#only 2000 native speakers!!!!

[polyglot-thought]

Cherokee Language Meme 😊

[casscainmainly]

The Evolution of Cassandra Cain's Dialogue

Since Batgirl #1 is out and thriving, I thought it'd be fun to dive into the history of Cass' dialogue throughout different writers/runs. This is not comprehensive - I'll miss some writers, but I'll be covering her generally most known runs in mainline continuity (so no DCeased, Shadow of the Batgirl, etc.). Not a linguist by any means, so linguists on here feel free to chime in! (I'll also give opinions on which interpretations I personally prefer at the end).

Without further ado, we'll start at the beginning:

Kelley Puckett - Batgirl (2000)

Pre-issue 4, Cass speaks minimally in one-word sentences and doesn't have internal narration. Post-issue 4 (when a metahuman changes Cass' brain), she develops an internal monologue and begins to speak longer sentences. I'm splitting Puckett's Cass dialogue into 3 stages: early, middle, and late.

Early (#4 - #12): Cass speaks short, fragmented sentences. Each word has an ellipses between them (panel 1 above, from #7).

Middle (#13 - #24): Cass continues to speak incomplete sentences (often missing a subject or pronouns), but without ellipses (panel 2, from #13).

Late (#25 onwards): Cass begins to speak complete, simple sentences, punctuated by a few ellipses (panel 3, from #33). She continues to speak grammatically (though slowly) throughout the final part of Puckett's run.

Dylan Horrocks - Batgirl (2000)

Horrocks writes very similarly to late-Puckett, with Cass speaking in full, simple sentences, punctuated by the occasional ellipses. Horrocks introduces two new elements to her dialogue:

Cass stutters, sometimes repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of a sentence (panel 1 above, from #39). This is mostly used in the earlier parts of Horrocks' run.

She quotes reality TV (panel 2, from #51).

Maybe because of the reality TV, Cass also speaks more colloquially here than in Puckett's run, using phrases like "come 'n' get it" (from #57).

Andersen Gabrych - Batgirl (2000)

Gabrych's run focuses heavily on Cass' dialogue. Panel 1 above, from #58, suggests her narration boxes are another form of dialogue - Cass is speaking into a recorder. Several features of Gabrych's Cass dialogue are:

Ellipses: Even more than his predecessors, Gabrych scatters ellipses throughout Cass' speech (panel 1).

Fillers: Cass extensively uses filler words such as 'uh', 'um', and 'like' (panel 1, panel 2 from #61).

Longer sentences: Cass is more talkative and speaks longer sentences (panel 1, which is basically more words per panel than Puckett and Horrocks combined).

Wordplay: Cass often ponders definitions and word structures (panel 1, 2).

Adam Beechen - Batgirl (2008)

After evil Cass (that dialogue is not worth discussing), Beechen gets another chance with Cass in this miniseries. More than any other writer, Beechen differentiates Cass' internal monologue from her dialogue - her narration boxes are much wordier than her speech.

Her dialogue is a more loquacious version of late-Puckett or Horrocks: full sentences interspersed with ellipses (panel 1, from #1). The ellipses drop off towards the end of the series.

Her narration boxes use a variety of sentence structures and vocabulary. They read more or less as fluent English (panel 2, from #4).

Scott Snyder - Gates of Gotham (2011)

Snyder's Cass somewhat resembles mid-Puckett, using short sentences without ellipses (panel 1, from #2). She speaks a fair amount, but is more taciturn here than in any previous run. This is partially due to her not having narration boxes.

A unique feature of Snyder's Cass is preferring formal to informal speech. Though she uses contractions (panel 1), she goes large stretches without them (panel 2, from #3). She also omits the subject of a sentence only once in 5 issues, whereas native speakers (like Dick) drop the subject all the time ('have you ever been to Paris?' vs. 'ever been to Paris?'; Snyder's Cass would always say the former instead of the latter).

Sidenote: Batman & Robin: Eternal (2015)

Quick note about B&R:E: Cass is reintroduced into canon after being erased by the New 52, which means she's back to having very limited language ability. The series is scripted by multiple people, so it's hard to analyse. Suffice it to say she speaks in monosyllabic words, at most a short, incomplete sentence, but is mostly silent.

James Tynion IV - Detective Comics (2016)

Because Cass' language ability has been reset, Tynion develops her speech along the lines of Batgirl (2000).

Early Tynion has Cass speaking single word sentences (panel 1, from #938). Very similar to pre-metahuman touch Cass in BG (2000).

During the League of Shadows arc, Cass begins to speak a few words at a time, often separated by an ellipsis (panel 2, from #956).

Afterwards, Cass' friendship with Basil Karlo blossoms, leading to this run's most distinctive language feature - Cass improves her speech via studying and quoting Shakespeare (panel 3, from #958). Her improvement is reflected in the rest of the run through speaking longer and more frequent sentences.

Bryan Hill - Batman & The Outsiders (2019)

Like other writers, Hill's Cass generally uses short, simple sentences. She frequently drops the subject or pronoun in a sentence (panel 1, from #1). Hill doesn't use ellipses to separate the sentences, opting for periods most of the time.

Cass sometimes omits other words from her sentences too, dropping articles like 'a' and 'the' (panel 2, from #4), prepositions like 'to', and verbs like 'is' (panel 3, from #9). This peters out in the second half of the run.

Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad - Batgirls (2022)

Similar to mid-Puckett, Batgirls has Cass speak mostly in short, 1-2 word sentences (panel 1, from #2). Cloonan and Conrad occasionally use ellipses as well, though mostly for emphasis/natural hesitation rather than indicating a unique speech pattern (panel 2, from #7).

Cass also has a habit of repeating/echoing a phrase Stephanie says (panel 3, from #16). This might be more of a friendship thing than a speech thing, though.

Alyssa Wong - Spirit World (2023)

Wong's Cass uses short sentences sometimes interrupted by ellipses, like late-Puckett and Horrocks (panel 1, from #1). Generally, if the sentence is three words or less, there won't be an ellipsis (panel 2, from #5).

Kelly Thompson - Birds of Prey (2023)

Thompson's Cass draws on a lot of previous iterations, but is somewhat unique as a whole. Some elements of BoP Cass include:

She speaks in sentences of varying lengths, but rarely with more than one clause (panel 1, from #1). Thompson is more strict about not using commas with Cass than most other writers.

Cass is a little more talkative (panel 2, from #5). Her sentences are fairly lengthy compared to most other runs, and she doesn't always opt for the shortest way to say things ('where is it?' instead of 'do you know where it is?'). Thompson also doesn't use ellipses, which adds to the sentences feeling longer/more complete.

BoP is ongoing so Thompson may add more to her speech.

Sidenote: Ram V - Detective Comics (2023)

Putting this in a sidenote since there's not much to say, but Ram V takes after mid-Puckett, with Cass using shorter, incomplete sentences. Cass almost always omits the subject of a sentence; her dialogue is as short as possible while retaining clarity.

Thoughts

Because Cass' language disability is a core part of her character, but learning to speak is also a core part of her character, I prefer writers who emphasize her unique speech patterns without reducing her range of expression. My favourites are:

Gabrych - by far the person who put the most effort into his dialogue, Gabrych-Cass has such a vibrant, distinctive style of speaking. The narration boxes, Cass' wordplay, and the use of fillers and ellipses all combine for a speech style that highlights her disability without reducing her to it.

Puckett/Horrocks - combining because they are really very similar. Puckett and Horrocks both use ellipses to great effect, and is a great style to emulate for Cass in an earlier stage of life. Horrocks' use of reality TV is severely underutilised. Puckett, of course, is the gold standard for typical Cass dialogue - if Gabrych's style is a little too much, Puckett and Horrocks are the way to go.

Tynion - mostly because of the Shakespeare thing. It's such a beautiful and clever way of showing her progress, and the amount of symbolism you could do with Cass quoting Shakespeare is unmatched.

I don't super enjoy the more talkative Casses (Beechen, Thompson to an extent), though I kind of like Snyder's take because there's a sense of Cass being very careful with her speech there. If you're writing Cass for a fanfic or something, I would avoid Hill's Outsiders; the run is great, but Cass' ungrammatical speech is unusual and doesn't jibe with the rest of her depictions. Ram V and Wong are relatively good depictions to draw from though.

Of course these are my opinions! I may have gotten some things wrong/overgeneralised stuff, so take all this with a grain of salt. All you need to know is you should read Batgirl (2000) :).

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

I've always been curious. How much does the English curriculum focus on reading and comprehension compared to analysis of literature in non-English speaking countries? I imagine it's not until the last few years of school that things like Shakespeare are even remotely considered something worth teaching.

How do I answer this without turning it into a TEDtalk...

SO.

The QUICK answer is: It depends.

It depends on the country. It depends on the school. It depends on the curriculum.

I'm afraid you've fallen into the hole called 'non-English speaking countries' - and referring to them under a single umbrella... when in reality, the curriculum of, say, Japan's EFL education and Norway's EFL education are WILDLY different. Hell, even the Philippines and Japan are more different than you might suspect.

Personally, as someone who has taught English as a Foreign Language in high school in Japan (albeit briefly, it was a one-year contract to fill in for another teacher who left the position due to COVID stuff, most of the time I'm an Elementary School teacher), I can tell you that 99% of the high schools in Japan will not have Shakespeare ANYWHERE on their curriculum. Most people in Japan will never run across Shakespeare unless they take a specialized class... probably IN UNIVERSITY.

Shakespeare is a difficult, antiquated form of English. It does not appear on any standardized testing. Why would anyone except native speakers take the time to learn it?

The LONGER answer is:

Students in English-speaking countries enter school knowing how to speak English.

I know there's a tendency to think of 6 year olds as these dum-dums who say things like 'I goed school' but anyone who has actively spent more than 10 minutes around a first grader will know that, barring developmental difficulties and learning disabilities, they actually speak using full sentences and correct grammar 99% of the time.

Schools in areas where English is already spoken natively can focus on:

spelling (oh gods English spelling is a fucking mess, I'm so sorry children I am SO sorry)

punctuation (spoken language doesn't have punctuation, so we have to teach kids to convert pauses and concepts into commas and sentence breaks)

written format (and various ways to apply it in different situations)

literature (famous books, novels, stories which are considered a good serving platter of concepts like analysis and metaphor and other tools we use to make written communication effective and interesting)

Schools in areas where English is NOT spoken must FIRST focus on:

Words (they must memorize on average 2000 to have a basic understanding down)

Pronunciation (each language has different sounds, and English has a LOT of weird sounds that many foreign speakers don't know how to produce... and it takes practice)

Basic grammar (Thing goes first. Doing-action-word goes next. Thing-that-has-action-done-to-it usually goes after that. Sometimes we have a time word that goes-- oh god how do you explain this to an 11 year old oh god)

Maybe spelling by the end of elementary school (my 5th graders only know how to write basic 3-4 letter words)

Basic reading, grammar and punctuation by the end of middle school, along with basic conversational skills

Ability to write a whole sentence, maybe a paragraph, by the time they finish middle school

High school is basically just reviewing more complex grammar because holy fuck is there a lot of it

Shakespeare? Who the FUCK has time for that?! These kids are still struggling to understand how a gerund works!

Things that native English speakers know on instinct, like the fact that this is a weird sentence:

the red big dog sits on the car

(vs the big red dog sits in the car)

...must be taught, little by little, to non-native English speakers, which takes TIME TIME TIME.

So next time you meet someone who speaks English as a second language - I need you to be kind to them. I need you to be thoughtful. And I need you to be thankful you were able to learn all these crazy ass grammar rules and spelling when you were still a young child and your brain was silly-putty in the shape of a vacuum that sucked up vocabulary.

.............fuck ᵗʰᵃⁿᵏˢ ᶠᵒʳ ᶜᵒᵐᶦⁿᵍ ᵗᵒ ᵐʸ ᵀᴱᴰᵗᵃˡᵏ

[sonicdjam]

introducing..

東方無政府夢 ~ ANARCHY FANTASY

(stylized in all caps)

A derivative Touhou Project revision in the works

This project has lots of name candidates so im calling it "Anarchy" for short. I also call it "Y2K Touhou" sometimes lol

Anarchy is my most ambitious project of mine, about my vision of Touhou. or revision, or an alternate universe. or something

My vision of it is like, if Touhou was more modern. Like the shinto themes will still be intact, just alot of things will look and maybe even feel modern.

Itll be a revision of the story, its characters, basically almost everything.

Anarchy is inspired by alot of stuff, mostly Y2K themes and aesthetic(s). Some inspirations include Sonic.EXE and creepypastas (you heard that right.) and 2000s-early 2010s media, with a sprinkle of recent (mid 2010s-2020s) media.

This is also i guess my practice for writing and character designing? I forgot the word. I say it is my most ambitious project because one of the reasons is that im not a native english speaker, so this will be interesting too :P

x Anarchy will also include a new story, acting like, the "final boss" of my writing journey (that is this project). Youll see why when i reveal it. Theres some hints on my social media about said new story too (even this paragraph has a clue too!!!!!!!) and it will also include some new content too!!!!!!x

So yeah, alot of stuff for this project has been planned, and i only have a few amount of progress done. I aim to finish (or atleast have a good amount of progress) this project by atleast the end of 2024 or before I graduate school.

iii think thats all i have 2 say for now......K Bai

oh yeah one more thing. All touhou related art with my Anarchy redesigns from this point on will include the #anarchy fantasy tag for better organizing or sumn lol

[shipcestuous]

Okay, I come back with the third part of the ask! I have MORE amazing news, isn’t it great?

First of all, the best news for me is I have found yet another wonderful incest movie I have been looking for so long!!!! It’s called «Madame Solario». Hear me out, this is REALLY exiting, as it’s a French costume drama based on a book. Actually, there’s even an article called «“Saint Brother and Saint Sister”: The Motif of Fraternal Incest in Gladys Huntington’s Madame Solario» (here’s the link to the article https://dspace.uni.lodz.pl/bitstream/handle/11089/38892/PJAS_vol7_2013_Alicja_Piechucka.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y)

Here’s where you can watch the movie with English subtitles: https://tubitv.com/movies/100007671/madame-solario

Secondly, I went over your «Not available in English» list and tried to look for the subtitles. I actually had luck with some of them!

Der Kuss Meiner Schwester

Here are two links where you can download subtitles for this movie (it’s two different subtitles)

https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/subtitles/9593069/der-kuss-meiner-schwester-en (those are, I think, made by machine translation. I watched with them and they’re enough to understand most of the movie)

https://www.avsubtitles.com/subtitles.php?subid=16862&revid=20230717000859 (not sure about those, whether they’re made by human or machine, maybe a native English speaker would realize better than me)

Already after I found those subs, I stumbled across a comment on your wordpress under the post about this movie. I attach the comment in a picture, just in case if you haven’t seen it, because the user provides some information. (the subtitles they mention are the same as the ones from OpenSubtitles)

Syskonsalt

So, indeed, there are subtitles on OpenSubtitles for this movie: https://www.opensubtitles.com/en/subtitles/syskonsalt-2000-swedish-vhs-tvrip-xvid-movieboys-en  (Those, I assume, are made by a person)

Lunnye polyany (2002), also known as Les clairieres de lune

Once again I watched it before in Russian and I even have a fanvid about them! (promoting myself while I can lolz https://www.tumblr.com/familyromantic/705637767270531072/this-is-the-only-russian-film-about-incest-that?source=share) But now all of you can watch it too. I can say it is not a light watch and it has a dark, depressed atmosphere, but there is some sort of doomed love beauty as well. BUT I warn you that I have only seen the movie in a HORRIBLE quality, sadly.

Link to the subs: https://www.avsubtitles.com/subtitles.php?subid=18021&revid=20230827220208

Taboo: The Soul Is A Stranger On Earth

Three subtitles, but I glanced and they look the same lol (could be wrong)

https(:)//www.opensubtitles.org/en/subtitles/10009196/tabu-the-soul-is-a-stranger-on-earth-en (just delete the parentheses, I added them because Tumblr didn't like this link lol)

Additionally, not related to subtitles, but I want to let you all know I have Bror 2019 in HD if someone needs it (got it from a Swedish site with VPN). ALSO if any of the links I provided don’t work for someone or anything, I have it all downloaded, so contact me and I’ll send it to you. Or if you want to combine a movie and subtitles, I can do that too.

 I think that’s all, that was a long ask for real :)

[x]

Thank you for going through that not-available-in-English list! I'm pleased to be able to remove so many titles from it.

Do you happen to have any download links for Madame Salario? Having it on Tubi is so great but I like to archive the hard to find incest movies if I can just in case they get removed from streaming. It sounds like you do the same.

I did see that comment about Der Kuss Meiner Schwester. I downloaded the subs right away but haven't checked them against the video file I had. I didn't want to start partying until I was sure they fit and made sense and everything. I actually couldn't download the Syskonsalt ones originally but your link worked for me so thanks.

While we're on the topic, this movie, Yellow, is actually in English but has proven impossible find: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588898/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_9_act. Has anyone managed to see, or better yet download, this one?

[rigelmejo]

I was looking up "how many words to learn to read japanese" and oh my was there a surprising result. The various reddit posts seemed to say at least 10,000 words as that is what is on N1, while also saying it may just be the beginning of reading at 10,000 words and you'll still be looking up many words per page.

I am a bit confused by this answer, and still looking for a possibly truer one. Im looking for: how many words must a person learn in japanese to start reading materials for native speakers, if they look up a word every few sentences? Or even 1-3 words per sentence to start. So this would be maybe 80-90% reading comprehension (and with word lookup they'd boost that to 90% or more), with some simpler materials (like say Yotsuba or Ranma or School Rumble mangas) being 90% comprehensible before word lookup (and 95% or more comprehensible after word lookup).

For comparison: in French the number of words to start reasing was 1000-2000 (at least what I personally experienced), with 1000 being when I could read if i looked up 1 word per sentence or a a few words a paragraph. Chinese was also 1000-2000, the average webnovel felt more comfortable once learning 2000 words (at which point looking up 1-3 words or less a sentence or paragraph became doable), and for novels for children and some manhua just knowing 1000 words was enough to read while looking words up (for example, 秃秃大王 would be very readable with a 1000 vocabulary you know and looking up a word every sentence or so, and if your vocabulary is higher you may only look up words once every few paragraphs). For both french and chinese, once i learned lets estimate around 3000 french words or 3000 chinese hanzi (which is ultimately over 3000 words they can combine into which you can guess the meaning of... maybe by several thousand more), then there were at least SOME reading materials that could be read extensively with NO word lookups and using only context to guess the meaning of everything. In short: french and chinese basically matched up to what most "learn to read in a language" articles suggest you learn, which is around 2000 words to start reading with the aid of dictionary/translation word lookup, and then eventually work your way toward a goal of ~9000 words to read most materials comfortably. And along the path from 2000-9000 words, you'll find some materials that become readable to you aa you learn more words - without any dictionary/translation aids.

With Japanese reddit learners (as thats the forums i could browse): Refold learning plan used to suggest learning Tango N5 and N4 and 1000 basic kanji, so around 1000-2000 words, then to immerse with reading (sometimes at first just japanese show subtitles). The older Mass Immersion Approach (same overall study methods) used to do the 2,000 Core Japanese deck, or a personally made variant, and then around the end of that suggest people start including practicing reading. Sometimes people used the Core 6000 Japanese anki deck (more words), or used the nukemarine Lets Learn Japanese deck (i did this... it had 6000 words, around 2000 kanji, and tae kims grammar guide in it, and then later on some additional vocabulary from specific shows... i only learned about 1000 kanji and 2000 words from this deck before stopping). So for MIA and Refold learners, at least SOME of them started reading with word lookups around 2000-6000 words learned.

My question is: when did YOU feel comfortable starting to read Japanese reading materials for native speakers, with the use of word lookup tools (translation/dictionary)? When do you see some people got comfortable starting to read with word lookups? Did some people do something like Satori Reader (graded reading app) when they'd learned X words, until they'd increased their vocabulary to Y words? What was the vocabulary level at which they started to read japanese with word lookups? I think that for a lot of people, the point when they started reading materials for native speakers (with the help of word lookup tools) was Before they had learned 10,000 words.

(Ignore grammar knowledge, yes that greatly effects reasing comprehension. Id just like to focus on number of words a person knows when they start reading with word lookups).

[simsionic]

WHAT IS THIS?!

I'll tell you what this is. Complete burnout and lost interest in my favourite game led me to try something new. I have decided to install the premade neighborhoods Pleasantview, Strangetown and Veronaville for the first time in over a decade. I haven't tried this since I was a teen in the late 2000s.

You heard that right! A decade! I usually only build and design my own hoods in this game, never actually play with the sims themselves.

That is about to change!

Loading up the iconic premade sims for the first time was daunting, exciting, new and fun! And I've decided to share my experience with you.

First is this introductory post on the what, where and why. Later, I'll post a few images and most exciting of all:

My new YouTube channel

I've recorded my gameplay of my first playthrough of the premade sims. It is a hot mess but hopefully fun to watch. There is no commentary, only the actual gameplay, as I'm not a native english speaker and I doubt anyone wants awful voiceover that ruin the entire video.

I use the prima guide recommendations in the first video of each family and follow the order below. Just to familiarize and relearn how to play.

You're welcome to subscribe and watch along as I stumble around in live mode, try to figure out interactions and destroy relationships in Pleasantview.

My current plan is to go through each neighborhood, play the premade sims and have fun. Later, I might try the rags to riches challenge or something completely different. Join me on the simming journey and rediscover your own love for this old game alongside!

[zooophagous]

Strauss was a native German speaker, though there were woefully few opportunities to use it in the States (he had ceased referring to them as "the colonies" after much correcting.) It wasn't the only language he had in his repertoire that he had long since ceased using, however. Latin was a language even longer dead than he was.

But much like himself, it lived on in a newer and much evolved form. The word "Company" came to mind. 'Com' meaning 'together,' and 'Panis' meaning 'bread.' Someone you would have bread with.

He could no longer eat bread. But the vegan grilled cheese and tomato soup combo would be a fine supper for a certain lycan, if he would open the door. Strauss knocked quietly at Troy's dorm.

A muffled "go away." Came from the other side.

Strauss didn't go away. He also was too polite to simply push his way in. So he stood there and allowed the smell of hot food to permeate and the strength of his silence become defeaning. Soon he heard a grunt of annoyance and footsteps.

Troy opened the door.

"I told you to git."

"Of course. You don't mean it though. Besides, you must be hungry."

"I don't want to eat. I don't deserve to eat."

"Oh shut up."

Strauss pushed his way into the room, Troy submitted tiredly and dragged himself back to his bed, where he burrowed under a thick comforter. "I'm not coming out. I'm not eating it."

"I went through the trouble of microwaving it for you, you will eat it. Doctor's orders." He set the food down on the night stand and sank into an oversized bean bag chair.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Why not?!" Troy stuck his head out of his blanket sanctuary. "For the same reason you don't eat. Now do you understand?"

"I have begun to increase my meal intake. Do not think my own abstinence is a moral judgment on you. I am, after all, a murderer. I have no basis to pass a moral judgment on you, Troy."

"Well that makes two of us."

"What do you mean by that?"

Troy paused, but burrowed into his blankets without answering the question. Strauss was undeterred.

"Troy. What did you mean by that."

"I mean what I said." Came the muffled reply. He let the comforter fall from his head with a sigh. He eyed the container of food with sad, hungry eyes. "I never told you why I went vegan, did I?"

"No. I did not think it my place to ask. There is a story here?"

"Yeah."

Troy scooted to the edge of his bed and sat facing the vampire, but with his head down staring at the floor. Strauss didn't mind a lack of eye contact, at least.

"You know how you told me you don't eat very much because you're afraid of feeding bad urges?"

"Yes."

"Well. This is sort of related to that. I already told you things were difficult in high school. I was adopted, which already makes you feel like the odd one out. And on top of that I'm gay. I know you don't have much of a frame of reference for this, but rural Minnesota in the early 2000's wasn't necessarily what you'd call a beacon of love and acceptance."

"You were mistreated by your peers?"

"Relentlessly." He sighed. "Every dumb chucklefuck with something to prove would try to pick on me. They'd make fun of me for being fat, not realizing that I'm also just big in general and could pretty easily take most of them. Usually it didn't get physical but there was this one guy."

Troy's voice cracked along with his face, contorting into a deep pained grimace. He inhaled sharply as he continued.

"When I was in my last year of high school this one guy, Derek, thought he'd get the courage to make an example of me. He tried. He nearly succeeded. He was about the only guy in the school almost as big as me. He took me by surprise when I was walking home and we started fighting in this ditch."

"I get the feeling Derek did not win this fight."

"He didn't win. He also didn't survive." Troy swallowed hard.

"I thought he was winning, at first. My heart felt like it was going to explode, and my whole body hurt like a mother fucker. I thought I was dying. I know now I was just...waking up. I wasn't really all there for the rest of the fight. I don't remember a thing before waking up naked and covered in blood in the shelter belt behind my parent's farm. I thought it was MY blood."

He chuckled nervously though tears had begun to fall. "I got cleaned up and waited for my folks to come home to tell them I'd been jumped. I didn't really find any major injuries on myself so I decided not to try and go to the hospital on my own. They were really late coming home that day. Said they had to stop and wait for the cops to let them drive through. Said something bad happened on the road."

Strauss tilted his head. "I understand. The trauma induced your very first shift."

"Yeah. I started losing. I shifted. And I... Strauss, I mauled him. He was so badly torn up that they couldn't even have a real funeral."

"What did you do? Were you a suspect?"

"No. Officially this was the work of an animal attack, and at the time nobody knew what that animal was. Not even me. But what makes me sick to my stomach is that someone blabbed some of the gritty details about what happened after his autopsy was finished. And come to find out not only did I kill him, Strauss..." Troy solemnly looked up to face his friend, his eyes red and watery.

"I ate him."

"I see." Strauss sat quietly for a moment. "I do suppose flesh of any kind might be difficult to stomach, after that. You are perhaps lucky you did not develop a prion disease."

"Not only the disgust. There's this notion about animals, see, that old timers on farms have. It's that if a dog or other animal gets a taste for blood, a taste of raw meat, they get obsessed with it and they don't ever stop killing after that. I stopped eating meat, any meat, trying to starve the wolf. Trying to make sure it didn't come back. And if it did, it would come back weak and docile and too slow and shabby to kill someone again."

"Obviously, it does not work."

"But it did! Sort of! I mean, I haven't killed or seriously hurt ANYONE since that day. And I've had some close calls. Sure the institute helps, but do I really want to take any chances with my diet? But now I've gone off the deep end again. You couldn't even stop me, and you were one of the people on my treatment plan!"

He yelled, and put his hands on his head. "So now I'm taking a page out of your book. I'm just going to stick to a bare bones ration. I'll be too weak to shift, and if I shift I'll be too weak to fight. It's safer."

"No. I simply will not allow it."

"Make me."

"Troy." Strauss stood up. "For one, it sounds as if, even unintentionally, you acted primarily in defense of your own life. Such is the right of any living thing on this planet- to preserve that limited gift against an attacker by any means necessary. For another, if the options are to have you here in front of me or to have a cruel, violent dullard; I will pick you every time."

"You don't know, though. Maybe you would have liked Derek. Maybe he would have matured into something better than what he was. Maybe I robbed the world of someone who could have helped save it."

"He wasn't doing a very good job. And if he had succeeded, he would have a difficult time learning and growing in prison. The world was going to lose him one way or another. Perhaps if he went to meet God, you did him a favor by sending him to the afterlife without the stain of murder on his hands."

"I thought you didn't believe in God." Troy snorted.

"Not believing in and hating are two separate things." He folded his claws neatly. "Truthfully Troy, he sounds like someone I would have also consumed. But, myself with much more guilt than you, because I would have torn him apart and had my fill while lucid and sapient."

"Listen to you talk so big. Aren't you supposed to be "harmless" according to the institute?"

"Formerly harmless. If you remember correctly, I was technically arrested by the Van Helsings under a charge of murder."

"Yeah but didn't that guy have it coming?"

"Exactly. See? I knew you'd get there. Now, come out and eat your sandwich. Please."

"I still don't know if I want to. Even if it is vegan."

"Yes... I often have had some trepidation about consuming blood, even when given to me freely. I have had to learn to accept it as a gift and swallow it along with my feelings. This... "grilled cheese" is my gift to you."

"You're really going to make me eat this, aren't you?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, you cannot undo the harm done to others by harming yourself. Believe me, I have had eons of trying."

"Fine. But on one condition. You hang out with me and chat while I eat it."

"Chatting I can do."

[cloutchaserkineme]

yeah i doubt it

11:07 p.m. on my table still but in a happier state than before

I came on here because I just redownloaded all of my socials after deleting the apps to focus on work and real life situations (which always get a little hectic around the holidays), so I only just now saw Franco Colapinto's video where he states that he is a Sagittarius rising, and in the same breath says he is a Pisces descendant.

Which is, you know. Wrong. Pisces is the IC, Gemini is the DSC point if you have a Sagittarius ASC no matter what house system you use because the angles are angled in such a way that they are roughly around 90-180 deg away from each other.

Buuuut Astrotheme, one of my beloved astrology sites, has recently update 43's chart rating as A, as collected by Sy Scholfield. He is listed as Sagittarius rising through memory- which I'm assuming is also based on that video where he says it to a fan, as it was calculated in the second decan of Sagittarius at 16 degrees- the literal middle of the whole 30 degrees of the sign.

As much as I love Astrotheme (it's got a good database despite being free software, much like astro-seek and astro.com), I don't think it should be rated A even if it did come straight from the horse's mouth. It is completely plausible that he- by virtue of being early 2000s Gen Z as well as being a native Spanish speaker*- would remember his Rising sign better than his Descendant sign (which is generally only calculated or mentioned, really, when in terms of partners/girlfriends/boyfriends of relationship astrology, because usually guys his age mostly know about astrology because of girls his age), but he could have had someone really give him a reading and detailing his chart, and him being confused in the moment about which term was used in which.

In whichever case, according to Franco himself, he would still be a mutable Ascendant point, either a Virgo or Sagittarius rising, and his Gemini Sun would be angular, either in 7H of partners/contracts or 10H of career/public image.

While I think there is still every chance that he has Virgo rising- he doesn't look like it. He is too chill to be one- as Virgo is ruled by Mercury (the mind), and they are flighty and nervous and tend to have obsessive worries and whatnot. He just looks like a chill guy.

To be fair, he doesn't look much like a Sagittarius rising either. His Taurus placements shine through so much (6H in Sagittarius, 9H in Virgo) with those sleepy eyes, more prominent neck when compared to other racers, and a softness to his face that is usually not present when someone has Pluto in Sagittarius on the 1H of the self.

He is also young. He has yet to grow into his face. It will change, the same way that Charles Leclerc's [Libra Sun-Scorpio ASC] face went from baby Harry Potter to Monegasque fanon Tony Stark after puberty, or Max Verstappen's [Sagittarius Rising-with Mars in 1H] face looking less swollen, red-faced and puffy as he grows older**, or Esteban Ocon [night chart, Leo rising with Mars and Venus in 1H] and Lewis Hamilton [possible day chart, possible Pisces rising with Venus and Mars in 1H] having the sharpness (Mars) of their faces be smoothed out with fat (Venus, to a lesser degree than Jupiter) as Venus matures after 25 years of age so they look more oval than arrow-like.

It doesn't matter though- as long as he's not on the grid for the 2025 season, there wouldn't be a need to read the astroweather for him, as I don't watch F2.

(30) 11:50 p.m.

*I will always assume that any native Spanish speaker outside of the Philippines and Spain casually knows at least their Sun, Moon, and Rising because of famous Puerto Rican astrologer Walter Mercado and the popularity of his readings. The Philippines, while superstitious, generally practice a lot more folk Catholicism, Chinese astrology, and Feng Shui owing to their neighbors, and I don't know much about Spain's occult situation.

**Mars in a person's chart matures after 28 years. Since it is a racing planet, expect for him to face some challenges next year, since he is a day chart and Mars is the malefic out-of-sect. Ocon's night chart (but sad Solarian placement) would be good to compare with his as he is also a fellow 1H Mars who has already turned 28 in 2024.

[willowbilly]

“Eskimo” both is and is not a slur. 

In Greenland and Canada it is more unequivocally offensive, whereas in Alaska some Iñupiat and Yupiit—though far from all—do indeed use this exonym for themselves in English, particularly more rural or elderly speakers. The Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, for instance, uses it in their name. Edna Ahgeak MacLean, a foremost Iñupiaq language authority, uses it occasionally in her work. It is the established academic term for the collective Inuit-Yuit branch of the Inuit-Yuit-Unangan or “Eskimo-Aleut” language family. “Eskimo” does not refer to Inuit alone, but is an umbrella term for Iñuich and Yupiit together, one that colloquially excludes Sugpiat, who are otherwise known as “Alutiit,” along with Unangan, otherwise known as “Aleuts,” who both prefer those Russian-derived “Алеуты” exonyms over the “Esquimaux” one. The ethnonym “Inuit” more properly applies only to Iñupiat and other Iñuich, not to Yupiit as well. The words Inuit and Yuit are cognates, but exonyms in each other’s respective languages. The difference between Iñupiatun and Yugtun is said to be roughly comparable to that between English and German: obviously related languages, but not mutually intelligible, having diverged around 1000 CE; Unangam Tunuu diverged earlier, around 2000 BCE. “Inuit and Yupiit” is in generalized circumstances the most accurate substitution for “Eskimo” as it does not conflate two distinct Indigenous peoples under the name of one. 

The etymology of the exonym is furthermore disputed. Its origin may be from the Innu-aimun word ayas̆kimew “person who laces a snowshoe,” or from another Innu-aimun word that is not a reference to diet. 

That said, I would like to reinforce the message that non-Native people shouldn’t use “Eskimo kisses, ice cream,” etc. as casual terms disconnected from the relevant Native cultures, nor use diminutive forms of the ethnonym. Such usages are pejorative. While it is for the most part rude to correct people on their own terminology for themselves, I urge non-Native people to use Native endonyms over exonyms wherever possible, and not to evoke actual peoples as stereotypes.

[polyglot-thought]

[Cherokee->English] @CherokeeNation 5:43 PM February 1st 2023 Tweet - Color Coded Translation

Link to original tweet

—

There’s nothing cuter than a ᎩᏟ or ᏪᏌ playing in the snow! ❄️💕 Show us a photo of your pet! 📸 #okwx

gitli ; wesa

There’s nothing cuter than a dog or cat playing in the snow! ❄️💕 Show us a photo of your pet! 📸 #okwx

—

Please correct me if I made a mistake

[tired-fandom-ndn]

So I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and your posts about transcripts brought it back into my mind - what about using subtitles or transcripts to communicate similar things about the character that tone of voice communicates, or a use of colorful onomatopoeia to create a similar experience to hearing the sound? You mentioned “C U later��; is that still a joke if the character is (for example) a 2000s texting addict and it communicates things about how they see the world?

I’m asking because I’m working on an independent audio drama, and starting to plan for production, and as I’m not Deaf or HOH I’m torn between eventually releasing the scripts as official transcripts or making alterations to reflect actors’ delivery or audible character traits. I want to give any readers as close to an identical artistic/emotional experience as possible, with the words used to communicate humor or personality quirks in ways that match how hearing audience members would experience them. It’s always felt to me (as someone who’s disabled in other ways and often has to make do with lesser experiences) that the subtitles should be just as thoughtfully and artistically done; am I completely offbase in what the access needs are here? Would releasing both official scripts and altered ones that better reflect the experience/emotions of hearing a word simultaneously square that circle?

(You truly don’t have to answer this at all! I asked because you’re incredibly thoughtful and I appreciate a lot of what you say about disability in nerd and fandom spaces, and you’re also the only person I know really talking about this stuff.)

So in theory, I would be okay with something like this, but it's so hard to do this sort of thing without making the transcripts harder to understand and generally less accessible for disabled viewers and non-native speakers.

The primary goal of transcripts should ALWAYS be to provide clear and accurate text of the audio, including both dialogue and relevant sounds, and anything else added should not come at the cost of that accuracy. I think adding tone indicators (like "somber", "choked up", "to themself", etc), to tell the audience how certain lines are verbally delivered, can be really helpful and useful for a Deaf and HoH audience that wouldn't be getting that nuance with just the text, but changes to things like spelling are unnecessary and make the transcripts inaccessible to portions of the audience dependent on them.

You also have to keep in mind whether those transcript changes are actually necessary for a Deaf/HoH audience to understand the character. . . and if they are, why? Why is that characterization not shown? If a character is obsessed with texting, wouldn't that be shown in the rest of the show/movie and understandable for the audience without the transcripts using difficult to understand text speech for verbal speech?

I would really recommend reaching out to Deaf and HoH people to consult on your transcipts tbh. This is a complicated situation that can't be answered easily, especially without actually seeing the transcripts and changes in question, and it's something that people are typically paid to review and help with. If this is important for you and the studio you're working with, hiring a Deaf consultant for the transcripts would be the best bet.

[petorahs]

☀️ its fascinating that you say P3 has shaped your worldview because... Well not to trauma dump here but back then when I discovered the game (it was back then when p4 was already out) i was... In a REALLY bad place and wondering about unaliving myself. I wont go into much detail but kids are trash man and teens are even worse. and then this game came around. With an aesthetic I really liked. i am not a native english speaker so it was hard for me at first but somehow this game just... /spoke to me/. A game about life and death and what it means to be alive and what it means to have a REASON to live, somehow... Convinced me to go a bit longer. I mean it when I say this: Persona 3 saved my life. And no other game can ever come close to such an experience. (Even tho from a quality standpoint P5 certainly is up there)

oh dude that is so valid thank you for sharing this. seriously though, im happy that youre here! and im sure many others are too! the ☀️ brightening lives and all that :]

yea i can see why p3 just clicked with so many people since it first came out. i was always curious on why it's so beloved by fans, when p5 and even p4 are literally right there with their overall better gameplay experiences. p5 literally got the franchise mainstream to insane heights lol. im... so glad i got into persona the way i did. of course, everyone's experiences w these games are different and special to them in their own way.

i got into persona 3 as an adult and as a result the lens in which i viewed the story's themes were heightened, in a way. as a teen i just know i would have reacted more volatilely i struggle to think about it LOL but both experiences would still be pretty intense. it's just that, as an adult there's more room to digest it when im not troubled by algebra hw. i was just more equipped for it (also i played omori two summers ago LMAOO). ofc i only turned 20 a few weeks ago LOL but i get why p3 means so much to people.

because it's like... 2000s nostalgia coupled with a game that figuratively holds your hand through the uncertainty of death yknow? p3 is a friend, basically. its entire thesis is based upon companionship (exactly what i highlight in an analysis i have drafted somewhere but HHH i dont want this to get too long lmao)

in the shaping my worldviews thing... its really more like it cemented my 'philosophies' :] like i said, equipped with the stuff i learned before, p3 having the message that it did just... hit super close to home! like yeah! that's what i've been saying dude!! kindness really is enough!!

"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life... Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of."

LIKE YEA GIRL THATS EXACTLY IT!! its so cool! i actually admire people who grew up with p3 because man if i heard this line ages ago... well, again, idk if i would be able to grasp it fully at the time... but still! this is so good, poetry in motion. and like u said its aesthetics are gorgeous and aim to capture the essence of its themes - and it did.

im a p5 baby like bro i love p5. soft spot for it. thats the closest persona game i "grew up" with and it came at such an opportune time for me, being a teen stuck between a rock and a hard place. typical. and p5 validated my teenage angst bs so much. its so refreshing to see a game's theme being rebellion. that was me i thought. those characters are going through something that similarly happened to me. teenage rebellion is such a fun thing to explore!

so p5 validated my struggles while p3 did something deeper than that, somehow. i think it just made me .. stronger? like it made me move on from struggles. "by remembering death you learn how to live" so... i guess p3 taught me how to live as crazy as that sounds. but you get me

persona 5 overall is great -- everyone agrees, like its objectively just a better game. but persona 3 ends up more beloved because of its subjective value as a piece of art. there's a lot of heart and soul to put into it.

it's more simple when compared to p5 at first glance, but simple doesn't mean less. which is why more people experiencing it will be nice to see

[winsoongi]

hai i am not saying this a joke or anything I genuinely want to see every answer for that oc game :)

[ask game]

YESSSSSSSS HELL YEAH

I'm gonna do these for seonjin bc i'm thinking about him. here is a sneak peak at his new design also:

answers under the cut bc there are a lot

I typically associate seonjin with the color purple, though in character i doubt he cares much about it. typically he wears a lot of blacks, dark blues and greys.

Seonjin would like hard rock, though he's adamant that anything written after 2000 is trash. he would never admit this, but he also listens to a lot of NELL and other tearjerker kpop. I don't know about his favorite song, but I associate him with sabotage by the beastie boys

As for weapon of choice, seonjins weapon in Ad Terra is a revolver, but he never uses it because he doesn't have many bullets. Seonjin believes he can outwit or avoid other people (and zombies) 99% of the time so he doesn't feel the need to weigh himself down carrying a big weapon. If push comes to shove though, he thinks the revolver's intimidation factor should be enough.

Seonjin is resourceful in some ways and just refuses to try in others. he's stubborn about not knowing how to build things, mend clothing, etc. but he's survived on his own for a long time so he knows how to meet his needs.

In Ad Terra, seonjin favors practicality and freedom of movement over anything else, but in normalverse he's definitely more of an aesthetic guy. he owns WAY too many shoes. he doesn't have an interest in fashion though, it's more of a status thing for him.

Again, how seonjin wears his hair differs in normalverse vs. Ad Terra. In normalverse he has a stylish and very well maintained haircut, but in Ad Terra he bleaches his hair and basically has a mullet. go figure.

He likes orcas and narwhals he thinks they're cool as hell

Seonjin's only nickname is his gamer tag, PRinCe. He didn't choose it for any strong reason, he just thought it sounded good and he thought it would be cool to change it to, like, King or something when he made a name for himself

His favorite food is ribs prepared absolutely any way. He's definitely a picky eater, he hates fish and anything fishy. Tragically he is also lactose intolerant.

Seonjin does not wear jewelry, but he does think it'd be cool to get his ears pierced at some point. He likes gold more than silver but I don't think he has a favorite gem other than "most expensive."

What he has in common with me? hmmm. we both play offtank and try to live in the present, i guess. he's different in that he is... ruthless isn't quite the right word, but he is goal-oriented to the extreme and actively tries not to be approachable. I think i'd get along with him better than with most of my other ocs, but we wouldn't be close.

He's been around for... what, 3 years now? His original concept was very loose and I don't remember when he really started to carve himself out. I haven't decided on a birthday for him yet, but he was born in '99. As for what he thinks about celebrating birthdays, he'd say it isn't really important to him but he definitely cares.

Seonjin is a native korean speaker and also speaks english very fluently!

He's, like, fine with numbers and he'd be better if he tried, but he doesn't really care about math

His family is just him, his parents, and his paternal grandparents. When he was growing up it was just him and his parents, but after he left to compete in the US his parents moved in with his grandparents. In Ad Terra, he lives by himself, but he doesn't stay anywhere too long.

Seonjin doesn't have pets, but he's always wanted to get a hamster and thinks they're the perfect animal.

He spent most of his summers/free time gaming, and the rest of it working at a relative's store.

Seonjin doesn't care if someone lies or steals (and does so often himself), but killing is WAY too far. Generally, his main priority is survival and he understands when others lie to or steal from him to do the same

Seonjin gets angry very easily, but he's very good at taking a deep breath, pushing it aside, and not letting his emotions control him. Notable exceptions are when his past as a booster is brought up as a gotcha or when someone (nyangi) goes too far.

Seonjin cannot drive and will never learn. public transit sweep!!!!!

His favorite place to be is at home. He doesn't get to come back often (or at all in Ad Terra), so he misses it a lot.

Seonjin's sleep is segmented and he usually wakes up a few times throughout the night. he prefers to take short naps as opposed to long sleeps.

His voice is gentle and he typically speaks casually. He's on the low end of the tenor spectrum? I think he could sing if he wanted to, but he never does.

Seonjin does not have any creative hobbies, but he'd find woodcarving fun if he tried it out.

His eyesight is like, fine, but his hearing is a bit below average. he makes up for this by having REALLY good intuition.

seonjin is super agile! he's quick on his feet and very flexible.

(changing this to favorite game instead of favorite sport for obvious reasons) he plays Fantasy Overwatch professionally, but seonjin's all time favorite game is Fantasy Quake

Seonjin shows he cares by like. keeping an eye out and going out of his way to be helpful to them. as for how he shows he dislikes someone... he doesn't care. if he doesn't like them, they're a fly buzzing in his ear, nothing more.

the element i associate him with is fire, but in my superpower AU he's got earth magic for plot reasons LMAO

I don't think he smells like anything particular. just very neutral

Seonjin likes receiving gifts, but he never knows what to do with them because generally he's already gotten himself whatever he needs. he really hates giving gifts because he assumes other people are the same and also don't like novelties (but he gives them anyways if its socially required). his ideal gift? a gift card to his favorite restaurant. he doesn't think anyone pays attention to him or what he likes/dislikes, so someone taking the time to figure that out would mean a lot to him.

odd habbits? not really... he's laser focused on his goals and doesn't care to do anything but work towards them.

How my other characters would describe him... most of them would describe him as hardworking and amicable, but more standoffish and forgettable than anything else. nyangi on the other hand would say he's a manipulative spiteful sonofabitch. sale would say the same thing as everyone else, but add that they feel sorry for him.

seonjin would describe himself as someone who never gives up and who's stronger than anyone else believes he is. he prides himself on his intuition and work ethic.

In normalverse, Seonjin returns home as much as he can (which isn't often). In Ad Terra? he can't return home, and in more ways than he thinks.

[senianevermind]

YOOOOOO!!!!! welcome 2 my blog ^___^

name's senya (u can also call me senia or xena!!)

i'm 16!!

nonbinary bisexual disaster!!!!

any pronouns!!

not a native speaker so sorry for possible mistakes??? tbh improving my english is one of the reasons why i decided to create a blog haha (btw yeah i like learning languages and linguistics and stuff like that) but i also would like to make some friends!?!?! and just vibe

i kinda feel like i'm writing a portfolio rn

some things i like:

★emo/scene stuff

☆90's-2000's-2010's aesthetic/style!?!

★MUSIC!!!!!!

favs:

fall out boy (pete wentz is the greates lyricist)

cobra starship (pete wentz is the only reason that they're famous xDDD)

100 gecs (hyperpop is the perfect genre)

britney spears (hell yeah it's britney bitch)

well i have a looooot of favorites so u can just ask do i listen to this or that or no!!!! (i'm just too lazy to continue the list)

☆DANGANRONPA!!!! (how unexpected)

some favorite characters:

kazuichi soda!!!!!!! (surprisingly isn't it)

GUNdhAm taNAkAa >:-)

sonia nevermind (surprisingly isn't it x2)

ibukiiii miodaaaaa!! φ(゜▽゜*)♪

and of course THE tumlblr sexyman nagito komaeda

(i realized that there are only characters from sdr2 but i actually played dr1 and drv3 and i liked them but sdr2 is my favorite so yeah.....i'm just too lazy to continue the list x2)

★glitter gifs!!!!!

i like creating them!!! ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

idk what else to add..... i hope i don't seem weird in a bad way!! >_<

[rigelmejo]

Language Study Challenges I've been contemplating, but I just do not have the time to do it all. ToT I think some of these could result in some good progress over a few months, as a period to see how much the challenge is helping you improve in your specific goals.

Glossika: attempt to study 2000 new sentences in the course in a month, doing reviews only if you have spare time. May require 1-2 hours of study time a day, but the studying can be done as just listening, so you can do it while also doing other things. Getting through 2000 new sentences in glossika will take around 40-60 hours (I think it took me 40 hours). If the method is working well for making progress on your improvement goals, then keep doing for 3 months and you will cover 6000 sentences, then the 4th month study the last 400 sentences in the course and finally start prioritizing reviews. Spend end of 4th month reviewing, and do a final 5th month of reviews if desired. (Do reviews more than me if you prefer that, do speaking practice with course if desired for your particular goals, do reading practice with course sentences of desired for your particular goal). This can be completed in ~3 to 5 months, so you can make some significant progress and see how well (or not) it worked for your goals in a somewhat shorter amount of time. (I'm doing this challenge now).

Listen to an audiobook: find an audiobook you like (I'm using SCI), attempt to listen to it in as short a time period as possible (that's possible for you), aiming for at least 1-2 hours of listening a day (on average). Since its just listening, it can be done while doing some other activities. If you pick an audiobook shorter than 60 hours long, pick a few audiobooks so that listening 2 hours a day would result in eventually listening to 60 hours in a month. If desired, the next month you can pick to re-listen to the same audiobooks again (for repetition and to see if you understand more the next time around). For me, the goal with this is to INCREASE practice listening to a LOT of dense speaking. So for me, perfectionism will try to kick in and I'll try to re-listen to the same chapter over and over. So for me, this goal is to FINISH listening to an audiobook. The SCI audiobook I'm listening to is around 60 hours. Guardian by priest is around 50 hours. A lot of Chinese webnovels will easily be 40 hours or much longer, if you want something long to keep listening to the same word choices and grammar patterns and plot of one author. If you pick shorter audiobooks, picking the same author may help keep the vocabulary and grammar more familiar to you over time. (I'm doing this challenge).

Comprehensible Input Challenge (for total beginners): Dreaming Spanish gives an estimate of 50 hours to learn 300 words, and 150 more hours (so 200 hours total) to learn 1,500 words. 1,500 words is a great foundation to starting to try shows if you are okay looking key words up every few minutes, novels for kids if you're willing to look key words up, graded readers, simple conversations, videos for learners which don't have as many visual aids for understanding, and the broader world of being able to learn more new words with SURROUNDING words as your context for guessing, instead of only or often primarily visual clues. Dreaming Spanish labels that as Level 3, 1,500 words learned, can watch Intermediate Dreaming Spanish videos. (From their site "Now you can listen to videos or classes in which the teacher doesn't use as much visual input, and may even be able to take advantage of really easy audios and podcasts that are catered to learners at your level. Crosstalk is still the best way to spend your time. At this level it becomes easier than before to do crosstalk over the internet using video call software, so you won't need to find native speakers where you live anymore. Reading is still not recommended if you care about your final achievement in pronunciation, but it starts becoming possible to understand lower level graded readers"). So for a total beginner the challenge would be to get through 50 hours of Comprehensible Input lessons for Superbeginners/Absolute Beginners/B0 (depends on the youtube account for what the first beginner videos are labelled). Just plan 1-2 hours of video lessons per day. Then for months 2, 3, 4, keep doing 50 hours a month and you'll hit that approximate 1,500 words known level. At that point, you should find non-comprehensible input made lessons such as beginner learner podcasts and graded readers become somewhat understandable, and media in the target language may in some cases be understandable if you're willing to look up key words and feel the initial "very tired/drained from focusing hard" part that always happens at first.

Comprehensible Input Challenge (for upper beginners): Assuming you know 1,500 to 2,000 words - or skill wise, you can handle understanding beginner graded readers and some beginner dialogues in learner materials, and can handle some content in the target language for native speakers IF it's on the easier side and you can look a key word up for meaning every few minutes (so for example: you can follow a Peppa Pig episode, or a Spongebob episode, aka a cartoon for kids, if you look up key words every few minutes - alternatively, if you can watch a simple romance daily life show and follow the main plot if you look up key words). Your goal as an intermediate learner: watch 300 hours of Comprehensible Input Lessons labelled "Intermediate." 300 hours will take you from that upper beginner area you're at (1,500 words learned) to 3,000 words learned. That will get you to the point of (from Dreaming Spanish site): being able to talk to patient native speakers and may be able to make friends and lamguage exchange partners, get through daily life stuff like shopping with words although it may be a struggle, can learn new words mainly from surrounding word context now (so picking up new words from things you engage with is going to start picking up more so listening to stuff and watching stuff outside of lessons will result in learning more words - shows, podcasts, entertainment), graded readers will still be more comfortable but you can wade into more books for native speakers (especially if you're willing to look up key words for main idea). At 3,000 words, media for native speakers will still feel difficult but it should feel significantly LESS difficult than it did when you knew 1,500 words. When I knew 1500 words I could start watching cdramas with no english subtitles, but I looked up key words every 1-3 minutes and felt exhausted within 5-20 minutes. Once I had studied 3000 words, I could watch simpler romance slice of life cdramas for 40 minutes (episode length) without feeling drained, and look up key words once every 5 minutes. (Although keep in mind: the first time you watch shows or read novels, it will feel Exhausting until you get used to it, even if you know many thousands of words... you have to practice reading/listening stamina, even if you have a bigger vocabulary). So a 300 hour study of intermediate level lessons, should give you a significant boost in your language skills. You could do 50 hours a month, 1-2 hours a day, and finish in 6 months. You could do 60 hours a month (2 hours a day) and finish in 5 months. You could do 90 hours a month (3 hours a day - probably more than the average person has time for but this is a challenge after all lol!) and finish in 3.3 months. A huge jump like that in 3 months would be awesome! (I did that kind of jump in 6 months... when I started chinese I cram studied 2000 words and 1500 hanzi in 6 months, then reviewed for 2 months by watching shows and graded readers, then for 4 months I read a TON of webnovel chapters and picked up another 1000 words and ~500 hanzi). So yeah, 1.6 hours to 3 hours a day of study for a few months, aiming for 50-90 hours of Comprehensible Input Lessons for Intermediate Learners on youtube per month for 3.3-6 months.

Comprehensible Input Challenge (for intermediate learners) : This is where I am (for Japanese). 600 hours to go from the last level to this, to learn 5,000 words total. (As you know... I'm attempting to use Glossika japanese to learn 5000 words instead, so I'll report how that goes). 600 hours unfortunately cannot be done in 3 months with a comfortable study plan - I think, for me at least, a comfortable study plan I know I can commit to is going to need to be 2 hours a day or less (on average). 600 hours would take ~10 months to go through at 2 hours a day. Now granted, 10 months isn't so long in the grand scheme. But if you, like me, can motivate yourself to read novels or watch shows at this point, then 600 hours of youtube lessons sounds so boring. Although... I guess for my japanese level, watching shows still feels exhausting (podcasts for learners feel okay though, like Nihongo Con Teppei, so maybe I should listen to hundreds of hours of that?). Find the intermediate/advanced video comprehensible input lessons on youtube for the language you're studying, and go wild. It should take 10 months unless you study more hours per day then I can. (I think this is a sobering realization, right as I type, that it probably is going to take 600ish hours of SOME form of Japanese study to get me to the level I want to be at... maybe I'll try to just slog through a japanese novel ebook... I can sometimes motivate myself to read for 4 hours a day, I like reading...). Note: if I do this challenge later, it'll be with Comprehensible Japanese youtube videos for Intermediate and Advanced. Significant progress you should see once you've learned around 5,000 words (from Dreaming Spanish): You'll be able to understand more advanced materials for learners. Listen to audios and podcasts daily if you want to learn fast. Crosstalk is still as good as always. You may start feeling you are not getting much out of getting input about daily life topics. Try getting input about new topics. Easier TV programs and cartoons should be accessible too. The purists who want to get really close to a native speaker and get a really good accent may still want to hold off on speaking and reading for a little more, but if you do start speaking and reading it's not a big deal by this point. You'll still end up with better pronunciation and fluency than the vast majority of learners. If you want to start reading, by this point you'll be able to understand books targeted at children of lower grade levels, and you can skip over graded readers. From me: if you're looking key words up for the main idea when watching shows, you should now be able to watch many shows in familiar genres and just look up 1 word every 5 minutes or so. If you've got a decent ability to guess, and practiced getting used to media for native speakers already, then like I was in Chinese - you will probably feel comfortable watching MANY shows in genres you're familiar with, without looking up anything. You will feel especially comfortable with easier shows like cartoons and romance daily life stuff, and things you've watched before. If you've been practicing reading before this, then once you know 5000 words you will find you need to look key words up less often and can focus more on enjoying stories, and looking words up because you desire their specific meaning/to fully understand details, not necessarily because you need the words meaning to grasp the main idea (I did a LOT of intensive reading around this period in Chinese because I could finally extensively read for plot, so I'd look up every unknown word I saw to grasp the other details and increase my vocabulary... and because the amount of unknown words to look up was now manageable).