#language learning >>>>>>>>

[rocketbirdie]

heh. didn't even stand a chance.

[jo56djjneind]

"wait, but what do I say to describe people who cannot get pregnant?" a guide.

Men cannot get pregnant: INCORRECT. Transgender men are men and many are capable of getting pregnant. Also, excludes the plenty of people who are not men who cannot get pregnant.

Cis men cannot get pregnant: INCORRECT. Intersex men who are cis, but have uteruses and ovaries, may be capable of pregnancy, even if it's unlikely. Also, excludes the plenty of people who are not men who cannot get pregnant.

Cis perisex men cannot get pregnant: Correct, but excludes the plenty of people who are not men who cannot get pregnant.

People without uteruses cannot get pregnant: Correct, but excludes infertile and menopausal people with uteruses who also cannot get pregnant.

People who cannot get pregnant: CORRECT. Excludes no one.

To use inclusionary language, you don't need to rip through the reeds in search of wider terminology when you could quite literally say things exactly as they are. Inclusive language isn't "overcomplicated" at all. It's straightforward.

[ruhua-langblr]

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 the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)

"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)

[holesomecuntent]

Learning a new language really does make you aware of how many fucking words there are. Waaaaaay too many things in this world that need their own special little word. Grow up.

[stars-obsession-pit]

“Mom, why do you think ghosts are intrinsically evil?”

“It’s what the science says, of course!”

“No, I mean like, what were the studies? What did they actually observe”

“Ohh, I get what you mean, Danny! Well across all reputable reports of encounters with the ghosts strong enough to matter, they’ve always attacked first and never responded to attempts at communication! There’s no reason for them to do that if they’re not evil!”

“Huh…”

…

Danny, learning about Ghost Speak and how humans can’t understand it: hmm.

Danny, learning that ghosts greet each other and bond by fighting: hmmm.

[german-enthusiast]

the beauty of compound words:

"Altes Huhn, das keine Eier mehr legen kann"

-> old chicken that cannot lay eggs anymore

"Eierlegende Eierlegende am Eierlegende"

-> Eierlegende - egglaying

-> Eier-Legende - egg legend

-> am Eier-leg-Ende - at the egg-laying-end

[thebreadmantm]

Georgie my beloved ✨

(Plus the admiral)

[curiositysavesthecat]

*This poll was submitted to us and we simply posted it so people could vote and discuss their opinions on the matter. If you’d like for us to ask the internet a question for you, feel free to drop the poll of your choice in our inbox and we’ll post them anonymously (for more info, please check our pinned post).

[orion-my-rion]

i cannot keep quiet about this anymore.

if you're seeing this, check the reblogs or my "languages" tag for an addition!!

if you're in the US or Canada and interested in learning a language using a free app please get a library card and download MANGO. it's very good and extremely free with a library card (there are many public libraries and universities using the service, so make an account and use the search feature here to find out if there's one near you).

mango currently has 72 available languages and dialects (that's right! different courses for french or canadian french! spanish or latam spanish!). it's set up basically like an audiobook with text. the idea is that the narrator explains the words while you read, and you repeat after them or say the translation out loud when prompted. there's a daily review where you go through flashcards. you can also use the flashcards at your leisure and create your own. at the end of each chapter there's a listening comprehension quiz and a reading comprehension quiz. i cannot emphasize how effective this all is. and it's free with a card.

if you're not in the US or Canada and/or looking for something more like duolingo (don't use duolingo btw tldr they fired translators and replaced them with "ai"), then try BUSUU! it only has 14 languages atm but the lessons are really descriptive and effective. it also has a feature where you can correct other people's open-ended speaking/typing exercises. you set your fluent languages, and exercises by people learning those languages will appear in your feed for you to correct. you can even add others as friends! and, much like duolingo, it has a streak and leaderboard system for you to strive for, minus the guilt-tripping owl.

busuu is free (you watch ads to unlock lessons and they're all skippable after like five seconds), although it also has paid premium/plus versions (i don't use the paid version—the language courses are available for free, and the ad system is Really unobtrusive).

so that's my wisdom for the day. mango and busuu. please check them out :)

[zombiecowboy65]

Jeans’s accent getting thicker and thicker when he cries and Jeremy holding him to his chest trying to help and calm him down but having to say “sweetheart I can’t understand you” in the most pained voice ever heard

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

It's not what I expected by 我是阿彪叻

[vm-haunts]

Culture Shock

Look, Danny knows not all of the ghosts from the Zone are human, ok?

Skulker is an alien, Wulf is from another dimension, and Frostbite's ancestral world don't even have planets.

You can meet any ghost from any world and any time period, it's only one of the infinite weird things about the Realms.

So it wasn't a big deal when Danny asked Walker to teach him his mother tongue. Just an attempt to reduce the communication error with the guy, and maybe an effort to get to know his Zone neighbors better.

Generic ghost speak can only get them so far after all.

And ok, Danny wasn't expecting to get actual language books and fucking homeworks from the warden, but whatever. Walker is stuffy like that. It's actually pretty sweet of him to give Danny all of these materials, and Danny can appreciate that.

It might have, unfortunately, slipped Danny's mind to ask more about Walker's origins. Although to be fair, learning an alien language wouldn't be a problem normally, it shouldn't be.

If not for that cursed Fenton luck.

How in the realms is Danny supposed to know Walker is Kryptonian??? Walker acts nothing like Superman, how is Danny supposed to connect the two dots?!

Shit, how do he even start to explain this when Superman is knocking on his dorm window??

[victusinveritas]

I am SHOCKED that making Grok "unwoke" literally turned it into, in its own words, Mechahitler.

[suiheisen]

“if you could pick up another language, what would it be?”

“i’d go russian. i’d love to know what geno says or has said over the years… i’d love to know 🥰 i just want to know (giggles) 🥰”