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nanonana39 · 8 months ago

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Language learning – Introductory tips for self taught beginners

Warning, this is a loooong read. Feel free to skip to the TL;DR at the end.

In this post, I will detail a few tips which have helped me (a self taught language hobbyist) with the beginning steps of learning languages such as English, Korean and Japanese. This is not a guide on how to achieve fluency quickly, it is meant to be an introduction to language learning. This is also based on my own experiences; feel free to disagree or correct me.

We will go over these points:

How do I start learning a language?

What should I use? Is an app better than online courses?

Do I learn grammar or vocabulary first?

How much should I study?

Should I practice immersion?

Where do I find resources/books?

I feel frustrated. / I am not learning anything. /This is too hard, maybe it's not for me.

How do I start learning a language?

This is the first thing you will ask yourself when you decide you want to start learning a language. Whether it is for work, for studying, traveling or just for fun, most people feel overwhelmed at the thought of how or where to start.

The truth is that there is no set path to start learning a language, but researching the language before studying can help relieve your worries over it and give you an idea of how to start. Keep in mind that languages which have different alphabets/writing systems (i.e. Japanese, Chinese, Arabic) take longer for a native Germanic/Romance language speaker (i.e. English, French) to learn and achieve fluency, and vice versa, so if you do not have a second language as of yet, consider choosing a Germanic/Romance language as a soft start. I'll detail a suggestion as to where to start in point 3.

What should I use? Is an app better than language courses?

The current language learning app ecosystem is a far cry from what it used to be (yes, I'm talking about Duolingo and Memrise), but they are still your main allies if you have a busy schedule and want to learn a language. However what I've found is that simply tapping away in an app and taking notes isn't enough – sometimes the apps don't explain certain grammar rules, or they're locked behind monthly paywalls. As such, you have to find the answers elsewhere.

Here are some things which will make your life and your studying much easier if you are self taught and on a budget: books on the language (for grammar, you can find PDFs online), language channels (for more thorough and practical explanations, YouTube is the main hub for it), and regular media in the language of your choosing (for vocabulary, it can range from music to series/movies). If you have a friend who speaks the language, or perhaps is learning it with you, that also works. In my opinion, learning is better when you have other people to share it with.

There are also websites such as japanesetest4you.com which compile words and their meanings, just like a dictionary. The one I've mentioned not only displays kanji and its meanings, but also shows its variants in Korean and Chinese. There are many others in this same vein for other languages.

Do I learn grammar or vocabulary first?

When learning a language, most courses and classes will focus on teaching you the grammar and the writing system, which while helpful, can sometimes feel like you are going nowhere, as you know how to build a sentence, but don't have words to form it with, or can't pronounce it correctly. This is a common problem among beginners (and sometimes even more experienced language learners), don't let it discourage you.

A personal example I like to use is: To say "the sky is blue", you have to first learn what the sky is, then learn the color blue, and then learn the structure to be able to say "the sky is blue". Vocabulary is just as important as learning the grammar rules in any language; don't limit yourself to only learning how to write. So the answer is: Build a small vocabulary, learn the grammar, and then apply it in practice. It doesn't have to be correct on the first try, we've all been there. Though people learn in different ways, so perhaps you might feel like the opposite works for you. That's also completely fine.

This is another point where engaging with the language's culture and media outside of classes comes to play. Even watching a TV program during your free time and writing down words is enough, since you're also practicing listening, which is also very important and looked over. Try incorporating pronunciation and listening into your studying routines.

How much should I study?

This is a point of much debate within language learning spaces because there is no answer for it. Some might learn a language in 3 months, others might learn it in 10 years, a few can learn it in 3 weeks. It depends on what language you've chosen and the time you are able to dedicate to the language.

The best tip I can give is: if you can dedicate even just 10-15 minutes of learning each day, you can achieve the results you desire. Of course, you should increase that amount if you're able to in the future, but it's already an effort.

Consider your schedule and refer back to the first point, as the time you'll take to achieve conversational/fluency levels can vary depending on the language you choose.

Should I practice immersion?

The common view of immersion is: "speak the language at every opportunity, only engage with media in that language, and write only in that language". This is what you'll see in some of those "I learned (language) in only 3 months" videos.

Let's be realistic though, no one can start speaking German at all times when they live in the US, or Spanish when they live in France, and you'll only feel more frustrated if you force yourself to watch k-dramas without subtitles and nothing else, expecting to absorb it through osmosis. And also, you only now started learning how to say "the sky is blue".

Immersion comes in many forms, though. If you listen to a song in the language you want to learn and read the lyrics while listening, that counts as immersion. If you write a few phrases describing your day in that language as a dynamic exercise, it also counts as immersion. Immersion is what says on the tin – immersing yourself in the language – but it shouldn't bring you unnecessary stress. Also, contrary to what some might say, I do recommend you use translators, if it helps you associate words with their meanings. Don't just rely on them, though, since Google Translate can be unreliable with certain translations and meanings.

Where do I find resources/books?

This requires digging around, but I recommend you check sites like as WebArchive and YouTube. If you can, buy the books online, or borrow some from your local library. I recommend looking for actual textbooks, mainly because some of them include tidbits about the culture itself, like Genki. If you're on a budget, Reddit has a few threads which recommend apps/books, but be very careful with downloading things from random Google Drives or other file hosting websites.

Tumblr is also a very good place for learning new vocabulary. I see some blogs dedicated to sharing kanji and grammar rules, and it can be good to follow such blogs to build your vocabulary.

I feel frustrated. / I'm not learning anything! / This is too hard, maybe this is not for me.

Rome wasn't built in one day, and you definitely won't learn a language in a month or two if you are someone who is in school or has a job with long working hours. YouTube has made language learning easy, but it also has given the illusion that if you follow X method or study an N number of hours, you'll achieve fluency. That is not the case. It fails to take into account the nature of the language, its grammar rules, the writing systems, and everything else.

You don't realize this, but you definitely didn't learn how to speak in just 3 months when you were a child. Everyone learns differently, some faster than others, some slower, some have more time to study, others don't. Some people have difficulty concentrating and don't know how to make learning more fun. All I can say is: don't give up. As long as you put in some effort, even if it seems insignificant to you, you can achieve your results.

Don't feel obligated to continue learning a language if it is bothering you, though. Remember you can always take a break and come back to it another time. Who knows, maybe even during that break, you'll still be learning new words, and feel more motivated to go back.

TL;DR: Language learning is something which is more accessible now than ever, but you might find yourself confused on where or even how to begin learning a language. The key tip for learning any language is to do research, gather resources, know your own limits and how much dedication, time and energy you can invest into learning, and most important of all, to have fun with it.

I hope this can help some beginners in their journey into language learning. Thank you for reading this far!

#studyblr #language #self taught langblr #langblr #language help #language tips

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ilikemenandwomen · 4 months ago

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This is going to be a ramble about Syme in 1984 because none of my friends will sit and listen to me because they think it’s boring

Syme is a minor character (introduced in Part 1 - Chapter 5) who works as a language expert who works in the ministry of truth. His job is to write newspeak - a language designed by Orwell to be deliberately confusing and ambiguous. This may also have a deeper meaning of the language not only being intended to confuse the reader, but also the citizens of Oceania (which includes the Americas, the UK and Australia) - an explanation Syme gives helps support this (more on that later). Syme very much enjoys his job and is incredibly passionate about newspeak. The main purpose of Syme in the novel is to explain newspeak to the reader.

Syme is vaporised (that is, to have all evidence that you ever existed removed) later in the novel. As upsetting as his death was to me (he was my favourite character), it was easy to predict and was even stated by Winston Smith (the main character). Syme states that newspeak gets shorter and shorter with every edition of the dictionary. He explains that the reason for this is because the IngSoc (English Socialism) party wants to narrow down the vocabulary which would decrease the ability to think out against the party and therefore increase the support for the party. This shows both Winston and the reader that Syme knows too much for his own good, showing that he understands the party’s true agenda.

Despite Syme being a very evidently intelligent character, he still accepts the propaganda and holds the same values as the party. His dedication and admiration to Big Brother, however, are not enough to stop him from being vaporised.

This means that Syme shows clearly that the party prefers and potentially relies upon its followers being stupid and blindly-loyal.

Syme is also shown to have tendencies that are considered suspicious by the party, such as reading too much and frequenting the Chestnut Tree which is a caffè that is often visiting by artists, musicians and political dissidents.

People like Syme are obviously not meant to survive long in the dystopian world presented in 1984, supporting the party slogan of ‘ignorance is strength’.

Quotes:

“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.” - this shows Syme’s enthusiasm for his work of essentially making unorthodox thoughts impossible.

“The proles are not human beings.” - proles are the lowest members of society in the novel. Syme’s belief here shows that he is in agreement with the party’s model of the hierarchical society.

“It was a good hanging.” - Syme also expresses his enjoyment watching the Eurasian/East Asian (whoever Oceania is at war with) prisoners tongues turning blue and his disappointment at the fact that the prisoners’ legs are tied together because he likes watching them kick/writhe.

Full quote:

It was a good hanging," said Syme reminiscently. "I think it spoils it when they tie their feet together. I like to see them kicking. And above all, at the end, the tongue sticking right out, and blue a quite bright blue. That's the detail that appeals to me.

“There was something subtly wrong with Syme.” - this shows that Syme makes Winston uncomfortable, showing that all people like Syme make Winston uncomfortable.

“Venomously orthodox” - WOW I LOVE THIS QUOTE SO MUCH <3333. Orthodox shows Syme’s dedication to IngSoc and Big Brother. Venomously could either suggest that the orthodoxy Big Brother/IngSoc creates is harmful OR that his orthodox behaviour makes him a harmful/cruel person in the eyes of Winston.

To finish this off, here’s a list of my favourite newspeak words and their meanings:

• Crimestop - the instinctive desire to rid yourself of thoughts that would be considered a thoughtcrime

• Doubleplusgood - a very strong word for good

• Doubleplusungood - a very strong word for bad

• Blackwhite - the ability to blindly accept anything regardless of its absurdity

• Ownlife - the tendency to enjoy being solitary/individualistic which is considered to undermine the authority of Big Brother

• Prolefeed - the steady stream of mindless entertainment to distract and occupy the masses

If you read all of this, I very much appreciate you listening to my autistic rambling but you didn’t have to do that as I appreciate this won’t be interesting to everybody <3

If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer them :))

#Syme #1984 #autistic rambling #thank you if you read all of this

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marimayscarlett · 1 year ago

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Can we talk about the bands engl7sh knowledge?

So Till was the first one to learn it. Knew enough to communicate in the early 90s. Probably most fluent of them all since he also probably read the entire dictionary and synonyms.

Richard did 0 to 60 in just 2 years. Obviously, moving to NYC and having English speaking wife helped a lot, but from 1998 not being able to, to 2001, speaking with easy, is truly impressive. Sassy german accent. More fluent in street talk than eloquence.

Then we have Schneider, who I think is as good as Till and Richard, but has the heaviest german accent making it seem like he's not as good.

There's Paul who's simply not used to expressing his opinions in English, and therefore, his brain cannot keep up with his tongue.

Dear sweet Olli, his English skills are as mysterious as himself. We probably only heard him speak English 3 times..

And then there's Flake. We know his skills got immensely better in the last 10 years alone. Went from don't wanna say something in case I sound stupid to reading books publicly.

Overall, like for a lot of us, english is necessary for survival. Especially if you travel a lot and meet lots of people. But kudos to them for learning it so quickly, especially when they were already in their mid/late 20.

Hi 👋

Oh, this is a wonderful ask! I think about the band's English learning journeys and their language skills in general quite a lot (it kind of is one of my 'roman empires', to use a contemporary phrase), since there are a lot of different skill levels present in this band. Let's work our way through it:

1. Till: the language genius of the band

I noticed Till's talent for languages and to express himself quite early on, and like you said, he seemingly was the one person in the band who could use English already in the 90s for conversation and explaining, like in this interview:

youtube

Another interview where Till speaks about the Nazi accusations the band has to face time and time again, he expresses himself and the points he likes to make so well:

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Not only does Till speak English, from my knowledge he apparently speaks spanish, russian, I heard him speaking some polish - he is really talented in this regard and he has my utmost respect for it!

2. Richard: if eagerness to learn was a person

Richard seemed so lost on their first America tour in 1998, he was quite isolated from the rest of the bands which participated in this tour which made him apparently feel pretty lonely (I mentioned his language journey a bit in this ask). Movies helped him quite a lot to get more acquainted with the english language, and apparently he mastered english well enough around the time when he met his later-(ex) wife Caron in the end of the 1990s. Surely moving to the US together with her must've refined his english skills a lot, but to even consider moving there, he must've already speak enough english to at least feel a bit comfortable in an english speaking environment (at least that's what my thought process would be). I must say, I admire Richard's drive and eagerness to learn this language so quickly, and he became competent to express himself quite well. Here's an interview from 2004, he seems so relaxed speaking english, which makes me quite proud of him:

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Here's another interview from 2017 as an example, Richard speaks quite fluent and seems to be very comfortable in the english language. He once said it's easier to make small talk in english than in german - he might not have to most sophisticated vocabulary in english with grand words and uses a lot of fillers (his famous "you know" always at hand), but he knows how to express himself in a straight forward yet entertaining and charming way.

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3. Schneider: hidden talents

From what I've heard, Schneider definitely knows how to express himself and has a surprisingly well equipped vocabulary. I say 'suprinsingly', since I didn't expect this at first - like you mentioned, his german accent seems to distract from this fact a bit. In comparison to Thomas Lang (an austrian drummer), Schneider of course sounds a bit clunky and not that relaxed - nevertheless, he comes across quite soft spoken in the english language and knows his way around expressions.

youtube

In this interview Schneider finds his way into the speaking 'flow' a little better in my opinion, and brings across his points quite clearly. Despite his heavy accent, you can still understand him quite well (at least that's what I think) and it seems like he puts a lot of effort into finding the right words to describe certain things coherently.

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4. Paul: motivated endeavours to express himself

Paul seemingly can use english to make conversation to a certain degree and understands the language without problems. In the earlier days of Rammstein, while speaking english he came across a bit ungainly, searching for correct expressions or words, like the infamous "slimey into people" - but you still know what he means 😅 I think here you can notice what you mentioned in your ask, he knows exactly what thoughts he would like to express, yet is a bit inhibited by the fact that he doesn't know the correct words for it.

youtube

Here's another, more "recent" interview from 2017 - he's a bit more comfortable speaking english, yet for me as a native german speaker, it became apparent (through all the english interviews I saw with him) that Paul tries to transfer the typical german sentence structure into the english language, which of course doesn't fully work and gives of a bit of a circuitous vibe. Yet he's quite understandable as well I think.

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And a personal favourite of dear @dandysnob (who helped me looking for Paul's interviews, thank you dear 🤍), which shows Paul has no fear to make contact with fans using a different language than german 😊

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5. Olli: Once again an enigma

I found several quite interesting and charming interviews with Olli, who's a joy to listen to (he comes across as shy and yet eager to answer the question he gets in a friendly and detailed manner), but all of them are in german. In my ask about Olli during meet and greets, it was mentioned that he doesn't seem to be really comfortable in the english language.

6. Flake: from fearing of ordering a cup of bacon to fearless one-man show

Flake is someone who isn't scared of expressing his opinion about matters and things he doesn't enjoy (he's not the biggest fan of the US to put it mildly) and also expressed that he struggles with the english language quite a lot (for example during 'Rammstein in America'). Plus he sometimes has a reoccuring stutter (since his child hood), is quite shy and he has, together with Paul, the broadest Berlin dialect you could imagine - and what does this guy do? Mastering the english language just enough to give public speeches about his early musician days in front of a whole audience, really overcoming his fear of public speaking and doing so gracefully in a different and hard language for him! Mad respect for him, and he maintains his distinct humor while doing so:

youtube

Flake's vocabulary isn't really refined, but good enough to express his thoughts in simple and understandable phrases. Same as Paul, he seems to adapt the german syntax into the english language, yet he speaks so fluently, barely searching for the words he needs!

Plus he even had the guts to sing in english on stage, another iconic moment, linked here (can't put any more videos in this post due to the video limit).

"But kudos to them for learning it so quickly, especially when they were already in their mid/late 20." I borrow this statement of yours to bring this post to an end, since this is exactly my point of view here - it really is remarkable how well many of them find their way around the english language 😊

#interesting ask and way too long answer #english skills in Rammstein #Rammstein language lore #Rammstein #ask #thank you for this message 🤍#research & rammsplaining #interviews & quotes

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shamandrummer · 10 months ago

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"The Seven Generations and The Seven Grandfather Teachings"

Discover Indigenous wisdom for a life well lived in James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw's book The Seven Generations and the Seven Grandfather Teachings. Based on ancient teachings from the Anishinaabe/Ojibwe people, this self-published (2023) book about the Ojibwe language offers not just historical insight but valuable life lessons for modern times. The book's teachings emphasize the alignment of words with actions and the importance of leading a holistic life. The central theme is the concept of interconnectedness: "Aanji-Bimaadizing means, 'transforming your life'." This is no ordinary transformation. It extends far beyond the self, touching the lives of past, present, and future relatives. We live in a reciprocally interrelated world where every action we take ripples forward and backward in time.

Grandparents – family connections in general – figure largely in Kaagegaabaw's story of the way Ojibwe language was handed down by a people who understand the land and their place on it. He points out that when we hear a word like Nookomis (my grandmother), we hear a sound "created by a person who knew this land back when it was covered by ice a mile high, before Gichi-gami, the Great Lake, Lake Superior, existed. When we use the old words, we are using words that were spoken by someone who saw woolly mammoths, giant Mooz (moose) and Misamik (giant beaver)."

Kaagegaabaw is proficient at explaining the heart of the Ojibwe language. He demystifies the vocabulary, breaking words into small parts for a clear understanding of their meaning. The primal language conveys a "Great Law" that helps speakers live in peace, harmony and balance. He cites the ancient Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) philosophy of considering the impact of each decision on the next seven generations. Seven generation stewardship is a concept that urges the current generation of humans to live and work for the benefit of the seventh generation into the future. As we navigate through the labyrinth of modern existence, how often do we stop and ask, "How do my actions today honor my past and pave the way for my future?"

The seven generation teachings, known as Gichi-dibaakonigwewinan, are truth, humility, respect, love, bravery, courage, honesty, and wisdom. The chapter about honesty indicates that just speaking the truth isn't enough; it's also imperative to align your words, actions, and intentions. Kaagegaabaw asks why would we use a sacred gift from the Creator, the Ojibwe language, to deceive others? The language demonstrates that the consequence of deceit is disorder. Only those who are out of balance will lie. As Kaagegaabaw put it,"Observe how I live, and the truth will invariably come out of it. It always does."

Kaagegaabaw concludes by pointing out that when we change and improve ourselves, we change and improve those who came before us and those to come – connecting them. As Kaagegaabaw so eloquently put it, "If I change myself, have I changed all of my relatives?" Though his ancestors were victims of colonization, genocide, and subjugation, Kaagegaabaw believes they can be healed through his interconnections with them. "I can still heal them," Kaagegaabaw asserts. "We are still writing our ancestors' stories."

About the Author

James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw, a descendant of Turtle Mountain, is a renowned international speaker, author, educator and digital creator. His keen insights were developed through speaking with and recording elders and native language speakers across North America as part of the Ojibwe Language Dictionary Project. James is a passionate advocate for sharing how to live a life of 'mino-bimaadiziwin,' the good life. For over twenty years, he has facilitated community language tables, consulted with public and private organizations on language and cultural programs, and traveled internationally as a keynote speaker. He has been featured in numerous publications, podcasts, radio & television programs. James lives in the Twin Cities, Minnesota with his wife and son.

#book review #ojibwe #indigenous cultures #indigenous wisdom #indigenous writer #indigenous languages #philosophy

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laufey-delia · 2 years ago

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New Ways To Dark Academia

In the dark academia side of the internet, there is an over-representation of Medditarrean + English culture/litterature, which saddens me. In most posts, as I think you’ve noticed, almost everything refers to English litterature, Italian painters, French architecture and/or language as well as Roman and Ancient Greek mythos. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love those aspects of history and culture, but I think there is so much more in other parts of Europe, Asia, America and Oceania. It is my goal to shed light on a different way to Dark Academia.

LANGUAGES

A big part of the dark academia aesthetic is on the learning of a new language. Most blogs/Pinterest boards/discord server say: French, Italian, Latin are perfect dark academia languages, and thus skip over beautiful languages with rich cultures. So here are two languages I find have deep dark academia values:

German • Deutsch • West Germanic Language

When I think dark academia, I think of German as THE perfect language for it. It is quite difficult, as they have a unique way of indicating cases and have a deep vocabulary with words indicating emotions in our life, that most country don’t bother adding to their dictionary. Allow me to demonstrate:

Torschlusspanik : “As one gets older, the feat that time is running out, and important opportunities are slipping away.”

Arabic • العربية • Semitic Language Arabic sadly has a negative impression on most European countries and in the US, tied to unfortunate events. Despite this, Arabic is a beautiful language that holds a history with poetry and art. Historically, Arabic was considered a language of science, and art, as the first scientists spoke Arabic. Even today, Arabic is a poetry language, and we can find a lot of beautiful poems which were written by Arabian poets.

Important Note on languages

It is crucial to note that you can learn any language that you want for a variety of reasons. What matters in the end is not if the language sounds dark academia-esque, it is how you link learning this language to dark academia activities: Go on, my friends, learn the language you like by writing a journal in this language, writing poetry, watching a play in your target language. At the end of the day, it will make you happy, and I am thrilled that it does.

THINGS TO LEARN

Mythology/Mythos

In most dark academia post, the number 1’s mythology recommended is the Roman and Greek mythology. It gives the idea that other mythologies are inferior, which is sad. Strictly speaking, a mythology was a way for our ancestors to explain the unexplainable, and to give morals and figures, heroes to look up to. In other words, a mythology is a religion.

Here is my personal favourite mythology to learn: Norse Mythology: despite the white supremacists who took the mythology to “justify” their way of thinking, the Norse mythology offers a very interesting way of thinking. It is dubbed with realism, as the gods are not immortal, and have flaws. A way of learning about said mythology is through Norse poems, called scaldic verses. If you’re lucky, you can find some explained for free on Internet. It puts violence on a pedestal though, but considering how Scandia was a very hostile environment where men had to fight for resources, it shows this tense climate very well. So go on, and don’t stop on Greek and Roman mythology. Learn about Aztec Mythology, Japanese mythology, African mythologies, Polynesian mythology etc…

What is important isn’t if the art is subjectively beautiful (like is often seen with Roman and Greek mythology in dark academia posts), it is how you can analyse it and use it to understand how the population used it and the traces of said mythology today in those country and culture.

Poetry

I can’t stress this enough: Arabic poetry is beautiful, and talks of forbidden love, wine, and small pleasures in life. I also love an Arabic poet who wrote about death, and its sweet embrace. It is quite difficult to find good translation of Arabic poems, especially of Abbasid poems, but I can provide a thesis on the translation of two Arabic poems. Of course, I realize that strictly talking of Arabic poems is restricting diverse and important cultures as one. There is also Kurdi, Iranian, Turkish poetry that deserves to be read and appreciated.

Poison and toxic gas

A big part of dark academia is the passion for morally grey things. One such things is poisons, or toxic gas. Of course disclaimer, do not use this knowledge to actually try and replicate it, it is very dangerous, and I do not condone the use for your personal ways.

Either to survive in the forest or to learn about the limits of the human body, it can be interesting. Why does X react that way in contact to human skin? What molecules are to play? Why does X is denser than the air ? Does medicine against X or Y exist ?

When I was a younger lad, I wanted to be a forensic pathologist, learning about such things was fascinating and bought me a sense of accomplishment. Even though no one wanted to hear about the effect of chlorine gas on the human body. Bummer.

Here is the end of my little post about aspects of cultures the Dark Academia Community sometimes brush over. Of course, Dark Academia isn’t activities only, but also a way of thinking. And I think it is good to keep that in mind. If you think I missed some parts that should be enlightened, don’t hesitate to tell me.

Laufey

#dark academia #dark academic aesthetic #dark academia activities #aesthetic #mythologies #poems #german #arabic #ww1 #random rant

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rigelmejo · 9 months ago

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Tour of Old Language Learning Textbooks

So I find old books fascinating, and I've collected a fair number of old language learning textbooks (from 1800s to 1980s, along with some modern ones).

The Nature Method textbooks teach language in my absolute favorite way of studying, and I wish there were more modern textbooks still teaching in this way (Lingua Latina for Latin is one nature method style textbook still used by some). There are also textbooks in this style found on archive.org and sometimes on youtube for: English, French, Italian, German (incomplete copy found), Latin (as mentioned, multiple volumes, newer versions available for purchase), Greek, and Spanish (Poco a Poco and All Spanish Method part 1 and part 2 are both not written as in-depth in this 'nature method' lesson style, but if you either know a similar language with some cognates like English or French, or have a teacher then they can still be used like the other nature method books), and supposedly there was a Russian version (I've found similarly-made lessons on youtube) but I have not found the old textbook yet. I used the French one to learn most of my basic vocabulary and grammar, and go from reading graded readers to regular novels in French. A warning that some grammar and vocabulary is out of date, and there could be racist undertones in some of the texts, due to the time they were written. I've seen some questionable vocabulary in a couple of them, so just be aware if you use these as a resource of the possibility of those issues.

There is someone who's recently been trying to design a similar 'nature method' learning material for japanese (their first 60ish lessons are edited by a japanese speaker, the later lessons are still being worked on), and I think this person did a fairly good job using emojis for the pictures. A basic understanding of japanese hiragana and katakana is necessary beforehand, along with knowing the language is subject object verb. Unfortunately I think the person has only taught 200-500 words so far, and a material for japanese would probably want to teach 2000-5000 words to get the learner to the point they could try to read other things (which was the official Nature Method's goal - to get learners to B1-B2, at least B1 in speaking and some intermediate level high enough to pick up novels and read to acquire further language).

There's a textbook called Chinese Self-Taught by the Nature Method (NOT actually in the nature method lessons style though) and Chinese Grammar Self Taught by John Darroch, and even though they're from 1930s, the Grammar Self Taught by Darroch is one of my favorite chinese learning books. The book explains radicals and hanzi in a way I found very easy to grasp, and although the grammar and vocabulary has aged (some of it is out of date now) the explanations FOR grammar in the book are very clear and easy to grasp. I've read modern online grammar explanations and like some, understood mostly, but this book's explanations just click well. The book also teaches over 2000 hanzi (I think it might even be 3000 or more - it's in a box right now or I'd check), has a hanzi dictionary in the back (and you can practice searching by strokes), and teaches a bit more vocabulary than that. It's shining point is the grammar explanations, but the clear presentation of hanzi used in those explanations is also nice. Pronunciations for the hanzi are an old system, not the current pinyin system, so if you ever learn from this book then I would recommend knowing common hanzi pinyin already, or at least not trying to learn pronunciations from this book. The hanzi are also traditional, and the biggest initial grammar differences I have seen in the book are le often being written as pronounced 'liao' even when it would be 'le' in most modern sentences, and ni being pronounced as 'nin' far more than it is in modern speech. I purchased a copy of this book years ago on ebay. This book can be found in OpenLibrary, Princeton link: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101067640563&seq=5

Another chinese textbook that's always seemed useful have been the DeFrancis Chinese books, in particular the Beginner Chinese Reader (2 volumes), Intermediate Reader (2 volumes), and Advanced Reader (1 volume). I haven't checked in a while, but recent searches say anecdotally that the Beginner Reader covers 400 hanzi in 1200 combinations (words), Intermediate covers 400, and Advanced covers 400, leaving the learner with 1200 hanzi learned (and 3600 2-hanzi words known, as the books attempt teach a TON of compound words). However some people are saying each book volume contains 400 hanzi taught and 1200 combinations, which would mean 2400 hanzi total taught and 7200 words total. As these books are dense (and I've got them), I'd say they teach closer to the higher amount estimated. I've not completed them, but they are VERY information dense. These books are out of print so buying a physical copy had to be done on abebooks or thriftbooks or ebay, and they often expensive. But there are free pdf copies floating around online if you want to get the digital copy free and browse them. The audio files for the book are also online, from the organization with the rights, so just search 'DeFrancis Beginner Chinese Reader audio files' and you should find them on itunes and the official site for free. These books are extremely dry reading (as some old textbooks are) akin to FSI courses, and they're very repetitive, but they do work and they do suit learners who prefer to learn by reading and reading a LOT to solidify knowledge. You WILL get tons of graded reading practice from the book, pick up tons of words in an organized and structured way, and get reading-review practice built into future chapters so you can simply read a chapter then progress to the next one (instead of constantly needing to review). These books do have some out of date vocabulary, and use traditional characters with only shorter simplified character reading sections at the end. However: if you've learned 1000 characters by now (or intend to) then you know how many simplified and traditional characters overlap, or are the same except for 1 radical being simplified or traditional, and you may be aware that the common hanzi which ARE significantly different in traditional may be worth learning to you if you plan to eventually read both simplified and traditional materials. I buy books from China and Taiwan so learning both is useful to me. (And a fun fact if you're a nerd who explores parallel-text reading options like me: mtlnovels.com is a site to read machine translated webnovels, with the option to display original chinese IN traditional as the only option, and I spent a lot of my first couple years learning chinese using that site to compare Modu by Priest chinese with the MTL and learn new words, since mtl often made mistakes I needed to see the chinese to look up words and get a bit closer to the actual sentences meaning... and the wonderful E Danglars translation of Silent Reading did not exist yet, so I was desperate to read and understand as much of the novel as I could. My point with this anecodote is: you may not realize how useful getting used to both traditional and simplified characters can be - from browsing online sites and not needing to worry, or buying books, or picking shows to watch, texting with people, etc).

For the learners out there who cannot suffer through DeFrancis's dry writing: fair enough, I struggled to as well which is why I never completed the textbooks. The modern Mandarin Companion graded readers are an adequate place for a beginner learner (knowing 50-300 hanzi) to start learning by reading, then you can move on to Sinolingua graded readers (or just get Pleco app and browse graded readers sold through them by unique word count, as Pleco's Reading tools will help you look up words and listen), and then around when you know HSK 4 level vocabulary and grammar (so 1000-1500 hanzi you know, and around that many words) go to Heavenly Path's notion site and browse their beginner recommendations. Around HSK 4 you should be able to start reading easier texts for native speakers, like the 1000-1500 unique words novel recommendations on Heavenly Path's site.

There are some Japanese textbooks made to learn by reading a lot, and by now you may realize I love and prefer to learn by reading. A Japanese Reader: Graded Lessons for Mastering the Written Language (Tuttle Language Library) by Roy Andrew Miller is a beast of an option. Reviews include people mentioning that this book got them to the level of being able to read the news. I am not sure this book has the most extensive vocabulary (compared to what it could have), but it is: intensely informational and condensed to be informational nearly constantly, full of useful information and reading practice, and it does help you improve a LOT. It's not the steady stream of tons of easy material slowly teaching you more words from context that I wish existed more in japanese learning materials (check out the free Tadouku books for that - someone on reddit made 1000 page compilation of many of them in gradually increasing difficulty and it was very useful and enjoyable to read personally, and this site I found recently https://jgrpg-sakura.com/ which has a bit more advanced material and recorded audio and is just a lovely site). But it is a book that prepares you for real reading. I have a personal pet peeve about how some japanese language textbooks teach very little vocabulary or things until you get to intermediate level (I wish each genki volume taught 1000+ words each, instead of the 1700 words total of both volumes... and there's other beginner textbooks that likewise sort of 'slow down' the pace of learning with less material). And so I've found this particular Japanese Reader refreshing for presenting the basics (although you won't have a good time if you start this book as a beginner, it becomes STEEPLY difficult), and also working through all the way to 'functional reading skill of normal japanese texts.' Some people are like me, and have goals of reading as soon as they can, and it's nice when a book that says they'll teach you enough to start reading... actually does.

(I have similar pet peeves with some Chinese books - the college course ones appear to be great and teach 2000 or more words to beginners, but I've seen MANY self-teach chinese books that include only 200-500 words for a beginner... when they are going to need at bare minimum, with much strain and difficulty, 1000 words to even begin to start watching shows and reading very simple webnovels and manhua... or even having simple survival conversations, that's why HSK 4 expects 1200 words known! I think some language teaching companies just think english speakers will give up at the difference in languages, the increase in vocabulary that isn't cognates, and so instead of giving learners all they need to know - and the same amount of information they'd give say a english speaker learning spanish - they instead just design materials that teach less so it doesn't 'feel' like more work. Then the students feel screwed when they finished material labelled 'beginner' just like the spanish learner, only to realize they can do MUCH less and understand much less than the spanish learner who supposedly studied the same level of material - but actually got to study more vocabulary and grammar points. Ignore me... I could go on about my issues with some of the self-learner materials I've found for ages.)

There is also a simpler Japanese Reader textbook, 400 pages each and 2 volumes, that is fairly similar to the DeFrancis chinese reader books in terms of teaching style. I have the pdfs on an old computer, and the hard copy books in a box. I'll need to go look up the author another time (the book title was something very generic like Beginning Japanese and it's 20-30 years old, so newer books show up in searches instead of the books I have). It teaches only 500 kanji per volume, and the first volume mainly goes over how to read hiragana and katakana (and many loan words) with EXTENSIVE practice and repetition. It's designed to make you VERY COMFORTABLE reading japanese and parsing sentences and words, with lots and lots of practice. I'll find what box it's in and post more information on it if anyone is particularly curious for extensive reading practice as a beginner. The print copies sold for 20 dollars a piece when I bought them, and free pdfs can be found online if you search. However: I think if you already have hiragana and katakana grasped at least to a basic degree, the Tadouku free books may be more appealing to you. The Tadouku books are: free, written to be somewhat interesting, use pictures to help you read extensively and look up less, get you used to japanese grammar and sentences, and introduce kanji at a reasonable pace that is easy to get used to.

Finally, Japanese in 30 Hours. Free on archive.org, I also have a print copy. A slim textbook, and an incredibly useful one. Someone also posted the lessons with their own audio recording read through on youtube. What these lessons are: a true basic grammar summary of japanese. This book has some of the usual flaws of japanese lessons made for english speakers: they're entirely in romaji, they include watakushi Wa or X wa as the intro to MOST sentences even though in natural japanese those would often be omitted, the -masu polite form is in most lessons and casual verb forms are only covered in the later lessons, and the distinction between wa and ga seems to not be understood by the author. This book also has some flaws usual of much older textbooks: the grammar is somewhat out of date (arimasen in modern japanese is not used NEARLY as much as this textbook, yoi "good" is now "ii" in modern japanese much more often), and the author has this somewhat racist somewhat touristic somewhat english-centered peculiar way of framing things. I am not sure if at the time it was how an author was supposed to 'make the student entertained' during the lesson, to sell the 'mystique' of learning another language or to try and make another language seem more like english to placate an egotistical learner or what. From a historical standpoint it's interesting to see how differently things were discussed, but from a modern learner perspective it gets in the way and can be frustrating. (I would suspect some other old Japanese textbooks I've found from the late 1800s and 1900-1920s would display similar qualities depending on the authors). The reason this book is useful, despite the romaji only aspect and it's extremely dated way of framing some topics: it truly does tackle covering summarizing basic grammar of VERBS quite well. This books explanation for te-imasu, strings of connected verbs, compound verbs turning into new verb meanings, rareru, sareru, and -shou verb situations, and is still probably the explanation I understand the most when trying to read and understand sentences.

I suspect the modern Tae Kim's Grammar Guide also has good explanations for these, but the explanations are NOT in the beginner section (despite these verb types being SO common in everyday japanese you'll read or hear), and while I like Tae Kim's guide I find the written explanations a bit hard to personally 'get' and usually just rely on the example sentences/translations and compare until I *think* I understand. Like I love that Tae Kim's guide DOES explain difference between wa and ga... and yet I didn't understand his explanation enough to decide when to use wa myself, only that now I grasped the difference between wa 'a topic' (As for students - students in general - I am one) and ga "the thing THAT IS" (THE student - you're looking for specifically - is me). But I still don't know when one would pick to use wa, and why. As for Japanese in Thirty Hours: the rareru and te-imasu explanation really helped me grasp a lot of reading materials where those forms are frequently found. If you do struggle with understanding some verb form explanations, this free book may help you look at the forms in a way you may grasp better. (Or not, everyone is different). The book also has a vocabulary of over 1000 words in the back, and was designed for students to do speaking drills in different sentence patterns, to learn to speak quickly (although in a learner-type way similar to Genki sentences and the 'watashi wa' start). I never learned the vocabulary in the back, and I suspect some of it is out of date while other parts may be useful. Regardless, as it's only romaji, you would likely benefit more from using a hiragana/katakana/kanji resource for vocabulary study.

#japanese resources #chinese resources #langblr #language learning books #the nature method #the natural method #old books

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stinkybreath · 1 year ago

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hello

do you trust me to recommend you some books

I read ~170 this year and here’s reviews of my top ten, written for fb and crossposted under the cut in case you’re interested

1: Camp Concentration by Thomas Disch

-I know it’s not obvious from the way I conduct myself here, but I have a very large vocabulary. I was a kid who read the dictionary and also any thesaurus I had access to. So, that said, consider how much it means to me personally that this book taught me 30-50 new words. This isn’t a huge part of the reason I loved this book, but it is a very impressive fact about it that I think will grab the attention of people who might otherwise not read it. This book changed the way I read, the way I think about literature, and the way I evaluate what I have previously read. It’s offensive to me that I lived 30 years as an avid reader and culture sponge without hearing about this book. I cannot recommend it enough. I give it top spot on this list for a very good reason. I’d like to avoid spoiling any of the plot because while I called the twist easily, discovery of each point was so delightful that I want you to have that same experience.

2: Cockatiel x Chameleon by Bavitz

-You all have plenty of experience with me recommending works of fiction published online in formats that deter most readers. This is a normal Najwa activity. I know how it sounds and I know, therefore, that this plea will go more or less unheard, but I BEG you. Look past the fact this was published on AO3. This is one of the most remarkable books I’ve read, period. I mentioned in my worst of how much it bothers me that most writers can’t plausibly write about the internet. This book is the FUCKING ZENITH of writing about being online. It is the absolute peak and I will be shocked if I ever encounter another work that overtakes it. This is a book about people who are so strange they are barely human, but in ways that will be instantly familiar, intimately true, to those of us who grew up on the internet. There is violence and abuse and love and beauty and Chatroulette. There is art and gore and exploration of identity and apocalypse. There is fucking POSTING.

3: Serious Weakness by Porpentine

-Charity Heartscape Porpentine is one of our greatest living authors, opinions of snide Twitter users notwithstanding. I am an evangelist for her Twine game poetry because it is so singular and so affecting. Even a decade on, I can play through Their Angelical Understanding and feel freshly stabbed in the gut. Imagine the thrill I felt when she posted about her completed novel. I would (strongly) recommend this even to people who (somehow) bounced off her games, because her prose style is very distinct from the voice those are in (yet still recognizable). This is an incredibly violent, sick, stomach-turning, difficult, ugly, terrifying book. It’s also ultimately asking the reader a question about love and compassion. If you are sensitive to any trigger in written word about any violent action one person can do to another, skip this book, but if you feel like you have the strength, give her the nine bucks or whatever that she’s asking and devour it like I did. A hook for you: our protagonist has a chance meeting with an embodiment of pain. What follows includes torture, gender, climate disaster, and Columbine. Gorgeous. This book almost convinced me to start doing video essays so I could explain to people the incredible factors at play in it.

4: Negative Space by BR Yeager

-I have been trying to read this book for free for so long that I broke my streak and paid actual money for it. It was one of the better purchases I made all year. Thanks to finally reading some Stephen King this year I now have the requisite foundation to see how heavily his style inspired Yeager in this book, but I would die on the hill defending my position that Yeager does King better than King ever did. There is evil seeping out between the lines of this book. Have you ever had a nightmare that made you feel doomed the entire next day? Have you ever felt you were trapped in your shitty, dying home town? Have you ever been seduced by the excitement of activities that you know might actually kill you? Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and looked at your own dark reflection? Go back to the deepest point of your teenage depression here.

5: We Who Are About to by Joanna Russ

-One of the shortest entries on this list and so one of the easiest sells, but it is just as full of meaning as any other that made the cut. There is so much implied and unsaid about this protagonist. She feels whole, like this is the last chunk of chapters in a series centered on her, but she represents something universal. She is one member of a group from a crash-landed spaceship, a group small enough in numbers that there’s no way for humanity to last on this planet more than one more generation. Any attempts to do even that are so plainly cruel and self-deluding that she wants no part of them, but the others with her don’t see it the same way. Her story is womanhood under patriarchy, it is life and death, it is self-determination. Brutal. I read this at the airport and cried in public.

6: Carrie by Stephen King

-As much as I hate to say it, I gotta hand it to Uncle Steve (or really to Tabitha). This book very nearly justifies the rest of his career on its own. I thought had picked up most of it from cultural osmosis, but there was a truly shocking depth that I couldn’t have found without experiencing it firsthand. Maybe it’s funny to use this word here, but this book is humanist and compassionate and sincere in a way that King never finds again, particularly with the women he writes. Carrie is so vivid that I felt a protective instinct for her throughout the book even though I knew she was about to discover her own power. She reflects parts of me about as well as Lindqvist did in Little Star, which is the work of art that is THE most personal to me. A classic for a fucking reason.

7: The Doloriad by Missouri Williams

-This year, lots of the books that I read had strange echoes of each other. In this, I can pick out shades of Carrie, of Camp Concentration, of We Who Are About To, and even of Serious Weakness. Rarely if ever are these references by each author, but it has enriched my experience by having unofficial interlocking intertexts for all of them. This book has been very divisive with reviewers, and I understand why, because it is cruel and the prose is extremely stylistic. This is somewhat experimental and fully literary and sincerely philosophical. I get it. Not for everyone. But it was for me. A clan of inbreds at the end of the world with their eyes on their scapegoat, nonverbal and disabled Dolores. It shocked me and it challenged me and I loved it.

8: The Ice Cream Man and Other Stories by Sam Pink

-These short stories did the exact opposite of the thing that pissed me off about The Florida Project. These are about people who are varying degrees of sympathetic but the same degree of desperately, penny-scrapingly working poor. The easy pull quote is “unflinching,” because it turns an eye on very ugly parts of real life for so many of us. I think people who grew up middle class will find some voyeuristic, prurient pleasure in these stories, but they’re not written for you. They’re written for us, the people who have lived this way.

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman 9

-I don’t need to tell you how great this book is, because the whole of booktok has told you this all year. Instead, what I will say is that it is much stranger and less tidy than you’re imagining when you hear the blurb. It’s a short read and it is one of the few times I haven’t regretted following booktok’s advice.

Only Lovers Left Alive by Dave Wallis 10

-This barely squeaked onto this year’s best of, because I started it before 2022 ended and finished it early in the new year. As I read it, especially in the first 20% of the book, I was confused as to how it ended up on my TBR. But toward the end, and throughout the year as I’ve continued to think about it, I understand more instinctively than intellectually that this is a remarkable work. A short synopsis: in the 80s in the UK, there is an epidemic of suicide, but only by adults. The teens left behind forge their own path.

#Porpentine #Bavitz #Thomas Disch #Dave Wallis #Sam pink #Stephen King #jacqueline harpman #Joanna Russ #Missouri Williams #br yeager #b. r. yeager #charity heartscape porpentine

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papiliotao · 2 years ago

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hi!! i just want to say that i love your writing so much! would it be okay to ask tips/advice from you to improve writing? thank u sm in advance if u ever answer !!

hello!!! first of all, i'd like to say that i'm very very flattered that you like my writing <3 to be honest, i wouldn't consider myself the best writer (especially my intent when i first started this blog was to improve), but i can try my best to give a few pointers!!

read >:) i think this is pretty common advice, but i can say that in my case, reading definitely helped me expand my vocabulary. fics, books, and even essays can help in this regard.

i'm not sure how often people talk about this one, but there's also the issue of denotation vs connotation. denotation more or less refers to a literal dictionary definition while connotation is related more to the feelings a word evokes. personally i think it's important to choose vocabulary that fits the mood of the moment you're currently writing about. as an example, if you compare the words guest and visitor, they're both words that can be used to describe someone who's temporarily visiting a place, but guest evokes more welcoming feelings because a guest is someone who you're kind of looking after. (i'm not sure if i explained my point well enough, but tl;dr: while synonyms are good, ensure that the synonym that you're using encapsulates the emotions you're trying to convey within a scene as well)

listening to music that matches the mood you're going for can also help! personally i would say that i actually connect with the feelings behind music more than those behind literature, and as a result, i have a clearer idea of the emotions behind what i'm writing when i listen to particular songs.

write about things you're passionate about!! if you're not having fun, then that defeats the purpose

if you have other friends who write (or heck, even friends who don't write) you can ask them for feedback! i definitely have a few mutuals here who i brainrot with endlessly, and their insights give me more ideas for my fics.

sometimes when i'm doing the most random things throughout my day, i suddenly have inspiration or think of a random line (usually one that can be used to open/close one of my fics). if this ever happens to you, rush to your notes app asap!!! i swear i've forgotten certain ideas/lines before, and i was so disappointed because they were actually decent, and i was excited to write them.

when it comes to imagery, i really like using things from the natural world. like, the amount of times i've contrasted/used certain celestial bodies (such as stars, although that's partially thanks to oshi no ko as well ajfidsf), the sunset, and the wind to describe particular characters is insane. personally, i just like to think of a few things i find extremely beautiful/calming and then somehow fit them into my description of a character using similes or metaphors.

anyway, that's about it! i'm sorry if i didn't give you the best advice ahfdfh i'm still kind of new to this as well, but i hope that you'll at least find something helpful here! thanks again for asking though because aaaaa that's literally so sweet of you <3

#letters to rei ༉‧₊˚.

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potatocockoli · 11 months ago

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recently i've been doing an exercise with my friends when i get bored of the routine of our drunken dice games backed up by the same three songs we're hyper-fixated on this week at the same kitchen table telling the same old stories until they're not even the real thing anymore but some, although unconsciously, have now become a bastardization of what really happened, but we all have agreed by soft smiles and nods is the only way it could have possibly happened because as i've come to realize the older i get...

the bigger the fish, the bigger the laugh, which is everything when you're on the stage you make on the back porch or the kitchen floor if we are all reaching in the hat at the same time for the cues and the end notes to tell it in the often messy and disgustingly dependent way we grab onto someone else's hand to help us unload the burden we've tried to carry ourselves or maybe tonight im at the top of the stairs so i can really go for it and take on the role of what others will consider credited author of the memory that isn't even mine to twist or yours to mend or theirs to hold but it is now it is now i guess a shared thing we can almost hold in our hands, part of you stays big and bold when you give yourself the grace of finding one thing good in all your decaying parts everyone else wants you to let go of but you can't and your friends give you the attention you need to stand up in your chair and tell it again and again your way until anyone starts to remember it your way or even grant you an arguably higher honor of favorite way of the retelling until you are the only authority on what (didn't) happen

i digress

i started to write this for you with the intention of sending it as a working group assignment like i used to do, because i think writing things out has always been easier for me in order to communicate the way i want to, not just with you but with everyone including myself and i thought you'd appreciate the bit i've been doing and sometimes you're the only person that really sees into me and through me the way i desperately wish someone else could

and i wish i could get to the point but if i did too quickly i wouldn't be me

the exercise in question is simply picking a word and asking everyone in the room to go around and say what they think the actual definition is, and then i look it up on google or if i'm lucky in a dictionary i managed to find in a usually dusty incredibly disorganized book shelf (my own)

the outcome of this which i guess i should have seen coming, because it is so predictable, has been the fact that almost every man i try to play this game with immediately gets defensive, i can only assume because they think i'm asking to make them look dumb, which is mostly not my intention, and of course is because i genuinely want to learn and play and connect the way i do and always have. but i think this ends up being a catch 22 because in leaning into that fairly aggressive response versus answering my question, you've proven to me that the vocabulary you were using in whatever conversation isn't yours to hold onto but instead a crutch to lean on to...what? feel superior? make me think you're smarter than me?

and that has actually been one of the main words i've asked about:

what is the oxford english dictionary definition of smart?

what i came up with was something along the lines of, "the ability to be knowledgable about something well enough to the degree where you can explain it in the simplest of terms to any person with enough foresight to understand you might be proven wrong, and enough humility to take that gracefully and openly."

i can't remember any thought out or original and homeade definitions to the words i've presented to the various groups i've tried to show the game to, most likely because as i stated earlier i think it has brought out a fragility in people i did not mean to tap into, as i only want to have these discussions for the sake of noteworthy and enlightening debate which is hardly ever matched and instead moved past because....? i don't know, i hope my friends just lack the ability to let themselves look stupid for fear of humiliation versus what would be a horrible realization in that my friends are stupid. although on the note of games this response has now led me to a new question in only all female spaces because it enticed my curiousity, can any woman i know name three men in her life that she thinks are smarter than her? so far every woman i've asked can come up with two if she's being generous.

by the way the actual definition of the word smart is, "having or showing a quick-witted intelligence."

which i don't even think that is what the basis of smart would be for anyone using the word to describe someone. which is why i started thinking about this in the first place, to discuss the evolution of words and their meanings and why they can and can't be objective and absolute within this much space over this much time with this amount of people clenching onto whatever subjective ideas they will be sure to believe are fact.

the point of this essay is to ask if you will play the game with me

what do you think is the definition of mother?

better yet what is it to you?

to me it is a ziploc bag protecting my daily peanut butter and honey sandwich perfectly cut in half with an apple and a juice box and trusting it would be the same tomorrow

it is frustration you allow yourself to dish out for the sake of being truthful when i'm laying in the back seat high on acid because you still picked me up

i'm tired

to be continued - blah blah blah

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rengokugutspill · 7 days ago

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language, merchandise, sumo, medical, & craft hobbies;

I'm at a point where I am pissed off learning Japanese rn. My issue is that the two books I have do not cover kanji at all but I'm at a point where kanji is supposed to be introduced before working on reading comprehension & vocabulary apparently. So they keep giving me these exercises like sentences to read or asking me how to write a sentence but for the first one, I have no idea what the kanji is so how could I possibly read it ? I can read everything else around it, but I don't know what the root of the sentence is ?? & for making a sentence, they've yet to teach me any words ?? & I also noticed something I complained about since before I started doing the book learning is on learn Japanese programs, they will give you the full sentence & explanations for what the main words in the sentence are but they don't give explanation for the connective words, like equivalent to English if, or, as, & it. Like, I can learn & understand the tenses of verbs but I can't apply them if I don't even know what the word is & I can't form a sentence on my own if I don't have or understand the filler components ?? & I do understand if I am needlessly overcomplicating, but personally, if I am learning then i want to understand the whole rather than being explained pieces & expected to just understand the rest...

Which both books are basically saying learning kanji is an outside source completely unique to the person learning... So really I have to either get a dictionary or flashcards or something. & at this point I can't progress any further until I've established some way to learn kanji.

Though I got the page suggested to me on the Facebook that posts kanji guides for fluency tests. Perhaps my best bet is to practice those via my own personal table ? Because the one book was saying the core is to learn how a child would, by figuring out how to say daily phrases. Maybe then I should be thinking about the type of simple things said daily, perhaps writing those down, & then finding a Japanese equivalent ?

Though for spelling/ reading, I would say I have a really good grasp on hiragana, I can read most hiragana I see but I'm still learning the uncommon letters; ie bs, ps, ds, gs, & so on. Since those weren't introduced in the original learning, I'm actually personally teaching those ones to myself now, because it's just determining what basic letter is the core; ie k, h, s, t, n, m, r, & so on. Though with that being said, there's still little understanding of katakana. I practice both together but I am starting to think I will need to make katakana flashcards. & my whole issue is hiragana is separate enough that I can fairly easily memorize those characters, but since katakana is all relatively similar to eachother, it's harder for me to be able to clearly attribute the symbol with the letter. Though idk, I got u, to, sa, se, su, & fu lol some of them are randomly easy to me imo

& thinking about it, probably rather than just learning basic every day kanji, I would think I would also need to learn the kanji used when talking about sumo to some extent, if some of my earliest readings would be sumo. Once I have an understanding of words & sentence structure, a good practice might be reading my vidya game guidebooks.. maybe. Though my books have mentioned further reading for practice & a Tale of Genji was mentioned & I'm enthused for when I get to the point that I could read that.

& my first book did contain a walkthrough for identifying kanji via online dictionary...

What's a bit frustrating for me in this moment is my practice is really only relegated to flashcards, daily exercise of stroke order & just identifying characters in text, since at this point I have no understanding of actual words. I can read simple hiragana words & some katakana words, & so I can read them in the context of a sentence, but basically everything else in the peripheral is just empty space to me rn but comically I was able to read hiragana on a Rengoku instax I have lol

& because I got weirdly into buying stickers, I ended up finding a plethora of Japanese stickers, I started thinking I could write out what they say & then just Googling the translation haha

because I don't know any words....

The kanji & the way the lessons are currently being conducted in the book just irritate the Hell out of me because it's like learning the actual base written language is fine, but now we come to a point where I just really do not like the way the language & lessons are being taught at all & to have such a shitty structure for this component of learning irritates me to the point where I don't want to keep going. I understand that it's self taught anyway realistically, that I have no choice but to make my own lesson plans, but for the moment I can't help but feel defeatist & annoyed.

My other news is feeling a bit exuberant about some new merchandise announcements. There was an ambivalent feeling for a while that there wasn't really any new Rengoku merchandise. But at the same time, for the time it occurred, it was beneficial to me, because I didn't have spending money at the time. Now we have Rengoku preorders from Movic; a new towel, an art set & a sticker set. So of course I wanted to jump on these things & chose as there were multiple items, I would purchase immediately from Movic & eat it on the preorder proxy costs because it would probably be cheaper to get multiple things through them directly rather than trying to pick & choose everything on resale when realistically the cost would probably be doubled anyway & there might not be resellers for such niche goods. & I'm not bothered because the art set & towel were honestly kind of expensive, I don't even want to think about what they would be going for on resale anyway, or thinking about how there are some products I missed on Movic's preorder that I've just literally never seen post to resale at all.

I also decided to get the volume two Palverse box because again, I would imagine to just get Rengoku you're probably paying the full cost for all six figures. If I do it this way, I'll really be getting Rengoku for less while also being able to make some amount on the resale of all the other figures. & weirdly I got a markdown from the site I ordered from ? I have no idea why that was but I didn't pay the full price. & it was a weird order because they do seem to be sold as single blind boxes, so the first website I checked was only showing listings for single boxes rather than a full set, but the one I ultimately ordered from was the full set. I'm definitely not complaining about the markdown, especially because the proxy preorder service charges nearly another twenty dollars on orders per random fees. Which I'm not saying their fee structure is wrong or bad, but the one I use for Mercari removed most of the additional fees, so it feels slightly primitive to be paying all these fees on the other service by comparison...

& it seems like there have been other announcements ! It appears the Rengoku items by Movic are likely in correspondence with his birthday celebration, since I believe the ship period is closer to his birthday. & I just think it's really cool he's like the only character who gets special solo treatment & more attention around his birthday than really anyone else. Truly makes him larger than life, larger than franchise lol but the other announcement I noticed was that cat themed collaboration who name escapes me since I've never interacted with one before since the others hadn't included Rengoku, they have released artwork featuring Rengoku this time. I'm under the impression the other events had contained the anime style artwork where this time is chibi, but it seems like it's chibi for second wave of characters who already appeared in the collaboration & likely to include more artwork (probably for cheaper) with a larger cast. & oh my god, dude, they're all so cute but I was especially losing it for Rengoku. The differences in designs that stuck out to me were a lot of the other characters doing the cute balled cat paws but Rengoku is out here giving big cat, like he's doing a tiger impression, & a lot of the other characters featuring varying degrees of blushing but Rengoku is not. So I can further exert my theory that he is not someone who experiences embarrassment but for the time the kids startled him on night guard. But also the difference in expression of cat paws is very precious to me, I feel it can be read that he missed the brief &/ or was very excitable about the tiger prospect. Realistically, he is so fucking cute, far cuter than anyone else could ever be <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

so of course I can't wait for these collaboration goods, which it seems like there will be another month before we find out what types of merchandising this event will receive. If I recall correctly, the last one had these two goods specifically for Tomioka & Tanjiro that were faux fur cat ear cardholders & tbh when I saw those I had immediately wished there was a Rengoku one. So that's the only really not quite character good that I was really hoping to see a Rengoku feature for. Though it's also too bad, I wish I could order the full merchandise set from their website like I can with Movic but I don't imagine that will be a possibility & it will most likely just be casing resale.

Another announcement was the upcoming kuji that was alleged to seemingly be all Rengoku, again, likely for his birthday specifically. There's a herm type of figure that is going to be the major prize, but it seems like that's the only thing that's been unveiled thus far. Of course I will be going for it. The key details for this figure are from the one product image we have of it so far, it looks like they layered his eyes ?? Which I am super fascinated about. I feel like there isn't really a reason to have done that but it's giving the look of Bratzillaz or Pullip which is definitely something I am all for & absolutely love !! My other notable detail is imo it looks odd how his cape is seen to wrap around the front of his waist. I think it is a weird choice appearance-wise, but I believe it was done to balance the figure or else he might be top heavy. Realistically I personally just love to see his body, so I'm not quite enthused to see it covered up, but in the grand scheme for my opinion of this figure; a weird cape wrap doesn't hurt anything or take away from anything.

Namja (seen above, as I just had to open the image again for reference), I am also commending that his cat ear headband art would feature the excellent view of torso, because not only is it just genuinely appealing for me to look at imo but I like when we get a good view/ example of his torso because it's necessary for reference when drawing him to understand more clearly what his shape is actually supposed to be. In my own eyes, appeasing & appealing on all accounts. The only other character featured that got a good full torso is Inosuke, so I like that it feels a bit more considered. But idk imo Rengoku stay winning, he's impossibly cute & transcends everything; the most perfect & coveted boy !!!!

Even if it sucked a bit to go through a lull period, I'm feeling exuberant. & I would also imagine that there likely will be more items of him even outside of studio the closer we get to his birthday. I'm also under the impression the hashira expressions exhibit will likely include more merchandise as the months pass, so I'm excited to see what we get then.

I been brutally complaining that I never got the second half of his birthday order from last year yet, & I keep thinking like damn, I'm really going to have to contact studio & ask wtf is up because it's nearly been a year now. Though I noticed I haven't seen any of the spring items outside of the basic key chains & acrylic stands. The tupperware apparently sold out instantly, so I am thinking the tupperware itself caused a delay, but then I ordered the blanket for the orchestra event & I haven't seen any of those either & then due to timing, I wonder if the birthday standee also effected the delay ? Because this is about four different preorder periods all on the same order. When comparing with just birthday or spring items, it does feel like it's taking way too long, but my other theory was inundated with orders & secondarily quality control. Because I've had two preorders via other services that said items were cancelled due to quality issues. I don't think studio would do that, but it's possible additional printing could have needed to've been ordered if there were issues with item quality.

The delay annoys the Hell out of me, but I'm hoping something will ship by the end of this month. There are a number of other orders I'm waiting on, though in the past I had bought on preorder because I didn't think it mattered, yet I got the Christmas items in a timely fashion & I think those ones I bought in stock, so going forward I'm going to keep buying in stock where I can. I initially wasn't worried about the wait, but now it seems like the wait times are way longer than they were the previous year.

Another thing to look forward to is hopefully by the time the Palverse figures fulfill, I should have enough to make Genya & Akaza lots to sell

I also have the minor complaint I also have during tournaments is that I can't look at tournament information during the day because there will be spoilers. & what sucked even more is it appears the tournaments are airing an hour later & I suppose what happened is daylight savings. I think I must have started watching during the fall back but it fucked up my whole perception. Since I started therapy, my therapist scheduled me for a time conflicting with the first airing of the day, but of course I didn't know this when I agreed. So I had to wait until after seven last night to watch the fucking tournament & the same thing will happen tomorrow... Though I considered running a tape in the VCR lmao which honestly I think I am going to do because it's such a comical & rare situation for it to be twenty twenty five & I am putting a tape in my VCR to record sumo & then I will just have sumo on a videotape. Because I feel like most other people aren't in a position to have that thought & act on it.

Though I am also in an irritating situation because I was supposed to find a new doctor & my therapist showed me how to do it & of course because I didn't want to do it, i cut corners & it fucked me over; basically, I had a directory that showed me all the local doctors my insurance covers with the local office address & phone number. Rather than calling, I searched the practice to discern the distance to me & see what the reviews were. Which it was the same thing as most other places; the doctors are amazing & have rave reviews but the practices themselves are considered abysmal shit because their receptionists are all nasty & can't do their fucking jobs. I figured i'd just put up with it because what other choice do I have. From the website, it gave me the option to choose that doctor, so I did, but when I reported to my therapist, she seemed a little irritated & still urged me to call, reiterating that I need an appointment. I call & the callback or ringback or whatever the fuck it's called has a message saying the practice moved so apparently it's basically the same distance from the practice I was trying to move from because it was too far away from me... & I'm fucking irate because this doctor would have been four blocks from my house & in the same plaza as the gynecologist I want to get into but now it's back to miles away & not being on a transit route. & I feel even more irate because as I've mentioned multiple times before, I live in a city with a ton of poverty & disableds that I really feel like how the fuck are you just going to send every single doctor to this one part of the city that is not on a transit route ?? So now I have no idea wtf I am going to do because I don't want to transfer there if I can't even get there but there really isn't another place closer to me either. I'm so aggravated & pissed off ! & I also feel like my therapist is going to be like yeah, you should have called. Shut up. I shouldn't have to walk eight miles up & down a dragon made of miasma just to see a fucking doctor. I don't even want to live this.

& this actually makes me even more concerned that that gynecologist may have moved as well....

Though if you were to ask me about the tournament thus far; I am loving Tokihayate & Asakoryu. Two lads who have touched grand sumo, I am hoping they will become main stays ! also, absolutely been loving Midorifuji this time around, but was surprised how someone with the name of shining green gentleman would appear wearing red ? If I recall correctly, he's been killing it ! Also cheering & raving for Kirishima, who I still whisper my love for mid match, & I am also cheering for Abi. I am hoping to see Oho show us some excellence this tournament. Wakatakakage is not doing very good, my best description is he is getting swatted like a bug with a newspaper. I am really hoping he will pull himself together. I feel like when I am watching his matches this time around, it appears like he doesn't know what he's doing. I won't stop cheering for & rooting for him, but I am feeling concerned in this moment. Even if he eats it on this whole tournament, I just hope he will come back stronger & with a better strategy ! Though as I'd mentioned before, they got him fighting the best of the best, I imagine he'd still be in a learning curve for a while. & that's not quite bad but a necessity he would have to go through at some point.

We're having good weather rn, though I proposed imagining two more snowstorms before we actually achieved spring. We've been touching the seventies but today's high was said to only be forty. I had three packages to get out, only one was too big for the dropbox. I contemplated walking to the post office to enjoy the weather, but of course today was only going to be forty allegedly. I called for a pick up, which was fine. I'm a bit desperate to wear short sleeves out under the sun. Is it crass of me to say I want to fuck the fresh spring air ?

At the same time, the seventies in the early March is incredibly worrisome. It lends to fear of a summer that's pushing a hundred & twenty degrees every day. Of course I'm frightened !

Yesterday I went through my stripperwear looking for more garments to sell. I need to decide what my next craft project should be.

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tokidokitokyo · 3 years ago

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Tips for Writing Sentences in a Foreign Language - for Beginners

Having studied 3 foreign languages at varying degrees of intensity and success - Japanese (I flatter myself to be fluent), Spanish (I can ask some simple questions and possibly crudely insult someone), French (I can say a few well-sounding phrases and then smile & nod when you respond). When beginning studies in languages, one of the most challenging things is to jump from the set beginner phrases from the textbook into creating your own sentences (gasp).

From my own language studies, plus experience TA'ing first year Japanese, I have a few tips for beginners on taking that leap into creating your own sentences. These will probably lean heavily on Japanese because that is the language I have the most experience with, but they are applicable to other languages too.

1. Just start making sentences!

It sounds simple, but it's the best way to start. Writer's block? Write about what you are doing, what you want to do, or write an introduction. Worried about speaking? Talk to yourself about what you are doing, what you want to do, or introduce yourself to yourself. You don't have to write or say anything world-shaking, but getting started is the first step. You can start by modeling sentences you've already seen. If you have an example textbook sentence, try modifying it to make your own similar sentence.

PS. Your sentences don't have to be perfect either. If you notice a mistake later, just go back and correct yourself!

2. Don't try to translate the phrase from your native language EXACTLY into your target language.

Languages don't always translate exactly, but also, sometimes your skill isn't advanced enough to say the same things you can say in your native language. If you don't yet know the appropriate grammar, vocabulary, or syntax of what you want to say, not being able to say exactly what you want can be frustrating and lead you to feel defeated (personal experience here). Instead, think of how to put the idea you have into a sentence using the knowledge you DO have.

If you have just started learning a language, it might be too much to directly translate "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily" (thanks, Ockham's Razor). Instead, why not try to translate "Simple is best"?

3. Avoid heading straight for the dictionary if possible when there is a word you don't know in your target language.

If you don't have the vocabulary word you need in a sentence, you might be tempted to go to the dictionary and look it up and throw it into your sentence. Whilst TA'ing first-year Japanese, this led to me puzzling and scratching my head over what the student was trying to say in their homework (hey, it's not my first language either!).

While using the dictionary to learn new vocabulary is obviously a must, when you are just starting out with sentence building it can also be a roadblock. When conjugating verbs is new to you, try using the verbs you do know to explain your idea. If you don't know a vocabulary word, selecting the right one for your context from a list of words with similar definitions can be difficult. If you don't quite know how to explain what you want to say, try rephrasing it until you can compose a less complicated sentence. Or break it into several sentences - you can work on complicated sentences when you're more comfortable with simpler ones!

Another bonus is that learning to explain what you want to say in your target language when you don't know the vocabulary is a helpful lifelong skill (that I still use today in Japanese). It can be frustrating to not be able to say exactly what you want to say in your target language at first, but if you just keep practicing you will get there.

4. Practice making sentences on the fly.

Writing allows you more time to think out the sentence, go back and make changes, and work things out more slowly. Speaking, on the other hand, is more challenging because you have to make your mouth form the words you are thinking, and do your best to make the sentence make sense to your listener. While writing sentences helps me to remember how to write hiragana/katakana/kanji and reinforces grammar (I learn best by writing it out!), speaking out loud helps your brain and your mouth learn to work together in your target language.

Don't have anyone to talk to? That's ok! Talk to yourself. Talk to your imaginary friends. Talk to your pet or your houseplant or your favorite figurine or stuffed animal. Just practice putting sentences together out loud, in real time. I promise you will notice improvement if you practice daily!

5. Don't be afraid of making mistakes!

But even if you do just throw in the dictionary word and your professor/study buddy/language exchange partner has to ask you what you were trying to say, that's ok! Making mistakes is ok! That's how you learn. Don't be afraid to be wrong, to be mocked and ridiculed.. ok, you most likely won't be mocked and ridiculed. (If you are, please find new language friends.)

Language learning is about making mistakes. Even now, after YEARS of studying and speaking and even doing interpretation/translation... I make mistakes (gasp). And it's ok. Ok, sometimes I think about the mistakes I have made in conversation in the middle of the night, but I'm working on that too. One day, you'll look back, and realize that agonizing over particles and which kanji to use and whether or not you would sound dumb when you were speaking to a native speaker is not the part you remember. You will remember when you could barely write your name in katakana, and realize that suddenly you can talk about your favorite hobby in exacting detail.

6. Don't practice in a vacuum.

Practicing sentences, written or spoken, on your own is fine! It's a great way to learn and improve your language skills. But I would recommend not spending all your time studying and practicing in a vacuum. There are lots of online ways to get your writing or speaking corrected (paid or not), and I would recommend taking advantage of them. I have gotten into the habit of using certain words that are too informal or that are not correct in the context I wanted to use them in, and it took a native speaker to point them out since I had become so used to using them (and so sure that I was right). So make sure to practice your language outside of your own head, and you will be able to improve even more.

So, what next?

Get out there and start making sentences! Write them, say them, and just practice. Don't stress about being perfect or making sentences that will change the course of history... instead, just start making sentences!

頑張ってね！

#日本語 #japanese #japanese langblr #japanese language #langblr #studyblr #writing sentences in japanese #writing sentences in a foreign language #japanese for beginners #tokidokitokyo

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iselsis · 3 years ago

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“Don’t use adverbs” and “use strong verbs” really go hand in hand, but there are some things that people tend to misunderstand about these two guidelines and a rule of thumb that should help clear things up.

Some people take do not use adverbs to mean if there is a single word ending with -ly or not more obscure than a cult of Irish goat herding rock bands, you and every creative endeavor you will ever undertake will crash and burn on the rocks of failure and misery.

This mindset leads to writers going too far with use strong verbs. You’ll find writers mugging thesauruses in dark alleys and rummaging through their jackets for spare vocabulary and pocket lint in their efforts to not use a plain verb. Sometimes, instead of just one strange word, an action is described in tedious poetic detail not because the moment is special, poetic, or symbolic, but simply because the writer didn’t know what else to do.

Example:

“Creative:”

He hurled himself forward a few feet, landing on the ball of his right foot before pushing off and hurtling forward one more step. He repeated the motion with his left food, foot impacting the ground like a hammer before he was off again.

Concise:

He went for a jog.

So what’s the rule of thumb? What will save you from the hole dug for you by decades of well-intentioned but confusingly quippy writing advice?

Say precisely what you mean.In the words of my spirit animal, William Strunk “This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

People have an image in their head of what running is. If your character is moving in a way consistent with that standard image, just say ran. If your character is running in a way that is different from that standard image, then you should explain that in as few words as needed.

Example:

Let’s expand on a few words, then pare them down by using a strong verb with the same meaning.

Runs --> Runs quickly --> Sprints

Eats --> Eats frantically --> Devours

Sings --> Sings loudly --> Belts

Kills --> Kills criminally --> Murders

Sleeps --> Sleeps soundly --> Hibernates

Dances --> Dances smoothly --> Glides

Don’t be afraid to use adverbs, though! Sometimes, the standard image conjured by the strong verb is too extreme. Say, the person is running quickly, but not quite sprinting, and not really jogging, and not quite....You can just say running quickly. Verb+adverb is enough if verb+adverb is all you mean. Also, sometimes the word you want doesn’t exist, but you want to tell me that your character looked out at the wreckage then looked at their surviving friends and smiled sadly.

Don’t be afraid to use adverbs to not look pretentious either. Use words your target audience will understand. For instance, you should say “she habitually thought it was useless” instead “she engaged frequently in floccinaucinihilipilification about it.” This can be hard to even notice you’re doing, as writers often have an unusually large vocabulary, but especially if you’re writing for children or teens, you don’t want your readers to have to read with a dictionary on hand. Use your best judgement, and a second pair of eyes can help you notice when your writing is too difficult.

That wraps it up! Tl;dr: ...I’m realizing the irony of creating an extremely long post about being simple and precise and then writing a simple and precise summary of said post...

Well, in short: say what it takes to get the image in your head onto the page in the easiest way for your readers to understand.

#creative writing #writing #Writing tips #writing advice #writing community #fanfiction #essay #editing

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hindisoup · 3 years ago

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Out of curiosity: why are you learning Hindi? How long have you been learning? It's a language that interests me, so I was also wondering if you had any advise for how to get started. Is there any good book for a beginner you would recommend?

Thanks for the ask!

I wasn't meant to start learning Hindi in the first place. Over the years I have dabbled in several languages, Russian being the previous true interest on which I focused seriously for about 4-5 years more or less sporadically as a hobby.

Five years ago I was doing my masters (on a totally unrelated subject to languages) and at that time I felt I needed:

something completely out of my everyday life to occupy my mind with while I wasn't focusing on writing my dissertation 8-10 hours a day,

background music lyrics of which I couldn't understand so I wouldn't be distracted while writing the said dissertation.

Completely by chance, I guess, I found Hindi films (colours! clothes! songs! dance! drama!) as an answer to the first need, and Hindi film songs to the second one. However, having a bit of an "all-or-nothing" type of personality, very soon I noticed I had watched more than 150 films and I couldn't help but start learning the language because of the sheer amount of exposure and my natural interest in all languages in general.

I actually made a conscious decision at some point that I will NOT LEARN DEVANAGARI. I promised that to my partner when I noticed he had that "here we go again" look on this face and he obviously had vivid flashbacks of my Russian study phase. "It's just a pastime. I'm not going to LEARN the language or anything. Don't worry and let me see where this masala movie plot turns to next".

But then I was invited to a two weeks study trip abroad with my university group and being unsupervised, I spent all the free evenings drawing Devanagari letters from a model (it couldn't be called writing at that point, just drawing). After that, I couldn't stop myself. I was able to finish my master's without fully diving into studying Hindi in the actual sense, but very soon after I bought my first grammar books and started compiling notes and vocabulary.

Ever since - it's been 4 years now - I've been studying it in my spare time more or less daily. I'm in no hurry. I actually enjoy the journey and the sense of awareness of all the things I don't know yet. In other aspects of my life, I'm very goal-oriented, almost a perfectionist, want quick results, yada yada. But Hindi is something I learn solely just for the pleasure of it, and I don't care if it takes me 60 years to reach fluency.

And that's my goal, actually. To understand spoken Hindi well enough to grasp a majority of a film or a song, without subtitles. And to be able to read a novel and not having to check too many words from a dictionary. To be able to have an understandable conversation with my Hindi speaking friend about everyday topics or even emotions and abstract matters. So I'm not looking for perfection, I'm aiming to understand and to be understood.

But on your second question on how to get started in Hindi, in case you don't have a year to watch 150 films, you can try:

Duolingo Hindi course is a good place to start and get a general feel of the language and the alphabet.

Another iOS / Android app Language Curry, where you don't even need to know Devanagari at all. I especially like the small cultural information tidbits here and there over the course. BTW on this app, you can also learn Gujarati, Sanskrit, Punjabi, Kannada, Tamil and Marathi!

hindilanguage.info explains various grammar points in a very detailed and understandable manner.

If you prefer physical or ebooks, you can check my post on the ones I've tried.

English Wiktionary is one of my most used sites since in there you can check most Hindi words' gender and conjugation tables of both nouns and verbs.

Hope you get started on your Hindi journey!

#ask #study resources #hindi #language learning #langblr #languageblr

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mishkakagehishka · 3 years ago

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Do you have any tips for someone that is trying to learn a new language? (especifically Japanese)

Consume media!!!! Imo this goes well for any language, I personally find it impossible to pick up a language if I can't "surround myself" with it. It's best to read (books especially), but watching television is good for pronounciation and songs are great if you want to remember vocabulary and phrases as catchy songs will stick, and if you remember the translation you can go "Oh, yeah, that word/phrase is like that, I remember it from this song". It's the second best thing you can do short of spending time in the country where the language is spoken imo. I mostly watch tv programmes or vlogs, and play videogames both dubbed and subbed in my target language. Videogames are actually a great thing to focus on because they require you to know what's going on and being asked of you to progress - it's also how I learnt a bunch of English. Definitely check if you can play The Sims in your target language, I literally owe it most of what I now know in English, due to the genre it really offers a wide vocabulary.

Now, I don't know how qualified I am to give tips for learning languages, or for learning Japanese specifically, but here's basically how I went: first learn hiragana and katakana, then focus on grammar. I used the Genki textbooks, but when I need a refresher for certain grammatical rules I'll often google it and there are a lot of neat websites/blogs that offer grammar lessons. JLPT sensei sticks out to me as one I most often go to. Once you got most of the grammar down, you can start reading with a dictionary on hand - whether books or visual novels or manga. Jisho.org is a great online dictionary, and if you don't know how a kanji is read, you can "write" it in the search bar. There's a bonus point for manga, anyway, most I read in "raw" form also have the reading for kanji written in hiragana on the side, so it's a lot easier to look them up. I'd definitely suggest a dictionary that can let you input kanji by radicals or by handwriting, though I prefer handwriting simply because I get annoyed trying to find radicals in the charts lol. But learn radicals! It makes it a lot easier to memorise kanji if you can learn it not as one big piece, but a puzzle made of three smaller pieces (or however many radicals it's formed of). You can also learn kanji through flashcards - there are websites and blogs that teach you kanji through years/levels, at a specific order. Though, for me, I felt it more natural to learn them through media. It's a flawed system, but that's how I find it easier to remember and, besides, I'll sooner remember the more often used ones that way. Familiarise yourself with websites like hinative, too, though just googling "[phrase] meaning" (or "[phrase] 意味" if you don't mind the explanation in Japanese) will often give you links to blogs and forums with good answers, because sometimes even if you got the vocab and grammar down, you'll come across phrases that you simply won't be familiar with purely because you're not a native speaker. Stuff like idioms, and phrasal verbs (?)

Personally, I left kanji for last and that's why I'm illiterate lmao but basically, I feel like if you're not in a hurry (as in, if you're not gonna move to Japan any time soon or need to write some formal letters), you can learn them while strengthening your vocabulary after you learn enough grammar to be able to consume media mostly effortlessly, by which I mean, you'd only have to look up words you don't know - but when you do you can read the sentence again and know what's going on because you already know enough grammar that the only unknown in the equation is the meaning of a word, not the whole sentence. How do I explain it - if you see 食べなくちゃいけません you'll know the sentence is saying something must be done because of the verb's grammatical form - the only unknown would then be what 食べ(る) means. Though if you're gonna take my advice of consuming media, make sure you consume it consciously. If it's voiced, listen to what is being said and try to repeat the words you're unfamiliar with while looking them up. If there are translations online, read both the translations and listen/read the original text. Don't just consume it - make sure to make an effort to understand and to remember the new words and phrases you come across.

And also don't just look up a kanji's meaning, make sure to look up its readings in kun'yomi and on'yomi as that'll help you down the line.

Also a good youtube channel to use for vocab and culture is Comprehensible Japanese!! But asides from that, I can't remember if there's anything else that needs to be said. I would really suggest classes and/or textbooks at first, before the media, though, as I feel like media should help you enrich your vocabulary, while textbooks should teach you the core of the language. But, either way, good luck in your learning!!🤝

#idk if i explained this well i feel like i'm missing smth but #yeah? hiragana and katakana then grammar (+ you'll learn vocab while learning grammar ofc) and then kanji + enriching your vocab thru kanji #like idk if you dk how to say smth looks well on somebody you'll learn it when you see 似合う in a text #and then you'll know - oh that's read as niau and means to look well okay #there you go boom two kanji and a new word.#but yea grammar is essential imo #asks

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