#took latin for one year in middle school this is all i remember

[zombiecowboy65]

mind: 🤯

mood: 🤬

brb gotta scrap half the fics im working on

https://www.tumblr.com/karmacharmeleon18/780073587221659648/so-technically-jeremy-and-jean-still-speak-two?source=share

I’ve been wondering this because he did leave France at 14 , but I feel like at 14 you have a pretty good basis of your mother tongue ? Mine is English so maybe it’s different, and while he shouldn’t have the vocabulary of an adult, he should have a pretty good understanding? My vocabulary was definitely not as advanced as it is now, but I had classes that taught me the rules of grammar and everything and by Highschool (which in in the states we start at 14) , I knew all the rules if not all the words.

I hashed this out with my friend once because we were trying to figure out what Jean knew and didn’t know, and I kinda assumed it was like that? but French is like the one language I didn’t take so…

I do think that if he was speaking English / Japanese so long his French should be somewhat “rusty”, but I think Nora’s excuse was that he was speaking it with Kevin so it kept him fresh? I have never found Kevin learning that language plausible tbh, especially in the small amount of time it took him. His French should be a disaster zone, and their Japanese too I think, considering they didn’t speak it enough?

For Jeremy I’m also waiting to see what happens bc when I googled it, the internet told me you could become fluent in as little as a year, which seems like a serious stretch to me. I know Jeremy’s got his books but I studied Spanish all throughout grammar and middle school , Latin in high school, and Italian in college and I’m not fluent in any of them lmao. I barely remember half of them, and now after learning Spanish again for two years I’m still not fluent. So for these ppl to become fluent that fast, without like serious dedication to studying (not even Jeremy is doing that, with everything else he has to juggle) , and conversation with native speakers , it doesn’t make sense lol.

As for the languages Jeremy and Jean speak… tbh I don’t think Nora looked that far into it. A google search could tell us marseille French is different than Parisian French (I think I actually learned this via a tumblr post lol), but I had no idea about the dialect names, and tbh I doubt Nora does either.

But maybe she does and just didn’t address it 🤷‍♀️

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

Evanescence, ‘Fallen’ | The Album Story

RS: Listening back, it is striking just how bold and ambitious it is for a debut album. Not many bands come out with a full choir and string section on their first album. Did you have to fight for those elements at all?

AMY: “You know, it helps when you have something that you really want to do that you’re gonna fight for. But that you have the ability to do. If I had a crazy idea of Gregorian chants or an all-boys choir, something that I couldn’t actually make happen, it would be a lot harder, because we’re gonna spend all this money on finding somebody to create the sound and then find the team. At least with choirs, specifically, in high school I was the choir president. I loved choir, I was  inspired by a lot of that old Celtic and Latin hymn stuff. And I took Latin. So I was like ‘I’ll write it, I’ll do everything, all you gotta do is help me put together a small team of vocalists, it’s not gonna be that expensive’. We can make this happen. I think just having the moxie, or whatever it is, to go ‘I’ll put this all together, all you have to do is just trust me artistically’. It’s still a fight. It was harder to fight for real strings, because that’s just expensive. That’s just something that cost a whole lot of money. But to me, that was so key to what our sound was. The whole idea was that it was if a heavy band with riff-driven, pop hooks could get in a head-on collision with a dark film score. If it didn’t have that film score part of it, it would have felt like so much was missing. I do remember having a discussion with the label about ways we can make it sound real with pads and stuff – they’re better than they used to be. But I just always said ‘No, whatever it is, we’re on the hook for it. In the end, I promise we’ll get the money paid back. We have to have real strings. It has to be real’. And then we ended up with David Campbell who is one of the absolute best in the industry for that, and we’ve had a lifelong, career-long partnership now that I’m so grateful for.”

RS: The ‘Bring Me To Life’ demo was the first taste people got of this reissue. It’s remarkable how fully formed that track already was even at that early stage.

AMY: “There’s probably 10 demos of that song. The label had fixated on it and decided it was going to be the single we were going to focus on. So it was just constantly changing, we felt like we were in this demo forever. But they all happened over the course of just a couple of years. So the very first demo, before the chorus was what it was, I don’t even know where that is. I don’t even have that. It started without the rap but also the ‘Wake me up inside’ part wasn’t there. It was the verses and the chorus was like…I could sing it for you but that’s not going to translate into your magazine. But the one you heard that’s on there was sort of in the middle. That wasn’t the last one.”

RS: It is still the song we know, it just needs a few tweaks. It’s interesting to be able to see the process behind that.

AMY: “I always remembered that little sample in the beginning that became the piano part. That was always still in my head because we listened to it so many times before making the song. We wanted the piano so it would be like a film score starting out.”

RS: How big a role did your cinematic influences play in creating the album?

AMY: “We were really inspired by film and would go to the movies all the time. Part of that is just the age we were in high school. But it also felt like research – ‘Donnie Darko’, ‘Edward Scissorhands’. It was like I was really learning from it. My favourite part about film was the music, not so much the soundtracks, that’s great too, but the score is what makes you know how to feel. There is a whole sub story going on underneath. You are feeling things that are deeper than just the words and actions of the characters. So that’s when I started getting really inspired. I wanted to be in a band, but I would really like to score film and was going to school for that when we got signed.”

RS: ‘Everybody’s Fool’ is a track you have discussed a lot in the past. It seems to express some frustrations around the idea of fame and success but, again, it was written so early in your career. Once you found that success, did the song take on any new meaning for you?

AMY: “At the time, I was the teenager, a big sister, and my siblings were younger in elementary school. My two little sisters, who are very close in age, were in their boyband and pop girl moment. I was like ‘Oh my god, you guys are totally dumb. Listen to real music, I’ll show it to you’. I was always trying to influence them with Green Day, and Nirvana songs that didn’t have horrible things in the imagery. But at the same time, like they were going through this time where it was not just about the stars but school cliques and what you look like seemed like a really big focus. Who liked you, all that stuff, everybody goes through that. I think what I really wanted to say was that what I respect is authenticity. That should be the thing that we’re trying to win, not the beauty contest. Just be yourself. But then, strangely, soon after I found myself in the spotlight really fast in a really big way where you are on a stage for people to just look at you and talk about you like an object and that was hard. That was a weird time for me, because I was really young and really never bought into all that. But when it’s happening to you on a really large scale, you can’t just tune it out and leave the cafeteria. You have to actually face it – ‘There’s my career, how do I be the most of myself and show all the parts of myself that I really want to be seen and not be misunderstood?’ I just felt really misunderstood. But I think the lesson really is that you have to keep on, look at yourself, look at your real friends and the people around you that really know you. Remember who you are apart from it. It’s always been good for me to take breaks from this. I don’t think I need to anymore the way that I did. I know who I am. I know we’re gonna be here. But it was always important for me to step away and go ‘I’m not Amy Lee. I’m just Amy still’. I still have hold of my identity which is ever changing. It still has room to grow. I’m not stuck as that album cover picture forever, even though that is still a perception in probably millions of people’s minds. So you just have to give yourself the freedom to keep growing.”

RS: In terms of what may come next from you, how has looking back and reflecting on your early days affected how you want to move forward?  

AMY: “I think it’s always a positive thing to remember your roots, even if it just means you’re going to branch really, really far away for them and do stuff that you’ve never done. I think you have to know who you are and know where you’ve been, because this is just the next chapter in that story. I’ve been doing that all year to where I just kind of never want to hear it again. Not really, but it’s definitely a little bit of what I said before about recognising those innocent moments where I’m not trying to be ahead of somebody’s criticism or anything. Write something without feeling any fear. That’s really sweet. I don’t know how I could recreate that. It’s hard to say because I dearly, dearly love our band, my guys and now Emma (Anzai, bassist). I’m most interested to hear what her new dynamic brings into the situation when we get together. I’ve wanted to be in a band with her for a really long time and it just finally worked out.”

[asmrtist-brainrot]

Redacted Listeners (Dari Ver.)

IT'S DONEEEE!!!

This is me mostly talking about like clothing aesthetics.

Also establishing how I see these characters and giving them names!

This is my interpretation and gives me a chance to think about character design a little more! And to help me remember how I plan on dressing/representing their clothes.

~ Dari

Angel | Malak or Mal - (they/she) [27]

Name Meaning: Angel (Arabic origin)

Arab-Thai

Short and heavy set. Shaved head and darker skinned, big black lashes, and dark brown eyes.

AFAB//Fashion and general expression leans femme, shifts between not wearing and wearing a binder. Hair is buzzed so is seen as more androgynous. Clothing style waives more in the light academia casual, wears lots of high waist and crop tops. Also, hoodies, hoodies for days - all types - zippered, pullovers, sleeveless, oversized, cropped, etc.

Baabe | Apis - (they/him) [25]

Name Meaning: “Bee” in Latin

Turkish

Messy, curled, dyed blue hair pulled in a half-bun. Eyes are a deep green. Skin is midtone. Silver ear cuff on right ear, key on chain necklace.

AMAB//Mostly traditionally masculine features with the exception of longer lashes and silky skin, hair is grown out and curly. Well groomed, with a mid tone voice that could be construed as any part of the spectrum. Notably broad shoulders and strong arms. Simple and clean fashion, professional more often than not, if not in athleisure wear.

Bright Eyes | Lux - (they/she/he + primarily uses they/them) [20]

Name Meaning: Light (of Greek origin)

Greek

Unkempt blue-white hair worn short with bangs. Eyes were an electric blue before their change. Vamp eyeballs, almost cat-like eyes. Double helixes.

AMAB//Notably considered somewhat of a pretty face, mostly from Freddy's recollection of their high school years - though people found them too intimidating to approach. Bounces all over the spectrum in terms of style. Sticks pretty heavily to the Decora Kei style, somewhat allowing themselves to take all the attention away from Fred. It's a bouncing dichotomy from their foul mouth and sweet face... Frederick and them took somewhat a darker look after their turnings.

Cutie | Hadley, Haddie, or Lee- (they/him)[28]

Name Meaning: Named after Lieutenant Hadley from Star Trek

Irish

Short cropped dark blond hair paired with very pale blue eyes. Peachy skin with lots of freckles! Tattoo behind the ear that says "mind over matter" as nod to their powers. Double lobe piercings, labret, purple gemmed necklace.

AMAB//Generally sticks to a sort of academia look, layered items with focus around jewelry pieces. Loves silver and rings and watches! Generally pretty soft in appearance, sweater vests and jumpers and hoodies. Doesn't do baggy pants unless they're cargos.

Darlin' | Barrett or Rett - (they/she/he, no preference)[26]

Name Meaning: Quote from site: "While some sources say Barrett is of German origin and means “as strong as a bear,” others say it's derived from a Middle English surname meaning “strife” and often given to argumentative people".

Iranian-German

Short bobbed, messy brown hair. Brown skin and deep gold eyes. Muscular. One gold tooth. Right brow has a slit. Gold ear cuffs.

AFAB//Aligned with wolf pack norms, dresses pretty simply with leather jackets, bomber jackets, etc. Still somewhat fashionable, ranging in aesthetics and gender representation. Pretty confident most of the time despite being covered in scars. Athleisure wear if they're not dressing for a formal event.

Doc | Apollo - (he/him)[30]

Name Meaning: Apollo is the god of healing

Haitian-American

Dark skinned with twists in dark hair. Big lips and pretty blue eyes, labret cuff and dimple piercings. Double lobe piercings.

AFAB//Minimalist style. Enjoys soft, flowing fabrics. Black and white and tans, isn’t a fan of all black. Something of a beige enjoyer, sticks to solids. Has an affection for boots and pantsuits! Lots of statement earrings!

Dreamer | Roya - (he/they)[29]

Name Meaning: Dream (Persian Origin)

Persian

Dark skinned. Deep teal eyes. Dark hair in braids, extensions are a pretty teal.

AMAB//Style is truly grunge, jackets and ripped jeans. Sleeves ripped off every shirt, paired with beanies and combat boots, multiple types of chunky jewelry… Hates shorts though. Lots of piercings!!!

Freelancer | Caron or Ronnie - (they/them)[22]

Name Meaning: Loving (Welsh Origin)

Viet-Welsh

Black bobbed hair with dyed tips. Pretty dark eye bags. On the bigger side. A lil' pale. Scattered tattoos. 

AFAB//Not really one for any fancy dressing, enjoys dressing casually if at all possible. Style preferences lean gothic, mostly in comfortable hoodies and bracelets - also likes fishnets and arm warmers. Dresses pretty diversely; but likes skirts/dresses for the ease of not needing to put on pants.

Love | J. A. A. I. or Jai- (no preference, referred to with they/them)[physically 21]

Name Meaning: J. A. A. I. stands for “just an artificial intelligence”, Jai is of Indian Origin and meaning “triumph” or “victory”

White, nearly gray skin. Hair is black and long. Eyes are bright green with a ring of white around the pupil. Panelling is subtle.

INTERSEX//Not strictly interested for any type of fashion one way or another. Likes soft, plush or fuzzy items though, scarves and shirts in particular. Would live in pajama pants if they could.

Lovely | Beau - (they/them)[25]

Name Meaning: Beauty, Handsome (French Origin)

French

Soft strawberry blond hair, short 2 block haircut with white tips. Mid-tone brown skin. Yellow/gold eyes. Has gauges with hoops in them.

AMAB//Pastel goth babe. A truly deeply ingrained affection for sweet, bright colors but also the macabre. Only started incorporating more black into their fashion after being turned. Lives in demonias and dramatic black makeup. Lots of pink to match their dyed hair.

Mentor | Nason - (she/they)[24]

Name Meaning: Helper (Biblical/Anglo-Saxon Origin)

Scottish-Mexican

Long side bangs and short blond hair, side bangs are dyed a light blue. Lightly tanned skin and soft blue eyes.

AFAB//Our casual girly! Loves animal prints and necklaces, heels basically all the time. Sticks to simple combos; wears primarily pencil skirts and tight slacks at work.

Professor | Dai - (he/they)[25]

Name Meaning: Peace, Calm (Japanese Origin)

Japanese

Blasian! Light-skinned and covered in freckles from head to toe, long, black curly hair tied into a ponytail. Snake bite piercings and tongue ring, both gold.

AMAB//Soft boi fashions!! Layers on layers! White sweaters and collared undershirts!! Lots of different crew neck sweatshirts, loves his converse and cuffed pants.

Seer | Aya - (he/they)[33]

Name Meaning: Sword (Old German Origin)

Danish-Swiss

Has albinism. Wild bleach blond curls. Masked their completely white seer eyes with brown contacts; usually but wears sunglasses too. Small lips and covered in freckles.

AMAB//(undetermined)

Smartass | Akira or Aki - (she/he, no preference)[28]

Name Meaning: Bright, Intelligence (Japanese Origin)

Hispanic-Japanese

Bobbed soft lightish brown hair with silver dyed tips. Mid-tone skin. Baby blue eyes. Wears black framed Warby Parkers. Also has a gold necklace. 

AFAB//Our business casual hoe, tight slacks and multiple types of button downs/collared shirts. Fun pops of color and unique types of collar pins and cufflinks. Patterned sweaters and blazers!! Likes it a lil’ fancy.

Starlight | Juno or Jun - (they/them)[24]

Name Meaning: Child of June, Youthful. Named after the Queen of the Gods but more in reference to the constellation (Greek/Latin Origin)

Greek-Chinese

Baby purple hair styled in a half-shave with yellow tips. Honey brown eyes. Light freckles. Crescent moon earrings.

AMAB//Space prints for days, lots of chokers! Plays with different types of fashion, doesn’t really stick to one type of style but wears mostly dark colors.

Sunshine | Sol - (xe/xir/xim)[23]

Name Meaning: Sun (Spanish Origin)

Cuban-Australian

Messy, short dark hair. Dark eyes. Vitiligo. Freckles. Sun earrings.

AFAB//Sweaters, sweater vests, hoodies - anything comfortable. Off the shoulder, usually layered. Shorts too, always shorts. Will wear leggings underneath if it’s too cold.

Sweetheart | Nox - (he/they)[24]

Name Meaning: Night (Latin Origin)

Italian

Somewhat wavy dark hair, pulled back into a high pony or bun. Eye color changes based on colored contacts. Skin is lightly tanned. Double lobes pierced, black choker. E-girl hearts on cheeks.

AFAB//Vintage babe, film noir type beat. 1950s type, lots of simple button downs and pattered shirts. Biker/bomber jackets, layered over a solid shirt. Clean and slick… Does like leather though, harnesses and jackets and boots.

Warden | Pyxis - (they/them)[??]

Name Meaning: Name references the box, or compass of the ship Argo

Tall and on the light skinned side. Hair is dark blue and white. Eyes are a deep purple/lavender. Horns are white and similar in style to Avior's but fade into their skin. Wears silver horn jewelry. Echo eye bolo tie. Lavender butterfly on the inside of the left wrist. 

???//Casual. Lots of long sleeves and business type looks, mostly as the time they spend in Elegy is always due to business. Likes cool colors, leans masculine but pops fun textures and patterns. Likes lace and ruffles in particular. Likes jewelry for their horns and bolo ties.

[heytheredeann]

Oversharing on the Internet

I was tagged by @cha-melodius, thank you! <3

ONE: Are you named after anyone?

Nope, traditionally I SHOULD have been named after my maternal great grandmother, but my mother refused because she didn't like the name LOL.

TWO: When was the last time you cried?

I genuinely don't remember LOL.

THREE: Do you have kids?

Nope.

FOUR: Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Not really, I use it sometimes, I'd say.

FIVE: What sports have you played/do you play?

I started swimming when I was like 3 or 4, I stopped when I was ten I think to play volleyball, in middle school I had a very brief dancing phase that I'd like not to remember, then still in middle school I did a year of athletics (like running, jumping, etc) but it got boring so I stopped and went back to swimming, I did a year-ish of kickboxing during my last year of high school (loved that one, but I had to stop because I couldn't go to practice because of all the studying, ngh), and now I'm horse riding. Also when I was a kid there was a lot of skiing because my father's side of the family is obsessed LOL.

SIX: What's the first thing you notice about people?

Probably their hair, it's certainly what I remember best: I am bad with faces so if I meet someone for the second time and they change their hairstyle I am going to be very confused (like "who is this? help" levels of confused).

SEVEN: What's your eye colour?

Brown.

EIGHT: Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings, I'm not completely opposed to scary movies but I very rarely watch them.

NINE: Any special talents?

Does being a human calendar count? LOL. I'm the person in the friend and/or work group that is like "Hey, friendly reminder that it's Father's Day next week" or "PSA, public transport is on strike on Friday" when I know that people have a hard time remembering this stuff looool.

TEN: Where were you born?

...Italy LOL.

ELEVEN: What are your hobbies?

Fandom (writing and reading fics, giffing, scrolling endlessly...) and horse riding.

TWELVE: Do you have any pets?

No but I'd love get a cat someday soon.

THIRTEEN: How tall are you?

Around 160 cm? Maybe 158? That should be 5'2 in feet.

FOURTEEN: Favourite subject in school?

All the literatures (Italian, Ancient Greek, Latin and English were the ones I took in high school). Also English because I was so good at it LOL.

FIFTEEN: Dream job

Tbh I would just be happy to get something in the field I got two whole degrees in LOL. But outside of that, if I could lock myself in a barn and look after horses all day I would probably be more than happy to let's be real looool.

.

Tagging: @playpenn @sensitivehandsomeactionman @imgoingtofreakoutnow @dadralt @huggiebird @ikeepwatchinghelicopters @cherryjuicegf and anyone else who wants to give it a try, feel free to tag me!

[theartoflovingthomashunt]

Alexandra "Alex" Hunt (nee Spencer)

[All Thomas Hunt x Alex Spencer Masterlists] [All things Alex]

Book: Red Carpet Diaries / Hollywood U Husband: Thomas Hunt Children: Felicity, Vincent, Bogart (dog) Face Claim: Katherine McPhee (RCD FC)

*Alex began as a main character, but has become an original character now It only took almost 5 years to make a character page for her 🙈

What's in a Name?~ Alexandra Rose Spencer

Alexandra

Origin: Greek, feminine form of Alexander, derived from alexein

Meaning: "defender of men"

Why I chose it: I adore the name Alex and all variations of the name. It's one of my favorites which is why I chose it for my pen name... I have a complete unpublished manuscript from several years ago. Maybe one day I'll do something with it, but until then, I decided to give Alex her name because it means something to me

Rose

Origin: Latin

Meaning: rose, a flower

Why I chose it: My grandmother's name was Rose, when she passed I decided to remember her through Alex by giving her Rose as a middle name

Spencer

Origin: English

Meaning: derived from the Old French despensier, a steward

Why I chose it: One of my favorite TV shows of all time is Psych, so I gave her the last name Spencer after Shawn Spencer.

Nicknames: primarily Alex, she did try going by Lexi and Lex when she was in middle school, but decided they weren't for her

The Basics

Birthday: March 6 Zodiac: Pisces Personality: Artistic, Creative, Idealistic, Adaptable, Generous, Empathetic, Romantic, Trusting, Compassionate, Dreamy, Procrastinates, Avoids Conflict, Too Trusting Sexuality: bisexual

Hair: Dark Brown, sometimes she highlights it lighter Eyes: Brown Height: 5'8" (based on my FC)

Family + Hometown

Hometown: Pella, Iowa

Parents + Home: Henry and Laura Spencer Henry and Laura were high school sweethearts, but waited to get married until after college. They had one child, Alex. Laura had some complications during her pregnancy and childbirth so her and Henry didn't want to risk another. They were okay with it, because they loved Alex with all they were.

Unfortunately, Henry had a sudden and unexpected heart attack when Alex was 12 and passed away. It was hard for Alex and her mom. Alex turned her pain into her drama and theatre performances. Through the friends she made there, she found an amazing support system.

Laura is a nurse. Henry was an architect.

Education

HWU AU: Hollywood U

RCD AU: Tisch School of the Arts at NYU* *Don't hold me to that, I had a different school in mind, but at Tisch she could have met Olivia who was going to NYU at the same time and CoffeeShopAU!Ellie (if I ever finish it) who grew up in Brooklyn. Tisch would give me a gateway to bring those ladies into my RCD world. Current version of Ellie exists in my HWU universe!

More about Alex

Likes: coffee (particularly iced), doodling, painting (even if she's not the best), quiet moments away from the spotlight, her family, stargazing, mysteries, the ocean, hot baths, reading, movie night

Dislikes: decaf (she suffered through it for the twins, but only for them), the last sip of coffee in a cup, mornings, exercise, humidity, abuse of power, betrayal, traffic, frogs (irrational fear)

Best Friends: Addison Sinclair (HWU/RCD), Chazz Javellana (RCD), Ethan Blake (HWU/RCD), Ellie Shepherd-Ramsey (HWU), Ethan Ramsey (HWU)

Asks, Edits, Art, and more about Alex can be found on her Character Masterlist Page

More to be come...

please let me know if there is something you'd like to know about Alex that I can add!

[nawilla]

I took French in Junior High/High school.

Due to my parent's divorce, we switched schools the year we were supposed to start foreign language classes to a school system that started foreign language classes in high school.

The year I was there they started a pilot program in French class, so i ended up taking French for 2 days a week for half a year.

Due to money management issues, mom ended up moving us back to our hometown 1 year post divorce and we ended up enrolling back into the same classes, me having spent 7th grade (the middle year of middle school) in a different school (in a different state) and missing key middle portions of the second year of junior high (including first year language courses).

Key classes for which the curriculum was changed included: 1) advanced math/algebra, 2) social studies (to this day my knowledge of pre-Civil War US history is mostly non-existent because it was a 2-year history class and I missed the first half), and 3) foreign language instruction. (This is probably why I am not really that interested in seeing Hamilton. All I know of the Revolutionary War is from watching PBS).

Remember how I had one semester of French 2 days a week? My classmates back home had already had a full year of foreign language 5 days a week, in either French, Spanish, Italian (I think?) or German. Now that I was enrolling in 8th grade, I had a choice of either a) starting over in Spanish, because it was the only option for continuing the classes at the high school level the next year, because some people chose to take a third language or b) be put into French 2 for 8th graders and fake it until I made it.

They put me in French 2. I was more interested in French because I was 12.5% French (possibly French Canadian?) on my mother's side. I have no Spanish heritage. (I was also 12.5% German and 25% Italian, but those weren't options that would fit).

Bear in mind, I was trying to keep up in a class where I had less than 1/4 of the prerequisite learning that they rest of my classmates had. My vocabulary was pathetic. Grammar was baffling. I just kept studying and muddling through. I passed. I did reasonably well on tests. I could read French better than I could speak it. I just don't have an ear for foreign languages. Even as an adult, many foreign languages just 'sound like French' to me, and I recognize almost none of the words in actual French. But I paid attention, studied the vocab words, mostly understood verb conjugation at least in theory, was not really sure what the hell was going on with nouns (see missed the first year where that was covered), and ended up taking more French in my freshman and sophomore years of high school. At the end of my sophomore year, I took the New York State Regents Exam in French and if I recall correctly, I got a 91 on it, but I had absolutely no fluency in French. I just didn't. It was a painful and difficult chore to try to say anything and slightly less to read or write in it. To Monsieur Drelick's disappointment, I did not move on junior year French and opted to take Marine Science instead. (I'm sorry Monsieur Drelick. I really did try and you were a great teacher for the 2 years I was in your class, but if it's any consolation, I'm a biologist now).

In my senior year of college I took Latin to fulfill the requirements for 'Latin honors' (ie. to be considered for cum laude or higher, you needed to have at least one class in each of 5(?) different disciplines, one of which was foreign language. Clearly I had science nailed. I was not going to try college level French after having such a lousy foundation in it, but I thought because Latin was more reading and recitation as opposed to 'conversational' which I had such trouble with, it was the best choice. I wanted to be well-rounded, even though my grades would not be remotely high enough for even cum laude.

Taking Latin was a mistake. It was the only class I took pass/fail. After the final exam the professor ran into me when I was working the circulation desk at the library and asked me if I wanted to know my grade on the final. I looked her in the eye and said 'no, I do not.'

She told me anyway. It was a 76 if I recall correctly. After she left there was rejoicing, because I only needed a 70 and I never had to take a foreign language again. (Even if I had failed, I would have graduated, I didn't need the foreign language for that, but I had stretched beyond my capabilities, and it was BAD. And tanking my GPA just before graduate school would have been BAD).

Getting back to the question, I took French because a) I had to take something, the state mandated it, and b) I had no Spanish heritage, so it didn't interest me as much. If I could do it again and take it all properly and I didn't have this mental blind spot where deciphering foreign language should be, I would have taken Italian as I'm more knowledgeable about my Italian heritage than my French heritage. Maybe in my next life if there is one.

[yeetmania]

⛄️ as we get closer to christmas, i get exponentially busier, so i’m sorry for making you wait so long to hear from me again 🙃 i’m glad you had some fun with my recommendations! i always get a bit nervous about if people will like them. thanks for the recs on your end too! i’ve been wanting to try and make a playlist that’s all in spanish for awhile, because i have one that’s all in french, so you’re giving me a good little starting place. here’s my thoughts listening through (typed out because i can’t add photos):

gale’s voice is lovely! her sound in the first song reminds me just a bit of this singer called griff that my sister took me to see in concert earlier this year (i hadn’t heard her music before then). killah is definitely going onto one of my playlists! i like that the instrumental is slightly darker and heavier. nubes might have to too, it sounds like it’d be fun to dance to 😊 i don’t actually understand spanish for the most part, i’m just good with bits that are familiar from when i took latin for a couple years back in highschool, so it’s funny for me to be listening and then suddenly hear “fuck”, like oh! that’s a word i know for sure!

the noises at the beginning of mariposas were bouncing around in my brain in such a nice way. this is another one i think would be fun for dancing!

do you have any embarrassing stories from when you were younger? here’s one of mine for equal exchange: in middle school, i used to have cat fights with this girl who was in my friend group, but we weren’t really that close. the thing is, our cat fights were us actually getting on our hands and knees to hiss at and scratch each other 😭 we had no shame, we did this in front of other people… i cringe so hard thinking back on it now, i can’t believe we were just allowed to do that 😭

customary joke: where do skiers go when they run out of cash? the snow bank ⛷❄️

Hii, lovely!! ✨

Don’t worry about it! It’s been hectic these last couple of days the closer we get to Christmas. I feel like I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to do last minute holiday things. 😵‍💫

Awe, no problem! I’m glad you like the recommendations as well! If you ever need more, I gotchu! Mariposas gets stuck in my head constantly so I’m glad someone else enjoys it too!!

The hissing at one another is crazy but also so funny lol. I’ve definitely done some embarrassing things that I’ve tried to forget, but there was definitely one that I can remember! It’s not a singular event, if anything, it was a reoccurring one.

My last year in middle school, before my school district switched to uniforms from K-12, I dressed myself. And because I was very much inspired by one direction and they’re fashion sense in 2012-2013, I tried to imitate them as best I could. I had the multicolored “chinos” and the plaid/striped shirts, colorful Toms, the whole nine yards. I rotated the same, like, 5 outfits every other week without a care in the world. I cringe so hard about it because though the outfits matched and all, the taste wasn’t there lol. My style has changed so much since then that looking back on it, I don’t recognize the Doly that used to wear that stuff. But there’s still a part of me that doesn’t regret it because I had a fun time dressing as the guys that essentially influenced the person that I am today.

I have a question for thee!! Do you have any piercings to tattoos? If not, what would you get if you could?

I have 7 piercings total, all of them on my ears, none on my face. I wanna get a new one next year at some point so we’ll see!! I don’t have any tattoos at the moment, but I know I wanna get a 1d/pokemon/kirby inspired tattoo one day. 🥹

A joke for a joke: What was Santa's favorite subject in school? Chemis-tree!

[inwintersolitude]

- December 11th 2023 -

What's the closest supermarket to your house? Giant Eagle.

How many states/territories/provinces/etc have you visited within your own country? 33 states, if I remember correctly.

Do you like your name? Yeah.

What languages did you learn in school? I took two years of French classes in middle school, and two years of Latin classes in high school.

Can you imitate any accents well? No, not really.

Would you ever get a face tattoo? No way.

Have you ever ridden in a police car for any reason? No.

Do you like Christmas movies? What's your favourite one? I like certain ones. My favorites are Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (the classic 1964 one), and Home Alone.

Are you home alone right now? LOL speaking of Home Alone. Yep. My husband left for his flights earlier today.

Is it cold where you live today? Yeah, it's a bit below freezing.

What was the last alcoholic drink you had? Oh it was sooo weird. My husband and I were babysitting our nephews this past weekend while my brother and sister-in-law went to a Christmas masquerade ball, and when they got home we were hanging out and we had some beers. One of the beers was a peanut butter milk stout. It wasn't bad, it was just strange.

What's your alcoholic drink of choice? Gin and tonic.

How often do you wear a face mask? I wear an N95 mask on flights and whenever I'm in a crowded indoor place.

Do you hang up on telemarketers? I never even answer. My phone has really good call screening and I almost always know before answering if it's a telemarketer.

What is something you've been looking forward to? My Granny coming to visit in a few weeks.

Have you ever done an internship? What did it involve? Not a full legit internship, just a short mini one. I shadowed an engineer at NASA's Glenn Research Center.

Do you live in a part of the world that has very little sunlight hours? In the wintertime, yes. Not only do we only get 9-ish hours between sunrise and sunset, we also have extremely cloudy/gloomy weather at this time of year. I have to keep my indoor lights on all throughout the day.

What do you usually eat for breakfast? Toast with jam/butter, avocado toast, eggs, oatmeal, or cereal.

What sort of milk do you drink? 2 percent, or sometimes whole milk.

Can you smell anything right now? Not really.

Do you have a TV in your bedroom? No.

When was the last time you slept with a sleeping bag? I don't think I've slept in one since I last went camping, which was in 2008.

Do you know any of your second cousins? Yep.

Are you good at remembering names? Yes, I remember names incredibly well. I don't remember faces, though.

Have you ever done something really embarrassing on a date? I've done plenty of goofy/silly things while on dates with my husband, but I don't recall ever being embarrassed in front of him.

What's a weird or irrational fear you had as a kid? Air vents freaked me out, like the big ones in public bathrooms or hotel bathrooms. I actually still get a little bit of an uneasy feeling from them if they're really big or if they have a fan inside them and make noise.

Do you have sensitive teeth? Not really.

What's your favourite flower? Hydrangeas or stephanotis.

What colours are you wearing today? Black, navy blue, and white.

Superman or Spiderman? Eh, no preference. I'm not really into superhero stuff.

[protego-et-servio]

Politicians have been fucking our education and community spaces down the drain for ages.

We are fed a steady stream of propaganda to trust our own government from an early age. It's hard to realize something is different outside our borders when we're never given a chance to learn about it and seeing it is beyond many people's finances.

Facing the fact we're ignorant is hard, because we're made to feel like we failed as individuals when, in actuality, it's our government keeping us like this. It's intentional and it's been going on for decades.

I grew up in a very rural, very small school district until early 2007. My whole school was about 500 kids. Rural means conservative or right-leaning culture. This place was, like, 99% white and Christian, with 1% being an amorphous Other.

In early 2007, I started going to a more diverse, suburban school outside of Omaha, Nebraska. It was still less diverse than if I'd been in the urban schools and those schools are nowhere near even larger urban school districts.

As further reference, I have an adult step-kid that graduated a few years ago and a kid currently in middle school.

In fifth grade, in about 1999-2000, I learned about other countries in social studies; it was very broad and only really listed exports/imports, language, religion, and maybe some interesting cultural pieces, but we didn't delve into history.

Neither of my kids learned about countries like that.

Any schooling curriculum changes from year to year for a litany of reasons: funding, politics, school board or student families pressing for something specific, etc etc.

My age group learned about other countries in Ancient History, but that was moot to current day events. Other countries were mostly mentioned in conjunction to our history - Great Britain, France, and Spain mostly - and during World Wars.

I learned about the American Revolution and Civil War multiple times, barely got to the Cold War a once or twice. I think we got to the Vietnam War once, near the end of one school year, and it was a slapdash unit.

I was in AP History when I was 16 and the biggest thing I remember is reading All Quiet on the Western Front, which - again - World War I topic.

My kids haven't even gotten to the Vietnam War once.

I think this was intentional, since the Vietnam War was a solid example of the People of the US and the US Government disagreeing. The less we managed to learn about it, the less we'd distrust our own government.

As a side note, by the time I graduated high school, the History Channel had morphed into, like, "aliens and world war" channel. I remember watching and recording actual history segments on the History Channel when I was younger.

Back to our schooling:

You could not take a foreign language until high school, which typically starts at 14. If you took a Spanish class, you might learn about Latine culture, usually centered on whatever version of Spanish you were learning. However, because my first high school was small, I wasn't able to take Spanish until my second year, because the class was too full. (And we didn't have the budget to hire a second Spanish teacher.)

I assume they did the same for French and German classes, but I'm not sure.

One of my saving graces was the Internet. However, the Internet has changed so much since I was a teenager. Google wasn't full of AI or sponsored results, so stumbling on new sites to build international community was easier. Forums were used a lot more.

I feel like the one centralized Gen Z site is TikTok and that's always on the verge of being banned here in the US. Plus I'm not sure what the likelihood of maintaining TikTok connections are like. They at least have Discord as a chat service, but it's not as easy to stumble on other communities as it was with AIM.

However, in conjunction with that, I also want to talk about our lack of third spaces in the US.

Malls were the biggest third spaces I remember, but they have pretty much died.

Libraries are another one, but few USians think of libraries as social spaces. (I've tried to get other adults to meet me and hang out at the local library and they get weirded out. Generally, libraries are seen as places for kids, the nerdy, or the houseless.)

Community centers are another option. But I personally haven't utilized them enough to say what they're like. The ones I have used are usually in churches.

However, in the latter two, they struggle to stay afloat with funding cuts and lack of community interaction.

The lack of third spaces make it harder for people to interact, engage, or connect with others that are "outside" their scope of reality.

Then there's media that takes the piss at intellectuals, constantly, which makes individuals insulate themselves further from such ideologies. And just...

*sigh*

I feel it's more complicated and more insidious than simply saying "Americans are toddlerish and selfish."

Like I said, our government has played a huge role in creating this insulated bubble for us USians, but I could also point to our media and capitalism also fueling the fire.

But I've sat here long enough, trying to give perspective and chewing on my own thoughts. I'm not sure if this will help anyone, just know there are tons of USians within our borders who have been frustrated by the state of our education - and everything else, for that matter - for a very, very long time.

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Arthur King

Arthur King is the creative alias of multidisciplinary artist Peter Walker, whose works span film, music, photography, painting, and sculpture. His latest album, Changing Landscapes, centers around a Latin American insect known as the Zompopa, or leaf-cutter ant, building improvised soundscapes over the tropical insect noises. In her review, Jennifer Kelly wrote, “Changing Landscapes (Zompopa) is, indeed, a deeply affecting listening experience, melding the twittering, chittering serenity of the tropical wild with angelic vocals (Mia Doi Todd in particularly lovely form), electronics and other instruments.“ Here Walker lists some books and films that have inspired him.

5 books:

The Spell of the Sensuous (David Abram)

This book is gorgeously insightful. He touches on the tenets of ecopsychology, which posits all things in the natural world as having a soul, the anima mundi. He suggests, as do countless other wise teachers, that all things are connected in an intricate webwork, and that our individual well-being is undoubtedly connected to the well-being of all things.

Pagan Grace (Ginette Paris)

A mythological book with an in-depth psychological perspective. Basically, the gods of old can be seen as representing different parts of the psyche, because they were born from deep human needs that were otherwise unexplainable. Dionysus and Hermes are of particular interest to those dabbling in the creative arts. Paris was also one of my favorite professors in grad school.

Memories, Dreams, Reflections (C.G. Jung)

In this insightful memoir, Jung writes about a listening exercise he did in his home, basically active listening, when the sounds he heard, once he became still, filled the air like a natural sort of symphony. With a little attention, the background became the foreground. Brian Eno later elaborated on this concept with his production of (and coining of the phrase) ambient music. Jung also reflects on his intensive engagement with his unconscious when he was middle aged, a process that took him more than a decade and ultimately produced his seminal The Red Book. That period of his life, he says, came to define all that happened before it and all that happened after it. He is an inspiration to dive deep.

Miles: The Autobiography (Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe)

I’ve read more music biographies than I’d probably admit to, but this one is special. Released just a few years before Miles’ death, I read it in my early twenties and remember loving it. What a story he had! I’m still a huge fan, and am looking forward to re-reading this one when I have a nice long break from whatever else it is that I occupy my time with.

Dream and the Underworld (James Hillman)

Hillman is just a force unto himself. The way his brain works is almost too hard to follow sometimes, the way he loves to turn phrases around on themselves to propose another viewpoint. One of my favorite concepts of his relates to the dream world, or the unconscious, and the task of trying to understand its contents. Hillman explains that in order to understand something irrational, we must irrationally understand, or more simply, try to move away from our logical, intellectual processes, and enter a more creative realm.

5 movies:

Three Thousand Years of Longing (d. George Miller)

I’m a big fan, it turns out, of recent George Miller movies. Mad Max: Fury Road being one of them. This latest film of his is wonderfully mythological, and the editing and sound design is a joy to experience. It’s also refreshing to see Middle Eastern/Muslim mythology at work.

The Red Turtle (d. Michaël Dudok de Wit)

We (Arthur King) have an ongoing live scoring event called “Unknown Movie Night,” where both the audience and band find out what film we’re scoring the moment it plays. The Red Turtle was the most recent selection, just a few weeks ago now. It’s a beautifully simple animated tale from the stupendous Studio Ghibli, and is both heart wrenching and eye opening. I can say this after watching the film, not listening to it! As far as I know, it has very little dialogue, so we all enjoyed this one, with its newly-minted improvised score, very much.

Children of Men (d. Alfonso Cuarón)

Another director-to-be-a-fan-of, this is a masterpiece by Cuarón, in my opinion. Easter eggs aplenty in this one — lots of ripe and symbolic imagery about the fall of humans. Maybe we won’t be too far off in the real-world 2027? The story is so rich and the film making is both otherworldly and familiar.

Hereditary(d. Ari Aster)

I don’t like horror films. I tend to avoid them. But this one is just so well done, it’s perhaps worth being scared out of your gourd for a little while. It’s the kind of psychological thrill ride that goes way beyond the jump scares and into a deeper realm of unfolding realities and supernatural phenomena. Maybe watch this one during the day, with other people around.

Inception (d. Christopher Nolan)

OK so maybe we’re ending with an easy one, but I needed it after just remembering Hereditary. I love the metaphors in this film associated with the different layers of one’s psyche. As we enter deeper and deeper into the subject’s mind, we find not only more irrationality, but also more barriers of entry. The last stronghold in this case, the deepest nook of the psyche, is pictured as a military-style fort in a secluded frozen land, armed to the nines and just about impossible to penetrate. Sound familiar?

[daydream-cement]

Stately Sequoia Ch. 6

I am rampaging, folks. I might be busy for the rest of the weekend so I felt compelled to get all of these ideas out on paper before the plots get all jumbled or I forget and move on to a separate idea. 

Thank you for all the support and comments. I literally read all of it and love hearing what you have to say!

You had avoided Larissa at all costs. The school year was off to a good start and you found out quite quickly the students were your favorite part of the job. Bianca and Wednesday were two stand out students in your advanced botany course. Eugene was a quiet student, but he certainly had a skill for plant identification. 

Truthfully, you couldn’t stop thinking about Larissa however. Faculty meetings were the worst as you tried to remain focused on the task at hand, but Larissa was truly too beautiful to resist a glance or two.

You knew you were having to put effort into avoiding Principal Weems as she has sought out your company many times since your last date. You remember on one specific occasion she stopped by the greenhouse about two weeks after your parting. 

“Fern. We really need to talk.” Larissa’s voice was gentle as she watched you seeding a batch of wildflowers for Eugene to keep for his bees. 

“I really don’t think we do. What else is there to say?” You didn’t look up, you didn’t give her the satisfaction of even stopping what you were doing to speak to her.

You could feel Larissa behind you, inching closer, “I wanted to apologize.”

Your stubbornness was getting the best of you as you planted your hands against the table in front of you. You took a deep breath and still didn’t acknowledge her words.

Larissa closed the gap between you both by wrapping her arms around your middle, hugging you from behind. You felt her warm lips against your neck, involuntarily you tilt your head to the side, granting her more access to you.

Much to your dismay, she unraveled her arms and left you longing for her warmth. 

———-

A month into the semester and it was finally Parents Weekend. Before the arrival of parents, there was a brief meeting among teachers. You listened to Larissa’s instructions while listening to Rowan’s smart ass comments on the side. 

“Parents weekend can’t get over soon enough,” Rowan huffed as you both made your way towards the quad. Student’s of hers quickly call her over to make introductions between their favorite vampire professor and their parents. You remained near a pillar, observing the interactions between your beloved students and their family members. A familiar presence appeared at your side, towering over you.

You had been considering re-initiating your relationship with Larissa, but after your behavior weeks ago, you found it hard to believe Larissa would want anything to do with you. Now, your relationship seemed to have returned to strictly professional.

“Lovely, isn’t it?” Larissa asked looking out across the sea of students and guardians. 

You stared up at your principal, eyes not leaving her face as you respond, “Yes... Lovely.”

Larissa met your gaze, that beautiful smirk gracing her red lips once again. You stood there for a moment watching each other before you were brutally interrupted.

“Larissa!” A dark haired beauty approached the principal with open arms. More importantly, you saw Weems’s face fall before she forced a smile. The approaching parent wore a tight fitting black dress and was accompanied by a Latin man. Peaking around them, the annoyed face of Wednesday Addams followed after them. 

“Morticia. How lovely to see you.” Larissa accepted the embrace and you took that as your sign to mingle with the other parents present.

————

“You must be the botany professor my daughter speaks so highly of.” 

You were on your hands and knees digging in the conservatory to plant a sequoia tree of your own. You had been inspired recently and had a small sapling shipped from the west coast. 

You sit back on your feet and glance up at Morticia Addams, who had now graced your conservatory. From observing her earlier this morning, she seems to have a natural flirtation about her.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Addams. I’m Dr. Rogers.” You decided to keep the introduction as formal as possible due to Larissa’s seemingly negative reaction to seeing her old roommate. 

“Oh, please, you can call me Morticia.” She took another step towards you, causing you to have to crane your neck even higher to look at her. You were sure this was some kind of power move.

“Is there anything I can help you with, Morticia?” You faked a smile before turning back to your sapling at hand. 

“Oh… No… Just touring around… Larissa speaks very highly of you...” She glanced upwards and around at the different trees, vines, and shrubs you had cultivated. Morticia drew a hand innocently across your back as she stepped behind you and moved onward to explore your greenhouse.

“I’m glad to hear she is pleased with my performance. I enjoy my work here.”

“Oh, yes... You know, she used to enjoy my performance as well. I was just thinking-” Morticia began a story that you weren’t quite sure if you wanted to hear. From Rowan’s stories, it was revealed to you that Principle Weems and Morticia Addams were once romantically entangled. 

“Morticia.” A stern voice barked from the entrance to the greenhouse. Larissa loomed in the doorway, “It seems Gomez is looking for you. Perhaps you should go check on him. Separation anxiety, I assume.”

Larissa’s dig caused your eyes to widen and Morticia’s jaw clenched in response. There was a tension here between these women and with both of their dominating demeanor, you would rather stay out of it. 

“Don’t worry, Fern. We can continue this conversation at a later date. I’m sure you would love to hear the rest,” Morticia’s words seemed to be directed at Larissa as she took her exit.

Rather than question the intensity of Morticia and Larissa’s interaction, you turned your head back the the small tree. Once a hole was large enough for the roots, you gently inserted the small tree. 

Larissa couldn’t help herself as she found her way to your side, kneeling next to you, “What are you doing?”

Her tone had been so soft with you since your miscommunication. You glanced up at her and gestured down to the plant, “It’s a sequoia tree. I’ve never grown one before…”

Larissa watched as you leveled out the soil, gently packing it down so the little tree stands upright. She hums in approval, watching your movements. 

“Would you like to try?” You ask, tilting the watering can over, thoroughly watering it in. 

“Try what?”

You hold out your hand, requesting hers in return. Obeying, she offers up her gloved hand.  You absentmindedly smile, gently pulling at the fingertips of the glove so you can slide it off, laying it off to the side. 

You push her palm down into the soil, laying both of yours on top. That familiar warmth travels from your chest and down your arms to your fingers. Larissa gasps as she feels the energy travel through her hand, down into the soil. In return, the sapling began to shift, its roots taking hold and the branches began to spread and its trunk expanding. 

You held Larissa there until the few inch sapling grew to nearly four feet tall, not wanting it too big. 

“Beautiful.” Larissa whispered still mesmerized by the sight of the tree in front of her.

You turn your head to make eye contact, once again mesmerized by Weems beauty, “Yes, beautiful…” 

In an instant you collided with one another, Larissa couldn’t help herself any longer. Her gloved hand and dirt covered hand pressed to the sides of your face as she covered your lips with hers. You felt desperate for her.  Her strong arms had you swept up in an instant. Her dirty hand remained on your face, while the other guided you into her lap. You were happy to oblige. 

Now straddling her lap, the intensity of the kiss built. Your mouth opened at the probing of her tongue, your own arms wrapping around Larissa’s neck. She caught your lip between her teeth causing you to let out a soft moan before diving back in. 

You continued like this, making out until you finally pulled away, her lips seemed to chase yours for a moment until she realized you needed a breather. Larissa stifled a laugh, brushing your face with her gloved hand to remove the muddy smudge that now graced your cheek, “This seems to be a trend between you and I.”

Link to Chapter 7

[the-b00k-keeper-k]

Omg the Cambridge Latin books? Please tell me that’s the book you’re talking about because well uh fun story about those

Starting in 6th grade everyone at my school took 4 years of Latin. Day 1 of middle school, everyone in my school read the same lines of Latin. And to this day, everyone in my school can still remember the same 3 lines. (There were 6 on the first page but no one actually remembers all of them except the 6th grades who have access to a Latin 1 textbook)

Caecilius est pater. Matella est mater. Quintus est filius.

Then I don’t remember the order but I think Clemens est servus. Cerberus est canis. Gumio est coqus. Don’t mind my spelling I haven’t been in Latin in like 2 years 😭😭

Bro I cried when mout Vesuvius erupted. I flipped through that book and saw the title and cover for the last chapter and I didn’t know what to do cause everyone was gonna die and I was 11 and what are you supposed to do cause Cerberus…

Thinking about how my Latin textbook’s first reading is about the Pompeiian family’s dog stealing food from the kitchen table, and the last one is about the same dog staying behind during the eruption to guard its dead master’s body… I need to lie down…

[littlepadika]

Calling Home (1) | Frankie Morales x Reader

Summary: You are a receptionist at the VA. Frankie Morales keeps calling. Yearning ensues...

Rating: M -> E in later chapters

Warnings: fem!reader, age gap (legal), praise kink, voice kink, discussion of addiction/PTSD/trauma, no use of y/n, no beta reader, reader is bad at Spanish, Frankie has a sexy voice 😩

Masterlist here

AN: My first fic. Pedro writers have inspired me to finally start writing again 🥺. Concept inspired by the movie RED. I hope you like it ❤️Set after triple frontier.

Chapter One

~~~~~~~~~~~

The first time he called was an ordinary Thursday.

“Veterans Affairs, how can I help you?”

You had been working at the VA office for about two weeks. Fresh out of college you felt lucky to have a job in the first place. You went to school to be a writer but your big idea for 'The Next Great American Novel' had yet to present itself. At least here you had access to the most inspiring stories and interesting people. Men and women who had seen more and done more than you probably would in your entire life. You loved talking to clients on the phone. It was weird but something about only being able to hear people’s voices excited you. You would sometimes write little stories in your head about the people you'd talk to, filling in the details that were unknown.

Your desk accessories reflected your love of books and writing. You had your growing collection of books sitting on your desk sandwiched between baby pink bookends. Next to them was a matching desk organizer filled with your favorite sparkly pens and sticky notes. You had decorated the plain cubicle walls with posters of quotes from your favorite books. You also brought your favorite candle from home. Even though you couldn’t light it you still liked to lift it to your nose once and a while and smell it between chapters. When you weren’t on the phone or scanning documents you would read. You finished To Kill A Mockingbird in your first week on the job and were now halfway through Murder on the Orient Express.

You were starting a new chapter when Frankie Morales called the first time.

You picked up the phone on the second ring already mustering your chipper 'customer service' voice. “Veterans affairs.” You stated your name. “How may I help you?”

“H-Hi. My name is Frankie- uh-Francisco Morales." A deep voice answered you. "I’m calling because I have gotten my benefits check yet. It’s been a month. I was hoping you could tell me if it got sent?”

“Okay Mr. Morales." You flipped on the computer. "Let me check. Can you spell your last name for me?”

“M-o-r-a-l-e-s”

“Okay... let's see.” You clicked on his account. You were momentarily distracted by his picture likely taken when he graduated basic if you had to guess based off the uniform. He looked sweet. Sharp nose and strong jaw balanced by kind eyes and a shy smile. You could imagine how age would continue to soften his expression making him even more handsome. The image was a strange juxtaposition to the voice you were hearing on the phone which was much deeper and rougher. His profile said he was special forces. A pilot. The rest of the information was blacked out. Something you were used to seeing on many people's accounts but even his years of service were redacted. He must have been involved in some dangerous stuff, you thought to yourself. The dates that were not redacted were mostly in Latin America. You clicked over to processing requests. “Looks like the check got sent one week ago.” You informed him.

"I'll look again but I haven't seen anything-" It sounded like he was apologizing when clearly it was not his fault.

"No no. It's probably a mistake on our end." You interrupted. With how shitty and outdated the payroll interface was you wouldn't be surprised if there was a mix up. "I’ll go ahead and let payroll know to send another."

"Great. Thanks." He replied sounding relieved. The roughness in his voice gave way to a smooth baritone.

“No problem. I'm sorry for any inconvenience it may have caused. We'll get it sent right away." You hoped he was not relying on this benefit check for anything important. While you could promise you'd fix the problem, the administration was notoriously slow. When he didn't respond you asked, "Is there anything else I can help you with today, Mr. Morales?”

“Uh-no" The roughness back in place. "Thank you." He paused before adding your name onto his thank you which made you smile. People usually never remembered your name.

“Alright. Have a nice day and thank you for your service.” You chirped before hanging up. The smile he put on your face lingered for a few minutes as you returned to your book.

The next time he called was exactly twelve days later.

“Veterans affairs” you answered, your routine greeting cut short as your eyes were still on your book.

“Hi- I’m calling because uh I still haven’t gotten my benefits check. This is Frankie Morales.”

“Oh Mr. Morales.” You recognized his voice even before he even said his name. You quickly shut your book, pushing your hair out of your face. Had you been thinking about him? No! Okay maybe you stared at his picture for a few minutes longer after he hung up. Yes, it was probably very unprofessional but you couldn't fight the curiosity. You were trying to rationalize the contrasting sharpness and softness of his features with his voice. How it all worked together. How one person's voice could change textures and colors so easily. You wondered what kind of things this man might have seen on the job. Most of the veterans you would help day to day did not have so many redacted missions and deployments. You were in the middle of Narcos season one so you immediately thought of drugs or something equally dangerous. After much pondering, you had come to the conclusion that Frankie Morales was both insanely attractive and insanely courageous. “Still no check, huh?”

“Nope.” He sighed the sound making the phone's shitty speaker crackle as you held it to your ear.

“Let me just check that it was approved...“ you found his profile again and scrolled to the status page. “Hmm... it says it was sent out last Friday after we spoke. That’s so weird...”

“Yeah. Really weird.” He echoed your frustration on the other end.

Typical payroll, you thought to yourself as you rolled your eyes. “I'll get another one sent to you right away. I'll see to it myself.” You tucked the phone under your chin and typed out a short email to Mary in payroll letting her know you'd be stopping by her office to explain the situation. You realized he hadn't hung up yet.

“Sorry for the back and forth.” You said, trying to fill the silence.

“It’s not your fault." The earlier irritation gone. "You’ve been really helpful.” His voice sounded warm and reassuring. Less gruff than it was last you spoke. Instead it was that rich baritone that you caught of glimpse of last time.

You feel your face warm at his compliment. It was this annoying reflex you had. Praise always made you blush no matter what context but it was worse when it came from a (you assume) gorgeous stranger.

“And just to verify that your address is correct- you’re on Maple Lane in Miami, Florida?”

“That’s right.” He confirmed.

“Okay. Sent!” You clicked send on the email, which caused the window to close and reveal Frankie’s profile page again. “I was curious-" You spoke before you really made the decision to speak. You didn’t want to overstep but once again your curiosity got the better of you. Honestly, you were just searching for a way to keep him on the phone. The day had been so boring.

“Your profile says you were stationed in Costa Rica.”

“For a bit.” He replied after a moment. He didn’t sound too defensive but there was definitely some tightness in his answer that made you feel bad for asking. Like you were scratching a wound.

“Did you like it? The country I mean.”

“Are you planning a trip?” He sounds a little amused.

“Yeah- well- kind of. It's more a trip in my head right now. I’d like to go there one day. It looks so beautiful.” You sighed closing your eyes trying to imagine the heat on your skin.

“It is." He agrees. "Really humid though.”

“Mm that sounds nice.” You would kill for some warm weather after such a long winter in DC.

“It was too muggy for me at times." He grumbled. "If you do go, stick to the costal areas where it’s more breezy or else you’ll just be sweating the whole time.”

“I don’t mind a little sweat” you shrugged, still thinking of the awful east coast winter you were currently suffering through. The sexual connotation of what you said hit you hard as soon as you heard the statement in its entirety. You felt your face flush again, though the man on the other end would never know.

“I’m learning Spanish!" You announced loudly trying to move the conversation past your awkwardness.

“Wow. Muy impressivo.”

“Si” you replied but after a moment you admit “I don’t really know what you said.”

Frankie laughed loudly on the other end and you couldn’t help but join in, drawing dirty looks from the elderly lady, Donna, working in the cubicle across from you. You ducked your head behind a stack of papers to avoid her glare.

“Fake it till you make it.” He chuckled.

“Maybe you should help me out.” You took on an indigent but still playful tone. “You sound better than duolingo” Your smile widened when he laughed again. His laugh was what you hoped it would be, by all your assumptions from his picture. It was an unencumbered, unburdened, rich sound with only a hit of roughness from the air behind it.

“Tell me you’re not using that dumb app to learn.” he scoffed, saying your name in an almost scolding tone.

“I’m got my thirty day streak today.” You boasted.

“You’ll be a total tourist if you go by duolingo.”

“But the owl is so cute every time I get something right!” You argued your voice taking on a more childish cadence.

“That’s how they trap you, silly girl.” He teased right back. Usually such a condescending nickname would piss you off but something about the affection behind him using it made you feel very differently. You felt warm like you were proud to be silly as long as it made him laugh.

“Then you saved me just in time, Mr. Morales.” You bit your lip. His scoffing and laughter died down on the other end.

“Frankie” He corrects you.

“Frankie…” You repeated it, smiling at how well the nick name suited the voice over the phone. Honest, sincere, and not pretentious at all. Way better than the pompous guys you know with equally stuffy names like “Edward” and “Christopher.”

“So what do you want to know?” Frankie interrupted your thoughts. “Dime”

You started asking him questions in Spanish to the best of your ability. Granted they weren't particularly probing questions. What is your name? What is your favorite color? What is your favorite animal? What's your favorite book? I am reading Gone Girl. He answered them all with patience and amusement, occasionally interrupting you to correct your pronunciation or explain what a word meant. Every time you’d repeat the word back correctly he would say something like “good” or “there you go” or “you got it”. You hated to admit that his kind words and his praise was doing something to you. You didn't even realize you were clenching your legs together unconsciously, almost in anticipation of his next correction or next answer. His low voice so sweet and encouraging against your ear, more tangible when he was speaking Spanish. You just wanted to hear more of it. Would it be this sweet in other situations? Would it get huskier or rougher? If you closed your eyes it was like he was sitting right next to you. It would be all too easy to slip into that daydream and escape the dull office.

Suddenly out of the corner of your drooping eyes you saw a flashing red light on the phone console meaning another caller was waiting.

“Shoot- i’m sorry, Frankie- I have to take this call.” You shot forward in your chair, legs uncrossing.

“Of-Of course. I should let you get back to work.” He sounded a little sad or so you hoped. You felt bad for interrupting him after you both were having so much fun. You wanted to say he could wait on hold but he killed that idea when he said, "I have work too. Technically I'm five minutes past my lunch break."

Your pout turned to a smile. He was spending his precious lunch break with you? Get a grip! you snapped at yourself.

“You’re welcome to call again if you want.” You threw out the offer in a small voice, scared you would be rejected. You peered over the cubicle wall to see if you were still being glared at. Thankfully Donna was away from her desk. Probably out for a smoke. “It’s really boring here and usually no one calls.”

“Maybe I will.” He replied and you could hear the smile behind those words. You felt your heart clench weirdly in your chest like it didn't know how to process the sudden spike in emotions.

“Bye, Frankie.” You beamed.

“Bye”

This time the smile on your face lasted for hours. Frankie’s laugh echoed around in your head, taunting you, sending your mind to the gutter. His voice went from grit to molasses on a dime. You wanted to be the one to bring out those sounds. You wanted to hear his voice bend and stretch and strain as you fucked him. What the hell is wrong with me? you screamed internally. You had never been so depraved and with a stranger no less! You clearly needed to get laid fast because this much yearning would not end well.

Frankie got the second VA check a few days later and this time he didn’t even feel bad about ripping it in half. He was already reaching for the phone to call you.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Tags: Message to be added 💕 no minors please!

[insecateur]

OK OK SO SINCE WE ARE HAVING FRENCH ANECDOTES. I remember in middle school or whatever u wanna call that period between 11-15 (I personally go w hell on earth) we were given choices for like. Misc classes? The main 2 options I wanted to pick at that moment where computer and french, which were taken up by everybody else. I ended up taking latin

I ALSO TOOK LATIN IN MIDDLE SCHOOL!!! i can give you an anecdote back i always share that one bc i think it's silly.

so i took latin all of middle school (we have 4 years of middle school here and you can start taking latin from the 2nd year and i did that and kept it up until the end of middle school) i actually really enjoyed it i thought it was fun and interesting and i liked that it gave me edgy quotes to use for my rp characters.

then when i got to high school and we could take options on top of regular classes and stuff like first language and second language i wanted to take art and latin. BUT FOR SOME REASON nobody out of the people coming up with the schedules thought anybody would do this (which is weird to me but ok) so when i got my schedule i suddenly realized that i had like. latin classes and art classes at the same time.

unfortunately i am not able to travel thru time so i had to drop latin and i just gave up and took art and art instead lol (yeah there were two art options. basically art and art+ i guess)

[repost-this-image]

Medieval Europe and SW Asia in One Post

Fun fact for those outside the US: Americans are mostly taught the history of our own country in K-12 schools. (In some states, badly.) We get 9-10 years of US history, 1 year that’s divided up between Civics (how the US government works) and the history of the individual state you’re in, and 1-2 years of World History that does NOT cover anything in Europe or SW Asia after the fall of Rome. Which means that to learn that stuff, you either have to take those history courses in college/university, or do a lot of independent reading.

I did a lot of independent reading.

So here’s a brief overview in very broad strokes of Europe and SWA from roughly 450 - 1600 CE. If you want to know more, I highly recommend the YT channel Extra Credit Extra History. It is well-researched, worded in a way that isn’t as horribly dry as the Durants’ books, and comes in bite-sized pieces that you can enjoy on the go.

(History behind the cut.)

The Fall of Rome and the Early Middle Ages

OK, first of all, only the western half of the Roman Empire actually fell in the fifth century CE. Everything from roughly Greece on eastward stayed Roman under the new capital of Constantinople. Constantinople had its own large library and was a center of learning and culture to rival Rome in its heyday. (This is important to remember for later.)

In Europe, you mostly had a bunch of tiny kingdoms under feudal lords, with the Catholic Church being a sort of cultural glue holding everything together. Most people were illiterate, but the Catholic clergy kept as much ancient knowledge preserved as they could, all in Latin. Most people could speak Latin as a result of the Roman Empire taking over their country a few centuries back, so it made sense as a universal language for Europe.

Because most educated people were in the clergy, the Catholic Church became not just a major religious power, but a huge political power as well.

Meanwhile, the Arabian peninsula was mostly a bunch of warring tribes until the late 7th century CE, when this guy named Mohammed united the Arabs under a religion he called The Way of Peace, or as most of us know it today, Islam.

The Muslims proceed to not only form a pretty strong nation known as the Caliphate, but to take over almost all of SWA (Constantinople and a bit of modern-day Turkey held firm), the Sahara Desert, and the Iberian peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal) within 100 years of Mohammed’s death. This is one of the most rapid expansions of an empire in history. Everybody was taught Arabic, and the Caliphate took a strong interest in learning and preserving as much knowledge as they could. In terms of cultural advancement, you could think of them as basically Rome 2.0.

In the 9th century, this guy known as Charlemagne the Frank is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope and proceeds to take over France and most of central Europe. He stops the expansion of the Caliphate from going past the Pyrenees mountains too. The Holy Roman Empire (which still doesn’t actually include any of Italy, much less Rome itself) remains a major player for like 900 years.

France itself has two French languages by this point, named by how you say "yes." Langue d'oui will become standard modern French. Langue d'oc, also known as Occitan, is still spoken to this day but is slowly dying out.

Britain and Ireland are, at this point, minor insignificant little islands that nobody in mainland Europe cares about, except for the Vikings, which do a lot of pillaging and also establish quite a few towns and territories in Ireland, Britain, and an area of northern France that gets the name “Normandy” from all these Northern invaders.

Meanwhile, a bunch of feudal lords are expanding their holdings into little kingdoms, bringing about the High Middle Ages.

The High Middle Ages

Then in 1066, a couple of centuries after the Vikings settle in Normandy, a Norman named William decides to conquer England. All of England’s royalty for the last 1000 or so years have been descended from William the Conqueror.

Meanwhile, the Ottoman Turks have taken over the Caliphate and called it the Ottoman Empire. This empire will stand until WWI (no really).

“Oh No,” says Pope Urban VI, “Muslims have taken over the Holy Land! That’s where Jesus lived and stuff!” So he begs the nobles of Europe to go on a crusade to take back Jerusalem. This goes horribly. There are ten Crusades over the next couple of centuries. They are mainly notable for how sadistically cruel European knights were in their butchery of the Jewish and Muslim people living in the Levant. None of them succeed at retaking it.

Meanwhile, Eleanor of Aquitaine, a French noblewoman, marries King Henry II of England. If you know the Robin Hood story, then you know her 2 kids: Richard (the Lionheart) and John II.

John II was disliked by the people because he was very, very bad at making war. So the nobles came up to him and had him sign the Magna Carta, which established the British Parliament.

Traveling minstrels called troubadours are totally the latest musical craze at this point. They mostly write in Occitan and are the source of a pretty big chunk of the European secular music that's survived from the Middle Ages.

In the 12th century, the Ottomans finally do what they’ve been trying to do for centuries and take Constantinople. And one of the first things they do is start translating all the ancient books into Arabic so they can learn lots of Cool Stuff.

Traders then bring this Cool Stuff, including new numerals they adapted from the ones used in India, to Europe, where it gets translated again into Latin and the educated classes go gaga for all the new old knowledge.

But wait, time out, says the Catholic Church. You can’t use those new Arabic numerals. The Roman numerals are what we’ve been using for centuries and we’re pretty sure that it’s like, blasphemy or something to not use Roman numerals. A bunch of cities actually banned Arabic numerals for years until the Church came around and realized that God probably doesn’t care how you write numbers and also Arabic numerals are way easier to work with.

The Late Middle Ages a.k.a. The Renaissance

So now we’ve got good times in Europe. Kingdoms have been gradually expanding, so there are fewer tiny little fiefdoms dotting the land and more moderate-sized kingdoms. Traders are getting Cool Stuff from Asia. Crops are doing well. Yeah, things still suck if you’re Jewish, but for the Christian majority, things are going pretty good.

And then the plague happened.

The Black Death killed off about 1/3 of Europe’s population at the time, and kept coming back in waves from 1352 all the way to 1666. Nobody knew exactly how it was spread, except that it might be through the air. It’s terrifying for everyone, because unlike famines, the rich can’t buy their way out of a plague.

At the same time, things are heating up in England and France.

You know how Eleanor of Aquitaine was a French noblewoman? That technically, according to France, made the English king a vassal, or subject, of the king of France. And Edward III was all "No way, bite me" and France was like "Yo mama" and they started the Hundred Years' War.

(It was technically 119 years long, but when the war's that long already, what's a couple of decades, amirite?)

England ended up taking over most of France at one point, a French peasant girl named Joan wore armor because she believed she'd gotten a message from God, and by the end, France owned France again.

Meanwhile, England had just gone from "a tiny insignificant country on some island that Europe doesn't really care about" to a major player. They fought a war against France! And held their own for most of it! And France had been a big deal pretty much since Charlemagne!

The Bohemians in what is now the Czech Republic tried to start their own church and their own democracy in one fell swoop, and the Church came down hard on them.

The Cathar Christians in the region of France known as Albi caught the Church's attention as well, and since the Cathars were essentially heretics, the brutal Albigensian Crusade wiped out entire villages.

Meanwhile, the Church's view on witchcraft has changed.

See, for most of the Middle Ages, the official view was that if you accused your neighbor of witchcraft, that meant you were a heretic, because you believed in supernatural powers other than God and the devil. So people didn't do a lot of accusing people of witchcraft.

But with plague going on, and people needing easy scapegoats, and a lot of medieval people really hating on women (see: Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and the dude who wrote the Malleus Malificarum), you had a recipe for Bad Times. Jewish people, people with leprosy, and Romani were blamed too, because they got blamed for most everything. But now, people were very focused on the idea that the devil was making trouble by tricking women into practicing the Dark Arts.

Thus, western Europe began hunting "witches." This is not the same thing as the Inquisition, although they happened at the same time. And no, most of the accused were not actually witches, nor were they Pagans. Wicca didn't exist yet either. Please stop stating these things as undisputed fact. I am begging you.

This also meant that a lot of zealous would-be witch-hunters were killing cats, and since cats keep the rat population down, and the plague was spread by the fleas on those rats, you can imagine how well that went.

Anyway, despite all the doom and gloom, Italy was having a Renaissance of ancient art styles, featuring cool people like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and a bunch of other dudes who didn't have Ninja Turtles named after them but were still pretty great.

In the Holy Roman Empire, this dude named Gutenberg figures out movable type, and immediately uses it to print out Bibles in both Latin and German, so that everybody can read the Bible and you don't have to go all squinty reading hand-written copies in the church that are so expensive that they have to be chained down.

And then there's Spain.

The Reconquista and Why It Ruined Everything

Spain, as you'll recall, was mostly ruled by the Ottoman Empire. There was a lot of splitting up and reshuffling of kingdoms there for a while, but in the late 15th century, the young rulers Ferdinand of Castille and Isabela of Aragon decide to take Spain back. And since they're Catholics, this Reconquista (literally "reconquest") basically meant "kick out all the Jews and Muslims from Spain and take all their stuff."

So now the royal couple has a ton of stolen liberated gold in the treasury, and they want to trade with the Indies and get even richer. And when this dude from Genoa comes along saying he thinks the earth is smaller than everybody says it is and you can totally just sail west to get to the Indies, Isabela's like "Sure, I've got money to burn. Here are 3 ships."

And that is how Christopher Columbus ruined everything for the Native Americans, and as an added bonus, introduced syphilis to Europe and ruined things for a lot of people there. But the Spanish got rich AF and that's what matters, right?

Meanwhile, because Spain is Catholic now, it gets permission from the Church to run its own special Inquisition in order to find any remaining Jews, Muslims, or heretics in Spain. If you know anything about the Spanish Inquisition other than the Monty Python meme, then you understand why this is a Very Bad Thing.

The Sixteenth Century

At the same time, Spain was also fighting England and France over Flanders.

Not Homer Simpson's neighbor but the region of Flanders, which is now Belgium and parts of the Netherlands. Everybody basically wanted to take over Flanders and get hold of its awesome natural resources.

Everybody also wanted to take over as much of the New World as possible and send expeditions over there, especially since there was a chance there might be a Northwest Passage to Asia so they can get those sweet, sweet Asian spices without having to travel overland. Unfortunately, the Americas go north as far as the ice caps, and south almost to Antarctica (which the Europeans still don't know exists yet), so that's not happening.

In Rome, the Catholic Church is using money from the sale of indulgences to build some church or whatever. Martin Luther, a German monk, is Not Amused and nails up 95 reasons why, thus starting the Protestant Reformation.

In England, Henry VIII is busy having a lot of wives, starting his own church, and basically being a rather poor king, overall.

The Portuguese are mad because they feel like they've gotten the short end of the stick. So the Pope decrees that everything east of a certain latitude in South America goes to Portugal, and everything west of the line goes to Spain. Which would be awesome except that South America has a lot more land west of the line than east of it. But the kings of Spain and Portugal are bound by the Church's decree, and there are no take-backsies.

Spain has the most powerful navy in Europe at this point. It's even called the Invincible Armada. Until 1588 when Queen Elizabeth I raises up the new most powerful navy in Europe and kicks the Armada's collective ass.

Meanwhile, a fringe sect of Christians in England believe that the Anglican Church is too much like Catholicism. One group believes that it needs to be "purified" of Catholic influence. The other believes that they need to just completely separate from the Church of England altogether. Because these are views that could easily make you a head shorter (if you get my meaning), they move to the Netherlands, where there's freedom of religion. This is unusual. In most of Europe at the time, you had to be the same exact kind of Christian as the king, or at least pretend to be. Anyway, this is a fairly small group of people, and I'm sure they'll have no real influence on events in the future--

Ohmygod, they just settled New England. And rather than wanting freedom of religion, they want everybody to follow their church. Whoopsie.

So that's the Middle Ages in a nutshell, or at least the parts of it that I know about and can remember off the top of my head. Please read more about this stuff instead of relying solely on this post. It'll get you a bit of knowledge, but it's hardly the equivalent of taking an entire course on medieval history.

[nuttysaladtree]

The original tags:

#goncharov#pronounciation#languages#russian language#today I remembered that tweet that’s like white people can’t pronounce POC names but they can say Tchaikovsky. and I kinda hate it because#no they can’t they cannot pronounce Tchaikovsky at all. please get a better example#English speakers of any race usually say chai-COUGH-skeee. that’s equivalent to white people calling jalapeños holla-PEEN-yo’s#also when I was in like middle school I took this summer cooking class thing and one day the teacher was quizzing us on food from around the#world and she asked us if we know where pillmini are from. nobody knew so she said they’re actually a type of Russian dumpling! my jaw#dropped when I realized she was trying to say пельмени (pyel’myeni) like ain’t no way#anyway how do you guys say Goncharov#not that there’s a right or wrong way to pronounce a fictional name unlike those real words in the other tags I’m just curious#I mean there’s a right way to pronounce a real person’s name if they’re actually called goncharov but I’m talking about the character

Stupid cot-caught merger! #%^*ing hurry-furry merger!

Something like /ˌgɒntʃɹɒf/ or -v? I am unfamiliar with IPA, tried speaking super fast to transcribe the most "natural" pronunciation, cried at the table and footnotes at https://enwp.org/Help:IPA/English, and tried my best to verify it with http://ipa-reader.xyz (reliability unknown). IPA aside, in English, Goncharov is more dactylic (stress-unstressed-unstressed) than amphibrachic (unstressed-stressed-unstressed).

I know no Latin (and barely know a Romance language as it is), so I once asked someone who learned Latin if Cicero's name is really pronounced [ˈkɪkɛroː]. And she said, "It's [ˈkɪkɛroː] in Latin and /ˈsɪsəroʊ/ in English."

If we, in that vein, take Russian name and English name to differ from each other, I wonder if it is more about genuine effort than actual versimilitude to the original. @\becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys (ai think) posted earlier this year expressing her frustration at an English lecturer just did not even try to pronounce Welsh words relevant to the lecture they were giving (this is in the context of centuries of the English systemic destroying and displaying contempt for the Welsh language and culture). There's the @\proZD skit where he's literally teaches monolingual English-language speakers how to say his name (SungWon) and he shows in his experience that they're not even close ("Sonwin???" is how the skit goes, I think) even though fairly close sounds exist in English.

Can you guys rb this or comment with how you pronounce “Goncharov”? I didn’t really think anything of it until one of my friends said it out loud and I was like huh? I think it’s interesting how people can have different pronunciations of a word or name they’ve never heard out loud in their head an not question it. For reference, I’m a native Russian speaker and I’ve always read it like gohn-CHArohv and my US American friend said GAHNCHA-rahv.