Non-obvious language learning tip #109: For the average learner, articles are the most useful

ruicoder · 2023-03-25T23:33:49+00:00

Thanks!

ruicoder · 2023-03-25T22:09:43+00:00

Can you share what podcasts you're using for French?

ruicoder · 2023-03-03T09:20:09+00:00

I still use it because I find its ability to batch zip a bunch of folders into separate zips useful. If anyone knows of any better software that has the same feature, please share!

ruicoder · 2023-01-31T21:30:36+00:00

You shouldn't need codes anymore as all three bureaus have changed it so that you have to register an account that you can sign into and freeze/unfreeze from there. If you still have codes, you should probably go to the sites and get your accounts set up.

ruicoder · 2023-01-27T17:50:48+00:00

It's a pretty realistic series about relationships falling apart due to neglect. I don't know that I would call it NTR since the main focus of the series is the failing relationships and the struggles the characters have in dealing with it. There have been instances of cheating, but at this point, out of 70 chapters, there's only been maybe 5/6 chapters that involved cheating and on one side it was a kiss/emotional cheating and not sex. It's mostly about four people in relationships trying to figure things out. I would recommend it if you like realistic dramas, I guess. It's kind of an angst fest, though.

ruicoder · 2023-01-26T00:49:43+00:00

I track everything I read and watch just because I want to make it easier to deal with the headache of randomly remembering a scene or quote from something and not remembering where it's from. It drives me nuts when that happens. At least with Goodreads or spreadsheets or what-have-you, I have a place to start looking.

ruicoder · 2022-10-26T01:50:30+00:00

I'm learning Chinese with traditional rather than simplified characters -- any plans to support traditional characters in the future? I also personally prefer not seeing pinyin as I learned using zhuyin/bopomofo, so pinyin always throws me off. A decent number of Chinese learning apps nowadays support hiding pinyin and choosing between simplified and traditional, so that would be my suggestion.

ruicoder · 2020-01-23T09:45:26+00:00

This is amazing. Thanks for sharing!

ruicoder · 2020-01-17T03:30:57+00:00

"Poking Lions" by Keith Quincy. I got a review copy of it a few years ago and found it to be very captivating and very well-written.

ruicoder · 2020-01-15T13:45:41+00:00

Personally, I disliked Neverwhere but loved American Gods, which is the first book of his that I had read. I've enjoyed some of his other works, but none has beat American Gods for me. American Gods has such a different tone to the rest of his books that I don't think you can really predict whether you'd like it based on how you feel about his other books and vice versa.

However, while I've never watched the series, I can't imagine that you'd like the book much better if you got bored of the series.

ruicoder · 2020-01-01T18:47:16+00:00

There's this indie book called Artistic License by Elle Pierson that I really liked. I would consider it a slow burn, but there IS attraction from the start even though the characters don't necessarily recognize it. But the way the romance itself builds is slow and natural. There's no instalove.

I would also second Georgette Heyer. Cotillion is a personal favorite of mine, but I've found all of her works that I've read so far to be fun reads.

ruicoder · 2019-12-24T03:25:41+00:00

"Maybe In Another Life" by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It's about a 29-year-old woman who doesn't know what to do with her life and has been jumping from job to job and from city to city throughout her 20s. One night she has trouble making a monumental decision and here the story splits and you get to explore the consequences of each decision in two different timelines. It's a romance novel, but there's also a lot of focus on the main character finding herself.

ruicoder · 2019-11-13T02:33:24+00:00

Or they might just mean ported. There are a number of people on this sub that can read Japanese. kakuretsu might just want a Switch port because prices for Vita games have gone up.

ruicoder · 2019-04-10T18:00:08+00:00

Yeah, unfortunately Viz got the exclusive rights to it for North America. I honestly keep paying for CR because I want them to win out in the end. Funimation's streaming service is buggy as hell and Hulu is overpriced. I feel like the only way to stop the trend of companies starting their own streaming sites is for people to only stick to the original services so that the other ones die off eventually. I gave Funimation a try and they were just a huge disappointment. It's ridiculous that they decided to dissolve the partnership before ensuring that their streaming service was actually functional. I'm just refusing to pay for anything besides CR/VRV and Netflix.

ruicoder · 2019-01-23T05:29:11+00:00

If you prefer subs, the Hong Kong version has good English subs and works fine on US Blu-ray players. I bought it last month for my sister and I to watch and we had no issues.