Don’t We Love A Hidden Calendar?

I'm a big fan of extensive reading apps for language learning, and even collaborated on such an app some 10 years ago. It eventually had to be shut down, sadly enough.

Right now, the biggest one in the market is the paywalled LingQ, which is pretty good, but well, requires money.

There's also the OG programs, LWT (Learning With Texts) and FLTR (Foreign Language Text Reader), which are so cumbersome to set up and use that I'm not going to bother with them.

I presently use Vocab Tracker as my daily driver, but I took a spin around GitHub to see what fresh new stuff is being developed. Here's an overview of what I found, as well as VT itself.

(There were a few more, like Aprelendo and TextLingo, which did not have end-user-friendly installations, so I'm not counting them).

Vocab Tracker

++ Available on web ++ 1-5 word-marking hotkeys and instant meanings makes using it a breeze ++ Supports websites

-- Default meaning/translation is not always reliable -- No custom languages -- Ugliest interface by far -- Does not always recognise user-selected phrases -- Virtually unusable on mobile -- Most likely no longer maintained/developed

Lute

++ Supports virtually all languages (custom language support), including Hindi and Sanskrit ++ Per-language, customisable dictionary settings ++ Excellent, customisable hotkey support

-- No instant meaning look-up makes it cumbersome to use, as you have to load an external dictionary for each word -- Docker installation

LinguaCafe

++ Instant meanings thanks to pre-loaded dictionaries ++ Supports ebooks, YouTube, subtitles, and websites ++ Customisable fonts ++ Best interface of the bunch

== Has 7 word learning levels, which may be too many for some

-- Hotkeys are not customisable (yet) and existing ones are a bit cumbersome (0 for known, for eg.) -- No online dictionary look-up other than DeepL, which requires an API key (not an intuitive process) -- No custom languages -- Supports a maximum of 15,000 characters per "chapter", making organising longer texts cumbersome -- Docker installation

Dzelda

++ Supports pdf and epub ++ Available on web

-- Requires confirming meaning for each word to mark that word, making it less efficient to read through -- No custom languages, supports only some Latin-script languages -- No user-customisable dictionaries (has a Google Form to suggest more dictionaries)

Hiya, your blog is so informative! I'm hopefully going to be studying a bachelors in linguistics starting in 2023, is there any reading or activities you could recommend to do/start to do now? Thanks 😊

Hey, I don't know where you're from and what your universities are like, so I can only talk from my experience here in Germany (or in my university at least):

Recommendations for Reading/Activities before starting Linguistic Studies:

In my first semester, the lectures were quite challenging for many students, since they're designed to give you a basic understanding of all of linguistics as fast as possible, so that you can progress in your studies. I think they were also designed to 'weed out' anyone who wasn't fit for this course or didn't take it seriously enough.

I had to learn the IPA alphabet, the terms used for how vowels and consonants are pronounced (e.g. open front; voiced alveolar fricative, etc.), how to note graphemes, allophones, morphemes, etc., what each of these terms means and how they work, word formation processes, all of the parts of speech, word classes, phrases, and clauses, semantic relations, some theories (e.g. speech act theory), and more. Most of it was just a lot of memorising / learning by heart.

But that's no reason to be scared :) in my uni, there were loads of "tutorial courses" where we met up once a week with a teaching assistant who was there to answer all of our questions and to repeat what we learned in that week's lecture. We were also repeatedly told that it's absolutely normal to struggle in the first semester; some of our lectures had a failure rate of 50% or higher. And that's perfectly fine. If you fail and have to do a course again, there won't be any new material, so you'll basically just get one semester more time to revise & study everything you learned.

So I would recommend to try finding out which books you'll be using in the "big" introductory courses (these lectures and books are usually called "Introduction to Linguistics" or "Introduction to [subject]"). Books like that are usually intended for students without any background knowledge. You could start looking through these books to get a first broad understanding of the different parts of linguistic studies and what you'll learn in the first semesters. The book I used in my "Introduction to Linguistics" lecture was "Introduction to English Linguistics" by Becker/Bieswanger (2017).

Also: if you have to write term papers for your lectures, try to schedule as few as possible in the first semester (if that's possible in your uni course). It's your first time writing a term paper, so it won't be perfect and you'll make mistakes. It's better to write one bad one at the beginning of your studies and learn from your mistakes than to rush ahead and write several bad ones. Maybe you could already find out which kind of citation rules your course uses and learn how to use that citation style.

Another thing I'd suggest is to inform yourself about your course beforehand. Read the exam regulations, what lectures you need, and what your suggested work load is. Don't go over this suggested work load in your first semester! In my course, I had about 6 suggested lectures a week which were each 2 hours long. That doesn't sound like a lot, but you'll also get homework and have to revise everything you learned. Some courses have midterm exams in addition to the final exams, so you basically have to revise/study from the start. And, as I said before, some courses have additional tutorials which you can attend during the week (most of them were 1 hour long).

I hope that this helps a bit :) All of this is solely based on my personal experience in my university, so your course outline and work load and schedule could be entirely different. But maybe it'll give you some first ideas about what to expect and what to keep in mind :) Good luck with your studies!

🍓🌸

Some more Japanese KitKats and Notes!

Follow me on IG for more: @_akadanie

Late anniversary present for myself.

Gotta love a new TTMIK book.

It like a diary/planner.

Challenge for next month I think

A GUIDE TO JAPANESE PITCH ACCENT

Japanese pitch accent is something so rarely taught in Japanese language classrooms – or textbooks for that matter – that learners from beginner to advanced levels have no idea what it is. Pitch accent is called 高低（こうてい）アクセント in Japanese, and it refers to the high and low pitches placed on Japanese words in order to help distinguish them from other, similar-sounding words.

For example, let’s look at 橋 端 and 箸. All 3 of these kanji are read “はし,” but the difference is that the first はし means bridge, the second means edge, and the third means chopsticks. But how are you supposed to differentiate these words outside of context or reading their kanji?

Pitch accent.

There are a lot of Japanese natives that don’t even understand what 高低アクセント is, but it’s what makes or breaks native- versus foreign-sounding speech. While in context a native will understand that the かえる you mean is 帰る (to return) and not 蛙 (frog), one is pronounced differently, and using 蛙’s pitch accent where 帰る’s would be used is something a native will notice.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a full lesson on pitch accent, but merely an introduction and overview. At the end I’ve listed additional resources to further Japanese pitch accent study, but it’s something that takes time and effort. A single Tumblr guide will not teach you Japanese pitch accent.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction & FAQ 2. Essential Vocabulary 3. Indicating Pitch Accent 4. Golden Rules 5. Examples 6. Additional Resources 7. Conclusion

Keep reading

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚 𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬,

thinking about “you haven’t met all the people who will love you” and like!!! you also haven’t found all the things that will make you happy!!!! there will always be new authors and musicians and artists whose work you will one day discover and love!!!! there will always be new hobbies and skills for you to learn and feel fulfilled by!!! there will always be new things around the corner that will bring sudden and unexpected happiness!!!!!!!!!!!

—Roaring Twenties

2020/05/17

↳ 05.20.19.

i always make my new weekly spread monday mornings, look how blissfully empty :’) currently annotating chinese textbook readings while watching “love is a bonus book” on netflix, i loooooove it so far ✨

And what about japanese? Can you recommend some accounts that study japanese?

I know there are a lot of great accounts that are learning Japanese, but I’m not familiar with a lot of them, since I’ve never studied it myself! 

@jibunstudies has a lot of great Japanese masterposts, and I think that @gloomstudy was learning Japanese at one point, but I don’t know if she still is! 

Please feel free to recommend any other blogs that study Japanese!