spider-incarnate

[spider-incarnate]

ok, this is amazing. I found a great site with short stories in 34 languages!

"WorldStories is a growing collection of stories from around the world. The collection includes retold traditional tales and new short stories in the languages most spoken by UK children.

We are adding new stories, translations, pictures and sound recordings every week. So keep coming back to enjoy new content!"

[spider-incarnate]

my friend and i were going to study a language together and wound up having to cancel our plans due to scheduling pressures, but! through research we came across a really cool resource for reading in a TON of languages: bloom library!

as you can see, it has a lot of books for languages that are usually a bit harder to find materials for—we were going to use it for kyrgyz, for example, which has over 1000 books, which was really hard to find textbook materials for otherwise. as you can see it also has books with audio options, which would be really useful for pronunciation checking. as far as i can tell, everything on the site is free as well.

#omg!!

[spider-incarnate]

My handwriting in five languages

English | Burmese | Korean | Chinese | Japanese

I don't have the most beautiful handwriting but I love writing on paper with a pen!! my fav is black in because I feel cooler. The sentences are from books I had around.

my fav handwriting is definitely my Burmese handwriting. Look at those round things go!!!

my favorite language to practice writing in is Chinese. The hanzi (or kanji/hanja) feels so nice. It's like meditation

my favorite language to actually write things in is Korean. Maybe because now I'm fluent in a language other than Burmese and English. While writing long essays in Korean, I can FEEL my brain unlocking things.

least favorite language to write in is japanese. My brain has to switch gears from simplified chinese characters to traditional chinese characters to japanese chinese characters. maybe it'll get easier if I get to like N1 but right now, it's ugh. I love hiragana but I'm going to have an enemies to lovers arc with katakana. I can feel it.

#oh so cool i have to try this !! #i don’t speak any languages w other scripts but i can read hangul hiragana and cyrillic so i’ll do it with those :]

[spider-incarnate]

As both a gamer and a learner of Japanese, I have combined the two and am trying to play as many games as I can find in said language. Only problem is my Steam library is vast due to never being able to pass up a sale. Its been very tedious going through all the games seeing which have Japanese language options so I was super happy when I found this site that allows you to filter games via language. And other things like tags and features but I most likely the language bit. Some of the games it turns out I have with Japanese language options was pretty surprising and I can't wait to check them out.

#oh I've been lookin for smthn like this yippee ty !!

[spider-incarnate]

probably i just said it but i want to say it again:

- don’t apologise if you don’t know english.

- yes, english is the most common language on the internet but you are not forced to know it perfectly.

- your own language is beautiful.

- non-english people make a huge effort to write in English everyday on this website.

- support non-english people and don’t make them feel bad if they do not know English. 

- actually support all the languages.

- spread more language diversity on Tumblr.

thank you. 

[spider-incarnate]

The best notes written in manuscripts by medieval monks

Colophon: a statement at the end of a book containing the scribe or owner’s name, date of completion, or bitching about how hard it is to write a book in the dark ages

Oh, my hand

The parchment is very hairy

Thank God it will soon be dark

St. Patrick of Armagh, deliver me from writing

Now I’ve written the whole thing; for Christ’s sake give me a drink

Oh d fuckin abbot

Massive hangover

Whoever translated these Gospels did a very poor job

Cursed be the pesty cat that urinated over this book during the night

If someone else would like such a handsome book, come and look me up in Paris, across from the Notre Dame cathedral

I shall remember, O Christ, that I am writing of Thee, because I am wrecked today

Do not reproach me concerning the letters, the ink is bad and the parchment scanty and the day is dark

11 golden letters, 8 shilling each; 700 letters with double shafts, 7 shilling for each hundred; and 35 quires of text, each 16 leaves, at 3 shilling each. For such an amount I won’t write again

Here ends the second part of the title work of Brother Thomas Aquinas of the Dominican Order; very long, very verbose; and very tedious for the scribe; thank God, thank God, and again thank God

If anyone take away this book, let him die the death, let him be fried in a pan; let the falling sickness and fever seize him; let him be broken on the wheel, and hanged. Amen

[spider-incarnate]

no sé cómo decir nadaaa

#fr

[spider-incarnate]

Hello, do you have some funny German YouTubers suggestions? Something like Dan and Phil style, but I'd check out anything. I haven't found my German YouTube bubble yet.

Okay, I love and loathe this question now. I asked you for more channels you like and you listed Danny Gonzalez and Drew Gooden, which I really like myself. But as far as I can tell, there's no German channels quite like them. I think the kind of investment (incl. financial) is just not very typical in the German scene in connection to the commentary side of youtube. If you some day find something like that, let me know!!!! In looking for channels, I have found a bunch different ones though, so you've not asked for nothing (the ones potentially closest to your taste I've marked with italics):

Broad Category

German Youtube Channel (American/English similar channel) [More info about the content]

Entertainment/Commentary

Renzo (Danny Gonzales, Drew Gooden) [commentary, famous for some political critique]

Julien Bam [Very creatively charged, funny, often music-videos]

Marti Fischer [Funny stuff, mainly about music]

Space Frogs [comedy duo, also a bit political sometimes]

Held der Steine [Commentary on LEGO sets, very passionate, fun to watch]

Poetry Slam TV [Recordings of poetry slams]

Gronkh [Biggest LetsPlayer, a good soul, safe space for many, people especially reccomend his original minecraft series (very old)]

Coldmirror [comedy videos, especially known for her 5min Harry Podcast, hard to understand at times because she has a very distinct voice and way of speaking, but very funny]

Hazel & Thomas [A couple, mainly podcast-style, often political]

RobBubble

FreshTorge [Comedy Sketches]

Educational

Theresa Reichl [Linguistics, German literature, very funny, kind and feminist]

Dinge erklärt - kurzgesagt (in a nutshell)

MrWissen2Go [history, politics, education; many with subtitles afaik]

Terra X History

SWR Handwerkskunst [videos about various crafts and trades, very cool]

Die Maus [beloved kids show]

maiLab [chemisty major, political, mostly about academics/uni/research]

Politics, Satire

ZDF Magazine Royal (Last Week Tonight)

Learning German

Deutsch Lernen, Deutsche Welle

Easy German

[spider-incarnate]

Because I was interested in game development, I've started messing around with a simple text-based game engine (ink) and am making a simple game in German, aimed at A2-B2 German learners.

But it also made me think: That would be such a cool practice for my TLs too. Create a simple story as a game in Spanish instead!

It's a bit more dynamic than straight-forward writing a story and that makes it a lot more fun for me!

Maybe you would enjoy that too!

#the german story sounds so exciting and helpful!!!

[spider-incarnate]

[spider-incarnate]

Learning German & Staying alive

☄  https://german.net/ - free online resource with some tests, text, and planty more. Great for reading and reading comprehention;

☄ https://germanwithlaura.com - great course that explains grammar a bit more manageable;

☄ https://www.clozemaster.com - somewhat of a duolingo-copy, gamification at ift greatest. From 100 to 50 000 common words in context, can be used for free;

☄ https://wunderdeutsch.com/uk/grammatik-null-u/ - grammar, but in ukrainian. Helpful;

☄ https://golernen.com/ - more grammar, with ukrainian language avaliable;

☄ https://piracywhiskeypoetry.tumblr.com/post/136460408137/language-resources-masterpost - masterpost with multiple language;

☄ https://mein-deutschbuch.de/grammatik.html - another damn grammar

☄ https://www.quia.com/web - tests, some fun stuff.

sheesh I would need to make it pretty, but for now will do

[spider-incarnate]

Scary scary German syntax... right?

The following sentence exhibits a typical mistake German-learners make: Heute ich gehe in ein Museum.

It's not conjugation ("ich gehe" is correct!), it's not declension ("ein Museum" is correct too!). The issue is "heute ich gehe". Correct would be: Heute gehe ich in ein Museum (or: Ich gehe heute in ein Museum.)

What's the rule here?

It's unfortunately not simply "there can only be one word before the verb"

German word order is so difficult be cause it is so variable. All following sentences are correct and synoymous (though emphasis shifts):

Der Opa schenkt seiner Enkelin zum Geburtstag ein Buch über Autos.

Seiner Enkelin schenkt der Opa zum Geburtstag ein Buch über Autos.

Ein Buch über Autos schenkt der Opa seiner Enkelin zum Geburtstag.

Zum Geburtstag schenkt der Opa seiner Enkelin ein Buch über Autos. All mean: The grandfather gifts his niece a book about cars for her birthday.

What do they all have in common, syntax-wise? There's only one phrase in front of the finite verb. What does this mean? A phrase is a completed (!) unit that can consist of one or more words (depending on the word class (-> noun, verb, …)) Typical word classes that can be a phrase with just one word are:

Proper nouns, plural nouns, personal pronouns, relative pronous (Lukas kocht. Busse fahren. Ich schreibe. Der Mann, der kocht, …)

Adverbs (Heute, Morgen, Bald, Dort, Darum, …) Most other word classes need additional words to form a full phrase:

adjectives need a noun and article: der blaue Ball, der freundliche Nachbar

nouns need a determiner (= article): der Mann, eine Frau, das Nachbarskind

prepositions need… stuff (often a noun phrase): auf der Mauer, in dem Glas, bei der Statue

…

A finite verb is the verb that has been changed (=conjugated) according to person, time, … All verbs that are NOT infinitive or participles are finite. ich sagte -> "sagte" is the finite verb ich bin gegangen -> "bin" is the finite verb The infinitive and the participle are called "infinite verbs" and are always pushed towards the end (but not always the very end!) of the sentence: Ich bin schon früher nach Hause gegangen als meine Freunde.

So: Before the verb (that is not the participle or infinitive) there can only be one phrase.

Since "heute" is an adverb (-> forms a full phrase on its own) and "ich" is a personal pronoun (-> forms a full phrase on its own), they can't both be in front of the verb "gehe" You have to push one of them behind the verb: Heute gehe ich in ein Museum Ich gehe heute in ein Museum.

Both of these are main clauses (Ger.: Hauptsätze), which in German exhibit "V-2 Stellung", meaning the finite verb is in the second position (after one phrase).

What happens if we push all phrases behind the finite verb?

Gehe ich heute in ein Museum? (Watch out: Gehe heute ich in ein Museum would be ungrammatical! The subject has to come in the second position)

It's a question now!

In German, question sentences (that do not start with a question word like "Was?", "Wo?", …) start with the finite verb (called "V-1 Stellung").

Questions, main clauses,… what's missing?

Dependent clauses!

The third type of sentence exhibits "V-letzt Stellung" or "V-End Stellung", meaning the finite verb is at the very end of the sentence. Ich bin gestern in ein Museum gegangen, … main clause -> V-2 Stellung … weil es dort eine interessante Ausstellung gab. dependent clause -> V-letzt Stellung If you want to practice this....

... determine if the following German sentences are correct. If not, what would be the right way to say it?

Der Zug war sehr voll.

Gestern ich war in der Schule.

Die Lehrerin mich nicht hat korrigiert.

Gehst du heute zur Arbeit?

Das Buch ich finde nicht sehr interessant.

To practice this further, translate the following sentences into German and focus on the order of words:

The boy gave the ball back to me.

I called my girlfriend because I missed her.

The girl saw her brother at the train station.

The horse, which was standing on the field, was white and black.

[spider-incarnate]

Would half six in the predominant language of your country make more sense to mean 5:30 or 6:30

The correct way to mention it’s 6:30 in English would be ‘it’s half past six’ However some people from the UK use the expression 'half six’ from time to time. Note: in some languages such as Spanish and French half six would not make much sense but even then it would make more sense to be 6:30 than 5:30

by loverofgeography

[spider-incarnate]

The sound that √-ǂ makes still haunts my dreams at night

[spider-incarnate]

So i know it's a common experience in English to sometimes have a moment where you spell a word correctly and it just looks wrong for some reason and i was wondering if that also happens with Russian or Japanese??

Yeah! I think what you're referring to may be a case of Semantic Satiation, and it's a human phenomenon, not limited to one language!

It's also responsible for when saying a word too many times make it sounds like gibberish.

[spider-incarnate]

@language-sanctuary’s langblr study challenge

This is my personal method to language studying, I thought it would be helpful. A link to a PDF can be found here 

How this works: 

Language studying consists of fours skills: writing and speaking (active skills) and reading and listening (passive skills). I have compiled a list of language learning activities that provide a comprehensive approach to those fours skills and can be useful to visual, auditory or kinesthesic learners (or a mix). 

You can set an estimate of the points you’ll get in week or day, or even try to improve a previous score. 

You can try to go though the list in order

You can print the list, stick it to the wall and throw darts at it, just have fun! 

If you use this, please tag it as #karenstudymethod or tag @language-sactuary so I can see the posts! 

[spider-incarnate]

From Beginner to Intermediate: an intense plan for advancing in language

Introduction

I've studied Spanish at school for 3 years and now I'm at a low B1 level. I can actually understand pretty well while listening or reading but I can't communicate fluently.

This plan will include vocabulary build up, some grammar revision, a lot of listening, reading and writing. And could be used for the most languages, not only Spanish.

Plan

Every day:

Conjugate one verb in present, past and future tenses

Make a list about 10 - 30 words long

Create flashcards with them and start learning them (I use Quizlet for flashcards)

Revise yesterday's set of flashcards

2-3 times a week:

Read an article or a few pages from a book

Write a few sentences about anything in your target language

Listen to one episode of podcast (at least one)

Once a week or every two weeks:

Watch a movie in your target language, preferably animated movie as the language used there is easier. You can watch with subtitles

Grammar exercises

Translate some short text

Once a month:

Write something longer, like an essay or report, on chosen topic

Additionally:

Talk to yourself, to your friends, to your pets

Text with someone

Look at the transcription while listening to the podcast for second time

Repeat what you hear (in podcast or movie)

Check words you don't know from the listening and reading

Read out loud

Listen to music in your target language - you can even learn the text and sing along

Watch YouTube in your target language

Change your phone language to the one you're learning

Think in you target language!!!

***This is very intense plan for self-learners, you don't have to do all of these things in the given time. Adjust it to your own pace. I'll try to stick to this, if I have enough time.***