allamawla

[allamawla]

the tiktok and xhs situation

I know this is kind of outdated because it happened last week (which is like 10 years in internet time) but I still wanted to say something about the tiktok ban in the US. Although I live in Europe, I thibk it's very interesting to observe this whole situation. Almost every 3-4 years there's this news on a tiktok ban which makes the whole population go crazy. However, I think it's more interesting how it was handled now. As some of you probably noticed, most people went to xiao hong shu (to take revenge on the government? lol). Honestly, I have been using xhs myself for about more than a year now, because I study Chinese Mandarin and it helped me to expose myself to the language more often and to learn some authentic expressions.

In the first days when Americans came to xhs it was relatively normal and even quiet fun, since most people were quite respectful and interested, however this didnt last long and soon many problematic people joined the app which was very saddening to me.

And the more people joined the more annoying it became, I started seeing youtube shorts and insta reels type of brainror, which is usually fine with me, but if I want to see that Im going on youtube and not xhs. Especially those fake pranks were so cringy and annoying, like please, just stop embarassing yourself. It's kind of outrageous that some people started calling themselves "tiktok refugees" I get it, it's a joke, but in my opinion that is just tasteless and rude towards people who actually fled from war and suffered under the horrible conditions while seeking asylum.

At some point it got so bad that xhs wanted to put an internet wall into the app so that people outside of China wouldn't be able to access the app. This would be fatal, especially for Chinese-Americans or Chinese people outside of China in general, since xhs is a social media platform which allows the users to stay in touch with friends and family members and also the latest trends. It would be very sad, and although I dont have direct contacts in China, I know what it's like when you dont have access to people from your cultural background. It can feel very intimidating and disstresful.

Now that tiktok wasnt banned in the US most people didnt stay on xhs and went back. Maybe they saw the app just as a replacement for their internet addiction, but I cant blame them, since I also enjoy scrolling on my phone.

I think its quite funny that when Americans were asked why they go to xhs instead of insta reels or ytb shorts, they said that xhs has nicer people and the atmosphere is more welcoming there. But I wonder, whats the reason for that... No, but its strange for me that some users were racist towards the Chinese users like- hello? youre on their app lmao. Also, why do you go to the app with the more welcoming atmosphere if you then decide to destroy it by being toxic?

I know this doesnt apply to every american user, but if you feel adressd by my words maybe you should think about why thats so...

how do you feel about this whole situation? were you sad or glad that tiktok is being banned?

have a wonderful day

[allamawla]

NANA

Yesterday I finished NANA and I was kinda sad because I didnt expect the anime to end so abruptly. What shame it had to be discontinued... I really wonder why NANA never came back and what happened to Hachi and Takumi... Maybe some things have to stay unknown. I think that often people are not very happy with the actual intended endings.

[allamawla]

my language study

Today I want to write about my language study journey. I grew up in a bilingual house, speaking German and Russian but mainly Russian. Because I live in Germany, I obviously spoke German in Kindergarden and primary school. In Kindergarden I also started learning English, my mother signed me up so that I could get a better understanding of the language which I was very grateful for. I think it's a priviledge to be able to get access to education, especially at such a young age. This gave me a god advantage in primary school, I already had a pretty good range of vocabulary. However, when I got into middle school, I crashed so bad in English and to this day, I'm not sure, why that happened. Maybe I should've studied more and pay more attention in class. But I got back on track and was able to get better grades in English again. In 6th grade I had French in school which quickly became my favourite subject. I always had good grades in French so I kind of found comfort in that language. Also, my teacher was very friendly and explained the language very well, therefore I was able to understand everything right from the beginning.

Later, in 8th grade, I also had Spanish in school which was also quiet easy to understand, especially since it is very similar to French. Around that time I also started learning Mandarin Chinese which my mother enouraged me to do which I'm grateful for. Once I heard that if you learn certain languages, some areas in your brain get activated and therefore you are able to understand other things better.

Generally, I think learning languages only brings benefits into your life. It is a good "exercise for your brain and helps preventing dimentia and similar illnesses. Nowadays it's not hard to learn a language, you can find almost everything to learn a language on the internet, whether it's grammar, vocabulary or phonetics.

Currently I am learning French, Spanish, Mandarin and Romanian, also I want to improve my Ukrainian but there aren't very good sources at the moment, or at least I haven't found good ones yet. I really wish for the future, that the concepts of language learning will be appreciated more and languages and dialects in general will be seen as "worthy" because in my opinion it feels as if people don't really care to study and would prefer to have one lingua franca for the whole world which is saddening. There are so many beautiful and interesting languages and even dialects dying out because people don't see the worth of certain languages.

Thank you for reading this "essay", I would appreciate it, if you tell your language learning journey and what you are currently learning or what you want to learn.

See you!

Alla M.

[allamawla]

Lowkey, I love sharing my life on the internet, nobody knows me and some people might even relate to what I'm saying. This is so much fun guys!!!

[allamawla]

I do not understand American humour... I'm scrolling tumblr and I see all those "funny" twitter reposts and some might be funny but Idk it's neither relatable nor funny. Maybe I'm just too European to understand

[allamawla]

Lain is such an underrated anime

In my opinion, the anime Lain is so underrated. There are a lot of memes and sounds from the anime but I think there's not many people who actually watched the anime. Or is it just me?

I think itshould be more popular... Let's all love lain!!