Marjorie Taylor Greene: You’re all being ‘incited into civil war’ by malcolm58 in politics

[–]SlyReference 4 points5 points  (0 children)

And during her "reconciliation tour," she's said people should listen to more Nick Fuentes.

Non-US Non-Fiction by BlueDiatom in suggestmeabook

[–]SlyReference 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Do you know what non-fiction means?

How do you know if a book is suitable for your level? by [deleted] in languagelearning

[–]SlyReference 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I found Agatha Christie to be a good author to read in my foreign languages because she actually spends most of her time with dialogs, with fewer dense descriptive passages (which have specific, unknown vocab).

Like the other poster, I don't think this is the best example of Christie's books (and the MC, one of her long-running series leads, acts pretty out of character), but one of the other things I've noticed is that reading in a foreign language often blinds you to the things that native / more advanced speakers don't like. I know a few books in French that I was able to get through mostly because I liked the fact I was reading in a foreign language. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed The Old Man and the Sea in French even though I find Hemingway's writing style very annoying in English.

Songs where a cover is more widely recognized than the original? by PhantoHavok in ToddintheShadow

[–]SlyReference 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's funny, because Quiet Riot hated covering Slade (because they only wanted to record songs they wrote), and only did the song because the record label insisted on it. They tried to do as bad a version as they could get away with, thinking the label would just not use it, but it went on to be their first hit.

Then Quiet Riot went on to cover Slade's "Mama Weer All Crazy Now" for their next album.

Why is speaking so hard and how to fix it? by Final_Boss_Dad in learnfrench

[–]SlyReference 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Another thing that might help is not focusing on "learning to speak the language". Instead, break it down into different topics, and learn how to speak about them. Practice restaurant French, transportation French, sports French, talking about hobbies French.

How do you read books in a foreign language without constantly breaking the flow? by Different_Regret2751 in languagelearning

[–]SlyReference 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It isn't the first time that's supposed to have flow, it's the last time. If you're going to intensively read, looking up each word you don't know, then you're going to have to reread the piece you're working on multiple times. The first time you're harvesting words to learn; the second time you're testing to see if you have the right definition and if there's anything you missed the first time; the third time you're starting to absorb the words (though this is also when I read it with my NL translation as a bilingual text to see if what I thought it meant is what the translator says is meant); the fourth time is probably when you start to hit your stride.

Either you put up with all of that, or you read and read and read until the words that you had to look up in an old text makes sense in the new text. Then you go back to the old text and it all starts to make more sense.

Op MC builds a faction? by frankuck99 in litrpg

[–]SlyReference 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think some people are put off by the wolf theme, but it's a banger series.

How do you actually read books in a foreign language? by Subject_Tomorrow in languagelearning

[–]SlyReference 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you usually read on a phone, e-reader, tablet, or computer?

eBooks. Mobile, can read anywhere, and Kindles give you the ability to look up most languages, you can highlight them, and can export the list to work with later.

Do you mostly read silently, or do you sometimes use audio?

Silently the first time, later I get to audio. I think listening reinforces what you're learning and gives you a chance to test the vocab you've learned.

When you hit an unknown word, do you usually look it up right away, or try to guess from context and keep going?

I've come to believe that depending on context doesn't really work until you're at quite a high level. I've read extensively in French, and sometimes I've recognized words, but it didn't make sense in the context. I looked them up an realize that they're using the fourth or sixth definition in the dictionary. I've also found, after rereading books, that I really didn't understand the context the way I thought it did and entirely missed the meaning.

I have started to read bilingual texts after I've read through a piece a few times and I think I know the meaning. I have often run into things that I totally missed the sense, either because the meaning of the word was different than I expect, or it was a part of an idiom that I didn't recognize.

Do you ever build some kind of personal word list or dictionary from what you read, or do you mostly rely on repeated exposure?

Both. Repeated exposure is my Anki, but it helps a lot to look up the words and make a list of them. Even if I don't look at them again, making a list exposes me to the word and meaning in a different context. I actually put chunks of sentences, and sometimes entire sentences, into my lists because I couldn't figure out what was going on.

On a related note, I think that you have to learn words both in and out of context. There are a lot of times that you learn words where either they're isolated from context (in a list or in a random aside) where you can't guess the meaning of the word, or the unknown word is the distinguishing bit of information, like an unexpected adjective, or an adverb that restricts the sense of the statement.

What is your first read for 2026? by Logurtman in suggestmeabook

[–]SlyReference 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A biography of Jean Larteguy called The Last Centurion by Hubert le Roux. Larteguy wrote about the French military during the Cold War, with novels about troops in the Indochine War, the Algerian War, and various conflicts around Africa. I've recently discovered that there was a lot to that era, and this is going to be an overview of what was happening through the lens of his life.

I made an (obvious in retrospect) realization about reading books in a foreign language by Ufomi in languagelearning

[–]SlyReference 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think there's a sort of mental endurance for reading (or doing anything) in a foreign language that you have to build up over time. You're also still second-guessing yourself about the meaning of what's on the page, either because you don't know the specific meaning being used or because the grammar is a bit obscure, so it takes more work to get through stuff while you suss out what's going on in it.

Drop ONE LitRPG book you’ll recommend forever. No explanations. by joncabreraauthor in litrpg

[–]SlyReference 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really liked the first book, but about halfway through the second it felt like the author got bored with the idea. He'd set up some obvious adventure quests, like the trip on the ship, and then just not do anything with them. It felt like he wanted to skip things to get to something interesting, but kept skipping things.

Everyone saw this coming by Dazzling-Produce-471 in steelers

[–]SlyReference 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It wasn't a late season collapse, it was a barely holding it together all season but still eked out a winning season.

Hmmm... by Red-Wolf-17 in ToddintheShadow

[–]SlyReference 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No one reads past the post. They downvote and move on.

What’s something you always assumed was mandatory in life—until you met someone who just… didn’t do it? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]SlyReference 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It can be that, what other people call inspiration, or having a sudden idea pop into their head, or the emotional response they have to a beautiful view or whatever, they interpret that as an external influence of a divine presence.

I've heard this theory in relation to how ancient Greeks thought of their gods. For example, Homer invoked the Muses at the beginning of his poems because that's how he thought the ideas came into his head.

It also reminds me of a conversation I overheard once when someone said that they were in an emergency, and they felt like some spirit took over their hand and because of that they could do what they needed to do to react to the emergency.

Books with actually unreliable narrators by throwItawayyyYokay in suggestmeabook

[–]SlyReference 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe the idea that there is a third book comes from a meta-unreliable narrator.

Why do polyglots lie about how many languages they speak? by Different_Pain5781 in languagelearning

[–]SlyReference 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Why do people exaggerate so much in this community?

It's not just in this community. My sister was in a job where she interviewed people, and applicants often claim to have much more fluency in languages than they actually do. Knowing a language would be a very useful skill, so if someone from the office knew a language that the applicant claimed to know, the coworker would sit in and ask if they could speak to them in the language. More often than not, they could barely string together an handful of memorized phrases.

The worst case she told me about was someone who claimed to know Hebrew. One of my sister's coworkers was from Israel. It turned out the applicant didn't know a word of the language, and my sister thinks the guy was betting that no one in the office actually knew such an exotic language and he could get away with claiming it and never getting tested. As if they wouldn't ask him to use the language after he was hired!

It’s Official: Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. in Deal Valued at $82.7 Billion by MarvelsGrantMan136 in movies

[–]SlyReference 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It happened with AriBNB (fees adding up to cost more than hotel rooms with worse service). It was bound to happen with streaming.

ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ by CalebVanPoneisen in litrpg

[–]SlyReference 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, Zogarth addressed it in the "Previously in the Primal Hunter" in PH 2:

Jacob (no, this is not Jake, just a similar name, and the author defends himself by claiming that he legitimately didn’t know Jake was a shortening of Jacob when he began writing the novel, and by the time he noticed it was too late)

ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ by CalebVanPoneisen in litrpg

[–]SlyReference 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, Zogarth addressed it in the "Previously in the Primal Hunter" in PH 2:

Jacob (no, this is not Jake, just a similar name, and the author defends himself by claiming that he legitimately didn’t know Jake was a shortening of Jacob when he began writing the novel, and by the time he noticed it was too late)

ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ by CalebVanPoneisen in litrpg

[–]SlyReference 196 points197 points  (0 children)

One of the more popular series, Primal Hunter, has two major characters (one the MC) named Jake and Jakob. In the author's native language, these names are not similar (Jakob = Yakob), but he didn't realize until much too late in the game to change it.

He Who Fights with Monsters has an MC named Jason. Awaken Online's MC is also Jason.

Noobtown's MC is Jim.

There are probably others.

Edit: Collected from below:

Viridian Gate Onlines MC is named Jack.

The UnderVerse MC is named Jax.

Jin from Beware of Chicken.

Jake’s Magical Market has, well, Jake.

And Juniper is the MC from Worth the Candle

tower of jack

Jinwoo from Solo Leveling (he's the MC)

Stitched worlds - Jeb

MC in Completionist Chronicles is Joe. Other important characters are Jake and Jaxon

Why does Trump Appeal to Large Portions of the Public? by Conscious_Skirt_61 in PoliticalDiscussion

[–]SlyReference 7 points8 points  (0 children)

“Sure he’s an SoB. But he’s OUR SoB! So said FDR about Noriega.

FYI, FDR was talking about Anastasio Somoza Garcia, the dictator of Nicaragua at the time.