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20 votes
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How we unlocked the secrets of Denmark's oldest plank boat – with the help of an ancient fingerprint
6 votes -
Any tips for learning a new language at my age? (50s) via Babbel?
I learned French to schoolboy level as a, well, schoolboy. I've remembered quite the remarkable amount I think. Learned The Klingon Language must be 20 years ago, to a point where I could converse...
I learned French to schoolboy level as a, well, schoolboy. I've remembered quite the remarkable amount I think. Learned The Klingon Language must be 20 years ago, to a point where I could converse with other speakers to some extent, but never the best.
More recently I've become quite interested in historical linguistics, from watching Simon Roper with Old English, and Jackson Crawford. Old English fascinates me as we were never considered clever enough at school to study English properly - that was only for the clever kids.
Because I couldn't find a good Frisian online learning resource, I decided to try my hand at modern German.
Been following Babbel for about 2 months now so super early. I "completed" the first set of lessons and have been doing the vocabulary tests to try and make sure these sink in before progressing, but I find that I regularly only get 2/10, 3/10 on the flashcards.
I've started doing whole first lesson set again, and I find them really easy. I'm basically intuiting a lot of the questions from knowledge of English, French and "common sense" I suppose. Is it odd that I can 100% the lessons easily and quickly, but the vocabulary tests just aren't there for me? My listening and speaking seems quite good according to the app.
Is it too early to tell (I think it might be), should I supplement Babbel with something else, like live learning (perhaps eventually, not right now - I think it'd be pointless at such a low level).
Anything else? Interested in anyone's thoughts.
13 votes -
Joint declaration signed in Pope’s historic first visit to Patriarchate
21 votes -
This road goes straight through a major prehistoric cave
10 votes -
Letters from an American November 26, 2025 - The historical origin of the US Federal Thanksgiving holiday
13 votes -
A field guide to writing styles
10 votes -
I joined a ‘sacrifice’ ritual outside Stockholm – and found that the revival of Norse paganism reflects broader battles over identity and climate anxiety
16 votes -
Weird Weapons - The Mangual, or two handed chain flail. Used extensively in Spain and Portugal from around 1400 -1650.
7 votes -
First-ever empirical study of US rabbinate finds ‘shortage’ is more about fit than numbers
12 votes -
The Florentine Diamond resurfaces after 100 years in hiding. Legendary jewel of the Habsburgs not seen since 1919 and thought lost, has actually been safe in a Canadian bank for decades. (gifted link)
29 votes -
Former PM Katrín Jakobsdóttir has said the Icelandic language could be wiped out in as little as a generation due to the sweeping rise of AI and encroaching English language dominance
18 votes -
The queerness argument against moral realism
7 votes -
The death of punctuation
I've noticed a trend where people, young and old, are just not punctuating their sentences anymore. Is it intentional? Do people not know how to punctuate their sentences? Surely, this is not good.
27 votes -
Libertarianism is dead
36 votes -
How generations of meddlesome public health campaigns changed everyday life — and made life twice as long as it used to be
9 votes -
Four strange places to see London’s Roman wall
14 votes -
“The Edmund Fitzgerald - First divers on the Fitz”
13 votes -
Hermann and Albert Göring: Two very different brothers
19 votes -
The almost forgotten Japanese-American truce at Aka
20 votes -
Road map of the Roman Empire
18 votes -
The real truth about the Tudor succession comes to light
17 votes -
Is 67 just brain rot?
48 votes -
World Population Counter
18 votes -
Memorization, trivia, and atomic units for creativity
8 votes -
Swedish fisherman digging for worms stumbles upon cache of silver coins, beads, rings and pendants dating to the 12th century
36 votes -
Can a professional javelin thrower master this ancient weapon (atlatl)?
11 votes -
Doomsday scoreboard
23 votes -
This is not a ruined cottage | The Druridge Bay ruin
10 votes -
Global Anglicanism split in two today
23 votes -
How the Dutch deleted the sea... and got rich! | Map Men
24 votes -
The genius logic of the NATO phonetic alphabet
18 votes -
The entire history of cat memes
11 votes -
What it takes to be a revolutionary war enactor
12 votes -
Babies’ brains recognize foreign languages they heard before birth
24 votes -
How America nearly forged a different path in 1916
19 votes -
How Rockefeller and his partners built Standard Oil
9 votes -
Lighthouse of Alexandria rises again: giant blocks resurface after 2,000 years
25 votes -
Monumental rock art illustrates that humans thrived in the Arabian Desert during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition
11 votes -
Sarah Mullally named the first female Archbishop of Canterbury in history of Church of England
21 votes -
The Stonecutter (1960)
7 votes -
Ancient Historian reviews Monty Python's Life of Brian | Deep Dives
9 votes -
The neo-Victorian neo-nazi lesbian BDSM cult that made video games
33 votes -
Voices of the Manhattan Project: Peggy Bowditch’s interview
5 votes -
On thought experiments
7 votes -
For more than ten years, experts have been painstakingly planning to move three 1,000-year-old vessels—the Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune—about 115 yards to their new home in Oslo
16 votes -
The British empire’s role in ending slavery worldwide
28 votes -
100,000,000 crowpower and no horses on the moon
24 votes -
Why we revel in opponents’ adversity
7 votes -
Was this English queen a 'predatory' collector of beautiful things?
10 votes