We made an about page! Go check it out to find out more about these two language nerds.

Hello! This is Språknerdery, reporting for duty! Well, sort of. We’re still working out the kinks of how this will work, but I figured I should at least introduce myself!

I saw Polyspeak needed some help with the list and running this blog and I volunteered, since I’m on my own summer break and only work part-time right now - it sounded like the perfect fit! I’m 27 and I’ve been learning languages since about 2004, roughly. I’m from the Midwest in the USA, but I’ve lived in Finland for a few years after developing a massive love for the Swedish language (my first love was Japanese, then German). Along the way, I’ve taken classes for Latin, Japanese, German, Spanish, and Finnish in addition to Swedish. I’m currently starting a Spanish major (though I’ve only just finished 102, I’m still a Spanish newbie).

Beyond that, I love to chat with new folks, so please feel free to drop me a line either here, or on my personal langblr!

—Språknerdery

#språknerdery speaking

definitely-lingual

So I’m not only alive, but now I have help

After my long, unannounced hiatus (for which I still feel like a little turd), I’ve found someone to help me! Tumblr user spraknerdery is climbing on board this train to help me with running things again. She’s been super nice so far, so it’ll be great to have her!

A couple of things about this-- she told me that in order to differentiate between our posts, she’ll write that she isn’t me on the stuff she posts/answers, so I’ll start doing the same. The other thing is that we have agreed to a sort of trial over the summer to see how well having two admins distributes the workload. If things go well enough that staying on board is fine for me once I go back to college, I’ll stick around. Otherwise, this lovely, helpful person will take the wheel and run things thereafter! Anyway, we’re back on track, and we’ll be starting up again between this and next week.

definitely-lingual

Turns out I’m not dead

I know I’ve been gone for, what, four months? And many of you have sent me messages in the interim, and I’m so sorry, I feel awful for neglecting the community list. The truth is, life got very real very fast, and I started piling too many things on top of one another.

First, I started my one job, where I got up at six in the morning to work, but I didn’t work in the afternoons, so that was okay. And then I had my second job, which was supposed to be a part-time gig, no more than twenty hours a week, but then, as those kinds of jobs do to teenagers, they screwed me over and made me work six- to eight-hour shifts every day until about midnight, and in between those jobs, I took eighteen credit hours this semester, and in order to get my GPA up to keep my scholarship, I had to spend all of my free time on homework, and with how popular this list got, I just couldn’t handle the load.

I’m so sorry. I dropped out without any warning, and it would have been best if I had asked someone to help with the list. Honestly, I love helping all of you avid polyglots out, but with the way things are with my life right now, I think I need to hand over the reins for this list. Even with the fact that I’m not taking classes this summer, I’m going to be spending quite literally all of my time working so I can afford to go back to school in the fall.

If anyone is willing and able, even a couple of people, to take over this blog for me, including catching up on the people that still need editing in, I would be eternally grateful. I can’t promise that I’ll be able to keep up with the list in the future, but it’s not fair of me to leave all of you high and dry, so if you’ll forgive me, and if you really want to, you can take over this blog.

Again, I know it’s asking a lot, but if someone is willing to take this on, just message me and I’ll explain how it works and everything so you can take over.

definitely-lingual

Anonymous asked:

Where can I find the community list?

You can find it right here. I also found out a way to look at it on your phone- while tumblr’s app stupidly won’t display the link to the list, if you go to polyspeak.tumblr.com via internet, you can get to it there. I tried it just to make sure, and it works and displays just fine.

definitely-lingual

So both of my jobs (grocery store clerk and college writing tutor) require interaction with many different people, many of whom speak English only as a second language. And while I get that knowing multiple languages is great, it really makes me feel proactive when I can describe English writing to someone in Spanish or sign ‘have a good day’ to the person who comes through my checkout stand.

Polyglotism is the best.

definitely-lingual

Anonymous asked:

do you speak/are you learning French?

Sorry to be a bummer, but I neither speak nor learn French.

definitely-lingual

Anonymous asked:

Hi, i'm a language lover just like you are and i'm sure you've also received questions like "why do you study lots of language? that wouldnt even benefit you" and at first, i ignored all of that ofc because as long as i love this, i wouldn't care whatever they say but then as I grow old, I start to think of work and yes (sadly) how would this language learning benefit me. can you give me a list of what benefits could i get from it, i mean what kind of work could i have? thank you very much!

Absolutely! This is exactly the problem I had. As far as the benefits, I could go on and on about health and culture and knowledge, because it’s all a result of polyglotism. But to crack down on work (because I know reality exists and like an authoritarian political party, we all have to join it):

You can take a job in multiple areas- using your language to help others, such as legal services (legal aid for native Spanish speakers is big in the Western USA), teaching, medical aid, scientific study, military work, the diplomatic corps. Basically, if you might need to speak a foreign language for it, that’s where you’ll want to go.

For pure foreign language work, it’s a bit trickier. Teaching is still good here, and so is linguistic study, but your options are a little more limited- government and military work, translation, interpretation. Your focus would probably be less on you and languages and more on how your languages benefit others.

Now, one thing I will say is that you might want to be a bit of a sell-out; by that, I mean that Sanskrit is super cool, and Klingon is fun and all, but neither will help you much in the modern world (except in super specific cases), so you’ll want to turn to the languages that will get you jobs. Be careful- some of the “big” languages that you think will be helpful (which vary from place to place, here it’s Latinate languages like French and Italian) might not be. German, a language I’m learning, is really popular, but probably won’t help me much in the long run.

As much as this sucks to say, look at who your country is connected to, whether it’s by politics, different peoples, economics, or even military conflict, and base it off of that. That’s why my target languages are Spanish (resident speakers), Mandarin Chinese (economics), Arabic (economics, military, and politics), Russian (politics), among others.

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully this helps. Let me know if you need more clarification.

definitely-lingual

Anonymous asked:

Hey! I just wanted to thank you for creating the langblr community list. It's probably a lot of work keeping it updated, and you have no idea how much I've used it to connect with other speakers, so thank you very much!!!!

Thanks, anon! I’m so glad that it’s becoming a useful tool for you. :)

definitely-lingual

I’m so sorry to everyone who has contacted me since December- the day after finals, I left to help my family move to Oregon. I thought that we were going to have our wifi set up, and clearly, we did not. I didn’t get back until last night, so I’m going to spend this afternoon updating the list and answering asks.

Again, I’m so sorry. I feel like a turd for disappearing on you. Anyway, I’m back now, and I’ll work on updating you.

definitely-lingual reblogged

foreignfawn

sprachtraeume

…soo, how do l go about starting to make a conlang?

languageoclock

1. choose your phonemes 2. end up changing them 4 times before you are satisfied with which ones you’re going to use 3. choose which symbols are going to represent which sounds 4. attempt to make a conscript 5. realise that the conscript is too difficult 6. change the conscript 7. decide that you need to change your phonemes again because you are missing a voiced equivalent of one consonant, which is going to be a major issue when dealing with your planned inflection system 8. end up forgetting the conscript and just using the Roman alphabet with a bunch of extra vowels borrowed from languages you already speak 9. realise that the vowel inventory you selected is not appropriate for borrowing words from one of the languages you were going to use as a feeder language 10. switch all the vowel values around 11. fall asleep with your face on the desk, drooling onto your first drafted personal pronouns, dreaming of how many unnecessary verb moods you intend on giving your conlang

definitely-lingual reblogged

maskedlinguist

spanishskulduggery

Why aren’t “slumber parties” called siesta fiestas this is a travesty

definitely-lingual reblogged

languagelearninggeek-deactivate

fgihjkarinrin

Things I’ve Learned on my Journey to Become a Polyglot

I don’t know why, but last night I thought of making this post. You guys probably won’t read it, but whatever~ I’ll write it anyway :] (I’m using “you,” but that doesn’t necessary mean that it will apply to you. Don’t take it to heart. This is just what I’ve experienced.)

It’s hard. obviously.
Trying to juggle five languages is a task. Honestly, I still don’t know which one to focus on throughout the day and when to practice it, but I know that if I don’t then I’ll forget it.
You get tired of looking for resources after a while.
I’ve clicked through so many resources trying to get help, and I feel like I’ve seen all of them. I don’t even want to look on google anymore–it’s so tedious. Especially since the websites that I’ve looked up start to pop-up on the first page. Many of the websites are similar, too, or even cost too much money. Yeah I wanna learn a language, but I’m not paying like 50 dollars to get something that I can get somewhere else for free. I’m also not going to take a chance on it not being worth it in the end.
You’ll get criticized.
People keep telling me that I am learning too many languages and that I should stick to one. If I didn’t think that I could handle it, then I wouldn’t do it. I’ve been making great progress, and I’m super proud of myself for it. Please don’t tell me that I can’t do it when you see me excelling at it.
Don’t let anyone talk you out of doing something that you enjoy.
You may or may not forget your native language.
I’m American, and I’m learning five different languages. My English (native language) sucks now. I speak with an accent every now and then, I forget how to spell, I can’t put sentences together correctly every now and then…it goes on lol. My friends make fun of me for it all the time. I find it to be interesting, really.
You gotta find what works for you.
Everyone has their own study habits. I’ve looked at so many websites and books found that I simply didn’t like many of them. You just gotta keep looking.
Be wary of language crossovers.
I’ve found myself wanting to speak Vietnamese while speaking Chinese, but it’s only when I’m counting. It doesn’t really make sense, though lol. Think before you speak.
You can’t afford to be shy or be afraid to be wrong.
I’ve had so many opportunities to practice speaking with native speakers,and I’ve let 99% of those chances fly away because I’m so shy/ afraid to mess up and be wrong. Part of the learning experience is learning from your mistakes. You’re not always going to be right, so you have to try to hold back that fear and simply take a shot at it. If you’re right, then great! If you’re wrong, then it’s not the end of the world. Just take it as a lesson for next time.
You’re going to find people that are better than you.
Everyone gets jealous. I still find myself getting jealous of those who are better at speaking/ writing a language than I am. But you know, instead of thinking about how much I suck and how I have probably been wasting my time, I think of that person as my competition. “They’re so good! But I can probably be better.” It just makes me even more eager to learn and improve.
It takes time.
Of course it takes time! Don’t expect to be fluent in a month (even if someone else somehow did it). Each language is different, and depending on what you’re learning and what your native language is, the amount of time that it will take for you to learn is going to vary. Be patient, and be happy with the results in the end.
It’s exciting!
Being able to put your languages to use is like the best feeling ever. I feel so happy when I’m able to understand something in another language. It’s like, “Man, all that hard work really paid off!”