#this is about the diacritic btw

[oaxleaf]

whyyyyyy won't my computer let me write macrons :( straight up one of the most annoying things in life rn

[riggedbones]

evil evil things happening with the writing system plan btw.

[hasufin]

On learning

Many years back, I had this Arabic teacher (I do not, in fact, speak Arabic, not even FosHa, because I only took a couple years and have not studied since). But, anyway. She was a very skilled linguist, and some of the students really liked her. I did not. Not because she was a bad person, but because her teaching style did not work for me At All.

See, it was 100% auditory. 0% visual. The whiteboard in the room was strictly decorative, as far as she was concerned. Once in a blue moon I would ask her to write something, partially because I wanted to see how it was written (Arabic has a certain ambiguity due to diacritical marks), partially because I have some auditory processing issues and it turns out *door closing* *desk creaking* *footsteps* is not actually a word in any language, but mainly to get her to Stop and Let Me Catch Up.

Here was her writing. Every time:

_______-__-____

That’s Arabic, I swear. Maybe toss in a loop somewhere.

I mean, not all Arabic writing is like that. It’s just her handwriting was utterly atrocious and what went on the whiteboard was a wavy line. So asking for writing was a lost cause, really.

Add in that she had this tendency to just go on a tear in Arabic for ten minutes straight. Nonstop speaking, in Arabic. Not beyond our skill level, but not pausing for a moment. I’m not entirely sure she breathed.

Which meant that thirty seconds in, my mind would wander for just a moment and... well, I’m lost. I have lost the thread, there is no chance of me picking it up and the next nine minutes of class time are a wash for me.

And I’m thinking. Back when I was younger I would have been called a “Visual Learner” because that kind of spoken word instruction didn’t work for me. But I don’t think it was that it was audio vs. visual. It was that spoken instruction requires your Complete and Undivided Attention Nonstop Until The Instructor Decides To Give You A Break. And you cannot consult what was said ten seconds ago, you have no option of “There was background noise so I missed that part can you please repeat it?” (BTW, again, people are abjectly awful at just repeating the thing they said a moment ago, you ask and they just look at you blankly because WHY would you want such a thing it was just a semi truck honking next to you, can’t you listen through that?)

If it’s in writing you don’t have to worry about background noise. You can be distracted for a moment, you can be thinking about what it all means. You can look at stuff that happened a few seconds ago. You’re not stuck in the pace someone else decided for you.

I know the auditory vs. visual learner thing has been “debunked”, but it feels like there’s more to it than just “That’s not true” because for all it was wrong it was a model that worked for some people and maybe we should think more about why that it.

[kuchenprince]

APH Czech Pokemon Team

Info from:

Wikipedia

Geography Now

Bulbapedia

Hetalia Archives

The Czech Republic it’s a country in central Europe. The country has only 4 national parks, however with what nature zones they have, they stand out, and Narnia was filmed there! (Btw, I love Narnia; just a random fact about me).

Talking about Narnia, the most iconic symbol of this novel it’s Aslan, the Great Lion.

Her profile describes her as "serious, patient, and very hard-working" She plans her every move beforehand, and in her first appearance refers to independence from Austria-Hungary as a "starting line" and not a "goal". Beside that Slovakia describes her as having a "haughty" attitude, I think she kinda resembles like a lion tho.

And speaking about lions, its coat of arms has a White Double Tailed Lion on it.

Yeah, Solgaleo it’s in Greece Team too, but meh.

Also, Solgaleo’s mane has like ridges in each tuft, that kinda reminds me of the bohemian glass.

The bohemian glass, or bohemia crystal, is a glass produced in the regions of Bohemia and Silesia. It has a centuries long history of being internationally recognised for its high quality, craftsmanship, beauty and often innovative designs.

I don’t know about a pokemon that it’s based on glass or crystals, but I remembered about the Crystal Onix that appeared in the anime whose body is made out of glass crystal.

Also, the normal Onix reminds me how Czechia is shaped like a bowl, encased by mountains on all sides, that historically formed a natural border, and this makes the country a perfect drainage basin for various rivers.

I saw in Geography Now video that the favorite pastime for many czech families is going “mushrooming”, where they go out for hikes and pick wild edible mushrooms to eat at home.

I choose Breloom and not Foongus, beside that they both are mushroom pokemons, because the last one is poison type pokemon.

The polka is originally a Czech dance and genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas.

Polka remains a popular folk music genre in many European countries. The term polka possibly comes from the Czech word "půlka" ("half"), referring to the short half-steps featured in the dance. František Doucha (1840, Květy, p. 400) says that "polka" was supposed to mean "dance in half" ("tanec na polo", notice the absence of diacritics), referring to the half-tempo and the half-jump step of the dance.

I searched for dance moves in Pokemon, and I found the Teeter Dance, that in japanese is フラフラダンス  or Dizzy Dance. And you know what makes you feel dizzy? Alcohol!

Czech is the country that consumes more alcohol than any other country.