#vocab post

[jesncin]

Happy Pride! Now that Lunar Boy (our middle grade graphic novel) is out, we wanted to share our thought process behind queer vocabulary in media. The constant censorship, imposed western biases on queer culture, and what it means to introduce queer vocabulary to a young audience.

Check out Lunar Boy wherever american graphic novels are sold, or check it out at a library!

[haru-dipthong]

Did you know that the english word “star” and the japanese word 星（ほし）don’t actually mean the same thing?

Language does not simply name pre-existing categories; categories do not exist in 'the world'

— Daniel Chandler, Semiotics for Beginners

I read this quote a few years ago, but I don’t think I truly understood it until one day, when I was looking at the wikipedia article for “star” and I thought to check the Japanese article, see if I could get some Japanese reading practice in. I was surprised to find that the article was not titled 「星」, but 「恒星」, a word I’d never seen before. I’d always learnt that 星 was the direct translation for “star” (I knew the japanese also contained meanings the english didn’t, like “dot” or “bullseye”, but I thought these were just auxiliary definitions in addition to the direct translation of “star” as in "a celestial body made of hydrogen and helium plasma").

To try and clear things up for myself, I searched japanese wikipedia for 星. It was a disambiguation page, with the main links pointing to the articles for 天体 (astronomical object) and スター（記号）(star symbol). There was no article just called 「星」.

It’s an easy difference to miss, because in everyday conversation, 星 and star are equivalent. They both describe the shining lights in the night sky. They both describe this symbol: ★. They even both describe those enormous celestial objects made of plasma.

But they are different - different enough to not share a wikipedia article. 星 is used to describe any kind of celestial body, especially if it appears shiny and bright in the night sky. “Star” can be used this way too (like Venus being called the “morning star”), but it’s generally considered inaccurate to use the word like this, whereas there is no such inaccuracy with 星. You can say “oh that’s not actually a star, it’s a planet”, but you CAN’T say 「実はそれは星ではなく惑星だよ」 (TL: that’s not actually a hoshi, it’s a planet). A planet IS a 星.

星 is a very common word, essentially equivalent to “star”, but its meaning is closer to “celestial body”. I haven’t looked into the etymology/history but it’s almost like both english and japanese started out with a simple, common word for the lights in the sky - star/星 , but as we found out more about what these lights actually were, english doubled down on using the common word for the specific scientific concept, while japanese kept the common word generic and instead came up with a new word for the more specific concept. If this is actually what happened, I’d guess that kanji probably had something to do with it - 星 as a component kanji exists inside the word for planet, 惑星, and in the word for comet, 彗星, and in the scientific word for “star”, 恒星, so it makes sense that it would indicate a more general concept when used standalone.

This discovery helped me understand that quote - categories don’t exist in the world, we are the ones who create them. I thought that the concept of “star” was something that would be consistent across all languages, but it’s not, because the concept of “star” is not pre-existing. Each language had to decide how to name each of those similar star-like concepts (the ★ symbol, hot balls of gas, twinkling lights in the sky, planets, comets, etc), and obviously not every language is going to group those concepts under the same words with the same nuance.

Knowing this, one might be tempted to say that 恒星（こうせい） is the direct translation for “star”. But this isn’t true either. In most of the contexts that the word “star” is used in english, the equivalent japanese will be simply 星. Despite the meanings not lining up exactly, 星 will still be the best translation for “star” most of the time. This is the art of translation - knowing when the particulars are less important than the vibe or feel of a word. For any word, there will never be an exact perfect translation with all the same nuances and meanings. Translation is about finding the best solution to an unsolvable problem. That's why I love it.

[quijicroix]

Sorry not to be a camera nerd but in IWTV S2 ep2, 3 and 4 Louis in Paris having a Rolleiflex and a Leica specifically for Armand is so significant to me!!! Two cameras used at the same point in time but not by the same people.

First the Rolleiflex.

For the the Rolleiflex to work- you have to take a lil bow before your subject. This is because the viewing mirror is on top of the camera's body, so to see what the lens sees you have to incline. A lot a photographers said utilising this camera is also showing humility in front of the subject specially in street style photography (Robert Doisneau said that the Rolleiflex is like gathering images and the Leica like hunting for them, he also was convinced that the Rolleiflex was an "ethic of life and art" not betraying the subject you are trying to capture). You have to take your time and bow before them. (showing also the fact that louis struggles with not admiring humans )

Now the Leica

The Leica on the other hand put you on the same level as the model. The mirror is in a more traditional position at eye level. And is more favoured for fleeting subject, at least one street photographer as describe the Leica's style of photo as "hunting" for faces capturing the moment ( i think it's Janine Niépce or Henri Cartier-Bresson but don't quote me on this). It's really interesting that he photographs Armand with it , capture the fleeting aspect of his nature ,he is being hunted or they are hunting together ,and they are equals in Louis's eyes.

The style of photo he is taking in ep 4 is called "Humanist photography".

The mouvement in France was criticised for being a postcard image of paris, cliché, naïve and not political enough. And giving a romantic image of Paris after the tragédie of the WW2. It focuses mainly on people, often doing daily mondain activities, Humanist photography really liked cafés and bars. The paradox was despite the cliché exterior a lot of pictures were of working class people (we can see that in the pics he gives to Daniel in ep 2, louis has a very similar choice of subject mater and view of the world, taking portraits of his working class lovers and of Parisians in restaurants). The goal was to heal post war Paris and to show a new beginning. (echoing louis owns personal struggles of finding his new self and a new lover in paris, but also the rose tinted glasses he has on this time has a tourist)

Also in post war paris this is sososos significant in the history of photographie hahhahha my nerd heart is dying....

[gammija]

im being so serious btw if any of you have links to an influencer speaking exactly like Madam E, please send them. cus atm, this is living rent-free, as they say. my roman empire

[ruhua-langblr]

小红书 Vocab

小红书 (also referred to as xiaohongshu or XHS) is a Chinese image-based social media platform. It is a combination of the feed, likes, shopping, and video aspects of instagram, with the ~aesthetics~ and majority female audience of pintrest. I've grown really fond of it and found that it's algorithm is better than instagram and MUCH better than pintrest with giving me content I enjoy.

I'm going to offer some vocab that is either unique to the platform, or slang that is found on the platform (esp in bullet comments). I don't want this to be too long, so some terms may be omitted if they are found on many other social media apps

APP 小红书: Literally "Little Red Book". Probably a play off of Chairman Mao's book of speeches and writings which is also referred to as the Little Red Book. The app is not at all political, but more so trying to evoke the "essentiality" and "knowledge" aspect of the term. 笔记: Notes. XHS's name for its posts 收藏: Favorites. Separate from likes, these are bookmarked collections. This and Likes can be hidden 赞过: Likes. Notes that you "heart" will appear here. 关注: Notes from people you follow 发现: Discovery tab 附近: Recent notes

CONTENT 直播: Live-Streams 美甲: Nail Art 穿搭: Style 美食: Food 发型: Hairstyling 头像: Avatars/Profile Pictures 动漫: Animation and Comics 彩妆: Makeup 壁纸: Wallpapers 绘画: Drawing/Art 护肤: Skincare 影视: Film/TV 游行: Travel 减肥: Weight Loss 家居: Home 家装: Interior Design 学习: Studying 读书: Reading 情感: Romance 攝影: Photography 手工: Crafts 文化: Culture 游戏: Video Games 音乐: Music 舞蹈: Dance 搞笑: Comedy 明星: Stars 文具手: Stationary 校园生活: School Life 心里: Psychology 科学科普: Science 艺术: Art 社科: Social Sciences 萌龙: Cute 综艺: Variety 箱包: Handbags 潮鞋: Sneakers 健体塑型: Bodybuilding 职场: Office 婚礼: Wedding 汽车: Automobiles 潮玩手办: Collectable Figures 母婴: Parenting 机车: Motorbikes 户外: Outdoors 运动: Sports 露营: Camping COMMENTS (Things you'll see in tags/descriptions/bullet comments) PLOG: Picture blog. Usually like a blog, but with photos/photo collage (also sometimes vlogs get this tag even though they're videos) 爱自己的100种方式: Originally from a feature on Douyin that would give a "treat yourself" style prompt if you comment this phrase 泰酷辣: Cool. Took off from this meme. “太酷啦” 上岸: Similar to "Goals". Usually posted to applaud an achievement/amazing life experience 巨: Super. Usually used in describing really tasty food “巨巨巨好吃” cos: Cosplay emo: The original meaning—emotional. More often used to mean a depressed mood than the style/subculture 磕: to ship a couple (cp) For the Lesbians t: Tomboy/masc lesbian (Sub-types include 铁t，奶t，娘t, 爷t, 长发t, 短发t) p: Femme lesbian (p said to come from "Pretty girl" or “婆”） h: neither femme nor masc/futch le/les/啦啦: Lesbian 双女主: F/F couple (IRL or in fiction) 淘淘乐/TTL：T/T relationship 泡泡龙/PPL: P/P relationship 黄鹤楼HI: H/H relationship TPL: T/P relationship 🐟: Ultra passive bottoms

[junietuesday]

hello revalink nation 💖

[chainymail]

got my shit rocked during longsword sparring and moved into a new apartment in the same day. oh for a loyal and generous squire to prepare me for bed and suck me off and dress my wounds and so forth 🙄🙄

[gimmethemprimals]

🌊 wavecrest-confessions  Follow

whenever I see someone making fun of the tidelords disappearance I get SO angry. Its just so insensitive to water dragons, and it ALWAYS comes from a wind, earth, or ice dragon. Like I don’t think you have any ground to stand on guys, your deities are still more neglectful than the tidelord and he’s not even here

❄️ ice-ice-baby  Follow

Dude your god has been gone for so long his long lost children came back before him

🪨 freshpebble-deactivated

Aren’t you the one who carved your fanart of femboy Icewarden into the side of the pillar.

❄️ ice-ice-baby  Follow

???? You’re literally a shade apologist

💫 see-the-stars  Follow

HOW ARE THERE SHADE APOLOGISTS ON DRUMBLR IN THIS DAY AND AGE I THOUGHT THEY WERE ONLY ON DRITTER

🍃 riding-high  Follow

are we gonna just brush over the femboy icewarden thing

🦅 talonafan2477  Follow

@ see-the-stars the Arcanist is the ORIGINAL shade apologist what are you talking about

🦅 talonafan2477  Follow

btw “ice ice baby” is apart of from clan froststep that has a history of supporting the gaolers during the freezeflash war and thus the destruction of the banescales

🌑 walkingshadows Follow

Yeah but what about the femboy icewarden thing

🔥 its-gettin-hot  Follow

you can excuse genocide but draw the line at femboy icewarden?

🌑 walkingshadows Follow

im not drawing the line i just wanna see it myself

🌺 bug-claws Follow

thats fair

[carehounds]

Its not that the batteries are meant to represent yellows intelligence In any way to be honest i think its more akin to constant fatigue and having a disability that hinders how well your thoughts and words come out more than anything. Hes always been a smart boy. having trouble with words or expressing his thoughts doesn't make him any less smarter than he is!!!

[nihongoseito]

today's vocab

nouns:

下戸（げこ） = non-drinker

矛先（ほこさき） = focus (of attack, criticism, etc.), target

性癖（せいへき） = disposition, inclination, propensity

口封じ（くちふうじ） = preventing someone from revealing something; killing someone to prevent them from revealing something (slang)

ダンマリ = being taciturn, keeping silent; giving no notice/warning

幽閉（ゆうへい） = confinement, imprisonment

上流階級（じょうりゅうかいきゅう） = upper class, the elite

殺気（さっき） = bloodlust

餌食（えじき） = prey, victim (incl. metaphorical)

命拾い（いのちびろい） = narrow escape from death

様子見（ようすみ） = wait-and-see (e.g., situation)

verbs:

咎める（とがめる） = to blame, censure, criticize

乗っ取る（のっとる） = to take over, seize, commandeer

adjectives:

はかない = fleeting, transient; empty, faint (e.g., possibility)

天下（てんか）の = peerless, incomparable

adverbs/onomatopoeiae:

ズバリと = decisively, boldly, once and for all

expressions:

真（ま）に受ける（うける） = to take seriously, take someone at their word

胸糞（むなくそ）が悪い（わるい） = disgusting, sickening

〜の端くれ（はしくれ） = a mere 〜 such as i (e.g., role, job)

[anghraine]

It feels extremely silly that only today did I realize that pantry and panadería are slightly similar-sounding for a reason >_>

(The English word pantry is one of the many, many common modern English words derived from Anglo-French: in this case, panetrie, from Old French paneterie, "bread room" ... Spanish panadería also has a complex etymology, but all are related to Latin panis, "bread.")

[haru-dipthong]

Utena Fansub Ep 15 release + Japanese vocab highlights

Last episode release I did a lot of textual analysis, because that was the most interesting part of the episode by far. This time, the episode was packed with interesting Japanese vocab, so I'll be focusing on that today!

ミルクセーキ作ったけど…　飲む？

I made some milk with honey. Want any?

If you’ve been following me since before the Utena fansub project, you’ll know that I sometimes post about what I call Trap Words in Japanese — loanwords that a typical English speaker might read and think “oh, thats a katakana-ised version of X” and be completely wrong about! For example, コンセント (konsento) is not “consent” but “power outlet/socket” (coming from a katakana conversion and then abbreviation of “concentric plug”). This is a mini trap words post!

I lied in this line. He didn’t make milk and honey. He made ミルクセーキ (mirukusēki). What is mirukusēki? A typical J→E dictionary would translate it as… Milkshake. But what a Japanese person imagines when they hear ミルクセーキ and what an English speaker imagines when they hear “milkshake” are COMPLETELY different.

I think of it like the word アニメ (anime). What does the Japanese word アニメ mean? It means “cartoon”. To a Japanese person, Tom and Jerry is アニメ. What does the English word “anime” mean? It means a specific style and genre of specifically Japanese animation. To an English speaker, Tom and Jerry is not anime. アニメ and “anime” are two different words with different meanings, despite sharing some history and sharing the same romanised form, because they are words in two different languages.

ミルクセーキ (mirukusēki) is a loanword from English which comes from “milkshake”, just like アニメ comes from “animation”. But a ミルクセーキ is not a milkshake. A ミルクセーキ usually contains eggs like an eggnog, it usually does not contain ice cream but instead crushed ice (thus being much less viscous), it’s seen as more of an after dinner nightcap type drink (similar to milk and honey!!) while the English “milkshake” is seen as a lunchtime drink usually accompanying fast food.

The Japanese wikipedia article for ミルクセーキ mentions that there are two types. One is “french style” which is the one Miki makes and the only thing that comes up if you put ミルクセーキ into google images. The other is “american style” and the reason it doesn’t come up on google images is because it’s much more often referred to as シェーキ (shēki) which when said aloud sounds much closer to “shake” than “sēki”. So the real translation for “milkshake” is シェーキ. What does that mean for ミルクセーキ ? Well, it’s its own thing! It’s a Japanese drink called mirukusēki that happens to be confusingly named after the English “milkshake”.

Anyway. I decided to translate this as “milk and honey” because that was the most appropriate term I could think of that they might drink in bed, presumably to help them sleep. Also the consistency and colour of the drink in the show looks kind of like milk and honey.

Miki: ちゅうちゅうってかわいいですね！ Utena: ちゅうちゅうじゃなくて、チュチュだよ。ちゅうちゅうじゃまるでねずみじゃないか？

Miki: Choo-Choo is so cute, isn't he? Utena: It’s not Choo-Choo, it’s Chuchu. Choo-Choo makes him sound like a train.

This line was also a lie! Utena actually says “mouse” not “train”. チューチュー (chūchū — note the long vowel ū) is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a mouse squeaking (which you may know from Pokemon — Pikachu’s name comes from the sound of a sparkle, pika, and the sound of a mouse, chū). Utena’s actually pointing out that Chuchu is not quite a mouse, not quite a monkey.

The option most translators would opt for in this situation would be to translate directly and keep the “mouse” bit. But since this translation project prioritises natural language, I chose to make the comparison work with an English onomatopoeia. I want the audience to think “huh that was weird, I guess it was hard to translate that line” as LITTLE as possible!

んんー、ああ。君にも迷惑かけたな。実は迷惑ついでにちょっと相談があるんだミッキー。

Oh, fine. Sorry for worrying you. By the way, I had something I wanted to talk to you about. (note lack of green)

A more literal translation would be:

Oh fine. I worried you, didn’t I? Speaking of taking up your time, I had something I wanted to talk to you about.

迷惑 (meiwaku) is the sticky part of this translation. The Japanese concept of 迷惑 is quite strange to most English speakers. Here are some examples of when you might experience 迷惑:

When someone’s late and you need to wait for them.

When you’re going somewhere and someone sees you and pulls you aside into a conversation.

When you go to use a public toilet and the seat has piss on it.

Here are some examples that aren’t really 迷惑, but it’s polite to say that they are:

When you get hurt - apologise for causing 迷惑 to people who worried about you.

When someone does something nice for you - apologising for causing 迷惑 implies that they spent a lot of time for your benefit and you appreciate that.

I guess a good definition of 迷惑 would be “when someone’s actions cause someone else to lose time, money, or cause them to become upset.” But we don’t have a word for that in English that sounds right in this kind of context! There’s no word that can mean both “worrying someone due to a having a fall” and “taking up their time on the way to class”. So although the teacher says “speaking of 迷惑”, I just had to skip that part because I couldn’t work it in. I couldn’t make the two concepts connected enough for it to sound natural.

Thank you to my amazing editor @dontbe-lasanya for their great work as always!

Make sure to follow the blog if you want to see more posts like this, or if you just want to follow along with the fansub releases! To see all episodes released so far, go here:

Rose divider taken from this post

[bestanimal]

Round 2 - Arthropoda - Pauropoda

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

Pauropoda is a class of small, pale, millipede-like arthropods. They are composed of two orders: the Hexamerocerata with eleven pairs of legs and telescopic antennae and the Tetramerocerata with eight to ten pairs of legs and short, non-telescopic antennae.

Pauropods live in soil and leaf litter worldwide, feeding on mold, fungi, and occasionally the root hairs of plants. They are small, soft-bodied animals, only 0.3 to 2 mm in length. They do not have eyes, though they do have sensory organs which detect light. Long, sensory hairs called trichobothria are located throughout their body segments. Their anal plate is distinctive, helping distinguish between species.

Like centipedes, pauropods do not mate directly. Males place a sperm packet on the ground for females to find. Females deposit the fertilized eggs on the ground and subsequently abandon them. Tetrameroceratans hatch with three pairs of legs and Hexameroceratans with six, adding a new segment after each molt in a process called anamorphosis. Pauropods will continue molting even after their adult number of segments is reached, without adding any further segments or legs.

Propaganda under the cut:

Gif comes from this video. Look at him sniffin around!

The first pauropod discovered was found by Lord Avebury in his own garden in London in 1866. He wrote of the creature: “Pauropus huxleyi is a bustling, active, neat and cleanly creature. It has, too, a look of cheerful intelligence, which forms a great contrast to the dull stupidity of the Diplopods, or the melancholy ferocity of most Chilopods.” (Which, kinda rude, but y’know)

Only one fossil species is known, Eopauropus balticus, which was found in mid-Eocene Baltic amber.

[billymayslesbian]

you guys gotta think critically abt posts you reblog im getting so sick of this shit

[aurantiumred]

as a man who has not only never read or interacted with the dc universe and has only had their partner ramble jason todd lore to them like. once or twice.i should not have the idea of a percy jackson/justice league crossover stuck in my head this hard.

trying to imagine the cabin counselors sitting in on meetings and absolutely causing havoc. falling over in their chairs, giving wonderful ideas like "kill that loser! throw a hairbrush at em!" about literally EVERY villain and trying to organize a capture the flag game with the JL vs CHB and/or CJ is hilarious to me

i would also love a jason todd/grace meet up. because the sillies.

[adhd-languages]

Learning through immersion

(Specifically Spanish, for intermediate-advanced learners. Most of this can be used for any language though)

Consume native content without looking up anything. Just enjoy it. (Something written, or something which has a transcript/subtitles)

Now consume it a second time

Write down any interesting sentences. (Ideally with pen and paper, for it to stick)

Anything that has something that looks like a word you know, but is in a tense you’re not sure, just a new use of a tense, some interesting expression or vocab…

Go onto SpanishDict and type in those interesting conjunctions, figure out what tense they’re in

Learn that new tense! Either through SpanishDict (they have lessons for pretty much everything) or just google lessons online. This can be as in depth as you like, or you can just google a quick explanation

Create new vocab list of new words and quickly run through it

Re-consume native content after going through all your sentences with a new enlightened mind

On this run you can also read aloud (or mirror, if you have audio) the interesting sentences you wrote down. With feeling, please.

Then write something in your own words, using new grammar and vocab you’ve studied. Or speak aloud, and record yourself. You should try to write other sentences using a similar structure as whatever new interesting tense use you’ve found. If it suits you, get a native speaker to check your sentences, using Busuu, or HiNative, or something similar.

This is just one way that I’ve been enjoying recently. To be honest, you can cut out pretty much any of these steps depending on what suits you, how much time you have, etc.

The important thing is that you’re paying close attention to your content, and you absolutely need to write your own sentences afterwards.

Unless you genuinely have no interest in communicating with native speakers — maybe you just want to watch tv or read in your target language and that’s fine — but if you do want to be able to communicate, you’re going to need to practice. You should also be practicing speaking aloud. If you have nobody to talk to, talk to yourself.

This strategy is really useful for when you’ve self-studied the basics of a language and you don’t know what grammar you need to study next. Just let