#just me thinking about language and multiculturalism

[sentientcave]

Last line(s) challenge! Tagged by the one and only @glossysoap (if you have good taste go read her snippet of her Orc Price project because it is HOT)

Here's a little bit from chapter 6 of Retirement Party featuring poorly translated Spanish (If any friends or followers speak Spanish, especially Filipino Spanish (which has, notably, been on the decline for a long while, but it's the language that Dalisay and her grandmother have in common, since Dalisay doesn't speak Tagalog and Lola's English is so-so), and want to help me out, give me a holler. It's probably an unnecessary detail but we love unnecessary details here.)

Segment below the cut!

You're not sure what possesses you, but you get up, and you make him sit, and you go to fix his coffee and wrap a bag of frozen peas in a tea towel. When you turn around, he's reached across the table to pull your laptop closer, smiling at the camera when Lola claps her hands together, delighted.

"Es guapo, Dalisay. Pero no joven, ¿eh?" She says, laughing. He's handsome, Dalisay. But not young, huh?

"No," he agrees, "soy demasiado mayor para ella. Todavía soy lo suficientemente egoísta como para intentarlo de todos modos.” I'm too old for her. I'm still selfish enough to try anyway.

You set down the coffee and glare at him. But you still gently set the ice pack on his raised ankle, squeaking as he pulls you into his lap, sitting you on his other thigh. "John!" You protest.

"Oh, relájate, apo,” Lola chides, laughing, unhelpfully reading the situation just the way John wants her to. She seems impressed by John's accented Spanish, happy to not need to use English to speak with him. "Yo también fui joven una vez. Me preocupaba que ella nunca encontrara a alguien.” Oh lighten up, apo. I was young once too. I was worried she would never find someone.

"No es que ella no pudiera,” John says. "Ella es tan hermosa, pero mantiene la distancia." It's not that she couldn't. She's so beautiful, but she keeps her distance.

Tagging (no pressure): @dragonnarrative-writes , @mortuarywriting and @charliemwrites

[beautiful-basque-country]

Y'know, I think so often of how Spain is this hotpot of multicultural existences throughout history and how utterly fucking insane it is to homogenize it all as "Spanish" when we could be like. Idk. Celebrating how cool and diverse we are. When I was a kid in the south we had a day in school to talk about the different places we all came from, and it's like, IMBEDDED in my brain when a nun and my mom were talking and how my mom said, "Learning a language is never useless. Every language has a value, because every culture has value." It fucking stuck with me.

Saying that euskera or any other language in the peninsula is a Spanish dialect to me feels like fucking cultural genocide at this point.

Kaixo and eskerrik asko for your message! 🧡

Totally agree. Your mother's attitude is a treasure! Sadly in Spain there are many people that don't share her point of view at all and can only respect the people that are, talk, and vote like them.

Spanish nationalists - call it righties or far righties, they're the same - truly believe that Spain and their idea of Spain and Spanishness belong to them. They've kidnapped the anthem and the flag, for example, and I'm sure there are many Spanish lefties who would like to show their support and pride to their homeland, but we all know what wearing a wristband with the Spanish flag or having a Spanish flag on the balcony means. They're theirs. And the government should be theirs, too, that's why they keep on asking to repeat the elections, because they didn't turn out as they wanted to.

And inside their idea of Spain and Spanishness, the usual suspects: just Spanish - with no accent, please, don't be a hillbilly - no dialects or any other language, ffs, a true Spaniard just speaks Spanish and if you don't, you're attacking Spaniards and their culture. Even no Spanish nationalist leader speaks English, because they're SPANIARDS. Male white Spaniards, btw. As Primo de Rivera used to say, Spanish nationalism "is a movement of men". There's a loooot of sexism and homophobia and transphobia in their roots even now. Put God first, but don't touch the Church. And it goes on and on. Just Francoism 2.0, where they want to reach the political elite to benefit from million-euro contracts, commissions, money diversion, etc etc. Let's be honest, most of them don't even believe in what they preach, just want to be put where the money is and start grabbing it.

Coming back to your ask, sorry, Spanish nationalism has always needed an enemy, and what a better enemy that somebody that doesn't speak like they do? Here we come the Basques, and when they got bored of us and couldn't get many votes out of selling how bad we all were, they turned to the Catalans.

Now the Catalan tale seems not very profitable, they side with Israel and call the rest antisemitic.

Tomorrow who knows who the new enemy of Spain and Spanishness will be.

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

The Uncanny Valley: Final Part

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.6k

Summary: Therapy isn't something you're taking too well, but if you want to keep your job, you'll continue to go. you're forced to confront thoughts and memories of your own family when you come across the father of the unsub.

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Season Five Masterlist

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them.

x

If drugs are being used, then a doctor might know something about it that the team won't. Rossi calls in a doctor who is around all different types of drugs to get a professional opinion on the case.

"So, doctor, if a diabetic were given this battery of drugs to keep her paralyzed, what would the reaction be?"

"Diabetics metabolize everything they consume differently which includes drugs. It all gets broken down to blood sugar at varying rates. Most likely, this patient seized up minutes after she was medicated."

"You're saying she's already dead?"

"Probably. Although, there is another possibility. Bethany's condition could break down the drugs faster than the other victims. She might regain control of her body. Every hour that she doesn't turn up is a reason for hope."

"We're still running out of time. If the drugs don't kill Bethany, she's not gonna last long without insulin."

You and Spencer take it upon yourself to talk to a collector to try and get into the mindset of someone like the unsub. There is a store in town that is owned by a collector who likes to sell some of his things and give them to other people who are collecting the same things he is. Spencer breaks down the situation you're in without giving too much information away. He's still a civilian who doesn't need to know police business.

"Look, collectors are good, honest people. Just because you enjoy dolls doesn't make you a freak or a pedophile."

"We appreciate that sir, but the woman that we're looking for has lost her ability to control her obsession. She's killed three women trying to recreate a type of doll she had a child."

"Describe the line to me."

"There's a pattern to the victims. They're all in their twenties and petite."

"Most doll lines revolve around infants. Is she dressing them like babies?"

"No, she's not." Spencer looks at you to see you studying the things he has in his store. You're not touching anything but you are fiddling with your fingers as you look. "Their wardrobe consists of chiffon dresses worn by one blond woman, a redhead, and a black woman."

"Is she sewing the dresses herself?"

"How did you know that?"

The store owner goes around the counter and takes out a big book of dolls. He flips through the pages to the ones he thinks are the ones the unsub is trying to recreate.

"It's the Valois line. They were a local company back in the late eighties. They promoted feminism and multiculturalism. Strong, independent girls from different backgrounds who could still be friends."

"Y/N, check this out." You walk over to Spencer and study the contents of the book. "Each doll has a birth certificate to fill out, a form to describe their lives, and a kit to sew your own clothes."

"JJ said she's been at this for a while. She's probably been sewing since she was a little kid."

"Wait a minute. Sir, what's this contest that they held?" Spencer asks when he sees an ad in the book.

"That was to see who could come up with the most imaginative doll. Sew a dress and write an essay to describe her. If you won the contest, you'd have your doll featured in next year's line."

"That didn't end well, did it?"

"No."

"It's a classic tool child psychologists use. Tell me a story with these dolls sort of way."

"When the company got essays with thinly veiled references to physical or sexual abuse, they turned the entry forms and the dolls over to the police. The publicity killed the line."

"You said the company was local, right? They might still have the clothes in evidence."

The detective was able to get the dolls that were in evidence once you asked him to. By the time you got back to the station, Derek was reading some of the essays while JJ and Emily were inspecting the dolls. You used to have a doll like that when you were a child. Your dad gave you one to dress up with doll clothes. You didn't have the skill to sew and it's not like your parents were gonna do that for you.

You grab one of the dolls and think back to your childhood. You got a lot of dolls, in fact.

"How are the essays going?" Spencer asks Derek.

"It makes for some pretty depressing reading. Prentiss is having a good time."

"Hey, these dolls are like little time capsules only eighties fashion wasn't so kind to them. I'm surprised how many little girls knew how to make shoulder pads. How's it going on your end, JJ?"

"I got a list of vendors the victims went to--tailors and seamstresses, that sort of thing."

"JJ, you said something about a handkerchief hem, right?" Emily asks.

Emily shows her the hem on some of the clothes on the dolls.

"That's exactly like what she sews for her victims."

"What's the name on the entry?"

"Samantha Malcolm."

"She's on my list," JJ says.

"Wait a minute, guys. I have her essay around here somewhere." He looks for it. "Right here. 'Sally doesn't like the room with the lightning.' That can't be good."

You take out your phone and call Penelope to get information on Samatha.

"Okay guys, I just got Samantha's medical records. Oh, my god, she was doomed. Like Emily Bronte doomed, like Shakespeare doomed."

"What happened to her?" Hotch asks.

"Right. For the first ten years, nothing. Then, she starts a battery of electroshock treatments."

"At ten? Who subjects a child to ECT?" Spencer wonders.

"That would be her father, Dr. Arthur Malcolm. He runs an inpatient mental health facility for troubled young people called New Lives. At first, the essay that Samantha wrote raised some flags, but her father explained that the therapy was to deal with the recent death of her mother. After that, he started her on a serious regimen of anti-psychotic drugs which he weaned her off of a few years ago."

"It explains her familiarity with medication. Where is she now?"

"Her father declared her incompetent so he's still the legal guardian. Everything is in his name, and all of her records list New Lives as her residence."

"She can't keep victims in an inpatient facility. She needs privacy. Garcia, what about real estate holdings in her father's name?"

"Just his own, but New Lives has a bunch of outpatient and halfway houses all over town."

"JJ, where does she work?"

She checks her list. "I have her placed at three different shops around town."

"Alright, let's split up and cover the shops and the facility."

"I want to go to New Lives," Spencer says. "Whether or not she's there, I want to talk to the father. There are literally hundreds of therapies to help kids through loss. Electroshock is not one of them."

"Take Rossi and Y/N," Hotch says.

Rossi drives both of you to Arthur's facility that's right smack dab in the middle of town. You step out of the car and feel the sense that someone is watching you. You look around and know Samantha is out there. She's close whether on purpose or just passing through.

"What is it?" Spencer asks.

"She's here. I feel her. I can't find her, though."

There are too many people walking around that her energy mixes with everyone else's. Rossi takes you two inside and gets approval to talk to Dr. Malcolm. The second you see the doctor, you freeze in your steps. He becomes blurry through your tears but neither Rossi nor Spencer notice you. Rossi begins explaining the situation briefly but you can't hear the words coming out of his mouth.

"I am very confused, gentlemen. What does this have to do with Samantha?"

"We need to talk to her. Is she here?"

"No, she's at work."

"Does she live here or did you move her into one of your halfway houses?"

"As a matter of fact, she is in one of my houses."

"We'll need the address."

"I need to know what this is about."

"She might be tied to a series of abductions."

"That's not possible. It's not my daughter," Dr. Malcolm shakes his head.

"Is Samantha on her own at this house? There are no other patients, right?"

"She thought that was best and I agreed."

Rossi looks back at Spencer and notices the painful look on your face.

"Y/N, are you okay?"

Spencer turns to look at you and grabs your hand to which you squeeze. The feeling and energy you're getting from Dr. Malcolm is the same one you got from your rapist. It's similar to the same feeling you've been getting with your dad recently, but you're not going to open that door.

"I know a child molester when I see one."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You subjected Samantha to electroshock therapy when she was ten. The effects of that would be permanent, especially at that age but you knew that, didn't you?"

"My wife died when Samantha was ten and she never recovered. I tried everything. Child psychiatry and pet therapy. Nothing helped. She was cutting herself. She was in pain. But I want to go back to the part where you're accusing me of being a child molester."

"Really? Okay. I noticed you have toys in your office. Why are they here?"

"I use them in my therapy."

"I understand that, but why are they on the top shelf away from where any kids can reach them?"

"They're reminders of patients that I've helped."

"Okay." You grab one of the toys from the shelf. "What was the name of the girl you helped with this one?"

"Jenny Larson."

You grab another one. "This one? What was the name of the girl you helped with this one?"

"Abigail Moore."

"How about this one?"

"Linda Krauss."

"I'm assuming these girls are nine or twelve, right?"

"My PhDs are on the effect of trauma on prepubescent girls. I do not appreciate what you're implying," he glares.

"I'm not implying anything. I'm making an inference. An inference is an educated guess, and based on that, I form a hypothesis. For instance, my hypothesis here is that after you raped your daughter, you submitted her to electroshock treatment to make sure she stayed quiet."

"This is outrageous!"

"Then, out of guilt, you bought her toys. More specifically, you bought her a line of dolls. Because that's what serial molesters do. They give gifts. So, you continued the pattern with your other patients and once they left your care, you added their toys to your collection."

You pause to think about your own situation. Your father gave you a bunch of toys to keep you happy. Maybe there is no correlation and you're reading into but you'd rather not think of your own father in that light.

"I'm sorry, you can't back up your story, Agent."

"This is why I love my job, doctor," you laugh. "The jury is your peers and the witnesses will be Jenny, Abagail, and Linda. The DA will put them on the stand and I'm going to personally bring these dolls in. We'll watch how they react." You start to raise your voice and slam your hand on his desk which scares him. "Not to mention your goddamn energy painting a not-so-pretty picture of you fucking these girls!"

Spencer pulls you back to help calm you down and Rossi steps in to take over.

"Or you could tell us where your daughter is, and we'll tell the DA you cooperated. Once we walk out this door, that deal comes off the table."

You turn to leave the room and Dr. Malcolm says something right before Spencer can leave.

"2529 Adams Street. You'll tell them, right? That I cooperated?"

"Where are the other toys? The collection isn't complete," you glare.

Dr. Malcolm has no choice but to give them up. He gives you the dolls he took from his daughter, the ones that made her start kidnapping in the first place. Rossi informs the rest of the team where to go, but Spencer thinks it's best if he goes in first. Samantha is mentally unstable so she needs to be approached delicately and carefully.

Spencer goes in knowing he can talk her down while you go in so you can help the girls she's taken.

"Samantha?" She is in the middle of taking care of her victims and she gasps when she hears Spencer's voice. As he is talking to her, you have your gun out and trained on her. "My name is Spencer and this is Y/N. We're with the FBI. I know what your father did to you, and I want you to know that he can never, ever hurt you again."

"He never touched me," she shakes her head. "He's a good father. He loves me."

You say the same thing about your father.

"I know that he probably forced you to say those things. He'd punish you if you got it wrong and send you to the room with the lightning."

"Yeah," she nods.

"The dolls that your father gave you after he hurt you, what would happen to them?"

"He kept them in his office with the other toys, but when I moved out, I had to take my friends with me. I couldn't leave them behind."

As he keeps her talking, you slowly move to the right to get closer to the girls who are begging you with their eyes.

"Of course. When you went to get them, what did you find? He gave them to another girl, didn't he?" She nods emotionally. "Do you want them back?"

"He said I couldn't. He said they were gone for good."

"He lied. He's been lying to you for a long time. Do you want to see them?"

"Can I?"

"Yeah." Spencer reveals he has the box of dolls and she immediately goes over to him. This is when you put your gun away and tend to the girls. "Do you want to play with them?

"Don't worry, you girls are safe," you say.

You take out each IV tube from each of the girl's arms. If they could cry, they would. Bethany is the one with diabetes so she is able to move a lot more. The drugs Samantha gave her wore of quickly.

"Thank you," she whispers.

"It's clear. We need medical in here," Spencer says into his earpiece. When the team comes into the house, Samantha panics that she isn't going to see her dolls again. "Hey, Samantha? You need to go with these men but your friends can go with you, okay?"

"They won't take them away?"

"I promise no one will ever take them away again."

She is taken away but she is happy because of her dolls.

"Well done, Agent Reid."

"Thanks."

Rossi goes over to you and wraps an arm around your shoulder for comfort.

"Are you okay?"

"No," you whisper painfully.

Another job well done. Another successful case. It doesn't feel that way. It feels like the world is caving in on you and you can't get to safety. You dread going to sleep but you know you have to at least try. Maybe this time you won't have another nightmare. That's the hope, right?

You're back here again. You're back in the same nightmare. The same car is on the side of the road where you're walking. Someone grabs you from behind. Who is it? It doesn't matter. You scream out for help. You kick and fight to get away. It's no use. Whoever grabbed you has a tight hold on you.

Help! Someone help! Anyone! No one is coming to help you. You're all alone. Spencer stands on the other side of the street just watching. Help! Spencer, please! He doesn't do anything but stands there watching you get dragged into the car.

Spencer!

"Y/N, wake up. You're having a nightmare."

You gasp awake and look around the room to make sure you're not actually inside that car. You're covered in sweat and tears.

"Spencer?"

"I'm right here. You're okay."

"No, I'm not," you sob. You turn over in his arms and cry into his chest. "Please make this stop."

Spencer is heartbroken for you. He doesn't know how to help and it's killing him.

"In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate." - Isaac Asimov

x

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[thelonelyjew]

I really hope it doesn't sound like I'm trying to start an argument with this, I genuinely want your opinion. Do you think Israel should exist? Do you think it can exist peacefully? I'm a Jewish kid, I support Palestine and think the genocide needs to stop, but I feel like some (obviously not all) of the criticism of Israel feels a little bit antisemitic. Like I've seen people saying that zionists control a bunch of things internationally and in the us government, and that sounds very similar to antisemitic conspiracy theories. I'm sorry for asking you this, I just don't know who to ask. My mom is really sensitive about this because she's been bullied for being Jewish. And my friends aren't quite as politically aware, so they don't understand the history and just keep being like "why did the us ever support Israel to begin with?" and they certainly don't understand where zionism came from so I can't have actual conversations with them

So if you have anything to say, or any resources, anything you think I should read, that would seriously be really helpful

This ask contains several complicated questions so I'll break it down and do my best to present not just my opinion but also what I understand to be the context and the alternatives, and what factors shape my thinking.

Do I believe the state of Israel should exist? On one level, I don't believe any states should exist. All modern nation-states are built on some amount of violence and ethnostates especially all require some amount of erasure of groups outside the national group being enshrined in the national mythology. This is not unique to Israel; Atatürk's "One nation one language one flag" policy continues to be the basis of Turkish aggression against and denial of Kurdish cultural existence for example. The ongoing Tigrayan genocide is part of the legacy of Amharic supremacy in the statecraft that went into the building of the state of Ethiopia. Every nation-state has a dark history casting a long shadow. For more context on this topic, Worshipping Power by Peter Gelderloos is a good read.

As far as alternatives, the proposals of Murray Bookchin, what he calls Social Ecology, and the Democratic Confederalism proposed by Abdullah Öcalan are promising. Other historical examples of alternatives past and present include the Haudeosaunee Confederacy, the Caracol model of the Zapatistas, peasant cooperative experiments seen in Makhnovchina during the Russian revolution and in revolutionary Spain in the 30s, and of course the Democratic Confederalist experiment in northeastern Syria aka Rojava.

The Rojava model is especially relevant because, while westerners tend to make armchair pronouncements about what ought to happen in the Middle East based on extremely flawed and limited knowledge and a deeply ingrained cultural bias (read Orientalism by Edward Said for more on that), there are experiments in pluralistic multicultural democracy that originate from within the region that are much more relevant. It's always so wild to me to hear Zionist apologia in the form of the question, "well what else could we ("we?") possibly support if not a two-state solution or an only-Israel 'the only democracy in the Middle East™️' solution?" When practically right next door there is a thriving 10-year experiment in radical democracy in an area with more ethnic, religious, and language groups than you can count on one hand, in an area where some people from those groups were brutally murdering each other less than a decade ago and now are having to find ways to patch up society and function in peace and with respect and self-determination for all groups there. That seems very relevant as an example but I almost never hear anyone mention it and Palestine together, despite historically the movements supporting each other.

As far as antisemitic conspiracy theories, I think you're right about that. I know a lot of people, even well-meaning people who have not fully examined their internalized antisemitism, will talk about US support for Israel as if Israel is controlling US politics and that is why there is so much military aid being sent, or they will talk about American support for Israel as if it's the result of Jewish influence in politics. On no other topic do Jews hold this amount of sway. Jews tend to support immigration reform and universal healthcare and yet we don't have the power as a tiny voting bloc to get those passed. No, the US supports Israel because it's an investment. Israel is essentially a weapons research and development laboratory for the US. The Israeli economy is overwhelmingly dependent on its military development and exports. A good source for this is the documentary film, "The Lab" directed by Yotam Feldman, an Israeli Jew himself, who goes into great detail on the role that Israel plays in weapons development for not only the US but also dictatorships in South America.

The other big source of American support for Israel is based on religion but not the Jewish religion. Evangelical Christians are by far the most powerful religious group in US politics, and they believe that Jews being returned to the holy land is a necessary component of triggering the war of Armageddon and bringing about end times etc. They are not our friends; our role in their teleology is to die to bring about the salvation of (a relatively small number of) Christians. This group is represented by powerful televangelists like John Hagee, whose organization Christians United For Israel describes itself as America's largest pro-Israel group. Not only are not all Jews Zionists and not all Zionists Jews; there are more Christian Zionists in America (30 million according to Tristan Sturm) than there are Jews in the entire world (less than 17 million according to Sheskin and Dashefsky data for 2023.)

Antisemitism absolutely still exists and is a real problem, and the conflation of critique of Israel with antisemitism makes genuine antisemitism much harder to address. Israeli propaganda deliberately inflames the reasonable and justified fears of Jewish people and directs them at a relatively powerless target rather than at the systems that endanger all of us.

I would argue that the state of Israel itself is antisemitic. Not only does it aggressively promote the old antisemitic narrative that conflates Jewish identity with Zionism, it has been instrumental in the displacement and destruction of so many Jewish communities and traditions that had been existing for centuries. I just finished reading My Father's Paradise, by a Kurdish Jew whose father's family was forced to relocate to Israel shortly after his bar mitzvah, the last ever to happen in the ancient Aramaic-speaking Jewish community of Zaxo in northern Iraq. It captures a poignant glimpse of how it feels to be the last surviving native speaker of your childhood language, and the role Israeli statecraft played in dooming many Jewish communities of the diaspora to that fate.

And here's maybe my hottest take: even if there were no genocide of Palestinians to worry about, I would still be anti-Zionist because I think Zionism is inherently anti-Jewish. Most of Jewish life has happened in the diaspora for the last several millennia, yet Zionism is an anti-diaspora ideology that sees our lives, our homes, our diverse sub-cultures and languages and spiritual practices as inferior, broken, not worth preserving let alone continuing. Modern Zionism is, by Hertzl's own admission, a settler-colonial project intended to shape Jewry into the mold popular among European nations at the time, and thereby win the respect of Christendom by playing their game on their terms and excelling. In short The national project of Israel is manufacturing whiteness for Jews.

But the truth is that for as long as there has been political Zionism, there have been Jewish anti-Zionists, as evidenced by folk songs like the century-old "Oy Ir Narishe Tsionisten" ("Oh You Foolish Zionists") re-popularized by Daniel Kahn, whose music is also associated with a Yiddish cultural revival among young diaspora Jews.

There's a lot more I could ramble on about and more books I could point towards but this is already very long and I'm no expert on the subject, just a very tired Jew who has been at this for a long time now. I'll leave you with a link to a good article about the recent wave of campus protests and incidents of alleged, and sometimes actual, antisemitism among them:

[heyybaejjk]

MODERN AO'NUNG HCS PT. 2 — SAMOAN!FEM READER

pairing. human!ao'nung x samoan!fem reader

summary. just Ao'nung with a Samoan girlfriend

warnings. swearing

a/n. for my polynesian babes wherever yall at ❤️

masterlist. pt. 1 pt. 3

AAPI month and Samoan Independence day have passed and I think of this idea NOW 😭☠️ out of all times wtf

BUT ITS SUNDAY AND STILL SAMOAN LANGUAGE WEEK ‼️

But idc 🧍‍♀️

Gotta do what I gotta do because I am not letting ts go

I love my culture, just like anyone else does, I'm still learning more about it so I researched and placed some of my own knowledge into this.

Aiuli - Participants who dance and cheer around a solo performer as they dance. Participants are never allowed to dance and cheer in front of the performer, only from behind them.

Taualaga - A performance, importantly the last, to close off an event. Mainly done by a solo female performer. Some are allowed to have people in the back while they Aiuli, some just rather have a solo performance.

"WHAT?" he screams in the middle of class, causing everyone to glance at him.

It was supposed to be a surprise, really. But your ass accidentally slipped out the fact that you were going to perform a cultural dance on Multicultural Day that was coming in a few weeks.

He would definitely try to Aiuli when you dance.

No questions asked.

Although he doesn't know how to properly dance the traditional way, he'll look around and copy the actions of the other pupils.

You both are heavy on learning each other's culture, so when he forgets a certain thing, he goes to your cousins to ask for help

"Wait so- I can't ae-oo-lee in front of her?" Ao'nung poorly pronounces, a slight dark tint on his cheeks as he scratches the back of his neck.

"Never. Always stay behind her, or whoever is doing the solo," a boy says with his arms folded against his chest. "If you see people giving money during the dance, don't throw it at her while cheering. Be respectful and softly stick to her arms, they're gonna be covered with oil, anyway. If you can't do that, put it on the ground behind her.

"Right, right..." Ao'nung frantically jots down as the latter continues to speak.

On the day of your dance, he gets so confused when he sees people swarming around, especially in front of you. He will literally stand there like 🧍‍♀️???

But doesn't copy the others as he sees his friend from earlier who told him what not to do, cheering from behind. He smiles warmly before sticking noted bills onto your oiled arms. Kissing your cheek slyly before going back to his position.

"Alu ai gi ou kae."

Bro got slapped. Not too hard, but hard enough to know that he said something wrong.

"Ow! Baby, what was that for?" He holds his cheek, rubbing it softly. Slightly pouting while looking down at your shorter figure. Quite dramatically because you felt like all you did was tap his cheek.

"Why did you say that for?" You looked up at him with your nose scrunched.

"I asked Vika how to say "wanna kiss?" I asked him an hour ago so my pronunciation wasn't that horrible." He sulks. You roll your eyes before cupping his face, leaving kisses all over his cheeks, nose and forehead. "Yeah well, you just told me to go eat shit. Vika's Tongan, you idiot. He only knows the swear words."

i wanted to write sm more but i rather keep this short LOLOL.

[doberbutts]

sorry if this is like out of line or smth but ive been seeing a lot of your mixed w/ white posts today and i had a question.

my entire dads side of the family is cuban, theres a lot of hispanic heritage on that side of the family. my entire moms side of the family is white. ive always considered myself mixed/hispanic w/ white but im incredibly white passing. ive always felt like an outsider in hispanic communities because i was mainly raised by my mom.

how do i get past the shame and sense of non-belonging to start connecting with my cuban and hispanic heritage?

I don't think it's out of line, but I do want to warn that I really can only give theoreticals. As I have stated a few different times, I was raised in a multicultural, multi-ethnic family that went to great lengths to expose me to my cultures and also the cultures of others. It was very important to my parents to make sure their children did not feel divorced from being black. Unfortunately, they didn't have much of a choice about being divorced from being Native, as that decision was also made for them when they were children themselves. However, it was still important for them to show us what they could.

So I never really had to "reconnect" with my blackness because it was something my dad felt was really important for me to be raised in long before I was born. Whether or not I'm "allowed" to say I belong to my Nation depends entirely on paperwork that I don't have due to family members dying etc (and also, you know, race politics bc for a very long time you were not legally able to be both black and native) and so while there are means to get that paperwork nowadays... personally I don't have much of a drive to give someone a whole bunch of money to dig around in my family history and see what documents they might be able to fish out. It is enough for me that I can point to dearly departed family and state that I know they were part of the Nation. It is enough for me that no matter where I go, when I bump into someone else who is Native they recognize me without me needing to say anything. It is enough for me to have memories of this happening while we were near a reservation, and a family took us in because we were lost and confused and heading directly into a wildfire out west.

I would like to learn more about my Nation. About the traditions and cultures and lifestyles there. I'd like to learn the language. But I don't need papers to do that. I have some oral tradition received by aforementioned family members, but otherwise it's mostly just what I pick up here and there learning on my own. For right now, I am okay with that.

[liriostigre]

Hiiii ty for such a great uquiz!! Would it be possible to see the description of all the books you could get matched to? I’m curious what the vibes are for the rest!!

hi 🌷 here you go:

White Teeth by Zadie Smith: Excessive, maximalist and very ambitious multigenerational and multicultural epic novel that starts with the unlikely friendship between Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. It explores themes of race, identity and the intersections of culture, heritage, and modernity. Clever and hilarious dialogue, very creative when it comes to language and style, unique and bold when it comes to narrative. Perhaps a flawed novel due to its ambition, but excellent nonetheless.

Despair by Vladimir Nabokov: Excellent writing; very ambitious and stylish. It is somewhat a twisted novel but you will find a lot of humor despite. The narrator speaks directly to the reader as he writes what he regards as his perfect crime. This novel is one of Nabokov's earliest works in which one can easily identify themes and literary devices that the author explored later in his most known works.

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño: Brilliant and stunning novel about poets and poetry! Very dense and challenging; it requires patience from the reader. This novel is so infinitely dear to me that i can't even explain its brilliance, but i have to give you at least an idea of the plot so: The story is arranged in three parts and told from multiple points of view. It starts in Mexico City, in the 70s, and continues across decades and continents. It follows the adventures and misadventures of Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima—poets, drug dealers, wanderes, criminals. Now, about the themes, the writing, the style, the narration? Just absolutely perfect even at its most tedious, difficult and anticlimactic parts.

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington: Unconventional, absurd, imaginative and exuberantly surreal apocalyptic fairytale quest. It follows 92 year old Marian who is sent off to a peculiar old-age home. If you aren't familiar with Leanora Carrington's art you should look at some of her paintings because this wonderful novel feels just like her surrealist paintings!

Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls: This novella tells the story of a love affair between a depressed suburban housewife and an amphibian creature who escaped a scientific research center. It might sound like a quirky fiction story but it actually deals with the most mundane and banal aspects of life and human relationships. Brilliantly written; neat and precise prose, wonderful storytelling. The author knew what she was doing and not a single word she wrote was wasted.

The Borrowers by Mary Norton: Delicately written little adventure about tiny people who live in the secret places of houses. I am enamored (obsessed!!) with miniatures—dollhouses, dioramas, fairies—so imagine how dear this book is to me.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn: The murders of two girls bring reporter Camille Preaker back to her hometown. As she works to uncover the truth about those crimes, Camille finds herself forced to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past. Very entertaining read. It has best seller written all over it (which might not be the biggest compliment lol but i mean for this genre so it is a compliment).

Rage by Sergio Bizzio: Claustrophobic, anxiety inducing, fast-paced psychological thriller that made me think of Bong Joon-ho's Parasite the whole 4 hours it took me to read it. I read it in it's original language, Spanish, and i particularly loved the dialogue; its idiosyncrasies and authenticity (tqm Argentina!)

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby: Rob, an obsessive music fan, reminisces his top five worst break ups to understand his most recent heartbreak. He is a very arrogant and cynical guy who defines his entire life through records, and because he is constantly interacting with music that almost exclusively deals with love—and a very idealistic version of it—he finds himself unsatisfied with the way his life has turned out.

[floralembarrassment]

LMAO even when harry’s a teenager, regulus needs to take a second or two to breathe when he sees harry go a little bit too far in the deep end. but that made me want to ask!! (bc your writing always makes me think /pos) what are their other protective tendencies of jegulus over harry? thanks!!

Hello!!

Yes I think there are lots of things, especially water that cause Regulus pause. He loves his boy what can you say.

I think James and Regulus are the normal amount of protective, given a mix of strict and bring home a stray parenting , the pair really try to find a common ground to give Harry just enough freedom to make his own mistakes but not enough that he gets hurt or puts himself into obviously dangerous situations.

But I think James having been a marauder and Regulus growing up how he did, if we think war or not, they would not be fooled easily nor would they been blinded by the fact that Harry is ultimately a good kid. They would know that he gets up to trouble like his dad, is nosy as hell like his papa, and is arguably is the best and worst mix of both them.

They wouldn't tolerate him being unaccepting but I don't think he would be, if we think of him being raised by two fathers and multilingual & multicultural. I think we would see a Harry that is a bit more outgoing though, then we get in canon, simply because he would have been loved and been allowed to be seen and heard. They likely would have had to be a bit more protective when it came to his dads if anything!

Ultimately I think we would see them being:

Big time protective against Dumbledore

Hugely protective about the magical world (in that he would not be celebrity)

Very much protective of who he knows but also very encouragingly giving people chances and not to judge them by their name or family or house.

Clearly and openly protective of his identity and individuality

Protective of his cultural, language, and heritage differences (especially if living in London or France)

And protective of his interests, not letting others bully him out of sports, or dance, or music, or art, or whatever it may be that Harry likes.

Great ask! I'm glad you find my pieces to be thoughtful! with love

[pikabysss]

My entry for day 8 of Serennedy Pride Week: the finale.

The final hold. Small art plus an ultimate ramble

Watch out! Black and white mild gore and spoilers for Resident Evil 4 2005 (even though I don't think I need to warn for both)

Luis death in Resident Evil 4 (2005)

I was really surprised when Leon rushed to Luis and grabbed his hand. It caught me off guard because I'm not used to the hand grabbing being portrayed so accurately to the american culture like that. I consume a lot of japanese media that prioritize japanese culture. Extensive hand holding in Japan is usually seen as romantic. That's the moment I started really to ship Luis and Leon.

However, with my biased view aside, this scene, even if abrupt, is so well orchestrated in Leon's body language. I could see all the care put in that scene more than any other scene in the game. I watched a war movie when I was younger. A man noticed his brother being shot and went to his side. He grabbed his hand with a strong grip and even went for some kind of kiss (something more like a CPR. It was a multicultural movie, but those men were americans.

Europeans and Americans are just more touchy overall than asians (this is based on my obseravtion of those culture.) So, when Leon strongly gripped Luis' hand, I later thought about that man that lost his brother in that movie. The way he hold his hand just showed how much he cared for him.

What really is special with Leon's personality, is that he acts cold, but he actually really care for human life. He is tourmented when the two cops died, when Krauser dies, when Mike dies... but having to see the death of Luis just before his eyes, just next to him, that's why he gripped strongly to his hand: he wanted to feel that human life until it dropped, make sure that Luis had the most comfortable death he could have had despite it being so unpromptus. Leon offers himself as his last human hold, acting as a family member or a lover for him.

Now, I don't know if you noticed, but after Luis gives his last breath, Leon is visibly frustrated or sad. He backed off, but he kept Luis' hand in his until he needed to let it go, getting too far from him. Leon doesn't do that with Krauser.

This scene is very touching despite being a bit sudden. The way Luis died just like that made me laugh, but the moment after of Leon holding Luis' hand, trying desperately to help, asking him not to talk so he could breath and live for a little while longer.... Leon, not wanting to let go of Luis' hand, all little details that are just so beautifully crafted. Too bad the build-up to it was disappointing. Still, the scene by itself stays beautiful

[love-toxin]

miss ellie i'm realizing now that i never told you now revolutionary your ocs are. like. i've been on this website for literal years and the day i found your blog was with an oc post where you introduced such a dynamic lineup with so much variety, it was the first i had ever seen. maybe i wasn't looking hard enough but you had poc yanderes AND trans yanderes it was the first time i had ever seen any (i know it sounds crazy to say but i'm being so fr rn.) even when i look through your old posts and reread them i just get blown away by how each one is different and has their own personality even though you have so many?? anyway it's late and i just wanted to say that ty <3

will you marry me?? 🥺

LOL to be for real though that makes me sooooo happy you don't even understand, I'm really glad i get to be that way for you and all you lovely people 💕💕 it's a blessing to be able to write & post my work and I'm genuinely happy to see people connecting with it.

tbh, the representation i try to portray accurately is a really long-standing relationship i have with writing & authorship in general. this might not be a terribly interesting bit of lore but back when i was in my teens and consuming a lot of fanfic online in the early forms of it (ff.net my love </3) that was something that hit me a lot in reading self-insert fic, because I'd always been a huge reader and was just then tapping into self-inserts and community fiction posting rather than just books. and i remember distinctly (i think partly bc I've always grown up in multicultural neighborhoods/had mixed family growing up) reading fanfics and having the thought of "huh, i can relate to this description or this experience, but that makes me wonder whether other people can."

funny enough, it was partly when i would read descriptions of the author giving a self-insert long hair or referencing their hair in some way, and I'd start wondering how girls who wore a hijab would read that same piece, cause i went to school with a bunch of girls who wore it or a full niqab. and so i started wondering more like "if i was black, would i relate to this experience in this fic? if i was trans or gender non-conforming, are there characters i can relate to? if i were a mix of these things, could i find somewhere i belong in this setting?" and since then it kind of became a focus in the way i wrote stuff going forward.

i think using inclusive language in fic writing is really integral to a greater horizon of people enjoying it, and thinking on my ocs i always wanted to have characters that people could really relate to. I'd stop a lot in my process of creating my initial sets of characters and try to keep in mind those thoughts that i had in reading fics; "if i were this or that, could someone in that position relate to the stories I'm writing? and if not, what can i change to make that happen?" because if people are going to enjoy my characters or find comfort in them i want everyone possible to have the ability to. it's kind of intimidating at times to write for experiences i haven't had personally but it led me (and still leads me) to do a ton of research, and in doing so I've been able to learn lots of really fascinating things in the process. in doing so, it made it really easy for my characters to develop their personalities through my writing because i think they inherently have identities that are complex, which is always the goal you want for any character in the first place.

sorry that this kinda went off on a ramble LOL, but after so many years of writing and with my degree under my belt i still really think about it a lot. I'm really glad what i wanted to do has come across and i hope you continue to enjoy my ocs!! ❤️❤️

[sparkles-oflight]

I wasn't going to post this. I saw everyone jumping on the "let me tell you my emotional connection to joker out" train and I wasn't going to participate because.....well....my annoying ass already said everything there needs to be said through tags on random posts (I should really learn how to shut my mouth).

But now it's 4 am (thank you Rosa Linn, I can't say that seriously ever again), I'm having trouble sleeping since I'm not fully recovered from my cold, so, fuck it.

I'll go on a rant so... I'll add the little thing that "divides" the post so that is easier to skip

Ah....where to start...I could tell you how I started enjoying joker out but that's a wholeass post on itself...

So, I'm going to start with how I connect to each member.

Bojan, you were the one who "opened the doors" to me. Frontman doing his service. In Bojan I saw a lot about myself. I saw a guy who loves to make bad puns, who loves languages and brag about their multicultural knowledge. I saw a guy who can be awkward at times, who deal with anxiety problems... Who says they'll stay away from Social media and then proceeds to post the most unhinged things. I saw someone who likes to understand societies as well (please be my tutor, I really need to pass sociology this is year) and likes to fight stereotypes.

Kris told us Bojan's parents can be a bit more judgy and without going into a lot of details, I'll say I also understand that so much (I didn't want to bring sexuality into this, but even if Bojan turns out to be straight, I still relate to all the pressure is parents must put on him just because he goes against "the norm" in the Balkans).

Kris...my bitch.

(Jk jk, I love him a lot).

How do I start?

Kris and I honestly have a lot of common too. The whole "bullying for falling at being one gender" thing hits so close. I don't talk about my gender much but I currently identify as a enby/gender fluid. However, for most of my life I was terrified of failing as a girl.

I remember coming home and asking my mom why was I different from the other girls (NOT IN THE WAY YOU ARE THINKING, PLS, I'M QUITE LITERALLY JUST NOT A GIRL 😅) and she would reply stuff like "Of course you are like the others, you have a vagina like them" - this sounds so bad and it made me feel so much worse because it didn't provide me with an answer at all to the bullying I endured. I had short hair, liked "boyish" things and so I was called a boy (+I got transphobic comments too ✌🏽😙). I was never as close with the girls because of it and boys would also exclude me from being too close to them. I was in the middle and I had to change my personality countless times to fit my assigned gender.

Now that I'm in university, I finally figured myself out and it's so refreshing waking up to see myself with short hair again, with more "genderless" clothes, having no problems with my little "moustachio" and being able to appreciate what I see in the mirror... learning to love myself.

Kris as we know him identifies as a man. He, however, also learned how to break the gender stigma (AND THAT OUTFIT IS A FUCKING STATEMENT) and learned that having confidence in himself is all that matters. No matter how long your hair is, no matter how you dance or sing, no matter the color of your pants. Be yourself and be proud of you are is really what matters!

Jan....I actually don't have a lot to say (I think I wasted most my words with Kris), but just like Kris I also love how comfortable Jan feels in himself and how little he seems to care about what others think. I love his sense of humor and his style. I love his voice and how sometimes he can get a little embarrassed off-stage...I would just really love to have him as a best friend honestly. He probably zones out instead of listening, but oh well 😅

Naceeeeee, my teddy bear. I also don't have the energy to dive too deep in the topic, but as someone who also struggled with body image issues, I'm so proud whenever Nace feels comfortable on his own skin. It's refreshing.

But obviously I gotta mention that post. It's kinda funny to me that he wrote that when I'm currently writing a story for my script class about how it is to live with divorced parents and how the feeling of belonging is something we strive for.

It's something I definitely struggled with all my life and it's getting worse as time goes on. It's so refreshing to see another person go through and talk about it and seeing that they reached the happy ending I'm also looking for...

Jure le chatton. You know I don't usually talk much about you because we know nothing about your life. However, that interview where you said you asked your mom why you were problematic, hit me hard. For a lot of reasons I have mentioned before, but also because I'm considered problematic by both my parents. I don't want to get into many details... It's 4m after all.

There's one thing I was going to mention on Bojan's part, but I figured it would fit the whole band.

I really really am looking up to these guys. They are around my age and they have done so much already. I have been stuck in the past couple of years due to my depression - and realistically I never thought of actually turning 18, let alone 20 - and seeing how much they worked hard makes me want to work hard myself. I haven't been able to, but hopefully I will...

Also, everyday I have been waking up in a good mood knowing I have met some incredible people thanks to this fandom and the boys! Like, excuse people actually care about what I write, what???? 😅

It's been a great experience so far. Let's see what this will bring me in the future :)

[seashellronan]

The button says "talk to me about anything" so random question: how did/do religious tensions impact your life? Is the catholic v protestant thing still evident in Ireland?

I find it fascinating, as I'm Australian and protestant but have ended up going to catholic primary school, high school, and university. Not deliberately, they just happened to be good schools in my vicinity.

tbh religious tensions don’t really effect me which i’m very lucky to say but i’m from the mayo in the west which is mostly catholic and i know tensions still exist in the north. I also wasn’t raised very religious my mam and brother both go to mass regularly although my mam says she has her own religion and i think she enjoys the meditative action of sitting in the church and focusing on the things she cares about and for my brother he sings in the choir and enjoys the community and neither of them support any of the backwards ideas although most of the people i know who are actively catholic don’t (again that’s just my experience) and i was never forced to go to mass it was always given as a choice even when i was very young. Again i know many have a different experience like my boyfriend was an alter server and his mam actually cried when he told her as a teenager that he didn’t want to go to mass anymore but my dad had lost all faith in the catholic church a long time ago with everything they’ve done in ireland so he never went to mass so i didn’t have to either. But also my brother is much older than me and was raised with my nanny who i know really encouraged him to be involved in the church and even wanted him to be a priest so even in my family there’s different perspectives.

I aslo went to a gaelscoil(all irish language school) for primary school which are actually required to be educate together schools and are supposed to be secular. We still did some religion classes but it was rarely and we also made our communions etc but we also had some non catholics my best friend at the time was a jehovah��s witness and a boy in my class was raised atheist. As for secondary school i went to a convent of mercy however it was a small town so we still had plenty of non catholic kids and even a muslim girl in my later years there as there was little choice for schools so they had to be open.

I live in Dublin now which is really multicultural and has so many different people from different areas at this point the catholic protestant thing for a lot of people here exists as a joke or a story (obviously there are still areas with huge religious tensions) and i admit if i meet someone and they’re protestant i still find it strange but i actually sang at a protestant wedding last year. So for me it’s a very neutral thing but i do know some people who are really effected by it and religious tension definitely still exists in ireland and it is still very much something that is in the public consciousness still and that most if not all irish people are aware of

[godly-paternity-testing-dot-com]

Hi! First of all I hope you are having and amazing day/night! I happened to find this little blog that his helping demigods to find their godly parents and as someone who really unable to solve their own personality I would be very happy if you could help me out too!

Sooo somethings about myself:

1) I study at the univeristy at the moment for two different professions (One is Gastronomy and Culunary Art while the other one is Ethnography)

2) My hobbies are drawing, listening music, reading, writing, swimming, hiking, cooking, conduct research on history and cultures and doing some little crafting projects. Most of the people who knows my hobbies often tells me that I'm good at drawing and writing. Also from some experience I'm pretty good at acting too

3) I have an interesting connection between kids and animals. Somehow I make most of the young kids relaxed and happy when I take care of them. Same could go for animals too. Many of my acquaintances said that veterinary medicine or teaching could be good professions for me when choosing a department but I really didn't want to leave my love for researching.

4) I mostly have a mixed taste when it comes to music but most of my playlists consist of alternative singers and music groups. My fave Alt music category is Glam Rock, I can listen any kind of Glam Rock for ours.

5) My love languages are speding quality time and giving gifts.

6) My social life is kind of weird tbh. Most people a little shy about approaching me. One of my close friends actually straight up told me that I was looking so intimidating and happy while being alone that she got scared to approach me for a while. But in realty I'm just afraid that I won't make a good impressions in people (I thing this is some kind of anxiety ?). Also I'm not very good at endure people who are not willing to develop or do good things for themselves, "stupid" people (which there is a lot of them in my country) in my book so whenever I get in a chat with them I somehow use my expressions more than normal so that they understand I don't wish to talk with them.

7) I have this weird thing about my look. I don't like to be standard. Just as I can express myself with my clothing, I think I can do the same with my body. That's why I like tattos, colored hairs, piercings and such. Also some little step to achive my thought made me realize I was and am genderfluid. Soo I think it was also a win win.

Hello camper! Glad to be of help 😌 honestly I had the same problem, and then as soon as I got input from others I was like "wait yeah it really was obvious" 😅😅😅

Ok so I had to do some research BUT

I reckon you're a Demeter kid. Demeter is traditionally goddess of the harvest, but she is also the goddess of culinary arts. Although it's not explicitly stated, I'm so very sure the Demeter kids are the most multicultural cabin. You can't tell me that Demeter doesn't travel all over the world to see all the different crops and plants and dishes other countries have, even if her home base is still America. She's also the goddess of fertility and her children are natural nurturers (despite what dear Meg McCaffrey may make you think), which makes sense why babies and animals are drawn to you.

Well, child of Demeter, welcome to Camp Half Blood! Cabin 4 is unfortunately still under construction, although hopefully it'll be finished soon - for the time being, you'll have to continue camping out in Cabin 11. On the up side, Miranda Gardner, head counsellor of Demeter Cabin, has just negotiated that her and her siblings get a section of the cabin exclusively to themselves, so that should be more comfortable. I'm honestly not sure how she pulled that off, although I will say I saw Meg walking around earlier with an extremely smug look on her face... and some shiny new steel-toed boots...

[the-sage-libriomancer]

i love reading fanscans with janky English translations because you can often reverse engineer the translations to figure out where the translator made the mistake, which tells you more about how their native language works as well as how they interpret English.

for example, i was watching an anime fansub recently, and there's a scene where Character A asks Character B if he's all right after a nasty fall. Character B responds that he's "sufficient." What probably happened is that the translator realized they needed a word meaning "unhurt" (as in "i'm okay"), looked it up in an English dictionary, and ended up picking the right word for the wrong context - in this case, they wanted "i'm okay (unhurt)" but ended up using a word meaning "i'm okay (good enough)" instead.

another example is a Korean manhwa i'm reading, which has characters going "yes??" every time something shocking or upsetting happens. the characters are likely using the Korean acknowledgement word ne (same principle as hai in Japanese), but it's getting translated as "yes" because the translators didn't know what else to use in this situation (in this case, a more natural translation would be "huh??" or "what??")

even with professionally-translated media, i have similar experiences. i can read dialogue where characters clunkily call each other "Brother/Sister" and know they're using cultural terms beneath the translation, or dialogue where characters call each other "Mr./Miss" or "good sir/madam" in weird places and know that they're really using an honorific.

and i just think it's interesting! i love looking behind the curtain and seeing the human beings behind the translation chugging along with their levers and machines, manually figuring out a workable translation word by word. i love learning enough about a language that i can see the holes beneath the patches, the grammatical oddities and ever-so-slightly untranslatable cultural norms that couldn't carry over in my own mother tongue. It feels like a multicultural puzzle and makes me feel a little more connected to people on the other side of the world.

[atthebell]

My university focused a ton on multiculturalism and how to interact with people across cultures and languages(i even spent a summer studying abroad). And the amount of people who just didn't even try to make an effort in that program was astounding to me (even some professors just didnt make that effort). It doesn't even fucking surprise me to see people not interact with the multiculturalism of the QSMP because I've seen it happen outright in a class about how to interact with another culture. It's just so Disappointing to see. Always. Especially today when I can open up my phone and live transcribe and translate an entire conversation.

yeah it's not really shocking so much as disappointing, like you said. why are you engaging with a project like this if you don't believe in or care about what it stands for? even if you're like. a random tubbling who's into qsmp bc of tubbo, you don't give a shit about any other characters? this hasn't gotten you the least bit interested in learning another language or learning about another culture? like are you lacking in any curiosity i am just confused about what you're doing here and why you think you can only care about one singular guy and not anything else. this server has revolutionized multilingual content creation and you're like "ew i can't read portuguese"??? what the hell is going on

[hanzajesthanza]

Happy birthday!! Just wanna say while I'm here that you are truly the no.1 Witcher scholar and I love your work, and also I actually find it very moving that even though you are not Polish and don't speak Polish, you treat the books with such respect and deep understanding of the culture and language!! I wish everyone engaged with the works that they love in this way. I'm Polish but I'd since moved away and have a lot of bitterness towards the social environments I grew up in, but the Witcher is the one thing from Poland I truly love and makes me feel connected to my heritage and idk I just love your work sorry for the long message!

oh thank you!! i am so flattered by your words 😅 all i can say is, i try my best, of course! and a short essay response incoming...

the witcher is not only a translated work, but a multilingual and multicultural/national community, fanbase, and the american fanbase from which i'm coming is a relatively new development in the broader fanbase, especially as it relates to the books. it's more complex than how i'll phrase it here, but, essentially when you're in the fandom of the witcher books, you're in a predominantly polish other slavic language speaking space, even if you only speak english, because the books were created in polish and the whole thing has had over 30 years to gain traction and fans in poland and other slavic language speaking countries.

(i think there tends to be a certain level of entitlement from people, alright, americans whose primary language is english, where it is expected that everything be in english - you hear it all the time, stories of tourists going to a different country and demand english be spoken for everything for them. while english is indeed commonly spoken in poland, i think it would be a bit ridiculous, bringing it back to the witcher fandom, to expect every online interaction and material you come across to be in english, and expect to never use polish sources or look at the original text in polish. it may not be something you're skilled in or know about, but it's an opportunity for you to learn and ask questions. just embrace that, strive for understanding, even if you don't have any which you're beginning with. being prepared to be wrong and mistaken, being willing and open to being corrected. so, treating with respect and striving to better understand cultures which one doesn't belong to should be step one, i hope, at least in this community!)

i don't believe that there is such a thing as an english side of the fanbase which stands on its own separate from the original polish (and czech and russian, the first two languages witcher was translated into) fanbase(s), because the english fanbase was seeded and encouraged by these fans, a good portion of whom were bilingual and helped the fanbase grow by posting in english, gaining visibility and encouraging others to join and read the books. so you can't really have the english fandom without the polish fandom, it's like a branch off of a tree. and, with the majority of lifelong, or in other capacity dedicated and passionate, fans, coming from poland, and some of these fans also engaging in english-speaking places online, we're going to share ideas and end up admiring each other and becoming friends! and there's, again as always, a lot you can learn from your friends.

addressing the witcher as a work specifically, its identity is inseparable from its written language. with translations to other slavic languages, there's not an exceptional amount lost, but when it comes to english... well... though the story is there (except for a few glaring errors), there's not only lot of language-specific word choice, wordplay, and jokes that are lost in the english language and especially in the the official translation (which was crafted, i think to be as much of an "easy read" for an english reader as possible, and not to preserve sapkowski's style, character, and vocabulary), but also because a lot of the cultural phenomenon, celebration, element, described in the books, simply doesn't exist for the english reader and is untranslatable without an explanation of the context and history. sapkowski, who speaks italian, has mentioned the saying "traduttore, traditore," (translator, traitor) in interviews.

for just a few examples, torque at the end of the short story "edge of the world" saying "goodnight" being the perfect end to the story, because of the saying where the devil says goodnight. or the saovine tradition of burning straw falka dolls resembling the burning (or drowning) of marzanna effigies. and, also related to saovine, the offerings of honey, groats, and vodka for spirits being a mirror image of dziady. all of this is something that's not common knowledge for the english reader, it's stuff i learned about by looking it up, or having a conversation about, or reading a forum page online, or learned however, but learning about it made my enjoyment of the story a lot richer because i could (in part) go back and appreciate the depth of realism and familiarity woven into the world. and the act of seeking that out, or having that conversation, the act of learning itself was rewarding, to satisfy curiosity and engage my mind and social brain.

also just, a lot of the time, i'm trying to figure out where sapkowski's mind was at when he wrote some of this stuff, or who are these characters and what are these characters feeling, and all we have of them, to understand them, is their words. and the official translation isn't able to translate word for word. so looking at the polish edition and working through the sentence to translate (and looking into the nuances in definitions of words and phrases), i've found, can really help my reading comprehension and interpretation of the scene or character.

of course, sapkowski was taking "paneuropean" inspiration from multiple different cultures, not all of them slavic, a lot of them western european, weaving all these different fantasy and folktale sources together to create something diversely culturally rich. but as an english reader, i was motivated to seek out, "how does that line originally go in polish?" or "what's the original folktale sapkowski is referencing here?" because it just makes it that much more fun! it's part of the fun! of course an english reader could just pick up the books, breeze through them, and get a lot of enjoyment out of that, but without investigating any of the language or culture, it remains surface-level enjoyment. it's so rewarding to be able to exist in a community and friend circles that are positive towards learning and teaching in a casual way, it has made the witcher a lot more than just books for me. and all i'm doing personally is just having fun and learning as i go!