#and learning Spanish and Portuguese for like 7 months!

[tomfrogisblue]

Ya know, I've personally loved being drip-fed everyone else's previous lore. As a previously mainly Wilbur and Phil viewer, I knew their lore (way too much of it, Save Me) walking into the QSMP, but... not really anyone else's. Not even really the other English speakers. It's been a delight to discover the angst and batshit backstories of all the other cubitos

Cellbit's lore alone, bro. And I have such fond memories of Forever appearing on the island and simply terrorizing Phil for a while with his unrequited love left over from his ex, Phil being just as confused as I was.

I hope that anyone coming in from other places in the world has similar reactions to shit like c!Wilbur's Canon Family Tree (canon no matter how much Phil tried to make it less cursed, goddammit Wilbur.)

[four-leafed-queer-gal]

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧Hi there! You can call me Clover!𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧toki! mi kala Kowe, anu soweli Kowe, anu waso Kowe!𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

‧₊˚🌿✩ ₊˚🪵⊹♡‧₊˚🌿✩ ₊˚🪵⊹♡

I AM NOT ON POST LIMIT

I hate to do this, because there are some genuine and important donation pages and the like out there, but a few bad apples mess it up for everyone I suppose.

ATTENTION EVERYONE:

UNLESS WE ARE MUTUALS, DO NOT SEND ME ASKS WITH DONATION LINKS. IF YOU DO, I WILL ASSUME YOU ARE A BOT AND YOU WILL BE BLOCKED.

More below the cut :3

♡ 17 years old, & a Saggitarius! Turning 18 in approx. 2 months!

♡ ✨Taken✨ by the amazing @theacemagpie, the Black Bat to my Spoiler 8/7/2024 (Or 7/8/2024, if you use DD/MM/YYYY)

♡ my pronouns are she/they! 🏳️‍⚧️

♡ I have ASD, BPD, and ADHD ☘️

♡ I love languages! I can only speak English fluently, but I'm learning Old Norse, Old English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, toki pona, Russian, and Albanian! I also speak a little bit of French, thanks to school & friends! 🗣️

♡ I like Marvel, PJO, Avatar (Both blue people and not blue people), Batman, Hunger Games, Suits (The show), Skyrim, Ben 10 (Not the reboot), and more! ✨

♡ Therian! Theriotypes: Spotted Hyena, Sea Wolf, Viperfish, Vampire Bat, Arctic Fox, Eleonora's Falcon, Moth, Barracuda, Thresher Shark, Raven, & Cheetah (Plus others I haven't figured out yet)

♡ my favourite animals are dinosaurs 🦖

♡ I love to read 📚

♡ I enjoy writing! ✏️

♡ Pagan! I worship the Norse, Egyptian, Celtic, Roman, Greek, pretty much everybody! I'm very eclectic. My patron is Loki, They're mín Móðir. The others I work with the most are The Morrígan, The Twin Archers (Apollo & Artemis), and Thoth!

"People are going to talk shit about you no matter what. May as well give them an interesting topic!" - Mín Móðir

𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊

Please DNI if: you’re queerphobic, anti-self dx, someone who supports beastiality, zoophilia, pedophilia, rape, etc, or if you’re racist, ableist, sexist, or fascist. Be nice! I won't hesitate to block assholes, or bigots ✨☘️

"Be humble, be kind, but don't be afraid to drag the fucker who crosses the line" - Me

✩°𓏲⋆🌿. ⋆⸜ 🍵✮˚

Side blogs! Pls interact with them?

- @cass-daughter-o-ari RP blog for my PJO OC, Cass Clemens!

- @the-axolotl-queen Blog for the Axolotl Kingdom! I'm the Queen, obvs-

- @montoya-son-o-nemesis RP blog for my PJO OC, Jason Montoya!

- @lucas-bane-son-of-punishment RP blog for my PJO OC, Lucas Bane!

- @lughs-lightheaded-son RP blog for my Celtic PJO OC, Aidan O'Neil!

- @daughter-of-the-cailleach RP blog for my Celtic PJO OC, Taran Keir!

- @ronan-child-of-ogham RP blog for my Celtic PJO OC, Ronan Callahan!

- @behold-a-man-everyday Behold! A man! Everyday!

- @diogenes-totally-real Diogenes the Cynic gimmick blog!

- @aeolus-the4winds RP blog for Aeolus, Notos, Zephyros, Boreas, Euros, Aeolus, Auster, Favonius, Aquilon, and Vulturnus!

- @the-fmby-north-carolina-totally Gimmick blog, a Femboy North Carolina!

- @antiquitian-empire-real Gimmick blog, Antiquitian Empire! A micronation!

- @literally-the-first-state Gimmick blog, Delaware! The first state in the United States!

- @four-leafed-queer-writing Writing blog! I'll reblog writing tips, and sometimes post original stories of mine!

- @four-leafed-pagan-gal Pagan blog! Reblogs for things relating to the Old Gods and other pagany and/or witchy things!

✩°𓏲⋆🌿. ⋆⸜ 🍵✮˚

Here are some of my cool humans (moots)! 💚

♡ @theacemagpie My amazing girlfriend! A fellow fan of numerous fandoms, and a speaker of multiple languages! <3

♡ @star-dust-shark Mack! He's a super cool dude, and who made most of this intro post! Go check out his blog!

♡ @lucas-iamgod Lucas! He's also a really cool guy, you should check out his blog!

♡ @hugs4neth-official Neth + others! They're all really cool, and in my experience are nice.

♡ @green-thighs-save-lives I honestly don't know much about him, but he's a nice, chill guy from our interactions.

♡ @violet-hady Hady! Great person, good friend, though always tells me to be healthy and stuff-

♡ @ankoku-teion Irish, fellow trans something??? She's currently debating between three names, I'll update with whatever she chooses when results are released :]

♡ @poemsofanentomologist An anentomologist! They're really cool, they write poetry and have inspired me once or twice to write some of my own!

♡ @gaygoose09 Fellow therian and fellow hyena, very awesome! Check out their blog!

♡ @i-am-thoroughly-confused A fellow therian & fellow bat! They are a good being :3

♡ @poppitron360 A fellow PJO enjoyer! They've got great takes on Riordanverse stuff, y'all should check out their blog!

♡ @justagremlinoncaffeine Gremlin! Cool person, really nice, I've enjoyed every interaction I have with them.

♡ @unstableunicornsofasgard Forrest! Also a great person, ¡y el habla español!

♡ @theacemagpie Magpie! An amazing person! Honestly can't believe it took me this long to add her to my pinned, lol-

♡ @peace-love-and-french-toast Amazing human! I sometimes do PJO rps with them, and with a bunch of others! They run @cabinseventheaterchick, and do a darn good job!

♡ @lizzzzzzzzzzzzzz---lol We haven't interacted much, but Liz is a great person, and what little interaction we have had has been good!

♡ + All my other moots! I have a lot, so I can't list all of y'all, but you're all amazing!

₊˚ʚ 🌱 ₊˚✧ﾟ.

"Either walk like you're the Queen, or like you don't care who the Queen is." - Lady Artemis

Have a nice time! <3

(Note: Intro post was made by @star-dust-shark!! If you want one like it, go check out Mack's blog!!)

[zhuzhudushu]

Lingopie — Chinese Review ★★

So I did 3 months of Lingopie (stylized as Liñgöpie) so you don't have to (unless you want to lol).

I mention a Chrome extension, the Zhongwen dictionary, quite a bit in this review. It is here, I highly recommend it (click)! It's also available for Firefox (click).

What is Lingopie?

Lingopie is an app and desktop extension/website that allows you to watch tv shows and cartoons with interactive subtitles for language learning. It currently has Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, French, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. It claims to improve your language learning by 80% (compared to Duolingo which is around 20%).

Here is their website. (click)

Pricing: (March 2024)

3 months $36

1 year $71 "on sale" (normally $144)

Lifetime $199 "on sale" (normally $663)

Please note: I have never seen these full prices. It appears that the "sale" is permanent.

My Review / TL;DR Version

Extremely disappointed both in functionality and content for Chinese. Maybe this is a good program for other languages, but for Chinese there is extremely limited content with pinyin subtitles only available for the non-Netflix shows. All the best learning features are available for non-Netflix shows, yet those tended to have significantly worse translations than Netflix. I would not recommend this product for Chinese. While it had a few good features and I enjoyed it for 6-7 episodes of one show, it then had a glitch where an entire episode was subtitled wrong, so I gave up.

See below the cut for full breakdown.

Strengths:

Has access to Netflix shows and films including some popular ones (e.g. Meteor Garden, Dear Ex, Nezha Reborn)

This is nice and I enjoyed rewatching the ones I was familiar with and getting a better grasp of listening and vocab. I appreciate that they try to incorporate kid-friendly along with more serious/adult content with animated and live action tv shows and films. I also liked that it specified if the show was from Taiwan or China, and also included shows that had some Cantonese influence (e.g. Scissor Seven)

Allows you to have English and Chinese subtitles simultaneously or alone, and you can easily click them on an off while watching.

This is pretty standard for all video/subtitle based educational apps, but it was nice to easily click them on and off in case I wanted to double check my understanding, and to compare the direct translation of the words to the full translation of the sentence.

Allows you to pause automatically after each subtitle. Can also loop subtitles over and over. There are also AI-produced explanations of grammar.

This hands down was the best part about the entire experience for me, and why I ended up using Lingopie for 3 months. While it was sometimes clunky (see below), this made singling out specific lines/words for listening practice so easy. Once I got in the groove, I was able to get through episodes fairly quickly and was starting to be able to listen and hear new words in sentences later.

Click on the words in the subtitle to make flashcard sets

This was a nice feature, but I do wish the flashcards were a bit more functional, see below. It was easy enough to use and a quick way to remind yourself of the new words you learned before you jump into the next episode.

Weaknesses:

Pinyin subtitles available on desktop only, with no pinyin subtitles for Netflix shows (as of May 2024)

This is a HUGE flaw, and I was 100% dependent on using another chrome extension for hover-over dictionary while using Lingopie. I know they are working on pinyin subtitles for Netflix and mobile, but I used this for 3 months and it still was not implemented when I ended. To me, if I have to use another app in conjunction with this one in order to fully learn, then what's the point? Especially since I watched Taiwanese and Cantonese-influenced shows with very non-standard pronunciations, comparing standard pinyin to accented productions is necessary for me. Even with the pinyin subtitles for the non-Netflix shows, it left a lot to be desire because they're tiny above the Chinese characters, and sometimes difficult to read. More than once I thought a ǒ was ō because of how tiny it was.

Not enough content, especially cartoons/beginner level

The one above and this bullet are the main reasons why I don't recommend this app for Chinese specifically. Maybe other languages are fine, but there is simply not enough content for the price. I was hoping for more beginner/lower intermediate content like children's cartoons, however there are none for Chinese. All the animated options are more teenager/adult oriented. There also weren't many light-hearted or comedy options, meaning you would have to watch a lot of serious dramas, thrillers, and violent shows if you wanted to get your money's worth. For my personal taste, I don't want to have to pause every dialogue line for an adult thriller. That would ruin my experience of the show and the suspense. For the non-Netflix options, most shows were incomplete with only 1-5 episodes available out of 10+. They also tended to be lower quality productions, with significantly worse English translations. The majority of what is available outside of Netflix are short films (~5 mins) and cooking shows (10-20 mins) which aren't bad for beginners. I personally have no interest in cooking, though lol. Essentially, there is no TRUE beginner fictional content in Chinese available.

The dictionary is... rough

Again, I was fully dependent on the Zhongwen extension. While the English subtitles themselves are good, the individual definitions of words that you hover over are definitely rough. They weren't actually that helpful for breaking down meanings of things like slang and characters' names. For example, in Scissor Seven there were quite a few animal puns, e.g. 汪星人 which is internet slang for "dog" Lingopie translated as "Woofer" which was... awkward and strange. Without the Zhongwen extension I would have had no idea what this was actually referring to. It would been nice if it functioned more like the Zhongwen extension, where it would highlight individual characters or phrases/combos depending on your mouse placement. Particularly on the non-Netflix shows, the translations even in the English subtitles were incredibly rough and at times I couldn't understand the context in either language. There was also one instance of an entire episode (Netflix) that had incorrect subtitles, I suspect subtitles from a different episode? That was the final straw for me.

It chooses whether or not to highlight single words or phrases so you have no control over your flashcards

This made the flashcards not as functional to me. Sometimes, I wanted just the specific noun/verb in the sentence, but it would make me highlight the entire sentence. Other times, I wanted a really functional phase, but it would only let me highlight the individual words. I barely used the flashcard feature because of this.

Clunky interface (Chrome & Firefox)

I can't speak for mobile or Safari because I didn't use them. Since I was relying on the Zhongwen hover-dictionary, I only used Chrome. You can only use Chrome or Safari if you want Netflix shows. Sometimes the auto-pause after each subtitle would be too early or too late, meaning I would have to actually click things pretty persistently throughout each episode. Using the spacebar to pause/unpause hardly ever worked, and using the arrow keys to flip between subtitles also never worked for me. Sometimes the hover-definitions of words would linger even after I clicked away, and would not disappear until the next subtitle appeared. This was super annoying and would block a good portion of the screen. Sometimes I would have to click things 2-3 times before it registered in both Chrome and Firefox.

Overall, I think it's a great idea, but needs some pretty major improvements in order to be worth the price.

In my opinion, if they were to add significantly more shows, including kid's cartoons, and improved their subtitles, dictionary, & interface function, it would be worth the price.

Maybe in a few years as Lingopie grows, it will be worth it. But for now, it's not. For now, it's clunky and limited. If you were to watch it for an hour a day, you would probably get through all the shows that interested in you in about 3-6 months. It wouldn't take longer than a year to go through all of the Chinese content, as of right now. So why would you pay for a year or lifetime price for that?

(divider credit here)

[inthewaytoamultilinguallife]

Hello! Hope you’re doing good! :)

Have question to you. How do you choose which language to learn next? Struggling with that for months and not knowing which one to learn :/

oh - i sort of didn’t choose my languages really?

English is The language™️ everyone has to learn in my country, since it’s regarded as the “international” language as well as the “language of knowledge”. In public education we get 8 or 9 years of mandatory English classes. And since there is a very clear culture of academic bilingualism regarding English, we are put into private classes anywhere between 4-7yo, taking exam after exam year after year until we reach a B1 or B2 level, although some of us keep going until you reach at least the C1 level

So English wasn’t really up to debate really

And since most jobs require English, and most people competing for the job also have it as a second language, most young people restore to having another language to add to it. My country has a program that teaches portuguese, french, italian, uruguayan sign language and german to students of public high schools for free, which is how i studied portuguese and french. This, also, was not up to debate in my family, I had to do it or do it. My town only offered french Portuguese and Italian, and I wanted to do french and italian first, but my mom insisted on Portuguese since we live around somewhere 6 or 7 hours aways from brazil, and therefore Portuguese would look better in a job application. And so i took up portuguese.

Thankfully, I loved it, as well as the program. I never got to do italian, however, since there was a conflict on the time of the classes. I don’t know why i took up French really. In my country, it is regarded as a language of culture, of wisdom and academics, and that might have influenced it. I was also barely 15 and French was the only option I had for a free language class at hand at the moment 🤷

I don’t regret learning any of these languages, since i get to use them daily: i speak to local and foreign and immigrant people whose mother tongue is either of them with fair frequency, and at my university we don’t work with translated papers or books -you use the text straight up in french or English or whatever language it comes in (English, portuguese and french being the most common ones) They are, also, some of the most spoken languages around the entire continent i live on -America- which, having in mind that spanish is my mother tongue, is very helpful

Uruguayan sign language (LSU) was the only language i took that you can argue was made out of a conscious choice, but also not that much. I’m hoh and wanted to immerse myself in my country's Deaf community, as well as have a non-oral way of communicating, and LSU was their -our- language, so there was not exactly a choice as to what language i could choose there, although I certainly took the choice to learn it.

I don’t think i could be very much of help here, except for telling you the usual, sorry :(

(The usual being:

take a language that you will use at least over twice a month. Whether it is via reading, talking or whatever. The easiest way to do this is to take a language that is predominantly spoken in your region/country/continent but you can also think about what media do you consume a lot and what language it is predominately made in originally. Do you read a lot of manga? Do you like k-pop? Do you watch a lot of french films? Why not learn the language they were originally made in and then just watch/read/listen to them in that original language?

There is also nothing bad in starting to learn a language because you think their writing system looks beautiful or its pronunciation interest you/ sounds pretty to you, as far as you commit to learning it as any other language. You can pick a language just because you like it, and then build from there!

On that same note, you can learn a language because it is very different from the language or languages you already speak, and would like the challenge, or see how different other languages and cultures can be

At the end of the day, my only recommendation centres around choosing a language that will be helpful to you -either in job applications, or talking to other local people/immigrants/ tourists, or in giving you easier asses to education, books, movies etc, or because it teaches you about other cultures and ways of seeing the world, or even just ("just") because it makes you happy and excited to learn something new!

However, unless you want to struggle and be frustrated and depressed over it, or to drop the language less than a year in, never NEVER EVER learn a language just and only just because you want to add one more language to your list. Just, don’t please

really, please, don’t, it will not make you happy)

[shopraycon]

girls, be honest. should i learn french just to watch kirikou et la sorcière? i love a good childrens cartoon. and i have 7 years of god awful public school education so its deffy the language i have the most experience with after english.

[pourlabeaute]

♡ Becoming my dream girl ♡

Thank you @2pretty for your amazing guide ♡

My dream girl is an improved and elegant version of myself. She practices self care on her daily basis through every single attitude and decision. She isn't dramatic or exhagerated, she's perfectly balanced and thinks before speaking anything that could destroy her peace or others'. She manages to keep up with all her college activities and business tasks while looking put together, awake and beautiful. She's smart and studies every week day for both college and work but still taking weekends to rest and find balance. She has the ability to prep beautiful dishes, she's very body-active, learned Spanish in some months by herself and has a lot of money invested so she can get her family a house. She's full of an elegance that comes from within and she shows a bit of it through her social media by sharing a sneak peak into her lifestyle.

♡ 15 facts about my dream girl ♡

she studies at least 1:30h every week day.

she knows how to start the day and she takes the weekends to slow down, rest and to prepare for the coming week both mentally and by scheduling actitivies.

she never misses any appointment and she does everything in advance.

she is well spoken and has etiquette.

she's always put together, head to toe and a beautiful bright smile.

she knows how to keep her house clean, organized and beautiful.

she is fit and has a great body control because she gets active at least three times a week.

she speaks Portuguese, English and Spanish.

she has saved $20k and she has built up the best investments.

her wardrobe is full of versatile pretty items and she wear everything with grace always expressing her true self. She doesn't have any defective or useless item on her wardrobe.

she never puts herself in danger, she always takes the best decisions for her own comfort and safety.

she knows how to balance thoughts and she thinks twice before starting any discussion that may destroy her or others' peace.

she keeps in touch with her family calling them every Friday and visiting her mom every other weekend.

she knows how to make beautiful and delicious dishes.

her social media are clean and they only add up to her elegant manners.

♡ Becoming her ♡

♡ Every day habits

Always take an uber drive when you go to unknown or to unsafe places

Get the groceries mostly online so you don't come home with heavy bags

Face washing and shower every morning followed by a nice and healthy breakfast

Study at least 1h for school and 30 min for business

Schedule and set alarms for every appointment a day or hours before it's due

Daily teeth care

Think a lot before saying anything that could start fights or disagreements

Always practice making beautiful dishes, even for simple meals

♡ June (1, 2, 7)

I will focus on getting used to having classes and to study again. So I must study every week day and be consistent on my morning routine. I must keep balanced my work and my studies so I really need to schedule everything on my work. I must start getting my body active again. On the first 2 weeks I should save 2 days for either working out, dancing, stretching out or to do yoga. Then I must add one more day. I will take Mondays to clean my apartment.

♡ July (5, 6)

Time to focus on getting furnitures I still miss, especially for the living room and for my bedroom. I will save 1k in my currency for that. I must get decor items for both and to make a little comfort space in my bedroom. My hair always annoys me because I usually feel like it's not put together and it messes a lot with my overall look along with my nails, I get to change that. My teeth are quite yellow and I'm hating it, go back to a beautiful bright smile lady. I'm dying to get my nails done but I keep on saving it for later so I don't spend money on nails. This month will require a lot of money but I'm ashamed of my apartment's look and I don't want that anymore, I want to be proud of it.

♡ August (10)

I'm hoping now that I started to slowly get new clothes on June, along with makeup, but this is the time to make it more intense, to get more at once and to throw out every item that I feel ashamed about whether because it's old or because it's defective.

♡ September (8, 15)

My birthday month and break from college, so I expect using my free time in a productive yet relaxing way: improving my Spanish. I will already have built a nicer enviroment, willl be already using better clothes and looking put together all the time, so I can also start focusing on my instagram, start making tiktok videos and maybe a Youtube channel.

♡ October (4, 14)

Time to focus on good manners and to work on creating beautiful meals. I will learn these mostly from Youtube videos and blogs, but traditional books won't be left behind if I can have any.

♡ November (2, 3)

A month to work harder on scheduling and doing things in advance so I can exceed 9 and make it $40k instead.

♡ December (1, 3, 9)

The last college semester has come, time for the last exams of the year so it's important to study every day and to get things done days before due. A hard month for business so both schedules should be aligned and I will end the year with more than double the first goal.

-

known sources: 3rd pic, food pic, 1st and 5th pics, 6th pic

my updates: click here

[madame-fear]

Heyyyyyy

Hows it going as well omg, im so happy for you with your test results congrats on them!!! I hope your moving is going okay! we moved a couple months ago so i get how stressful it can be!

some lil get to know me things idk i like discussing interests!! (please feel free to share your omg PLLEEAASE)

my favourite colour is red,

favourite subject is history,

i absolutely love pasta my favourite shape so far is fussili (i wanna try every shape) i could as well devour an endless amount of tomatoes i love them

my favourite animals are sharks(obviously) and ferrets (no ferret emoji :( )

favourite film rn either the black phone or lego batman (runner ups are legally blonde, whitechicks, jujutsu kaisen 0, or warm bodies)

love heights but HATE spiders… and the nun… from the nun… IDK WHY… they make me panic

and im going to greece for two weeks on tuesday so i might not be that active but i will try!!

~ the best 🦈 in existence

Hellooooo darlinggg!!! 💕💕💕 How's my favourite anon doing?! 🥰🥰🥰

Thank you so so much!! I'm so happy w/the tests results honestly :"")💕💕 And about the moving: oh yes, it's definitely stressing as hell! Besides, idk why but we are surrounded by inepts, as bad as that sounds, so things are so hellingly stressing for us! But besides that, things are going well for us 🥰🙏

Oohh I love these!! I love getting to know people better and letting people know about me as well! 😄 I swear I love these so much lmao –

(also, we've got a few things in common!! yayy!! ^_^ &lt;33)

1 ) I'm currently studying: Genetics, chinese medicine, and all things related to forensics & criminology! I've liked forensics since I was very little, so all of my studying focus is currently on that 😊 I also like chemistry & science in general

2 ) Favourite colours are black, blood red, and baby blue, but mostly black! I wear it as much as possible 🥴

3 ) Favourite animals are crows/ravens and cats! They are both so enigmatic and smart, I just simply love them <3 We have some beautiful cats at my home, so the only thing I need w/me is a crow😂

4 ) My most favourite movies are: the Dark Knight trilogy, and also Dirty Grandpa. I've seen all of these with my dad and they became my absolute favourite!

5 ) We've got in common the love for pasta! ahhhh 😆 I like Rigatone w/cream & kale 🤭🤭 Also, I have an endless love for bacon hamburgers :"p

6 ) I can say I'm a bit of a coward, bc I fear many things 😅 I absolutely can't stand spiders, nor heights, nor very deep water, I fear of being abandoned, and also darkness (only when I'm all by myself)

And here a couple of random facts about me!:

7 ) Between my dad and my mum, I resemble more my dad, not only physically but as well in many other aspects (personality trait, constantly cursing, accidentally breaking good/useful things...etc) 😅 And I heard that many times in my life, also often. (i wish i had his beautiful blue eyes though)

8 ) I can speak German (native language), English, and Spanish (because my mum's native language is Spanish). I love learning new languages! I'm currently looking forward to learning Italian, Portuguese, Japanese/Chinese, Romanian, Turkish, Russian, and many other!

9 ) My favourite bands/singers are Rammstein, OOMPH!, Radiohead, Garbage, Björk, & Marilyn Manson.

10 ) My favourite show of all time is Law & Order: SVU, and also Gotham 💕

Sorry if I git a bit carried away!! I love getting to know people better and also, allowing anyone who's curious to ask me random things about me :) ❤❤ I love these type of discussions tbh!!

Also, Greece is so incredibly beautiful and astonishing!! My mum loves it! I'd be thrilled to hear your experience there and more about your trip!! 🥰❤❤ I'm gonna miss you tho :((

(p.s; i received your requests and i'm already working on them!

also, what you mentioned about Frankenweenie in one of your reqs: it was a shocking discovery for me too when i found out that Charlie Tahan voiced the main character!! I found out on May and boy was i surprised. It unlocked memories for me bc It reminded me of when Frankenweenie came out and i was a little girl and saw it with my parents and it made me cry omg :(

aaaand another side note; this reminds me i personally can't believe i've seen Charlie Tahan in so many movies and shows throughout my life and never noticed him until i found out about Scarecrow in Gotham and re-watched the show ._.)

[innovativelanguagelearning]

34 Languages You Can Now Learn for Free at Home

Absolute Beginner Course FREE for 3 months + Language Learning Tips & Tricks

Afrikaans       Arabics       Bulgarian       Cantonese

Chinese       Czech       Danish       Dutch

English       Filipino       Finnish       French

German       Greek       Hebrew       Hindi

Hungarian       Indonesian       Italian       Japanese

Korean       Norwegian       Persian       Polish

Portuguese       Romanian       Russian       Spanish

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In this uncertain time, it is important to stay positive & productive while we are at home. Learning a language is a great way to keep our mind sharp and with a free course and learning guide there is no excuse to put off our dream to be fluent in another language any longer!

Here is the list of languages you can now learn for free at home, at your pace:

Is it possible to stay focused at home?

You certainly need a good amount of discipline and motivation to create and follow your schedule. Not only that you should be aware of your goals and how to measure and split them into attainable results.

That’s why this course comes with the “Ultimate Guide to Learning a language at Home, at Your Pace”.

Even if you don’t know exactly what your goal should be and how you can effectively create a routine, this e-Book will actually do it for you, leading you from 0 to Hero in a few pages.

Tips & Tricks to Learning a Language at Home

Set up Successful Goals:

What are Successful Goals? They are Small. Measurable. Realistic.

- Small: so as not to overwhelm yourself

- Measurable: so that you know when you can reach it and set a timeline

- Realistic: Easy enough to fit into your daily schedule

The number one reason why most language learners fail is because they set huge, vague goals like “I want to be fluent” or “I want to speak.” Oh, yeah? By when? Let’s see an examples of “good” goals:

• Learn 100 new words by the end of this month. Deadline: April 30th.

Now that you have a Goal and a Deadline you can adjust your routine by splitting 100 words in 5 words a day for 5 days of the week or 3-4 words a day every day for example.

•What if you fail? Don’t beat yourself up. Aim Lower. Start Again!

More things inside the “Ultimate Guide to Learning a Language at Home, at your Pace” that will make your study session easier:

How to Create a Successful Routine

How to Make your Daily Planner (with a Printable Sample)

30 Actionable ways to Learning a Language

7 Tested Study Techniques

..& More!

What’s Inside an ABSOLUTE BEGINNER COURSE?

- Audio & Video Lessons, with sections for Dialogue, Grammar and Vocabulary 

- Multiple choice Assignments

- Hand-written Assignments

- The “Ultimate Guide to Learning a Language at Home, at your Pace” (scroll down to know more)

How can you sign up for FREE?

Sign up for a Free account via the Green Button on the page of your language of choice. (see list below)

Activate your account via our confirmation email.

Come back to the same page.

[flufflepuffle296]

“Chloe xxx”

I really want Chloé to get another redemption arc, but not because she wants to be Queen Bee again or prove herself to anyone-but because she wants to prove to herself that she can be as awesome as she wants. Also sorry but I rambled here.

I don’t even want it to start because of something big like being rejected or glares from classmates, it could just be she’s chilling in her room and she notices her butler flinching when she calls his name, or she’s watching a show and she wants to be just as cool as the main character, or even just looking around the class and just thinking “why not?”

She then starts calling her butler’s name a little sweeter, takes Sabrina out for coffee at her favourite café this time, pushes Alya’s bag towards her when it falls off the bench. She anonymously donates money to varying charities and doesn’t tell anyone about it. She feels warm when she does it-she doesn’t know why but it almost feels kind of nice. She begins working a shift or two here and there at the hotel. She smiles at Mylene when she walks in (even if she considers that outfit a crime against fashion), and returns pens when she borrows them. Nino loses a USB and Chloé helps in the search party for it (though does it secretly at break and lunch).

Becoming nice to Marinette is harder though. She decides however, that if she wants to be an ok person, she has to give everyone a chance, so buys a yard or two of a nice fabric the girl’s been eyeing for weeks, and posts it with a note signed “-C xxx”. It kind of feels a little nice when Marinette walks in in a pale pink beaded dress that isn’t totally horrible Chloé supposes.

She later realises that saying sorry is another thing she can do to become a better person, and she always kind of wanted to but was too prideful to do so-but no more! She apologises to butler Jean, saying that she’s sorry for screaming at him, firing him, everything.

She then apologises to Sabrina, for treating her as a slave and asking if she wanted to go to that film she’s been rambling about, since they always go for her choice. She also takes all of her homework back that Sabrina was doing for her, and starts working really hard on it.

She goes to the bakery later that week, and orders a large slice of cake, reasoning that she can’t be nice to others if she’s not being nice to herself, therefore she needs this chocolate cake. She then asks Sabine if she can go up to talk to Marinette, who is rather skeptical of her and only allows her in the dining room. She apologises for bullying her all those years, and hands her an envelope signed “-C xxx”. Marinette opens it, to find it full of cash that’s tied in small bundles with labels on.

“Homework soaked-age 7” €3

“Sketchbook ruined-age 10”. €18

“Teacher’s present destroyed-age 14”. €16

Everything she’s physically destroyed or ruined is accounted for and compensated. She then apologises for all the verbal abuse and mean comments, before asking for a truce. Marinette accepts, and points out that since they have a truce, she is obliged to inform Chloé that she has buttercream on her face.

A week later she gets all her homework back: B+, B, A-, B-, A+.

Not her usual report of full marks, but she’ll take it.

She starts working every night at the hotel, from 6pm till 10pm. She refuses to look it though-she is Chloé Bourgeois after all. Her uniform is spotless, her makeup is now impeccable (blue eyeshadow with pale lips? What was she thinking?), and she never has a hair out of place. She begins living on coffee-these grades aren’t going to raise themselves after all -and constantly has an energy drink in her bottle (not that the class is allowed to know that).

Grades: B+, A-, A, B, A+

Getting better...

Once in class, Rose slammed her head on the table (delicately? She somehow slammed her head DELICATELY?), and weeped that she didn’t understand the material. Chloé scribbled an explanation on a sheet of paper, and after class slipped it in Rose’s bag.

The next day, an akuma strikes near the school. They can’t leave because some kids live far away, and Bustier isn’t taking initiative and the class rep is no where to be found. Chloé bites her lip, before standing on the desk and clapping her hands. Once she has the class’ attention, she gives out instructions.

“KIM, IVAN! Grab heavy objects and block the doors. JULEKA, NINO, NATHANAEL! You can lock the windows since you’re the tallest. EVERYONE ELSE! Clear books away and any other things that could cause bruising if knocked over, put bags away, and hide under the desks and benches!”

Everyone stares at her.

“NOW!”

Everyone scrambled to their duties, before hiding under the desks, holding their heads like Chloé instructed.

Grades: A, A-, A+, B+, A+

Nearly there...

She informs her father that she’ll be leaving for a week next month, and tells Bustier and Damocles. She books a plane ticket to New York with her money from working, as well as a hotel room. She packs her bags and leaves, giving her dad a kiss and a hug beforehand and promising that she’ll be safe. She boards her plane and then hauls her bags up to her room, before making a call.

“Who is this?”

“Your daughter, Chloé.”

“I DON’T-oh you. Why have you called me I’m in the middle of working-shouldn’t you be at pre-K?”

“I’m 15 and French ma-but anyway, is it possible if you could promote Marinette’s website-MDC-in return I’ll work for you for free.”

“Oh yes Marinette-the exceptional one. How long will you work?”

“I’m only here a week-I’ll become your assistant even! I know you hate Stephanie.”

“...Fine. I’ll drop her into conversation at an interview if you’re only here a week. Now do not call me unless it’s an emergency. You start tomorrow-8am, sharp, in a fashionable outfit-or you’re fired.”

Chloé smiles as the line goes dead. Her mother may be a dragon, but Chloé can respect that she helps those she cares about.

Even if it isn’t her...

The next day she arrives at the office at 7:45, in a white suit with gold jewellery. Audrey nods, before sending her out with rapid instructions for coffee. Chloé takes her order to the café she requested, and starts reading it out to the barister, only for him to pale and interrupt her halfway through.

“Oh God-you’re ordering for Audrey aren’t you? Oh Lord-HEY AARON! STYLE QUEEN ORDER NO. 37! QUICK!”

The other worker, Aaron, goes white, before flipping every machine on and opening every can he can find in preparation.

“You must be her new assistant-good luck with her, the last one would come in to order her coffee and then sit in the corner and cry so much we set up her own space-look!” The first one says, pointing out to a comfy area of bean bags and pillows.

Chloé cringed. “Nah, worse. I’m her daughter, if you can even call me that, that’s interning for her in exchange for a favour.”

The barister pitied her. “Yikes.”

Chloé takes the coffee being thrusted at her and nods at the two, before sprinting back to the office.

After that week of hell, she still refuses to wear anything other than heels and designer clothes, and her hotel room is immaculate. She packs the night before, and sets off back to Paris in the morning.

MDC takes off after the Style Queen reccommended it briefly in an interview, and Chloé starts helping Marinette manage and organise commission dates and social media, eventually becoming her PR person/caffeination.

She starts working not only her 6pm-10pm shifts, but also a few shifts from 4am-7am a few times a week. She does her homework at lunch and as soon as she gets back from school, even doing it during akuma attacks. She gets through a concealer a week for her bags, and sleeps all weekend.

Grades: A+, A+, A+, A+, A+.

Perfect.

...Or not...

She realises that she can’t maintain this. She can’t survive on 3 hours sleep and an unholy amount of caffeine. She cuts back on her shifts, doing 4 a week at most, and only does homework for a maximum of 2 hours a day. She starts, meditation and yoga, trying to keep her mind peaceful. She still donates to charities, and goes out with Sabrina and shops.

Grades: A, A, A, A, A.

Still pretty good, and she’s happy this time!

She begins doing things more for herself. She’s always wanted to learn Spanish after all. She hires a tutor, and starts working extremely hard to become as fluent as possible by the end of her education.

She learns conversational Spanish in about 6 months of semi-intensive learning, and decides to do something else as well. She starts learning Mandarin with Marinette, and struggles slightly more than she did with Spanish, but she’s still progressing.

She realises that she has a knack for learning languages, and picks more up more easily after she starts learning Spanish, Mandarin and later Portuguese.

One day when she’s out she comes across a homeless man, and offers him some money and brings him a hot meal. She sees others around him in the same situation, and does the same for them.

She then volunteers at the local soup kitchen, feeding hundreds of people on weekends and washing up afterwards. She connects with the homeless and a few refugees, and starts learning Arabic from one of the regulars, in return slipping her a few Euros (basically she gives her €250 every week).

She takes a shift at the bakery, manning the counter and becoming fast friends with Marinette as they practise their Mandarin on one another.

Grades: A+, A+, A+, A+, A+

AND SHE’S HAPPY!!!

She eventually starts applying for universities, listing her abilities and experiences.

• A+ Student

• Volunteer

• Interned for Audrey Bourgeois

• Works at Boulangerie Patisserie

• Works at Le Grand Paris

• Fluent in Spanish, English and Mandarin, knows conversational Arabic and Portuguese, learning Polish.

The more she writes and thinks about the past 4 years, the more she comes to the realisation of

“Holy shit, I’m awesome. I’m an ok person. I’m a good person in fact. I’ve done good things. I’ve made a good impact on society. I did it. I DID IT!!! And I’m going to keep doing it-after all, I’m awesome and people rely on me, plus it makes me feel good. I’m no longer a spoilt 14 year old. I can be good. I am good. I am a good person.”

[ive-garden]

Tag Game! 😍

I was tagged by @the-prince-of-tides thank you Alek, I love tag games (and for some reason Tumblr decided not to inform me of this tag, so if anyone already tagged me on this and I didn't reply, I'm sorry, blame Tumblr!)

I also have no idea if I did this one already so, fuck it, I'm doing it again 😉

Let's go!

What color are your eyes? Brown.

What little thing instantly tells you that a person is good? Absolutely nothing. I don't trust people at all! 😂 And no one is all good and all bad so. Also, so many people have been good to me and suddenly they go and do things that disappoint me that my distrust is my protection, I guess. But I do like a lot of people, don't get me wrong, I just don't fully trust them or think instantly that they are all bad or all good.

Do you have a recurring dream? I used to have one that I was a Power Ranger, don't remember which color, and I was flying (I know they don't fly) in pursuit of the villain and suddenly I had to stop to pee???? So I woke up almost peeing in my bed! 😂 It's been a few years since that one, but I used to have this dream at least once a month!

How often do you find yourself daydreaming? Every single day! Mostly when I'm doing repetitive work and before I fall asleep.

Name/nickname? Ive! My name is short enough. I do have a family nickname that maybe can be translated to English to something like blondie? I don't know (I was blond when I was a kid so my family call me that)

Zodiac? Virgo!

Languages? Well, Portuguese is my mother tongue and I can speak English. I also can try Spanish because I learned it for my job a few years back but I lost practice after the job was done, so not so good with that. I'm planning on learning Korean next year so wish me luck!

Favorite season? I don't have one. I complain about all of them when they are happening 😂

Favorite color? Purple.

Favorite animals? Domestic animal: cat, but I don't have one. Wild animals: Whales, especially Orcas.

Favorite character? It changed a lot over the years but right now is our dear Adam Parrish. I relate to him on so many levels that I can't get him out of my head. And I also finished Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat last week and I am completely in love with Will.

Tea, coffee, or hot chocolate? Tea when my stomach is not well, coffee every morning to wake me up and I never really liked hot chocolate and now I can't even have it anymore due to my gluten intolerance (I can't find chocolate without gluten yet).

Average hours of sleep? 6/8 hours? I think.

Cat or dog? I like both but if I was to choose between them to have it I'd prefer a cat.

Number of blankets slept with? It depends if it's cold or not. But I need one even during summer.

Place ancestors are from? Funny enough I did that DNA thing last month to find out where your ancestors are from and they are mostly from Europe and Africa.

Dream trip? Ugh, so many 😩. Right now, South Korea. (It is too expensive to travel and I'm a cheap motherfucker but I will do it!!!!!!)

Blog established? 2018/2019? I think. I'm a Tumblr baby.

Random fact about yourself? I had only 2 serious relationships in my life and I married both of them (the second one after a divorce, of course) 😅

Three ships? It used to be just Pynch all the way. But I recently started reading a few Declan/Adam and Declan/Gansey and I really like it.

Last song? My Universe by Coldplay and BTS

Last movie? I think it was Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings? Love it!

Currently reading? A Veiled & Hallowed Eve (Soulbound #7) by Hailey Turner

Currently watching? Finished Squid Game this weekend, wild. Really really good in a hurtful way. And I'm watching so many animes that I'm not gonna put them here 😅

Currently craving? Nothing, just trying to go through everyday life at this moment. Not trying to be depressing or anything, just the truth.

I'm not tagging anyone but I'm being serious when I say to feel free to reply to this! Tag me so I can see your answers. One thing I love is to know about people and their likes and dislikes 🥰

[langblrwhy]

My new new years list

TW: mental health crisis and social anxiety

This month was wild. I barely went out or went to see my friends during the pandemia (last year I saw one friend twice), but I end up seeing some friends for a week this month. It was great, then I guess I was triggered or something, but after that I just felt unstable and mentally awful. I slowly started to recovery, but I went to a job interview, it was awful, because I have social anxiety and then I was on the path to hit the rock bottom.

And then I was like "goddamn, I urgently NEED to do something" and I created a huge detailed list about why and how should I recovery, what to do and where I want to be in the future. I'm more stable and better now.

The list about how I want to be is basically more specified than this one list and I REALLY will try harder on everything. Actually I'm not a proactive, productive, someone who really put effort and who face the fears, but I want to change that, I don't want to be this kind of person anymore.

I hope I can focus on why I want to be a better version of myself, how to do it and really do it.

1 Be fluent in spanish

Yo solamente asistí Elite, yo no participé de ninguna clase de español, porqué yo no sé hablar español. ¡Sí! Buenísima razón, ¿eh?

¡Yo no solamente intentaré, pero yo cambiaré esa mentalidad!

Oh, na verdad el maestro me sacó del grupo, tal vez porqué yo no participé tampoco me justifiqué.

2 Eat 2 new foods and 5 days of no eating meat

5 days no meat

Bean (I don't know the name, but I just eat the broth part, I don't properly eat the bean bean, because I hate it since I was a child)

Pea

Guacamole

Squid

Be comfortable in french

3 Work with design

I started the graduation on Graphic Design, I wish I could be a trainee, but I'm only able to be that after the second semester.

But I had a job interview and was awful.

I'm thinking about to try to be a freelancer (as I said, I'm not proactive + social anxiety)

4 Read 10 books and get used to read just after going to bed:

I finished Call Me By Your Name (english). I'm reading a book for college called The Story of Art (by Gombrich. In portuguese) and I started to read 1984 (in portuguese).

I want to try to read 15 pages every day, it would be way better than the way I'm doing now (the current way is: never read).

5 Be more active in Esperanto-movado and study about it:

I'm doing okay, putting some effort and working on BEJO. But I want to be more social with esperantists and study about the language and learn grammar.

6 Exercising every week (and run a bit):

I did, but I want to do it almost every day.

7 Watch 4 movies or series for month and put the less famous on doesthedogdie. com: at least 1 doc or biographic movie.

1 Chicken Little (USA, 2005)

2 Willy's Wonderland (USA, 2021)

3 Feel Good (UK, 2020-2021)

4 Elite (Spain, 2018-2021)

No biographic or doc.

8 Write down 4 dreams every month.

I wrote a lot.

9 Draw 6 dreams this year.

Guess what? I didn't.

10 Sketch, draw/paint on paper AND digital every month:

I sketch, drew, paint, made digital art, embroidered.

11 Draw on notebook almost everyday:

I almost did.

12 Finish 3 arts for month:

2 embroideries, 1 canvas, 2 digital art.

13 Learn anatomy and draw romantic couples:

I studied.

14 Post a chapter of fiction every month:

I didn't.

15 Start posting fiction in Esperanto (please):

Nenio... denove. Mi eĉ ne verkas aŭ volas verki, mi ne scias, ĉu mi vere volas fari tion ĉi aŭ ne.

16 Take care of myself

I didn't, I mean, at least I tried (and was able) to not come back to my most awful cope mechanism I once had.

Sadly my bad cope mechanisms came back for a while lol

17 Be more sociable AND better at talking, in general:

I guess I'm trying, but I don't know if I'm really getting better lol

8.5/18 = 50%

[grey1444]

I was tagged by @jlf23tumble many months ago (thanks and oops) and just found this floating around in my notifications. (I’m doing it anyway because I love these things)

nickname: kath or kat or kaz

zodiac: Scorpio with Scorpio rising. And I barely missed being born on Halloween. 

(cont below)

height: 5’3

last movie I saw: Casablanca

last thing I googled: Why is my AC leaking water?

favourite musician: At this moment, Brian Eno, because I’m listening to Ambient1: Music for Airports. It wipes my brain clean before sleep. But in general, varies moment by moment. I’m a little bit in awe of all of them.

song stuck in my head: No song right now (see previous answer), but weirdly for two days running, I’ve woken up with William Carlos Williams, “This Is Just To Say” on a loop in my head. Not a song, but rhythmic?

other blogs: hahahahahaha. No, I haven’t even figured out how to have this one

blogs following: 212

amount of sleep: Lately I’m lucky if I get 4, given my upstairs neighbors running what sounds like a an illicit motorcycle repair or maybe an evil Santa’s workshop (a lot of hammers) from 5.30am to 2am upstairs. Should be 7.

lucky number: 16

what am I wearing: Cutoffs, birks, and a brewery t-shirt. Damn. I should’ve made up something more exciting.

dream job: send me good vibes if you see this cause I’m edging closer to it right now. Vague version: building new ways to fund and support non-profits through for-profits. Really anything that lets me keep learning while not draining me to a husk, and gives me enough time off and $ to travel. A lot. (There’s such a lot of world to see…)

dream trip: Going to Sicily in 2022; Tanzania and Peru.

languages: English. If drunk, my former fluency with French sometimes comes back, mixed with random German. Reading - French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Danish, Swedish, Middle English, and a smidgen of Greek.

favourite food: Vietnamese. Or ice cream.

play an instrument: randomly bought a ukulele in Feb 2020 and have been trying to learn

favourite song: I fall in love a lot and can’t possibly settle down.

random fact: I repaired my own washing machine last summer and it was enormously satisfying.

[polarisdelphi]

Answer the questions and tag 21 blogs you want to get to know better. Tagged by @sk-mumu

Thanks a lot for the tag! I'm feeling special ꒰´꒳`∗꒱

Nickname: Kah/Kaka (and polar bear/little polar bear - that's how my mom calls me ever since I was a kid, hence my blog name/art account)

Zodiac: Aries, ascending in Scorpio. I swear I'm nice when I want to

Height: 159cm 160cm

Last Movie I Watched: Avengers End Game. My sister made me watch ALL Marvel movies leading up to End Game 'cause I had never watched it, resulting in us watching movies together everyday for a month. It was worth it and I blame Loki the series, not the god

Last Thing I Googled: If Brazil accepts the jurisdiction of the Committee Against Torture for individual complaints and investigations - my post grad made me go crazy with studying/research this week

Favorite Musician: Muse, BTS and U2. My Holy Trinity of Music

Song Stuck in My Head: Nobody Does It Better, by Carly Simon. It's from the 70's and it was theme of the 007 movie 'The Spy Who Loved Me' - I love all the themes from 007 movies and this is one of my favourites!

Other Blogs: @polarisbibliotheque - I recently started this so I can go back to writing a little bit! I'm doing mostly DMC fanfiction for now, but more will come as inspiration strikes!

Blogs Following: Art related, DMC related, photography + culture (a lot on asian culture and history, like Vietnam, Japan, Korea, China), witchcraft in general, books + really old first edition collector books + libraries, rights related (human rights, activism, feminism, this kind of stuff)... I think that's it.

Amount of Sleep: 4 hours or less. I'm a mess and my sleep schedule is non existent. I've been trying to study Astral Travelling just so I can study/multitask while I sleep, like Doctor Strange

Lucky Number: 7 and 13 - I used to say I'm the unluckiest person on Earth, so I'd use 13 as a lucky number because its "jinx" energy would neutralize my unluckiness and turn into lucky vibes (you know, negative plus negative equals positive?). I've been doing it since I was 13, so far so good actually

What I am Wearing: Dark blue velvety-like sports pants and dark blue gap sweater. Everything I own is blue or black and I don't regret it

Dream Job: Oooh boy. When I was in high school I wanted so bad to work with music - anything really. But now, after Law School and such, my dream job would be working at the United Nations or some International Organization where I can actually help people in need with my knowledge

Dream Trip: So many. Hahaha but I guess Japan and Korea are on top of my list, especially Japan. I have no idea why, since I was very little I've always loved that country and always wanted to pay a visit I blame Sailor Moon. Other countries I have as huge top priorities are Romania, Hungary, Austria, Italy and Greece ^^

Favorite Food: Tea and biscuits/cookies (I'm an old soul). Also, I LOVE Brazilian barbecue. And pizza.

Play an Instrument: I play the piano for +15 years now (I guess...?) It's one of the very few things that puts me at peace and I love music with all my heart. I like playing songs by ear - currently I'm working on some BTS songs and Devil May Cry arrengements. Someday I shall finish the arrengement for Bury The Light, but I'm currently working on refining DMC3 Total Result. I might post here if you guys like it ^^

Also, I'm learning to play the guitar by myself, so it's taking a while.

Language: Brazilian Portuguese, English, an intermediate level of understanding in Spanish, very VERY basic Mandarin and currently teaching myself French

Favorite Song: Starlight, by Muse. It's the same since I was 14 and it remains unconquered.

Random Fact: I studied dance for +10 years and participated on competitions and such. When I was 12, I danced Can Can and I had a solo where I would hold my right leg up to my ear and spin around during two whole counts (two eights, as we'd say here). When I tell people about this, they doubt me and even after so many years, I can still do it!

This is one of the reasons why I like BTS so much: I watch their performances and I get it - the nervousness before it starts, the feeling before going on stage, performing while everyone's cheering... I miss it. And I like watching them do it because I loved it so much - the music and the dancing, I get it when they say they could do it until they die. I miss that sort of passion in my life.

I don't know too many people to tag, but you can do it if you want to! Feel free to mention me as the tagger so I can take a look ヽ(´▽｀；)/♪

[carltonlassie]

As I was doing the top 10 bands tag game, I thought through so many bands that I once listened to daily on repeat

Some I still listen to frequently and they made it on the list, some I simply enjoy and would listen to if it came on shuffle but wouldn’t think to actively look up the album, some I don’t enjoy anymore but they stay in my library for the sake of memories and get skipped every time it comes on.

It’s so strange how listening to songs that were a part of your various “eras” brings back the memories, good or bad, cringe or nostalgic. Maybe that’s why I don’t listen to some songs because I’d rather not dwell on those times even though those songs helped me get thru

On the other hand, there are some songs I actively avoided when I was younger (kpop lmaooo) but now I’m listening to songs that I claimed that I hated and realizing I legit know all the lyrics by memory and even know the dances 💀 I guess it comes with being a teenager during that era and being surrounded by it, but honestly they’re not sounding as bad as I thought they were and it reminds me of times when I was younger, which apparently were good times. Wild.

It also makes me understand why “old people” only listen to old songs, whether it’s objectively good or not because some of these kpop songs are tragically cringe, but it’s a genre of its own and it’s an intellectual thing to embrace the cringe and genuinely enjoy it 🤓

At least for me, my music tastes got influenced by my mutuals on a blogging website I was on 10+ years ago! 10+ years later, I don’t even know how to contact them but I still listen to the same music since i grew up with it, and it’s so wild that I do that.

I remember my mutuals raving about Oasis and i tried listening to them once and thought, whew they’re just loud and noisy! But I kept on seeing them raving about them and I continued to listen to it, and now I still listen to 90s britpop 😭 (peer pressured into liking britpop and suffering the mortifying ordeal of saying I like oasis unironically 10 years later. Hm.)

There was this mutual on the same blogging site who was significantly older than me but we talked about American tv shows and Hollywood films, and one of the shows was house md! I’m not kidding that house md formed my music taste because I love the bluesy tracks they had + Oscar Peterson trio jazz, massive attack, etc etc, and we talked about so many electronic/house artists from then on. and I think all that together that’s where my downtempo/trip hop tastes come from (zero 7, air, thievery corporation).

We also talked a lot about Spanish and Latin America in general, bc I was learning it (bc I saw a telenovela, which turned out to be a Portuguese show dubbed in Spanish with Korean subs ??) + I think they were stationed in one of the countries as like. something (still unsure, good for u for having cyber security, I guess) so we talked a lot about bossa nova? and other songs from Spanish speaking countries. I don’t talk to them anymore bc they’re like. Older than me and it was weird now that I think of it, kept on saying weird shit on Twitter so I blocked/unblocked them on I think and I kinda regret it now bc I can’t find their acct again (why am I looking for it again? Idk! But I regret it)

I found out about nine inch nails bc one of my favorite bands back then was holding a rock festival, and they invited NIN as the headliner, so obviously the common courtesy was to print out their most popular song lyrics and previous set lists and listen to them months before the festival to familiarize myself with it! (I did this with the rest of the big name bands, which included Keane and Limp Bizkit, lord knows how much limp bizkit I listen to 😭 I don’t think I even truly understood the meaning behind their lyrics I was busy goin rollin rollin rollin COME ON!!)

Some bands remind me of just one single person, it’s sorta bittersweet bc we shared so many things and it felt special but like I don’t actively talk to them anymore!

Bunch of the Korean indie bands I listed, I learned from one of my middle school friends. I think she was the only one who listened to indie music when everyone else listened to kpop lol so I naturally talked with her a lot about music and shared bands. I’d enjoy the bands but then a few months later she’d have move on from the bands, I get rec’d new bands, rinse and repeat, but I’m still listening to the same damn band after all these years dkdkjfdssjds

80s pop music in general reminds me of my friend in highschool, we went to so many used bookshops hunting for records, listened to so much Billy Joel, Elton John, Phil Collins, Tears for Fears. I was digging pet shop boys, the style council, genesis (w/ Peter Gabriel as the singer not Phil Collins) on the side by myself during that time, but listening to them reminds me of the times we sat together in the Prius (💀 this was Pacific Northwest) and listened to bunch of 80s hits in general.

Fleetwood Mac, bon iver, Gregory Alan isakov, Ben Howard, iron & wine, city and colour remind me of the time we went camping, tried to fit like 5 people on a hammock and it broke on us, played Risk in the tent and talked about nothing till it was way past midnight, made salmon cream pasta over the fire, helped her dad pull out the insulation from the cabin 💀, drove a stick shift without a license for the first time etc etc

Mac Demarco and Vulfpeck just reminds me so much of my crush/friend/fling/idfk in college I guess, even if I didn’t listen to the song during the specific instances of our interaction, listening to them brings up hints of memories and it’s like. 🥺 there are many bands with similar sounds, but these r my favorites because it just reminds me of. Memories, I guess. and M83 - Midnight City was like our theme song for the lil friend group we had :( it all fell apart bc people drift away, but man, this song. Partly Unknown mortal orchestra as well, but I listened to their second album on repeat the entire time I did the journey from Midwest to Korea for one winter break, and since the entire trip took like. 24 hours, it gives me the neurosis I experienced instead of the good memories I had with that album 😔

And I think I was a little lost post college bc I didn’t have anyone to share and talk about music with irl, so I got stuck listening to the same music over n over, which is funny because I always thought people who listen to the same 5 bands were boring lmao. But here I am listening to the same old songs, because they’re most familiar to me.

But I guess as I grew up and started to understand more of the meaning and such, the songs took on different meanings, some for good, some for bad, some despite its cringe it stayed because of the good memories and vibes, I guess?

[freettsonline]

10 Text to Speech Applications for You

Text to speech systems are not unknown — you use it while conversing with Alexa or Apple’s Siri or Google Assistant.

Though previously, it was only used for building accessible apps and speech-powered chatbots, its applications have grown in the last decade like in the area of audiobooks that help people enjoy stories or learn new things while multitasking.

Thanks to its growing popularity in the last decade, there are tons of text to speech (TTS) system providers, making it difficult for you to pick the best tool per your requirements.

That is why I have compiled this list of the best text to speech apps to guide you. This list features premium as well as free apps.

Text to Speech!

Text to Speech! is a text-to-speech app for iPhones and iPads. It produces natural-sounding accurate voices from the input text.

It can produce audio as you type in the text, but it does not support speaking out complete text files.

This app offers 90+ voices in 30+ languages and customization options too.

Pros

Supports most popular languages including English, Chinese, Danish, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, etc.

Works offline, i.e., without an internet connection, like KNFB Reader.

Cons

Its voices sound less natural, unlike various solutions on this list.

No support for speaking text files or text in pictures, unlike others.

NaturalReader

NaturalReader is an easy-to-use text to speech software that can work with a variety of text files.

It provides 100+ highly accurate and natural-sounding voices in 10+ languages.

Interestingly, you can also upload text files directly from cloud storage platforms like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive.

It supports most document formats such as PDF, TXT, DOCX, PPTX, ODS, ODT, and non-DRM EPUB. NaturalReader comes in three versions:

Online, Software, and Commercial with Online Premium starting at $9.99/month and Commercial Single starting at $49/month for one user and $10/month for each extra user.

Pros

Supports most document formats such as PDF, TXT, DOCX, PPTX, ODS, ODT, and non-DRM EPUB along with JPEG and PNG, thanks to OCR.

OCR for extracting text from scanned documents (premium only).

Supports correcting or improving the pronunciation of any word.

Cons

A free version is available but with costly upgrades for extra voices.

Free apps are online-only, i.e., they require internet connectivity.

Linguatec Voice Reader

Linguatec Voice Reader is one of the best text-to-speech tools in the market that can easily convert text files into audio streams.

Its most interesting feature is the set of 60+ astonishingly natural-sounding high-quality voices.

You can choose any one of these professional voices to convert your texts into audios.

Linguatec provides high-accuracy transcription solutions, thanks to its four products: Voice Reader Home, Voice Reader Studio, Voice Reader Server, and Voice Reader Web.

Its Home edition costs €49 (approx. US$59) per voice, which may seem very expensive — especially when compared to NaturalReader.

Pros

Studio edition costs €499 (approx. US$ 605) per language, which seems a very reasonable price for unlimited commercial use.

Supports converting a large number of text formats including TXT, RTF, DOCX, DOC, HTM, HTML, MHT, EPUB, PDF, and ODT.

Supports up to 45 different languages including all widely popular languages such as Arabic, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, etc.

Cons

No free personal version available, unlike NaturalReader.

Provides only one language and one voice in Voice Reader Home.

Capti

Capti is a productivity powerhouse including a text to speech engine, which works online as well as offline.

It provides a natural-sounding listening experience in 20+ languages and integrates with cloud platforms such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, allowing you to upload files directly from them.

Capti Voice — its solution for educators — is a literacy and learning platform. As an educator, Capti Voice lets you help students overcome language barriers with personalized learning and teaching strategies.

Capti Voice can narrate a large variety of text documents such as articles, ebooks, and web pages.

Pros

Supports a host of platforms like Windows, macOS, iOS, and Chrome OS.

Features extracting articles from web pages while skipping all clutter.

Supports numerous text formats including PDF, DOCX, PPTX, EPUB, ODT, FODT, TXT, RTF, JPEG, PNG, and Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets.

Cons

Free account is limited, but it still works for individuals (limitedly).

No pricing info is available for Personal Use Pro and Classroom Use.

Voice Dream Reader

Voice Dream Reader is an impressive text to speech app

Voice Dream Reader is an impressive text to speech application that gives high-quality reading and listening experience.

It offers 200+ voices in 30+ languages (more than the above apps) and features synchronized text highlighting, auto-scrolling, and a distraction-free view which helps you to focus and better comprehend or learn the content.

Pros

Supports numerous languages such as Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Spanish, etc.

A cheaper alternative to the above tools costing US$7.99 on the Google Play Store (for Android) and US$14.99 on the App Store (for iOS).

Supports various formats like PDF, EPUB, TXT, RTF, DOCX, and HTML.

Cons

Free version is very limited but supports buying premium voices.

No support for desktop OSs like Windows and macOS, unlike the above tools.

ReadSpeaker

ReadSpeaker offers a range of online and offline text-to-speech solutions for websites, mobile apps, embedded devices, and more.

Surprisingly, it avails 200+ voices in 50+ languages with 90+ self-branded quality voices.

ReadSpeaker offers a host of solutions, so I will focus on its general-purpose solutions.

Pros

Supports a host of languages like Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, etc.

speechCloud API provides a TTS API, unlike other listed solutions.

Cons

No free version available, unlike most solutions on this list.

No pricing info is available for any of its solutions (need to contact).

Speech Central

Speech Central is a superb text-to-speech solution, allowing you to listen to your favorite ebooks, blogs, or web pages.

This app is specially designed for users with disabilities like dyslexia. It also offers features to listen to an article later, check your listening/reading history, and perform handy tasks.

Pros

Allows listening to any web page or ebook that helps at multitasking.

Windows app also allows you to convert text into audio (MP3).

Highly customizable listening and reading experience.

Cons

No support for macOS while it supports Android, iOS, and Windows.

No free trial available for Windows while it is available for Android.

KNFB Reader

KNFB Reader is an easy to use text to speech converter. It is specially built for people with disabilities like low vision, dyslexia, etc.

You can take a picture of any text, and KNFB Reader will read it aloud.

Unlike some other readers, it uses superb image processing technology to capture accurate pictures.

Pros

Offers voices in a range of languages including English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, Russian, etc.

Works offline, i.e., it does not require an internet connection.

Supports converting text to Braille, unlike most other apps.

Cons

No support for macOS while it supports Android, iOS, and Windows.

Very pricey — especially if compared to Speech Central (almost 7-8x).

Panopreter Basic

Panopreter Basic is a simple text to speech converter.

It uses Microsoft TTS voices provided in Windows to convert texts in audio formats like WAV, MP3, OGG, and FLAC formats.

Though the basic version is pretty limited, its premium version allows you to customize text layouts, audio pitch, and volume.

Pros

Its Basic version is freeware, unlike almost all tools on this list.

Cons

Supports only Windows, unlike most other solutions listed here.

The basic version is very limited — misses all the customization options.

The basic version does not support DOCX, but you can copy-paste content.

iSpeech

iSpeech is another text-to-speech voice synthesis software targeted towards developers.

It can help you to convert text to audio like all other applications on this list.

Its interesting features are its APIs and SDKs, making iSpeech a better candidate for developers rather than end-users, unlike other solutions.

Pros

Online app for converting or listening to documents in audio.

Converts to a variety of audio formats like WAV, MP3, WMA, etc.

Cons

Its voices sound a little robotic, unlike many solutions on this list.

No free plan available — requires buying credits for using its app.

No side-by-side reading experience, unlike Speech Central and more.

That is all about the best text-to-speech solutions available in the market.

There are some free options here like NaturalReader, Capti, and more, but most others are only available as paid products.

Did you find what you were looking for? Let me know by writing a comment below.