#second language struggles

[coronangelic1]

waahhh i used to be so intelligent in highschool what the fuck happened why is english blurry and weird now why do i get confused and reread the same paragraph five times just to make sure i understood whatever the fuck it is saying only for me to still fuck it up

[rightpersonwrongplace]

read the sentence “he leers around his fingers” in between a smut scene, had no idea what leering looks like, googled it and now i’m more confused as to how that’s hot lmao

[deswhomst]

Regulus and James are both attention seekers.

Regulus, because he never got any growing up. He was always the spare and even his achievements mattered less than Sirius’ rebellion. The only time he was praised was to shame his brother.

James, because he was always the sole receiver of his parents’ attention and he’s so used to it that if he doesn’t get it from everyone else, his brain automatically assumes that there’s something wrong with him.

Regulus and James, who gave each other what they needed because they understood it. They paid enough attention to each other that it didn’t matter if anyone else did or did not anymore.

Regulus and James, who suddenly only cared about having each other’s attention.

[cubbihue]

Me da ganas de escribir un fanfic sobre tu AU de Fairy Timmy ¿crees que me podrías esplicar más sobre el proceso de adopción de hará y ahijado y la creación de los dobles que remplazan a esos ahijados? ¿quien fue el ultimó ahijado antes de Timmy en ser adoptado por sus padrinos mágicos?

Ask Translation: It makes me want to write a fanfic about your AU of Fairy Timmy. Do you think you could explain to me more about the process of adopting fairies and godson and the creation of the doubles that replace those godchildren? Who was the last godson before Timmy to be adopted by her magical godparents?

Of course! On top of the DMV and Fair Foods, the Godchild has to go through special training with Jorgen before adoption. Jorgen has the final say on adopted Godchildren.

Changelings are made through the hard work of the Godchild. It can't be outsourced to someone else. The Godchild compacts their Unwishes, cooks it, then carves out their own replica. The more wishes, the better the mold.

It's been so long since the last godchild, that the records are lost.

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

Translation below ! Traducción a continuación

Lo siento, mi español es como mas o menos. me puedo leer pero mi traduccion y mi forma de escribir es muy malo :(

Con el DMV y comida de hadas*, el ahijado debe pasar por un entrenamiento especial con Jorgen antes de la adopción. jorgen tiene la ultima palabra sobre los ahijados adoptados.

Los dobles se crean con al trabajo duro del ahijado.No se puede delegar en otra persona. El Ahijado compacta sus Deseos, cocina y luego crea un propia réplica. Más deseos, mejor es el molde.

Ha pasado tanto tiempo desde el último ahijado, que los registros se han perdido.

*no sabo la palabra correcta para "Fairy", pero mi padres se dicen que es "hadas"

[luertrigo]

I think König would have the biggest nose EVER. This man has a BEAK on his face. It's the most noticeable of his features (apart from the eyes), and was a big insecurity throughout most of his childhood years.

But growing up and becoming a literal wall of muscle, the nose seemed to complement his build quite well — women live for big, sad-eyed guys with a skyscraper for a nose.

It's a pity König has the social skills of a worm and scares the gals away every time :( maybe when he grows some common sense he'll get the chance to wet his biscuit. We believe in you, König!

[includedisco]

I can't possibly know the pain of writing in English when it's not your first language, but what I do know is that the agony is real.

I admit that in my younger years,I didn't bother reading stories that weren't in perfect English. I've done some growing up now and I have more respect for other people's art, no matter what form it comes in.

I just want to say that let's do our best to support fanfic stories written by our fellow writers whose English isn't that great yet. Let's try to see the art in between the lines.

It's much harder for them to write than it is for us who can write good English and yet they resiliently and courageously continue to contribute to our beloved fandoms.

To everyone who is still writing despite this challenge, and striving to improve every day, you guys are the real ones. Mad respect🤝 your constant effort can only lead you to greatness in writing.

Don't let this shortcoming discourage you. This is not your fault, and It doesn't make you any less of a writer

[starssoblue]

"the reason adrien is just instantly good at everything he tries is because he is programmed to be that way as a senti" aside from the fact that i don't think that's how it works (and also while he was decent at everything he tried with marinette he wasn't instantly good at all of them, and what marinette actually said to him was that he could improve in anything with practice but it was a great first attempt) did we all collectively forget about how adrien actually canonically isn't the best singer?

[cornertheculprit]

it's interesting to me how none of kristoph's snideness is present when apollo genuinely doesn't understand something being said:

Kristoph: Are you alright? You're sweating bullets.

Apollo: Bullets...!? Where!?

Kristoph: It's a figure of speech, Justice.

[...]

Apollo: Um... Mr. Gavin? What's a full house?

Kristoph: ...Justice. You know the terms "one pair", "two pair", and "three of a kind", yes?

Apollo: Uh, yeah! No problem! Two cards with the same number makes a pair, and three makes a three of a kind!

Kristoph: Good. Now picture a hand with one pair, and one three of a kind. That's a full house.

aa4 wasn't at all written with apollo's future backstory in mind, obviously, but given that his backstory Has Been A Canon Thing For Years Now (so, looking at it from a top-down perspective) and these aren't even the only two times apollo gets confused over diction ("poker head" vs. "poker face"/"locket" vs. "rocket", for one thing) i do wonder if kristoph might've had some inkling that english might not have been apollo's first language (what with him being raised in khura'in for the first nine years of his life). obviously apollo had clay from junior high onwards to probably beat common references and basic slang into his brain in addition to having access to. y'know. movies and books and Everyday People To Talk To. but unfamiliar terminology/figures of speech in a second language can still bite you in the ass no matter how long you've been studying said language (and even living in a second country) because it's just the fact of the matter that they weren't something you were raised hearing. also apollo has a flip phone in the 2020s and lives under a rock. but anyway! kristoph's willingness to just explain common phrases to apollo is fun to me. apollo clearly managed to abolish whatever accent he might've had as a result of living in the states for so long but those sayings and figures of speech and whatnot will fucking Get You, man.

also, i love how apollo immediately incorporated the "sweating bullets" figure of speech into his lexicon after kristoph told him that's what it was. here's one example i pulled from 6-5, but i definitely remember him also using it sometime in dual destinies, too:

Apollo: (.........[Nahyuta]'s definitely sweating bullets over there over something.)

[mintjeru]

it probably wasn't the smartest decision to start an ongoing 1000+ chapter webnovel when i know it'll consume my every waking thought but here we are

open for better quality | no reposts

[no-tengo-ojos]

found a perfect article to cite for my essay but the only translations my university has access to are in Catalan and Japanese

[chronalshifts]

i will say that the solavallenification of ‘ma vhenan’ is quite frankly merrill/hawke erasure. my cute welsh wife was here FIRST

[serpentface]

Do you conlang? I was wondering if you had naming languages (or possibly even more developed ones) for pulling the words you use. I tried to search your blog but didn't find anything, wouldn't be surprised if the feature is just busted tho. Your worldbuilding is wonderful and I particularly enjoy the anthropological and linguistic elements.

Ok the thing is I had kind of decided I was not going to do any conlanging because I don't feel like I'm equipped to do a good job of it, like was fully like "I'm just going to do JUST enough that it doesn't fail an immediate sniff test and is more thoughtful than just keysmashing and putting in vowels". And then have kinda been conlanging anyway (though not to a very deep and serious extent. I maybe have like....an above average comprehension of how language construction works via willingness to research, but that's not saying much, also I can never remember the meanings of most linguistic terms like 'frictives' or etc off the top of my head. I'm just kinda raw dogging it with a vague conceptualization of what these things mean)

I do at least have a naming language for Wardi (and more basic rules for other established languages) but the rudimentary forms of it were devised with methods much shakier and less linguistically viable than even the most basic naming language schemes, and I only went back over it LONG after I had already made a bunch of words so there's some inconsistencies with consonant presence and usage. (This can at least be justified because it IS a language that would have a lot of loanwords and would be heavily influenced by other language groups- Burri being by far the most significant, Highland-Finnic and Yuroma-Lowlands also being large contributors)

The 'method' I used was:

-Skip basic construction elements and fully move into devising necessary name words, with at least a Vibe of what consonants are going to be common and how pronunciation works -Identify some roots out of the established words and their meanings. Establish an ongoing glossary of known roots/words. -Construct new words based in root words, or as obvious extensions/variants of established words. -Get really involved in how the literal meanings of some words might not translate properly to english, mostly use this to produce a glossary of in-universe slang. -Realize that I probably should have at least some very basic internal consistency at this point. -Google search tutorials on writing a naming language. -Reverse engineer a naming language out of established words, and ascribe all remaining inconsistencies to being loanwords or just the mysteries of life or whatever.

I do at least have some strongly established pronunciation rules and a sense of broad regional dialect/accents.

-'ai' words are almost always pronounced with a long 'aye' sound.

-There is no 'Z' or 'X' sound, a Wardi speaker pronouncing 'zebra' would go for 'tsee-brah', and would attempt 'xylophone' as 'ssye-lohp-hon'

-'V' sounds are nearly absent and occur only in loanwords, and tend to be pronounced with a 'W' sound. 'Virsum' is a Highland word (pronounced 'veer-soom') denoting ancestry, a Wardi speaker would go 'weer-sum'.

-'Ch' spellings almost always imply a soft 'chuh' sound when appearing after an E, I, or O (pelatoche= pel-ah-toh-chey), but a hard 'kh' sound after an A or U (odomache= oh-doh-mah-khe). When at the start of a word, it's usually a soft 'ch' unless followed by an 'i' sound (chin (dog) is pronounced with a hard K 'khiin', cholem (salt) is pronounced with a soft Ch 'cho-lehm')

-Western Wardin has strong Burri cultural and linguistic influence, and a distinct accent- one of the most pronounced differences is use of the ñ sound in 'nn' words. The western city of Ephennos is pronounced 'ey-fey-nyos' by most residents, the southeastern city of Erubinnos is pronounced 'eh-roo-been-nos' by most residents. Palo's surname 'Apolynnon' is pronounced 'A-puh-lee-nyon' in the Burri and western Wardi dialects (which is the 'proper' pronunciation, given that it's a Kos name), but will generally be spoken as 'Ah-poh-leen-non' in the south and east.

-R's are rolled in Highland-Finnic words. Rolling R's is common in far northern rural Wardi dialects but no others. Most urban Wardi speakers consider rolling R's sort of a hick thing, and often think it sounds stupid or at least uneducated. (Brakul's name should be pronounced with a brief rolled 'r', short 'ah' and long 'uul', but is generally being pronounced by his south-southeastern compatriots with a long unrolled 'Brah' sound).

Anyway not really a sturdy construction that will hold up to the scrutiny of someone well equipped for linguistics but not pure bullshit either.

[missdarhk]

me in my curriculum: yeah no I speak english fluently, totally. for sure.

also the "me" in question:

the solemnly tripped me up SO much bc why tf was I so stuck on thinking the M came first

also, these are all from my discord dms with @grape-jucie-dog, my personal english tutor

[ribbittrobbit]

Hiyaw and Himik, the twin deities of noise and silence, of movement and stillness, of action and contemplation.

The church of Taw (from the root word for volumen/ strength of voice), has a dual structure to mirror its deities. Clerics choose to walk either the path of silence - the most radical followers dedicate themselves to a vow of complete silence and contemplation, retreating to monasteries in the most remote regions- or the path of noise - the order dedicated to the service of the church and its followers outside of the monasteries. The central principle of the religion is the duality and balance between the two deities' domains. The silent order serves to balance out the order of noise, to be the stillness to their movement, the deliberation to their action and vice versa. The religion is a relatively small but ancient one, with many devotees among musicians, poets and performers and a great emphasis on ceremony and the performance of rituals that combine the texts of Hiyaw and Himik.

(did i just spend the last two days thinking about making an entire fake religion complete with a clerical structure for my fh sona? yes. did i bastardise the filipino words like "scream" and "quiet" to find matching names for them? also yes.)

[cowboyskeletons]

pair nettle with hemlock for a loved one who has been taken away too soon

pair nettle with oleander to warn someone that their betrayal has been discovered

[marshmallowprotection]

Hi Kait, i hope youre having a good day/night when youre reading this!

I have been thinking about this for some time and I would love to hear your opinion about this : if Saeran's MC was male, would he experience some form of internalized homophobia? I'm assuming neither in the Minteye or at the Cathedral he has seen any type of same sex attraction or just any type of queer existence, so I wonder if this would later on make him feel like he is 'different'? Or would it make him hesitate to come out to Saeyoung or anyone in the RFA? Maybe if they're not being already treated like a couple as in canon, just seen as friends throught the AE? I know Saeyoung is queer and a lot of people (me included!) headcanon other members to be queer, if he had no knowledge of this, how would this realistically affect him?

That is quite the long ask, I'm sorry for that but I just love the way you analyse characters and how much you care about them. Also, if there's any mistakes or typos, please excuse that, english is not my first languege. Thank you so much

TW: Homophobia

That's an interesting question to think about. Would he experience some sort of internalized backlash?

Honestly, in my opinion, I don't think so. Internalized homophobia stems from being forced into a world that constantly hammers home that you're "bad" for not fitting the mold they want you to fit. If you're not taught or shown the bias these people experience, you're far less likely to experience any internalized shame. How can you feel bad or ashamed if you were never taught to feel that way? If you don't know about the bigotry, why would you ever feel bad?

Just speaking from experience here, I didn't begin to experience any shame or fear about my sexuality until I reached middle school and I had to deal with different kids slinging slurs at my head that I didn't understand and hadn't ever heard before. I didn't know what any of the words they were calling me meant, but I understood they thought those words were "bad" and used them to hurt my feelings because they didn't like me for one reason or another, and figured using those slurs would hurt me because "other" is bad.

I hadn't even figured my feelings out yet but people began to single me out and call me words I won't repeat. It took me until a little later to figure myself out but having kids pull my hair and call me slurs did not help. They made a journey that should've been safe for me into a difficult experience that made me fearful for my safety. Unlike other kids who were "allowed" to have crushes and experience all kinds of firsts, I felt singled out. Othered. I knew I would never be able to have a "normal" experience like teenagers did in the movies and it crushed me.

All because I wasn't straight. All because I was "different". The world makes young people feel like they're "wrong" if they don't fit these bullshit molds based around bigotry, homophobia, and misreadings of the bible used to further someone's hate agenda. The more you're forced to live in a society where you're told you're "wrong", the more you might start to feel horrible about who you are as a person and I'm angry we still live in a world that does this to young people. I'm angry it's happening to our trans family as we speak.

Kids are not born with biases. They are taught these biases at home, even if they don't understand them at first. Bigotry is TAUGHT and it comes from their guardians and the people around them who talk all about other people in monstrous ways in front of them. These things are normalized for the kids over time and they learn to be just as cruel as their guardians.

Saeran was not raised around these biases. He spent so much of his life locked up in a room with his twin brother where the world could not reach him. His life experience is so much more limited than the one his brother has experienced. Saeyoung got to experience a lot of the world because of the deal he made with the agency, and through that, he was able to learn more about his own sexuality!

He had the language he wouldn't have had before because he got to go out into the world and learn more about himself. I'm sure having a word for his bisexuality felt like such a relief. He had a word to finally describe his heart. I'm glad Saeyoung was able to get that even if he's the type of person who holds himself back when romance knocks so much of the time because he's self-sacrificial. But, it will never change the fact that he's bisexual and his MC could be anyone.

For Saeran, I've always imagined that he has fantasized about having a prince, princess, or a knight to come and save him. It felt as easy as breathing. He wasn't taught to believe otherwise. Nothing in his diary implied the cathedral he was attending was spewing homophobia at the front door! He went there for classes and to play in the gardens... and in my mind, was never exposed to people saying that it would be wrong to love more than just a princess. (I HC him biromantic demisexual, btw).

In fact, it's probably stranger for him to see someone be a bigot.

Why are you angry about someone loving another person? What's wrong with love? This isn't to say Saeran hasn't come across hate speech before. I'm sure in his time studying the RFA and more about the world they live in he's never been allowed to know, he's seen and encountered things he never expected to learn about otherwise. That could cover any subject. That could be any piece of information in this world. Bigots exist everywhere in this world, unfortunately, so it's not impossible to say Saeran's seen someone be cruel.

But, Saeran has a very kind, gentle heart. He has no reason to feel ashamed about who he loves or who other people love. It's people who bring hatred to the world that bothers him. Even if he did feel internalized shame, that shit would go out the window once he knew who he was and that his MC would always love him. Nothing will ever make him feel like he's wrong for being himself after he has the day of peace where he reclaims his sense of autonomy.

Bring on the fight if need be. He isn't afraid of fighting people who have wicked hearts. You will not tell him he can't be himself because you don't like it. He's already fought that battle his entire life. He can handle your nonsense and tell you to screw off if you think he's a bad person for loving his partner. He's kind to a fault but he will not put up with hatred. He's not a pushover.

I don't think he'd hesitate to tell the RFA that he's with his male MC romantically, either. The RFA is accepting. Contrary to what I see from bitter homophobes who think they have the "right" opinion on the RFA, the RFA is a found family that loves one another no matter what. If you're queer, you belong with them. It doesn't matter what you HC the RFA as specifically, at the end of the day, you being queer will not stop you from being a part of their family. You'll get support down to the letter. No hesitation.

The only bigotry I think you're going to encounter is from Saejoong Choi, but that's to be expected because he seems like the type as a noted conservative politician who prides himself on "family values". The game makes some of his politics and views pretty clear as you're playing through Another Story.

Oh, and another thing, just because people try to erase our existence as queer people by attempting to eradicate any mention of us being ourselves and simply existing doesn't mean they'll succeed. You can attempt to raise a child "far away" from queerness but that won't stop them from being queer if they are. Being queer is not a thing you just choose one day. We're born this way and there's nothing wrong with us. But! There is everything wrong with people who think we need to change to suit their bigotry. They're the ones that need to change.

You can try to withhold language and history from someone but that won't stop them from being who they are. Even if you don't have the words to describe what you're feeling, you'll know what you're feeling isn't what they're trying to sell you as "normal" and that can never be erased.

For Saeran, I can only imagine his heart breaking when he realizes how deep this world is coated in hatred but he will fight every day to be kind to counteract this hatred. That's his strength, after all. To be kind when the world says otherwise. That's his act of rebellion to the people who want him to lay down and die. No. He will choose to be kind and continue on his way because he deserves to be happy and alive, just as much as anyone else.