#adventures in language learning

[a-yarn-of-purple-prose]

The Brazilian government has this e-learning platform in which anyone can take free courses with valid certifications. It's running on Moodle but who cares about that besides people that have worked with e-learning before?

It also features free certificates and I need something to certify my Spanish so I enrolled on Basic Spanish (there's no placement test, so I can't just jump to Advanced and get that certification instead.)

Reader, there is nothing basic about this course.

The materials are fully written in Spanish, and not exactly in simple vocabulary.

The listening practice uses some really good voice actors but they weren't told to slow down.

The! Animations! I cannot stress enough that this course is set up as shitty barely formatted Moodle lessons that feel like a dude rambling at you and then there are these high-grade, fully plotted, professionally voice acted animations every once in a while.

There is a graded test every 2 lessons.

These tests expect you to know things that weren't explained in the course materials.

They do not explain those things afterwards, you're supposed to go and find out if you care.

The whole experience reminds me of taking classes with one of those extremely specialized professors that forget the students are showing up with 0 knowledge of the subject. Or that they're human. One of those.

Anyway I'd only ever recommend this to someone that already knows Spanish but if you do, hey, the animations are pretty.

[htub]

I really like that they made Jor-El speak Kryptonian and Clark unable to understand him. The whole "aliens speak English" thing that happens in every goddamn media has bothered me all my life. Ik sometimes Clark just gets zapped in the brain for insta-second language but that always felt like a cheap shortcut.

Jor-El had a lot on his mind when he set up that magic spaceship okay. The world was ending and he was trying to do as much as he could before time ran out so he could be there for his son. He was rushing. He likely didn't consider Kal would be raised with a whole different language and not know any Kryptonian nor have anyone to teach him.

[swan2swan]

"Kal-El. My Son. Live."

These words are the key...the key to

Why the Kryptonian Language Sounds Like That

"Filo", Jor-El says. And we know that he's saying "my son". "Rapide!" he says, later, and we know that he's telling Clark to hurry. So many words sound familiar...is it Latin? Portuguese? A Romance language? Why does Kryptonian resemble so many languages from Earth?

Well, the truth is...it doesn't. What we're hearing isn't Actual Kryptonian. We're hearing Kryptonian as Clark Kent hears it...and it's something familiar. He can't place it. He can't understand it. But he can vaguely understand the meaning and intention. His father spoke to him as a baby and called him "My son", but Clark couldn't understand it properly because he was too young. So when he hears the Kryptonian word "Son," he hears "Filo"--a word that tickles the back of his mind and tells him that it's connected to his relationship with his father...but he doesn't Get It.

Other words sound familiar. They send sparks through his head. "Krypton" especially. But there is no fire. None at all.

Until he lies dying and the world is collapsing around him. As the dread fingers of death reach for him, and his world becomes a tomb of metal. And he hears it, then. Words that he recognizes...and remembers.

"Kal-El." His name.

"My son." This is what he has been saying.

"Live." The same word he spoke over two decades ago. The last word a father spoke that reached his son's ears.

[a-studious-reej]

This is a self awn.

Pronunciation is hoard.

[neurotheologist]

[naivesilver]

when the one who's burned turns to pass the torch

Joan Tierney (@filmnoirsbian) / Paul And Storm / Daughter / Nick Cave / Eric LaRocca / Silas Denver Melvin (@sweatermuppet)

(Merry Christmas, @lysgiovedi 💗💗💗)

[wingsofmud]

Clearsight should've taken her girlfriend, Listener, to the Lost Continent with her.

[miodiodavinci]

anyway probably my favorite thing about fafnir is the ever present gap moe of this incredibly sad and tired looking corpse man acting and behaving like a nervous little creature in a shopping mall, or perhaps a teenager who has been miraculously hired onto their first job despite having None of the qualifications w

my other favorite thing is the fact that he can do this w

[sepublic]

The Professor: The oral exam isn’t that big of a deal, I just want to see how well you’re doing. No pressure! 🥰

My recollection of me trying to answer the first question (what’s my name):

[narvin]

Perchance could we hear more about Sol & Cassie?? I'm always so intrigued by the posts u tag as them,, knowledge about The Guys would be thrilling (ESPECIALLY Sol I think its cool how you have distinctions for each of their regenerations)

okok forgive me if this is disorganized, I’m going thru the horrors. let’s seeee the basics are:

sol is a prydonian engineer who started out in temporal engineering and was eventually shuffled into weapons and battle tardis design. they’re in their third life when the time war rolls around and have gotten more and more entangled with the military, they’re out running test flights and consulting and being urged to get into command like a Proper Prydonian etc. anyway they’re captured in a raid right around the beginning of the hostilities before gallifrey has actually declared war and spend the rest of that life and their next in a prison camp. this starts their weird attitude towards their own other selves, cause 4 was never really able to properly settle into a new personality and never even really saw their own face clearly. even after being rescued and living several centuries 5 sees themself as being made specifically for war, having no real personality of their own, which is debatable. so yeah 5 rly throws themself into the war effort, ends up in a command position, loses a leg, gets commendations for it, eventually is working closely with rassilon. they’re terrified of him ❤️ and eventually become so disillusioned with his plans that they fake a crash with their battle tardis and leave gallifrey. they kinda hang out in their depression nest for many decades before eventually regenerating with a much more adventurous and avoidant personality. they meet cassie when their tardis is forced to land by a spacetime anomaly under the university of toronto (that’s real it’s down there)

the other thing with them is their bestie ferren who they met at the academy. he’s a xenoanthropologist and gets bullied for it a lot. but womp womp sol is already a commander when rassilon starts drafting civilians, and has seen firsthand what the daleks do to their enemies, so when ferren begs them to take him off gallifrey and then dodges his draft to live in the outlands it puts a huge strain on their relationship they’re extremely weird about it. sol still visits him but they mostly fight, ferren is kinda mean about the fact that they’ve changed so drastically since their 3rd life that they’re barely even his friend anymore, and they lowkey really think he’s a coward. so it stings when they leave without him! but yeah he’s questioned and executed when sol goes awol 💔 oops

anyway cassie’s deal is much shorter cause she’s not over a thousand years old, she’s an extremely burnt out grad student working in robotics. both her and sol have a whole thing about rediscovering that living is kinda fun sometimes, and it starts with her fascination with sol’s tardis. they have the standard adventures etc. but most importantly ship fucking hates her, it is not a mutual fascination. ship has never met a non-temporally active life form and she doesn’t understand or like them. eventually she’ll come around and then they’re essentially a throuple (sol and ship are a package deal)

I have like endless other thoughts on them but that’s the main stuff I think hehe

[professional-termite]

literally so excited i realised i could say people want/dont want stuff in danish this morning and thats something actually useful wahoo!!

[foreverfitnesspositivity]

[small-strong-bookish-butch]

N and I are both learning Italian, because my dad's main Christmas gift to both of us (as well as a couple other close family members) was a trip there.

I learned Spanish in school for roughly 10 years, and my cousins who I grew up close to are Venezuelan.

N took some French in high school.

All this is to say, this interaction happens roughly 3 times a day:

Me: [sees a cognate of Italian to Spanish]

Me: Oh, that makes sense!!

N: ??? What do you mean it makes sense?!

Me: it's like Spanish :)

N: what do you MEAN the boot verb chart?? I've never SEEN a boot! 😡

[toiletpotato]

I think one of the things that bugs me about Duolingo's redesign is how similar it feels to school now.

Previously we were able to hop around subjects and do that as we please, but now it is a linear path organized into sections and units and lessons, just like the way a lot of languages are taught in schools- something it seemed Duolingo wanted to differentiate itself from.

Getting rid of the forums/locking them was also a strange move, as with the general move of the internet having things be behind walls (either of a discord or now private reddit page).

From a pedagogical perspective I suppose I can see the reasoning behind making the tree more linear as there are some things that ought to be taught before other topics- you wouldn't learn the subjunctive before you learned how verbs work, for example. However, especially regarding the asynchronous/self-study nature of Duolingo when combined with the gamificafion aspect, I think that it hinders it. With the old design, you could pick whichever topic you had unlocked that interested you, but now it forces learners into this predetermined path. So, if someone is not jiving with a topic, then it may ultimately be antithetical and cause them to not learn that day or lose their streak. This is especially prevalent with the hearts design because it can be rather disheartening to try and try again only to have to wait a set number of hours on a topic you just want to power through.

The streak of it all also is not helpful from a casual language learning perspective due to the incessant notifications- it becomes less about learning a language and more about pleasing the bird- much like perfect attendance in schools. A student should not feel pressured to put their health (mental/physical) at risk as then their learning will falter! You cannot learn effectively if your other essential needs are not met (shout out to Maslow's hierarchy).

It would be interesting to see Duolingo move to a week-based streak/attendance model, or reward the learner/user for what they have done, rather than what they haven't (ex. You did two lessons/practiced twice this week- that's awesome!). If they really must maintain the streak aspect, consider making it biweekly- so long as the user does something in a two week period, they are rewarded.

Now, would this potentially affect their learning statistics about how x number of hours = x semesters in university? Maybe! But learning isn't a race. You never finish learning. I started learning Spanish over seven years ago and I am not done. However, this race to fluency is a larger issue with how language learning is marketed (ex become fluent in Spanish in x number of days!) that is honestly unfair to the brand new learner. Fluency exists in levels, but this isn't an easy thing to "market" since most folks want an end all be all, they don't really like ambiguity.

This isn't to try to turn anyone away from language learning- it started as me making a fuss about Duolingo being strange and ended up... well this. Please learn a new language- for fun! You can learn it casually, picking up a few survival phrases (which are GREAT), try and read your favorite book, or watch a TV show!!

Language is all around us, it is ever changing and wonderful, and I think it is really neat.

[adventuresinlearningfinnish]

I made a game with ChatGPT where we learn Finnish by doing a dungeon crawl 🗡️. I can only imagine how much fun this will be when it's all hooked up with video and voice acting!

[incorrect-jojolands-quotes]

anyone here fluent in Hawaiian? I need help with translating chapter 1 of the Jojolands and my only translator is currently mia.