#lanblr

Many people say that after you have mastered Spanish the next step is usually to learn Portuguese because they both share notable similarities.

So, I decided to check out Brazilian Portuguese because I’m trying to choose the next language I want to learn and…I think Portuguese is actually harder than Spanish???

Like, I know when I am reading a Portuguese article I can actually understand and comprehend what the text is talking about because the grammar and words are so similar to Spanish.

But the accent and pronunciation, I find, are difficult. I have absolutely no idea why the language just sounds…all jumbled to me??? Almost as difficult as French 😅

I don’t mean to offend anyone who speaks Portuguese. It is truly a wonderful and beautiful language. But I will step in and argue that Italian is perhaps the easier language to learn after dominating Spanish, at least from my experience.

Iceland, April 2025

How do I describe how it felt driving around (a small part of) Iceland?

The atmosphere of the geysirs is incredible, it’s really difficult to share it through photos. There’s steam all around the place, coming from every pool of water, and the smell of sulfur (eggs) is in the air. It's crazy how alive Iceland's nature is.

Donate if you can, and listen to Ukrainians.

“Do you speak English? ¿Hablas Español? Parlez-vous Français? Nǐ huì shuō Pǔtōnghuà ma? Hal tatahadath Alearabiatu? Você fala Português? Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Anata wa Nihongo o hanasemasu ka? Bạn có nói được tiếng Việt không? Loquerisne Latine?”

Those languages being:

English (duh)

Spanish

French

Mandarin

Arabic

Portuguese (Brazilian Portuguese, if it makes a difference)

German

Japanese

Vietnamese

Latin

If last Sunday's email did not land in your *inbox* I meant to say 🙃

✍️ comment the word Email

And I'll add you to the list, and send this email your way the coming Sunday.

Of course 菜 also means 蔬菜 shū cài = vegetables. On an unrelated note: 校花/班花 xiào huā/bān huā = the pretties girl in the school / a class. 校草/班草 xiào cǎo/bān cǎo= most good-looking boy in the school / a class. 班 bān here refers to a classroom (班級 bān jí), because students in Taiwan are assigned to one "room" and it's the teachers who come and go between classes. Hence, the "class" here does not refer to the grade (ie Class of 2022) but X年Y班 = (the Y 班 of the X grade).

Go vote.

aamu morning

IPA: /ˈɑːmu/

Archaic word *huomenhaamu ("morning twilight, morning mist"): huomen (“morning”) + haamu (“twilight, mist, ghost”); huomen has come to mean "tomorrow" (in other Finnic languages cognates of "huomen" still mean "morning") and haamu has dropped the "h" and has come to mean "morning".