16.4.24 📝+🥪 lazy semester start post <3 i was positively surprised by how much fun my courses are - the profs are nice and the material seems super interesting. also got lunch with a friend :)
🎧 - everybody loves me by onerepublic
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The wannabe polyglot urge to fool around with random languages on language learning apps
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15th April 2024
I've been ignoring my language course for the past 7+ months and my final exam for it is coming closer day by day T-T
Overall a productive day...
Today I :
Completed 5 lessons with grammar in Arabic
Attended my Arabic class
Finished my homework
Read 100+ pages (still counting)
Completed a novel
Total study time: 1 hour 30 mins
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🌸 17 Sanity Challenge // Day 3 of 13 🩰
난 천천히 꾸준히 개선해요 (i am slowly, steadily improving) 🐢😌
🍚 i didn't let work stress me out, didn't overcommit, and helped a couple of colleagues ☺️
😼 Japanese lesson + Chinese lessons (2x)
⚔️ caught up with a friend ❤️
🍒 leg dayyy (mix of ballet exercises review, pilates, yoga)
🦦 세븐틴의 어느 멋진 날 끝~
🦊 comparative cognition review
🐶 cleaning fairy moment (but no music this time because i have a headache 🥲)
💌: 오늘 내 다 식사 먹었어 🐯 나도 선잠 있어 그리고 지금 아주 일찍 잠 😇
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耳形天南星[Mimigatatennanshō]
Arisaema limbatum
耳[Mimi] : Ear
形[-gata|Kata] : Shape(d)
天南星[Tennanshō] : Cobra lily
There are some flowers that remind me of that spring has entered its latter stages, and some members of the genus Arisaema are among them.
Yesterday was a nice sunny day, so when I went into the low mountains in the afternoon to observe plants, they were standing under naked trees and on sunny banks. In particular, this one was glowing with the sun tilting to the west at its back like a singer on stage, as if to say, "Take a picture of me.
And, that "they" began to put up parasols in preparation for fishing. When they start doing it, I will upload a picture of them.
This species is so named because the outer parts of the spathe look like earlobes. This one was about 40 centimeters tall, but larger ones grow to about twice that. Another name of Tennanshō is 山人参[Yamaninjin](Mountain carrot.) Their humorous appearance is fun to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42FWYRkDzMU
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萝卜's Essential Chinese Characters #1
大家好!
When spending time in China, there were several characters/words that I wasn't familiar with (as an ~HSK4 learner) yet seemed to pop up everywhere! Being so prevalent, I tried to take note of them and now can share them with you all over a series of posts! If you're planning to visit China, I hope you follow along and find these posts useful :)
Today's character is: 区 (qū)!
区, meaning "district", "area", "region", etc, can be found in a multitude of contexts. Some explicit examples from my experience are:
小区 (xiǎoqū) – home community, neighborhood. The apartment complexes/condos where many citizens live are usually in the form of several high-rises built around a central recreation/park area, sometimes also with a school, markets, restaurants, etc all right downstairs! Collectively, this living space is known as a 小区. You can find one of my pictures of a 小区 below!!
凉菜区 (liáng cài qū) – literally “cold dish area” aka where the cold dishes are located in a restaurant
NFC区 (NFC qū) – “near-field communication zone” aka where you should tap your card/phone to transfer information such as payment or identification
景区 (jǐngqū) – scenic area, related to the similar term 景点 (jǐngdiǎn) meaning “scenic point”
Other examples:
区号 (qūhào) – area code (literally “area number”)
城区 (chéngqū) – city district, similar to 市区 (shìqū) meaning “urban district” or “downtown”
地区 (dìqū) – local, regional, area; when used as a suffix to a city name, means “prefecture” or “county”
时区 (shíqū) – time zone
Have you encountered 区 before in your studies? Let me know if you have other favorite 区 words!
See you next time! 下次见!
(Picture of a 小区 under the cut)
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Daily Check-in: April 16, 2024 🎀
Tuesday did indeed get better! I got so much done despite not getting out of bed until 630am (I'm usually up by 530am), and I was so tired, but I'm proud of myself.
🩷 What I Accomplished:
completed the 11 minute wake up yoga by Yoga with Adriene
did the 16 minute yoga for flexibility by Yoga with Adriene
did my morning and night time skincare + showered after work before going to bed
worked a ~7.5 hour shift
completed my Spanish study tasks
took a quiz in my supplemental chem class and got 3rd place
took notes on acids and bases in chemistry
🩷 Good Things That Happened:
got an email from the Colorado work manager confirming some details about working this summer!! super excited!!!
me and my boyfriend talked some things out and things are looking up
got to work a couple hours with my favorite supervisor
had a really good day at work
got out of work by 10pm
🩷 What Could've Been Better:
did not eat very well (the dining hall was celebrating national mushroom day, and I'm allergic to mushrooms, so I bought chick fil a. and my breakfast was a quickly eaten bowl of pasta)
did not drink enough water, but I am working on that!
didn't study as much as I could've
didn't check in with my accountability buddies before the end of day
still haven't video called woth my boyfriend since Thursday of last week
💗 Stuff For Wednesday:
email psyc doc to move appointment to zoom
print papers before meeting with the director of my 1st degree major program
eat a good breakfast
study chemistry for a bit longer
complete lab report, pre lab quiz, and pre lab prep
study Spanish + complete my study tasks
wash my laundry
Here's to hopefully having a happy Wednesday! I wish you all the same 💞
til next time lovelies 🩷
p.s Check Out My Depop shop if you can! will be adding more listings soon!
💕 Song of The Day
BTS - House of Cards
This song was hitting all the right spots when I was closing at work. I forget how amazing it is until I hear it and ughhh how beautiful
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Monday 15th | 21/100 days of productivity₊ 。˚⊹
Revise French flashcards [5m]
Revise Japanese flashcards [5m]
Study for history test (4/3) [1h]
Listen to Japanese TV in the bg [30m]
Print mockup for paintings > got approved yay!
Finish making portfolio [10m]
Revise before English quiz, make flashcards [15m]
Read The Body Keeps The Score [30m]
Word of the day: to bloom; blossom -> flower bloomed
fr: fleurir [-ir verb] -> la fleur a fleuri
jp: 咲く [さく] -> 花が咲いた [はながさいた]
cn: 开花 [kāihuā] -> 花朵开花 [huāduǒ kāihuā]
nl: bloeien -> bloem bloeide
🎧₊ ˚⊹ raindrop city - lamp
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今季
こんき
this season
そんなときに役立つのが、今季デザイン性たっぷりに進化したシャツと、デコラティブな甘さが逆に潔いブラウス。
そんな とき に やくだつ の が、こんき デザインせい たっぷり に しんか した シャツ と、デコラティブ な あまさ が ぎゃく に いさぎよい ブラウス。
In this case, a shirt that has been evolved with many design elements from this season, and a blouse with sweet decorations that is actually elegant, are useful items.
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Do you agree with the popular conclusion in western linguistics that vowel length is not phonemic in modern Marathi (even if it’s indicated in writing)? I went to Maharashtra for the first time during my last visit to India and I did notice that vowel length was a lot more ambiguous than I expected in all cases, but especially in the distinction between अ and आ. But the mutual intelligibility between Maharashtrian Marathi and my dialect, Thanjavur Marathi, is not great, so wtf do I know
This sounds like one of those things that we don't really pay attention to as native speakers, but would be very important for someone learning the language!
However, I do think that there is plenty of ambiguity between short and long vowels, especially इ/ई and उ/ऊ. The example that comes to mind for me is that the -वू suffix in Marathi, where say धावू नकोस is pronounced closer to धाउ नकोस.
I can't say I've noticed an ambiguity between अ and आ though. I think some examples might help there.
I'm no linguist, but this was a really cool ask! Thank you!
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Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide
Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:
"I just want an identical experience to DL"
Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)
"I want a good audio-based app"
Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)
"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"
Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)
Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)
*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.
"I have a pretty neat library card"
Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)
Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)
"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"
AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)
"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"
AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone
"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"
lingory
"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"
ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)
"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"
Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)
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“French is such a beautiful, romantic language.”
“Cat, I farted.”
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I mean that about sums it up
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Source
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Duolingo is NOT what it used to be.
“Duolingo is ‘sunsetting the development of the Welsh course’ (and many others)”.
I’ve used Duolingo since 2013. It used to be about genuinely learning languages and preserving endangered ones. It used to have a vibrant community and forum where users were listened to. It used to have volunteers that dedicated countless hours and even years to making the best courses they could while also trying to explain extremely nuanced and complex grammar in simple terms.
In the past two years it feels like Von Ahn let the money talk instead of focusing on the original goal.
No one truly had a humongous problem with the subscription tier for SuperDuolingo. We understood it: if you can afford to pay, help keep Duolingo free for those who couldn’t.
It started when the company went public. Volunteers were leaving courses they created because they warned of differing longterm goals compared to Duolingo’s as a company; not long after it was announced that the incubator (how volunteers were able to make courses in the first place) would be shut down. A year goes by and the forums—the voice of the users and the way people were able to share tips and explanations—is discontinued. A year or two later, Duolingo gets a completely new makeover—the Tree is gone and you don’t control what lesson you start with. With the disappearance of the Tree, all grammar notes and explanations for courses not in the Big 8 (consisting of the courses made before the incubator like Spanish/French/German/etc. and of the most popular courses like Japanese/Korean/Chinese/etc.) are removed with it. Were you learning Vietnamese and have no idea how honorifics work without the grammar notes? Shit outta luck bud. Were you learning Polish and have absolutely no clue how one of the declensions newly thrown at you functions? Suck it up. In a Reddit AMA, Von Ahn claims that the new design resulted in more users utilizing the app/site. How he claims that statistic? By counting how many people log into their Duolingo account, as if an entire app renovation wouldn’t cause an uptick in numbers to even see what the fuck just happened to the courses.
Von Ahn announces next in a Reddit AMA that no more language courses will be added from what there already is available. His reasoning? No one uses the unpopular language courses — along with how Duolingo will now be doing upkeep with the courses already in place. And here I am, currently looking on the Duolingo website how there are 1.8 million active learners for Irish, 284 thousand active learners for Navajo, and even 934 thousand active learners for fucking High Valyrian. But yea, no one uses them. Not like the entire Navajo Nation population is 399k members or anything, or like 1.8 million people isn’t 36% of the entire population of Ireland or anything.
And now this. What happened to the upkeep of current courses? Oh, Von Ahn only meant the popular ones that already have infinite resources. Got it. Duolingo used to be a serious foundational resource for languages with little resources while also adding the relief of gamification.
It pisses me off. It really does. This was not what Duolingo started out as. And yea, maybe I shouldn’t get invested in a dingy little app. But as someone who spent most of her adolescence immersed in language learning to the point where it was literally keeping me alive at one point, to the point where languages felt like my only friend as a tween, and to the point where friendships on the Duolingo forums with likeminded individuals my age and other enthusiasts who even sent me books in other languages for free because they wanted people to learn it, the evolution of Duolingo hits a bitter nerve within me.
~End rant.
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