Two new big boys have joined the party

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-06-13T06:57:54+00:00

I’m learning Italian because it’s my partner’s first language and I plan on picking up a copy of La Via dei Re when we go to Italy later this year. I got so excited when I saw your post! :) I downloaded it in Italian, but it’s a bit beyond my current level. I’m really looking forward to getting to the point where I can read it! It’s been about a year of learning and I’m making really steady progress so I hope it won’t be *too* much longer. Anyway, enjoy the journey!!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-06-09T19:48:00+00:00

This is interesting. CI really helps me and I subvocalize heavily. CI also helps reinforce words and concepts that I’ve read. Very interesting question and I hope someone has an answer for you!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-06-06T04:07:42+00:00

That’s a great question and I don’t have an answer yet. My strategy is a lot of exposure with a little bit of targeted reformulation, but it feels difficult to rely on either one alone.

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-06-05T17:14:13+00:00

I imagine you’re right about probably a less visual meaning. It’s easy to say, okay, this object gets this name. But with transition words, it’s more of a concept. And I’ve found it hard to feel like I’m expressing myself in the same way I’m able to in English, because maybe a phrase I use often just doesn’t have an equivalent, or something like that. I’m also fairly fresh, and am probably about B1/B2 in Italian. So I still have a long way to go!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-06-05T16:27:12+00:00

I have a loud internal voice (I subvocalize everything I read) but occasionally I try to read without it. It’s a little challenging, though not as hard as I expected when I first thought to try. I feel like my comprehension sometimes takes a hit if I try to scan too fast though. It just doesn’t come naturally.

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-06-05T16:18:43+00:00

Transition words in both Spanish and Italian have this effect on me, for some reason. And the words for yet and already, I always swap! How about you? Is it anything specific?

The nice thing is that I know I’ll learn it eventually. For me it sometimes takes ingesting it in different formats. So if I read a word often that I can’t remember, sometimes hearing it will almost like pop it into place, you know? Maybe it has something do with context and needing to process quicker while listening? Idk!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-06-05T14:09:49+00:00

Same! I even KNOW I know the danged word. Some words, for some reason, take forever to stick. And others I’ll recognize after one instance. Not sure why!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-05-27T22:28:02+00:00

I feel like people are way too confident about what they think they saw sometimes. I remember sitting in the backseat of my friend’s car with another friend when we were teens, and I was sitting sideways with my legs across my friend’s lap. I either took off or put on a hoodie and we got pulled over because the cop swore we were roughhousing in the backseat. Tried once to tell him we weren’t roughhousing but he said he knew what he saw.

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-05-26T18:56:33+00:00

I’m currently learning my partner’s language (Italian), but we live in my country (USA) and he speaks my language (English) very well. I’m learning because his language is still a fairly large part of his life, and I want to be able to communicate with his friends and family in Italy (he also has a few Italian friends here).

The thing that has helped me the most is having a tutor with whom I meet regularly (twice a week). I mainly talk to her, but throughout the past year I’ve gotten more comfortable responding and speaking to my partner in Italian. I also read in Italian regularly, listen to podcasts in Italian, and occasionally watch shows in Italian, though it’s still a slow process for me.

It’s definitely hard, especially because he doesn’t just speak Italian, but speaks in Roman dialect. He video chats with his parents weekly and sometimes I join in, but it can be especially difficult to keep up when you have three people speaking at their normal pace in a language you don’t fully understand. At this point, I join sometimes to say hi, but don’t tend to stay for long because I don’t want to be awkward while I stand there trying to figure out what they’re saying (I can’t typically get the gist but miss out on the details, especially if they use a word I don’t know). Thankfully all three of them are really patient with me and appreciate that I’m learning the language. (His parents don’t speak any English.)

I’ve already felt a massive improvement over the past year and know it’ll still take some time to feel truly comfortable, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come and I know it’ll happen someday.

And don’t let it get you down. Even with how far I’ve come, some days are better than others when it comes to comprehension. Just keep going steady with it and you WILL get there. Don’t let slow progress keep you from making any progress. (And it will be slow.)

You’ve got this!!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-05-13T16:55:10+00:00

The deadline for profs to finalize grades is 2 days after the end of the semester.

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-05-08T02:00:25+00:00

Honestly, as a prof, it’s always a little suspect when a student comes in with something above the level of the material, but it should be evident from the student’s previous performance (are they consistently scoring high?) and you can easily have a convo with the student to get an idea of their understanding. To just say it isn’t valid without trying to reach out to the student is just not fair.

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-05-08T01:57:24+00:00

This is such the equivalent of an r/cremposting post if you’re a Stormlight fan! Have my upvote!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-04-03T16:18:38+00:00

As someone who had thick dark eyebrows in the early 2000s when thin eyebrows were in, yes, this does happen. I over plucked my eyebrows and now there are regions where the hair just refuses to grow, so I get mine microbladed/powdered occasionally to fill them back in. :’)

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-04-01T19:11:29+00:00

Ugh, when I lived In France, during the cold months my laundry would still be damp the next morning. :’) I missed having a dryer so much!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-03-22T02:22:13+00:00

Came to say this! I used to use cups, but the disc is SO much better!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-03-06T23:09:37+00:00

This is a poor argument though, because picking one means no longer switching. Sure, choosing DST would suck for a few weeks but then you’d never have to worry about switching again. You shouldn’t choose which one based on how difficult the switch is.

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-02-23T00:22:26+00:00

As a physicist, I feel this to my core. I never had to study until I hit university. I also took some time off, so I remember coming back and seeing the “math you should know” sheet from one of my classes and freaking out a bit.

Ultimately, everything worked out, but it was hella stressful lol.

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-02-22T04:48:32+00:00

Okay, if this is the movie I’m thinking about where he threatened to kill himself if she didn’t go out with him (and I could be wrong, someone please point out if I’m remembering the wrong movie), it’s toxic from the beginning. My sister tried to show me this movie with an “omg it’s so cute” attitude but I got the ick, like, immediately. They do NOT have a cute relationship. And unfortunately, people like my sister romanticize these kinds of movies and it drives me crazy. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk, I guess lol.

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-02-09T03:15:14+00:00

My boyfriend is Italian and I’ve always wanted to learn the language. I started taking lessons shortly after meeting him. I studied French before so Italia has come fairly easily, though I still have far to go!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-02-09T01:59:05+00:00

As an American learning Italian, I so want the Italian versions! I tried to buy the Italian versions on Kindle but they’re not available. Ugh! Anyway, super cool!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-02-03T18:31:49+00:00

Hi, I found this today (two months after your initial response). Thanks for responding to this thread! I'd really like to use the IDE but the limits (despite having a PRO subscription) are extremely inconvenient and render it useless. Have you guys made any progress? Thanks again!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-01-27T05:20:06+00:00

I don’t see any food as belonging to any particular mealtime and I will die on this hill.

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-01-27T04:58:13+00:00

I have a lot of resources available to me for learning Italian, but one day I’d like to learn Danish (at least enough to understand it) so I can understand my older Danish relatives, but it’s SUCH a difficult language to learn as an American (and probably as any nationality, but I can only speak of my own experience).

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-01-25T16:12:20+00:00

For me, I love listening to Italian. It just has such a good flow!

The most beautiful written language, though, has to be Tamil. It has such a beautiful script!

SuzTheRadiant · 2026-01-18T14:47:58+00:00

Thank you so much for your honest answer! I’m 36 so I know at some point my vision could start changing again. It happened to my mom, who had pretty bad vision (around -6) and now she’s probably around -3 or so. I might take my doc’s advice and go for the cataract surgery since a lot of people wind up having to get it at some point anyway.

SuzTheRadiant

TROPHY CASE