#Language Studies

[helenstudies]

Reading Books in Your Target Language

My favorite way to read in a foreign language is to take a book and read it in my native language or english first, and then pick said book in my target language. This technique is even more helpful if you also pursue translation studies but that's a plus, not a requirement. Since I've already read it in a language I can fully comprehend and critically analyze, I am not only able to read the book in my TL much quicker, I'm also able to fully grasp how a native speaker would rephrase or interpret the same sentences.

If the TL book you're reading is a translated version, you're able to see which words the translator used to convey the meaning. This answers questions such as: Did they translate words literally? Did they use localization instead? What did they do with puns or jokes from the original book? What kind of rephrasing did they do? The translated version tells you how the translator think about certain sentences and certain kinds of writing. Sometimes your TL is a very literal and direct language. Sometimes your TL uses a lot of metaphors or polite sentences instead of being direct. You will learn to absorb these lines of thinking by reading the translated version.

If the TL book you're reading is the original version, you're about to see all the things I've said but flipped. You've got the way the line of thinking goes in the translation. Now you're gonna see how they go about it. And most of the time, this path sort of takes you like "oh! I don't know how to read/interpret this word at all but the translator used x to say it so I'm just going to keep reading." You will realize that you can read much faster, since you remember how it went. (unless it's non fiction since you can't follow the plot in nonfiction, but I find that in language learning, non fiction reading is much easier because there's less flowery and literary language.) I mostly do this when I want to read fast and have no need to reach for dictionaries or to refer to the translated version. This helps me read other text in my TL extremely faster.

Another tip about reading that has nothing to do with language reading more about bookish snobbery: a book is a book is a book. If your purpose is to read in your TL, you don't need to pick up classics if it's intimidating for you. Pick any book. Hell, pick pamphlets if you need. I personally prefer to read adult's graphic novels. I don't mean 18+ graphic novels. I just mean comics that are not for children. I find that children's picture books are much harder because most of them are to teach vocabularies to children, which is taxing for language learners because apparently children love onomatopoeia so much. Also, they have adults to explain everything to them. Comics for adults have jokes and stories instead so I like then better but hey, if you like children's picture books, you do you.

Another another tip: You don't have to finish the books. At all. Ever, actually. Pick up, do twenty pages each and put down if you'd like. You're the boss. Do it your style.

Happy learning!

[baudouinette]

@aurianavaloria and I talking abt Old French

old French playlist

[sysy-studyblr]

wednesday 24/01/24

gotten back to work w my planner! did a practice writing task but not sure my use of language is perfect yet

♫ houdini - dua lipa ♫

[koa-z]

ok so I'm fluent in two languages and I'm preparing to become fluent in a third and fourth, and can I just say it's so beautifully rewarding to read books in my second language?

I've gotten so tired of reading books in English. It's always been my strongest skill, I started at a very young age, and the reason that I started learning new languages was so that I could read books in other languages.

I got tired of reading and I thought I just hated reading in general after high school/college, but I've just picked up a book in my second language and it's the best thing I've ever experienced. I can enjoy reading again because of this.

[skelwrites]

b a s i c s

skel // he / him // 26

queer // trans // druidic pagan

canada (eastern time) // third-year creative writing student

w r i t i n g

nonfiction // historical fiction // poetry

↪current WIP: n/a

l a n g u a g e

native: english 🇨🇦

currently studying: n / a

previously studied: french 🇫🇷 & mandarin 🇹🇼

i n t e r e s t s

cartoons, documentaries, video games, synthpop, indie folk, vocaloid, mythology, history, social justice

if there are any writeblr or langblr discord servers you think i'd make a good fit for, please don't hesitate to drop me a message or an ask. i'd love to join, as i'm much more active over there than i am on tumblr.

home // abt // nav // ask (anon off)

[language-hyperfixation]

You know you've done fucked up when you start forgetting words in your native language

[damondademon]

when will i ever have the opportunity to use norwegian? likely never. but its fun!

[rainbowresurrection]

No one asked but I'm bored

Star Trek: The Original Series = 宇宙大作戦(うちゅうだいさくせん) - uchū daisakusen. Space Operation

Star Trek (franchise) = スタートレック (sutātorekku)

[accessibleacademia]

remuneration

Part of speech: Noun. (Verb form is "to remunerate")

Pronunciation: "rih-moo-ner-RAY-shun" or "ree-myoo-ner-RAY-shun"

Meaning: a formal word that refers to an amount of money paid to someone for a service, loss, or expense, or to the act of paying such an amount.

Synonyms: compensation, disbursement, giving, paying, payment, recompense, remitment, remittance

In a sentence: The actor was offered a modest speaking fee by the host as remuneration for giving her speech at the awards ceremony.

History: c. 1400, remuneracioun, "reward, recompense, payment," from Old French remuneracion and directly from Latin remunerationem (nominative remuneratio) "a repaying, recompense," noun of action from past-participle stem of remunerari "to pay, reward," from re- "back" (see re-) + munerari "to give," from munus (genitive muneris) "gift, office, duty" (see municipal).

Trivia: Our evidence shows remuneration to be most at home in writing that concerns financial matters, especially when large amounts of money or forms of compensation are involved. Whether it's because money is often expressed in numerals, or simply because the n and m are adjacent to each other on our keyboards, reMUNeration often appears misspelled as reNUMeration. It pays to know, however, that in fact, renumeration is a distinct term, a rare word meaning "the act of enumerating again" (enumerate means "to list" or "to count").

From Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day, 25 June 2024

and from Etymonline's entry for remuneration

[wetcopperarmour]

i hate it when people see a person saying a funny thing online or telling a joke or just saying something that would maybe be funny anyway and saying “their accent makes this ten times better” like what like i get it some tones and styles of speech lend themselves better to storytelling or have greater range of expression but i can bet the no money i have that that wasn’t what was going on when that was commented anyway

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

when you have a way to use fandom to speak about activism except no u don't bc it would require knowing how to spell, speak and understand archaic Hebrew and I can't fucking do that

...genuinely, any anti-zionist, anti-genocide, pro-palestinian hebrew scholars with an appreciation for fandom and/or high cringe tolerance wanna help me out?

[polarmolecule]

Chronic nerd symptom: reacting like your favourite celebrity just made a surprise cameo in a film when one of your favourite linguists gets mentioned in another work

[maerossi]

Everyone: Please please please don't write your books in Google Docs. Frankly don't use Google Drive for personal stuff.

Their terms of service say they take down stuff like content related to terrorism and trafficking, but this Google Sheet was literally a list of movies I'd watched this year and books I'd read.

[cunobaros]

When I started learning Japanese, Lingodeer was the recommended app. I like it - the lessons and exercises are well structured and build on previous exercises.

It's a paid app, but it also includes French, Spanish, German, Russian, Korean, Thai, Hindi, Portuguese, Italian, and more.

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and all endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[language-hyperfixation]

Langblr intro~

Hello! - Hallo! - こんにちは! - 안녕하세요!

We're new to this community and wanted to see what it's all about. We've been practicing languages on and off for years but still have a long way to go!

📖 Studying:

German

Japanese

Korean

📖 Previously studied:

Spanish

Mandarin Chinese

Swedish

Sign language

📖 Want to study:

Hindi

Ukranian

Icelandic

Tagalong

🩷 Some info about us! 🩷

Pronouns: They/them

We're plural system and prefer the term "headmates" over alters, plz! Due to being a system we'll be using I/me and we/us interchangably

Hope to move abroad someday ✈️

Wanna become a polyglot but ADHD makes studying hard 💔

Dividers by cafekitsune and saradika

Tschüss!~

[type-2-blog]

Army Vet Meets John Cena 20 Years Later - YouTube