#and what foreign language is that

[ethan-torchios-bitch]

dean: combine 2007 taco pancakes rawr speak with 2016 smol bean pupper speak to achieve true nirvana

seamus: henl0 sweet sawft sm0l bean babby!!1!!!!!!1!!! rawR xD oh noes did i scare you?!!!!!!!! i’m vewy sowwy

harry: my heart just stopped and when it started again i cursed directly at god for allowing me to survive this

[d0rothydraws]

Sylus who seems like he knows every language. When he takes you on a trip to a new country he switches languages so casually between talking to you and describing what ever the menu in your hands is to ordering the food in such a flawless way you can't help but be in awe.

Sylus who is with you on a secret mission hunting down information. He is speaking a language you never heard before so casually to someone as you stand beside him. The person giggles and then looks at you as Sylus wraps his arm around your hip.

Sylus who you ask to translate every little thing just so you can hear him. It makes your stomach flutter and you could see the pride in his eyes as he looks down at you with a smirk. He never denies you. If anything, he wishes you'd ask more.

Sylus who at night pulls you close and whispers words you dont understand in your ear. His voice as smooth as ever as his breath is against you.

You wonder how many languages he really knows.

And you plan on testing every one.

[critterbitter]

Language divides and building bridges.

Elesa’s feeling homesick. Emmet, bless his heart, tries to help by infodumping while Ingo frantically runs off to find water (crying is a very dehydrating experience).

((Would you look at that! The kids are picking up kantonese and galarian from each other!))

BONUS:

Heh. Callback.

Want to see more? Here’s the masterpost for submas!

[clever-ludicrous]

How to Actually Learn a Language (Without Wasting Time)

Polyglots will do anything to sell you something, so here’s the fastest and most basic technique based on my research.

—

Step 1 – Getting the Absolute Basics In

This is where most people already get lost. If you search social media for how to start, the advice isn’t necessarily bad, but it often makes you dependent on a single resource, usually an app that will eventually try to charge you. Duolingo, for example, has turned into a mega-corporation that perfected gamification to keep you on the app.

Remember: free apps make money by keeping you on their platform, not by helping you become fluent.

At this stage, the goal is not to gain conversational skills but to avoid overwhelming yourself and get a feel for what you’re actually getting into. All my recommended resources are free because I believe learning a language should be a basic right. I wouldn’t advise spending any money until you’re sure you’ll stick with it. Otherwise, it can turn into a toxic “but I paid for this, so I have to keep going” mindset that drains all the fun out of learning.

• Language Transfer – Highly recommended for Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, German, Greek, Italian, Swahili, and French.

• Textbooks – Simply search for [language] textbook PDF, or check LibGen and the Internet Archive. Don’t overthink which book to choose—it doesn’t matter much.

• Podcasts – Coffee Break is a solid choice for many languages.

• YouTube Channels – Join r/Learn[language] on Reddit and find recommendations.

—

Step 2 – The 20/80 Principle

The idea is that 20% of words make up 80% of everyday speech.

What you’re going to do:

Search “Most common words [language] PDF”.

This list is now your best friend

For flashcards, I highly recommend AnkiPro. It lets you import pre-made lists for Anki/Quizlet and has an archive where you’ll definitely find the most common words. But it lacks audio. The real Anki program has it, but only on PC (unless you’re willing to pay $30 for the mobile app). Use AnkiPro for now—we’ll come back to repeating phrases later. In the meantime, find a YouTube video with the most common words pronounced, or use Google Translate for audio.

(Knowt is a free alternative for Quizlet if you prefer that)

These lists will spare you from learning unnecessary vocabulary at this stage. Spaced repetition (which Anki uses) can take longer, but it’s worth it because you want these words to stick. Anki will only introduce a small number of new words per day. Once you start new words, write phrases using them. Doesn’t matter if they’re random just try to use them.

—

Step 3 – The First Breakup With the Language

This isn’t really a step, but I have to mention it. For me (and for other language learners I’ve talked to) this is where motivation crashes.

The dopamine rush is over. Your ego boost is gone. You’re stuck understanding just enough to notice how much you don’t understand, and topics are getting more complex. Everything feels overwhelming, and motivation drops.

This is normal. You have to push through it.

I’ll write a separate post on how I manage this phase, but for now:

• Take a step back and make sure you understand the basics.

• Find something that keeps you motivated.

• Consistency is key. Even if it’s just five minutes a day, do it. (Edit: You can search online for inspiration on scheduled plans. I found one that organizes language exercises into different categories based on how much time you have each day, which seems helpful. https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/s/sSGUtORurM

Personally, I used AI to create a weekly plan kind of as a last resort before giving up on the language, but try looking for pre-made ones first.)

I personally enjoyed story learning during this phase. And don’t forget the frequency lists are still your best friend. For story learning check out Olly Richards books!

—

Step 4 – Immersion

Your brain needs active and passive immersion. The earlier steps were mostly active, and now you’ll start the fun part.

How to Immerse Yourself:

1. Join some kind of community.

• I enjoy Reddit/ r/lean[Language]. Do this in your target language, but also in the language you already speak. Post that you’re looking for a chat partner in your target language. The most people are nice, and the mean ones will just ghost you anyway.

2. Watch shows.

• Subtitles only in your target language or drop English subtitles ASAP.

3. Listen to podcasts.

4. Read

I personally dislike media made for kids (except on low-energy days). For real immersion, pick something for adults.

5. Translate, write, and speak.

Before this, you wrote simple sentences using vocabulary. Now, put them to work:

• Translate texts.

• Keep a diary.

• Write short stories.

• Complain about the language in the language.

It doesn’t matter, just use it.

—

Step 5 – Speaking

Start speaking earlier than you think you’re ready. Trust me. This is probably where most people disagree with me. I do think you should start by focusing on input, but the importance of output isn’t talked about enough.

Now, the real Anki (or any program with phrases + audio) comes into play. At lower levels, it doesn’t make sense to just start talking, since you wouldn’t even be able to recognize your mistakes. Here’s what you’ll do:

1. Repeat phrases out loud.

2. Record yourself speaking.

3. Compare your recording to the original audio and adjust your pronunciation.

If it’s a tonal language (or if you struggle with accents), start this even earlier.

Other Speaking Strategies:

• Shadowing – Repeat after native speakers.

• Reading aloud – Your own texts, books, anything.

• Talking to yourself.

• Talking to natives (if you’re brave).

I’m not here to fix social anxiety, but I am here to help with language learning, so just speak.

—

Final Thoughts

• These steps overlap, and that’s fine.

• This is supposed to be fun. Learning just because you’re “too deep in” or because of school won’t cut it.

• If you’re lost, take a step back.

• I’m not a professional. I just think a straight answer is way too hard to find.

—

If you have anything to add, feel free to share.

[tashdemetriou]

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS | 6x10

[1ns1deyourm1nd]

[citycrows]

Does anyone else think about how Sakura was so excited and FRIENDLY to Suo when he thought he was a foreigner? If I had to count how often I think about that I'd say I'm never not thinking about it.

He introduced himself so POLITELY. Even tried to accommodate him by greeting him in English. He was so fuckin stoked thinking he was being kind to a foreigner.

(I'm also always thinking about how he got out the "I am-" and the part he got stuck at was his name my booooyyyy 😭)

[vuelode-irbis]

My friend, are you, too, dappled with the textures of your rocky mountains?

[ID: digital illustration of an Andean cat and a snow leopard in a purple background, framed with various details in gold. The felids seem to be coming down from the heights, looking towards each other, you can see their similarly grey pelts, the Andean cat's painted with elongated, brown and purple spots, and the snow leopard's with blocky, dark purple ones. Each cat has a bright yellow spark behind them, and there's a big rhomboid star between the two. There are less vibrant stars scattered in the background. The frame shows mountains at the top and the bottom; the ones at the top are four from the Himalaya: Nanda Devi, Dhaulagiri, Kachenjunga and Mount Everest. At the bottom, the Andes are represented by three mountains: Ojos del Salado, Huascarán and Nevado Tres Cruces. The corners at the top have a Siberian ibex and a chinchilla each, reversed at the bottom, these are prey to these cats. On the sides, a plant, a star, a sun and a moon, divided by zigzags, decorate the frame. Their respective scientific names are written in square letters: Leopardus jacobitus for the Andean cat and Panthera uncia for the snow leopard, with a paw print after each one. End ID]

I was thinking the other day how similar these two are, despite being apart both taxonomically and spatially, and this idea would not leave my head until I finished it, so here :]

Drawing them from this angle was a challenge, and then I decided to spend more time researching mountains from their respective habitats to decorate the frame, trying to make it so they overlapped with their registered populations, so this took longer than I anticipated, but I'm happy with the results :D!

[motsimages]

I just thought of something in regards to the Rulette episode of Game Changer:

I am not sure of Anna Garcia's background but given her last name, I'm guessing Latin American of some sorts. That makes 2 latines and 1 non latino as players. Potentially, 2 Spanish speakers and 1 non Spanish speaker.

When they were pointing out that Jeremy wasn't polite because he was being mean, Jeremy always replied "polite does not mean nice", which is true but to me, as a Spanish person, sounds strange. He even added "Have you ever met a British woman?", showing that this may not necessarily be the way he lives politeness, but that there are enough English speaking people who do.

Many years ago I read some research on the cultural implications of "politeness" between English speakers and Spanish speakers. In short, for Spanish speakers "polite" is a synonym for "kind" or "nice".

For English speakers it's a different thing, a requirement to enter conversation with someone, to enter their space in a way.

This is not a concept most Spanish speakers are familiar with. If you are kind, you can enter conversation with anyone. You are welcome to anyone's space as long as you are nice. This is not to say that we don't have words or sentences to show politeness (cortesía), but if you have the words but the rest of the behaviour doesn't match, we do not really perceive it as polite. We feel it manipulative.

So sure, the joke was the negotiation of rules to see who had it right, but I wonder to which point the two players that have a non-English culture were actually perceiving this "polite does not mean nice" as some kind of actual cheating on the part of Jeremy because to Spanish speakers, yes, polite does mean nice.

[br1ghtestlight]

obsessed w/ justin's response to ppl asking about paper's gender in 2016

like "paper's male........ unless we make a change i mean 🤔" like at any point they're open to randomly transgender-ing a character even HALFWAY through season two lmao??? gotta keep all your options on the table yknow

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Me, when someone in a Kdrama speaks English, even if they do it with a perfect American/Canadian/English accent: What is this language and what in the world did they say? goes back immediately to re-listen if there aren't English subtitles

[nowshesdoingitallthetime]

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY TO OUR VERY OWN BEING FUNNY IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE!

[unionizedwizard]

this has been said numerous times, better, and by more qualified people than me before, but it truly is wonderful that spending enough time with trans people in any capacity ends up completely rerouting your inner gender recognition patterns. like, right wingers are obsessed with saying that we're trying to destroy gender, and it is true in a way, because i really can't see, say, a closeted/pretransition trans woman as anything else than a woman. like it just doesnt compute. it's not like, an effort i have to actively make, it's just as easy as with a cis woman. nowadays <- important addition because it does come from experience, but then once the new pattern starts to set, you can't go back, it's sort of like learning to read

like, brain plasticity is real (hurray for brain plasticity!) and there's no evidence more supportive of the fact that gender is a social game that is deciphered through a complex set of rules and symbols and patterns, regardless of the kind of physical attributes exhibited by individuals, than being genuinely unable to read a trans person as anything else than their actual gender no matter what their cispassing actually is like

[supes9]

It's a foreign language to me, baby

But I love hearing you talk...

[bedforddanes75]

pictures of matty healy where he looks like a bug

[befuddledcinnamonroll]

I can't help but keeping thinking of Akin's grandma. Of how excited she is that he's living her dream, but also of how she prefers letters to phone calls.

I can't help but think how devastating it is to me to even imagine never hearing the voices of the people I love most, to hear them laugh when we celebrate or tease one another, or to listen to them cry and give them support.

And I can't help but think that the reason she prefers letters is because it's easier to pretend in letters. To act like the career success he's achieved is everything she had ever dreamed for herself, to not ever let any cracks show in the facade, which you can hear in someone's voice. To be her fantasy, all the time.

We can't know for sure, all we've seen is her through Akin's eyes, and he clearly adores her. But there's a part of me that thinks that even his first and most fundamental relationship was always about his career, in the end. And that breaks my heart.