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english has been without a future tense for too long. lets make one

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just realized i can practice spanish by reading chatfics on ao3. im a genius

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only the important stuff

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Found a new language practice app!

Polygloss has you describe an image in your target language so another player can guess it. It encourages creative answers. The game works for people of all levels — you can describe simple pictures or try your hand at wordplay.

It has plenty of options and will let you add any language you’d like — tho it’ll probably be more difficult to find people to play with.

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7/20 words

23/40 chars

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Baldur's Gate 3 - Non-binary Translation in Spanish

A while back I had mentioned that when I learned how to change language settings for Baldur's Gate 3, I was curious to learn how they would adapt the non-binary [no binario] option into Spanish since Spanish (like many Romance Languages) is very gendered

What I saw actually surprised me a bit

Usually in game translations with different genders, English tends to treat you as a "they" even though it's usually male or female; and in Spanish most of the lines are gendered, or phrased in a very ambiguous way in translation like speaking of your character as una persona "a person" rather than "he" or "she", or "they"

This is one of the first times I've seen the gender neutral -e endings used in an official setting

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For the purposes of this, and any future posts on this, I decided I would try to play as a non-binary gnome cleric. I should also mention that when you start up the game in Spanish and you do the character customization, everything starts you with the base word (i.e. masculine by default, or possibly agender but looks masculine)... as in you can choose to be elfo "elf", semielfo "half-elf", humano "human", semiorco "half-orc"... choose between bárbaro "barbarian", mago "wizard", brujo "warlock" and so on

My default character creation screen read gnomo, clérigo for "gnome cleric"

But the way your character is addressed by others is what changes

The first NPC you interact with is "Us" a little brain thing you can choose to help. If you do it calls you "friend":

Nosotros: Somos libres. Tenemos nuestra libertad. amigue Us: We are free. We have our freedom. Friend [nb].

The word used is amigue

For the sake of understanding Spanish grammar, you probably know amigo/a "friend". The G here is a hard G. The gender neutral ending is E... but the combination of GE is pronounced like an H sound in Spanish [la gelatina "gelatin" for example is like "hel-a-ti-na"]. To preserve that hard G sound, you have to add a UE to it... so amigo/a becomes amigue for non-binary

[if you study Spanish this is the exact same grammar you'll see in turning -gar verbs into subjunctive forms; why pagar would turn to pague]

The next person you come across is Lae'zel:

Lae'zel: Tsk'va. No eres une sierve. ¡Vlaakith me bendijo en el día de hoy! Juntes, tal vez podamos sobrevivir. Lae'zel: Tsk'va. You are no thrall [nb]. Vlaakith blessed me today ["on this day of today"; emphatic]. Together [nb plural], we may (yet) survive.

Interestingly, there's first siervo/a meaning "servant" or "serf" or "thrall"

What I found very interesting was that you have une... un and una being "a" are used for indefinite articles; the non-binary form seems to be une

What threw me off though was seeing juntes... now junto/a is "together" [lit. "joined"] but juntes implies a non-binary plural.

I don't know if this is because in Spanish grammar it would imply that non-binary trumps feminine [the way amigos "friends" could be male+female or multiple male, as opposed to amigas "friends" being all female]... or if it's maybe an error or something else; the game treats Lae'zel as a woman in every other regard so I think it's the first one which is a situation I somehow hadn't considered. I had just assumed it would be juntos ...or juntas if you played female

Next I decided to rescue Gale first because he uses a lot of adjectives/professions and I wanted to see what they looked like:

Gale: No serás clérigue por casualidad, ¿verdad? ¿Médique? ¿Cirujane? ¿Increíblemente hábil con una aguja de tejer? Gale: You wouldn't happen to be a cleric, right? A doctor/medic? Surgeon? Unbelievably skilled with a knitting needle?

First is clérigo/a "cleric" being used in non-binary as clérigue. Similarly we have médique which is the non-binary médico/a for "medical doctor"

[just like above C turned to QUE to preserve a hard C/K sound; you'll see this with subjunctive and even preterites of -car verbs... why atacar "to attack" will turn to ataqué "I attacked" and ataque in subjunctive... because CE has a soft S sound in Latin America, and can be lisped in Spain]

And next is cirujane... the word cirujano/a is "surgeon"

Finally important note - hábil being "able" or "skilled" is a unisex adjective, so there is no change in any gender - masculine, feminine, or non-binary

*Note: I did miss it but at some point someone used the article le to describe my character. The el and la "the" are the masculine and feminine definite articles; le is non-binary "the" which still catches me by surprise because it looks French to me

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I've been told since I made the original post that people have seen the non-binary E ending used in other things, but this was special for me to see. I'm curious how the other gendered languages available treated non-binary options

It was a fun surprise for me, especially for some modern day Spanish linguistics in a VERY big modern game, with non-binary word choices being heavily prominent. It's a bit of a learning experience for me

If I find any more fun examples of NB language being used I'll let y'all know as I go

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Basic Spanish vocab you probably should have learned by now and used everyday 🤔

la puesta de sol - sunset

hacer frontera con un país - to border on a country

meter el dedo en la llaga - to hit a nerve

El mundo es un pañuelo. - It’s a small world.

el dedo meñique - pinky finger

a escondidas - in secret, secretly

el encargado = el gerente - manager

el administrativo = el funcionario - state official

el bufete de abogados - law firm

sin entrar en detalles - without going into detail

el colchón - mattress

la sábana - bed sheet

el guion - dash -

el guion bajo - underscore _

la carpeta - file folder

marrón - brown (doesn’t change form no matter the grammatical gender)

charlatán/charlatana/ - talkative

el mango - handle

coger algo por el mango - to grab sth by the handle

la cometa - kite

la pala - shovel

la margen - river bank

el cajón - drawer

el escaparate - store window

visionar algo - to watch

el celo - adhesive tape

el tablón - board

el teleoperador - telemarketing company

el perchero - coat rack

la pajarita - bow tie

estar malo - to be sick, to be unwell

el sótano - basement

la esquina - corner

en punto - o’clock

Follow me for more!

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another chinese tone thing! first attempt, second attempt, and answers (although I did get everything buy one right for the third attempt.

words: 6/20

characters: 24/40

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Sino films on youtube

English name (Chinese name) year, director. Languages.

Will be updated as I find more / Please message me if there are issues!

Bold = very very recommended

Angel Warriors (铁血娇娃之丛林日记) 2013, Fu Huayang, English dub, Chinese & English subs

Ashes of Time (东邪西毒) 1994, Wong Kar-Wai. Cantonese/Mandarin, Chinese subs

Assembly (集结号) 2007, Feng Xiaogang. Mandarin, Chinese subs

Back to 1942 (一九四二) 2012, Feng Xiaogang. Mandarin/English, Chinese subs

The Banquet (夜宴) 2006, Feng Xiaogang, Mandarin, no subs

Be There or Squared (不见不散) 1998, Feng Xiaogang, Mandarin/English. *NB: Link in title is HQ with no subs. Here is a link for LQ with English &　Chinese subs

Black and White Episode 1: Dawn of Assault (痞子英雄) 2012, Tsai Yueh-Hsun. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

Blind Shaft (盲井) 2002, Li Yang. Mandarin, Chinese subs

The Blue Kite (蓝风筝) 1992, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

Caught in the Web (搜索) 2012, Chen Kaige. Mandarin, Chinese subs

Chungking Express (重庆森林) 1994, Wong Kar-Wai. Cantonese/Mandarin, English subs. *NB: split into 10 parts

City of Sadness (悲情城市) 1989, Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Taiwanese/Japanese, Chinese subs

Crazy New Year’s Eve (一路惊喜) 2015. Mandarin, Chinese & English & Vietnamese subs. 

Crazy Stone (疯狂的石头) 2006, Ning Hao. Mandarin/Sichuanese, Chinese subs

Dangerous Liaisons (危险关系) 2012 Jin-Ho Hur, Mandarin, Chinese &　English subs

Detective Chinatown (唐人街侦探) 2015, Chen Sicheng. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs. NB: filmed illegally in the cinema

Double Xposure (二次曝光) 2012, Li Yu. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

The Eagle Shooting Heroes (东成西就) 1993, Jeffrey Lau. Cantonese originally but this version is in Mandarin, Chinese subs

Fall in Love Like A Star (怦然星动) 2015, Tony Chan. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

Farewell My Concubine (霸王别姬) 1992, Chen Kaige. Mandarin, English subs

Fist of Fury 1991 (新精武门1991) 1991, Cho Chung-sing, Cantonese, English subs

Fist of Fury II (精武门续集) 1992, Iksan Lahardi & Tso-nam Lee, Cantonese, English subs

The Fox Lover (白狐) 2013, Niu Chaoyang, Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

The God of Cookery (食神) 1996, Stephen Chow. Cantonese, Chinese subs

Happy Together (春光乍泄) 1997, Wong Kar-Wai. Cantonese, English & Spanish subs

I Am Somebody (我是路人甲) 2015, Derek Yee. Mandarin, Chinese subs

If You Are The One (非诚勿扰) 2008, Feng Xiaogang. Mandarin, English subs

Impossible (不可思议) 2015, Sun Zhou. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (西游：降魔篇) 2013, Stephen Chow. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

Ju Dou (菊豆) 1990, Zhang Yimou, Mandarin, English subs

Lady of the Dynasty (王朝的女人：杨贵妃) 2015, Shi Qing. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

Lost on Journey (人在囧途) 2010, Raymond Yip. Mandarin, Chinese subs

Lost on Journey 2: Lost in Thailand (人在囧途之泰囧) 2012, Xu Zheng. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

Lost on Journey 3: Lost in Hong Kong (人在囧途之港囧) 2015, Xu Zheng. Mandarin/Cantonese, Chinese subs

Love Actually (真爱至上), Mandarin, Chinese subs. NB: What the hell? I stumbled upon this film when looking for a different one, and can barely find any information about it anywhere. Nonetheless, it looks like an actual film so I’m putting it here… but I’m so confused lol. If anyone actually watches this please tell me what’s going on.

Love Is Not Blind (失恋33天) 2011, Teng Huatao. Mandarin, Chinese subs

Monster Hunt (捉妖记) 2015, Raman Hui. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

Mr. Six (老炮儿) 2015, Guan Hu. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs. 

Mulan: Rise of a Warrior (花木兰) 2009, Jingle Ma, Mandarin, no subs

Peking Opera Blues (刀马旦) 1986, Tsui Hark, Cantonese, English subs

Platform (站台) 2000, Jia Zhangke. Jin/Mandarin, Chinese subs

Raise the Red Lantern (大红灯笼高高挂) 1991, Zhang Yimou. Mandarin, Arabic & Chinese & Czech & Dutch & English & Finnish & French & German & Greek & Hebrew & Indoniesian & Korean & Persian & Portuguese & Spanish & Swedish & Turkish & Vietnamese subs

Red Sorghum (红高粱) 1987, Zhang Yimou, Mandarin, Chinese subs

Suzhou River (苏州河) 2000, Lou Ye. Mandarin, no subs

Tiny Times (小时代) 2013, Guo Jingming. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

Tiny Times 2 (小时代：青木时代) 2013, Guo Jingming. Mandarin, Chinese & Russian (?) subs

Tiny Times 3 (小时代：刺金时代) 2014, Guo Jingming. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

Tiny Times 4 (小时代：灵魂尽头) 2015, Guo Jingming. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

To Live (活着) 1994, Zhang Yimou. Mandarin, English subs

What Time Is It There? (你那边几点？) 2001, Tsai Ming-Liang. Mandarin/Taiwanese, English subs

White Vengeance (鸿门宴) 2011, Daniel Lee, Mandarin, Chinese subs

World (世界) 2004, Jia Zhangke. Mandarin, Chinese & English subs

Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (天浴) 1998, Joan Chen. Mandarin, Chinese subs

Yellow Earth (黄土地) 1984, Chen Kaige, Mandarin, English subs

Yi Yi: A One and a Two (一一) 2000, Edward Yang. Mandarin/Taiwanese, Chinese & English subs

Special thanks to @fallingforsincerity​ for contributing! 

Last updated 16/02/2016

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first round: 25/40 characters, 8/20 words!

I didn't do this this time, but I want to take screenshots of the first attempt, second, and then the correct answers. then I can find out where I'm struggling the most.

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Resources aimed at intermediate-level intensive listening practice or comprehensible input, *not* teaching you vocabulary or grammar.

YouTube:

Mandarin Corner. Tons of content, tagline “content to get you from beginner to intermediate”. Notable for an excellent selection of slow intermediate listening practice videos. 

Slow & Clear Chinese. Slow intermediate listening practice, with read-along characters. 

Easy Mandarin. On-the-street interviews in Taiwan, meant to be accessible for learners.

Audio Books:

Mandarin Companion has audiobooks of quite a few of their graded readers, available for sale on iTunes/Amazon/Audible. (Paid.) 

This project has just started, but here’s an audiobook of the Chinese translation of The Little Prince in podcast format. There’s a decent amount of background white noise, but the audio is still easily understandable. 

Podcasts:

ChinesePod. Tons of resources, paid and free. Beginner content is English/Mandarin, advanced is nearly all in Chinese. I subscribe to their podcasts with my usual podcatcher. 

听故事学中文Learning Chinese through Stories. Various levels (coded through numbers at the beginning of episode titles), super accessible.

慢速中文 - Slow Chinese. An excellent resource, although more on the advanced side. 

ChillChat. This one’s in English and Chinese – accessible upper-intermediate lessons with a learner and a native speaker. I really like the vibe of this one, which is why I’m including it even though it’s not 100% in Chinese. 

鱼淼淼. Bedtime stories for Chinese speaking kids.

海外兒童中文頻道 Mandarin Podcast for Kids. 10-20 minute long episodes aimed at kids from overseas Chinese families (and well as non-native speakers).

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not counting this one up but heres todays!

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thank you for the tag omg🙏🙏this makes my journey to the west goal so much closer haha

The 4 Classic Novels of China— Easy Mode

I’ve mentioned several times how important the classic novels are to learning Chinese, but like classic English novels, they’re not incredibly accessible due to their old-fashioned and highly literary writing. I collected a few options for people who want to read these novels, but aren’t at the level required for the original versions. 

Continuar lendo

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Yes! Chinese Graded Readers

Recently, I found a really useful Chinese reading resource for learners of all levels. As the name states, it contains a bunch of graded readers split up based on grade level and HSK level. I’ve selected Elementary School Grade 1 (HSK-1), and here’s what it looks like: 

I’ve selected the story 少了一头驴. As you can see, the vocabulary and grammar should be tailored to the grade level, so it’s really useful, especially if you’re studying for the HSK. All the stories include audio, and some of the lower grade levels even have nice background music and sound effects. Some of the higher levels only have Google Translate audio though (even though Google Translate for Mandarin still pretty decent). Here’s the layout of the stories:

There are 3 tabs: Picture Story, Vocabulary and Print. “Picture Story” is just the story itself, and “Vocabulary” is exactly what it sounds like, although not every story has a vocabulary list ready to go. Here’s a snippet of a vocabulary list from another story:

Going back to the story itself: if you hover over the words, you’ll highlight a vocabulary word/phrase and two things will pop up:

If you click on the audio button, the highlighted words will be pronounced, and if you click on the screen looking button, the following will pop up:

This is a really thorough one-on-one analysis of each character. It gives you some common usages of the character (there are several panels of common words; just click on the numbers in the top left), the Pinyin, and the stroke order. 

Pressing the “P” will show the breakdown of the Pinyin and how it’s pronounced:

Pressing the play button will play the stroke order gif, and the rewind button is to restart the gif:

Definitely check out this site for reading practice, I can’t believe I just found out about it. Keep this bookmarked if you’re planning on doing the HSK anytime soon!

Yes! Chinese Website: (link)

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me: yeah no listening isn't too much of an issue, if I know the words I'll eventually be able to figure it out

also my slow evolution when talking: Do you want to go to (store)? -> dyou wanna go to (store)? -> wanna go (store)? -> (store)??