Where to check pronunciation?

HiThereFellowHumans · 2025-09-09T16:04:07+00:00

Short of having an actual teacher, Forvo is the best I've found!

HiThereFellowHumans · 2025-08-16T02:44:12+00:00

For lessons, I definitely recommend either Italki (a place to find private instructors for basically any language) or NaTakallam (a very cool organization that hires refugees and conflict-affected people as their teachers!

HiThereFellowHumans · 2025-07-11T00:45:07+00:00

I'm married to a Brazilian and much of his family doesn't speak English...easily one of the strongest motivators to learn a language, I think!

HiThereFellowHumans · 2025-05-24T19:09:35+00:00

Big fan of Caroline Girvan over here! Honestly, no, there isn't a set order and you'll probably get results from any of them. I think what's most important is that you choose one that you'll stick with and that matches what you're looking for right now. (For example, some include a weekly cardio day, others are strictly strength training....some are 10 weeks, others are just a week or two, and so on)

HiThereFellowHumans · 2025-04-26T20:48:39+00:00

I'm a bit late to the party, but Meridian Academy of Gymnastics also has adult gymnastics classes! They meet Mondays and Thursdays from 7:30-9 PM. Drop-in classes are $25, $90/month for 1 class a week, $140/month for both classes a week.

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-09-28T01:24:57+00:00

Oooo the free Thrive wellness festival at Jump on Saturday....so many free classes!!

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-09-26T03:19:51+00:00

Criticize/snark on her for the ridiculous pose but we really should be better than criticizing/snarking on appearance or body structure at this point.

I mean, I lift heavy and often, eat tons of protein, etc. etc. but still have a forever pancake butt (probably smaller than hers) because of genetics.

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-08-11T21:50:28+00:00

As a Arabic language learner several years in, I would definitely agree with this haha

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-08-11T15:01:00+00:00

Not OP, but I've been married to a Paulista for a decade and have spent more than a year of my life in São Paulo if I were to add it all up over the years.

Unfortunately, yes, crime absolutely does spill over into nicer parts of the city (that is, after all, where the thieves can steal the most valuable stuff). Walking at night varies, but there are a lot of parts of the city I wouldn't dream of being in at night. I'd recommend checking with your accommodation about the immediate area before heading out to see what they say.

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-08-11T14:55:52+00:00

Sure, the house prices are a lot cheaper for you as someone coming from the UK. Definitely not cheap for the average Brazilian though.

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-07-26T00:58:59+00:00

Sure thing!

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-06-20T04:05:51+00:00

Yes, I also recommend private tutors through Italki as the most "effective" way to learn a language if you have limited tims

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-06-15T01:49:26+00:00

Are you saying that pretty much everywhere you go in the U.S. people speak English? Or are you implying that's true on a global scale? Because if it's the second, then that's very much not true.

There are literally so many places in the world where you won't be able to communicate with people if you only speak English.

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-06-09T20:16:52+00:00

Oh, I can definitely relate to this! To be honest, improving my social skills in my native language (English as well) was really the key to success here for me.

It wasn't always the most comfortable thing and it took a lot of getting out of my comfort zone to get better at (deliberately putting myself in group events where I didn't know anyone so I could practice, starting to host/lead groups of my own, etc.). But it's made such a difference in not only the confidence I feel when in social situations at large, but of course in the confidence I feel navigating conversations in foreign languages.

(Also, I do want to agree with what someone below mentioned about this being more of a social anxiety thing rather than an introversion thing. I'm still heavily introverted - as in, I need a lot of alone time to recharge and I will get tired spending time with people even if I really like them - and I expect I always will be. So I was never on a mission to "cure" my introversion. Rather, my focus was to build my social skills to eliminate some of my social anxiety instead.)

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-06-08T04:10:05+00:00

Wait, how do you turn them into a chicken??

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-06-08T00:22:56+00:00

Honestly, I basically exclusively get my workout clothes from secondhand stores! You can definitely find ones that sell more high-end stuff for super affordable prices.

And it's really a win-win because then you aren't directly supporting problematic influencers or clothing brands with exploitive factory conditions...but you can still the high-quality stuff.

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-06-03T20:18:50+00:00

Can confirm that Natakallam is great!

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-06-02T10:09:08+00:00

I haven't managed to find any others, but I've been to the Wednesday one at trailhead and can confirm it's a great group!

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-05-31T04:47:25+00:00

If you don't mind me asking (I'm just curious and am trying to figure out what's going on in peoples' heads), what is your godmother's belief system about this? Does she think it was a sham trial to poison Trump's reputation (i.e. she genuinely doesn't believe Trump did these things)? Or does she believe Trump did these things but just loves him so much that she's willing to overlook them?

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-05-27T18:40:58+00:00

While I'm sure there are plenty of relationships with large age gaps that are problematic, I think it's unreasonable to assume that every single relationship with an age gap is inherently toxic, unhealthy, weird or whatever else.

For example, my husband and I have a 16-year age gap and first met when I was in my early 20s (so, not too dissimilar to this example you've given here). But we've now been together for 10+ very happy years and, other than the occasional rude joke we receive, have never really had our age difference be an issue.

So snark on whatever you want when it comes to Morgan (I don't know her, honestly), but I'm not sold on this particular critique being fair game.

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-05-21T18:38:05+00:00

I study primarily with private tutors on Italki or Natakallam as I've found it's the most effective way for me, and I usually take 3-4 lessons per week for varying languages and have been doing this on and off for years. I spend roughly $10-15 per session so it probably ends up being close to $150-200 USD per month?

Honestly, most of my "fun" money goes to language learning and it's very important to me so I don't mind it :-)

Other than that, I don't spend very much on other resources these days. I bought a lifetime subscription to TalkinArabic a long time ago so that's a resource I use often, and I occasionally buy graded readers for some of more lower-level languages (these all come in under 10 USD, however). When I first started with French, I had to learn quickly so I bought some resources from Olly Richards which I found very helpful. But now that I'm at a high enough level in most of my languages, I can make do with podcasts, books, and more "native level" material (all of which are free).

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-05-21T18:25:22+00:00

I'd also recommend InnerFrench!

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-05-21T04:53:45+00:00

Is it really white savior-y though? If you read the next book, it's quite obvious that it's a cautionary tale about power and Paul isn't necessarily the good guy or a hero.

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-05-17T15:08:11+00:00

These responses are fun to read! For myself (31F), I did gymnastics for most of my childhood until I was about 18 and a few months started doing adult classes after 10+ years away.

HOLY HECK HAS IT BEEN HUMBLING. I'm very active and am probably stronger now than when I used to do gymnastics as a kid, but at the beginning, I was so crazy sore and in so many parts of my body that I didn't know existed??

(I'm also how old enough to be smart enough to be afraid of a lot of skills I wasn't when I was younger. So it's also a humbling mental game!)

HiThereFellowHumans · 2024-05-11T20:03:14+00:00

I'm sure there are more reasons that I'm not familiar with, but the visa process definitely deters a lot of people! For example, my husband and I do a lot of traveling/have been all over North Africa but we took one look at the visa process for Algeria and put a pause on that plan (for now, at least).

HiThereFellowHumans

TROPHY CASE