#If you´re non native English speaker

[andywinter16]

Some random headcanons for FFXV because I want to cry and hug my idiots, but sadly they´re fictional. So I wrote something to cheer us all!

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- all the glaives are foreigners, there definitively were situations with mispronuciation or just simply forgetting words:

 “You know what I mean, it looks like a hat.” “What? What thing like hat.”  “ You can used it for cooking! And I don´t mean a pot. “Oo, you mean that thing with holes?”  “Did .. did you guys meant colander?”

- Tredd is oficially banned as babysitter for Axis´s children (because teaching them how to blow up whole city ain´t good idea, Tredd)

- Luche, Sonitus, Pelna and Crowe are the type that when they drinks a hot bewerage are absolutely melting the cold inside them

-there is a tradition that before mission whoever slaps Nyx´s butt will have luck and won´t die on the deploytment. (That was proven correct many times ) Nyx was unaware of this till recently ...

- Crowe is avid tea drinker (loves green tea with lemon), absolutely hates plain black coffee with sugar

- Libertus is great at winning prizes at amusement park. Always wins so much that he gaves it away to children

- Luche never swears ... ALMOST never swears. He breaks this belief when his idiots do something EXTREMELY reckless. (or when someone was being asshole to glaives) Well, then he´s got some very colourful words for them

- Titus owns a small cabin near lake. It´s beautiful here and so calm. When he´s got a time, Titus packs his bag and take his doggie there.

- glaives have got into lot of drunken shennaningas ... like having a race with those mobility scooters 

- Axis once burned water for coffee. In his defense, he didn´t sleep for like 48 hours cuz his children were ill and couldn´t sleep

- Tredd hates needles! And it doesn´t matter if it´s at doctor or tattoo artist, Tredd is scared!

- If you get ill, Pelna is the one who will take care for you. (cooking you food, buying groceris, cleaning,..) And no, he doesn´t give a damn If he gets ill himself in the process. 

- Sonitus has great fashion sense. That man knows how to dress to impress. (More than once was invited as fashion guru to help pick outfit for their date)

- When Luche kiss someone he cradles their face in his hands to prolong it. The closeness and intimacy makes his heart melt

- Pelna sometimes likes to spent his time alone (to charge his energy). He usually spents somewhere out of city (some nice hike) or at home where he tinkers with computers. Also likes to play videogames, these days he enjoyed Animal Crossing.

- Nyx is playful boy and loves to make people smile. He absolutely hates when those close to him feel miserable. Whatever it takes, Nyx will make it better.

- I believe I said that before but Titus loves watching soap operas. (Rosalia, Esmerald,..) And reads absolutely sugary romances that would cause cavities. Don´t judge him, he loves good sappy ends!

- Libertus is actually big softie, If you get past his mean and guarded demeanor.  Gives the best hugs and cuddles!

[awkward-teabag]

I have to wonder how many people celebrating AI translation also complain about "broken English" and how obvious it is something was Google translated from another language without a fluent English speaker involved to properly clean up the translation/grammar.

Because I bet it's a lot.

I know why execs are all for it—AI is the new buzzword and it lets them cut jobs thus "save" money and not have to worry about pesky labour laws when one employs humans—but everyone else?

There was some outcry when Crunchyroll fired many of their translators in favour of AI translation (with some people to "clean up the AI's work") but I can't help but think that was in part because it was Japanese-to-English and personally affected them. Same when Duolingo fired many of their translators in favour of LLM translation. Meanwhile companies are firing staff when it's English to another language and there's this idea that that's fine or not as big a deal because English is "easy" to translate and/or because people don't think of how it will impact people in non-English countries.

Also it doesn't affect native English speakers so it doesn't get much headway in the news cycle or online anyway because so much of the dominant media is from English-speaking countries and English-speakers dominate social media.

But different languages have different grammar structures that LLMs don't do, and I grew up on "jokes" about people speaking in "broken English" and mocking people who use the wrong word when it was clearly a literal translation but the meaning was obvious long before LLMs were a thing, too. In fact, the specific way a character spoke broken English has been a way to denote their native tongue for decades, usually in a racist way.

Then Google translate came out and "Google-translated English" became an insult for people and criticism of companies because it was clearly wonky to native speakers. Even now, LLMs—which are heavily trained on English compared to other languages—don't have a natural output so native English speakers can clock LLM-generated text if it's longer than a sentence or two.

But, for whatever reason, it's not seen as a problem when it goes the other way because fuck non-English readers or people who want to read in their native tongue I guess.

[little-acts-of-gratitude]

Hello, Tumblr! I am incredibly excited to announce the start of my biggest project so far: Little Acts of Gratitude! It's a post-WW AU fancomic that follows a Ganondorf redemption-ish story set on the Great Sea, in which Link decides to defy fate right before the final duel and bring his sworn enemy back to the surface. But why? The comic explores the Triforce Trio and the world around them, in an attempt to solve the ancient mysteries and tie the loose ends. Suffice it to say, I have big, big plans for this story >:^з.

If you have access to desktop Tumblr, I recommend reading the comic that way, as you’ll be able to see a fancy blog theme with a comfy pagination and a banner for each chapter! But if not, there'll also be a dedicated pagination system for mobile users, like this:

(Page 0) next > last ▷

And now, FAQ/Disclaimer/whatever:

There’s no upload schedule planned as of now. I’ll try my best to aim for monthly updates and have at least a little backlog whenever possible, but more often than not I’ll probably upload the pages as soon as I am done with them. Also I’ll make sure to announce any major hiatuses if for some reason updates will take more time than planned. Just please don’t send any asks/DMs regarding this matter.

As a non-native English speaker, I’d greatly appreciate it if you guys pointed out any grammar mistakes I might make! This goes double for the instances of me using ASL for Link, as I don’t have any kind of experience with sign languages.

You may see the artifacts on the pages - this is the result of me Glazing them, just to see how that pans out. I'll... probably think of an option to show you guys the clean hi-res pages eventually.

For now, the comic will stay a Tumblr exclusive — but I am thinking of potentially crossposting it on other webcomic-hosting platforms! Once I amass a decent amount of pages and decide where exactly to upload them, I will provide links. As for the social media presence, I... don't really have anything other than Tumblr (except, well, iykyk), so no promises there.

And for, uh, legal purposes: the Legend of Zelda series belongs to Nintendo; I am not affiliated with them and do not claim ownership on anything other than the artwork itself. Not that they're currently going for fancomics, thankfully.

And... Thanks for taking time to read this! My lack of work ethics is my lifelong nemesis, but I hope that, despite everything, this comic will see the light of day, that I won’t stop working on it until I’m done, and that you will have a great time reading my silly little AU for a silly little vidyagame ✨!

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

As a native Spanish speaker and an English teacher myself, let me say, she does have some control of the language in terms of vocabulary, and her pronunciation is not terrible. However, she makes mistakes in the tenses of the verbs and she clearly has no fluency, she memorised most of this little “speech” and that’s why it sounds unnatural.

She has no detectable “Argentinian” accent, she sounds more like LA Spanish to me. Again, not terrible, but more basic/intermediate than advanced.

To be honest, she’s better than I thought she was. She’s clearly a well educated woman, sadly, we all dislike her for her actions, and we assume every word out of her mouth is a lie. In this particular case I dare say she wasn’t lying about speaking Spanish, she’s got the basics down. She’s probably been rehearsing her speech, it’s not hard to find Spanish speakers to practice with in California.

🤷🏽‍♀️

I agree. She sounds like me when I try to speak Spanish on vacation - I had 6 years of Spanish in school so I have a passing familiarity with the language but I’m so rusty that I have to re-teach myself phrases, vocabulary, and pronunciation when I travel to be able to speak it and it does sound more like rote memorization than fluent conversation (which I could do 17 years ago!).

So to my untrained (and deaf, so please be kind to me if I’m missing something) ear, Meghan sounds like someone who once had a Spanish education but lost the skills from non-use and has recently had a crash course in it.

But that isn’t the same as claiming to be conversationally fluent in Spanish after all this time, and that’s not what she demonstrated this weekend; she can make a speech in Spanish (which anyone can do if they practice long enough because honestly it’s just mimicking sounds and pronunciation when you don’t know the words), but she can’t hold or follow a conversation in Spanish - which we know because she needed headphones for that one conference and all of her answers were in English.

And there’s a lot of speculation, from Sussex Squad and the rest of us, that because Meghan has claimed to be conversational in Spanish, she speaks to her household staff in Spanish - which started after a rumor that Meghan’s household staff is largely Hispanic because of assumptions that the domestic workforce in CA is largely Hispanic - that’s why I made the post I did suggesting that because she didn’t sound conversationally fluent (to me) and she needed translator services all weekend, we can probably debunk those claims that she speaks specifically in Spanish to her staff.

(For some reason I can still read Spanish pretty well but being able to read Spanish doesn’t help when you’re asking for directions!)

[aeternallis]

I was re-watching some scenes from KP for a new fic I'm working on, and it was a neat observation that @artpo had noticed, so I wanted to talk a little bit about my own experience with English!

One of the things that honestly made me smile when I’d watched KP the first time about a year and a half ago was the random usage of English that was sprinkled throughout the show. As someone who took extensive ESL classes back when I first returned to the US from the Philippines during my childhood, this definitely hit close to home, since I struggled with English a lot as a kid. I didn’t have much time to study it when I was in school in PH, and it was hard for me to make friends during my elementary school years. 

At least from where I’m sitting, and my own experience having lived abroad, being able to speak English fluently and confidently has always been considered an outward sign of sophistication and having been educated. In the Philippines for example, English is considered the official second language, and most people can speak it easily enough in and within the suburbs of Manila. As you get further out of the big cities though and into the provinces however, it’s not as readily spoken. 

I imagine in Thailand, it would be something along those lines? Bangkok is the main commercial hub in Thailand, and English acts as the language for international business and politics. In Asia in general, especially within SE Asia, to be able to speak English is to show others that you're a worldly person.

For some people who are non-native speakers of English, it would probably have been a privilege to have had the time to study it and become fluent at it, yknow? 

In KP, we see Kinn, Kim, Vegas, and Macau speak English in varying degrees, so in a way, this adds yet another layer to the image of the Theerapanyakuls as this glamorous and privileged family, imo. It’s not surprising that the Theerapanyakul heirs would know how to speak English and are all probably fluent at it, if only because they have extensive business connections overseas.  

This actually shows up once or twice in the book too, since it’s a bit of a misunderstanding between Kinn and Porsche during their adventure in the woods, lol:

But yeah, just something I thought that was really cool to see play out in KP, and how BOC really played up on just exactly how the Theerapanyakul family’s wealth and privilege has influenced them in different ways.  

[culmaer]

Re: ex vs eg, I’ve always used ex. and I’m a native speaker!

huh. interesting... I wonder if it's a regional thing like putting the ‹u› in "colour"

if you went to school or uni in an English-speaking country, I'm gonna say you can choose one of those options too. or go with "non-native speaker". whatever you're more comfortable with

[goodluckclove]

Tag Game - Questions for Fellow Writers!

I was tagged by the talented @mushroommanchanterelle but I'm going to be a dingus about this, just you wait.

Last book I read: I'm reading an encyclopedia about birds that I got from a used bookstore because it's little and cute and I wanted it to get inspiration for Edgar in Songbird Elegies. I'm also reading The Dead Beat, which is a book about obituary writers. It's pretty good!

Greatest literary inspiration: I definitely get a lot of Vonnegut and maybe Hemingway in terms of accessibility in prose? One of the most important things to me in what I write is making sure that language is beautiful, but simple enough to be easily understood. I think the highest praise I've gotten is from non-native English speakers like my beloved compatriot @ivaspinoza who still really enjoy the excerpts I post.

Maybe also Palahinuik with some of the content and narrative gimmicks? Lil' bit of Kerouac, but like before On the Road? Does that sound like anything?

Things in my current fandom(s) I want to read but I don't want to write: My greatest shame of mine is that I don't really actually have a fandom. I don't like to admit that because it makes me sound like some hermit who only fixates on their writing, but that's...not entirely inaccurate. I consume a lot of media, but nothing that I'd consider myself part of the fandom of.

But I still want to be included because my friend Mushy wants to include me, so I'm making up a fandom. It's a TV show called Jonathan's Food Truck, staring Don Cheadle as Jonathan Fudtruk, a man with aspirations to start a food truck.

I really want to read an AU of Jonathan's Food Truck where he has to sell the food truck. What would happen? Where would he go? Imagine the outage. He fucks that food truck. I'm a Jonathan/Food Truck pro-shipper.

Things in my current fandom(s) I want to write but I think nobody would be interested in them but me: a whump fic where Jonathan is forced to operate a brick and mortar restaurant and also he can't stop pissing himself.

You can recognize my writing by: Apparently elaborate food descriptions. I think my dialogue is pretty distinct from what I've been told. Kind of experimental and not super literary. I don't really know how to answer this, maybe you guys can tell me.

My most controversial take (current fandom[s]): The analog horror ARG for Jonathan's Food Truck was not as bad as people say it was. And since it came out before The Mandela Catalogue, they're actually the originators of religious trauma in modern online horror.

Top three favourite tropes: Pathetic characters, abstract narratives, radical softness

What’s your current writing mood? (10 – super motivated and churning out words like crazy, 0 – in a complete rut) I mean it's mildly annoying to me but I'm deciding to put aside Book Two for like a week or so and re-edit Book One for a final run before I consider it fully ready to publish. But I'm down for that so - 10?

Share a random frustration: Itch on foot. I don't have one right now but I don't like when I do.

I tag @mercuryytheraven and @rkmoon and @ratracewriting, and I highly encourage you all to make up a fandom like I did because it's a very funny additional challenge.

[mariamariquinha]

I've been learning English since I was a teenager, by myself. We used to have it in school, but you know, the public school system and all—since I couldn't afford private lessons, I used my obsession with One Direction at the time to my advantage and learned all I know now, basically. When I did take lessons, it was just for the sake of getting a proficiency certificate after college.

All the fan fiction I used to write before was in Portuguese, for a Brazilian fandom. When I decided to start posting here, I didn't have a solid community of people to support me, but I did it anyway because I love to write and it would be a challenge itself that I was willing to accept, because the majority of the audience here are English speakers, native or not.

Now I'm re-editing Bossa Nova, and if there's one thing I can be sure of, it's that what you write in Portuguese will NOT work in English. The places where these stories happen have a culture that is very different from mine; I've never been to the US, Europe, or anywhere outside my country. The slang, the traditions, the daily routines... it's all totally new to me. The other day I had to use Google to find out how much a regular cup of coffee costs in Boston. And I know it seems like a small thing, but you need to immerse yourself in another culture that isn't yours, and sometimes that's a whole other level of a challenge.

Still, I love writing. I love having ideas and creativity and I've never even planned on making it professional because it's a hobbie I don't want to mess up with responsibilities like publishing a book. I love taking my time, I love going back and seeing how stupid I sounded, but then going back with more ideas to build things the way I want.

I'm not saying this to brag about anything, but just so we can be more appreciative towards non-English speakers who wants to contribute with fandom culture with stories they want to tell. There will be spelling mistakes we will try to fix or something, but if all you have to say is that we shouldn't be writing because we don't know how to "write properly", without giving us a chance, then just don't read, you don't need to say anything at all.

It's not that deep to scream for everyone that we can struggle with some specifications in another language. Just be respectful and patient. We will get there 😅

[olderthannetfic]

Re: hoe vs ho; tbh I always thought it was hoe like the garden tool because the person described is "harvesting" bed companions on a big scale. You never stop learning! (Non-native English speaker here btw!)

--

Ahaha.

Okay, I can see how you'd get there.

In reality, it's simply a pronunciation of 'whore' from African American Vernacular English that spread outwards in the 1990s. It may have turned up earlier than that and not only in AAVE, but evidence is scanty.

[lemotmo]

Hi there! I hope you're having a great day.

Please bear with me because English is not my first language, I just hope I get my point across 🙏

I really enjoy your blog, I've been in the fandoms for about a year or so and I just wanted your opinion on something I have noticed in regards about how a section or the fandom treats Eddie vs how they treat Buck.

So since 7x4 happened I've seen some crazy opinions about Eddie like : "Eddie cant get together with Buck until he fixes all his issues/trauma and needs to be in therapy to be worthy or Buck. Not Buck tho, he's obviously still on the hamster wheel and has some issues on his own, he just jumped from one relationship to another in a matter of weeks but that's fine 🤷" "It will be ok for Bucktommy to be endgame because Tommy is apparently the most compelling love interest Buck ever had in the show since Tommy is such a complex character, Eddie should end alone if he doesn't get with Buck tho because apparently that's what's right for his character"

"Eddie should lost custody of Chris for making a mistake while dealing with his trauma and he should stay with Buck because Buck deserves to be his guardian more than Eddie" "BuckTommy deserves to be in a long and steady relationship and we need two seasons of them while Eddie figures himself out and maybe we can get buddie at the last episode when 911 finally ends 🤓"

I don't really understand how some "buddie" fans have this kind of opinion when they apparently "love" Eddie. Wouldn't it be easier to just admit they don't really like Eddie (which is a valid opinion) why pretend to like him?

I have some theories about why some fans treat Eddie like this but I'm a POC so for me it only means one thing 🤷

My favorite character is Buck but the way some people in the fandom treat Eddie baffles me.

You re always so kind and well-spoken that's why I enjoy reading your replies everyday. Has this fandom always treated Eddie this way or is this a recent change?

Okay Nonny, I will attempt to reply to your question as eloquently as possible, but I first I have to come out as a non native speaker (as well), non POC and non American Eddie stan. Mostly, because the last three things will most certainly affect my answer.

Let’s begin in season one. Buck was a fan favourite from the beginning. A good looking blond all-American guy with blue eyes. Couldn’t get more American than that really. He was a total himbo who scored woman after woman. At first that is all you see. He was fun and compelling to watch for some people.

I have to admit that I hated Buck’s guts in the beginning of season 1 and I thought Bobby was absolutely right to fire him. I mean, stealing the engine to have sex? Just... no. (Don't worry, these days I adore Buck.)

It was only when him and Abby started their relationship that I started to like him more. (Yes, I liked Buck/Abby. Don't hate on me for that. They had a great dynamic.) Then Abby left.

When Eddie appeared in season 2, I fell in love. So did Buck by the way. :) He was a lot more compelling to watch than Buck (for me personally) and I understood him in ways that I never quite understood Buck. That is where my Eddie love began and it is still going strong today.

So, imagine my surprise that, even as early on as season 2 and 3 there were people who didn’t quite like Eddie as much as they did Buck. Some Buddie shippers were obviously biased towards Buck.

For example, when the law suit story arc happened, these people were all supporting Buck and almost woobiefying him. While I didn’t necessarily think Buck was wrong about everything, I did think he was wrong about suing the Fire Department and blowing up his bonds with the 118 by talking about their private lives to his attorney.

When I tried to talk about this topic, it was obvious that certain individuals didn’t agree with me. Some reactions even were quite hostile. But whatever Eddie did was definitely criticised more heavily by a certain part of fandom. Eddie being angry with Buck over the law suit? Some people didn’t like that at all and even afterwards were upset because Eddie didn’t apologize. Apologize over what? It was Buck who sued the department and talked about the 118’s private lives.

I’d like to make it clear that I’m not talking about everyone in fandom. This was a group of fans that defended Buck through everything, no matter what he did. Everyone was wrong, but Buck was always right. Eddie never seemed to get the same defence.

I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t get it at first, mostly because I’m not American and my mind just didn’t go there somehow? Looking back at it now, I don’t understand why I didn’t clock it earlier. I mean, Trump building that wall at the Mexican border speaks for itself.

Anyway, that scene (I forgot the episode) where Eddie reveals being half Swedish and half Mexican to that racist who didn’t want him to treat him? That is when alarm bells first started going off in my mind. I started reading up about the topic, I read a lot of posts about it here on Tumblr about Eddie being half Mexican and generally set out to educate myself on the subject.

So yeah, ultimately I do think there are a lot of people who just like Buck better than other characters, which is fine. I love Eddie more than anyone else on the show, so who am I to judge? We all need our blorbo, don’t we? :b As long as they treat Eddie the same as Buck, it’s all fine. That is what fandom is about.

But there is a certain subset of fans, and a lot of them seem to have jumped on the BT train, that seem to constantly spew hate onto Eddie. Some of it has to do with Eddie being in the way of their ship. Some of it has to do with Ryan and people not liking him, so they transfer those emotions to Eddie.

But yes, some of it, I imagine, has to do with the fact that Eddie is a half Mexican man with the surname ‘Diaz’.

Listen, feel free to  jump into the comments to add your own opinion on this topic, but please keep it respectful towards others. Also, do correct me if I’m wrong about anything in this post. As I said, I’m not an American. Be aware that I didn’t set out to offend anyone. This is just the way I perceive the Eddie hatred in this fandom.

[mylittleredgirl]

Hello! After seeing your posts about B5, I want to see the whole series again. So I asked my parents to give me back my old DVDs, but I have a problem. I want to show the series to my boyfriend. On the DVD, there isn't the episode pilot The Gathering and I can't find on the internet subtitles that are well syncronised (we're non-native english speaker so we need them). Do you think we can skip The Gathering ? I'm pretty sure I never saw it, and it went well but in the same time, it was a long time ago, and I'm kind of afraid that my bf can be rebuffed by the whole esthetic of the show… Don't know what to do! Thanks :D

you can definitely skip it!! honestly i recommend it.

i think your boyfriend will have a better time as a first-time viewer without it. the gathering is a true pilot meant to sell the show to a network, not really the first episode of the series, which starts chronologically a year later.

half of the characters have been replaced, and they re-introduce the ones who are in the series itself. they do a good job of quickly telling you anything you need to know when you need to know it… and there’s only two things that i think are even Need To Know in the first place for continuity:

a) a weird looking minbari dude once told sinclair “there is a hole in your mind” and delenn was kind of weird about it, and b) lyta alexander is Like That because she scanned a vorlon. you get a flashback shot or an explanation for both things, and you don’t even meet lyta again until the end of season two.

my honest truth 🤫 is that i think of all the tv movies are bonus features and are weaker than the show itself. my recent obsession with the gathering is because i’m scraping the barrel for content about my man sinclair.

there’s some nice character stuff in there, especially for sinclair and londo/the centauri (and garibaldi to a lesser extent), but all of it comes back around in season one anyway.

that said!! if anyone has access to a version of the gathering with a synced subtitle track and want to help OP out, please do! (what language are you looking for?)

edit: french preferred, english in a pinch!

[pickypickypeak]

Random but I just read yet another complaint on the terrible, dreadful, feared by adults and children “throw caution to every warning sign” line from wish and as a non english native speaker, I’m genuinely curious to understand if it actually does sound that weird to english native speakers?

From what I got the idiom is “throw caution to the wind” which roughly means “not worrying about consequences” right? So let’s say julia michaels shortened it to “throw caution” (meaning a more general “not worrying”) and then added “to every warning sign” as a direct object, as in: “not worrying about warning signs”. It makes sense? Idk, it doesn’t sound weird to me or feel incomprehensible, but then again, I’m not a native speaker so I could be biased.

I feel like people who are not native english speakers and watch dubbed disney movies don’t really have a problem with that, not because we don’t understand english or don’t listen to original versions of the songs, but rather because we are somewhat used to hear sentences in songs that feel slightly unnatural lmao I will never get over batb 2017 italian dub lyrics (“new and a bit alarming” was re-adapted to match the lip sync in what roughly translates to “you manage to attract me” like??????????? What?????? That sounds like. Not something belle would say)

[fitzrove]

Now that I'm talking about history sklslsldldld here's another post...

Historical accuracy in fanworks - why?

A recurring thing w me is that people get annoyed with how obsessed I am with historical accuracy 😭😅 Like people have had to physically restrain me from doing 5 hours of research for a throwaway line in a fanfic, and one friend and I once had an hour long argument about word choice... But unfortunately I am just Like This lmao.

The thing is though, it's not because of any inherent sense of superiority or anything like that lol, I just have preferences. Also, I'm not the kind of person that needs everything to be 100% accurate all the time, I can still have fun JAPFLDPGPF. Basically, for me it comes down to a few things:

1. Suspension of disbelief / immersion

With historical fiction, the "he would not fucking say that" kicks in w dialogue easier than w something set in the modern day. Sometimes it's because of glaringly modern language (a 19th century guy going "sup" or something xD) but other times it's because a character is way too familiar with people of a different class, or acts/dresses/speaks too casually in general.

My hugest pet peeve with this are character names for side characters that the author made up 😭😭😭😭😭 As a non-native English speaker I don't really get the urge to insert random English names into my stories even when the stories are in English, I always look up the historical context and try to use names that a parent would give their child in that context. I'm sorry for naming and shaming but in one tdv fic Alfred's surname was Smith and I had to put down my phone because it broke my immersion so badly xD

2. Enjoyment

Historical accuracy can also be a characterisation thing!!! With crown prince rudolf of austria specifically his whole appeal as a character comes from his neuroses, and his neuroses are the specific way they are because of his specific position and status, and all that those entail in his historical context. It makes a story so much more interesting if these are properly taken into account 👀

3. What's the purpose of fanfic?

To me personally the purpose of writing and posting FANfic, as opposed to writing other stories, is threefold:

Making a point about the original story (is it a fix-it fic? An AU reimagining? A canon-compliant elaboration on something I think could expand upon a character's personality or two characters' relationship? These approaches all comment on the original work and its themes and characters.)

Personal enjoyment/self indulgence (I write what I would like to read)

Hopefully connecting with other fans (persuading them to see my Vision re specific characters/relationships, the setting, or the work as a whole; keeping the fandom alive; inspiring other people to make fanwork; providing entertainment; finding people who are the same kind of insane as you and making friends)

To me, putting historical accuracy into my fic or drawing inspiration from history fulfills all of these goals. With the first one: the original work usually comments on its era in some way as well, so drawing inspiration for the fic from that era complements it and keeps them grounded together. IRL history can also give you fun ideas to put in. W the second one: I love late 19th century history specifically and historical accuracy is my kink KSLFPEPDOFO. W the third one: I like sharing weird/funny/interesting historical facts w people so we can enjoy them together 😌 I also like Informing people of things that happened in history so hopefully they can have as much fun w the knowledge as I do. I try not to do this unsolicitedly and in general try to avoid criticising anyone for historical inaccuracies without being asked to because that's boring, I'm not trying to be cinema sins here

4. Exceptions

Sometimes historical inaccuracy is more fun than historical accuracy, though this is highly personal - you just have to do what you think is best and accept that something you enjoy might be something that breaks another person's suspension of disbelief (and hence makes them not enjoy the story). My personal metrics are roughly:

Sojblfpldlpf fun fact an unnamed person and I had a conversation about rudolf's probably not existing [redacted] register last night and while writing a fic about it would be historically inaccurate, the conclusions we arrived at about it were pretty funmy and interesting. With gay and homosexual implications

One of my favourite pastimes is to comb over crown prince rudolf's life and purposefully misinterpret random things as gay KSOGODPFOTK 😌😌😌 it's a good way to get fic ideas. So um yeah idk where I was going with this post haha

[ramblings-of-a-fangirl-blog]

Embracing Mental Health? Looking At The Companion’s Approach

I want to write about The Companion's focus on mental health and their related projects.

When The Companion first announced their book, several of my friends and I had mixed feelings. While the project had the potential to help many, it also had the capacity to cause harm, and we weren't sure which way it would go, since The Companion had not proven to be a safe space by then. By now, these initial concerns have not only been confirmed but have even surpassed our expectations in a negative way, sadly.

It’s clear that the people at The Companion never have experienced a certain... form of mental health struggle, because if they had, they would be well be aware of the issues and dangers that come with the way they are handling the project, and they would therefore be talking and acting differently. To some degree that’s a good thing, as I wouldn’t wish my worst enemy to have the experiences I had and am having, the experiences that part of my fandom friends have, the experiences that a lot of traumatised people go through. However, there are people who – as far as I’m aware – aren’t struggling with mental health themselves and still have voiced the same concerns, showing that it's possible to recognize the problems with The Companion's approach without having experienced severe mental health struggles firsthand.

The Companion is months into lauding themselves of promoting mental health awareness, yet they haven’t been consulting professionals. This is apparent in their lack of adherence to trauma-informed practices. I won't delve into the principles of trauma-informed practice, such as safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment, or the topic of trauma and its consequences as that would go beyond the scope of this text and you can look that up. These principles are however essential for handling sensitive topics like mental health.

When The Companion announced the book, our primary concern was the safety of the submission process. What would they do to ensure us that submitting stories would be safe, to show us they are trustworthy? How would they handle the story selection transparently? How would they support those, whose stories were not chosen, to minimize the risk of flashbacks, mental breakdowns, or re-traumatization due to rejection? The answer has become clear: they won’t. They have not made any effort to assure contributors that their stories will be handled safely and respectfully. Instead, they have set numerous guidelines for what “they’re looking for”, what constitutes a “good” story, turning it into a writing contest. If your story isn’t chosen, it seems it’s your fault for being a bad writer. They also disregard dyslexic individuals or non-native English speakers, as submissions with “typos and grammatical errors” might also be rejected. They aren’t just not providing information on how they will handle rejections in a trauma-informed manner but placing the burden of rejection squarely on the writer. Their message is essentially: “Be vulnerable, be open, be emotional, but if this process or the rejection leads to mental health issues and triggers you, that’s not our problem, it’s not even something we’ll address in any way because it doesn’t even cross our minds that it could be a problem.”  Safety is among other things fostered through giving information and thereby the chance to mentally prepare oneself, to know what to expect – what’s going to happen, when and how. Give me as much control about the process as possible. However, the submission process lacks more information. When submitting, contributors agree that their stories can be used in “any other project and format,” which is such an unclear wording that it offers no reassurance at all that I will have control over how my story will be used once I submit it. There is no information on if and how a submitted story can be edited. And there’s the info that the submission can be withdrawn but not a clear deadline. The fact that they’re not publishing all questions at once, while to some degree understandable, goes again against the principle of providing control and safety. If I know what all the questions are that gives me the option to calmly decide for which question my story would fit best. Of course, an easy dismissal could be, “If you’re too unstable to submit stories, don’t participate,” but considering this is all about embracing mental health, such a stance would be cynical.

Beyond the submission process, there have been other red flags throughout the project. Starting with the price: $99. For that amount, I can buy three handmade quiet activity books for children, which literally take hours to make. It’s hard to believe the printing of one single book costs $99, and hard to believe one could set a price before having any content ready. Transparency about the cost would help, and no, vague descriptions like "little details," "holes in the cover," or "a thread" do not count as transparency. I can buy an awl for $4 and make my own holes, and a piece of thread costs less than $1. These titbits of information do not explain the cost. We are unable to imagine what could justify the cost but even if we assume the book actually costs $99 to print, this price makes it unaffordable for those most in need. If the price is not something that makes you think, you likely can afford therapy well. You are privileged. Still, how can you not see that the price is an issue for others and that a book about/for mental health should never cost that much? I can get books by actual professionals like Bessel van der Kolk or Bruce Perry for a fraction of that price. Also, what about the Kickstarter? A Kickstarter to pre-order books and to cover all additional expenses for design and whatnot would’ve made sense. Yet not only is it unclear what a Kickstarter is needed for now, it also was originally announced to be starting at Basingstoke and without any information it just got postponed. I repeat: Creating safety by giving information would be the trauma-informed approach but that’s not happening. “But it will be available for free online!” All the promotional focus has been on the physical book's aesthetics, how good it will feel in your hands, how shiny it will look, how many details it will have. Those struggling with mental health and financial instability won’t get that tactile experience. So... is it more important for the book to look as fancy as possible or to be affordable and accessible to those who truly need it? The Companion’s priorities seem clear: appearance over accessibility. After all, it’s all they’ve focused on during the promotion: “This is how good the book will look” instead of “Here’s how we will make the story collection process safe for you,” which – again – is what most actually traumatised people actually wanted to know. The priorities are... weird. Making the book less shiny to make it more affordable doesn’t seem to be an option and by that, they fail the goal of supporting people struggling with mental health, in my opinion.

In fact, throughout this whole process, there has been so much focus on the marketing part and hardly any on the ‘embracing mental health’ part, outside of the interviews. Most recent example from the pin campaign: The email I just received, “Pledge until midnight to get these freebies.” But also other examples from the book, like the fact that the pre-orders had a limited number. “Give a sense of urgency and scarcity to get people to buy quickly” is a marketing strategy that, in my opinion, has no place in a project that is about mental health, where people need time to make decisions, where people need time to save money, where people don’t need to be put under additional stress, and where people might take time-outs of social media and newsletters for mental health reasons. Another focus has been counting numbers. “Let’s get xxx subscribers! Let’s get xxx people to join the waiting list!” Again, a potentially fun way to promote a project or a company. Yet again, focusing so much on such a superficial thing instead of a trauma-informed approach and instead of, say, a discussion about how to support people struggling on social media, makes the priorities weird again. ...because throughout the months I’ve seen various people writing about being at a low point in terms of mental health, in reply to posts by The Companion, and the supposedly so supportive fandom didn’t react.

What even does “embracing mental health as a fandom” mean, outside of the interviews? The Social Hour chats? The Companion did a good job at showing right away that this was not a safe space for me, by starting with the question of “What smell reminds you of childhood?” and expecting nice, fluffy answers. My answer is “vomit” and it’s not memories I want to talk about, nor do I want to listen to other people’s nice, fluffy childhood memories. That question made it clear right away: Not well-suited for people with cPTSD. The 60 for 60 challenge to get people thinking about things? The first post I saw was the question “What if you were forced to do a do-over, how would you relive your life in 2024 as a 15-year-old?” and my first thought was, “if I had to relive my life as a 15-year-old in the situation that I was in as a 15-year-old but with the knowledge I have now, I wouldn’t. I’d off myself.” And that thought was immediately followed by anxiety and flashbacks. Only on a second look at the post did I see that it didn’t specifically state that it would have to be the same situation that the person was in as a 15-year-old, but then, that quickly also made me want to ignore that challenge. Positivity chitchat? Positivity is good. Looking for glimmers is good. Toxic positivity isn’t. The focus on post-traumatic growth, a concept that hasn’t actually been properly validated by research, isn’t. Yet this is what The Companion aimed at with their questions for the green room sessions not once but twice: “The last few years have been really tough for many of us and our lives have changed. What’s one way your life has changed for the better you’d like to share with the group?” “Reflecting on the challenges you've faced, what's one positive insight or lesson you've gained that you'd like to share with others?” A friend commented that they’d dare The Companion people to ask Amanda with a straight face what positive insight she gained from experiencing eight miscarriages. The questions can be answered if your mental health struggles aren’t related to trauma or if they don’t go beyond a certain depth of struggle. Together with the financial situation, the target group of this project seems to be people with good income who struggle with life challenges such as the death or sickness of loved ones, bullying at work, etc. All very serious issues and things that are bound to have a negative impact on mental health. That’s just one subgroup of people struggling with mental health, though. And I’m not saying that there aren’t people with PTSD and cPTSD who have benefited from what The Companion is doing, I’m sure there are. I'm also not expecting The Companion to be a trigger-free space – that's impossible given the different life experiences of people. However, having a professional supervising the process and adherence to trauma-informed principles is not too much to ask.

The middle-term consequences? While I'm speaking primarily from my own experience, some friends share similar concerns. The middle-term consequence is that what comes with these projects is an additional stress factor for conventions, it makes me feel additionally unsafe. I can unsubscribe from The Companion’s newsletter, avoid their social media and just not keep track of these projects anymore. I have however been going to Stargate conventions and conventions with Amanda regularly. I ended up struggling with additional anxiety after The Companion’s panel at Basingstoke. I’ve skipped the last two conventions in the USA despite having the time and money to attend. The heavy presence of people who are clearly not trauma-informed and the fact that I can identify them by their T-shirts and hoodies, makes me feel unsafe. If you actively support a company that's selling a book that’s aimed at mental health and costs $99, I don’t trust you.  For the moment, I’m not sure what that means when it comes to Amanda. I owe her so much. I’m not sure if I would be here if it hadn’t been for her kindness and care. I appreciate and respect her deeply and am immensely grateful. Yet, I struggle to understand how she’d support a $99 book and that makes feel disconnected from her, too, even if I don't doubt the good intentions, and I know of others who are feeling similary. I don’t know what this will mean, moving forward. The thought of the potential loss of one safe person and one safe space is stressful. In addition to the impact on conventions, there’s the danger of people feeling once again (and by ‘once again’ I mean given their traumatic past experiences) excluded. The message seems to be: “You’re not alone. But no, not like that. If you’re not stable enough, here’s a list with professionals. You don’t get to be part of this clique because we’re not going to care about being trauma-informed and a safe space. You’re too broken for our group.” (On a side note, I find it interesting that none of us can connect to the whole hype around the enamel pins. If I were to wear a mood pin, I’d choose something simpler like the Mood Tracker by AtelierEumori. However I very probably wouldn’t tell strangers my mental health state to start with as it would feel unsafe and with safe friends I would talk directly if needed, so I wouldn’t use a pin to start with, but then different people have different preferences. If the pins by The Companion help even one person that’s good.) So, for me and some of my friends, The Companion’s approach not only fails to support a subgroup of people struggling with mental health but actively contributes to further distress.

“You’re just a hater, looking for something to complain about.”  I don’t actively participate in social media; I primarily use it to stay up to date with news from the pages I follow. I have, however, seen some public criticism directed at The Companion. It’s notable that this criticism is often met with dismissal or even attacks from The Companion’s followers, while The Companion itself remains silent. Outside of a form after the initial interview with Amanda, there hasn’t been an option to provide anonymous feedback, nor has The Companion created a safe enough space for non-anonymous feedback to be feasible. I know of persons who have refrained from voicing the points, the critique I’m discussing here because they fear hateful responses. This is particularly problematic because a key feature of trauma is the experience of being silenced. Personally, I wasn’t allowed to voice or even have an opinion as a child and teen, as daring to voice any protest would immediately result in additional abuse. This situation presents again a risk for re-traumatization and further marginalizes those already struggling with their mental health. The silence that comes from people not daring to speak up leads to a sense of “I’m overreacting, I must be a bad person.” Déjà-vu. Only once I started speaking with others I noticed that I’m not at all alone with these concerns, that I’m not the only person who’s experiencing a negative impact on their mental health from what The Companion is doing. The aim of this post is not to get The Companion to change, the damage is done. The aim is to make others who might feel alone with these thoughts feel less alone.

Edit: It's 'you should forgive your abuser' now. I’m speechless… Just a quick reminder for all survivors out there: No, you don’t need to forgive to heal.

[systembug]

Bug Pronouns

So, as a non-native english speaker i wonder about certain rules that are connected directly to my interest - insects.

When i was taught english, the rules about animal pronouns were kinda outdated. Any animal should be referred to with an "it/its" pronoun. However being actually exposed to native speakers quickly proved otherwise - people like to humanize their pets and use more "human" pronouns. (Very valid btw) And any language is a creature of its own - it is constantly changing and evolving. So i wonder - how bug-lovers refer to bugs and why? What kind of flavour people give to a small thing they find cute or interesting when they refer to it? This is borderline a shitpost, i just think it would be fun to make this poll, please dont take it too seriously. But if you ever saw serious research on bug gender, send a link cuz it sounds interesting :D

[whiteclericmaris]

I go to an establishment and one thing that I find frustrating is that there is this one elderly man who supports Trump. I am taken aback because for 1. Their native language is not English, in fact two others who are also not English speakers agreed to support Trump and it is very frustrating to me to hear them openly say they will vote for Trump.

I admit that I have mostly voted for the blue candidate for President in the past ever since Al Gore BUT it is really frustrating hearing these non-English speakers (elderly) showing support for Trump. Like hon, I remember when Trump was in Presidency, one of the things that happened was that I was 'forced to work' for some benefits that I had applied for and qualified. This was re-established during the Biden Presidency but it was still bad with people who qualified for disability benefits being forced to work for their benefits.

It's also very frustrating because "Bro, you've admitted that you are not from the US. Talking about your native homeland in some other place where your language is commonplace and wanting to support Trump, Who, 'Mind you', one of their promises was to establish a wall to limit the illegal immigrants that come to the country (but I guess since it's Texas-Mexico border it doesn't make you think that you aren't seen as a threat when you are an immigrant nonetheless).

Did you forget about the four years living under Trump's Presidency? Like bro the ICE were out there arresting and deporting Immigrants. What makes you think you are safe when ICE deported some immigrants and separated some of the immigrants from their child(ren) and forced the children to live in a rough place.

I can't help it but be "F*ck you for your ignorance!" Like yeah, you are an elderly but as a non-native citizen what makes you think that you are "safe" under Trump's governance. Yeah, he ruled as President for 4 years but if you have forgotten all the damage he has done during his Presidency I don't sympathize with you thinking he is the better option for this country because Biden is "Old".

I'm tired of people complaining that Biden is too old. Trump is also old and worse. If you can't remember how his governance affected USA that's on you but "F*ck you if you think Trump is the immigrant cozy (English Speaking, which is something you aren't) vote to go for!"