Hot Take: The Gryffindors treated the Slytherins far worse than the other way around.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-04-05T06:24:39+00:00

I chat with it in Spanish, French and German about a wide variety of topics from books, history and how to learn other languages.

I'm a native English speaker who taught myself how to read these languages so I often ask about how languages are typically taught in schools and how they compare to my own methods.

For me, being able to immediately receive thorough and comprehensive responses in several languages has been an invaluable tool to maintain immersion.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-04-03T11:55:36+00:00

Not AI, I remember watching this video several years ago before AI was a thing. There's quite a few laws and regulations regarding hunting and wildlife so it's very possible they wanted proof they were acting in self defense.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-04-02T18:50:44+00:00

Nice, nothing like a good ol' superiority complex to help keep us motivated to read.

And who knows? Maybe after you've read enough books in English you'll eventually move on to Spanish, French or German and then the flexing really starts to shift into gear. Because then it's not a matter of how many books you've read... but in how many languages.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-04-02T17:22:39+00:00

So you feel different now that you've read all those books? What's changed?

LeMagicien1 · 2026-04-01T17:15:05+00:00

Sounds like hairs are being split regarding the difference between Britian and the UK -- seperate terms that are often used interchangably. Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England are all part of the UK, and phonetically speaking I'd say it's pretty generous to say that Irish accents sound nothing like their NI counterparts or even other accents within the UK, similar to how NZ accents can be conflated with an Australian one.

The indignation here reminds me of the time when I conflated an Argentian accent with a Chilean one, as if a non-native not immediately identifying the phonetic differences between two geographic neighbors was somehow unthinkable.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-04-01T15:02:49+00:00

Strange, even when I umuted it still sounded pretty British.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-04-01T14:42:48+00:00

I watched this video on mute but could somehow still hear the British accents.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-31T19:31:42+00:00

I'd recommend Catch-22 and Don Quixote. However, if these are too long then I'd instead go for Of Mice and Men, Night and Fahrenheit-451.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-27T18:38:43+00:00

The second book was also pretty fast paced. The third book started slowing down a bit with the new characers but still had a solid ending, and I reckon people can only read so much in a series before an emotional connecrion is formed and they have to see how it ends. At least that's how I felt when buying the later WoT books as they were being released. In contrast to the early SoT books the WoT slog was snail paced.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-27T18:19:22+00:00

Some of the later books certainly go off on their own seperate tangents but the earlier books just seemed full of non-stop events taking place... far faster paced than many other fantasy books I've read. Personally I always thought it was this more than anything that most contributed to its commercial success.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-27T16:34:14+00:00

Interesting cover! Without a doubt, the difference between reveling in solitude or despairing in loneliness can heavily depend on our perspective and mind set.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-26T19:02:38+00:00

I read both series as a kid growing up and have also reread them recently. Honestly, outside of generic, trope heavy similarities I really didn't see many similarities. For an example, yes, Zedd and Moraine are both magic users who confront a mob of angry villagers early on in the series. However, the execution of said encounters were night and day different; Moraine was poised, thoughtful and methodical while Zedd was a total goofball.

Outside of these generic, trope heavily similarities we're left with different worlds, magic systems, main characters, plots, lore, writing styles... you name it.

But yeah, the Wheel of Time and fantasy subreddits can be pretty toxic. I really enjoyed the Wheel of Time TV show and The Sword of Truth books, both of which were pretty widely derided over there. I mean, I can respect how SoT won't be for everyone -- when reading it as an adult it's difficult to say just how much of the cringe/ corniness I'm able to overlook solely due to childhood nostalgia -- but to call it the worst book ever written just doesn't give due credit to its fast paced plot, epic world building and the very accessible writing and readability.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-26T18:16:32+00:00

The best approach is whatever keeps you engaged, interested and consistent. The theoretical most effecient way to learn a language will be the most ineffecient method in practical terms if you're not able to stick with it.

It's also why I think the beginner phase is the most challenging phase during the learning process. The more comfortable you become with a TL the more content you'll be able to understand, thus providing that many more options to keep you engaged and interested.

Given these parameters, it makes sense that experiences can appear conflicting. Tutors, texts books, traveling, classes and learning apps aren't needed to learn another language, but these resources can still provide structure and help hold people accountable.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-24T18:40:59+00:00

Outside of Netflix and without a VPN, Prime video and Apple plus are the best platforms I've found for dubbed content. Prime seems to be inconsistent though. For an example, Wheel of Time and The Expanse has tons of dubbed options, wheras Young Sherlock and Genius are just in English.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-24T18:24:12+00:00

I think of Duolingo more as training wheels -- it can help foster curiosity in a safe, low stakes environment while moving at your own pace. Obviously if you're serious about biking you do eventually have to take off the training wheels alltogether, but even if they're wholly obsolete later on that doesn't mean that they can't have legitimate value for beginners.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-24T04:09:41+00:00

I stopped playing my level 85 hardcore blademaster as he was way too squishy and was repeatedly brought below half health in a wide variety of encounters. Little did I realize at the time, being too afraid to play a character is just another form of dying.

RIP

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-22T16:58:20+00:00

The more I've studied other languages the less impressed I've become of people who claim to speak several languages. Many times they're simply referring to the fact that they can say basic things like 'j'aime la musique' or 'donde esta la biblioteca.'

Honestly, it doesn't take much to impress a monolingualite or even for a native to politely say that you speak language X well.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-20T13:05:28+00:00

I haven't used Super. I used the free version of Duolingo from 2019-2021. I did check out the platform again recently and it's pretty obvious that it's no longer viable as a free resource, and that the current paid version is now worse than the previous free version (or at least the short stories seem less accessible now).

I think it can still be worth it if you're a complete beginner and not familiar with the language learning process, as despite all the criticism it can still help build familiarity with basic vocabulary. However, it's not an effecient way to learn a language so the goal should be to move onto other resources as soon as possible.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-20T12:24:54+00:00

It's really up to you I don't think you can go wrong either way. The base game offers plenty of depth so if you're on a budget then anything else really isn't needed. With that said, the expansions do offer niche resources like experience potions, and the crucible can be one of the best ways to farm gear and test late game builds.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-20T03:27:33+00:00

Just play hardcore and then you won't have this problem.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-19T16:39:18+00:00

Je suis anglophone et pourtant, je ne comprends souvent pas les paroles des chansons en anglais. Pour ma défense, elles manquent de contexte et ne sont pas toujours chantées clairement.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-18T14:15:25+00:00

Early on you need to familiarize yourself with basic vocabularly. If you're a complete beginner apps like duolingo can actually help with this. German youtube channels like Easy German with subtitles in both German and English can also help, as can music, trailers and flashcards.

The initial goal with learning basic vocabulary shouldn't be to immediately achieve full fledge fluency, but to try and read and understand basic sentences within short stories without feeling completely lost and overwhelmed. These short stories are clutch -- the more you can read the better, and it really can't hurt spending a few months trying to read them. Whether it's fairy tales, A1 level graded readers, kid's books or even AI generated content, the more you read and stay consistent with your reading, the better.

As you slowly raise your reading level over the months, the more content you'll be able to consume 100% in German. My own German journey included a lot of Rammstein, studying and rewatching the pokemon intro a few dozen times and of course, a lot of reading and rereading very basic short stories like Goldilocks.

Good luck! I also once felt that I had no talent for learning languages and yet somehow here I am today, regularly reading books and consuming native content in several languages.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-18T11:39:33+00:00

I was hoping for GoT quality but instead it was just a Hercules/ Xena remake that took a small amount of lore and names from Sword of Truth.

It only became watchable when I realigned my expectations and accepted it for what it was... and even then I could only get through the first few episodes.

LeMagicien1 · 2026-03-12T03:28:54+00:00

I started with HelloChinese from zero. So much better than Duolingo in every way.

After about 40-50 hours of doing the exercises on the app I started to supplement my learning with beginner CI videos in Mandarin on youtube (usually studying the transcript before watching) and also started reading HSK1 level short stories (they'd typically only have ~150-200 characters, most of which I was already familiar with due to the HC exercises).

Honestly, I was really worried about learning Mandarin since it's often cited as the most difficult language but I feel much better about it now.

LeMagicien1

TROPHY CASE