#i FUCK UP audiobooks but

[cyborg-hydra-girl-thing]

the more you harass me about doing something the more stubborn i am about doing it.

i said i’d do it, i will do it. as soon as i’m capable.

no i don’t like what i’m doing either and am actively trying to be better. just fuckin hear me when i say i’m trying

[giantkillerjack]

Me: hm, I want something to put on the TV as background noise... Huh. Looks like YouTube is recommending something called The Last Unicorn. That's perfect, it's probably some old shitty animation that has aged poorly! I can watch it ironically!

Me, 2 hours later as the credits roll: *crying, cheering, buying the book, composing the songs*

Me, 2 weeks later: So I have compiled all of the quotes from the book that I think could make good tattoos, and also, HOW HAVE I NEVER LEARNED ABOUT HOW THE LAST UNICORN FUCKING SLAPS??? This gay-ass little fairytale fed my soul! Watered my crops! Transed my gender! Can't believe I heard of this story from youtube recommendations, of all places!!

[twelve-kinds-of-trouble]

was it casual when I dreamed up exact copies of your ever-present leather bands? was it casual when I called you a faggot and a dog? was it casual when you dreamt that I swallowed your tattoo whole? was it casual when I gave you drugs and taught you how to dream? was it casual when I told you I killed my father? was it casual when I told you my best friend was a forgery? was it casual when I saw you wake up and bleed near to death? was it casual when you told me it was never going to be me and you? was it casual when I asked nice the first few times and you made it ugly? was it casual when I killed myself in front of you and changed your life forever? was it casual?

[mourningmaybells]

hm

[pacing around the room like a grizzled, alcoholic detective] I think those two guys fucked

[rainbow-nerdss]

When audiobooks with POV shifts have different actors reading each POV and when audiobooks put thought and care into the best narrator to fit the style and when audiobooks are treated as more than just a box to check but a valid form of sharing and as an art form in their own right

Just

AUDIOBOOKS

[corporalmaledict]

"This is Ankh-Morpork, we've got extra pronouns, you know."

The start of a very wonderful exchange btwn Angua & Carrot over Cheery's newfound feminine presentation in Feet of Clay

[anchoredgalaxy]

a court of silver flames gets the award for book where i've said "god i wish everyone in this book would die" the most

[bluesey-182]

as someone who doesn't even personally use audiobooks, i will die on the hill that they count as real reading. and i'm willing to kill on this hill too

[tiktaaliker]

i gotta say i think part of why i fell so deep into the raven cycle was the fact that will patton is by far the best audiobook narrator ive listened to. like not only is this guy's inflection and accent PERFECT for this exact story and setting, but theres a distinct and fitting character voice for EVERYONE, and he even has slightly different ways to read the fucking NARRATION based on who the chapter's pov is. it genuinely adds soooo much to the story. ive been getting picky about audiobook narrators lately but will patton is a fucking VISIONARY i swear to god

[darkacademiaarchivist]

what if we got kidnapped by an evil (?) circus robot..... and held held hands..... haha jk..... unless....

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: THE KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY by John Scalzi.

I picked this up when he and Martha Wells were talking about WITCH KING at one of my local bookstores last summer partially because I felt bad shoving a stack of things for her to sign at her with nothing for him, sitting right next to her, after he'd been so delightful to listen to too, but! It is finally time! I need something funny and ridiculous and light, and I have it on good authority that this'll work.

[extinctpussy]

the emotional devastation of reading of chapter 61 of Unwind by Neal Shusterman

[aifsaath]

Was it the haunting of harrenhal, the undercover septa mission, or the continuous mention of the prophecy that killed your interest?

Haunting of Harrenhal is actually the good part i watch on YT. It's the continuous character assassination, inconsistency and downright stupidity (yes the septa thing just broke the camel's back, the fact that the entire green family is shitting on their scapegoat makes me wonder where the fuck is S01x07 Alicent) that just make me... not care? Also, teh fandom is just downright insane. Okay, excuse Aemond all you want, but don't pretend Ewan Mitchell is an Emmy candidate, when he's got 2 facial expressions and can't even roll his rs.

[bloodsbane]

SORREL THE BROWNIE I AM IN LOVE WITH YOU

[rigelmejo]

audio study methods

Still working on that 'lazy' study plan post, since I am just not satisfied with any chinese grammar guide summaries online enough to recommend them as a small grammar intro. If anyone knows of any good 'grammar overview summary' articles or sites for chinese grammar, please let me know. (I like AllSetLearning's Chinese Grammar Wiki but it is huge and in depth and not something I'd recommend a learner 'just read through' on month 4 of learning, and the grammar guide summary site I used as a beginner that was very easy to read through in a few hours... no longer exists)

So in the meantime. Not a grammar study tip, but a general 'lazy' option for language learners who (like me) can't focus on stuff like anki, or just don't want to. I go more in depth about using audio lessons and audio flashcards on other posts, and on the lazy study plan post i'm drafting, but the short of it is: you can listen and learn while doing your normal daily activities. That's what makes the study method so convenient. You don't have to squeeze in any extra time, or change your daily life schedule to make time for chinese, to use audio lessons and audio flashcards.

You simply find some times during the day when you'd either normally listen to audio in the background (like if you listen to music when commuting or shopping, or if you listen to podcasts when working, or if you listen to youtube while exercising or browsing social media). As usual, the more time the better as you'll make faster progress if you study 1-2 hours a day or more. But anything is better than nothing. So lets say you commute to work 30 minutes in morning and evening, there's your hour of studying audio. Or you go for a walk at lunch for 15 minutes, and browse tumblr for an hour scrolling (that's 1 hour and 15 minutes of study). It's very easy to fit 30 minutes of audio study into a day, and it's fairly easy to fit even 2-4 hours of audio study if you're so inclined. I usually do 30 minutes - 2 hours of audio study some days, since when I walk I decide if I feel like listening to a youtube essay or chinese or japanese stuff, when driving I decide which I feel like listening to, and I want to listen to something in english 2/3 of the time.

How do you use audio study material? Well, the easy way is you just press play on it, let it play in the background while you do other stuff, and that's it. If you tend to avoid studying new stuff (like me), then I recommend PRIORITIZING listening to NEW AUDIO every time, until you get into the habit of listening to NEW stuff to learn. Then you can re-listen to stuff sometimes, as review, especially when you're doing activities you have less attention on audio during. So for example: you'd listen to new audio on the commute or when walking (when you can mostly focus on what you're hearing), and then re-listen to audio as review while working or scrolling tumblr and reading english (activities where you pay more attention to other things besides audio).

What can you listen to?

There's audio lessons - which would be something like ChinesePod101 (Immersive Language Chinese in the Hoopla library app), Coffee Break Chinese, youtube videos where teachers talk in english and explain chinese as they teach it. These are good for study material, because you comprehend what you're learning due to the english explanations of every word and grammar point you hear. These are good for beginners, because you will understand everything you're listening to, and learn new words and grammar, thanks to the explanations. The drawback with audio lessons is they require the most focus.

There's learner podcasts like TeaTime Chinese and Slow Chinese, these are more often ENTIRELY in chinese. So these are better for practicing comprehension of stuff you've studied elsewhere, rather than for learning new things. You can learn new words and grammar from these, but if that is your goal then re-listen to learner podcasts a decent amount (5-20 times or more until you can't guess/figure out any more word meanings).

There's audio flashcards (which I love). These are sentence audio in english, then repeated in chinese. The order may vary, the chinese may be repeated more than once. These are good for beginners and upward, because you get a translation of every single thing you hear in chinese. You can pick up new words and grammar from audio flashcards. Audio flashcards require less focus than audio lessons, because you can learn from sentences while you pay attention and then if your attention drifts you can just focus again to the next sentence you hear and continue learning. The drawback is there are no explanations for which word specifically translates to what, some translations are not literal, and there's no explanation of why the grammar is the way it is. Audio flashcards require the listener to try and guess what means what by exposure to chinese sentences and their translations. So it's harder than audio lessons in terms of explanations, but easier than learner podcasts. Audio flashcards are the best substitute for traditional flashcards or SRS apps like anki, if you're trying to improve your vocabulary by hundreds of words ASAP. Audio flashcards are dense with new vocabulary (usually 1 new word or grammar point per sentence you can learn), so you'll learn more words than you would with an audio lesson that is paced slower with more english explanations or a learner podcast which would ideally be mostly words you know and only 20% or less new words.

There's Spoonfed Chinese Anki audio files (which I recommend since these start out very basic and increase in difficulty while also repeating words a lot so you can review, they're shared on reddit if you search, or ask me), if you search 'chinese english sentences' on youtube or bilibili (i've done this with chinese japanese sentences on bilibili) you'll find videos like this where you hear audio english then audio chinese. Old glossika cd files are basically this structure as well, which you can find the audio files of for free online or free in libraries (I'm using the new glossika app for japanese but I'm hesitant to recommend the modern app courses as there's significant errors in japanese so I'm not sure how good/bad the chinese one is). If you're a beginner, then the audio flashcard material you pick won't matter much as you need to learn a few thousand common words first which will be in most materials you find. But if you're an upper beginner, you may wish to prioritize finding audio flashcards with MORE unique words, more sentences, or may want to transition to using learner podcasts more for new vocabulary. If you aren't running into at least one new word for every 5 sentences you hear in audio flashcards (and ideally one new word for Every sentence), then that audio flashcard is way too easy for you and you know enough words to move onto new study material.

Audiobooks and audio dramas - use these like learner podcasts, listen to ones you can comprehend the main idea of, and then re-listen until you can't guess/figure out any more new words. If you're not very good at listening comprehension (like me lol), then you may want to listen to a given audiobook/audio drama file 3-5 times before deciding if you can comprehend the main idea (and use the material). When my listening skills are rusty, or just in general since my listening skills are bad, it can take me a few times of listening to recognize words I 'already know' and then a few more times of listening for my brain to put the words i recognize together into 'comprehending' what was communicated. So if you can read better than you can listen, you may want to listen 3-5+ times to a new audio file before deciding if you can follow the main idea or if it's too hard. And if you can READ the audio drama transcript, chapter text, but cannot understand the audio file? Then it probably IS at a good level for you to listen to, you just need a lot more practice hearing and recognizing the words you can read. So re-listen.

All of these listening study methods are good for:

Adding more study time into your day, since you can do them while doing other things.

Learning new words and grammar, when you don't have the time (or don't want) to spend time dedicated mainly to focusing on your study material.

Learning new words and grammar, if you don't use flashcards or SRS like anki but want the benefit of learning lots 'faster' than you would if you only picked up words during active study time (active study time being when you ONLY are focusing on study activities: like reading chinese, watching cdramas, chatting/texting people, and looking up words)

[autistic-katara]

if i listen closely i can hear that the voices are urging me to reread percy jackson (not in order)