#it kinda made my day

[kattythingz]

Ok hihi! I was wondering how you did research on Ling speaking Chinese (?) In your fics! I want to add some stuff with my OCS speaking Chinese in my book but I am not entirely too sure on how to properly conduct research, so I was wondering how you do it? /Genq

Also I love your writing it has such a good flow and you write Ed and Ling so well!

Hi there!! First of all: I'm so flattered you came to me for advice? Idk what that says about my handling of the language but damn if the gesture didn't make me smile.

I worked with Mandarin Chinese for my fic specifically, which in Google translate, that would be Simplified Chinese. But keep in mind there are other dialects to work with, like Cantonese Chinese I believe?

Anyway, first and foremost:

Do NOT rely on Google translate for sentence translations. It served me fine for individual words, but honestly? Even for a simple "fuck" or "shit," I looked at forums and Reddit discussions and such for "authentic" answers from actual Chinese-speaking folks. I found that "local" answers listed some wild things that are common day speaking and Google translate simply doesn't include some of those wild things. Which is a damn shame.

Basic phrases I did the same thing, asking Google "how to say such and such in Chinese" and scrolling down to discussions online. It's how I learned it's apparently common to curse people by using "your mom" as "fuck/fuck you." I had a blast with that one.

What also greatly helped me though was researching basic Chinese grammar for myself. Luckily, the language is surprisingly simple with it having no verb conjugations, and question formations and word placements seem fairly straightforward! So looking into the grammar was a lot less work than I expected and genuinely it was kinda fascinating. I know I definitely got way too into it.

This much attention to detail ofc will eat up time from you. I spent hours longer than intended to verify my sentences as Not Butchering The Language. But it was worth it in the end because I wanted to do the language right, and I wanted to respect it. I'm bilingual myself and I've seen the bullshit Google translate spouts back at you in my language. It's. It's not wrong, but it's also not what people say on a day to say basis, you know? And you want your characters to sound real, not like AIs.

So, FOR EXAMPLE. If you wanna make up a phrase that roughly means, say, "fuck on a dragon's spine..."

My process would be to look up, in order:

The individual words in the sentence, each. So "fuck," "dragon," and "spine." (Via Google translate)

The prepositions, "on" and the possessive in "dragon's." (Via Google search)

Basic sentence structure so you can put it all together. (Google search) (try to specify if you mean a statement sentence or a question or an exclamation, etc)

And then, bonus step, look at similar sentences in the language to gauge if yours sounds legit next to them!

All this wonderful research leads to the sentence of: Cāo zài lóng de jí — 操在龙的脊

It's a lot of work for just one sentence, but languages aren't one and done props for our stories either. The best respect we can give these languages is by researching them properly and putting the time and effort into getting them right. Even if it means spending an hour over one sentence or two.

At least, that's been my work ethic so far about it. I can't speak nor decide for you, but I hope my response inspires that kind of gusto from you too! :)

Thank you for the ask! And good luck with that book!! <3

[kil9]

every time a taemin look knocks me flat and helpless on my back, there's at least one person in the tags like "this is the most fuck ugly thing I've ever seen, sm shouldn't let him out of the house" and I realise we are NOT all the same

[spielzeugkaiser]

Being on the nostalgia train this week really helped stretching my artistic legs again. So here, have some old things and some new! For now I'm done with this.

[mienar]

at the artist's loft

instagram | shop | commission info

[unsung-idiot]

[dkettchen]

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

[time-slink]

If request are open… eefo in a dress- WAIT WHO SAID THAT

Hrm… Must’ve been the wind.

[isjasz]

"[...]Plus, when it rained, the palace grounds were pretty much empty, everyone else taking shelter, so I’d usually have the whole garden to myself. Perfect time to dance around like nobody was watching.” 

“Dance around?” 

“Yeah!”

(In which the vex prince sets out on a magical journey of a lifetime, and an unassuming avian knight is dragged along for the ride.)

——————————

THE DOOR IS NON-EXISTENT ALREADY LAST BUT VERY NOT LEAST FOR HSBB FROM ME These are my pieces for @gaylotusthatexists's epic fic series "to the ends of the earth" again in @hermitshippingbigbang!! :D

This is for chapter 11 of the fic featuring THE DANCE SCENEEEEEE go. read it. it's so worth it i swear they are so SJKDADwijwa and the whole world Lotus has created within the fic is so cool!!

It's botw but epic and it's scarian and I might have immediately lost it when I saw the fic summary back in *checks dms with nox* September. and the actual fic did not disappoint it is absolutely lovely <3

GOOGGOO YIPPEE👉👉👉👉👉

[lolli-popples]

I had too much time but no brain power on Monday, so I decided to see who the Hermit of the Day was and just draw them. I liked the sketch enough to actually spend the extra time to finish it. So, here's Cub, 2 days late!

[dartbread]

More Hawks suffering

[dragonbonez]

Feels good. Feels right.

[unluckedtj]

so. this’ll never be real but i think it’d be silly if kazuma got a small white snake. just to hang out with

[queewp]

i am OBSESSED w all ur bill / gravity falls art omg <- recently hyperfixed and is unhealthily obsessed w bill and his life’s story

ahhh!! omg tyy!! :D That means a lot <33 I don't have any new drawings other than whiteboard doodles, so here :3

[tomaturtles]

Happy Campus Apocalypse volume 1 16th anniversary here's something to celebrate

[thresholdbb]

what's the threshold theory

There was a post about how Tom is the only crew member who isn't really affected by the Borg, and there's a theory that he has so much luck because he saw the past and the future when he crossed the transwarp threshold. He saw the past and the future, all of time and space. There's some subconscious part of him that remembers that experience. In fact, Tom refused to play a part in Chakotay indulging Annorax's temporal incursions, probably because a part of him knew nothing good could come of it.

If we extend that same theory to Janeway, some of her wild luck with time travel and other crack plans starts to make sense. She doesn't verbally hate time travel until after the events of Threshold, since it happens in Time and Again without complaint. Janeway has an uncanny knack for time travel, as evidenced every time she deals with it. She hates time travel, but it might be because part of her knows exactly how to manipulate the timeline. She manages to avoid the "inevitable" temporal explosion in Future's End, saving both Voyager and Braxton. She resets the entire timeline in Year of Hell, and no one else followed her reasoning. She pulled it off flawlessly. In Relativity, she senses the incidents are all related, despite it being just one reading that connects them. By the time she's involved, she has a temporal incursion factor of .0036 and a time travel protocol named after her, even if that may just be Braxton's personal grudge. Then there's Endgame, where she intentionally changes the timeline. Up until this point, she has been dragged into time travel, but for the first time, she jumps in on purpose. How does Admiral Janeway know how to get them home sooner in a way that completely avoids the Temporal Integrity Commission? It's because she has seen all of time, and part of her knows exactly what needs to happen so she can get Voyager home and do it in a way that becomes baked into the prime timeline. Maybe she doesn't consciously remember what happened during her transformation, but the experience lives in her mind somewhere, guiding her decisions.

[smoakqueenz]

When I'm with you There is no one else I feel this way I never felt The Astronaut - Jin (cr. 0613data)