmother who lives in the palace just cause the Tsaritsa likes her! So she makes these beautiful masks, carves them and paints them all by hand. She makes sculpts of each harbinger’s face so she can continually make new masks. Some with nicer paint, some formal masks with more detail, plain black masks for royal funded funerals, masks with gemstones in them, replacement masks for broken ones. Everyone gets along with this lady. Harbingers actually find a bit of joy in getting her souvenirs from neighboring nations or trying on masks for her just to see her smile. No one dares to disrespect granny. She has scary dog privileges :)

[meichenxi]

Update: hnnnnn

this is just a rant, feel free to ignore. but explains why no korean news.

I get up at 5:45 for work, and get home at around 5:30-6. After getting home and masking for an entire day I basically lie on the floor in the dark for three hours. It takes that long before my brain starts to boot up. I cannot begin to describe how exhausting it is talking to people and teaching and being normal and everything being loud and never being told anything and being expected to rewrite a lesson plan with zero notice with no real reason other than a vague ‘oh...I think it would be better another way’ and being told 12412 conflicting things by different people and also being treated like a nice pet that’s all shiny and new and being incredibly patronised. (I do something and my boss is like ‘Wow! My English daughter from [X university] is so clever! Such a genius!’ and then micromanages every aspect of lesson planning including moving tables because where I put them is ‘not good’.) And being normal. 

A significant part of this is just me dealing with working with other people. Every day I learn things about myself and they are Bad. I’m a chill person! I’m flexible! I’m fun! I like meeting new people! Literally all lies. I stalk around the school as a bundle of pent up rage behind a slightly manic smile. I am, as the cool kids say, in my JGY era. Reverting back to my primary school days of being an ‘unusually aggressive child’ who ‘doesn’t engage in team activities’ and ‘shows no interest in other children’. ALL THE COOL KIDS HATE TEAM ACTIVITIES (and other children). These are all things about myself I like to conveniently forget. Shocked and offended when they turn out to be relevant to daily life. 

Also everything is loud. And everyone talks. And even with my nice headphones in I can still hear them. And they all make water-cooler conversation. And every time I walk down a corridor the entire school population says hello / tries to gift me their pencils / touches my arms / shrieks and runs away / screams HELLO TEACHER and dissolves into giggles.

Also like. My room is an absolute disaster - I don’t have any food and am living off oats and instant noodles (if I eat enough at school lunchtime, I won’t *need* to cook right - not ED, don’t worry, just ADHD). I am also feeling very despondent because I can’t do ANY of the things I love because it takes too much brain. I can’t write. I can’t do languages - which is a disaster for Korean, because there is no point during the day when I can sit down with a fresh brain and learn. Chinese is ok because I can just do Anki (and I vaguely know most of the words in the HSK deck I have seen so far, I just don’t know how to write them / need a reminder / got the tone wrong etc, so they’re not totally new) and listen to podcasts (the walk to school is 50 minutes each way, so....I will be listening to a LOT of podcasts) and watch dramas. But Korean...at this stage of learning there is no passive learning. It’s all active. I’ve tried the TTMIK podcasts but - maybe unpopular opinion - I can’t stand the presenters lmao they’re so annoying. They take 15 minutes to say what could be said in literally 3 and then don't give you enough examples and just spend the other 12 minutes making the same jokes every single fucking time. JUST TEACH ME KOREAN WE ARE NOT HERE TO BE FRIENDS. (I am angry about this a normal amount. If anyone has a recommendation of less pal-y podcasts that don’t try to be #fun and #relatable please let me know. Literally the most boring grammar shit please I can’t stand anything else teeth gnawing biting gnashing ready to rip plaster from the walls)

And my mood is very low. Objectively the new school is great, and I like the students. It’s just always not a particularly fun time full of sexy introspection when you realise your three neurodivergencies in a trenchcoat mean working with other people in literally any capacity is enough to make you want to strap yourself into an rocket and fire it into the sun. 

[jan-asiku]

I'm glad you asked! I'm a fluent speaker who started learning the language in 2022, and the advice I'm about to give is a mix of what I learned during my journey of reaching fluency and the advice I received in high school from an incredibly overqualified German teacher. I also want to note that this is just my advice; some of this may be very helpful to you and some of it may not work for you at all. Everyone is different, and there's no cookie cutter formula for how to learn this language.

The single most important piece of advice I have is to make it fun. Toki pona is not a language you learn for a resumé, and if you aren't getting something out of it, you aren't going to stick with it long enough to learn the language. If you're trying to learn something one way and it feels like a total chore and you don't feel satisfied afterwards, it's probably time to find another way to keep learning. For me, the process of learning everything normally was really fun. Then, when I was almost done learning the vocabulary and knew some of the grammar, I downloaded a resource pack for Minecraft that translated the entire game into the popular hieroglyphic writing system called "sitelen pona," and went around collecting items and reading their names.

As for learning the vocabulary, my advice is to learn the sitelen pona (hieroglyph writing system) for each word, and optionally the associated luka pona (toki pona sign language) sign for it as well.¹ This way your visual, auditory, and kinetic memory all work together to help you remember the word. Take it slow; you have a really long time to learn these words because there's so few of them. The catch is that each of these words will take longer to learn than when you learn words in German or Spanish, where a lot of words correlate more or less 1:1 with a word in English. Toki pona words have very broad meanings, and so almost all of them need multiple English words to give a proper description of what they mean.

For the grammar: start by reading about it. I personally recommend the lessons on https://mun.la, the website associated with jan Kekan San's video lessons. That way, if reading it stops working for you, you can transfer over to the videos instead. If you want to use another course, that's fine, too; none of them (that you'll find, anyway) are bad. Just know that it is generally preferable to read one written after, I don't know, 2018? Just not one of the super old ones; there are a couple of quirks of old toki pona that aren't very popular anymore.

As you go through your journey of learning the language, be sure to get lots of feedback from others, especially those who know the language well. For example, if you write sentences in a journal, post them to the internet alongside your intended translation, and let others correct you. It really sucks to develop a misconception about the meaning of a word or the way some grammatical feature works and have that misconception stick with you for a while. Let one stick around too long, and your brain can internalize it and speaking with that misconception can become automatic, at which point it will become very, very difficult to unlearn. This is the main reason why feedback is so important.² The overwhelming majority of speakers are very nice about giving feedback, and every single one of us was once in your shoes. It's not like speaking Spanish or German, where making mistakes is often embarassing; mistakes are just part of the fun with toki pona. It's nothing to be afraid of.

Similarly, you'll want to ask questions about the language you may have as you go along, for example if you're confused about some detail with a grammatical feature or the meaning of a word. It's also completely fair and actually pretty common to say things like "hey, I have no clue how 'pi' or 'la' work, can someone please explain these words to me?"

The fastest way to get feedback on your toki pona or to ask questions about the language (and also just get exposure / immersion in general) is by joining one of the uber populated Discord servers for the language. Post a question there and there will be like five very online speakers jumping over each other to answer you. These biggest Discord servers are called "ma pona" and "kama sona," and both are linked to on tokipona.org. If those particular Discord servers aren't your thing (they weren't mine, and won't be for most people), there are plenty of alternatives. There are smaller Discord servers that are more normal. If Discord in general isn't your thing, check out the "Community" section on tokipona.org. I recommend the Telegram group. The Reddit is also nice. I don't use Facebook, and can't speak for it.

1. Note that not every word has an associated sign. Toki pona and luka pona (AKA toki pona sign language) are two seperate languages.

2. The other reason I bring up getting feedback is that people occasionally will work very hard on a project that features toki pona in some way, only to publish that project with toki pona that is very broken. If this could be you, either get feedback for free as you write the toki pona or hire a freelancer from tokipona.org.

what even is the most effective way to learn toki pona?

[alohajun]

♡ GOLDFISH ATTENTION SPAN — JANG YUBIN

yubin x gn!reader | wc : 1.3k words | content : possible grammar and spelling mistakes, lowercase intended, boarding school au, tooth-rotting fluff, petnames (love, sweetpea), mentions of medicine, tutor to bestie to lover, essays and math x_x, a kiss scene (omg scandalous ik) | request : hey loki! i know you mainly write for trsr and enha, i was wondering if you could write a fluffy tutor to lovers fic for yubin from mirae? if not, that’s perfectly fine <3 @yogurteume

“hi, i’m y/n. thanks for offering to tutor me. i really hope it’s no trouble.”

you bowed politely as the tall male entered your dorm, greeting you with a cute smile which made your heart skip a beat — or maybe two.

“i’m jang yubin, and it’s no trouble, really! anything for a classmate.” he waved off your thanks, taking a seat as he prepared his things. “miss kwon says you have the potential to get a scholarship to yonsei university.”

“oh? did she?”

“she’s said the same thing to me, too. let’s study hard and get into yonsei together!”

a smile adorned your face at the male’s words, finding his enthusiasm totally contagious. you always had issues with focusing, resulting in you zoning out during lessons, and thus, missing out on the work. all the student tutors your teacher recommended were never this excited to work with you, and it made you think if things with this tutor would be any different.

will you give up on me halfway, just like the others, jang yubin?

it was one week of tutoring you, and jang yubin was still showing up for your lessons. there wasn’t much progress, but yubin would not give up that easily.

“this is pointless. drafting a ten-thousand-word essay is pointless. i can’t deal with this now … or ever. i’ll just become a stri–” you whined, surprised when yubin threw himself against you, slapping his hand over your mouth as he widened his eyes in horror.

“not in the library, y/n! have a filter, would you?!” he scolded, playfully flicking your forehead. “you can do this, okay? trust me.” yubin slowly took his hand away from your mouth, giving you an encouraging smile as he nodded.

you returned the smile. “i trust you. thanks for helping me out, yubin-ah,” you thanked, linking your arms with his as you looked over the books on the table. “if i’m gonna pass this test, it’s gonna be because of you.”

“we haven’t started studying yet, y/n.” he chuckled, shaking his head. “let’s just go through the work today and see what areas you don’t understand, okay?” yubin smiled, ruffling your hair at the way you looked at him. “and if you understand the basics well, i’ll let you use my pretty colored pens you like to make your notes,” he explained, earning a grin from you.

“yes, score! let’s get started!”

yubin traced the words with his pencil. “yep, so when the positive moves to the other side like this, it becomes a negative. but if it just moves within, it remains positive,” he explained, looking at you to make sure you were listening.

he snickered at the way you were leaning your head on your hand, eyes fluttered close. if there was one thing he learnt within the two weeks of tutoring you, it was that you had the attention span of a goldfish — and you could sleep anywhere at any time.

and just like he did normally, yubin reached out to pat your head, running his fingers through your hair to wake you up. you sheepishly smiled as your eyes opened, meeting yubin’s kind gaze and apologizing softly before rubbing the sleep out of your eyes.

“are you getting enough sleep, y/n?” he inquired, a tinge of worry clear in his tone as he looked at you. “you’ve been falling asleep during our lessons a lot these days.”

your brows furrowed, the question taking you off guard. your tutors rarely cared about you — only scolding you when you fell asleep during lessons before complaining to your teacher and giving up.

“i’ve been getting the night shifts at work, and the early morning classes don’t help, so i’m struggling a little,” you replied, looking at your book when you felt yubin’s eyes on you. “nothing big, though!” you waved it off, tracing random numbers as you pretended to study.

“do you have work today, too?” yubin inquired, his smile never fading, even for a second. “you have an exam tomorrow, you know? we can’t have my y/n falling asleep in the middle of their exam.” he laughed, avoiding the playful punch you threw his way.

“i do. in three hours, actually.”

“i’ll cover your shift for you. just stay home and study.”

your eyes widened at his words, shaking your head vigorously as you declined his offer. “no, no. it’s completely fine!” you waved your hands. “i won’t fall asleep. i’ll down three espressos as soon as i wake up. you don’t have to do that.”

“i wasn’t offering, love.” yubin chuckled, poking the side of your head. “i was telling you. i will cover your shift so you can study and get some rest before the exam.” despite the smile on his face, his strict tone told you there was no arguing with him.

“alright, alright.” you surrendered, nudging the male when he smiled victoriously. “thank you, yubin-ah. i owe you one.” you leaned forward, placing a chaste kiss on his cheek as a token of gratitude.

“if that’s your way of thanking me, i would’ve taken up your shifts two weeks ago.”

“y/n … sweet pea, when was the last time you left your desk?” a very concerned yubin would ask when he came to see you after coming back.

your assignment was due in a week, and yubin was an absolute angel in helping you out through every step. so when the weekend came where he was supposed to visit his parents, you urged him to focus on his family for the two days, letting him know you could handle the work — after all, you had a lot of time.

well, unluckily for you, the two days without yubin were when everything went downhill.

your teacher sent everyone an email stating they were collecting the assignments after the weekend, before also mentioning a few more pointers that needed to be included in order to get a passing grade on your assignment.

but of course, you being you, didn’t want to interrupt yubin’s weekend with his family, so you took up everything yourself, pulling constant all-nighters to work on the assignment that was due the next day.

“i don’t know. you should ask miss kwon,” you grumbled under your breath, typing furiously on your laptop. “she’s the reason i’m stuck at my desk, anyway.”

yubin sighed, noting the red splotches on your wrist, realizing you were forcing yourself to stay awake by pinching yourself. his gaze darted towards the orange medicine container and the countless power drinks that littered the floor.

“y/n, take a break now. i’m here, right? let’s just rest for an hour.”

you shook your head, scoffing as the thought of resting sounded ridiculous to you. “no, i can’t just ‘rest’, yubin! my teacher thought it was logical to pull back a deadline by a week and add even more pointers. i need to do well if i have to get into yonsei with you, and i know i’m lacking but–” you blabbered, anxious about the deadline that was approaching with each passing minute.

before you could register it, yubin held your face between his hands, pulling you closer as he softly placed a kiss on your lips. the kiss took you by surprise, but you couldn't help but chase his lips as he pulled away. your eyes were wide as yubin looked at you with a nervous smile, trying to read your expressions.

“i’ll stay up with you and help you with the assignment.” he promised, softly grasping your hands, his smile widening when you didn’t deny his touch. “just take a break for an hour, that’s all.”

“y-you are just gonna act all normal with me?” you avoided his gaze, pretending to be annoyed with the way the male kept smiling at you. “after what you just did?”

yubin grinned, pulling on your hands so your face was closer to his. “why? do you want more of that?” he asked, laughing when you pushed him away. “i didn’t want to do it like this, but i really like you, y/n.”

“i really like you too, yubin. and i’ve never been more thankful for my goldfish attention span since i met you because of it.”

© 2022 ALOHAJUN | PLEASE REFRAIN FROM COPYING OR REPOSTING MY WORK WITHIN OR OUTSIDE THIS SITE

[fallynleaf]

thanks @viterbofangirl for tagging me!

Rules: Tag nine people you want to know better.

Three ships: i have loads as always, but Kenny Omega/Kota Ibushi still own my entire heart. i’m also currently into Ink/Pa from Bad Buddy, and for the third... i have too many wrestling ships... uh, i guess i’ll say Emma/Harriet (from Emma), just for something a little different? i’ve been thinking about their relationship a lot as i’ve been reading.

First ever ship: probably Ichigo/Kisshu from Tokyo Mew Mew, haha. it’s the first ship i actually sought out fic for, at least.

Last song: i never know how to answer this question, but the last song i added to my wrestling themes playlist is 東京事変 [ 秘密 ] , which Minoru Fujita uses as his theme, and which i managed to find after i figured out how to google a wrestler’s theme in Japanese.

Last film: oh dear, i am legitimately struggling to remember... 💧 OH, i think it was Maurice (1987)? i watched it sort of out of the blue a couple months ago and really enjoyed it.

Currently reading: oh boy. this is gonna be a long section. the vast majority of the reading i’ve been doing is not in English lol, but i did start reading Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer (i won a signed copy of it at work!), and of course, i am still reading Emma in real time, very slowly (though there has been a lot of stuff happening in the past couple weeks because Frank Churchill finally arrived).

in Spanish, i started reading @luvamiart‘s book Tempestad! it’s definitely above my level of Spanish ability, so i have to look up dozens of words in the dictionary (i’m trying out a Spanish-Spanish dictionary instead of an English-Spanish one) every page, but i’m enjoying the book so far, and i’m learning a lot! i’m trying not to be too intimidated by the length, because it is quite long for someone who takes as much time as i do to get through a single page 😅.

in Japanese, i am soooo close to finishing my first textbook, omg. i’m on lesson 25 of みんなの日本語, and i am THIS close to being done!! immediately after i finish it, i’m going to be moving on to book 2, so my work is far from over, haha, but i’m really proud of myself for making it this far.

my more fun Japanese book is volume 3 of 大海原と大海原! i managed to get through volumes 1 and 2 over the past several months, and then i wanted to continue with volume 3 so that i could see the rest of the story, but it turned out to be much, much harder than the first two books, because it’s aimed at an older audience and has no furigana akfghdkgjfhdg. my kanji knowledge has gotten good enough that i’m actually managing to read it just fine, surprisingly, though my comprehension is far from perfect. i’m considering trying to play the RPG after i finish it, though i’d be better off waiting until my grammar is better.

the other Japanese thing i’ve been reading is the DDT/TJPW show recaps on the DDT website, after Mr. Haku left CyberFight and we lost our translation. DDT just recently acquired English translation again, so i’ve gotten a reprieve from having to attempt to translate myself lol, but TJPW is still without translation, so i’ve taken over for a friend and switched my focus to that. i’ve been trying to translate as much of the backstage comments and such as i have text transcriptions for (since audio is still very beyond me). it’s very slow-going but also rewarding (i’m harvesting so many words from them to add to anki haha), and it’s fun to experience the character voices like this. a friend whose Japanese is much more advanced than mine has been helping mentor me and correct/explain stuff when i have translation questions, and i’m so grateful for all of their help and support!

Currently watching: do i even need to say it. same as the past couple years, basically. way too much wrestling lol. i’ve scaled down a tiny bit from last year, but not really much. i’m currently watching AEW, TJPW, DDT, NJPW, and some NOAH, ChocoPro, and AAA.

i think i watched a grand total of three Normal TV Shows last year afjdgdfg. the last non-wrestling thing that i’ve watched was Bad Buddy, a Thai BL show that was pretty good for what it was.

Currently consuming: as of the time of writing (the night before actually publishing this post at a normal hour), soy miso chicken and udon noodles, with green tea.

Currently craving: i never know how to answer this question, haha! i guess i could go for a sandwich about now? i blame Miu Watanabe for posting about sandwiches on instagram.

Tagging: @mizufae @paramaline @theundergrounddog @meganthewarriorprincess @feralbags @norationalthoughtrequired @holodeckprotocols @nocturnical and for the ninth person, if your name is not listed here but you want to fill this out, consider yourself tagged

[nightswithkookmin]

Dear new friend,

I just finished reading your messages. First of all, thank you. I think I would have been less traumatized out here if a lot of people took to sharing their thoughts on matters such as these in the manner in which you do.

I think I set myself up too because I be wanting to participate in certain topics and discussions and so often I find myself trying to sieve through the vitriol and pejoratives.

The gender of the word is feminine not masculine. I don’t see how that is misinformation.

"Sorry, the misinformation bit was because I was thinking about that tweet that went viral about this word being used only for woman. The person said it was an adjective, and you said it was an adjective, so I thought you were basing this information on that tweet. That day was crazy, some people spread this, wanted to change his pronouns, trend a hashtag and were saying he had came out... This was too much. And the "debunked" thing was about this tweet, as well. Not about the words being feminine and masculine. That's a fact, you're right."

I had no idea a tweet went viral like that claiming he wanted to change his pronouns. That's wild and I disagree. Lol. I think I've always maintained he uses He/him pronouns and said time and again I do not think he wants to be emasculated at all. As I said, that would have made him transgender not bigender and thus defeat the purpose. To be bigender he has to be two genders at the same time not one.

But I have been following the discussions on this topic on the bird app and I try my best to bring nuance to certain discussions. I try. Lol.

I take note of the differences between your language and Latin as you rightly pointed out. But I also do see the similarities and I think the explanation you gave and the examples you provided gives me a better understanding of the language structure.

"Yeah, totally fine hahah We tend to interpret things according to our own experiences; for me, a gendered word is part of my daily life, normal, and I don't bat an eye about it. Is just a word, the importance is in its meaning ─ and it suits filter SOOO well. For you, it's something more. At the end of the day, art is here to be interpreted, and if Jimin doesn't explicitly explain the filter performance, tattoos, set, outfits... It's open for interpretation. (And I'm not a person that tries to find hidden meanings. I simply enjoy what I enjoy. I have this thing about being as accurate as possible, so I try to stick to facts (like: I don't feel comfortable saying he chose these words, because I don't know if HE was the person that chose it (in the sense that he was the one that bring it up to the staff/company). Maybe someone else showed it to him and he was like: "Nice! I want it!". But I feel okay saying he's had a tattoo with these words (A fact). Also I don't make a big deal of most things ─ for me Jimin is Jimin and I'm supporting him regardless, he's precious)

(But Memories 2020 is coming and I'm almost sure they are going to show filter behind the scenes!!!! So we're going to understand better this masterpiece (I HOPE SO))

I understand what you mean. Some people are inclined towards taking the literal meaning of texts or in this case art and not read much into situations beyond what is presented at face value- not me🤣🤣🤣🤣

I do the magnifying glass and errthang👁

I think humans are complex and there's always a possibility of a psychological and or pathological stimulus underscoring their behaviors, choices and actions in most cases.

But that aside, I think it's easier to take a heteronormative view on things sometimes because cis straight has always been the norm even in appreciating art- but truth is, coding and co opting codified expressions is almost always part of queer culture and behavior too. If any other queer celebrity had used that expression, I would be reading much into it too beyond its semantics.

For me it's simple, would I be reading too too much into the language and art choice of someone I thought was cis straight? Hell No. Straight is boring and blunt as fuck.

Unless of course they were being intentionally witty or secretive about something, I'd assume and expect their expressions to be pretty much straight forward- generally. I went home to be would mean just that.

If I sensed the author were queer coding Home would mean something else entirely to be. Home becomes a symbol not a word. And if he chose to write that in Latin and not the language they spoke naturally, I'd assume there's something about that language that he likes and perhaps uses to code a queer message.

For closeted queer people who live in a world where they are constantly coerced to take on a duality and have an expressional alter egos- two identical identities with one being the facade and pretense through which they openly and largely perform normalcy of self, the other being their real self which they tuck away because it is inconsistent with the acceptable norms- I'd a take a very different approach to their art. But that's me.

If a straight person said they needed escape, it would mean something totally different to me than say if a queer person said they needed escape. Because those two are escaping two very different things.

For example, the words Moon and moonlight used by a straight person means nothing to me- perhaps because I just don't care much to look for its deeper meaning beyond the literal meaning of the words as presented. If it appears in a queer person's parlance, even if in passing, I assume immediately they are referencing something much more deeper, meaningful and coded.

Queer coding is a thing you know? And it's born out of necessity not choice sometimes.

Take for instance BTS's proclivity to 'queer codify' their music. Moon and moonlight has become symbolic of the inner struggles of a queer person amongst black 'educated' queer men and women. It's come to symbolize cultural norms and expectations and how those affect queer people- perhaps of all race.

In the Movie Moonlight, which has become the epitome of queer black struggles and desires for liberation, this motif was used to represent the struggles of a black boy dealing with the pressures of a hyper masculine society.

When RM references this in 4 Oclock, 'the whole world is blue under the moonlight' is he queer coding or just appropraiting queer parlance as buzz word? That expression takes on a whole new meaning were he queer. Blue symbolizes queerness- a theory popularized of course by the Film. When V who once wrote an allegedly 'queer coded song' Stigma says he is blue- what does he mean now? On the surface blue means blue. Would you take a straightforward view on this or assume its symbolic? And what is it symbolic of?? Sadness?? Gayness?

If RM had an accompanying tattoo as compliment to the song in his performance that evoked similar sentiments or hinted at a possible second meaning I wouldn't assume that that tattoo meant nothing or that it didn't have a deeper meaning behind it.

It's just as how Lil Nas X posted a city of rainbows and people said 'rainbows are rainbows. Y'all shouldn't read much into it.' But for queer people that was pretty much a declaration of his sexuality.

Later he had to post again and reiterate that that rainbow post was his coming out moment. 'I thought I made it obvious.'

Somethings are pretty much obvious.

For JM who don't speak Latin- unless he is secretly fluent in which case my bad- I don't think he cares so much about the grammar of the language beyond it's meaning. And perhaps gender? Grammatical gender I mean. That's just because the first thing you learn about Latin is that all the nouns are gendered?

I won't lie. When I first learned that I was supper fascinated about grammatical gender and why speakers of the language felt a need to gender every word of the language.

In the end, we all don't know. I'm out here convinced two Asian men are so gay they can't straight to save their asses. I have a tendency to view everything they do through queer lens. If they are not gay I'm pretty much gaslighting them you know?

I'm always fascinated by different point of views on a myriad of subjects. Just as you said, our diverse experiences inform our experiences and perspectives. I just hope people acknowledge how their straightness informs their understanding of queerness too and how that has a tendency to be invalidating and dismissive of queer issues and experiences.

But to me it's like, if Jikook are gay why do you have to interpret what they do through straight lens?

Personally, I wouldn't interpret straight through queer lens and force that view on to straight people. That would be homonormative? Assuming rainbow means straight people are gay when they are not, moon means feminine to straight men, that the use of the word God makes one a Christian- that's just silly and bizarre.

I use Namaste often and suddenly some people here think I'm Indian. I wish. They have one hell of a culture.

When I was reading through your messages, all that kept playing in my head was- that's a very 'straight' view on the matter. Lol. Please tell me you got the pun. Lol.

I think my opinion will remain the same on the matter if you placed any queer person in Jimin's stead. Any queer person that I believed was queer and had hinted a few times at exploring a dual identity or going through that phase at least.

I think I'd enjoy your blog if you had one.

I love love the lesson on Italian or is it Spanish?

Also, I would love your take on V and Stigma. A lot of queer stans have a queer reading of the lyrics- I see the appeal however I don't have a queer reading of it at all. Thoughts??

Namaste.

Signed,

GOLDY