#but you dont improve if you dont practice

[decadentwerewolfstrawberry]

My 2025 resolution is to finally finish that one Malec fic I started a year ago

[umblrspectrum]

SIKE MOTHERFUCKER I LIED

GET FUCKING SNOWBALLED LOSERS LET ME THROW SNOW AT OTHER BLOGS I WANT TUMBLR PVP AND THE V STANDS FOR VIOLENCE

[theriverbeyond]

i feel like in the cosplay community everyone is always working on a New Project. but idk. i like my cosplays. i don't have any desire to dress up as anyone but the characters I already have cosplays for. what if i don't have a new project. what if i don't want one.

[swanerotica]

merry christmas bylers have this low quality byler fanart

[pigeon-butch]

I certainly have my own concerns about the treatment of moo deng but um. well i think some of you may just be racist

[etherealspacejelly]

every so often i get a thought along the lines of "if i just did x every day i would get so good at it so fast" or "if i did this every week i would feel so much better" but then i remember i have adhd and cant form habits. which is incredibly fucked up and evil. why would they do this to me.

[rigelmejo]

Something that always annoys me is the idea only 1 language learning method works. Which is not true. While it may be possible that, for a particular individual, only a few out of many study methods may work well enough for That Individual to make progress and stay motivated... that doesn't mean all the other study methods won't work for anyone else out there, or that those few methods will work for every other given person.

Obviously if you've been studying a while, then you already figured out what kinds of things work for you and don't. If you're a beginner, just wading into studying?

I would suggest you simply look for study methods that: 1. Teach you new things regularly, 2. Review and practice things you've learned, 3. Include studying things you need for your particular goals (for example if your goal is to read X book then the study materials at some point should involve reading practice and some words the book contains, if your goal is to talk about Y then the study materials should include some information about pronunciation and words you'll need to be able to say).

As you can imagine, a TON of study materials will meet these requirements. And you can study a given skill in a LOT of ways.

(Reading is my focus lol so just for reading, a beginner might: do vocabulary study with lists or conversations with native speakers or watching shows and looking words up or listening to dialogues with a transcript like in a textbook or graded readers or a picture book with word labels in the target language or a video game with labelled objects in target language, all of those things as long as your vocabulary is improving or reading practice is happening would help you make progress). So to improve reading skill as a beginner: you could study with a textbook, a podcast with transcript, a classroom or tutor with words written down in target language (like TPRS), a video game, a TV show and a translate app on your phone, a friend you talk with (who either writes words down or you look up words you hear with a translate app), a friend you text with, srs flashcards like anki (provided there's text) etc. As long as there's new words, and/or you're practicing reading, the study method may work. If it works will come down to if you can stay motivated doing it regularly, and make sure you regularly learn some new things and review/practice things you've already studied.

So consider those things when you see people selling a study method as a product (especially when it's costing you money). Consider if it teaches you NEW things, and are those new things related to your goals, and how MUCH new stuff will it teach you before you finish it? Consider if it provides review or practice, or if you can use it's materials to review on your own making up your own method, or if you'll need to do separate review/practice.

So examples:

LingQ. Can it teach you many new words? Yes, thousands, since you can import any texts you want when you get done with their provided material (I have no idea how much their beginner material covers though in terms of words... I would hope 1000-3000 words but that can be researched). Is your goal reading? It's suited to reading, so you will practice and review often with it. Cost? I think it was $12 a month when I last had it, and the price may have increased. Is it worth it? Depends on a learner's needs. I found it was wasting my money, so I chose to use free tools like Pleco and Readibu apps - since those apps are suited for Chinese learners and have better translations, Pleco has better paid graded reader material if I was going to spend money, and both Pleco and Readibu let me import texts so I can learn thousands of new words just like LingQ but free. Now that I'm not a beginner, I often use Microsoft Edge to read chinese... since I can still click-translate words easily (all my web browsers have that tool free), and Edge's TTS voice is helpful for pronunciation and sounds quite good. I read webnovels online so Edge works well. But it's translations aren't as good as Pleco or Readibu, so if I still needed translations more I would use them. So... is LingQ a good study method? Its certainly a study method marketed to buy. Well... the method is suited to improving reading skill, at least. It costs money, which is a negative, but it does offer a lot. However: everything it does regarding reading can be done free with other apps or sites or web browsers on their own. So if paying money motivates you to read... sure. LingQ does have a few word tracking features a learner may find worth the money, keeping in mind the actual read-to-learn method can be done free without lingq. (Also... while LingQ is a valid option for improving reading, if the learners goal is speaking then it would be important to think of what study activities the learner will do OUTSIDE of LingQ to improve speaking... because I've seen how LingQ is marketed as "how to learn a language" but it's only focused on some skills. It has vocabulary and grammar in some sense, since you'll read a lot and encounter new words and structures. But it doesnt have speaking or writing practice at least last time I was on it. Those activities would need to be worked on, on your own).

You can do that kind of cost/benefit contemplating with any study method material you see being sold. Amother example: there's a beginner Mandarin course called Mandarin Blueprint. It teaches like 800 words. Thats all. It may be worthwhile for a beginner... who still needs to learn 800 common words. But if you already know a few hundred words, the benefit of the course is less, you'll need to find a new material to teach you more new stuff soon. And the price was like a few hundred for the course... which for me personally was too much to spend, when I had already learned 800 hanzi from a book that cost me 12 dollars and 2000 words from a free user made memrise deck. The course claimed to get a person speaking, competent, but anyone not a beginner would say speaking basically with 800 words is nowhere near the level of working in Chinese or just doing a lot of daily life stuff, or reading/listening to media. (Although for the motivated beginner if you're learning 800 words on your own like I was, its definitely close to the point of jumping to learn more words and start reading kids and teenager books, and watching easier shows if you're willing to look new words up). So to me... Mandarin Blueprint felt like overselling some basic beginner materials. (Again when I know several other things that teach beginner stuff either more in depth so HSK test prep classes, and college courses, or that teach beginner stuff to the same depth as Mandarin Blueprint but free).

Some study materials aren't going to act like they teach everything. I've seen chinese courses just for learning to speak tones better and general pronunciation - probably worthwhile if your goal is to improve speaking and a teacher could help improve the issues your having. But a learner needs to be aware for that course that they'll need to study vocabulary on their own, its JUST a pronunciation improvement course.

[heynhay]

How draw like you T^T

Do you have any advice for learning to draw better? Like, resources or practices or anything?

Time. and referencing. No way around it but to put in the hours.

[nostalgicfortomorrow]

mako and bolin parallel each other because:

mako kept everything soft and sweet inside of him, curled into a tight little ball while he trapped himself in a hard casing in order to protect his brother.

bolin kept everything hard and angry and destructive into a pit of lava in his soul, hoping it would never come out. he encased it in layers of softness and naivety because someone has to make sure that people doesn't consume themselves with their own anger but bolin being able to bend lava when there were no other "softer" options, while the fire burned in his eyes and you could see the stone and flames consume him and he knew that theres no other way to do this except embrace this side of you BECAUSE HOW ELSE ARE YOU GOING TO SAVE YOUR BROTHER WHO DID EVERYTHING TO PROTECT YOU AND YOU DID EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO MAKE HIM HAPPY.

[freakinator]

yknow with tthe whole cc!kab rping an actual character rather than just being herself with extra steps thing i should prbs talk about her character in a different way compared to other lsers cause it feels wrong to talk about her in the same way that i do for the others when she plays in such a significantly different way

[thelov3lybookworm]

Pls tell me the secrets to writing fics as good as you🙏🙏

the way i actually just went

the secret is to read 70 books in one year and then not read any the next 🤓

JOKES ASIDE POOKIE ILYSM THANK YOU THIS BOOSTED MY EGO SO MUCH 🥹🥹🥹

[britneyshakespeare]

My toxic trait is that I like how my incomplete drawings look better than the finished things

[lunarharp]

“sorry i dont always get it” (from april) & “sorry i dont always understand” the sequel 🍷🍓

[diteach]

Practicing a beauty sport when you're ugly as hell grants you a place in heaven btw

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

My gf is the GM of a cool little ttrpg group I'm in, but she's been busy this week and the session was going to be cancelled

I couldn't deal with losing the weekly game night, so I asked if I could GM a "beach episode" (which ended up being a holiday episode actually since I've now written it)

I've never been a GM before. I want to, desperately, but it's daunting. So I figured a holiday episode would be a really good start!

It's two days before the session. I've never been a GM. Never planned a session. I got the idea while procrastinating my job and immediately asked my gf if I could. I didn't think it through.

Consequences of my actions

But I actually kind of wrote down what I want to do and it's been very fun, and I have another day to finalize this plan

[orcelito]

Survived today fine. Just chilling now.

Ordered a new bridge for my violin. Current one is kinda bent (from age, I think) and I think it's affecting my sound quality. It's supposed to come in on Saturday, along with some mutes (both for performing and also for practicing. First for making it quiet while playing a song and second to make it quieter in general so you're less disruptive while practicing. I think.) and also some sand paper. Because I'm probably gonna have to sand the legs of the bridge some to adjust it to my violin's shape.

I've never replaced a bridge before. I've put one back *on* after at least one time of accidentally knocking it out one way or another. Kinda really inconvenient. Gotta loosen all the strings, position it, then re-tune the entire thing. So that part is inconvenient, but familiar. But the sanding it into shape....... well, I might look up an instructional video or something. Just in case. It seems like it'd be pretty intuitive, but better to be safe than sorry.