Linguistics And Language Podcasts

not only langblr music resources

people irl often ask me where the heck i find the music i listen to, so i figured i might as well make a handy resource masterpost!

Radio Garden: Listen to radio stations all over the world. You can save your favourite stations, explore radio playlists, and search for stations in specific countries or cities. Love this one. You can download the app (android and apple) or listen via your preferred browser.

Radiooooo: Lets you choose a country, a decade, and a 'genre' (slow, fast, or weird) to listen to. You can download the app (android and apple) or listen via your preferred browser.

Every Noise At Once: Sounds overwhelming - and tbh it can be. For this reason I personally prefer to look at 'Genres by Country', although there are many other interesting playlists to look at, such as 'We Built This City On' or 'The Sounds of Places'. You can find more if you scroll all the way to the bottom. Unfortunately, due to the layoff of the creator of this site, some features are not available anymore. This website is entirely based on Spotify.

Charts: Charts can be tricky if you're looking for music in a specific language due to the insufferable dominance of music in english in uh a lot of countries. It is nevertheless worth checking them out. Spotify charts or Top 40 Charts are your places to go.

Tunefind: Heard a song in a film or tv show that you enjoy but can't find it in the credits? This is the website for you! I use it when shazam fails me or when I'm at the cinema and can't use it or w/e. The songs sometimes come with a description of the corresponding scene for easy checking. Just very handy to have on hand.

Local events: Check for concerts etc. in your area. I know this is not an option for everyone for a bunch of reasons, but if it is for you, visiting local concerts can be a gold mine. I got like ten whole new songs in spanish and one in rapanui from one event I went to (it was like a culture fest with singing, dancing, and poetry). Also listening to live music just connects you differently to the art imo.

Friends & Acquaintances: Last but not least; sometimes my nosiness beats my social anxiety and I simply ask people what they like to listen to. If I'm being extra confident, I ask if they listen to music in languages other than english. Go forth and ask people about their music, go go go!!

#LearningGerman #sstellestudiess 1

Top 3 Free German Resources

Week 3, day 5 of prepolyglot’s langblr reactivation challenge

(Probably goes without saying but just my personal top 3! You'll notice it is quite listening focused because that is what's most important to me.)

Nicos Weg (A1, A2, B1, Complete Youtube Playlist) - the story of a Spanish guy called Nico who moves to Germany. Really nice and well produced. Each level is made up of 80ish videos of a couple of minutes each, with exercises to review and test your comprehension. This adds up to a movie of almost 2 hrs for each level.

Easy German (x) - street interviews in German. Great for learning how Germans actually speak, outside of the artificial context that you find in a lot of learning resources.

The German Project (x) - online lessons with audio snippets and easy to understand explanations, plus animated short stories with audio. Wish there were some exercises to go with it! Also available for Spanish, French and Italian.

audio study methods

Still working on that 'lazy' study plan post, since I am just not satisfied with any chinese grammar guide summaries online enough to recommend them as a small grammar intro. If anyone knows of any good 'grammar overview summary' articles or sites for chinese grammar, please let me know. (I like AllSetLearning's Chinese Grammar Wiki but it is huge and in depth and not something I'd recommend a learner 'just read through' on month 4 of learning, and the grammar guide summary site I used as a beginner that was very easy to read through in a few hours... no longer exists)

So in the meantime. Not a grammar study tip, but a general 'lazy' option for language learners who (like me) can't focus on stuff like anki, or just don't want to. I go more in depth about using audio lessons and audio flashcards on other posts, and on the lazy study plan post i'm drafting, but the short of it is: you can listen and learn while doing your normal daily activities. That's what makes the study method so convenient. You don't have to squeeze in any extra time, or change your daily life schedule to make time for chinese, to use audio lessons and audio flashcards.

You simply find some times during the day when you'd either normally listen to audio in the background (like if you listen to music when commuting or shopping, or if you listen to podcasts when working, or if you listen to youtube while exercising or browsing social media). As usual, the more time the better as you'll make faster progress if you study 1-2 hours a day or more. But anything is better than nothing. So lets say you commute to work 30 minutes in morning and evening, there's your hour of studying audio. Or you go for a walk at lunch for 15 minutes, and browse tumblr for an hour scrolling (that's 1 hour and 15 minutes of study). It's very easy to fit 30 minutes of audio study into a day, and it's fairly easy to fit even 2-4 hours of audio study if you're so inclined. I usually do 30 minutes - 2 hours of audio study some days, since when I walk I decide if I feel like listening to a youtube essay or chinese or japanese stuff, when driving I decide which I feel like listening to, and I want to listen to something in english 2/3 of the time.

How do you use audio study material? Well, the easy way is you just press play on it, let it play in the background while you do other stuff, and that's it. If you tend to avoid studying new stuff (like me), then I recommend PRIORITIZING listening to NEW AUDIO every time, until you get into the habit of listening to NEW stuff to learn. Then you can re-listen to stuff sometimes, as review, especially when you're doing activities you have less attention on audio during. So for example: you'd listen to new audio on the commute or when walking (when you can mostly focus on what you're hearing), and then re-listen to audio as review while working or scrolling tumblr and reading english (activities where you pay more attention to other things besides audio).

What can you listen to?

There's audio lessons - which would be something like ChinesePod101 (Immersive Language Chinese in the Hoopla library app), Coffee Break Chinese, youtube videos where teachers talk in english and explain chinese as they teach it. These are good for study material, because you comprehend what you're learning due to the english explanations of every word and grammar point you hear. These are good for beginners, because you will understand everything you're listening to, and learn new words and grammar, thanks to the explanations. The drawback with audio lessons is they require the most focus.

There's learner podcasts like TeaTime Chinese and Slow Chinese, these are more often ENTIRELY in chinese. So these are better for practicing comprehension of stuff you've studied elsewhere, rather than for learning new things. You can learn new words and grammar from these, but if that is your goal then re-listen to learner podcasts a decent amount (5-20 times or more until you can't guess/figure out any more word meanings).

There's audio flashcards (which I love). These are sentence audio in english, then repeated in chinese. The order may vary, the chinese may be repeated more than once. These are good for beginners and upward, because you get a translation of every single thing you hear in chinese. You can pick up new words and grammar from audio flashcards. Audio flashcards require less focus than audio lessons, because you can learn from sentences while you pay attention and then if your attention drifts you can just focus again to the next sentence you hear and continue learning. The drawback is there are no explanations for which word specifically translates to what, some translations are not literal, and there's no explanation of why the grammar is the way it is. Audio flashcards require the listener to try and guess what means what by exposure to chinese sentences and their translations. So it's harder than audio lessons in terms of explanations, but easier than learner podcasts. Audio flashcards are the best substitute for traditional flashcards or SRS apps like anki, if you're trying to improve your vocabulary by hundreds of words ASAP. Audio flashcards are dense with new vocabulary (usually 1 new word or grammar point per sentence you can learn), so you'll learn more words than you would with an audio lesson that is paced slower with more english explanations or a learner podcast which would ideally be mostly words you know and only 20% or less new words.

There's Spoonfed Chinese Anki audio files (which I recommend since these start out very basic and increase in difficulty while also repeating words a lot so you can review, they're shared on reddit if you search, or ask me), if you search 'chinese english sentences' on youtube or bilibili (i've done this with chinese japanese sentences on bilibili) you'll find videos like this where you hear audio english then audio chinese. Old glossika cd files are basically this structure as well, which you can find the audio files of for free online or free in libraries (I'm using the new glossika app for japanese but I'm hesitant to recommend the modern app courses as there's significant errors in japanese so I'm not sure how good/bad the chinese one is). If you're a beginner, then the audio flashcard material you pick won't matter much as you need to learn a few thousand common words first which will be in most materials you find. But if you're an upper beginner, you may wish to prioritize finding audio flashcards with MORE unique words, more sentences, or may want to transition to using learner podcasts more for new vocabulary. If you aren't running into at least one new word for every 5 sentences you hear in audio flashcards (and ideally one new word for Every sentence), then that audio flashcard is way too easy for you and you know enough words to move onto new study material.

Audiobooks and audio dramas - use these like learner podcasts, listen to ones you can comprehend the main idea of, and then re-listen until you can't guess/figure out any more new words. If you're not very good at listening comprehension (like me lol), then you may want to listen to a given audiobook/audio drama file 3-5 times before deciding if you can comprehend the main idea (and use the material). When my listening skills are rusty, or just in general since my listening skills are bad, it can take me a few times of listening to recognize words I 'already know' and then a few more times of listening for my brain to put the words i recognize together into 'comprehending' what was communicated. So if you can read better than you can listen, you may want to listen 3-5+ times to a new audio file before deciding if you can follow the main idea or if it's too hard. And if you can READ the audio drama transcript, chapter text, but cannot understand the audio file? Then it probably IS at a good level for you to listen to, you just need a lot more practice hearing and recognizing the words you can read. So re-listen.

All of these listening study methods are good for:

Adding more study time into your day, since you can do them while doing other things.

Learning new words and grammar, when you don't have the time (or don't want) to spend time dedicated mainly to focusing on your study material.

Learning new words and grammar, if you don't use flashcards or SRS like anki but want the benefit of learning lots 'faster' than you would if you only picked up words during active study time (active study time being when you ONLY are focusing on study activities: like reading chinese, watching cdramas, chatting/texting people, and looking up words)

‘When the Moon came down’ by Feridun Oral

#learningfrench

L’alphabet phonétique

Les voyelles

[a] open front unrounded vowel - cinéma (cinema, m); hat

[ɑ] open back unrounded vowel - château (castle, m); hot

[e] close-mid front unrounded vowel - clé (key, f); may

[ɛ] open-mid front unrounded vowel - père (father, m), chêne (oak, m); bed

[ə] mid central vowel/schwa - jeu (game, m); bird

[i] close front unrounded vowel - souris (mouse, f); free

[o] close-mid back rounded vowel - rose (rose, f); UK yawn

[ɔ] open-mid back rounded vowel - océan (ocean, m); thought

[ø] close-mid front rounded vowel - jeudi (thursday)

[œ] open-mid front rounded vowel - peur (fear, f)

[u] close back rounded vowel - chou (cabbage, m); boot

[y] close front rounded vowel - tu (you); UK few

This vowel diagram shows the inside of the throat from the left side (pronounce /i/ “eee” and /ɑ/ “aaa” to feel the difference). Antérieur: front, postérieur: back, aperture: opening of the lips.

Les voyelles nasales (when followed by a consonant except -h- or ending a word)

[ɑ̃] > am, an, (é)en, em, aon - temps (time, m)

[ɛ̃] > aim, ain, eim, ein, em, (i)en, im, in, um, un, ym, yn - pain (bread, m)

[ɔ̃] > om, on - ombre (shadow, f), bonjour (hello)

[œ̃] > um, un - humble, un (one, m); dying, turning into [ɛ̃] 

N.B. When a nasal sound is produced, despite being made of two letters, they are to be pronounced as their own sound: in Bonjour, the /o/ and the /n/ shouldn’t be heard at all since they are followed by the consonant /j/, as opposed to the usual dragging of /o/ then /n/ like in Bonne journée.

Les semi-voyelles

[j] voiced palatal approximant - lieu (place, m); you

[ɥ] voiced labial–palatal approximant - huile (oil, f); wall

[w] voiced labial–velar approximant - oui (yes); witch

Les consonnes

[b] voiced bilabial plosive - bête (beast, f)

[d] voiced dental and alveolar plosive - déjeuner (lunch, m)

[f] voiceless labiodental fricative - faim (hunger, f)

[g] voiced velar plosive - gâteau (cake, m)

[ʒ] voiced postalveolar fricative - ange (angel, m); vision

[k] voiceless velar plosive - cadeau (gift, m)

[l] voiced apical alveolar approximant - lait (milk, m)

[p] voiceless bilabial plosive - pain (bread, m)

[ʁ] voiced uvular fricative - roi (king, m)

[s] voiceless alveolar fricative - sel (salt, m); nonsense

[t] voiceless denti-alveolar plosive - table (table, f)

[v] voiced labiodental fricative - violon (violin, m)

[z] voiced alveolar fricative - maison (house, f)

[ʃ] voiceless postalveolar fricative - chocolat (chocolate, m)

Les consonnes nasales

[m] voiced bilabial nasal - miel (honey, m)

[n] voiced denti-alveolar nasal - nez (nose, m)

[ɲ] voiced palatal nasal - montagne (mountain, f)

[ŋ] voiced velar nasal - connexion (connection, f); sing 

Voiced sounds are those that make our vocal chords vibrate when they are produced; voiceless sounds are produced from air passing through the mouth at different points. Fricatives are consonants with the characteristic that when they are produced, air escaped through a small passage and make a hissing sound; plosives are a type of consonant produced by forming a complete obstruction to the flow air out of the mouth.

Movie: Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain - Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001

100 Goals you can have as a language learner

A follower of mine asked me what are some realistic goals when you’re learning languages but before giving you 100 examples, i want to mention that you can have daily, weekly, monthly or/and yearly goals. If you get easily distracted and need motivation, set goals for each category; however, if you can focus and be motivated for a longer period of time, you might not need daily or/and weekly goals.

Also, the numbers/minutes/hours are an example, you can change them according to your time, resources, motivation etc.

Daily goals

Read 1 article in your target language.

Learn 10 words.

Learn 1 poem in your target language.

Learn a song  in your target language.

Watch a movie.

Read 1 page from a book in your target language.

Sing 1 song in your target language.

Talk with a native for 10 minutes.

Learn 2 idioms.

Translate 1 song.

Translate 1 poem.

Write 1 short text about anything.

Watch 1 episode from your favourite show dubbed/subbed.

Get 50points on duolingo.

Make a vocab list.

Learn 1 new grammatical concept.

Think in your target language for 10 minutes

Read to a podcast for 15 minutes.

Learn 1 tongue twister.

Spend 15 minutes on WordBrewery.

Play on Babadum for 15 minutes.

Use Clozemaster for 15 minutes.

Listen to an audio book for 10 minutes.

Revise your notes for 20 minutes.

Learn 1 vocab list.

Weekly

Read 10 articles in your target language.

Read 2 books for children.

Learn 5 poems.

Learn 3 songs.

Watch 3 movies.

Learn 10 grammatical concepts.

Talk for 2 hours in your target language.

Learn 5 vocab lists.

Learn 100 new words.

Finish 8 lessons on duolingo. (i mean the entire bullet/dot/set of mini-lessons)

Watch 10 episodes from your favourite show  in your target language subbed/dubbed.

Learn 30 idioms.

Write 3 A4 pages about anything.

Translate 5 songs.

Learn 3 vocab lists.

Revise with the help of some tests online for 2 hours.

Change your phone settings to be in your target language.

Make a summary for the books you’ve read.

Read 10 pages from a complex book in your target language. 

Make 5 vocab lists.

Write a motivation text of 10 lines for your in your target language about why you enjoy learning languages.

Think for 2 hours in your target language.

Translate 3 pages from a book in your native language.

Translate 3 pages from a book in your target language.

Discover 10 new songs in your target language.

Monthly

Learn 350 new words.

Read 1 advanced book in your target language.

Finish a grammar book.

Finish 10 stories for kids.

Learn 80 idioms.

Learn 20 vocab lists.

Finish 35 lessons on duolingo. (the bullets/dots/set of mini lessons)

Make 20 vocab lists.

Watch 10 movies in your target language subbed/dubbed.

Translate 10 songs.

Learn 10 poems.

Learn 5 songs.

Talk to natives for 10 hours. 

Write summaries for every chapter/article you’ve read.

Watch 15 youtube videos in your target language .

Make a story of 5 minutes while looking at a random picture on google.

Understand a song (that you don’t know) without checking the lyrics too often.

Read 20 articles.

Make a dish while reading the recipe in your target language

Revise for 20 hours.

Keep a journal with your daily progress and at the end of the month, read how many things you achieved.

Read to a podcast for 24 hours.

Think in your target language for 24 hours.

Play babadum/wordbrewery/clozemaster for 10 hours.

Yearly

Be mistaken for a native.

Know 50 poems.

Be able to sing most Disney songs in your target language.

Watch movies without subs.

Learn 10.000 words.

Read 10 advanced books.

Finish duolingo/whatever course you use.

Be able to think in your target language effortlessly.

Master irregular verbs.

Have at least 5 native friends that talk to you in your target language.

Be proud you didn’t give up.

Study a bit daily.

Finish 3 grammar books/workbooks/books for advanced learners.

Have a decent accent.

Be able to read without translating anything.

Watch more movies in your target language than your native one/English.

Have favourite youtubers that are native of your target language.

Keep a diary and read how your year has been.

Be able to talk about advanced stuff.

Have very detailed descriptions.

Know the most popular songs in your target language.

Read mostly in your target language.

Know several new recipes that cooked only in the country where your target language is spoken.

Being able to say that you’re bilingual/multilingual/a polyglot.

Learn your next language through the one that you mastered already.

#LearningFrench #sstellestudiess 3

📓 websites for french learning

Completely in French:

TV5 MONDE Apprendre le français - has a lot of good listening exercises

Le Point du FLE - redirects to a lot of good French content and comprehension exercises

RFI Savoirs - there are a few collections here that look interesting

Links I found on Quebec’s website:

Banque de dépannage linguistique (BDL)

Banque d’exercices de français (bank of French exercises)

For English speakers:

Lawless French - covers a large variety of basic subjects

Français interactif (from University of Texas at Austin) - includes a textbook

Tex’s French Grammar - grammar lessons and exercises with fun characters

antique perfume bottles. some are transparent

#LearningEnglish #sstellestudiess 1

so weird how in english some words are really just used in expressions and not otherwise… like has anyone said “havoc” when not using it in the phrase “wreaking havoc”? same goes for “wreaking” actually…

reply with more, i’m fascinated

#LearningLithuanian #sstellestudiess

Hi! my name is Vance, and welcome to my blog. here you’ll find me obsessing about japanese, laughing affectionately at german, gushing over lithuanian, and simping for icelandic among others. languages and linguistics are my passion, and I want to share them with others! aside from languages, I also like to color, write stories, and play pokemon. it’s nice to have you here ^_^

Languages I Speak: English (C2), Spanish (C2), Japanese (N2), German (B2), Lithuanian (A2) Languages of Interest: Latvian, Icelandic, Polish, Old Prussian, Romanian, ASL 

Resources

my lithuanian A1 memrise | my lithuanian A2 memrise

latvian resources

lithuanian resources

language insight masterpost

Jei nebūtų mirties, gyvenimas mums neatrodytų toks gražus | If it weren’t for death, life wouldn’t seem as beautiful