#all the chinese is from google translate so feel free to point out any mistakes!!! i am not a native

[s0rr3l]

i’ve jumped feet first into the hole of black myth wukong!!!

and also caved and drew an oc

this is Lǐyú (鲤鱼) meaning carp (uh but i found this through google translate so take that w/ a grain of salt)

carp are considered lucky in chinese culture - its what im basing their ‘powers’ on, they have good and bad luck

and guess who’s lucky enough to be pulled into bmw :)

also gave a name to the destined one since ‘destined one’ is a mouth full

name i picked for him is yēzi (椰子) which means coconut!! was looking up stone fruit and cocnuts re one of them, plus he was (presumably) born on flower fruit mountain, he might have been given a fruit name before being whisked away to train for his destiny

uh anyway not canon but i thought it was cute

massive shoutout to everyone in the black myth wukong/wukong x reader tag bcs y’all inspired me to draw my oc! wanted to join the fun so here i am

[laxmiree]

[CN] MLQC Lucien’s Moisturize ASMR translation

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT!! ⚠️

This post contains a detailed spoiler for an ASMR that has not been released in EN yet! Feel free to notify me if there are any mistakes in the translation~

[IMPORTANT]

⚠️ NSFW WARNING! The content of this ASMR is VERY VIVIDLY EXPLICIT and NOT suitable for individuals under the age of 18. It is recommended that those who do not meet this age requirement refrain from proceeding beyond this point.

I can't upload this on YouTube because YouTube deemed it as too explicit. So I upload the full version on Twitter AND Google Drive. Below the cut is only the transcript.

Google Drive link [ here ]

Twitter link [ here ]

OKAY SO before we start I want to mention some things:

This ASMR is from a CHINESE GAME, and as you know the censorship here is heavy, so explicit content relies on our imagination. The 🔞 elements need to be cleverly disguised; and in this ASMR they use… playing with slime. "Yes officer, they're just playing with slime. What zipper sound? It's from his coat." 🤪

But you can BET those noises aren't slimes (at least during the second half). It's heavily hinted that they gave each other's private parts 👅💦. Hence the ASMR name "水润”/”Moisturize”, which can convey the idea of something being moistened by """"water"""". What else is getting moistened right here except you-know-what 👀

✄----------------------

[ASMR - Moisturize Transcript]

[ sound of Lucien typing the password of the villa and then opens the door ]

[ Lucien sighs and chuckles ]

Once inside,

I can feel the temperature difference of nearly twenty degrees between indoors and outdoors.

Can you hand me my coat?

[ rustling noises as MC hands over his coat ]

Hmm?

It seems that this lady

forgot what was still in my pocket.

[ Lucien chuckles ]

Can I take it out?

[ sounds of the coat zipper as he takes out the item]

What is this?

[ chuckles ]

It seems to be a box of

glue-like stuff.

There are a few gardenia flowers on top.

Is it called 'slime'?

Indeed, it's quite vivid.

Was it bought at the night market

to give to me?

Then, can you teach me

how to play with this?

[ sounds of the slime getting opened ]

[ slime noises ]

Is it played like this?

Hmm

It's very soft.

Also quite fascinating.

And, as you mentioned,

it is a toy that has been improved and is very safe to play with.

Can it be poked?

Good.

[ SUS slime noises ]

Hmm

The fingertips wrapped in softness

feel very warm.

Do you want to play together?

I'd like to share this gift with you.

After sticking to the skin…

The slime's texture

becomes slightly damp

it's also sticky and moist

[ sus slime noises in the background ]

Do you find

that this little toy

sparks any particular associations for us?

[ sus slime noises and Lucien sighs ]

[ whispers ] You can't guess?

I think,

this lady already has an answer.

It's just that….

[ Lucien stops his sentence, chuckles and kisses ]

After all,

you're blushing from cheek to ear.

Okay,

then I'll go first.

These warmth,

moistness, and softness…

...are like a certain lady's….

…palms when her body temperature rises.

[ sus slime noises ]

Hmm?

[ chuckles ]

It seems that….

My associations surprised you?

[ chuckles ]

I wasn't asking a leading question.

Now, reveal your answer

Okay?

You are embarrassed to say it…

…and want to answer it with action?

I would give full marks to this classmate for all her ways of answering.

[ rustling noises ]

[ ZIPPER NOISES as she unzips his pants 🤪]

[ Lucien chuckles, then gasps and breathes heavily as she touches his d- ]

[ whispers hoarsely ] I didn't expect….

such a straightforward answer.

So,

this is the thought that makes this lady blush.

I rather feel that

those (slime) sounds are quite different from the noises we usually hear.

[ Lucien moans as he leads her to take him into her mouth ]

For example…

[ SUS RHYTHMICAL AND WET NOISES AS SHE SUCKS HIS D- ]

[ breathlessly ] This sound would be more similar

isn't it?

[ rhythmical and wet noises continue in the background, rattling noises as Lucien possibly begins to put the lid of the slimes + Lucien gasps and chuckles ]

I always feel that

the little toy on the table is not as fun anymore.

[ breathlessly whispers ] Of course, I like it.

[ breathlessly ] It's just that….

To the lady who gives me this gift….

[ Lucien gasps and then breathlessly whispers ] I’d rather express my gratitude…

[ the rhythmical and wet noises gradually stop ]

[ …i-is he shooting ropes- ]

[ Lucien steadies his breath ]

[ in a much calmer tone after he blows off his load ] …Probably due to the significant temperature difference between indoors and outdoors,

the glue in the composition starts to dissolve away.

It gets a bit sticky.

Or perhaps I poked too fast.

and ended up breaking this small teaching toy.

(T/N: lol here goes our 'cover story' 🤪. Officer, those sounds are TOTALLY from playing with slimes. Huh, 'Why does it make him breathless'? He just gets excited when teaching her, that's all 😋 )

[rustling noises]

Next time, after you buy one,

you can give it to me first.

I'll keep it safe.

[Lucien shuts the lid of the slimes]

To make up for this time,

What's next…

Is it time to move on to the practical part of the lesson?

(T/N: a.k.a the actual sex instead of just foreplay-)

I wonder if this classmate

is willing to 'assist' me?

[ rustling noises as he puts her on a surface ]

[ kissing noises as he kisses her in ✨places✨ ]

I really like your 'answers'.

They make it hard for me…

...to think straight.

[ more kissing noises as he moves lower and lower -]

Now,

let me repay you.

[ NOISES OF HIM EATING HER OUT. It's only right to repay oral with another oral- and she needs to be 'moisturized' before accepting him right- ]

I will hold my happiness,

and share all of them with you.

[ more noises of him eating her out as the sounds gradually fade- ]

[thevalleyisjolly]

Hi there! If you feel up to it, would you be willing to expand a bit more on the idea of white creators creating poc characters who are ‘internally white’, especially in a post-racialized or racism-free setting & how to avoid it? It’s something I’m very concerned about but I haven’t encountered a lot of info about it outside of stories set in real world settings. Thanks & have a good day!

Hey, thanks for asking, anon!  It’s a pretty nuanced topic, and different people will have different takes on it.  I’ll share my thoughts on it, but do keep in mind that other people of colour may have different thoughts on the matter, and this is by no means definitive!  These are things I’ve observed through research, trial and error, my own experiences, or just learning from other writers.

The first thing I guess I want to clarify is that I personally am not opposed to a society without racism in fiction.  It’s exhausting and frankly boring when the only stories that characters of colour get are about racism!  So it’s a relief sometimes to just get to see characters of colour exist in a story without dealing with racism.  That being said, I feel like a lot of the time when creators establish their settings as “post-racial,” they avoid racism but they also avoid race altogether.  Not aesthetically -they may have a few or even many characters with dark skin- but the way the characters act and talk and relate to the world are “race-less” (which tends to end up as default white American/British or whatever place the creator comes from).  Which I have complicated thoughts on, but the most obvious thing that springs to mind is how such an approach implies (deliberately or not) that racism is all there is to the way POC navigate the world.  It’s definitely a significant factor, particularly for POC in Western countries, but it’s not the only thing!  There’s so much more to our experiences than just racial discrimination, and it’s a shame that a lot of “post-racial” or “racism-free” settings seem to overlook that in their eagerness to not have racism (or race) in their stories.

A quick go-to question I ask when I look at characters of colour written/played by white creators is: if this was a story or transcript I was reading, with no art or actors or what have you, would I be able to tell that this character is a character of colour?  How does the creator signal to the audience that this is a character of colour?  A lot of the time, this signal stops after the physical description - “X has dark skin” and then that’s all!  (We will not discuss the issue of racial stereotypes in depth, but it should be clear that those are absolutely the wrong way to indicate a character of colour).

This expands to a wider issue of using dark skin as a be-all-end-all indication of diversity, which is what I mean by “aesthetic” characters of colour (I used the term “internally white” originally but upon further reflection, it has some very loaded implications, many of which I’m personally familiar with, so I apologize for the usage).  Yes, the character may not “look” white, but how do they interact with the world?  Where do they come from?  What is their background, their family?  A note: this can be challenging with diaspora stories in the real world and people being disconnected (forcibly or otherwise) from their heritage (in which case, those are definitely stories that outsiders should not tell).  So let’s look at fantasy.  Even the most original writer in the world bases their world building off existing things in the real world.  So what cultures are you basing your races off of?  If you have a dark skinned character in your fantasy story, what are the real world inspirations and equivalents that you drew from, and how do you acknowledge that in a respectful, non-stereotyped way?

(Gonna quickly digress here and say that there are already so many stories about characters of colour disconnected from their heritage because ‘They didn’t grow up around other people from that culture’ or ‘They moved somewhere else and grew up in that dominant culture’ or ‘It just wasn’t important to them growing up’ and so on.  These are valid stories, and important to many people!  But when told by (usually) white creators, they’re also used, intentionally or not, as a sort of cop-out to avoid having to research or think about the character’s ethnicity and how that influences who they are.  So another point of advice: avoid always situating characters outside of their heritage.  Once or twice explored with enough nuance and it can be an interesting narrative, all the time and it starts being a problem)

Another thing I want to clarify at this point is that it’s a contentious issue about whether creators should tell stories that aren’t theirs, and different people will have different opinions.  For me personally, I definitely don’t think it’s inherently bad for creators to have diverse characters in their work, and no creator can live every experience there is.  That being said, there are caveats for how such characters are handled.  For me personally, I follow a few rules of thumb which are:

Is this story one that is appropriate for this creator to tell?  Some experiences are unique and lived with a meaningful or complex history and context behind them and the people to whom those experiences belong do not want outsiders to tell those stories.

To what extent is the creator telling this story?  Is it something mentioned as part of the narrative but not significantly explored or developed upon?  Does it form a core part of the story or character?  There are some stories that translate across cultures and it’s (tentatively) ok to explore more in depth, like immigration or intergenerational differences.  There are some stories that don’t, and shouldn’t be explored in detail (or even at all) by people outside those cultures.

How is the creator approaching this story and the people who live it?  To what extent have they done their research?  What discussions have they had with sensitivity consultants/readers?  What kind of respect are they bringing to their work?  Do they default to stereotypes and folk knowledge when they reach the limits of their research?  How do they respond to feedback or criticism when audiences point things that they will inevitably get wrong?

Going back to the “race-less” point, I think that creators need to be careful that they’re (respectfully) portraying characters of colour as obvious persons of colour.  With a very definite ‘no’ on stereotyping, of course, so that’s where the research comes in (which should comprise of more than a ten minute Google search).  If your setting is in the real world, what is the background your character comes from and how might that influence the way they act or talk or see the world?  If your setting is in a fantasy world, same question!  Obviously, avoid depicting things which are closed/exclusive to that culture (such as religious beliefs, practices, etc) and again, avoid stereotyping (which I cannot stress enough), but think about how characters might live their lives and experience the world differently based on the culture or the background they come from.

As an example of a POC character written/played well by a white person, I personally like Jackson Wei and Cindy Wong from Dimension 20’s The Unsleeping City, an urban fantasy D&D campaign.  Jackson and Cindy are NPCs played by the DM, Brennan Lee Mulligan, who did a good job acknowledging their ethnicity without resorting to stereotypes and while giving them their own unique characters and personalities.  The first time he acted as Cindy, I leapt up from my chair because she was exactly like so many old Chinese aunties and grandmothers I’ve met.  The way Jackson and Cindy speak and act and think is very Chinese (without being stereotyped), but at the same time, there’s more to their characters than being Chinese, they have unique and important roles in the story that have nothing to do with their ethnicity.  So it’s obvious that they’re people of colour, that they’re Chinese, but at the same time, the DM isn’t overstepping and trying to tell stories that aren’t his to tell.  All while not having the characters face any racism, as so many “post-racialized” settings aim for, because there are quite enough stories about that!

There a couple factors that contribute to the positive example I gave above.  The DM is particularly conscientious about representation and doing his research (not to say that he never messes up, but he puts in a lot more effort than the average creator), and the show also works with a lot of sensitivity consultants.  Which takes me to the next point - the best way to portray characters of colour in your story is to interact with people from that community.  Make some new friends, reach out to people!  Consume media by creators of colour!  In my experience so far, the most authentic Chinese characters have almost universally been created/written/played by Chinese creators.  Read books, listen to podcasts, watch shows created by people of colour.  Apart from supporting marginalized creators, you also start to pick up how people from that culture or heritage see themselves and the world, what kind of stories they have to tell, and just as importantly, what kind of stories they want being told or shared.  In other words, the best way to portray an authentic character of colour that is more than just the colour of their skin is to learn from actual people of colour (without, of course, treating them just as a resource and, of course, with proper credit and acknowledgement).

Most importantly, this isn’t easy, and you will absolutely make mistakes.  I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that you will mess up.  No matter how well researched you are, how much respect you have for other cultures, how earnestly you want to do this right, you will at some point do something that makes your POC audience uncomfortable or even offends them.  Then, your responsibility comes with your response.  Yes, you’ve done something wrong.  How do you respond to the people who are hurt or disappointed?  Do you ignore them, or double down on your words, or try to defend yourself?  Just as importantly, what are you planning to do about it in the future?  If you have a second chance, what are you going to do differently?  You will make mistakes at some point.  So what are you going to do about them?  That, I think, is an even more important question than “How can I do this right?”  You may or may not portray something accurately, but when you get something wrong, how are you going to respond?

Essentially, it all comes down to your responsibility as a creator.  As a creator, you have a responsibility to do your due diligence in research, to remain respectful to your work and to your audience, and to be careful and conscientious about how you choose to create things.  It’s not about getting things absolutely perfect or being the most socially conscious creator out there, it’s about recognizing your responsibilities as a creator with a platform, no matter how big or small, and taking responsibility for your work. 

In summary:

Research, research, research

Avoid the obvious no-no’s (stereotypes, tokenization, fetishization, straight up stealing from other cultures, etc) and think critically about what creative choices you’re making and why

Do what you’re doing now, and reach out to people (who have put themselves out there as a resource).  There are tons of resources out there by people of colour, reach out when you’re not sure about something or would like some advice!

Responsibility, responsibility, responsibility

Thank you for reaching out!  Good luck with your work!

[atinydise]

Ateez reacting to their s/o speaking a bunch of languages

❦ Genre: Fluff/crackhead.

❦ Pairing: OT8.

❦ Word count: 13k.

❦ Requested: Yes, thank you! 🦋 

❦ Masterlist.

❦ Warning: ⚠️I used Google Translation for most of the languages used here! So I apologize in advance if I made mistakes. Feel free to correct me (as someone did already 🥺)! Thank you!

HONGJOONG (Korean)

You were walking hand in hand with Hongjoong. It was a bit cold, so you took the opportunity to stick yourself to your boyfriend, a bit closer than usual. “Are you cold Y/N?” he asked, noticing that you were glued to him. “No… I’m just enjoying your presence.” You smiled at him. “Oh, then I won’t complain.” He tickled your chin before wrapping his arm around your waist. You continued to walk peacefully, enjoying the Christmas lights. Hongjoong was always so happy during this period. He wanted to go out and admire the decoration with you. You were dating for 2 weeks now. It was a fresh and new relationship. Both of you were still a bit shy and awkward sometimes but it was getting better these days.

“Tell me something I don’t know about you.” He suddenly asked you. “Hum… there’s so much thing that you know already.” “In 2 weeks? Come on, tell me your little secrets.” He insisted. “Okay okay…” you chuckled. “My favorite meal is… pizza!” “I knew that already babe.” “Okay what about-” “저기요?” (excuse me) Both of you stopped to look at the schoolgirl standing next to you. “전화 좀 빌릴 수 있을까요? 저는 제 것을 잃어버렸고, 어머니께 전화를 해야 해요.” (Can I borrow your phone, please? I lost mine and I need to call my mom) You grabbed your phone in your bag. “네, 천천히 하다 !” (take your time) You smiled at her. When the young girl went a little bit far away from you to get her privacy, Hongjoong stared at you. “Why you never told me you could talk in Korean?” You tilted your head, “I guess that it’s something you ignored about me.” “왜 우���는 항상 영어로 말해요?” (Why do we always speak in English?) “Because I love hearing your English accent.” You winked. “And can you only speak in Korean or English?” “I can speak more than 10 languages.” You declared. “10?” he shouted, making people staring at you. “Are you serious?!” “Yes, but it’s not a big deal.” The schoolgirl came back and handed your phone before bowing politely at you. “감사합니다!” (Thank you) “천만에요! 지금 집에 가요!” (You’re welcome. Now go home!) “I can’t believe it…” claimed Hongjoong when the girl left. “There’s so many things you ignore about me finally.” You smiled, grabbing his scarf to kiss his cheek.

SEONGHWA (French)

“Wow… a French restaurant.” You said, looking at the brand name. “Yes, it’s a new one. I thought it would be cool to eat here.” Added Seonghwa, arm wrapped around your shoulders. “That’s a really good idea sweetheart.” “Let’s go then,” he pulled you inside. It was a fancy restaurant. A waiter came instantly to guide you to a table. “We are going to spend all of our salary here.” You giggled. “But you worth it.” Seonghwa glanced at you, to see your disgusted face, as always when he says something kitschy. “Then I’m going to order the most expensive things,” you claimed. You couldn’t see it but Seonghwa was probably scared for his wallet. “Sure… sure, go ahead.” He gulped. You held his hand on the table, “I’m kidding Hwa. Relax.” “Why are you calling me Hwa and not Seong?” He suddenly asked. “Because… you are “Hwa-ouh”!” Your boyfriend looked at you without saying anything. A big silence settled between both of you after this bad joke. Seonghwa puffed at you. He couldn’t resist any longer. “That was SO bad! You are such a clown,” he laughed at you. Before you could answer, a man who looked like the boss or the owner of this restaurant came to your table. “Bonjour!” He greeted both of you. Seonghwa bowed a bit, understanding what he just said thanks to his previous concert in France. “Bonjour,” you replied. “Oh! You can speak French?” asked the man. “Un petit peu, (a little bit)” you said in a perfect accent. “Vous avez l’air d’être une experte en français !” (You seem to be an expert in French) “Je fais de mon mieux!” (I do my best) “Très bien.” (good) “Je venais voir si tout allait bien.” (I came to check if everything was okay). “Tout va bien, merci beaucoup !” (Everything’s fine, thank you so much) When the boss went to see another table, Seonghwa coughed to get your attention. “Yes?” “You can’t talk in French?!” “Oui monsieur.” (Yes mister) “I just understood ‘yes’ but this sounds so sexy!” “I can talk more languages, but French is one of my favorites.” “Interesting… but continue to talk in French tonight.” He bit his lip. “Hum… Je m’appelle Y/N, enchantée.” (My name his Y/N, nice to meet you) “I love it…” he whispered. “Okay I’ll stop there before it’s going too far.” You laughed. “Again! Please! Just a last one!” He begged.

YUNHO (Spanish)

“What’s the name of Canada’s capital? Ottawa or Toronto?” Yunho plopped down next to you, on the couch. “Are you watching this TV show again?” “It’s fun.”  You replied. “I should participate. I think I could win.” “You?” Laughed Yunho. “You and ‘win’? In the same sentence?” You threw a pillow at him, “you are so mean!” Yunho grabbed your legs to put it on his laps. “I don’t think I would win though,” he added. “Few questions are really hard but not impossible.” “How the main character in Big Bang Theory is called? Sheldon or Stuart?” Asked the MC. “Sheldon!” you shouted at the TV. “Are you sure?” questioned your boyfriend. “Oh, you replied Stuart, but the right answer was Sheldon,” announced the MC. You looked proudly at your boyfriend. “Yes, I’m sure.” “Look at her being so modest.” He tickled your toes. “How to say, ‘come to eat’ in Spanish?” asked the MC. “This one is hard.” Said Yunho. “Vamos a comer.” You replied easily. “Good answer!” “How do you know that?” Asked Yunho, completely shook. You smirked at your boyfriend. “You ignore that I can talk few languages. Spanish included.” “Really? Why you never told me!” “It’s funnier to see your face.” You stuck your tongue out at him. “You are so evil,” he smirked. “Pero… te gusta.” (but you love it) The look on his face made you bust in laughter. “Si pudiedas ver a tu cara, es muy divertido.” (If you could see your face! It’s so funny) “I don’t understand anything!” He whined. “Lo sé. Es muy gracioso.” (I know, and it’s so funny) “At least, I know where we are going for our summer holiday.” “In Spain?” You asked. “Es une buena idea.” (It’s a good idea) Yunho pocked your tights and belly. “What are you doing?” you giggled. “I’m trying to turn off the Spanish mode.” “Okay okay I stop.” “Thank you! Finally, I’ll understand you.” He smiled. “Should I talk in Chinese then? “Wait what-”

YEOSANG (Dutch)

“Is there a movie you want to watch?” You asked slipping under the sheets. “Black Panther!” Shouted Yeosang. “Again? We watched it 2 days ago?” “But you are always on your phone,” he raised a brow. “You probably watched 20 minutes of the entire movie.” “Okay touché.” You rolled your eyes. “We can watch something else if you put your phone away.” “Okay then let’s go watch Pocahontas.” You smiled widely. “I’m already regretting my words…” he sighed. As promised, you let your phone on the nightstand and cuddled with Yeosang. Just when Pocahontas was about to meet John Smith, your phone buzzed on the nightstand. At first, you just said that you were to call this person back tomorrow. It was pretty late anyway. “You should pick up. Maybe it’s important.” “But you said, ‘no phone’.” “Yes, but it’s a call, so you can have it.” He kissed your cheek. “Okay, I’ll make it quick.” You grabbed your phone and called the unknown number back. “Hello?” you said. “Oh! Nia, het is lang geleden!” (It’s been a long time) Yeosang looked at you. He wasn’t expecting you to speak another language. “Het is zo leuk on nieuws van je te hebben !” (It’s so good to have news from you) “Which language are you speaking?” Whispered your boyfriend. You made a sign to shush him down because you couldn’t hear your friend anymore. “Wanner kom je naar Zuid-Korea?” (When are you coming to South-Korea?) “Korea?” he repeated. “What are you talking about?” “1 minut Nia!” (1 minute Nia), you said before ending the call. “What do you want Yeosang?” “Which language are you speaking and with who?” “It’s dutch and I’m talking, or at least trying to,” you mentioned that he was distracting you from your call. “With Nia, my Dutch friend!” “Why you never told me you could speak Dutch?” “You never asked me! Now shh!” You put your phone against your ear again. “Waar hadden we het ook al weer over?” (What were we talking about?) “I can’t believe it…” he said, sliding on the mattress.

SAN (Japanese)

“Argh Japanese is so hard!” Growled San, bumping his head on the desk. You entered his studio, “are you okay babe? I heard a loud noise.” San turned around on his chair, a pout on his face. He opened his arms widely, making you understand to give him a hug. “What’s happening babe?” You put down your cup of hot chocolate on his desk. “I can’t write lyrics…” he pouted. You sat on his laps, wrapping your arm around his neck. “You are always doing pretty good with lyrics, San. You shouldn’t even doubt about it. Okay?” “I’m doing pretty good with Korean lyrics.” He rested his head on your shoulder. “I don’t get it,” you raised an eyebrow. “It’s not a Korean song?” San shook his head, “it’s for a Japanese comeback.” He pointed at the sheet of paper behind him. “I’m pretty sure you are dramatizing.” “This is terrible, I can’t send this to Hongjoong Hyung.” “Let me see…” you whispered, grabbing the paper. “The lyrics are in Japanese, you won’t-“ “Konna hazu ja nai yo, yoku yatteru tte itte yo, I wanna grow up, susumitai motto*..” you read easily. “Understand…” he finished, surprised. “Yumemita basho oh oh tōku, yukkuri de mo ī, samayowanai yō tonight*...” “How can you read it so easily?” You smiled at him, “probably because I can speak Japanese.” “Really?!” His eyes opened widely. Ready to go out of his eyeballs. “Yes silly,” you flicked his forehead.” And I can say that your verse is pretty good. As always.” He ripped the paper of you hand, throwing it on the floor. “Screw the lyrics! Tell me more about how you learned Japanese!” “Hum… I learned by my own in high school then I went for 6 months in Japan.” “Why you never told me about that?” he asked, almost upset. “You are a whole ass idol, it’s nothing compared to 6 months in Japan or to speak a bunch of languages.” “Wait,” he stopped you. “Firstly, this is not true and secondly… a bunch of languages?!” “Yes? I can speak more languages than you think,” you smirked proudly. San blinked dumbly, not believing the current situation. “Anyway… just focus on your work. Baka.” (Idiot) You stuck your tongue out at him and almost ran away, hoping that he didn’t understand what you said. “Hey! I know it’s an insult! I watch Naruto with Yeosang-Hyung!” He shouted, following you.

*Lyrics from their Japanese song: Better.

MINGI (Portuguese)

“How cute you are!” Giggled Mingi, pinching your cheeks playfully. You wanted to try your new peach make up palette. At first, you thought it was not really well applied and that you skin color wasn’t matching well but Mingi’s giggles and cute compliment helped you to change your mind. “What did I do to be so lucky? My girlfriend is the prettiest and the cutest of all!” He continued acting like if you were a baby. “Mingi, you’ll ruin the makeup with your big fingers!” You slapped his hand. “But I can’t help it, you’re too cute!” He kissed your entire face. You tried to push him on the couch, but he was definitively glued to you. “Mingi! I need to go. I’m already late!” “Can I come with you?” he asked. “It’s a girl’s night.” You simply replied, making him understand that he was a boy. And that boy wasn’t allowed. “I can tie my hair in a ponytail and wear a skirt.” You couldn’t help but to imagine him like that. “Tempting but no. You are going to stay here.” You grabbed your bag and left your boyfriend in the dorm. But before going out, you stared at him. “O bobo.” (idiot) Mingi thought he was dreaming, or he didn’t hear well what you just said. The next morning, when you came back to the dorm, Mingi was sitting right in front of the door. “Stupid?!” he asked you straight, making you shiver a bit. “Good morning to you too babe,” you raised a brow. Your boyfriend was holding an English/Portuguese dictionary. “You told me “o bobo” before leaving.” “Did you really search the word in a dictionary?” “Yes! Now you are the “o bobo”!” You yawned at your boyfriend, ignoring him “okay… I’m going to sleep. Boa noite or whatever.” (Good night) Mingi rolled his eyes, frustrated again and opened the dictionary. “Since when do you speak Portuguese!” “Not only Portuguese… and since a long time now,” you yawned again. “Not only?” he repeated. “Mingi, I’m tired…” “Wait!” He cut you straight, not letting a chance to hop in your comfy bed. “Which languages are you speaking?” “Too much,” you simply replied, kissing his cheek before heading to his bedroom. “Which dictionary I need to buy then…?” he whispered, completely lost.

WOOYOUNG (Italian)

You threw your coat on the coach next to you. “Finally, home…” you sighed, rubbing your shoulder. “Oh Y/N! You are already home.” Smiled Wooyoung exiting the kitchen. “Yes… but today was so exhausting,” you complained. “Really? Maybe you should take a nap. I just started to cook.” He came behind you to gently massage your shoulders. “I would like to rest a bit, but I prefer to watch you doing all of your cooking and stuff.” You replied, enjoying the little message session. “Okay then! So today I will cook Strolombolani-” he started. “Stromboli*.” You rectified. “Huh?” “You said ‘Strombolani”, the real name is Stromboli.” “How do you even know that?” he asked, tightening his apron. “Because I know it.” You sat on the counter, apple juice in the hand. “Do I need to remind you that I spent almost a year in Italy so I enjoyed these incredible recipes.” Wooyoung dropped the spatula he was holding when he heard your comment. “You what?” “What? I already told you that I went to Italy before going to Korea.” “Yes, but you never mentioned that you went there for almost a year,” he almost shouted. “Calmati,” (calm down) you giggled. Wooyoung blinked, his brain trying to process what you just said. “What did you say?” “Just focus on our meal! I’m hungry!” You whined, rubbing your belly. “Come on! Just talk to me in Italian! I love it!” He walked in front of you. “Cucina così non avrò bisogno di ucciderti e mangiarti.” (Just cook so I won’t need to kill and eat you) “You said a lovely thing huh?” he winked. “Yes sure,” you nodded, as if you didn’t threat his life. “Another one!” he asked you. “Just cook Wooyoung!” you sighed, rolling your eyes. “Just something! Please!” He whined, pouting at you. “Se non mangio il mio pasto entro 30 minuti, sarai la prima cosa che mangerò.” (If I don’t have my meal in 30 minutes, you’ll be the first thing I will eat) “Grrr,” he smirked. “This is something hot right?” “Totally.” You lied again. “Again!” “I just want to eat…” you whispered, annoyed.

*Stromboli: an Italian is a type of turnover filled with various Italian cheeses (typically mozzarella) and cold cuts (salami, capocollo and bresaola) or vegetables. The dough used is either Italian bread dough or pizza dough. Stromboli was invented by Italian-Americans in the United States.

JONGHO (German)

“Ich bin Jongho, schön dich zu treffen!” (I’m Jongho, nice to meet you) You stopped right in front of Jongho’s bedroom door. “Danke, dass Sie gekommen sind-” he paused. (Thanks for coming) You stuck your ear on the door. “Kommen zu-’ he stuttered. (Coming to-) You cracked the door quietly and glanced at your boyfriend who was laying on his bed. His head was almost buried in the book he was reading. “Are you okay Jongho?” you asked. “Yes, why?” he sat correctly on the bed, smiling at you. “Do you need something?” “No. I just heard you talking alone. I was curious to know what’s going on.” He patted the spot next to him, making you understand that you needed to sit here. “I need to practice few sentences in German for the world tour.” He wrapped his arm around your shoulder and delicately kissed your forehead. “I’m sure you are doing good.” You grabbed the book off his hands. “My accent is terrible,” he chuckled. “Okay practice with me,” you closed the book and stared at Jongho. “You can’t even talk in German,” he giggled. “Oh really?” You grunted. “Hallo, mein name ist Y/N.” “Did you just say, ‘hello my name is Y/N’?” “Exact,” you smiled proudly. “You never told me you could speak German,” he smiled. “I can speak more languages than that, but German is one of my favorites.” “Really?” You nodded, “Deutsch ist wirklich hübsch, ich mag es.” (German is really pretty, I like it) “I like to hear you talking German. Even if I don’t understand anything.” He said shyly. “Übe, damit wir gemeinsam auf Deutsch sprechen können.” (Practice so we can talk in German together) Jongho smiled at you, “I don’t understand, but yes please.” “Yes please?” You laughed. “Yeah! I don’t know a word you said but I’ll do everything you want if you continue to talk German!” “Silly,” you giggled, punching his arm. “Only with my German teacher,” he smirked. “Du bist so anhänglich!” (You are so clingy) “Teach me more please,” he grabbed your chin to kiss you.

[rigelmejo]

apps i’ve heard that are good for various aspects of language study:

Japanese:

WaniKani for vocabulary and kanji - the creators of it seem to think their app, plus a good grammar guide (so grammar textbook working through exercises) should be enough to learn and move into immersion. So I imagine at least their kanji/vocab coverage is large. People seem to like this app - I like that it supposedly has mnemonics. I imagine its kanji/vocab coverage goes up to N1, a benefit as stuff like Lingodeer only covers the basics.

Bunpro - Japanese Grammar SRS. What I like about the ‘concept’ of this, is that if fully used it would be a lot like doing textbook exercises/review of grammar which may help grammar correction/production more (versus what I do generally which is just passively read grammar which helps with comprehension but not production). I also specficially like that it GOES UP TO N1 GRAMMAR. Which pretty much all other apps for japanese don’t go past N4-3 at the absolute best. 

KanjiKoohi - not an app but a site, free, super nice to just reference for kanji meanings and mnemonics. 

Anki/Memrise - self explanatory, good for flashcard study of kanji/sentences/words. I personally really like Japanese Core 2k deck etc, and personally have only ever stuck with Nukemarine’s LLJ Memrise Courses. (*To be fair, the Nukemarine courses include Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide, Kanji study, and vocab study like Core 2k, so its a pretty comprehensive all-in-one if you can’t be motivated to study multiple materials).

Chinese:

Skritter - like Wanikani, its for learning hanzi characters, seems to cover most characters, and is well liked by people. However I used it and remember finding it not beneficial and quitting so I’ve got mixed feelings. I can’t remember if I only quit because the app wasn’t worth the subscription cost to me, or because it taught too slow/without enough mnemonics etc. (One big benefit I find to Anki, Memrise, Clozemaster specifically is you have a LOT of control over how much you study per day - you can grind through 100-200 things in less than an hour or just 15 words and skip some days then return, but stuff like Skritter really has a ‘plan’ they keep you more rigidly on if I remember correct which doesn’t work well for people like me who cannot study X amount of time the same way each day consistently).

HackChinese - I saw this mentioned recently for hanzi AND vocab. What I like, it includes vocab up to HSK 6. It also seems easy to add new vocab and vocab lists from textbooks. However I don’t think it covers more than that, so perhaps an alternative to Skritter and Memrise etc.

Anki/Memrise - again self explanatory. Specifically there’s some really good chinese specific decks out there (like Hanzi with Mnemonics chinese anki decks, Chinese Spoonfed anki deck - and just audio files someone made which I use a lot). Timo’s All in One Chinese 3 part anki deck is also useful. How good/bad what you study really depends on the materials you find. 

Chinese Pronunciation Trainer - a simple, free app. I fully recommend it as its built perfectly for Shadowing. It shows text (with or without pinyin) you hear the audio, you record yourself shadowing by just pressing a button, then you hear a replay of your voice compared to the audio. Shadowing works best when you can get feedback comparing your voice to the example you’re shadowing, so this is a great tool for that. Its also like 1000-2000 sentences, so even a beginner can find it useful as they’re generally daily life sentences that aren’t too complex.

普通话学习 app - I use the free version (I don’t think it will let me pay where I live, but it did let me register). This app is all in chinese so there’s a little learning curve but I figured it out back with a vocabulary < HSK 4 so its pretty doable. The free activities include a LOT of shadowing drills like individual syllables, sentences, and paragraphs. The app has native audio and hanzi/pinyin as a transcript, then you record your voice and it will compare how you did and grade you. It will tell you if you were comprehensible and how much, tell you what places you made errors, and let you compare your voice recording with the example audio. It also has tests, and doing those is nice as it will show you specifically if you mess up tones, initials, or finals and which specific instances you mess up. So for example it helped me realize I really mess up eng final a lot, the c initial, tone pairs of 3-4, etc - which helped me pinpoint WHERE to listen for my errors and try to figure out the correct pronunciation compared to them. I think it really helped me a lot in that beginner-ish stage where I could not tell very well what sounded right or wrong, since it can get so specific with what my struggle areas are. It also helped me figure out once I was doing tones correct (assuming its just shadowing and not free convo where I’m coming up with words on the spot), because it would show I got to a point where if I saw pinyin for 1-4 tones, I’d be replicating them correctly (most of my mistakes now are b, c, q initials and  eng, en finals).   

Pleco - I don’t know how I almost forgot! Specifically I use Pleco Reader tool every single day. Pleco also has flashcards, and community made flashcard decks, so it could replace Anki/Memrise easily as your SRS system with sentence mining etc. And its got a huge dictionary, graded readers, etc. I usually use Pleco or Baidu Translate or Google translate for random word lookup. Pleco is best for individual words, google translate is best for ease (loads fast and recognizes real messy handwritten input), BaiduTranslate is best for sentences. I use Pleco daily to read, in their Reader area I can open up any website, click a button so its all just text, and read the text with a pop up dictionary or audio for a word/idiom or the entire selection, and save any word/sentence/phrase into my pleco flashcards with all the dictionary info and audio.  It’s a better reader tool with a built in dictionary than LingQ by far. The reader features are free under “Clipboard Reader” so just copy paste text in there to use these features. I bought the one time cost $24 Reader Tool (and a graded reader and an expanded dictionary, the extras didn’t cost much), so I can open any website in the Reader or pdf/txt file etc. It also came with an OCR reader so I can just point it at real books I’m reading, and a handwriting lookup feature so I can lookup words in pleco by handwriting too (but I usually use Google translate as it tolerates my sloppiness better). Because I can save words in Pleco Reader, I can immediately see if words I’m looking up are ones I’ve seen before (and should try to recall) or brand new words/hanzi. Which helps me prioritize study. I can also Bookmark sites/pages/books in the Reader, so its just really convienient.

[qawsslate]

newbies

another nct drabble, short story, one shot, scenario? 

genre: fluff probs

tw: none

pairing: Renjun & reader

a/n: idk bro read at ur own risk, i used google translate for a thing but im hoping it makes sense in the context, feel free to interact :)) 

____

"Renjun-ah it’s fine. You, of all people, know how forgiving she is.”

“Ya! Haechan, don’t say it like that. Renjun-ah it looks really nice she’ll love it.”

Haechan and Jeno were gathered in Renjun and Jisung’s shared bedroom attempting to calm the nerves of the older Dream member. He had just finished a painting he had been working on for the last month in prepation for Valentine’s Day. He knew you weren’t expecting anything as in Korea, the traditional practice was for the girl in the relationship to give the guy chocolates, but neither of you were big on the specifics of things like that. You both shared the sentiment of holidays but were also practical in the ways you gave gifts to each other. Last Christmas, Renjun had given you a new winter coat since the one you’ve been using since your teenager years had begun to literally tear at the seam. You often brushed off his nagging of buying a new coat with protests of the coat still doing its job. 

“Renjun, the coat is fine. I’m still perfectly warm” 

“Y/n, I can see the thread that’s keeping the arm sleeve attached to the rest of it hanging off. I bet if I pull it the whole thing would fall apart. Here let me show you.” 

He reached down and pretended to yank the thread which prompted you to gasp in amused disbelief.

“Ya! Don’t you dare! Did you really pull it off?”

You looked down at your arm trying to assess if in fact the fabric on your body was still a piece of wearable clothing.  

He laughed and just embraced you in a hug.

He had followed up the new winter coat with a flower plushie you had commented that was cute a week ago in a shop, his favorite scented candle so you could be reminded of him when he was away on a schedule, a neck massager because he thought you spent too much time at your desk, an insulated bottle so you would drink more water and not coffee, a polaroid camera for the memories and random Chinese snacks you really liked. He was very practical yet considerate, and it made your heart swell. You almost cried thinking all of it was too much and he had to hold your face in is hands and make you look at him so he could tell you that you were worth it. 

What you didn’t know that he also wanted to gift you with a necklace but second guessed himself too much to the point where he took the small box out of the pile of gifts only minutes before he gave you the heap of presents. Mark was the only member he told about the necklace beforehand but Renjun unfortunately had forgotten to inform his loveable hyung of his inaction, a problem that presented itself the morning after Christmas.

“Y/n! Merry-day-after-Christmas! How was Christmas with Renjunnie? Did you like the necklace?”

You, Mark, and Renjun had been sitting at the Dream dorm kitchen table eating leftovers from the small dinner Jaemin had made at 3am. Thankfully the rest of the boys were still asleep so the damage could still be contained. Renjun choked on the green tea he had been drinking but quickly recoverd.

“Neck massager hyung. The Korean word for neck massager is 목 마사지기. Ahhh, it’s because he’s a foreigner.”

Renjun laughed a little too forcibly and tried to signal to Mark as much as humanly possible without bursting a vein that the necklace gift was aborted. By some Christmas miracle, Mark had somehow picked up on the hint and quickly corrected himself. He even added a white lie to support the neck massager fib, quickly sputtering that he had helped Renjun pick out a neck massager with the recommnedations from his mom, his aunt, his grandmother, and his cousin who was some sort of professional massager. You answered honestly that you had yet to put it to use as you forgot to charge it last night. You weren’t sure if it was the happiness hangover or lack of sleep after Christmas Day that made you think Mark and Renjun were acting strange, but you became distracted from dwelling on their behavior as Haechan and Jisung came into the kitchen. The mood quickly shifted and Renjun felt like he could breathe for the first time in what felt like an hour. You had become preoccupied in helping Jisung follow a recipe on how to make American style pancakes and scolding Haechan for handing the gullible maknae wrong ingredients. After a few minutes Renjun had excused himself to check on Jaemin and Jeno, and Mark announced he had to use the bathroom. Once out of earshot from the mess in the kitchen Mark turned to Renjun,

“You didn’t give it to her?”

“No, hyung, honestly I got too scared. What if she didn’t want it? What if she thinks I’m going too far? What if it’s too serious all of a sudden?”

“Well, don’t you want to be serious with y/n?”

“Of course. More than anything. I just don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Renjunnie,” Mark placed his hands on his shoulders, “you are doing great. Do whatever feels right to you. But if you’re only doubting yourself I think it’s still a good idea to give her the necklace.” 

Renjun still looked conflicted and mindlessly opened the door to Jaemin room then Jeno’s. 

The four proceeded back to the suspiciously quiet kitchen to find Jisung sat at the table and Haechan and you making the rest of the pancakes. When Jaemin asked what happened, Haechan responded,

“We wanted to make sure you guys still had a place to live.”

The necklace matter had been dropped and about a month later all those repressed emotions Renjun had came back. It was two nights before Valentine’s Day and both just wanted a quiet evening. Renjun planned to cook a dinner at your apartment and the whole thing felt innocent until he thought about how you guys hadn’t even been officially together for more than a year. He suddenly felt the pressure, the implications, the underlying tone of something like giving you a piece of jewelry. His plan was to just give you a painting. He had carefully recreated the scene of the park where he first saw you. You had been pushing children on the swings. He had thought you were a babysitter of some sort until you waved to the kids goodbye and saw the nearby adults scoop them in their arms and walk away. Then he saw you swinging by yourself. He never revealed this to you during your first official encounter as he didn’t think it would be smooth to open up with, “I’ve been watching you swing by yourself at the children’s park.” He also hadn’t been initially sure if you were the same girl he had wistfully observed, but you had once planned a park date at your favorite spot.

“It’s actually quite near your dorm, we could walk there if you’re up to it? Sometimes I play with the kids. It’s gotten to the point where some of the mothers have recognized me.”

Renjun immediately knew you had been that girl he had observed in what felt like a lifetime ago. He knew that one day he would really have to treat Chenle to a meal for introducing you both. Renjun also knew if he had admitted this to Chenle now he would never let it go and it would somehow inflate the size of that kid’s head even more, but he added it to the list of things he loved about his younger member. 

Renjun had carefully recreated the details from his memories of those days, paying particular attention to that coat you refused to give up on and he had just finished the painting when Haechan decided to burst into his room.

“Renjunnie! Have you ate? Let’s eat.” 

Renjun had been so absorbed with his doubts that the sudden interruption almost made him fall off his chair. Renjun almost gets as easily startled as Jisung, but the magnitude of his reaction made Haechan take a step back and immediately set off his signature mischief.

“Ya, is the innocent and pure boy doing something naughty? You know you should really lock your doors Renjun-ah”

Renjun scrammbled to find something to cover the painting. His tidy desk space provided no aid and his next move was to flip the whole thing over deciding to deal with the consquences of the still wet paint later, but Haechan moved quickly and pulled Renjun’s arms up away from the canvas.

“Ya, what’s this?”

“Nothing. Heachan, please.”

Renjun sighed. He had no problem in any other situation to fight the boy who always tested his limits, but with the awkward sitting position he was in, Renjun knew that there was no logistically sound way to physically fight Haechan at the moment. 

“Oh, it’s just another painting. Why were you so freaked out- YA! Is that y/n?!”

Haechan dropped Renjun’s arms, his first mistake, as Renjun took the opportunity to lunge towards the painting. Haechan proceeded to yank the back of the wooden chair -- his second mistake -- and he called out for reinforcements.

“JENO-AH!”

Jeno was not surprised that the bickering quickly took place, but was also concerned with the intensity of Haechan’s scream. Jeno regretfully entered the space of what would ultimately disrupt the otherwise peaceful morning and listened to the chorus of Renjun’s mild curses and death threats and Haechan’s shameless happy teasing although he was the one in the headlock.

“Ya, you two. Can we just go eat?”

“Jeno-ah, grab that. QUICKLY.”

Curiosity took over and Jeno obeyed. Renjun knew that although Jeno lacked in the desire of fighting members, he made up for with his physcial strengh. Renjun was quite aware that Jeno could quite literally pick him and Haechan up to stop the sqaubble. Renjun gave a frustrated sigh of defeat and sat back down at his desk while Jeno and Haechan sat on the nearby bed to fully observe the art piece.

“Is this y/n? It’s really good.”

“Our Renjunnie is growing up so fast. It’s cute to see you in love.”

The casualness of Haechan’s sentiment in dropping the L word set off alarms in Renjun’s brain but curiously not his heart. He quickly pushed off whatever deer in headlights reaction he showed and calmy took the painting back from Jeno. He decided to just tell the two that it was for Valentine’s Day and mumbled that he wasn’t sure if you were gonna like it. 

"Renjun-ah it’s fine. You, of all people, know how forgiving she is.”

“Ya! Haechan, don’t say it like that. Renjun-ah it looks really nice she’ll love it.”

Haechan sensed it was the right time to get serious. 

“Renjun-ah. Honestly. It’s a really good painting. She’ll love it. That girl loves everything you do.”

Jeno hummed in agreement.

“Injunnie, it will be okayyy.”

Jeno’s speciality in dorm-only aegyo gave Renjun comfort. It almost brought back a sense of normalcy in Renjun’s emotions. He was also grateful to Haechan although no matter how much the boy made it a sport to annoy him, he could still be mature when it counted. He thanked God that the necklace had been safely hidden in a drawer and considered the many ways the situation could have escalated if the two boys saw that the painting gift was not the main source of his anxiety.

Renjun thought it would be best to change the subject from his insecurities about his love life. Love, he thought, there was that word again. 

---------------

hi i have a tendency to not end my fics well, lemme know what yall think

[mayohr]

hi! i was just wondering if you had any pointers for someone wanting to learn korean? i've wanted to for so long but i'm having so much trouble ; o ;

Hey there! Thank you for asking. Of course, I’d be glad to share a few tips with you. First, I must tell you a bit of my journey learning it, because I believe it is important to consider the environment surrounding any person learning a foreign language. Long post warning, I’ve put it all for you Anony.

I do not reside in Korea, but I have been two months last year. However, I barely practiced there because I was constantly surrounded by english speakers. 

- Lesson 1: If you go to Korea, do not hang out only with english speakers...or with one Korean and english speakers, because people will all switch to english. - Lesson 2: Whenever you meet Korean people, they will 99.99% of the time try to speak English to you. Do not give up, and continue speaking Korean to them. Even if it’s broken. Even if you’re shy. Speak Korean even if they reply in English. 

My main language is French. I have learned English mostly by myself while playing video games (therefore Korean is not the first language I’ve self-studied). I’ve been learning Korean for three years now mostly by myself, and I’m far from fluent. I’m an intermediate, and I’m planning to do TOPIK2 this year and I’m reaching for level 4/6. I must warn you however that I have been Italian and Chinese at the same time with my university, so I don’t spend 100% of my time learning Korean, but I’ve been spending minimum 30 minutes a day learning it in various ways:

Learn the alphabet 한글. No only it will be much easier to learn new words, but your pronunciation will be much better.  Try this order.

Learn the “soft consonants” ㅂㅈㄷㄱㅅㅁㄴㅇㄹㅎ

Learn the “hard consonants” ㅋㅌㅊㅍㅋ

Learn the “double consonants” ㅃㅉㄸㄲㅆ

Learn the “basic vowels” ㅗㅓㅏㅣㅐㅔㅡㅜ

Learn the “complex vowels” ㅛㅕㅒㅖㅠㅑ

Learn the differences between polite speeches, especially the -요. 

NEVER use Google Translate (it doesn’t do the difference between the polite and impolite speechs). Use Papago translator with moderation. 

Never ever translate literally, it’s hyper unnatural and I’m guilty to have done it. Especially expressions like: “It depends.” or even “How are you?”. 

Learn vocabulary with Anki, which I recommend HIGHLY (it’s free) and I still use it now even after 3 years!

I have Korean friends (I also met some on hellotalk, no need to go to Korea, even though I must say it’s quite crucial at some point to try to understand the culture and practice!), and I still write a lot in Korean to them, so I practice writing and reading with them. 

Writing a diary is super effective as well! Because you learn the words that you’d actually use! It doesn’t have to be a paper diary. What I do is every time I post on instagram, I write in Korean, English and French.

I talk to myself a lot in Korean and read aloud. So if you’re like me and you basically have no one to practice your speaking abilities with, don’t worry.

Listen to music in Korean. Find the lyrics. Make a file or print them. Highlight the words you don’t know. The grammar you don’t know. (It’s especially hard because there are a lot of abbreviations.) EXAMPLE I DID A YEAR AGO WITH JIMIN “PROMISE”.

Even though vocabulary is important, grammar is crucial. Learn a bit everyday. I recommend learning with Integrate Korean Grammar and howtostudykorean.com

Use Naver dictionary a lot to learn new words and it also has grammar!

Watch Netflix dramas with subtitles in Korean. It’s REALLY discouraging when you’ve just started, I would literally watch 5 minutes of the show in 30 minutes because I would pause all the time. You can also watch it with two subtitles using the app Ntflx multi-sub, but you have to be careful to not just look at the english subtitles. 

Watch every day life show. You know those cheesy high school love romances? They are the best to learn because the plots are simple. Do not do the mistake (like me) to watch Holo and cry because you can’t understand anything: AI and investors and scientific vocabulary is very advanced level. Hell, even cop dramas are hard. 

Please, do not get discouraged if you don’t understand what the actors say. EVEN KOREANS have to focus to understand them because they speak REALLY fast. I still can’t understand all and I watch with Korean subtitles. 

Play games in Korean: as you might have noticed my Animal Crossing: New Horizons game is in Korean. And god did this help me to learn vocabulary and grammar.

Listen to ASMR in Korean. I know people hide ASMR like it’s an addiction, but I swear, it’s SO GOOD to learn the pronunciation. They speak slow and say short sentences. I recommend: UNO ASMR, Veiled ASMR, Loadiy ASMR and Boyoong ASMR. 

The best for last: Motivate yourself. Learn anything about Korean culture. Watch videos. Watch movies. Read articles. Cook with Korean recipes. DIY in Korean. There is more than Kpop and Kdrama, and it saddens me that a lot of people stick only to that phase. (BUT REMEMBER THERE’S NO SHAME TO LIKE THOSE, I literally starting learning Korean because I wanted to understand more the lyrics of BTS’s songs so...)

Look, I know there are tons of people who say they’ve learned it in a ridiculous amount of time and it is extremely discouraging. Even Korean friends might discourage you at some points because they come from a culture where “productivity and effectiveness” is EXTREMELY HIGH. 

But, seriously, language learning is not a race, and I try to remind that to myself everyday. Also keep in mind that it’s one of the HARDEST languages in the world for English speakers to learn (and has been classified so by the United-States foreign office).  Two summers ago, I spent 5-7 hours a day studying in the biggest stress ever and I realized it lead me nowhere because stressing yourself to learn impacts your brain in a way that it just doesn’t want to retain information. So if I can give you a final tip is: Enjoy learning this amazing language and if you have any questions feel free to ask me. :)

[sinetheta]

Conversation with Sad Asian Girls (formerly Esther Fan & Olivia Park)

As Fan and Park, known collectively as Sad Asian Girls, announced the dissolution of their partnership about two months ago, we decided to post the interview that Sine Theta magazine’s art director Elisabeth Siegel conducted with the duo last November in full as a fun retrospective and tribute to their amazing work. The interview is available in print form in Sine Theta Issue 3: “LIGHT 阴.” We at Sine Theta are excited for what’s to come for Fan and Park!

Esther Fan and Olivia Park, current seniors at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the U.S., founded Sad Asian Girls (SAG) as a duo, in order to carve out a creative space for Asian femmes, and to encourage them to create content and break out of the stereotypical mold prescribed by other non-Asians or non-femmes.

I met Esther and Olivia in person for the first time deep in Yale’s underground library, where they gave a casual graphic design workshop. While at Yale, they also participated in a conversation about being Asian femme creators at the Asian American Cultural Center (AACC). The way they shared their expertise along with the constructive criticism they gave attendees was reminiscent of the SAG brand and style: they’d package their thoughts into seemingly simplistic bundles or iconography, yet the underlying messages contained within were fresh, completely accessible, and totally effective.

I had the chance to chat with them over Skype and pick their brain about Asian femme identity, as well as their current and future plans as a collective.

Elisabeth Siegel: So just to start out, how did you two meet? How did SAG get started?

Olivia Park: We met essentially through classes, and then while working together on non-SAG related projects, we noticed similarities regarding our identities, and through that we decided to make work related to the Asian femme experience.

Esther Fan: We both realized that we both seemed to be the few students in our department interested in social issues or making work about it, and also the first time we collaborated it was about millennial culture, and then we moved on to things more specific to ourselves.

ES: So, the “Asian femme experience” — could you talk more about what you define that as, and what you find unique to the Asian femme identity versus Asians in general?

EF: I think at the moment there is a lot of talk about feminism and the various experiences that women have in a mostly male dominated society. Once you add Asian to that label, the experience is narrowed down, yet the experience is still so common.

OP: One thing that is unique is invisibility of Asian presence, especially in media, and healthcare in general, specifically mental health awareness — almost everything. We’re kind of just not regarded. On the one hand, I understand, because we’re only 5% or 6% of the population [in America], but we still are part of the population, and we’re the fastest growing, so America just really needs to be aware at this point.

EF: I think the experience of an Asian femme is so specific because the expectations put on women in Asian culture is quite different from the western expectations of women. It’s still similar in the fact that we need to be secondary to men and things like that, and also it depends on each family. But for us, both of our parents were or are still Christian and conservative, and the kind of things that they try to teach us in how to be a perfect woman and be the perfect “wife-y package” contributed a lot to us trying to tell our stories about Asian femmes.

ES: I definitely know what you mean. When it comes to western versus eastern as a binary — even though I think calling it an absolute binary can be quite harmful — in general, the experience for women is very different.

As you know, Sine Theta is specifically by and for those experiencing the Sino diaspora. How does the more unique experience of being part of a diaspora shaped or informed your art, on an individual level or in your collaborated projects?

OP: There are so many moments where we have identity crises. It just becomes more and more important to find something to hold onto and identify with, and so things like food become a cultural recognition and almost an awakening, and conversations happen through those moments. The “Have You Eaten?” video was a lot about the conversations we would have [with our families], and a way to have that initiated was by eating the food of our motherland.

ES: I wanted to ask you guys about specifically the name “Sad Asian Girls.” I get the asian girls part, that’s pretty obvious. I was wondering if you could talk about the inspiration behind “sad” and why you settled on SAG.

EF: It really started off just as having to think of a name really quickly so we could make a YouTube account to upload the [“Have You Eaten?”] video. It was a parody of the “sad girls club” that happens on Tumblr, and it seemed natural. Over time, when we gained a following, it started to take on a meaning of its own. In a later video, we mentioned that the term “Sad” could refer to the frustrations of having to live with both our parents’ cultures and western cultures, and the type of identity crisis that usually comes with that. Now, we just kind of kept the term sad and Asian, for consistency, and it’s kind of created an identity of its own.

ES: What sort of identity would that be? Also, as for the “identity crisis,” do you think sadness is a part of what causes the crisis, or a result of it?

EF: Maybe both, but probably more so a result of it. We’re born into having to juggle between two different identities. I think when people hear SAG, it sounds something they can resonate with, usually more ironically than seriously.

OP: I also think the name has done a lot for us. You almost immediately get an idea of what we’re about. If we were called the “Asian Student Art Collective” that might just sound like we’re trying to foster a community of neutral art that could be even purely aesthetic. But SAG says something that signals oppression, something that signals hurt, and I think that’s where the root of our work comes from. It’s from the hurt. At the same time, if you look at our work, it’s about being proactive and storing that sadness into something positive.

ES: Sometimes within activism against oppression, it can be difficult to maintain a certain level of sadness or anger, because it gets tiring...I’ve experienced this in some activist circles, that as you move forward it can be harder and harder to maintain emotional momentum.

OP: So you’re asking, how do we feel motivated to do things despite sadness?

ES: That’s definitely part of it. And with “Sad” in your name, how is “sadness” maintained in your art? Does that ever get tiring?

OP: I think also that our visuals matter a lot. If we were to use a grungy filter with blue and green it might appear to be a little more soft, mellow, kind of like “Flickr-artsy.” But we intentionally use high contrast. We blow up our typography, we use bold reds. Our site is like 255 RGB red. We always use 255 because that’s the brightest red the computer’s got so we’re going to use it. We also changed our typeface to Noto, which is Google’s free typeface that can be translated into every language. These are all very intentional design choices that we’ve made and it’s loud and it’s clear and it’s sad. Some people have said that our visual language comes off as more angry than sad, but anger to me is a more intensified form of sadness. Anger is what results when you experience sadness with no resolution. I think it’s fitting.

EF: The thing is, being a marginalized group, and this goes for any marginalized group, things aren’t ever wholly resolved. We can make progress little by little, but there is always going to be something else that is making us “sad.” In terms of a resolution for sadness, simply use that sadness as a tool or a motivation for making, a fuel for making activist art. It sounds kind of pessimistic, but without sadness and without frustration and things like that, there wouldn’t be powerful art. The strongest pieces that work come from hardships. So to answer your question as best as I can, every project that we make is based on an existing issue in the world that makes us “sad.”

ES: This issue’s theme is “Light,” and we’re going with that as also talking about the Chinese concepts yin and yang, and the tons of meaning imbued in both yin and yang. Yin has various meanings, but some of the ones that we’re looking at also have to do with femininity, as well as passivity. You mentioned “Sad Asian Girls” was an ironic title you were giving yourselves — how do you go about subverting that title within self-application?

OP: First of all, I think no matter what people are going to interpret it wrong. Some people will. So it’s all about clarity. After repeating ourselves so many times in interviews, we only solidified our stance. At first, I don’t think we explained it well enough or enforced the idea. It’s good to start out strong and confidently and go with that and stand up for it, instead of starting weak and having to explain yourself and have to apologize over and over again, going back to changing your idea or your message. Know what you’re doing. Make it strong, make it unapologetic.

EF: I think transparency is also important. Most people who start out activist work are really excited or really angry and they want to make their content as fast as they can, sometimes without thinking how that’s going to happen or how that’s going to be successful. And I think that’s okay, you need to keep that fire going, but if you do make a mistake or decide that you want to go in a different direction, that has to be clear in your work too, and so that’s why in our presentations and things we’ve kind of discussed our successes and our failures, and why we took a break, things like that. Somebody in my class last night was talking about how a lot of the time when people want to be activists or go to protests or do something, they are really excited and they do too much and they go overboard and there ends up being consequences or it fails or their project doesn’t work, and then that discourages them from doing anything else ever again. But I think after you’re excited it’s important to step back and really think critically about how you’re going to move forward and how to make whatever impact you make last and not be impulsive.

ES: To step back and look more at SAG’s presence as a collective — your site in November said you were in the process of re-branding. What is that process like?

OP: Mostly using accessible typefaces, things that people can get for free. We were using Futura before, and a lot of that typeface some people won’t have, so we thought that everybody should be able to mimic Sad Asian Girls’ vernacular. So we’re basically making it easier for people to copy us and to share the same visuals.

EF: Also making it more legible. We cut down on a lot of text on the website and different sections where everything was displayed out on one page.

OP: We don’t want to look like you have to be an angry tattooed girl.

EF: And that’s why we added that dinky little sad face. It’s a cheeky way of holding onto the sad sentiment but in a way that is still bold. It implies that there’s more that you can do with it. [Rebranding] is more about making projects in the future with the same language. I think once we generate more content with the visual language as the same as our website, with our new logo, the new brand will be more solidified.

ES: What has been your favorite work that you worked on together for SAG?

OP: It’s definitely the next project. We always get super excited about the next project, because every time, we improve. Every project gives us more experience on what we like and what we don’t like, and how to work better or narrow down our process, or things like that. It’s kind of like how your favorite song is the last song you’ve heard.

EF: Nice analogy. Wow.

ES: You guys probably don’t want to spoil what it’s going to be…

OP: It’s probably going to be about the lack of visibility in galleries, which are white spaces. It’s a commentary more specific to the art field and scene. Since we’re both graphic designers and we’re both graduating soon, it’s kind of expected that we immerse into that field. Just seeing the lack of example, and also lack of invitation of femme identities makes us worried or concerned and so we’re kind of making a statement about that.

EF: Being in art school you definitely learn a lot about the art world, and how it’s programmed to benefit white male artists. Our entire curriculum is based on white male artists. The few times that there are female artists, it’s almost in a tokenizing way. Like how the Guerilla Girls did their thing about more women in museums, and last weekend we went to the MOMA just to look around, and they were selling Guerilla Girls’ merch for profit, but we aren’t seeing any more women in museums. Their work was there just for show, basically. I think this upcoming project focuses more on actually trying to inject the Asian femme identity into these faces that are mostly predominantly white, male and old.

ES: Right! One of the topics that I heard come out of the discussion at the Asian American Cultural Center while you were at Yale was the room full of silence whenever an artist makes a work concerning race. Could you elaborate on that?

EF: We talked about how another group in our school, called Black Artists and Designers, made a project called the Room of Silence, which is what happens when a student of color decides to make a project about their race, and the different dynamics that come with that. The room full of silence occurs because nobody else who isn’t a person of color knows how to critique it, out of fear of seeming racist or they’re just indifferent, or they just don’t think it applies to them.

OP: This was a video of several interviews of mostly black students, there was asian and latinx students in their too.

EF: It kind of went viral in our school, and some professors showed it to their students. Our professor showed it to us, and I feel like it was again just to show that they know that it exists, and to show that “I’m not like other professors.” They also attempted to have a conversation and at Yale we also talked about how when our class was shown the video, nobody still knew how to talk about it. Some people were falling asleep, some people didn’t watch the whole thing, and the professor said, “Are we done talking about it? Do you want to move on? Okay…,” and then Olivia got mad about it, and she said, “No, I think you need to force the students to talk about it. It’s such an important thing that’s happening in our school, and you can’t brush it off like a snazzy project.”

OP: And even Esther added on to that conversation, but that was kind of the end, though.

EF: The last thing I said about that was that I called out one white male student in our class who consistently makes average work, but the professors would always be into it, because his being a white male makes it seem like his work is conceptual and more than it really is. Other students whose English isn’t that great, or who have accents, the professors tend to skip over them because they subconsciously feel like people who have accents are less intelligent, and that’s what I talked about. Even though that video happened, and we also had a protest last year, the school has kind of gone back to the way it was, it kind of seen as those students of color just being angry again.

OP: I think that people do want to make change, but it’s an institution after all, and for an institution to work well while pleasing everyone that is in power right now, there’s not much change that can be done, except for maybe cultural attitudes. That’s what activists and artists are doing right now, to give a voice to who we are and what we want versus what is actually happening.

ES: Could each of you talk about what your favorite thing is when working with the other person?

OP: That’s a good question. Why don’t you go first? [Laughs.]

EF: There’s a lot of things I love, there’s a lot of things I hate. Let’s do that thing from Kindergarten where you say two compliments and one criticism. When we work together, we generate ideas in conversations at the same time, but usually Olivia comes up with better ideas for execution, or places we can go, or like forms that we can use. And then I’m the person who’s doing the tweaks and how to make things say something more clearly. I’m really picky about language, like I need every sentence to say exactly what it needs to say. But I think that’s fine. I think we make a good pair in that sense, where I have things I want to talk about, and sometimes I introduce them to Olivia, and then we sit down and we discuss ideas. We have really different aesthetic tastes, and sometimes we argue over that—

OP: And that’s over stupid stuff, like over whether to make one thing twenty percent desaturated or not. We will fight for a day and I’ll be like, Okay, I don’t really care about this project anyway. And I’ll be super petty. So I think [Esther] summed it up pretty well, like I’ll come up with a weird idea, and Esther will come up with how to make it more practical, more economical. So I guess Esther really puts it together.

EF: Awww.

OP: I also spend so much fucking time on the internet that I feel like a lot of things that come up in Internet culture or social media, the different things that people talk about I like to inject in our projects sometimes.

ES: As seniors are your plans for graduation, post-graduation? Do you plan on still working together as a collective?

OP: I think that’s a really good question actually. I think we both know that we can’t undo being activist-artists anymore. At first, I really cared about food packaging or whatnot, and I couldn’t give less of a shit right now. So I think we’ll be working closely with the Asian community no matter what we do, or where we end up.

EF: Because we don’t know where we’re going to end up, as in we’re probably going to be in different states or different countries, even if we aren’t able to continue managing this Sad Asian label, I think we still will continue to make work that is relevant to our identities, or at least some type of activist work. When I’ve said this to other friends, that Sad Asian Girls probably isn’t going to be forever, they saw it as this tragic thing. But people don’t need a snazzy name to make activist work. And I think what we’ve been doing so far is encouraging other Asian femmes to continue making work, knowing that we might not continue doing it together. Ideally, people will still make work and not really need a group like us to do it.

OP: What’s more important is that young people — we’re millennials, but what about gen z? — need to get it together and make work and that’s what we’re trying to do, have some type of presence so that they know it’s an option to make work, and that’s important to me. It’s also so easy. Executing a project or thinking up ideas is so simple, and I feel like based on what I’ve read about your generation, you guys are so much more active, and you guys care so much more about social issues than previous generations, and that kind of excites me, because I wonder where you guys are going to go with that. Hopefully it’s not the new high school phase, hopefully you all bring that to college with you.

EF: You’re born on the internet. Everyone’s on the internet, so you have a bigger audience. It’s better for you. You can get your stuff out. That’s why design matters more and more. You can only get more publicity and more circulation if you have a strong voice and what you say matters to a lot of people.

ES: I’ve noticed very recently [during November] on your Instagram there’s been a lot of posts styled after what you’ve just talked about. What was that project?

OP: We went to New York a couple days ago, and there was an event called “Scamming the Patriarchy,” at the New Museum, and a ton of small art collectives got together and made art installations and also talks. Our assignment was to do some kind of instagram takeover, so we posted one video on the main museum page, and on our Instagram we got submissions from femme creatives in general to send encouraging words to other femmes. We got 90 submissions or so, and we had a lot of positive feedback.

EF: That project again came from an issue that has frustrated a lot of marginalized groups in America. We planned that project as a result of the election. During that time, what people really wanted to hear was not more facts about Trump. They wanted to hear from other people, who were in similar situations, about how to move forward, and also how to take care of yourself and where we can look to at this time. Having so many statements and just bombarding everybody who follows us with those posts also had an effect.

ES: In the same style as the Instagram posts, what sort of advice would you give to other sad Asian femmes right now?

OP: If you have a good idea, try to find the people that would love your idea, and do something with them. Even if it’s just one random small thing that you don’t even know will make a difference, if it reaches out to at least one person, I think it’s so worth it. Just make work, and generate content, and think about the way that you’re going to publish it. The web is an amazing place, and you should take advantage of it.

EF: I probably have less of a place to say anything [post-election], because I’m Canadian, but I do think that in times of turmoil, or in the event of tragic occurrences, it is important to grieve and process what is happening and be around people if that’s what you need (or be alone if that’s what you need). But also keep in mind that staying in that state of depression, not that it doesn’t change anything, but it also will hurt you in the long run. While it is trying to process things and maybe isolate yourself, I think self-care also includes doing something about it, or expressing your thoughts in a productive way that other people can resonate with. And creating community is a really crucial part of self-care.

OP: You are not alone! Don’t forget that. •

Interview & Illustrations by Elisabeth Siegel

sinθ is an international print-based creative arts magazine made by and for the sino diaspora. Values include creative expression, connection, and empowerment. Find out more here. 

Follow our Sino arts blog for daily posts featuring Sino creatives and their works.

Issue 5 will be released in August 2017.

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[msbrightside85]

Here we go ...

Ok so here i go. I want to keep a blog for myself to record some of the mind bending things i’m seeing here and also for you guys! So hope you enjoy peeking through this little window into life in China and feel free to leave any comments it would be great to see you’ve stopped by :)

So the first two blogs i have posted were written on the flight on the way over and on my first full day in China but since then it’s been a bit of a whirlwind so a lot of time has passed where i haven’t written but it certainly hasn’t been event-free!

We all know the importance of bullet points when it comes to maintaining interest and i have a thing for lists so firstly and most importantly ...

Food and drink

Frog - it really does just taste like chicken although a few more bones ...

Lotus - i thought the consistency was very apple like but not sweet

Squirrel fish - i showed some of you pictures of this Suzhou delicacy before i came out and can now proudly say i have eaten it and very nice it was too!

Duck throat - yes well this was actually completely by mistake. I probably shouldn’t have used google translate on the packet while i was eating it ... or maybe it was a good thing i did because i kind of lost the taste for it after that ...

Crisps - they have the wackiest flavours out here such as cucumber, yoghurt, lime, spicy and numb and seaweed. Ooh that reminds me i have a packet of the cucumber ones in the cupboard!

I have eaten a whole host of things for the first time here but to be perfectly honest i couldn’t name them all because i don’t actually know what they were. I’ve had a few shared dinners with school where it’s been a Chinese buffet style meal where everyone sits at a round table and the food goes in the middle on a rotating glass plate so people can try different things and there have simply been so many meals and new foods i wouldn’t be able to name them all!

Pork, aubergine (egg plant), coriander and mango - i’m giving these a mention because they are all foods i love and thankfully they are in abundance here so i’m lapping them up!

China-esque

So how is China different to England? Wow. Well where do I start?

Crossing the road

Hahahahaha i am still NO good at this. E-bikes, bicycles and general wheeled things that aren’t buses or cars mount the path and other pedestrian areas without warning so you have to constantly be on the look out. So imagine you’re stood waiting at a crossing and the green man comes on. Excellent! International sign for you can cross the road. WRONG. Even on a green light for pedestrians, cars can make a right hand turn so you can very easily nearly get mowed down! I tend to use the technique of looking in all directions when crossing the road :)

Spitting

Eugh. I refuse to go into too much detail about this but some Chinese people spit in the street. You can’t miss the sound. So again ... eugh. I was on the bus the other day and thought i was free from the sound when i heard it. That unmistakable yacky sound and the guy did it over and over again and was ‘spitting’ into a plastic bag. I was less than pleased.

Humidity

Dear god. I have never been so hot in my whole life. I think my poor body is wondering why i have not yet returned to the less balmy British weather after my two week holiday. Poor thing. Think it will certainly take some getting used to. 37 degrees today and I hear we’re due a heat wave soon ... pretty sure we’re already experiencing the heat wave?!?!?

Giving money to the cashier

Two hands people! Do not simply give the money to the cashier in a store, hand it over preferably with two hands. I have experience problems with this especially when you have your purse in your hand and then you have to use said hand in the double hand over process but it’s a working progress.

Subway security

Each subway station has it’s own security and all bags and belongings must be scanned before entering the station. Oh and also if you’re taking an open bottle of drink through you need to drink some in view of security so they know it’s nothing suspicious. This can be rather amusing when you proceed to catch their attention by doing a little dance to drink from your bottle in front of them :)

We chat

This app is going to take over the world and so it should. Here they have set it up so that you can pay almost anything electronically by scanning a QR code on your phone. This includes paying for ice cream at the ice cream van and other mobile food vendors - i (sigh) do not yet have my chinese bank account so am still without this perk but cannot wait for it to be set up and be a prolific we chat purse user!

Cheap, cheap, cheap

Compared to England cost of living is cheaper! As the days go on i almost feel more and more sorry for our Chinese visitors to the UK who either must be millionaires or save up their whole lives to send all of their cash on our transport, food and daily living which in comparison is so reasonably priced here. Definitely a smiley face on that front from me :)

Don’t drink the water

A simple one that applies to lots of other countries but when you’re actually living somewhere it does become a little tedious to not be able to drink the water. However bottled water is DEFINITELY cheaper than in the UK so it doesn’t put you out of pocket (see cheap, cheap, cheap above for more details)

Funniest signage

I have decided i need to start documenting some of these but in the mean time check this out.

Ok well i think that will just about do it for now. Until the next time TTFN. RM.

[euro3plast-fr]

14 mistakes to avoid when planning your digital marketing campaigns

Don't let your digital marketing campaigns fall foul of these mistakes

The great thing about making a mess of a digital marketing campaign is that, with the benefit of hindsight, it becomes clear which actions were a mistake and which contributed to a winning campaign.

In this article we share some examples of 'epic fails' that we have seen, and yes, if truth were told, we might have just had an up close and personal experience of some of them.

1. Leaving it to the boss to decide your Digital Marketing Strategy, i.e. – Ego Marketing

The boss is not always right! Come on, repeat after me “the boss is not always right!

Their input is necessary and important, however, they aren’t the ones who are being held responsible for your Digital Marketing Strategies. You are the one that is supposed to know better in this regard, but sometimes the Boss just can’t help it … they insist you do something because they want it, or think it is important. Over-spending on PPC campaigns for keywords that they insist you be found for even though they yield ZERO return is a prime example. Be guided by them, but set your strategy and tactics to acheive it based on your knowledge and experience.

2. Negative PR hacks; buying fake Yelp reviews, fake social media followers, Facebook likes, or 5,000 Twitter followers for €25.

Fake social media validation is really easy to spot. If the numbers of followers for a product / brand or person look too good to be true, then they probably are! Time and time again marketing companies have sought to artificially inflate the perceived social media impact of a particular Twitter / Facebook / Instagram account.

It is really easy to use tools to assess the validity of someone’s social media accounts. NB this is not something we have ever done, but we have analysed other people’s social media followings and realised they are too good to be true.

3. Not using Google Translate very carefully

Google Translate is an evolving algorithm. It is getting better and better, but more so in the most heavily used languages. For less used languages the results are still variable, and potentially somewhere from hilarious to seriously damaging to your business. Better to work with a native speaker of the language you are looking to translate your content into, rather than leave it up to the lottery of Google Translate.

4. Not using 301 redirects when you have changed web address or navigation links

It’s inevitable that at some point you will want to redesign your website, and possibly even change your hosting company, and even your domain name. What you don’t want to do is to destroy all the good work you have done previously in building up your online reputation. Despite this you will probably be unsurprised to know that some companies forgot to develop a site migration plan specfying 301 permanent redirects to map the old site pages onto the new addresses. They then had to spend serious amounts of money on advertising to redress the self-inflicted destruction of their online website rankings.

Ryanair is one of the many high-profile organisations who forget this basic rule of SEO. When they launched their new website in 2014 they didn’t redirect their URLs correctly. This resulted in a drop in keyword rankings for many of their prized keywords.

Use robots.txt or robot meta tags to keep your landing pages out of the Search Engine indices. Getting your site into Google’s index is always important, but if you have landing pages designed specifically around marketing campaigns like PPC, Display or Remarketing, the last thing you want is for an Organic visitor to come in because Google indexed the page. Advertising landing pages often have more aggressive sales tactics applied to their layout and messaging and it could be off-putting for an organic visit to have a pushy salesman greet them at the door. Using your robots.txt file or meta robots tag to instruct search engines not to index those landing pages means that even if they are already in the search engine index, they will be removed eventually and if not in the indices then they never will be.

5. Ignoring your data

Google Analytics, as well as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WordPress and every good social media platform, generate data on what happens when people engage with your social media accounts. This data can do a whole lot more than create pretty reports and boring stats. You need to get data on EVERYTHING. It is better to have the data and not use it than to need the data and not have it. We have seen companies whose data, if they looked at it, showed that their campaigns were massive with female teenagers in Spain despite the fact they were trying to sell software to Irish school principals.

What's most important is to use aActionable analytics, i.e. to define set targets and KPIs based on this data. Moving goalposts is only fun for the sadistic!

6. Leaving your social media to the interns

It happens all the time. The thing is, what are you paying your interns? Nothing? Coffee? Bus tickets? Interns have as much invested in your company as you are paying them. Think about that very carefully. Social media is often seen as an afterthought, ‘oh and we better do some Social too’.  

If that’s the attitude then you will suffer at the hands of professionals who are using the data effectively (see 5.)

7. Doing Social just because someone said you need to do Social

Is this a campaign that really needs a digital marketing aspect? Naturally we are big advocates of the value and impact that a well-crafted social media campaign can have. However in some markets it just might not be right to reach your target audience. You must always be where your customers, potential and actual, are. If you are trying to reach a Chinese audience then it’s important to remember which social media platforms are currently blocked in China (Facebook ads might not be the best use of your budget in this case).

8. Launching campaigns without understanding who your customer is

The best, funniest, most entertaining campaign in the world will be an expensive waste of your marketing budget if you have not spent the time to really understand your market and who your potential customers are. Getting out of the building and talking to people can give you really good, meaningful insights. This is worth more to you than just hunches and feelings about what might work. The data is good enough now to really hone in on who is buying your products, their gender, age, education, geolocation, and device used … it’s all accessible to you, so use it. Using digital marketing planning frameworks can help to garner this data and use it as a basis for your digital marketing strategy.

9. Don’t annoy vegans, PETA or any other interest group unnecessarily. Use humour very carefully

There are many great examples of this, but we love this story from the White Moose Café in Ireland. They stated in jest, on their Facebook page, that they were going to shoot vegans on-site at their Café.

Unsurprisingly, they ended getting lots (550+) of 1 star negative reviews because of it.

It can be cool to be humorous in the right way, but just think it through, who you might be offending, and what that might it do to your business. 

10. Leaving a campaign running for long periods of time without checking the data

Data can be checked on a daily, hourly and even quarter hourly basis. If you don’t look at this you can run through an advertising budget very quickly with no useful results.

11. Writing content the search engine you want to rank in, rather than the audience you want to attract.

Search Engine Optimisation usually revolves around one core concept … Content is King. That is absolutely correct, but make sure the content you are creating has value and a purpose for your HUMAN visitors.

  Too often we see websites that might be a tad bit repetitious of certain words and phrases thinking that this is the way to get indexed for a certain word or phrase. It is annoying to read and easy for search engines to spot. It is NOT a good practice and can not only get your content not indexed, but could get your site penalised and either not ranked well or removed altogether.

12. Following the latest social media trends that are not right for your business

Just because something works well for your rivals it might not be the best one for your company. You should have a clear sense of where your customers are, and where you get the most engagement, and be targeting these platforms for your content and advertising campaigns.

 13. Remember your goals when writing your content … just don’t make your content ALL about your goals

We have seen some companies writing really interesting articles online, however they have no call to action that relates to the services or products that the company is trying to sell. This can be good for brand awareness but of little value to actually converting this interest into sales. It’s important to remember why you are trying to achieve good social media interaction. Likes, retweets and sharing should all be the means to an end rather than something to be pursued for their own sake. We’re not suggesting that you use aggressive sales tactics here, but there is nothing wrong with tying in your service/product offering in with the article, especially if it directly relates you’re your service/product

14. Giving too much away for free by putting all your eggs in one basket or all your content in downloads

Many sites have a wealth of information available in downloadable files, whether they be PDFs, documents, spreadsheets, slides, videos, podcasts, images, infographics … well you get the idea. The downloads are attractive resources to visitors and have a real purpose and value to them, however the last thing you want is to have them indexed in the Search Engines. The reason for this is that you will have missed your opportunity to engage with a visitor and potential buyer/subscriber/client if they find your content inventory available for download directly within the search engine results page. Keep that content available, but have specific landing pages that describe the download textually, have that page indexed, and make sure you exclude the actual resource using your robots.txt file. Not only will this enable you to engage with anyone wanting your content, you can also now track the visits to your site and the downloads of your resource within analytics, which you couldn’t before.

  Randall Glick is a digital marketing lecturer at Digital Skills Academy. He has been working in online and digital since 1999 and has worked with start-ups, SMEs, international and multinational organisations on their digital Strategies.

from Blog – Smart Insights http://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/campaign-planning/14-mistakes-avoid-planning-digital-marketing-campaigns/