I Find Both To Be Isolating In Their Own Way. So, Consider Them Carefully.

I find both to be isolating in their own way. So, consider them carefully.

No communication is the obvious isolation, and it gets worse when you consider the danger involved with having no vocal, written, or signed voice. But, to speak every thought could cause its own problems.

How often do you have unspeakable intrusive thoughts? How often do emotions shape your thoughts to contradict your true feelings? It could get you into serious trouble or sever all of your bonds. Sure, you could try explain yourself and work with friends to correct the matter... But what's to say their reaction to the initial upset won't make you say worse things?

The question is a matter of choosing your own prison. At least for me.

I'm dependent on others so a loss of ALL communication destroys everything for me. But I'm also emotionally unstable and generally struggle to maintain bonds already. If I vocalised every thought and feeling, I'd probably look insane. I'd probably hurt too many friends.

Is it just me, or is this a cruel choice?

🌟 Learning Japanese 🇯🇵

🔔　あたしのガイドは、人が英語を話す向けー　(⁠◔⁠‿⁠◔⁠)

The following guide is based on my personal experience. I am not an authority on the matter and I am still barely a beginner regarding Japanese.

What am I doing?

Learning languages seems non-lienar and that's partly true (at an intermediate level). But, when you're first starting out, there's generally clear goals to work toward.

Your Beginner Goals

Study and master kana

Japanese employs hiragana and katakana in conjunction with kanji. Together, hiragana and katakana make up kana.

Learn the kana (hiragana and katakana)

Learn the difference between kunyomi and onyomi (kanji)

Delve into grammar and establish some foundational vocab

Immerse yourself with input content (movies, shows, etc)

Study and practice a basic form of "pitch accent"

Continue developing your vocab and particle knowledge

Learn about polite versus casual talk and social culture

Use the language (letters, blog, diary, etc)

Seek conversations to apply the language properly

Find and study tests like JLPT to gauge your progress

What can I use?

Duolingo

If this was your first pick, you're naive but not foolish. It'll teach you enough to get help if you're lost in Japan. But it won't be enough to hold a conversation. Give it a try and see if it works for you. Duolingo is free.

I recommend using Duolingo as a supplementary learning tool rather than your primary learning tool

Textbooks and Guides

Many learners and even classes praise numerous textbooks. I for one received a recommendation for Tae Kim's Japanese Guide. So, I'll recommend it to you. Don't be afraid to see out other guides or attempt some textbooks. However, one should always remember that the textbook is NOT demonstrative of naturalistic Japanese.

For example, 「私は猫が好きです」 is what a textbook correctly teaches, though 「猫好きだよ」 is acceptable and more natural in casual Japanese

Building vocabulary

If you want to develop your vocabulary, you can use JLPT anki decks. Anki is a flashcard program for desktop and mobile. You can also use anki in conjunction with a dictionary like Jisho to create new flashcards decks (suited to the words you'd like to learn). You may also pick up vocab from Japanese media (i.e, anime, manga, books, content creators, music, etc).

If you're using Jisho and want to find a word you only know in English, search for it using quotation marks. For example, "school" or, if you want a verb "to learn" ~ it should help. You can spell out Japanese words normally by just typing... i.e, watashi.

Good input versus Bad input

Immersing yourself in Japanese media and culture is good but you need to be mindful of the content you're consuming— take note of the context behind events, interactions, or the relationship of speakers. Be especially mindful of anime and manga— both are known to use hyperbolic language or phrases that aren't commonly used in day to day conversation. Fortunately, some anime and manga do use everyday language, and you can usually find lists.

I recommend using the Tofugu blog to learn about both Japanese language and culture. But if you don't like reading, there are many YT channels like Kaname Naito and NihongoDekita with Sayaka. For general immersion though, here's a sweet vlog channel, a JP Warframe creator, and a natural born otaku.

Aya's PP Paradox

The average pp is 5.5" [1]. So, 5" is typical, 4" and below is small, and 6" and above is large. 4" or 6" should be less common than 5", right? Yet, every guy I talk to is supposedly rocking 6" inches or more?

I have 3 reasonable solutions, no more...

Dishonesty: due to a negative social perception of small pp, everyone claims to be a part of the big pp gang, fearing exclusion or judgment.

Insecurity: either fragile masculinity or other factors make people claim to have a larger than average pp as it contributed to their ego.

Innaccuracy: either we or the data collectors are not measuring pp size correctly, contributing to inconsistent stats.

Maybe the sugar baby is a furry 🤯

is discord cat a furry thing or a sugar baby plz respond fast google isnt helping

I do wonder what people are listening to... Here are some of my recent playlists :3

Watching my toddler figure out how to language is fascinating. Yesterday we were stumped when he kept insisting there was a “Lego winner” behind his bookshelf - it turned out to be a little Lego trophy cup. Not knowing the word for “trophy”, he’d extrapolated a word for “thing you can win”. And then, just now, he held up his empty milk container and said, “Mummy? It’s not rubbish. It’s allowed to be a bottle.” - meaning, effectively, “I want this. Don’t throw it away.” But to an adult ear, there’s something quite lovely about “it’s allowed to be a bottle,” as if we’re acknowledging that the object is entitled to keep its title even in the absence of the original function.