#With how much money Duolingo makes there is zero reason for these courses not to all be at least good enough-

[solradguy]

duolingo is good for learning new vocab words and fucking nothing else also its riddled with grammatical errors in pretty much anything but spanish french and german xoxo. anyways sorry to come to your inbox with duolingo hate

No dude god I used to be so into Duolingo and it's really upsetting how it is now

Before I got into Japanese, I was learning Norwegian through Duolingo starting back around 2013. I'd always wanted to study another language and it drove me bananas that the American school system sux so bad at teaching them. I picked Norwegian because it was, at the time, the longest non-Spanish/French/German course and the icon was three giant-ass swords (Sverd i fjell) and I love big sword.

Anyway, I got REALLY FAR into the course and Duolingo just kept rolling out these changes that made things worse and worse as time went on lol Some of the stuff was pretty good, like when they got rid of random photos for vocabulary questions and switched to illustrations. But they kept tweaking the trees and making modules longer without making them better, then started putting things behind paywalls that used to be free features, launching new courses instead of finishing existing ones...

I switched to Japanese around 2016 and that tree was a hot mess, they absolutely rushed it out to get people to download the app for the Olympics held in Japan at the time. Funnily enough, the main contributor to the Norwegian course ended up going to the Japanese course. The version of the tree near when I stopped using it was finally getting kinda alright.

And then they went from a branched tree to a straight line. Literally why. I was about halfway through the course and it dumped me onto random modules with content I hadn't learned yet.

Duolingo is so close to being a wonderful learning app but it's clear that they just want people to subscribe and buy the microtransactions and that they don't actually care about teaching or preserving languages. If they did, the Navajo and Hawaiian courses wouldn't have launched in such threadbare shape and then sat like that since, while the High Valerian and Klingon courses updated.

[m-notes]

Moving to Norway solely for the gut feeling reason? Is that what people do?

Well, I'm not sure, because ever since I've done that I am still the only person I know who had no 'real' reason to move countries. And I'm finally ready to share my experience.

[December 2013: my (then) boyfriend offers me to visit Norway upcoming year. He's super excited, I couldn't care less. In fact, I barely know anything about Norway. I just know the mountains must be amazing. And the language must be a bit sweeter to my ear than Danish. But yes, of course I'd like to come!]

[End of June, 2014: my very first visit to Norway is about to happen. How do I feel? A tad excited as I know I'll see a lot of beautiful landscapes, & that girl is really into nature. Did I do any decent research? Zero. I still know about Norway as much as I knew on the day I was offered to travel there.]

[July 3rd, 2014: We land in Bergen closer to midnight. We're met by a wonderful phenomenon called Noctilucent clouds. One truly magical thing to notice in the sky. One fantastic way to start this journey.]

The trip actually sucked. Big time. Yes, I got to see one of the most beautiful cities of Norway -- Bergen & some charming rural places too. I hiked in the mountains, saw a glacier, drank glacial water, played with snow while walking in +30°C heat for the first time in my life. There were plenty of other experiences that were for the first time in my life which were fantastic, but I refuse to leave out the fact that the trip obviously sucked. My (then) boyfriend wasn't really into small things when it comes to traveling, it was barely possible to get him to walk around in Bergen (he's not into any sort of cityscape), nor I remember ever tasting anything special or visiting a single museum. 'Tight budget?' one may ask, but no. Actually, there was another first-time experience -- I returned home with lots and lots of money which was saved up to be used during travelling in Norway. Imagine returning from Norway with lots of money!? If you've ever been to Norway as a tourist, you know it's a challenge. Well, whatever happened, happened. I was a 17-year-old with no bossy qualities, in addition to that, I didn't initiate that trip, neither I was given any responsibility.

It was never meant to go my way. Which is fine. Why?

Because Norway still managed to take my breath away so hard, I barely spoke throughout the trip. I remember being constantly asked if I didn't like it here. Well, maybe my face expression was saying something like 'Your organisation skills suck out all the joy off the trip', but my heart was telling me 'Girl, it's your home'.

Don't get me wrong, I know what being impressed means. I have been impressed by places before. Actually, a couple of weeks before that trip I was travelling to Saint Petersburg for the first time too. And boy was I impressed at every corner! But did I feel anything like what I'm trying to describe right now? Not remotely.

I remember really well the moment when I ended up on Festplassen in Bergen for the first time not knowing a thing about this town, country, society, I told myself 'Ok, I have to finish high school & I'm moving here no matter what'. Yes, that's how the decision came to me. In the beginning of my first visit. Something just clicked inside me & I knew I belonged here before I even got to experience being here.

Two years later, in May 2016, I finished high school. I didn't enroll the university in Norway because I was confused about my wishes. So I had enough flexibility in order to choose the date. But I couldn't wait.

After finishing high school, I started working in order to make some money for a good start in Norway (spoiler: it was barely enough, but I didn't earn much either). In addition, I finally started learning Norwegian language.

There weren't many language learning resources in Norwegian available at the time. I'm grateful to those two YouTubers I'd found who were a great addition to Norwegian course on Duolingo. I really wanted to attend some live classes, but nothing was available in Riga back then.

I was working at harder pace than Duolingo was built for. I wrote down absolutely every sentence from each lesson, no matter how many times it was repeated. I turned new words into flash cards. I wrote down everything from "tips" section. I did a colossal amount of work, but it all paid off. Once I moved, I wasn't struggling with the language around me at all. Yes, I wasn't really able to hold a conversation really well, but I was able to speak.

I didn't have any problems reading signs, stuff at stores and many other things. My grammar sucked, but I managed to speak Norwegian during serious occasions (like job interviews, police station or tax office) & got a lot of encouraging compliments, especially when people found out it was my first month of living in Norway. So here's an advice:

Milk your Duolingo course dry. Especially if it's your main language learning resource. It's not perfect for it, but writing things down is the key.

It was around September when I started looking for a place to live. I managed to find a room in a student collective & finally set the date.

[November 9th, 2016. A very snowy day in Riga. A blizzard, actually. I'm spending a pretending-to-be-regular morning with my family & we drive to the airport. A sentimental goodbye, as it's supposed to be. Hopping on the plane and...]

Peace. Yes, peace. All the worries were gone. All the sadness was washed away. It felt like I reached zen once I had reached the sky.

Funny enough, I don't remember thinking about anything particular during those almost 2 hours on the plane. I didn't stress about the fact that I'm literally flying into nowhere. I didn't think about anything regarding the fact that my life is drastically changing right now. Didn't think about the past either. Which was weird, because I usually come up with great thoughts about things that bother me when I'm on a plane. But that time it was just blank. Weird.

Weird, but right at the same time. It made sense. I was about to start my life again at age 19. All alone, on my own. In a completely new place where nobody knew me. I was going to be reborn. Of course my mind was blank. I don't remember thinking any deep thoughts when I was coming to this world for the first time either. It really made all the sense in this world.

But I did feel something when I was flying above Bergen. First of all, it's crazy breathtaking to fly above all these mountains. Secondly, it was an interesting contrast between snowy Riga and sunny Bergen. And Bergen is not known for being sunny, trust me.

Once I was off the plane, I had a pinch of nostalgia mixed with stress. I was thinking about how wonderful it is to be at Bergen Airport again, looking forward to spending time in this town the way I want it, getting to know it at my own slow pace. At the same time I realised I was carrying a heavy backpack with two huge suitcases which contained all my life I was willing to bring with me at the time. Sounds simple: two suitcases & one backpack. Doesn't feel exactly simple when you need to carry it around all by yourself. But I managed, I had no choice but to manage.

It was stupid-challenging to grab a cab. First of all, I went to the wrong side of the cab zone, then dragged my belongings back to the correct side. After that, the cab driver who was willing to drive me, realised he couldn't possibly fit all my stuff into his trunk when one of the suitcases was already inside. Then I finally found the guy -- on the correct side of the road with a trunk able to fit everything I had brought with me. We drove out.

He was a middle-aged Norwegian man, very kind and as chatty as you'd decide it to be. Really knew what he was doing. Told me about the quickest route to Bergen city center (where I was headed to) which I should request every time I take a cab, because I can end up getting driven some long, expensive distances. Ah yes, he also missed a turn while we were laughing at something. He apologised, returned back on the route, drove a bit longer, then reset the taxi meter. It still remains my cheapest official cab ride in Norway.

We got to the spot. The cab driver unloaded my stuff and helped me to carry it to the door. He left. I rung the doorbell. No one answered. I kept ringing. I became stressed, I felt like I got scammed or something. The door was finally opened by one of the girls living there. She was home alone and wasn't expecting anyone. My landlord was late. As I would find out later, that's something to be expected, she was not the most reliable one.

I got in. I already knew where the room with a huge common freezer was, so I went to unload all the frozen food my mom had stashed me up with. Then I went to the common living room/kitchen (in Norway it's normally built without any wall separating them), spent an eternity unloading the rest of my food. The landlord showed up at last. I signed the contract, was shown around a bit more, got my key. Finally saw my room. Carried my partially unloaded suitcases there. It was on the top floor and the staircase was crazy. I still have PTSD from those stairs.

By that time, the other girl who was kindly asked by our landlord to sell me her old bed (as she was getting a new one), also showed up. Some of the other girls showed up too. They helped us to get the bed into my room then we carried up the newly-arrived bed. It was a fun experience to introduce myself to the very first new people in my new life during some intensive physical activity I'm not really good at. I went to my room, unpacked all my stuff. Set it all up.

The room was tiny. It was one of the cheapest rooms there (which was greatly appreciated by my tight budget), had a basic IKEA wardrobe and now also had a basic IKEA single bed. My two suitcases fit in perfectly. There was nothing else in the room. The windowsill of the only window in the room was wide enough to be my table.

After I got done setting up my room & texted back everyone I needed to text back to, I opened a pack of instant noodles which I for some reason still brought to the room instead of leaving them in the kitchen. I didn't prepare them properly. I didn't feel like leaving the room to boil some water. I had known all my life I was a bit of a shy person. But at that moment I felt like I was the most shy person on this planet. I didn't feel like going out and socialise with the girls. I crushed the noodles in the pack, mixed them with the soup base spice & ate them like any other snack. It was my dinner, dry and salty as hell. It was my first food ever since that breakfast at home in Riga. Then I went to shower which was conveniently right next door, washed off the whole day and, as it seemed at the moment, the whole past life. I went to bed. My new life was about to start in eight hours.

The next days were filled with being busy visiting police station, getting a new SIM-card & running around looking for a job and other errands. I also applied for a Norwegian course which was amazing and started somewhere in the end of November. I really do believe applying for a language course in the new country as soon as you move is one of the best things you can do to get yourself going. I also had to do a great deal of work on my head because I really had to push myself out of the room to prepare some food or tea. Yes, it was actually tea which I'm used to drinking in crazy amounts, that pushed me out of my room a few times per day & got me to socialize more with people I lived together with. They were nice and kind, but I had some sort of barrier that I couldn't explain back then & I cannot explain even now. It took some time.

So this is how my new life started. An unenthusiastic trip made me end up in a tiny room with a single bed, a wardrobe, two suitcases and a windowsill which acted as a table. A completely fresh start in a place that I barely knew, but which felt more like home than my actual home.

I decided to write this story now, 5 years later because I still keep getting asked about my reasons for moving to Norway. It fascinates people when they find out I didn't have a basic motivation to do that, such as earning more money or getting certain education. I understand why people keep asking, I understand why people sometimes need to build up their courage to ask. Lots of them secretly or openly dream to do something similar. Now it's here. And now it's going to get linked to everyone who asks.

Now you know that it's possible to come up with this crazy idea to move somewhere without any practical knowledge or large experience with that place. That this odd feeling which leads you to such a drastic decision, exists. The little 'click' inside your heart that lets you know instantly that you belong in that place. The feeling like you've been on a long journey your whole life ever since you were born & you finally arrived home.

P.S. I have to say I've been through a lot of drama during my time in Norway. It had started turning into a Netflix show material at some point. For those who know me it may sound weird, because I'm the most neutral and calm person one can find. Yet I have attracted a lot of chaos somehow. Sometimes I cannot believe that already within first 6 months I couldn't walk in town without meeting someone I knew at least 3x per week. And I'm not the most social person either. It's just that life happens really fast. I was convinced I'd be a loner for at least a year. But here we are. Lots of great stuff, lots of drama. Lots of life.

Grateful to myself for not being afraid, following my gut & making this happen.

[southwindscoffee]

Um so I had an amazing year

You cannot get poor enough to help poor people thrive or sick enough to help sick people get well. You only ever uplift from your position of strength and clarity and alignment. – Abraham/Esther Hicks

 So.

 I had an amazing year.

 And I’m embarrassed to say it because I’m not dumb. (At least I hope I’m not.) I look around and can see suffering. Upheaval. Sickness. Poverty. I’m not denying those things exist or minimizing anyone else’s experience.

 But I wanted to share why I had an amazing year with the intent of uplifting someone else.

 Maybe you.

 I’m ending the year feeling happier, healthier, richer, more creatively fulfilled, and closer to my family than I have in a very, very long time. I credit this to a few small but key things—and overall, to one book.

 Last year about this time I listened to Atomic Habits by James Clear. I’ve lost track of how many copies I’ve bought of this book. Maybe four? At least two hardback copies, because I gave one away. Simply stated, the audio changed my life.

 Just—if you’re sick of listening to yourself complain about your bank account or weight or whatever, and you’re serious about changing things, go read/listen to this book.

 AND THEN ACTUALLY DO WHAT HE SAYS. The little, dumb, tiny changes. Because they add up.

 Last year I got sick of complaining about the same things year after year. And since I mostly complain in my journal or in my own head, it was a very boring place to be. I got sick of wondering why the balance in my bank account didn’t change, why I wasn’t losing weight, and why I wanted to write so much and wasn’t getting anywhere, even though I tried.

 But these things (richer, slimmer, more creative) were also what I really desired, deep down inside. I wanted to feel more financially stable, healthier (defined by weight loss), and to write more. (Well, I already wrote plenty. I wanted to write stuff and put it in public where people could actually read it.) These dreams felt very special and secret, but I think they’re somewhat universal—at least for authors.

 (Please note: I know that mental health can get in the way of taking any action at all. I’ve written about my depression and anxiety before. If this blog entry makes you feel overwhelmed, please know I’ve been where you are. Focus on taking care of yourself in whatever way you can and don’t worry about all this aspirational ambitious stuff I’m writing. Because the aspirational and ambitious can simply be getting out of bed and taking a shower. I’m proud of you for hanging in there.)

 After listening to Atomic Habits, I decided to do the following macro habits all throughout 2020—and I checked these off on a little grid in the James Clear journal:

 1. Take my vitamins.

2. Save $5 every day.

3. Write 10,000 words per week.

4. Post a blog entry every Wednesday and Saturday.

5. Go to the gym 3-5 times a week.

 I thought that these were things that could get me to my goals—richer, slimmer, more creatively fulfilled. And overall—happy.

 I also had some habits I already did. These were:

 1. Meditate for 10 minutes every day. (I usually use a guided YouTube video).

2. Write three pages longhand as Morning Pages (per Julia Cameron). (Incidentally, I’ve done this for decades and credit it to the reason I don’t get writer’s block.)

3. Take a Swedish lesson on Duolingo.

 I just wanted to keep these up.

 I have lots more habits … like brushing my teeth or whatever (and I actually floss because I bought the stuff and leave it out where I can see it), but the ones above are my more unusual habits.

 Well, what happened?

 1. I took my vitamins. Boring, but I’m also quite healthy, so maybe it helps my overall wellbeing. I haven’t been sick all year. I keep them by my bed where I see them and remember to take them.

 (Yes, I wash my hands all the time and don’t touch my face. And yes, I stayed home in quarantine. Yes, I wore a mask when I went out. But I think taking vitamins helped.)

 2. I ended up saving $5 every workday not every day. I either transferred the money to a Capital 360 account because it’s hard to transfer it back or put $5 into a Stash account. I sometimes would skip Starbucks or something similar and feel virtuous about transferring the $5. Other times I just transferred it.

 At the beginning of the year, the Capital 360 account had $5. It now has $806.

At the beginning of the year the Stash account had $50. It now has almost $2500. (Buying $5 here and there in March when the stock market was down ended up making about $500 over the year, a 23% increase.)

 Um, so that’s like $3200 I just kinda now have. Incidentally, $5 per day is $1825 over the course of the year, and I’ve almost doubled that because I invested it, not just saved it—and also sometimes I’d transfer like $10 or $25 if I was feeling wild. Over the months, I saw how the account balance would get close to an even number (like $500), so I’d transfer enough to make it that amount. And it just kept going.

 (Also, I’m not intending on this to be money advice. Go talk to someone who actually knows. My thought process was to hedge my bets with doing both safe and speculative—a savings account that earned interest and then various stocks. I also wasn’t spending money I needed for food, shelter, etc. I barely felt the expense, but I very much feel the accumulation of savings.)

 There really is magic in just starting to do something small, because it really does compound and snowball into good things. 

 Maybe in the grand scheme of things $3200 isn’t that much. To me it feels like I have this cute little cushion I literally created out of loose change in a year.

 Honestly, it feels like a lot, not “cute” or “little.” If I don’t compare myself to millionaires, it’s kind of amazing.

 What would happen if you transferred $1 or $2 a day? By the end of 2021, see how much you have…

 Another money habit: I wanted to stop buying so much online and one-clicking so many ebooks—even free ones—because it was just too much. I had like 800 unread books. So I kept track of the days I didn’t buy anything or download any books. My ecommerce moratorium ended up being streaks of time I didn’t buy anything and then a day where I would buy everything off of Amazon or whatever all at once. Not sure it did much except make me feel marginally better. With ebooks, while my TBR count is less than what it was at the beginning of the year, it isn’t the zero I’d hoped it to be. But I seriously read about 300-400 books—about 1-2 a day. (I read fast and don’t sleep.) My “read” pile jumped from 800 to 1100. Not sure what to make of it except I read so much and it was really fun. So, I still have about 680 books on my TBR pile for next year. That can be another habit to work on.

 3. I’ve written more than 530,000 words this year. The habit I tied it to incidentally, was opening my laptop. If I open my laptop—and that’s a habit I record with a tick mark on a grid—it’s a lot easier to get into the document and start writing. So the way I trick myself to write is I tell myself all I have to do is open my laptop. Simple. I check off the box that I did it and I feel virtuous. To reward myself for actually getting the word count, I have a little jar with binder clips in it and every 1,000 words I put a binder clip in a small old milk bottle. Then I can see the words add up.

 I also did a spreadsheet to know what I’ve written this year. I’ve never done one before because it felt too quantitative rather than qualitative. Writing is supposed to be this outlet for me, not something to beat to death with statistics. But I’m glad I did it because writing can be so amorphous. Putting parameters on it made it feel real.

 Oh, and I’ve finished one book, set to be published in February. I have a contract for another, and it’s (today) at 77,000 words. Three more books are 50% or more done. And I did NaNoWriMo. So, yeah. It was a productive year.

 I also learned that I like juggling projects. Focusing on one can make me stagnant. If I get stuck on one, moving to another really seemed to keep my momentum going.

 But I’m now focusing on getting them done and shipped. One at a time. Because they’re all just so close I can feel it.

 4. Before this year, I’d published eleven blog entries from 2017 to 2019. This year, I’ve posted 97, not counting this one. I missed a time or two at the beginning, but um, yeah… That’s a big difference.

 The reasons I wanted to focus on posting blog entries were multifold. I’d felt “out of it” as far as publishing, having worked on one book for so long that wasn’t gelling. I’d felt frustrated and jealous of those who got their work done. I needed the instant gratification—so to speak—of putting something out there while I worked on projects that took longer. I also wanted to inure myself to the fear of putting myself out there. With each entry—still—I feel fear, but I wanted to do it anyway. So that when the time comes to publish more fiction, I can go, “yeah, I’ve hit publish (literally) 100 times, what’s the big deal?”

 My guiding point for writing a blog post has been my gut feeling—tempered by wanting to reach out and help someone else. But to keep up a streak, there is a document on my computer called “Default blog post.” This is what it says in its entirety:

 Default blog post

 I told myself I just needed to post a blog every Wednesday and Saturday.

 Here is me keeping that promise.

 If you see that, well, you’ll know how the week is going.

 Is there an endgame here? What am I going to do with these blog posts? I can see me taking some ideas and expanding on them and creating some sort of nonfiction/self-help kind of book. I’ve always wanted to do that. I do see them as steppingstones to something bigger.

It also lets me be okay with imperfection. Typos. “Think-Os.” Whatever. This is me with no editor.

 5. So, the gym. Well, until it closed, I was going. My trigger was that I just had to check in. That was how I checked the box. Like opening the laptop, actually getting to the gym is the hard part. Once I was there, it was easy.

 But the gym closed and is still closed. Like all of us, I needed a Plan B. (C? D?)

 I’ve done short walks and long. Currently, I’m just working on doing pushups. I can do a lot of pushups with my knees on the ground. But I can only do a few “real” ones, so that’s what I’m keeping track of. I’m focusing on doing them slowly and properly, not faking my way through them. Faking them is easy, but I’d rather be able to do them right and have the actual arm strength. My trigger for when I do them is when I close my journal, I have to get down and do pushups. (Currently it’s seven.) To someone else that goal might be ridiculously easy. To me, it’s rather difficult and a little embarrassing to post, but whatever. I’m being honest.

 I’m ending the year a few pounds lighter than last year—and lighter than I’ve been in years—so I’m calling it a win.

 With the other habits, meditating keeps me happy as does dumping my brain in the morning pages. Oh, and I’m on day 622 in a row of Swedish on Duolingo. It feels like I’ve taken about a semester of college Swedish. Not enough to actually converse with someone but getting the hang of it. I’m motivated by a desire to go to Sweden and see some ancestral places—and actually understand some of the language, even though I know most Swedes speak better English than me.

 With COVID-19, like most of us, I’ve spent more time at home, but I’m temperamentally suited to that. I know it’s hurt extroverts hard, but as far as I’m concerned, I got to see my family more—even when I went to the office for work.

 What am I looking forward to next year? I like the habits I started for 2020. I just want to keep these systems up, because they seem to be working for me. I hope that by using these systems I end up with four to five books happily published in 2021 and I look forward to seeing how the exercise and money habits work out as well.

 This entry is about two or three times my usual blog entry, so if you made it this far, thank you. I hope it inspires you to take a small action and then keep taking that small action over and over again. They really do add up.

 I wish you the most amazing year ever in 2021. Know that it’s possible.

[actuallyadork]

Getting started learning Japanese.

Here’s some resources I’m using to learn Japanese and what I think they do well and not so well. This is all based on my own experiences and what works best for me.

I will be rating based on the following criteria: Cost, Is it easy to use?, How much does it cover?, Pros, Cons, Overall impression.

Tofugu

I’m replacing a previous recommendation with this one. Far superior. I’ll just get right to it.

Free. Easy to use.

Pros: articles on just about everything. Theres a podcast. And every month they post resources for learning japanese. I highly recommend this website for these posts alone.

Cons: some content you gotta pay for but as far as i know they don’t duck around with people’s trust. They are the creators of wanikani and they gotta make money somehow.

Overall: far more useful that the first website i had on here. Maybe I’ll add more details later, but I just wanted to update this one as quickly as possible.

Japanese from Zero (video series)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOcym2c7xnBwU12Flkm5RcLIEhvURQ8TB

Cost: free

Easy to use: yes. Theres a nice playlist so all you have to do is sit and watch.

How much does it cover: You start out knowing absolutely no japanese and by the end of lessons you will know two writing systems. Basic sentence patterns and grammar. There is even a kanji series.

Pros: nothing is easier than sitting and watching videos to learn. You can play it anywhere at anytime. George has been teaching/speaking Japanese for years so he knows where students get stuck. He gives good explanations and examples on when to use new content and when not to use the new content.

Cons: because its a series, sometimes George refers to previous lessons or his book and you may be missing some context if you start in the middle or skip through some lessons.

Overall: The first lessons were painful to get through because It starts out with romanization and if you already know the writing systems, seeing the romaji on screen is like listening to nails on chalk. Not to mention I have a personal beef with numbers and counting as well as the common phrases like “おはよう”

But it is called Japanese from Zero and it is meant for someone who knows absolutely nothing about japanese so I can forgive the painful beggining lessons. Once I got past the introductory stuff the videos became more enjoyable.

Duolingo (app)

Cost: free

Easy to use: yes

How much does it cover: basic japanese sentence patterns, all three writing systems and a handful of new vocabulary.

Pros: teaches new words and sentence patterns and really drills them into your head. Gives you a few new words at a time so you can take the time to learn them without being distracted from all the other words you need to learn. You can go into the course as a Japanese person trying to learn English and really get the most out of Duolingo because the japanese version starts out with Kanji and even gives polite and casual sentence forms.

Cons: very repetitive. I don’t find fault with this but a coworker of mine found this to be very annoying and I can understand why. Duolingo says the lessons will get harder but instead its the same lesson except now you have to review it 10 times instead of 5. That’s not exactly hard, that’s just tedious. My biggest gripe with duolingo is that it doesn’t explain particles or why the kanji has different readings. In order to figure that out I had to go and do my own research which isn’t a big deal but if you’re only using duolingo by itself it makes it harder to understand why you keep getting things incorrect and subsequently how to fix it.

Overall: I will admit I am biased towards duolingo because I’ve used it for Spanish, French, Italian, and now Japanese. I was there from it’s early days when it was absolute shit and it has come a long way. I recognize the issues with Duolingo right now but I know that they are constantly updating. Painful as it may be to keep hearing 六時六分です it really is teaching you sentence patterns that you can use to make your own sentences. You just have to go out and do a little extra work yourself. It is, by far, the easiest to use and the method I use everyday.

TinyCards (app)

Cost: free

Easy to use: yes

How much does it cover: it covers a lot of vocabulary phrases and even sentences. You can probably get a lot mileage out of this one if used correctly and if you’re willing to put in the work

Pros: dozens of pre-made flashcards to choose from and the ability to make your own. Cards come in sets that you can unlock by finishing the first set similar to duolingo. A lot of other flashcard apps work in a similar way except they make you pay for the rest so I appreciate that this one is free of charge. Plus you can find flashcards specifically from the duolingo courses so you can study the vocabulary in isolation rather than in a sentence. Interactive flashcard system. So you don’t just flip cards and call it a day, occasionally you will have to write out the translation in the target language or pick from several choices.

Cons: the difficulty can be a little inconsistent. Sometimes you just flip a card and say I remember that one and other times you’ll have to translate a full sentence in Japanese. Even if you get the kanji right, you may get the answer incorrect because the card wants the hiragana and vice versa. And because there are so many card sets to choose from, not all of them are useful.

Overall: a sister app to duolingo it seems. Cards come from the community of learners and are not limited to japanese or languages. You can also learn about history, art and pretty much anything else. I appreciate the interactive aspect as most other apps don’t do this and the ones that do are muuuch more inconsistent than this one. I found similar interactive flashcard apps that would sometimes show Vietnamese translations instead of English translations. I’ve only recently been using this one but I pretty much gave up on using other similar apps bc they were very inconsistent. I haven’t used it very much though because I’ve discovered that I’m not a flashcard learner. If you learn best with flashcards then I would recommend it.

Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese (website/pdf/app)

Cost: free

Easy to use: relatively. Just read the damn thing. I get it though. Reading is very tedious

What it covers: It really is a beginner to advanced beginner guide covering the same things as all the above. Basic grammar, writing systems and such. One thing that is very unique about Tae Kim’s guide however is that it also includes cultural notes such as explaining casual vs polite speech. Male vs female speech that a lot of the other resources don’t even touch on

Pros: A very good starting point that covers so so much. The website has an option to show/toggle translations. Additional cultural notes plus examples. Almost every“how to learn japanese” guide points to this website

Cons: one of the reasons I was holding out on making this list was because I haven’t finished going through all the resources so I don’t have any cons for this yet. I’m only part-way through and I’ve yet to have any issues with it. Maybe just that once it gets the point across it immediately moves on. You don’t really have time to digest the content so It’s like a very in-depth crash course in japanese. You may need to go out and do extra research in order to really understand the content. If you don’t understand what is being taught, just read over it again and keep it in mind. I’ve found that I’ll come across more examples as I continue my studies and it all starts to fall into place

Overall: It doesn’t sugarcoat Japanese or treat the learner like a baby. If you read the introductory page, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Definitely influenced my approach to learning despite not having gone through all of it. Like other resources, it builds on top of topics already covered but it’s nice having a book-format with conjugation charts and lessons separated by chapters. Videos and podcasts are nice but Tae Kim’s guide also acts as a manual to supplement your learning. Maybe you want to write a sentence in the masu-form and need a quick reminder? Just flip to the page in the guide. No skipping through videos trying to find the part you need because it’s already there.

Manga Sensei (podcast/website)

Cost: mostly free. I believe theres some extra stuff you can purchase. I’ve seen a special podcast that requires payment and comes along with a free pdf. But for the most part, you get a lot of free content.

Easy to use: relatively. Havent been on the website much so for all i know it could be a mess

What it covers: the podcast covers a lot of grammar points and occasional vocabulary and cultural notes. Gives you a good foundation to build on top of. The website has more details on what the podcasts are about but I haven’t spent much time on the website as I have the podcast.

Pros: grammar points in 5 minutes or less. Differences between common words. Good for improving listening skills. If you’re driving or on a bus, you can learn on the go.

Cons: so much to choose from you kinda have to sift through what you need. Most of it is useful and there are a couple of repeat lessons as Manga-Sensei has a beginner’s guide every year. Because its audio only, you may be learning new words and grammar but you may not be able to identify them as quickly on paper. Best to supplement with some type of visual. I believe the website has something to solve this and I’ve heard there is a youtube channel as well? Although I am not sure.

Overall: If you’re going on a long car ride, folding your laundry or even just working-out, this is a great way to stay on top of your studies. Manga-Sensei has talked a lot about his projects such as his manga, alternate podcasts, and pdf. Even though I haven’t taken a look at all of them, it’s clear he’s working hard to bring content for listening, reading, and conversation skills. That being said, the podcast is just as good for learning as any other method. You can still understand the lessons (which are meant to be short and simple anyway)

Japanese Ammo with Misa (Video Series)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBSyd8tXJoEJKIXfrwkPdbA

Cost: free although she has a Patreon as well if you want to support her.

Easy to use: yep

How much does it cover: A Lot. From basic videos about grammar to more complex videos breaking down japanese songs as well common phrases and little notes that you may not find in a textbook

Pros: Her lessons have a lot of examples and good breakdowns of the grammar and tense. If a verb is in the past-negative tense, she will break down how to get to that point from the plain form or dictionary form. The best part about her videos is that she has her examples on-screen and color-coded. It may seem like a lot at first, but once you adjust to it, it helps to retain the information.

Cons: Because there’s so much content packed into her lessons, I recommend getting a basic knowledge of Japanese first. She has a video series for basic/introductory Japanese. I would suggest starting with that series or George’s series, or Tae Kim’s guide. Just so you don’t get an information overload.

Overall: There is one video in particular that I recommend to watch and I’ll make another post about it, but I really enjoy her content. Even though some of her videos are very dense with information, the comments suggest that its still easy to follow. I just think that while you can still learn a lot as a newbie, you might retain more if you already understand some grammar.

Japanese (app)

Cost: free holy shit!!

Easy to use: relatively

Pros: search using english, japanese, radicals, or drawing the kanji itself. Flashcard system, where you can build your own decks or use a pre-made one. The flashcards operate on a spaced repetition system. Plus it provides example sentences, compound breakdowns, stroke order, conjugations and JLPT level.

Cons: The drawing search method is sometimes hit or miss but i’m impressed the app has this option at all, let alone that it does not crash the app (like some others I’ve tried). The pre-made decks can have up to 400 words or more which is great if you have that kind of patience but I rarely find myself excited to sift through all of those words only to have about 10 of them be useful to me.

Overall: Okay it’s not like this app is super amazing or revolutionary but it’s a dictionary and flashcard sytem all in one. Say you want to keep a record of the new words you learn to refer back to them later? Make a new deck! Or if you’re reading a book or newspaper and come across a word you don’t know? Add it to the list or make a new deck! I try use new words as often as possible to drill them into my head And although my studying has slowed a bit, this app is perfect to double-check spelling and usage. (At least until jisho.org gets an app). Plus it’s easier to learn and remember words when you’ve come across them on your own.

[starlingsrps]

alexander redding char. dev.

BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME: alexander stephen redding

REASONING: solid name.

NICKNAME(S): nope. don't. there are like, five people allowed to call him alex and he's not accepting new applicants.

PREFERRED NAME(S): alexander

BIRTH DATE: september 19, 1984

AGE: thirty five

GENDER: male

PRONOUNS: he/him

ROMANTIC/SEXUAL ORIENTATION:  heterosexual

NATIONALITY: american

ETHNICITY: caucasian

CURRENT LOCATION: greenwich, ct

LIVING CONDITIONS: p good. he has an apartment but is also the technical owner of a (small) estate outside of town. it's entirely too much for one person so he cleared out the family stuff and rents it out for events. pops by now and then to check on things, that kind of thing.

TITLE(S): no.

BACKGROUND

BIRTH PLACE: new york city

HOMETOWN: greenwich

SOCIAL CLASS: lower upper? upper middle?

EDUCATION LEVEL: business degree from yale, mba from wharton

FATHER: stephen redding, deceased.

MOTHER: laurel redding, deceased

SIBLING(S): charlotte redding, 25

BIRTH ORDER: oldest

CHILDREN: noooooooope.

PET(S): a rescue mutt named hamilton (shut up, it is too funny)

OTHER IMPORTANT RELATIVES: not really. it’s mostly just him and charlotte.

PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS: not a lot tbh. he kept himself busy with work for a long time and now he's like "how make conversation how date?" but when a bear is hungry, he eats so he gets out now and then.

CURRENT RELATIONSHIP: just him and ham, two bachelors on the town.

OCCUPATION & INCOME

PRIMARY SOURCE OF INCOME: hedge fund manager

CONTENT WITH THEIR JOB (OR LACK THERE OF)?: it's by no means a passion but he likes to make money so there ya go.

PAST JOB(S): interning. more interning.

SPENDING HABITS: reasonable

MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION: his plants. #plantdad

SKILLS & ABILITIES

PHYSICAL STRENGTH: aight - he works out and lifts but nothing too over the top.

OFFENSE: nah.

DEFENSE: just gonna walk away.

SPEED: fast

INTELLIGENCE: p high - he's well read and makes it a habit to seek out new knowledge

ACCURACY: not bad

AGILITY: average

STAMINA: endless

TEAMWORK: quietly bossy

TALENTS: he's highly competent. like he can take care of himself and others, assemble ikea furniture without throwing a hissy fit, goes about his days without too much fuss. he's also an excellent gardener but he keeps that on the dl.

SHORTCOMINGS: GRUMPASAURUS REX

LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: english, duolingo spanish

DRIVE?: yes

JUMP-STAR A CAR?: yes

CHANGE A FLAT TIRE?: probably, given time to read the instructions.

RIDE A BICYCLE?: probably but it's been Awhile.

SWIM?: yes.

PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?: he took piano lessons as a kid and could probably plunk out a little bit still but nothing exceptional.

PLAY CHESS?: nope.

BRAID HAIR?: yes. but it's not going to look pretty.

TIE A TIE?: of course.

PICK A LOCK?: no.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & CHARACTERISTICS

FACE CLAIM: gwilym lee

EYE COLOR: blue

HAIR COLOR: brown

HAIR TYPE/STYLE: short, neat.

GLASSES/CONTACTS?: depends.

DOMINANT HAND: right

HEIGHT: 6'2

BUILD: beanpole with the shoulder to hip ratio of a dorito.

EXERCISE HABITS: gym five days a week before work.

SKIN TONE: fair

TATTOOS: nah

PIERCINGS: nah

MARKS/SCARS: various freckles and moles

USUAL EXPRESSION: resting bitch face

CLOTHING STYLE: suits for work, jeans and a sweater off the clock. good shoes.

JEWELRY: nice watch every day, a small collection of cufflinks that he received from his father and grandfather.

ALLERGIES: soy

DIET: reasonable

PHYSICAL AILMENTS: —

PSYCHOLOGY

ENNEAGRAM TYPE: 1 - the reformer

MORAL ALIGNMENT: lawful good

TEMPERAMENT: melancholic

MBTI: ISTJ-A

MENTAL CONDITIONS/DISORDERS: anxious af

SOCIABILITY: introvert

EMOTIONAL STABILITY: steady

PHOBIA(S): he do esn't do well with death

ADDICTION(S): nah

DRUG USE: nah

ALCOHOL USE: not often but he likes a good red now and then

PRONE TO VIOLENCE?: nah

MANNERISMS

SPEECH STYLE: dry

ACCENT: neutral

HOBBIES: gardening, cooking, reading.

HABITS: walking ham, working out, visiting with his sister

NERVOUS TICKS: he had a bit of a stammer as a kid and it comes out when he's especially anxious but he masks it through long pauses.

DRIVES/MOTIVATIONS: jeez.

FEARS: charlotte is about all he's got so he's very protective of her. losing charlotte, really.

POSITIVE TRAITS: just, devoted, generous, rational, honorable

NEGATIVE TRAITS: aloof, awkward, stoic, proud, judgmental

SENSE OF HUMOR: dry, bitchy.

DO THEY CURSE OFTEN?: not really

CATCHPHRASE(S): does he even talk enough?

FAVORITES

ACTIVITY: spring gardening at the big house

ANIMAL: dogs

BEVERAGE: he's slightly addicted to coke zero.

BOOK: in the heart of the sea

COLOR: green

DESIGNER: please don't make him shop.

FOOD: cheese and crackers

FLOWER: roses, for the challenge of growing them.

GEM: emeralds are pretty

HOLIDAY: not super big on holidays but he and charlotte do christmas somewhere warm every year and that's nice.

MODE OF TRANSPORTATION: driving

MOVIE: the princess bride

MUSICAL ARTIST: death cab for cutie, he guesses

SONG: "bixby canyon bridge"

SCENERY: the grounds at the house once they get going

SCENT: sandalwood and dirt

SPORT: ehh no

SPORTS TEAM: see above

TELEVISION SHOW: he'll park it and watch like, seven hours of criminal minds.

WEATHER: summer

VACATION DESTINATION: mexico

ATTITUDES

GREATEST DREAM: eh, this is fine. he gets lonely sometimes and starts to think he wants a wife and kids and such but he's not really one to push the boat out on that just yet.

GREATEST FEAR: failure.

MOST AT EASE WHEN: with charlotte, when gardening.

LEAST AT EASE WHEN: things are off schedule

WORST POSSIBLE THING THAT COULD HAPPEN: kind of already has - his parents died in a car accident ten years ago. he buried his own grief about it way down deep to take care of charlotte and get her through high school. she's well adjusted, he's really not.

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: career wise, he's very successful so that's good.

BIGGEST REGRET: nah

BIGGEST SECRET: he's a cuddly fuck. little spoon 4 life.

TOP PRIORITIES: ehhhhh

[arabellaflynn]

My response to extended periods of stress is to distract myself by cramming new things into my head. I had a terrible semester at college once and front-loaded the entirety of the sci.electronics.repair FAQ into my brain. It wasn't useful at the time, but I can repair the shit out of a VCR now, so I assume I'll use it someday. I am so overloaded I am about to claw my own face off, so naturally I am teaching myself Hebrew. I've been using Duolingo to do it, which is frankly a very bad idea. (I should really be using Ha'Ulpan, which is where you'd typically go for a crash course in Hebrew before emigrating to Israel, but that costs money, so no.) Duolingo is billed as a way to teach yourself a language, which it is not. It is a way to memorize a bunch of interactive flashcards. This might be effective for people who don't care how language works -- which is most people -- but it's awful for people like me, who hang all of their memorization off of a framework of base patterns. Duolingo explains nothing. The "lessons":

Do not teach the alphabet. Hebrew is written in this sort of half-assed abjad, where most but not all vowels are not marked in non-teaching texts, and some but not most unmarked vowels are actually represented by a placeholder Alef. 'Aba' is father and 'ima' is mother, but they are both written Alef-something else-Alef. Look at that and imagine how the vowel change looks totally mental to someone who spells things in a full alphabet. Alef comes out looking like it says about six different things, one of which is nothing.

Do not explain the orthography. There are several pairs of letters in Hebrew that do, or at least can, say the same thing. Tet and Tav both say /t/; Kaf and Qof both say /k/; Yod and Ayin are both sort of /j/ and sort of not; Vav and Bet can both say /v/, although both also have other readings; Samekh is /s/ and Shin can be read that way as well. Some other apparent character pairs are actually the same letter that has a 'sofit' form when it comes at the end of the word, which on the Hebrew keyboard is a different key (as opposed to the Arabic IME, which auto-corrects to the final form when it kerns all the cursive joining). I still have no idea if there is a rule behind Tet vs Tav; Yod vs Ayin and Kaf vs Qof are almost certainly because they once represented different sounds (Yaa vs 'Ayin and Kaa vs Qaf are still separated in Arabic), but I don't have enough context to guess which is likely to be which in Modern Hebrew.

Do not consistently read new vocabulary words out loud. If you're not going to explain the letters to me, the least you can do is read me the word so I can figure it out myself. Of course, it also never explicitly mentions that you read all this right-to-left, which seems like an important note to give when you're using a left-to-right language for instruction. You would think it would be obvious when everything is right-justified, but this is the kind of stuff you shouldn't take for granted when building beginning lessons in anything.

Do not use any nekkudot. A nikkud ("point") is a diacritical mark, mainly underneath the consonant but occasionally beside, inside, or above it, that explicitly indicates ('dagesh') a pronunciation change or ('nikkud') an unwritten vowel. This is how you teach people to read Hebrew, in Hebrew. You use it for small children. Or, if you have any sense, novice adult learners.

Do not explain any grammar. There is no explanation of why "you" is sometimes 'at' and sometimes 'atah'. No explanation of why sometimes the present-tense verb has an '-et' on the end and sometimes doesn't, even when the subject is 'ani' in both cases. (Answer: Hebrew inflects according to gender of both subject and speaker, which seems like a thing that should be noted for anglophones.) You are left to guess at wtf to do with prepositions and particles like Ha, V', Be, Le, and others. 

Do not consistently account for the direction switch of Hebrew input. Firstly, there's no warning that the thing expects you to type in Hebrew; I installed a Hebrew keyboard before I started, but I also have six other keyboard layouts on the phone, because I'm me. If it wants you to type a full sentence, it can get the text running consistently right to left, but there are exercises that want you to fill in just one word, and that breaks it horribly. The words run right-to-left as intended, but they are arranged left-to-right in English order.

Do not listen to its own internal dictionary of synonyms. I have run into this in other languages and it drives me crazy. There are exercises where it asks you to translate a sentence in the target language into English. If you tap 'derech', Duolingo tells you it means a way, a path, or a road. Translating 'derech' as anything other than "way" in the English sentence gets you marked off. If there is some reason why 'Ha'yeled roah derech' could not mean "The boy sees a road" isolated from context, Duolingo does not give it.

I am already cheating by being a linguist who has some idea of how Semitic languages work. My one attempt at an Arabic class was a disaster for non-Arabic-related reasons, but I do know basic things like the idea behind an abjad, handling regular transformations of letter shapes at the end of a word, and how words are constructed by adding vowels/prefixes/suffixes to a triconsonantal root. These would be completely alien to most English speakers. There is a systemic way to accomplish transformations like the one from "(male) child" ('yeled') to "(female) child" ('yaldah') or "children" ('yeldim'), or from the noun "food" ('okel') to the verb for "to eat" ('le'kol'), but it is never actually pointed out.

I also have a living resource who grew up speaking Hebrew and enjoys teaching people things, usually at great length. I can ask the Eccentric all the weird stuff and he'll give me a long, detailed answer, fully 60% of which will have something to do with the original question. Technical grammar questions can be Googled to good effect, but the answers to cultural questions are, at best, unreliable. (Example: "Does Modern Hebrew have regional accents?" Google answer: "Modern Hebrew is very young and spoken in a contained geographic area. While there are some tiny variations in pronunciation and vocabulary, these are so slight it is unlikely a non-native speaker would ever notice them." Answer from actual Israeli person: "Absolutely, remind me next time I see you and I'll do imitations, some of them are hilarious.") [The question of accents is especially pertinent; I am never comfortable in a language until I sound like myself, and since I don't sound like a textbook all the time, this usually means picking a dialect to drop into. My informal Japanese tends to stay Tokyo-standard in grammar but in tone is rather bokukko, for instance. It's marked in speech (although often the actual pronoun boku is used in internet Japanese by female blog authors who don't want to be explicitly female in text), but I am clearly a non-native speaker, and I feel it conveys a proper warning that I am not going to do well by Japanese standards of femininity. There are a few potential accents I could wind up with in Hebrew. American is fairly far down on the list; I'm usually pretty good at not sounding like a Yank. The letter Resh is most universally difficult for non-native speakers. I could probably use the French or German R and be understood (both voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/, the French one higher and more nasalized), but the Resh as given in the only explicit explanation I've found is actually supposed to be a uvular trill /ʀ/, which occurs more towards the hard palate than either of those, and with a rounder sounding chamber behind it. It comes so far forward that it is the closest thing I have ever seen to the theoretically-impossible velar trill. Wikipedia says this is an Ashkenazim thing, which explains why you hear it so much in Yiddish. I would definitely be understood if I used the Arabic alveolar trill /r/, which is noted as a variation common among the Sephardim, but it's also associated with Arabic-speaking refugees, and I feel like that might not be the accent I want if I'm going to be practicing this on Israeli friends. I've no idea which one the Eccentric uses; I gather he has one parent from either tradition and they lived in Jerusalem, so who the fuck knows. It's impossible to pick up from his English. He's made no effort to zero out his accent, but he has had three decades to nail the English retroflex alveolar approximant /ɻ/, and more or less does. Chet is voiced /χ/, and undotted-Khaf is unvoiced /x/, both of which I have.]

An irksome aspect of learning Hebrew is the transliteration system. There isn't one. You notice that my Japanese is italicized and the attempts at Hebrew are in single quotes? This is because the Japanese is brought straight across using a standard Japanese-to-Latin alphabet system used in some textbooks and on the internet. (There are other, more precise systems, but they involve diacritical marks that can't be typed on a pure-ASCII keyboard.) The Hebrew is... uh, approximate. There is no way to unambiguously transcribe Hebrew text in Latin letters that is immediately readable to people whose languages use the Latin alphabet. Duolingo doesn't even try. I type things using the Hebrew IME whenever possible, because I'm trying to learn to spell, but when the Eccentric explains things to me he does it with the regular QWERTY keyboard. It has quirks. Words whose transliteration ends in '-ah', as in the new year's greeting 'shanah tovah', are words that end in He, a letter which normally says /h/ but when word-final represents /a:/ for grammatical reasons. He also consistently writes his Vav as "U'" when it's used as a conjunction, even though it's pronounced /v/. My guess is that this is how it is taught in Israeli schools. There seems to be a system behind it, but it does not make sense unless you also read the original Hebrew.

This is all somehow working anyway, probably because I'm me. I made it to Day 18 of my first ever stab at learning Hebrew before I started scaring up podcasts. It only took me that long because I had to figure out how to search for the word for "Hebrew (language)" in Hebrew, because searching in transliteration gets you nothing. Day 20 I picked up a series of linguistic interviews put out by Leshoniada (לשוניאדה, a word which gave Google Translate shitfits, but which the Eccentric informs me is a portmanteau that comes out something like "Grammar-lympics"). The details escape me completely, because I lack vocabulary, but because Hebrew has a very regular stress pattern (word-final, almost always) individual terms are easy to pick out. Between that and a lot of straight-up imports from Greek, the topic of the first episode was easy to get.

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