#definitely let me know! i tried not to rely on google translate the best i could

[vodid]

hallo <3 ich lerne heute deutsch und mein vater seht ein american football spiel. es ist ein bisschen laut </3 so ist meine katze! laut kätzchen! sie hat hunger aber ich fütterte sie schon!!

und jetzt geht mein vater zu bett! time for some peace and quiet! i have no idea if i wrote any of that correctly but i tried! :'D

[shinydelirium]

Kiro’s R&S: Lonely (Season 2 Chapters, 2-5) Translation [CN]

***WARNING!!! THIS POST CONTAINS CONTENT THAT HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED YET ON EN SERVER!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED!!!***

This is a translation from Kiro’s R&S for Season 2, Chapters 2-5. Just to let everyone know, I do not know any Chinese but I have taken an interest in learning it because of this game. Therefore, I’m learning the language as I go. Everything has been done using Google Translate so do expect some errors and mistranslations. I’ve tried my best to make it flow well. Also, shout out to @link4eva for walking me through this process. I’m not gonna hide the fact that I hate technology and technology hates me so this is my first time posting something so monstrous, lol. Without further ado, please enjoy! 

***Some context before reading. The events of this R&S takes place towards the end of Season 1 when an impending comet is about to hit Earth. MC spends what little time she has left with the guys until she is summoned to some unknown place and gets set back in time.***

Even if the world fusion collapses, it cannot stop a firm heart.

[Chapter 1]

*Click, click*

The sound of the gear turning stopped again and behind the door that was slowly opened, a calm voice sounded.

“She has gone.”

Drifting light spots lingered in the endless darkness and the stairs slowly retreated to its origin. Everything seems to have not happened and it seems to be silently waiting for some tomorrow to come.  

“The future is far away, but it will come.”

Helios didn’t speak, but stood still, looking towards the end of the stairs.

“Are you scared?”

The person in the dark tempted again, and he smiled after listening.

“No matter how difficult it is, she will definitely find a way so that everyone can meet tomorrow. What is there to be afraid of?”

At the end of the speech, his voice became very soft, containing some fear hidden in his heart.

The girl’s face slowly appeared in front of Helios’ eyes. He suddenly remembered that in the world of Eternal Winter, she kept approaching bravely, gritted her teeth to face all the unknowns, remembering every moment she had illuminated. He always believed that she would be able to make the most correct choice and let the doomsday meet the future. It’s just...

There was a seemingly silent laugh from the darkness. Helios released the palm he had just unintentionally clenched, and turned to look at the scattered light spots, “I just want to know one thing.” His hand gently lifted. The light spot swayed at his fingertips, like stars hanging in the dark, losing their orbit. “That uncontrollable future is the future of this world?”

The distant voice seemed to sigh, “What do you think the world is like?”

Helios did not speak.

“The countless choices of mankind have gathered into all nets of the world. It is infinitely extended and leads to the future.” He paused. “But the future will end. This is countless civilizations relying on the destruction, over and over. The conclusion drawn again. Although it is moving forward slowly, it seems to return to a certain point of origin.”

“Destruction.” Helios raised his head and said this word in disbelief.

“This world should have stopped today, but a possibility has arisen.” While Helios was still speculating on the deep meaning behind this, the voice did not stop. “This possibility gives her the ability to choose the most correct one. The path leads the world to a distant place beyond truth and common sense.”

Helios frowned slightly and caught the core part of the words in an instant. “You mean, there will be even more incredible changes in the future?”

“This is not a question I can answer.”  

The sound of the gear turning sounded again, and the person’s voice seemed a little tired, and finally slowly disappeared in the darkness, like the last hint.

“This world has completed its choice, and it will not stay. It will continue to move forward to witness the arrival of tomorrow, no matter what posture or form this tomorrow is presented to humanity...It belongs to the tomorrow of this world, and you...” The voice faintly revealed the meaning of expectation and scrutiny, “Tomorrow you will naturally be the same as her, you will be the way you crossed from today to tomorrow.”

[Chapter 2]

From the dome of the hall, one can see the lights of comets approaching from the sky. The people around the round table appear to be extremely silent. They all looked at Helios who walked in, seeming to be waiting for his final answer.

“It’s too early to prepare for the end.” Helios walked to the front of the main seat, but did not sit down. He gently propped his hands on the round table, and there seemed to be sparks jumping in his eyes. “Everything went according to the original plan. In time, we have a lot to do.” When everyone dispersed, Helios stood alone in the hall, looking to the sky through the dome, and muttered, “It seems that the secret that I can’t tell you is still valuable.”

No one can be seen on the street where the end is coming, not to mention such remote alleys. At the end, there is only the rustle of stray cats eating garbage.

Kiro pressed the brim of his hat, turning around in the scattered alleys in a familiar way, until a faint yellow light slowly hit his eyes. A little “Mondlicht” was written on the side of the door, like the spell of an ancient magician. He glanced at the end of the sky one last time, took a deep breath, and opened the door with firm eyes.

“Welcome.”

The man standing behind the bar didn’t seem to be surprised by the visitor who appeared suddenly. He gracefully wiped the wine glasses and greeted Kiro with a smile. Kiro quietly looked around and sat at the bar expertly.

“The end is two hours away. Do you want something to drink?” The man smiled and shook the wine bottle in his hand.

“It’s almost the end and you’re still opening the shop?” Kiro put his hat on the bar, ignoring the man’s invitation.  

“My life creed is, I’d rather stand earning money and die than to lie down bored.” The man seemed to be indifferent to Kiro’s refusal, still mastering the bottle with skillful control.

“I’m not here to drink.”

“You have tried so many times, don’t you ever give up?”

Kiro’s eyes flashed with a hint of anger but only for a moment. He slowly smiled.

“I have no reason to give up.”  

The man neatly put down the cup in his hand and took a breath: “Well, since you’re so insistent, I won’t stop you. The name is Drey.” ***Don’t know if this will be the name used for this character in EN server but it’s what Google Translate gave me, so we’ll go with it***

He put the wine in front of Kiro, the bright red liquid filled the man’s eyes with a smile, but seemed a little ruthless and indifferent.  

“Thank you for the business and support.”

[Chapter 3]

Kiro found Drey a month ago. Seeing Drey again, he still couldn’t control the urge to retch inside. Kiro sat on the sofa, clenched his palms fiercely, and like a constant trance in his heart, forced himself to give priority to the task at hand. In a daze, he saw the girl standing under the soft light and shadow, her face radiating with warm light. She reached out to him and called his name. “You are the best Kiro in the world.”

The slight pain in the palm of his hand slowly pierced all consciousness along his fingertips. He barely raised his eyes and calmly looked at the man Drey, who was standing not far from him, the first assistant of the experiment.  

Many years have passed since that distant and dark memory. He was also much older. Drey threw himself down in front of Kiro in a panic, “Please, don’t kill me...!!!”  

Kiro looked coldly at the man who was kneeling in front of him, his whole body shaking. “If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have let you escape that time.”

Trembling, he took the box thrown by Kiro and saw the glinting “S” on it. He was so scared that he almost dropped it to the ground.  

“How did you get this? No, you don’t need to answer me...” Drey shook his head and firmly gripped the box in his hand. He realized that Kiro who was cooperating with him now is no longer the advanced experiment: number 3684. Drey looked down at the box in his hand, “What do want me to do? Could it be...!!!”

Kiro knew from a long time ago that Drey was the person who knew his body data the best during that experiment, and naturally had enough ability to be the first assistant. “This is impossible!”

“I’m not here to listen to your nonsense.” Kiro interrupted him coldly, “You just have to work for me, right Dr. Drey “the current boss?”

Drey rubbed the box in his hand, gritted his teeth and finally let out a sigh of relief, “...I see, can the operating table on floor B4 be used?”

Even in the colorful laboratory covered with floral wallpaper, Kiro still had a serious mental rebuke. It took him a lot of effort to force himself to lie down on the experimental table. Since then, he can’t remember how many times he vomited and how many tubes of medicine he took.  

Drey frowned, “I said it’s going to be difficult for you to become stronger.” He lowered his head. “Your experimental success is not universal. Considering the collective interference of many micro-factors, your body may not be able to withstand the second experiment. The experiment made your genes, under the catalysis of a special substance, form their own unique irregular structure, which is absolutely different from ordinary people.” He pursed his mouth and paused, his expression stricken, and looked at Kiro. “And we are not sure whether this reaction will continue, and all the side effects can’t be estimated. Why should you take such a big risk!?! You are fully capable now...”

“It’s okay, let’s just get there first today.” Kiro wiped the blood from his mouth, barely propped himself up and sat on the experimental table. The night fog filled him countless times, tying him into the abyss in the dark night. There are countless ferocious and scrutinizing gazes. He is standing in the bloody prison, but now, he is no longer afraid.  

“I said that you aren’t too tired to go home and eat dessert?” Since Kiro accidentally missed the dessert date, this person always used it to tease him from time to time. Kiro didn’t answer him. He walked around the store several times, slowing down his trembling footsteps, “Is it natural?” ***Don’t really understand what's going here in this scene, lol***

The boss nodded, “It’s okay. You guys finished so early today?”

“It’s because there is a special performance today.” Kiro put on his hat, blocking most of his face, “It’s very important.”

Kiro walked towards floor B4 step by step. When he arrived at the entrance of the laboratory, Drey was already there waiting for him. “We’ve tried numerous times and if you continue like this, your body may...”  

“It’s fine.” He unwaveringly interrupted Drey’s unfinished words. “There has been progress last time, hasn’t there? Let’s keep going.”

Kiro’s footsteps towards the laboratory were extremely firm. The whole world seemed to be only a piece of endless white, with the girl’s back at the end. He kept ordering himself to run towards her. This has always been the case. Although there is not much time to download this voice, he will never give up even if it is the end.  

[Chapter 4]

When Kiro opened his eyes again, he knew that he had won the bet. Even if he didn’t have the strength to lift a finger, he raised a satisfied and happy smile for the first time. He couldn’t remember how long he laid until he could finally and slowly prop up his arm to support himself. He sat on the operating table panting and wanted to pull out the infusion affixed to his arm in disgust.  

“it’s better not to pull that one out.”

Kiro raised his eyes in warning. The boss leaned against the door holding a hot cup of coffee along with a smile that has remained unchanged for years. Kiro blinked and tilted his head, “The time...”

“Don’t worry. It seems that the comet hasn’t hit yet.” The man stretched out his index finger and pulled Drey over who happened to be passing by and came back to check the situation. “Look at him.”

Kiro breathed a sigh of relief and covered his head with a bit of pain. Drey hurried over and said, “You’ve just woke up now, don’t be so anxious. You need to be observed again.”

Kiro snorted coldly. With a sound, the microcomputer he had been carrying around suddenly rang. He grabbed his head and pulled off the infusion from his body. He stood, limping hurriedly and almost fell to the ground due to the excessive movement.

“You can’t move right now!” Drey stopped him in a rush.

“Let go!” Kiro waved Drey’s hand away, reluctantly pressing it against the wall. He turned on the computer, tapping the keyboard intermittently with stiff fingers, looking at the screen with a heavy expression. “You guys leave.”

“You can’t use your abilities now!” Drey still insisted on explaining to Kiro, “We are not yet sure about their stability. Your current body is too weak. If you use your enhanced abilities immediately, you will...”

“Get out.” Kiro’s voice did not have a hint of warmth or room for argument.  

“But your body...!!!”

“Excuse me.” The man drinking coffee beside him smiled and shook the syringe that came out of nowhere. “You will not be charged for the gift.” Kiro stretched out his pinhole arm without hesitation, “Thank you.”

Kiro recovered some strength after the drug injection. He leaned in the corner of the laboratory and gently closed his eyes.  

“Ki...mmph!”

“.....If I said I might know a way, would you believe me?”

“It’s okay, you’re already amazing and you’re still my superhero!”

“Will you leave again this time too...?”

“I believe that no matter who you are, you will not change...”

“No matter what decision you make, I’ll support it.”

“All this time, you have always been illuminating me.”

He can always hear her voice. Kiro gently opened his eyes and saw himself in the mirror. He raised his mouth unconsciously, without a trace of hesitation. Since this world will not end, no matter what happens, it will become the future of tomorrow. He has to be prepared for this unknown future.  

The golden light in the pupils of his eyes danced in the mirror but at this time, it was like a gentle and powerful blessing, giving strength to those who can cross all obstacles to reach hope. Even if it may be temporarily silent in time because of the drastically changing world, one day it will become a milestone to guide the future, pointing to the end in its heart, and meeting the long-awaited person.

“I command you to always be the one and only brightly shining Kiro--to be brave and to keep getting stronger.”

“I command you to never forget her.”

“She is MC, your Miss Chips.”

“She is your most favorite person.”

The golden light diffused through the pupils into every nerve ending and blood, melting into the grand and brilliant white snow at the end of the world to form the final agreement. The world was slowly shrouded by the seemingly gentle but unbreakable water mist. It was born from the bright white light and permeated the earth, extending in countless directions. On the note-filled recording paper in the notebook, the notes on the staff seemed to be placed upside down, disappearing one by one on the paper. And all this is just a moment.  

End

[tarlosprompts]

could you do something like tk is learning Spanish and carlos is helping him and just dying over how cute tk and his lil accent is

Learning Español

Claimed by Red💋

*FEEL FREE TO CORRECT MY SPANISH-I took French all throughout High School and part of College...I know some basic phrases/words in Spanish, but the rest I’m using Google Translate for*

Warnings: cursing, teasing, a smudging of implied sexual themes

All TK wanted to do was be able to communicate better with the Hispanic population of Texas. Considering the amount of times they’ve been called to kitchen fires or other emergencies revolving around the Hispanic population, he needed to learn how to communicate with them because they wouldn’t be able to always rely on Mateo to be there to translate...plus he thinks that Mateo probably doesn’t always tell them everything that the callers say. But the point is that he was not learning Spanish because of his boyfriend-it wasn’t because he wanted to be able to surprise his boyfriend by being able to communicate with his family in two months when they went to his cousin’s baby shower.

TK also refused to tell the team that he was learning Spanish, he was absolutely not asking for help. He’d rather die than feel the embarrassment of stumbling through his totally true excuse of wanting to communicate with the people they were called to help. So he had Duo Lingo...and he swears that he’d be haunted by that little Owl by the time two months-he means when he finishes learning what he needs to learn to communicate with the Spanish speaking population of Austin. 

Logically, TK knew he would eventually be caught in the act...he just thought it’d be closer to the deadline-he means closer to the time he was more fluent in Spanish...for the population of Austin that spoke primarily Spanish. 

TK had been practicing with his headphones in. Since he’d finished his chores early and everyone else still had a while to go, he thought he’d be safe in practicing verbally on his bunk. Listening to the audio, he repeated the sentences quietly, “Buenos dias. ¿Cómo estás?*” He cringed at his obvious northern accent with the words. 

He passed the audio, having to type out a few sentences on his phone before the next audio appeared. TK rolled his eyes at the sentence. He’d known that one from the amount of people they got coming into the station having an emergency regarding not being able to hold their bladders. “¿Dónde está el baño?**”

“¿Seriamente? Sabes dónde está el baño, TK,***” Mateo called as he and Marjan entered the room. 

TK will forever deny the fact that he shouted in surprise. He shut his phone screen off, stuffing it, and his headphones, into his pocket. He could feel the blush rising up his neck. “I-I know where the bathroom is,” TK stuttered.

Marjan raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you trying to learn Spanish from an app on your phone, TK?” He could already see the teasing glint in her eyes.

“What? No. What makes you think that?”

She smirked, “Creo que es lindo que estés aprendiendo español para Carlos.^”

TK didn’t know exactly what that meant, but he could make a few guesses based on the words he’d already learned. “I’m not-it’s not for Carlos. It is definitely not for Carlos. Like, over 50% of the population in-in Texas is Hispanic. I want to-I want to be able to communicate with them in case-in case Mateo isn't here...hey, I didn’t know you spoke Spanish,” he tried desperately to try to force the focus off of himself...but that was a no go. 

“That’s sweet...but we know you’re learning for Carlos.”

“What’s TK learning for Carlos,” Judd asked as he walked in, followed by Paul. 

“Nothing,” TK answered quickly.

“Él quiere poder hablar español a su amante,^^” Mateo smiled widely.

“For the non fluent Spanish speakers in the room,” Paul asked. 

“TK wants to be able to talk to Carlos in Spanish...Mateo and I think it’s cute.”

“Oh my God, I didn’t even know a person’s face could get that red,” Paul chuckled as he looked at TK. 

In a fit to get out of the room and hopefully throw them off their game, TK growled out, “Cállate, pendejos^^^.” Thankfully, the alarm sounded. Soon enough they would have to work and they wouldn’t be able to think about the fact that TK was learning Spanish. 

___________

Shift couldn’t end soon enough. He had dealt with the team teasing him all day. His dad had stepped in at one point, wanting to know what had the crew in stitches. To say his dad was amused would be an understatement. He could blame it on the embarrassment for forgetting to beg the crew not to mention it to Carlos...and God was he beating himself up about that slip of the mind. 

“~Mierda,” TK groaned to himself as Carlos beamed at him from where he was standing with Mateo and Marjan. TK had decided that if he was going to be teased by his crew, he might as well learn the important Spanish words: the swear words. “I hate all of you,” he growled as he walked past Marjan, Mateo, and Carlos.

The way to Carlos’s place was quiet. TK could tell that Carlos had many questions, but he was respecting TK’s privacy. TK knew that he would come clean once they got home, but he let himself have this moment to prepare for Carlos’s reaction later. “/Tan estúpido,” he muttered to himself, “should have just kept it on written and matching.”

“How long have you been studying Spanish? You seem to be switching between Spanish and English easily,” Carlos quietly spoke, as if afraid to broach the subject because he thought he might scare TK off. 

“Not long enough,” was the response. 

That raised many questions but Carlos kept his mouth closed. He bit his lip, trying hard not to continue on the subject...but it was just so cute. It was clear that TK had a good ability at learning quickly and being able to remember the vocabulary. But the best thing about the whole experience of TK speaking Spanish was his accent. The little lilt in his words from growing up in New York absolutely had Carlos’s heart beating faster. “I could teach you,” it slipped out before Carlos had the chance to stop it.

TK went even more tense than he had been. “I’m not in the mood to be made fun of by my own boyfriend,” he bit out.

“Amor, that’s not what this is. I want to help you learn...hearing the words fall from your lips...it’s cute and sexy as hell,” Carlos chanced a look over at TK as they pulled into the driveway. 

TK was biting his lip, seeming to think over the idea. “¿Seriamente?,” he finally asked. “You’re not going to make fun of me when I can’t pronounce the words right...or when the accent isn’t right?”

“//Soy tan serio como puede ser. The accent is cute, Querido.”

TK’s eyes narrowed at Carlos as if looking for a lie. “///Lo que digas Papi.”

Carlos felt the arousal course through his body. From the look on TK’s face, he could see just what he was doing to Carlos. If the smirk was anything to go by, he had already planned out the night. “Say it again,” Carlos whispered. 

“Lo que digas,” the smirk widened. 

Carlos growled, “you know that’s not what I meant.”

“I think you’ll have to be more specific next time, Papi…”

____________

*Good morning. How are you?

**Where is the bathroom?

***Seriously? You know where the bathroom is, TK.

^I think it’s cute that you’re learning Spanish for Carlos

^^He wants to speak Spanish for his lover

^^^Shut up, jackasses

~Shit

/So stupid

//I’m as serious as can be

///whatever you say daddy

[rigelmejo]

Review of Lingq and Reader Language Apps

My tentative review of lingq: Literally seems to serve the same function for me as the Pleco Reader. The positive benefit of using lingq - it highlights words you don’t know in blue, words you’ve started learning in yellow, and words you already know are left unhighlighted. This is motivating because the progress you make is clear, and the words you already know you don’t try to over-study or re-memorize (because my perfectionist tendencies LOVE to get hung up studying things I already know before progressing). Lingq also counts the words you’ve marked as known. That is the primary reason I’m trying the app - I wanted to gauge how many chinese words I actually can read and am familiar with.

However, the core negatives to lingq: their dictionary/lookup function for words is clunky and inconvienient. It only shows the most common translation at a quick click pop up and that isn’t necessarily nuanced or correct. The pop up is hard to get rid of because you have to expand it then exit out of it, which is inconvenient and slows down reading (I wish I could just click the pop-up again or click the word again to remove the translation pop up). It has options to search more in-depth definitions on sites like baidu, but all the steps that takes makes doing so just as time consuming as opening the internet browser or baidu app and searching it that way. So the dictionary option I find is lacking and inconvienient, and that affects ease of reading/ease of use. The dictionary feature IS better than the Idiom reader app, but Idiom reader app also has the ability to look up more in-depth definitions which takes just as much time as lingq/a web browser. 

Basically - Pleco Reader is eons better than both of them. Pleco Reader’s only draw back in definitions, is it provides so many that the less familiar you are with chinese, the more its a puzzle of which definition applies (but usually the top ones are the most common, so it’s rarely an issue) - but a reader can’t be expected to know which meaning of 15 possible a writer may have intended, if that meaning’s one of the least common. So it’s just nice that pleco provides the less common ones so it’s easy to look up when those situations arise. In addition, Pleco Reader is very convenient to flip from dictionary explanations back to reader, not slowing the reading experience. Lingq ALSO has very few chinese materials in varying levels. It seems to rely on users uploading their own materials. So a lot of it seems to be ripped from a textbook, or web article, or native book. Pleco Reader in comparison has several graded readers available to purchase, which are great for picking materials at your actual reading level, with relatively high frequency words to learn, and with grammar that should be comprehensible. Also, pleco lets me import any of my own pdf, ebook, and txt documents, along with any website. So I can read webnovels on there, my own graded readers I’ve got from other places, etc. Pleco Reader is MUCH more convenient for reading virtually whatever you want, and it’s definitions are both easier to access (including most idioms you’re likely to encounter) and more likely to have most helpful definition. 

Probably the biggest difference - Lingq is 12.99 a MONTH. Pleco Reader has a one time cost of 10-20 dollars (depending on the package you buy). Then Pleco sends you a code so if you ever lose your app/get a new phone/something goes wrong, you can enter the code and get back all your purchases. A one time cost is eons more affordable, and really kind of them. I especially like that they put in the effort to give you the ability to recover your purchase if you have any issues. I bought the 20 dollar package I think - so I could get the expanded dictionary, with pretty much any word or idiom I’d ever see, natural speech audio, and the Reader. It has been well worth it. I’ve been using pleco for like 4 months, so the longer I use it the more that cost seems minimal (it’d be like the equivalent of 5$ a month before, free now. Or the equivalent of the cost of Lingq for less than 2 months).

Lingq’s cost PER month I’m not sure I could feel justified in spending. The ONLY added benefit I see of using Lingq over Pleco, is lingq has color coded the words you know/don’t know/are learning, and lingq counts how many words you know. Those two features are motivating. But they’re just motivational benefits. 

Other then that, Lingq has the following features: audio (Pleco Reader has this too), flashcards (using anki or memrise for free appear to be equally good or better than lingq’s feature, especially because you can simply export from lingq), cloze-like questions (again, memrise, anki, Quizlet, and even in some ways clozemaster are free alternatives). I personally hate flashcard type study, so I use memrise when necessary but generally would never use such features - so lingq’s flashcard features aren’t worthwhile for me. If they’re something you’re interested in - again, there seem to be free options available that are as good as or better than lingq. 

So, at least for my own personal learning preferences, lingq does not seem to be worth it. Everything it provides is available somewhere else for cheaper, for a one time cost, or free. Pleco Reader I think offers the most benefits and convenience out of every Language-Reader app I’ve tried. Compared to: Lingq, idiom, using Baidu itself on a webpage, etc - closest comparison is the free ZhongWen chrome extension on chinese sites, I think that’s nearly as convienient as Pleco Reader and obviously the alternative for when you’re on a computer. Idiom is actually a really nice app considering it’s free, and it does serve the basic purpose (Pleco Reader is a one time purchase cost) - idiom has sometimes incorrect translations/audio, but over all if you read enough content then that’s just a few words a paragraph or page that you won’t be able to study.  Those words can be looked up separately in a free dictionary app (like free Pleco’s dictionary, or google translate, or baidu) if they keep confusing you or keep seeming to be wrong. 

Lingq just... does not seem worth 12.99 a month, for only the added benefit of making it obvious which words you know/don’t know/are studying. Other than that single ability, there are comparable tools out there that already does what Lingq does or better, for cheaper or free. 

Overall, readers I would recommend:

Pleco Reader (10 dollars, or a bit more if you buy it in a package, single time purchase) - benefits include the only dictionary you’ll need, audio (per word or for entire text), flashcard making ability, option to import any ebook/txt/website, option to one-time purchase graded readers. Although paid, I appreciate that all purchases are one time only. On a phone, this is the app I overwhelmingly rely on - it has everything I need in one area. I personally like to open up mtlnovels.com and read the novels with dual chinese/english, so I can look at the english sentences afterward - and use Pleco Reader as I get through the chinese chunks to make sure I can look up words I don’t know. If I were going to start translating, I’d probably use this method so I could get a gist of the meaning in english, then go through each line and fix errors and improve the translation for idioms and less straightforward meanings. For reading for Ease, that method’s the best for me to get through the novels I want to read. For reading intensively, I just open up a novel I want to read in all chinese and chug through it using pleco to look up words I stumble on. 

Free alternative: Zhongwen chrome extension. Equally extensive dictionary, links to grammar points, audio (per word), can read anything online or opened in a chrome browser (so you could open your txt documents in it) - sometimes works on subtitles on videos too. Subtitles on viki, on netflix, seem to be readable by zhongwen. It may work on some pdfs opened in chrome. Only available on computers. It’s really fantastic. If you’re on a computer I’d just recommend using this one overall. 

Free Alternative: Idiom - app. dictionary is decent, but some errors or limitations mean occasionally looking up words in another free dictionary app (Google Translate, Baidu Translate, Pleco Dictionary). Machine audio (per word), also sometimes has errors. Can read anything on a website. There are some other readers that serve the same function as idiom, I’ve seen one for webnovels... but I think at idiom overall is as good as or better than the other options out there. Idiom does not auto-link you to novel websites, but if you can find them then you can put any url in. Idiom also works for MANY languages - so you can also use it for french/spanish/japanese/etc. Idiom is the app I use for french, since obviously Pleco Reader is just for chinese. For free readers, and readers in other languages, I think idiom’s the best bet. Lingq might have more appeal for language learners of other languages - since it IS a little better than idiom with providing the correct translations, but lingq’s translations are still off sometimes TOO. So, if you’re learning a language that isn’t chinese, I’d recommend trying Idiom for free and seeing if it’s useful to you before shelving out money for anything paid. 

Not a reader, but there are two netflix dual subtitle chrome extensions that work really well for reading with a dictionary too, I’ll list them later when I look them up. These are ALSO available to use in many languages, so that’s nice. for both of the free dual subtitle extensions, Zhongwen also seems to work for them (if you ever want to look up a secondary definition).

Dictionary Apps:

Google Translate - good for drawing the characters, at least for me it has the easiest time recognizing what I’m trying to look up (I’m left handed and draw characters with my right on my phone so). When I’m watching tv its easy to open google and draw an unknown character in the app when I don’t know the pinyin. It usually only offers the most frequent/common definition, so it has limitations - but for a quick lookup of one word its usually convenient. For a quick gist of bigger chunks of text, google translate is also a quick way to do it although at least some words and phrases WILL probably be incorrect. 

Pleco Dictionary - this part of the pleco app is free. The definitions are the most thorough I’ve seen, and the easiest to get a meaningful definition if google translate is inadequate. Pleco’s definitions hands down seem to be the best. You have to pay for one of the packages to access the ability to draw characters to look them up, to access idiom translations, natural voice pronunciations, and a much more massive dictionary. I just bought it - and now I rarely have to use google translate. Only negative - have to look up things word by word, or by idiom/phrase. Other then that, it’s the best one probably.

Baidu Translate - also free. Biggest benefit is the ability to put a url in and have it machine translate the entire page. Like google, it’s very useful to get a quick gist of bigger chunks of text, and a handful of those words or phrases may be translated wrong. It’s fun to use it to translate english pages to chinese (again, some errors will crop up). It’s sometimes better than Google translate for looking up individual words, and phrases - but also has its limitations. 

Overall I use Baidu and Google for chunks of translations, and then Pleco or Zhongwen for specific words or phrases. It’s why I like using dual chinese/english mtlnovels.com in Pleco Reader - because then the big-chunk machine translated english is already provided (and the only thing Pleco Reader can’t do), and so I can just use pleco to go by word and phrase to get specific pieces of translation that are more accurate. 

I use Google translate or Pleco Dictionary for looking up words by drawing characters - but this is only a free feature in Google translate (and honestly I think Google translate recognizes my handwriting better - so I usually use Google, then if the definition isn’t helpful I copy paste the text version of the word into pleco dictionary). 

[amarevia]

PH Volume 22 Drama CD: Another Story of Promise Lost - Translation

It’s been brought to my attention that the links to @meilibells’s blog are now broken, so I’m reposting their translation in its full length for everyone to enjoy! Long post under the cut. PH Drama CD Masterpost

PH Volume 22 Drama CD: Another Story of Promise Lost (Rough Translations!)

Hello! I decided to translate all of the Drama CD after getting my hands on the tracks from here! The whole thing is super cute, so I hope you will enjoy it! However, I would like to note that my translations aren’t perfect and I translated this from the Chinese translation, so needless to say, some things will be lost in translation. ALSO OBLIGATORY SPOILER TAG. Anyways, enjoy!

Woman: “Anyways… Are you leaving?” Man: “Ah… Sorry, I cannot go with you.” Woman: “No… I don’t want [you to leave].” –holds tightly- Man: ! Woman: “I love you… I love you! I don’t want to part ways with you…….!” Man: “………. Why?” Woman: “Eh?” Man: “Why must you say such a thing…… I had finally made up my mind and decided to give up! I believe that this is the best for you… This is the best way!” Woman: “If you really are thinking of what’s best for me… then I beg you, do not leave me.” Man: ! –holds close- Woman: ………….. ! Man: “Perhaps I’ll cause you to suffer, but even so… do you really want to be with me?” Woman: “Of course… As long as I could be with you, I don’t need anything else.” BOSS: “Heh… heh heh heh heh… ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!” Woman: …! “This voice… could it be… brother?!” BOSS: “What a bad child… betraying me? Listen, you’re my little sister. You’re mine. I’ll never allow you to become someone else’s… I won’t allow it… won’t allow it… won’t allow it… won’t allow it! Ah hah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!” –pulls out sword- ~FIGHT~ Woman: “No——!!” -man falls to the ground- Woman: “No… No…! Why did it turn out this way ahhhh——“ BOSS: “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ! ! ! !” Levi: “…. Oi”  -balls up draft and throws it away- Levi: “Ah ~~~~~ This won’t work. [I believe he mentions something about “writers block” right here, but he’s definitely saying that he can’t seem to write anything good.] Jack: “GFCOMI、PandoraHearts第22卷初回限定特裝版CD、Another Story of Promise Lost.” Levi: “——To Summarize. Jack, Lacie, hurry up and give me some topics.” Jack: “…Haah.” Lacie: “I refuse.” Levi: “Dammit! You’re the same as always, unwilling to be comply. Even though I already knew that would be the case!” Jack: “No, even if you say that… if you don’t explain in detail, we won’t even understand what’s going on.” Lacie: “Don’t bother with him, Jack. 瓶頸期 is just sugar coating it. Frankly speaking, he finally figured out that he has never written anything worth publishing into a novel. This is a good thing, so you should give up.  [Some notes with what she says here: *瓶頸期 means bottleneck, although I’m not sure if I should put that in there. I think this link: (http://brainslink.com/2013/09/you-might-be-a-bottleneck-if/) should explain what she means with Levi. After Lacie basically says that he has no talent in writing and cannot be compared to actual writers, but I thought changing that up would make it sound nicer. Lastly, when she tells him to 封筆, here means to seal your pen, which means give it up.] Levi: “Who says it’s about my writing skills!” Jack: Very well, Lacie! However Glen, unfortunately I don’t have any literary talent, so I’m afraid it would be difficult to help you…” Levi: “That kind of thing does not matter, Jack. ——What I want to hear about your experiences of lust.” [I tried Google to help me with the first word 戀情 but they just translated it to love too. However, it might have more to do with lust than love.]  Jack: “Lust?” Levi: “Or love.” Lacie: “Boring.” Levi: “Because before whether I wrote of a knight, detective, or whatever, the core of my story all had to do with the friendship between two men. This is why for my next work, I want to try writing a steamy love novel.” Jack: “Then there’s even less to say. That kind of thing would have to rely on your own experiences in order to make it more persuading.” Lacie: “What are you saying, Jack. That kind of guy couldn’t have truly ever fallen in love with someone.” Levi: “Hey, you sure know how to talk. In this whole Baskerville house, there isn’t any man that is has more passion than I do” Jack: “Eh— Is it like that?” Levi: “Ah. In fact, I am in love right now.” Jack: “Who?” Levi: “Lacie.” –the sound of a teapot shattering- Oswald: “Wha…What are you saying!? Master!?” Levi: “What? You were here the whole time, Oswald?” Lacie: “He’s been standing behind you this whole time.” Jack: “Ah— The tea that was prepared [More accurately he’s saying something along the lines of ‘what a waste’ but only because they went through all that trouble to prepare it.]… -walking over to pick up the pieces-. Oswald: “If… If you ever lay hands on my sister I’ll never forgive you!” Jack -as he continues picking up the pieces-: “No, no. Oswald. I think no matter who it is, they should be free to like who they want to.” Oswald: “Hah!? Eh… Ah… That’s true…” Levi: “That’s exactly right, Oswald. Even I understand how you would feel if your cute sister was taken away by a Master who is completely opposite from you: intelligent, handsome, and respected like the mighty river. [His words are very flashy and there’s probably more praise that I left out. I’m afraid I had to simplify it since it’s just too flashy for me.] If I were in your position, I’ll definitely feel inferior and shame. So sad!” Lacie: “You’re free to cut him down, brother.” Oswald: “I understand, if you’re going to say something like that … -pulls out sword- Master! Please prepare yourself!  Jack: Okay, okay, Oswald. -pats- Ah, let me ask this, what do you like about Lacie then, Glen? Levi: That she isn’t cute. Oswald: My sister is very cute!! Levi: Ah, that’s not what I meant. I think the fact that she isn’t cute is cute. You probably don’t understand. Oswald: Ah? Levi: “And I simply like her face. Her black hair is very beautiful.” Lacie: “The reason you like me is because of my appearance and how I’m not cute. How awful.” Jack: “So… this is saying that Glen likes black-haired woman then, right?” Levi: “Well~~… It’s not saying that I love all woman with black hair. [It’s a bit hard to translate it clearly, but he’s saying that black hair isn’t his Type. This is why he follows up, saying that the last woman he likes has blonde hair. It’s a bit like if someone had a thing for short-haired woman and therefore everyone he likes has short hair, etc.] Before Lacie, the last woman I liked had blonde hair.” Jack: “Hey— could it be that person was also a Baskerville?” Levi: “Ah, yes. She was my Glen predecessor.” Oswald: “Isn’t that bad!?” Lacie: “This is my first time hearing of this.” Jack: “Predecessor…” Levi: “Because she always cross-dressed, I didn’t know she was a woman until a long time had passed. After liking her I lost to her many times and was even beat up by her.” [He mentions here that he tried to challenge the situation many times but lost. I think we can safely assume he got rejected a bunch of times.] Lacie: “I have nothing to say.” Jack: “However, perhaps the two of you are a very good fit.” Levi: “No, in the end nothing happened between the two of us…” Jack: “I’m talking about Lacie, Glen.” Lacie: “Eh?” Oswald: “WHA-?!” Levi: “Ohhh?” Jack: “Because you two have known each other for so long, and understand each other well. What do you think, Oswald?” Oswald: “B-B-B-B-Becoming lovers… those two………..” -FANTASY TIME- Levi: “Ah ha ha ha ha~ Wait for me~ Lacie~~” Lacie: “Ohuehue~ I’m over here~ Glen~” Levi: “Really~ You wild child~~ If you don’t stop now….” Jabberwocky: “ROAR——” Levi: “I’ll release my chain to catch you!” Lacie: “Aha~ The Jabberwocky in front of me is like a wall, I can’t go anywhere! What a headache~~” Levi: “See~~ I’ve caught you~~~” Lacie: “Ai~~ Really, releasing your chain is sly Glen~” Levi: “If you wish, I could let the black wings cover your eyes~~” Lacie: “Huehue… You really are a troublesome person … Glen, you’re hugging me so tightly it hurts. ” Levi: “Hey, Lacie…” Lacie: “Glen…”

Oswald: “No!!! I will never let something like this happen!!! I don’t want to see them like this!!! ” Lacie: Wait a minute, brother. You just made up some weird fantasy didn’t you? ” Levi: Is it like that? Brother-in-law? ” Oswald: “Who’s your brother-in law?! ” Jack: “But Oswald… ” Oswald: “Jack, shut up! You don’t understand this person at all! What Master is saying isn’t that he simply likes someone. He’s just speaking in the moment, and playing around!!! ” Jack: “Eh? That would be bad then. ” Levi: “I’m serious. ” Jack: “He says he’s serious. ” Oswald: “Don’t you take his serious, seriously! It’s just rubbish!” Levi: “You’re so mean, Oswald.” Lacie: “Ah. Really!! Stop playing around with my brother, Glen! My brother is different from you. He’s caring and pure and hardworking and cute!!” Levi: “But you obviously like to tease him too.” Lacie: “I can tease him! Me!” Oswald: “Yeah! Because I am my sister’s playmate!” Jack: “Oswald, what you are saying isn’t exactly the same as what she’s saying…” Levi: “It won’t work, Jack. The only thing this person can take pride in is being teased and playing dumb.” Oswald: “I am not old in the head yet! ” Levi: “You see. ” Lacie: “Hm? ” Jack: “What is it? Lacie?” Lacie: “Aaaaaaaaahh—————!!!!!” Jack: ! Oswald: “Lacie!” Lacie: “Brother!” -going into his arms- Oswald: “What wrong? What happened?” Lacie: “A bug…” Oswald: “A bug?” Lacie: “Yes! O-O-Over there… There’s one wriggling around and it has so many legs… Wuah! What a disgusting bug!” Levi: “Ha ha, really. It’s just a centipede.” Oswad: “Ahh, it’s wriggling around quite a lot…. Okay. Lacie, stand back. I’ll fix this right—” -pulls out sword- Jack: -steps on bug- Oswald: “Woahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh——!!!!” Lacie: “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh——!!!!” Levi: “Oh, you stepped on it. Jack, you stepped on the bug!” Jack: “Eh? Ah, Mm. It’s because I didn’t want to use my hands…” Oswald:” Even so you can’t do that!? What kind of person would step on the bug here like this?” Jack: “Eh? Lacie: “D-Don’t move, Jack! If you make one single step, I will not forgive you.” (*Bless celpika for translating the missing line. Thank you!) Jack: “Eh? Oswald: “Don’t move, don’t lift your foot to look. Ah, I can see it!!” Lacie: “I’m telling you not to move, Jack! How do you e-e-e-expect to clean your shoe that has the bug’s intestines all over it!?” Jack: “Um… wouldn’t it be okay to just wash it off?” Lacie: “That’s not the problem!” Jack: “Eh?” Levi: “Ah ah aha ha ha ha ha ha ha…. !!!” Oswald: I don’t understand… How you can be like this in this type of situation? No trace of confusion, or a little remorse, just as clear as water—” Jack: “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh——” Oswald: “Hm?” Lacie: “Jack?” Jack: “Ahh… Ah… Ahhh… it’s been killed… I killed an innocent life… Me… With one foot I stepped on it and killed it… !! Ahh !! What should I do…. !? How should I repent my sins… !!? What should… Oswald, tell me!?” -grabs onto him- Oswald: !? “You… What’s wrong with you, Jack?” Jack: “—— Didn’t you want to see me have this kind of reaction?” Oswald: “By acting?!” Jack: “Ah, how mean, I’ve always been very serious. Mm… Did I choose the wrong direction? How about this then? —— Wuuuu, what do I do, Oswald? I accidentally stepped on the bug! How disgusting. Help me wipe it off, hurry, help me wipe it off~~~ “ Oswald: “Ahh, stop messing around it’s disgusting!!” Jack: “Ah, I was scolded again. Aha ha.” Levi: “Pff ha ha hah… ha ha ha ha… ha ha ha ha!!! What are you two doing? It’s too hilarious… !!” Lacie: “Ah, how awful. Take off your shoes Jack, and clean the floors! I’m going to bed!” -turns to leave- Oswald: “Ah, wait! Lacie!” -chases after her-“ Jack: Um… Levi: “Ah… The cleaning equipment is all downstairs.” Oswald: “Lacie! Wait!” Lacie: “… What is it, brother?” Oswald: “Our conversation just earlier… If, If Master he really ——” Lacie: “Oh, don’t worry brother. Glen, he only wanted to see brother’s [worried/upset/puzzled] expression. That’s why he made this kind of joke.” Oswald: “Is that so?” Lacie: “Yes. But I also understand his feelings. Brother’s type of expression is very cute, I like it too.” Oswald: “(What kind of expression…?)” Lacie: “I won’t become anyone’s thing, and I don’t want to become anyone’s thing, until the very end.” Oswald: “If… !” Lacie: “Eh?” Oswald: “If Jack he… toward you…” Lacie: “Brother. Jack doesn’t love me. He… he doesn’t love anyone.” Jack: “Ai… who knew that Lacie hated bugs. What should I do, I seemed to have made her angry…” -wipes the floor- Levi: “Don’t worry, don’t worry. By the next day she won’t be angry anyways. Rather thinking about that, just then Lacie was amazing right?” Jack -as he wipes the floor-: “Amazing?” Levi: “How should I say this… The contrast? Seeing that someone like Lacie who always acts high and mighty is afraid of bugs. Crying over it in the end… Such a thing, don’t you feel that it makes you excited?” Jack: “… Haha. When a woman reveals another side of them they don’t usually show, it makes them more attractive.” Levi: “Oh! Sure enough, you have a rich experience don’t you? Come, tell me all of your interesting and funny experiences with dating woman.” Jack: “There is no such thing! And I have not been serious with the few I’ve dated…” Levi: “That’s enough! Compared to the idiot sis-con.” Jack: “But this will come a sad story.” Levi: “Oh? Tragic, is it? Very good, very good. What kind of person is she?” Jack: “Stella and Jane, Flora and Felice, Christine and Bella” Levi: “… So many.” Jack: “Marian and Bridgett… They are all very good woman. They all have beautiful bright smiles, they’re good at singing and dancing, and they are also brave and intelligent. However…” Levi: “However? What happened?” Jack: “They all… everyone died.” Levi: “Eh?” Jack: “Most of them died in an accident or from illness, and some even committed suicide. It is a very sad thing… very sad…” Levi: “Oh~ How could that happen. Even so what you are speaking have has nothing to do with love and romance, I am a person that is very concerned with follow up. So please start over again from how you met them.” Jack: “Ah… where to start… I met Stella when I was 17, she was the Vessalius’ maid. We… (hour’s later) —— And that’s how it happened, which is how my story with Bridgett ends.” Levi: …. “Ah— Ah, that’s no good. I feel like a piece of me has been taken away… It’s a good thing that Oswald isn’t here, if he heard this story then it might leave psychological scarring.” [I’m guessing he means that he’s disturbed, like when you feel like you lost a piece of yourself when you read something traumatizing.] Jack: “Really? This is nothing interesting, right?” Levi: “No no no no, what you have here is a very deep/memorable story Jack. Especially with Marian’s [CENSORED] and Felicia’s [ALSO CENSORED]! Right now, I will definitely be able to write a amazing story! Mhm, mhm!” Jack: “Is that so? If I can help you then that makes me happy, Glen. Now, I’m done with the cleaning so I’ll be going back today. Today I was able to hear about a lot of things that makes me happy.” Levi: “Jack.” Jack: “Yes?” Levi: “About our previous conversation, if I really did love Lacie, what would you do about it?” Jack: “Nothing, I won’t do anything.” Levi: “… Mm.” Jack: “Whoever likes Lacie, or whoever Lacie likes. That has nothing to do with me, does it?” Levi: “You think it’s fine how things are?” Jack: “Of course. Whatever happens, how I feel about Lacie will not change.” Levi: “In some degree that is an expected answer after all, I can feel relieved now. Your feelings for Lacie, could it be called love?” Jack: “Who knows. Is it or is it not? It’s difficult to use language to describe it, Glen.” Levi: “Is that so… sorry for asking you such a boring question, go ahead and forget about it.” Jack: “…. I…” Levi: “Mm?” Jack: “Want to keep living…” Levi: ! Jack: “I want to keep living… Glen…” Jack: “To me this world is the equivalent of all devouring darkness. Even so, because you’re here, because you found me——” Lacie: “Hey, you… You’ll catch a cold if you sleep in a place like this. My name is Lacie. Hey, what’s your name?” Jack: “I am Jack… Just Jack.” Oz: “Wuuuuu…. It’s such a good story!” Gilbert: “What is it Oz?… !! Are you crying… !?” Break: “What kind of book is that? I want to see … 《蕃花的耳语》? [Direct translation would be: Fan Flower’s Whisper, but I’ll keep it there because it’s not very good. It should be referring to the flowers on a tomato plant, but I can’t find an actual term for that.] Oz: “Gil… ! Break… ! This is a book Elliot lent me… !” Alice: “What’s a 蕃花? Sharon?” Sharon: “It refers to little tomatoes, Miss Alice. Ah, your face is covered with sauce… Mm, heheh… so cute.” –wipes- Alice: “Wuuu!” Gilbert: “How should I say this… this is an incredible book name. Is this book that interesting? Oz?” Oz: “Mm!! This book is by the same author of the book I borrowed before! （※公式小說3）It really is amazing… !! Before I read it I thought that it would be a love novel, however in the middle of the story it revealed that it is actually a horror novel! The last scene made it impossible for anyone not to burst into tears, it is a super touching novel! [THERE IS SO MUCH PRAISE IN THIS SENTENCE. Some of it was a bit hard to understand like 王道戀愛小說, which means royal/kingly love novel but putting royal in sounded weird. I would guess it seemed to be a love story between two royals but I can’t say for sure!] Break: “I could not understand what the content is about at all!” Emily: “Your description is sure awful, kid!” Break: “You said it~ Emily~” Oz: “If I were to reveal everything, then it wouldn’t be interesting!” Break: “It’s fine, after all I’m blind. Come~ Please give me the detailed spoilers, Oz-kun!” Oz: “Really! I guess there’s no other way…” Narrator - (Oz): “Is their encounter a coincidence? Or is it a mischief by destiny that they will have this fate? ” Man 1 - (Jack): “I’ve been wanting to see you! I’ve been looking for you… and I’ve finally found you!”  Woman - (Lacie): “I’m so happy… I’ve been wanting to see you as well.” Man 2 - (Oswald): “This is my problem… I can’t allow you to become involved…!” Man 1 - (Jack): “It’s not like that at all. You can rely on me, and I will be very happy.” Narrator - (Oz): “The same sentiments toward one another, and the building of a friendship… But, all this is very fragile and vain… so it collapsed.” Man 2 - (Oswald): “Everyone in this house go out and line up!! Right now!” Woman - (Lacie): “I will never forgive… I’ll never forgive brother! Aha ha ha ha ha ha ha!” Man 1 (Jack): “Your strength is great… very dangerous… it’s in the way!” Woman (Lacie): “Come brother, this is brother’s favorite tomato. Come eat. Come come come come come come——!!” Man 2 - “Oswald: Stop… stop!!!” Man 1 - (Jack): “Why do you do something… so cruel——!!?” Man 3 - (Levi): “Do you want to know the truth? Even if you knew, it is meaningless.” Narrator - Oz: “This is extremely pure, twisted, beautiful and sad love story.” Man 3 - (Levi): “《蕃花的耳語》In the last 10 pages, you will definitely be deceived.” Oz: “—— The story will give you this kind of feeling.” Break: “No, I only understood the little tomato is crucial to the story. After that I don’t understand anything.” Oz: “Eh—? To put simply this is a love triangle! The black-haired man has love for his own sister, and in the middle of the story a lot of things happen. However, what is scary about this is the seemingly gentle blond friend! In the past he had a lot of woman, and he killed all of them!! One day there is a plate of tomatoes that caused the tragedy to happen, causing the friends to——!! … No, if I keep speaking then it’s all over! If you want to know what happens, Break. You should read it yourself! You’ll be shocked!” Break: “Eh——————?” Emily: “An old man like him has better things to do, stuuuppppid!” Break: “Hey- Having someone say that about me is quite a shock, Emily.” Gilbert: “I… I also wonder about this book! For such a opportunity to arrive, I’ll have to take a good look at it. It sounds like it is very interesting!” Oz: “Really, Gil? Mm, mm!! Look, look!! And then we’ll discuss our feelings about it together!” Gilbert: “Ah… Ah, Ah! I’ll read it Oz! I’ll read this book!” Break: “Yes, yes. Isn’t that great Gilbert-kun?” Alice: “Can a little tomato really whisper?! I had no idea, Sharon. Are those red things actually a living creature?” Tomato~ to~ma~to~ tomato~ to~ma~to~ Alice: “Oh, oooooooohhhhhh…. !!!” Sharon: “Miss Alice… ! It’s hard to compose myself when you act like a dummy.” Oz: “Aha ha… It isn’t like that. At the end you will understand the titles real meaning. Oh——! To be able to act out the scenes like that felt great! Who knew that the initial case with the tomato could be connected to the story like that!” Sharon: “With Master Oz being so full of praise, I’m starting to want to read it too.” Oz: “It’s not just me, Elliot also said he cried reading it!” Gilbert: “Elliot?” Oz: “Mm! “I can only tell you this, shorty. If you’re a man, then shut up and read this book” —— He said that looking super cool and gave this book to me.” Sharon: “Oh, this author’s name is… EVIL·B? What kind of person could this author be?” Break: “To give yourself a pen name that means evil shows that they must be quite narcissistic.” Oz: “Oh… Leo said the same thing…” Gilbert: “Ah, that’s because liking a person’s work depends on the impression they give off too! Alice: “I’m hungry! Oz! Let’s stop discussing the book and get going! I still can’t forget the taste of the roast pork I had last time…” -drool- Break: “Alice-kun… you just ate chicken, right?” Sharon: “Ah~ What does it matter, Break. I would like to go adventuring too.” Oz: “Ha! This is a good idea! If everyone goes to the street alley together, then everyone will have a good time! “ Sharon: “Street alley?” Break: “Oz-kun! How could you make a lady go somewhere like that——” Sharon: “Really, please stop acting as if I’m a child, Break! Master Oz, please explain what kind of place this suspicious sounding street alley is.  Oz: “It is a very fun place, Miss Sharon! There are small houses with a lot of people, and stores that sell many interesting things! And —— Hee, you can hear rumors that you usually wouldn’t of the prince.” Gilbert: “Prince? What is that, Oz?” Oz: “Ah— Gil, I can’t believe you don’t know——？He’s obviously a celebrity in the slums!” Gilbert: “Is it like that? The street alley is even close to the place I recently bought, so I should have been able to heard of these rumors….” Oz: “The last time I went, no one knew anything about the prince! Because the prince is a super saver! [He’s super careful with money, etc!] A model house wife! And he’s the fantasy of every lady.” Gilbert: “Wait a minute, this is completely different from how a prince is normally envisioned.” Oz: “Hehe, don’t worry! Even so, the prince is still a very remarkable prince.” Gilbert: “Hm…? You speak as if you’ve met the prince before…? Ah! Could it be, that you met this weird guy when I wasn’t looking, Oz?” Oz: “Eh—? I don’t know.” Gilbert: “Oz! I’ve said this before, that kind of place is close to a bad area, and is not a place where you could walk around care-freely dressed the way you are. No, even if you were to dress yourself down, the brightness that excludes from you cannot be concealed. If a dealer were to catch sight of you, what would we do? If you were really sold by the dealer, then what would I do? Ahhhhh! Ah! Ahh, Oz, if you were to go to the streets, you have to take me!!! To walk around by yourself, I won’t allow it anymore!” Oz: “I wasn’t alone. At the time, Alice and I went together.” Gilbert: “The stupid rabbit only cares about eating meat!” Alice: “What did you say, Smelly Seaweed?!” Gilbert: “Shut up! I’m talking to Oz right now!” Alice: “So what you, idiot Seaweed Head?! Even if you weren’t there, I could protect Oz myself. Last time, I was the one that punished that suspicious guy who came knocking at our door!” Gilbert: “What kind of situation was that?!” Oz: “Hehe, I’m not telling you~ Prince~” Gilbert: ! “Oz….!!” Break: “Ah~ What a noisy bunch of kids… Oz-kun. If we’re going then we should go while the sun is still up. Is that alright, my lady?” [This is assuming they also make it back before sun down.] Sharon: “Of course, Break.” Oz: “Ah— This is so exciting! I wonder if today I’ll be able to see 吉克大人? [It’s a name of a person, but Oz means Break since it’s a pun! The name actually means quickly/hurry/rushed since Break is in a hurry to go. So in this case Oz is saying something like Mister Rushed/Hurry/etc.] Break: “Hahaha, Oz-kun, if you say another word, then I’ll punch you into the air, okay?” Emily: “Don’t worry about it, punch him into the air!” Alice: “Meat~ meat meat~ meat meat~ meat~” Sharon: “Ohoho~ Then Miss Alice, why don’t you hold Big Sisters hand~?” Alice: “Eh…?! No… I don’t….” Sharon: “Mi·ss A·li·ce?” Alice: “Huu…” Sharon: “What a good child, don’t run off by yourself now, okay?” Alice: “Okay… Big Sister…” Oz: “Gil, hurry up!” Gilbert: “Ah! Wait Oz. I’m getting my hat… where’s my hat?! Ah, Oz, Oz——!!!” Levi: Because of this, I am able to allow my readers to understand the reason I included this small red fruit, making it a surface theme in the story. Of course, there is a different truth. Which is the symbolization of the earth’s grace, as well as the hot burning heart. It has a sweet aroma, but it is also very fragile. It is a place all things in the world will return to. To speak of friendship, I will have to trample on it. Therefore the tone of this book is ultimately cruel. I hate eternal, but love that which comes to an end. Also, I believe that friendship should be like this. I wrote this book under the mocking of the moonlight - Evil·B [The last sentence is a pun, and it’s the best way I can interpret it. otherwise it… doesn’t make much sense.] Levi: “——Hm? Did you finish reading?” Oswald: “Yes, Master.” Levi: “How do you feel, Oswald? Is it interesting? It’s interesting, isn’t it! Even if it’s embarrassing for me to say it [Or he feels that he might sounds arrogant. It’s open to interpretation.], but I do think this novel is my best one so far!” Oswald: “Master.” Levi: “Hm?” Oswald: “I didn’t understand it…” Levi: “Ah… Is that so?” Oswald: “Yes, I didn’t understand it.” Levi: “… Mm.”

-          meilibells

[sevmeyinkimseyifazla-blog]

How SEO 2019 Can Help You Improve Your Health

There are large news for anyone currently inside the niche website and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION business. Link building is a type of off-site SEO where various other sites link back to your own site if they feel a person offer something of value in order to their audience. In many essential areas they overlap; if SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is more technical and provides to a narrow sphere, content material marketing takes a holistic strategy. Equally, presently there is no point in spending your SEO marketing efforts simply by delivering lots of traffic in order to your website from highly related search queries, when the consumer experience upon landing on that will website is poor quality. On web page, SEO relates to keywords. In addition to the over search engine optimization solutions, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION services provide other Internet advertising services, which includes: search-friendly internet design, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising promotions, backlink programs, SMO services, blog site optimization and marketing, targeted nearby search engine marketing, and cellular marketing optimization. A successful SEO effort demands to move beyond building joyful to rank on highly researched keywords and should have the heavy focus on providing solutions for genres of unique questions that many people might research by voice. Learn the particular strategy behind great SEO, which includes keyword planning, content optimization, hyperlink building, and SEO for e-commerce, local search, and mobile viewers. Search engine optimization or SEO is usually the simple process of making sure a website can be discovered in search engines for phrases and phrases relevant to exactly what the site is providing. You will become introduced to the foundational components of how search engines such as google work, how the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION landscape is promoting and exactly what you can expect in the particular future. The SISTRIX Toolbox consists associated with six modules 1) SEO, 2) Universal, 3) Links, 4) Advertisements, 5) Social and 6) Optimizer. Low-quality content can severely impact the achievements of SEO, within 2018. When your own SEO starts building strong reasons, competitors can start maligning your own SEO backlinks. ” With content marketing spend likely to reach $300 billion by 2019, this statistic is worrisome. Now the electronic marketing companies know how in order to use AI for SEO, plus in coming years AI may dominate in developing the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies of the digital marketing and advertising companies. Ray Cheselka, AdWords and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Manager at webFEAT Complete, the design and SEO agency, states that in 2019 search objective will continue to become even more important. Expert writers of SEO articles may take the time to study the particular industry or market market. 2 tools to help with regional SEO are BrightLocal (for rankings) and MozLocal (for local lookup optimization). Concerning on-page SEO best practices, I usually link out to other quality appropriate pages on other websites exactly where possible and where a individual would find it valuable. It includes a favorite Regular Table of SEO Success Factors”, a 9-chapter guide to SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION basics, and links to several from the site's most useful blog posts. You've added even more relevant content to your website article and increased the on-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION targeted against your focus keyword(s). Before my first ISS, I actually had always thought I can just learn everything by me personally about global online marketing matters like International SEO just by simply doing online investigation and playing, but honestly nothing beats the particular efficiency of attending a seminar like ISS where one could share your experiences and immediately gain a treasure trove involving learnings and best practices coming from other international marketers. That method, you and your SEO may ensure that your site is definitely designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. Nonetheless, a good SEO can furthermore help improve a current web site. If you desire to know what kind associated with SEO trends are going in order to develop in 2019, look simply no further than the trends that will are developing in search within both 2017 and 2018. Webmasters are usually going to remain competitive within the online business when they will stick with SEO experts. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and social media marketing make sure that one's site has the particular best SEO Online marketing, which usually means that their company may remain competitive in the on-line market. An SEO ("search engine optimization") expert is somebody trained to improve your presence on search engines. From an SEO perspective, an individual want to have more inside links pointing to your almost all important content. If you work in lookup marketing, you'll know that SMX is one of the greatest search engine marketing conferences associated with the year, covering topics which includes SEO and PPC. SEO is conducted each on-site and off-site via various resources that are the existence of your web identity associated with different social media platform plus prominent display of your cyberspace link on other well-reputed web sites. Our unique data science-driven SEO & content marketing platform can help your eCommerce business find out millions of dollars' worth of formerly untapped organic search marketing possibilities. On the other hands, if the website doesn't make use of any digital marketing strategies or even SEO services, no one troubles to search for pages plus pages on Google just in order to find your website and check out it. Some dentists, who have got tried applying SEO, have not really been very successful in moving their website to the best of Google search engine. Prior to we do, let's check away a couple essential areas intended for SEO: social media and cellular. SEO can price between $100 and $500 for each month if you do this yourself with a keyword study tool. This SEO guidebook explains acquiring links from exterior domains. Let's review the fundamentals of SEO (search engine optimization). SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is conducted on the knowning that webpages rank because associated with how relevant a webpage is definitely to a search query plus how many links point in order to that webpage. Business professionals try to rely on these SEO techniques with regard to optimization wishing for a larger profit. Google My Business is Google's business directory and, thus, extremely vital that you your local SEO Outlined businesses using the best SEO will certainly appear in the Local 3-Pack, the batch of 3 presented businesses nearest you that seem when you do a pertinent local search. Stir up Visibility recently released SEO: The particular Movie ”. This 40-minute movie covers a brief history associated with search engine optimization portrayed by means of the experiences of some associated with the biggest names within the particular SEO industry. In addition to producing content accessible to search engines, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION also helps boost rankings therefore that content will be positioned where searchers will more easily still find it. The Internet is getting increasingly competitive, and the ones companies that perform SEO may have the decided advantage in visitors plus customers. Unfortunately, SEO - and lookup in general - is usually soloed into focusing on The particular Google” and not really regarded as for other tactics. This means website owners plus SEO experts will need in order to be on top of their own game when it comes in order to keyword research and keeping the particular context of their site appropriate to users. Varvy's SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Overview tool audits your internet site for key parameters like website strength, links, image SEO, sociable counts, on-page SEO, technical standing, page speed, loading time plus more. The particular trouble is that SEO rating factors have changed a good deal over the years (find out there how in our keyword exploration guide ). That means typically the search engine optimization techniques that will worked 5 in years past won't take flight today. User-generated content racks up serious SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION points by providing sites along with fresh content, bundles of back links, and sources for organically framing natural attributes. You'll find it right here Also really worth checking away is Moz's Beginner's Explained SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, ” which you'll find right here, and the SEO Success Pyramid from Small Business Search Advertising. Off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategy refers to the impact of a change in various other websites in your search rating. Bruce Clay-based set the standard for honest internet marketing by authoring the particular " SEO Code of Integrity, " now translated into eighteen languages, and it has already been a respected leader within the particular ever-changing lookup engine marketing industry since mil novecentos e noventa e seis. Website SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION (including, content optimisation, meta marketing, the significance of links). A good SEO Specialist is someone that is an expert on the particular topic of search engine marketing. Just mainly because a proper On-page and Off-page SEO optimization work will provide a better Ranking to your own website in Search Engine Outcome Page (SERP). The greatest SEO change and pattern I realize already happening within 2018 is Google's switch in order to a mobile-first index, so in case a site is not however mobile-friendly and optimized for this, it's critical to prioritize this particular as it is now essential for its SEO success. With good on-page SEO, research engines can easily index your own web pages, understand what your own site is about, and quickly navigate the structure and articles of your website, thus position your site accordingly. You discuss core SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies and tactics used in order to drive more organic search network marketing leads to a specific website or even set of websites, as nicely as tactics to avoid in order to prevent penalization from search motors. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Smart links allows you in order to specify a word, like 'SEO' and then link it in order to a post on your web site. It's great for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION to feed the search motors a good amount of keyword-rich links. Sites making use of organic SEO in the strict sense is going to end up being much like organisms, meaning these people will grow, expand and adjust over time according to readers' desires. No matter the business, the age of business, or even status of competitors, every company should at least implement simple SEO strategies to help their particular offerings get found on Yahoo. So your SEO if your own thinking mobile, needs to become either responsive or app-store technique with the right dimensions, style, user-friendly, UX experience. Dark hat SEO methods, such since the use of keyword filling and link farming, can furthermore boost organic SEO. SEO will be important in every area associated with advertising, marketing, design, optimization, movie, content, mobile and e-commerce, with regard to without SEO all is untuned in need of synchronization, such as an orchestra of musicians without a good experienced conductor. Unfortunately, 95% of links through SEO link building never provide a single new visitor in order to your website. SEO specialists started in order to abuse PageRank in order in order to boost the rankings. Now could be a great time to take a nearer take a look at SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION marketing information because search is getting even worse for many types of B2B plus B2C businesses. SEO marketers plus writers typically come up along with different kinds of content in order to place the necessary keywords within. These are some of the particular most used types, and every one helps to help with the level of variety in conditions of website content. Certain black hat SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques, such as keyword filling, are thought to be the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION equivalent of spamming, and research engines will penalize them. Internet marketing is exclusively driven by SEO or research 10 Mind Numbing Facts About SEO 2019 engine optimization. Others are usually simply traditional PR firms that have learned SEO as properly as the value of hyperlinks. Here's a cliche among electronic marketers: Search engine optimization (SEO) isn't what used to end up being. Google announced that will they released several minor enhancements over the period of the particular time of about a 7 days and after analysis, experts inside the SEO industry concluded that will the updates were the outcome of keyword permutations and web site using doorway pages. SEO, or Search Motor Optimization, means setting up your own website and content to show up through online search results. People which want to take their company to some new height plus generally and mostly believe within the way of SEO advertising. Performing SEO upon your own websites is the great method to practice plus hone your SEO ability. We optimize your web site both of internal and exterior factors thats Google's engine believe in and reliable for top rating search result, Gurantee your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ranking No succeed can refundable. Looking deeper: An SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION cost often means one associated with two things: the investment within your organic search strategy, or exactly how much you pay for compensated search engine marketing (SEM) solutions like Google AdWords. All of us are dealing with new methods designed to target old design SEO tactics and that concentrate around the truism that SITE ‘REPUTATION' plus Plenty of WEBPAGES plus SEO equals Plenty associated with Keywords equals LOTS of Search engines traffic. BrightonSEO is a one-day search advertising conference and series of teaching courses held, unsurprisingly, in Brighton. From narrowing lower target markets to changing the particular way content is written, AI and voice search will have got a continuous effect on SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION moving forward. One aspect of SEO will be link building, which we may discuss slightly below, which frequently leads to thin content. Applications for the particular 2018-2019 cycle of the SEO Improve programme are now closed and even will re-open again in Planting season 2019. SEO could be difficult because search engines are usually reevaluating and changing how they will prioritize search engine results. Moreover, it will help SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION by gaining backlinks, likes, responses or shares. forty five. Use Google Analytics to determine social SEO factors like the particular number of owned and optimistic results. The common SEO issue for e-commerce sites is that product evaluation functionality tends to rely upon AJAX, iframes, or subdomains, which usually make it very hard, or even even impossible, for search motors to fit product reviews with item pages. Local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is an effective way in order to market your business online. Regarding more on Squarespace's SEO-friendly features plus how to use them, check out Increasing your site's visibility in order to search engines. For Ecommerce websites, SEO agencies can see which usually paths users take in purchase to complete a sale, just about all the way down to which usually keyword they used to research for you prior to buying. Continue to increase your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION to develop Blog9T business and drive traffic plus rank for more terms. SEO refers in order to the process of gaining a good impressive rank in search motor listings. Organic SEO will be also less costly long-term while you establish search credibility, as very long as you maintain it along with the consistent creation of high quality content and social media use. Within the 6th section of our SEO for beginners guide, we will discuss hyperlink building - one of the particular most important aspects of research engine optimization. Search engine optimization can furthermore be known as SEO plus it is defined as the technique or procedure for customization the website within an efficient and efficient way in purchase to make a good existence on major search engines. Search Motor Optimization (SEO) is the technique to campaign your products on the web towards the right clientele with regard to increasing ROI. There are many tools upon the web to assist along with basic keyword research (including the particular Google Keyword Planner tool and there are even more useful third party SEO tools to help you perform this). The biggest change that will we'll see in 2019 (and that's already happening) is the particular fact that keywords are getting less important. Once you've discovered your keywords, use another SEMrush tool, the SEO Content Design template, which is part of their particular Content Marketing Toolkit, to function out the best way in order to optimize your content. If a company is providing you all these services below one roof, climbing up the particular SEO ranking will not become an uphill task for your own business any more. Local SEO companies allows a person to position your business upon search engines like google plus other digital marketing platforms therefore you're seen by potential clients — on their terms. YouTube adds the particular nofollow” tag to their hyperlinks, so they don't really assist with SEO. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION isn't just about building research engine-friendly websites. The sooner you understand precisely why Google is sending you much less traffic than it did this past year, the sooner you can clear it up and focus upon proactive SEO that starts to effect your rankings in a good way. The trending SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION technique or strategy now plus in 2019 will be Research Enterprise Optimization It has already been coined by myself since 2015. Let's confirm our knowing of SEO basics with the one question quiz about the particular factors in search rankings: web pages, links and keyphrases. When it comes in order to Google SEO, the rel=canonical hyperlink element has become VERY IMPORTANT over the many years and NEVER MORE SO. To place the particular focus on the website website visitor, it has been suggested that will acronym SEO should indicate lookup experience optimization. It's important to remember in order to share content from your site or blog socially to provide it an SEO boost as well. Some Webmasters will spend thousands of dollars to a few so-called professional SEO expert in order to get their Websites on best in the rankings. It is often preferable to ask questions upon their SEO procedures and find out whether they have knowledge associated with keyword density or if these people have information about the most recent keyword research strategies and equipment. This combined expertise makes all of us uniquely qualified to present a good ethics-based, search engine-friendly SEO guide to teach you guidelines that will reflect the latest developments looking. They include important subjects like search motor success factors and how SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION relates to social media marketing and advertising. In order in order to make web pages appear in high positions in the search outcomes, SEO tries to shape the website according to Google's criteria. The major problem of SEO is the reality that there are billions associated with pages in the internet research engine indexes and your place in the SERPS is reliant on a constantly changing protocol which is not published. Join us for some sort of three-day, one-track conference full associated with forward-thinking, tactical sessions in SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, growth marketing, the mobile scenery, analytics, content marketing, and a lot more. The objective regarding SEO is to get some sort of website ranked as high since possible on search engines, for example Google. In case you are improving user encounter by focusing primarily on the particular quality of the MC associated with your pages and avoiding : even removing - old-school SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques - those certainly are usually positive steps to getting even more traffic from Google in 2018 - and the type associated with content performance Google rewards will be in the end largely in least about a satisfying consumer experience. For instance, when I'm logged in to Google+ and We search for SEO, I obtain the following in my top 5 search results. Black head wear SEO practice involves breaking just about all of the rules and rules of the search engine. Every time you discover or hear the phrase research engine optimization, ” substitute exactly what create quality and indicating relevance” and you'll have the correct mindset permanently SEO work. SEOs conveniently call this effect ‘domain authority' and it appeared in order to be related to ‘PageRank' : the system Google started in order to rank the web within 1998. When you have more time plus are keen to follow the particular SEO industry, subscribe to Moz and Search Engine Land. Integrating these keywords into the article allows you to add range while still retaining SEO strength. Presently there are a few fundamentals that will can help boost the technique, but SEO, or seo, is definitely hardly ever considered. While employing the services of a great SEO agency can get a person good marketing copy for the particular website and an effective make use of of the related keywords, getting a brilliantly designed website can help a lot when this comes to attracting people plus even the search engines in order to your website. You are able to get into important SEO-related data like the particular page title, description, and key phrases for every page or a person can have the system immediately populate this data depending upon a document name or various other fields. SEO has become broadly adopted as an online marketing and advertising strategy due to its effectiveness. Creating high-quality content along with SEO in your mind through the beginning boosts search presence. In contrast, dark hat SEO is about attempting to take shortcuts and sport search engines. You may also use Google Analytics in order to find SEO keywords for content material optimization. Keyword research is the particular process SEOs value to discover what search queries consumers get into into a search engine regarding a given topic. Within today's rapidly shifting world, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques can change on the dime—and the worst part will be that you might not actually know it. Hacks that can have won you a front-page result as recently as 2016 are not only obsolete right now, but they may even harm your website's rankings. Register and raise some sort of free donation for SEO London, uk every time you shop on the web. Local SEO - Optimize that localized content on your internet site to properly leverage local signs, online reviews and business goods. Learn more about content material optimization for SEO here. Along with paid-search it offers a very focused audience, visitors referred by SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION will only visit your web site if they are seeking particular home elevators your products or even related content. From keyword padding to link buying, the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION landscape has seen numerous black-hat tricks — and Google constantly catches on. Chris Gregory, founder plus managing partner at Jacksonville centered firm, DAGMAR Marketing, predicts that will AI and machine learning might have a big impact upon SEO in 2019 and SEOs who aren't technical will become left in the dust. Some SEO specialists also advise that anchor textual content should be varied as numerous pages linking to one web page using the same anchor textual content may look suspicious to find motors. SEO trickery such while keyword ‘stuffing' in irrelevant written content simply won't cut it throughout the current day, with Google's algorithm taking over 200 components to ensure that it's search positions provide results with valid plus authoritative sites, it is close to on impossible to perform anything various other than work with the lookup engines to make sure best quality SEO results. From a SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION perspective, the principal keyword ought to be at the beginning implemented by the other relevant key phrases.

[foursprout-blog]

7 Reasons You *Need* to Be Doing Deadlifts

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/health/7-reasons-you-need-to-be-doing-deadlifts/

7 Reasons You *Need* to Be Doing Deadlifts

Deadlifts legit changed my workout routine. I’d spent years developing my skills as a cardio bunny, but after watching a YouTube video about how Chris Evans got ripped for his role as Captain America, I decided to turn to a professional. Until then, I’d tried everything: yoga, pilates, barre—I’d even dipped my toe into lifting weights at my local gym, but my knowledge was a combination of Google searches and a college gym class that produced few results. The first exercise my trainer added to my workout routine? Deadlifts.

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I’d never done them before (OK, I’d never so much as touched a barbell), and I was skeptical. Surely a single exercise couldn’t revolutionize my workout in a way years of trial and error had failed? But fortunately, I was (dead, heh) wrong. Deadlifts changed my shape—whittling my waist and giving my butt a much-needed boost—while improving my posture, increasing my overall strength, and making me feel like a confident badass.

So why should you be doing deadlifts?

1. Deadlifts work your entire body.

“The deadlift targets multiple muscle groups in a single lift, offering more bang for your buck than an isolation exercise,” says Zach Mayer, a master trainer at Burn 60 Studios (studio of choice for Reese Witherspoon, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Naomi Watts). “Incorporating deadlifts one or two days a week into a weight training session will develop strength in the hamstrings, glutes, low back, and upper back.”

They also rely on core strength to stabilize your body throughout the lift, which means you’ll be working your abs on top of everything else. As if you needed more convincing, deadlifts often work your glutes more than squats do. According to Mayer, this means you can get faster results on your backside than relying on squats alone.

Building muscle helps increase your metabolism too, which in turn helps you lose more fat long-term.

2. Deadlifts build killer strength.

One study showed that deadlift training generated huge improvements in strength and stability—especially in women who were relatively new to lifting. Because you’re using muscles on both the front and back of your body, deadlifts protect your joints from unnecessary stress and future injury, which is an awesome added benefit.

Even if strength isn’t your main goal (or if you’re afraid lifting weights will make you bulky… which, no, it won’t), this is still a fantastic benefit—especially since it makes you feel like a badass.

3. Deadlifts help improve your posture.

A strong back can absolutely help with your posture, but another way deadlifts help fix bad posture is by helping correct it. To perform deadlifts properly, you need to make sure your form is right—and good form during deadlifts often translates to good posture.

“You can expect a noticeable change in walking upright and sitting without rounded shoulders after regularly performing this lift,” Mayer says, which is especially important for those of us who spend a lot of time hunched in front of a computer screen.

4. Deadlifts can actually make you stronger in real life.

Instead of working on purely cosmetic gains, deadlifts involve movements and muscle routines that are a huge part of our daily lives. This means deadlifts will make it easier for you to perform basic tasks, which directly contradicts the assumption that gym training doesn’t actually prepare you for the real world.

“Deadlifts are highly functional,” Mayer says. “Increasing strength by deadlifting will prepare you for situations like carrying groceries, picking up someone who fell, or helping a friend on moving day.”

5. Deadlifts help to prevent injury.

Some might avoid deadlifts out of fear of back injury, but studies have shown that deadlifts can be beneficial for reducing low-back pain in some cases.

“The deadlift requires total control of the deep abdominals, the hips, and the pelvis, which is paramount in the treatment and prevention of low back pain,” says Nicholas Licameli, a physical therapist at Professional Physical Therapy.

Because the deadlift trains the posterior chain—which includes the spinal erectors, lats, rhomboids, glutes, and hamstrings—Licameli says it helps to prevent injury in muscle groups that are typically ignored.

“In fact, two predictors of tearing the ACL are actually an imbalance of strength in the quads and hamstrings, and gluteal weakness/instability,” Licameli adds. “The deadlift will have you covered.”

Remember that building strength takes time, so don’t jump into too heavy weights or complicated lifts before you’re ready. Be sure to watch your posture and technique to build muscle and ward against injury.

6. Deadlifts will save you precious, precious time.

Compound exercises like deadlifts work more than one muscle group at a time. Instead of working on three different machines, you can work the same muscle groups in less time by performing the deadlift—making it the ultimate time saver.

7. Deadlifts are easy to incorporate into your workout.

You don’t need access to a barbell to use deadlifts, but it definitely doesn’t hurt. Dumbbells or kettlebells can be used to do the exercise, especially variations like the straight leg or Romanian deadlift variation.

“Ask a trainer or coach for his or her guidance,” Mayer recommends. “Your friend who is an ‘avid lifter’ may be well-intentioned, but chances are they don’t know the best way to coach a beginner through the deadlift. While instructional videos may also seem helpful, for novice lifters who are developing body awareness, it is best to work with an experienced professional.”

Basically, deadlifts are the unicorn of the fitness world. They’re a great way to get a whole host of results without spending a lot of time in the gym, and even fitness newbies can utilize them. Still not sure? Watch this badass grandma deadlift 225 pounds like a boss. Let her be your deadlift inspiration and enjoy reaping all of the benefits deadlifts have to offer.

Jandra Sutton is an author, historian, and public speaker. After graduating from Huntington University with a B.A. in history, she went on to receive a master’s degree in modern British history from the University of East Anglia. In her spare time, Sutton enjoys fangirling, running, and anything related to ice cream. Pluto is still a planet in her heart. She lives in Nashville with her husband and their two dogs. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

[timothyakoonce]

Transcript of Turn Your Hunch Into the Next Big Thing

Transcript of Turn Your Hunch Into the Next Big Thing written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

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John Jantsch: Have you ever had a hunch about something or you saw something and you went “Gosh, somebody needs to make that or fix that or do something about that?”

There’s this unmet need. A lot of times data isn’t available for that hunch or for that unmet need and a lot of great business owners … a lot of entrepreneurs over the years have just gone with their gut, gone with a hunch, and it’s worked out spectacularly. I think that there are qualities of people who have those hunches, that do come up with winners, and on this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, we visit with Bernadette Jiwa. She’s done a bunch of research on this idea of a hunch and has a book called “Hunch: Turn Your Everyday Insights Into the Next Big Thing”, and I think there’s some tremendous lessons and some tremendous exercises in this thinking, so check it out.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch and my guest today is Bernadette Jiwa. She is a recognized global authority on the role of story in business, innovation and marketing and the author of five bestselling books on marketing and brand storytelling, and today, we are going to talk about her newest book called “Hunch: Turn Your Everyday Insights Into the Next Big Thing”. So Bernadette, welcome back.

Bernadette Jiwa: Thanks, John. It’s a thrill to be back talking to you.

John Jantsch: So essentially, what we’re talking about now is using intuition to make decisions. Did I sum the whole book up?

Bernadette Jiwa: You summed it up really well.

John Jantsch: How does that play when you go into to talk to somebody and say, “Just trust your gut.” I mean that’s kind of, that’s another … I don’t know if that translates to Australia. That’s a very common US idea of business owners making decisions, just kind of on a hunch, as you’ve put in the title. How do you crystallize that idea and make it more than just luck?

Bernadette Jiwa: Well, there are couple of things, John, that I want to start with, which is you’re not ignoring data, it’s just that there are different kinds of data. There are data all around us. People who … like Jeff Bezos or Howard Schultz, they’re not ignoring data they’re just possibly not looking at historical data or data in the sense that we think about which is in a spread sheet. So there is a piece to it, which is noticing problems, noticing what’s happening and that shouldn’t be enough seeing what’s not happening that should be and looking at patterns with practice.

There are three traits that I’ve, in my research, noticed and uncovered that these kind of entrepreneurs have and their curiosity, empathy and imagination. So it’s not just a lucky guess. It’s not just a case of crystal ball gazing or predicting which numbers are going to come up in a lottery this weekend. It’s a little bit more nuanced than that.

John Jantsch: Well I’m glad you brought data up because I think that some of the biggest hunches, if you will, actually either didn’t have data to inform them or they kind of said “You know what? The data’s wrong”. Would you agree?

I mean, you have a load of examples in there and it seems to me like in a number of the examples they kind of said “You know what? I see this differently”.

Bernadette Jiwa: Well, let’s think about one example. You know, there’s plenty of common ones. You know, the big ones. You know, the Apple’s, the Uber’s, the Facebook’s, the Google’s. No data for those. You know they just had to go with their guts that they were on to something.

But one of the examples in the book is the woman who invented disposable diapers. She went to the manufacturers and said “Look. This is what’s happening. What we’ve currently got is a solution that’s not working, it’s leaking, it’s giving baby’s nappy rash.” And what they said to her was “We don’t need this product. We don’t want this product. People are buying our product and they’re really happy with it”. Well, there was no alternative so of course they were buying the product.

So we can look at data and skew it, if you like, to our world view.

John Jantsch: Yeah, that’s interesting because there are a lot of industries. The one that I like to pick on all the time is the newspaper industry and how, you know, they were … the classified ads. That was their cash cow. Nobody was going to take that away from them. You look up today and they don’t even exist anymore or maybe are a meer shell because of Craigslist and other things that came around.

So I want … my question is then, do you constantly need to be, kind of, applying this idea to what could happen, you know, regardless of where we are today?

Bernadette Jiwa: Yeah. It’s a couple of things. You’re looking for what’s going on right now. Looking at the patterns that you’re seeing around you and that takes practice. So it’s not just “I’ve seen this today, I think I’m on to something”. It’s “Okay. That’s interesting. I think I’m going to keep looking at that and keep digging there”.

And then also, you know, the thing about entrepreneurship is you have to take a leap by definition into the unknown. You have to do something that you’re not quite certain of. We’ve fallen into this trap, I think, of relying on data. Almost using it as a crutch in all kinds of ways, in our marketing and our innovation to I guess mitigate against having been wrong.

John Jantsch: Well, yeah. I mean, certainly a lot of business leaders lean on the data to not have to actually make that risky decision.

Bernadette Jiwa: And every decision comes with risk. Absolutely every one.

I read something recently and I put this in the book late, which was somebody said when they saw Elon Musk doing something incredible, again, and it succeeding. “Elon Musk’s greatest strength is that he’s fearless” and absolutely not. He’s not fearless. You can’t similarly be invested in something and not care about it in the same breath. It’s not that he’s fearless, it’s just that he’s practiced at taking those leaps that perhaps other people wouldn’t take, and sometimes they work.

John Jantsch: Well so, let’s stay there for a minute because obviously you have a lot of examples of people that did this and it worked. But I would suggest there are probably millions and millions of examples of people that did this and it was a miserable failure.

Bernadette Jiwa: Absolutely. And the same with data driven innovation. You know, making predictions in the election didn’t … in the U.S. election didn’t work out even though we had a lot of data.

There’s a story I didn’t include in the book, which I should’ve done regarding that one. Just a couple of weeks before the election my husband and I were visiting New York. He was at a Behavioral Summit where people like Nate Silver and Nobel Laureate’s and super clever academics were speaking about the election and saying, you know, it was 99% certain that Hillary … they didn’t say 99 but it was, there was a high probability that Hillary was going to win the election. And the day after the event we were taking a walk outside the Rockefeller Center and we met a guy selling hats emblazoned with the names of the candidates and he said to us “You know Trump’s going to win this by a landslide” and we looked at him as though he was crazy and he said “I cannot keep stock of these Trump hats. They’re just selling like hot cakes.” and he was having conversations with people on the street. There was data in those stories and we missed it.

John Jantsch: Can people get better at this? So in other words, can somebody say “Oh okay. I need to use this kind of mindfulness and curiosity and empathy”. I mean, is that something you could teach a business leader and entrepreneur you think?

Bernadette Jiwa: I teach my clients this all the time. I invite them to do this all the time.

One of the case studies in the book, it was one of my clients who was opening a café in London and he went and visited 70 different locations looking for his site. He also sat in cafe’s and observed what people did in cafe’s. It’s very tempting to say “Okay. Our cafe’s going to be about the best coffee and the best food”. And he said, you know, a lot of the time in the kind of café he was thinking about opening what people wants is good wifi and you know, nice reclaimed wooden table.

So I think a lot of the time we fall in love with our own idea and we sort of run with it without thinking deeply and caring about the people who are going to adopt it and use it and who it’s going to become meaningful to.

John Jantsch: Yeah that’s interesting. I think in some of those instances where they do a great job with that, the coffee being good is almost just like a bonus.

So do you think that there are … you mentioned some of the qualities that come into play here. Do you think there are people that are just naturally better at those qualities? I mean there definitely are people that are more curious than other people.

Bernadette Jiwa: Hmm.

John Jantsch: What I’m trying to get you say is women are better at this. That’s what I’m trying to get you to say.

Bernadette Jiwa: Are you trying to say that?

John Jantsch: I’m wondering it.

Bernadette Jiwa: You know, people have tried to go down that rabbit hole. I don’t think there’s an excuse for men to use that as a cop out.

The people that we’ve been talking about, the Elon Musk’s of the world, some people would say he’s not empathetic. He’s a genius, but at some point he has to be thinking about the kind of man who wants to … or person, should I say, who wants to buy a Tesla, especially when they were developing the high end sports cars. Who’s the person who’s going to buy this car with their budget? What would they want? How do they want to feel when they get in the car? Other wise they don’t obsess in the way that they do about those tiny details.

I have intentionally included a lot of examples in the book of female entrepreneurs because I think we don’t do enough of that. People are tired of the age old examples of Uber and Apple and Airbnb and Warby Parker, of course I’ve told stories about them in my previous books and they’re fantastic companies, too.

I think there’s also room to tell stories about smaller ideas and you don’t have to be a billion dollar unicorn or aspire to do that to come up with a break through idea or a successful idea.

John Jantsch: You even reference a model for acquiring maybe the skills to do this. The Dreyfus Skill Acquisition model.

Bernadette Jiwa: Yeah.

John Jantsch: So tell us how … ’cause I do know that some people need something academic like that.

Bernadette Jiwa: Yeah. The thing about the Dreyfus Model, the reason I put that in there was just to show people that their last two levels where we get to mastery in any skill he quite neatly put intuition in there as one of the attributes … in one of the things that are a part of that.

So, if people want to google the model it’s freely available. They can have a look at it on there and just see how Dreyfus has laid it out. It’s interesting, it was interesting to me though to see in an academic model that intuition came into play.

And the other thing, probably, to mention is that intuition’s gotten a really bad rap lately because of the great research of behavioral economists like Daniel Kahneman because what he and his colleague have pointed out is that intuition can be flawed when it comes to making decisions. And on the flip side of that, someone like Kahneman cannot do the work that he does without starting somewhere and he begins with a hunch.

And what was lovely when I was doing my research for this book, was I found so many quotes from scientists. From Einstein to Steven Hawking about making intuitive leaps and having to trust your intuition and how intuition was more powerful than other things or how it had influenced their work. So even scientists, whose job it is to find proofs, start with a hunch.

John Jantsch: Okay. Thanks for listening to the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. If you like this one, you might also like my other podcast, The Consulting Spark where I interview independent marketing consultants and agency owners. We talk about how they built their business and the struggles they face and what they love about being in this business. So you can check it out and ducttapemarketingconsultant.com.

I read a quote, I’m going to get it wrong and I’m going to attribute it to Jeff Bezos which may be wrong as well, but I think it applies here.

They were talking about this idea of coming up with innovation and constantly coming up with ways to optimize what you do and essentially said that the key ingredient was that you had to actually care about the people you were doing it for. And I think that that really applies to this idea of … especially when you’re thinking about somebody meeting an unmet need. I guess in some cases, they just they go and they try to find something and they can’t find it and it’s like “wait, there’s an unmet need here” but a lot of times they’re innovating … people are innovating things out of thin air because they’ve discovered an unmet need that, you know, requires them to sort of care deeply about the people they’re trying to serve and I think that a lot of ways that might be the essence of what you’re talking about.

Bernadette Jiwa: Well, Jeff Bezos famously keeps an empty chair at his meetings and says to his team “That’s the chair for the customer”.

John Jantsch: Oh yeah, right.

Bernadette Jiwa: He puts empathy front and center in everything that he does and when you think about the decisions that he’s made, they point to that. They point to understanding what it is people are struggling with and what’s, you know, what those unmet needs are and filling those gaps.

John Jantsch: Yeah. You do have to get, like, inside their home and inside their closets. You know, that kind of stuff to really get level of empathy I think almost.

Bernadette Jiwa: And some of the people, let’s think about one of the examples, which is, hair razor … shaving, subscription shaving brand. Those guys realized how hard it was to get good razor. How much you were paying for it? Similarly with Dollar Shave Club “How much are we paying for this product and it doesn’t work? It really sucks. What’s going on here?”. They were using that product every day, they were talking to their friends about razor burn and all of the things that you don’t have to be a woman to know about. These guys could be empathetic and curious and imaginative and intuitive.

John Jantsch: So other than what you already referenced, this idea that sometimes intuition gets a bad rap. Clearly that reputation maybe holds people back from embracing this idea. Is there anything else that holds people back from fully embracing this idea of hunches and intuition? Particularly in the entrepreneurial setting.

Bernadette Jiwa: Fear. Fear of uncertainty. Fear of being wrong. You know we’ve been conditioned for a long time not to want to say “I don’t know”. When we were kids, when we were three years old, we were quite happy to admit we didn’t know things. We asked questions all the time, which is also part of being a successful entrepreneur is asking questions. Now it’s really not a good thing to, as you grow older, to say “I don’t know” because knowledge is currency.

If you get all the right answers on the test, you go to the best college, have the best chance at the best job and the best life and you win. So therefore when you’re a leader, when you get to the point when you’re a leader in an organization, or when the buck stops with you, it’s very difficult to say “You know, I’m not sure about this. I don’t know if it’s the right answer but let’s give it a shot”.

John Jantsch: Yeah and that’s … that is interesting because I’m sure a lot of leaders suffer from the belief at least that well “I’m supposed to have all the answers so I can’t go down to the front line and start asking the people that probably do have the answers what they think”.

Bernadette Jiwa: I listened to an interview with Ron Johnson yesterday, as you know he was the guy who helped Steve Jobs conceive the Apple Stores. And he was telling this story again, I’ve heard it before, about they were deep into designing the Apple Stores and he just said to Steve “You know, I think we’ve got it wrong. We’re designing around products instead of experiences, instead of what people want to do in these stores” and he said Steve went off and went away and they went into a restaurant … sorry went into a meeting that afternoon and Steve said “Ron says we’ve got this wrong and he’s right”. To have the courage to go up to Steve and say “you know I’m not sure, but I think we’ve got this wrong” he wasn’t sure, he wasn’t certain, but to have the courage is a mark of a leader.

John Jantsch: Absolutely. So, you have exercises in the book. You want to share a couple? Like if somebody’s thinking “Okay, give me a sense of what I would have to work on if I were going to do this”. You want to share an exercise or two? Give my listeners an assignment.

Bernadette Jiwa:  So one of the biggest, the first assignment is to put your phone away some of the time. If you’re at an airport, waiting for a flight, you look around you in the lounge and there is not one single person who’s not on a device and it’s tempting to try and optimize our lives 100% of the time and actually what we’re doing there is stopping ourselves from being creative and innovative. So, that’s their first assignment.

The second assignment is to ask these questions when you’re looking around you or in your own business. These questions don’t even apply to new innovations, they can just be what’s current in your business. So, what’s happening that shouldn’t be? And what’s not happening that should be? So, if you think about any innovation from Uber to the iPhone to the GoPro camera to Tesla Cars and anything you can think of, they all started with that premise. You know, what’s not happening that should be, or what’s happening that shouldn’t be?

So those are the three things. Put your phone away. Ask those two questions. And practice.

John Jantsch: Awesome. Thank you so much for that Bernadette. Speaking with Bernadette Jiwa, author of “Hunch: Turn Your Everyday Insights Into The Next Big Thing”.

So do you get to the states very often these days Bernadette?

Bernadette Jiwa: I’m just back from the states.

John Jantsch: Oh yeah.

Bernadette Jiwa: Yeah, just back from the states. Had a really great trip. I get to the states a lot and what’s lovely for me is I’ve got, as you do, an international audience. You’ve got people listening in Australia and I’ve got people, a lot of people, in the states and in the UK and all over the world. That’s the fabulous thing about the digital world we live in.

John Jantsch: Yes it is. Well, I typically end this show every week, for those of you that listen and say, hope to see you out there on the road. But I haven’t made it to Australia yet so I’ll have to do that.

Bernadette Jiwa: I know. Lots of people are trying to get you here. You know, even Seth Godin’s been here. You’ve got to come, John. And he hates flying!

John Jantsch: I’ll do it. Thanks again Bernadette and good luck on the book.

Bernadette Jiwa: It was great to talk to you. Bye.

John Jantsch: Okay, thanks for listening to this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. Wonder if you could do me a favor. Could you leave me an honest review on iTunes? Your ratings and reviews really help and I promise, I read each and every one. Thanks.

from Duct Tape Marketing https://www.ducttapemarketing.com/transcript-hunch-next-big-thing/

[rigelmejo]

Lets discuss Clozemaster:

It’s a free app. At least, I’ve only ever used the free version, and it’s perfectly usable AND useful to use free. The only noticable limitation is that when you click a sentence trying to copy/paste, you need to click copy and then paste into a dictionary of your choice outside of Clozemaster. Sometimes clicking a word for a definition is needed, since each ‘cloze’ is based on a sentence with one new word you’re ‘learning’. The translations given for each sentence once you give your cloze answer/guess, are not translated literally. So it’s necessary to copy/paste the word and look up the exact definition sometimes, to figure out what SPECIFIC word/meaning in the sentence, your new learned cloze-word really was. This is just something that happens when learning this way. It’s fine, and the app is still usable. It’s just I DO think with the paid version, if you click your sentence after answering/guessing the cloze word, the app gives you an exact definition of the cloze-word. So the paid version might be a second or two more convenient.

It has one drawback that is not something that changes whether its the free version or paid, and it’s understandable WHY the app has the feature. The positives the app gets from it, make up for the negatives the app gets from it in my opinion. I remember hearing, a long while back, that Clozemaster picked its sentences from Forvo.com, a website with a huge amount of native speaker submitted sentences with their language/other language translations and pronunciations in their language. Forvo itself is a WONDERFUL resource for hearing the pronunciation of words. It’s also a pretty useful site for people who want to make flashcards and try to learn using a kind of comprehensible input i+1 flashcard learning method.

The good thing about Clozemaster using Forvo as it’s source for it’s sentences: a huge amount of the Clozemaster sentences are natural language, sentences a real person would/has used, and Clozemaster for the most part orders the sequence of sentences it gives you based on most common words first. Then over time you cover less and less common words. With Chinese, it also goes by HSK level - so you only encounter sentences with simple grammar first, and HSK1 words, then each gets a bit more complicated as you progress to the HSK 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 etc sets. So, you can realistically use Clozemaster as a sentence mining resource, that will somewhat be in line with the method of trying to learn from comprehensible input where there’s only a little new challenging information over time. It is a really great thing. It makes Clozemaster super useful, for any language you’re learning, and if you like studying based on utilizing comprehensible and almost-comprehensible input, it’s designed great for this. The sentences are also generally real sentences people have used, when they’re from Forvo. So you rarely run into sentences that have the kind of errors in the vein of “teacher does not actually understand the language they teach, and is teaching you unnatural language/incorrect grammar.”

The main negative of Clozemaster stems from this same good thing about it: Forvo doesn’t define sentences literally. Forvo defines sentences as a whole - so something that literally means ‘leave now’ might be translated as ‘lets go’ in translated-version of the sentence, because the whole-sentence translation is meant to get the whole gist of the entire sentence translated. The translations for Forvo sentences is more about translating the full sentence chunk’s meaning/equivalent, rather than any word-for-word translation that might be less natural sounding. Since Clozemaster gets the content for it’s sentences from Forvo, it can cause the following issue. Clozemaster will give you a sentence, and when you answer regardless of if you were right or wrong, it will provide you the english translation. Sometimes, the english translation does NOT actually include specifically the translation of the CLOZE-WORD. A simple example might be a chinese sentence, saying in chinese “Wo xian zou” - lets say Clozemaster gives the sentence “Wo ___ zou” and asks you to answer what the cloze-word is. Once you answer, it tells you if you’re right or wrong. Then it shows you ‘xian’ was the correct word, and it shows you the english translation “I’m leaving.”

How big of a problem this is, will depend on how much it bothers you. If you study enough sentences, the other ways ‘xian’ is used will become clear in context, and it will be fine. If you copy the chinese word at this point, open it in a dictionary app, then you will get the literal definition and be able to compare it to how it gets used in this sentence. Xian means ‘first’ or ‘before’, so the more literal translation would be “I’ll leave first,” only in a slightly different word order. But the more natural sounding definition is probably... “I’m leaving.” That IS the translation a chinese drama show would probably pick, and the meaning of “I’m leaving” for an english speaker is about the same as how chinese speakers mean it when they say “Wo xian zou.” So as a full sentence overall translation, the clozemaster sentences are fine. But sometimes the lack of the actual-cloze-word being literally-defined in the english translation, makes learning from some sentences a little confusing. This would be an issue that would crop up if you use Forvo, or any whole-sentences to study from as your primary resource, unless you’re specifically translating literally for yourself. Now, there’s good things about learning this way too - learning as full sentences/phrases of meaning, might actually be more useful in some ways. There’s a great Chinese grammar book that’s all about how a lot of things literally NEED to be worded differently to ‘mean’ the equivalent thing as the english. Different ways of wording nationality, different ways of saying ‘i’m fine’ etc. So Clozemaster sentences as a whole are still useful. It’s just best to treat them as phrase-learning sentences sometimes, if you can’t figure out specifically what the definition of the new word was. That word will come up again in new contexts later, that will further help you understand the word.

Now, onto Clozemaster’s difficulty curve: even the most simple sentences, full of super common words, are still going to be difficult if you are an absolute beginner. If you want to learn using ‘comprehensible’ input, I’d really recommend either... realizing the first several times you’ll use clozemaster will be brutal on you, until you learn the most common words and can then rely on them to understand ‘most’ of the sentences introducing new words... or looking yourself up SOME other resource with at LEAST 100-500 common words, and drilling it before you start using Clozemaster. Whether that means reading an intro textbook, reading a wordlist, doing a memrise deck, anki deck, whatever. Just... Clozemaster is much more useful for learning new words in the context of sentences, if you’ve got a decent understanding of some super common words that tend to be in most sentences FIRST. Otherwise you’re learning ALL the words in a new sentence on Clozemaster at once, instead of ONLY the new cloze-word it’s supposed to be teaching you. In addition, if grammar is confusing the ever daylights out of you, even in the simple sentences in Clozemaster’s start, you might want to look up “X-language grammar guide” on google, find yourself a free one, and skim through it. Just so you have some idea of what grammar features to look out for - if word order is usually different than english, if verbs usually have Y kind of conjugations, etc. This will help make the clozemaster sentences easier for you to learn from if you were struggling - because it will give you more comprehensible details to look for (if you’ve seen a grammar guide, and can identify the nouns/verbs/adjectives, and guess at word order, then you’ll have a better idea of if the new word you are learning is a noun/verb/adjective and how it is related to the words in that sentence that you DO know). This will make it easier for you to learn from the context of the sentence in Clozemaster, with less need for any other tools. For me, I found that Clozemaster is MOST useful to me for rapidly picking up more vocabulary, especially in the stage where you CAN understand example sentences in your study materials like textbooks or example sentences for common words in a wordlist, but CANNOT actually read native materials yet. Clozemaster also progresses to less common words over time, so its a bit like reading a graded reader - except in sentence chunks instead of paragraphs/pages/books. If a graded reader is too difficult, it may be a little easier to use Clozemaster. If some graded readers are too easy, Clozemaster may have some challenging sentences to work up your vocabulary until you’ll feel ready to read a more difficult book. It’s super useful for late-beginner to intermediate skill level learners.

Lets talk about languages not very much like english in Clozemaster - Japanese and Chinese. I’ve tried both of them. For me, they were both brutally difficult even in the beginning, until I learned a lot of basics. Knowing grammar at least at a basic level was vital for me, in helping me figure out how the japanese or chinese sentence was structured compared to the english translations. Also, its very noticable in these languages that some sentences are NOT translated literally. They’re probably not translated literally, because the way an idea in some sentence might be expressed using entirely different words in english versus chinese etc. Now, I DO find these languages on Clozemaster still immensely useful. I’d just say the difficulty curve mentioned above, is going to be even more apparent than in say a romance language. So if you find Clozemaster unusable as a total beginner, consider doing the tips above, then coming back to clozemaster later to help you acquire vocab in context once you... have more of a basis to draw context from. Also, if you find kanji, hiragana, katakana, hanzi incompensible to the point you cannot even distinguish differences BETWEEN different characters? You may need to study one or multiple of those writing systems a bit more before using clozemaster. For me, I could not really learn new kanji words from Clozemaster until I AT LEAST knew some 100 kanji already and had a good idea of how radicals combine to build kanji, so that I could look at new kanji and tell myself “this new word X, pronounced Y in the sentence, matching this english definition, has radicals Z making it up” to help myself remember the new word specifically. And if I didn’t know katakana or hiragana I don’t think I would have been able to even TRY to interpret the sentences. The case was similar with chinese - I had to learn some commonly used hanzi for grammatical information, and recognize the radicals, before I could dive into trying to use Clozemaster sentences to learn new words. However, I will say, Clozemaster’s organization of sentences by HSK level is SUPER useful. As I’ve been steadily learning with my other learning materials, I’ve noticed that for the HSK levels I’ve ‘surpassed,’ the corresponding HSK level sentences in Clozemaster have become completely comprehensible to me (and are now just something I use to review grammar structure instead of learn new words). In Clozemaster, I can pick the next HSK level up to practice learning the new words at the level of HSK I am studying, along with grammar, and use it to learn with sentences for context in a wonderful sentence-mining kind of structure perfect for my learning level. If I DO want to challenge myself, I can pick ‘sentences at random’ and get sentences that are super easy all the way to intensely confusing (for me) complex sentences with a lot of new vocabulary. The way clozemaster is structured for Chinese is incredibly useful if you’re using clozemaster alongside a textbook or any other learning material that is progressing from most common words/basics to more complex.