More big sensitive guys!!! Big dudes who are super sweet and sensitive and emotionally supportive are the best!!!
I still remember the time I was interviewed for a Polish guy’s PhD thesis featuring Gay Anime Furries. Like, I’m going to be cited by a professor at the University of Warsaw and that blows my mind. I honestly cannot wait for the full paper.
As someone who’s learning a third language and also teaches English, I think a lot about approaches to language learning. When learning another language, I think it’s super important to set what fluency means to you. It’s a very vague term. When we think of fluency, you probably think of a native speaker. But then, that’s vague too.
I think a sweet spot is being as fluent as an average high school student. Although, it’s possible to have meaningful conversations even before that level, like say the level of an average junior high/middle school student.
Many European languages (including English) are rated on what’s called the CEFR scale. The CEFR scale is scored as follows:
A1-A2 (most basic/upper basic) (about N5-N4 on Japan’s JLPT scale for foreign Japanese learners)
B1-B2( Intermediate/upper intermediate) (N3-N2 on JLPT)
C1-C2 (Advanced/Advanced with academic mastery) (N1 on JLPT)
My estimates are really rough so take it with a grain of salt, but on this scale, B2 is generally the minimum needed to have a meaningful conversation with someone in your target language in my experience. I feel like B2 is about the level of someone about to graduate middle school. So when learning another language, don’t beat yourself up if you’re not as fluent as an average adult- you don’t need to be. Most native high schoolers are C1 at their own language. That said, if you really love a specific language and you want to get really good at it or you have a practical reason for doing so, then by all means, go for it!
tfw u want validation from people u look up to even tho you’re totally aware that it’s unhealthy to want that validation but because ur a human being u have frustrating irrational feelings that your brain wont let u shake
Thinking back to middle school, I can say that I don’t regret my How To Draw Manga phase at all. During this phase, me and my pals would always get How To Draw Manga books. Some of them were questionable, others were pretty cool but rarely covered ground that a regular book on drawing wouldn’t have covered. But ultimately, it got us drawing. It kept me going too. I still, in fact, have one of those books by Ryo Toudo (it’s seriously a good and accessible tutorial book for inking with traditional materials!). Also I find it interesting how those books came out at a time where the anime and manga industries were already shifting styles, so these books were teaching stuff based on late 80s and mid 90s art styles to us in the early 2000s.
I’m not sure where I’m going with this other than I look back fondly to my artistic development which goes something like:
Triangle body/stick figures -> First copy of Shounen Jump released in the US -> Start copying that -> How To Draw Manga books were in vogue -> etc etc etc
I still want to keep improving, of course, but once in a while looking back for a little encouragement doesn’t hurt.
Got some stuff in the mail! I bought a Solatorobo collection that came with the OST, a pin, a side manga by the Solatorobo team, 4-Koma comics, the storyboard book for the animated sequences, and the 3rd concept art book. The page in other image shows various concepts of Red, the games protagonist.
Pretty neat!
why did every forum ever have like, one dude who thought he was cool for having the ghost in the shell laughing man gif as his icon
- He has anxiety issues
- He stims by chewing on his bone all the time
- He’s multilingual. He’s not particularly talented, he just really wanted to hone this specific skill so he spent a lot of time reading and listening to stuff in his target language. Most notably, he uses Kato Lomb’s approach, a branch of input-based language learning