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14 votes
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The state of the world’s 7,168 living languages
18 votes -
Can you recommend songs or musicians/bands with lyrics in Spanish?
I'm returning to the struggle to improve my language skills, and would like to enjoy some of the process if possible. Please share if you know of anything.
21 votes -
HANABIE - OTAKU Lovely Densetsu (2024)
2 votes -
Engraving on an almost 2,000-year-old knife believed to be the oldest runes ever found in Denmark
11 votes -
News sources or other subtitled media in Traditional Chinese?
So I recently got back from a very comforting trip to my motherland in Taiwan. I always joke that when I get back from Asia my Chinese gets better by a lot. One thing I kinda wish I was better at...
So I recently got back from a very comforting trip to my motherland in Taiwan. I always joke that when I get back from Asia my Chinese gets better by a lot.
One thing I kinda wish I was better at was reading Traditional Chinese, since it's one of the barriers I have for fully communicating with my family and dimishes my confidence when navigating Taiwan.
Don't get me wrong, I'm fluent in speaking, I've had full on conversations with native Taiwanese and they're always surprised that I'm from America.
At the same time I feel like I should be keeping up with the news and general day to day life in Taiwan, since I plan on visiting more often because my grandparents are getting older and I really miss the country a lot.
I know we have a couple of people who are in East Asian countries/Taiwanese/Taiwanese-adjacent, I was wondering if y'all had any suggestions on things like news channels on YouTube or day in the life content that I can follow along with and match characters to practice my reading a bit. I can read at maybe a kindergarten level if that helps LOL.
15 votes -
A brief history of the United States’ accents and dialects
12 votes -
Fascinating publication by and for hikikomori (Japanese language)
17 votes -
Recommendations for a grammar checker?
I'm looking for a French grammar checker. I think I'm in that intermediate-level plateau where I just need to keep talking / chatting in French but I want to eventually get to a point where I have...
I'm looking for a French grammar checker. I think I'm in that intermediate-level plateau where I just need to keep talking / chatting in French but I want to eventually get to a point where I have correct grammar, maybe even some suggestions for idioms.
Some info for my use-case:
- I don't expect to go past 100 "consultations" a month.
- Would be nice if there was an extension that helps for email / Messenger / Telegram / WhatsApp.
- Would be nice if it did help with idioms.
I did my homework and found out that:
- Grammarly does offer this but only in English.
- Language Tool exists but it's 20 euros monthly or 60 euros per year, which are both steep prices for just trying it out.
- Asking ChatGPT works most of the time, but it's a bit annoying to load up that website every time and ask. I'm open to coding something based on the API if that would be the most cost-effective option.
Thanks in advance for all your suggestions!
10 votes -
ewig≒zait - a piece of memory (2001)
4 votes -
Hacking the Climate - 37c3
7 votes -
KANA-BOON (Maguro Taniguchi) × Necry Talkie (Mossa) - Naimononedari (2020)
5 votes -
Atarashii Gakko! - Tokyo Calling (2023)
14 votes -
31 minutos - Calurosa Navidad (Heated Christmas) (2004)
9 votes -
There's a better English alphabet
8 votes -
Why Indian universities are ditching English-only education
17 votes -
I've got my IELTS speaking test in a few hours. Is there anyone here who has taken the test and has some tips to share?
It's my first time appearing for the test and I could use some tips. Thanks.
15 votes -
Thunderplump: Ten weird and wonderful words with Susie Dent
5 votes -
Sawing off the branch you’re sitting on: removing disfluencies in natural language processing
7 votes -
The mysterious case of the "lost positive"
8 votes -
Faneka y GUADA - Cortina (2023)
3 votes -
The French Scrabble Champion who doesn't speak French
9 votes -
Does the language you speak change how you think?
42 votes -
Thirty-nine volumes of the Swedish Academy Dictionary stand as Sweden's answer to the Oxford English Dictionary. And it's just been sent to the printers after 140 years.
18 votes -
The surprisingly subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed the way we use language
38 votes -
Have you learned a foreign language as an adult? What did you find effective?
I would love to know of your experiences. I do speak multiple languages, but was lucky to learn them through immersion as a child. I would be super interested to know how people learn languages...
I would love to know of your experiences. I do speak multiple languages, but was lucky to learn them through immersion as a child.
I would be super interested to know how people learn languages (with a goal to speak them fluently) as an adult. What techniques worked? What techniques didn't? Do you have any funny stories (perhaps miscommunication anecdotes)? Was it worth it? Or your things generally in relation to language-learning!
31 votes -
Japan uses blue instead of green on traffic lights
25 votes -
Grammagram
12 votes -
How native English speakers can stop confusing everyone else
26 votes -
There’dn’t’ve
53 votes -
Are you currently learning a new language? Are there any languages that are on your wishlist to learn?
I grew up semi-bilingual (English as my native language, Spanish spoken at least once a day at home), and went on to study Spanish as my language of choice in middle and high school. Despite this,...
I grew up semi-bilingual (English as my native language, Spanish spoken at least once a day at home), and went on to study Spanish as my language of choice in middle and high school. Despite this, I would still like to further my Spanish language skills/knowledge with some self-paced coursework, as the Spanish I grew up hearing in the house was much more colloquial and then the Spanish I studied in school was the "from Spain" Spanish, rather than the Central American Spanish my family spoke. I grew up being better able to understand more than what I could speak or write myself.
When I moved onto to college, I wanted to try studying a different language, so I chose French (bad idea; I could never really get the hang of it between the spelling challenges and the pronunciation being so different from the written word). I took one semester and passed just enough to get credit for the class but moved onto to German -- which was a little bit easier than French but more difficult than Spanish. Beginner classes in it were easy for me to learn, but I started to struggle when I got to upper-intermediate. Plus, I'm not always great at spelling in English, and French and German are not "speller-friendly" languages haha.
Now as I approach my midlife, I am thoroughly enjoying my ASL for Beginners course through my local community college. I find it incredibly intuitive whenever I learn new signs ("oh, that makes sense, cool" when I see a new sign). My mother-in-law has known and taught ASL (as well as SEE) for over 20 years so she is very helpful with me practicing and being able to correct any small mistakes I make. I don't know anyone who is Deaf, but have had a few friends growing up who used hearing aids (I don't think they knew ASL).
So what about you? Are you currently learning a new language? If so, what is it, how do you like it so far, and what led you to want to learn it? If not, are there any languages on your wishlist that you'd like to learn someday?
For me, I wanted to learn ASL as a way to connect more deeply with my MIL in our relationship, as well as have some level of ability to sign with those who are Deaf/deaf. I also wanted to learn it because I wanted an alternative way to communicate with my spouse if we are at a noisy event/party/etc. without having to shout to be heard.
41 votes -
Why it’s time to stop worrying about the decline of the English language
40 votes -
Pato Fu - Sobre O Tempo (1995)
5 votes -
How languages steal words from each other
10 votes -
Danish dictionary to weed out gender stereotypes – ‘career women’ are now paired with ‘career men’ and manslaughter is a linguistic offence
26 votes -
Denmark's parliament to introduce interpreters – Aki-Matilda Hoegh-Dam spoke and answered questions in Greenlandic, causing protests from some lawmakers
12 votes -
Europe talks to itself in many languages. That’s why English is vital to its democracy
17 votes -
BABYMETAL - Metal Kingdom (2023)
7 votes -
Books about… books? More specifically, books about writing?
Not too long ago, I came across a book that changed my life, or at the very least, my writing. While I have some trouble remembering specifics, I do remember it going deep into the world of...
Not too long ago, I came across a book that changed my life, or at the very least, my writing. While I have some trouble remembering specifics, I do remember it going deep into the world of philosophy and psychology, exploring the intricacies of what makes a book, and what our writing really means. The book analyzed the craft of writing, discussing how humans perceive the differences between good and bad writing, the difference between a good speech and a dull monologue, and how good writing becomes great. This, as well as the nuances of human perception on language in general. Alas, I have since lost the book's title and author, but the captivating writing style and genre remains with me, and I’d really enjoy some recommendations of similar works. I don’t expect to ever find it, as my search has led me to other good books about this sort of writing.
*Please forgive me if this is not the method I should be following when I post, this is my first post here. *
16 votes -
Could a language learning model talk to whales? Or a human who speaks a language besides English?
The New Yorker has a provocative article asking the question "Can We Talk To Whales?" It boils down to utilizing language learning models to process a dataset of sperm whale clicks, their codas,...
The New Yorker has a provocative article asking the question "Can We Talk To Whales?" It boils down to utilizing language learning models to process a dataset of sperm whale clicks, their codas, and crossing one's fingers to see if "ClickGPT" can produce actual sperm whale language.
Which makes me wonder if a language learning model been given a library of Chinese sounds and ideograms, without context, then communicated in workable Chinese?
Using a language learning model to learn to speak to whales is an interesting idea, but I'm thinking any LLM assigned the task will wind up chunking out a word salad or something akin to Prisencolinensinainciusol. I'd like to learn more.
24 votes -
Ukraine is becoming a country of traumatised people (Polish, translation in comments)
25 votes -
University of Eastern Finland has received more funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland to continue the Karelian language revitalization project
8 votes -
Daði Freyr – Bitte (2023)
11 votes -
BABYMETAL feat. Tom Morello - メタり!!(2023)
40 votes -
Much of the innovation in natural language processing comes from the US, resulting in an English language bias – Finland decided to change the game with a collective approach
12 votes -
What's a word from another language that you wish was a thing in English?
I think Sitzpinkler from german is really cool. It literally means "sunday emptiness", and refers to a feeling of emptiness/boredom on a sunday afternoon. Edit: I meant sitzprinkler lol
66 votes -
Historian finds evidence for use of y'all in London from 1600s
69 votes -
Hatsune Miku - JPop Heart Sutra (2011)
9 votes -
Icono: A universal language that shows what it says
25 votes -
Mini: The minimal language
43 votes