#but priest first!! I really wanna read guardian ToT

[rigelmejo]

February Progress Update, March Goals:

(Updated as it’s now the end of the month) How February went:

Chinese novel chapters read in February (so far): 27 (a huge amount! Last month’s was 8. This month - 4 were Guardian, the rest are 寒舍)

Chapters I studied with Listening-Reading Method: 2 (Catch me barely doing L-R and just reading Guardian instead...)

Chinese shows watched: 6. (I expected this number to shoot up and I was right! Word of Honor - tian ya ke adaptation - is airing and I am watching the raws first then the English subs as they release. I’m also maybe going to start Anti Fraud League since I finally finished ep 1. YouTube recommended me another Zhen zhehan drama - he plays Zhou Zishu in woh. It’s called Demon Girl and I’d had it in my list to practice anyway with when I got bored since it’s set 1920-1940s, one of my fave drama settings, featuring a demon heroine in which demons are like mutants who live among us. Which happens to be my LITERAL favorite story setup - mutants/monsters/etc sci fi or supernatural setup in which the story uses it to tell fantastical tales while also commenting on real social issues. Some stories do it better than others - In The Flesh and Bureau of Transformer do excellently, Love and Redemption and Guardian do some fascinating stuff with it, Heroes touches on it only a little compared to Xmen which is known for it, and Merlin often failed to commit to a strong message. But regardless - if a story has this Setup I will ultimately wanna see. So that show definirely has 3 selling points now: my Fave story setup, a heroine as the lead, and an actor I like as the other lead. I also found Mystic Nine and LORD Critical World in HD on a chinese site so I’m very tempted to just watch them in chinese only since it’s more convienient then the english sub links I have for the shows. An interesting update: trying to watch a show this month was easier than in the past - last month I could barely watch Any shows, and before that I distinctly remember shows being harder to catch the details. I watched Anti Fraud League ep 1 fully this month and caught all details roughly without pausing - and like 3 sentences of exposition on main character Mi Huo I paused and replayed the scene just to catch all the chinese subtitles and clarify I understood correctly. I think I got about 90% of the details - because I was a little vague on some word meanings and just guessed on those. And grasped 100% of the overall plot. which is well beyond where I was at month 10-11ish last time I tried watching shows. Also yay! A detective show felt as easy as watching a fluff romance which is so great, because I like this genre much more! Although I am going to give a grateful shout out to Granting You A Dreamlike Life because... while the shows first 15 eps I did watch are Not My Thing, I watched it like 8+ months into learning and it was both a challenge and easy enough TO watch and keep watching. Which made it great for improving. I really think it helped a lot. And I also think... at this point I probably could rewatch guardian without eng subs and be fine. When I watch shan he ling today I guess I’ll find out if I can handle a wuxia plot though without eng subs lol)

Japanese Audio listened to: 14 (no change, this is since start of year)

Personal books read: 11 (since 2021 started - so 6 books in February. I have been reading SO MUCH lately, I’m really excited? I’ve been meaning to read so many of my books I just hadn’t gotten around to it. This is also likely to increase as I’m about to finish dmbj 2 next time I pick it up).

Some other things:

@a-whump-muffin​ u inspired me and sometime soon I will be trying to play KH in japanese again, and looking at ur super amazing grammar guide u made ToT (I might try nier automata if its bearable just because I’m playing all the drakengard/nier games right now but... the language is a lot more sci fi so i’m not sure that’d go well... also i want to check if my final fantasy type-0 has japanese language settings...). But like... I am definitely up for looking at a grammar guide, and looking up words on my phone as I play. Now that’s a study method i could DO maybe ToT and also like!!! ultimately i want to do it anyway!!! i just figured it would be drowning and chickened out! but like. to study doing what u wanted to do anyway in the language??!!! wowwww ;-; i mean that’s basically why i’m reading chinese but u get the idea

Other japanese updates: I’m still listening to quickleur I just haven’t done any listening lately (u can tell by the L-R status above lol). It did help a lot though even the bits I listened to, as far as refreshing my mind on particles and verb endings. And the explanation on sentence structures u gave @a-whump-muffin​ !! (who is god tier if ur studying japanese they are <3 <3 )

Part of the ‘personal books read’ goal - I’m counting any textbooks I read in that category, in the hopes if I frame it in my head as reading for personal interest instead of studying, I will do it. Ideally I would LIKE to read my DeFrancis Chinese books, Chinese Nature Method grammar book, Chinese Sentence Patterns book, 2 books I just ordered, my japanese reading books (the 1st one a good refresher the 2nd one literally could be... my textbook for years its got so much). Those chinese books in part because WOW I am so used to so much grammar in context when reading, but when I go to produce language I’m a hot MESS. And I think just like... I really should read those books and fill in the gaps in my understanding and like solidify the correct understanding of what I can comprehend. Sometime.... I ALSO should read my Alan Hoenig chinese characters book. But will I???? AHA. I forgot to mention in my last reading post - but brute forcing learning the hanzi has been going fine actually. I was concerned just looking up hanzi when reading, that I would struggle to learn the new ones. But I can confirm that reading has gotten easier, and I’ve picked up a LOT of hanzi I was previously brute force looking up repeatedly while reading. So like... as long as this keeps working, I’ll keep doing it. I’m very lazy and the path with least resistance and mental exhaustion is what I’ll keep doing, if it works, even if it might be slower. (Although I do think the hanzi books I have are very useful and have helped me speed up progress when I used them).

I learned how to make gifs this month and I’m overwhelmed with all the stuff I could try to do? Idk its very cool i’m very excited about it.

Goals for March:

Basically, we’re sticking to the quite steady study plan I’ve had the past few months, which has boiled down to: read chinese, L-R, listen/watch if desired, do something listening related in japanese if desired. It’s not well rounded or anything but I’m making steady progress and its easy to keep doing.

Anything in bold is what I’m doing right now/likely to do (although we know how often I just derail).

Read chinese novels. (This can include Guardian. Currently includes: hanshe, guardian. On hiatus: Tian Ya Ke).

Listen-Read Guardian. (Reading guardian in Any way is the priority so if this happens yay, but if it doesn’t I’ll be happy if I’m still working through guardian and just postponing the listening part).

Optional. Play video game in japanese, use a dictionary and grammar guide when confused af. This one’s imminently likely just because the instant I get Nier remastered I’m playing it, and also playing Nier Automata etc games, so like... the opportunity and desire to play the japanese versions of games I want to do that with WILL hit me. 

Optional. Watch chinese shows. This one’s also likely because a priest novel drama adaptation just dropped (Word of Honor, shan he ling, tian ya ke/Faraway Wanderer’s adaptation) and I don’t want to wait for the english subs. 

Optional - unlikely (I’m not in the mood to listen to stuff lol). Audios. Keep listening to Japanese Quicksleur when there’s down time (like playing games), and Chinese Spoonfed audio if I feel like it. 

Personal. Keep reading while I’ve got the motivation to. I am really enjoying getting through all these books I’ve wanted to read for so long. 

BELOW I will eventually link a list of story recs (also see tag rec list for more):

Poyun 破云 (recced)

Poyun 破云 2

一级律师 by 木苏里 (recced)

盗墓笔记 series

默读 by priest

他们的故事 by 一根黄瓜丝儿 

寒舍 by 夏灬安兰 pingxie supernatural au

818 (pingxie)

鎮魂 by priest (chapter 4)

天涯客 by priest

Qi Ye 七爷 by priest

六爻 by priest

FGEP

犹记斐然 foxghost rec

一受封疆 foxghost rec

女主大人 我错 gl

将军府小妾生存报告 gl

夜半衣寒 by 夏灬安兰 pingxie (can u tell i like this author)

(瓶邪同人)所谓一切发生在网配+番外 (writer and radio voicer pingxie au)

死亡万花筒 kaleidoscope of death

将军府小妾生存报告  

女主大人，我错了  

魔女霓裳

公主饶命 GL

民政局领到了媳妇

In progressing difficulty, books I want to read and should be ready to read now, a la foxghost’s recommendations:

那些風花雪月 by Gong Zi Huan Xi (took 14 months of study before I tried to read this, did try, did not click with me lol)

不正當關係 by Gong Zi Huan Xi (foxghost said this was the same difficulty as the story above, so I’m probably ready for this one too).

*SCI 谜案集 by ErYa (I’ve heard this somewhat easy to read, is a good story, and since its case-centered I think it would be a good intro to later reading books like Silent Reading by Priest)

龍圖案卷集  by ErYa (There is an audiobook on Ximalaya!)

黑風城戰記  by ErYa (sequel to novel above)

Then the recommendation says you should probably watch a lot of shows for some vocab (I sort of do so I’ll see how that helps me out), and you can start tackling xianxia, like Priest’s “六爻, and then 鎮魂, then 殺破狼, and pretty much any other of GZHX’s works.” I would guess this point is when Tian Ya Ke would be more my reading level, when 六爻 is, at the beginning. I would guess after 鎮魂 is when I could try to tackle Can Ci Pin. Sha Po Lang is steampunk and fantasy, so I would guess it has some of the sci fi type words - so if I’d be ready for that, I might be ready for Can Ci Pin at the same time.

#march goals #march study plan #february goals #study plan #february progress #rec list #march

[rigelmejo]

December reading progress:

Ok just read 2 chapters of 天涯客 I today, I did actually read solid without breaks this time so I can say chapter 4 took me about 40 minutes to read. That’s the time it took to read without breaks, and looking up each unknown word.

I might be able to read a bit faster if I skipped unknown words that didnt look important.

I ran one small section through DeepL to make sure I was following the fight correctly and learned 1. Yes I was 2. Priest writes in a style the machine translator absolutely could not handle lol. (So I guess shout out to 寒舍 for reading easier grammar wise/wording choice wise I guess). I do think most of my plot confusion was from reading fast for “me” since when I slowed down and reread a few paragraphs I was able to clear up my misunderstanding. Also priest loves using 似的 in this novel.

I also have the faraway wanderers English translation open because I thought it might be good to read that alongside, to clear up any confusion or pick up context. That said, I’m much farther in the Chinese version so I’ll see if I even catch up with the English one. Also? Potentially could use Pleco for audio and the English translation to do listening reading method with this novel if I wanted.

I’m just... feeling very motivated to finish a priest novel. The idea of accomplishing that makes me so excited. Also it was the dream goal when I started? I mean dream goal was guardian but let’s take baby steps since tian ya ke is an easier read lol. Also I did NOT think I’d even be at a tian ya ke bearable reading level by this time so it’s still pretty dream goal to me!

Also this novel has 70 some chapters so... like maybe it’s doable to finish. Just compared with like the intensity that is some of priests novel chapter counts.

In related news I find it fascinating that priest does write a style the Mtl finds difficult to parse but I’m comfortable with it; yet again with the gongzi huanxi novel I died trying to follow the sentence style?? I think priest just had a huge influence on what I figured out first/feel more comfortable with lol.

I think after this I have a few novels I would like to read: SCI, poyun and the related recs I was given (which are all mystery novels), zhenhun, MoDu, some of the novels on my rec lists mm, Tamen de Gushi... I am probably gonna crave a modern novel after yhis unless I get sucked into it (in which case HELLO qi ye). SCI is probably gonna be the safer bet though as I know already that’s an easier read than priest novels. I have so many novels I want to read... I say this all as IF I can make myself finish one novel instead of skipping between many. That said I would really like to start finishing novels... to start going through them...

I’m also playing with the idea of just making myself extensive read more. It’s not good for my new Hanzi pickup since I can’t hear sounds, but I used to do that with mo du and it really did help (and was so challenging damn). But like I ALREADY have done it with some mo du chapters so I should stop being a coward. So if I could do it at 6 months I can Certainly do it now at like 16 months!! Plus I could look at the eng translations for reference and use them like parallel texts, which is a decent study method. And if I do any listening reading that’ll fill in the listening gap a bit. Anyway I just think whatever I can DO to make myself read more will speed up my progress accordingly - and get me closer to the end goal of reading anyway, which is the point. Learn by doing. I’ve got a fairy tale storybook too I could do this with, a parallel reader, if I wanna be a coward and start with something easier than Mo du lol ToT

I’m also sort of parallel reading dmbj not because I planned it, but because it’s relatively easy? Just since that’s novels I’m going through too.

—-

Some stats for myself as December is getting past the midway (counting from beginning of December):

1. Chapters of Chinese novels read: 8

2. Listening reading method: 5

3. Chinese audio listened to: 13

4. Clozemaster (which I abandoned after beginning of dec lol I hate flashcard type things), sentences gone through: 568

5. Clozemaster, track reached: 2000 most common words

In my defense of the low reading count, all the chapters this month were dmbj, tian ya ke, the wolf - basically long 20 phone page chapters. Also I have been busy as all hell this November to December so I am proud of myself for at least being consistent and continuing TO study, which is the most important thing - slow progress is ok, as long as study is consistent progress will keep happening and that’s all that really is needed. There is no time limit. (Although I should refuse to let myself buy more novels until I learn more lol ToT).

Finally, mid december, I know my goals this month: READ. READ READ READ.

Dream goals for the next few months Dec-February: READ through a full novel intensively, READ through a full novel extensively, LISTEN READ METHOD through Guardian. If I get any single of these goals done I will be an immensely happy excited person! If I get more then one I’ll feel like a god tbh ToT

Secondary: listen to ALL of Chinese SpoonFed audio (and just listening in general which I’ve done well recently). WATCH through a full show in chinese only (I’m looking at granting you a dreamlike life since I’m 1/3 done already, or border town prodigal, or legend of the condor heroes). I think these goals are very very reachable for me now, I just don’t know if I’ll have the time to do any of them fully.

#rant #December progress #reading progress #reading #December reading progress #I LOVE how I’ll make a list of novels to read #or stuff to do #then just completely fuck off ans do whatever I want instead #I mean it’s working fine for me so it’s not bad #it’s just like #I guess big FYI to be flexible and kind to yourself #because if I was more rigid I might stop being consistent in my study #and when I stop being consistent that’s when I stop making progress #so like if ur brain won’t do ur study plan #maybe be open to alternate study plans #I will work on speaking writing grammar later on I think #for now I think I’m doing ok for listening #which is really all I need it for rn

[rigelmejo]

Read 9 guardian print pages in an hour. It’s not much but it’s honest work lol ToT

Next chapter is 10 pages so enough reading tonight lol.

It’s funny cause I can read it out loud but it’s that feeling you have where it sounds right and natural but I can’t consciously remember the tones when I speak that fast so like I suspect there’s a shit ton of incorrect tones I just am not noticing when reading to myself. Although it would... possibly be an interesting experiment to record myself reading aloud just to like, be able to listen to it later when I’ve made the progress to know how it actually is sounding lol.

It’s very fun that I’m in a place where adjectives and idioms I can often figure out from the Hanzi I know and the radicals I know, and I only run into a couple Hanzi a page I can’t remember the pronunciation of but my mind just supplies a quick guess as I’m reading (not trustworthy!! Lol) because it refuses to slow down reading. However There is an upside to this - since my brain refuses to read slower I realize I do instinctively know a pretty high amount of the pronunciations. (Although again I suspect tones wrong galore). Just in the sense of like... I’ve read so many of these Hanzi and looked them up before, Listen Read to guardian enough, that my brain has an inner voice for them. The way the phrases are supposed to come out (I feel the 4th tone words are probably coming out right since I know I follow them easy in listening). The way my brain just can suddenly remember the pinyin (ish - it remembers the pronunciation) of Hanzi I thought I couldn’t remember the pronunciation of. But because there’s literally no dictionary to click on for help in print books, my brain proves it did actually store the pronunciation better than I thought. Which is kinda cool (and a good reason for extensive reading I think - just one reason being I think making the brain recall all the info of meaning and pronunciation from memory without help can help you both review what you’ve studied and help your brain decide these words are worth storing in long term memory since their recall is necessary).

But yeah, my guardian reading is in a fun place.

Today I also just listened to the SVSSS while reading the text. Fast pace but I am very happy the writing is not very hard to follow especially since I know the plot already since I read it in English. I don’t think I plan to full Listen Read to SVSSS (at least not right now) so I was skipping any English-translations/definitions step. I could follow enough just listening and reading to the Chinese so that’s fine. I might do that some more some time. Would be fun to try this with mdzs some time. (Fun fact I have one volume of mdzs it’s in traditional Hanzi and I don’t know why I tried to read it 5 months into study way back then but I did and the notes I made were chaos as I tried to recognize traditional equivalents while barely knowing any words in GENERAL).

Also it is. So brutally clear to me I learned so many words specifically tailored to reading priest novels lol ToT. Specifically I think it’s the L R Method being why sheer percentage wise I know so many of the words now (compared to 寒舍 where I just learned vocab over time from word lookup and only read new chapters - versus guardian where the print chapters I read are mostly vocab similar to what I already L R Method). Like.. just the fact I can read aloud all Hanzi a page except 1-2? Yes I’m sure I’m making errors but the fact I even have rough pronunciation picked up for nearly all of them already is surprising to me and it’s gotta be all the Listening in L R Method helping my brain store the pronunciations/meanings together easier idk. Basically just guardian has so few unknown Hanzi right now despite I Know it being higher in unknown words than 猫城记. It’s just cause guardian is specifically very closely aligned with Words I Prioritized Learning lol. Well I hope if nothing else this means future priest novels will also be “easier than their expected difficulty level.” Except, it’s a weird balance rn. Because like vocab level/grammar usage yes guardian has gotten muchhh easier to read (vocab wise even easier than SVSSS for me). But like actual writing complexity it is STILL dense ass text (it’s smaller font than SVSSS and way longer), while it’s not hard to read in the sense of words known it very much like 猫城记 requires much more active focus from me to catch the hints about Shen weis identity, to interpret guo changchengs biased perspective and thoughts, to catch the unique characterization bias of each POV the narration switches to, to catch foreshadowing and story hints about the cases/character arcs. It’s both dense text so it simply takes longer to read, and it’s detail important/rich so I can’t really skim parts of it if I’m tired. Which Poyun is like this too - detail rich at least the first chapter, characterization built with the whole narrative not just clear explanatory words, so I had to pay attention to more than just the words.

Anyway knowing a lot of priest specific author words will probably help me later. (And again I think L R Method is a good way to intensively study short term to learn authors fave words, it seemed to work well after about 10 chapters the audiobook on its own or book on its own got easier to follow). I wanna read tian ya ke and qi ye so that will probably help. I also got... another priest novel help me ToT. I also own MoDu and want to read it after guardian. Man I really do be putting myself thru it..

Mmm other things. Not gonna lie it feels really cool to be understanding enough to learn words in context like I recognized funeral, “kick her down the road like a ball” (family trying to pass off Li qian when Shen Wei called them), the funeral word also used to describe guo so like “stiff like death” I imagine was similar to the imagery that descriptive phrase was going for, a word I didn’t know but realized meant Shen wei was dividing up the food he brought to give to everyone. Guo mentioning foods and school related words. Just in general all the descriptors i figured out.

#rant #may #may progress #I complain about being tired of readi mg text walls then read more lol #I do miss hanshe too #if I get possessed yo read in Pleco I wanna read that... ;-; #look the downside of detail rich/focus requiring reading is #even if it’s vocab/grammar easy to me. it’s just so dense it WILL take longer to read #which limits how much actual content I can read in a day. #I’m starting to get used to some of priests favorite descriptive phrases since I was already used to their action phrases #also some of the descriptive ones I’ve seen also in hanshe and even Xiao Mao so #they’re easier to notice right away now

[rigelmejo]

literally reading hanshe feels like reading one of those graded readers now. past self u would be so happy. like actually. that’s not an exageration. nearly all ‘unknown’ words now are words I know but still look up because I forgot the tones (mo, wo, zuan 攥 means squeeze by the way the writer likes to write ‘squeezed his phone’ like i’d write ‘clutched’ and i always look it up to remember how its pronounced). or its the words ‘suspicious’ or ‘uncertain’ - whenever i see THOSE two words specifically i am not quite sure which word means which until i click the definition. the entire experience right now is a LOT like when i read Mandarin Companion Sherlock and a few chapters in new most of the words vaguely but needed confirmation/clarification.

Also present self me is a freaking coward lol ToT. now that its easier my brain is like ‘oh man Guardian oh man Silent Reading oh man Qi Ye idk if we’re ready for that’

when like. 8 months into learning i picked up those books and tried to read with no dictionary and followed the plot. yes it was exhausting and idk how the hell i managed it. but it was something that Could be done. So of COURSE now that I know more words and literally know a chapter takes 15-30 minutes to read (compared to 1-1.5 hours when I started reading Tian Ya Ke at first), i’m too lazy.

back then, i know what i was thinking. i was thinking ‘if i read a priest novel in a dictionary Reader app i’ll have to click a ton of words and i’m lazy’ so ‘its easier to just read a page with NO dictionary and guess some stuff from context and slide past the rest.’ Which... no it was not easier. Yes it took less physical movement on the part of my hands lol and opening/closing a definition pop up. But reading without a dictionary reference was extremely mentally draining. Hence i eventually made myself go read with the dictionary Reader anyway lol.

now my brain is like ‘well look how easy reading is on the Reader - i know nearly all words and just click at a glance for anything that might take effort to guess and bam its figured out.’ versus ‘oh god if i pick up a print book i will just have to feel mentally drained as i try to puzzle this out.’ even though... i read print Guardian like... 3 weeks ago without a dictionary just fine. i’m just lazy. it wasn’t even that draining if i read the english translation chapter first. that gave me enough context to just relax and read. the Only effort i had to put in was seeing new hanzi and trying to remember them based on radicals/guess their vague pronunciation (since with my digital Reader app i just click at a glance for that). and i know... if i tried to do ‘guardian on reader app versus print guardian’ i would pick print guardian in a heartbeat. 1 because its STILL easier in my brain then having to click many words lol (truly just pausing my reading annoys me lol even if only for a moment), and 2 my print copy has scenes ONLY in the print edition of the novel and i want to know what they are. I read 3 print chapters so far and EACH of them had a few paragraphs to a few PAGES of scenes not in the webnovel version. 

anyway i’m just. going to keep reading hanshe for now. 1. because its getting very easy, and extensive reading (when you actually KNOW most words - not the ‘extensive’ reading i do where i just brute force it even tho i only comprehend like 80%) is supposed to be one of the easiest ways to improve vocab and reading skill. 2. because this baby is 155 chapters and im on chapter 41 and i want to FINISH it. desperately. 3. 155 chapters is a LOT of reading practice. the fact its now something i can read easier just means it will be less draining/more enjoyable practice. and the more practice the easier future reading things will be. better hanshe then to switch to a new story i know less of the author’s vocab for, and whats worse not getting to finish hanshe cause i’ve distracted myself ;-;. because i just love to jump stories but then i finish none that i want to finish since i read chinese so slow T-T. let me finish this oneeee. 

4. hanshe is ridiculously compelling? this writer GETS me. they know just what to write to keep me hooked. its like the perfectly paced mystery/supernatural situation with romance and found family and i ;-;. this writer is great <3. also i love original plots when done well and the many case arcs with their own morals and intensely memorable characters make me feel like im reading a really good mystery writer. 5. you have no idea how much i wanna go back and finish tamen de gushi - that was only 40 chapters i’d have had it done lol. BUT its not written this fast paced/want to know whats next like hanshe the mysteries fic, and i probably would start slow again due to author change of style and word choice. and hanshe has a happy ending whereas tamen de gushi may anihilate me. also i would. literally just restart hanshe Again if i left it ToT i dont wanna do 40 chapters again.

when will i suck it up and just read guardian? when will i accept i can’t be a perfectionist cause i’ll never understand it perfectly, so i should just read? when will i have the courage i apparently fucking possessed in month 8 knowing barely anything but am now too lazy for lol.

on a serious note though. i’m really happy with my reading progress right now. hanshe is really enjoyable to read, and i can’t believe i read 40 chapters in a month.

甭 fun hanzi i learned recently from hanshe. this one is ‘beng’ and is bu-yong contracted. its literally ‘bu’ hanzi on top of ‘yong’. saves space. saves how many words u gotta say. like ‘don’t’.  ‘bu yong - beng’ 甭 i love that visually its also a contraction since its just the usual hanzi only as a single one instead of 2. 

#rant #march progress #yes i realize all my self-notes are just??? whatever ???? whatever is going on in this brain #its a mess i am Aware lol #i find it Beyond funny ToT #that i know i KNOW i could read guardian right now but i wont. because i dont want to be done with guardian completely ;-; and once i read #the book theres no more content. same with silent reading i love mo du thats probably most of why i wont finish it #even though i now have the audiobook FULLY and ive HAD the print books for a year now #cause its so good i just. dont want it to end #and THIS is why i always skip between different things and finish so few #hanshe is genuinely so good though and im so glad its an au because all the characterizations are Perfect #but the details are a surprise. the plot is a suprise and its full of suspense since its supernatural murders #the themes are always a new surprise each case. the relationships develop unique to the au. #the author writes almost like a speaker. if that makes sense. so like over time i read dialogues #that i couldnt even explain to u why i can follow but i can follow them just in a glancing blur #i ran a few spoken lines thru deepl just to double check ive been understanding them right #i have. i guess ive just been surprised i have. since they word things sometimes in a broken up way. or slang way. like actual speakers #or like my own stories dialogues. so when i read i just 'get' it #unrelated but u know what else is fun my googles been in french for years #so whenever i use google translate and put in chinese i get french results and go ????? #half the time. or it expects me to put in french to chinese then i put in english and the translatior goes ??? that. is not french my dude