#basic spoken english course online

[worklifeskill]

By enrolling in a basic spoken English course online, you can achieve fluency and improve your life skills simultaneously.

[seo-with-tanvir]

I Met Devi Again, and This Time She’s Talking About Her Brother 🇮🇩 | Practicing English | Part 2 I had the pleasure of meeting Devi again, and this time she’s sharing stories about her brother 🇮🇩. Tune in for another engaging conversation filled with personal insights and interesting anecdotes. Don’t miss out on this heartwarming chat! 😊 #DeviTalks #IndonesiaConnection #SiblingStories #GlobalChats #Tanvirific Practicing and talking English with people from different countries is incredibly beneficial and engaging. It exposes you to diverse accents, idioms, and cultural nuances that you might not encounter otherwise. This not only enhances your language skills but also broadens your perspective and understanding of global cultures. Engaging in conversations

[astronicht]

I pulled up the sketchy online Old English version of Beowulf and yeah it has 3,182 lines. If you took 5 seconds per line you’d need four and a half hours to recite it (or specifically to recite the one version that got both written down and preserved for a thousand years) (only a little charred). But I mean 5 seconds per line is for chumps who don’t want to unlock the Beowulf speedrun.

Also ok for SCIENCE I timed myself and quickly reciting the first 5 lines took 16 seconds, let’s call that fifteen because I mispronounced meodosetla. At that pace (if you could keep it up consistently and I mean never cough never take a drink) you’d be looking at 2.65 hours, or 2 hours and 39 minutes (or 159 minutes). This is actually 20 minutes shorter than the theatrical run-time of Peter Jackson’s Two Towers (179 minutes).

Now, the original post was about reciting Beowulf in an hour, so 2 hours and 39 minutes is not gonna cut it, and is so far over time that even doubling your pace can’t save you. You’re gonna lose this speedrun and Æthelflæd’s new scop poet is going to laugh at you. However, there’s a cheat to exploit here. In the period when Old English (language of Beowulf) was spoken, people often just said there were 12 hours in a day and 12 hours in a night, no longer how long or short daylight actually was. This made the concept of a daylight hour stretch in summer, when daylight lasts way longer than 12 hours. There’s a good article on this I’ll find it if anyone wants it. I don’t actually expect anyone to have read this far.

ANYWAY, the longest day in Jarrow (furthest north Old English speaking town I could think of) in 2024 (sorry this data is not calibrated for the 10th century) was of course midsummer: June 20th, at 17 modern hours 22 modern minutes and 1 modern second. This means each early medieval hour that day actually lasted 1 hour and 26 minutes. Still not nearly enough lads, but this is when it becomes a skill game. Because I wasn’t going ALL that fast. We need to squeeze 159 minutes of Beowulf (aka basically Two Towers) into 86 minutes. If you could half my pace-per-five-lines from 15 seconds to 7.5 seconds, you’d be able to do it, one day of the year, in Jarrow. Iceland is cheating. Good luck.

[historr7475]

Mastering Spoken English: Your Guide to Fluent Communication

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[kenny612]

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[chut-je-dors]

Hello! Do you happen to know any good resources for learning Finnish? As basic as possible, I literally started on Duolingo half an hour ago:) I know, I know, I'm a poser for learning Finnish *after* Käärijä, but the language sounds soooo interesting (although I've heard the grammar is quite difficult...). Thank you in advance and also love your blog:)))))

Hi!! So very very ecstatic that you've decided to learn Finnish! No reason to feel ashamed that you'd only start after Käärijä... believe me, in Finland people are just altogether very taken if a foreigner wants to learn Finnish, no matter the reason. (And all reasons for learning a language are good!) (And we're SO SO PROUD of Käärijä, he's done a monumental job of bringing our language to the public eye more than ANYONE ELSE BEFORE so, yup! He's a VERY good reason to start learning Finnish!!)

I'm not sure if I'm the right person to point you towards any resources... But I tried finding some for you! I've checked out the Duolingo course and it's a good place to begin! Here's also a drive folder that has some Finnish language books as PDFs.

Also here's a page for beginner's Finnish from our national news media Yle (it's like our version of BBC).

Here is a "picture book" kind of a page for learning names for objects, good to start with!

Here's an online course for beginners! This has grammar too, and links for further reading and studying.

Finnish is also notorious for having it's written language differ drastically from how people actually speak. We don't have accents per se, but dialects instead, which don't just affect the way we pronounce words (=accents, as in English) but the way we form them. So for example, the written Finnish "I am" is "minä olen", but in spoken Finnish it can become e.g. "mä oon", "mää oon", "mie oon", depending on where you live (and there might be some more variations as well but these are the most common ones.) Many foreigners find themselves in a spot where they can read and understand written Finnish pretty well, then the moment a Finnish person opens their mouth it's a bloodbath. But don't let it deter you! And Finnish people are more than happy to switch to written Finnish if you don't understand them. I found this website for learning the basics for spoken Finnish!

A good place is also good ole Youtube! Just type in "Finnish for beginners" and you're set to go!

Finnish is a difficult language to learn because of the grammar and lack of prepositions if your language has them... but look at it this way, I struggle with them in any language that uses them cos I haven't grown up using them. I still occasionally mess up with in/on or for/to (it's even worse with French and Swedish). Doesn't stop me from writing 100k fics in English apparently!

Welcome to learning Finnish! Remember that the most important thing is to learn the swear words, you'll go far with those. Just drop in a perkele and it's always the right thing to say haha.

Jokes aside, I'm very happy to hear this! Finnish is a very beautiful language and a very inventive one as well, which allows for more word play and creativity with the language than, say, English for example. And while Finnish is difficult, you'll find that once you've learnt the rules, there are no exceptions to them or the kind of hassle with the grammar as there is to English or French. I've known exchange students who've learnt near perfect Finnish in less than a year!

If anyone knows and wants to add more good resources here, go ahead!

[outfoxt]

Another Käärijä Research Project

aka: käärijä style-shifting project

as a preface, here are my (non) qualifications for this project and the circumstances under which it happened:

I am a linguistics student, and this past semester I took a course on sociolinguistics. the goal of this project was to become familiar with the concept of and analyze style-shifting (it's more commonly known as code-switching online but theres a difference and this is style-shifting), specifically by analyzing the speech of one person. We had the option to study oprah or to have someone else approved by my prof, so you know I had to ask my prof if I could study jere. This project is solely my intellectual property; even though I had a tutor help me a lot, everything written in this paper and on this post was my work alone.

now, on to the actual findings! the full paper and transcripts will be linked at the end :D

the actual variables (words or sounds) that I studied were the pronunciation of r, and use of the word "the".

to make things a lot easier from the get-go, i'm going to introduce you all to one of my favorite websites, ipachart.com (the international phonetic alphabet [ipa] chart is a big chart with an entry for every sound that exists in a language. this handy dandy website has an audio recording for each one of those sounds).

go to this website, and then scroll down to the table. go to the column labeled "post alveolar" and then click on ɾ and ɹ. those are the sounds i studied in this paper! ɾ is the finnish r and ɹ is the american r :)

so basically what i did to find instances of my variable was i just looked up a bunch of esc interviews and listened out for use of the different r sounds. i also transcribed the entire dinner date live because i love torture apparently :) the specific interviews and lives/stories are in the bibliography of the paper :p

after i transcribed all the interviews and lives/stories i went through and highlighted every instance of the r sound. then i calculated the ratios of ɾ to ɹ based on the context they were spoken in. the two contexts i looked for were formal contexts (sit-down interviews) and informal contexts (literally anything else).

i found that jere uses ɹ WAY more often in formal contexts than he does in informal contexts, and the same in reverse with ɾ.

i then went back to the transcripts and looked for all instances of the word "the". i also looked for instances where i thought it should be present, but was omitted. i calculated the ratio of present vs omitted "the"s in formal vs informal contexts and made some charts.

the graph with the smaller black section is "use of 'the' in formal settings" and the one with the smaller green section is "use of 'the' in informal settings" (the images are transparent, sorry)

i found that jere uses "the" WAY more often when in formal settings! there were also some instances where he added a "the" where it was unnecessary, which is studied at length in this wonderful paper by @alien-girl-21

something i also noticed that i elected not to study because this paper took enough energy on its own was that in formal contexts, whenever the "or" sound came in the middle or at the end of a word, jere wouldn't pronounce the r. it stuck out to me mostly because i heard words like "performance" turning into "perfomance", which i thought was an interesting quirk.

unfortunately i was somewhat limited by both my brainpower and capacity to do more work on this paper in the relatively short timeframe i was given (2 weeks) and the fact that i was given a 5 page MAX for this paper (not including a bibliography). i had a lot of fun doing this though and am definitely planning on studying jere for for academic credit again in the future if given the chance!

also i would like it to be known that i spent an hour searching for that 5 second clip of the urheilucast where jere said that he used to sell kitchens and understands english better than he can speak it.

link to a google drive folder with the actual paper i wrote and the transcripts of the interviews with notation:

please feel free to send me asks and dms with questions or comments about this paper! i absolutely love rambling about linguistics :3!!

[spanishskulduggery]

My Spanish course has started using the phrase '¿Qué quiere decir ...?'. For example, one of our current weekly questions is: '¿Qué quiere decir la frase “si nuestros hijos aprenden quechua van a continuar viviendo en un país sin ser parte de él”?'.

From what I've seen online, both '¿Qué quiere decir ...?' and '¿Qué significa ...?' have been translated to 'What does ... mean?'. Am I right to assume that although they both translate to the same English phrase, they aren't entirely interchangeable? My first instinct is that '¿Qué significa ...?' is more about the literal meaning of a word or sentence (e.g. '¿Qué significa "el hijo" en inglés?'), whereas '¿Qué quiere decir ...?' is asking about the underlying meaning something is trying to communicate.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question!!

This is a little difficult to explain since some of it is based on feeling

But basically significar is usually more impersonal and said of things not people - at least in this context

You're basically talking about "what does this mean?" and "what is its meaning?" if that makes sense

querer decir as "to mean" is "what is trying to be expressed" and it is more often spoken of in terms of language, what someone says or does, or what something is trying to communicate

significar is talking about "meaning/significance"

...

If you saw a sign on the wall and it didn't make sense you could easily use ¿qué quiere decir? and ¿qué significa esto? for "what does it mean?"

If you were talking to someone though you would say ¿qué quieres decir? "what do you mean?"; using significar would be done in 3rd person like "what does that mean?" or asking about a certain word, more impersonal

...

The other issue is that when significar is used with people it means "to hold significance" like significas mucho is "you mean a lot" like "you are important (to someone)"

...

Otherwise I typically use significar for definitions/meaning; and I use querer decir for intentions/meaning

As in if you're specifically looking for understanding ¿qué significa? can sometimes be ¿cuál es el significado? "what is the meaning?" - more so said of things and concepts

And if I want to know specifically what someone is trying to say or what they mean by their words it's more ¿qué quieres decir? or sometimes ¿qué pretendes decir? "what are you attempting to say?" [which can sometimes be a bit spicy in context like "oh what's THAT supposed to mean???"]

[princesssascha]

The best thing to invest in (aka yourself)

I'm sure everyone has thought about their current or future finances many times, and I'm also sure that you'd love to make a lot of money. Sure, you can spend hours searching the internet for the best business idea or the best college majors that you are not even interested in, but how about taking the easy route? A low risk, high reward and easy way to be financially free. Isn't that just a dream?

One of the most recent as well as most popular ways to earn money is investing. Although it can be a great way to earn money, 99% of the time it will only make you a lot of money if you're already rich! But there is one thing that you can invest in that will never fail you, yet no one talks about it. YOURSELF. The most valuable thing in the universe.

Define your goals

Ask yourself: What are your goals? If you want to be a business owner, learn skills that will be helpful in that field, for example marketing, so you can advertise your products, which will increase your revenue. Once you decide what your goal is research what skills are valuable and educate yourself of those topics.

But what if I don't know what I want to do?

That's completely fine! Instead of thinking about a specific niche, think about what you want your life to look like in general. Do you want to earn a lot of money? Google some of the most paying jobs. Do you value creativity in your work field? There are jobs for that too! It's ok if you can't find something that intrigues you. It's a journey and you don't need to find something that you'll do for the rest of your life right away.

Learn about money

Something that you can do regardless of what you want to achieve in life is learning about money! Unfortunately, most people don't know much about it except that it can buy you things. I can assure you that if you spend even just one week learning about this topic, you will know more than 90% of people. Robert Kiyosaki, who wrote the best seller "rich dad poor dad", is a great author that can teach you a lot about finance. I highly recommend all of his books, I'm sure you'll find something that peaks your interest.

Courses & school

Whether you are in school or not, you need to educate yourself! Everything can be monetized. Literally everything. We live in incredible times where if you just have a phone and access to the internet EVERYTHING you could want to learn can be learned online for free. Just go on YouTube and search something along the lines of (topic) 101, (topic) masterguide, etc. the possibilities are endless and I assure you that you will find something. If you don't mind spending money for courses try skillshare to unlock all courses available on their site or Udemy, they often do 80% off sales so you can get their courses for like $5.

Learn languages

I can't stress this enough! This is probably one of the best things you can do for yourself! Learning a new language can open so many doors for you! It can help you get a higher paying job, give you countless new opportunities and help you meet incredible people who speak that language. There are no right or wrong languages to choose, but in case you have no idea what you want, here are some of the most important factors:

Amount of speakers: This will be your main factor if your main goal is to reach as many people as possible, for any reason. This includes languages such as: Spanish, French, English (duh), or if you're up for a challenge: Hindi, Mandarin or Arabic.

Enjoyment: I think this should be important to everyone. You can't learn a language if you don't enjoy it. Try to learn the basics and see if you like how it sounds and how it feels.

Travel/domicile: if you know your dream is to move to a different country, where another language is spoken, it might be a good idea to learn it. Also, if you're interested in some country's culture you might also find it to be a great reason to learn it.

Job opportunities: although, as I mentioned above, pretty much every single language will give you many opportunities, it might vary depending on where you live and what your field of work is, for example if you live in the US, the most beneficial languages for you to learn will be English and Spanish. If you work in a company that works with Japanese companies, then Japanese might be a good choice for you. Of course, the most popular languages will have benefits pretty much anywhere in the world.

Other ways to invest in urself

Honestly, it would be difficult to fit all the resources in this post since that would make it ridiculously long, and I want to include many things so that everyone can find something that they enjoy, so I will make a whole different post about all of this in the future, because of that reason I will briefly go over a few other ways to grow:

Read

Reading is incredible! It has countless health benefits and it is a great way to learn about new things or expand your vocabulary. And no, you don't need to read educational books, although it sure is even more helpful. If you want to learn new words reading any book at all could help. I can say that as someone who grew up constantly reading people are often shocked at my vocabulary (in my native language), even since I was 5 years old, so yes, it works.

Mindful scrolling

Instead of just sitting on your phone all day watching stupid videos, pay attention to what content you're consuming and how long you spend on your phone.

Self care

I'm sure you guys already know that, so treat this as a reminder. Take care of yourself! And remember, looking out together can help you a lot in life. So put that face mask on, buy that new perfume you like and most importantly - prioritize your health!

Now you know exactly what you need to set yourself up for success. No more excuses!

[communist-ojou-sama]

Please tell us about learning Japanese!

Sorry to get to this really late I've been absolutely swamped with work lately so I haven't been able to answer this but yeah let's talk about something actually enjoyable!

I started learning at 18 when I was having a bit of a crisis of confidence after starting music school, and personally I literally just used one of those online kana quiz sites to learn kana in about a week (I did Not know best practices lol) as I mentioned before I used a memrise course before it started sucking to learn the meanings of all of the Joyo Kanji in about a year, and I used Tae Kim's grammar guide for grammar, but mostly what I did was watch a lot, lot, LOT of anime. For a while I entertained pretensions of doing some anitubing so I kept abreast of basically every show of interest every season for a long time, and somewhere along the line I really mastered the trick of hearing the language itself as it's spoken and then checking the meaning with the subs in a running fashion.

For some ungodly reason my very first endeavor into reading JP was doing a side-by-side of the English and Japanese translations of Tower of God. Why do a side by side of two translations of a manhwa originally in a third language? I have no earthly idea, but it somehow lead to my reading ability developing pretty quickly and this is actually a major recommendation of mine: take a story you really love in your target language, especially if it uses a lot of naturalistic, conversational language, and re-read it side-by-side with your native tongue. It really helps you get a natural feel for the spoken vernacular that you'll never get from didactic materials.

After that, I mean, it really was just a lot of unglamorous practicing and reading. The first thing I ever watched entirely in JP without subtitles was Liz and the Blue Bird, the first novel I ever read entirely in JP was the first volume of Otherside picnic; I passed the jlpt n2 in the summer of 2019 and the N1 at the beginning of 2020. Oh also becoming a vtuber sicko will help you a ton

[m3r1m4r5u333]

A quick tale of what it's been like, to be me, a queer, european fan of the tv-series 9-1-1!! Alternatively, "How to create a monster!"

I go on the internet, randomly hear about the show and it's queerness, immediately become interested because yay, that sounds super queer! Obviously the perfect show for me!

Of course I want to watch! I am basically target audience!! How can I watch,

take my money!!

So.. I try to find an easy, legal way to watch the show as soon as the episodes air!

... I find out that I can't.

I think ✨wtf✨

I keep searching for a way. Whoever the fuck makes these deals about how, where, and when to broadcast the show is like:

How about ✨no✨

You're not from the US so... Who cares about your money! Not us! You're european, that's only like an entire continent of potential viewers, why would we care about you?

Me: I know I'm not from the US but pleaaase I'd really, really like to watch this show!

As it airs, legally!!

See, I HAVE THE MONEY, I AM LITERALLY WILLING TO PAY FOR THIS!! You guys like money, right?!

Just please, please, give me a legal way to watch this show, as it airs!

Them:

Me: WHY?! C'mon, we live in modern times, why can't I watch this show sooner?

JUST GIMME THE SHOW,

TAKE MY PINK FUCKING MONEY!!!

I am your target audience, this show is super queer!

Them:

And so the years pass...

Then the series moves from Fox to ABC!!!

I feel a glimpse of ✨HOPE✨ Maybe... finally I can subscribe and watch the episodes legally, AS THEY AIR,

YOU KNOW,

LIKE SOMEONE FROM THE MODERN ERA, WITH AN INTERNET CONNECTION!!!

I try to find out if I can.

ABC: It's on Apple tv! 🤪

Me: What... even is Apple tv?! And what do you mean it's on Apple tv, I don't own an Apple device, I don't even own a freaking TELEVISION! How does that work?

Them:

Me: And are you even sure the show is really available to the Europeans?! I can't find it in my region. When is it available?

Them: Ooh, a squirrel! Nice talking to you, bye!

Me: Please, don't do this again, it would be so much easier and better for us both if I could just watch the show, as it airs, legally, and once again, I'm actually willing to ✨pay✨ for this option, I'd even pay you happily, as I genuinely want to support this content!

See, you get this money: 💸,

I get to watch: 👁️👁️. Win-win?

Them: Hmmph. Fine. European fans can watch it on Disney+👌

Me: Well is it available in my country though? When?

So... I go on my local Disney+ website. For some bizarre reason btw, it's not even in my country's most spoken language - No, the website is in swedish - which is the first language of only about 5% of my fellow finns. (We do learn swedish at school, but only for a couple of years nowadays, for most of us english is the stronger second language. English starts in 1st/2nd/3rd grade, swedish in like... 7th. So. I studied swedish yes, do I understand it? No.)

To my relief I notice there's an option to browse in english, I switch to english. The website is useless, Disney+ just vaguely promises lots of great content.

Me: WHAT content? When?

Disney+:

The information I find online is so poor that I finally turn to my fellow countrymen, and pester my friends to find out if there's someone with a Disney+ subscription who could tell me if the Disney+ in our region even broadcasts the show. A friend tells me yes, it does!

Does it release the episodes as they air? No. When will they air? Who knows! (As of today it only has season 6!)

Me: *screaming in frustration* Why won't anyone take my money!!!

The Show, probably:

Me: WHAT MESSAGE?

djdjdbnfnf What even is this show's and network's motto; be gay, do crime?!

Them:

Me: Why is there no option to watch this show legally as it airs! I am a fan, I am not immortal and endlessly patient!!!

Them:

Me: For fuck's sake I'm not twiddling my thumbs and growing a beard as I wait for an episode to drop in my region some random year in the future. I'll just find another (probably illegal) way to watch.

Anyway! I guess the only way I have to support the show right now is to honk about it like a demented goose, to let my freak flag fly to get it free promo.

Anyone actually stumbling on my tumblr, probably: *is very alarmed by the demented goose, backs off slowly*

The show: Yeah anyway, look, another Top Gun reference, how fun!

Me: Yes... I know the movie. I know how to tag myself here. I am Goose.

Some of the fans displeased with me, a bisexual, for not shipping Buck & Tommy:

You're not a real fan! And you are doing bisexuality wrong!

Me:

[maldxta]

— mahalia.

maris racal, twenty-six, she/her  ⟡   —   is that MAHALIA RIVERA i just saw walking around kilmer’s cove? i heard they’re a TOURIST who’s been here for TWO MONTHS. it slipped my mind, since they just tend to hang out at THE BOARDWALK. at face value, they’re said to be CHARMING and BUBBLY, but i don’t know… some people have said they can be quite OVERLY DRAMATIC and IMPULSIVE. just don’t get on their bad side, i guess! don’t tell them i told you this, but i’ve heard they DO NOT believe in all the ghost stories around town. who knows what the future holds for them!

BASICS.

FULL NAME. mahalia jade rivera (mah-HAH-lee-ah JAYD ree-VEH-rah) NICKNAME(S). mahalia, lia  AGE/BIRTHDAY. twenty-six / june 15th  BIRTHPLACE. quezon city, philippines 

GENDER/PRONOUNS. cis woman / she/her/hers  SEXUAL ORIENTATION. heterosexual ASTROLOGICAL SIGN. gemini sun + libra moon + leo rising 

HEIGHT. 5’2” EYE COLOR. dark brown  PIERCINGS/TATTOOS/SCARS. lobe and helix piercings, belly button piercing   FACE CLAIM. maris racal 

SPOKEN LANGUAGES. english, tagalog WORK. content creator/influencer

AESTHETICS.

a heart wrapped in glitter and longing, scrolling through shadows of approval, chasing echoes of validation in pixelated dreams, a delicate façade hiding a tempest within, the battle between girlhood and godhood

PERSONALITY.

(+) ambitious, generous (whenever she sees fit), resourceful (–) attention-seeking, impetuous, self-centered

EXTRAS.

to see. to listen.

HER-STORY.

tw themes of family dysfunction, neglect, favoritism, mental health struggles, social media pressure, and intense family conflict

-`♡´- Mahalia grew up in the shadow of her older brother, Joaquin, who was constantly praised for his intelligence and musical talent. From an early age, she yearned for her father's approval, often engaging in various activities—sports, dance, and academics—in an attempt to prove her worth. -`♡´- Despite her efforts, she felt that no achievement could ever measure up to the golden standard set by Joaquin. Her father’s unwavering favoritism for Joaquin created a rift in Mahalia’s self-esteem, leading her to internalize the belief that she was never good enough. -`♡´- After Joaquin left to pursue his own dreams, Mahalia thought that her father would finally notice her. She enrolled in a business course, believing that following in her brother’s footsteps would earn her the recognition she craved. However, she struggled to keep up with her studies, often being compared unfavorably to Joaquin’s academic prowess. -`♡´- The pressure became overwhelming, and Mahalia began to feel like a disappointment in her father's eyes. The comparisons only deepened her sense of inadequacy, causing her to question her abilities and identity. -`♡´- Feeling increasingly isolated and desperate for validation, Mahalia turned to social media, where she discovered a platform that appreciated her for her charisma and creativity. As she began to post content showcasing her life and interests, she unexpectedly gained a following, providing her with the attention she so desperately sought. -`♡´- However, this newfound fame was superficial, and deep down, she knew it wasn’t a substitute for genuine love and acceptance from her father. -`♡´-The culmination of her frustrations erupted in a fierce confrontation with her father. In a moment of anger, she accused him of neglecting her for favoring Joaquin, revealing the deep-seated resentment she felt. The fight left Mahalia feeling more isolated than ever, yet it also ignited a spark of rebellion. -`♡´- Seeking to distance herself from her father’s expectations, she decided to visit Joaquin at Kilmer’s Cove, hoping to exploit his new life for her social media content and gain even more followers. -`♡´- While Mahalia’s primary motivation for visiting Joaquin may have been to boost her online presence, she also harbored a longing for a genuine connection with her brother. She hoped to bridge the gap that had formed between them and prove to herself that she could be more than just the shadow of her brother.

TL;DR

-`♡´- attention-starved drama queen trades family dysfunction for social media clout, desperately seeking validation in a world where her older brother’s shadow looms large and daddy issues run deep

HEADCANONS.

-`♡´- doesn't know how to drive... literally just a passenger princess, your honor -`♡´- adores and collects hello kitty items -`♡´- canonically dislikes men, but secretly wants a boyfriend -`♡´- literally has no filter whatsoever and isn't afraid to call out anybody when they are wrong (that includes people older than her) -`♡´- may appear ditzy, but is really smart if given the chance -`♡´- more tbd

WANTED CONNECTIONS.

-`♡´- brat pack — literally thinking they're like the bratz dolls or smth idk man i literally just want mahalia to have friends. just a silly little group of people who even with different aesthetics or smth kinda come together. do you see the vision? please say you do. -`♡´- girl, so confusing — not everyone's a fan of someone so... bold/loud as mahalia, she's bound to clash with someone sooner or later; she tries her best to like 'em, but it doesn't just work. this isn't a fully fleshed out wc yet and would love to work on this dynamic! -`♡´- they see right through me — kinda on the nose with the title. this person sees through the façade that mahalia puts on social media. in my silly little head, this person scares the shit out of her since she's so used to gaining attention for who she appears to be, not for who she really is. my girl hates looking vulnerable or smth. (more to be plotted abt!) -`♡´- more tbd, just hmu!

[konamicodex]

BASICS

FULL NAME: BADIN HIRANWONG

» MEANING: Badin [means "king" in Thai.]; Hiranwong [หิรัญวงศ์ Thai; from Thai หิรัญ (hiran) meaning "money, silver, gold" and วงศ์ (wong) meaning "lineage, family, dynasty."]

NICKNAME: Kinna [from kinnari (Thai: กินรี), usually spelt 'kinnaree' is depicted as a young woman wearing an angel-like costume. The lower part of the body is similar to a bird, and should enable her to fly between the human and the mystical worlds. The most popular portrayal of kinnaree in Thai art probably the golden figures of kinnaree adorned the Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok, which describe a half-maiden, half-goose figure. A kinnara is a creature from Hindu and Buddhist mythology. They are described as part human and part bird, and have a strong association with music and love. Believed to come from the Himalayas, they often watch over the well-being of humans in times of trouble or danger.]; Kinna was given this nickname by his mother when he was born as she was overcome with so much love when she held him for the first time. Kinna is also known as Kona in the gaming world. Kinna also uses Kona as his rent-a-boyfriend name...

AGE: 21-years old.

DATE OF BIRTH: 2002 February 14th, he picked the date.

PLACE OF BIRTH: Bangkok, Thailand.

OCCUPATION: Kinna is a professional gamer. He also dabs in rent-a-boyfriend gig; he makes a lot of money doing it and it gives him pleasure seeing people fall in love even for a short time. Also, they only do dates in this company, no sexy time please... Well, it depends. Yes, he started the company which was modeled from those Japanese-based companies of the same nature.

ORIENTATION: Pansexual; Panromantic.

GENDER: Cisgender Male.

VERSES: The Meaning of Forever; Night Shift

POWERS: Cupid's powers, of course... He can make people fall in and out of love. He's got very good intuition, SUPER high alcohol tolerance, this is important coz he apparently LOVES to drink. He's also a great singer... His mother wonders where he got it from coz she can't sing for shit.

PERSONALITY

STRENGTHS: Progressive, Original, Independent, Humanitarian

WEAKNESSES: Stubborn, Sarcastic, Temperamental, Uncompromising, Aloof

APPEARANCE

FACE CLAIM: Saint Paramee Mahatthanadul.

HEIGHT: 5′9 [175 cm.]

WEIGHT: 139 lbs. [63 kg.]

BUILD: Lean.

GAIT: Relaxed.

HAIR COLOR: Black.

EYE COLOR: Dark brown.

BIRTHMARK: TBA. 

OVERVIEW: » SCARS: Some from growing up, nothing major. » TATTOOS: Bow and arrow. Do not ask.

BACKGROUND

HOMETOWN: Bangkok, Thailand.

RESIDENCE: Bangkok, Thailand.

NATIONALITY: Thai.

ETHNICITY: Asian.

FINANCIAL STATUS: Middle class.

EDUCATION LEVEL: Uni student under the Faculty of Communication Arts in Chulalongkorn University

DEGREES: Degree in being handsome, he said.

SPOKEN LANGUAGES: He is cupid so he speaks the language of love... -_- He speaks Thai, English, many Asian languages, some French. His mother loves French films, apparently.

RELATIONSHIPS

PARENTS: Dara, single mom. She tells Kanni she doesn't know who his father is but Kanni doesn't really care coz he knows who his father is... Well, at least his name. He's still alive.

SIBLINGS: None.

CHILDREN: None.

PETS: None.

SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIPS: 

» Kinna is very close to his mother.

FAMILY HISTORY: Kinna is Cupid's iteration. He was sent to the modern world as part-human to make people fall in love again and make babies coz young peeps aren't partnering up. Kinna realized right away WHY - everyone's broke and it's too expensive to have kids. But he's not reporting that at the moment as he is finding his human life a bit entertaining. He thinks humans are weird and funny.

Kinna was born to a single mother who was an aspiring actress. She now runs a hotel near a beach down south of the country.

Kinna as Cupid is pretty low-key; he's not the star of the show and would rather be in the background, just pushing things to happen. That's why he enjoys online gaming which, he found out, he's very good at...

ROMANTIC HISTORY: Kinna has no time... He's got a mission to accomplish and games to complete.

PLATONIC RELATIONSHIPS: Kinna is friends with that mute kid, Zero, who is moody and always grumpy. Good thing he can't talk...

THOUGHTS ON LOVE: …

HEALTH

PHOBIA(S): None, clinically.

HANDICAP(S): None.

MENTAL DISEASE(S): None... Maybe he developed some anxiety dealing with humans.

PHYSICAL DISEASE(S): None.

PREDISPOSITION(S): N/A.

[factorydefaultlu]

Character Bio

Demographics

Faceclaim: Zoe Colletti

Full name: Hope Nicole Jones

Birth date: June 16, 1999

Age: 25 years old

Zodiac: Gemini

Ethnicity: White

Nationality: American

Spoken Languages: English, non fluent French

Height: 5'3 / 160cm

Weight: 160 lbs/ 73 kilos

Eye Color: Hazel Green

Hair Color: Chestnut Brown

Identifying Marks: Freckles all over her body, most prominent on her face, arms and shoulders. A small black stick n poke butterfly tattoo on her left hip. Pierced ears.

Scars: A few she got on accident from falls and such, a large scar on her left calf from being tripped down the bleachers in high school. Small self harm scars on her thighs that have been healed for a few years. A long thin scar down her middle torso from her clavical to navel, as well as scars on her knees and elbows, courtesy of her kidnapper.

Occupation: Pharmacy Technician

Gender Identity/Pronouns: Female, she/her

Sexual Orientation: Bisexual, though she's on the ace spectrum due to trauma.

Backstory

Hope grew up in a small town in Indiana USA. Her father wasn't around much and her mom basically raised her on her own. Her brothers are both nearly a decade older than her and she was the only child in the house by the time she was 9.

She's always been interested in movies, theatre, musicals, and modeling. She'd beg her mother to buy her the magazines on the rack at the grocery store just so she could look at the pretty women.

Despite having such a high regard for herself at a young age, she was still relentlessly bullied in grade school. By the time she hit high school she became a bully herself, often talking down to others and developing a superiority complex.

Hope did have a few friends though, and doesn't consider her experience in school to be that awful. She says it could have always been worse.

She graduated on the honor roll and was class president of her senior year. Despite being able to get a free ride scholarship to Indiana University she turned it down to pursue acting. She tried online college but eventually dropped out.

She remained at her job at the local movie theatre and started to promote herself on social. This brought the attention of a Canadian man, Jonathan Weaver. Or at least that's what he called himself.

He easily manipulated her, making promises of getting her into a modeling career. He began teaching her French and would send her money to buy specific clothes to model for him. Eventually he convinced her to move to Canada.

Hope's mother begged her not to go, but of course Hope didn't listen.

When Hope stepped out of the release gate at the airport, she met the man she'd been talking to for nearly a year. He looked like how he did in the photos, and acted like how he did online.

Unfortunately for her, he drugged the bottle of water he handed to her. He led her back to his apartment, chained her to a radiator and held her captive for 2 weeks. Dressing her up, photographing her, and raping her.

Hope was able to break a pipe and get free one day while Jonathan was out of the apartment. She ran from the building begging for help, barefoot and half naked.

Something in her broke that day and while she was being questioned by police, she lied and gave them false information. Hope wanted revenge on Jonathan, and not the kind that jail time could provide.

Along the way, she started becoming interested in the websites and forums she was posted on while in captivity. Her mind further broke, and she wanted to inflict that kind of pain on others so she wouldn't have to feel it herself.

Hope began making her own content, with any poor girl she could find. She started branching out and soon began to kidnap men.

After some research and digging she found out that a man named Jonathan Weaver didn't exist; At least none that looked like the man that tortured her. The apartment she was held in was abandoned and owned by the local government. There was no trace of her kidnapper.

She remained in Canada and got her citizenship, hoping to one day run into 'Jonathan' and give him a taste of his own medicine.

She works at a shady pharmacy in a downtown area and gets away with stealing small amounts of narcotics. She's gotten good at drugging people inconspicuously and is very active in the nightlife of her city. She's a regular at most of the bars and clubs.

Personality

Good personality traits: Ambitious, confident, friendly, intelligent, loyal, persistent, imaginative, bubbly, cautious

Bad personality traits: argumentative, stubborn, perfectionist, obsessive, spoiled, deceitful, untrusting, anxious

Sense of humor: 'dark', sarcastic, and dry.

Character’s greatest fear: going through what she went through all over again.

Life philosophy: We cannot simply sit and stare at our wounds forever - Haruki Marukami

Greatest strength: Her intelligence and quick wit.

Greatest vulnerability or weakness: Her desire to be loved and her desire for revenge.

Biggest regret: Letting herself be manipulated by a man she'd met online and allowing herself to fall victim to him. She considers herself smart, and felt so stupid when she woke up in that apartment.

Character’s darkest secret: her apathy towards human life. She tries to seem compassionate but in reality she couldn't care less what happened to most people. Hope assisted her friend in committing suicide the summer before their freshman year of high school. She helped string the rope up, and pushed the bucket from under her friend's feet. Hope then cut her down and held her until she turned blue. She has had an odd relationship with death ever since.

MBTI: ENTJ (Commander) is a personality type with the Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging traits. They are decisive people who love momentum and accomplishment. They gather information to construct their creative visions but rarely hesitate for long before acting on them.

Character Alignment: Chaotic Neutral- A chaotic neutral character is an individualist who follows their own heart and generally shirks rules and traditions. Although chaotic neutral characters promote the ideals of freedom, it is their own freedom that comes first; good and evil come second to their need to be free.

Enneagram Type: Type 4 The Individualist- The Sensitive, Introspective Type; Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental

Family and Friends

Hometown: Orleans, Indiana, USA

Current Residence: Canada

Pets: none but she'd love to have a cat, and maybe some chickens.

Mother/Relationship with her: Amazing when she was a child but once she hit high school it became somewhat strained. Hope always thought she knew what was best for herself and would ignore her mother or start small arguments over things.

Father/Relationship with him: Nonexistent. He was never around and eventually went missing. No negative feelings, just no feelings at all.

Siblings/Relationship with them: 2 brothers James and Brian, 8 and 10 years older than her. It's a pretty decent relationship with both but there's such a large age gap that they don't have much in common and don't talk outside of pleasantries and catch ups during holidays.

Spouse(s)/Relationship with them: N/A

Children/Relationship with them: N/A

Likes and Dislikes

Favorite Color: Pink, green and purple

Least favorite color: neon green

Favorite Music: pop, indie, and r&b

Least Favorite Music: Post modern country, dubstep

Favorite Food: strawberry cake, cheeseburgers, sesame chicken.

Least Favorite Food: any kind of leafy green. She is adament that she's not a rabbit. She tolerates spinach but only if it's in something like a dip or sandwich. Salads are off the table.

Favorite Genre: Romcoms, documentaries/nonfiction, horror/thriller

Least Favorite Genre: Action, sci-fi although there's exceptions to the rule. She enjoys Star Wars but doesn't like superhero movies.

Habits

Hobbies: reading, shopping, playing dress up, drawing/painting, dancing, jigsaw puzzles and watching movies

Smokes: She hates the smell of cigarettes and weed and is quick to preach the negative effects that smoking causes. She does smoke socially if it will get her close to a new victim though.

Drinks: Hope holds her alcohol well and it takes a few drinks for her to start feeling it. She really likes rum and coke, peach margaritas and lemon drop shots.

Other drugs: She steals half empty vials of morphine from her pharmacy and finds that's the only way she can sleep nowadays. She's done cocaine and molly on occasion with potential victims, but doesn't like that they skew her perception.

Nervous tics: Twirls her hair, bites her nails and picks at her skin when she's anxious or deep in thought. If she's wearing a long sleeve shirt or sweater she'll often pull the sleeves over her hands and pick at the threads.

Traits

Optimist or pessimist?: She tries to be optimistic, but sometimes all she can see is the negativities.

Introvert or extrovert?: Mostly extroverted, but she really likes her alone time too.

Daredevil or cautious?: She was always cautious, and then the one time she decided to take a risk it ended badly, so she's back to walking on eggshells again.

Logical or emotional?: She'd say that logic rules her, but she's quick to fly off the handle if she thinks someone is using her or making fun of her.

Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat?: There is a method to her chaos. It appears messy but it's definitely not dirty. She knows where everything is at and hates when people try to help her clean up.

Prefers working or relaxing?: Hates working unless it's something she wants to do. If it doesn't strike her interest then she wants no part in it.

Confident or unsure of himself/herself?: Acts confident, though there is a little insecurity deep down. Especially about her place in the world. She always trusts her intelligence though.

Animal lover?: Yes, she loves all animals especially cats.

[kenny612]

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Reference post

OH MY GOD I AM SO EXCITED TO GET TO SHARE THIS WITH SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT IT!!

So, like basically all languages, except those with too small a speaker base, English has variants. That’s not a technical term, I’m sidestepping technical terms for simplicity’s sake, but it’s a really good catch-all. Basically, English is spoken in different ways in different places. This is not news to you.

In a handful of English variants, there’s a feature called the intrusive r*, where an r is inserted where a word ends in certain vowels. This is EXTREMELY EXTREMELY common in many English (as in the place, not the language) and Welsh variants of English, though you also see a slightly different form of it in some Massachusetts accents, and the Northeast, though, rapidly dying off. So, and I am about to GREATLY oversimplify for the sake of explaining it to someone who does not care about masturbatory linguistic nonsense the word ‘idea’ in this spot would be pronounced ‘idear’, and thus, rhyme with ‘cheer’

It’s one of my favorite features of English English** (lol) actually, I just think it sounds neat! Delights me whenever I hear it. But as I am American, and I come from a STRONGLY rhotic (r-pronouncing, basically--most places that do this are from places where the English spoken has a lower level of rhoticity, and my joke on doing the Montana accent is “hit the r like it owes you money”:) area of the US, I get to hear it like once a month casually, so it doesn’t come naturally to me to think of it.

I can’t do it, because truthfully, the sound isn’t QUITE “an r at the end” it’s softer and just a touch, and I can’t find an example of it I LIKE online, because it’s a lot of fucking 10 minute nerd videos instead of just an example that’s not me rudely pulling a clip from a video of a friend talking. But listen when you’re watching the BBC or something! A lot of times Hollywood movies don’t have it because we have punished the intrusive r to within an inch of it’s life here in the US, because here in the US it is STRONGLY associated with the lower classes if the rest of the accent is American.

Or, you can listen to Margaret Thatcher’s speeches, which of course has the downside of listening to Margaret Thatcher’s speeches.

*If we want to get nuts, there’s also a LINKING r, which I always joke is the one time a year English people pronounce the letter, and they are similar but not the same, and so not relevant here, and why am I even writing this asterisk I’m sorry this is really fun for me. 

**In my private time I love to get nuts about the 87,292 varieties of English reportedly spoken in like 50 square kilitermetre (celcius) but I think most reasonable people can agree here that it’s not necessary in the same way me getting into the weeds about American English Variants wouldn’t be necessary to go “We use different word order in this phrase”