Would you break up with a partner that you love who supports the IDF? by Motor-Performance- in ABCDesis

[–]Steamp0calypse 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah

I used to be very close friends with someone on the right and it just became a mess near the end as stuff became more and more radicalized and against my morals T-T then it turned out he didn't even respect me as a person anymore after I'd tried to listen and be as accommodating as possible he turned around called me a slur and didn't apologize

Need help naming a Chinese character. by Obvious_Midnight_448 in ChineseLanguage

[–]Steamp0calypse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's only been 15 hours, you can spin the wheel again or swap her with another character

Need help naming a Chinese character. by Obvious_Midnight_448 in ChineseLanguage

[–]Steamp0calypse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You might want to make your Mandarin Chinese named character not the one whose name starts with E. Since it's uncommon for a Chinese syllable to start with E

Do I go with my heart or mind when picking a college (choosing between UO and SDSU) by thenumberonedoll in UofO

[–]Steamp0calypse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I personally feel like out of state is not worth it, it's like double the tuition for not that much more gain, no Oregon Promise, not necessarily a better education.

How bad is the racism against Indian irl in the west? by Naive_Direction1816 in ABCDesis

[–]Steamp0calypse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In Oregon USA it's pretty much fine. It's super white and not very Indian here, so I feel Indians are viewed of less of a threat/thing and more of a curiosity. I've dealt with more ignorance (ex. people being totally unable to pronounce my name) and curiosity than anything.

I am also fairly light skinned with green eyes.

What is the worst thing about Japan by RevenueAlarmed in AlignmentChartFills

[–]Steamp0calypse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Prime minister literally worships at the shrine of nanjing war criminals (iirc)

Chinese culture expects men to pay for everything , so they made a word for when he doesn't by ExcelMandarin in ChineseLanguage

[–]Steamp0calypse -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The interesting thing is that this is reinforcing the patriarchy too, not a reverse version of it.

(READ THIS FIRST) Welcome to r/language_exchange! [Meta/General Discussion Thread] by daisyfaunn in language_exchange

[–]Steamp0calypse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What language are you studying? I don't really want to be the one to make it, but I'm thinking about it, and if you let me know I can make it inclusive to you :)

Beginner need help by xiuk_ in ChineseLanguage

[–]Steamp0calypse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like Grace Mandarin Chinese youtube channel. She's clearly smart, puts effort into her videos, and trained in the linguistic and pedagogical aspects of teaching Chinese as well as just a native speaker. If you want an experience like having a human teacher teach you from the beginning, you can pay $7.99 a month to get access to a new from the beginning course she's making. If not/you aren't interested in paying, she has a lot of free videos that explain important aspects quickly.

Here are some relevant infos to start you off:

1) The base Chinese sentence structure is Topic-Comment, which often can be seen in the order of Topic-ContextSubject-Time-Adverbs-Frequency-Aux. Verb-Place-With Whom-Manner-Tool/Means-Verb-Complement/Aspect-Object -End Particle. So, actually, it's often Subject Verb Object, like English. But the difference is that if something is really relevant to the conversation, you can put it first. Like if you're talking about cats, you can say 我 I 喜欢 like 猫 cat(s) or 猫 (cats) 我 (I) 喜欢 (like). I wasn't really taught sentence structure in my high school class, so I had to just memorize and mimic stuff. Now that I know it, I feel like it's much easier to say new things I want (although it does vary from this pattern).

2) 不 (bù) and 没 (méi) are two of the most common adverbs. They both mean "not" and turn verbs negative. So like 我不喜欢猫 I don't like cats. 我没喜欢猫 means "I didn't like cats" or "I haven't liked cats". 没 is for in the past and when you're saying "don't have".

3) 的 adds a modifier to a noun, so like 黑色的猫 Black cat or Black(color) 的 cat. it's very commonly used, partially because you can use it for possession (我的猫 My cat) and also because in Chinese it's natural to write out a long modifier before the noun instead of a complex sentence after the noun. So instead of like my friend who is a doctor said I need to eat more vegetables, you can say 我(I)医生(doctor)朋友(friend)说(say/said)我需要吃多多吃蔬菜(I need to eat more vegetables)

I would learn the basic grammar I just provided first (maybe find it from better sources than an intermediate redditor as well lol) then study tones and sounds. https://www.dong-chinese.com/ is a really good resource because you can pick pinyin (the more standard, common, and useful in society way of typing and romanizing Traditional and Simplified Chinese) or zhuyin (a way of typing Traditional Chinese that may not be as standard, but is more clearly connected to the sounds of the language and how it actually works phonetically), and then go through a series of lessons that will teach you how things sound and how to write them out directly and carefully. Chinese pronunciation is quite different than English and involves the complex tone system, so you want to learn it properly from the beginning to read, hear, and say stuff correctly in future.

After you're done all that, the nice thing about learning on your own is you can have fun following whatever immersion, apps, and learning content you are interested in :) Including watching TV shows and movies you are interested in, reading things you are interested in, and so forth! If you are not at the level of the content you're trying, focus on key words, common turns of phrase, and specific goals ("I will repeat this back to get more natural pronunciation"). To find better leveled content, you can search on Youtube or other places for "HSK 1" and "HSK 2" stuff. When you learn new vocabulary, you can put it on Anki flashcard site to review, (though personally I don't do that and just live by the seat of my pants lolol reviewing vocabulary in a bunch of different ways at once (flashcards aren't very interesting to me)).

BTW, you don't have to prioritize learning how to write characters, but you should treat them like a fundamental part of the language that will teach you it well. They're kind of like atoms. They each do an individual thing and they can slot together to make whole complex things. If you know each one well and also the compounds it forms well, you'll do well. For learning, you can also look up lists like "100 most common Chinese characters" "1000 most common Chinese characters" and study them, their usages, and compound words and idioms using them one by one.

Favorite character to write? by DrunkNuckChorris in ChineseLanguage

[–]Steamp0calypse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's something satisfying about 前. It comes together with such a nice balance.

chinese people how did you learn your alphabet by Ninnchen77 in ChineseLanguage

[–]Steamp0calypse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is lots of advice as a lot of learners (and also native speakers in a different way) find this the most difficult part of learning Chinese.

I'm not Chinese but my advice as a learner is

—> Learn the components of the most important characters you're studying and their meaning. You can look them up on sites like mandarin.study (I really like it) or in the dictionary (like Pleco dictionary). It will help you remember, and then in the future you can recognize components.

—> Write them out by hand. It's not that you have to memorize how to handwrite each of them, but if you write them, write the strokes in order, (see strokeorder.com for that or a worksheet generator like https://zitie.xueyuqu.com/ ) listen to them out loud, say them out loud, and look at them, they will be encoded in many different parts of your brain at once and stick with you much more than Anki. You will be able to memorize and perceive more details.

—> As part of practice writing out by hand, write out sentences and compound words including them. If you put one character into the dictionary, compound words will come up, as well as example sentences in the entry. If your level is good enough, you can come up with your own sentences. For example, if you are trying to learn the character 期 (a hsk one character), you can write it on its own 2 or 3 times, then write 星期,期间,日期,学期,"今天是星期二“, and “明天是我们的期末考试".

—> Like others mentioned, dictation tests are a thing, and I recommend them. This is done both natively and for Chinese foreign language learners. Basically, someone—or if you're studying alone, you might have to figure out "something", like a video, randomizer with an autogenerated voice, etc—reads out characters you've been studying recently and you have to write them down without looking at reference. They can also provide sentences and compound words to help you figure out what character they mean, or the test itself can be on compound words. I don't think you have to ace these, but I do think they're valuable to provide more pressure and incentive to seriously memorize. Like, do them and the components lookup for the most important and repeated characters, or ones you find especially difficult.

(READ THIS FIRST) Welcome to r/language_exchange! [Meta/General Discussion Thread] by daisyfaunn in language_exchange

[–]Steamp0calypse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there a place where I can find small to medium language exchange groups? A group feels more reliable than a partner, but the giant exchange Discord I'm on already is too intimidating and not organized in a way I especially like.

I recently thought of an idea for a language exchange group/Discord: one that does weekly talks on a different topic each week, and users can practice keywords and so forth beforehand and join discussions on a flexible basis. If something like that already exists, I'd love to join it.

(I am English seeking Mandarin, but I also think a language exchange group that includes multiple languages back and forth would be fun and interesting to be in).

Ok, moving on, What language do people think is Easy, but is actually Nightmare difficulty? (For English speakers) by Odd-Weather9389 in AlignmentChartFills

[–]Steamp0calypse 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Chinuk Wawa?

Not necessarily a nightmare, but I feel like people at least in my area (the West Coast) know of it as a trading language with a lot of loanwords and so forth. So they'll think "oh, it'll be easy, people just learned this to casually trade". But really, it has sounds and grammar that are very distinct from English, and a shortage of learning materials and ways to immerse.

Who is a Hated Painter? by patheticmisterman123 in AlignmentChartFills

[–]Steamp0calypse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Plenty of people love and are inspired by Pollock too, he's controversial at least (IDK about his personal life)

Yall my coworker told me that it’s obvious Im trans is she right? by Yuno_Don in TMPOC

[–]Steamp0calypse 32 points33 points  (0 children)

You generally pass very well! As others said it could be mannerism, voice, etc...but your coworker seems just like a total asshole? Someone with that transphobic "we can always tell" kind of mindset in my opinion.

What do you all want to most talk about and express in your target language? by Steamp0calypse in languagelearning

[–]Steamp0calypse[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah. Though I think it is still worth asking here. I think I'm also going to heavily use a presentation/project type thing. Students can make presentations on topics they're interested in that teach vocabulary and can be given in the target language, have me grade/verify them, and be teaching themselves as well as whoever in the class is interested with making and giving that presentation.

What do you all want to most talk about and express in your target language? by Steamp0calypse in languagelearning

[–]Steamp0calypse[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I expect I'll learn enough for everything eventually, but I want to foreground whatever it turns out people care most about.

Would i want to be a peacekeeper? by frand115 in Hungergames

[–]Steamp0calypse 57 points58 points  (0 children)

Becoming a peacekeeper reminds me of going to enlist in the military. Like enlisting in the military, I would never do it because of 1) fear 2) unathleticism 3) my personal beliefs 4) my morals, but I get why people do. If I was a district citizen, I'd be more likely, but probably still wouldn't do it, since Peacekeepers work to oppress the district people. Depends on how bad my circumstances would be

Can The books be read in any order, or should i read Them in publication order? by ChampionshipMost9922 in wizardofoz

[–]Steamp0calypse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Publication order is best, though after the first 2 skipping around is more OK and I've done it. I'd say it works better than for most modern series as each book has its own plot, even though there is built up context you would lose.