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zzzzzestforlife · 2 days
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getting over my "intermediate slump" in 3 languages 🇰🇷🇨🇳🇯🇵
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i've barely reached intermediate level in two of my target languages, yet i'm already slumping so hard 🙈 and the worst part is, because Japanese is so similar to Korean and Chinese, i'm getting bored when i'm barely even N5 yet 😅 so starting today, i want to take inspiration from this article to get over my slump and find that excitement and joy in learning again!
✍️ target language output practice yay
🇰🇷 most days i'm keeping my diary in Korean lately! i can even write bad(?) poetry in Korean (no, i will not elaborate 🙈)
🇯🇵 Kanji + Hiragana writing practice for the days of the week + keyboarding practice writing a short journal entry!
🎧 target language input binge let's gooo
🇰🇷 reminding myself why i can't watch Hello, Counselor 😡 i just get so mad at these entitled, rude, small-minded men (적어도 승관씨는 이해... 아이돌입니다 또는 아니야, 그는도 화나했어요 at least Seungkwan understands... idol or not, he's angry too 🥺)
🇰🇷 귀여운 귤은 인터뷰를 있어요 (cute tangerine does an interview), 난 봤어 그럼요 (i watched it of course)
🇯🇵 優しな母と優し家族 (kind mom and kind family) vlogs 1, 2
🇰🇷 Seventeen Artist-Made Season 2 (the upper-middle child line, lol)
🎯 target language drills
🇯🇵 3 lessons + unit exam
🇨🇳 4 lessons
💌: besides low-key neglecting to do more meaningful study in Chinese, i think i did pretty well! there's only so much time in one day after all. the important thing is i feel motivated to continue tomorrow ☺️
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escuerzoresucitado · 8 months
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norwegian is an incredible language
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bookwyrminspiration · 6 months
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constantly torn between "i wish I could magically learn this language immediately and speak it perfectly" and "part of language acquisition is the process, and learning it immediately wouldn't have as much meaning or significance to me"
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linguistness · 7 months
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What is a ‘wug’?
If you’ve been to linguist tumblr (lingblr), you might have stumbled upon this picture of a funny little bird or read the word ‘wug’ somewhere. But what exactly is a ‘wug’ and where does this come from?
The ‘wug’ is an imaginary creature designed for the so-called ‘wug test’ by Jean Berko Gleason. Here’s an illustration from her test:
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“Gleason devised the Wug Test as part of her earliest research (1958), which used nonsense words to gauge children's acquisition of morphological rules‍—‌for example, the "default" rule that most English plurals are formed by adding an /s/, /z/ or /ɨz/ sound depending on the final consonant, e.g., hat–hats, eye–eyes, witch–witches. A child is shown simple pictures of a fanciful creature or activity, with a nonsense name, and prompted to complete a statement about it:
This is a WUG. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two ________.
Each "target" word was a made-up (but plausible-sounding) pseudoword, so that the child cannot have heard it before. A child who knows that the plural of witch is witches may have heard and memorized that pair, but a child responding that the plural of wug (which the child presumably has never heard) is wugs (/wʌgz/, using the /z/ allomorph since "wug" ends in a voiced consonant) has apparently inferred (perhaps unconsciously) the basic rule for forming plurals.
The Wug Test also includes questions involving verb conjugations, possessives, and other common derivational morphemes such as the agentive -er (e.g. "A man who 'zibs' is a ________?"), and requested explanations of common compound words e.g. "Why is a birthday called a birthday?" Other items included:
This is a dog with QUIRKS on him. He is all covered in QUIRKS. What kind of a dog is he? He is a ________ dog.
This is a man who knows how to SPOW. He is SPOWING. He did the same thing yesterday. What did he do yesterday? Yesterday he ________.
(The expected answers were QUIRKY and SPOWED.)
Gleason's major finding was that even very young children are able to connect suitable endings‍—‌to produce plurals, past tenses, possessives, and other forms‍—‌to nonsense words they have never heard before, implying that they have internalized systematic aspects of the linguistic system which no one has necessarily tried to teach them. However, she also identified an earlier stage at which children can produce such forms for real words, but not yet for nonsense words‍—‌implying that children start by memorizing singular–plural pairs they hear spoken by others, then eventually extract rules and patterns from these examples which they apply to novel words.
The Wug Test was the first experimental proof that young children have extracted generalizable rules from the language around them, rather than simply memorizing words that they have heard, and it was almost immediately adapted for children speaking languages other than English, to bilingual children, and to children (and adults) with various impairments or from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Its conclusions are viewed as essential to the understanding of when and how children reach major language milestones, and its variations and progeny remain in use worldwide for studies on language acquisition. It is "almost universal" for textbooks in psycholinguistics and language acquisition to include assignments calling for the student to carry out a practical variation of the Wug Test paradigm. The ubiquity of discussion of the wug test has led to the wug being used as a mascot of sorts for linguists and linguistics students.”
Here are some more illustrations from the original wug test:
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Sources: 
Wikipedia, All Things Linguistic
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linghxr · 2 months
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Advice I would give my past self about studying Chinese
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Recently I've been reflecting on my Chinese learning journey and how far I've come. If I could go back in time, these are 10 things I would tell my past self. A few are specific to Chinese, but most can apply to any language
It will get so much easier to learn new characters. I remember feeling overwhelmed because learning new characters was a painful process. Now when I encounter a new character, I can remember it with relative ease—it’s just a new combination of familiar components.
Don't feel bad about having uneven development in different skills. My listening and reading are significantly stronger than my speaking and writing. It’s super common and nothing to be ashamed of.
The best way to get over being too embarrassed to speak is to experience some embarrassment and realize it’s not a big deal. I used to be so afraid of making mistakes that I would avoid speaking in class. It was only by being forced to speak that I got over it. I'm much better for it!
It’s impossible to learn everything, and time is limited. You have to prioritize. You probably don’t need to know how to say “pawnshop” in Chinese, and trying to jam your head full of 100 words you saw once won’t work. They won’t stick.
It will actually be harder to read pinyin than to read characters at some point. When I helped a friend with a script for her Chinese class, I really struggled because she had written it entirely in pinyin. I had to write out the characters to read without stumbling! I know characters are daunting for beginners, but trust me, you will get used to them.
If you haven’t practiced or learned something, of course you won’t be good at it. I remember feeling so frustrated trying to navigate Chinese websites for the first time. In retrospect, obviously, I was going to struggle with something completely new to me!
If something isn’t sticking, move on. Why waste time on a word that’s not clicking when you could be learning five new ones? It will only result in unnecessary frustration. So unless you need to know it for your class or a proficiency test, drop it and move on.
Don’t beat yourself up when you have trouble understanding music, literature, different accents, etc. These can be challenging even in your native language. Of course you’re going to struggle more in a new language.
It's worth it to pay attention to things like stroke order and tones from the start so you don't form bad habits. Don’t stress about get it perfect, but it’s easier to do it right the first time than to have to correct your bad habits in the future.
Instead of feeling overwhelmed by all that you don’t know, learn how to express yourself with what you do know. It’s truly its own skill that requires practice. After all, in life you can’t always stop and pull out a dictionary.
I started learning Chinese a really long time ago, but I became more serious about it in 2018, so 5 1/2 years ago. I'm very proud of how far I've come, but I still have a long way to go! I look forward to revisiting this post in another couple of years 😊
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todayontumblr · 6 months
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Wednesday, September 27.
Langblr.
If ever you're in France, accompanied by your kitty cat, and you find yourself unintentionally (and quite unexpectedly) projecting intestinal gas produced within the body by bacteria that has broken down food, and said kitty cat looks a little alarmed, and you don't know what to say, well. Fortune smiles upon you this day. Consider #langblr your knight in shining linguistic armor. Chat, j'ai pété.
It really can happen to anyone. But langblr is here for all your polyglot needs: learning how to say chai tea in Czech, the frankly adorable etymology of peninsula, Greek paleographic fonts, for words of support for those underway with their language-learning adventures, or if you're in need of some support yourself. It is a particularly wholesome corner of Tumblr, for those with an interest in the slow-burn magic of learning another language. 
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ev-n-learning · 9 months
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Tip for people using duolingo:
There is a website called duome.eu! On it you can see fun stats about your profile and progress, or even other people's profile and progress! But that is not the point of this post.
On duome, you can see the tips and notes for all courses.
Yes, you heard me right! All tips and notes, all courses! Here's a screenshot with the english and spanish lists, for example:
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Why does this matter? Aren't tips and notes useless for most languages???
A: no they are not!
Hypothetical question above is probably from someone who never knew these existed before. See, before duolingo's most recent redesign, you could see (at least on desktop/web) tips and notes on the skill you were working on! These are those!!!! Here's an example with verb aspects from the ukrainian course (with a picture of my cat to squish it down):
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So that's it! That's my knowledge imparted on you all!
Remember: the website is duome.eu! Look at it for tips & notes!!!
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Počasi in Slovenian means "slow" but in Czech počasí means "weather" and in Slovenian "weather" is vreme but in Russian "время" (vremya) means "time" and this is exactly why I shouldn't have studied two Slavic languages at the same time but here I am
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dsm-wannabe-linguist · 10 months
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Really enjoying Duolingo’s gradual progression from “the blue duck wears a big hat” to “if Matthew doesn’t make good on his alimony payments then I’m calling a hitman”
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she-posts-nerdy-stuff · 3 months
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Anyone know how Duolingo chooses what constructed languages to teach and how we can petition them to teach Grishaverse languages?
Asking for a friend
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zzzzzestforlife · 2 months
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increasingly "useless" reasons why i like learning languages
@studentbyday said i should re-define "useless" in my mind. instructions unclear. made a shitpost instead 💩
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💌: inside-my-phone format is back!🍃 do you agree/disagree with my MTL rankings? what motivates you? 👀
i can be a more empathetic, understanding, and supportive person who makes sure to only cuss people out in languages they don't understand so that their feelings aren't hurt ❤️
i can talk to more people who will probably think i'm an idiot because of how badly i speak their language 👄
i can nurture my self-confidence/-esteem as long as i don't think too hard about how much i don't know 🥰
i can read more books, articles, people arguing on the internet, etc. 📚
i can travel to foreign countries more easily until someone asks me to translate something important and i mess up and land us both in prison or something ✈️
i can unlock new work opportunities until someone asks me to translate something important and i mess up and land us both in prison or something 💼
i can multitask better even though i shouldn't even be doing it in the first place 🤹‍♀️
i can watch my favorite shows/listen to my favorite songs without subtitles/translations so that my brain rot can continue in peace 📺
i can, on the other hand, stop losing brain cells?? 🧠
i can eavesdrop on more people, probably at the grocery store 🙉
i can show off at work and other places where it is appropriate to show off irrelevant skills ✨
sex appeal?? 🥵
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escuerzoresucitado · 3 months
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The German language has quite a few animalistic verbs:
fuchsen ("to fox") = to annoy
hechten ("to pike") = to dive
reihern ("to heron") = to puke
dackeln ("to dachshund") = to walk slowly
aalen ("to eel") = to bask
vögeln ("to bird") = to have sex
einigeln ("to hedgehog in") = to curl up
hamstern ("to hamster") = to hoard
schlängeln ("to snake") = to wriggle
stieren ("to bull") = to goggle
unken ("to toad") = to gripe, augur doom
tigern ("to tiger") - to walk tigerishly
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munchkins-blog · 2 months
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Working on traditional chinese again today,,,copying down the last couple translations then learning the necessary vocabulary. I got about a week left until the exams and my anxiety levels are skyrocketing.
Also all the snow just vanished overnight, which kinda bummed me out...🥲
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linguistness · 1 year
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Best language learning tips & masterlists from other bloggers I’ve come across
(these posts are not my own!)
THE HOLY GRAIL of language learning (-> seriously tho, this is the BEST thing I’ve ever come across)
Tips:
Some language learning exercises and tips
20 Favorite Language Learning Tips
what should you be reading to maximize your language learning?
tips for learning a language (things i wish i knew before i started)
language learning and langblr tips
Tips on how to read in your target language for longer periods of time
Tips and inspiration from Fluent in 3 months by Benny Lewis
Tips for learning a sign language
Tips for relearning your second first language
How to:
how to self teach a new language
learning a language: how to
learning languages and how to make it fun
how to study languages
how to practice speaking in a foreign language
how to learn a language when you don’t know where to start
how to make a schedule for language learning
How to keep track of learning more than one language at the same time
Masterposts:
Language Study Master Post
Swedish Resources Masterpost
French Resouces Masterpost
Italian Resources Masterpost
Resource List for Learning German
Challenges:
Language-Sanctuary Langblr Challenge
language learning checkerboard challenge
Word lists:
2+ months of language learning prompts
list of words you need to know in your target language, in 3 levels
Other stuff:
bullet journal dedicated to language learning
over 400 language related youtube channels in 50+ languages
TED talks about language (learning)
Learning the Alien Languages of Star Trek
.
Feel free to reblog and add your own lists / masterlists!
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languageboutique · 1 year
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linghxr · 29 days
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All the shishi words I know
Last year I learned the word 时事, and it struck me how many shishi words there are. For fun, I listed out all the ones I'm familiar with. You can see more at MDBG (but a Chinese-Chinese dictionary would probably have many more).
世世 shìshì - from age to age
世事 shìshì - affairs of life / things of the world
事事 shìshì - everything
事实 | 事實 shìshí - fact
失事 shīshì - (of a plane, ship etc) to have an accident (plane crash, shipwreck, vehicle collision etc) / to mess things up
实事 | 實事 shíshì - fact / actual thing / practical matter
实施 | 實施 shíshī - to implement / to carry out
实时 | 實時 shíshí - (in) real time / instantaneous
时事 | 時事 shíshì - current trends / the present situation / how things are going
时时 | 時時 shíshí - often / constantly
试试 | 試試 shìshi - to have a try
逝世 shìshì - to pass away / to die
I ran some stats based on my Anki deck, and there also a lot of qishi words: 其实、气势、骑士、启示、歧视、启事. But not as many as shishi. Maybe we need a poem of shishis to go alongside the 施氏食狮史 poem?
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