#learning reference

[polyglot-thought]

Language Learning Resource! (Video)

I feel like this video is a PERFECT outline of what you should be actively doing to learn another language.

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Here’s the main takeaways with some of my own ideas thrown in:

1. Don’t learn a language with the intent to enjoy fun things in your target language LATER after you gotten to whatever your target level of fluency is: Just go ahead and start now! Watch the TV show you want to watch even if you don’t understand any of it yet, you’ll get there eventually.

2. You do not need to be speaking all the time with others to get good at speaking. It helps, but it should not be solely relied on. OP gives a good example of what he did wrong in the video.

3. Speaking a language isn’t due to knowledge like learning math is, it’s more like a muscle that is always working for the sake of function.

4. You can’t just do 30 minutes days and expect to be fluent eventually. You need to be using your target language as much as possible (aka immerse yourself). Immersion takes much more than 30 specific minutes out of your day. I actually do this all the time, talk to yourself in your target language, read your target language (I follow a lot of social media accounts in my target language so I constantly see it), text others in your target language, watch videos/movies, voice shadowing etc etc. You may even be able to feel when your brain is in (insert language here) mode. Me personally I can tell, and I notice that if I’m in Japanese mode it’s hard to absorb things in Mandarin or other language

5. Mindset is everything. If you think constantly about how hard something is, you will always feel like the task is hard. If you are learning a notoriously hard language, and ruminate about this, it will only hurt you in the long run. When I started learning Mandarin as a kid no one ever told me it was hard before, and I picked it up fast, and I only slowed down when I got frustrated about how hard the language is but sped back up when I reminded myself that input and immersion will get me the results I’m looking for eventually no matter which language.

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[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)

[reallybadblackoutpoems]

meditations on first philosophy (1641) - rene descartes

"who give a shit"

[naehilisms]

something something three high guardsmen and a mentally unwell emo kid walk into an abandoned energon depot

inspired by this and this

[anbaisai]

Blep. (Sequel to the boop)

Or alternatively titled: Snake Jamil, but even larger noodle

The species that Jamil is based on here is called the Blood Python (special thanks to @kirexa for the information!), which can reach an average of 4-6 ft in length and up to 30 lbs in weight.

Bonus panel:

[zinzabee]

Throwing this out there in case people are working on learning how to draw Raph and need some help. His design/proportions are way different from the other brothers and most of the time I see people instinctually going for normal human proportions with him.

((And you are more than welcome to continue drawing him that way if you wish to do so; this isn't a callout post or anything! /gen))

But for those who want to adhere closer to his cannon design, ya gotta specifically break some of those art school anatomy rules you learned.

Also adding this for the neck muscles from another post I did a while back.

Go forth and draw the big turtle boy!!

[taimanzano]

Megatronus Prime, Prima Prime.

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(al final)

[ryssbelle]

Drew a bunch of Marinettes in a bunch of different artists styles it was a lot of fun!!

Artists who's styles I mimicked: @buggachat @hamsternamedmarinette @ladybeug @sabertoothwalrus and @anna-scribbles all epic artists 🤟😎

[egophiliac]

Hello ! I positively adore the running joke of Idia unknowingly finding Lilia to be the coolest guy ever whenever he doesn't know it's him, like when Silver described his father, or obviously with muscle red. I can't say what'd be funnier, Idia finding out his online best friend is actually Lilia, resident spooky hyper fairy; or them both never finding out, and it'd become even more ridiculous as time goes on. How do you think it'll play out ? You're always so on point

(Also, though it makes sense, I'm still devastated bat boy didn't get a ticket for the Halloween skeleton train : ( does anyone mentions him at some point ? Like how he'd have fit right in with all those Halloween town little freaks, and how he'd have impressed them with his spooks and scared techniques; after all he's been every Briar Valley's children worst fear on Halloween for centuries. I'm on the eng server and I didn't wanna spoil myself by watching the whole thing on youtube)

Have a nice day !

you and me both, Idia and Lilia being oblivious online BFFs (+ Idia being incredibly intimidated any time Silver brings up his jock gamer dad) is my favorite running joke/subplot. 🤝 it's SO good, to the point where I also am unsure if I actually want it to ever be resolved or not...maybe, like, as a post-canon stinger or something? everyone's standing around covered in overblot ink, and Idia and Lilia's phones go off at the same time...

(legit I do think this is part of why Idia couldn't be present for Lilia's dream, because for some reason Lilia decided he was going to just. embody his past self online. he probably quotes his own battle strategies or whatever in the middle of boss fights. Idia didn't pick up on the whole "oh how weird that we both live on a super remote island" thing, but he would spend thirty seconds listening to General Lilia describing siege warfare and be like "w-wait")

all that aside, however it does end up happening, I do see Lilia being very blasé and all "oh! cool!" about it. y'know, taking it very much in stride! and Idia...very much not.

(can't tell if tumblr is going to chew this into illegibility or not, this will be a fun surprise ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ)

as for Lilia sadly missing out on Halloweentown shenanigans...he does get one little mention as part of an offhand reference to the light music club, but so far no one has brought up how this basically is just Lost In the Book of Liliatown (Sebek's been too busy yelling about not getting to be in the same group as Malleus). 😔 honestly though, it's probably for the best that he got left out, because he would just settle right in and refuse to ever leave. canon would shatter. we would miss out on all the delightful angst of episode 7 because Lilia is too busy eating poisonous shrubbery inbetween practicing his very best screams, and no one can pull him away from it.

(I can hope for a sequel next year though...)

[transgender-chiroptera]

YIPPEE YAHOO TRANS PEOPLE RISE UP!!!!!

[polyglot-thought]

Language Learning Recommendation: Wikipedia

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This is something I only realized I could use more recently and I haven't seen someone mention it so I thought I should; Wikipedia can be a great resource to learn specific vocabulary and can be really helpful if you are pursuing a translation specialty like medicine or politics as Wikipedia has endless amounts of articles about those topics. (Sometimes Wikitionary will also have definitions for things you are looking for as well)

We all know that Wikipedia is full of information in English but has thousands of articles in other languages as well. On English articles all you have to do to change the language is select the language button at the top right of the screen and select another language. However, not every wikipedia article is translated from English, and some articles exist without an English translation. Also, even though there are many translated articles, many will not be an exact 1:1 translation and can be missing a lot of information but it is a very good tool when wanting to learn the meaning of words that might not be in an online dictionary.

For example: Here is the article "First Secretary of State" in English:

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In the top right corner you can see a tab that says "15 languages", this clearly means that there are 15 different languages to choose from that the article is translated into. (On another article the number will change depending on how many languages it has been translated into, of course)

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Now, if you click this button and select Chinese, the page will look like the picture below. This clear as day has shown me now that the correct word for "First Secretary of State" in Mandarin would be "首席大臣" and it also states the English version of the word in the translated article although some articles may be missing this function. ALSO, if you find an article in Chinese or another language first, the language tab is on the bottom left corner instead of the top right.

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To find how to pronounce the Mandarin words you find (that aren't already in online dictionaries) in Mandarin you can use websites like MDBG or Chinese Converter that will show you individual pronunciations for characters. Even Google Translate is quite reliable for pinyin but in Chinese Converter and Google Translate sometimes they do not pick up characters with multiple pronunciations correctly or ignore tone change rules.

For Japanese you can use websites like Nihongo Dera's Kana Converter or Jisho to figure out pronunciations.

I could make a whole post in itself for how to figure out pronunciations for words in languages you don't natively speak so I'll stop here.

I hope this post helps someone :)

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$5 translation commissions here

[kazehita]

[parisoonic]

'We go together!' 🤝

[itsdefinitely]

TUMBLR LEGWND ITSDEIFNITLEY ALSO DRAWS SANDERS SIDES?!?!???

i dabble

[samgatinho]

bg practice with ethos base !! /⁠ᐠ⁠｡ ｡⁠ᐟ⁠\