#learning a second language

in the order in which i learned them. these are highly productive suffixes, in that they can be attached to many, many nouns/adjectives/adverbs to make new adjectives.

NOTE: i use apostrophes to compensate for some of the limitations of rōmaji, as it doesn’t reliably indicate which vowels are devoiced. if you see an ‘ in any of my transliterations, it stands in for an i or u sound that gets flattened (but still pronounced!) in speech.

~臭い（くさい, k’sai）

literally ‘smells like’. this particular kanji (臭, nioi) refers to unpleasant smells. i’m not sure if the pleasantly-scented analogue kanji 匂 (also read nioi) can be used in the same way.

なんかさっきから聞いてると胡散臭いな… nanka sakk' kara kiiteru to usank’sai na... i have been listening to the crap coming out of [your] mouth for a while [and] it smells fishy...

And it got me thinking about how irl people make fun of others for their accents, or think they don’t know the language.

Having and accent does not mean you don’t know a language!!

Just like with everything it’s just a trait of your speech. And most of the time the words are completely understandable, so there is no need to be mean about it.

Or the hypocrisy when an American might say that British accent is fine, but when confronted with a Spanish accent or an Asian accent act as if they never heard English before :/

Just a thought, sorry for the rant, but I believe we should be more kind to those around us. Let’s normalize having an accent!!

I have started watching Hilda with the German dub and really like it, but I want more.

Behaviour change through a wry tone, direct language, and contextual ties - it’s perfect. Better yet, this isn’t the work of some big agency or in-house think tank, it’s student work. 

I have questions, as an English-speaking French and Spanish learner. 

In none of my classes, they never covered how to nickname or refer to someone who is non-binary/intersex/gender-fluid/etc. So, what do y’all do? I thought, maybe just mixing the gender of the word with the “incorrect” article (i.e., “mon cherie” because “mon” is masculine” but “cherie” is the feminine form, or “cariña mio” along those same lines.) But is that like... all? Is there anything else to do? 

And then like, what about if you’re referring to them in the third person? In Spanish I imagine it’s easier because you don’t have to have a pronoun, but in French? Is it like... default to “on” instead of il or elle? But “on” is for a group of indefinite specificity, not an individual.