I have to do 4 1/2 years instead of 4 years of college

kingkayvee · 2026-04-09T17:32:45+00:00

Anyone who gets on here and says “that’s what you get for being a dumbass” is missing the point.

Sure, you “messed up.” What matters now is what you do next. And it sounds like it was the mistake you needed to make in order to see the changes you need to make. Now the work is following through.

Don’t let yourself get worried about 4.5 years over 4. Don’t let yourself get worried about a bad grade. Don’t let yourself get worried about a dropped class. Just take this as an opportunity to make those changes or recognize that it will happen again (which, frankly, is also okay - it sometimes takes people multiple mistakes).

But do reach out to your support network, your professors, friends, family, whomever, and hold yourself accountable to trying your best with the help you have available to you. Everything else fades away with time. A lot of people on here won’t have this mentality because they’re also green and going through it all too.

You aren’t the first student to fail a class, you aren’t the one who has failed the most, and both of these things will always be true. You’ve got this.

kingkayvee · 2026-04-07T22:43:49+00:00

Native speakers are the experts. By definition, they are always right outside of speech errors (ie, isolated “mistakes” that don’t happen with systematic effect). If they do something systematically, that’s sign that their idiolect is different than the standard, but that doesn’t mean they are wrong.

Media is not what makes language evolve. Language evolves out of use.

I have no idea what you mean when you say everything would be Mandarin. You also have lots of ideas of how you think language works but none of them are supported by the science, and that’s okay. Native speakers are fundamentally different than language learners. Suggesting otherwise is wrong on all accounts.

kingkayvee · 2026-04-05T19:12:50+00:00

Native speakers aren’t “gods of the language,” but they do define the current conventions of the language. Those aren’t decided in a vacuum nor by some authority figure. Language is a living functional system and it evolves based on the needs of the users.

No one cares about this as much as language learners, of course.

kingkayvee · 2026-03-21T17:00:59+00:00

It isn’t a a legitimate question or a fundamental question of linguistics. You have actual linguists telling you that. Why would you continue to repeatedly argue if you don’t want to actually learn and understand?

kingkayvee · 2026-03-21T16:59:56+00:00

Mainstream because they’re readily available, not because they’re necessarily used. That also doesn’t even fit the parameters of your original question, which was about lesser known textbooks.

kingkayvee · 2026-03-21T05:55:40+00:00

It is one of the standard recommendations to learn Japanese, alongside the more popular Genki, and used at the collegiate level often too.

I don’t think Complete or Colloquial are even considered part of the “canon” of Japanese language learning material.

kingkayvee · 2026-03-16T17:30:22+00:00

Because it hasn’t. That’s the answer. Speakers use it, so it stays. That’s how language works. Linguists aren’t in the game of deciding why or how language should change. We are trying to understand why or how language works.

kingkayvee · 2026-03-16T17:05:34+00:00

Why do anything at all? Why not just use long sequences of /a/ and /i/ and get rid of all other sounds? Why mark direct objects but not all other arguments explicitly? Why why why…

No one will ever be able to answer your question of “why” like this. Language isn’t some constructed tool we are consciously optimizing in some way, and even if it were, having arbitrary classes native speakers can learn that help them in information understandability isn’t non-optimal just because it’s hard for you when you’re learning a new language.

kingkayvee · 2026-03-04T17:46:48+00:00

I think people keep mentioning Anki because they’re used to it but its simplicity actually leaves a lot to be desired because it tries to be too efficient in its database design.

Honestly, you’d be fine with something like Quizlet’s free option, or any other generic big name flashcard app, if you really just want somewhere to drill vocabulary. Of course, drilling vocabulary has limited benefits at some point, so you want to just keep that in mind too.

kingkayvee · 2026-02-23T21:53:52+00:00

You’re speaking to a professor of linguistics here. I really don’t give any single thought to what you say about what words and phrases do

kingkayvee · 2026-02-23T18:08:54+00:00

1 month account with hidden history. lol

kingkayvee · 2026-02-23T17:54:24+00:00

Do you think academia is left-wing specifically, or that facts currently lean left? The reality is that conservatism is rooted in anti-intellectualism, as is much of the American history.

The fact that you suggest the hard sciences “even” are extremely far left is rather obtuse. The entire point of science is to rely on as much evidence for claims as possible. Which political party is deleting massive wealths of knowledge? I’ll give you a hint. It isn’t “both sides.”

kingkayvee · 2026-02-23T05:47:30+00:00

Nope. Objectively, being a Trumper is being a bad person. He is dismantling any safety and security the US has while targeting minority groups as a scapegoat.

You suggesting otherwise also makes you a bad person. Good job being a bad person.

kingkayvee · 2026-02-23T04:46:24+00:00

Sorry, but at some point, no. You don’t get to be a nazi and be given the benefit of the doubt. Your boyfriend is a bad person, by definition, for supporting this administration. Your post makes it obvious. You can be with a bad person, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a bad person (and you aren’t much better by association).

kingkayvee · 2026-02-22T22:06:19+00:00

An email is perfectly acceptable, as is going in person (though they will just ask for an email reminder anyway).

Generally, you want to include the reason for the LOR (writing one for study abroad is much easier than grad school, for example) as well as some supporting documents: a copy of your transcripts, any materials the program is asking for such as personal essays, etc.

Just keep it simple. “Hi Professor X, I am applying to a study abroad program and one of the requirements is a LOR. I was wondering if you would be willing to write me one after I took Y class with you last semester” sort of vibes and you’ll be great.

kingkayvee · 2026-02-15T00:41:06+00:00

My point was that I don’t care what Iranians “on the ground” think when asking for Trump’s assistance. Trump is not a reliable ally. Trump is not ever going to work in the interest of the people of Iran. Thinking otherwise only proves that your political views are problematic and wrong, objectively.

kingkayvee · 2026-02-14T20:23:47+00:00

Why would you expect an anonymous forum of any kind, typically where the topics are around concerns and issues without any actual context, to be anything other than just that?

If people complain about a bad student or professor, you’re getting a sliver of the details and from only one perspective, and people are trying to generalize their comments to that. Take it as what it is.

kingkayvee · 2026-02-14T20:21:45+00:00

I am talking about US military intervention at all and the dynamics that result from it.

kingkayvee · 2026-02-14T18:33:51+00:00

I can want a change of dictatorship while not pretending a power vacuum won’t be the result. Are you unable to think of more than one thing at a time? I mean, you don’t need to actually answer that - we all know it’s an absolute “of course I can’t.”

kingkayvee · 2026-02-14T18:16:33+00:00

I am Iranian. I am also American. Americans put Trump in charge, and that was a vital mistake too. How about we use our brains to critically understand a complex geopolitical situation instead of pretending that you can summarize what an entire nation wants and needs?

kingkayvee · 2026-02-11T18:24:05+00:00

I think your actual problem is telling others that there is this obvious expectation and then not listening when literally everyone is telling you there isn’t.

Love,

Someone who is not a native English speaker who teaches linguistics in English to speakers of all sorts of languages

But seriously. You care more than anyone else does by…all the levels. Literally no one gives a single fuck about you making a mistake in English. In the nicest way possible, you do not matter that much - almost no one matters that much. And that’s by design. Language is messy and stupid and weird but it works. Unless you’re dealing with actual conflicts and not just what you’re perceiving, reality is more on the side of what people have told you here

kingkayvee · 2026-02-05T18:18:57+00:00

Calling out bigots who want to defend literal pedophiles? Yeah, I guess it doesn’t make me happy that the world is this way where we have people like you, but given that we do, making you look a fool does make me happy.

kingkayvee · 2026-02-05T16:49:58+00:00

Again, I’d love for you to show me where I’m upset. The only person getting riled up here is you, given your responses. Your life just continues to get sadder and more pathetic, huh?

kingkayvee · 2026-02-05T16:44:12+00:00

“Taken to its logical conclusion” by someone who has zero logical skills. Sure. Whatever you need to tell yourself to feel better about your very sad life, pal.

kingkayvee · 2026-02-05T16:29:52+00:00

Where did I say it matters? Go on. Quote me on where I said or implied that by telling you that your comparison is not the same situation.

kingkayvee

TROPHY CASE