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[curuxagris]

Banco de recursos LSE

¿Primer post en Español? Espero no sea el único. Escribo esto en mi idioma natal porque voy a hablar de la Lengua de Signos Española, y no creo que tenga demasiado sentido hacerlo en inglés.

Básicamente, os traigo una pequeña lista de recursos gratis para aprender LSE, que estoy utilizando para introducirme en las nociones más básicas de esta lengua, porque el curso oficial que se hace en mi ciudad todos los años me coincide con los horarios de trabajo. Esperando, con los dedos cruzados, que el siguiente que saquen me cuadre algo mejor.

La iré actualizando a medida encuentre más recursos:

Banco de imágenes y signos LSE

Aprendergratis, curso de LSE

Curso gratis LSE con certificado de pago

Signos Básicos según la FAXPG

Lista de Reproducción en YouTube

[curuxagris]

A Complete Guide To Becoming Conversational In French

I’m basing this off of this post I wrote a while back, as well as my own experiences. I’ll also copy one of my other posts onto here for the beginner section. Also, check out this post to see what level you are at and where you need to begin. 

Beginner (A0 to A1)

I would recommend studying this amazing pronunciation guide by @frenchy-french. Then, I would recommend that you start shadowing and speaking. Try shadowing (i.e. repeat what is being said after the speaker) a beginners podcast like FrenchPod101 (paid) or Coffee Break French (free).

You can try using an app to learn some basic vocabulary. Duolingo and Memrise are my personal favourites. You can also use Drops if you don’t want to translate vocabulary. Try using it daily (it’ll take at most 5 minutes a day).

Complete an online course or textbook. Here is an article with some recommendations for textbooks. Here is a link to a drive full of textbooks, where you will surely find something for French (credit to @salvadorbonaparte for providing this resource). As for online courses, here is a list of some places to find courses: Open Culture, Class central, Effective Language Learning and Loecson.

Make a native friend and start texting them. You can go on r/Language Exchange, or text them on HelloTalk or Tandem. You could also find a buddy on a language discord. Remember to be safe, and not reveal any private information. Look up words as you go, and try texting only in French the whole time. Start doing this as early as possible. Once you have become more confident texting and/or sending voice messages, try a phone call. You can also practice speaking using HiLokal.

Memorise some basic vocabulary and grammar. This post by @frenchy-french is the best for this. For vocabulary, you can use flashcards (like Anki, Quizlet and Memrise). Also, try Kwiziq for grammar.

Immerse. For now, try listening to lots of music, and watch a bunch of fun YouTube videos (like the ones by Cyprien, and Montreaux Comedy). Also, use the language filter on AO3 to look up fanfiction in French. Switch your phone’s language to French, and follow a bunch of French people on social media.

Beginner to intermediate (A1 to B1)

At this level, I would suggest using a textbook or online course. The ones I mentioned earlier might be helpful. Personally, I used GCSE textbooks. I used this Studio 9-1 textbook (good for practicing skills), and this CGP textbook (good for grammar and vocabulary, lots of practice questions). It’s also worth checking out Z-library to see if you can find something for free.

Try working through a grammar book. My personal favourite is the Practice Makes Perfect Complete French Grammar textbook (you can probably find it on Z-library). If you don’t want to use a grammar book though, the second season of Coffee Break French is good too (or you could use it to consolidate your knowledge). Do practice questions if you want, or maybe make a cheat sheet. Don’t forget to use what you learn in your writing and speaking!

Expand your basic vocabulary. You can use a course on Memrise (here is the one I used) or find some vocabulary lists online to learn (the GCSE specification is great to choose topics). You can use flashcards (like Quizlet and Anki), columns or association: whatever works for you. After you have learnt the ones you need for general communication (the GCSE specification might be a good guide for this), I would suggest learning some vocabulary lists about topics that interest you in particular. As well as this, generally try to learn vocabulary you encounter when reading and writing. Remember to use example sentences when learning vocabulary!

Do you remember those speaking buddies you were meant to meet earlier? Well, keep speaking with them. If you’re nervous, try to memorise some set phrases and questions to keep the conversation going. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to slow down, or speak more clearly. Do it as often as you can. You can also continue texting your buddies too. Again, try and stay safe. 

Continue to immerse using the methods that I mentioned earlier. You can try watching films and TV shows with English or French subtitles, but I doubt that they will be helpful at this stage. Personally, I read fanfiction, (usually translations of my favourite fics) articles and watched YouTube videos. The articles and YouTube videos were often meant to offer advice about things, since self-help stuff is often quite simple. Just a quick tip. 

Watch children’s shows in your target language. Shows like Peppa Pig and the little princess would be good. Just get used to the sounds of the language.

Find a guided reader, or learners exercises (like Lingua), and read them. Also, you could try reading these short stories (recommendations by @frenchy-french).

Shadow Easy French (i.e. repeat what is being said, and imitate the intonation and accent).

Try keeping a journal in French. Every day, just write two or three sentences in the language. For some ideas about what to write, here is a wonderful set of questions by @myhoneststudyblr.

Engage with intermediate French content. I like InnerFrench, RFI: Savoirs, Piece of French and FrenchPod101. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t understand much at first.

Intermediate to conversational (B1 to B2)

Listen to intermediate French podcasts and youtube videos like the ones that I mentioned earlier. Here is an article which lists some good intermediate podcasts. You can also just look up “intermediate french listening practice” and find some good stuff. Try listening without a transcript at first, and then read and listen at the same time.

Continue shadowing native material. Once again, I recommend Easy French for this.

Try watching TV shows and films. Here are some recommendations for TV shows. You can also watch things you’ve seen already dubbed in French, like Disney films. Also, you can use a platform like LingoPie (if you have the funds - I highly recommend it if you do). Make sure that what you choose is not too difficult, and that there is no needless jargon or complex language.

Try to keep a journal in French. Just write about your day, and also your various thoughts and opinions on certain topics. You can also try writing reviews for books and movies, and record vocabulary from there. For some entries, type them up and post them on Journaly for corrections.

Speak with your speaking buddies! Try and learn how to speak around words (i.e. learn how to describe the meaning of the word you are looking for if you can’t remember it). 

Work through a grammar book. Keep doing the practice questions, and actively use what you learn in your speaking and writing.

Read articles, fanfiction and books. For articles, I can recommend Le Monde and Liberation. It’s good to keep up with what is going on in France, so give it a shot. For books, I would suggest reading translations of books that you have already read in your native language (this also applies to fanfiction if there is a translation available). Here are some recommendations for native French books. Pick something you like and go for it! As for fanfiction, here is how to filter languages on AO3 and WattPad.

Watch YouTube videos in French. Here are some youtubers you might want to check out.

Watch the news in French. I personally use FranceInter and TV5monde.

Write short stories and essays in French. Perhaps try lifting phrases and vocabulary from books and fanfiction you read? If you write an essay, make it about a topical issue like abortion or the role of family in society (here are some topics for intermediate essay topics). Also, here are some essay phrases. 

Needless to say, you will have to continue learning French vocabulary using whichever methods you prefer. Perhaps you can explore @frenchy-french’s vocabulary tag?

And that’s it so far! If you want to go from intermediate to advanced, try to follow this advice in this post by @frenchy-french​. Thanks for reading this post! I hope it was useful to you!

[curuxagris]

hello again! — langblr playlists pt. II 🗺🎶

My last post lost a bit of traction so i remade it.

A while ago I shared my Spotify langblr playlists, and a lot of you seemed to like them, so i’m giving you a little update! I have since added more playlists, go and check them out if you want to!

Under the cut you will find an alphabetical list of playlists sorted by language.

As usual, note that these playlists are sorted by language, not by country, so you might notice different accents!

Seguir leyendo

[curuxagris]

Mango Languages

I’m starting to use a new language app called Mango Languages. The bad news is you have to pay to use most of its features. The good news is that Mango has partnered with many public libraries and universities worldwide. This means you can get the free version if you have a compatible library or student card.

I find this app really useful. Its focus is on learning through hearing and linguistic language construction. To me, this is the best way to learn, if you are somebody who has a lot of issues with traditional learning (it's me, I'm the problem).

You learn through audio, and natural conversations. There is also no constant gradation of your progress, which I am super grateful for. These lessons have a more logical distribution than grammatical families (”verbs”, “adjectives”...). You also do not have to unlock previous content to keep using it, meaning you can jump from one lesson to another if you do not feel learning it in order.

  I will post an update once I am halfway through the French course!

[curuxagris]

IF YOU STUDY FRENCH, LISTEN UP:

 Bon Patron will save your life. 

What is it?

 a free grammar checker that was developed by French professors

 not extremely sophisticated and won’t catch all of your errors 

but WILL prevent you from making dumb conjugation or agreement mistakes. 

MUCH BETTER THAN MICROSOFT WORD

What does it look like?

What’s it do?

it marks what mistakes you made (writes them out and you can also hover over them - I couldn’t screenshot the entire list because it is VERY THOROUGH) 

(I feel like I need to mention this is an automatically generated example, I’m bad at french but I’m not that bad)

says what type of mistake it is 

and what you can do to fix them.

What do I do with it?

Obviously don’t rely on it 100%, but if you’ve been staring at an essay for five hours it’s so nice to be able to run it through and have it catch the article you misused in the middle of the fourth paragraph. 

make sure you check again after correcting the errors because sometimes new ones will be flagged 

double check your work, sometimes it suggests corrections that you don’t need to make (since it’s a computer program and you’re a person)

BUT GO FORTH AND IMPROVE YOUR FRENCH GRADES (& share the good news)

[curuxagris]

Tourism related vocabulary in French

Some words I’ve learned this past week in my “French for Tourism” courses:

Une agence de voyage: A Travel Agency

Une officine/agence de tourisme: A Tourist Office

Une hôtel: A Hotel

Faire une réservation: Make a Reservation

Guide touristique: Tourist Guide

Touriste: Tourist

Un agent de comptoir:

La réceptioniste: The Receptionist

L’hebergement: The Accomodation

Le forfaitiste: The Tour Operator

Les langues étrangères: Foreign Languages

[curuxagris]

[FREE] Resources & Websites

Scientific Journals: - Sci-Hub - NCBI - CORE - ICD Online - OpenStax

Writing Tools: - Reedsy Name Generator - Fantasy Name Generators - Grammarly - Plagiarism Checker - Wordtune - Hemingway - Portent - Visuwords - FadeOut - Creative Writing Exercises - Etymonline

Art Tools: - Pixilart - Kleki - Aggie

Photo Editing Tools: - Pixlr X - Remove BG

Games: - Minesweeper - Sudoku - Daily Crossword

[curuxagris]

remember if you ever want to read an article for free and the subscription ad prevents you from reading the entire article DO NOT

Reload it and immediately turn off your Internet access (data/WiFi if you are using a phone)

Reload it and click the 'X' next to the return icon on the top left of your window (if you are on desktop)

Reload the page, type 'Ctrl+ A' and 'Ctrl+ C' and paste everything onto an open document

this has worked for me 97ish % everytime hope this works for u too

[curuxagris]

French Culture But Make It Welcome to Night Vale

You're at the train station. There are no trains coming or going. There is a strike going on. There is always a strike going on. And yet you keep coming to the train station. You forgot what you are waiting for.

You enter a boulangerie and ask for a pain au chocolat. The vendor gives you a chocolatine. You ask for a pain au chocolat again. The vendor gives you a chocolatine. There are no such things as "pain au chocolat" she tells you.

The president has published another tiktok and a youtube collaboration with famous youtubers. Teenagers cheer. Meanwhile, the student line at the local food bank stretches.

You start giving cheek kisses to your dear friend to greet him. Your regional custom is two kisses. Their regional custom is five kisses. You never touch their cheeks. Do they have cheeks? You're not sure.

You venture out on a Sunday. There is no one outside. All the shops are closed. Only the void is waiting.

A Parisian leaves Paris for the province. He asks a local if they have access to electricity and running water. No one can hear him scream over the sound of the singing rooster and mooing cows.

You buy a baguette before heading home. By the time you cross the threshold, the baguette is gone. Eaten. You have no memory of ever touching it.

[curuxagris]

why do all the words sound heavier in my native language?

—  @metamorphesque, Yoojin Grace Wuertz (Mother Tongue), Still Dancing: An Interview With Ilya Kaminsky (by Garth Greenwell), Jhumpa Lahiri (Translating Myself and Others), @lifeinpoetry

˗ˏˋ☕ˎˊ˗        

[curuxagris]

FRENCH RESOURCES

Textbooks

French Grammar and Usage

Le Bon Usage

Verb Exercises (15 tenses + 3 other topics)

Lessons

France Université Numeratique (like Coursera)

Alliance Française on FUN [A1] [A2] [B1]

LanguageTransfer (excellent audio lessons)

FluentU on YT (advice on natural spoken French etc.)

Online Dictionaries

Larousse

Trésor de la Langue Française

Reading + Listening

RFI Savoirs* (current affairs in B1-2 level French)

FranceCulture.fr (very good radio + podcasts)

EuroNews

Arte (documentary + cultural television)

innerFrench (youtube channel)

CultureMag.fr

*link to English-language website, but scroll down to access site in Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin, or Arabic

Art + Literature

Wikilivres (free public domain books in French)

Film Recommendations (subjective!)

Bilinguis (bilingual translations of classics)

[curuxagris]

Over the garden wall background art

[curuxagris]

Resource List for Learning Portuguese

Hi Language Enthusiasts,

Do you want to learn Portuguese but don’t know where to start? Then I’ve got the perfect resource list for you and you can find its links below. Let me know if you have any suggestions to improve it. I hope everyone can enjoy it and if anyone notices any mistakes or has any questions you are free to PM me.

Here is what the resource list contains;

Handmade resources on certain grammar concepts for easy understanding.

Resources on learning pronunciation.

Websites to practice reading.

Documents to enhance your vocabulary.

Notes on Colloquial Language.

Music playlists

List of podcasts/audiobooks And a compiled + organized list of websites you can use to get hold of grammar!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gxbnCJPADJ-5y1j9LKuoSpruoFwU-m4OVWV_sPvoWe8/edit?usp=sharing

[curuxagris]

Tofugu • New Japanese Learning Resources: Fall 2022🍁🍂

some 日本語 resources to welcome the new season with!◖⚆ᴥ⚆◗(ᵔᴥᵔ)

[curuxagris]

Practising Italian with Cartoons Pt.1

One thing I realized when I started learning Italian, as a Spanish kid, was how many of my favourite childhood cartoons were actually Italian. Seriously, like 90% of them. I personally find in cartoons an easier entryway into language oral comprehension than live action series. The vocabulary is simpler, the narrative is easy to follow, and they are shorter, avoiding the feared, but almost inevitable, burn out.

Today I’m going to bring you a few, and tell you where you can watch them. 

(Disclaimer: I am aware a lot of them were first introduced in comics, but I can’t find where to read those, in English, Spanish or Italian, so if you happen to know, please lmk)

- Huntik, Secret and Seekers: In Italy, a group of secret hunters protect the world from an evil organization using the power of The Titans (beings embodying the power of older gods and heroes). You don’t understand, I was OBSESSED. The main reason I play dnd, and l want to be a touristic guide, is this cartoon. Full of mythology and legends, this is every dark academia’s kid jam.

- Angel’s Friends: Drastic change, Angel friends tells us the story of Raf, an angel attending classes on earth, who has the misfortune of falling for a devil. The OG enemies to lovers, the love story of these two had me truly invested, and the story, as simple as it looks, is hella (pun intended) interesting. 

- Winx: What can I say about The Winx. The Italian cartoon by default, we love and we stan our favourite fairies. I recommend stopping after the fourth season, but you do you.

- W.I.T.C.H: Another series about magical girls, this on a more conventional tone. A group of girls is bound to protect the veil between their world and Meridian, using the power of the elements. This was, alongside The Winx, the most popular Italian cartoon in Spain. 

- Monster Alergy: This is the first cartoon of this list I was surprised to discover it was Italian. Although in retrospective it was quite obvious (it’s in the vibes). A funny, distended cartoon about a family of monster hunters/caretakers in a world where only a few humans can see these creatures. The particularity is that the main character is heavily allergic to monsters, hence the name.

-La principessa Sissi: Another of the unexpected ones. Bear in mind, this cartoon is old, but it is also gorgeous, and the animation is not bad at all. A young Sissi (yes, the Hungarian empress) lives in Bavaria with his family, until two mysterious visitors end up at her doorstep. A love story full of castles, adventures, and beautiful dresses. Princesscore at its peak.

There is another cartoon about Sissi in italian, newer and for younger audiences, but I honestly prefer the original series.

That’s all for now. expect a second part, and a third part with comics and books.

[curuxagris]

Me seeing all these people on here learning Italian with Duolingo 😥 Like almost all my mutuals. Good start but.

please take this:

This is great. And it's free, except you want to upgrade it to an actual course. Like it's probably better than my Italian course I had and paid a fortune for. Before the just lets move there and learn it there. If you pay for it, you only pay for the course once.

Or this.

And take this as well.

If you want a book.

Or another book/course.

And you know what, take this on top.

Take a pronounciation dictionary as well when we are at it.

Children's stories are always good to learn as well.

This is the last one, I promise.

Actually no, lets also bring back the 90s.

[curuxagris]

no you don’t understand this app that’s like duolingo for indian languages makes me so happy i want to cry