It’s Ninety-nine Degrees Outside, Four Fuck-thousand Percent Humidity, And My Husband Was Like, “i’m

“what are you reading?”

“its a…online book.”

How I Learn Languages

As an aspiring polyglot, it’s important that I have a bunch of resources at my disposal for language learning. I use a variety of resources for my learning, such as books, websites, apps, T.V. shows, movies, etc. These are some of my resources!

-Websites-

1. Omniglot

This website is more for finding information about languages and finding languages to learn. It has a very comprehensive list of languages and you can find plenty of secondary resources for learning the language. You can find tutors for that language, and even songs in your target language. I can just about guarantee you that no matter what language you’re looking for, it will be documented here. It is absolutely amazing, and it is a FANTASTIC resource for the dedicated linguist.

http://www.omniglot.com/

2. Duolingo

This is both a website AND an app, however, I tend to use the website more frequently, mainly because I’m always on my laptop anyway. The learning system that this website uses makes out very easy to stay motivated, and the lessons are organized amazingly. Currently, the website offers about 27 different language courses for English speakers, and various language courses for speakers of languages other than English. You can set goals for yourself, take multiple courses, be involved in discussions, and even do translating activities. Beware though, it gets VERY addicting.

https://www.duolingo.com

3. Memrise

Also a website AND an app, this is my all time favorite resource for learning languages. It has SO many languages to choose from, and it even offers subjects other than languages, although foreign language learning is its primary appeal factor. 

http://www.memrise.com/home/

4. BBC Languages

Although this sector of BBC has been archived and is no longer updated, it still contains some valuable information. It includes some useful phrases, alphabet guides, and jokes in many languages. You’re bound to learn something new there, so check it out!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

5. Foreign Service Institute (FSI)

This website offers language courses constructed by the U.S. government, and relies heavily on audio-based learning. However, many of the language courses include lessons in the form of pdf. There is a very large selection of languages to choose from, so this resource is very good for getting an excellent introduction to your target language.

https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/

6. Live Lingua Project

Claiming to be the internet’s largest collection of free public domain language learning materials, this website is a MUST for language learners. It contains the FSI courses, Peace Corps language learning materials, and the DLI (military) language courses. It also offers Skype sessions for language learners in several different languages! The main appeal of this website, however, is the Peace Corps language material archive. There are SO many different languages to choose from, and there are many ebooks and audio files to take advantage of here.

https://www.livelingua.com/#project

7. Languages On the Web

This website offers texts that translate English texts into 55 other languages. It is not a translator, it merely provides reading material in foreign languages to learners. It is a very useful website, especially for analyzing how sentences are formed in other languages.

http://www.lonweb.org/

8. Learn 101

This website is really helpful for explaining grammatical concepts and for learning general stuff about languages, such as verbs, vocabulary, nouns, adjectives, basic phrases, foods, etc. There are quite alot of languages offered on this website, so it’s a great resource!

http://learn101.org/

9. Clozemaster

This website is great for learning languages through a sentence based, contextual experience. It’s a bit like Duolingo in that sense, and it requires you to fill in missing words from sentences. In my opinion, it’s better for people with a background in their target language, and they offer many different options for languages. It’s also good for speakers of a native language other than English!

https://www.clozemaster.com/

10. Lexicity

This is a great website for ancient language learners, and it provides resources for Egyptian, Mayan, Hittite, Latin, Old English, Etruscan, Gaulish, and several others. I have found the majority of resources that I have looked through helpful to my learning efforts. They have dictionaries, grammars, charts, and texts, and it is a very comprehensive resource.

http://lexicity.com/

11. Book2

This is a good resource for learners looking for audio files to help them practice their listening. I haven’t used it all too much, but there are many language options, so you’re bound to find a language that you find interesting on here.

http://www.goethe-verlag.com/book2/

12. Lang-8

This is a great resource for getting feedback on your writing in your target language. You can post things in your target language, and native speakers of that language will correct it, and you can do the same for other people! It’s very helpful, and is a great resource if you have to write in your target language often.

http://lang-8.com/

13. Bilinguis

This website offers a few books to read in different languages and is good for comparing different languages of the same book. This makes for good practice for reading in your target language. 

http://bilinguis.com/

14. Udemy

There are quite a few languages courses on this website, although several of them cost money. However, there are quite a few courses that are free, and are good for introducing you to your language of choice.

https://www.udemy.com/courses/

-Apps-

1. Memrise

As mentioned above in the websites section, this app is so amazing for on-the-go language learning, as well as for subjects other than languages! It helps users memorize concepts with “meme” which are pictures that will remind you of what the word or concept means, and it’s such a unique and fun learning experience! It has the feel of using flashcards, but I just love using this app so much.

2. Duolingo

Also mentioned in the websites section, this app is great for both learning new words and reviewing words that you have either memorized or have just been exposed to. There are grammar lessons available, translation activities, groups that you can join, and Duolingo makes it fun to learn a language with it’s reward system.

3. HelloTalk

This is my absolute FAVORITE app to talk to native speakers of my target language(s). You can become language partners with people, help others with translations, video/voice call, send voice messages, and have as many partners as you want! It’s an absolutely amazing app, and I highly recommend it to everyone! Warning- If you’re a native English speaker looking for a native Chinese speaker, you will get HUNDREDS of requests. It might overwhelm you for a second.

4. TuneIn Radio

This is really great for finding stations in your target language, and it helps with practicing both comprehension of spoken language as well as introduces you to awesome music in your target language!

5. Tigercards

This app presents words in the form of lists, and gives you vocab so that you can review it. Not the best presentation of words and it doesn’t really offer a memorization technique like Memrise, but it’s still helpful!

6. Busuu

This app is a bit like Duolingo, and it offers German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, Italian, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Japanese, and Chinese!

7. uTalk

This app offers so many different languages, it’s pretty incredible. There are games that you can play, phrasebooks, and several other features. The interface is also really awesome and simple, so it makes learning easier than usual. Definitely a must have.

8. Innovative Language

I haven’t used this app much, but I have heard that the lessons on this app are very good, and you can download the lessons so that you can view them offline.

9. FlashSticks

This has been super helpful to me, in addition to the games and flashcards that it offers, it also provides an object scanner, which uses your camera to scan objects and then tells you what it’s called in your target language! 

10. Mondly

This has been an awesome resource for me since it’s a bit like Duolingo, only with more unique language options. I’m currently using it to learn Hindi, however, there are tons of other language options. The interface is awesome, and I love using it.

11. MindSnacks

This company makes several different language apps, and currently I’m using the Mandarin, Japanese, and French ones. So far, I’ve really enjoyed these apps!

12. Spotify

Through Spotify’s “Word” category, there are many different playlists dedicated to language learning, such as for Arabic, Mandarin, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, and Swedish!

13. Quizlet

This is more of a diy language learning resource. It is not an inherent language learning resource, however, if you learn best through lists and/or flashcards, then this app allows you to make cards and review vocab that way! I use it all the time for exams!

14. FluentU

This is an awesome app for watching videos in your target language, and is really good for learning new words.

-Books-

1. Teach Yourself

This series offers an astounding number of languages, and I have found them to be pretty effective in helping me learn languages. I have used the Russian, Arabic, Mandarin, and Irish ones.

2. Barron’s Grammar and Verb books

I really like the way Barron’s does language books, so far I have used their Japanese grammar book and their Russian verbs book, and I really like the layout of them, especially the grammar book!

3. Dk Visual Bilingual Dictionaries

These are so helpful for me, I’ve been using the Mandarin and Japanese dictionaries for a long time, and they are so comprehensive and awesome!

4. Ethnologue

These aren’t language “learning” materials, but rather they help me find new languages to learn. These are more for the linguistic lovers, since they catalog almost every living language in the world in every country, and provide language maps and statistics. There’s really fascinating stuff in those books, so I highly recommend purchasing them. 

5. The “Dirty” books

So far, I have only used the Japanese version, however, I really like what the book includes, and it’s great for learning slang in your target language, and things that traditional textbooks wouldn’t teach you.

6. Living Language

I LOVE these books so much, I’ve used the Russian, Mandarin, and French ones and I’ve found them very helpful! The layout of these are very nice, and they’re pretty comprehensive.

7. Tuttle books

Tuttle offers several different language books, and they all are very good in my opinion. I have used their books for Arabic, Korean, Mandarin, Japanese, and Hindi.

That’s all that I have right now, but if you all would like more resources than I will definitely make a second one!

“Nursey?”

Nursey blinks once, and then a second time when things are still blurry. He swivels his desk chair to face the doorway where there’s a smear of orange on top of gray that resolves itself into Dex after several more blinks. He’s wearing sweatpants that are a slightly different color gray than his sweatshirt. The only pops of color are the smears of purple under his eyes, the flush of his cheeks–pink and sweet like embarrassment–, and, of course, the nest of hair he’s forgotten to have cut for at least two months now.

Sometimes–fuck, but sometimes Nursey forgets how in love he let himself get. The fact that he has at least four different poems he could quote right now, a separate poem writing itself the longer he stares. He wishes he knew how it would feel to brush his thumb across that blush, to tuck his nose into the flyaway hairs behind Dex’s ear. He wishes he knew how to love without it ruining his goddamned life.

Really. It’s way too late–or early, god, what time is it–and Nursey needs every last braincell he’s got left to finish this scene for the script-writing class he somehow let Farmer talk him into but all he wants to do is sit here and watch a sleep deprived Dex blush as he lists into the door frame.

Before Nursey can think something utterly ridiculous like, oh, to be that door frame, he blinks really hard and asks, “What’s up, Dex-a-doodle?”

Dex must truly be exhausted because he doesn’t say anything about the nickname. “Are you–” he gestures vaguely in the direction of Nursey’s laptop.

Nursey spares a glance for his scene, which has remained six pages long for the past thirty minutes despite his best efforts. He closes the lid and turns back to Dex. “I’m free, what do you need?”

Sheepish, Dex pulls a stack of papers from behind his back. Nursey sighs. Really, he ought to bluster, ought to act annoyed and refuse to help, make Dex offer him any number of things in return for reading some of the worst writing he’s ever been unfortunate enough to have put in front of him, but–but it’s very late and Dex is soft and sleepy and illiterate and Nursey can’t argue himself out of simply wanting Dex to stay.

He holds out a hand. Dex grins, the slow, crooked thing he didn’t turn on Nursey until the end of their softie year, and he puts the essay into Nursey’s outstretched hand and takes a seat on Nursey’s bed while he waits.

Nursey turns back to his desk, reaching out idly for his red pen while he starts scanning the intro paragraph. After the first two rounds of edits, it doesn’t make him cringe immediately. There’s a typo here or there and a missing comma in the second paragraph, but Nursey finds himself smiling by the end of the second example. The thesis changed dramatically since the last time he read it–the second round of edits ended with a long, lengthy, and loud discussion of the subject material, during which Nursey may or may not have provided a caffeine-induced rant about the misreading of Shakespearean plays and despite the rather dazed look in Dex’s eyes upon the conclusion of said speech, some of it seemed to have made an impact.

“It’s good,” Nursey says, as he finishes reading, smiling to himself. “Now, don’t get too excited, it’s good for a STEM, but–” Nursey cuts himself off as he turns to find Dex asleep on the bottom bunk. He’s tipped the wrong way, feet resting beside the pillows, his neck bent awkwardly as his cheek presses into the quilt.

Nursey huffs a laugh at himself for the fierce swell of affection in his chest. He puts down the essay and the red pen and crosses to the bed, gently moving a pillow under Dex’s head. Out of it as he is, he doesn’t even stir, simply settles back down as Nursey pulls away.

Nursey turns back to his desk. He put the essay down on top of his laptop and he picks it up as he turns his computer back on. He skims the first page again, stupid smile on his lips. Who would’ve thought that Dex was actually listening to him, all this time.

The Word document pops onto the screen, shining too-bright light into the room. Nursey places the essay to the side and rereads the last two pages of his scene, finding himself continuing it effortlessly when he reaches the point he’d left off. He makes the page count before the hour is up and saves without rereading it, shutting the laptop and sending him back into a softer light. He braces himself and turns.

Dex sleeps away peacefully. Arms wrapped around himself, one leg pulled up towards his chest. Nursey lets himself watch without feeling guilty–he’s too tired for anything more complicated than fondness. Sometimes it really does feel so simple.

The truth; tonight Nursey is going to get ready to sleep as quietly as possible and somehow manage to trip on his way to the bed, and Dex will wake up, bleary and pink, make to sit up, make to leave, and Nursey will press him back down and tell him to, “Stay. Dex, just–stay,” and Dex will, because sometimes Dex listens, and Nursey will fall asleep counting the soft breaths below him.

The truth; Dex has really horrible takes on Shakespeare, and Emily Dickinson, and most literature up to and including the Magic Treehouse books, but he never stops Nursey’s rants, and continues to ask for Nursey’s help, and his essays get nothing but better.

The truth; one day, Nursey is going to tell Dex about all the poetry, quoted and written, that Dex inspires in him, and Dex–Dex is going to listen.

culture note ideas;

learning a language is like learning about a country’s culture. therefore, one should take some culture notes once in a while. if you need any ideas on what to research/study, take a look below! i might add more if i think of any.

general

countries that speak the language

common dishes/foods/drinks/alcohols

festivals

cultural tidbits (ex: why japanese uses kanji still)

world leaders/figureheads/etc

wars

history in gen

art

games

paintings

sculptures

instruments

music/genre-related

anything

pop culture

hit movies

celebrities

music

etc

history of the language

make a travel guide

recipes

traditions

holidays

places to see/go

sightseeing worthy/statues/etc

important people

common animals that live in certain country

cultural differences?

holidays they have that you don’t

do they celebrate (holiday) differently?

etymology of words – they can act make good history lessons

myths/fairy tales/ urban legends

dialects

provinces/states/etc

specific

whats it like driving there?

how does schooling work?

how does a typical family live?

common stereotypes

do they go about finding love differently? (ex: is it common for arranged marriages?)

typical sbjs one learns in school

college?

beauty standards

Sandy Nour “To the Moon & Back” Resort 2020 Semi Couture Collection

am i doing it right?

I had a dream that I lived in a town on the edge of reality. There was a map showing the location of the town in spacetime, and it was depicted as teetering on the edge of the event horizon of a funnel-shaped warp in reality. Like light a certain distance away from a black hole, we were unable to escape the influence of the warp, but not drawn in by it completely, either.

Our proximity to Unreality conferred many advantages, and we were able to do things in our town that weren’t actually possible. We could survive fatal accidents and walk away without a scratch. Things that were lost forever were found again, and sometimes, if you didn’t think about it too directly, failures transformed into successes just like that. It was as though thought itself was a physical substance that could bend the shape of the world in our favor. Life was good in the little town of Event Horizon, where things always seemed to work out and Lady Luck lived on our side.

But Event Horizon also experienced “reality-quakes”. Now and then the fabric of spacetime would ripple, and shockwaves would rock our little town violently. Sometimes things would shake loose and get drawn in to the Unreality, and even people could be lost this way. They quakes weren’t common, but they seemed to be occurring with more frequency, leading to fears that we were becoming unmoored in spacetime and might lose the equilibrium that allowed us to survive and take advantage of the flexibility of reality.

Thought could stabilize things, if we projected our minds as physical forces to hold things in place. You could cast your thoughts out as a net and pull against the draw of Unreality. But that only worked if we were prepared and braced ourselves against the quake ahead of time, and people needed to work and eat and sleep and go to school. There was no way that everyone could be on anchoring duty all the time.

That’s why we had a lottery. Every twenty years, one among us would be selected to by the community to be the Achor for the entire town—a full-time psychic resistance against entropy. The Anchor would enter a trance state and project their mind out to touch every structure, every tree, every pebble, every person in Event Horizon, and hold them there. Constantly. For twenty years.

People would come to tend to the Anchor, to feed and bathe them and keep them comfortable, but the Anchor rarely became lucid enough to recognize them. It was a vital, respected, honorable position, but there was no glory in it. If you found out you had been selected to be the next Anchor, your family would grieve for you as though you had died. If you had children, they would be taken care of in a princely fashion as wards of the state, and your family would be honored and want for nothing, because even though your assignment was only twenty years, former Anchors did not tend to live for very long. They’d be made comfortable and lavished with good things, but their life energy would be sapped, and they’d fade away quickly.

My dream was 90% exposition and very little in-the-moment action, but I had just discovered that I would be the new Anchor, and I was not happy about it. The most vivid action scene I remember was standing in my kitchen staring at breakfast cereal boxes on a shelf and touching them with my mind, feeling every grain of cereal within and thinking, “Even this? Even this?”

Anyway, thanks brain, that was cool.

looking on the bright side ummm heneddie crazygirl partnership of our dreams ❓ eddie in the ambulance… driving the ambulance… running med calls… stethoscope eddie all the time… disgustingly competent… eddie performing Procedures… how many times will he say he saw it in afghanistan……

“It’s often unhealthy to hyper-analyze your sexuality to the point where how you experience it changes where you belong. This is why the idea that broader terms are somehow more restrictive is baffling. Continuously breaking labels down and creating terminology for each facet of one’s identity shrinks communities until it’s just one person convinced that they’re the only one who relates to their experiences. It isolates people and ignores the importance of individuality within a collective identity.”

On Hyperpersonalized Sexual Identity

Me Watching Miraculous Ladybug

*episode one* Oh wow, hah, this is lame. I’ll never watch more than three episodes. This is such a kids show.

*30 years later* aHAHAHAHA LOOK AT THAT LADYBUG ALMOST FOUND OUT HIS TRUE IDENTITY. ONLY A FEW MORE EPISODES UNTIL IT HAPPENS. DAMMIT HURRY UP AND JUST LOVE EACH OTHER /intense sobbing/