#i don't WANT to start sentences with “so with your vast experience and knowledge of Elizabethan/Jacobean English drama -”

[nostalgia-tblr]

Thor: Ragnarok is the best Thor movie and you can tell because nobody ever tries to make a desperate claim for prestige and reflected quality by calling it "Shakespearean," they just say they enjoyed it and they liked the jokes.

[a-pop-of-korean]

hello i have a question about learning korean ^^

i started ( self ) studying it about two years ago but discontinued due to college and all, but now i want to pick it up again and i don't know where to start from? i know how to read and write, but i have issues reading in one go— basically i lack fluency in reading and i often stutter. is there any way to improve?

secondly, i do know some basic stuff however my vocabulary isn't vast enough. besides, i would like to understand the sentence structure, or how they write phrases and sentences since it's very different from english. i've referred to so many sites but there's always a question— do i work on vocabulary first or sentence / phrasing structure first? or do i study both of them along side?

this sounds like such a mess and it is because i'm so lost ┬┬﹏┬┬ my main goal is to understand korean shows without subtitles and i do pick up a few words and phrases here and there but there's a lot still left to learn and idk where to start from. moreover, i've noticed that the textbook korean and the one that's spoken in everyday life is way different ( this applies to almost all the languages tbh ) and i'm having a bit of a trouble trying to figure out how a native would say it?

or example, do this thing where i come up with a sentence and try to translate it just to check what it would be in korean and check in the translator to see if i'm right, and most of the time im not. whether it's about the formalities or the conjugations. basically a whole lot of issues so please if u can help ＞︿＜

Hello! If your goal is to be able to understand Korean content without subtitles, then I think self-studying grammar and vocabulary is a good idea. I know you said you already have some knowledge of Korean, so I would refer to my masterlist and start from wherever you feel appropriate. I also recommend diversifying your study material and looking at other resources on Tumblr, YouTube, and on the Internet elsewhere. There's a lot out there!

As for your second question, I think it makes more sense to study vocab and grammar at the same time. As I've said before in previous asks, I was never that disciplined with my studying, so I can't really give you concrete study techniques. I think I got where I am today by regular exposure (on top of taking Korean courses and studying abroad lol). But if you don't have those opportunities, using whatever resources on the Internet can get you far. As you get comfortable with both grammar and vocab, I recommend exposing yourself to content like webtoons in Korean and K-dramas. These will help you with your reading and listening comprehension. There are plenty of webtoons at varying levels of difficulty, and K-drama actors have clear diction that is easy to understand. Again, I don't exactly have concrete techniques for how to eventually ween yourself off of subtitles/translations (since I myself still use them), but in my experience, exposure alone is enough to at least allow me to read webtoons and watch K-dramas without relying super heavily on the translations. Consuming this content will also teach you how natural Korean is spoken by natives. I hope that makes sense!

If you're concerned about speaking, the best way to get better is to converse with others. You might not know other people who speak Korean, but you can still practice with others for free on Hilokal, where I used to teach live lessons. It's a nice, low-pressure environment that can help you get more comfortable with speaking and learn alongside other people just like you!

Also, I generally don't recommend using translators to help you learn a language, especially if you're an English speaker learning Korean. It's more useful for you to understand the meaning of the Korean itself than it is for you to get the perfect translation. Korean is especially difficult to translate into English (in my opinion), so a translator might not give you a clean, accurate, and natural translation. Unfortunately, I can't think of other ways to fact-check your sentences otherwise lol. But I think that looking at enough sample sentences will help you become better at constructing your own. And something that helped me feel more comfortable writing and speaking when I was abroad is that, even if I make minor mistakes, chances are that other people can still understand me. Maybe keeping that in mind can make the learning process a little less stressful :)

Maybe this advice isn't new for you, but I hope it was still helpful! Thanks for the question and good luck! 화이팅!

[frobin]

Random consideration: there is an online legend about Oda can change story events if someone on the web/fans guess the thing. So... what do you think about this topic? It can be really valid? If yes, even for whatever eventual not-canon ships? I don't know, because ships are just a very side element in the story, and not like main events of the storyline. (And for my opinion, for Jin:be father topic, I could agree with who said is for the age, maybe. Anyway, I will ship FroBin forever).

Hey anon! Thank you for your question!

Maybe Oda really made Jinbe the dad because of age. right now Oda and Jinbe have the same age (46). He has two children who are (if the internet and my math are correct) 15 and 12 years old. So may it’s not unlikely? If he connects with Jinbe he would rather see him as a dad than a grandparent or a weird uncle. 

-

Now, to the rest... I have to say sorry for answering so late but as of right now I’m writing parts of my answer and I literally pulling my hair because I really try to make sense of the whole situation and trying to understand the intention of a 46 year old japanese man. And this is long again so sorry about that. Anyway... 

I have heard about that. I remembered something about Oda not reading Fan Theories and now I googled once more. Apparently this is the newest Information:

"Oda once said he will change OP story if it coincides with fan theories. But according to TV show today, Oda will never change his plan about "final chapter" even if a fan theory hits the nail on the head. Oda said in 1999 that he had already decided final panel and chapter."

https://twitter.com/sandman_AP/status/1352851201478418432?s=20

I don’t think Oda is actively browsing the web for OP content ( how would he have time to) but he gets fanmail with questions and suggestions. And considering that over 4 million people are One Piece fans... one of them has to get it correct eventually. Trying to avoid any similarity with any fan-theory is IMPOSSIBLE. 

And I do believe that Oda knows how he wants One Piece to end and won’t change that, no matter what. 

As for the details in-between........ I wouldn’t say Oda is not prone to be a Troll and sometimes downright an ass towards his fans. XD Never out of malice but because he thinks it’s funny. 

I’m also sure he will never focus on romance in the manga, but since love is an important part of life it will come into play now and then. Classic romance (?) more with side-characters  (Roger/Rouge, Sai/Baby5, Bege/Chiffon) than with main (Strawhats) but still possible.

He may very well edit less-important plot lines if they don't change the ending. 

That also includes, that I absolutely think it’s possible that the Strawhats will have romantic involvement at the end of the story. At the moment it is never in the focus, except for plot reason (Whole Cake Island for example, though that is an entirely different topic) but absolutely possible. 

Because the Strawhats boning each other or maybe someone outside of the crew will not change the story. It has no influence to anything, except if it’s on a higher scale, like if Luffy really suddenly married Boa Hancock. That would influence the political outline of the world.

Meanwhile Pauli/Iceburg or Noland/Cagara or Bartolomeo/Cavendish have literally no influence to the story (anymore). And I don’t think I have to start on things like other rare pairs or even OC-ships. 

That being said, and having more stuff in mind, I wouldn’t put it past Oda to actually focus more on Jin/Bin. 

Why? Well... 

we had so many interactions between Robin and Franky after the time skip that it was almost ridiculous. In every single arc we see them fight alongside each other. We had strong romantic tropes portrayed with them: 

Their meeting after the timeskip (Sabaody Archipelago)

Franky having his head in Robins lap (Punk Hazard) 

Wearing the same shirt (Dressrosa) 

Finishing each others sentence (Zou)

Franky offering Robin a ride and her answering with a heart (Wano)  

And the moment the internet exploded when Robin was holding Frankys face. Which yeah, only a Colorspread and not canon yadda yadda

For now let’s gloss over all the other moments that showed that they cared for each other. 

... so many.

Anyway what I want to say is that Oda had declared “All the Strawhats are in love with adventure.” and “I won’t focus on romance.”  but is seemingly showing a connection between Franky and Robin, that made one think that he might actually be aboard the ship even if the fandom itself is rather silent and small. 

Meanwhile when Jinbe appeared (in the timeskip) he was instantly a hit. His popularity then rose thanks to Fishmen Island Arc. And again I can’t blame anyone. On the other hand Franky always had a hard stance. This was recently shown again because is the lowest ranked Strawhat in the popularity poll. 

One (Oda) might come to a conclusion here:

Maybe people don’t like Franky and so would dislike FRobin. But since Oda also seems to enjoy grown up relationships (?) maybe he thinks Jinbe is the only reasonable replacement?  -> It could be a tactial decision. 

Maybe he really changed his opinion and personally likes one more than the other. He was a FRobin supporter but now likes JinBin more? It wouldn't change anything for the story and there wouldn't be any harm -> It could be a personal decision. 

Maybe he fears that he put too many hints in the manga and now has to paddle back? Because let’s be honest, until the colourspread with Robin putting her hand on Frankys face... the FRobin fandom was on the backburner. And so he wants to throw out some Red Herrings.  -> Again a tactial decision

Maybe he never inteded to make it  romantic and it is actually all just friendship. Subtext is something many authors use without being aware of it. (Just ask anyone who is a lesbian!Nami fan. They have good points.) -> A mistake from the very beginning. 

And you can use these same thoughts for every other non-canon ship. 

Please take everything of this with a grain of salt because I try to understand the intention of a man who is more than 10 years my senior and from a culture I can’t even start to try to comprehend (sometimes I don’t even get my own culture), who is the head figure of a money-making machine. So it’s hard to tell what else influences his decisions. 

My interpretations are influenced by my own experiences and knowledge which is big and vast but also stretched very thin. 

Last but not least I want to make clear that any speculation is really the same as asking a crystal ball. In the western fandom we have only few people who can even slightly try to give an insight to the whole thing and they (smart enough) keep out of any shipping discourse. 

tl;dr: I don’t think Oda will change the ending. But I do think that he is willing to change minor plotlines  and so yes I think Oda might change couples for any possible reason, as long as it does not change the ending, and he does not even has to choose a good reason because in the end they are his characters and he is free to do whatever he wants with them.

[kashacreates]

AHHH!!! Hiiii!!! (@my-writblr here)! I saw where you reblogged my WIPs! Thanks :D

I just saw your introduction post where you share you were a transman. (I'm agendered! Not quite the same, so I wanted to ask two questions. Feel free to ignore this if you don't want to answer! Nooooo pressure or expectation!)

I'm writing a transman character and while he does end up coming out to his crush, the crush is like "I'm so sorry you felt like you had to come out to me! I should have been a safe place for you where you didn't feel the need." And is just generally supportive, but also I don't want her [the crush] to make it about her. I want it to be a mutual "Oh hey this is something I want you to know about me" and a "Oh!" moment.

I kind of *do* set it up to be a stomach drop moment where you think for like three words of her sentence she isn't going to be supportive but it's really just her feeling like a bad friend for worrying that she wasn't a safe space to be. But I want it to quickly turn around where it's a "Wait you're not upset I'm trans?" and she's like "Never in a million years!" SO Question 1: So does that sound like an okay scene (asking as a writer as well)? Or is it too cliche? It's not the big climax of the story or anything. It happens within the first half of the book. It's just another "secret" being uncovered between these two (The Crush being an ace and The Transman being aro and they still have a mutually beneficial relationship with a third member in a polyamorous triangle.)

Question 2: What are some things as a transman you want to see in transmale characters? Any do's/don'ts?

Thank you for the ask!

Let me give some more information about me before I answer those, as my answers may differ from another transman's answers. I also believe that a few of my mutuals are also transmasculine and I invite them to reblog this with their answers to this question as well. :D

I'm a closeted transman in my 30's who hasn't transitioned due to finances and health problems. I'm currently more financially stable, but the city I live in is very conservative and there is a real chance I'd lose my job should I start. I'm very open online but guarded in meatspace about it. However, non-professional friends tend to know so I haven't had to "come out" to a partner since they already know who I am, essentially.

I'm also an inclusionist, community-wise. This means that I see that the breadth, depth, hue, and intensity of human emotion is so vast that our language fails to accurately capture it. Also that the function of labels function better to find people similar to ourselves. I'm not one for discourse so take what I'm saying here as my experience, what I've read, and etc.

As to my answers:

Question 1: The scene seems fine to me since it's not a main plot point and seems to function as a way to inform the reader. If the focus is on the interpersonal side of things, I don't see a lot of writers handle the afterwards of coming out often. Even the most open-minded ally tends to have some preconceived notions. This means there's a growing period afterwards where both people learn how to deal with the knowledge: the cis person figures out pronouns, names, how to be respectful, etc. and the trans person figures out how to navigate helping someone else figure them out (it's very awkward! And rather unavoidable.) This is true for polyamory as well-people take a minute to learn and that is okay.

Also, people do tend to "make things about themselves." It is an inherent part to how we relate with each other. We tend to give-and-take in discussion. She should just avoid talking over him and engage with what he's saying along with whatever she has to say. I would definitely include why he wouldn't feel comfortable coming out to her prior to that, whether it's something she's said, it's purely a personal issue, etc. Question 2: Transpeople are like any other minority: not a hivemind where everyone agrees on what is proper. As long as you make a fully-fledged character that isn't a carbon-copy of a negative stereotype, I can at least take a story in good faith. (As an aside, there's been a rash of transandrophobia on Tumblr that makes for a great "what does hate against transmen look like. It can be found in transandrophobia tags and other places. Obvious cw and tw for transphobia.)

Honestly, the way I make trans characters is make a character then later go "Ah, they're trans."

I'm finding it difficult to put into words, but two things I'd avoid are transmen characters that are a little too uwu too cute and pure bean for this world and like transmen who transition explicitly to avoid misogyny. These simultaneously infantilizes and fetishizes us or turns us into horrid cudgel for terf rhetoric.

Something I wish more people would show in trans-media in general is a focus on gender euphoria versus dysphoria. The utter giddiness of getting to do something that actually feels right after feeling wrong or neutral for so long. It can be something as small as a shirt that fits right or getting the first hint of a beard or something more typical like cutting off long hair or getting the first binder and so forth. Being trans isn't a tragedy, there is a lot of joy in it too.