#and learning French!!! and Arabic calligraphy

[stuckinapril]

I’m actually so in love w my schedule right now. Daily 8-hour study sessions, reading before bed (slowly but steadily working my way through It by Alexa Chung & At the Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Bakewell, among others), snacking on so many tasty fruits, volunteering every week, organic chemistry research every day, marathoning Audrey Hepburn movies bc I’m officially obsessed w her, flash cards on the treadmill, deep-conditioning my curls while studying, I live at my local library and coffee shops and my favorite boba place, going out w my friends on the weekends, carving pumpkins and watching spooky movies w my bsf, vibing to songs on sunset walks, and like actually minding my own fucking business. I would ask for nothing more

#except maybe piano lessons bc I am dying to do it already #and learning French!!! and Arabic calligraphy #but each thing at its own time. now is not the time. but soon #rn I’m fulfilled and having so much fun #p

[icannotreadcursive]

Headcanons regarding Nicky di Genova’s relationship to written language:

First of all, dude is dyslexic. I have decided this is fact.

His handwriting is utterly atrocious. His calligraphy is gorgeous. Joe was baffled by this until Nicky put it in terms of calligraphy not being writing but rather drawing the letters.

The letter “j” pops up as a vowel in Nicky’s writing kind of a lot—it’s a long i and you can pry it (briefly) from his cold dead hands.

Thorn and eth pop up in his writing seemingly at random. They’re just kinda in his brain’s rolodex of ways to write that sound. Words that used to be commonly written with thorn or eth and newer words/words Nicky hasn’t written or read as often are more likely to to get a thorn or eth but really no th is safe.

He has a certain fondness for the German language in part because German really doesn’t do silent letters.

He hates Russian cursive. He learned to write Russian cursive in the hope that doing so would improve his ability to read it. That didn’t really work

There was a significant stretch of time during which the only Arabic he could reliably read was Joe’s handwriting.

A contributing factor to Nicky joining the Church was that he wound up spending a lot of extra time in lessons as a kid because he liked books but struggled with actually reading them.

He has a grudging appreciation for l’Académie Française because French spelling/phonics might be a nightmare but at least they’re reliable.

Fuck English spelling. Just….whatever he wrote, say it out loud. Try a couple different pronunciation systems if you have to. If that’s not the “correct” spelling, he doesn’t care.

#the old guard #nicolo di genova #languages #dyslexia #headcanons #eiiri has thoughts

[zainabjawad1]

FA222 / Project 1

Bahrain Fine Art Exhibition

Events and Activities

-events

-Annual festivals and events

-activities

 Events

-European movie nights

-Perfumes (Les Parfums), a 2019 French movie directed by Gregory Manet

-Two Sisters Divided (Homme Fiore) Directed by Daphne Charziani (Germany, Greece)

-Short Film Night, followed by a discussion session moderated by the Bahrain Cinema Club

-Pearling Path Contest Exhibition

-Exhibition of stations in the history of Bahrain Airport (1977-1927)

 Annual festivals and events

-Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition

Fulfilling its first decades in life, the Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition continues to approach the Bahraini arts and reveal its details under the generous and sublime patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the esteemed Prime Minister, whose generous support and sublime sponsorship of this fine exhibition has continued since 1972, with wide participation from Artists who are a prophecy of culture in color, existence and composition. The Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition represents a human visual discourse and an open interpretation, freed every time from the mold of one subject to another subject or various concepts, touching the dialectic of the individual and subjectivity of each artist.

The exhibition is not satisfied with the idea of ​​competition or the exhibits, but its space embodies a collective historical and artistic memory through which different artistic generations, creative readings and all available tools coexist. Such artistic agglutination creates cultural neighborhoods that explain human chaos and human differences in taste, expression, interaction and translation, and also allows bringing the professional creative experience closer to that talented one. The Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition also seeks to transcend the concept of It is made into vision, contemplation, and deliberation in reading the data, and producing it within the ideologies of the individual, not the group. This diversity that the exhibition seeks is just an opportunity to highlight different intellectual currents, in which each artist talks about his emotions towards ideas, expressions or events that his senses witnessed before his audience of art connoisseurs.

In the context of selecting artistic talents and the participating creations that culture bet on, a specialized evaluation committee is formed every year to select the most beautiful, mature and unique works, and it consists of a group of plastic artists, experts and artistic analysts, whose experiences and visions intersect together to select the winning works. The process, in its details, reflects a critical artistic vision and expert examinations with a long history of learning about plastic experiments with its various touches and laboratories.

 Activities

-Arabic calligraphy basics

-Cash knitting workshop

- Basics of clay shaping with a wheel

- Sef Al Khous Workshop

-Shipbuilding workshop

-The art of video production

-Photoshop workshop

-Incense making workshop

-The Museum's Best Picture Contest

-Pictures in the museum

-"Make your own Dilmun Pottery" workshop

Workshop "Write in Cuneiform"

-"Make your own Dilmun Seal" workshop

-"Create Your Museum" Workshop

-"Workshop" The Legend of Gilgamesh

-Did you fill a bucket today?

-Find the puzzle in the museum

-A tour of the Bahrain National Museum

-"Flavor of Italy" workshop

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Illuminated Manuscripts

“Christ Kneeling in Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemene” (c. 1475 France, Loire Valley)

Illuminated manuscripts embody the extraordinary union of beauty and knowledge.

Though the art of making them disappeared with the advent of the printing press, the most spectacular manuscripts survived the ages.

Here are 8 masterworks of medieval illumination: 🧵

1. The Morgan Crusader Bible, 13th century

Commissioned by French King Louis IX, the Morgan Crusader Bible depicts events from the Hebrew Bible set in the scenery and attire of 13th-century France — it puts a medieval twist on Old Testament stories.

Consisting of 46 folios, the manuscript displays illustrations accompanied by text written in either Latin, Persian, Arabic, or Hebrew.

The vivid colors and attention to detail make it one of the most popular illuminated manuscripts.

2. The Black Hours, 15th century

The Black Hours is a book of hours (a type of prayer book) created in Bruges, Belgium.

The style is in imitation of Wilhelm Vrelant, the most popular illuminator of the period and constructed of vellum (calfskin) that’s been dyed pitch black.

Gold and blue paint overlay the dark background to create an almost otherworldly look.

Written in silver and gold ink, the text lists the prayers to be said while depictions of Bible stories aid the reader in meditation.

3. Book of Kells, 9th century

Among the most iconic medieval manuscripts is the Book of Kells.

Created in a Columban monastery, the text is the pinnacle of early medieval calligraphy and illumination.

The graphics are a blend of insular art (the post-Roman era style of art popular in Irish monasteries) and traditional Christian iconography.

Plants, animals, Celtic knots, and biblical figures decorate the 680 page volume to tell the story of Jesus’ life.

4. Codex Argenteus, 6th century

Latin for “Silver Book,” the Codex Argenteus contains the four gospels written in Gothic, making it one of the world’s foremost sources for the now-extinct language.

The book was likely written as a gift for Ostrogothic king, Theodoric the Great.

The work is particularly striking due to its purple-stained vellum pages, metallic ink, and silver binding. Looks almost Tolkienesque…

5. Acre Bible, 13th Century

Another work commissioned by Louis IX, the Acre Bible was compiled shortly after the king’s release from captivity during the disastrous 7th crusade.

Upon returning to France, he deposited the masterwork in his newly built Sainte-Chapelle library.

It contains 19 books of the Old Testament, and its illustrations are considered masterpieces of crusader art.

6. The Aberdeen Bestiary, 12-13th century

A bestiary is essentially an encyclopedia of animals and mythical beasts.

They gained popularity throughout the Middle Ages as readers could learn about exotic animals or mythical creatures.

This one was owned by Henry VIII and features a retelling of the Genesis creation story with fantastical images of creatures both real and imagined.

7. The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry, 15th century

The best surviving example of the International Gothic style of illumination, it’s one of the most lavishly designed late-medieval manuscripts and contains well over 100 illustrations.

Despite beautiful scenes covering most of its pages, the work didn’t shy away from darker imagery.

8. The Berthold Sacramentary, 13th century

Commissioned by the abbot of Weingarten Abbey, this manuscript is a form of missal called a sacramentary used by priests for liturgical services.

A sacramentary gives the priest's readings and prayers for the Mass. This one is a paragon of Romanesque art.

#illuminated manuscripts #medieval manuscripts #medieval illumination #Middle Ages #medieval period #art history #books #handmade books #scribe #illuminator #The Morgan Crusader Bible #The Black Hours #Book of Kells #Codex Argenteus #Acre Bible #The Aberdeen Bestiary #The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry #The Berthold Sacramentary #Wilhelm Vrelant #King Louis IX #medieval calligraphy #Theodoric the Great #bestiary #Henry VIII #Weingarten Abbey #sacramentary #missal

[kaedeakeshisworld]

Concerning the writer

Mel

Nicknames: Mina, Tita and Annie

Tropical astrology: Cancer Stellium, Scorpio Rising + Pluto in the first house

Sidereal one: Gemini Stellium, Libra rising + Pluto in Scorpio

Born and raised in Europe

Self-collared

Life path number 11

Kitchen / Lunar / Nocturnal / Chaos / Augury Witch

They/them pronouns

Non-binary/ Gender non conforming

Sapiosexual/ Abrosexual

Proud black individual

I do not take requests because I lead a chaotic existence

I naturally let my inspiration spread like wildfire for 2d characters

I speak Creole (Capeverdean dialect derived from Portuguese), French, Portuguese and Spanish

English is not my native tongue therefore all mistakes you see are my own. I will not apologize for it, they are mere evidence that I am trying to improve it one step at time.

Languages I am currently learning: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Swedish, Arabic and Turkish.

Blog etiquette

You can most definitely message me, I am absolutely okay with it just have some basic manners( Hi.....or something like that) and don't be shy, I'm always eager to meet new people/make friends.

I do a clear up spree each month to check who interacts with the content posted on this blog.

Feel free to block or unfollow if you do not like the content/ find it uncanny/ feel uneasy I really do not care. Practice selfcare at all costs 😊

Fujoshis and Fudanshis/ people that like to indulge bl/gl content are welcome!! This is a safe space for you! 😊

I no longer like content on this platform because it really doesn't do a single thing for the non-existient algorithm. I comment/reblog with comments/ go to writers asks to let them know I enjoyed their content and make them feel appreciated.

I highly suggest you to do this if you would like to see more content that you like on this site !

Before you follow

Give a listen to these songs:

Happy Blue Monday- Helsinki Lambda Club

ミツメ - あこがれ

羊文学 & Lücy - Oh hey

Tricot - 爆裂パニエさん

The pillows - last dinosaur

Mono no aware - me to me

What I'm fond of

anime, manga, Manhua, Manhwa, Literature, Reading, Calligraphy, Lettering, Singing, Drawing, Writing, Playing on the guitar, sleeping, watching Korean and Japanese mukbangs, coffee, eating (overindulging/inhaling food really), astrology, witchcraft, African Mythology, learning languages, discovering new cultures, palmistry, zodiac signs, life paths, tarot decks + readings, Kiki's delivery service movie ( a pick me up for my moody self) and being in nature.

What I highly Dislike

People that reason by analogy: remarkably preposterous. I put you on the same level as James I/ VII of Scotland = you are MAD bro, don't try to argue with me. It will not work. Ignorant folks (specifically those that think it is ok in this day and age to tell vagina owners what they can and cannot do with their own body= utter nonsense to me. That is one only out of the many I cannot stand), unsolicited opinions from people (for instance cisgender straight men are really something else when it comes to this), people that LGBTQIA + phobic (community that I am part of), anybody that lives under the premise that hierarchy of skin complexion is what should prevail in society ( sincerely get lost, do not interact with me if you think like this I'll just block you), extremely conservative folks that boast about the importance of gender roles ( nah, my migraine condition is enough to deal with already. I needn't worsen it!) and last but certainly not least people that think these two things: that I can educate them (no way, we're in the digital age. get your butt up and do some research for once) and those that have never encountered this forgotten gem: respect!

Do not interact if you a:

Paedophile, Misogynistic, Terf, Misogynoir, against the concept of aged up characters, do not support dark content creators ( tf I interact with it and create it this ain't the place for you!!).

You lot which are against bl/gl content and or like to downgrade eastern asian bl/gl stuff specifically if you're a westerner! Why pull a Heartstopper author move like that 🙄. Seriously, get lost!!

Xenophobe, kinkshamer, drama addict(not k-drama though, Real life one I mean), fatshamer, groomer(= highly repugnant!!) homophobe, pro-life. This blog has always been pro-choice and only that sounds right! Narrow minded folks that like to provide me with their unsolicited opinion !?!basically get off my nutsack, will you!? I don't even listen to people irl telling me how I should live my life?! What makes you think you have earned that privilege??!

#black author #black writer

[mirai-studies-languages]

My impossible list

This list is inspired by UnJaded Jade. It is essentially a list of all of my goals and aims in life, kind of like a bucket list. I’ve split it into 6 categories: fitness/health, professional/creative, skills, academics, travel/miscellaneous and life. Here they are!

Fitness/health

Get into the habit of exercising every morning (a Chloe Ting video, perhaps?)

Complete the couch to 5K challenge

Complete the Chloe Ting two week shred challenge

Reach and maintain a healthy weight

Learn how to cook traditional family meals

Professional/creative

Write and publish several novels

Find a job that involves languages, travel and creating a positive change in the world that you enjoy

Start a YouTube channel about language learning

Learn how to do calligraphy

Reach 1000 followers on this blog.

Skills

Speak fluent (C1/C2) French, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, German, Russian, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali

Be able to understand and translate literature in ancient greek and latin

Learn how to play basic piano

Learn how to play basic guitar

Self study architecture (the theory anyway), history, medicine (not to practice), world literature, marxism, linguistics and classics

Academics

Achieve 3 A*s in A-levels (French, English literature and history)

Get a first in a liberal arts degree (Mandarin Chinese, Russian, English literature and international relations)

Do a dissertation analysing Marx from a linguistic perspective

Win an English literature A-level essay competions

Travel/miscellaneous

Spend Gap year in Yemen

Visit Japan

Speak at the polyglot conference

Abseil down a waterfall

Go on Hajj

Life

Mantain a healthy physical and mental state

Get married and have kids (raise your kids multilingual)

Re-connect with deen and religion

So that’s it! That’s my impossible list. Thanks for reading this post!

#study motivation #studyblr #langblr #goals #goal setting #unjaded jade #travel #fitness #polyglot #aspiring polyglot #wonderlust

[omoi-no-hoka]

Hi omoi-no-hoka in a previous ask you said that you had studied german besides Japanese in uni, but i dont recall reading that you said that you got to any level of proficiency,so have you learnt another language to some degree?(including German), or are you interested in learning another?

Hi there, my dear friend! 💖

I have dabbled in several languages, but I can only claim to be proficient in English and Japanese right now.

Here are the languages I have studied so far:

English

Proficiency: Native

I can muddle my way through Middle English if you force me, but I’d rather you didn’t lol. I did quite a bit of study of medieval literature and the history of the English language, so I’m fairly good at Chaucer and Milton and stuff, if I reeeeeeally need to be. I was one of those nerds that participated in the university’s Medieval Poetry Reading Club lol. For genealogy research I often find myself reading documents from the 17th century and  back which is...oof. that calligraphy and spelling, man.  

Japanese

Length of Study: 5 years at uni plus all these years of independent study

Proficiency: near-native (feel kinda like a braggart for writing that...)

I can do Classical Japanese as well but it is torture I do not want inflicted upon me, unless it is Basho’s haiku.

Spanish

Length of Study: 4 years in high school, 1 year in uni

Proficiency: I was fully conversational back in uni. Went to Mexico and totally survived. Could watch telenovelas to my heart’s content. Sadly, I have had zero opportunity to use Spanish since moving to Japan 6 years ago and I have forgotten most all of it... I can still read it very well,  but when I try to speak it, Japanese words come out and it’s very stop-and-start. It makes me so sad I could cry, because I just love Spanish so much. I want to refresh, but I need a speaking partner to really get back to being fluent again.

French

Length of Study: 2 years in high school

Proficiency: ...how do you say “zero” in French? lol. Strangely, I know how to say “canker sore,” which is “aphtes.” This is because one of my roommates in the dorms at uni only knew the French word, and therefore I learned the French word lol. Thank you for teaching me that word, mon amie! XD

German

Length of Study: 1 year in uni

Proficiency: All I can say is “Das ist nicht so gut” and “Krankenwagen.” So...zero lol. I have a lot of German heritage, so I would love to study it in earnest one day. The whole der/die/das and preposition mess kills me though. 

Indonesian

Length of Study: 6 months, independent

Proficiency: My host parents wanted to take their first ever trip abroad and chose Indonesia, where we have a great English-speaking friend living in a rural part of East Java. Since my host parents can’t speak English, they wanted me to come with them. So I did my best to learn as much Indonesian as possible in the 6 months leading up to the trip. I was able to count, talk about money, do greetings, all the really rudimentary crash-course survival stuff. Also, “tumbicar” is how you say “pottery” lol.

I also learned a little bit of Javanese, because our friend’s family could only speak Javanese, so I learned how to say “Thank you” and a few other little phrases.

I intend to go back and visit his family again, so I really need to study Javanese seriously. However, the only legit book on Javanese I could find assumes that you already speak Indonesian, so...gotta learn Indonesian first lol.

Romanian

Length of Study: 3 months, independent

Proficiency: Zero. A story I was writing involved some bits of spoken Romanian and I wanted to understand the grammar more so I could check whether Google Translate was doing me dirty. It was really cool and I’d love to study it seriously one day.

Old English

Length of Study: Ongoing!!

Proficiency: Zero right now, but I just started studying it and I. AM. SO. EXCITED.

Other Languages I’d like to study:

Ainu

Old Norse

ARABIC. That’s at the top of my list, because I have very very serious plans to go to Egypt in the next couple years, and it’s a fascinating language.

Mongolian is another one that really interests me. Not sure how I’d go about learning it, though.

#xzinik #wish i could say i was a #polygot #but im not lol #foreign language studies #japanese language #spanish #french #german #romanian #indonesian #javanese #old english #middle english #fuck it ill learn whatever language because i just like to talk

[vale-studies-ir]

new studyblr ❤

hi everyone! i’ve had a tumblr account for a while now but i just recently found some amazing studyblr accounts that have motivated me to make my own. hopefully this will get me through the rest of grad school and future life projects!  

about me

24/ born in colombia/ raised in the usa 

currently finishing up (at least trying to)  the 2nd year in my phd program 

pursuing my degree in international relations with a focus on dynamics of and responses to migration 

i’m in love with the middle east and have made that my area of concentration

attempting to become a polyglot - at some point in life - currently working on turkish; english and spanish native speaker (bits and pieces of french and arabic) 

absolutely love to sing; was a soprano in high school - sometimes use this as an outlet for my stress lol

little quirks

absolutely love turkish series (they’re just as dramatic as telenovelas, if not more) definitely a hopeless romantic

i’m listening to a lot of turkish rock (of course); indie folk; & oldies 

trying to beat my depression and anxiety symptoms - hopefully this blog helps 

hoping to one day live and work in turkey; maybe in a non-profit humanitarian organization 

current projects and goals for blog 

participate in 100 days of productivity 

regain my motivation (grad studies are killer) 

keep in pace with my courses 

study turkish every day - hopefully be fluent or nearly fluent by the end of the year 

share my journey and progress 

learn calligraphy maybe? (it’s harder since i’m a lefty) 

be more active/ exercise more 

practice mindfulness 

more leisure reading (if I ever find the time) 

studyblr inspirations 

@study-sarahh @betterself @studylustre 

@fivestarstudying @tomesofmagic @captainofstudies 

#new studyblr #finding motivation #phdblr #gradblr

[cyclusion]

✧ ━━ the courts of switzerland present BAYEZIDE OSMAN of THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, a SEHZADE of THE OTTOMAN ALLIANCE. the THIRTY-THREE year old had been VALOROUS and INSPIRING before the break of war but have now become BLOODTHIRSTY and CALLOUS. HE is often remembered by their likeness to CAN YAMAN and RIPPED WAR BANNERS STAINED WITH BLOOD, AYAT MUTTERED AT THE START OF EVERY BATTLE, and THE QUIETUS IN AN EMPTY FIELD. the rumor mills of europe claim that his allegiance lies with HIMSELF and that he is for WAR.

ABOUT PAGE

BIOGRAPHY

APPLICATION

WANTED CONNECTIONS — wip

BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME : bayezide osman

MEANING :

bayezide: “prevailing sovereign, preponderant ruler”

osman: "son of snake".

MONIKERS / NICKNAMES : bayezid

TITLE : sehzade, general

GENDER & PRONOUNS : cisgender male, he/him

ETHNICITY : turkic

DATE OF BIRTH & AGE: june 14, 1526 / thirty-three

ZODIAC SIGN : capricorn sun / cancer moon / virgo rising

ORIENTATION : heterosexual heteroromantic

MARITAL STATUS : widower

OCCUPATION : sehzade, general

CURRENT LOCATION : switzerland

BACKGROUND

PLACE OF BIRTH : istanbul, turkey

RESIDENCES : 

topkapı palace, istanbul, turkey

various ottoman palaces

RELIGIOUS VIEWS : sunni islam

EDUCATION : private tutoring, military training

LANGUAGES SPOKEN : arabic, ottoman turkish, greek, french, trying to learn russian

ALLEGIANCES : himself + the ottoman empire, which to him has no difference

FAMILY : refer to the tree HERE

OTHER FAMILIAL RELATIONS : promised to be engaged to the duchess friederike of germany

APPEARANCE

FACECLAIM : can yaman

HAIR COLOUR / STYLE : blonde, always kept in a bun, though he ofts shears it short for battle; the lack of frontline experience lately has allowed him to wear it long

EYE COLOUR / SHAPE : brown

HEIGHT : 183cm tall

BUILD : very built, muscular, and strong; bears the mark of a hundred battles, has the scars to show for it

SPEECH STYLE : fast and almost rapid-fire, has a detectable accent for french and russian but not due to lack of ability but due to overconfidence; thinks arabic is the only language you need

RECOGNIZABLE MARKINGS : has multiple battle-won scars — a strong line on his bicep, a puncture to the leg where an arrow pierced skin, and a broken nose

BEAUTY HABITS : he leaves it up to the servants

PERSONALITY

TROPES : glory hound, because destiny says so, byronic hero, self-inflicted hell, heroic wannabe, determinator

INSPIRATIONS : 

from history: mehmed ii, alexander the great, julius caesar, napoleon bonaparte, louis antoine de saint-just

from fiction: aegon the conqueror, baudolino, andrei bolkonsky

from various media: crusader kings ii ( especially the abablob ) , europa universalis iv ( especially the ottoblob )

MBTI : estj-a

ENNEAGRAM : 1w9 3w4 7w8 ( the systems builder ) sx/sp

ALIGNMENT : chaotic neutral

TEMPERAMENT : choleric-sanguine

HOGWARTS HOUSE : slytherin

POSITIVE TRAITS : easy-going, diligent, dedicated, valorous

NEGATIVE TRAITS : envious, resentful, disingenuous, bloodthirsty

HABITS : has a habit of sharpening his dagger, playing around with it when he’s bored

HOBBIES : chess, hunting, war games, oil wrestling, he learnt calligraphy from his wife huma and has picked up the habit since her passing as a way to commemorate her memory

USUAL DEMEANOR : easy-going with a smile on his face, think of thor but well-versed in human relations and up to date with the culture; he can be brash and disruptive, even impulsive; somewhat antagonistic to the opposing alliance and will rebuff most of their advances

HEALTH

PHYSICAL AILMENTS : sometimes when it gets cold, his knee hurts :/ 

NEUROLOGICAL CONDITION : simultaneously an inferiority and superiority complex at the same time

PHOBIAS : fear of failure, fear of loved ones dying

ALLERGIES : n/a

SLEEPING HABITS : sleeps regularly but wakens at the slightest sound, a hint of his militaristic background

SOCIABILITY : always up for a night of merrymaking with The Boyz, loud and cheerful when with others, prefers to be with others as he hates to be alone but also hates letting people in for fear of being vulnerable so he exists in a liminal space, very easy to talk to ( unless you’re part of the opposing alliance in which case.... gtfo ) 

ADDICTIONS : n/a

#* ╰ vi. info ⏤ bayezide osman !

[kemetic-dreams]

Ibrahima & Abdoulaye Barry Written by Deborah BachAudio by Sara Lerner

How a new alphabet is helping an ancient people write its own future

When they were 10 and 14, brothers Abdoulaye and Ibrahima Barry set out to invent an alphabet for their native language, Fulfulde, which had been spoken by millions of people for centuries but never had its own writing system. While their friends were out playing in the neighborhood, Ibrahima, the older brother, and Abdoulaye would shut themselves in their room in the family’s house in Nzérékoré, Guinea, close their eyes and draw shapes on paper.

When one of them called stop they’d open their eyes, choose the shapes they liked and decide what sound of the language they matched best. Before long, they’d created a writing system that eventually became known as ADLaM.

The brothers couldn’t have known the challenges that lay ahead. They couldn’t have imagined the decades-long journey to bring their writing system into widespread use, one that would eventually lead them to Microsoft. They wouldn’t have dreamed that the script they invented would change lives and open the door to literacy for millions of people around the world.

They didn’t know any of that back in 1989. They were just two kids with a naïve sense of purpose.

“We just wanted people to be able to write correctly in their own language, but we didn’t know what that meant. We didn’t know how much work it would be,” said Abdoulaye Barry, now 39 and living in Portland, Oregon.

“If we knew everything we would have to go through, I don’t think we would have done it.”

ADLaM is an acronym that translates to 'the alphabet that will prevent a people from being lost.'

A new writing system takes shape

The Fulbhe, or Fulani, people were originally nomadic pastoralists who dispersed across West Africa, settling in countries stretching from Sudan to Senegal and along the coast of the Red Sea. More than 40 million people speak Fulfulde — some estimates put the number at between 50 and 60 million — in around 20 African countries. But the Fulbhe people never developed a script for their language, instead using Arabic and sometimes Latin characters to write in their native tongue, also known as Fulani, Pular and Fula. Many sounds in Fulfulde can’t be represented by either alphabet, so Fulfulde speakers improvised as they wrote, with varying results that often led to muddled communications.

The Barry brothers’ father, Isshaga Barry, who knew Arabic, would decipher letters for friends and family who brought them to the house. When he was busy or tired, young Abdoulaye and Ibrahima would help out.

“They were very hard to read, those letters,” Abdoulaye recalled. “People would use the most approximate Arabic sound to represent a sound that doesn’t exist in Arabic. You had to be somebody who knows how to read Arabic letters well and also knows the Fulfulde language to be able to decipher those letters.”

Abdoulaye asked his father why their people didn’t have their own writing system. Isshaga replied that the only alphabet they had was Arabic, and Abdoulaye promised to create one for Fulfulde.

“At a basic level, that’s how the whole idea of ADLaM started,” Abdoulaye said. “We saw that there was a need for something and we thought maybe we could fix it.”

The brothers developed an alphabet with 28 letters and 10 numerals written right to left, later adding six more letters for other African languages and borrowed words. They first taught it to their younger sister, then began teaching people at local markets, asking each student to teach at least three more people. They transcribed books and produced their own handwritten books and pamphlets in ADLaM, focusing on practical topics such as infant care and water filtration.

While attending university in Conakry, Guinea’s capital city, the brothers started a group called Winden Jangen — Fulfulde for “writing and reading” — and continued developing ADLaM. Abdoulaye left Guinea in 2003, moving to Portland with his wife and studying finance. Ibrahima stayed behind, completing a civil engineering degree, and continued working on ADLaM. He wrote more books and started a newspaper, translating news stories from the radio and television from French to Fulfulde. Isshaga, a shopkeeper, photocopied the newspapers and Ibrahima handed them out to Fulbhe people, who were so grateful they sometimes wept.

But not everyone was pleased by the brothers’ work. Some objected to their efforts to spread ADLaM, saying Fulbhe people should learn French, English or Arabic instead. In 2002, military officers raided a Winden Jangen meeting, arrested Ibrahima and imprisoned him for three months. He was not charged with anything or ever told why he was arrested, Abdoulaye said. Undeterred, Ibrahima moved to Portland in 2007 and continued writing books while studying civil engineering and mathematics.

ADLaM, meanwhile, was spreading beyond Guinea. A palm oil dealer, a woman the brothers’ mother knew, was teaching ADLaM to people in Senegal, Gambia and Sierra Leone. A man from Senegal told Ibrahima that after learning ADLaM, he felt so strongly about the need to share what he’d learned that he left his auto repair business behind and went to Nigeria and Ghana to teach others.

“He said, ‘This is changing people’s lives,’” said Ibrahima, now 43. “We realized this is something people want.”  

ADLaM comes online

The brothers also understood that to fully tap ADLaM’s potential, they needed to get it onto computers. They made inquiries about getting ADLaM encoded in Unicode, the global computing industry standard for text, but got no response. After working and saving for close to a year, the brothers had enough money to hire a Seattle company to create a keyboard and font for ADLaM. Since their script wasn’t supported by Unicode, they layered it on top of the Arabic alphabet. But without the encoding, any text they typed just came through as random groupings of Arabic letters unless the recipients had the font installed on their computers.

Following that setback, Ibrahima made a fateful decision. Wanting to refine the letters the Seattle font designer developed, which he wasn’t happy with, he enrolled in a calligraphy class at Portland Community College. The instructor, Rebecca Wild, asked students at the start of each course why they were taking her class. Some needed an art credit; others wanted to decorate cakes or become tattoo artists. The explanation from the quiet African man with the French accent stunned Wild.

“It was mind-blowing when I heard the story of why he was doing this,” said Wild, who lives in Port Townsend, Washington. “It’s so remarkable. I think they deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for what they’re doing. What a difference they’ve made on this planet, and they’re these two humble brothers.”

Wild was struck by Ibrahima’s focus and assiduousness in class. “He was always a star student,” she said. “He had this skill set and unending patience. He worked and worked and worked in class on the assignments, but at the same time, he was taking all this stuff he was learning in class back to ADLaM.”

Wild helped Ibrahima get a scholarship to a calligraphy conference at Reed College in Portland, where he met Randall Hasson, a calligraphy artist and painter. Hasson was seated at a table one afternoon, giving a lettering demonstration with another instructor, and Ibrahima came over. A book about African alphabets rested on the table. Ibrahima picked it up, commented that the scripts in the book weren’t the only African alphabets and offhandedly mentioned that he and his brother had invented an alphabet.

Hasson, who has extensively researched ancient alphabets, assumed Ibrahima meant that he and his brother had somehow modified an alphabet.

“I said, ‘You mean you adapted an alphabet?’” Hasson recalled. “I had to ask him three times to be sure he had actually invented one.”

After hearing Ibrahima’s story, Hasson suggested teaming up for a talk on ADLaM at a calligraphy conference in Colorado the following year. The audience sat rapt as Hasson told Ibrahima’s story, giving him a standing ovation as he walked to the stage. During a break earlier in the day, Ibrahima asked Hasson to come and meet a few people. They were four Fulbhe men who had driven almost 1,800 miles from New York just to hear Ibrahima’s talk, hoping it would finally help get ADLaM the connections they sought.

Hasson was so moved after speaking with them that he walked away, sat down in an empty stairwell and cried.

“At that moment,” he said, “I began to understand how important this talk was to these people.”

Ibrahima made connections at the conference that got him introduced to Michael Everson, one of the editors of the Unicode Standard. It was the break the brothers needed. With help from Everson, Ibrahima and Abdoulaye put together a proposal for ADLaM to be added to Unicode.

Andrew Glass is a senior program manager at Microsoft who works on font and keyboard technology and provides expertise to the Unicode Technical Committee. The ADLaM proposal and the Barry brothers’ pending visit to the Unicode Consortium generated much interest and excitement among Glass and other committee members, most of whom have linguistics backgrounds. Glass’s graduate studies focused on writing systems that are around 2,000 years old, and like other linguists he uses a methodological, technical approach to analyze and understand writing systems.

But here were two brothers with no training in linguistics, who developed an alphabet through a natural, organic approach — and when they were children, no less. New writing systems aren’t created very often, and the chance to actually talk with the inventors of one was rare.

“You come across things in these old writing systems and you wonder why it’s the way it is, and there’s nobody to ask,” Glass said. “This was a unique opportunity to say, ‘Why is it like this? Did they think about doing things differently? Why are the letters ordered this way?’ and things like that.”

Microsoft worked with designers to develop a font for Windows and Office called Ebrima that supports ADLaM and several other African writing systems.

It was during the Unicode process that ADLaM got its new name. The brothers originally called their alphabet Bindi Pular, meaning “Pular script,” but had always wanted a more meaningful name. Some people in Guinea who’d been teaching the script suggested ADLaM, an acronym using the first four letters of the script for a phrase that translates to “the alphabet that will prevent a people from being lost.” The Unicode Technical Committee approved ADLaM in 2014 and the alphabet was included in Unicode 9.0, released in June 2016. The brothers were elated.

“It was very exciting for us,” Abdoulaye said. “Once we got encoded, we thought, ‘This is it.’”

But they soon realized there were other, possibly even more challenging hurdles ahead. For ADLaM to be usable on computers, it had to be supported on desktop and mobile operating systems, and with fonts and keyboards. To make it broadly accessible, it also needed to be integrated on social networking sites.

The brothers’ script found a champion in Glass, who had developed Windows keyboards for several languages and worked on supporting various writing systems in Microsoft technology. Glass told others at Microsoft about ADLaM and helped connect the Barry brothers to the right people at the company. He developed keyboard layouts for ADLaM, initially as a project during Microsoft’s annual companywide employee hackathon.

Judy Safran-Aasen, a program manager for Microsoft’s Windows design group, also saw the importance of incorporating ADLaM into Microsoft products. Safran-Aasen wrote a business plan for adding ADLaM to Windows and pushed the work forward with various Microsoft teams.

“It was a shoestring collaboration of a few people who were really interested in seeing this happen,” she said. “It’s a powerful human interest story, and if you tell the story you can get people onboard.

“This is going to have an impact on literacy throughout that community and enable people to be part of the Windows ecosystem, where before that just wasn’t available to them,” Safran-Aasen said. “I’m really excited that we can make this happen.”

ADLaM creators Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry in Portland, Oregon.

Microsoft worked with two type designers in Maine, Mark Jamra and Neil Patel, to develop an ADLaM component for Windows and Office within Microsoft’s existing Ebrima font, which also supports other African writing systems. ADLaM support is included in the Windows 10 May 2019 update, allowing users to type and see ADLaM in Windows, including in Word and other Office apps.

Microsoft’s support for ADLaM, Abdoulaye said, “is going to be a huge jump for us.”

ADLaM is also supported by the Kigelia typeface system developed by Jamra and Patel, which includes eight African scripts and is being added to Office later this year. The designers wanted to create a type system for a region of the world lacking in typeface development, where they say existing fonts tend to be oversimplified and poorly researched. They consulted extensively with Ibrahima and Abdoulaye to refine ADLaM’s forms, painstakingly working to execute on the brothers’ vision within the boundaries of font technology.

“This was their life’s work that they started when they were kids,” Patel said. “To get it right is a big deal.”

And to many Africans, Jamra said, a script is more than just an alphabet. ”These writing systems are cultural icons,” he said. “It’s not like the Latin script. They really are symbols of ethnic identity for many of these communities.”

They’re also a means of preserving and advancing a culture. Without a writing system it’s difficult for people to record their history, to share perspective and knowledge across generations, even to engage in the basic communications that facilitate commerce and daily activities. There is greater interest in recent years in establishing writing systems for languages that didn’t have them, Glass said, to help ensure those languages remain relevant and don’t disappear. He pointed to the Osage script, created by an elder in 2006 to preserve and revitalize the language, as an example.

“There is a big push among language communities to develop writing systems,” Glass said. “And when they get them, they are such a powerful tool to put identity around that community, and also empower that community to learn and become educated.

“I think ADLaM has tremendous potential to change circumstances and improve people’s lives. That’s one of the things that’s really exciting about this.”

Keeping a culture alive

Ibrahima and Abdoulaye don’t know how many people around the world have learned ADLaM. It could be hundreds of thousands, maybe more. As many as 24 countries have been represented at ADLaM’s annual conference in Guinea, and there are ADLaM learning centers in Africa, Europe and the U.S. On a recent trip to Brussels, Ibrahima discovered that four learning centers had opened there and others have started in the Netherlands.

“I was really surprised. I couldn’t imagine that ADLaM has reached so many people outside of Africa,” he said.

Abdoulaye “Bobody” Barry (no relation to ADLaM’s creator) lives in Harlem, New York and is part of Winden Jangen, now a nonprofit organization based in New York City. He learned ADLaM a decade ago and has taught it to hundreds of people, first at mosques and then through messaging applications using an Android app. The script has enabled Fulbhe people, many of whom never learned to read and write in English or French, to connect around the world and has fostered a sense of sense of cultural pride, Barry said.

“This is part of our blood. It came from our culture,” he said. “This is not from the French people or the Arabic people. This is ours. This is our culture. That’s why people get so excited.”

Suwadu Jallow emigrated to the U.S. from Gambia in 2012 and took an ADLaM class the Barry brothers taught at Portland Community College. ADLaM is easy for Fulfulde speakers to learn, she said, and will help sustain the language, particularly among the African diaspora.  

“Now I can teach this language to someone and have the sense of my tribe being here for years and years to come without the language dying off,” said Jallow, who lives in Seattle. “Having this writing system, you can teach kids how to speak (Fulfulde) just like you teach them to speak English. It will help preserve the language and let people be creative and innovative.”

Jallow is pursuing a master’s in accounting at the University of Washington and hopes to develop an inventory-tracking system in ADLaM after she graduates. She got the idea after helping out in her mother’s baby clothing shop in Gambia as a child and seeing that her mother, who understood little English and Arabic, could not properly record and track expenses. ADLaM, she said, can empower people like her mother who are fluent in Fulfulde and just need a way to write it.  

“It’s going to increase literacy,” she said. “I believe knowledge is power, and if you’re able to read and write, that’s a very powerful tool to have. You can do a lot of things that you weren’t able to do.”

The Fulbhe people in Guinea historically produced a considerable volume of books and manuscripts, Abdoulaye Barry said, using Arabic to write in their language. Most households traditionally had a handwritten personal book detailing the family’s ancestry and the history of the Fulbhe people. But the books weren’t shared outside the home, and Fulbhe people largely stopped writing during French colonization, when the government mandated teaching in French and the use of Arabic was limited primarily to learning the Koran.

“Everything else was basically discounted and no longer had the value that it had before the French came,” Abdoulaye said.

Having ADLaM on phones and computers creates infinite possibilities — Fulbhe people around the world will be able to text each other, surf the internet, produce written materials in their own language. But even before ADLaM’s entry into the digital world, Fulfulde speakers in numerous countries have been using the script to write books. Ibrahima mentions a man in Guinea who never went to school and has written more than 30 books in ADLaM, and a high school girl, also in Guinea, who wrote a book about geography and another about how to succeed on exams. The president of Winden Jangen, Abdoulaye Barry (also no relation to Ibrahima’s brother), said many older Fulbhe people who weren’t formally educated are now writing about Fulbhe history and traditions.

“Now, everybody can read that and understand the culture,” he said. “The only way to keep a culture alive is if you read and write in your own language.”

‘The kids are the future’

Though ADLaM has spread over several continents, Ibrahima and Abdoulaye aren’t slowing down their work. Both spend much of their spare time promoting the script, traveling to conferences and continuing to write. Ibrahima, who sleeps a maximum of four hours a night, recently finished the first book of ADLaM grammar and hopes to build a learning academy in Guinea.

On a chilly recent day in Abdoulaye’s home in Portland, the brothers offer tea and patiently answer questions about ADLaM. They are unfailingly gracious, gamely agreeing to drive to a scenic spot on the Willamette River for photos after a long day of talking. They’re also quick to deflect praise for what they have accomplished. Ibrahima, who sometimes wakes up to hundreds of email and text messages from grateful ADLaM learners, said simply that he’s “very happy” with how the script has progressed. For his brother, the response to ADLaM can be overwhelming.

Having this writing system, you can teach kids how to speak Fulani just like you teach them to speak English. It will help preserve the language and let people be creative and innovative.

“It’s very emotional sometimes,” Abdoulaye said. “I feel like people are grateful beyond what we deserve.”

The brothers want ADLaM to be a tool for combating illiteracy, one as lasting and important to their people as the world’s most well-known alphabets are to cultures that use them. They have a particular goal of ADLaM being used to educate African women, who they said are more impacted by illiteracy than men and are typically the parent who teaches children to read.

“If we educate women we can help a lot of people in the community, because they are the foundation of our community,” Abdoulaye said. “I think ADLaM is the best way to educate people because they don’t need to learn a whole new language that’s only used at school. If we switched to this, it would make education a lot easier.”

That hasn’t happened yet, but ADLaM has fostered a grassroots learning movement fueled largely through social media. There are several ADLaM pages on Facebook, and groups with hundreds of members are learning together on messaging apps. Abdoulaye said he and Ibrahima used to hear mostly about adults learning ADLaM, but increasingly it’s now children. Those children will grow up with ADLaM, using the script Abdoulaye and Ibrahima invented all those years ago in their bedroom.

“That makes us believe ADLaM is going to live,” Abdoulaye said. “It’s now settled into the community because it’s in the kids, and the kids are the future.”

Originally published on 7/29/2019 / Photos by Brian Smale / © Microsoft 

#fulani #african writing #african writing systems #abdoulaye #adlam #kemetic dreams

[doodlesimss]

Simmer, get to know

I was tagged by the lovely @desira-sims​ for this one! Under the cut so I don’t fill up your dash 😊

Your name: I usually go by Em online, or doodle. Full name is Emma, no middle name. My family and a few very close friends call me Emmy, and my dad calls me doodle, which has been a nickname he’s had for me for years.

Languages you speak: English is my mother tongue. I speak French and Spanish at a high level. I would’t say I speak them at a “native” level, but I would consider myself near-fluent. I started learning Catalan about 6 months ago, and I can read and understand that almost perfectly, speaking and writing is a little more of a struggle. I also just started teaching myself Italian, so that’s very basic. Oh, and I can read Portuguese I guess, and a few other minor Romance Languages. Oh, and I know a tiny bit of Arabic. I love languages, can you tell?

Are you a mermaid: Quite the opposite, I hate the water and tbh, I probably can’t swim. 

Your playstyle: Hmm, a mix of casual and storytelling. Of course I have my two saves that I share here on tumblr. I also have a supersim save that I’m playing myself, and I have a couple of other personal saves that I just.....play.

Your selfsim picture:

Stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc: All I guess? Although building and gameplay are my favourite aspects, but I like to mess around in other areas.

Your favourite age state: Hmmm, toddlers are super cute, but YA because that’s when there’s the most to do with them.

Your favourite season: Autumn. It’s beautiful in all the worlds in this game, but especially Brindleton Bay.

Your favourite holiday: Hmmm. Rebate Day? I don’t tend to use money cheats so it’s a lifesaver 😂

How was your day: Pretty good! I was persuaded to watch Doctor Who for the first time by my ever so lovely friend (you know who you are) and now I need to know all the things. Also the 13th Doctor is like 96% of the reason I started watching, we fangirled over her for a good 10 minutes non-stop. 

Your favourite career: In the game, probably any of the freelance or work from home careers. I much prefer being able to have my sims actually do their jobs. Feels more rewarding that way.

Your favourite aspiration: Hmm. Honestly, I tend to forget about aspirations, so I’m not really sure.

Your favourite ep, sp or gp: 

EP: Cats and Dogs

GP: Parenthood

SP: Tiny Living and Laundry Day.

How old is your simblr: I shred my first post 4th March, 2019. So almost a year old!

Have you woohooed: Nope. 

Your favourite skill: Hmmm. Gardening, or wellness.

The size of your mods folder: 5.13GB

Your 3 favourite mods: MCCC, UI Cheats, and Reshade (does that count as a mod?)

Your interests (other than sims): Other PC games, especially Stardew Valley and Cities: Skylines. I also enjoy reading, art (mandalas, zentangle, watercolour, calligraphy, digital art). Languages. Listening to music. Watching youtube, Netflix, TV.

Your favourite sim (picture if possible): My favourite sim is actually not one that I’ve ever shared here on tumblr. She’s called Mia Hayes, and I played through uni with her. She’s an absolute icon, especially with her facial expressions.

which sims games you have played (including mobile games): I used to play Sims Freeplay alllll the time. I also played Sims 3 for several years before I moved onto the Sims 4 about 3 (ish) years ago!

Propose a crazy scheme: ermm...going out on a Friday night instead of staying in like I always do. Jk, never going to do that.

Best part of simblr: The people, and learning all the cool tips and tricks.

Worst part of simblr: Again, the people. Unfortunately, there are some bad eggs out there.

What other games you play: Mostly just Stardew Valley and Cities: Skylines

other websites or accounts (origin, twitter etc..): hmm. I’m @/doodlesimss pretty much everywhere I have an account to do with simming. And I have an art instagram under the name @/emdoodling!

I think everyone who I would tag has already been tagged, so if you would like to do this, feel free to say I tagged you!

#tag game #simblr get to know #desira sims

[rahmastudies]

2.4k Followers?!?!

3.19.19 Tuesday

Hey friends, I am currently on spring break. But good news! I reached 2.4k followers!! I never thought I would reach this far and I am so thankful for all the support! With that being said, I will drop some things about me down below. Please feel free to ask me any questions if you have any. My asks are open! Again, thank you all so much for your support! Now let’s get started!

As it says on my user, my name is Rahma and I am a 19 yr-old female.

I am half Libyan, half Moroccan and I live in the U.S.

I am a 2nd-year university student with a major in Sociology and minors in Arabic and Philosophy.

I am currently taking Sociology of Social Problems, Arabic 102, Philosophy of Feminism, and a poli sci class called Genetics, Brains and Politics.

I am an INFJ.

I can understand and speak Arabic however, I am struggling with reading and writing it.

My favourite genre of music is K-Pop however, I don’t know a lot of bands or about K-Pop.

I absolutely love the environment of thunderstorms, I am just in awe when there is one.

My favourite beverage is coffee. (Is it obvious?😅😅)

My favourite seasons are fall and spring.

I like politics, music, and calligraphy.

An app I use for school is called Forest. (If you have other ones to suggest, please let me know!)

I don’t have a career goal in mind but I am liking my major so far!

I prefer to work alone instead of groups.

I like to take walks and take photos along the way.

I am starting to find out how I study best and that is when I am in public because the background noise helps me not fall asleep. 😂

So far my favourite subjects for this semester is my philosophy class. Interesting discussions are being held.

Another language I want to learn is Korean. I took 4 yrs of French in high school but all of that is just gone. 😅

I colour code my notes by class. For me green is Sociology, purple is Poli Sci, blue is Philosophy, and pink is Arabic.

The studyblr community has motivated me through my studies and starting one has made me be more creative with how I study!

Again, I appreciate your support. I hope to meet all of you and I am more than happy to answer any questions you have. My ask is open!

#studyspo #studyblr #studygram #study motivation #study inspiration #studyinspiration #studymotivation #study mood #study notes #studynotes #studying #study #send me asks #ask me anything #ask #get to know me #get to know me tag #sociology #philosophy #genetics #psychology #politics #political science #politicalscience #arabic #mine #personal #rahmastudies

[vveissesfleisch]

a get to know me thing

tagged by the magical and beautiful @girlwiththepapatattoo (thank you bb <3)

Name: Lex

Nickname: There are several

Age: 3 exact weeks away from 30!

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Eyes/Hair: Fanfiction green/dark brown (I’m never dyeing it again)

Tattoos: An ankh on my left hip, the eye of Ra on my right, Arabic calligraphy on my left ribs, and a grucifix on my foot

Scars: Psht how much time do you have?! So many! 

Piercings:I used to have many many more, but I currently have 2 in each ear + a navel ring. 

MBTI: I have no idea

Enneagram: See above

Alignment: Probably chaotic good. Or evil. 

Temperament: So many tests I haven’t taken. Scorpio?

Kinsey Scale: Firmly in the bi as fuck middle, with a slight tilt towards the gay side of things.  

Romantic Orientation: If we vibe, we vibe, and that’s always been the only thing that matters. 

Sexual Orientation: Bi as FUCK

IQ: Man, do people still put stock in IQs?

Occupation: I am a jack of many trades! I dance and write and code. 

Relationship Status: Long term relationship

Religion: The Church of Rick Grimes

Pets: Nope, allergic. 

School: I’ve been out for a minute. 

Languages: English, French, Arabic. I’m learning Spanish. I also know how to order a beer/pretzel and ask for a lot of kinky sex shit in German (oh, the places life takes you). 

Medical: Kink? Yes. Was that the question? Probably not. IDEK, I have shitty knees and apparently a heart murmur. 

Neurological: Nothing diagnosed in a long time. 

Ethnicity/Race: Asian and caucasian 

Hobbies: Writing, reading, making costumes/props, travelling (especially when metal bands are involved in planning the stops), dancing (pole, gogo, and hula hooping), crossfit, biking, cooking, learning new shit, making shit.   

Interests: See above! Plus...horror, history, fandom, metal, the internet, hot bassists...

Blogs: This here tumblah and my semi-dormant side piece @kyluxnightmare and my Pillowfort.io (come follow meeee). 

Social media: FB, Twitter, Instagram, Github, Snapchat, Pillowfort, and *long suffering sigh* LinkedIn 

Tagging: @dracohasmycat @breathofmine @missmephisto @morbid-gays @ghuletteintraining @maesterchill @whiskyandwildflowers @sevdawn @missaristocrat @flames-bring-a-ton-of-ash @opheliadawnwalker3 @kellyn1604 if you feel so inclined, and anyone who’d like to do the thing!

#this was fun #i was tagged in so many things these last couple of weeks and i wlll try to get to them all now that class is almost done #get to know the blogger #tag game #ask lex

[museumsandmuses]

My Target Languages and why I want to learn them.

I don’t believe a person has to have a reason to want to learn a new language, but if I’m making myself have a reason so I wont be as all over the place trying to learn every language out there (because believe me, I would if I could)

Round 1

Spanish - I learned this one in high school, took 2 courses, and I feel the need to complete it, also because it’s one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world right now.

French - As a visual arts major, I will probably find myself in France at some point or another, as France is one of the “capitals” of the art world, as some put it.

Irish - I am of Irish ancestry, and when I read an article about endangered languages and how Irish is one of them, I felt compelled to learn Irish so part of my cultural heritage wouldn’t be lost. I highly recommend anyone to start reading up on the endangered language of their heritage and pick it up, you may learn a lot about your culture and help keep it alive. Or if you heritage doesn’t have endangered languages, pick up some other endangered language and help revive it!

Round 2

Italian - This is sort of for the same reason I want to learn french, Italy is another capital of the art world and I will probably make a few trips there eventually.

Portuguese - After I learn Spanish this and Italian will be pretty easy, so i figured why not.

Round 3

Korean - This language was created to be easy to pick up, unlike some languages (I’m looking at you, literally the rest of the continent of Asia)

Japanese - As an aspiring animator and weeaboo Its pretty likely I will find myself here.

Round 4

Arabic - I think that Arabic calligraphy and the spoken language sound beautiful.

Russian - I don’t want to delve too far into Russian, but I want to at least learn the alphabet and phonetics of Russian and decide where I want to go from there.

Round 5

I want to learn a Northern Germanic Language, out of Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic; but I’m not sure which one. If you have any advice on which one is easier to learn for certain reasons, feel free to send me a message or reblog and explain. I would love to discuss this more.

#languages #target languages #langblr #spanish #french #irish #italian #portugese #japanese #korean #arabic #russian #danish #norwegian #swedish #icelandic

[no-happi-endings]

Verse: Sailing Hades’ Shores

Name: Kly’tem Nestra Nickname/Alias: Oracle Origin: Her captors chose the name for her when she was taken. Gender/Sex: Female Age: She’s in her early twenties though she’s unsure how old she is. Birthplace: Southern France

Biological Family: She can’t remember it, but she had a father and mother as well as four other sisters and a baby brother. Lovers: She’s never been allowed to have romantic relationships. They keep her very well guarded from men. Thus she’s never had sex or a lover of any kind. Bio: Kly’tem was born Giselle Montasson. She was born to a fisher and a midwife in a fishing village on the French coast. When she was thirteen, Barbary pirates attacked her village. She and a few other children were kept alive and taken. All of the girls were delegated as whores or sex slaves for the sultan or another rich family. Kly’tem watched as they raped and mutilated her sisters and friends before a shaman saw her. He claimed that a pattern of some astrological sign was visible in her freckles. He said she was an Oracle or mouthpiece for spirits and God. They locked her away in a room where she was educated before they started drugging her to get prophecies out of her. She was never allowed to leave her small room, her leg chained to the wall after an escape attempt. She was denied food and water if she didn’t cooperate. When her masters make port anywhere, they use her for a profit selling fortunes. At sea, they use her to pick places to raid or ships to attack. She has yet to be wrong in her predictions. Current Residence: The Mehmed Health: She rarely sees sunlight, so she’s very deficient in vitamin C and D. At times she could be severely dehydrated or malnourished depending on her behavior. She is however, a very fast runner though she hasn’t had the chance to do so in a long time. The drugs used to force her to give fortunes has taken a toll on her mind. She has memory problems and has lost the majority of her memories. Sometimes she can’t even remember her own name or where she is. She will get occasional glimpses of her past sometimes. Mental Disorders: Memory problems, anxiety, PTSD Style: Middle Eastern Grooming: Kly’tem is kept very clean and tidy to make her supposed connection to God closer. Scent: She smells like nag champa which is what they burn in her tiny room. Wardrobe: All the clothes Kly’tem is given are usually rich silks meant for upper class women. This is done to make her seem more unearthly and godly to others while the ship is in port. She never wears them when the ship is actually sailing though. Then she just wears torn, dirty clothing taken during raids. Accessories: She’s covered in jewelry as is custom in the Ottoman Empire’s upper class. The majority of it is real. Sometimes she will have henna on her hands while in port to make her more exotic looking to white sailors. Home: Her room is covered in fake, ornate rugs and pillows that look like silk and cashmere, etc.. Any decor in the room is worthless monetarily. However, she does have a lamp she made out of broken glass shards. It gives off little flecks of light like the stars she rarely gets to see. Collections: She likes to collect colorful glass to make lamps and lights out of them. Mood: She’s usually very quiet and curious about things. She tries to stay positive as much as she can because that’s what has gotten her this far. She is very caution and wary to trust others. Education: Kly’tem was given minimal education other than to write calligraphy and speak in Arabic and to learn of Islam by her captors. Before that she could read and write French and English from her Catholic upbringing. She also learned a few basic math skills. Religion: Considered Christian by her captors. However, she herself believes in very little. All she knows is that there is an existence after death and what the second plane of existence looks like. Morals: She doesn’t exactly have a set of morals outside of the subject of slavery. She only has one moral rule for everything else: Survival above all. Crime Record: She’s considered by the Catholic Church to be a known criminal user of witchcraft and satanic magic. Reputation: She’s fairly well known in several ports amongst those who do illegal trade.

Desires: She wants to be free, obviously, but she also wants her memory back which hinders her in her day to day life. Hobbies/Interests: She likes collecting shards of different colored and textures glass. Skills/Talents: Calligraphy Quirks: She usually does something with her hands while she isn’t thinking like pulling leaves off a branch or running her fingers over something. Guilty Pleasure: She absolutely loves honey of any kind. Though date honey is what she’s used to. She can’t remember ever having Western world honey. Strengths: Her ability to listen and sympathize with others, her willingness to learn, curiosity, she’s good with domestic animals. Flaws: She’s socially inept after so much isolation, she gets frustrated easily, problems with defiance, tends to act shy and meek. Powers/Abilities: She has the ability to foretell the future and talk about the past by using drugs to partially kill her for a temporary period. Kly’s never been able to achieve it on her own. Ability: She usually sees what she considers to be the Underworld where she lets entities speak to her, relaying information while in a trance like state. Weaknesses: She can’t see or know about her own past or future. She never remembers anything she may have done or said while under the influence. Her memory loss gets worse with each close-together use. Sporadic uses have minor effects on her. She becomes catatonic and unable to do anything for herself for several days after they revive her. Alternate Forms: The skin around her eyes becomes red while she’s under, and she goes pale and slightly grey. Languages: Arabic, French, English Signature Quote: “People that are important in the course of history do not have the privilege of leading happy lives.” MBTI Personality Type: INFJ-T Temperament: Melancholic Enneagram: The Loyalist Persona/Mask: She always tries to put on a brave face when she isn’t alone. Alignment: True Neutral Symbolism/Comparisons: Greek statues

#about the muse #who is that girl I see (faceclaim) #v;;sailing along hades' shores