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what-even-is-thiss · 7 months

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Hey I saw you talk about comprehensible input for Spanish, and you said it was easy and it seems effective. I'm learning German, and I wanna ask what comprehensible input is and how I could do some of that

Comprehensible input means watching or listening to stuff in the language where you understand 90% or more of what’s going on. If you’re reading it’s more like 98%. Early on this usually means either watching stuff for babies or watching stuff made for adult learners if that exists. Watching stuff for adult learners is generally better because it works better if you’re interested in what’s going on. Once easier stuff is too boring for you then you move on to slightly harder stuff etc etc. it’s supposed to take about a thousand hours of good quality input for you to be able to understand native speakers with no issues give or take depending on your native language and the language you’re studying. Right now I’m at like 50-ish hours in Spanish which means I’m watching slightly harder videos that still have a lot of visual cues but it’s not piss easy either. I can also understand most quick things I overhear people say on the street to each other but I don’t really know how to talk yet. My brain hasn’t pieced that part together.

For German specifically resources for this are YouTube channels like Comprehensible German and Natürlich German. And Deutsch Welle’s learn German section of their website has a couple series like Nico’s Weg that follow a similar idea.

The key is to not translate in your head or assign meaning to specific words or try to figure out the grammar when you watch videos or read but just try to understand what’s going on.

Some people supplement this with flash cards strictly doing vocabulary and no grammar. Especially if good comprehensible input resources aren’t available for the language you’re studying. Doing vocabulary drills and watching tv with subtitles in the language you’re learning can also be effective.

Another way to do this if you can’t afford a special class or there’s no good videos available but you do have native speakers on hand who are willing to be a “language parent” for you is for them to sit down with you and only teach you the words for yes and no and then they pick up something like a kids picture book and start pointing at things and slowly explaining it to you and asking you questions like you’re a baby for an hour or two every day. Most people do not have a native speaker on hand willing to do this though. But if you do then this video where a guy documents learning Arabic with this method should give both you and the native speaker an idea of how this works.

If you want resources googling “comprehensible input (language)” should get you started. There’s also a lot of different communities for language learners of different languages or language learning generally on Reddit like r/French, r/Portuguese, r/swahili or r/languagelearning for example. Most of those places have a dedicated page for compiling resources from the community and you can also ask questions to the community and in my experience they’re usually pretty helpful people.

Right now I’m mostly using Dreaming Spanish for Spanish but also other channels like Easy Spanish and Español con Juan. I’m also dabbling a bit in the channels Comprehendible Japanese and Nihongo-Learning for Japanese but Spanish is my main priority right now.

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darkimpala1897 · 1 month

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The Cleven twins Masters Of Air Au headcanons.

1. Gale's twin is name Ruth Thomas Cleven, he's the youngest by ten minutes, everyone calls him Ruthy, Bucky calls him Bucket, because he's Bucky, Buck is Buck, and Ruth is Bucket.

2. His dark hair comes from his mother, well Bucks blonde hair comes from his father.

3. Ruth teases Buck anytime he brings Marge up, he goes "Marge this, Marge that, we get it."

4. Is there for Bucky when he realizes he's in love with Buck.

5. He awkwardly kissed Bucky to test a theory that maybe he's attracted to him and not Buck, but Bucky immediately reacted by going "That was like kissing my sister, no definitely in love with Buck not you" and Ruth was like "Jeez thanks."

6. Does drunk karaoke with Bucky, you would think he was Buckys twin not Bucks.

7. When Buck goes missing, he insisted his brother was still alive actually he yelled at anyone who said he was dead, "it's a twin thing" Bucky would say.

8. When they are reunited with Buck in the prison camp he straight up went "I told you so." And Bucky just glared at him.

9. Ruth is the polar opposite of Buck, he keeps Buck on his toes that's for sure.

10. Anytime anyone picks on Buck for his name being Gale, Ruth makes sure to let them know that only he can pick on Buck for being called Gale.

11. Will straight up punch someone when they ask why he's named Ruth.

12. His accent is thicker than Bucks, Bubbles one time joked he needed subtitles.

13. One of the biggest pranks Bucky pulled on the newest airmen was when they asked where Major Gale Clevens was, he'd point him in the direction of Ruth who always plays along.

14. Ham somtimes somehow gets them confused with the other, Ruth finds it hilarious and doesn't correct him, Buck does because he feels bad.

15. Major flirt and playboy Ruth is, he always says "I'll write you." With a smile and a smirk, and then Buck is like "You're aren't going to write her will you?" And then Ruth is like "Do I look like you and Marge?" And then Buck is like "Sometimes I'm ashamed that you have my face."

16. Ruth will eat anything, Buck is a peaky eater.

17. Ruth can pretty much mimic any accent, he isn't great at mimicking people but accents he's amazing at, he enjoyed scaring everyone in the prison camp by randomly yelling in a German accent, worked everytime.

18. Ruth can't ride a bike, I mean he can but not amazingly. He runs into everything.

19. Ruth does his brothers hair, he cuts it and styles it, but he refuses to let Buck touch his hair because it's already "perfect."

20. Terrible dancer, he enjoys embarrassing his twin at any chance he gets. That's why everyone jokes he's Buckys twin and not Bucks.

21. Biggest Bucky and Buck shipper ever.

Add onto this AU if you wanted! Write a fic if you wanted, do whatever!

Thanks for reading!

#headcanon #masters of the air #gale buck cleven #john bucky egan #buck x bucky #oc #Au #twins au #howard hambone hamilton #joseph bubbles payne #Marge

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danjaley · 3 months

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One of my random book posts:

My long history with Anne of Green Gables

(and that series' unfortunate publishing history in Germany)

My first encounter with Anne of Green Gables was when the girl who bullied me in elementary school held her presentation "My favourite book" about it. The gist of her summary was: "This is a funny book about a girl who likes to pull pranks on everybody". Safe to say, she was not a kindred spirit.

This was in the late nineties, where the only way to buy books was to go to a bookshop and browse the shelves. Somehow, the only place in Germany where L.M. Montgomery seemed to sell were North-Sea holiday resorts. Probably because of the maritime setting. You can even tell by the covers that these books were supposed to be bought by seaside-tourists. Anyway, my mother bought three volumes on a holiday at the North Sea, containing everything up to Anne of Ingleside.

Until around 2000, the "whole series" in Germany consisted of three volumes containing two novels each. Some time in the 80s, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island and Anne of Ingleside also had covers of their own, but they've become rarities. In only own Anne of Avonlea as a single volume. For some odd reason this is yet another cover than the "official" one.

It took me years to really grow fond of the books. The first one I associated with my enemy from school. But at least I could relate to imagining things with your friend (yes, I had friends too). The others scared and confused me. I didn't want to leave home as a teenager to go to college and be a teacher before I was twenty! And I wasn't used to books in which people died. 😥

I think it was an airing of the Animé adaptation on television that made me read the series again at around 16. It became one of my favourite works of fiction. I love books which depict everyday life, making it interesting without overdramatizing. It's something I also try to do in my stories. In this context: Matthew McCarric is partly named after Matthew Cuthbert.

Until I was around 18 I thought Anne of Ingleside was the end of the series. Then, in another bookshop (this time in Munich), I stumbled upon the one called "Anne&Rilla", which is Rilla of Ingleside. It's a very rare experience to find that an author who's known to have died decades ago just publishes a sequel! And since Anne of Ingleside was actually written after Rilla of Ingleside, it was amazing to see that all the hints in it actually led somewhere! I'd never have thought I'd actually meet Monday the Dog! Also it was the first book I read that emotionalized World War I. I only knew books about World War II, usually written long afterwards with a didactic intention. Nothing wrong with that of course, but it sparked my interest in contemporary literature about the World Wars.

The German subtitle "Zum ersten Mal verliebt" ("In love for the first time") is of course one of the worst title translations I've ever seen, surpassing even the other two. Yes, they had already used the classic "Fateful Years", but couldn't they at least have put something with "hard times"? Also note that the sub-subtitle promises two novels in one volume.

Then I wanted to read the Emily books. They had also been published as North-Sea holiday-books, but were even rarer to find. I had bought and read the third on another North-Sea-holiday, but I couldn't warm up to characters who had a history I didn't know. The first one has been out of print for so long that it's quite expensive as a collectible. So I used this new thing, The Internet, and bought it in English. It was a mind-blowing experience and I was like "Never ever will I go back to those dated sentimental translations!" In fact I only keep the German editions because of their covers. They may sometimes forget it's set in the 1900s, but I still think they're pretty.

So I went online again and ordered the Anne and Emily books in English. It was then that I discovered, there was another book of the Anne-Series, I hadn't known about. This was in 2010, and Rainbow Valley was never translated into German until 2013. It's rare to find a sequel written by a dead author, but this is the only case where it happened to me twice.

Now, remember the German Paperbacks always contained two volumes. To disguise the fact that Rainbow Valley was missing, Rilla of Ingleside had been chopped in half, and has actually been sold as two separate novels in the past. I later bought one of these in a library jumble-sale, just as a curiosity. I've also come to appreciate that English publishers don't waste our space in the shelves. The blue book has half the content of the purple and is nearly twice its size!

By the way, the Emily series did not get chopped apart, but you can see the red label on the back of "Emily in Blair Water", which passes it off as a double volume.

I had already noticed that the German translations were strongly sentimental, but what's worse, they're also incomplete. Anne of Green Gables and of Avonlea are all right, but the lady who took over then (some time in the 1980s) had her own ideas. There were several scenes cut, for what I can only guess was considered inappropriate content. Among other things, all references to men wearing female hats or other female clothing were removed (of which there are surprisingly many). What's worse, the translator even added some dialogues of her own, usually in romantic scenes, to make them more kitschy.

There have been some signs of improvement in recent years. Rainbow Valley was finally translated in 2013. There are also new translations of the first two books, which I'm reading at the moment as a e-books. I like that it's fun and modern, but sometimes so eager to write something new, that it's not exactly the meaning of the English text any more. But I'm sure readers who happen not to have studied History and English won't mind. I guess it will be some more decades until the copyright expires for the volumes which really need a retranslation.

Well, and then I became an art historian, specializing in ceiling painting and book history. If you really want to know a book, read it in several editions. You'll be surprised about the things you'll find!

#book blog intermission #nonsims

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ganondoodle · 7 months

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i have never played or seen anything of outer wilds (game) and im just now watching someone play it and i keep thinking like .. man .. the sonau could have been something like that in totk, like even the architecture of the nomai in OW looks similar - very angular and mostly off-white green and gold, the name nomai is similar to the english translation for the sonau (zonai), the only(?) somewhat living one of the old and gone people is called solanum which reminds me of sonau and the ore sonanium (engl. zonaite), heck the nomai are goat like looking people with three eyes and use a highly advanced but little understood tech that you need to discover!!! they got swirly patterns alot! they even fuck up some time stuff!!

and im not saying nintendo copied them or something, the general idea isnt something all too unique (as no ideas are) but some of the similarities (like highly advanced in tech three eyed goat people that have a white and green/gold color scheme) do just make me sad bc i keep thinking about thats how the sonau could have been (minus the space stuff but moreso the VIBES and theme, game design aorund them!!), the way its done in OW is so neat, also i love that you cant understand them without a tool and you cant really communicate with them in turn like either! like the fact that there is not even a hint of a language barrier to the sonau in totk is like??? especially given the time span that is supposed to be between the past and the present in totk, not being able to clearly communicate would have been a really good and rather easy way to make the sonau more mysterious! even if you gave them subtitles that translated their language later on it would still make them feel a little more ancient

... actually ..its even worse .. in totks present theres only few people that can translate the text of the sonau, so the idea is there .. but how is zelda able to talk to them no problem? and rauru with you also mineru you could argue its bc they spent a long time as ghosts on the islands or in the shiek- purah pad but neither of them had any contact to the surface so that doesnt work, zelda teaching it to them also doesnt work bc that would take time she doesnt have and she literally talks to them all normally the literal first time they even meet ... it just being bc the hylian language never changed somehow so rauru and mineru just talk hylian is ...... the most boring answer tbh, not even slightly different manner of speech? over all that time? not some sort of accent?? even some of the old zora got one in botw (at least in german .. then again they also removed dumsda (engl. hudson) quirky way to talk ..... ), nothing? no??

it kinda plays into the whole lot that is a big problem with totk imo, the idea is there or even mentioned but its either not acted upon, never adressed or answered the most boring way

#ganondoodles talks #zelda #totk #ganondoodles rants #im grtting my teeth #the time bubbles at the start having no explanation and never come up again #the talk with sonia and zelda about her sudden weird time powers having nor real pay off #the decline of the sonau being mentioned but never done anything with #zelda travelling back in time like that to even a different location somehow never getting a good explanation nor pay off #impa mentioning searching for a way to help zelda and then it just being dropped #the monsters in the underground mining sonanium ore but not for any visible purpose other than to be loot for the player #the tech being there only as legos for the player but having no place in the story at all #etc etc

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dervampireprince · 3 months

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youtube

ASMR | Elisabeth das Musical - Der Tod x Listener SFW Death Becomes Entranced And Seduces A Lonely Prince

[M4M/GF4M] [Prince! Listener] [Seduction] [Manipulation] [Kissing - no character death, lore here is Death's kisses can kill if it's 'your time' but if it's not they don't but they're still cold and cause temporary frostbite-like symptoms] [TW implies the listener is depressed and has been experiencing suicidal ideation, Death at points advises the listener to kiss him which would kill them, please skip this audio if you think these issues could affect or trigger you and if you are affected by these issues please seek help and contact hotlines in your country. This audio is fictional, Death's attempts to be a voice of suicidal ideation should not be taken seriously nor applied to real life.]

I've been wanting to make this audio for so long. While I've left it ambiguous enough to be enjoyed as an original audio, this character is actually from my favourite musical 'Elisabeth das Musical'. It's a German-language dark queer historical romance where Death (Der Tod) is drawn to those who think about him, in particular it follows the life of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, and her son Rudolf. The musical does deal with serious mental health topics and some historical events from that time including the rise of fascism so please know that going in, but if you think you can handle such topics then I couldn't recommend the musical enough.

The original 1992 Vienna production is on Youtube with English subtitles, that is my favourite production and means a lot to me as Uwe Kroger as Death is just... perfection to me, very much gender envy and has been a big influence on me and helped me with accepting myself and my gender expression, and his characterisation of Death as this genderfluid, pansexual otherworldly being is just beautiful. And if you enjoy then I'd also recommend the 2005 Vienna production which is also on Youtube with English subtitles mostly for the few extra added song and Serkan Kaya's performance as Lucheni.

For those of you in my Patreon Discord server, I streamed this musical last Sunday in there for you guys and it finally felt like the perfect time to bring this audio to life. And if Kronprinz is still around, I know you were requesting a Der Tod audio for a long time and I hope you're happy with this one. The listener in this audio series takes the place of Rudolf, but you don't need to know anything about the musical to understand these audios. I chose to present them more like my original royalty series audios as Elisabeth das Musical is not very well known outside of mainland Europe and Japan, so I hoped by framing it this way with a photograph of myself cosplaying Death from a couple years ago would entice more people who aren't familiar with the musical.

I love this musical so much, European musicals in general are my biggest interest and if you go searching for them it wont be long until you find my sfw account @emptymasks posting too much about them. If you're interested in learning more I have some masterlists and info posts pinned on my emptymasks Tumblr, but also as part of my subathon rewards I am doing a stream on my Twitch explaining about infodumping about European musicals and I've been working on some video essays for years that I hope to get finished this year that will be up on my emptymasks Youtube channel. I also run @europeanmusicals . If any mutuals or followers from my main or side blogs finds this... well hello there, I find myself nervous to drop this in the euro musical tags, as if people are going to find this format of fanwork weird but well... I had fun, I hope you guys are nice about this (nice doesn't mean you have to like it, but please don't be mean about it if you just don't enjoy asmr or audio content).

Something something if I had a nickel for every time Prince voiced a personification of Death from different fandoms I'd have three nickels.

Old public spicy audios on sound gasm (link in pinned post). 2 Exclusive spicy audios on Patreon every month. I also stream on Twitch every week @ dervampireprince . [minors + ageless blogs dni. this blog is for 18+ only.] [do not repost/reupload/edit any of my content]

#elisabeth das musical #todolf #der tod #european musicals #der tod x rudolf #death x rudolf #der tod x reader #der tod x listener #the vampire whispers #royalty kink #Youtube

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g5mlp · 3 months

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by any chance, would you be able to link me the different versions of tell your tale that got their voice actors replaced/are suspected could be using AI? i tried searching myself but for some reason wasnt very successful. it feels very likely to me that it could be AI considering how often hasbro/wotc has been in the news for such a thing lately.. thank you!!

At time of writing, "Icy Prints" has only been released in English, Arabic, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Malay, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Latin America), Swedish, Thai and Turkish, and today's episode "Heavy is the Mane that Wears the Fruit Crown" has only been released in English.

For the record, I'm not aware of any actual attempts to prove that the new voices are AI, and some dubs such as Thai already have some actual people confirmed to be working on them due to the staff members' social media posts, so I think it's more likely that all of the voice actors are still real people.

Also, here are the links to all of the official My Little Pony YouTube channels I'm aware of.

My Little Pony Official: English, Arabic, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Latvian, Malay, Mandarin (Taiwan), Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Latin America), Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese

Tell Your Tale: English, French, German, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain)

Friendship Is Magic: English, French, German, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Latin America)

Equestria Girls: English, German, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Latin America)

Suspected to be run by Hasbro (English only): Flutter525, Izzy Moonbow🌙🦄, Letupita

Other (English only): Official Music Channel

Notes

Tell Your Tale episodes have never been released in Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian or Russian. The Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian channels have only uploaded short clips related to My Little Pony: A New Generation. The channels in Russian have been inactive since April 2022.

My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale Season 1 episodes 1–40 in Mandarin (China) and Portuguese (Portugal) are on Netflix only.

Some episodes of My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale Season 1 still haven't been released in some languages. In particular, several of them don't have episodes 57–70.

The Mandarin (Taiwan) channel uploaded "Icy Prints" with Simplified Chinese hardcoded subtitles, so the Mandarin dub of Season 2 was probably produced for a generic Chinese-speaking audience and not Taiwan specifically.

#my little pony #mlp g5 #mlp #my little pony tell your tale #tell your tale #voice actors #dubbing #my little pony friendship is magic #friendship is magic #my little pony equestria girls #equestria girls

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everybodyisasebfan · 2 years

Video

Sky Germany’s best of Norbert Vettel as co-commentator during FP3 at the Austin GP.

Translation under the cut!

***

Norbert, welcome to the team, we are glad to have you!

***

It would be a pity for Mick because Mick is actually- I know him personally, I find him a very decent, nice person, who stands with both feet on the ground. Very down to earth and it would be sad- and he has brought the performance, always, whether in formula 3 or in formula 4 or in karting. It's not as if he came last or was in the midfield and advanced because his name is Schumacher. He has shown that he can win championships. You can't imagine that someone like Mick... but that's the way it is in this business, very strange at the moment.

***

Sascha: That was Alex Albon’s girlfriend. I don't know her, do you know her Norbert?

No, I'm not like that in the paddock. I'm with the guys in the pits, I talk to the mechanics. These are the people who make a difference, and it has to be said that they all do a great job.

S: I've noticed that you often go to see the mechanics, the ferrari ones as well.

The guys who worked on the car, I still get along with them. There are always two classes, there are the ones on the pit wall, they’re... the politicians and there are the ones who work. It's like real life, the politicians don't have a clue or have never gotten their hands dirty, and the guys who do the work, you have to thank them.

***

Let's say that Lewis was used to winning for a long time. It's not about being first or second or setting the best time, a race is a race. But there also comes a time when, as they always say, you first have to be able to lose before you can win and sometimes it's the other way around.

***

I form my own opinion because I was a mechanic for Sebastian myself. For me, they all boil water, the water isn't hotter, it's just more expensive. Sometimes you don't understand them, they can't see the forest for the trees or the trees for the forest.

***

S: Sebastian has a beautiful helmet.

Yes, I think it's cool, very peace and love. I think it's very fitting for America: Woodstock, cool times like in the 70s and 80s. It gives me goosebumps.

(both laugh)

You are the way you are. I can't pretend to be someone I'm not, I am who I am. I think some people might need subtitles to understand me, but if I tried to speak High German, I think that would go a bit awry.

***

When we were in Suzuka, that's what he loves so much, the speed.

S: Yes, we saw that.

That's the way it is. Suzuka is a track that you have to... as Sebastian might say, you have to have the balls to go into the corner and keep your foot on the pedal.

***

S: Now come the two Alpha Tauri, Gasly and Tsunoda, maybe you can see a difference there.

Ralf: That one is a bit slow.

S: That's right.

A bit slow...

Ralf: Yeah, he's probably on a cool down lap.

That's such a cramp.

(they all laugh)

Ralf: That's such a cramp. Unfortunately that's modern Formula One, whether you like it or not.

Modern Formula One. The cars are so long, when you see them in reality, they’re almost like minivans.

***

They’re adjusted to be so hard, it's like a plank. When they hit the barrier (...) it's like a kart, it lifts the rear axle. That's how hard the machines are now.

***

With Mick in Japan, you have to wonder what they were thinking, I have no idea.

S: When he was left to drive on wet tyres for a long time.

They were hoping that someone would make a mistake at some point and they could then use the safety car, which did not happen.

***

The car is tailored to Max like a fist to an eye. Or, in other words, maybe he's just able to get the most out of the package.

***

When you read, "Mick cost us millions," that's nonsense. The millions they've wasted, they've blown themselves. With strategy and whatever else. You can't just dish it out, you also have to be able to take it. That's always the problem, they never want to take it. It's always the person sitting between the steering wheel and the engine who gets the blame.

***

S: Norbert, I had a lot of fun.

I also had a lot of fun. I hope people understood most of what I said and I would like to thank all the viewers and also Formula One - or motorsport as a whole. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for everyone. I hope I didn't talk too much käs.

S: Absolutely not! The feedback was great, we got lots of great messages, I'll show you those in a moment.

Thank you very much!

#sebastian vettel #mick schumacher #norbert vettel #Norbert my beloved #f1 #formula 1 #us gp 2022 #the stars mean there's a cut... just to be sure everyone catches on lol #if you see any mistakes pls let me know!#tagging seb so I can find this again #and tagging mick cause norbert defending him deserves a mick tag

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c-rowlesdraws · 2 years

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youtube

this is supposed to be my art-exclusive blog, BUT looked up this video to link to a friend and wound up watching half of it again because it’s so fascinating, and felt like I needed to share it. It’s a documentary about Kowloon Walled City produced by Austrian journalist and writer Hugo Portisch, filmed in the city itself in the summer of 1987 and released in 1989, four years before demolition of the city began. Today, the 6.4 acre area that once held a 14-story labyrinth of approximately 50,000 people is a public park.

the documentary is in German, with subtitles in English added by the uploader. The filmmakers’ perspective is frank in laying out the harshness of life in the city, and aims to be honest-- although the only direct interview is with a British missionary, the only white person in the whole film, and the narration makes blanket statements about broken families and an “every man for himself” attitude that contradict former residents’ own descriptions of an intensely close-knit community and households where several generations lived together, despite the tiny size of the city’s apartments. Despite these criticisms I’d make, the tone of the documentary is clearly sympathetic towards its subjects from beginning to end, and it’s a fascinating and emotional glimpse into a vanished world.

if you’ve heard about Kowloon Walled City and want to learn more, watch this thing! If you’re like me and you’ve been lowkey obsessed for years, also watch this thing! If you didn’t know about the city at all before now, you’re welcome, and watch this thing!

the uploader’s video description, which I’ve pasted below, contains additional information about the making of the documentary that adds more depth and context:

Credits go to cameraman Hamdani Milas. Christina Wesemann for creation and direction of the film and also to Hugo Portisch for production.

Milas was one of the people that helped filmed this 1989 documentary about the city. I spoke with him recently and he said that he is interested in a follow up video of some sort so we may expect something new on the way.

He mentioned how it was an incredibly tough shoot. They were a five person crew; himself as cinematographer, a camera assistant, focus-puller, sound recordist, a researcher, production assistant and the director, and a very nice Austrian lady who was most willing to collaborate and listen to crew suggestions.

They shot for 6 days continuously, 10-12 hours a day, at the height of the summer of 1987. He mentioned how it smelled very bad inside from the open drainage, the heat was stifling at plus 32ºC with little to no air circulation, also not knowing whether it was sewage or clean water dripping on their heads occasionally, they regularly had to wipe the camera and lens dry.

The claustrophobia- you could hardly turn around in some places with a 7kg Betacam SP camcorder on your shoulder. They had a tripod with them but hardly used it inside because there was nowhere to position it without blocking the narrow passageways.

They also frequently got lost and had to ask the locals for directions. Lunch was much-anticipated each day when they could take a break outside in the fresh air. After a day’s shoot they were absolutely dripping with sweat and the first thing they’d do after getting home was to put all their clothes straight in the wash and have a long shower. Working in those conditions was an immense challenge technically and physically but, as is often the case, none of that shows in the resulting footage.

Here we have a very interesting first hand account of what Hamdani Milas experienced in the walled city itself when he was filming this video. So by what he’s told me we can understand just how much of an incredible risk it was to film inside this city, even though it was near to when the city was demolished and the place was seen as safer it was still a high risk no go area.

I took it upon myself to re-sub the video as best as possible, the 4 part version is hard-subbed on a version of this film with very poor quality, the subs are also worded incorrectly in some places. So all I've done is re-subbed the whole thing and put it onto a better quality video clip.

Note: about the section of this video where Jackie Pullinger is speaking, I’m sure anyone can see the subtitles are a transcript of Jackie Pullingers actual words in English and not the narrators. I’ve noticed a comment mentioning how the subs are way off in that part. While subbing this video I realised the narrator wasn’t giving an exact translation so took it upon myself to decipher what she was actually saying over his voice. Sorry I just couldn’t help it but it was out of boredom 😉

#kowloon walled city #kowloon #hong kong #architecture #1980s

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videogames-i-wish-were-real · 1 year

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Videogames I wish were real #27

You know that trope of a character getting isekai'd to another world? Well, in this game that happens to you. You get teleported into another world but you have no idea why you are there because...

YOU. DON'T. SPEAK. THE. LANGUAGE.

The characters speak an entirely made up language. At the start of the game you select what language you (the player) speak, and the modes in which you want to play. The game has several modes both for languages and for story: Easy, Normal, Hard, Extreme and Realistic (the difficulties of both modes are independent, you can pick easy language mode but hard story mode and such)

Language modes:

Easy mode: the language spoken by the characters has a very similar grammar and rules to your native language (the equivalent of a Spanish speaker trying to learn Italian). Characters don't mind repeating stuff several times. An npc points at a tree, says a word and you get several options and need to choose what you think the word they said meant. In this mode, once you learn a word, the translation will be featured under it in any in-game texts.

Normal mode: the grammar and rules of the language spoken by the characters are noticeably different from your native language (the equivalent of an French speaker trying to learn German). Characters will only repeat stuff two times. Instead of choosing what a word means from several options, you need to type your guess. You will still get the translation of a word under it once you learn it, but instead of always being visible, you need to activate the subtitles by pressing a button.

Hard mode: the grammar and rules of the the language spoken by the characters are very different to your native language. Characters don't repeat stuff. No subtitles with translations or menus that ask you to guess what a world means. If you want to remember what something means, you will need to rely entirely on your memory or take notes.

Extreme mode: extremely different grammar and rules, and, on top of that, a different alphabet (the equivalent of an English speaker trying to learn Japanese). Characters don't repeat things. No subtitles with translations or menus that ask you to guess what a world means. You will need to take notes, a lot of notes.

Realistic mode: why is it called realistic? Well, because a world were people only speak one language would be unrealistic, right? So... in this mode, the people speak different languages, and as you travel through the world, you might need to learn more than one language to get by.

Story modes:

Easy mode: you get taken in by a family of farmers in a small village. The family you live with provide you with food and shelter in exchange for a small part of the wages you earn by helping them around the farm or doing errands for the townspeople. Everyone in the village is kind and eager to help you learn their language. As your language skills progress, so does the story.

Normal mode: an innkeeper in a medium sized village offers you work in their inn. Half your wages go to cover your food and room. As the days progress, so does the story, regardless of your progress in learning the language.

Hard mode: you appear in a city and need to fend for yourself since day one, doing whatever is necessary to get by. You will need to pay for your own food and shelter, but finding a job in a foreign world where you don't speak the language won't be easy, so at first you might need to resort to trickery or thievery to survive.

Extreme mode: you will appear in a war torn area and be forced to pick a side in the conflict, but you won't know which one is the good one, if there is any. You can choose to stay there or gather resources to earn enough money to travel to other areas untouched by the war.

Realistic mode: you will appear in a random location, it might be the middle of a forest, a quiet little village, the middle of a battlefield, a pirate ship... In previous story modes your actions and decisions could change the story. The same will happen here, however, the story won't wait for you, and you will be able to reject the call. You might be the prophesied hero destined to stop an evil wizard, but you might find out too late to stop them from conquering half the continent, or you might not feel like risking your life and opt for a quiet existence in a farm.

While the game is supposed to be about the player being transported to a different world where they speak languages different from our own, if you want to, you can select a real language to learn it through the game.

Similar videogames that actually exist: Terra Alia (suggested by anon)

#i've been playing totk so that got me into thinking about open world games and the languages people speak there and... this post happened #unlike duolingo i would never miss a day in this game #viwwr #language #lingustics #languageposting #language learning #educational games #open world games #isekai #videogames #video games #videogames i wish were real #writeblr #writers on tumblr #concepts #game design

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invisibleraven · 1 month

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Imagine your OTP with Character A secretly learning Character B’s mother language to say stupid pick-up lines to them / Rulie

Also for @innytoes who agrees this prompt is extremely Rulie coded.

“Damn you owl!” Reggie scowled as he tosses his phone across the couch.

“Did you get Rick Rolled by an owl?” Luke asked, not even looking up from the song he was working on.

“Something like that,” Reggie grumbled.

Alex picked up the phone, and bit back a grin as he saw the screen. “Bonita, not bonito.”

“Stupid feminization,” Reggie replied. “It’s screwed me up more than once.”

“Should I ask why?” Alex asked, nodding at the phone as he handed it to Reggie.

“I think you know why,” Reggie replied.

Willie peered over his shoulder and smiled. “Dude if you want to learn Spanish there is a whole ass family willing to teach you.”

“I want it to be a surprise,” Reggie replied.

“Also I doubt he wants to ask Ray how to flirt with Julie in Spanish,” Luke smirked.

Reggie sputtered at that, but it wasn’t like he could deny it. He figured if he hit Julie with truly epic lines in Spanish she might grant him a second glance. Or at least laugh in that way that he loved-all crinkly eyes and letting her smile shine.

But languages had never been his strong suit, and well there was only so much that Duolingo could teach him.

Yet he was still here, struggling along as he learned the basics, dog earring his Spanish English dictionary, and watching a lot of movies with subtitles turned on.

“This is a stupid plan isn’t it?” he asked.

“I think it’s adorable!” Willie proclaimed. “I know I would super appreciate it if a guy learned another language for me.”

“Even if it’s just to flirt?” Alex countered. “Because I can learn conversational Japanese if you want. Though you’d have an easier time learning German.”

“Anyways…” Reggie drawled before those two started at it again. But before he could continue that thought, they all heard the door to Julie’s house open, meaning she was headed this way for band practice.

“You got this Romeo,” Luke said, clapping on the back.

“Romeo was Italian,” Alex piped up.

“Zorro?”

“Close enough.”

With that they high tailed it out, greeting Julie, claiming they were going on a snack run. Despite the fact that Ray always kept the garage well stocked.

She shook her head as she entered the garage-she would never get these guys. But then she noticed Reggie, fiddling with the ends of his flannel, an almost queasy smile on his face. “Hey Reg.”

“Hola,” he replied. “¿Dónde están tus alas?”

“My what?” Julie asked with a giggle and Reggie hoped his pronunciation wasn’t as horrendous as he thought it was.

“Alas,” he repeated. “Porque eres un ángel.”

“Gracias,” she replied, a tiny blush painting her cheeks. “I didn’t know you spoke Spanish.”

“I’m still learning,” he stated. “I didn’t butcher it too badly did I?”

“It still has a pulse,” Julie said. “Can I ask why you decided to learn Spanish? I could have taught you.”

“I wanted to surprise you,” Reggie murmured.

“Well it’s a lovely surprise,” Julie said, looping her arms around his neck. “Though you need to work on rolling your R’s.”

“I can do that,” Reggie replied swaying them back and forth. “Rrrrrobot. Rrrrrribbit. Rrrrrreggie.”

Julie giggled, nuzzling their noses together. “Me das dolor de cabeza, mi lindo.”

“That means you think I’m cute right?” Reggie asked, his smile almost blinding.

“Si,” Julie replied. “El más lindo.” Then pulled him in for a kiss that made Reggie forget every language he knew.

But it didn’t matter because that kiss was easy to understand-no translation needed.

#filled prompts #ficlet #rulie #julie and the phantoms

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elvenbeard · 8 months

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Q&A with Mikolaj Szwed and Björn Schalla at Phantom Liberty Tour Cologne

(Björn (male V's German VA) left, and Mikolaj (CDPR localization director) right)

I cannot believe my luck still about having been able to attend the Phantom Liberty Tour in Cologne yesterday (Aug 25th 2023)! I'll make a separate post just about the event as such once I've emotionally recovered xD But I wanted to make a separate post for this topic for reasons!

Around two months ago I made this post. I'm currently on my second playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077, playing with the German dub and English subtitles. That's because I'm streaming the game for some international friends via Discord as I go, for fic-writing purposes, and finally just out of general interest for the difference between dubs and translations and such. In short, it has been a super interesting experience noting all the differences in tone, word choice, and more, between the English and German translation. It stood out to me for example that in English Goro adresses Wakako as "Okada-san", but in German as "Okada-sama".

Now, imagine my face yesterday (something like this probably: 🤩) when it was announced there would be a Q&A with Mikolaj Szwed, Localization Director of Cyberpunk 2077, and Björn Schalla, who voiced male V in the German dub.

I took some notes on the whole Q&A, since this is a super special interest of mine, and I think it might definitely be interesting to some of you too! Therefore though this is gonna be long, so I'll put some more tidbits and details they spoke about below the cut (such as what it's like playing a game with a character that has your own voice, and how CDPR views and uses AI voices - excellent questions asked by some of the other attendees).

But, the thing that confirmed to me what I had been wondering about in my above post, is this:

The VAs of the various different localizations were somewhat free in what they said and how they said it, therefore 100% bringing something of themselves into the characters they played. Mikolaj told them precisely "this is what your character is doing/feeling right now, they're facing this or that guy, so-and-so is with them" along with their translated lines, but there was always wiggle room. The translations are not blindly following a "canon" script, for lack of a better word (as CDPR games are written in Polish first, then translated to English, even though English is the primary dub everything's recorded in "first"). Also, unlike in dubbing movies/TV shows, the VAs are not bound to characters' lip movements (the talking animations are made to fit the respective dub, which is so, so neat). They only have to fit a similar timespan as the "original" line and scene. Therefore, each dub is unique to its language to a degree, and not a mere translation of some original source text (resulting in me sometimes laughing about some chars being a lot more crude or making a completely different joke in one or another scene). An example I remember at the top of my head: in the English dub, when talking to Dennis at Afterlife, V will call his lack of details on the "very simple, easy money" Big in Japan Gig "duty-free and detail-free". This just doesn't work as a funny alliteration and play on words in German. They settled on something else there that also kept Vs comment humorous, and that's common in "regular" TV show/movie dubs too. The other way around, during the interrogation of Hellman, English Johnny will say something like "well, fuck me sideways, (...)" on one of Hellman's comments, while in German he's like "well, fuck me and call me animal names" in a slightly more crass way expressing how pissed off he is at the corpo just admitting he's kind of useless to V. No direct translation, but same vibes fitting the mood, and making each dub and each interpretation of every single character unique to their respective VA and language in a way. And I love that so much!!

Back to my post above. While I didn't get to ask Mikolaj directly myself, cause there just was not enough time really to answer all burning questions, I think with what they spoke about it seems realistic to me that Takemura's German VA definitely added that "-sama" to Wakako's last name as a bit of flavour he deemed fitting for his character in that scene. Which, in my eyes, is making German!Takemura just a tad more sly than other incarnations of him I know of. Björn also said he was able to use his own sadness or not feeling well on some days to really sell V's sadness or pissed-off-ness at his shitshow of a life, and put something of himself into the performance. He definitely shed a tear here or there, and it really really shows that he gave 110% doing this character and his story justice. I'm totally not biased here because my V is male and I love the German dub so much, obviously xD. But no, for real, not just him, I think every single person working on this game put their blood sweat and tears into it, it's a huge labour of love and filled to the brim with creative passion on all ends, on every level.

But yes, so much to VAs influencing their characters, confirmed! More of what they talked about in the Q&A under the cut while my memory's still fresh! Thanks for reading this far, like with my above post, I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences as well, especially if you played the game with different dubs yourself!

For this part I'm gonna vaguely paraphrase the questions that were asked by other attendees as I remember them, followed by what Mikolaj and/or Björn replied, respectively!

Q: How did the casting process for the German dub go?

Mikolaj was presented with 8 different VAs that could fit the part of V originally (for both masc and fem V respectively iirc, but could also be it was 8 altogether). Four of them were invited to an in-person casting, respectively. Björn recalled having to say some lines and only understanding half of what he was saying really, not really knowing the context much yet xD But he had voiced characters in games before and had had a lot of fun with that, so when he was presented with this opportunity he happily jumped at it. A little while after the casting he then received a call going "Glückwunsch, du bist V!" ("Congrats, you're V!") to which his initial, surprised response was "Ja, wie?!" ("Wait, what?", more literally "Yes? What?" Note: "wie" is basically pronounced like "V" xD).

Also, Mikolaj has people for all languages the game is dubbed in on his team and the process is the same for each dub, more or less.

Q: At Björn: did you have someone to "act with" or off of in the recording booth?

V was actually one of the first, if not the first to be recorded so other VAs had lines to use as base to respond to with their acting. Björn was solely in there with Mikolaj who directed him and responded with dialogue where conversations happened, if need be. That kinda ties into what I said above the cut, that Vs VA really could shape the tone (together with Mikolaj) based on but not copied off of the English script.

I don't recall how long the overall recording of all the dialogue took, but it was 8+ hour long sessions, not every day, but over the course of weeks.

Q: At Björn: Is it weird to play a game as a character that has your own voice?

He mentioned he is only now having the time to play Cyberpunk himself for the first time and already incredibly addicted (what a mood). He doesn't find it weird hearing himself constantly, because through his job alone he is used to hearing his own voice (even though he could just play femV, too, he prefers playing male, "his" V xD). Also, he's usually so immersed in the world anyway that he doesn't think about it much, can distance himself and his voice from the character. He did note being a little self-critical about his work though (also such a mood xD), especially about lines that ended up with a slightly off intonation that he'd fumbled. That simply happens though, in dubbing in general, and in video games moreso because you're usually just using your imagination for picturing a scene instead of talking over an already filmed sequence. BUT actually, when they went back into the studio to record for PL, they re-recorded some of those messed up lines with mispronounced names or off intonation, which is making me look forward to my 3rd playthrough even more now! Gonna come with patch 2.0 I assume :D

Q: At Björn: What kind of character is your V?

A very nice and friendly one! He likes playing a goodie two-shoes. He also noted he's not far into the story yet, just finished Automatic Love, and it may have awoken something in him xDD He said when he had to pick a doll at the start of the quest he got distracted by his cat pissing on the carpet. So he didn't pay attention, just picked any, and ended up in Angel's booth, whom he didnt mind but also wouldn't have chosen otherwise. But then he wound up weirdly enticed by the scene and quite enjoyed it xD And honestly who wouldn't be, Angel is lovely 💜

Q: How do you both feel about the rise of AIs and AIs potentially replacing VAs in the future?

Björn said this is a concern to a degree, but will likely not affect him much anymore in his career (he's been in this line of work for 40 years, started as a kid, and is not doing only voice acting). It is a thing though that is discussed and unions and such are looking into means and ways to protect VAs rights to their own voices through contracts, for example, if VAs wish so. He also briefly touched upon the fact that some iconic German VAs are simply getting old and dying without enough new people following and able to take over their iconic roles for example, or even finding VAs that fit certain parts AND get them accepted by audiences (there was a huge shitshow around the German The Simpsons dub a couple of years back when Homer's German VA died of old age and his predecessors were not well-liked by a very entitled audience).

Mikolaj said he is generally not opposed to AIs as tools that should be used, in fact, they should be used but not abused for more than what they're good for. An AI can never convey the human range of emotion necessary to really "sell" a line, that is something you just need VAs made of flesh and blood for that are capable of understanding complex emotion (which AIs, who are not intelligent in the way humans are, cannot). Then again, in certain, highly specific cases, there could be exceptions made. He said that Viktor Vektor's Polish VA died after being sick for a long time. Before his death he'd heard about what AIs could do though and gave his okay to have his voice "live on" in a way after he is gone. CDPR also discussed this with his family before doing anything, but to have him remain a part of Cyberpunk they cloned his voice and artificially created some voice lines for him based of the material they already had. To Mikolaj, the decision on whether or not to use AIs and in which context always needs to be an ethical one done on a case by case basis.

Q: Some Hollywood stars like Johnny Depp never watch movies they acted in - how do Mikolaj and Björn feel about this sentiment?

Both of them agreed that they actually really like looking back at their old works. Mikolaj started at CDPR with the localization for The Witcher 2, and sometimes he cringes at some of the decisions he made there when going back. But it also shows him how he's grown as he realises "I'd do that differently now".

Björn is similar (he is not just a VA, writes screenplays as well and does voice directing iirc). He likes looking back at older stuff and, as mentioned in an answer above, both he and Mikolaj are a bit self-critical sometimes and see things they could improve when revisiting old ideas. It's a good thing to do to live through the awkwardness of looking at your old art xD

Q: What were your favourite lines/scenes to record?

Since Phantom Liberty is fresh in their minds (and Björn noted how nice it was to be back in the studio with everyone again), they kinda had to omit answering this for spoiler reasons xD There is supposedly an extremely emotional scene to come though that had everyone go absolutely quiet and sad in the booth, when usually there was always joking and laughing to a degree. You could've heard a pin drop (what are we gonna bet it's the new ending? 👀).

On that note, Mikolaj also mentioned how he loved seeing everyone come back to reprise their characters with new confidence, knowing them and how they wanted to play them now already, and they had a blast during the recording of the Phantom Liberty dub.

Out of the main game Mikolaj said though, the lines that hit him the hardest, that make him super emotional still, are the voice messages left to V in the suicide ending epilogue. He especially mentioned Judy and Panam (his faves 💜), who gave their all and poured all the despair and sadness into those, it was and still is hard for him to watch.

And on that super happy note the Q&A ended xDD I definitely didnt include everything that was said, I think I missed a smaller question or two as well, I'm just really going off of my memory mostly and a handful of notes I took during the talk xD

But yeah, I think this was definitely one of, if not the highlight of the night for me, at least looking at the schedule and what the local team had prepared for the Cologne stop of the Phantom Liberty tour :D

I still feel super privileged to have been there, given how new I'm to the game and fandom still, but yeah. I'm still so pumped and hhhhhhhh about everything, hope I can share some of my joy and excitement through this post with you all as well!!

\o/

#cyberpunk 2077 #phantom liberty #phantom liberty tour #phantom liberty spoilers #just in case #elven attends phantom liberty tour posting #personal stuff

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