Does anyone have recommendations for a good language app to learn Korean? I didn’t like DuoLingo and found it confusing, a free app would be ideal but I’m not opposed to paying. Also while we’re on the topic who has k-pop recommendations for me? I’m obsessed with Kard but don’t really listen or know anyone else, well I mean I know Black Pink too but haven’t listened to them much. Send me your favorites, bonus points for gorgeous men or women my Kard biases are BM and Jiwoo. I’m usually a Visual Kei and heavy metal girlie but K-pop is damn catchy and they’re all so pretty. What about Ateez? What songs are good? I feel like Mingi is my type so they have my interest and Felix in Stray Kids? I don’t know where to start though, I need someone to baby step me through this one please and thank you 🩷

thoughts about the Cardassian writing system

I've thinking about the Cardassian script as shown on screen and in beta canon and such and like. Is it just me or would it be very difficult to write by hand?? Like.

I traced some of this image for a recent drawing I did and like. The varying line thicknesses?? The little rectangular holes?? It's not at all intuitive to write by hand. Even if you imagine, like, a different writing implement—I suppose a chisel-tip pen would work better—it still seems like it wasn't meant to be handwritten. Which has a few possible explanations.

Like, maybe it's just a fancy font for computers, and handwritten text looks a little different. Times New Roman isn't very easily written by hand either, right? Maybe the line thickness differences are just decorative, and it's totally possible to convey the same orthographic information with the two line thicknesses of a chisel-tip pen, or with no variation in line thickness at all.

A more interesting explanation, though, and the one I thought of first, is that this writing system was never designed to be handwritten. This is a writing system developed in Cardassia's digital age. Maybe the original Cardassian script didn’t digitize well, so they invented a new one specifically for digital use? Like, when they invented coding, they realized that their writing system didn’t work very well for that purpose. I know next to nothing about coding, but I cannot imagine doing it using Chinese characters. So maybe they came up with a new writing system that worked well for that purpose, and when computer use became widespread, they stuck with it. 

Or maybe the script was invented for political reasons! Maybe Cardassia was already fairly technologically advanced when the Cardassian Union was formed, and, to reinforce a cohesive national identity, they developed a new standardized national writing system. Like, y'know, the First Emperor of Qin standardizing hanzi when he unified China, or that Korean king inventing hangul. Except that at this point in Cardassian history, all official records were digital and typing was a lot more common than handwriting, so the new script was designed to be typed and not written. Of course, this reform would be slower to reach the more rural parts of Cardassia, and even in a technologically advanced society, there are people who don't have access to that technology. But I imagine the government would be big on infrastructure and education, and would make sure all good Cardassian citizens become literate. And old regional scripts would stop being taught in schools and be phased out of digital use and all the kids would grow up learning the digital script.

Which is good for the totalitarian government! Imagine you can only write digitally. On computers. That the government can monitor. If you, like, write a physical letter and send it to someone, then it's possible for the contents to stay totally private. But if you send an email, it can be very easily intercepted. Especially if the government is controlling which computers can be manufactured and sold, and what software is in widespread use, etc. 

AND. Historical documents are now only readable for scholars. Remember that Korean king that invented hangul? Before him, Korea used to use Chinese characters too. And don't get me wrong, hangul is a genius writing system! It fits the Korean language so much better than Chinese characters did! It increased literacy at incredible rates! But by switching writing systems, they broke that historical link. The average literate Chinese person can read texts that are thousands of years old. The average literate Korean person can't. They'd have to specifically study that field, learn a whole new writing system. So with the new generation of Cardassian youths unable to read historical texts, it's much easier for the government to revise history. The primary source documents are in a script that most people can't read. You just trust the translation they teach you in school. In ASIT it's literally a crucial plot point that the Cardassian government revised history! Wouldn't it make it soooo much easier for them if only very few people can actually read the historical accounts of what happened.

I guess I am thinking of this like Chinese characters. Like, all the different Chinese "dialects" being written with hanzi, even though otherwise they could barely be considered the same language. And even non-Sinitic languages that historically adopted hanzi, like Japanese and Korean and Vietnamese. Which worked because hanzi is a logography—it encodes meaning, not sound, so the same word in different languages can be written the same. It didn’t work well! Nowadays, Japanese has made significant modifications and Korean has invented a new writing system entirely and Vietnamese has adapted a different foreign writing system, because while hanzi could write their languages, it didn’t do a very good job at it. But the Cardassian government probably cares more about assimilation and national unity than making things easier for speakers of minority languages. So, Cardassia used to have different cultures with different languages, like the Hebitians, and maybe instead of the Union forcing everyone to start speaking the same language, they just made everyone use the same writing system. Though that does seem less likely than them enforcing a standard language like the Federation does. Maybe they enforce a standard language, and invent the new writing system to increase literacy for people who are newly learning it.

And I can imagine it being a kind of purely digital language for some people? Like if you’re living on a colonized planet lightyears away from Cardassia Prime and you never have to speak Cardassian, but your computer’s interface is in Cardassian and if you go online then everyone there uses Cardassian. Like people irl who participate in the anglophone internet but don’t really use English in person because they don’t live in an anglophone country. Except if English were a logographic writing system that you could use to write your own language. And you can’t handwrite it, if for whatever reason you wanted to. Almost a similar idea to a liturgical language? Like, it’s only used in specific contexts and not really in daily life. In daily life you’d still speak your own language, and maybe even handwrite it when needed. I think old writing systems would survive even closer to the imperial core (does it make sense to call it that?), though the government would discourage it. I imagine there’d be a revival movement after the Fire, not only because of the cultural shift away from the old totalitarian Cardassia, but because people realize the importance of having a written communication system that doesn’t rely on everyone having a padd and electricity and wifi.

To the people who want to learn a language because of their favorite media but feel like it's a stupid reason, just go for it! Learning a language is a fun and useful skill that can come in handy when you least expect it, especially if you live in a diverse area.

Not to mention it can help you understand the media you're consuming on a deeper level. Interacting with the fanbase from that culture can help contextualize choices made in your favorite anime, video game, or kpop song.

Why did this japanese game portray europe like this? What problems in korea is this kpop song about? What is this festival in my favorite anime about?

What are the translations missing? What has been localized and why?

It's so incredibly rewarding to be able to understand different perspectives from different cultures. It's amazing to be able to communicate with people different from you. Learn whatever language your little heart desires. Go forth.

so I know that consuming native content is a good way to acquire a language, but does this extend to translated content? as in, things originally made/written in one language that has been translated into your TL? Im not sure if certain things would be 'off' or inaccurate in translated media, even though it's still (technically) made by and for natives (I think? I assume??)

hello! don't answer if you don't want to but i was wondering how many languages you speak? your sources and reads are so diverse!

English, Bisaya, Tagalog, and my ability to speak these is debatable: but I can read in French and Italian as well :)

me on january 1st: this year i’m only doing things because i want to, not because i feel like i have to

me on january 5th: THERES SO MANY THINGS I WANT TO DO

Question for language learning peeps

Does anyone have tips for how to get motivated studying languages again/how to stay motivated?

Rn we can't choose a language we wanna study. We really wanna learn Japanese, German, and Korean at the moment

It's hard to stay motivated because what we wanna learn keeps changing due to boredom

That and just how daunting it is to learn a language scares us

my life mission is to collect all east asian languages

dudeee i’m gonna be feeling like tina when filipino ccs join. i talk about it often and am super excited for when it’ll happen but i already know i’ll be embarrassed when everyone will want to know more about the language & the culture and i’ll know barely anything despite being filipino myself😭

I passed my final exam for the first trimester of Korean & now I feel numb. We won't be continuing until 13th of January and I'm praying that my 서강 한국어 textbook & workbook arrive soon so I can keep practicing my reading, writing & speaking skills.

im gonna cass cain my way into learning Farsi or die trying

bro why are languages so hard like come on now I just wanna be able to communicate

with friends? with family? with my roots? all of them THAT'S A LOT OF LANGUAGES WITH THEIR OWN ALPHABETS there's never enough time

how I look when I realize I can’t learn every language ever

aaaaaahhhh i'm so hype I have my first legit korean lessons today!!!

I need some Kpop friends I’ve been dragged back into my EXO obsession (pun intended) and I’m just exploding not being able to talk about it with anyone in my life and I need someone to take away my credit card because I’m this close 👌🏻 to buying a light stick and I don’t need one but I also want their shirts and merch and a photo card holder I am begging the universe (haha) that I can see them in concert when they tour again I don’t care if I’m in the back row I just want to be there I’ve missed being this happy listening to their music it makes me want to learn all of the dances again but for nowI’ll just be here watching their concerts on YouTube and staring at my full cart of exo merch lol