#i am learning how to say these things phonetically but i dont know how to spell em yet. however

[carcarrot]

would you all still love me if i learned french

[beesmygod]

i think u scared off the liberal

good. i'd be lying to say it didnt get under my skin because even adam noticed it lol. if only it were as simple as "white artist bristles when confronted about a depiction of race" instead of "a frequently hammered nerve was struck involving things anon has no context for, intentionally". grrr growl!!! i tried to talk about this with other people and then pussed out bc i realized no one cares but me. so at least i can ramble about it on my own space.

long post ahead sorry~

even putting my neurosis aside, from where i'm standing, anon's overt discomfort with a depiction of an ethnicity or race involving the use of vernacular is some real fucking bird-brain shit. anon reads "huckleberry finn" and runs off to the library to have it banned for racism lol. like, we're talking that level of intellectual cowardice that turns tail and hides when made merely uncomfortable. anon subscribes to the school of thought that being mean and making me feel bad are the worst crimes someone could ever commit. if i want to be really mean, i think anon has never spoken to another latino person outside of a service worker context.

and like, i understand the initial bristle when confronted with it. it's not as though phonetic accent writing or vernacular usage can't be invoked for racist reasons. but you would literally have to try very hard to read jack, white man for hire, as anything other than the explicit butt of the joke. the latinas poking fun at his discomfort lol wait holy shit i just realized life imitated art. am i a secret genius after all......? (no)

here are the pages in question: i asked people on twitter what they thought but ofc that way i still only hear from people who are likely to ostensibly agree with me. (click for full)

lol i just realized i missed an overlay layer on the third page. i should fix that.

this is a webcomic with almost, if not more than, 800 pages so some context: white spikey hair boy (jack) is from corpus christi, texas, a city on the gulf of mexico VERY close to the border. jack was always supposed to be from texas bc its a state i have some cultural understanding of. my dad grew up there. my dad is mexican-american. i am bi-ethnic. tri-ethnic, i guess, since the italian/irish half had a massive influence on me growing up as well.

the ladies are members of maxine's (the other protag's) witch coven. these women don't dress like this on a day to day basis (the one in the poncho might since she's a curandera, anyway), the outfits are like uhhh special occasion stuff. its your witch outfit. red bow is wearing like a day to day version of the traditional oaxaca outfits and has her hair pulled back in a traditional braid. the other is wearing just normal shit but with a traditionally patterned (or as much as i could bear to draw) poncho. the egg cleanse is a basic brujeria technique that like, every mexican family knows of at least lol. poncho is cutting the bad airs away, like in this video of a limpia.

the spit is my favorite part of all the limpias lol. WATER CANNON

all of this is just shit i know from growing up. i had to ask help on the spanish bc mine is a double whammy of being both terrible AND non-conversational (i learned all mine in textbooks ( ._.)) but the spanish code-switching to shit talk is how real people behave lol. i know this, because family and friends do it.

i take the character writing of this stupid comic more seriously than it probably deserves. i wanted to make sure it felt authentic and like these were "real" characters. having a world where the only people with personalities are the protagonists leads to a universe that feels flat and empty. a cardboard world. when i was able to use the women from a culture i know as a way to advance the plot, it was a small blessing lol. whew.

i dont really know how to talk about how this relates to me more in depth without compromising my belief that i have a right to privacy when it comes to my personal life lol. my entire existence exists on edges and borders that should not matter to anyone but me; but these details (ethnicity, race, sexuality, gender, etc and so on and you know) have a tendency to become the sole factor through which people view your work, your potential, and the expectations they begin to develop for you. currently, i think the expectations people have set for minority creators fucking sucks and i am relieved not to be a part of the ecosystem that rewards mediocrity and poor quality with accolades and purchases. looking at you, YA fiction and webtoons!!!

quite frankly: the more details people have about your life, the more they are able to scrutinize your authenticity based on their own biases (as the original anon did lol) or whether or not you are "deserving" of the descriptors that you are open about or accumulate over the years. i already have enough problems with this on my own directed at myself. i dont need input from the peanut gallery about my identity when its something ive struggled with and continue to struggle with my entire life.

i am not interested in bothering minority creators with my crybaby shit about how i feel alienated. i don't want inclusion to their groups centered around their unique and more specific experiences out of obligation when i realize the non-minority halves of me have also had massive influence on my upbringing and my beliefs. i dont like having to debates whether or not i am ____ enough to qualify for appearances on lists or databases or awards so i don't bother with any of it. i just want to grill for gods sake

anyway idk. im mad but i also realize a lot of my mad comes from offline baggage that no one is privy to on purpose so i have a hard time gauging how people will read how i write things. but bc i keep it tight to the chest i guess that invites random anons to speculate reasonably that i've transformed into a racist overnight bc they read a character say a double negative. dipshit. fucking moron

anyway

[homeschoolbase]

Where to start with a child who is behind?

Where to start with a child who is behind?

I just found this subreddit and I’m so excited! I’ve been looking for a resource where I can get lots of opinions on how to move forward with my situation.

My fiancé and I will be receiving full custody of his six year old daughter soon. She’s been through quite a bit in her life, and a ton in the past month leading up to this. A generally ‘lacking’ home life and trauma have put her far behind. She is currently enrolled in public school, and this is her second year in kindergarten. She’s had no other curriculars, or learning at home at ALL.

We found out last week she can say her abcs (in the abc song) and can identify the difference between 2 different sets of uppercase/lowercase letters. We started to teach her how to write some of her name, but she has no understanding of phonetics at all so we backed up a bit. She can count to 20, but it gets shotty after 10. That’s about the extent of what she can do academically. She cannot recall anything else (science, history, etc) she has learned in school. If there IS something it’s solely because of a screen, ie “peppa pig talks like that because she’s is from a place far from here!” She was raised by screens and never encouraged to watch things educational. There are three months left of the school year and her teacher said it is not looking great for her to move on to the 1st grade.

I am positive there is no developmental delays in her learning other than not being exposed to learning through play and other things a 1-5 yr old would normally do to be prepared for “school.” Nobody read to her. Nobody asked her things like “what does the cow say?”

I’ve been loosely following a Montessori curriculum for our toddler since she was one year old. We learn on her terms and have recently added just a bit more structure to her day to bring it to a preschool level. We’ve always intended to homeschool our toddler and would love to do the same with our new family member. Due to the nature of the situation though, we don’t want to rip fiancé’s daughter out of public schooling (also probably one of the happiest, safest feeling places for her considering her home life.) We decided that she would finish this school year, and we would implement some homeschooling over the summer and revisit it in August.

Sooooo, 1) How do I approach this? I really dont think she gets the idea of “learning” so I’m hopeful learning through play will be good for us. I try to choose my words carefully, so there’s no pressure like at school. We run into problems when I say something like “Wow, look at that green frog!” She immediately says something along the lines of “oh I mean I didn’t know that it was green...” in a quiet little panicked voice like I’m about to tear into her, or she just shuts down. I know this is a product of her environment, I’m just not quite equipt with how to turn it into a teachable and therapeutic moment...if that makes sense.

2) What SECULAR affordable resources can you recommend? What should she be learning AND where should I start based on where she’s at? I didn’t plan on doing this for my toddler for 3 more years so I’m not savvy here. If anyone has any insight on how, I’d love to be able to implement it now as she attends public schooling. I do NOT want to confuse and overwhelm her because I believe she is very fragile. Our family is a complete 180 from anything she’s seen.

Thank you so much for any suggestions or input!! Edit: for grammar

[rain-line]

how did you learn japanese? are there any resources you found particularly helpful?

i started out in high school with that nintendo ds game ‘my japanese coach’.

ik that might sound silly or watever, but i swear by it, it’s a really good learning tool. very effective. thats where about 70% of the total jp knowledge i have now came from. i think it makes an excellent starting out tool.

while i would work through that game, i would have a notebook where i would constantly practice writing kana and making up my own original sentences in constantly everyday (physical writing and repetition helps a lot in learning)

there was a website i had found that was really good with teaching grammar that wasn’t in the game, i tried looking but i cant find the exact site. its been a few years so prolly that website doesnt exist anymore, but 2 similar sites i found were japaneseforbeginners.info and maggiesensei.com . they both have really good lookin ‘grammar’ sections that seem easy to learn from and understand.

it also kinda helped that i was/am a weab and did a lot of things to ‘surround’ myself with the language as best i could. for example, i was/am poor, so its not like i couldve went on some exchange program or trip to japan to get immersed, but i would constantly visit nico nico douga and watch vids/broadcasts on there to see, read, and hear actual japanese. i listened to a lot of jp music and would  actively listen to try and understand/translate wat was being said. i would use pixiv a lot and read a lot of artists comics, and i would play jp  visual novels (which is nice bc if i couldn’t understand by reading, i could listen to the voiceovers and either understand the word that way, or at least i could phonetically search for the word then)

it was p rough at first bc i would have to stop constantly  to look up words (and theres lots of good online dictionaries and sites that let you look up a word by writing out the kanji or finding the kanji by putting together radicals) but through patience, time, and hard work it pays off.

also theres a chrome extension called rikaikun (and a similar on on firefox called perapera i THINK) that lets u hover over words and phrases and itll instantly show the definiton and readings and kanji, etc for it in a popup which is NOICE.

but ya that just my experience and how i learned it. rosetta stone is shit. and if ur a weab be careful with “”learning”” from anime bc ppl in anime talk weird, its not really reflective of natural jp speech. its just. weird. and bad. lol. dont “learn” from anime.

in short, even if u dont like the resources i suggested (the game and those 2 websites) i would say surrounding urself is very good and important, even if its not in very big ways like the ones i mentioned, bc wen u do that its like learning and u dont even know it bc its fun af. ur learning, but it just feels like having an off day watching vids, playing games, and listening to ur fav music.

i hope that wasnt too much, good luck

[yieniall]

question tag

thanks for the tag @textingniall ! @bb-bambam @dongbangsoojjp @jacksonwangtastic @showyourdesire @beummieyoungie do it if you want :)

1| how old were you when you had your first kiss?

16  2| What made you decide to have a tumblr blog? for 1d and memes 3| Been depressed: yea. but im recovering well and generally much happier :) (if you ever wanna talk or need someone to listen to, dont hesitate to come to me!) 4| how many people have you fist fought? 0 5| do you want to have kids? how many? yea :) 2 or 3 6| Do you want to change your name: LOL yea. ok so my name is “iana” but i would like my name to be “ayana”, which would sound exactly the same but i like how it’s spelled phonetically and the spelling itself is prettier   7| Right or left handed: right 8| do you have piercings? how many? my ears are pierced (just one on each ear) but i dont like wearing earrings :/  9| who was the last person you cried in front of? my mom 10| do you believe in soulmates? lol i know i throw the word “soulmates” around quite loosely with jjp but i dont think about it a lot, actually! sure i guess, it’s a nice idea :) 

11| Zodiac sign: scorpio 12| Do you have a dream job? ok so when i was a kid my “dream job” (aka something that i would fantasize about but didnt/couldnt entertain as an actual career path) was to be a singer or actress lollll. but my career aspiration (aka what i am currently pursuing and think i will genuinely love) rn, is to go into public policy. currently, i wanna work in the government and focus on youth employment and social development. i also hope that i can publish academic articles while i work, specifically reviewing national and international policies 

^thats a kinda long answer bc it’s one of the most important things in my life rn and something i think about constantly. every time i read testimonials from graduates of the MPP program at my uni i get so excited (yet also nervous!) about this career path  13| A crush: nobody lol  14| What do you like about yourself: im filipina and i love my tan skin :) 15| Right now eating: nothing 16| who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with? my bff 17| Height: 5′0 /152cm 18| what is/are/were your best subject(s)?

law, economic sociology, political sociology

19| Met someone who changed you:

my gr12 philosophy teacher. i have/will always have the deepest respect and admiration for him. he was the first person to introduce the importance of intersectionality in my feminism and he taught me many invaluable critical thinking skills. he was so calm and patient and he ALWAYS listened to me. like sometimes he would give us study periods, and i would come to him with one question- and that question lead to 1.5hr discussion. and i learned a lot about his life too which was really fascinating. and then i would be late for chemistry and he would always take me to my class and apologize to my teacher for it. (ok needless to say.. pls dont misunderstand the nature of our relationship, he was like a mentor to me). 

^anyway, this is also kinda long bc i really do admire him so much. and i actually saw him again on my uni campus! i was like “sir?? what are you doing here?!” and apparently he was doing his phD. and it was so nice, before we parted he gave me a friendly hug and said “i’m glad to see you’re still happy and smiling” :’)

20| do you like someone: all my friends and family obvs :) 

21| I’m about to: go to bed!

22| do you believe everything happens for a reason? yes! but sometimes the reason isnt as meaningful as youd think so it’s often not worth dwelling on such things 23| Sports I joined: mmmm, most prominently: figure skating, cheerleading and swimming  24| what’s irritating you right now? nothing?? 25| do you give out second chances too easily? idk? i dont really feel like ive been purposefully hurt enough by anyone to say that keeping them in my life was me “giving them a second chance” 26| What is one thing you wish you could change about your life: maybe just wish i didnt lose my native dialect when i immigrated to canada :/ 27| are you mean? i hope not! i have my shortcomings im sure :( 28| Cried when someone died: when my neighbour passed away 💔 29| Blood type: O 30| If you could meet ANY Korean CELEBRITY (Includes Actors, Models, K-Music artists, etc.), who would it be? ahhhhhh well i feel so lucky to have met got7 :’) (no joke i think about that literally everyday) but i would love to meet them again and be less shy toward jaebum. id also LOOOOOOVE to meet NCT! and as for actors i would love to meet jung kyung ho and gong yoo

31| Birthday: October 30 32| Been drunk and thrown up: yea but LISTEN. my body doesnt take to alcohol well so im gonna throw up even with very little  33| are you scared of spiders? nah not really 34| What would you like to achieve (or experience) before the age of 60?

sooo many things. id like to achieve the career goals i mentioned above and id like to learn at least 2 more languages. and travel more. 

35| What do you wish for the most to happen? idkkkkk :o 36| is cheating ever okay? never 37| Do you have any pets: a dog!  38| When did you get into kpop and how? around september 2015 cuz i stumbled onto Just Right  39| Favorite animal? dogs! 40| Love at first sight: personally no? 41| how do you want to die? sleeping 42| Lips or eyes: eyes 43| Hair length: like? mine? to my boobs 44| would you go back in time if you were given the chance? literally just to relive meeting got7 lol 45| who was the last person of the opposite sex you talked to? my dad 46| how exactly are you feeling at the moment? sleepy  47| Laughed until you cry: no i dont think so :o   48| favorite food? sooooo manyyyyy idk! 49| when was your last physical fight? never 50| Do you believe in yourself: working on it :)

[bring-us-back-light]

ALL the time asks (if you want)

12am: how late do you normally stay up?: 

if i have something i need to do the next day i try to go to bed at 11 or 12 at the latest, unless i have stuff to do then it gets pushed back to 1. if i don’t have to be up early or its the weekend or something i’ll stay up anywhere from 1 to 5 or 6

7am: what’s the most memorable dream you’ve had?:

its kind of funny? cause i don’t generally have dreams. but like, there were these two dreams i had when i was like??? 5??? and they’ve just stuck with me. so one is like, I was scuba diving around this submarine, but all the portholes in the sub were replaced with fishbowls w goldfish in them??? idk that’s all. and the second one i was in some mall, and there was this like, purse display? that was like a ferris wheel

and my mom wasn’t paying enough attention and put her purse on one of the shelves and i had to like, climb up the shelves for some reason to get it back? yeah idk

12pm: how would you describe your personality?:

mostly easygoing? I think i’m mostly easy to get along with? (i didn’t used to be, but i’ve been trying to make a lot of progress in that area) but like, i am passionate, so if something does happen i will f i TE to get justice

3pm: have you been in trouble with the law? if you were to be in trouble with it, what do you think it would be for?:

i can’t say that I have. if I did? probably for like, assault (of some bigoted asshole) or.. tbh media and software piracy oops.

Dawn: what never fails to make you smile?:

THAT ONE VIDEO OF THE CUTE LITTLE BIRB THAT JUST DANCES TO THAT SONG?! BUT ITS WAY TOO SHORT AND LIKE AAAAAAAAAA WOULDNT IT BE NICE IF WE WERE OLDER THEN WE WOULDNT HAVE TO WAIT SO LONG AND WOULDNT NIT BE NICE TO LIVE TOGETHER AND IH ATE THAT IT STOPS,(http://rune-song.tumblr.com/post/159361189655/onlinedragon-vrgnmry-why-did-this-have-to) but also i just... birds and other animals make me smile in general? also people being passionate? and like that one snake post with the whole “boop incoming, i make a prepare” or the dog ones that are like “you gave me a big frighten” or LUCY THE PU G yeah 

Dusk: do you like liminal zones? which ones?:

i mean, i’ve found truck stops to be super useful with how many roadtrips i’ve been on. but other than that.. i don’t really care.

Monday: what do you hate? Are there things you love that other people hate?:

chocolate. mangoes. bigots. being sick. injustice. 

i rlly love language? and ik some people start to get really irritated when i start talking about phonetics and stuff? idk

Tuesday: phrase you often use:

i’m tired.

Wednesday: what do you always laugh at?:

sheep/shoop, who da ho? idaho. bo burnham.

Thursday: if you were a God, what would you be the God of?:

language/communication

ooh or navigation

flight?

oceans?

sea?

water?

air?

sky?

i d K

Friday: what are you looking forward to?

graduation so i can get out of this hell hole. one semester to go

also meeting up w my gf but idk when that will be yet sooo yeah.

Saturday: best movie you’ve seen? most helpful one?:

best? oh gosh. uhm.... i rly like Atlantis. i’m not sure if it’s the BEST but it’s really good

most helpful?? bro i dont even know

Sunday: what event(s) in life shaped you the most?:

probably the travel?

Febuarary: what’s your ideal partner if you want one?:

@naknakittynak

March: what’re your goals?:

i wanna become a competent programmer, i wanna get a masters in linguistics, i wanna run an experiment for selective breeding of crows for language aquisition and see if we could actually get crows that could hold a conversation

April: favorite poem or quote.:

the man who says he can, and the man who says he can’t are both correct. which are you?

May: what’re your pets names? what would be the ideal pet name?:

my mom’s dog is Diva, mine is Panda.

idk. it rlly dependso n the pet and stuff? i kind of want to get a bunch of birds, snakes, dogs, cats etc, and then name them after eachother’s species.

June: do you want kids? do you have names in mind for them?:

A DAUGHTER NAMES LUCIFER> SHELL GO BY LUCY

just pls ask me about my plans for my kids. they’re so fucking messed up

July: favorite word, dirty, clean, and/or funny sounding:

defenestrate or fuck

August: have you ever had a really important teacher or a crush on one?:

two teachers are super important to me right now. Ms Boze, and Ms Peacock. (also.. sorta have a crush on the latter but objectively, it wouldn’t work out that well)

September: what would you be famous for or make a lot of money from if you could?:

research i mentioned above. (adding to that, dolphin communication would be really cool to study too.) or travel maybe? learning language? idk

October: what scares you? do you think it made you stronger?:

heat. like i can’t reach into ovens it terrifies me. i’m also terrified of rejection. and super self concsious about almost everything. 

no. not at all. maybe it allows me to be more empathetic at times? but no. not worth it

November: favorite date or outing you can think of.:

aquarium, or a zoo, or a library, or a book store, or a coffee shop, or a movie, or sitting in, i’m really not picky i just like doing things

December: what’s your ideal holiday?:

Christmas with lots of people (that all are super close) and presents and a big tree (that i didn’t have to decorate) and a big dinner with fondue and like, a bunch of snow, that some how miraculously melts by the end of the next day.

January: how did the last year go for you? good parts? bad?you’re next then.:

good question uhhhh i guess it was ok? I got my first year of school under my belt? meh it wasn’t that extraordinary for me personally. general events therewere some really shtity ones and some great oens but people already know those.

[gis-is-back]

I forgot so here’s a Master Post

10/12: Thursday

OK. ummm so according to twitter this was a day i woke up in the middle of the night due to loud people in the street which never makes me happy, then I went on my phone until 3AM and yee. Still not happy about SR and my friends so I felt bad in that regard. I went on a run that morning and then must not have done anything substantial until I FINALLY turned in my OFII form so I can leave the country when I want to. Then on the way back a catcaller said something to me but idk what he said so its fine. Went to the store and got new skincare products and expected them to make me break out but as of Oct 19 we güd :-) 

10/13: Friday

Oo Friday the 13th how spooky. Went on a run and a guy wanted me to take his picture at like 8AM while im literally running past him and I said no and I’m glad i Did because a big part of this journey has been learning how to say no to boys, people, opportunities, etc. Like sure you should be open to shite but no I’m not going to say yes when I know I’m just going to feel stupid. Made a super large finsta post ab how I’m doing with weight loss and fitness and stuff and honestly felt really good about this day. 

10/14: Saturday

Literally no day, feeling, morning, instant has ever felt worse than the one I experienced the MOMENT I woke up on this morning. Was in that twilight zone in between dream and reality and heard a woman speaking in a cooing high pitched voice. Dreaming me interpreted it as my mom talking to my cat. Started thinking about it for a bit and realized that my mom (and cat) is thousands upon thousands of miles away and that I a) wont see her for another two months and b) am out in this foreign ass country all alone. CRIED SO HARD. I’m not kidding that was such an awful feeling the only thing worse that I can imagine is if there was no possibility of seeing my mom again. Yikes how awful. And from then on im pretty sure I was just sad. Stayed inside most of the day aside from my daily run and yee.

10/15: Sunday

Danielle finally came home so i had SOMETHING to do *eyeroll emoji* except im jk cuz i know there’s shit i can do. I went on a run and then met danielle for cwoffee at starbs where we “studied” for our phonetics midterm. There was a 5/10k for breast cancer that morn so in honor of it I ran 5k which was impressive for me cuz i aint ever run that far continuously. Actually ran like 3.5 miles. Went home and went grocery shopping, got some EgGpLaNt like a real fancy mofo and some salad mix but I got spinach, arugula, and a chard looking ass leaf and the arugula SUCKS but I’m making my way through it. Kept on missing home and LA and everything/one but yeet.

10/16: Monday

69 days out. Went to my 8h30, took my exam, was fine, went to my next class, was fine, went home, was gr8 i love going home haha. Then I went on a run and ran quite a lot! another 3+ miles and then decided to look at the botanical garden for once since I run past it like actually literally every day but had never been in. It was okay, really flat and not that like idk diverse like the CV Botanical Garden. Formatted the SHIT out of my calories spreadsheet so it looks awezum now.

10/17: Squad Tuesday

I hate tuesdays aka my long days but we did it boys. First class, w/e, then I had a meeting for my courses in which I got them squared away, then i had to talk to the other UC coordinator ab my time here and ended up fucking crying lmao. So annoying. Anyway, my next class was fine, got complimented af about my speaking which was lowkey very nice to hear and god damn i miss positive affirmation. Then I went for a run on the school’s track since i dont have time in the morning or after class, ran 12 laps and walked 2 but idk if its a regular track and my fitbit was doing the bs thing where it doesnt work unless i restart my phone which is so annoying. Then had my third class which was fine then my fourth which was unbearably long and I was literally watching the minutes go which made them go slower so I’m not gonna do that anymore but I do have a nice collection of drawings from every tuesday. Went home, took shower, made din, bed.

10/18: Wednesday

Woke up feeling depressed which might be the norm now, instead of wallowing I got up and ran tho even tho I was planning on just doing it after class which was good and actually ran quite a lot once again, over three miles. Got ready for school and then went. 1st class was fine, midterm next week, second class was fine, midterm next week, went home woo and binged on banana chips. Got ready for bed and was laying in bed on phone when I started being able to hear a mouse. Freaked me tf out, and basically did what I could to prevent them coming in but ended up actually trapping one inside and every time it moved I would be wide awake so i got like 0 sleep last night which was kinda shitty. MAde me super depressed this morn but I’ll save today’s details for todays post!