#or German

[thehollowwriter]

Just got jumpscared by what I think is an AFRIKAANS song in an AMERICAN podcast???? Welcome to Night Vale is so weird I love it

[link-alou]

Omg I’m actually posting on this account!?

[dicesmasher]

American Extraplanars

CW: A European slagging off America

I've been thinking about accents. They're a great way to convey cultural differences across different parts of my world, and I draw from real world accents to signify the cultural background of characters when I'm playing and DMing.

In my world, most of the countries thus far established are heavily based on real ones. Graddeland is England, and Rama is France, Ralskyov is Russia, Hjelvord is Sweden, et cetera. But I ran into a slight problem of what to do with the USA.

See, a North America analogue exists in my world, but it's inhabited primarily by the Crelkowaa, analagous to the (diverse, continent-spanning cultures) of Native Americans. My 'Europeans' haven't invaded and made them a minority, for reasons I'm still working on, but the idea of Native American analogues being major players in my world is something I'm really keen on.

Of course, giving the Crelkowaa American accents would be immensely disrespectful to their real inspirations. But American accents also represent a wealth of opportunity and personality. Then it hit me - why not give American accents to fiends, or celestials, or both?

Especially with celestials, since in my world I like to think of celestials as ill-informed arrogant busybodies that like to police the world according to whatever god is commanding them, and may see themselves as its saviours, but they often make things worse with collateral damage or unintended consequences (or for some gods, entirely intended and selfish consequences), and most mortals would really rather they fucked off. A cheeky thematic link between 'divine intervention' and American foreign policy? That would be fun!

It could work well with fiends too. I especially like the idea of portraying devils like overly friendly east-coast fast-talking salesmen, trying to convince you that whatever they're offering is worth your soul. Think Alastor from Hazbin Hotel.

I also recognise that the American accent is derivative of what the English accent was at the time America was being colonised, but I absolutely refuse to ruin the analogue of my own country by making them talk like Americans!

Besides, I think most of the pressure I felt to give Americans somewhere to be in my world really just comes from the overwhelming dominance of American media and their superpowered role in the current geopolitical ecosystem. In the grand scheme of things, the USA is still a very young country, established by a genocidal invasion from another continent, with very little cultural identity of its own, and certainly none that's very old. I don't think it provides much to inspire fantasy worldbuilding, at least by my own methods and vision.

The continent of North America, though? Incredible landscapes! iconic wildlife! And from a European perspective, riddled with mystery and discovery. This combined with native cultures creates a gold mine of inspiration for monsters and magic. Paradoxically, while the USA doesn't make for particularly good fantasy, the continent of North America does, and its potential is largely wasted.

[thefanboyhub]

The tistic urge to repaint my room like FNAF themed even though I legally cannot cuz it's an apartment. Very strong.

[salvadorbonaparte]

I told my students they're allowed to be creative and don't have to be factual when writing about themselves in German because I keep getting questions like "what if I don't have roommates or what if I don't have hobbies" and I'm like guys just make something up! Have fun! I won't fact check you!

So now I am grading homework where a student is claiming to be from North Korea and his hobby is tax fraud

[rainbowcrowley]

today a fascist won an election for the first time since 1933. here, in germany.

i don't care if it's just one (out of 16) states. björn höcke is a fascist. a court decided not long ago that it's allowed to call him a nazi. bc he is one. not "far right" or "conservative" - he is a nazi.

here. in germany. and he just won an election.

it hasn't even been 100 years.

i am scared.

[redrook]

old German lady gave me acupuncture today

she lifted up my shirt, saw my top surgery scars, and immediately went "WHOA! What caused THIS?"

my fellow comrades, it took every atom of my strength not to just say the funniest lie I could think of on the spot.

[schreibfederlaerm]

so this European clothing retailer decided to advertise their jean cuts on youtube and it's unintentionally the funniest shit I've seen today. why? well.

now important context here: in German, die (pronounced 'dee') is just a feminine article, it literally means "the".

but if an ad gets placed in the middle of an English video and doesn't use a single explicitly German word for most of the ad, even a native speaker is gonna think "they want me to die how?" it keeps getting funnier.

I mean, holy shit

i will use these as reaction images until i die

[lasttarrasque]

[reallybadblackoutpoems]

imagination (1963) - harold ordway rugg

"chekhovs cat / schrödingers razor / occams gun"

[satans-cool-blog]

I’ve been obsessed with this tweet for a while so I’m posting the it to tumblr to inflict it on more people

[vollkornbot]

English: we call it sinusitis because it's Latin :)

German: we call it Nasennebenhöhlenentzündung because the Höhlen neben your Nase are entzündet.

[the0garden0of0eyes]

Funny thing about me is that I pronounce some English words with a thick german accent bc I either struggle to pronounce it in english or I find english pronunciation stupid. This is how I ended up saying STONE SAUER with a thick german accent bc I forgot once how to say "sour" in english once.

[valla-chan]

Crazy how every language fully understood cats when they named them. Cat, Gato, Neko, Chat, Katze, Qitta, Mao... Like yeah all of you are just 100% correct