Molting shrimp x)

Okay my asexual brethren, this is for personal research: Reblog this or comment with your asexual microlabel / asexual spectrum identity and whether you found this label after already being in queer spaces (like tumblr) or through specifically looking up asexuality / your experiences

imagine being resurrected as a 20y/o hybrid supersoldier and your hairline is still Like That

the “i am from russia” was a warning

I asked a taxi driver in Bucharest to take the quickest route to the airport. 10 minutes later we're doing 120kph the wrong way done the street car tracks when another taxi tried to pass us and dude just floors it. Never spoke a word, smoked 9 cigarettes over the 30 minute ride, never took off his sunglasses and blasting opera all the way. I look at it as paying 15€ plús tip to lose all fear of death.

the "i am from russia" was both a warning and a promise, and one that would weirdly put me at ease about the situation.

how could you leave this in the tags

second hand story but one I know is true, but my dad worked as a taxi driver in Monteray in the 90s. Now, it’s important to note that there’s a racing event in town, so lots of people are coming through. My dad just so happens to get a group of people in town for the race in his car.

Because taxi’s are not like uber and you are basically expected to make conversation, my dad asks if these guys are in town for the races. They say yeah, so my dad asks “are you participating or are you watching?”

“Participating”

“Well then, I don’t like you”

They ask why, and my dad explains that they’re doing what he’s always wanted to do. Well, this small guy right behind my dad makes the mistake of saying “Well, show us what you got.”

My 25 year old father, takes this as a challenge. Now, his driving is still scary to this day, so imagine how it was when he was 25. He fucking floors it down the highway, and there is an exit they need to take to get to the bar the guys are going. This exit has hedges on the drivers side, so my dad slows down to 60, takes this turn on 2 wheels. All the guy behind him see’s is these bushes coming at him, so he does the rational thing and he screams like a little girl.

When they arrive at the bar, everyone piles out, and then one guy stops, turns around and motions for my dad to roll down the window. He tosses a $5 at my dad and says “I’ve never heard anybody make Christian scream like that.”

My dad had Christian Fittipaldi and his pit crew in his car, and made him scream like a little bitch. It’s my all time favorite story.

If you can’t find a place on your blog for Patrick Stewart in a bathtub dressed like a lobster, then your blog probably doesn’t deserve such majesty anyway.

It has returned to my dash and I cannot fight the compulsion to reblog…

the patrick lobster appears only once in a thousand years, reblog for good luck

liking someone platonically is so embarrassing like. yeah i admire you. yeah i think about you all the time. yeah i look forward to every time i see you even if it's only for a minute. yeah it's all platonic and yeah i couldn't explain this because it'd sound romantic. fucking hell

every so often, i think, and it might be so selfish of me, but i crave to be someone's first choice. i want to be the person that someone sees fun things to do and their first thought is to ask me to go with them. i want someone to be willing to inconvenience themselves a little bit sometimes for me as i would do for them. i want to be looked at in a list of people and to have someone pick me out of all of them. i want to be held at the same level as a romantic partner in terms of effort and closeness. i want someone to want me as much as i want them, even though it's not in a romantic sense. i want to be important to someone.

Комфортики

Hey, that actually made me smile mid-shift!

So now I have this little doodle behind the counter as a useful reminder :D

Thank you!

Woah careful there Daisuke!

surprise ma @baconburger2006, I did in fact see this! 👀

So there are a three main aspects to language learning: vocabulary, grammar, and practice!

Vocabulary

There are, of course, a variety of Na'vi dictionaries you can choose from. Reykunyu is my main go-to, though I also like the categorized wordlists on Dict-Na'vi. I don't have as much personal experience with Fwew but I hear it's good too. There's also the Annotated Dictionary, which is very useful when you need examples of how to use a particular word.

Reykunyu Dict-Na'vi Fwew Annotated Dictionary

Of course, just throwing a dictionary at you is not really gonna be all that effective for learning vocab—after all, that's a lot of words and it's gonna get overwhelming fast! Plus, you don't really need to know every word to converse in the language. The dictionary is mostly there as a handy reference to look up new words.

That said: don't underestimate the power of using the language! You'd be surprised how many of the common useful words you'll learn just by repeatedly trying to use them. That's how I learned my first chunk of vocab: by trying to communicate with the language. At first I had to look up every single word in a dictionary every single time I wanted to use it, but over time I had to do that less and less until eventually I'd memorized several words without even studying a vocab list! In fact, when I did try using a beginner's vocab list for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised by how many words I already knew just by repeatedly using them like this!

Vocab lists can still be helpful of course! You can make your own by looking up a bunch of words about a particular topic, or you can use Reykunyu's Study tool, which has a set of beginner vocab lists.

The study list that I personally used was the 500 Most Commonly Used Na'vi Words course on Memrise, but it is sadly no longer available, since Memrise removed their community-created courses 😔 Reykunyu's beginner lists should give you a decent start though!

Of course, if you're going to be learning new words, you'll also want to know how to say them correctly! Therefore alphabet and pronunciation are a vital part of this section (in fact, I'd recommend learning this before you start learning anything else). This video is a great introduction! 🙂

Grammar

Individual words are useless if you don't know how to put them together! A common mistake people make when learning a new language for the first time is assuming that you can translate a sentence by translating each individual word one by one...this does not work, because not all languages are structured the same way!

There are a few resources you can use to get an intro to Na'vi grammar. If you enjoy live lessons, there are usually a variety of lessons/activities/practice sessions taught weekly on the Kelutral Discord server, at a variety of different levels from beginner to advanced. Even if none of the sessions available at a given time look appealing to you, you can always ask for help with whatever you need in their questions-and-practice channel and you'll find plenty of teachers happy to help!

If you prefer independent study, these two video series could be helpful (though I'd still recommend asking questions if/when you have any!). Karyu Tekre's is more thorough, but Karyu Pawl's will give a fun overview of various topics.

Karyu Tekre's Na'vi Grammar Course Paul Frommer's (Karyu Pawl's) AvatarMeet 2012 Presentation

There are some other resources that'll help with grammar (and vocab) as well, but I'm saving those for the next section:

Practice!

One way to practice is, of course, to simply use the language in any way you can! You can chat in the Na'vi channels over on Kelutral, or doodle little Na'vi comics, or even keep a Na'vi journal!

That said, I realize that just saying "go practice" when you're brand new to the language can be overwhelming—after all, where do you even start? Luckily, there's plenty of resources that can help! Here's a few:

Kelutral's Na'vi Survival Guide Karyu Neytiri's Na'vi Workbook Karyu Pamìrìk's Na'vember Challenge

The Survival Guide currently only covers a few topics, but it's interactive and goes over some fundamentals of sentence building!

Karyu Neytiri's workbook is great because it gives you grammar and vocab and practice exercises all in one!

The Na'vember challenge would actually be a fantastic place to start if you're brand-new! It's a month-long challenge that gives you simple daily practice tasks, starting with pronunciation and gradually moving through fundamental grammar. Completing the whole thing will give you a fairly thorough overview of how to build sentences in Na'vi!

—

Hope this is helpful! I know it's a lot, but, well, learning a new language is a big task! It takes a lot of time, patience, and dedication. The good news is, it doesn't have to take a ton of time all at once! Consistency is key—you'll learn a lot more efficiently by studying daily for just 5-10 minutes than you will trying to cram a bunch of stuff for two hours every other Thursday and then not thinking about it until the next cram. Feel free to ask if you have other questions and best of luck on your learning journey should you choose to embark! 😸