#you know how learning languages is easier and more fun if you have specific motivation to do so

[born-to-lose]

I meet one guy and now I'm learning Italian

[nihongoseito]

How do you stay motivated in self-study?

メッセージありがとうございます！ thank you for asking!

this is an interesting question for me because i've been self-studying for so long...almost 12 years at this point(?!?!). i decided to learn japanese for fun and for no other reason than because i wanted to (i'm a big proponent of "if it sucks, hit da bricks" lol). i was just a kid, so i had no idea at all how much time and effort it would entail, and sometimes i think that back then, if i had known at the time how much studying and studying and more studying it would take for me to become conversationally proficient, i wouldn't have even started. and i'm really, really glad i don't live in that world, where i never decided to self-study because i thought too far into the future and tried to quantify my studying.

so i guess that's my biggest piece of advice, even though it sounds counterintuitive: try not to plan where you're going next or any specific long-term goals, because if you're anything like me, you'll scare yourself off. if you focus just on what's right in front of you—today's kanji, your current textbook, etc.—then you'll have a much easier time remembering why you like japanese (or whatever target language you're working on!). that kind of viewpoint on learning a language makes it really clear that you are building a beautiful structure out of many discrete pieces, not just out of thin air or sheer linguistic osmosis. not only has that attitude kept me motivated, since making decisions as i go always keeps things fresh, but i also genuinely think it's helped me learn better and remember what i've studied.

also, don't be afraid to give up on something, a book or a grammar point or even a whole routine/study plan, and try something else instead. you can always come back to it later, and in my opinion there's no point trying to quantify or quantitatively evaluate your learning in that way. there's absolutely no shame in admitting something is too hard right now. plus, letting yourself feel confident in what you do know is a great boost to motivation—every single little piece is an accomplishment!

does any of that make sense?? this is how i've handled it anyway! ofc, the nature of self-study is that it's different for everyone, but hopefully the things i've said here resonate with some people :) みんな、頑張ってね！！

[hunxi-after-hours]

(paper anon) hunxi!! i know ur no longer active but it felt wrong to not give you this (probably final, since i dont wanna spam up your asks) update. first year of chinese finished!!! got the best % in my year for spoken chinese 🫡 written kicked my ass. next semester we have a class for reading literary texts and poems, i think you'd enjoy that haha. and also east asian general history!! all the fun stuff. its hard work but i love it. i hope you're also doing well and im sending you all the positive vibes :) <3

i know ur long non active on this hellsite (good for you!) but i just felt super nostalgic and wanted to send the ask anyway. im halfway done with my chinese degree and ive just finished translating an article about the statistics of tourism economy in china post modern reforms and its just. Huh. Huhhhh since when can i do that. (ive actually thought abt dropping out a lot.) i miss being as excited as i was in your ask box about studying this, but i think my love for chinese language is now a lot deeper, even without the pink glasses, now that i experienced first hand how fucking difficult studying it academically is. easier times dude. anw i hope ur well if u ever relog in and see this ^^^ (paper anon)

(checks time stamp, winces) ok so HOW WAS THE LITERARY TEXTS AND POEMS CLASS??? did the class skim through the literary tradition, or did you linger in any time period in particular? was it a Joy of Life episode 27 best hits of the chinese literary tradition kind of highlight reel? (ty for the excuse to rewatch this scene, I swear it gets funnier every time) and, most importantly — any favorites??

taking classes on chinese literature and poetry was honestly some of the most humbling and 劝退 uhhh disheartening classes to take... because then you really come face to face with the truly massive body of the tradition. what do you MEAN there are so many poets and they all reference each other. how am I supposed to catch up. how am I even supposed to summon the motivation to move forwards, knowing that I've 早就输在起跑线上

and like, I don't have a good answer — as someone who literally dropped out of the field upon graduation (I've flirted with the idea of going back to grad school but quite frankly I don't think it'd be worth it), I don't have any inspirational stories to tell about level-grinding my way up the Chinese tradition or overcoming academic hurdles to attain sagely academic enlightenment. I don't even know if such stories would be helpful, because each person's journey through the Chinese language learning experience/tradition is so unique and personal. all I can say is find that thing that you love, that spark that makes you come back for more, be it this one specific poet or this one archaeological collection, a particularly trashy webnovel or a niche music genre. find that something that sparks love for you, and hang onto it for dear life, because if that spark catches flame, it'll be the light that guides you toward the road that you're meant to walk

[grandlovescheme]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @luthien-under-bough, thank you! I love talking about fics and the process of how I write them, so this was fun to put together :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

28

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

459,900

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Now exclusively House of the Dragon, specifically Daemyra

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

High Hopes

Let's Ignite Under the Ember Skies

You're Ripped at Every Edge (But You're a Masterpiece)

If I Could, I'd Get You the Moon

The Dominoes Cascaded in a Line

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, I try to always respond, even if the comment is to an older fic. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed or don't even know what to say when someone's being way too kind to me lol, but I always want to let people know I see them and appreciate them so much.

The only time I don't... is when I see someone's binging my whole fic, so then I only respond to the last comment, once they're all caught up.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

This is easy, as I only have one fic without a happy ending - All and Then Most of You, Some and Now None of You. I love daemyra too much to not give them HEA as much as possible

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

This is hard to pick... Because all of my fics, apart from that one, end teeth rootingly sweet 😂 Perhaps Dominoes. Or perhaps fighter!au, which you guys haven't read yet but it's very fucking happy!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Sometimes. Though it is much much better now that I disabled anon asks.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do! What kind I write... Hmm, tbf I think I write pretty vanilla stuff, even if I do try to explore some kinks here and there when it fits the story and the characters. I guess my kind is focusing on the feelings most of the time, and the emotional connection.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I don't, or at least I haven't yet. We'll see if muse ever strikes this way!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, so hopefully not

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

A few times in a different fandom

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, not yet, but I'm definitely open to the idea. I definitely wrote a bunch of stuff based on my fandom friends' crazy ideas and prompts with their help, so that's halfway there, I guess

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

No couple had ever taken over my life and thoughts the way Daemyra did, so, the answer is clear!

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Soulmates AU? I was once so excited for it, wrote a bunch of notes and even the first two chapters, but now I'm kinda... not feeling it :(

16. What are your writing strengths?

I spent the longest on this question. I think it's the emotions I try to convey in my fics, good or bad.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Now this is much easier. Plot! Intrigue! If you guys haven't noticed yet lol, I write fics heavily focused on romance only, and the development of Daemyra's relationship, because I just can't pull off anything more than that.

I'll probably never write a fic where people will wonder what'll happen next, what that and this means, what this person's motivations are... Because I'm unfortunately not wired that way. But I learned to accept that, and I have fun writing my silly romances with no real plot <3

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've done it myself a few times and I like to see it in other fics, too. Especially in HV it's delicious to see in the canon-verse. Though I always struggle with how to write the translation - right next to it, in cursive, in brackets, in the final notes?? That's always a head scratcher

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Eh, probably Twilight? I don't remember writing anything before that, so must be it

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Probably still High Hopes, even after all this time 🤍

This was fun! I'm tagging some of my writer friends if they wanna join and haven't yet, @ar-feyniel, @eschercaine, @calenlily, @fiora-miriel and anyone else who wants to! :)

[narastories]

So I know we're slipping into Saturday in this timezone, but I nevertheless have a question!

What's your relationship to dialog? Because I have had a variety of opinions from writers: some love it, some hate it. Do you like writing it? Is it easier to write than the rest or harder? Do you have opinions on dialog tags? On written accents and language quirks?

Sorry if this is all vague, the gist of it is: tell me about your approach to dialog. I'm asking because I really liked the dialog in your latest FPA fic.

Good luck with your current project and thank you!

Thanks for asking, I'm still happy to answer this on a Saturday lol

Also, I'm really flattered that you liked the dialog in my fic <3

This is such an interesting topic and I think I have lots of opinions! I would say there was definitely a time when I would have said dialog was my least favorite, but I think it has changed. I'm still struggling with it sometimes, especially if I need a character to give a certain piece of information to another character for plot reasons and I don't want them to sound dry. That still feels pretty hard.

But sometimes it's actually the dialog that comes to me first from a scene and then I make sure to write it down immediately. I think it also makes it a bit easier to see if it flows naturally if you only have the dialog next to each other and nothing else. Also maybe my brain hacked itself into daydreaming up some dialog because I found it hard lool

I also really like banter-heavy scenes in media (you know, the FPA has plenty of good lines for example), and that both motivates and inspires me to try to get the dialog right. It can also be fun once you learn how a particular character talks. (Although I do tend to second-guess myself every once in a while.)

Writing in first POV also indirectly helped I think because when you write the narration you are already closer in tone to how that character speaks, if that makes sense?

Writing different English accents specifically is very hard for me I think, because I never got a lot of exposure to them irl. And because of previous fandoms I know how it looks when someone does it really well (looking at you @geekinthefuschiahair sorry to tag you in a random discussion but this question made me think of how you writing Jamie's Scottish accent always filled me with awe and humility lol)

With the punctuation of dialog and the different language quirks around that I'm not picky. I don't know if you agree as a fellow European but I feel like since we get exposed to a lot of languages in our lives minor things like how someone signals the start of dialog just don't seem like a big deal? What I mean for example is that I ordered three books of the Dresden Files series and it took me actual DAYS to notice that one was the UK edition and had single quotes instead of double quotes around dialog lool I just opened both and went "yeah, looks about right" lmao

It's funny because I know that people can be extremely picky about that.

But if you read books in different languages growing up I think it's not that difficult to adjust to punctuation.

Actually, I think when I translated my first fic to English and put it on AO3 I used the Hungarian way of doing the dialog with EM dashes (I can sense some people shuddering right now) because I didn't know any better. I edited it since ofc lol Then because I got into Outlander and because I lived in the UK for a while I tried using single quotes, but then I had a lot of American fandom friends and decided to spare their eyes lol

So that is to say, I'm not picky about that. As long as you tell me who is speaking, I'm fine. Which is more of a pet peeve of mine. As a writer, you obviously know who is talking. And then sometimes you think oh I don't want to overuse a character's name or "he said/she said'. But I think that's a myth and you can't overuse that stuff. It's repetitive but I think when you read your eyes just glide over those phrases and it doesn't take you out of the scene. But if you have to stop and try to figure out who's saying what that is a lot more tedious in my opinion.

Alright, well I clearly had a lot to say about that so thank you for those excellent questions! xx

[datastate]

1 18 21 30!!!!!!!!!

this got super long, so i'll put it under read more, but thank you so much :] this was fun

What themes would you like to write about that you feel don’t get explored very often?

hmm... this is an interesting one, because i don't consciously think of themes while i'm writing my works. a lot of my ideas are drawn from displaying or testing the limits of what the established world allows, and then working from there. my original works show this off the most, with how much i've had to repurpose my "main cast" :P it's not as though i'd consider my work "meaningless," but i do have a difficult time trying to pinpoint specific themes in my own works. much of it is formed/drawn from grief, and explores as much, but as for what it specifically says about it... i don't know! i feel like i'm too close to really extract a certain meaning from it, especially with my own callous views on mortality - though i suppose even that could have its purpose. after all, if nothing's meant to last, then archive the memory and share it beyond its intended lifetime; this is what human bonds are meant for... or something to that effect <3

What writers have inspired you with their use of language? What are some of your favorite quotes?

okay, so fun fact - when i was younger, my writing style was heavily inspired by animorphs. sound effects within writing and all. i even took on "he swore under his breath" before i truly registered what that entailed (swears = cussing...! woah!) and then i turned 8 and began reading some of my mother's books. jane eyre, pride & prejudice, and... frankenstein. oh frankenstein. i kept revisiting it over the next few years, and that book completely changed how i wanted to approach my ideas and my writing style in general - it was much easier for me to digest the scene descriptors in frankenstein than anything else, though i can't pinpoint exactly why. i felt as if it was finally within my reach to work on more than dialogue exchanges, though it still took much longer to practice envisualizing what scenes i'm writing. i still struggle with it, but definitely less so than i used to! in more recent memory, though... i will say that black sun was my initial spark to finally thinking "i want to write again. i want to make something as meaningful as this again" - specifically in its character introductions being so. striking. i still have to finish the book, but i really admire how distinct each character is and the display of what drives them being clear in how they phrase even the smallest things... it's very interesting to me!!

& i. very rarely write down my favorite quotes, i realize, but upon a glance here are a few that i feel do them some justice :]

“People don’t understand the word ruthless. They think it means ‘mean.’ It’s not about being mean. It’s about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from A to B. The line that goes from motive to means. Beginning to end. It’s about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. Not caring about anything else but the perfection of it.” — Animorphs, book 30 "It felt good to hear Jake say I was indispensable, but with Jake you could never be sure what was sincere, and what was just expedient. [...] he'd been the leader for a long time now, he'd learned to say what he needed to say. Jake needed me as one of the Animorphs. He liked me, respected me, was happy for me when I was happy. And when he had to, he used me without any regard for anything except winning." — Animorphs, book 33 “I enjoyed this scene; and yet my enjoyment was embittered both by the memory of the past, and the anticipation of the future. I was formed for peaceful happiness. During my youthful days discontent never visited my mind; and if I was ever overcome by ennui, the sight of what is beautiful in nature, or the study of what is excellent and sublime in the productions of man, could always interest my heart, and communicate elasticity to my spirits. But I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul; and I felt then that I should survive to exhibit, what I shall soon cease to be -- a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others, and intolerable to myself." — Frankenstein “Believe me, Frankenstein, I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow creatures, who owe me nothing?” — Frankenstein

How do you come up with titles? Do you use placeholders or tend to change your titles while writing the first draft?

i typically leave titles as the very last thing! unless i'm specifically writing something with a line in mind to hold as the title, i usually summarize what i'm writing as the 'placeholder title' ... in fics, i usually draw from songs or common sayings (ie. memento mori, master of none, or even poetry / prayer) - though not all the time. similar to my original stories, i sometimes just enjoy putting together a few words that match it, or have it be symbolized by a single word (*not used for my original stories ... i want it to be more distinct :P)

What is some of the best writing advice you’ve read or received? Why does it work for you?

it's been a long time since i've really read writing advice/overtly received it... even the "you're writing an arc, not a character" isn't advice i received, but just. how i learned to write stories in general? though i suppose it's the closest thing that counts :P i can't think of anything else i'm afraid

[maiega]

Easy Ways to Learn Arabic: A Practical Guide

So, you're wondering, "how to learn Arabic?" You're not alone—Arabic is a rich and beautiful language that many people want to master. Whether it's to connect with new cultures, explore classical literature, or just for the thrill of learning something new, diving into Arabic can be an incredibly rewarding journey. But where do you start? Let’s explore some practical tips for learning Arabic, step by step.

1. Understand Your Motivation and Set Realistic Goals

Before jumping into the textbooks or downloading language apps, think about why you want to learn Arabic. Is it to travel, to read the Quran, or simply to chat with friends? Knowing your reason will help guide your approach and keep you motivated. Set small, achievable goals like learning the alphabet, mastering basic phrases, or completing a short conversation. This way, you won’t feel overwhelmed and can celebrate small victories along the way.

2. Start with the Arabic Alphabet

One of the first hurdles when learning Arabic is the script. The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters, and while it might look intimidating at first, it’s essential to learn the basics before moving forward. Start with recognizing the letters, then move on to understanding how they change when connected in words. There are plenty of online resources to help with this, including video tutorials and practice sheets.

3. Focus on Everyday Vocabulary

Once you've got a grip on the alphabet, the next step is building your vocabulary. Start with words that are relevant to your daily life—think about greetings, common objects, food items, and everyday verbs. This will make the language feel more practical and applicable. Flashcards or spaced repetition apps can be helpful tools here. Try learning just a few new words each day, and soon you'll notice your vocabulary expanding.

4. Find a Good Learning Resource

When it comes to learning Arabic, having a structured resource can make a big difference. One great option is Kalimah Center, a website designed specifically for Arabic learners. They offer a variety of courses tailored to different levels, from complete beginners to those looking to refine their skills. What sets Kalimah Center apart is their focus on practical, conversational Arabic, making it easier to start using what you've learned in real-life situations.

5. Practice Speaking and Listening

Speaking and listening are crucial aspects of language learning, especially with Arabic. Unlike some languages that might have a more straightforward pronunciation, Arabic has unique sounds that can be tricky at first. Listening to native speakers, whether through online videos, podcasts, or language exchange apps, will help you get used to the rhythm and pronunciation of Arabic. Don’t be afraid to mimic what you hear and practice speaking out loud. The more you do it, the more natural it will feel.

6. Immerse Yourself in the Culture

Language is deeply connected to culture, and the more you understand the cultural context, the more meaningful your language learning will be. Watch Arabic movies, listen to music, or follow Arabic-language social media accounts. It’s a fun way to see how people use the language in everyday contexts, and it gives you a chance to pick up idiomatic expressions and slang.

7. Make Mistakes—It’s Part of the Process

It's normal to make mistakes when learning a new language. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you mispronounce a word or struggle with grammar. Every mistake is a step forward, helping you learn what to avoid next time. The key is to keep going, no matter how challenging it might feel. Remember, every Arabic speaker started right where you are now!

8. Join an Online Arabic Learning Community

Learning a language is more fun when you do it with others. Find online groups or forums where you can connect with other Arabic learners. Sharing tips, asking questions, and celebrating each other’s progress can keep you engaged. The sense of community can be a great boost on days when your motivation dips.

Why Kalimah Center is a Great Choice

If you’re looking for structured courses that make learning Arabic more approachable, Kalimah Center could be a perfect fit. They provide a range of lessons, including conversational Arabic and classical Arabic, suited for different levels. Their approach is friendly and practical, making it easier to start speaking Arabic confidently.

Final Thoughts

So, how to learn Arabic? It’s all about starting with the basics, practicing regularly, and using the right resources. With some dedication and a willingness to explore the language's rich culture, you’ll find yourself making progress faster than you might expect. And with resources like Kalimah Center by your side, the journey becomes even more manageable. Happy learning!

[saharaedulive]

Tips and Tricks to Overcome Your Kid’s Learning Disability

When our children are diagnosed with learning disability (LD), our thoughts and concerns turn to them constantly. It's hard not to feel bad about yourself because you might be why they are having so many troubles or doing something wrong.  Most of us who have kids with LD do not know how to help them, but it does not mean that we cannot help them. Many of them want to know more about Language Classes for Kids in Dubai so that such institutes can help the kids overcome learning disability issues. Let's make things easier for your family and you by providing 11 things you can do if your child has trouble learning.

What Are Learning Disabilities?

Learning disability in people often confuse them in seeing things, hearing, and sometimes understanding information. They often find it difficult to interact with the people around them and at school which makes things hard for them.

What are some common problems with learning?

Some of the most well-known types of learning disabilities in kids are:

Having trouble reading

Disorder of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity

Autism spectrum illnesses

How do I diagnose learning impairments in my child?

Just think how worried you are as your child grows up.  In that case, you need to talk to a professional, like a doctor, speech therapist, psychologist, or neurologist, about how to help them learn and do well.  With their help, you can get a correct diagnosis and determine what school accommodations you need.

Learn the best ways to help kids with trouble learning.

The first thing we need to do is love our children instead of judging them for what they do. It is always recommended to let the kids play trying new things, making them create new pretend games, and allowing them to do what they like in their free time. Trying to be flexible with kids will reduce stress, as long as the rules are not broken.

Helping children with learning disabilities: Top 11 methods:

Make sure your child does certain things a lot of times.  It's essential to help them remember what they are learning at school at home and to give them lots of chances to do it again and again since this kind of help has been shown to improve performance on specific skills like reading comprehension or math calculations.

Set aside a quiet area for your child to learn so they won't be interrupted.  It could be a part of their bedroom or playroom without a TV.

Set up regular routines before you start working.  Kids do better on their homework, jobs, and music practice when they follow a routine.  It helps them stay focused and organized, which means they get better grades and have more success than if they tried new things all day long.

Try keeping your kid busy and motivated by allowing them to play outside with friends or video games on a computer for relaxation.

Before permitting your kids to go out and play see that you can assist them in understanding their schoolwork by going through the assignment with them.

Set a good example at home by promoting and celebrating academic achievement.  If you can't find time to read aloud as a family, put all your books in one place.  Instead of watching TV, designate a spot where you may practice writing daily, such as on the kitchen table or the couch.  Recognize and reward perseverance and effort rather than success.

So that they don't crash when they get home from school, be accommodating to the child's schedule; for example, if they're more alert first thing in the morning, let them have their favorite meal before school.  Set aside time for them to get dressed and go outside if they need some quiet time to themselves first thing in the morning before they tackle their homework or household tasks.

Get the rest of the family involved!  Ask your child how they can help with class transitions at school and reassure them that you will be there for them no matter what.  Can you recommend some fun things for siblings to do together?

Discover strategies to empower students to stand up for themselves and access internet resources related to learning difficulties.  A search engine like Google could be helpful in this regard.

If it seems like the right thing to do, consider switching your child's classroom.  Before making the move, discuss how you can help the school personnel and any necessary accommodations with them.

Seek opportunities to participate in school beyond the typical classroom setting, such as reading aloud as a group, volunteering to be reading buddies in other students' classes, or planning and participating in extracurricular activities like talent shows or book fairs. 

Conclusion:

Please seek clarification and communicate any issues that may arise.  Most importantly, your child knows their relatives will be there for them no matter what, so they don't feel alone or confused.  Language training in Dubai has become essential in the UAE as parents want to do their best for their children.  They are more open to teaching them in the best environment to bring them out of the fear of learning disability.

We cannot see our child suffer, but we can always help them with their new lifestyle adjustments. One thing that we all can do is to be there for them in every step of life. Things will get better!  As you embark on this adventure together, may fortune smile upon you.

[educationalapps]

 Best Learning Apps for 8th Grade Students

8th grade students have a lot of important things to learn, and using the right learning apps can make the process a lot easier and more fun. Here are some of the best apps for 8th grade students!

1) What are some of the best learning apps for 8th grade students?

  There are many different types of learning apps available for 8th grade students. Some of the best apps for this age group include those that are educational, games-based, or task-based.

Educational apps can help students learn new material or improve their skills in a specific subject. Games-based apps can keep students engaged and motivated, and task-based apps can help students stay organized and on track.

It is important to consider the individual needs of each student when choosing learning apps. Some students may work best with traditional educational apps, while others may prefer more interactive or game-based apps. And, not all students need the same type of app. Some students may need help staying on track with their schoolwork, while others may need help with their study skills.

The best learning apps for 8th grade students vary depending on the individual students' needs and interests. However, some of the most popular and effective apps include the following:

- Math apps such as Math Duel and Math Ninja

- Language learning apps such as Duolingo and Busuu

- History apps such as National Geographic's Civilization Revolution II

- Science apps such as The Human Body and Star Walk 2

2) How can these apps help students learn and excel in school?

  There are a number of apps that can help students learn and excel in school. Some of these apps include flashcards, note taking apps, and dictionaries.

Flashcards are a great way to review information. There are a number of apps that allow you to create your own flashcards, or you can use one of the many pre-made flashcard sets.

Note taking apps can be helpful for taking notes in class, as well as for studying for exams. There are a number of different note taking apps to choose from, so you can find one that meets your needs.

Dictionaries can be helpful for looking up words in both English and other languages. There are a number of different dictionary apps to choose from, so you can find one that meets your needs.

3) Are there any specific apps that are particularly effective for 8th grade students?

  There are a number of apps that are effective for 8th grade students, depending on what they are studying. For instance, for math, apps such as Photomath can be helpful in solving equations. For language arts, apps such as Google Translate can be useful for translating texts. And for science, apps such as Quizlet can be helpful for studying terms and concepts.

4) How can parents help their children make the most of these apps?

  There are a lot of great apps out there that can help children learn, but it can be tough for parents to know which ones to choose. Here are four tips for helping your child make the most of these apps:

1. Look for apps that are educational and fun.

2. Make sure your child is using apps that are appropriate for their age.

3. Help your child find apps that match their interests.

4. Encourage your child to use apps to explore new things.

5) What are some of the potential benefits of using learning apps?

  There are many potential benefits of using learning apps. Some of the benefits include: 

1. Increased engagement and motivation. When students are engaged and motivated, they are more likely to learn and retain information. Learning apps can help achieve this by providing a fun and interactive experience.

2. Individualised learning. Learning apps can be tailored to individual students’ needs, interests, and learning styles. This can help each student learn in a way that is best suited to them.

3. Convenient access. Learning apps can be accessed anywhere and anytime, making them convenient for students. This allows students to study and learn on their own terms.

4. Improved comprehension. Learning apps can help students better understand and remember the information they are learning. This is because learning apps provide a visual and interactive learning experience.

5. Increased collaboration. Learning apps can help students work together and collaborate on projects. This can help students learn from each other and develop teamwork skills.

6. Enhanced learning outcomes. Overall, learning apps have been shown to improve learning outcomes. This is due to the many benefits listed above.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully, this list of learning apps will be helpful for 8th grade students as they work to improve their education.

[frenchlitclub]

I'm sorry if this has been asked before but I'm new to learning this(self taught), so I was wondering if there's any apps or sites that you would like to recommend? Or if there's any suggestions on where I should start with learning, or just tips in general. Thank you in advance and I hope you have a great day ahead!

Hi!

I'm a native french speaker, so I've only learned the language at school, but in my experience with other languages I've learned, I would say immersion through consuming content in your target language is the most important part of the learning process. (That is, if you're not in France already, cause that would be the ultimate immersion😅) So that could be TV shows, movies, YouTube videos, a french person on social media, etc. Hearing the language will help you a lot with pronounciation, comprehension, and memory. At the beginning, you won't retain much consciously, but your brain does remember things and it'll be easier when you study. You'll be able to call back to things you've heard and make connections that way, thereby making more out of your studying. Use subtitles to help you know what they're saying, so you can take notes when there's an expression or a sentence you want to remember!

I've used the apps Memrise and DuoLingo for languages. An app alone will not make you fluent, but it will give you a pretty good base from which to continue. I also recommend starting with an app so you can see if you actually enjoy the language!! Try it for a few days or more, and see how it feels. Maybe you'll be even more interested the more you learn, or the opposite will happen, and you'll realize you actually don't like the sound of it. Both are okay! If you're learning for leisure, don't pressure yourself with a specific idea that you have of a language. Get to know it a little so you can decide if you wanna dive in.

Then if you do want to keep going, do some writing exercises. Maybe write a paragraph or a sentence in a language you know, and try to write it a second time in French. Pick topics you love talking about, things that are central to your life, stuff you want to actually be able to say! You could even pick a celebrity, show or whatever, and write an introduction to them. The key, to me, is keeping the interest of learning alive, by using other things you're already interested in. That's another reason why immersion is important: you can find new things to like that are ALREADY in your target language, and it's very likely you'll be motivated by the desire to understand them without needing to translate.

Speak out loud to yourself!! Have fun with it! It will not be perfect, but you're learning, it doesn't matter! Repeat out loud sentences that you hear in the content you watch! I do this, and I love it. Exaggerate the accent, do impersonations of characters from shows or movies you watch. It lightens the mood when you study, and it also makes you remember what you're saying better.

When you feel you know enough to have a conversation with someone else, I'd definitely recommend reaching out to other people through apps like Tandem! If you're not exactly there yet, but you want some practice with interacting with others, try writing comments under french YouTube videos, or under posts by french people you follow on social media.

As for resources, I don't have experience with any bilingual website, but elearningfrench.com seems pretty good! If you're studying for school or work, I think the best option would be a grammar textbook. It's a resource you'll use throughout the learning process, so if you had to buy anything for French, it'd probably be that. There's gotta be more helpful websites for grammar, but I don't know them, unfortunately.

I hope this helps a bit! Thank you for your question, and I hope you have a nice day too. 😊 If you have any more questions, don't hesitate! 🐝

[danteinthedevildom]

So, talkin abt multilingual Mams, 

I was gonna make this post anyway but then I saw @cheerypining​​ put this in the tags of my post re: Mams’ English in his character song:

I would like to hollar out a hell yes! 

The thing with Mams is that he isn’t stupid. He’s smart as fuck, he’s just motivated by self interest and fixation. It’s easier for him to learn things that are of interest to him, or that expand his interests. He’s got that sweet, sweet ADD brain.

So, if language helps him spread out his influence, make money, expand his contacts? It’s gonna be that lil bit easier for him to figure out. It might even be a fixation of his. Learn a language; open opportunities in the place that language hails from. Gain an interest in how language works. Learn other languages bc it’s fun. 

Consider, then, if you will, for some of that tastey lore-building, 

Mams starting out learning the languages of the most influencial/opulent human powers. It’s beneficial for him to figure out how to speak their language if he really wants to get at their pockets, and you can’t really smooth talk someone if you barely understand the way their haggling works. How is anyone going to trust you if their idioms go over your head, or if you miss some slang that marks you very starkly as an outsider? It’s a lot easier if they think you’re like them; if you know the little things that’ll get them lowering their guard around you. 

He’s great with dialects, too. With differences between the upper and lower classes. It only takes one slip-up using court language around the common folk, or using the dialet of the north in the south, for him to recognise how important those divisions are. He works with trust, and the eventual corruption of that trust, and it becomes pretty clear to him pretty quick that trust can only be attained the more like his target he sounds. 

Dead languages still live on in Mammon’s brain. He’s fluent in them, and even though he hasn’t really had to use them in some time, for some reason they’ve just never faded away. You can pretty much use him as a way to track how languages changed over time, how regional variants were influenced by other languages or cultures, when various languages died out and what replaced them. 

It’s not something that he really thinks about. It was beneficial for him, so he learnt it. Beyond that, it was fun, and he enjoyed it. He doesn’t really give himself credit for just how much linguistic history he has stored inside his head, and he really doesn’t put much credit into how goddamn useful it is - or would be - for modern historians. That’s not what he’s interested in. He’s content to leave Satan to the books, to the past; he’s got more of a propensity for the practicality, anyway. 

Listening to him talk is actually pretty astounding. The ease with which he slips into each language, the depth of his understanding for even the slight nuances between regions, makes him seem like a native speaker. The speed, too, is absolutely stunning; you’ve never seen a more baffling sight than Mammon, speaking mild-mannered in Russian to a witch, switching mid-sentence into heavily-flirtatious French to order from the waitress that came to their table. It’s like he doesn’t even stumble between the two, both as natural to him as breathing. 

He has his preferences, of course. When he’s not using the language for his own goals - doesn’t need to, for instance, be careful about his word choice to ensure a bond of trust is made - he quickly slips into a dialect that is most comfortable for him. He might use ‘watashi’ or ‘ore’ when he’s on the job, might tack on the ‘gozaimasu’ to his greetings to make them polite, but when he’s just generally speaking Japanese? That’s when he starts using ‘ore-sama’, when he drops all the humble or stilted phrases; uses ‘ja ne’ instead of ‘sayounara'. That’s when, in English, he stops making sure to enunciate fully; starts shortening ‘you’ to ‘ya’, cuts off the ‘g’ from ‘ing’ words, starts peppering in ‘crap’ instead of ‘stuff’, lets his words slur together to make ‘whaddaya’ out of ‘what are you’. 

He’s naturally an informal guy! It’s just the way he prefers to talk. He hates the pompous lingo, even if it’s usually the most beneficial to learn for what he does. If the language he’s speaking has a way to show belligerent informality, he will absolutely use it whenever he can. It’s a choice, make no mistake; he can arguably speak better in most languages than the stupid high academics. He just doesn’t enjoy that crap when it’s not immediately useful to him. 

(Yes, that does mean he can comprehend even the most pompously written academic papers. No, that doesn’t mean he wants to read them. He would much sooner stab a fork into his giblets than sit down for any period of time and read that wordy bullshit. Same goes for a lot of Satan’s literature; it’s just not enjoyable for him to read, even if he can perfectly understand it.)

Sometimes a word works better in one language than another. It can get extremely frustrating for him, if he has a very specific point to get across; unless someone knows both languages, they’re never going to fully understand. And why use five words in the inefficient language when one in the efficient language would have been even better for his intent? ‘Fernweh’ works much better than ‘imagine being homesick for a place you’ve never been’, after all.  

Mams has a tendency to drop in words he likes from other languages, which makes some of his speech sound a little confusing. He doesn’t think it makes him sound smarter, and he’s not doing it to show off; just, sometimes, he thinks ‘hey’ sounds better than ‘ohayou’, or that ‘ciao’ is cooler and more aloof than ‘au revoir’. Plus, it’s kinda funny when you’re talking to someone Lucifer and you insult them in a language they don’t understand. 

(I mean, in English, we literally say stuff like “it has a little je ne sais quoi,” [it has a little something that I can’t adequately express] so we merge languages into our own in order to better express ourselves. Mams does the same. He just does it with words and phrases that aren’t always naturally used together within that language.)

Do you understand the amount of skill that comes with being able to do this without even stopping to think? He somehow manages to do it in a way that makes each sentence still perfectly fluent and understandable in translation. It’s a little incredible, actually, considering he doesn’t put any stock into this ability. It’s just natural for him. Why’s he gotta think on it more than that? 

(This does mean, the few times someone points it out, that he gets incredibly flustered. Especially if they say it in awe, or in praise. It really is just second nature to him, not even something he’s putting on for show or something that he’s trying to be good at, so being given so much positive attention for it is... well. It’s surprising, and a little nice, actually. But also genuinely embarrasing. It’s perhaps the only time he’ll struggle to find words in any language.)

In conclusion:

Hell yeah I love reinforcin the idea that Mams ain’t stupid and that there’s a lot of goddamn skill that comes with learnin languages and learnin them to such a degree you can accurately pepper their words into your speech without stoppin to think. 

[dragonherder2030]

Smaugust Day 9: Galaxy

I’m leaving tomorrow morning, my sister is going to look over the farm while I’m away. Echo Bel and Kory are coming with me, they can help with transportation and have separation anxiety. Xandra is showing me her camp, she has many followers, I’m going to be the first lizard to join it. That fact will be kept secret from the rest of the “humans” as to not cause hysteria, she has done the same with herself, hiding herself as an amphibian. I’m bringing my journal, I need to be able to write my thoughts

See you soon, Niki~

*we find out who the narrator is 👀. Another first person written segment, hopefully this one won’t be as long XD. Also, if by the end of Smaugust I feel there are some odd unintended plot holes or threads that need to be resolved I’ll make sure to do so. Ik it’s confusing right now, but I will continue right where we left off on the last writing segment for easiness*

Half my tea was gone in under a minute, it was jasmine green from what I tasted and was made very well.

“Please do explain what you mean by non-lizard kind though… Are you talking Amphibious sentience?” I ask, leaning back on the couch I had been placed on.

“No not sentient Amphibians that walk like us, I mean a species on another planet called Humans. They are a scaleless race with no tails, and can grow fur at an alarming rate. They can be dangerous to us, but not all of them. If you join me you can meet them, but many of them do not have the best interests of the dragons in mind.” Her creature tightened itself onto her neck. Has it experienced these “humans” before?

“Does that planet have dragons too? Also how do you, uh, go to another planet? Do you have access to a rocket?”

“No, I have something much better and easier to fuel… but you have to commit before learning of that. Keep your questions to a minimum till I finish explaining please, it will be easier.” Saying with a small hand wave. I nob in agreement.

“The planet is called earth and is very similar to ours. But dragons do not live naturally there, and have been brought there by a lizard who wanted a new environment for sport hunting, and didn’t get them all… They ended up breeding and creating homes for themselves, few and far apart. I used to monitor and catch some of the dragons to bring them back when I could along with my brother. When he passed I couldn’t do it by myself anymore, so I seeked the assistance of other lizards to return the dragons to their natural habitat. Not many believed me, and those who did I knew didn’t have the intentions of the animals in mind. So, I decided to start recruiting humans using my magic-“

“Wait wait wait, you have magic abilities?” I ask, needing to know more about this.

“Yes I possess magic, I’m no lizard, but we don’t need to know about that for now. All you need to know is that I can give objects the ability to transform a human into a lizard or amphibian sentient if worn, that’s what I can do,” Xandra says with a sigh. I speculate what she could be, and remember a legend about the creation of our world, something similar to that happening, where a being gave sentience to all of the lizards, and later some of the amphibians. There was another part of it where they wiped out a different race beforehand but I couldn’t remember it too well.

Xandra continued her explanation, “I chose humans because they would do the best capturing dragons in the human planet, since they are not killed on sight when seen… The humans I choose were specifically selected by my familiar, Davey here,” She pointed to the amphibian around her neck, it seemed to smile in admiration of its role.

“They are small enough to avoid detection from the humans, and not popular enough to be sought out, and they are very fast. Easily able to escape a human. I’ve gotten quite the following from animal lovers around earth, and luckily most of them speak English or know sign language, Davey doesn’t go far from our camp.”

“What do you guys Uh, do? Do you go to the human world and just, catch the dragons? And why don’t you just tell the humans that the dragons are an invasive species and, I guess take them back?” I ask, confused what I would actually be doing and why the humans are a problem.

Xandra’s calm demeanor shifted, and her eyebrows furrowed, “Most humans want the dragons, but I know they aren’t safe there. They would be hunted for sport and put in cages. I’ve watched them for thousands of years, they will never accept the dragons as any more then a fantasy creature for decoration. And for some reason now there are more being found, species that weren’t brought to earth from that initial leak. There’s another source, someone from this planet that has access to Earth and is exploiting it to bring dragons there. You can help me find them, and allow me to have more allies on this side. Plus the place I’m keeping the dragons isn’t safe anymore, I need somewhere here I can put them with someone to take care of them.” Her voice had raised slightly, this is a subject she is angry about. She must have witness terrible things. I think it’s an amazing idea, I have the whole farm I could keep the dragons. Acres of land I’m not using right now could be put to this. I didn’t care if she was legit or not, I believed her.

“Ok, I’m convinced… I want to help. I have a farm that can serve as a holding place for the dragons until we can bring them to their rightful places,” I say, trying to hide the excitement in my voice. She smiles at me, looking satisfied.

“My camp, it is all humans, they do not know of our reptilian existence, to them they are the last of the reptile kind. So to them, your just another new human recruit. That means,” Xandra gets up, walking towards the closet I had noticed before, “that means that you have to pick out an accessory to simulate the effect of you being a fake lizard.”

I stand up and walk to the closet as well. Xandra escapes into the inside of it, I follow closely. The inside wasn’t meant to hold more then one person, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Along the walls is an array of shirts, jackets, pants, hats, bracelets, necklaces, etc. in every color imaginable.

“Take your pick, it doesn’t matter what it is, other then u will need to be able to wear it for long amounts of time,” she says, picking up a hat and dusting it off, then hanging it back up.

I look around the room, spinning in place, then think of something, “Do you have a piece? How do you hide that your not a lizard?”

She thinks for moment, “Davey helps me with that too, as you know they are my familiar, and they aren’t just any normal dragon either. They become a wonderful necklace whenever I need them to. And when I wear that, I become what they would be if they were a sentient Amphibian,” she explained to me. So far she has shown me no proof of the magic she claims to have, and this seems like a simple test. Even if I was all for the cause, no reason not to speculate.

“Could u show me?”

“Of course,” Xandra said, glancing at Davey. The creature climbed to the front of her neck, then sitting still right there for a few seconds. I await the transformation. Then, they stiffen and fall loose, a small chain connecting to their mouth and tail holding them onto Xandra’s neck. Her body poofs into one of an sentient Olm, her body much longer then previously. I stare up at her in awe, it all must be true.

“Wow…” I say, stunned by the display. She smiles down at me and quickly exits the closet, since she had taken up most the room.

“I need to show u our transportation tomorrow, since it is getting late. You will be seeing the camp, and meeting the members. You may stay for a couple of days to get familiar with them,” she says, looking out the window. I understand her reasoning, my sister can watch over the farm while I’m gone, I’ll be returning there soon with suitable dragons.

I return to looking at the room and behind a puffy jacket is a bronze glimmer. I walk towards it and grab it, it’s a tail ring. A dragon spiraling around a few times. And it’s adjustable, I try it on, tightening it to my liking. I decide it would be to heavy to stay on, and I don’t really like these kinds of jewelry. Placing it back in it’s spot, I try on a few other things, including a puffy jacket(after taking my shoulder armor off), a muzzle, and a necklace with an odd diamond like pendant on it. Then another thing caught my eye, a blue bandana with a cool looking pattern on it. I tie it around my neck, I think this one will work very well.

Exiting the room I look around for Xandra, spotting her on the couch reading a book. Davey was wrapped around her wrist and she was back in her original state.

“I have chosen this bandana!” I announce, walking towards her. She looks up from her reading and smiles brightly.

“Oh wonderful sweet pea, I only ask one more question of you before you go home to rest up for tomorrow,” she says, putting her book down.

“What’s that?” I ask, holding my shoulder armor tightly.

“What’s your name?”

“Oh- oh yeah you don’t know me very well yet. I’m Niki,” I say with a smile. She smiles back at me.

“Thank you hun. One more thing though, if you have any drakes I would recommend you bring them with you, they would help with the travel aspect. Tomorrow won’t be a walk in the park,” she says, picking her book back up. I nod, looking to my left and realizing the door is right next to the couch. I mentally scorn myself for not realizing this sooner, and exit the house. I know these woods, and have seen this cottage before. It looks worn down on the outside, abandoned… but making my way home is easy. It was evening by the time I made it back.

I call my sister, “Hi Bryn, I need you to watch the farm for a few days.”

—————————

This was fun, writing wasn’t the best, I was kinda zoned out while writing it lol. My main focus was to explain stuff and set up character motivations, sorry if it’s a bit messy, and like, long dang.

[rokutouxei]

speaking your language

part 5 of atelier heart

ikemen vampire: temptation in the dark theo van gogh/mc, vincent | T |  2506 | [ao3 in bio]

spoiler warning: key plot points mentioned in chapter 10 and 15 are used in this fic, with the vaguest hint of chapter 24 at the tail end.

also: my deepest apologies to people who actually speak dutch, i’m taking all of your con/crit with an open heart.

The first Dutch word you’d ever learned was hondje.

Dog, you’d learned. Or puppy. Not the worst first word to learn in a new language, but definitely up there if one considers the fact that it was meant to refer to you. It’s not that bad, though, and puppies are pretty cute, so it was easy to let it slide.

Then, knabbeltje. A snack, a little nibble. Not that Theo has any interest in taking any bite at you. He’s made that clear from the first night. For someone who’s so good at smooth talking his clients, that was a weird word to use for you, you’d thought. But, Theo has his reasons, you supposed.

Which is exactly what makes you so keen into learning the language.

You’ve learned that a little bribery can get you a long way when it comes to Theo—as in, get him invested and you’re good to go—so that morning, you take the extra effort. You rise earlier than you’ve ever done to prepare pancakes for him, whipping the egg whites with as much vigor as you can muster to ensure that the pancakes are as fluffy as humanly possible. You make sure every portion is peak jiggly, and they are, because you can’t help but tap them contentedly on the plate as they cooled, watching them wobble. Then, like a cherry on top, you take out the special pancake syrup you’d bought the day before, having come with Sebastian to buy groceries, the one you’d chosen specifically for Theo. (And oh, only for Theo, because no other mansion resident with the right mind about sugar would dare try it.)

You try to keep it a secret as long as you can, presenting the plate of sweet goodness to Theo once he’s come down from his room. The both of you are alone at the dining table, because it’s still way too early. He’s already dressed and ready to go, even if it’s just six-thirty a.m., and if he has a comment about you being already up when you usually aren’t, he holds it back.

Good choice—you want him to focus on the pancakes, and a smile erupts on both of your faces when he begins to munch happily away on the syrup-drenched disaster of a plate. The sigh he makes goes straight under your skin.

But you can’t let your guard down, because you still have a mission, and that is: to convince him.

When his shoulders relax, you finally pop the question.

“Won’t you please teach me some Dutch?”

Theo’s fork hovers in front of his mouth. “What?”

Over the past week, you’d learned two basic Dutch phrases from Theo, in the notes he’d written for you. Tot ziens, which he said meant goodbye for now, and Dank je, thank you. That makes four total things you can now say in Dutch. Not much, but clearly already much more than what you started with. You belatedly realize you don’t actually have a reason you can dare tell him as to why you want to learn Dutch, but never mind that.

“I said, won’t you teach me some Dutch, sometime?” you repeat. “I still have three weeks to spend out here, and while my French and English are pretty fine, I can’t really keep up with your Dutch. I thought it wouldn’t be so bad to learn, especially since you’re bringing me along to work anyway.”

Cringe. That wasn’t a good reason, you were sure. But maybe the pancakes will make Theo’s steel heart a little more malleable for your favor.

What other reasons do you have? Well, maybe he’ll be able to better explain to you certain things about art and their work if he reverts to his mother tongue, right? There are certain things translations miss, after all, and maybe if you learned the language, it’ll be much easier on the both of you? Oh, wait, but does that mean you’ll be intruding on the shared, perhaps too-personal language he shares with his brother? Oh, no, that wasn’t what you meant. Maybe—

“Dutch syllables are very different from English and French,” Theo says, instead, after a long moment, a not-really yes or no.

You narrow your eyes with his response, but quickly realize maybe he’s just testing your will to do it. You are motivated. Learning languages are fun. “That’s fine, nothing practice won’t conquer. It’s really not cute that all I know how to say is stuff like dog and snack.” He snorts. “I mean, if you’re not up to it…”

Theo sighs. A sigh of defeat. “Okay, but you’ll have to work hard for it.”

You grin. That morning, you learn pannenkoek and siroop.

-

The learning curve for languages always differ according to the person, their own mother tongue, the language itself, and of course the work one puts into studying it, but one factor that really ups the vocabulary and grammar retention is being able to hear the language being spoken, rather regularly. This is how you end up having Vincent help you out with your little adventure in learning Dutch.

Having gotten used to conversing in French to each other, the brothers take time to adjust switching to their mother tongue for you. But when you’re looking at them with amazement exchanging words you can barely say, much less understand, there’s little they can’t do.

(Theo is mortified to have to surrender to it, but when he’s transparent to his brother, does he have any other choice?)

All of this happens just in time for the preparation for the exhibit to begin. The three of you spend much time together, selecting paintings, planning the exhibit orders, looking for themes. The two decide that this isn’t just a good opportunity to learn, it might also be in your best interests if they team-teach you the language.

Counting the paintings, Vincent teaches you the basics, hauling canvas after canvas going—een, twee, drie, vier, vijf, zes, zeven, acht, negen, tien. With the chosen paintings laid out on the floor, you point out colors and he teaches you their names—rood, oranje, geel, groen, blauw, paars, roze. He teaches you how to introduce yourself, say your name, teaches you greetings, basic nouns, the kind you will learn in introductory Dutch classes in universities if you were back in the 21st century. Vincent is gentle and kind and claps when you get the words right. (It makes you feel like a child. The word is kind.)

Theo, on the other hand, focuses on teaching you things related to the work at hand: een gallerij, een tentoonstelling, een schilderij—of course, a gallery, an exhibit, a painting. Teaches you words to describe the things you see, like mooi, for beautiful, and interessant, for interesting. He corrects your grammar, teaches you how to say, “let’s go home” or “I’m hungry, let’s eat”. When you don’t get the phrase right, he gives you a look, completely ignoring what you’d just said until you finally say it right. He corrects your pronunciation to the best of both your abilities.

He’s also found great joy in teaching you phrases before telling you what it means, and that’s how you’ve practiced saying misschien ben ik een hond die een jurk draagt as if you were a dog wearing a dress.

But you hear his laughter and it doesn’t matter as much.

-

Theo buys you a notebook to compile the words you’ve learned. In only a few days, you’ve amassed a wide range of words you now sprinkle throughout your sentences like a playful multilingual. You’ve gotten odd stares, sure, but it’s always better to keep using the words you’ve learned, because that’s how you make it seem natural.

So far, though, for the ones you’ve learned, it’s the Dutch verbs that are trickier than you expected. The conjugations keep tripping you up. They seem simple, and in fact a lot of them sound pretty close to their English counterparts, but Theo’s stares and (im)patient waiting for you to correct what you’ve said betray your misuse of them over and over again.

So at night, you practice. Staan for stand. Zeggen for say. Helpen for help. Leren, for learn.

Blijven, for stay.

Sorting Vincent’s paintings at the gallery Marquis Vollard had lent you, you bump shoulders with Theo and ask, “How do I say, ‘I love this’, in Dutch?” as you pull out a canvas from the stack.

“Ik hou hiervan.”

“Hmm.” You put aside the painting and pull out your notebook and pen. “So hou means love?”

“Houden, means to hold,” Theo says. “Like a hand, or a book. Hou van is what’s used for love.”

“So it’s ik hou van…?”

“Ik hou van jou,” he answers, without a thought.

A long moment, before the realization hits.

He turns away from you, and you’re thankful because of how hot your face feels.

“You use the same for other things,” Theo says. His voice is as even as always, and it makes your heart fall a little. “Like paintings, and art.”

“I see,” you say, before dropping the topic altogether.

You’re getting good at this keeping your heart tucked away thing, so you write ik hou van jou in looping letters on your notebook before returning to work.

All the while thinking: to love means to hold.

-

So you hold him.

After the fire.

After wheatfields.

After Gauguin.

Even when it hurts to hold.

Even when it’s him that’s let you go.

Even after you’ve heard the gunshot.

You hold on to him, even if you’re not sure if the both of you are speaking the same language anymore, if you’ll still ever be able to understand the other.

You hold on even if there’s blood everywhere.

Blijven means to stay.

And herstellen… means to recover.

The hospital is rather cozy. Quite similar to the ones in the 21st century, but still different from the sterile whiteness of it. You sit next to Theo on the bed, waiting for him to speak. You are alone for the first time since he’d said goodbye.

You hadn’t left him yet.

That night, he presses the words please forgive me into your lips, praying it’s the last time he’ll ever have to hurt you that way. You cradle his face in your palms and hold his love in your hands gently, as you exchange promises that it will no longer break.

-

You learn a lot of words after that, too.

Like wheatfields, tarwevelden. And forever, voor altijd. Each word learned is linked to a memory, making them hard to forget. Like katje, the day a kitten spooks Theo in the garden. Lekker, once you’ve made him a delicious batch of syrupy pancakes once again. Schat, treasure, and schatje—that is, you.

You’re still years of practice away from being fluent in Dutch, but at this point you’re fluent in Theo, and that’s really what matters.

And one night, Theo’s got you in a kiss when the both of you enter the room. You push at him just enough so that he sees the look on your face. “Teach me Dutch,” you say, half-teasing, and he laughs as he joins you in stripping off your clothes.

There’s no easier way to remember vocabulary than to learn it viscerally, carve it against your skin into a memory, and Dutch is no exception. You both fall into the bed in an entanglement of limbs, righting yourselves up just to catch each other in another kiss.

You cup both his cheeks, and he teaches you, “gezicht.” Face.

You kiss his forehead, and he says, “voorhoofd.”

You gently run your thumbs under his eyes, and he says, “ogen.”

“Kus,” he says, “is like this,” pulling you toward him in a kiss. You sigh into the word without much grace.

Pressing his lips against your throat, he teaches you, “hals.”

Grazing a fang onto your shoulder, “schouder.”

He sucks a bruise onto your collarbone and says, “sleutelbeen.”

The sensation makes your hand fly onto his hair, and with a chuckle he teaches, “haar.”

He takes your hand in his, presses a kiss onto your wrist. “pols.”

You cup Theo’s face in your hand and scour his body for more words, like a dictionary made of flesh. Your free hand grazes the scar on his back and with a sigh he teaches you “litteken.” You wonder if the same word applies to those found in his heart.

“Rug,” he teaches you, the vast expanse of his back.

Your hand goes down to his waist and he says, “taille.” You touch his hip and he says “heup.”

He gives you a mischievous look, one that suited his boyish features so much, your heart nearly stops. “Where is je favoriet?” he asks you, teasing. A phrase you’d learnt earlier. Your face flushes at the connotation but you refuse to give him the answer he wants, tapping his nose (“neus”) with a finger.

“You are mijn favoriet,” you respond, and you know when he steals your lips even more deeply than earlier is only because you’ve made him flustered. You laugh into the kiss and he growls.

Never one to be outdone, Theo pushes you backward onto the bed. The two of you share a short moment of intimacy, staring at each other’s eyes with the kind of searing fondness that always leaves you breathless, before he’s on his way down again to teach you.

“Dij,” he mouths against your thigh; lifts your leg up toward him, pressing kisses all the way down. “Knie. Kalf. Voet.” You nearly kick him when he kisses your foot but he holds you still. “Enkel.”

“But I haven’t taught you the most important one,” he says. Crawling back upward, he cups the apex of your thighs and grins. “Paradijs,” he says, and you hit him on the shoulder, covering your mouth with one hand. The laugh that rolls out of him makes your embarrassment worth it.

You pull him upward to take another kiss from him, and while you could have at it tonight, you just want to bask in his presence. You whisper “omhelzing?” hoping to get the pronunciation right or else he’ll ignore your plea to cuddle, thankful that he pulls you up to switch position.

He rests his head on your chest and says, “hoofdkussen,” with a sigh, and you’re not an expert yet, but you’re pretty sure that’s not what it should be.

You push him off with a groan (“you’re heavy!”) and the two of you switch to your usual cuddling position, Theo holding you in his arms and your head on his chest.

You don’t realize your hand has hovered over the spot on his chest right over his heart until he places his hand on yours.

Whispers into the listening night air:

“Voor altijd van jou.”

---

in the atelier: The Kiss by Gustav Klimt 

also in the atelier, hidden somewhere hard to find, is Gustave Courbet's L'Origine du monde. (and because it is hidden, you’ll have to find it on your own. do be careful when you look it up though.) that painting singlehandedly inspired the paradijs bit, so it has to be mentioned.

[diffuserlover]

🌊✨🌊✨🌊✨🌊✨🌊✨🌊✨🌊✨🌊✨

Hey there bub<33 how’s your summer going?? I was wondering if I could request a ship with Txt and Enhypen ?

I’m a ‘04 liner and, as a South Asian, am extremely proud of my heritage and culture. I can accept other cultures easily and love to learn about them so someone who is respectful and open about other cultures and heritages would be ideal. I feel that I want someone that I can kind of match with too like me and him could wear the same aesthetic and take cutesy pictures. I have a deep interest in the arts, from painting to dance-which I have been doing for the past 11 years- as well as biology and science in general. I don’t really have a specific favorite color or season cuz I think every color has its own vibes and every season brings something new to the table :)) I’m a bit indecisive and pretty bad at expressing jealousy, though I do put great emphasis on communication in any relationship. My love language is quality time but I do reserve physical affection for those close to me. I’m also a inconsistent in my endeavors and am working on that trait of mine, but I do better with consistency if I have someone constantly motivating me. (Lol the unfinished paintings in my room could probably tell u that) I also love public speaking and such but only until my social battery runs out haha. Plus I have an easier time trying something new if I have the comfort of a warm loved one near me. I prefer sunny blue skies and warm days with a light breeze, major picnic vibes lol. I can be a bit guarded though with what I say, even to the people who care about me the most, so I get along well with people who won’t misunderstand me. My parent’s , especially mom’s, opinion really do matter to me a lot and I am someone who thrives in social environments and cares about keeping a respectful and kind reputation towards all. I'd also love it if I could go on and on about different theories and topics , deep or not, with him. I need constant mental stimulation in a relationship and honestly, without it, I just get bored. I want to be able to learn from him and I want him to be able to learn from me. Like to just be a couple that is always trying and doing something new, but I also want to be able to relax with him as well when the world gets overwhelming. I feel that I, myself, have a hard time grounding myself so someone who can help me keep my feet on the ground and head in the clouds would be nice. I'm either totally logical when it comes to matters of the heart or totally head in the clouds. It's something that I am working on, but I do acknowledge that. As for pet peeves, I can't stand it when people come to me with an issue that I already tried to help them solve and they don't even take my solution. I need someone who is going to at least try to take my advice and not just throw it down the drain. Again, at times I can run away from my emotions and just be detached for no reason..I need someone who understands that and knows how to handle that. I like it when my loved ones are a little argumentative with me as well, as light teasing though, rather than being all sappy and lovey-dovey all the time. I need someone who isn't going to get too hurt by my way of joking and can joke back but knows not to cross the line. Fun fact: my friends unanimously agree that I’m the color yellow :))) and one of my fav movies is “Your Name”

Ahh sorry I tend to go a bit overboard 😅 but thank you so much <33 Hope you have a wonderful day/night 💕

Hii! Thank you so much for requesting!! I am so sorry that this took so long! Thank you so much for being so sweet😭🤗 I really hope you like your ships!! :)

TXT:

I ship you with…

Yeonjun

I feel like you guys are a great fit!😄

Yeonjun would love to take cute photos with you and dress anyway you want him to for those photos😊

Because you said you want someone who you can learn from I feel like Yeonjun would be a great fit, you said you liked dancing so I feel he would try to teach you new moves or the choreography to one of his songs😇

You both hold off in communication when it comes to jealous but overall your communication in the relationship is great other than when he’s busy with his schedules🙃

Yeonjun is your #1 hype man, he will do anything to comfort you, motivate you, anything, he will be there for you. Though he does expect for you to do the same🤣

I feel like he can always tell when your social battery has run out and does anything he can to make you feel better😚

He loves how you hold yourself, how strong, confident, and mature you are😁

He adores listening to your little rants about the topics you like, if he doesn’t know about them he will always listen and probably look up more about it so you guys can talk about it together🥰

You said you like when your s/o teases you, Yeonjun is that s/o, he loves having little arguments/teasing fights that are always fun🤗

You guys have the most stupid inside jokes only you two would understand it confuses the others😆

Overall, your relationship with Yeonjun is never boring and you guys are the cutest together😚

Enhypen:

I ship you with…

Jake

I think he would be very interested in your culture and asks you to teach him about it😊

He would hype you up when taking photos to the point where your embarrassed😆

He expects you to hype him up as well but he gets shy really easy😁

He is quite touchy with you, he only does it when you seem comfortable with it😚

Jealousy is a bit of a problem in your relationship because you both don’t express or talk about your jealousy well🙃

He’s always by your side when you are out in public, though you do most of the talking when it comes to strangers he likes being close to you😭😭

He will drag you out of bed across the floor to help motivate you to do things like finish some of your paintings(he adores them and plus loves your cute face when your focused)🤣

You and Jake have easy conversations, nothing is never awkward and you could talk for hours about either serious stuff or is things like of a straw has one or two holes☺️

You guys are quite adventurous 🤗

You guys push each other to do things😊

Jake hates when you push back your emotions and don’t let anyone in, he just wants to help you and he doesn’t k ow how to help you when you don’t tell him what’s wrong🥺

At first he had absolutely no idea how to help you when you pushed away from him🙂

Jake seems like a big romantic but he also loves to tease you and joke around with you😇

Overall you and Jake have such a precious relationship and you guys really understand each other🥰

[rigelmejo]

My dudes wasabi Japanese is so cool this site is so cool literally my dream site ToT (thank u @yue-muffin for all those free reading links <3 which is what included wasabi Japanese)

I know what I’m doing after I finish reading Japanese in 30 Hours! (I might keep reading Reading Japanese for fun too just cause... I might as well we will See).

So like curse me if, when I say I will, it makes me not lol. I hope I DO actually do this. Because it sounds so much more clicks-with-me right now than my alternate study plan (which was Nukemarine memrise - which I WILL eventually do ToT I plan it ok, and tae Kim’s grammar guide - which I’m happy to replace with any grammar guide I’ll finish fucking reading tbh).

1. Remembered bilingualmanga exists and I am making no commitments to read anything (tho I have 4 mangas open and an urge to read them for the first time in years since I read yotsuba earlier and followed it). But I will say it’s quite cool I could um read and look words up (ditto for just regular iOS word lookup and Japanese scripts... I’d say ditto for Animelon too and I DO recommend it but I’m just not really an anime watcher).

2. Wasabi Japanese has a: a grammar guide. So my ass is gonna try reading it (in my defense it has audio which I find marginally nicer than the other sources I’ve been looking at... like I literally read Japanese in 30 Hours aloud audio helps me... also why I suspect in part Nukemarine’s decks help they make me listen a lot). https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-grammar/wasabis-online-japanese-grammar-reference/

3. Even better (to me) wasabi Japanese has b. A grammar drills lesson course that has you shadow and practice SENTENCE PATTERNS AND GRAMMAR. I was literally considering buying a Japanese shadowing textbook for just this purpose (but that textbook was random phrases whereas this is targeted sentence patterns). Also I learn best by just fucking seeing sentence patterns so I kind of suspect an activity like this would click with my brain better than actual grammar guide reading (tho grammar guide reading gives me a useful overview of what to start noticing). Like I literally own the book Japanese Sentence Patterns just cause it was the only thing that clicked... Bonuses about this lesson course wasabi Japanese has: it’s me Doing stuff, I learn best just Doing tbh (it’s why just brute force reading clicks well with me lol). And better, Doing stuff in a streamlined way so I can not bumble as long lol and I have reference if I’m confused (Also why I like graded readers). Info: https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-lessons/how-to-proceed-with-the-instantaneous-composition-method/ The lessons: https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-lessons/materials-for-japanese-lessons-intensive-reading/

4. Wasabi Japanese has lessons through stories, listening reading and shadowing. Phenomenal. Both the perfect chance to test if Listening Reading works some more (which I’m currently into), and to actually DO some things I wanna do like read and practice listening (versus Nukemarines memrise courses which are just flashcards, or playing Japanese video games which is... doable but too draining to be enjoyable or efficient yet). I’m excited. How to use: https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-lessons/japanese-lessons-how-to-proceed-with-read-aloud-method/ Actual lessons:. https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-lessons/fairy-tales-and-short-stories-with-easy-japanese/

5. Assuming you’re better at Japanese than me - wonderfully wasabi Japanese has a course I could use, right after finishing that last one, at a slightly more difficult level, with manga: https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-lessons/materials-for-japanese-lessons-intensive-reading/

6. Alternatively, want a different N3 course that’s radio program based? Here it is: https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-lessons/materials-for-japanese-lessons-read-aloud-method/ so yeah, wasabi Japanese looks like a quite nice alternative to flashcards or a textbook if a babe just wants to learn from stories with audio for a while ToT

7. Also I am again contemplating the benefit of just playing audio in the background more. Will I do it? I don’t know. I’d love to play SpoonFed Chinese audio, Japaneseaudiolessons, and Japanese core 2k audio on in the background. As it’s all comprehensible input I know I’d mostly pickup if I just heard it enough to Review it (whereas rn I just hear each audio file once ever on a walk then never again cause I have little time for focused audio only listening). But I feel bad when I play them in the bg and don’t fully listen ;-;. Ah the dilemma. Truly though they’d help so much if I played them in the background I know it... as of this month as an experiment since reading The Word Brain, I’ve been listening to SOME Chinese audio more. Specifically Guardians audiobook, a random Chinese hp audiobook, Alice in wonderland audiobook, silent reading audiobook. You would not believe how much it’s been noticeably helping. Usually it’s avenuex’s Guardian audiobook and every time I catch a bit of it casually in the bg while working, I’m blown away I understand clearly what I didn’t the time before. In particular I’m probably having the most improvements in this novels comprehension, since I’m Listen Reading Method with it too. But like... the first time I focused listened to it during L R? I caught everything with difficulty during the only-chinese audio but English text step 3. And then listening alone only caught the main story beats/scenes (which was already a major improvement for me). Now when working I can actually catch the paragraphs about Guo Changcheng’s family, his uncle, going to McDonald’s - these are details I very specifically remember being the ones I could NOT catch doing listening only the first time post L R. So after idk 3-6 listening of this chapter, just listening again in the background (since L R takes too much time I’m lazy I only do L R once), I’ve made this much progress. I only saw the full definition of everything ONCE one time during L R step 3 once. But just listening more I catch more and more. And of course, as I catch more the unclear parts become easier and easier to maybe figure out. All I know is I severely underestimated the benefit of repeated listening - at least when (at one point once) you comprehended the material. So considering this... I think now with hindsight, yes listening to condensed audio of a show or just a show, that you’ve seen before with English subs/dual subs/in target language and looked unknown words up, in the background probably could help. If at one point you comprehended it before. (So for me Guardian cdrama is hella on this list lol). With hindsight yeah, repeated audio of an audiobook chapter or audio drama you followed the target language subs for before, or that you could read but not hear alone, would probably help listening skills. Definitely my audio flashcard files where they’re literally Built to be comprehensible since it’s English then target language each line. So... yeah in hindsight more audio, even background audio, can help. Guarantee when I’m not L R with the guardian audiobook I’m barely even listening. And still I find myself catching parts of it.

8. My roommate got too excited about Final Fantasy 14 and informed me it’s free to play now.. which I didn’t know. So of course I foolishly looked up if I could play it in Japanese on a PlayStation and looks like answer is probably yes and I am sorely tempted...

9. It’s gonna be wild for me looking back on may progress at the end of the month because: I did almost nothing I planned, I got demotivated then intensely motivated, I’ve done a ton ToT, I also did a ton of Japanese immersion which?? I’m not even counting?? I don’t track my Japanese immersion yet because like... it’s not my priority right now. I read a ton of manhua the other day and just forgot to log it. I watched some of the woh concert and just did not count it, I read a surprising amount of Japanese this month for someone “not studying it much” yet (aka maybe more than I read last time I studied Japanese??). I did a lot of L R method I didn’t even track, I did a ton of background listening and I’m not tracking just hoping for the best. Did I finish 小王子 this month or last month? Whatever month that was I read like 4 Chinese books. I just remembered I read like 3 Japanese graded readers but didn’t count them cause they felt too simple to count (only 28 pages each). I watched 10 Cure Dolly Japanese grammar vids tho not sure how much help it is long term. Whatever time I did the Japanese video games had to count for something even tho it was draining af. Anyway my point is just... count on me to not do what I planned but be more productive when I do that. All that said: I’m more productive when I set plans even if they aren’t always followed, so I’ll keep making them lol. I think I just needed to hit that turning point of “do anything you want, just continue to do something” instead of “complete this first!” (Although I’m still aiming to complete things - or at least go for progressively challenging things). I dunno... I want to say I want to consider just trying to finish things imperfectly just finish them (to motivate me to finish my Hanzi books, Japanese books, courses I find). But knowing me.. I have no idea what will get me to keep going. Just need to remember it’s ok to do it imperfectly. Just need to remember to place what I will care about and actually do, as priority over what it is I think “must be fully done.”

[yuniversitywriting]

How to Learn Computer Science at Home

By: Alex Lu

TLDR: Take the plunge. Find out what it is you want to do and just do it without looking back. If you want to learn to code just pick any language out there. What you learn in one language is transferable to another. I’ve linked a couple of sources that might help you just as a pointer. As you learn I definitely suggest starting your own small projects. There’s going to be things you learn on the way that will bore you but you kind of just have to push through the boredom. 

As someone who would like to pursue computer science as my career in the future, I’ve always wanted to learn the subject on my own but never really found the courage to start until this summer. Finding the “right way” to start was by far my biggest concern starting out. I didn’t really have any idea what language I wanted to use, where I would learn, and what I wanted to do. Usually, when it comes to things like learning a new skill planning things out is kind of important but when it comes to something like computer science it’s probably better to just find something that interests you and just go for it without looking back. To be honest, I don’t think there’s necessarily a “right” way to learn computer science, and spending the time to find it will undoubtedly bring you into an unproductive loop of watching videos or reading articles on how to get started which is where I was towards the beginning of summer when I decided that I wanted to try my hand at web development.  

If you were to Google right now the technologies that exist in web development you would get a bunch of different articles that say different things about what’s the latest and greatest in web development whether it be some new programming language, library, framework, etc. and when I was first learning the basics of web development I had nothing to go off of and I was completely lost. Eventually, I learned to just tune out all the pointless Google searches and just started with the most basic thing in web development, HTML which isn’t actually a programming language and looks kind of like this which was sort of discouraging at first. Eventually, I got the basics of HTML and moved on to CSS which is also not a programming language (it controls the actual aesthetics of the page. I’ll show an example later from one of my projects). While the basics of HTML and CSS aren’t the most satisfying thing to learn, it was something I had to overcome. If you do choose to dive into computer science or specifically web development, it’s important to note that there are going to be many things that are boring to learn but you kind of have to just push through it because it’ll be important later on. I eventually made my way to learning Javascript (the actual programming language) which allowed me to create my fully-functional sites. 

When learning the basics of web development I found it really helpful to practice concepts by making my own small projects. Although I all wanted to be able to create the next Twitter right off the bat, I kind of had to reel in my ego and realize that I wasn’t there yet. Instead, I built smaller sites that I had fun making like this website I made on my birthday which plays “Happy Birthday.” The site uses HTML for all the text, CSS for all the images and styling on the web, and Javascript for all its functionalities. While making the site I also had to learn how to use things like the Command Prompt, Heroku, and Git, and therein lies the beauty of taking on smaller projects as you’ll learn random things and improve upon your skills. After looking around on the site for about 5 seconds you’ll notice how buggy it is and I think it summarizes my journey quite well. When making projects you’re always going to encounter some small bug and that’s completely okay. For this particular site, I’m not really interested in going back and fixing all its bugs because there are other things I’m trying to do. 

As of now, I’ve moved on past vanilla HTML, CSS, and Javascript and I’m more focused on learning other frameworks such as React and eventually I hope to become a full-stack developer. But, although I’ve learned everything I know pretty much on my own, I do have limits to what I can learn solo and I have enrolled in a community college to continue learning full-stack development. Although there are many things that you can self-learn, some things might just be easier to learn from an actual teacher.  

The reason I decided to join the YUNiversity is that I wanted to be able to create a platform where the audience could relate to its contributors. When learning a skill, it’s easy to be discouraged after seeing some prodigy and giving up simply because you don’t think you’ll ever be able to improve to the point of mastery. However, I believe that if you saw someone who was your age and were able to see all their trials and tribulations towards mastering a certain skill you might be motivated to actually pursue something yourself. Likewise, I hope my story was in some way helpful for anybody who wanted to learn Computer Science or web development on their own. In the future, I definitely hope to continue talking about my experiences learning more about web development and I really hope that the audience is able to join me on that journey 

Here are some resources if you want to learn something: 

1.Game development (I played around with Unity and their tutorials a bit. I’d say they’re pretty good. There’s a lot of reading for their tutorials). I’d also suggest checking out Brackeys (A Youtube channel that goes over the basics of game development in Unity. If you don’t like reading this might be for you)

2..C++ (There’s a lot of reading involved here so if you don’t like reading I don’t really recommend it. It goes over the fundamentals of programming. Just be warned that C++ is harder to learn than some other languages) 

3. Web Development

Freecodecamp (It goes through the basics of web development. There’s some reading but it also allows you to practice within their own environment. I used this to go over some of the basics of HTML, CSS, and JS) 

 Traversy Media (Youtube channel that goes over web development. I used this when I was learning and actually lifted some of the stuff in his videos for my own projects)

If you have anything you want to ask me or if you just want to talk to me I suggest just DMing me through my Instagram (@alex_yingnan_lu)