dokteur:

bonbonlanguage:

You know what I think is really cool about language (English in this case)? It’s the way you can express “I don’t know” without opening your mouth. All you have to do is hum a low note, a high note, then another lower note. The same goes for yes and no. Does anyone know what this is called?

a list of untranslatable words ☕️

renaissavce:

cafuné - brazilian portuguese: the act of running one’s fingers, gently but deeply, through someone else’s hair
積ん読 (tsundoku) - japanese: the act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with other such unread books
木漏れ日 (komorebi) - japanese: sunlight filtering through the trees
mångata - swedish: the roadlike reflection of moonlight on water
verklempt - yiddish: a person who is too emotional to speak
liefdesverdriet - dutch: the heartache caused from an unrequited love and the mental pains one endures; the physical pain of depression
fika - swedish/finnish: gathering together to talk and take a break from everyday routines, usually drinking coffee and eating pastries
幽玄 (yūgen) - japanese: an indescribable sentiment, can only be described as a painful awareness of the mysterious beauty and human suffering
l'esprit de l'escalier - french: the moment one finally thinks of a witty remark, far too late, after the opportunity has passed
kilig - tagalog: the feeling of butterflies in your stomach, usually when something romantic or cute takes place
いるす (irusu) - japanese: pretending to be absent from home when someone is at the door
habseligkeiten - german: personal belongings, small treasures and property, which define our happiness and sentiments
nefelibata - portuguese: cloud walker; name given to the quixotic dreamers, they appear spacey, otherworldly, but intelligent
σοφρωσύνη (sophrosyne) - greek: self-control, balance, wisdom & grace;virtue that follows the aphorisms “nothing in excess” & “know thyself"
hiraeth - welsh: homesickness for a place which never even existed. Connotations of sadness, yearning, profound nostalgia and wistfulness
torpe - tagalog: being too shy to pursue amorous desires
waldeinsamkeit - german: the feeling of being alone in the woods
litost - czech: the humiliated despair we feel when someone accidentally reminds us, trough their accomplishment, of our inadequacies
dustsceawung - old english: contemplation of the fact that dust used to be other things - the walls of a city, a book, a great tree…
duende - spanish: the spirit of evocation; the mysterious power a work of art has to deeply move a person
gattara - italian: a woman, often old and lonely, who devotes herself to stray cats
tоска - russian: a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause, a longing with nothing to long for, nostalgia
φιλότιμο (philotimo) - greek: a complex array of virtues; expressed through acts of generosity & sacrifice w/o expecting anything in return 
gezellig - dutch: abstract sensation of individual well-being that one shares with others;cozy ambience, anything pleasant, homely, friendly

cool things about the history of english

languagenerds:

- In old english the letter thorn (equivalent to modern day theta or eth) was written þ, but over time the way the letter was written changed so by middle english, the sound “th” was written with a Y. So when you see “ye old shoppe” the “ye” is actually pronounced “the”.

- In early modern english there were formal and informal second person pronouns. English has lost the informal “thou/thee”. This phenomenon occurred first in the north american colonies. Interestingly, the portuguese colony brazil lost its informal second person pronoun (tu) as well and only uses the formal você (this might be the case for spanish too but idk).

- What we refer to as irregular verbs in english actually used to be the standard. Only the verbs we use most often have failed to switch to the new system of conjugating verbs in english.

- Because English has had so many influences from other languages it has many synonyms. For most words of germanic origin you can find a latin-derived synonym (kin/family, lucky/fortunate). There is also the well known distinction between anglo-saxon roots of animals (cow, sheep) and the norman french roots of the words for the meat from those animals (beef, mutton). 

redpooch:

translynz:

anotherfrankiewarrior:

fakepolyglot:

babelplanetvlog:

fakepolyglot:

My French teacher admitted that the French language is more about aesthetics than actual logical rules.

The sooner you accept this the better.

Isn’t that true of all things French?

Yes. Yes it is. 

I cannot even deny it…

“For the aesthetics,” the French sob softly, shoving three Es into the word créées. It is not beautiful enough. They are never beautiful enough. Slowly France is losing its will to live.

#too real#did yiu know the controvercy latelt#basically some words had been changed by the french academy#arguably because often too hard to spell#french people were revolted to change nénuphar to nénufar because aesthetic#they complained because its changing a long lasting rule#the catch is? nénuphar is a deformation of the arab nenuhfar#we’re actually coming back to its roots#and people are complaining becauze ‘we need to stop dumb down the language’ shut up Jean Pierre

i won’t lie i’m one of those language snobs i still write clef instead of clé

languageoclock:

the australian school system is not standardised across the country so its very difficult to answer questions like this without giving any misleading or incorrect information so for want of not confusing anybody ill just discuss my experiences with the the nsw hsc system.

it varies greatly from school to school but the most popular languages are french, japanese, mandarin and italian, most schools teach at least one of these.

my high school offers japanese, mandarin, french and spanish.

students in stages 5 (years 9 and 10) and 6 (years 11 and 12) are also able to study a language by correspondence (using the internet, phone, and snail mail) through open high school if it is not offered at their home school (which is how @norwegian-wool and i were both able to study german for our hsc). open high school offers arabic, french, german, italian, indonesian, japanese, korean, latin, modern greek, mandarin, portuguese, russian and spanish.

it is also possible for high school students to study through the saturday school of community languages. i personally have no experience with how this works but apparently they offer over 20 languages including arabic, armenian, bengali, mandarin, croatian, filipino, hindi, hungarian, italian, japanese, khmer, korean, macedonian, modern greek, maltese, persian, polish, portuguese, punjabi, serbian, spanish, turkish, ukrainian and vietnamese.

i have also heard its possible to study dutch, classical hebrew, modern hebrew and swedish for the hsc but i think u have to go to a particular school for that (eg theres a jewish private school near where i live that teaches hebrew)

i’ve seen all the popular ones you mentioned + indonesian and geman

pumpkinspiceprincesssammya:

teezybird:

So there’s a Japanese slang term, ‘chuunibyou’, that roughly translates to “Middle School 2nd Year Syndrome.” It is used to describe the stupid phases people go through when they are 14, like pretend to be really hardcore, act like they know everything, say they have mystical powers, etc.

I’m so happy this term exists.

#in english we call it ‘what are you like 12’ and i think that’s beautiful

isxbelle:

Before u make fun of someone’s foreign accent, take some time to think about how they speak more languages than u and how u are a failure

maester-aemon-targaryen:

properrussian:

thegayestpolyglot:

kingdeino:

useless-polandfacts:

useless-czechrepfacts:

wednesdaythunder:

geritashipper:

you-tit:

mikaisyuu:

natsui:

zhanaform:

somalang:

lingumaniac:

polyglottica:

perilegs:

tobdog:

sprachtraeume:

languageoclock:

af-hverju:

littlenerdygirlwithwings:

af-hverju:

me: why are you destroying earth!!!

aliens: because theres people who think that english is the only language they need to speak

me: thats fair i understand

For some reason I find this all the more amusing because it’s written in English

moi: pourquoi vous détruisez le monde!!!
l'extraterrestre: parce que il y a des gens qui pensent que l'anglais est le seule langue pour parler
moi: ah ça c'est bien

ich: warum zerstört ihr die erde!!!

aliens: weil es leute gibt die glauben dass englisch die einzige sprache ist die sie sprechen müssen

ich: das ist fair ich verstehe

ég: af hverju eyðileggið þið jörðina!!!
aliens: af því að það er fólk sem finnst að enska sé sú eina tungumál sem þau þurfa að tala
ég: oh, það er vit í þessu. ég skil.

ik: waarom vernietig je de aarde!!!

aliens: omdat er mensen zijn die denken dat engels de enige taal is die ze hoeven te spreken

ik: oh zo, ik snap het

minä: miks te tuhootte maapalloo?

alienit: koska tääl on ihmisiä joitten mielestä englanti on ainoo kieli jota niitten täytyy puhua

minä: toi on reilua, ymmärrän

私: どうして地球を滅ぼしているんですか？

宇宙人: 英語しか喋る必要がないと思う人がいるからです

私: なるほど、わかりました

me: Wosück maakt ji de Welt twei!!!

aliens: wieldat dat Lüüd gifft, de dinkt dat Engelsch de allenige Spraak weer, de een snacken mütt

me: jo, daar seggst wat. Nu versta ik’t

aniga: dhulka maxaad u burburinaya !!!

shisheeyaha: dadka intiisa badani u malaynayaan in Ingiriisidu tahay afka oo kaliya ay u baahan yihiin inay la hadlaan

aniga: waxaan fahamsanahay. waa wax cadaalad

我：你们为什么在毁灭地球?！！

外星人：因为有人以为他们只会英语就可以了

我：懂了，说得有道理

ako: bakit niyo sinisira ang mundo!!!

taga-ibang planeta: kasi merong mga taong akala nila Ingles lang ang kailangan nilang matutunang lenggwahe

ako: ah, sige naiintindihan ko

Aku : kenapa kau hancurkan bumi!!!
Alien : karena masih banyak orang berpikir hanya bahasa inggris satu-satunya bahasa yang terpenting
Aku : oh, oke lah..

tôi: tại sao các người hủy diệt trái đất!!! người ngoài hành tinh: bởi vì có người nghĩ rằng tiếng Anh là thứ tiếng duy nhất mà họ cần biết tôi: ồ thế thì tôi hiểu

Eu: Por que vocês estão destruindo a Terra?!
Aliens: Porque há pessoas que pensam que o inglês é a única língua que eles precisam falar.
Eu: Isso é justo, eu entendo.

jag: varför förintar ni jorden!!!

utomjordingar: för det finns folk som tror att engelska är det ända språket de behöver kunna

jag: rimligt, jag förstår

Já: Proč ničíte Zemi?

Mimozemšťani: Protože tu jsou lidé, kteří si myslí, že angličtina je jediný jazyk, který potřebují znát

Já: To je fér, to chápu.

ja: dlaczego niszczycie Ziemię?

kosmici: ponieważ są ludzie, którzy myślą, że angielski to jedyny język, którego potrzebuję

ja: rozumiem, w porządku

io: perchè state distruggendo la terra!!!

alieni: perchè ci sono delle persone che credono che l’inglese sia l’unica lingua di cui hanno bisogno

io: capisco, mi sembra giusto

Yo: porqué estás destruyendo la tierra!?!?

Extraterrestre: porque hay personas quienes creen que inglés es la única lengua que se tiene que hablar.

Yo: te entiendo, es justo.

Я: Почему вы уничтожаете Землю?!?!
Инопланетяне: Потому что есть люди, которые считвют, что им нужно новорить только по-английски.
Я: А, ну понятно, тогда ладно!

This is going to be the rosetta stone of our time.

Reblog if you can speak, read, or at least kinda communicate in more than one language.

polyglotplatypus:

but wait, because there is a common expression that really rustles my jimmies, that is “au jour d’aujourd’hui” which basically means “as of now”, but if you translate it literally it becomes “in the day of the day of today”

if i could physically kill the french language i would

wolfwithafoxtail:

Half the fun of learning languages is coming up with mnemonic devices. For example the French word for “castle” is “cat water”

lillyrosaura:

There’s a website where you can learn ASL on your own and it is free and the woman on there, her name is Rochelle Barlow, she runs the site and she actually is a homeschool teacher and teaches ASL. I am passing this on to you guys cause most people on here is open-minded. Well, whoever of y’all reads this will possibly ignore this but if you are a curious george like me and wants to learn ASL she’s your gal. 

Rochelle has a free program called Learn ASL in 31 days, currently I am on day 10ish or 12, (idk I’m on learning my numbers currently) but I believe this site will help people that are either curious about ASL and just wants to learn, or actually is Deaf but can’t afford to going to actual class or something, or just hard of hearing. 

I am truly in love with learning with Rochelle, she isn’t those interpreters that will talk while she signs, (and I’ve searched through Youtube how to sign but the person talking will distract me and I would get confused) and it is all in video which is a good thing. I found her through Youtube, that’s where she has all her videos. Just check out her site. You’ll like it.