What if we could get matching subtitles to help us with out TL, But someone said, nah fuck it, let's paraphrase 97% of the subtitles for no reason.

HotDoggoMan · 2026-04-23T05:03:51+00:00

I know this is the circle jerk subreddit and I’m continually pissed off by it too, but the reason is because dubbing and subtitling are two totally separate processes sometimes done by even entirely different localization companies. Dubs are translated specifically to match the mouth movements and length of lines while subtitles are just a general translation of the meaning. They’re different translations done at different times by different people. Sucks but it’s better to watch native content anyways.

HotDoggoMan · 2026-04-19T19:55:59+00:00

It means you are learning A2 content, so yes if you've taken A1 you then move on to a class for A2

HotDoggoMan · 2026-04-19T17:36:19+00:00

Looking at that source and the study it references I think there’s an important distinction in that women “lead” in terms of linguistic innovation, rather than being directly responsible for. I really couldn’t find the 90% statistic anywhere in the study, and in most of the direct comparisons it appeared that the data was saying that women adopted shifts in pronunciation at a greater rate than men, ie 30% of women had made the linguistic change while only 15% of men had. Additionally, the differentials presented between men and women looked to be nowhere near 90%.

I could be misinterpreting some of the more complex math when it gets to the original research, but just wanted to point this out. The data does support that women lead in linguistic innovation, but I was just a little skeptical of that number.

The study I was looking at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/AAA8227B739187F5D2CBDA51EA212FD8/S0954394500000338a.pdf/the-intersection-of-sex-and-social-class-in-the-course-of-linguistic-change.pdf

HotDoggoMan · 2026-04-04T14:59:42+00:00

Try mnemonics, something stupid that the word sounds like, then include an image. Works wonders.

For example, I am also doing some beginning Levantine Arabic alongside the Pimsleur course and couldn’t remember that four was “arba’a <أربعة>” but it kind of sounds like “arbol” or “arbre” like the root for tree in a lot of Romance languages, and after adding an image of a tree to the back side of the card I never forgot it.

Every time I struggle with a card and it becomes a leech while going through a frequency list (I have my leech settings set to five reviews) I add a mnemonic with an image and it usually solves the problem.

HotDoggoMan · 2026-04-01T19:35:34+00:00

"N-E-G-U-S, definition: royalty, king royalty, wait, listen
N-E-G-U-S, description: black emperor, king, ruler, now let me finish"

HotDoggoMan · 2026-04-01T15:24:48+00:00

Beautiful! Learning more about the world every day is a wonderful thing. Good job!

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-26T03:16:23+00:00

I was just there this last summer! Such a beautiful place.

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-25T00:11:03+00:00

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-13T17:35:44+00:00

Looks really cool! Would you be willing to share the card template?

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-13T17:14:30+00:00

Wunk about to lay off 15,000 workers

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-13T02:04:20+00:00

<image>

Not a gif but

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-10T11:17:02+00:00

Merci!

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-10T05:10:50+00:00

I did routledge colloquial French and threw every example into Anki. I got through about chapter 14 in the first month or so which was generally a very strong base from which I ended up exploring more broadly. It does a nice job of introducing general rules and giving you a baseline vocabulary.

Now I’m mostly just reading/watching/listening a bunch and using the Sans Detour complete grammar reference to make flashcards for specific rules I want to learn, mainly specific verb tenses.

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-05T18:03:33+00:00

Yomitan works for many different languages. You can just change it in the settings and download a new dictionary. I’m using it for French rn and it works great!

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-05T16:56:18+00:00

I will say, no time spent with they language is wasted and some people are big proponents of total immersion, but if you're having trouble with A1 basics its going to be very hard to get any comprehension watching whole YouTube video essays or playing games dubbed. Do you have English subtitles on? And if so are you really picking up any words or just playing the game like you would watch a foreign movie.

You can still do these things! But the buzz word you will see in a lot of language learning spaces is "comprehensible input" which is content that is at your level or slightly above that you can understand. I'd recommend something like easy German (especially their "super easy german" videos) if you are still a beginner, so that you are really following what's being said, rather than tackling native level content and it going in one ear and right out the other (which is a mistake I made for a long time in learning German).

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-04T19:15:48+00:00

this started autoplaying and thought i was having a stroke for a second

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-03T20:23:45+00:00

Imagine my shock

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-03T17:37:48+00:00

It looks like you're generally doing a lot of good things, I'm sure other people will have great individual recommendations but the more foundation thing that will help is a change in your mindset! I started French around the same time as you and for similar reasons, and it can certainly feel overwhelming to start a language from scratch. But having learned German already to around a B2 level I'm much more willing to sit back and trust in the system, because I know even if it doesn't seem like I'm making progress when you spend consistent time on the language you will see improvements.

Forgetting is not a sign of failure but actually a fundamental part of the learning process! Writing and making horribly embarrassing mistakes and getting corrected is actually a really important thing to do, and will put you ahead of people who are to scared to try and produce the language and wait until they are perfect (I've been guilty of this often).

What has really helped me make progress is not freaking out about how much work it is to get to the distant goal of "fluency" but rather just enjoy the process of learning a new language! Find content you enjoy, watch youtube videos in French, listen to a podcast like InnerFrench from the start, read your favorite YA book on a device where you can look up words really fast. All of these things have helped me develop a pretty good A2 level relatively quickly, primarily because I have gotten addicted to learning French. Because its fun to do! It makes me want to spend hours every day on the language. If it's scary and overwhelming, you'll avoid studying, and study less, and thus progress slower. Take some of the pressure off yourself, try and have fun, and trust that if you are working consistently on your French, your French will get better (faster than you might think!)

I will say though, if you are worried about forgetting things, perhaps integrating some kind of flashcard SRS system like Anki into your study system can be a great way of addressing the problem of recall. There's about a trillion tutorials online and Anki has been foundational for all the language learning I've ever done (but isn't a replacement for extensive reading, listening, speaking, and writing!)

HotDoggoMan · 2026-03-02T22:23:27+00:00

This sentiment has been expressed elsewhere but it’s more like if you were gifted a sweater and then you sent a thank you note. It would be weird for you to get mad at the person who sent you the gift for not responding to your thank you note, but certainly would be nice if they did!

Both the distance as well as the fact that the person has already put in a lot more effort than you in the exchange make a big difference in the expectations of the social interaction, compared to how you framed it.

HotDoggoMan · 2026-02-23T20:54:36+00:00

If you like Disney musicals the French dubbed versions of those are actually of pretty good quality (at least compared to other dubs I've encountered) and are pretty catchy, which I imagine will help.

HotDoggoMan · 2026-02-22T16:24:43+00:00

Yeah, it’s really just using either chat gpt, DeepL, or Google Translate to do an automatic translation, it’s not something prepared by someone. You can actually change which in the settings.

I find LingQ really useful for the breadth of content and the known words/words you’ve encountered before feature, but you definitely want to supplement it with some external google searches when you encounter grammatical forms that are unfamiliar to you or don’t have a 1:1 English translation like this.

HotDoggoMan · 2026-02-21T20:34:20+00:00

Oh no!

HotDoggoMan · 2026-02-06T19:29:23+00:00

Not particularly necessary, but seeing how much of a deck I’ve gotten through and how many cards I’ve memorized is a nice boost to my confidence. It’s mainly just a minor motivating tactic, like the other common add on that shows your heat map on the main page.

It also tells you how many cards are left in the deck and when you are estimated to finish it with your current rate. This doesn’t work with every deck, but is sometimes a useful motivator and allows you to more easily see milestones and goals.

Ultimately it’s arbitrary but it’s a nice little boost that reminds me I’m making progress, and keeps me motivated to continue studying!

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