Reminds me of this story:

I just love her stomping on the notebook at the end, comedy gold

Websites to learn languages by reading

Theres moreeee, this is so so good.. it makes me emotional realizing that these kids are on the path to being fluent cherokee speakers and will be able to keep the language going.

This family is a part of the little cherokee seeds program, creating new first language Cherokee speakers by paying mothers to just bring their babies and craft and cook and speak cherokee with cherokee elders all day. There are only 1500 first language Cherokee speakers, most of them over 65. They also take donations if you want to help keep them going and doing the extremely important work they do!!

I'm gonna reblog with some videos of people speaking various American Indian/indigenous American languages, because I think most people don't even know what they sound like. Not to be judgement of that—just, you know, I think people who want to be informed should know what they sound like!

Former president of the Navajo Nation, Joe Shirley, giving an address in Navajo.

Nora Marks Dauenhauer telling a story, "Raven and Deer", in Tlingit.

Albert White Hat, a well known Lakota teacher, translator, and activist, speaking Lakota.

This YouTube user, Grahm Wiley-Camacho, has uploaded a bunch of videos in Colville Okanagan Salish, but I'm not sure who all the speakers are.

Multiple people speaking Cherokee and talking about revitalization of the language.

This guy speaking Yucatec Maya (guest starring: adorable small child).

There's a ton of material in Greenlandic on YouTube, but it's hard for me to find, because the titles and other metadata are also in Greenlandic! Of course, this represents a huge win for the language, since this is a biproduct of being in vibrant use by a community of speakers. Greenlandic has been an official language of the territory of Greenland since 1979, and the sole official language since 2009.

Here are some proceedings of the Greenlandic parliament, the Inatsisartut, which are conducted in Greenlandic.

Here is a radio show in Greenlandic, from Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa.

And here is a video of Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, Greenlandic MP in the Danish parliament (Folketing), causing some upset by speaking in Greenlandic instead of Danish.

Conversation between Loran Thompson and Francis Boots in Mohawk.

Interview with Yup'ik elder Raphael Jimmy about qaneryaraq "words of wisdom/right living".

official linguistics post

There are only around 1,500 native Cherokee speakers left, and most of them are elders

Little Cherokee Seeds is a program where mothers and babies spend all day with first language Cherokee speakers, speaking nothing but Cherokee, so that the babies become a new generation of native speakers. They're also teaching traditional skills and mothering practices to the mothers to pass on.

This is so so important for the survival of the language. These babies are on track to being fluent first language speakers, and they will be able to keep the language going for another lifetime.

I recommend checking out the little cherokee seeds facebook page!!

Here's how you can support little cherokee seeds!! They take donations through PayPal and Venmo!!

The thought of having to navigate this is very stressful to me

going to school in Japan as an undercover cop and having my cover blown within seconds

is it not a shame my native tongue is not mine?

this is legitimately the funniest thing ive seen all day

french government declares “pogchamp” illegal, if you are a joueur-animateur en direct (”streamer” for zose uncultured english) you must say “le poggeurs”

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and all endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

Am no havin Children

A brilliant Scots poem by @enniesaurus on Twitter

[Video Description: A pale-skinned, red-haired woman speaks with a Scottish accent. She says: “Hi, this poem is called I’m no’ havein’ Children.

I’m no’ havin’ children, ‘am gonnae hae weans,

And ye can ask what a cry them, no ‘what are their names’

And they’ll be getting a piece, no a wee ‘packed lunch’

And they’ll be haein a scran, no ‘having a munch’

They’ll fanny aboot, they won’t waste time

When they write their wee poyums, I’ll make sure they rhyme.

I’m no ‘having children’, am gonna hae weans,

Who’ll be gowpin and bealin’ when they’ve goat aches and pains

And instead of ‘don’t worry’, a’ll say ‘dinnae fash’, 

Instead of ‘stand your ground’, ‘dinnae take any snash’

Ma weans will be crabbit, no ‘in a bad mood’

And they’ll greet, no ‘cry’ when their day isnae good.

I’m no ‘having children’, am gonna hae weans,

With a proud ancient language crammed in their wee brains

An whenever life tells them their English is bad

I’ll tell them the hassles that their mammy had

And a’ll say ma maw’s words till the day that am deid

‘Ye’ll be alright hen, ye’ve a guid Scots tongue in yer heid.

Thank you.”

She then turns off the camera. End Video Description.]

A faster way to start learning a language

You can get to the point where you can express yourself in a language by learning basic grammar and just 200 words.

My test for being able to express myself is: Can I keep a diary in this language? Can I talk about what I did today and my opinions on just about any subject?

Too often, people who have been learning a language for months or even years say “no.” However, in my experience, it’s possible after learning just basic grammar and the 200 most useful words. If you wanted to go fast and learn 20 words a day (the default rate of Anki), then you could learn 200 words in a week and a half. (In my experience, learning basic grammar doesn’t take as long as learning the words, so the total time could be three weeks. However, I didn’t teach myself my first foreign language, so I can’t speak to that case — if you’re teaching yourself your first, kudos, and let me know how long the grammar takes!)

The key is that you have to learn the right 200 words. When I was teaching myself languages before, I could never find a good answer to the question: What words should I learn first? If you use Duolingo, they’ll start by teaching you words like “apple”, which aren’t very useful. I spent a lot of time writing and talking in order to determine which 200 words would let you express the most. I think I finally got it. But don’t take my word for it — see this demonstration.

I personally tested this method out with Esperanto and French and I’m now able to keep a diary in both languages, writing about anything that happened in my day and any thought that crosses my mind.

To be clear: 200 words won’t make you fluent, but they’ll allow you to express yourself, and it’s a lot easier to keep improving from there. Feel free to adapt the method based on what works for you. Here are the steps:

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Also, please send me your feedback! I’d love to know if this works for you or if it doesn’t. I welcome all comments, criticism, and suggestions for improvement. And if you think this guide could help other people, please consider reblogging it. :)

Additional notes:

i love it actually when nonnative speakers make mistakes that reveal how their native languages work.

lots of koreans online say they "eat" drinks which would assume they only have one word which covers the concept of consumption.

arabic immigrants in sweden (my mother included) have a hard time differentiating between "i think/i believe/my opinion is" which suggests that in arabic these different modalities of speaker agency is treated as one or at least interchangeable.

swedish speakers in english will use should/shall/have to/must with much higher nuance precision than native english speakers, to the point where they sound well awkward, because the distinction between these commands in swedish is much clearer than in english. i make mistakes between is/am/are and has/have constantly because swedish only has one pronoun covering all grammatical persons.

i've heard speakers of languages without gendered pronouns (finnish, the chinese dialects, and a tonne more) make he/she mistakes because it's hard(!!) to learn two or more gendered pronouns and when to use them correctly.

how neat is that?! it add a charm to international english usage in particular and make our appreciation of both our native languages and our learnt ones stronger...!!

i love this! one thing i notice with a lot of people (native speakers of polish, romanian, french and others) is no differentiation between present simple (i go) and present continuous (I am going), because those languages only have one present tense to cover both. it's so lovely every time i hear it

i always think one of the most fun things about learning languages is that it teaches you how weird your own is! especially english phrasal verbs (the very different meanings of stand up, stand down, stand off, stand up to), or trying to explain the difference between being up to something and being up for something to my french friend. I love it!

another tag reminded me of how spanish speakers often mix up /v/ and /b/ because in panish they pronounced identically!

I wish more people had the ability to become bilingual because you're right, it makes you understand your own language at a more intimate and analytical level!!

People whose native language is heavily gendered often apply gendered pronouns to English words that don't have them. For example, my Brazilian sports coach referred to my knee as "she" instead of "it". It's even more interesting when you realise that Old English did have gendered nouns, much like German, and we've essentially lost that entire element of our language.

How to learn a language

Tips from a language major:

•When learning new vocabulary write the meaning in your language once and the new word at least three times

•If you are learning a new writing style (I.e. Hanzi, kanji, Sanskrit, etc.) write the character at least three times, the meaning and the pronunciation once. -do not write the pronunciation above the character, write it to the side, otherwise you won’t even try to read it. -Learn! Stroke! Order!

•when reviewing vocab try to use the word in a sentence.

•do not pay attention to the technicalities of the grammar. Do not attempt to compare it to your own language. This will seriously mess you up for 80 years. Just pay attention to the sentence structure and make similar sentences.

•if you are learning a tonal language (I.e Chinese) or language that has sounds that don’t exist in your language watch videos of people pronouncing things and try to match their mouth movements.

•if all else fails on your tones just speak quickly.

•watch TV shows in that language and yes watch them with subtitles. But please be aware that may not be how people speak in real life (I’m looking at you, Japanese/Chinese/Korean learners)

•DO NOT BE AFRIAD TO MAKE MISTAKES of you mess up during a sentence just correct yourself and keep going.

•flash cards, flash cards, flash cards. Real and digital.

•spend at least an hour a day on it (OUTSIDE of class), if you’re trying to learn on your own you’re gonna need more time.

•talk to yourself in that language, take notes in it, set your phone to it. You probably look crazy but that is a-ok.

•listen to music in that language, while it probably won’t do much for your ability in the beginning it will help you distinguish sounds once you get pretty good.

•and lastly, don’t give up. It took you like ten years to grasp your own language it’s gonna take awhile to grasp another.

-How I learned 2 ½ languages at once.

Alice Te Punga Somerville, Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised - Kupu rere kē

My bf studied japanese in high school and often says "gambate!" (not sure of spelling) to be like. encouraging. I think it means roughly "let's get this bread." However, as someone who took spanish in high school, it always sounds like a command to me. And as near as I can tell, in spanish it would mean "go shrimp yourself."

I'm definitely not a fluent speaker, so I could be wrong, but here's how I got there:

In Spanish, some (informal, I think?) commands are formed by dropping the "r" from the end of an infinitive verb. (Every infinitive verb in Spanish ends in r.) For example, "to run" is "correr." If you want to tell someone to run, it's "corre." If you want to tell someone to do something to something/someone, you append a little pronoun thing to the end. From "besar" (to kiss) we get "bésame" (kiss me). From "cocinar" (to cook) we get "cocínalo" (cook it). From "callar" (to silence) we get "cállate" (silence yourself/shut up).

So, "gambate" immediately reminds me of "cállate," which is a rude command. It would be formed from the verb "gambar" and the second person object "te" for "you/yourself." But "gambar" isn't a word in Spanish. However, "gamba" is a word. It means "shrimp." So while it isn't technically grammatically correct, in the same way we "verb" nouns in English, the noun "gamba" is being used in the place of a verb here. "Gambate" (or more properly "gámbate" to maintain the correct stress for both the Spanish and Japanese). "Go shrimp yourself."

Native spanish speaker. You're quite right about your linguistics here, and spanish speakers love to make up new words by conjugating existing words (at the very least, my parents do)

My confusion stemmed from never having heard the word gamba before. To my knowledge the word for shrimp is camarón

So i looked it up and apparently gamba actually means prawn. So it's actually go prawn yourself

i Need to find all the Irish dub of spongebob. i have the first movie and 12 episodes so far, but it's all been dubbed and tg4 don't seem to be airing it anymore. if anyone has any leads please!!!!!! message me

@the-timelord-a-tardis-stole I found a link to Shrek as Gaeilge the other day - https://www.reddit.com/r/teilifis/comments/14ruta0/request_shrek_as_gaeilge/

Thank you so much! ❤️❤️

R/teilifís also had The Lorax so I have that too now

I also came across these though some are old posts so may not work:

I have some more collected here

Arabic terms of endearment

Habibi ( m ) / Habibiti ( f ) —> حبيبي/ حبيبتي

“ my love/beloved “ most common. Also used for friends or mid convos sort of like saying dude. Sometimes people use it mid argument/fight. In short, contain’s multitudes. But if someone has a romantic partner they’d introduce them as that.

Rohi -> روحي

“ my soul “ mostly for lovers or for family members. Lots of parents use that to call their children.

Qalbi -> قلبي

“ my heart “ again, for both lovers and family also sometimes when someone is being endearing people would say it. Important though! Don’t say Kalbi because that means “my dog”. Overall it’s better to avoid since mispronunciation could make it bad.

Falthat Kabdi -> فلذة كبدي

“ piece of my liver “ in the olden days it was believed that the liver was the most important part of the human body, especially that it’s close to the heart. My grandmother said that people believed children were made out of their mother’s livers. Anyways, this one is specific between parents and children.

Hayati -> حياتي

“ my life “ again, for both family and lovers.

** lots of this can have “ Ya “ said before them. It’s like a form of addressing someone, sort of like saying “ O’ beloved “ and so and so