#im still learning the language

[dkettchen]

she would've told them unlike her canon! version who decided not to be an ally smh

[soothedcerberus]

A prince's best friend 👑💖

[kaiserouo]

someone please stop him

[bluecookiesabi]

DESPERATELY trying to figure out what Murderbot is saying in Swedish during the "speaking gibberish" scene in the latest episode

[beelearnsfinnish]

weekly recap: week 01 [30.12.24-05.01.25]

i decided to start doing weekly recaps as a way to keep myself accountable not only with language learning but with all my studying in general. So, peep my new rug and Pikku Myy cup, as well as the moomin calendar i got for christmas! let's see:

studying

Finnish

As I said in my last Finnish update, I hadn't been doing much this past weeks. I've restarted again, but I'm aware this two months are not gonna be the best, since I need to focus in all my tests happening in February. Still, I wanna try and find time for it everyday, even if its just couple minutes.

I'll add the tracker of what I did this week (only started counting the 1st tho) but yeah managed to get a session of active studying and one of writing besides my immersion. I'll continue my lessons next week so looking forward to that.

My degree

To be honest I don't normally have to spend much time with this. I only have three subjects this year, and since I'm studying online and have no classes I don't need to do much during the year. The only stressful times are when I have to turn in papers and exams. This being said, I do need to turn in papers next two weeks, and I have my midterms at the start of February, so I am indeed stressed :D

I started revising the content for one of the subject's paper, which is already something. I usually get decently good grades without much stress since its the second degree im doing in the topic and almost everything sounds familiar already, but last two papers with this teacher didn't go that well (imo bc of her way aka inexisting way of explaining the papers) so im kinda pissed off :D

I didn't need good grades in this degree since its kinda useless having already my previous one, but since there's the possibility of going in erasmus again i want good grades to hopefully get into the program again. Soo, this next weeks I gotta grind and start doing the papers as well as start working on the units.

Hygieniapassi test

New addition! Since my plan is to move to Finland hopefully this year (still don't know how or when but we're getting there) and getting a job of my area (media production) is impossible without experience anywhere, I'd need to get a regular no studies entry level job and I thought I could make things easier for myself and get it before the move. I'm going there late February, so thats my deadline!

Actually signed up today for the exam. I have been working on the material in the app for the past two weeks ish, I only have two courses left to copy into my notebook (I physically can't retain any info if I don't write it myself) so I'm hoping to finish them before my papers are due! I still have to work on a schedule so I have time for everything, but pretty happy so far.

life updates

work

Christmas rush is coming to an end, but we have an inventory coming soon, which means extra hours and extra stress. Not the most ideal thing with all the studying I have to do, but we'll survive i guess :'D

hobbies & social life

To be honest I don't have much time for hobbies these days, but that's something I wanna change. Went to see Nosferatu with a friend at the start of the week (loved it) and we have another 3 movies lined up for the next weeks (can you tell i love going to the cinema). Also planning couple meet ups with different friend groups, this doesn't happen often since couple of them we don't see eachother in months, but seems like everything's happening at the same time. Stressful, but happy to get to see them!! Also meeting with my bookclub, so gotta finish the book of the month at some point.

Also something I'm super excited about, booked my flights to Finland!! Already mentioned I was going in February but actually having the flights its a life changer when it comes to waiting. Can't wait to be back 😊

media update

📖: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V. E. Schwab

🎬: Nosferatu - 4 ⭐️

🎧: Nonbeliever - Lucy Dacus

[abirddogmoment]

Rory pointed a grouse so good this morning, it was so awesome to see the conviction in her point and her steadiness until I moved closer to her and sent her to flush it !!!!!!!

[rambrandt-the-painter]

i hate reading and im checking mariam webster to figure out how to use punctuation marks but im still writing weirdly artful furry porn.

never give up on your dreams!!!!

[tboyblogger]

TBOYBLOGGER COMMISSION OPEN !! :)

hey guys, i'm doing art commission internationally for the first time :') i've been out of jobs lately and had to rely on my saving funds... but would love to be able to move out of my current environment in the future, so thought i'd open my comms :"D any interaction is appreciated! ^7^

^ samples of what i can offer rn! prices start from $25 for a fullbody drawing. my style is pretty simple & stylized if its what you're looking for :)

i'm taking a few slots each month and will have everyone on the waitlist if so wanted ^^ if ur seeing this on ur dash its probably open haha

payments are through paypal invoice & for more contact details, t.o.s and samples please check out my commission infos notion!! looking forward to draw for you *smiles wide*

[nabaath-areng]

Native english speakers learning swedish should NOT fear pronouncing the letters Å, Ä and Ö, because those all exist in english. Do you use Discård? Have you cut your häir recently? Do you live on planet Örth? Those letters are old friends. You just didn't recognize them because they were wearing hats!

What you should fear is swedish U and, above all, swedish Y. The former will make you question how much tongue should be involved, the latter will have you question everything you thought you knew about using your mouth.

[thecaduceusclay]

if you want to learn a language and have a library card, check if your local library has Mango. i just switched to it from duolingo and while it's not as game-y i feel like it explains things well so far in terms of grammer (duolingo did not imo), and it has plenty of languages!

i saw Icelandic, Greek (Modern, Ancient, and Koine), Irish (Gaeilge), Yiddish, Potawatomi, Scottish Gaelic, Igbo, Haitian Creole, Cherokee, Kazakh, and Uzbek. just to highlight a few i dont often see elsewhere!

it's even got Shakespearean English, and some quick courses like German for Oktoberfest, Mandarin for business, Spanish for legal and medical purposes, Russian slang, and Brazilian Portuguese for soccer events. these arent all of the quicker courses, but i thought that was really cool!

anyway im not paid, this isnt an ad, im just someone with an interest in languages and a love for public libraries who wanted to encourage you to check it out!

[eusuntgratie]

thank you for the tags @firstprincehornyramblings & @thighzp <3

sharing something a little different today. i've wanted to translate one of my shorter fics into spanish forEVER but always get stuck and give up. but i'm feeling inspired by @jocarthage's arabic and english drabble so i decided to give it a shot.

who knows how long it will take me to finish but here's a bit of baby, it's alright, my nora's pov of caulfield fic, en español

Ella sueña. No hay nada por ella aquí, entonces ella duerme, y piensa en las cosas buenas una y otra vez para que no las olvide. Oasis, antes de Jones. Los árboles, las flores, el cielo. Tripp, cuando no se duele demasiado pensar en su cara. Louise, segura y feliz, sonriendo y bailando con Roy. Walt, su cara dulce y sus abrazos cariñosos. A veces ella se pregunta dónde está Walt ahora. Ella piensa en él feliz y saludable con una familia que le ama. Sonriendo en el campo de las girasoles. Bailando cerca de la mesa. 

no pressure tagging @lostcol @bigassbowlingballhead @basil-bird @stratocumulusperlucidus @taste-thewaste

@onward--upward @rewritetheending @jbarneswilson @onthewaytosomewhere @firenati0n

@catdadacd @insecuregodcomplex @faketrex @jocarthage @beautifulcheat

@cha-melodius @sheepywritesfics <3

[tyuncat]

thinking about possessive but soft dom!soobin who gets jealous when you get physically too close (in his opinion) to the other members. you’re his treasured possesion and he does not like to share.

soobin, who pulls you back to him and anxiously fidgets with the hem of your skirt for the remainder of the evening.

soobin, who appears calm and won’t say a word but gives a death stare every time any of the members dares to look your way.

soobin, who won’t let go of your hand the whole way home, looking at you like you hung the moon and the stars, occasionally kissing your lips fleetingly and tearing up a bit thinking about the possibility of losing you one day.

finally soobin who touches you like you were made out of the finest porcelain and could break under mere pressure of his hands, leaving butterfly kisses all over your body, trying to leave delicate marks to show that you’re only his, without causing even a tiny bit of pain or discomfort. eating you out like a starved man, like you were the only thing he wants to taste forever. so sweet and addictive. tears of desperation forming in his eyes once again as he says "they would never give it to you like i do, they would never treat you the same way. you’re mine, only mine". and later falling asleep holding your fragile body in his warm caring embrace, whispering words of affection in your ear and making sure that you know he would never let any other man touch you.

you’re ruined for anyone else by him anyway.

[stormyoceans]

LINE READING SO DEVASTATING I NEED TO DIE ABOUT IT

[hauntingofhouses]

i know I've mentioned my interpretation of mizu's gender a million times on here but i don't think i ever fully elaborated on it.

so on that note i just wanna ramble about that for a bit. basically, it's my reading of the show that mizu is nonbinary, so let me dig into that.

putting the rest under the cut because it ended up being pretty long lol. also here have a cute mizu pic of her being happy and most at ease with herself, symbolised by her letting her hair down. <3 ok let's proceed.

thus, when i refer to mizu as nonbinary, i am interpreting mizu as a woman, but not ONLY a woman. not strictly a woman. she is also a man. she is also neither of these things, she is something in between, while at the same time she is none of these at all. i've said as much many times, but i just don't want people to think that when i say nonbinary, it inherently means a "third androgynous gender" that essentially turns the gender binary into a gender trinary. not only is that going against what the term nonbinary was crafted for (to go against rigid boxes and categorisation of gender identities), but also, not all nonbinary people fall under that category or definition, and that's definitely not the way i interpret mizu.

okay before i go deeper i'd just like to address some important things. first of all, this post is an analysis of canon, and thus everything i am arguing for is about my own interpretation of the show, and not some baseless projected headcanon i am projecting onto the character. please remember there is a difference between an interpretation (subjective; interpretations will differ from viewer to viewer, but ultimately it is firmly rooted in evidence taken from the source material) VS a headcanon (unrelated and often even contrary to what is presented in canon; opinions wildly differ and they cannot be argued for because there is no canonical evidence to back it up).

ALSO please note that nonbinary is an umbrella term. this means that it applies to a vast range of gender identities. other identities that fall under the nonbinary umbrella include agender, bigender, genderfluid, and so on. however, it's my personal preference to use the term nonbinary as it is, simply because i'm not a fan of microlabels (more power to you if you do like them and find they suit you more though!).

also, before anyone fights me on this, let me clarify further that gender means something different to everyone. it's not your biological sex or physical characteristics. but at the same time, gender is not mere presentation. you can be a trans woman and still present masculine—either because you're closeted and forced to, or because you just want to—and either way, that doesn't take away from your identity as a woman. same goes for trans men. if you're a trans man but you wear skirts and don't bind or don't get top surgery, that doesn't make you any less of a man. because gender non-conformity exists, and does not only apply to cis people! some lesbians are nonbinary and prefer using he/him pronouns while dressing masculinely, but that doesn't mean they're a man, or that they're any less of a lesbian. neither does this mean that they're a cis woman.

the thing about queer identities in general is that, like i said, they mean something different to everyone, because how you identify—regardless of your biological attributes and fashion or pronouns—is an extremely personal experience. so a nonbinary person and a gnc cis woman's experiences might have plenty of overlap, but what distinguishes between the two is up to the individual. there's no set requirements to distinguish you as one or the other, but it's up to you to decide what you identify as, based on what you feel. either way, by simply identifying yourself as anything under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, you are already communicating to the world that you are not what a conservative, cisheteronormative society wants you to be.

which is why i find all this queer infighting on labels to be so ridiculous. because we're all fighting the same fight; the common enemy is a societal structure that divides us into set roles and expectations purely based on our biological parts. that's why biological essentialism in the queer community is a fucking disease. because by arguing that women are inherently weak and fragile and soft and gentle and must be protected from evil ugly men, while men are inherently strong and angry and violent and exploitative of women, these people are advocating for the same fucked up system that marginalises and abuses women as well as effeminate and/or gay men.

anyway. i'm going on a tangent. this was meant to be a blue eye samurai post. so yeah back to that— the point i'm trying to make is that there's no singular way to identify as anything, as everyone's views on gender, especially their own, is specific and personal to the individual.

so with that being said, yes you can definitely interpret mizu as a gnc cis woman and that's a totally valid reading of the text. however, interpreting her as nonbinary or transmasc also doesn't take away from her experiences with misogyny and female oppression, because nonbinary and transmasc folks also experience these things.

me, personally, i view her as nonbinary but not necessarily or not always transmasc because i still believe femininity and womanhood is a very inherent part of who mizu is. for example, from what we've seen, she does not like binding. it does not give her gender euphoria, but is instead very uncomfortable for her both physically and mentally, and represents her suppressing her true self. which is why when she "invites the whole" of herself, she stands completely bare in front of the fire, breasts unbound and hair untied. when she is on the ship heading to a new land in the ending scene, she is no longer hiding her neck and the lack of an adam's apple. we can thus infer that mizu does not have body dysmorphia. she is, in fact, comfortable in her body, and relies on it extremely, because her body is a weapon. instead, what mizu hates about herself is her face—her blue eyes. she hates herself for her hybridised racial identity, hates herself for being a racial Other. hates that she has no home in her homeland. thus it is important to note that these are not queer or feminist themes, but postcolonial ones.*

* and as a tiny aside on this subject, i really do wish more of the fandom discussion would talk about this more. it's just such an essential part to reading her character. like someone who's read homi k bhabha's location of culture and has watched this show, PLEASE talk to me so we can ramble all about how the show is all about home and alienation from community. please. okay anyway—

nevertheless, queer and feminist themes (which are not mutually exclusive by the way!) are still prevalent in her story, though they are not the main issue that she is struggling with. but she does struggle with it to some extent, and we see this especially during her marriage with mikio, where we see her struggle in women's domestic spaces.

on the other hand, though, she finds no trouble or discomfort in being a man or being around other men—even naked ones—and does not seem stifled by living as one, does not seem all that bothered or uncomfortable navigating through men's spaces. contrast this to something like disney's mulan (1998), where we do see mulan struggle in navigating through men's spaces, as she feels uncomfortable being around so many men, always feeling like she doesn't belong and that she's inherently different from them. mizu has no such experiences like this, as her very personality and approach to life is what can be categorised as typically "masculine". she is straightforward and blunt. her first meeting with mikio, she tells him straight to his face that he's old while frowning and raising a brow at him. she approaches problems with her muscles and fists (or swords), rather than with her words or mind. compare this with mulan, who, while well-trained by the end of the movie, still uses her sharp wits rather than brute strength. this is a typically "feminine" approach. it's also the approach akemi relies on throughout the show—through her intelligence and persuasive tongue, she navigates the brothel with ease. mizu, in contrast to someone like mulan and akemi, struggles with womanhood and femininity, and feels detached from it.

thus, in my opinion, mizu is not simply a man, nor is she simply a woman. she is both. man and woman. masculine and feminine. she has to accept both, rather than suppress one or the other. her name means water. fluid.

as a side note, while i do believe mizu is nonbinary, i also primarily use she/her pronouns for her, but this is a personal preference. i find it's easier to use in fanfic (singular they is confusing to write stories with, but again, that's just my feelings on it, and this is coming from someone who uses they/they pronouns). i also lean towards she/her because it's what the creators and all the official promotional copywriting of the show uses. and even though i am a "death to the author" enjoyer, i feel that when interpreting things that are left open-ended, it does help to look at the creators' take on things. also because, in general, being nonbinary simply doesn't necessitate the use of they/them pronouns. nonbinary is not just a third gender. it's about breaking the binary, in any which way, and that's exactly what mizu does, constantly.

also, i'd also like to mention that one of show's head of story even referred to her with the term "nonbinary", rather than simply "androgynous" (see pic below). and it's possible this could be a slip up on his part, in which he believes the terms are interchangeable (they're not btw), but regardless i find it a very interesting word choice, and one that supports my argument.

so anyway yeah that's my incredibly long rambling post.

TL;DR nonbinary mizu rights 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 congrats if you reached the end of this btw. also ily. unless you're a TERF in which case fuck off. ok i'm done.

[pinbones]

Kind of whack that the main way of teaching languages -- school, tests, apps -- often focus on details rather than the gist of meanings.

Like, does it really matter if i mix up masculine and feminine endings in spanish every time? If i conjugate verbs badly? Most of the people i know who make those sorts of mistakes in english ('he is go now' instead of 'he is going' etc) can communicate fine in the workplace and casual conversation, like? it's literally fine, but both academia and teach-yourself resources would prolly fail them

Meanwhile if someone could say english in perfect pronunciation, flawless grammar, and literally did not know most of the words in the english language, we'd struggle to talk at all

[lilbittymonster]

Was thinking about Kitali and languages as I was falling asleep last night and she's gonna sound weird and out of place no matter where in Ishgard she is bc of how many registers she mixes.

Like she would absolutely have learned to speak Ishgardian before she learned to read it, and most of that exposure would've been with working class people from the Brume and the lower levels of the city. And especially so during the Restoration because she would've been spending most, if not all of, her time with the Skysteel workers. So she's going to adopt most of the speech patterns and mannerisms from them.

And then she's also married to a nobleman, who has a distinctly different speech pattern and accent, and because she spends the time she's not working or out dealing with Scion bullshit with him, she's going to pick those up as well and incorporate it into her understanding of The Ishgardian Language.

And because she learned to speak it before she learned to read it, the first time she tries to read one of Aymeric's books not written in Eorzean common, she's going to look up at him with anguish and confusion and betrayal as if he's the one responsible for why Ishgardian is spelled Like That. And then proceeds to bitch and moan about it while trying to reverse engineer it through context clues alone.

And then on top of all that, once Estinien joins the Scions and she's spending a lot of time around him and speaking in Ishgardian to deliberately exclude everyone else from their conversations, she's going to pick up his Coerthan idioms because I think he would stubbornly cling to those even after living in Ishgard for 20 years.

I just think language barriers are neat and I feel like they aren't utilised in game enough bc Video Game Mechanics.