learnallthelanguages

[learnallthelanguages]

One word, same sound, different characters

I came across the word 决绝 juéjué recently and thought it was interesting that it's comprised of two different characters with the exact same pronunciation. Here are some other examples, just for fun. Definitions are from MDBG.

【1】 秘密（祕密）mìmì - secret; private; confidential; clandestine / a secret 他的秘密被我发现了。

【2】 翻番 fānfān - to double / to increase by a certain number of times 公司利润年年翻番。

【3】 各个（各個）gègè - every / various / separately, one by one 从各个方面来说，他是很用功的。

【4】 决绝（決絕）juéjué - to sever all relations with sb / determined / decisive 听他语气这样决绝，恐怕很难说服他改变心意。

【5】 实时（實時）shíshí - (in) real time / instantaneous 用户可查询实时天气信息及未来5天天气预报。

【6】 逝世 shìshì - to pass away / to die 今天是祖父逝世周年的日子，因此全家都到祖父的坟前祭拜。

See similar posts: All the shishi words I know

Plus see below for many additional words (ones I have not learned) that I found via MDBG.

意译（意譯）yìyì - meaning (of foreign expression) / translation of the meaning / paraphrase / free translation

异义（異義）yìyì - differing opinion

义译（義譯）yìyì - to translate a term into Chinese using a combination of characters or words that suggests its meaning

岩盐（岩鹽）yányán - rock salt

玩完 wánwán - (coll.) to end in failure; to come to grief; to bite the dust

魣鱼（魣魚）yúyú - perch

订定（訂定）dìngdìng - to set / to designate / to stipulate / to provide / to draw up / to formulate (rules etc) / stipulation

都督 dūdū - (army) commander-in-chief (archaic) / provincial military governor and civil administrator during the early Republic of China era (1911-1949 AD)

陆路（陸路）lùlù - land route / overland route

股骨 gǔgǔ - femur *Well...not really with 3rd tone sandhi

和合 héhé - harmony

辑集（輯集）jíjí - to anthologize

寄迹（寄跡）jìjì - to live away from home temporarily

结节（結節）jiéjié - nodule / tubercle

全权（全權）quánquán - full powers / total authority / plenipotentiary powers

屈曲 qūqū - crooked

泄泻（泄瀉）xièxiè - diarrhea

行刑 xíngxíng - to carry out a (death) sentence / execution

触处（觸處）chùchù - everywhere

仇雠（仇讎）chóuchóu - (literary) enemy / foe

事势（事勢）shìshì - state of affairs

世事 shìshì - affairs of life / things of the world

授受 shòushòu - to give and accept

熔融 róngróng - to melt / to fuse

[learnallthelanguages]

A different kind of 俠 this time: 跑趴俠

跑趴 pǎo pā / to party, go club hopping

Says Baidu:

此語來自台灣。趴就是"party"的意思 形容去混夜店或參加各地party 一個晚上可能要跑個好幾場

[learnallthelanguages]

中秋節快樂！

Word of the day:

賞月 shǎngyuè / to enjoy a beautiful full moon

「中央氣象署表示，中秋節17日晚間桃園以北賞月需碰點運氣，新竹以南大致都有機會看見月亮。」

[learnallthelanguages]

Tricky words that differ between 普通话 and 国语

Usually tone and other small pronunciation differences between 普通话 and 国语 don’t phase me much. In context I don’t even notice 期望 qīwàng vs. qíwàng. But recently I stumbled across 颤巍巍 and realized that it’s a lot harder when both/all syllables in a word are pronounced differently!

Here are 8 words (including 颤巍巍) that sound pretty different in 普通话 and 国语 (definitely not exhaustive).

Format: 简体（繁体）普通话读音 | 国语读音 Simp. (Trad.) Putonghua pron. | Guoyu pron.

【1】 颤巍巍（顫巍巍）chànwēiwēi | zhànwéiwéi - trembling / swaying / flickering / tottering / faltering

【2】 血液* xuèyè | xiěyì - blood

【3】 差劲（差勁）chàjìn | chājìng - bad / no good / below average / disappointing

【4】 熟识（熟識）shúshi or shúshí | shóushì- to be well acquainted with / to know well

【5】 血迹*（血跡）xuèjì | xiějī - bloodstain

【6】 ���圾 lājī | lèsè - trash / refuse / garbage / of poor quality (this is probably the most well known difference!)

【7】 倏地 shūde | shùdì - swiftly / suddenly

【8】 惋惜 wǎnxī | wànxí - to regret / to feel that it is a great pity / to feel sorry for sb

Definitions are from MDBG.

*The pronunciation of 血 is all over the place. You can hear xuè, xuě, or xiě. I’m generalizing here, but I actually tend to say xuě.

Under the cut you can see some bonus words that I found (I didn’t include them since I have not seen/learned them).

【9】 夹击（夾擊）jiājī | jiájí - pincer attack / attack from two or more sides / converging attack / attack on a flank / fork in chess, with one piece making two attacks

【10】 突击（突擊）tūjī | tújí - sudden and violent attack / assault / fig. rushed job / concentrated effort to finish a job quickly

【11】 削发（削髮）xuēfà | xuèfǎ - to shave one's head / fig. to become a monk or nun / to take the tonsure

【12】 综括（綜括）zōngkuò | zòngguā - to summarize / to sum up

【13】 敛迹（斂跡）liǎnjì | liànjī- to refrain / to give up evil (temporarily) / to cover one's traces / to lie low / to retire (from view)

【14】 档期（檔期）dàngqī | dǎngqí - slot within a schedule / timeslot (for a TV program, a session with a photographer etc) / range of dates in which an event is to be held (film screening, exhibition etc)

【15】 质朴（質樸）zhìpǔ | zhípú - simple / plain / unadorned / unaffected / unsophisticated / rustic / earthy

【16】 血泊 xuèpō | xiěbó - pool of blood

【17】 稍息 shàoxī | shāoxí - (military) Stand at ease!

See similar posts: Who knew! These characters are pronounced differently in Taiwan Cross-strait tone differences

[learnallthelanguages]

How to study languages without studying

Whether you're just starting out and have had bad experiences with textbook learning in the past or are getting burnt out from prepping for the next proficiency test, it's never a bad idea to put the textbooks away for a time and just enjoy your target language. If you're new to the world of immersion, here are a few ways to get you started.

Follow along with the lyrics of a song. Spotify's not-so-new-anymore lyrics feature is great for this, especially since it has timed lyrics, but it doesn't have every song.

Expert mode: Write out the lyrics and underline/highlight/make note of all the words and grammar structures you don't know. Learn these unknowns until you can understand the whole song!

Extra challenge: Translate a song from your target language. I usually tend to stay away from translations in my study, but for those of you who aspire to be translators (or already are!), the poetic nature of song lyrics can be a fun challenge.

Watch a show or movie. Netflix has now introduced a feature where you can sort by language! If there's nothing made in your language that you're interested in, it also gives the option to sort by shows and movies that have the audio or subtitles available. Internet Archive also tends to have lots of foreign films that I'm looking for.

Easy mode: Watch with English or your native language subtitles. When doing this, try to still listen to what's being said and pick up on words and phrases that you know, or match new words with their translation in the subtitles. Note: reading one language and listening to another is a skill in and of itself! Don't be discouraged if you can't do both at the same time yet, you're brain is still making the connections in intonation and cadence of the language.

Hard mode: Watch with captions in your target language. This helps you connect listening and reading, especially in languages where the spelling isn't exactly phonetic, or it uses a different alphabet than what you're used to.

Expert mode: No captions or subtitles! But who knows, maybe you're better at listening comprehension than I am. Make sure you're getting comprehensible input here; some shows and movies are much harder than others. But above all else, watch what keeps your interest. A movie where you can catch half the dialogue but is super engaging is better for you than an "easy" movie that you're going to spend your time ignoring.

Polyglot mode?: Watch something in your target language with subtitles in a different target language. This adds just one too many layers of obfuscation for me, but if you're into the challenge, more power to you.

Watch YouTube. You can change your language preference on YouTube, and with that, the Explore section will give you recommendations in your target language. Going into the trending tab with your target language can give you a good idea about what people are interested in in the countries where your target language is spoken.

Read something. It can be a book, it can be a comic. There are plenty of webcomics out there in a number of languages! There's also probably an English language listicle with recommendations of easier to understand webcomics for learners, too.

If you're just getting started in immersion, you can choose whether you focus on intensive reading or extensive reading (this actually goes for all kinds of immersion, but is easiest to control with reading since it happens at your own pace). Intensive reading is reading with the goal of understanding everything 100%. If you don't understand a word, or a grammar point, or the reading of a character, look it up. Extensive reading is reading just to get the gist of things. Look up words and grammar points only if they stop you from understanding the general meaning of the sentence or section. And of course, the more you immerse, the less you'll have to look things up, but remember that difficulty varies between materials, even within books of the same age range, genre, and medium.

A small digression: If you decide that you never want to open a textbook on your language learning journey, more power to you! It can be done and I know people who have gotten to proficient levels of their target language without textbooks. If you want this to be you, extensive immersion is your best friend. You also might want to get comfortable with the flashcard program anki, because, if this is your goal, all those unknown grammar points and words will probably end up there. But at the end of the day, language learning is an intensely personal journey, and what works for others won't necessarily work for you. Finding what works for you is just part of learning a language.

Play a game. Lots of games are region locked (hint: Pokemon Sun/Moon isn't! If you start a new game, you can choose which language you want to play it in), but there are plenty of free online games still lurking in the corners of the internet. With a bit of googling, you can probably find something in your target language. Just the other day, I went out to find one of those hidden item games in Japanese and ended up finding an entire site dedicated to user made browser games.

If you're learning Japanese or Korean, picrew might be fun to look through as well. I noticed that plenty of picrews have basic anatomy vocabulary. I'm not super familiar with picrew myself, but the ones I've seen tend to be in Korean and Japanese

And lastly, don't fully give up on textbooks before trying them out. Don't be discouraged if textbooks truly aren't your thing, but studying a language on your own time can feel much different than studying for school. Don't put too much pressure on yourself and just have fun with your language. Additionally, if you'd rather learn in a video format, many languages have full courses uploaded to YouTube for you to try. Finding these can be difficult for some languages though, so don't hesitate to reach out to other learners and see what they recommend!

Got your materials ready? Great! Now go forth and immerse!

[learnallthelanguages]

Look, I knew five languages by age 19 and now I am learning like 3 more. I work as a language instructor and a consultant. If I can give language learners only one advice, this is it.

STOP LEARNING WORDS ON THEIR OWN.

You're doing yourself a disservice by learning lists of "30 words you must know!" "100 most common words!" like it literally means nothing if you cannot use those words in an appropriate context with proper grammar. So what you actually need to do is learn those words via example sentences.

Of course, sentences have more words so you may think you're learning less but you're actually learning the way to use it in context. That's what's important.

Language is about communication, which also means if you want to learn languages, you have to observe how people communicate with each other universally. Native speakers never have a list of words they know and they don't count every single new word they've learned. So why are you doing it to yourself? What native speakers do is listen to the new word, remember the context they're spoken in, and keep using that word in that context. And that's why people go "wait, you can use that word LIKE THAT?" all the time. So you, a language learner, are also allowed to do that. I'm not even saying those word lists are useless but they're the most useful AFTER you've known most of them and are trying to go over them for practice etc. Native speakers do click on those word lists to check out how many words they don't know or to remind themselves of those words or to learn some facts about each word. That should be your goal as well.

Learn sentences. Learn them in context. Do not fall into the "I must know xx amount of words or I'm a failure at language learning" trap perpetuated by bloggers or youtubers or whatever. Have fun with it!

[learnallthelanguages]

New World Swin S Mandarin Vocab

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.**.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

即将来临 jí jiāng lái lín - imminent

幻想 huàn xiǎng - delusion; fantasy (HSK5)

奔 bēn - to hurry; to rush; to run quickly (HSK6)

拼命 pīn mìng - to do one's utmost, with all one's might, at all costs, (to work or fight) as if one's life depends on it (HSK6)

频道 pín dào - frequency, channel (HSK5)

迫不及待 pò bù jí dài- impatient, in a hurry, itching to get on with it 

冲破 chōng pò - breakthrough; to overcome an obstacle quickly (HSK5)

犹豫 yóu yù - to hesitate (HSK5)

迷茫 mí máng - perplexed, bewildered 

呼唤 hū huàn - to call out, to shout (HSK6)

暂停 zàn tíng - to suspend,  pause

浮 fú - to float (HSK6)

倾听 qīng tīng - to listen attentively (HSK6)

期盼 qī pàn - to anticipate, to look forward to, to await expectantly

乘 chéng - to ride, to mount (HSK6)

划过 huá guò - (of a meteor etc) to streak across (the sky)

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.**.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Lyric Translation Post

[learnallthelanguages]

Vocab from first ep of 大明王朝1566：

(aka my new salt tax and budget heavy politics imperial drama!)

1. 同舟共济 - tong2 zhou1 gong4 ji4- to cross a river in the same boat / to pull together in times of trouble - 天大之事，咱们可得同舟共济

2. 议事 – yi4 shi4 – to discuss official business - 议事的时辰快到了

3. 户部 – hu4 bu4 - the Ministry of Revenue, 六部之一。 finally gonna actually learn them after years of them floating around vaguely in my NiF-brain，一共包括：

吏部 Li4 bu4 – Ministry of Personnel

户部 – hu4 bu4 – Ministry of Revenue

礼部 – Li3 bu4 – Ministry of Rites

兵部 – bing1 bu4 – Ministry of War

刑部 – xing2 bu4 – Ministry of Justine

工部 – gong1 bu4 – Ministry of Works

4. 拟 – ni3 - to draw up, devise, draft - 拟定 (to draw up)，拟议 (proposal），拟作 （imitative work done in the style of a certain author，拟声 (onomatopoeia)

5. 仰赖 – yang3lai4 – to rely on (literary) - 仰赖皇上如天之德

6. 凑巧 – cou4 qiao3 – luckily, as chance would have it -凑巧 , 去年腊月又没下雪，有些人就借着这些诽谤朝廷

7. 腊月 – la4 yue4 – one of the many (many. Ye gods there are Many) names for the last month of the lunar calendar / 岁末十二月的别称

8. 祈 – qi2 – to pray for

9. 祥瑞 – xiang2 rui4 – a good omen - 虽然降了祥瑞，可是皇上他的心情也不准好到哪去

10. 亏空 – kui1kong1 – deficit (budget)-亏空上的事，能过去我们就尽量过去

11. 开支 – kai1zhi1 (expenditure) - 内阁把去年的各项开支按各部和两京一十三省的实际用度报上来

12. 宗 – zong1 – here, a measure word for sums of money - 今年有哪几宗大的开支，各部提出来，户部综算一下

14. 实心 – shi1 xin1 – sincere, honest -和大家实心用事

15. 用事 – yong4 shi4 – (literary) to act, to be in power

16. 斋戒 – zhai1 jie4 – to abstain for meat and wine when offering sacrifices to the gods/ancestors -皇上就一个人在这里斋戒敬天

Individual difficult/unfamiliar characters：

1) 济 – ji4 – to aid, assist, cross a river

2) 议 – yi4 – 议论 (comment/remark)，议会 （parliament），议题 (subject under discussion)，议事日程 (agenda, order of the day)

3) 吏 – li4 – government official, petty clerk – NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH 史 shi3 – history/annals

4) 拟 – ni3 - to draw up, device, draft

5) 仰 – yang3 – to rely on > 仰头 (raise one’s head)，仰面 (to face upward)，仰天 (to look up to heaven)

6) 赖 – lai4 – to rely, depend / to blame someone wrongly – 赖以 (to depend on)

7) 凑 – cou4 – to gather together, take advantage of a chance situation, move closer – 凑近 (to get closer)，凑足 (to scrape together enough people, money etc)

8) 祈 – qi2 – to pray for – 祈福 (to pray for good fortune)，祈年 (to pray for a good harvest)，祈雨 (to pray for rain)

9)斋 – zhai1 – a vegetarian diet for religious purposes, to adopt said diet / to give alms to a monk – 斋月(Ramadan), 斋堂 (dining hall in a Buddhist temple), 斋期 （days/period of fasting)

----

as ever, any corrections or pointing out of typos welcome!

[learnallthelanguages]

Word of the day:

九重葛 jiǔ chóng gé / bougainvillea

[learnallthelanguages]

an underrated language learning method that I feel like people should use more is if you're learning a new language but also really enjoy a piece of media/entertainment in another language, then you should try and consume that media/entertainment in your target language as well.

for example,

if you're learning french but also really like watching japanese anime, then you should try watching anime in the french dub.

if you've always been obsessed with kpop songs and you're learning chinese, there's plenty of kpop songs that have chinese versions as well as chinese songs made by chinese kpop idols that still fall under the genre of kpop.

watching movies (disney, dramas, marvel, etc) in different languages is amazing as well. it doesn't matter if fucking Merida from Brave realistically speaks in the scots dialect- if you wanna learn Italian and u fucking love Brave then watch it in Italian!

i know a reason why this isn't used very often is because people don't really like consuming things in a language that isn't the original but i reallyyyy think its helpful

a part of me also thinks this post is kindaaa useless in english

cuz i originally thought of this entire rant because of how easily and entertaining-ly japanese people could learn english if they were to watch anime/read manga in english (which some of them actually DO when studying english)

[learnallthelanguages]

廢柴 thoughtfully warns you against money laundering.

洗錢 xǐ qián / launder money

防制 fáng zhì / to combat, counter (crimes, social issues)

申報 shēnbào / declare something (to customs)

依法 yīfǎ / according to the law

沒入 mòrù / confiscate (Pleco says variant of 沒收)

處以 chǔyǐ / mete out

罰鍰 fáhuán / a fine

[learnallthelanguages]

句法学 - Syntax

词类 cílèi / 词性 cíxìng - Parts of speech

名词 míngcí - Noun

动词 dòngcí - Verb

形容词 xíngróngcí - Adjective

副词 fùcí / 状语 zhuàngyǔ - Adverb

前置词 qiánzhìcí / 介词 jiècí - Preposition

后置词 hòuzhìcí - Postposition

连词 liáncí - Conjunction

代词 dàicí - Pronoun

限定词 xiàndìngcí - Determiner

句法功能 jùfǎ gōngnéng - Syntactic function

主语 zhǔyǔ - Subject

谓语 wèiyǔ - Predicate

宾语 bīnyǔ - Object

语序 yǔxù - Word order

格 gé - Case

主格 zhǔgé - Nominative

宾格 bīngé - Accusative

与格 yǔgé - Dative

属格 shǔgé - Genitive

具格 jùgé - Instrumental

题元角色 tíyuán juésè - Theta roles （语义角色，语义关系，主题关系）

施事 shīshì - Agent

受事 shòushì / 客事 kèshì - Patient

主事 zhǔshì - Theme

感事 gǎnshì / 经验者 jīngyànzhě - Experiencer

益事 yìshì - Beneficiary

领事 lǐngshì - Recipient

终点 zhōndiǎn - Goal

工具 gōngjù - Instrument

Syntactic structure

中心语 zhōngxīnyǔ - Head

附加语 fùjiāyǔ - Adjunct

标定语 biāodìngyǔ - Specifier

论元 lùnyuán - Argument

补足语 bǔzúyǔ - Complement

短语 duǎnyǔ / 词组 cízǔ - Phrase

句子 jùzi - Sentence

分句 fēnjù - Clause

从句 cóngjù - Subordinate clause

(句子)成分 (jùzi) chéngfen - Constituent

Theoretical terms

管辖 guǎnxiá - Govern

约束 yuēshù - Bind

移位 yíwèi - Movement

语迹 yǔjì - Trace

拷贝 kǎobèi - Copy (n.)

提升 tíshēng - Raising

控制 kòngzhì - Control

合并 hébìng - Merge

辖域 xiáyù - Scope

一致 yīzhì - Agreement

特征 tèzhēng - Feature

投射 tóushè - Project (v.)

扩充的投射原则 kuòchōngde tóushè yuánzé - Extended projection principle

语段 yǔduàn - Phase

语段不可渗透性条件 yǔduàn bùkě shèntòuxìng tiáojiàn - Phase impenetrability condition (PIC)

句法树 jùfǎ shù - Syntax trees

节点 jiédiǎn - Node

姐妹节点 jiěmèi jiédiǎn - Sister nodes

母节点 mǔ jiédiǎn - Mother node

女节点 nǚ jiédiǎn - Daughter node

终端节点 zhōngduān jiédiǎn - Terminal node

支配 zhīpèi - Dominate

Theoretical frameworks

生成语法 shēngchéng yǔfǎ - Generative grammar

X' 理论 lǐlùn - X-bar theory （also X次理论）

管辖与约束理论 gǔanxiá yǔ yuēshù lǐlùn - Government & binding

词汇功能语法 cíhuì gōngnéng yǔfǎ - Lexical functional grammar

依存语法 yīcún yǔfǎ - Dependency grammar

[learnallthelanguages]

Chinese Nicknames for Foreign Celebrities

A lot of foreign names are a bit…clunky when transliterated into Chinese. For example:

莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥 lái’ángnàduō·díkǎpǔlǐ’ào = Leonardo DiCaprio

埃米纳姆 āimǐnàmǔ = Eminem

泰勒·斯威夫特 tàilè·sīwēifūtè = Taylor Swift

I’m not going to dive into why—that’s a whole other post. But some of these transliterated names are seriously hard for me to say! And it seems like Chinese fans agree, because they have shorter nicknames for some foreign celebs.

The three celebs I mentioned above each have nicknames. I actually encountered all three nicknames while watching Chinese TV shows recently! So I can confirm that they are really used. Can you tell who is who?

小李子 xiǎolǐzǐ 

阿姆 āmǔ

霉霉 méiméi 

But where did these nicknames come from? What do they mean?

Leonardo DiCaprio / 小李子

The transliteration above starts with 莱 (lái), but transliterations are not universal. According to what I found online, 李奥纳多 is an alternative transliteration of Leonardo. As an American English speaker, I think this sounds closer to how I say Leonardo. So the nickname 小李子 likely comes from 李奥纳多. 小李子 is certainly much easier to say than 莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥.

Eminem / 阿姆

Interestingly, even though the simplified Chinese Wikipedia page for Eminem is titled 埃米纳姆, the body text uses both 埃米纳姆 and 阿姆. But the traditional version only uses 阿姆. The Baidu page only uses 埃米纳姆. 阿姆 is not only shorter and easier to say, but 阿+syllable is a known nickname structure, so my guess is that’s where 阿姆 came from.

Taylor Swift / 霉霉

According to these 百度知道 comments, Taylor Swift is called 霉霉 because 1) 霉 sounds like 美 and 2) she used to be unlucky when it came to charting on Billboard (霉 in this case as in 倒霉, to have bad luck/be out of luck). I would have guessed it was because she had bad luck in finding love honestly! You’ll have to decided for yourself which origin story you believe.

[learnallthelanguages]

How i'm learning 3 languages at the same time atm

I'm currently (actively) learning 3 languages at the same time and thought i'd tell you guys about what i'm doing

So right now i'm learning

Swedish (almost at B2 i'd say)

French (approx. B1)

Czech (barely even scratched A1)

and here's what i'm doing:

Swedish (B1-B2):

i'm really struggling with a learning plateau atm and desperately need to learn more vocab words, so i'm studying all of the flash cards i can find

i'm currently reading a book that is meant for teenagers (Hallahem 1) and listening to the audiobook at the same time to practice listening comprehension

i've found a couple of youtubers i like and watch their videos whenever i have a few minutes to spare

i like watching German ice hockey matches, so naturally i looked up the Swedish ice hockey league and occasionally watch their matches (even though i understand very little cause the commentators talk so fast)

when i've had a busy or stressful day but really want to squeeze at least a little bit of Swedish repetition in, i use the Clozemaster app

French (B1):

French grammar is my personal nemesis, so that's my main focus atm -> i'm using the Babbel app to learn grammar & a German exercise book to practice what i've learned (it's by PONS, in case you're interested)

i like watching Chatterbug videos, because the streamers there talk very clearly and are great at explaining little grammar bits

as an additional listening comprehension exercise, i use the app tv5monde every once in a while (you can watch short videos (usually around 2 to 3 minutes long) and then have to answer a few questions about what you've just learned)

i also use Clozemaster for repetition on busy days

Czech (beginner):

Since Babbel and other big language learning apps don't offer Czech courses, i have to use a German exercise book to learn and practice grammar (the one by Langenscheidt)

i've also bought a German online course that mainly teaches and practices vocab words (up till level C2), but also offers occasional grammar exercises (the course is by SprachenLernen24)

(Note: i do not recommend the Czech Duolingo course, it doesn't teach any grammar at all and i just got super confused and annoyed)

A few tips for learning languages

I've been learning languages for more than 15 years now and i've learned a lot about which learning methods work for me and which don't, so here are a few tips that might help you if you're struggling or unmotivated

grammar is the main basis of any language. Once you know the grammar, you know the language, then it's just a matter of accumulating as many words, idioms, and sayings as you can to reach your desired level

notice what you're struggling with! If you always use the wrong tense or always mess up idioms, look up exercises online, write the rules on a flashcard and stick them to your mirror, repeat, repeat, repeat until you get annoyed, that's the only way it'll stick

if you're struggling with listening comprehension, buy a book & the respective audiobook. Audiobook narrators usually talk more slowly than actors, youtubers, or podcasters and reading the book at the same time is like having subtitles

i personally can only stick to a language learning schedule if i enjoy what i'm doing. If an app isn't my cup of tea, i'm just not motivated enough to use it. So find stuff that's fun, even if it's just 2 things (that's better than 10 things you hate)

don't rush ahead! Stick to your level until the exercises get too easy, then you can move to the next level. Nothing is worse for your motivation than feeling overwhelmed

what do you love? do you like a certain sport? do you like makeup tutorials? do you like to crochet? are you interested in plants or astronomy or booktok or whatever? is there a comic book or children's tv show you enjoy? then go and look up all of these things in your target language!

[learnallthelanguages]

. ݁₊ ⊹ 🍭🍨 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘝𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘣𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘺 🍧🍰 . ݁˖

// Candy // Cotton candy ~ 棉花糖 (miánhuātáng) Note: 'marshmallow' has the same name as cotton candy in Chinese Gummy ~ 软糖 (ruǎntáng) Lollipop ~ 棒棒糖 (bàngbàngtáng) Fudge ~ 乳脂软糖 (rǔzhī ruǎntáng) Caramel ~ 焦糖 (jiāotáng) Jellybean ~ 果冻豆 (guǒdòng dòu) Toffee ~ 太妃糖 (tàifēi táng) Liquorice ~ 甘草 (gāncǎo) // Baked Sweets // Cupcake ~ 杯子蛋糕 (bēizi dàngāo) Brownie ~ 布朗尼 (bùlǎngní) Sponge cake ~ 海绵蛋糕 (hǎimián dàngāo) Lava cake ~ 熔岩蛋糕 (Róngyán dàngāo) Black forest cake ~ 黑森林蛋糕 (hēisēnlín dàngāo) Cheesecake ~ 乳酪蛋糕 (rǔlào dàngāo) Tiramisu ~ 提拉米苏 (tílāmǐsū) Scone ~ 司康 (sīkāng) Macaron ~ 马卡龙 (mǎkǎlóng) Waffle ~ 华夫饼 (huáfū bǐng) Tart ~ 塔 (tǎ) Crepe ~ 可丽饼 (kělì bǐng) Pie ~ 派 (pài) Chocolate chip cookie ~ 巧克力碎片饼干 (qiǎokèlì suìpiàn bǐnggān) Donut ~ 甜甜圈 (tiántiánquān) Brulee ~ 烤布蕾 (kǎo bùlěi) Creampie ~ 奶油派 (nǎiyóu pài) Cinnamon bun ~ 肉桂卷 (ròuguì juǎn) Gingerbread ~ 姜饼 (jiāngbǐng) Red velvet cake ~ 红色天鹅绒蛋糕 (hóngsè tiān'é'rónghuá dàngāo) // Frozen Desserts // Sherbet ~ 雪葩 (xuěpā) Gelato ~ 吉拉朵 (jílāduǒ) Sundae ~ 圣代 (shèngdài) Shaved ice ~ 刨冰 (bàobīng) Ice cream ~ 冰激凌 (bīngjīlíng) Note: another common name is 冰淇淋 (bīngqílín). Popsicle ~ 冰棍儿 (bīnggùn'er) // Misc. // Custard ~ 奶黄 (nǎihuáng) Puff ~ 泡芙 (pàofú) Popcorn ~ 爆米花 (bàomǐhuā) Milkshake ~ 奶昔 (nǎixī) Jello ~ 果冻 (guǒdòng) Oreo ~ 奥利奥 (àolì'ào) // Common Asian Desserts // Mochi ~ 麻糬 (máshǔ) Tanghulu ~ 糖葫芦 (tánghúlu) Black sesame soup ~ 黑芝麻糊 (hēi zhīma hú) Swallow's nest ~ 燕窝 (yànwō) Sago pudding ~ 西米布丁 (xīmǐ bùdīng) Snow fungus soup ~ 雪耳糖水 (xuě'ěr tángshuǐ) Osmanthus Jelly ~ 桂花糕 (guìhuā gāo) Grass jelly ~ 仙草 (xiāncǎo) // Example Text // https://www.sohu.com/a/443013219_120949919

口味最“奇怪”的4种糖果 -> the four candies with the strangest flavours.

1、星空棒棒糖 -> planet lollipops

星空棒棒糖有名的高颜值糖果，大部分的女生都有买过，或是男生情人节买来送女朋友都有了解过。-> Planet lollipops are popular for their appearance, lots of women have already purchased them before, or men who, on Valentine's day gifted it to their girlfriends, have understood. 它的味道你尝过后就会觉得“这是什么沙雕玩意儿，我吃了塑料吗？”，有这种感觉并不奇怪，星空棒棒糖大部分都是甜苦甜苦的味道，有些还带着塑料的气味，吃完就怀疑人生，估计这个糖果也就只能当做摆设。-> After tasting its flavour, you will think: "what is this sand sculpture-like thing, am I eating plastic?" Having this kind of feeling isn't exactly strange, planetary lollipop largely have a bittersweet flavour, some lollipops even have a plastic odour, after eating it, you'll question your life, seems like this kind of candy is only used for decoration.

2、榴莲糖 -> durian candy

...打开包装就是浓浓的榴莲味，吃到嘴里就感觉是三里往外都是这个榴莲味 -> upon opening the package are the dense/strong durian smells, eating them makes you feel that the durian smell is everywhere within a 3 mile radius.

3、姜汁糖 -> ginger candy

姜汁糖里面就是有大量的姜味，吃的第一口还是上面糖味，含一会后姜味就显露出来了，你会有一种姜辣的感觉，一直猛吸气想要减少这个辣味，没想到后面越吃越辣，让人有点受不了，吃到一半就吐了，这种一般都是家里的老人才会买，老人很喜欢这种甜辣的感觉，甚至吃起来还想喝一两口小酒。-> Within ginger candy is a considerable amount of ginger flavour, after eating the first bite, the first taste is sweet, after sucking on it for a bit, the ginger flavour will come out and you get have a spicy ginger feeling. Keep inhaling sharply, wanting to reduce this spiciness, not knowing that more and more spiciness will follow, intolerable, spat it out halfway through, this kind of candy will typically be bought by a family's older individuals, elders really like this kind of spicy-sweet feel, to the point of also wanting to drink a couple gulps of liquor.

世界上最好吃的十种甜点，吃过六种，算我服！-> 10 of the world's most delicious desserts, eaten 6 types, count me in!

1、布朗尼蛋糕--美国 -> Brownie--America

布朗尼蛋糕属于重油蛋糕的一种，但它和一般重油蛋糕的区别在于通常较薄且较结实，不像普通蛋糕那样松松的, 而且一定是巧克力口味 -> Brownies are considered a type of pound cakes, but they are different from regular pound cakes in that they are usually on the thinner and sturdier side, unlike the regular cakes which are fluffier, and brownies need a chocolate flavour.

2、提拉米苏--意大利 -> Tiramisu--Italy

提拉米苏是一种带咖啡酒味儿的意大利甜点 -> tiramisu is a type of coffee-flavour containing Italian dessert.

10、乳酪蛋糕--阿拉伯 -> Cheesecake--Arabic

这类蛋糕介于蛋糕和甜点之间，因而越来越受人关注 -> this type of cake is a cross between cakes and desserts, and because of this, more and more people have given it attention.

[learnallthelanguages]

chinese art compliments/replies

as a follow up to my post on online drawing vocab, here is a collection of comments you can use to compliment others' art :-)

the basics

喜欢 [xǐhuān] - i like it

好好看 [hǎohǎo kàn] - looks good

厉害 [lìhài] - amazing

好漂亮/帥/美 [piàoliang/shuài/měi] - so pretty/handsome/beautiful

太有才了 [tài yǒu cáile] - so talented (similarily, 画画天才 => drawing genius)

好神 [hǎo shén] - godly

神迹 [shén jī] - miraculous

仙品 [xiān pǐn] - high-quality product

好鮮活 [xiān huó] - vivid/lifelike

it’s cute

可爱晕了 [kě'ài yūnle] - so cute i fainted

可爱死了 [kě'ài sǐle] - so cute I died

可爱鼠了 [kě'ài shǔle] - so cute I died (in a cutesy/meme way)

卡瓦 [kǎ wǎ] - kawaii

好米 [hǎo mǐ] - so cute/beautiful

太萌了 [tài méngle] - so adorable (originating from japanese word moe - 萌え, lots of different meanings, but mostly refers to happiness you feel when you see something really cute), can be used like 萌到我了/被萌晕/心被萌化了

basically any XX死了/XX暈了/XX炸了 comment works

expletives

我去 [wǒ qù] - damn

卧槽/我草/wc [wò cāo] - censored vers of 我操 => oh fuck

牛逼 [niú bī] - (fucking) awesome, usually just use 牛

exclamatives

哇/哇塞 [wasāi] - wow

啊啊啊啊 - aaaaaa

哇啊啊啊 - wahhhh

responding to compliments

被老師跨了，能力暴增 [kuà...bào zēng] - (if responding to commenter who's also an artist) compliments from teacher make my ability surge

爱您主人 - love u op (主人 refers to original commenter), can also just use 愛你

嘿嘿谢谢喜欢 - hehe ty for liking

比心 [bǐ xīn]- finger heart

送愛 [sòng ài] - sending love

亲亲 [qīn qīn] - kiss kiss

questions

可以当头像吗 [tóuxiàng] - can I make it my pfp

可以自印吗 [zì yìn] - can I print it out

可以收集吗 [shōují] - can I save it

求原图 [qiú yuán tú] - original image pls

这么时候接稿 [jiē gǎo]- when will you open commissions

misc.

抱走/拿走 [bào/ná zǒu] - carrying/taking it away

蹲蹲 [dūn dūn] - if someone has posted a WIP, waiting (for the finished piece/shop listing), direct trans. = squatting

[learnallthelanguages]

Learning Chinese from Spam Texts

I got a very amusing spam text in Chinese this morning, so naturally I have to turn it into a vocabulary lesson.

生活洋溢甜蜜温馨，周末愉快，今天有什么安排呢？ 看你没有回信息，你是在忙还是没有收到我的信息呢？

新词 Vocab:

洋溢 / yáng yì / brimming with

甜蜜 / tián mì / sweet

温馨 / wēn xīn / soft, fragrant and warm

愉快 / yú kuài / happy, pleasant, cheery

安排 / ān pái / plan or arrangements; to plan or arrange

信息 / xìn xī / text message; information

收到 / shòu dào / to receive

翻译 Translation:

Life is brimming with sweetness and warmth, happy weekend, what plans do you have today? I see you haven't replied to my message, are you busy or have you not received my message?