People that have experienced language attrition of their native language, how difficult was it to relearn your language? And do you have any tips on how to overcome mental blocks and other challenges with it?
If you are learning a new language in general, which techniques work best for you that I can try?
Currently I speak my native language very poorly (about A2 level), but English pretty much fluently. I'm taking lessons and I know native fluent speakers IRL, but it really is a struggle.
I am reminded that on average, a native English speaker can learn 4 Category 1 languages in the time it would take to learn 1 Category 5 language like Japanese.
Or 2 Category 1 languages plus German and it would still take longer for that native English speaker to learn Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or Arabic.
Given the amount of time it took me to be as fluent in Japanese as I am, it's really something I think gets glossed over too often.
Yesterday I realized that, Insha Allah, it will be FIVE YEARS in July that I've lived in the #Spanish speaking world.
I wish I could tell you that I'm fluent. I'm not, especially not in conversation, where we #Autistic folks tend not to thrive even in our first language.
But I do feel very comfortable here nonetheless. The #Granada area feels more like home than just about anywhere I've lived in the last three decades.
Of course much of the ease has to do with #White#Privilege on my part. I was happy to make the move; it wasn't forced on me by harsh economic or political circumstances.
Any other auties living in a place where your first language isn't the one most commonly spoken? How's it going?
I don't understand Filipino parents who only speak to their children in English. My parents only spoke to me in their native Tagalog language. I only learned English in school but I think my English turned out fine.
Did they really think making their children monolingual (instead of bilingual) is an advantage?
From 2015 to 2022, I spent hundreds of hours on Duolingo, translating articles, answering language questions on the forums, and helping to improve the smaller courses by reporting mistakes.
There are thousands of volunteers who donated their labour to Duo: the course creators who wrote their courses, the volunteers who created grammar guides (some smaller languages had an entire second course in the forums), the wiki contributors, the native speakers who answered questions in the sentence discussions.
All of their work made Duolingo the powerhouse it is today. Duo was built by a community who believed in its original mission: language learning should be free and accessible.
Bit by bit all of our work was hidden from us as Duolingo became a publicly-traded company. And now that work is being fed into their AI as training data.
Well, I've learned the true lesson of Duolingo: never give a corporation your labour for free. Don't ever trust them, no matter what they say. Eventually greed will consume any good intentions.
I guess instance migration is a good time for an #Introduction post. Hello lovely people, I'm here both as a scientific researcher and as a human being, and you can expect a range of genres of posts and interactions from me.
On the work side, I'm a computational scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the field of biological X-ray crystallography, specifically at free electron lasers. It's a glorious interdisciplinary mess, and the description I give to non-scientists is that i use my degree in chemistry to write software to do math that models the physics of experiments that we're running to learn about biology.
For fellow structural biologists: I work on crystallography data reduction software for the steps between photons hitting the detector and a merged set of structure factors. I also support XFEL experiments, both on site and remotely, and assist in post-experiment data processing as needed. My PhD focused on using simultaneous XFEL crystallography and XES spectroscopy to probe the water splitting reaction in oxygenic photosynthesis. I did a postdoc in computational methods development for cryoEM, and I'm now back to XFEL crystallography but still in methods development.
For fellow software developers: all of our work is open source and mostly under the cctbx project/repo. It's mostly python with a bunch of C++ under the hood (including some low-level stuff redundant with scipy and numpy because those weren't around yet!), plus a user-facing wxPython GUI. More recently we've done a ton of work with GPU acceleration (using Kokkos, for NVIDIA, Intel and AMD architectures) and scaling up at three different national labs' supercomputing centers in anticipation of next-gen experimental capabilities. I derive too much joy from writing bash-sed-awk monstrosities on the occasions we need them to fix an urgent problem during an experiment, and I guess I'm most proud of the fact that I somewhat understand git.
As far as hobbies, the longest-standing one is probably #coffee, followed closely by #language (s) / #languageLearning and a love of #patterns and #symmetry in various contexts. I have too many different ways of making coffee (they have overrun my coffee cupboard), but my favorite remains the classic latte, and by now I can make a better latte than I can buy. I'm trying to refresh my #Japanese and learn #Dutch and #German simultaneously/comparatively, which of course is terrible for speed of learning, but fascinating. So far I've found #ASL the most challenging but also deeply satisfying -- I only have one semester under my belt but hope to take a lot more. I studied and continue to study all the #math and #science I possibly can. Right now I seem to be pretty engrossed in #electronics, #CAD, #3DPrinting, and just generally #DIY-ing/fixing/repairing things. Other active interests include #sewing, #reading, #cooking, #bike commuting, and #publicTransit. My journeys in #aikido and #pottery are on hold but I definitely want to pick them back up when I'm not already overcommitted. I'm casually interested in #neurophilosophy, #neuropsychology, #neurodivergence and #neuroscience. I've taken one course in neurophilosophy and can read literature in the rest, with effort.
On a personal note, I'm trans and nonbinary and very open about it -- I transitioned back when I had to explain what that meant. I've retired from some forms of community engagement and support but I'm very happy to answer any questions I can about the US legal and medical landscapes, available resources, policy and terminology best practices, or whatever you know you shouldn't ask [person in your life].
Finally, I spend a lot of time with my cat Rory (pictured), who is perfect and the most affectionate creature I have ever met. I promise to share photos of him from time to time.
looking for Korean hangul workbook/app recs - I need to learn the characters and Duo is NOT helping with that. Free is blessed, but a physical workbook I can add to a wishlist for future would be great, too.
hey @languagelovers! I finished up my #Japanese resources list on my neocities here (https://a-jade-by-any-other-name.neocities.org/languages2#japanese). to many people, you might see familiar names, but hopefully, I've added something new for everyone! if I'm missing something, feel free to reply; this list will always continue growing as I find more resources.
Grammar
へ:
(1) indicates a direction or goal
(2) indicates the recipient of an action
Kanji/Vocabulary
青: blue, green, green light
持つ: hold, have
財布: purse
遊ぶ: have fun, play
遊びに行く: to go out to play, to go to visit
案内: to guide
迎える: pick up, greet
連れていく: to take
連れて来る: bring over
動物: animal
汚れる: become dirty
動物園: zoo
パンダ: panda
象: elephant
馬: horse
祭り: festival
緩い: loose
寺: temple
神社: shrine
旅行: travel
五人: five people
準備: preparation
予約: reservation
ホテル: hotel
泊まる: stay over
ロビー: lobby
土産: souvenir
サービス: service
ホームステイ: homestay
町: town, city
Kanji/Vocabulary
赤い: red
青い: blue
白い: white
黒い: black
黄色い: yellow
色々な: various
シャツ: shirt
スーツ: suit
履く: wear (below the waist)
パンツ: underpants
子: child
スカート: skirt
靴下: socks
被る: wear (on the head)
色: color
帽子: hat
眼鏡: eyeglasses
為る: wear (ring)
似合う: to match, to suit
指: finger, toe
ネクタイ: necktie
指先: fingertip, toe tip
指輪: ring
時計: watch, clock
靴: shoes
セーター: sweater
コート: coat
着物: kimono
ズボン: pants
ジーンズ: jeans
Grammar
で:
(1) indicates the location of an action: "at", "in"
(2) indicates a means or implement: "by", "with"
(3) indicates materials used: "of", "from", "with"
(4) indicates the greatest (largest, smallest, etc)
(5) indicates amount and scope: "within the space/time of", "in", "for"
(6) indicates the mode or condition of the agent of an action
(7) indicates time or age: "when", "at the age of"
(8) indicates the reason for something: "because of"
Kanji/Vocabulary
桜: cherry blossom
元気: healthy, fine, happy, energetic
ハンサム: handsome
可愛い: cute
格好いい: cool
頭がいい: intelligent, bright
夕食: supper
迚も: very
優しい: friendly
ユーモア: humor
背: stature, height
高い: tall
低い: short
賢い: wise, clever, smart
暑い: hot, warm
御馳走する: treating someone
目: eye
大きい: big
小さい: small
髪: hair
上着: jacket, coat, top
長い: long
短い: short
服: clothes
サイズ: size
試験: text, exam
素敵: fancy, nice
デザイン: design
着る: to wear (above the waist), to put on
脱ぐ: take off
Grammar
か:
(1) indicates a question at the end of the sentence
(2) indicates a choice, doubt, or uncertainty within a sentence
Kanji/Vocabulary
切る: cut
使う: to use
何個: how many (small objects)
一個: one small object
二個: two small objects
三個: three small objects
何台: how many (machines/vehicles)
一台: one machine/vehicle
二台: two machines/vehicles
三台: three machines/vehicles
何時: what time
何分: what minute
1分: 1 minute
2分: 2 minutes
3分: 3 minutes
頃: around
午前: A.M., morning
午後: P.M.
今: now
ぐらい: about
時間: time, hours
花: flower
何時間: how many hours?
から: from
迄: until, up to
どんな: what kind of
1時: 1 o'clock
2時: 2 o'clock
3時: 3 o'clock
半: half an hour
I used to make videos about books and language learning, but I wasn't really in the right headspace for it these past couple of years. But recently I've been wanting to pick up my camera again; I just love documenting things in my daily life that make me happy and talking about books!
Grammar
や:
(1) joins nouns to indicate a non-exhaustive list of items: "such things as", "and... and"
(2) in the idiomatic expression "ya ina ya" (following a verb root): "as soon as, no sooner had"
Kanji/Vocabulary
意味: meaning
頑張る: do one's best
宿題: homework
日記: diary
レポート: report
図書館: library
本屋: bookstore
練習: practice
スピーチ: speech
七: seven
覚える: memorize
忘れる: forget
問題: problem, question
野球: baseball
例: example
答え: answer
質問: question
九人: nine people
見学: observation
会社: company
銀行: bank
働く: work
休む: rest, take a leave of absence
戻る: return, turn back
休み: break
昼休み: lunch break
暇: free, not busy
忙しい: busy
残業: overtime work
出張: take a business trip
Grammar
とは:
(1) indicates a word or phrase being defined, or for which a definition is being asked
(2) used between two clauses that are opposed in meaning
Kanji/Vocabulary
毎日: everyday
週間: week(s)
ヶ月: month(s)
年: year(s)
回: times
何回: number of times
言葉: word/language
字: alphabet character
語: language
話す: talk, speak
ゆっくり: slowly
言う: say
もう一度: once more
お願いします: please
少し: little
もう少し: a little (more)
良く: well
楽しむ: enjoy
大体: roughly, about, main point, gist
書く: write
聞く: hear
シーディー: CD
駅: railway station
調べる: look up
買う: buy
辞書: dictionary
喋る: chat, talk
漢字: Kanji
片仮名: Katakana
羅馬字: Romaji