I Am Reminded That English Is A Flawed Language Every Time I Am Forced To Use “that That” In A Sentence

tips for writing bilingual characters

there are different types of bilinguals

the All Around: speaks, reads, and writes both languages pretty well

the Conversational: one language is stronger than the other; can speak the other language a lot better than they read/write it (a lot of kids of immigrants are this type)

the High Schooler: understands what’s being said to them in the other language, can’t really speak it

don’t have your characters randomly drop words from their other language mid-sentence around people who don’t speak it lol

languages are a mindset thing. like personally if i’m around english-speakers, i’m speaking english and i don’t really switch to my other language (which is portuguese)

so like if you’re writing a bilingual character who speaks spanish and have them say something like “hey chad let’s go to the biblioteca” to an english speaker i’ll probably spend 5 minutes laughing and then close your story lmao

exception: the character is speaking in their weaker language and forgot a word (”where are the…? uh… llaves…. keys! keys, where are they?”)

otherwise really the only time your character should be randomly switching languages mid-sentence is if they’re talking to another bilingual

like i don’t speak spanish but i’ve legit never heard a spanish speaker say “ay dios mio” to gringos lmao

conversations between two bilingual people can take a few different forms:

Pick One: they pick one language and kinda stick with it for the whole conversation (a conversation i might have with my portuguese-speaking mom: ”you okay?” “yeah, i’m good. how’re you?” “i’m fine, but your dad-”)

Back-and-Forth: someone says something in one language, the other person replies in the other (”tudo bem?” “yeah, i’m good. how’re you?” “tou bem, mas o seu pai-”)

Combo: they speak a combo of the two languages, a popular example being spanglish, though basically every bilingual has their own combo language (”tudo bem?” “sim, tou bem. how’re you?” “i’m fine, mas o seu pai-”)

when in doubt: just ask a bilingual to look at your stuff and tell you if anything sounds weird

throughout your life people will try to tell you that puns aren’t funny. these people are wrong.

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attack on titan au where eren’s insatiable bloodlust is replaced by a burning passion for poorly timed puns

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I love japanese bc it’s so regular and logical. eg,

kore = this, sore = that, dore = which koko = here, soko = there, doko = where koitsu = this person, soitsu = that person, doitsu = germany

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here’s to lesbians

here’s to gays

here’s to bisexual people

here’s to pansexual people

here’s to trans people

here’s to non binary people

here’s to asexual people

here’s to lgbt+ people that are in the closet

here’s to lgbt+ people that are afraid to come out to their homophobic family and friends

here’s to lgbt+ people that are out of the closet

here’s to lgbt+ people that are still not sure what is their sexuality or what is their gender

there’s nothing wrong about you! you are all loved! you are all important! you are all beautiful! you all matter!

🏳️‍🌈HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!🏳️‍🌈

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a motorcycle gang made up of ancient bisexual norse monarchs: the bikings

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the best thing about having the house to myself is that I can make breakfast in my underwear

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never forget that for voldemort’s name to rearrange to “je suis voldemort” in the french translations, they had to make his middle name ‘Elvis’

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how do japanese chihuahuas say hello

japanese-revision:

Textbooks:

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar

Read Real Japanese Fiction

GENKI: Integrated Elementary Japanese I and II [beginners]

An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese

Tobira (Gateway to advanced Japanese)

TextFugu [an online textbook]

Heisig’s Remembering Kanji

Basic Kanji Book Vol.1

Kanji in Context

Shadowing: Let’s Speak Japanese! (Beginner to Intermediate Level)

Online Dictionaries:

ALC (I use this everyday) →Expression encyclopaedia 

Goo dictionary

Weblio

WWWJDIC (with audio clips)

JWPce (downloadable dictionary for Windows)

JEDict (downloadable for Mac users)

Idiomatic Expressions

Zokugo-Dict (slang dictionary) [Japanese only]

Idioms dictionary [Japanese only]

Counters dictionary

Hovering dictionaries:  →Rikaikun for Chrome →Rikaichan for Firefox →Floating Dictionary for Mac

Current Affairs dictionary

Tangorin

Imiwa? (a dictionary for the iPhone)

Tagaini Jisho (downloadable for Windows, Mac and Linux)

Nihongodict (also an app. for iPhone and Android phones)

For kanji.

Jisho (I use this for spelling kanji for if I can’t read it)

Yamasa (I use this for learning to write)

A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters

Handwritten kanji search

Associative Kanji Learning (stroke orders)

WaniKani (reviewed and explained here)

Online reading:

Hukumusume Fairytales

竹取（Bamboo-Cutting） (vertical writing)

吉田秀幸の日記（Hideyuki Yoshida’s Diary） (recipes)

Chokochoko’s reading texts to help with JLPT

TED Talks (with Japanese subtitles and transcripts)

Learning through Films [Japanese subtitles/scripts]

Blue Sky Library (public domain books, explained here)

Manga.

Free online manga

Vomic (free online manga with voice actors)

Sound Effects (in manga, etc)

Improving your speaking:

Japanese pronunciation guide

Interactive Hiragana Pronounciation table

Topics for Language Exchanges.

Bubbly (a Twitter-like app where you can record yourself)

Audioboo (similar to Bubbly, but also a website)

My Language Exchange [to find a language partner]

Listening:

“Real World” Japanese

泣きたいときのクスリ 2007 - ‘08 (radio drama)

Writing practice:

Lang-8

Japan-Guide [for getting Japanese penpals]

原稿用紙の使い方 (How to write an essay with Japanese writing paper)

Shiritori (Japanese word-chain game)

iTalki [similar to Lang-8]

手書きブログ (Blogging by hand)

News:

NewsWeb Easy

NHK News (audio news with speed controls)

Mainichi Primary School student Newspaper

Podcasts:

JOQR (Cultural Broadcasting)

TBS Radio’s Junk

TOKYO FM

YouTube:

Afternoon Hirusagari

Jet Daisuke

バイリンガール英会話

Analog TV Forever (collections of adverts)

Real Japanese Studio

Japancast

Tofugu

Japanese sign language.

Heartful Power Hideo

Shuwa Island

TV:

Japanese subtitles for anime

KeyHole TV (to stream Japanese TV and radio)

風雲LIVE日本語（Feng Yun LIVE Japanese） (to stream TV)

映画で学ぶ実践英会話

Tumblr:

Kanji-a-Day

Holy crap Japanese

Nihongo ga Suki

Jumpstart Japanese

Nihongolog

Japanese Idioms

Nadine Nihongo

That Japan Addict

ChilliMuffin

A Little Help with Japanese

Japanese through Fandom

F-Yeah Native Japanese

J-Vocab of the Day

一文ずつ

Nihongobook

PuniPuni Japan

ぶらりめし [Japanese only]

Peaceful Chef [Japanese only]

Kumako365jp

Japanese Revision (my blog for intermediates)

Those studying in Japan.

Japanicking in Yamanashi (at Yamanashi University)

Samxuel (at Kyushu Sangyo)

Katy in Japan Town (at NUFS)

Chocotastie (at Seinan Gakuin)

Kim in Sapporo (at Hokkaido University)

Sunriseosunset / My Japan Travels (Yokohama National University)

Blogging:

Yaplog

Ameba

Learning websites:

JapaneseClass.jp

The Japanese Page

Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese

Erin’s Challenge (with listening and reading practice)

Maggie Sensei

Tofugu

All Japanese All The Time

Japanese Level Up

Other resources:

Lots of threads with a variety of resources for Japanese learning

JLPT Resources

Anki (flashcards for your computer, phone and online) →Yomichan (plug-in for Anki)

Quizlet (flashcards)

DJT and Okra’s pastebins (lots of resources and textbooks for download, etc)

Japanese.Livejournal (including tips on using IME)

Human Japanese (for PC and phones, excl. Linux)

I’ve added even more to the list since I first posted this and am continuing to add new things to it. So, I thought I’d re-post it. As always, if anyone has anything they would like to add, let me know!

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