#langblr resources

[indigostudies]

my friend and i were going to study a language together and wound up having to cancel our plans due to scheduling pressures, but! through research we came across a really cool resource for reading in a TON of languages: bloom library!

as you can see, it has a lot of books for languages that are usually a bit harder to find materials for—we were going to use it for kyrgyz, for example, which has over 1000 books, which was really hard to find textbook materials for otherwise. as you can see it also has books with audio options, which would be really useful for pronunciation checking. as far as i can tell, everything on the site is free as well.

[thearcaneuniversity]

ok, this is amazing. I found a great site with short stories in 34 languages!

"WorldStories is a growing collection of stories from around the world. The collection includes retold traditional tales and new short stories in the languages most spoken by UK children.

We are adding new stories, translations, pictures and sound recordings every week. So keep coming back to enjoy new content!"

[h0neytalk]

Italian Audio/Books/Videos Masterlist

Now that I’m at the upper A2/lower B1 level for Italian, I figured I’d compile a quick list of where I’ve found the best stuff to read and listen to.

E-Books and Audiobooks

Kobo Rakuten Italia — where I buy my ebooks. You can read them online, in the app, or download them and [redacted] to export them elsewhere. Has a monthly unlimited subscription that functions like a combo Kindle/Audible subscription.

Storytel — monthly subscription for unlimited access to audiobooks.

YouTube

Learn Italian With Lucrezia — truly the savior of anyone learning Italian. My favorite videos are her Q&As, vlogs, and “n basic phrases you need to know.” I don’t get much out of her grammar explainer videos but that’s because of who I am as a person.

NovaLectio — commentary style mini documentaries. I export them to LingQ to read before watching and it helps me parse what’s going on. Also, they upload some videos dubbed in English so you can watch both.

Vogue Italia — celebrity interviews and fashion content. About 50/50 Italian and English but obviously high production value.

ArtandtheCities — criminally underrated channel imo. 10-15 minute art history/industry videos by an art historian. Super interesting, she’s easy to understand, and has captions.

Chef Max Mariola — utter chaos but fun. A Roman chef cooking various dishes, sometimes with a guest. Gives very “your uncle is hosting Thanksgiving and forgot until yesterday” vibes but in the best way.

TV/Movies/Documentaries

RaiPlay (free!) — Italian version of PBS. Lots of documentaries and some kind of goofy soap operas/narrative shows. You can also watch live TV.

Podcasts and Radio

RaiPlay Sound — basically NPR. Also free! You can find podcasts, live radio stations, audiobooks, and even audio descriptions of movies and TV shows.

Articles

Formula 1 Italia — Formula 1 news. I’m a big Ferrari fan but they cover a lot of news/current events (as long as they can connect it to a driver). The writing is short and to the point so it’s easy to parse for beginners. And honestly the drama is better than a lot of TV shows.

Stile Arte — long, more complex articles about art and archaeology. Cannot recommend it enough if you have an interest in any of those things. There are some straightforward history articles at the B1/B2 level, and also some more creative essays that push C1.

Corriere della Sera — daily news site. I started reading the news only in Italian to keep me from doom scrolling because America is terrifying. This is just the site I have ended up using a lot. Mostly because it’s easy to navigate and they have a ton of content.

[stolen-wolfbread]

(Free) Brazilian Portuguese Beginner Resource Masterlist

I've seen a lot of posts for European Portuguese, but none for Brazilian, so here we are! All resources are available for free (or at least have free trials.)

The items highlighted in yellow are what I, personally, use and recommend.

The items with asterisks are closer to intermediate level.

I will continue to update with new resources as I discover them. If you have any suggestions, comment or reblog!

Text

Textbooks

101 Brazillian Portuguese Expressions

Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese Grammar

FSI Brazilian Portuguese Fast 1 | 2 (+audio)

ClicaBrazil*

Learn Brazilian Portuguese - Word Power 101

Complete Brazilian Portuguese

IE Languages

Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar

Português para principiantes

( +more in the Mega Folder from @salvadorbonaparte)

Handouts

List of Irregular Verbs

Top 100 Portuguese Phrases to Learn

Verbs in Brazilian Portuguese

Blogs

Uncle Brazil

Video

Channels

Brazilian Talk

Fernando - FWBP

Lennon Brito

Plain Portuguese

Portugués con Philipe Brazuca (For Spanish-speakers)

Speaking Brazilian Language School

Street Smart Brazil

Playlists

Brazilian Films with English Subtitles

Easy Brazilian Portuguese: Basic Phrases

Easy Brazilian Portuguese: Learning From the Streets

Portuguese From Brazil

Super Easy Brazilian Portuguese

Audio

Podcasts

Brazilian Portuguese Podcast

Brazilian Talk

Brazilianing

Carioca Connection

Fala Gringo*

Língua da Gente

LinguaBoost

Papo Vai

Read Books in Brazilian Portuguese With Me*

Speaking Brazilian Podcast

Tá Falado! (Compares Spanish and Portuguese languages)

Spotify Playlists

Brazilian Boogie

Brazilian Pop Mix

Brasilidades

RADAR Brasil

Raízes Brasileiras

Top 50 - Brazil

Top Songs - Brazil

Web Apps/ Mobile Apps

Flashcards

Anki | Speaking Brazilian | 55 Sounds

Linguno

Memrise | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Dictionaries

Forvo (Pronunciation dictionary)

Priberam (Cites differences between European and Brazilian)*

Word Reference

Courses

Duolingo | Old Duolingo for Web | Old Duolingo APKs For Android

Language Drops

Keyboards

Lexilogos

Type.it

Communities/Forums

HiNative

r/brazilianmusic

r/language_exchange

r/Portuguese | Discord Server

[german-enthusiast]

German Resource Pool

In trying to collect resources in an organized way, I've created this Notion page, listing all resources I know of and updating whenever I see something new!

It includes Grammar, Reading, Listening, Watching; and links to other people's resource pools (like salvadorbonapart and europeanlanguages)!

I'll of course add to it as much as I can and I am happy about any additions from you guys!

[the-ambitious-academic]

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a list of online resources for learning ASL. It seems like it was put together by their ASL and Deaf Culture Club, so many thanks to them!

[lrninglnguage]

I spent a afternoon reading several posts in the website plurilingualism. This blog is really great, have so many tips, advice and resources. I really recommend it!

[meddwlyngymraeg]

I don't normally post links and resources on this blog because it was meant to really just be "meddwl yn Gymraeg" — thinking, writing, practising speaking in Welsh. But whatever, it has expanded, and I also just remembered that the archived site for BBC's Catchphrase Cymraeg is a great resource for learning Welsh. It's got grammar, it's got lessons, and wonderfully, the audio clips are still up there, so you get to hear and kind of repeat after actual speakers with pronunciations from like different accents and dialects, which is a lot nicer than having a TTS (as Duolingo has) (SSiW is good for this too, but yeah it is a subscription, so on that front too, this is nice)

[ruhua-langblr]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[jctko]

yo does anyone have recs for apps to learn fuSa arabic for free? Or pdfs to totally legal textbooks?

[literaryvein-reblogs]

more words to describe your character's feelings

Doubt

begrudge, controvert, despair, disapprove, disbelieve, discountenance, dissent, fume, hesitate, lovelorn, mind, mistrust, objection, oppugn, question, reject, repudiate, rue, scruple, skepticism, suspect, wonder

Elated

affect, alleviate, appeal, appeasement, arrest, attract, awe, bedazzle, bemuse, brighten, charm, defuse, divert, elevate, enamor, encourage, endear, enliven, enthrall, enticement, excite, fascinate, fortify, galvanize, gladden, gratify, hearten, inflame, inspire, interest, invigorate, lighten, matter, perk up, prod, rally, reassure, rouse, satisfy, strike, tantalize, temper, tickle, touch, wake/waken, whet

Fear

apprehension, dismay, horror, panic, terror, trepidation

Hate

abhor, abominate, aggression, anger, antagonism, atrocity, bad blood, blow up, burn, deplore, detest, disdain, disinclination, disrespect, dissent, enmity, execrate, frown, fury, horror, incivility, inhumanity, lament/lamentation, loathe, malice, odium, outrage, pique, rancor, resent, revulsion, seethe, spite, umbrage, venom, wrath

Love

acceptance, admiration, adoration, adulation, affection, amour, appreciate, approval, attention, bask, bewitched, canonize, charity, consideration, constancy, delight in, dig, discrimination, dote on/dote upon, enamored, enjoy, esteem, exult, fall for, fascinated, favor, flame, fond, get a kick out of, gratitude, idolize, leaning, like, mad, mercy, passion, predilection, prize, rapture, respect, revere/reverence, savor, taste, thrill, treasure, venerate, zeal

Of concern

afraid, alarm, anxiety, apprehension, concern, craze, dismay, distraction, distress, encumbrance, feeling, foreboding, guilt, hang up, horror, jitters, jumpy, misgiving, obsession, one-track mind, passion, petrified, puzzled, question, suspicion, terror, trouble, weight, wonder, worry

Surprise

alarm, appall, astound, backfire, bedazzle, bewilder, confound, dazzle, dumbfound, electrify, frighten, overwhelm, petrify, shock, startle, stun, stupefy, terrify

NOTE

The above are concepts classified according to subject and usage. It not only helps writers and thinkers to organize their ideas but leads them from those very ideas to the words that can best express them.

It was, in part, created to turn an idea into a specific word. By linking together the main entries that share similar concepts, the index makes possible creative semantic connections between words in our language, stimulating thought and broadening vocabulary.

Source ⚜ Writing Basics & Refreshers ⚜ On Vocabulary Definitions of Emotions in Psychology ⚜ More Word Alternatives for Emotions

[indigostudies]

cool new language resource i just discovered: lingotrack! it functions somewhat like polylogger, allowing you to log your activity for languages, but, more than that, it has an explore section where you can find media that's in a particular language, such as books, tv shows, films, etc! one of the hardest things when you reach a more proficient level of a language is finding media in that language to engage with, so i think this is probably a good resource, or at least a place to get started. besides the explore function, there's also collections of media/resources, and a library function where you can add your own resources. it does require you to have a paid account to log study time for multiple languages (the free version allows you one primary language), but the other aspects seem to be available to free users in their entirety!

[thearcaneuniversity]

what apps do you use for language learning

hello anon! thank you so much for the ask <3

when it comes to the "basics":

duolingo - i use it mostly as a motivator for systematic learning (via keeping my streak); and mostly to learn and revise different writing scripts: arabic, korean, greek, cyrillic, etc. sometimes i'll do a lesson in one of my target languages.

ngl though, i’m mostly sticking to it because i have a premium account and don’t want to lose my already spend money.

busuu - also a big motivator for keeping up with every day learning, no matter how small it may be. i used to enjoy it more with the premium account where i could do some revisions (vocab and grammar), but even without it, it’s a fun app. i've gotten quite far with my spanish here, so i often switch to french and korean when the material gets too advanced too quickly.

teuida - an app for learning korean, japanese and spanish through conversation. i’m sticking strictly to korean. i’ve only been using it for a month, but i really love it. it truly makes me think in a way that the previous apps don’t, and it focuses solely on speaking.

and etutor - it’s a polish site/app. i won a free course in one language, and so i chose spanish. it’s one of the best courses i've taken, really professional and interesting, though the lessons do get repetitive in their format (though it’s true of most, if not all, language learning apps/sites, i suppose). they add interesting cultural aspects to their lessons.

i also won a free british council course, though i recently haven't had the time to do any lessons there...

so these four apps/sites are what i'm sticking to for now and try to do every day. i've reached a one year streak on busuu today and have nearly one year on duolingo. apart from that, i've tried many other different resources (such as drops, mango, mondly, lingopie - this one is awesome and i have to return to it one day), but i don't plan to add more to my language learning at the moment... maybe after i finish my degree.

+ before i returned to working on my thesis i also always tried to add more to my learning schedule. the lessons i do on these apps are useful and helpful, sure, but i don't think they're enough... so i try to supplement this knowledge with immersion: watching tv, movies, youtube videos; reading books, articles, fics or browsing some foreign sites; listening to music or podcasts; using physical textbooks, etc.

if i'll ever have the time, i'd also love to someday try eggbun (for korean, japanese, chinese), lingodeer (many languages) or lengo (many languages). i also found interesting apps such as infinite korean, reword (many languages) or the todaii series (learning via reading the news - also a few languages to choose from)...

[h0neytalk]

Favorite VERY BASIC Comprehensible Input Sources I’ve Found (all free)

These are all for Italian and Arabic (MSA + Levantine dialect) and suitable for A1! I’ve found the very early stages are the hardest to find stuff for but also when it’s the most boring to be confined to flashcards and memorizing so hopefully this helps. Also it keeps me from losing these links.

Italian:

Curioso come George (Italian Curious George, honestly a lot of kids shows can get tiring but Curious George doesn’t hit that “annoying” pitch while still being simple) (link is to one episode but you can find tons in the related vids) (also segments are themed so you can find ones that roughly correlate to a unit of vocab like weather or clothes)

Ardea Digitale Schoolbooks (schoolbooks for children that you can download as PDFs along with workbooks/worksheets)

Arabic (MSA)

Read Learn Play Arabic (cannot speak highly enough of this one it’s so good and there’s so much and idk how it isn’t talked about more)

Cartoon Network MENA (good just because the material is recognizable, obviously usefulness of vocab/level is gonna vary by show)

Arabic (Levantine Dialect)

Sesame Street! Aka Ahlan Simsim. (Some segments are more advanced than others obviously but it’s incredible for learning the sound of the dialect and is also not grating for adults imo) (free on YouTube)

Lingualism Diaries (not nearly as beginner friendly as Read Learn Play but definitely doable within a few weeks assuming you know the alphabet) (also has audio versions)

I highly recommend lingualism.com for a ton of Arabic materials in all sorts of dialects/levels but they’re mostly paid (not expensive! But not free) and this post is meant to compile free stuff.

[a-word-a-day-for-writers]

𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐥

uh-NEEL

1. To set on fire, kindle, inflame, lit. and fig.   

2. To subject to the action of fire; to alter in any way with heat; as, to ‘fire’ or bake earthenware, fure ores, vitrify or glaze a surface 

3. To burn in colours upon glass, earthenware, or metal, to enamel by encaustic process. arch.

4. a. To toughen anything, made brittle from the action of fire, by exposure to continuous and slowly diminished heat, or by other equivalent process 

b. loosely, To cool down from a great heat  

c. transf. Applied to the action of frost. rare. 

5. fig. To toughen, temper 

6. Microbiology. To combine to form double-stranded nucleic acid

[literaryvein-words]

Word Lists

will update this every few weeks/months. alternatively, here are all my tagged word lists.

Blood ⚜ Blush ⚜ Book ⚜ Eye ⚜ Flower ⚜ Fly ⚜ Girl / Boy

Glow ⚜ Gold ⚜ Heaven ⚜ Hell ⚜ Honey ⚜ Moon ⚜ Sun

Sick ⚜ Soul ⚜ Time ⚜ Ward ⚜ Water

Collections

"Beautiful" Words: Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

"Poetic" Words: Part 1 2 ⚜ "Ugly" Words

Animals ⚜ Dance ⚜ Emotions ⚜ Garden ⚜ Kill ⚜ Personality Traits

Food: Part 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ Aphrodisiacs ⚜ Drinking

Love: Part 1 2 ⚜ Sex Scenes ⚜ Sensory Words ⚜ Saying No

Palindromes ⚜ Shapes ⚜ Voice ⚜ 1930s Slang ⚜ Habitats

Legendary Creatures ⚜ Parts of a Castle ⚜ Silent Letters

Lexical Universals ⚜ Magical Properties of Oils

Loan Words: French in Middle English ⚜ Nonsense Words

Months: August ⚜ September ⚜ October

Seasons: Autumn ⚜ Spring ⚜ Summer

Topics List: Part 1 2 ⚜ Terms of Endearment

Uncommon Words: Body ⚜ Emotions

Characters

Achilles ⚜ Patrolcus ⚜ Amy Dunne ⚜ Aphrodite

Aragorn ⚜ Arwen ⚜ Hannibal ⚜ Will Graham

Giorno ⚜ Josuke ⚜ Katniss ⚜ Morticia

Languages

Ancient Greek ⚜ Czech ⚜ Greek Words for Love

French Part 1 2 ⚜ Italian ⚜ Japanese ⚜ Latin

Portuguese ⚜ Romanian ⚜ Russian ⚜ Spanish

Literature

Sylvia Plath ⚜ The Secret History

all posts are queued. send questions/requests here.