Sunnee Bunnee Studdee

Your position was just referred to as employment. Independent contractors do not have employers; they do not have employment. Congrats, your contact at this company just provided evidence that you were illegally missclassified.

This contact is claiming that you have set hours you’re obligated to fulfill. Unless a work task can only be done at a set time for practical reasons (i.e. you’re an audio freelancer paid to support a live event that occurs at a particular time and requires a certain amount of pre-show setup), a company cannot set an independent contractor’s work hours. This is further evidence that you were missclassified.

The whole exchange establishes that the company is interpreting an employer-employee relationship rather than expecting a service. Discipline and potential for firing (you cannot fire an independent contractor; no longer purchasing their service is not equivalent) establish that this person views themselves as a manager. Independent contractors cannot have managers.

This one text exchange could:

Get you back pay for the full duration you’ve worked there, to bring you up to the compensation that an employee would have gotten

Get you back compensation for lost benefits that an employee would have gotten

Get you back pay for the additional self-employment taxes the company should have covered

Get the company to pay back taxes to the government

Get the company to hire everyone who performed a similar role, or face further penalties and fines

A win would encourage the rest of their missclassified workers to sue for the same, or give them leverage to demand a better deal

You can also file a form with the IRS to force the company to correct your classification (assuming you meet the criteria), without necessarily having to sue:

Keep in mind that this is just federal. Most states also prohibit missclassification as an independent contractor; and even if states have more lenient rules, companies still have to comply with this federal law. The rules have largely been bipartisan and existed for decades, so they’re common.

States also have an interest in having regulations about missclassification: it’s a significant loss of tax revenue. Your self employment tax does not fully equal what a company would have paid for you in payroll taxes.

have contact with this language by hearing it on movies, tv shows and music. this will help you with your pronunciation skills and with your vocabulary

learn vocabulary and grammar at the same time

read kids books and translate what you don’t know. it might be hard at the beginning, but keep trying 

speak to yourself will help you like crazy. I like to pretend that I’m acting or that someone is interviewing me hahah see the magic happens 

READ AND WRITE. this is as important as speaking. It used to be so hard for me to write in English and I felt awful because I could actually speak very well. But my writing skills were just a lower level than my speaking level. Thankfully it’s getting better with practice. 

try to study a little everyday. if you don’t have time to do so, watch a movie or something, but have this contact with the new language at least once a day

it’s the same principle as primary & secondary sources in historical research. a secondary source is never going to be a primary source. it’s useful, yes; but if, say, a colonial power went through and destroyed all of a culture’s artifacts, a sketch one of them made of an object is never going to be the same as the now destroyed original.

dying languages aren’t dying because people don’t care, they’re dying because current or historical forces have decided they needed to be destroyed.

CW: Mentions of war and violence

All of the native languages of the Ryukyu Islands (Uchinaaguchi, Myaakufutsu, Yanbaru Kutuuba, Shimayumuta, Yaimamuni, and Dunan-Munai) are UNESCO listed endangered languages. This means that the languages are not getting passed down from generation to generation, and are at a high risk of being lost completely without efforts to revitalize them. How did they get to this point?

The beginning of the decline of Shimakutuba (Ryukyuan languages) can be traced to 1879, which is when the Ryukyu Kingdom was forcibly annexed, i.e. colonized, by Japan. Upon this act, the Japanese government swiftly enacted assimilationist policies to integrate Ryukyuans into the Japanese nation-state. This involved banning Ryukyuan languages in all public spheres and, educating them only in the Japanese language. To Ryukyuans, Japanese was a foreign language, and if they spoke Shimakutuba in schools, they were punished for doing so. This punishment for speaking Shimakutuba often involved having to wear something called a “Hougen Fuda” (Dialect Tag) around their necks. Calling the Ryukyuan languages “hougen” (dialect) was a psychological tactic, still used even today, to erase and deny the existence of the languages. Even Shimanchu today refer to their native languages as “hougen”, unaware of how harmful and incorrect this term is. I asked several Japanese people and foreigners living in Japan if they knew Okinawa had its own languages- not a single person did.

Going back to the hougen fuda, typically, the unfortunate student who was given this punishment had to keep wearing it until another student was caught speaking Shimakutuba. Sometimes, kids would stomp on another kid’s foot to get them to say “Agaa!” which means “Ow!” in Uchinaaguchi in order to pass off the hougen fuda. As you could imagine, this experience was quite traumatic, and it caused Ryukyuans to associate their native languages with pain and punishment. 

In addition, in public buildings (City Hall, etc), Ryukyuans sometimes wouldn’t get served if they spoke in Shimakutuba. They had to speak Japanese to get things done.

These experiences, as bad as they were, don’t even compare to what Ryukyuans went through in the Battle of Okinawa. The Battle of Okinawa was one of the deadliest battles to have taken place during WWII. Nearly one out of every three Ryukyuans died in it. Most of those who died were civilians, or forcibly conscripted into the Japanese army. Japan intentionally built up their troops in Okinawa as a way to delay the US Army from entering “mainland” Japan. Okinawans were dispensable in the eyes of the Japanese state. Some Okinawans were pushed in front of Japanese soldiers to be used as human shields. Okinawans who spoke in Shimakutuba were sometimes suspected to be spies, and then shot.

With all of this trauma from speaking Shimakutuba, it is understandable why many Shimanchu decided not to pass it down to their children. They began developing an inferiority complex towards their own native language, as the Japanese language became more prestigious and economically advantageous. Shimakutuba is generally not taught in schools, and there isn’t much funding available for it. However, this is not to say there isn’t interest in it. In surveys, many Shimanchu youth state that they wish they could speak Shimakutuba in order to understand their grandparents. Without Shimakutuba, this intergenerational connection is getting broken, and young Shimanchu are unable to understand many things in their culture, such as sanshin music, Ryukyuan literature, poetry, historical records, etc. Without the language, we lose an essential component of our culture. The Ryukyuan identity is at stake.

This is why I am learning Uchinaaguchi. This is a language that should have been passed down to me if only my people were allowed to speak it. The more Uchinaaguchi I learn, the more I understand my culture. My grandparents have already passed on, but if I can speak Uchinaaguchi, I could know the sounds that came out of their mouths, and learn their Indigenous way of thinking through the language. I could feel more connected to them, and all of my ancestors.

I am fortunate to have learned why my heritage language is endangered, and to have the ability (time/money) to pursue learning it. However, most young Ryukyuans are unaware of this history, as it isn’t taught much in mainstream Japanese education. I’m not sure exactly how to reverse the cause of the decline in Shimakutuba, but I will do my best to learn it and help other Shimanchu who want to learn it. ちばらやー!

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/05/19/national/okinawans-push-to-preserve-unique-language/

https://apjjf.org/-Patrick-Heinrich/3138/article.html

Hey! So I really like to do challenges for some reason lol And I feel like there is a lack of challenges focused on reading or on beginner levels so I came up with this idea!

Quick Tips for Learning Languages on Your Own

Here are some mindsets and techniques that helped me study Italian on my own after classes ended. Hope this helps :)

Also, I’m trying out a new format for shorter posts–let me know what you think!

Text format below.

Both of these expressions are pretty much interchangeable and often used with 차라리 or 아예. They express the belief that one option is better compared to another option.

These examples are all from the Korean Grammar In Used Advanced book.

~느니

연습도 제대로 못 하고 대회에 참가하느니 아예 다음 기회에 도전하겠다. Rather than attending the competition without practicing, I'll try my luck at the next competition.

마음이 맞지 않는 사람과 일을 하느니 차라리 밤을 새워도 혼자 하는 게 낫지. Rather than working together with someone you don't get along with, it's better to do it yourself even if it takes all night.

멀리서 출퇴근하느라 시간을 낭비하느니 집값이 비싸더라도 이 근처로 이사 오는 게 어때요? Rather than wasting time commuting from far away, how about moving to somewhere nearby even if house prices are expensive?

~ㄹ 바에야

적성에 맞지 않는 일을 하면서 마음고생을 할 바에야 차라리 몸이 함든 일을 하는 게 낫겠어요. I'd rather do a physically stressful job than struggle doing a job that doesn't fit my skill set.

뭐든지 꾸준히 해야지. 중간에 하다가 그만둘 바에야 아예 처음부터 안 하는 게 나아. Whatever the task, you must be consistent. It's better not to even start the task rather than to stop midway through it.

South Korea is known and adored for many reasons, and due to its newfound popularity in the West, people know more about it now than they ever have. However, one aspect of Korean life and culture that has been missed out on is its religions and the influence of religion on its growth and modern day practices. I am here to explain as briefly as possible, the religions of South Korea!

Korean culture has a wide variety of religions and religious elements that have influenced the people of South Korea in their day to day life and practices. In the past religion and politics were combined, however that practice is no longer in place and now religion and politics are separately functioning areas. The religions in the country throughout history and today include Shamanism, Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism and recently Christianity.

Nowadays Confucianism, Buddhism and Christianity are among the popular religions in South Korea, with many people also not subscribing to any religion at all. Despite these religious beliefs, majority of Koreans still believe in ancestral spirit and Confucian rituals. With that basic explanation out of the way, lets move on to the religions and their beliefs:

Confucianism: “Confucianism was the moral and religious belief founded by Confucius in the 6th century B.C. Basically it is a system of ethical percepts—benevolent love, righteousness, decorum, and wise leadership—designed to inspire and preserve the good management of family and society.” Confucianism was and is one of the most famous religions in Korea that came from Japan and its occupation and influence of the Korean peninsula at different stages in history.

Shamanism: “Shamanism is a primitive religion which does not have a systematic structure but permeates into the daily lives of the people through folklore and customs. Neolithic man believed that while good spirits like the sun would bring good luck to human beings, evil spirits would bring misfortune. The shaman, mudang* in Korean, is an intermediary who can link the living with the spiritual world where the dead reside.” Shamans have been represented in many pop culture aspects such as dramas that show people asking them for help with such things as fertility, marriage and money.

Buddhism: “Buddhism is a highly disciplined philosophical religion which emphasizes personal salvation through rebirth in an endless cycle of reincarnation.” This religion accounts for approximately 46% of the religious population and is one of the more disciplined religions in the country today.

Daoism/Taoism: “The most important of these concepts are (1) the continuity between nature and human beings, or the interaction between the world and human society; (2) the rhythm of constant flux and transformation in the universe and the return or reversion of all things to the Dao from which they emerged; and (3) the worship of ancestors, the cult of heaven, and the divine nature of the sovereign.”

In order to stand culture, we must understand what has influenced and shaped the culture, so I hope you find this interesting like I did. Happy studying, thanks for reading.

Once you’ve decided to learn a new language, one of the best things you can do for your progress is to find a native speaker to practice with. If you can’t find a meetup group near you, you’ll be happy to know that there’s a plethora of language learning apps available whereby you can find native speakers to practice with. The only difficulty you’ll face is choosing which one to go for! But don’t worry, I’ve compiled a list of apps I’ve used and loved!

01. HELLOTALK

Number of languages you can practice on free: 1 Free features: Chats, moments (timeline), video and audio calls, limited lessons on the learn feature, ability to record a profile audio or add profile text, ability to upload photos or audio files to the timeline, group chats, limited message transliteration or translation, stickers Paid features: unlimited message translation, connect with members who live nearby, search in specific cities, see who has viewed your profile, no ads, search for partners around the world and search by gender, no ads, exclusive stickers Rating/5: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Description: One of the most robust and well-rounded language exchange apps on the market, Hello Talk boasts some pretty handy and unique features. Even though you can only select one language to learn at a time on free, there are tons of potential language partners available (and you can cheat like me and change your language every few weeks). The Moments tab is a timeline similar to Facebook where both native speakers and fellow learners can upload audio files, sentences for corrections, photos of their life or questions. You can use this to meet partners if you don’t feel like searching. Just comment on someone’s post and say hi! HelloTalk recently added a Learn feature with grammar and vocabulary mini lessons. These are only free up to a certain point. The user interface is stunning and they keep updating so you can expect a great experience as they grow. There’s also a notepad feature where you can save voice and text notes or translate sentences before you send them to someone else. My favorite feature is the in-chat auto translation or transliteration (particularly useful for languages using a different script). Mini lessons available in: English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Portuguese and German My opinion: I’ve been using HelloTalk for YEARS, literally since I was a high school student (I’ve been out of uni for 3 years, y'all). It’s clear I’m a fan. According to my HelloTalk stats, I’ve translated 609 sentences, transliterated 149, saved 186 phrases, corrected 87 sentences and sent 49 audio messages. And I have 296 moments uploaded. Wow. I’ve made lifelong friends on HelloTalk and have met a few of them in person too. If you wanna follow me on HelloTalk, search for @lindiebee. 

02. SPEAKY

Number of languages you can practice on free: 5 Free features: Filter partners by location, age and interests, leaderboard and stats, ability to add lots of interests Paid features: Filter partners by gender, add more languages Rating/5: ⭐⭐⭐ Description: Speaky is a lot simpler than other apps as there’s no timeline feature and the chat interface is clean and tidy. They have a leaderboard which is unique though, so you can earn points for sending messages, accepting conversations, giving stickers, inviting friends and logging in for days in a row. There seems to be a solid amount of native speakers for most languages, and the types of languages you can select are pretty robust and unique. You can also filter between viewing native speakers and non-native speakers, if ever you feel like chatting to a fellow learner instead. My opinion: Ever needed a language app where you can add TONS of pre-selected interests? Speaky’s got you. I was amazed by their long list of checkboxes of potential speaking topics. Want to talk about horseriding? Mozart? The harpsichord? Military psychology? How about Bobsleighs? Those are all legit interests you can select from their list to add to your profile. I like that requests and messages are in 2 different tabs, unlike HelloTalk or Tandem. This way you can see who you’ve messaged first and you can see who’s trying to talk to you. The inbox is less busy that way. At first I was frustrated by messages from people just saying “hi”. No one seemed very serious to practice and I got a bit of dating app vibes. The app also focuses a lot on gamification and you have to send a certain amount of messages and update your profile to get badges. Frankly I couldn’t care less about badges or points. All in all, a pretty decent app if you’re looking for something simple and quick. 

03. TANDEM

Number of languages you can practice: 8 Free features: Community (where you can see potential partners), Tutors, Chats, ability to send photos, voice notes and translate a limited number of messages. Paid features: unlimited message translation, connect with members who live nearby, search in specific cities, see who has viewed your profile, no ads Rating/5: ⭐⭐⭐ Description: Tandem is cool in the sense that you can find both native speakers to practice with as well as tutors to get lessons from. In your profile, you can add your language learning goals, interests and preferred methods of communication. This makes it easier for potential partners to start talking to you. You can also add a bunch of photos (up to you if you think this makes it look more like a dating app or not). My opinion: When I first started using Tandem, I felt the messages were too much and I became overwhelmed not being able to reply to everyone. It was only later that I discovered you can select which gender you want to receive messages from. No offence to the guys out there - but with the nature of language exchange apps, messages from men are a lot more than messages from women. I found that selecting only women allowed me to find serious language partners who aren’t looking for a potential relationship. I like that you can select up to 8 languages to practice - but do know that you’ll be getting more messages then. Overall an OK app, but I find that other apps have more appealing visual interfaces (sorry, I’m an app designer!) and more features for free users.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Tandem nor do I prefer them over other apps. The video above was a once-off paid collaboration with Tandem, and all opinions expressed in the video are my own. The video is purely to show you what Tandem can do and to let you make your own decision :)

04. HINATIVE

Number of languages you can practice: You can select 2 native languages and I think an infinite number of languages you want to ask questions about (languages you are interested in) Free features: Limited search results; can ask and answer questions about languages, cultures, word meanings, accents. Point system for questions asked and answered. Paid features: Get “tickets” to bump your questions to priority levels so they get answered faster; listen to audio clips from other premium users; get question templates; no ads; bookmarks Rating/5: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Description: HiNative is mainly an app for asking questions about language learning. You can, in turn, choose to befriend someone who has answered your question if you choose to, but the main point of the app is to interact with natives via questions and answers. You can also select regions or countries you’re interested in if you want to ask questions about culture. Questions you can ask are: - How do you say this in ~~? - Does this sound natural? (with a voice recording) - Please show me example sentences with ~~ - What does this mean? - What’s the difference between these two? - How’s my pronunciation? - Please show me how to pronounce ~.  My opinion: I’ve also been using HiNative for YEARS. It’s one of my must-have apps, and I’ve asked 118 questions and given 148 answers. I find that responses to my questions come very quickly, and it’s the perfect platform where I like to ask questions like “What’s the difference between [word 1] and [word 2]?” or “Does my accent sound natural?”. You can find me on HiNative if you search for lindiebotes. They updated the app interface a year or so ago and since then I’ve been loving it even more. 

HELPING YOU CHOOSE