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While language learning apps and websites such as are plentiful online, places to practice are less easy to find! Here’s a few you can try out, none of which are limited to just one or two languages:

Chat

HelloTalk (iOS/Android): an app with 100+ languages that lets you chat with native speakers of your target language from around the world with voice + text. It’s the one most geared towards just conversation!

WeSpeke (iOS/Android): an app and website with probably the largest variety of languages at 130, with text, audio, and video chat.

Conversation Exchange: this one’s a little different, as it not only allows you to get a pen pal and has text, video, and voice, but it also lets you meet up with native speakers in your area to practice!

Speaky (iOS/Android): a web and mobile app which is pretty much social media for language learners! It has 110+ languages and you can make video/audio calls and message from your browser.

HiNative (iOS/Android): not exactly for chatting with people, but instead you can ask native speakers about their culture/language in your target language!

Read

Duolingo Immersion: lets you translate articles from your target language into your native language, or vice versa.

Readlang: read articles, books, and other texts online, with vocab support, and it will create vocab lists and flashcards based on the words you needed help with.

All You Can Read: a selection of magazines and news websites from 200 countries, offered in a wide variety of languages.

Worldpress: a directory of worldwide newspapers and magazines, sorted by country, region, and also political affiliation.

Listen

Live-Radio: a collection of thousands of worldwide radio stations in a multitude of languages.

Every Tongue: 7,000+ recordings of all different languages, readily available online.

Omniglot: a massive listing of online radio stations in languages from A-Z!

Global Recordings Network: search by language or country to listen to any of a wide variety of online recordings.

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I need langblrs to follow

I messed up and followed too many studyblrs oops so my dash has no language stuff

Like this/reblog if you are a langblr (any language idc) so I can follow you

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How to learn a language

Tips from a language major:

•When learning new vocabulary write the meaning in your language once and the new word at least three times

•If you are learning a new writing style (I.e. Hanzi, kanji, Sanskrit, etc.) write the character at least three times, the meaning and the pronunciation once. -do not write the pronunciation above the character, write it to the side, otherwise you won’t even try to read it. -Learn! Stroke! Order!

•when reviewing vocab try to use the word in a sentence.

•do not pay attention to the technicalities of the grammar. Do not attempt to compare it to your own language. This will seriously mess you up for 80 years. Just pay attention to the sentence structure and make similar sentences.

•if you are learning a tonal language (I.e Chinese) or language that has sounds that don’t exist in your language watch videos of people pronouncing things and try to match their mouth movements.

•if all else fails on your tones just speak quickly.

•watch TV shows in that language and yes watch them with subtitles. But please be aware that may not be how people speak in real life (I’m looking at you, Japanese/Chinese/Korean learners)

•DO NOT BE AFRIAD TO MAKE MISTAKES of you mess up during a sentence just correct yourself and keep going.

•flash cards, flash cards, flash cards. Real and digital.

•spend at least an hour a day on it (OUTSIDE of class), if you’re trying to learn on your own you’re gonna need more time.

•talk to yourself in that language, take notes in it, set your phone to it. You probably look crazy but that is a-ok.

•listen to music in that language, while it probably won’t do much for your ability in the beginning it will help you distinguish sounds once you get pretty good.

•and lastly, don’t give up. It took you like ten years to grasp your own language it’s gonna take awhile to grasp another.

-How I learned 2 ½ languages at once.

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why do women’s clothing designers believe that girls do not need pockets

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Eurocentrism in the Polyglot Community

Quite some time back, I saw this post commenting on the trends of what languages are most commonly studied in the polyglot community. These languages are generally European languages, particularly Romance languages as well as German and occasionally Eastern and Northern European (Scandinavian) languages. The OP of said post came under heavy fire for making the remark that this trend was an example of Eurocentrism. Other people were saying that “You should never tell other people what language to study. EVER”, and made other such comments, condemning this user (whose name I do not know, nor can I find this post).

As a PoC in the polyglot community, I’m going to be very blunt in this post, so be prepared. In my experience, the polyglot community is overwhelmingly white. White people will predictably have a stronger interest in European languages, and there’s not much that can be done about this and people cannot be faulted for it. This is only good reason I can think there is for Eurocentrism in the polyglot community. The common denominator between many polyglots is a Western European language like Spanish, Italian, French, or English. 

However, merely mentioning this and being attacked for it belies a more serious problem. The study of European languages can come at the expense of non-European languages, which does feed into dynamics of oppression and decline. There’s a reason that Hindi, Arabic, and non-European (particularly non-Western-European) languages are seen as unsophisticated. It’s because of years of imperialism in various non-European countries that have repressed the use of local vernacular languages.

You’re going to tell me, “Oh but those languages aren’t as useful”? I call bullshit because utility is more than simply numbers. Utility also includes political significance (ex. Arabic), literary value (ex. Sanskrit, Tamil, Hindi, Arabic, Russian, etc.), and immediate relevance, such as heritage or your community. Please, the reason that non-Western languages have been shoved aside is because people around the world have been brainwashed into thinking that their own languages aren’t important. There is institutionalized encouragement for the study of Western languages, without any such support for non-Western languages. The habit of starting to study European languages as a polyglot on the premise that they’re more useful, sophisticated, rich in a literary heritage, are all utter nonsense, since nearly every non-Eastern language has comparable histories.

Learning a non-European language gives value and validation to all the immigrant and diaspora communities of people who are told every day that their languages do not matter, and that they must study English or another Western language at the expense of their own.

Yes, I’m telling you to learn a non-European language if you’re going to seriously invest time into being a polyglot. You cannot claim to be sophisticated or worldly in the way of languages if you don’t have a decent variety of languages going on. I think that only knowing European languages, East Asian languages, or any kind of centrism implies a kind of close-mindedness. Stop telling yourself that you’re open-minded when your vision of being worldly is centered on or exclusively encompasses one part of the world.

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greenlandic colours 🇬🇱

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“German is so ugly”

“Danish is so ugly”

“Dutch is so ugly”

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It never ends

My reaction when somebody says Portuguese is basically Spanish.

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Kommen and Prefixes

to come: kommen

to get away: abkommen

to arrive: ankommen

to make do: auskommen

to receive: bekommen

to come in: einkommen

to escape: entkommen

to come here: herkommen

to come along: mitkommen

to come after: nachkommen

to decay: verkommen

to happen: vorkommen

to approach: zukommen

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Deadpool isn't Pansexual

I don’t know why people think this is even remotely right. You wanna think he is, sure go ahead. Like a head canon? Fine. But if you’re going to pass this off as fact, then you’re just plain wrong. Let’s look at our two forms of deadpool. Comic: Woes several ladies, including the lovely Shiva and Lady Death, and only jokingly flirts with males. Always goes on about tits, not dicks. Movie: Possibly Woes several ladies before the movie, but in the movie falls for one female, has sex with her multiple times. Jokingly refers to his prostate as the on switch. The ONE time he got close was on International Womens Day, and you know what he said as soon as she started to go? No no no no. So please, continue to tell me how Deadpool is confirmed pan and canon pan. Please do.

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I’m straight

april fools

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C’mon dentures!

When you introduce your grandmother to Rupauls drag race

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Person: [Language] is ugly.

Me: Fight me.

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»swofehuper« by richard tipping (+)

[via]

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When u shade someone using a word from your AP English vocab list

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i’m still not over the linguistic miracle that is the Finnish expression “noni” and its variations

NOni (emphasis on the first syllable): “well now you’ve done it, good job” meaning you’ve majorly fucked up

noNI (emphasis on the last syllable): “I TOLD YOU DIDN’T I” meaning I totally was right and this argument is over

noni (literally no emphasis): “Anyway” or “I need to rearrange my thoughts, give me a sec”

NOniin (emphasis on the first syllable): “i admit my defeat you were right” meaning it definitely answers the noni above

noNIIN (emphasis on the last syllable): “let’s get started” or “okay anyway let’s continue”

NONni (emphasis on the first syllable): “aw, that sucks”

nonNI (emphasis on the last syllable): “without further ado, let’s get started”, usually after a long wait before a lengthy speech/presentation

nonni (again no emphasis): “you’re such a disappointment”

nonnnnnni (the length of the -nn- defines the meaning): “that’s too bad” or “i told you so” or “why would you drop the family heirloom vase it was literally worth 500k euros”

No. Nii. (the pause between no and nii defines the meaning): “yea, just like I was saying” or “and that’s about all I know about this issue” or “okay you’re right” or “hold on i need a moment to figure what to say next”

noniii (the length of the -ii defines the meaning): “ah, it’s finally working” or “I’m not so sure about that one”, or “well I guess you’re right but consider the following:” or “ah, buckle your seat belts, the ride’s about to begin”

no NIIN (sometimes no is almost swallowed and it sounds like “nNNII”): “finally finished”, usually after a lengthy speech/presentation

no nii-IH (if you forget the singsong tone this won’t work): “that’s what i’ve literally been trying to say for the past three hours” or “i know right ugh”

no niiii-i (the last -i is really short and sort of fades into the void of eternity, probably the most passive-aggressive word in the entire Finnish language): “i fucking agree” or “yeah tell me about it” after a very negative discussion, in which you usually complain about someone or something

NONIH (only mothers know how to say this one): “do this or so god help me” or “it’s six am on a Saturday morning and you’re about to clean up the entire house and the neighbour’s house too”

NOHNI (everyone driving a car naturally aces this one): “fucking. drive. you. slow. ass. slug” or “it’s fucking green it’s been green for 84 years” or “please don’t fucking hit me please” or “how the hell did that one even get a licence”