languages - culture

I’ve been practicing my French and German in the higher and lower skills and it is just amazing. It lets you track your scores in different tests, and also offers verb conjugation charts, vocab lists, flashcards and more. :) Also you can choose the page to track your time or not, and you can decide how long you want the test to be.

Adverbs

Adverb placement

The position of an adverb in Spanish depends on what you want to advertise. There are, however, some general rules that should be followed.

The adverb doesn't usually come between the helping verb and the past participle of the main verb: Ella había probado suficientemente la raqueta (She had tried the racket enough).

Adverbs that refer to an infinitive come after the infinitive: El vendedor le propuso mostrarle tranquilamente diversos modelos (The salesman proposed to calmly show her different models).

I like to think of language learning into three stages. The first being the beginning. Where you are getting to know the language and the culture. You’re introducing yourself, playing around with the letters and words. There’s the middle stage or what many people may consider intermediate. This stage is usually when you have a good amount of grammar and vocabulary. You are reading and writing (roughly), but are stuck and don’t really know where to continue. The final stage is the mastery of the language. You are thinking, dreaming, and mumbling in your language. This is the satisfying cut of the sharpest knife into butter.

Let’s focus on the middle stage. In language learning many people (not all) experience the most stress when they are far away from the beginning stage, but are still missing the pieces to reach the final stage. Unfortunately, many people give up. They get stress out (great song) and slowly stop learning. Many people just don’t know where or how to keep learning. So how do you keep learning??

Number 1: You gotta recognize that you are stuck. Take a moment and evaluate your current situation in your proficiency. Realize, that you are not learning less and you’re not learning more. Then go to number 2.

Number 2: Start figuring out what you know and don’t know and want to know. Similar to a pros and cons list you are acknowledging what you can already do in your language, what you don’t know, and what you want to know. That way you can smoothly go into learning.

Number3: Vocabulary!!!! Seriously, even though you are past the beginning level the real reason you are stuck is because you need more to work with. Try learning more advanced vocabulary. Medical terms, organs/bones, space, etc.

Number 4: Be creative. Try to learn how to play with the words you know. Learn how to speak in sarcasm, or with idioms. Learn some metaphors and similes. Try to find fun ways to use your language.

If you’re “neutral” on ace/aro discourse, you’re on the side of ace/aro exclusionists.

If you’re “neutral” on trans and nonbinary discourse, you’re on the side of transmeds/truscum, TERFs, and other trans-exclusionary people.

If you’re “neutral” on pan discourse, you’re on the side of pan exclusionists.

If you’re “neutral” on queer discourse, you’re on the side of queer exclusionists.

If you’re “neutral” on any discourse about whether or not a gender identity, sexual orientation, or romantic orientation is real, valid, and part of the LGBTQ+ community, you’re on the side of the oppressor.

You either believe these identities are part of this community, which, historically-speaking, they are, or you don’t.

You can think and say discourse on these identities is “stupid” or “pointless” or whatever else all you want, but to the people who consistently have their identities debated, it’s not stupid. It’s not pointless. It matters to them, and it matters to those who support them. Thinking and saying stuff like that only further invalidates those people, tears them down and hurts them, and creates an even bigger divide in this community, in their community, in our community!!

It’s Pride Month! This is our time to celebrate our identities, to be proud of who we are as members of the LGBTQ+ community!! This is not the time to alienate and invalidate your fellow community members. By doing so, you’re blatantly denying queer history, our history. So please, keep your gatekeeping to yourself. Let us be proud of who we are! Our queer elders fought for our rights to be treated equally, to be seen, to be recognized, to be accepted, to be validated. They didn’t fight for y'all to go around hurting other members of this community because you refuse to accept them for their LGBTQ+ identities. By doing this, you’re basically slapping our queer elders in the face, and for that, you should be ashamed.

A postcard made by the Catalan antifascist militias of the Spanish Civil War. In the Catalan language, it reads “they aren’t passing” and “and neither shall they pass”, with the illustration of two workers doing the leftist salute (the raised fist) and with the estelada (the flag of Catalonia’s fight for independence).

Made between July 21st and September 27th, 1936.