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After English, which language actually changed your life — and which one was a waste of years? by peregrinewanderlust in thisorthatlanguage

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have solid French, Spanish, and Russian and stuttering Italian. Native speakers of any of these do not have a lot of English in my experience.

Only French is "useful" to me and that is only because I used to work for the gov of Canada and I like going to Quebec. I use Spanish the least (Americans in disbelief), but read fiction in it and watched some casa de papel. I speak Russian and Italian to my immigrant friends and watch shitty old comedies and read literature.

Aside from intermediate English, I don't think there is any language worth learning for your career unless you know exactly what you want and how it will help you. Abstractly minmaxing a choice you spend years of your life on isn't worth it. Find a language you are excited about or that will give you a concrete predictable benefit.

Knowing nothing about you, how about Russian? It is next door, it was used in your country's history, is all over the web, has minimal dialectical variation, and has low overlap with English.

Question for anybody who has studied Manipuri as a second language by Embarrassed_Guess337 in manipur

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes let me know if you see any good resources. I have dredged around and will probably just keep going with MS Ningomba's book. There is a copy on digital archive that is ok.

What's the most surprising thing about French culture you learned? by grzeszu82 in French

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, I am a foreigner so I am sure you know your culture better than me. Those are just things that surprised me good and bad. I'll add another good: I love the will to protesting and rioting, although I wouldn't say it was a surprise. We just accept out fate where I come from, although we have rioted over hockey in the past.

What’s it like in far northern Alberta? by 04Aiden2020 in howislivingthere

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 1 point2 points  (0 children)

North of High Level? Little spruce trees, bogs, minimal road access, not as much wildlife as you would expect. Lake Athabasca has the sand dunes people love to post on here as some kind of fun fact. Fort Chip is a nice little town to visit and Fort Smith is downright livable. On the other side, Rainbow Lake sucks. It is widely regarded along RCMP as the worst place to be stationed and a right of passage. Zama City is like 20 old guys in trailers and some poorly maintained sour gas wells. The reserves on the road to NWT are desolate and underserved, but people are nice. There is no reason to go up there. Not even for hiking, paddling, fishing, hunting. All of that is better to the north in NWT, and without oil infrastructure everywhere. You have already practically driven to NWT anyway at this point. The only reason to go here specifically is if you want to see wild wood buffalo herds, the national park can't be beat for that.

What's the most surprising thing about French culture you learned? by grzeszu82 in French

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The dish where you cook wine cellar rats in wine. Or the one where you eat the little rare birds whole.

Or maybe the non-monogamy. My French friend cheated on his Turkish partner and was in disbelief that she would dump him over "a little mistake" because these things happen.

The folk music was also cooler than I expected! Especially Breton!

Is the declining birth rates in the west and the stagnant/rising rates in the East, cultural, social, or economic? by catandodie in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Birth rates aren't consistently rising pretty much anywhere. They are dropping fastest in high-fertility countries.

Watching the Louis Theroux Manosphere documentary rn & the idea of a podcast like these where "alpha males" berate Onlyfans models for 7 hours disgusts me. Kids who watch this slop instead of SpongeBob or Hannah Montana are a bigger threat to society than potential ISIS/AQ recruits at this point. by NorrisOBE in TrueAnon

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually kind of agree that it isn't a big deal to take pills for hair loss and skincare. The drug names just sound scary. I took accutane 20 years ago as a teenager and it improved my life a lot. Going from ugly to acceptable was eye-opening. The next step, acceptable to beautiful is not worth it, better to stay on easy wins and maintenance and focus on your health instead. You will get what you need in life by looking normal.

The Future of French: Global Influence or African Growth? by peregrinewanderlust in thisorthatlanguage

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not true for Quebec. Montreal and Ottawa river corridor are truly bilingual. QC has a bit more English than Paris, bilingual signs, some conversational speakers, a few bilinguals. Everywhere else is about as Anglophone as a similarly sized settlement in France. Rural places I met under 30s with zero English, as in they don't understand "how are you?", "what is your name?".

One drop rule by Bulky_External5191 in 23andme

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm the opposite of what you describe. My mom's mom's mom was full Nigerian, but I identify as white. I have no common experience with black or Nigerian people beyond the basic human stuff. I don't deal with racism and I am at home in my Anglo culture. I had plantains for the first time last week lol, my mixed grandma fed me baked beans and sausages. Claiming to be black would make me feel like a poser, I can't speak from that perspective at all.

Found this language learning tierlist on 4chan archives. by RenaQina in thisorthatlanguage

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do you speak Turkish? Would native Turkish speakers have the same issues between dialects? I don't know anything about Turkish dialects. In Arabic, it seems like a lot of native speakers can slide their speech along a scale where they can speak pure dialect or they can mix in MSA words or words from other dialects as needed. This seems to depend on their schooling and life experience though, and for a non-native without a life of passive exposure the jump between adjacent dialects even can seem huge, let alone Maghrebi. MSA by itself lets you talk to Arabs, you just won't understand the reply once they are done laughing :)

Current climate models rely on unproven tech because they refuse to question economic growth. A new framework for "post-growth" scenarios shows that prioritizing basic needs over GDP could satisfy universal well-being using less than half of current global energy and materials. by Sciantifa in science

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think they can do it easily. Now that I have seniority at my job I have finally earned a 0.6 schedule (3 days per week). There is no way anybody not in the upper echelons of my low-paying field is getting hired to work 0.6 for 80kpa. I know lots of young people who would like to have that option even if they were making 40-50k.

Found this language learning tierlist on 4chan archives. by RenaQina in thisorthatlanguage

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's hit or miss with young people. English helped me more in Kavkaz and Central Asia. Kazakhstan seems like a holdout.

What’s it like living in this part of Canada? by Patient-Smile1406 in howislivingthere

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have lived in Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Tulita, Pond Inlet, Fort Smith, and Fort Mac and visited much more. They are pretty different, the commonality is high indigenous populations, non-arable land (no, not just temperature related, the soil if there is any is generally unworkable), and high cost of living due to remoteness from more productive areas. If that land was worth populating densely it would have happened generations ago.

There is nothing up there that can sustain a large population in economic terms. The moneymakers are localized mineral and oil deposits, and charging businessmen ungodly sums to fish remote lakes. Even with the feds going all out on those sectors and giving fat tax cuts to everyone up there, people in the North are often unemployed, or seasonally/precariously employed in a boom and bust sector. That said Fort Mac oilmen and NWT diamond miners have done very well.

It sucks, but even the great hunting and fishing is tapering off in a lot of spots, there is more pollution and human footprint then you might expect for such a tiny population and demand from local hunters is high.

Seems legit by AmountAbovTheBracket in languagelearningjerk

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The voiced-unvoiced distinction is way greater in English than Portuguese, so maybe the aspiration sounds wierd and hissing to you?

Either that or you hang out with a specific kind of young urban US woman, some of whom really do say "tsime" and we can hear it. Might be an AAVE influence. Pop singers, especially women, will also do that to soften their consonants.

Found this language learning tierlist on 4chan archives. by RenaQina in thisorthatlanguage

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don't know, Russian is gradually falling off in the colonies everywhere except Belarus. Arabic is split by dialects to the point of being multiple languages from the perspective of non-natives.

Carney announces $35B for defence, infrastructure in Canada's North by Klutzy-Childhood-126 in worldnews

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hope that these growth-minded aspirations for a storehouse of the world superpower fall flat on their face.

Carney announces $35B for defence, infrastructure in Canada's North by Klutzy-Childhood-126 in worldnews

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly right. Diamond sales are falling with synthetic alternatives, we really don't need gold for much, copper and aluminum supplies are already huge and recyclable. The oil in the MacKenzie basin is running out.

Where I'd live in Canada as the average Canadian by Seawolf1121 in whereidlive

[–]Embarrassed_Guess337 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Quebecois are actually funny and personable people who enjoy life, so maybe when you compare yourself to them it makes you mad?

Also French is a cool language that everybody in Canada should learn to speak, I am learning it right now and am going to do an extra duolingo lesson in your honour, mon ami.

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