thebeaujar

[thebeaujar]

French fairy tales

Princess Rosette, Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy : FR / EN

The fair with golden hair, Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy : FR / EN

The friendly frog, Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy : FR / EN

Aurore and Aimée, Jeanne de Beaumont : FR / EN

Beauty and the beast, Jeanne de Beaumont : FR / EN

Bluebeard, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

Cinderella, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

Donkey skin, Charles Perrault : FR / EN 

Little red riding hood, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

Little thumb, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

Puss in boots, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

Sleeping beauty, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

The fairy, Charles Perrault : FR / EN

Blondine, Sophie Ségur : FR / EN

Ourson, Sophie Ségur : FR / EN

Sophie’s misfortunes, Sophie Ségur : FR / EN

The little grey mouse, Sophie Ségur : FR / EN

(You can download the Wikisource PDFs legally for free at the top of the page as they are part of the public domain)

#french

[thebeaujar]

#russian

[thebeaujar]

- take an ebook in your target language that you wanna read - convert epub to txt - copy txt into unique wordlist maker (http://caerphoto.com/uwc/) - remove words in the list you already know - maybe focus on keeping the high frequency new words - make this list into flashcard deck badda bing badda boom

I did this with my Turkish copy of Animal Farm and pulled 212 new words for my Quizlet deck

[thebeaujar]

Podcasts

Knowledge :

Au coeur de l’histoire (history)

les chasseurs de nazis (nazi hunters)

france musique 

on ne parle pas la bouche pleine (food + literature)

les chemins de la philosophie

le collège de france (advanced)

il était une fois (fairy tales)

la main verte (gardening)

la méthode scientifique

regardez voir (photography)

sur les épaules de darwin

very good trip (rock n roll)

chroniques du ciel (aviation)

la tête au carré (popularization)

les p’tits bateaux (pros answering children’s qs)

les grands musiciens (interview with a pro musician)

littérature moderne et contemporaine

Society :

Arte radio (politics, health, history, tech…)

slate (similarish to ted talks)

hashtag (debating very current problems)

quoi de meuf (women talking about pop culture)

affaires sensibles (trials)

les gentilshommes (relationships men/women)

bouddhisme et méditation

kiffe ta race (about racial problematics)

le flow (well being)

sois gentille dis merci fais un bisou (portraits of women)

les couilles sur la table (men talking to women)

miroir miroir (destroy social norms)

du grain à moudre (debating sensible questions)

coucou le q (casual sex ed)

change ma vie (about personal growth)

la poudre (powerful women’s interviews)

nice to hear you (talks with creators, ceos, artists and nice humans)

mortel (to reconcile you with death and mortality)

la menstruelle (periods)

Movies + tech :

La cartouche (gaming)

la chronique ciné

studio 404 (tech)

geek inc (nerd chatter)

nouveau monde (innovations)

2h de perdues (shitty movies)

silence on joue (gaming)

radio rôliste (role playing, mmorpg)

nociné (pop culture/movies)

season one (to discover new shows)

#french

[thebeaujar]

this is a huuuge pdf but I cannot recommend this resource enough (I have the dead tree version living on my desk). It’s got short lil chapters on almost any trouble you might run into, and they’re split into grammar troubles (all the way from modifying nouns to the passive voice) and situational troubles (how to intro yourself, formal greetings, etc.) 

There’s also a workbook!  It’s nice because it’s very focused drills, you can read a section and then go find the exercises for that section. Like if I knew everything in this book alone I would know so much srsly. 

#Chinese

[thebeaujar]

Free Advanced Russian Textbook

Decoding the 1920s: A Reader for Advanced Learners of Russian

The materials presented in this book were developed for an advanced-level content-based Russian language course entitled “Russian Literature of the Twentieth Century: The 1920s.

The textbook contains language assignments that would, on the one hand, help students transition to advanced but at the same time promote meaningful engagement with literary texts. The assignments in this textbook are multilevel ones, and thus offer a solution for multilevel classes that include literate heritage Russian speakers, Intermediate High, Advanced, or even Superior-level readers.

#russian

[thebeaujar]

So, I’m an Anki user and I’m completely aware of how intimidating Anki can be upon first glance. Here are some Anki add-ons that can help make the experience a better one. Feel free to suggest your favorites as well!

Pokemanki: For each basic deck you have, this add-on gives you a Pokémon egg, and it grows stronger as you review. I am a huge Pokémon fan, so this is a necessary add-on in my opinion.

Migaku Vacation: This add-on lets you take sick days and vacations from your Anki reviews, to not make the process so overwhelming if you miss a day.

Anki IPA: Haven’t personally used this one yet, but as a linguist it’ll be super helpful for French. It transcribes your cards into IPA instantly! Only a handful of languages are supported, so check it out. 

Pull from Duolingo: This will take words you’ve learned so far in your Duolingo course and make them into cards! Definitely great for those beginning stages of a language when you aren’t sure how to make your Anki deck.

Puppy Reinforcement: Nice puppies tell you you’re doing a good job :)

Anki Simulator: This one lets you simulate your progress. I like looking at shiny graphs, so if you do too then this is for you.

Migaku Spanish: This add-on features audio recordings, color coding for grammatical gender, and a dictionary. It’s also available for French and Portuguese and - I think - German, if I’m not mistaken.

Beeline: It adds gradients to text to make it easier to read. Helpful for long blocks of text!

Beautify Anki: Are you tired of the boring grey background of Anki? This is one of your options. It’s an attempt to make the interface a lot more friendly-looking.

Randomize Fonts: I literally had ZERO idea why you would use this one for fun, but one of the reviews pointed out it’s good for identifying words in different contexts, and if you are learning a language that uses a script that isn’t what your native language is written in, this could definitely be cool!

Anki Accountability 2: Allows you to generate a report to send to someone about your consistency with your reviews. Could be useful among a competitive group of friends, or for language teachers who would like to implement use of Anki in the classroom!

[thebeaujar]

If anyone is interested, there is a free, short introductory course on the history, culture, and society of Ukraine from the Middle Ages to the present.

[thebeaujar]

A few useful expressions #2

I wouldn’t know : je ne saurais (or pourrais) pas dire

It doesn’t ring a bell : ça ne me dit rien (du tout)

I believe so : je crois/il me semble (bien) que oui

Clockwise : dans le sens des aiguilles d’une montre

Don’t pull out that on me : arrête tes conneries (rude)

When i think about it : quand j’y pense

You shouldn’t have done that : tu n’aurais pas dû faire ça

I don’t want to : je n’ai pas envie

I don’t mind : ça ne me dérange pas/ce n’est pas grave

I have to go : je dois y aller

Next week : la semaine prochaine

The following week : la semaine suivante

Last week : la semaine dernière

The week before : la semaine précédente 

I can’t remember : je ne me rappelle pas

I’m happy i did : je suis content-e de l’avoir fait

I’m going to bed : je vais me coucher

It doesn’t matter to me : je m’en fiche/m’en fous (rude)

I’m not interested : ça ne m’intéresse pas

I’m not mad : je ne suis pas fâché-e/en colère après toi

You’re so extra : tu en fais trop 

If we’re lucky : avec un peu de chance

How did that happen : comment est-ce que c’est arrivé ?

What do you mean ? : qu’est-ce que tu veux dire ?

What are you doing ? : qu’est-ce que tu fais ?

What did you do ? : qu’est-ce que tu as fait ?

Why did you do that : pourquoi as-tu fait ça ? 

A few useful expressions #1

#french

[thebeaujar]

Introducing a new langblr challenge… Langblr Word of the Day Challenge!

Hi all! I feel like I’ve not been making enough original langblr content lately, so I decided to make a langblr challenge! This challenge is quite simple and quite flexible: it starts on the first of February, and every day for the month has a different word (the word of the day). Your challenge is to use the word in your language learning that day, in whatever capacity you feel like! Here are a couple of ideas:

Translate the word into your target language

Find a synonym and/or and antonym for the word

Write a paragraph (or more) based around the word

Write one sentence containing the word

Learn 5 words related to the word

Create a vocab list based around the word

Search the word on unsplash, find a picture you like and describe it

Read and share an article related to the word/with the word in the title

Listen to a podcast about the word/with the word in the title

Watch an episode of a TV show about the word/with the word in the title

Have a conversation with a native or another learner about the topic

Feel free to interpret the word as literally or as creatively as you like.

Here’s the word list - feel free to brainstorm some ideas ahead of time:

rain

love

memory

time

comfort

desire

flight

fun

song

puzzle

peace

sunshine

truth

curious

freedom

gift

rest

trust

letter

library

forest

create

night

play

high

ghost

ocean

magic

Use the hashtag #langblrwotdchallenge so we can find each other and check out each other’s posts. If you want to tag me too, I would absolutely love that!

#challenge

[thebeaujar]

Vocabulary Lists Masterpost

Some expressions posts

Some expressions: ears

Some expressions: eyes

Some expressions: nose

Some expressions: hands

Some expressions: head

Other phraseology

Some Russian idioms & proverbs

Russian “national” expressions

Expressions with names

Biblical expressions

Thematic

Birthday vocabulary

Scary adult stuff (Russian + French)

The Brothers Karamazov vocabulary

Apologies

Interjections

Gestures

Russian equivalents to popular English colloquial expressions

What do Russian animals say?

Misc

A guide to different “what-s”

Nonsense

Conversational

#russian

[thebeaujar]

dropbox containing linguistics textbooks

contains 34 textbooks including etymology, language acquisition, morphology, phonetics/phonology, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, & translation studies

dropbox containing language textbooks

contains 86 language textbooks including ASL, Arabic, (Mandarin) Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hebrew (Modern & Ancient), Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovene, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh

dropbox containing books about language learning

includes fluent forever by gabriel wyner, how to learn any language by barry farber, polyglot by kató lomb

if there’s a problem with any of the textbooks or if you want to request materials for a specific language feel free to message me!

#general

[thebeaujar]

Things to write about in your target language journal

Things that happened during the day.

Describe a dream.

Talk to yourself

Talk to your future self.

Talk to your past self.

Describe someone you hate/love.

Write a little story.

Describe what did you eat during the day.

Describe why you like certain colour/food/movie/song/etc.

Do a summary from a book/movie.

Write about a country you want to visit.

Write a to do list.

Translate something.

Describe your pet.

Write about how you wished the world/your life was.

Write about the things you're doing to accomplish your objectives.

Describe your daily routine.

Describe your way to work/school and back home.

Describe your favourite mythical creature.

Talk about your favourite mythology.

Write common phrases you use everyday.

Write down some slang. Look if your language's slang exist in your target language.

Talk about what superpower you would like to have.

Write letters, it could be anyone: a living or dead person, someone you know/ don't know/ barely know/ wish to know, a famous person, a fictional/ historical character, etc.

Try to write a poem. Emphasis on the word "try".

Talk about what scares you the most.

Talk about what makes you very, very happy.

Talk about what makes you sad.

#general

[thebeaujar]

Read Grimms’ Fairy Tales in 18 languages!

On this website you can read Grimms’ fairy tales in 18 different languages! (English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Danish, Romanian, Finnish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish and Hungarian)

 http://www.grimmstories.com/

#general

[thebeaujar]

I was trying to brush up on my Russian, when I discovered a website called Foreigncy. It’s “a one-of-a-kind language training system for advanced level students and language professionals.” They currently have Russian, Arabic, and Hebrew available for English natives. (It looks like they used to have Persian, Urdu and Mandarin, but they haven’t been updated for a couple years.)

Users go through a three-step process: first, you’re given an English language summary of the foreign news article. Then, you’re given a set of vocab lists, flashcards and quizzes to prepare you for the vocab in the article. Finally, once you feel you have familiarised yourself with the vocabulary and the subject matter, they send you to a real-life news article.

Let me know what you think of this resource! Happy learning!

#russian

[thebeaujar]

Vocabulary list: Useful phrases for essay writing in Russian

Введение Introduction

В этом сочинении я хочу/собираюсь/намереваюсь… In this essay I want to/I am going to/I intend to… Цель этого сочинения… The aim of this essay… описать write обсудить discuss исследовать explore, examine, investigate выяснить find out, figure out рассмотреть consider, examine определить define подчеркнуть underline отметить note

В наши дни мы сталкиваемся Nowadays we come across Главным образом Mainly До некоторой степени To a certain extent Мы все знаем, что We all know that Нельзя отрицать, что It cannot be denied that Это несправедливо It is unfair Одни считают, что…, другие считают, что…, а третьи считают, что… Some believe/consider that …, while others believe that …, and still others believe that…  Многие говорят, что… Many say that… Некоторые думают, что… Some think that… Существует точка зрения/мнение/взгляд… There is the point of view/opinion/view Высказывать точку зрения… The point of view (is) expressed… С точки зрения + gen… From the point of view of… По мнению/Согласно мнению + gen…. According to… Никто не отрицает Nobody denies Мы не должны забывать, что We mustn’t forget, that

соглашаться/согласиться с + inst. to agree with поддерживать/поддержать to support, to back подтверждать/подтвердить to confirm, to back up критиковать to criticise возражать/возразить против + gen. to object, to retort отрицать to deny, to disclaim

по сообщению + gen. according to the report (of) по мнению критика according to the critic как считают эксперты experts believe

во-первых firstly во-вторых secondly в-третьих thirdly следовательно therefore, subsequently таким образом so, in this way без сомнения without a doubt действительно really безусловно undoubtedly

С одной стороны…, с другой стороны… on the one hand…, on the other…

Потому что Because Так как Because, as, since По причине того, что/по той простой причине, что Due to the fact that Поскольку Since

Однако However Зато But, on the other hand Несмотря на то, что Despite the fact that

К тому же Besides, in addition, furthermore Более того Moreover Именно Exactly, precisely

То есть That is, that is to say Другими словами In other words Иначе говоря In other words В связи с этим In this regard, thereby

Если…, то/тогда… If…, then… Если учесть/учитывая Considering/given Если принять во внимание/принимая во внимание If we take into account/taking into account

Заключение Conclusion

В конце концов In the end В заключение можно сказать/я хотел(а) бы сказать, что In conclusion we can say/I would like to say that Итак мы видим, что So we see that Исходя из вышесказанного можно сделать вывод/ прийти к выводу, что From the above it can be concluded that В заключение можно сказать/сделать вывод/обобщить In summary/conclusion/In general Из вышесказанного следует, что From the above, it follows that

Выражать себя Expressing oneself

я думаю, что I think that я верю, что I believe that я считаю, что I consider/believe that мне кажется, что it seems to me that по-моему in my opinion на мой взгляд in my opinion я люблю I love я обожаю I adore мне нравится I like я бы сказал(а) I would say мне больше нравится/я предпочитаю I prefer я согласен/я согласна I agree ты ошибаешься/вы ошибаетесь you’re wrong я не уверен(а) I’m not sure я точно не знаю, но кажется I do not know exactly, but it seems к счастью fortunately к сожалению unfortunately больше всего most of all я надеюсь, что I hope that я ненависю/ненавижу I hate всё равно all the same мне всё равно it is all the same to me дело в том, что the thing/fact is that несмотря на то, что despite the fact that особенно especially наверное surely, probably как бы ни however хотя бы though

Соединительные слова Connecting words

и and а and, but или or но but потом then потому что because поэтому so, therefore также, тоже also, too так so иначе/а то or else ни… ни… neither… nor… пока/ещё still всё равно all the same если if опять again дело в том, что the fact is that больше нет no more в таком случае in that case даже even абсолютно absolutely

#russian

[thebeaujar]

Learning characters for beginners: a (very!) in-depth guide

OR: PHONETIC COMPONENTS, AND WHERE TO FIND THEM 

I’m trying to learn Chinese or well..not that seriously or actively, i just try it on duolingo because i can’t move on from The Untamed x’D Anyway, i like it so far, but writing the characters seems pretty difficult. So i wanted to ask if you have some tips for complete beginners x)

Thank you @kaenineul for the message and letting me share it here!

First of all, awesome that you’re learning - and great that that’s in part because of the Untamed! Can confirm, it’s a great way to learn…!

Strap in, it’s going to be a long one. tldr; learn phonetic and semantic components first but please read the whole thing I have really good tips at the end–

So first things first I’m going to address the question of when you should learn characters. There are two extreme outcomes here: putting off characters for as long as you can, and immediately trying to memorise them as quickly as possible. Both will hinder your progress in the long-term, and let me explain why.

 — artfully fades to black, accompanied by the sound of Xue Yang’s villainous giggling —

Читать дальше

#chinese