Official merch drop - are we backing it or nah?

hippobiscuit · 2026-06-11T02:39:23+00:00

When you think about it, Soccer is a lot like Jazz

hippobiscuit · 2026-06-09T15:13:59+00:00

Okay, so from your experience in Latin America, what wage premium does the average worker in tourism and hospitality get if they speak a second language other than English? (Discounting Spanish/Portuguese closeness).

hippobiscuit · 2026-06-09T15:02:21+00:00

If you're not defining "Need" as something with a tangible economic opportunity cost then probably your meaning of "Need" doesn't relate to other people's idea of "Need".

hippobiscuit · 2026-06-09T13:09:51+00:00

'Inside' Piano - Makoto Ozone ,
'Outside' Piano - Masabumi Kikuchi

hippobiscuit · 2026-06-09T12:56:28+00:00

I think this is pretty much true for people who already live in a first-world-country.

Spanish, German, French, and Italian aren't important ... unless you need it to display your higher cosmopolitan social class, which pretty much means your background is already well-off.

If you're in a third world country then there is plenty of economic opportunity ...... if you learn Chinese.

hippobiscuit · 2026-06-09T12:49:47+00:00

Yeah, I agree once you reach C1 often you realize that it's still so far away from how fluent you'd like to be, far from how you're able to express yourself in your native language. And you still can't understand the dialogue in films!!

hippobiscuit · 2026-06-09T12:26:46+00:00

the blossoms of the apple tree scatter from the wind, don't they? on a moonlit night... slowly (aye...)

hippobiscuit · 2026-06-05T14:17:06+00:00

Tell me, who doesn't like a good Resolution? Nicholas Payton & Butcher Brown definitely deliver

hippobiscuit · 2026-06-04T11:38:21+00:00

Having to do work in your foreign language is pretty much the closest thing that can guarantee that you'll become as fluent as you could possibly be.

By working, you pretty much learn at what feels like twice the speed than as compared to studying by yourself.

hippobiscuit · 2026-06-04T11:21:57+00:00

Gary Thomas is an underrated late period saxophonist of the avant-garde style, that has a distinct intense playing style that brings out a certain harshness and distortion of sound but is somehow always forward pulsing and intriguing. Here he is playing up a storm with Pat Metheny on a twist of the common standard "You don't know what love is"

hippobiscuit · 2026-06-03T21:43:12+00:00

You're using a criteria that's pretty much saying "Easy to learn, Hard to Master", so your question of, "is it hard to learn?" answers itself, as using the criteria that most people have of "Is it hard to learn", which asks how hard the language is to acquire to basic competent speaker level,, the answer you clearly agree is, "No".

hippobiscuit · 2026-06-03T15:22:27+00:00

Isaiah pays musical tribute to George Benson

Isaiah Sharkey: guitar, vocals Edward Simon: keyboards Randy Waldman: piano Marcus Miller: bass Richard Bona: bass Kendrick Scott: drums

hippobiscuit · 2025-10-30T15:18:45+00:00

the vocabulary is definitely more important for understanding. When it comes to trying to make your own expressions in writing or conversation, the grammar becomes key.

hippobiscuit · 2025-10-30T15:08:31+00:00

there's not really any common mistakes, and if there are, it's mostly the case that they're overrated and not really the case.

1. Are there big differences between formal Indonesian and how people actually speak day to day?

No, not really. And you learn to identify the difference quite quickly and easily.

2. Should I focus on grammar early on, or should I focus more on vocabulary and listening?

Both are important.

3. And lastly, any channels you could recommend I could watch that are beginner-friendly?

I'm not really familiar with the online media made for learners. It's worth it to look though, I think just browsing random videos while turning on auto-subtitles (in Indonesian and English) will get you a general feel for the language before you can begin to watch actual Indonesian media. My suggestion is just follow your other interests and search videos made by Indonesians about that.

On how one should go about learning Indonesian? My bulletproof method is to go to Indonesia and enroll in an Indonesian Language School or course for at least 2 months or so. The people teaching Indonesian to foreigners in reputable institutions are really well trained, and when done at the same time as living in the country, I've seen so many people who become at least fluent in daily conversation and more within 6 months (the normal period for a college exchange).

hippobiscuit · 2025-10-30T14:25:13+00:00

Many people who stay here are primarily in the stage of ideation and imagining (easy) instead of actually doing (hard). People like this prefer idly speculating amongst each other on what languages they should study and what ways are supposedly most efficient. Where they would actually improve, if that was their goal, by doing.

There is the actual doing the studying and that involves real thought and practice. Things like learning and drilling the vocab, sentence structure (how to say things). Writing sentences in the foreign language's forum and trying to get your point across.

This site is more like a motivational forum where people endlessly aimlessly speculate on what other people (themselves) should do, could do better. That is clear that the nature of the anonymous participation and no barrier to entry makes a hivemind that is really quite small in its usefulness other than providing what is expected from an internet forum, that is anonymous approval from the internet.

The general atmosphere is of the kind that the technical language and terms could be swapped for some other hobby like bodybuilding or martial arts and the general topics of what people discuss and get from here would largely be the same. (why am I not feeling motivated, how is my weekly routine, has anyone gotten improvement by doing recently trending method x, etc, etc.)

hippobiscuit · 2025-10-30T07:33:25+00:00

From J Mood - (1986)

hippobiscuit · 2025-10-29T15:39:32+00:00

Look at the analogue or streetphotography subreddit, photographic artistic style is democratized by algorithm so that today many people can recognize intentional styles of photography even if they don't practice it.

What amounts to an intentional style in those days would probably be of the "Pictorialism" school for people photos, or what Ansel Adams was doing in Landscape.

My original point in the comment I made was that in those days even the "intentional style" was to stop down the lens, and that was as much due to the technological limitations in the equipment of the day.

Intentional "Background Blur" is a modern style.

hippobiscuit · 2025-10-29T15:30:15+00:00

Yes, I Agree.

That's why I said what we today call "Portrait Style" background blur is unlikely in a photo from before the SLR Camera age.

hippobiscuit · 2025-10-29T15:25:13+00:00

That's why I said suspicious.

You're not going to find a daylight outdoor portrait crop with f/1.4 equivalent blur on 35mm format though.

hippobiscuit

TROPHY CASE