strawberrymleko

[strawberrymleko]

And I'm back. Dabbling in Swedish currently. Let's go! 🇸🇪

Some resources I'm using:

Coffee Break Swedish podcast

Colloquial Swedish (free pdf here), visit the Colloquial Swedish site for free audio that accompanies the book

Babbel

[strawberrymleko]

Tragic: in that mood to learn every language but there's not enough time or energy in the day

[strawberrymleko]

Expressing your support in Ukrainian 🇺🇦

🇺🇦 Слава Україні! - Glory to Ukraine!

Героям Слава! - Glory to heroes!

✊ Слава ЗСУ! - Glory to the Ukrainian army! (ЗСУ = Збройні Сили України)

💗 Бережи себе! - Take care! (to one person)

Бережіть себе! - Take care! (to many people)

🌻 Тримайся! - Hang in there! (to one person)

Тримайтеся! - Hang in there! (to many people)

🌾 Повертайся живим і здоровим! - Come back alive and healthy! (to one soldier) Повертайтеся живими і здоровими! - Come back alive healthy! (to many soldiers) Нехай повертається живим і здоровим! - Let him come back alive and healthy! (if someone’s relative goes to serve in the army)

😓 Я молюся за тебе. - I pray for you (one person). Я молюся за вас. - I pray for you (many people). Я молюся за Україну - I pray for Ukraine. ⭐️ Хай Бог береже! - God save you! 🌍 (…) з вами! - (Insert your country) is with you! ❤️ Україна в моєму серці. - Ukraine is in my heart. 🤟 Все буде Україна! - Everything will be Ukraine! 🤮 Путін - хуйло. - Putin is a dickhead. 🤬 ПТН - ПНХ - Abbreviation for “Putin, go fuck yourself”.

source

[strawberrymleko]

Colors in Ukrainian 🌈

червоний - red

оранжевий, помаранчевий - orange

жовтий - yellow

зелений - green

блакатний, голубий - light blue

синий - dark blue

фіолетовий - violet

рожевий - pink

білий - white

чорний - black

коричневий - brown

сірий - grey

веселка - rainbow

колір, кольори - color, colors

Який ваш улюбленний колір? - What is your favorite color?

[strawberrymleko]

Book cover of "Ice Cream" by G. Dezent (1967)

[strawberrymleko]

I have just learned about virile/nonvirile plural of adjectives and pronouns in Polish 🥲 lord help me

[strawberrymleko]

Tips to learn a new language

The 75 most common words make up 40% of occurrences The 200 most common words make up 50% of occurrences The 524 most common words make up 60% of occurrences The 1257 most common words make up 70% of occurrences The 2925 most common words make up 80% of occurrences The 7444 most common words make up 90% of occurrences The 13374 most common words make up 95% of occurrences The 25508 most common words make up 99% of occurrences

(Source: 5 Steps to Speak a New Language by Hung Quang Pham)

This article has an excellent summary on how to rapidly learn a new language within 90 days.

We can begin with studying the first 600 words. Of course chucking is an effective way to memorize words readily. Here’s a list to translate into the language you desire to learn that Derek Roger suggested! :)

EXPRESSIONS OF POLITENESS (about 50 expressions)      

‘Yes’ and 'no’: yes, no, absolutely, no way, exactly.    

Question words: when? where? how? how much? how many? why? what? who? which? whose?    

Apologizing: excuse me, sorry to interrupt, well now, I’m afraid so, I’m afraid not.    

Meeting and parting: good morning, good afternoon, good evening, hello, goodbye, cheers, see you later, pleased to meet you, nice to have met.    

Interjections: please, thank you, don’t mention it, sorry, it’ll be done, I agree, congratulations, thank heavens, nonsense.    

NOUNS (about 120 words)

Time: morning, afternoon, evening, night; Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; spring, summer, autumn, winter; time, occasion, minute, half-hour, hour, day, week, month, year.    

People: family, relative, mother, father, son, daughter, sister, brother, husband, wife; colleague, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend; people, person, human being, man, woman, lady, gentleman, boy, girl, child.    

Objects: address, bag, book, car, clothes, key, letter (=to post), light (=lamp), money, name, newspaper, pen, pencil, picture, suitcase, thing, ticket.    

Places: place, world, country, town, street, road, school, shop, house, apartment, room, ground; Britain, name of the foreign country, British town-names, foreign town-names.    

Abstract: accident, beginning, change, color, damage, fun, half, help, joke, journey, language, English, name of the foreign language, letter (of alphabet), life, love, mistake, news, page, pain, part, question, reason, sort, surprise, way (=method), weather, work.    

Other: hand, foot, head, eye, mouth, voice; the left, the right; the top, the bottom, the side; air, water, sun, bread, food, paper, noise.    

PREPOSITIONS (about 40 words)    

General: of, to, at, for, from, in, on.    

Logical: about, according-to, except, like, against, with, without, by, despite, instead of.    

Space: into, out of, outside, towards, away from, behind, in front of, beside, next to, between, above, on top of, below, under, underneath, near to, a long way from, through.    

Time: after, ago, before, during, since, until.    

DETERMINERS (about 80 words)  

Articles and numbers: a, the; nos. 0–20; nos. 30–100; nos. 200–1000; last, next, 1st–12th.    

Demonstrative: this, that.    

Possessive: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.    

Quantifiers: all, some, no, any, many, much, more, less, a few, several, whole, a little, a lot of.    

Comparators: both, neither, each, every, other, another, same, different, such.    

ADJECTIVES (about 80 words)    

Color: black, blue, green, red, white, yellow.    

Evaluative: bad, good, terrible; important, urgent, necessary; possible, impossible; right, wrong, true.    

General: big, little, small, heavy; high, low; hot, cold, warm; easy, difficult; cheap, expensive; clean, dirty; beautiful, funny (=comical), funny (=odd), usual, common (=shared), nice, pretty, wonderful; boring, interesting, dangerous, safe; short, tall, long; new, old; calm, clear, dry; fast, slow; finished, free, full, light (=not dark), open, quiet, ready, strong.    

Personal: afraid, alone, angry, certain, cheerful, dead, famous, glad, happy, ill, kind, married, pleased, sorry, stupid, surprised, tired, well, worried, young.    

VERBS (about 100 words)    

arrive, ask, be, be able to, become, begin, believe, borrow, bring, buy, can, change, check, collect, come, continue, cry, do, drop, eat, fall, feel, find, finish, forget, give, going to, have, have to, hear, help, hold, hope, hurt (oneself), hurt (someone else), keep, know, laugh, learn, leave, lend, let (=allow), lie down, like, listen, live (=be alive), live (=reside), look (at), look for, lose, love, make, may (=permission), may (=possibility), mean, meet, must, need, obtain, open, ought to, pay, play, put, read, remember, say, see, sell, send, should, show, shut, sing, sleep, speak, stand, stay, stop, suggest, take, talk, teach, think, travel, try, understand, use, used to, wait for, walk, want, watch, will, work (=operate), work (=toil), worry, would, write.    

PRONOUNS (about 40 words)

Personal: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, one; myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.    

Possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.    

Demonstrative: this, that.    

Universal: everyone, everybody, everything, each, both, all, one, another.

Indefinite: someone, somebody, something, some, a few, a little, more, less; anyone, anybody, anything, any, either, much, many.    

Negative: no-one, nobody, nothing, none, neither.    

ADVERBS (about 60 words)

Place: here, there, above, over, below, in front, behind, nearby, a long way away, inside, outside, to the right, to the left, somewhere, anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, home, upstairs, downstairs.    

Time: now, soon, immediately, quickly, finally, again, once, for a long time, today, generally, sometimes, always, often, before, after, early, late, never, not yet, still, already, then (=at that time), then (=next), yesterday, tomorrow, tonight.    

Quantifiers: a little, about (=approximately), almost, at least, completely, very, enough, exactly, just, not, too much, more, less.    

Manner: also, especially, gradually, of course, only, otherwise, perhaps, probably, quite, so, then (=therefore), too (=also), unfortunately, very much, well.    

CONJUNCTIONS (about 30 words)

Coordinating: and, but, or; as, than, like.    

Time & Place: when, while, before, after, since (=time), until; where.    

Manner & Logic: how, why, because, since (=because), although, if; what, who, whom, whose, which, that.   

[strawberrymleko]

As a language lover who can’t possibly afford all of the language lessons I would love to take, over the years I learned the best ways to self-learn them. This introductory phase doesn’t even require a textbook - I am sure everything here can be found online for free.

Disclaimer: this is the method that works the best for me, and I’m sharing it with the intention of helping other people who are stuck. There’s a million different ways to self-learn a language, so if this one doesn’t work out for you, don’t lose motivation!

Disclaimer 2: this method might not work with all languages. I’m sharing this knowledge keeping in mind my experience with Latin (in particular French, Spanish, etc) and East Asian (in particular Korean and Japanese) languages.

Without further ado, here are the steps: 

1. If you’re learning a language that uses a different alphabet, make sure that’s the first thing you learn

Relying on romanization is fine at first, but further down the path it will only serve to confuse you. Romanized words of these types of languages can be written in many different ways, so often they don’t even provide an accurate way of pronouncing them. Furthermore, as you make progress, you won’t be able to access a lot of content in your target language since you won’t find it romanized. 

2. Learn your first words

Before actually getting into all the grammar rules and whatnot, learn your first words! These include, among others:

Greetings

Answers (yes, no, maybe, etc)

Numbers

Please and thank you

Practice their pronunciation to get used to the language’s sounds, and how they’re written (especially if you have to use another alphabet - it’s a chance to practice your calligraphy!).

3. Learn essential vocabulary and grammar

I call these “essential vocabulary/grammar” because they are words you must know to build sentences (other than verbs). These include:

Articles (definite, indefinite, partitive, etc)

Basic pronouns (personal, possessive, etc)

Depending on the language, basic grammatical particles

Sentence order! In many languages, the subject/verb/noun order is totally different. Make sure to know how your target language orders that.

Make sure to also learn their rules and remember the exceptions. The latter are always annoying, but don’t worry - as you progress, you will learn these by heart, and they will eventually come to you naturally!

4. Learn the most basic verbs in the present tense

Like the vocabulary of the previous step, verbs are also essential when building sentences. Now that you’re only a beginner, you don’t need to learn difficult verbs or tenses, so stick with the most used ones:

to be 

to have

to do/make

to say

to go

to know

to think

to see

to want

to give

5. More vocab!

Now that you know your verbs, complement your knowledge by adding more basic vocabulary. Here are some ideas:

Places

Food

Objects

Adjectives

Family members

Knowing these in addition to the grammar points you’ve learned will allow you to construct simple sentences, such as I am going home or This is my sister.

6. Practice for your level

Like many other people, I’m guilty of jumping straight into watching movies and shows in my target language, only to get frustrated with myself when I don’t understand anything despite everything I learned until then. Of course, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it, since it does help you develop your listening skills (especially if you do it with subtitles!), but I have a tip for the ones who prefer an easier activity.

Look for children’s content! I know this sounds silly at first, but books, movies, shows, etc made for children usually use basic grammar and vocabulary. If you think about it, the listening exercises you find in language grammar books made for beginners often seem like they’re made for children for that reason. Therefore, if you can’t find clips and texts for your level easily, try following this tip!

A few more tips for self-learners + resources

Write a diary in your target language. Even if you don’t know that much, try describing your day the best way you can (even if that means you have to write everything in the present tense). That’s a way of understanding what sort of vocabulary is useful in your daily life and what are your weaknesses.

For you listening skills, other than Netflix, listen to music as well! Seize the opportunity to also learn the new vocabulary you find in the songs.

For speaking skills, if you don’t have anyone to practice with, read texts out loud and record yourself to check your pronunciation. If you’re up to it, finding friends online that speak your target language is also a great way of practicing dialogue!

Most used words in every language

Textbook masterpost

More helpful books!

Random tasks to practice your target language

My blog’s langblr tag for more helpful posts

Happy studying! ✨

[strawberrymleko]

I love you dumplings I love you gyoza I love you xiaolongbao I love you wonton I love you baozi I love you mandu and yes even you, ravioli

[strawberrymleko]

The Dormition Cathedral, Kyiv, Ukraine.

[strawberrymleko]

April 2014: The Lavra monastery complex in Kyiv, Ukraine.

[strawberrymleko]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by UNITED24Media (@united24.media)

[strawberrymleko]

i really think learning languages is like. good for your soul. net positive.

[strawberrymleko]

Folk costumes from Opoczno

Photo by: Patrycja Dasz | Toronto Photographer

[strawberrymleko]

Ukrainian Fashion Week "Витоки"

[strawberrymleko]

When you first start learning a language the meaning of all of the words that you learn depend entirely on the equivalent word in a language you speak, and without that word to give it a meaning it would just be a random sound to you, but later on you don’t need that equivalent word for the new words you’ve learned to have meaning anymore and they just exist on their own in your brain without attachment to any other languages and I think that that’s my definition of fluency, when the words stop depending on another language for meaning in your mind

[strawberrymleko]

Duolingo Alternatives by Language

Disclaimer: I haven't used or tested all of them. All resources have different strengths, e.g. Drops being designed for vocabulary. They often aren't full alternatives for Duolingo or formal classes. I just wanted to compile resources for all languages on Duolingo to make the switch easier, especially for the less popular languages.

Feel free to also check out my collection of free textbooks

If you want a more detailed resource list for any of these languages (or perhaps one not listed here) you can send me an ask and I can see what I can do.

Arabic

AlifBee

Arabic Unlocked

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Infinite Arabic

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Write It! Arabic

Catalan

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mondly

Qlango

Chinese

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Bunpo

Busuu

Chineasy

Clozemaster

Drops

Du Chinese

Hello Chinese

HeyChina

Immersive Chinese

Infinite Chinese

Ling

Lingodeer

LinGo Play

Lingopie

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Pleco Chinese Dictionary

Qlango

Czech

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Ling

LinGo Play

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Danish

Babbel

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Dutch

Babbel

Bluebird

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Say Something in Dutch

Qlango

Esperanto

Clozemaster

Drops

Esperanto12.net

Kurso de Esperanto

LingQ

Qlango

Finnish

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

French

Babbel

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins French Dictionary

Conjuu

Dr French

Drops

HeyFrance

Infinite French

Lilata

Ling

Linga

Lingodeer

LinGo Play

Lingopie

Lingvist

LingQ

Listen Up

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Oxford French Dictionary

Qlango

TV5MONDE

Xeropan

German

Babbel

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins German Dictionary

Conjuu

Drops

DW Learn German

Infinite German

Ling

Linga

Lingodeer

Lingopie

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Oxford German Dictionary

Qlango

Xeropan

Greek

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Greek Alphabet Academy

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Write It! Greek

Guaraní

Clozemaster

Guarani Ayvu

Haitian Creole

Bluebird

Mango

Hawaiian

Drops

Mango

ʻŌlelo Online

Hebrew

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Shepha

Write It! Hebrew

High Valyrian

Valyrian Dictionary

Hindi

Bhasha

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Clozemaster

Drops

Hindwi Dictionary

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Hungarian

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Indonesian

Babbel

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Irish

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Collins Irish Dictionary

Drops

Easy Irish

Ling

Mango

Teanglann

Italian

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins Italian Dictionary

Conjuu

Drops

Infinite Italian

Ling

Linga

Lingodeer

Lingopie

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Oxford Italian Dictionary

Qlango

Japanese

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

HeyJapan

Hiragana Quest

Infinite Japanese

kawaiiDungeon

Ling

Lingodeer

Lingopie

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Oyomi Japanese Reader

renshuu

Takoboto Japanese Dictionary

Todaii

Qlango

Write It! Japanese

Klingon

boQwl! Klingon Language

Klingon Translator

Write It! Klingon

Korean

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Hangul Quest

HeyKorea

Infinite Korean

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingopie

Lingodeer

Lingvist

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Write It! Korean

Latin

Bluebird

Cattus

Clozemaster

Collins Latin Dictionary

Grammaticus Maximus

Latinia

Legentibus

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Perdisco

Qlango

Vice Verba

Navajo

Navajo Language Renaissance

Navajo Language Program

Speak Navajo

Norwegian

Babbel

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Mjolnir Norwegian

Norskappen

Qlango

Polish

Babbel

Bluebird

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Portuguese

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins Portuguese Dictionary

Drops

Infinite Portuguese

Ling

Lingodeer

Lingopie

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Qlango

Romanian

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Russian

Babbel

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins Russian Dictionary

Drops

Infinite Russian

Ling

Linga

LinGo Play

Lingopie

Lingodeer

Lingvist

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Qlango

Write It! Russian

Scottish Gaelic

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Go!Gaelic

Mango

Spanish

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins Spanish Dictionary

ConjuGato

Conjuu

Drops

Infinite Spanish

Ling

Linga

Lingodeer

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

Listen Up

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Say Something in Spanish

SpanishDict

Qlango

Xeropan

Swahili

Bluebird

Bui Bui Swahili App

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Nkenne

Swedish

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Turkish

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Ukrainian

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Mova Ukrainian

Qlango

Speak Ukrainian

Vietnamese

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Collins Vietnamese Dictionary

Drops

Learn Vietnamese with Annie

Ling

Lingodeer

LinGo Play

Mango

Mondly

Welsh

BBc Cymru Fyw

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Say Something in Welsh

Yiddish

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Mango

Proste Yiddish

Roni Gal Learn Yiddish

Vaybertaytsh

Yiddish Book Center

Zulu

Bluebird

Nkenne

Bonus: Polygloss which claims to be available for all languages as long as there is another user also learning the same language