Polyglot Journey (Miguel)

@SimardPete @thedimitri Don't forget our good friend "pan" from Spanish (bread) or arubaito from German.

@thedimitri My first week studying Japanese I realized half the vocabulary was just English words wearing a kimono. Saved me a lot of flashcards.

In Japan, if they don’t have a word for something, you just say it in English but make it sound aggressively Japanese to the point that you sound racist and now you’re pronouncing it correctly

@untitled_ave Reading furigana in Genki requires 400% size in my Kindle. Even then, they are still blurry.

@pikachuteknik That's why when I read Chinese articles, I make the characters huge. My vision is already not so great and I don't want to make it worse. Also, how else can one read characters like this: 赢

In mandarin too Imagine to peeking on someone's screen but not being able to tell whether it's 我 or 找

For my newer lang, I have to set a foundation of positive interactions with the people of that culture, and a strong interest in learning more about their world and how they view things. Once I develop this interest, the daily study routine can run like a smooth train ride.

For me, progress in any language rests on a positive daily routine, one that I always look forward to. The challenge is the newer languages, where I can't yet take in native content and I am especially dependent on teachers/tutors, learning materials and intro videos/podcasts.

@vuorille Reminds me of the casinos where the carpet has a drug-induced pattern and there are no clocks, so people get disoriented and sit and gamble more. Some of us don't like to waste time like this. Some love it though, it seems

@PolyglotZone I heard it's a marketing ploy to keep customers walking around all the aisles and looking at everything. Can't have those stingy customers going straight to the right shelf and buying only what's on their shopping list.

Buenos días a todos menos a la jefa del supermercado que va cambiando las cosas de sitio para que no las encuentres.

@the_pyroneer @lindiebee I hope I encounter more of these. Kind of like how mirar in Spanish and miru in Japanese are "to look".

@lindiebee My brain freezes when 他 is read "ta" in Japanese. It somehow feels too good to be true hahah

TIL I've been pronouncing その他 as そのほか this whole time... oooof

Some youtube channels I watch once in a while: Xiaomanyc, Oriental Pearl, Chris Mix Lewis, Laoshu50500 (RIP, passed away a few years ago), Olly Richards, Evildea, and Victor Talking. Can you recommend any others who have inspired you to keep learning languages?

@gengotakujp Theoretically possible for very gifted people under exceptional conditions. For 99+% it likely would not work out.

@PolyglotZone I have no doubt textbooks are the best way to learn, because they have a logical order to learn and were made by people who understand the language well. I’m not surprised that people who learn with apps and random material don’t get very far in B their studies.

I am enjoying working with Genki textbooks for Japanese. I don't know why some are anti-textbook. I have been using them for TL for decades. My view: textbook + tutor/teacher + as much input as possible is the ideal combination. Some just want to know the rules up front.

@gengotakujp I think it's possible to learn through immersion only - if a user takes in a huge amount of content, speaks regularly, gets real-time feedback from people who know how to give such feedback. This requires huge dedication, a ton of time, some similarity to one's native lang, etc

@hunniebunn1e Chinesepod on Spotify is great. After studying Mandarin for 5+ years now, I have to say that Chinesepod has been the best for me, at any level. Dashu Mandarin and Mandarin Corner on youtube have helped me as well.

I need sites/YT channels I can use for shadowing Chinese. I must be disgustingly well spoken!! Please drop recommendations if you have.

What I mean is, in Mandarin, when I see 青/靑 as part of a character (even when radical is different), I often can guess that the character's pronunciation will be similar to "qīng". If I see that element within multiple kanji, will the pronunciation of those kanji be similar?

I recently realized that although Chinese characters have sound elements that often give hints as to how to pronounce other characters, these hints don't help much in guessing how to pronounce similar characters in Japanese, even when using onyomi (Chinese origin) pronunciation.

@TerribleMaps Where is the map of the pops of Europe?

Soft drinks of Europe

@MLautmer Russian as well, but it has gotten rusty in recent years.

@PolyglotZone Interesting! Do you speak any other L2 languages? If so, are they very different to your native one?

#langtwt Multilinguals, which of your L2 languages did you learn to a B1 level the fastest and why?

@languagediary1 Same for me yesterday. My day got hijacked. Today is back on track day

19th Mar 2026 No study today!

@langfocus This reminds me of a Japanese friend from years ago who said: "we stole our characters from Chinese". He said it kind of jokingly, so I hope he realized what he said made no sense.

Arabic "stole" vocabulary from Sanskrit?