Stuff For Your Internet Eyes

European accents (and in general white people accents) are commonly perceived as attractive and endearing, while accents from basically any other part of the world are considered to be signs of laziness and disrespect and get routinely made fun of.

My whole family is Korean. My sister and I have grown up in the US so we can pretty much speak English. However, our parents speak very broken English. It makes me mad though because my mother has taken ESL classes at our local university and my father graduated from the University of Washington with a PhD in mechanical engineering, yet I constantly see them being made fun of by their coworkers or other people in general because “they’re too lazy to try to understand English.” My mom has spent countless nights crying whilst taking her classes because of the stress wishing she could speak half as fluently as I can. If you don’t know what it’s like trying to learn English as a second language, then you have no room to talk.

As someone who’s been trained to teach English to non-English speakers, allow me to inform you that English is an eldritch Frankenstein-esque abomination of borrowed words and mismatched grammatical rules.

Structurally, English is as convoluted and obtuse as any aspect of governmental bureaucracy, and it’s similarly societally entrenched in a way that makes people believe, and even insist, that’s just “the way of things.”

Here’s the facts: English is fucking hard. English doesn’t make logical sense. English is weird and horrible and inconsistent and makes common use of unusual phonemes that most adult speakers of other languages have to be mechanically taught to differentiate from similar sounds that are distinct in the English language. Without mechanical introduction and proper instruction, a lot of people cannot actually hear the difference in sounds you are mocking them for.

In some languages, [p] and [b] are indistinguishable. This is why you heard that gentleman say he would like a “can of Coke or Bebsi” with his order. It has nothing to do with laziness.

In some languages, [l] and [r] are indistinguishable. This is why you’re an asshole for going “me rikey” like the substitution is somehow comical. You’re a dick, and also most likely racist.

In the vast majority of languages, [θ] and [ð], known to English speakers as the voiceless (thing) and voiced (there) versions of the th sound, respectively, straight up does not even exist. This is why she says “teef” or “toofbrush,” why he keeps saying “ze” or “de” in place of “the,” and why they said “sank you very much” when you held open the door for them. 

There are sounds in English that a hell of a lot of speakers of other languages cannot teach themselves to recognize and recreate without assistance.

And, y’know, even if you get the screwy grammar and troublesome pronounciation down, English is a language in which very slight changes in intonation and word stress can completely change the meaning of a sentence. 

Like so:

But how are you doing? (Flamboyant pleasure to see someone, eagerness to catch up.)

But how are you doing? (Deflection from inquiries about self, moving conversation in a new direction.)

But how are you doing? (Concern, request for further or more accurate information.)

These are all totally different statements.

It’s incredibly easy to come across in a way you did not want or intend to when you’re not familiar with the particular ways in which saying something can change what it means to other people. 

Don’t you ever give people shit for not achieving or approaching fluency in English.

Repeat after me: English is a terrible fucking language and speaking it does not make me tangibly superior to anyone else in literally any way.

People at work always point out my french accent on certain words and sentence structures.  The best advice i got to better my english prononciation is to speak as if i have a hot potato in my mouth. I’ve been speaking english more fluently since i went to montreal to study in an english university.

My original rough demo for the full “We Are The Crystal Gems” 

I wanted to write this song to bridge the feeling of the show at it’s start to the show it became with the help of the whole Crewniverse! The show had grown and changed so much and so had I! I’m very sentimental about this one! 

Thanks for listening! 

this show is my favorite :3

             Anxiety is a never ending circle that cuts you off at the knees,                                        and keeps kicking you when you’re down.

THIS. THIS IS WHY I AM IN HELL.

DC’s Post-Convergence and Marvel’s Post-Secret Wars female-led ongoing titles.

Blood ’n’ ice cream, ultimate combo. Here’s a sneaky look at the cover for BLACK CANARY #6.

This reminds me of the pre new 52 Black Canary when she was taking care of Sin

“She didn’t even think to ask me.” said Damian, later, a puzzled look of hurt on his face. “I mean, I was sitting right there. Staring at her. Deciding how attractive she looked. She could have just asked. Why didn’t she? I was right there.”

“It’s a shame.” he added, staring at someone across the room who had a bit of mascara on. “Such a shame.”

“Local Man Saddened that No One Gives a Shit about Conforming to His Personal Beauty Standards”

Laughing forever at the commentary.

You’re welcome.

Source

NO WAY!

Don’t tell me this is real.

it actually is. as someone who dedicated his entire life to making family oriented films for many generations of children filled with magic, love, fantasy, and innocence. of course he’s disgusted with how otaku culture has heavily influenced most, if not all anime.

YES MIYAZAKI GO OFFFFFF

THIS.

everytime i draw at work....EVERYTIME!

.....OMG....please yes please!!!!!

elcomfortador:

What people will dress like in 1950, as imagined by the cover of Life magazine in 1914. By Otho Cushing. Via this blog post.

This!

ATTENTION ARTISTS

Copyright law is about to change 

For more than a year Congress has been holding hearings for the drafting of a brand new US Copyright Act. At its heart is the return of Orphan Works

What does this mean for artists? it means it will make it easier for infringers to steal artists works and harder for people who are making or trying to make a living out of art more difficult. This will effect every artist and all the artwork they have created, are creating, and will be created. Corporates, Big businesses, and publishers want this to pass to make money out off artists works without paying us artists for past, current, and future artwork. 

Basic Facts About The Law Being Proposed

 - “The Next Great Copyright Act” would replace all existing copyright law. 

 - It would void our Constitutional right to the exclusive control of our work.

 - It would “privilege” the public’s right to use our work.

   - It would “pressure” you to register your work with commercial registries.

   - It would “orphan” unregistered work.

   - It would make orphaned work available for commercial infringement by “good faith” infringers. 

 - It would allow others to alter your work and copyright these “derivative works” in their own names. 

 - It would affect all visual art: drawings, paintings, sketches, photos, etc.; past, present and future; published and unpublished; domestic and foreign. 

** Ways to stop this or preventing these changes from happening**

 > > > > > > >  DEADLINE IS NEXT THURSDAY: JULY 23, 2015 < < < < < < 

 - share, reblog this post, spread it for other artists to take notice and action.

 - You can submit a letter on how this law can be an issue for you as an artist here.

 - Non-U.S. artists can email their letters to the attention of:

Catherine Rowland Senior Advisor to the Register of Copyrights U.S. Copyright Office crowland@loc.gov

More About the Issue

Example Letters

Articles about this - 1, 2, 3, 4

“Right now nobody has to understand copyright law because you’re protected by it, but under the law they are proposing, copyright law wont protect you anymore.”

- Brad Holland (Quote from the video - at 1:23:30)