Skip Navigation

User banner
InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)S
Posts
4
Comments
555
Joined
1 yr. ago

  • Not OP, but: watched Haruhi a while back in English Dub, because there's no German one. It was ok. The main POV character's monotone voice was fitting in a fun way, but almost everyone else still has this fake energy to it (esp Haruhi and Asahina). Really hard to describe.

    In general it's baffling to me how fake English dubs sound, especially because there clearly are a lot of talented English voice actors doing the voices for cartoons etc.

    I have the privilege of comparing the English Dubs to the German ones for a lot of shows, and it's really interesting how, while the German VAs sound distinctly different from the Japanese originals, they sound natural and not overacted, while the English counterparts almost always sound like they were told "make it sound as fake as possible".

  • What this lovely person said.

    Also, and maybe I am alone here, but when I said learning to write, I really meant with a pen, on paper (or a tablet, I guess), not through an app where you need to smush your fingers in approximately the right place for the line to snap to the correct position; that does not really translate to being able to write.

  • The Hegemony Consul sat on the balcony of his ebony spaceship and played Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp Minor on an ancient but well-maintained Steinway while great, green, saurian things surged and bellowed in the swamps below.

    One I've recently re-read. Not quite as catchy as some of the others here, but manages to capture the world and mood of the setting remarkably well in just one sentence.

  • Me and my GF are currently doing this. Some recommendations from personal experience:

    • Pimsleur is really nice for getting from 0 to being able to speak and understand some amount. It's very much less overwhelming than jumping head-first into grammar. You can find torrents for it. It's also a really good way to learn to listen to and speak Japanese out loud, something most other resources lack.
    • everyone recommends Genki, and I concurr; it's a good book series on grammar, with plenty exercises. Will really help filling in the gaps where you have gotten a feeling for things with Pimsleur, but are not able to grasp the underlying concepts intuitively.
    • don't shy away from Hiragana and Katakana. They are easy to learn (seriously, spend an afternoon on each and then do kana.pro for a week and never look back). Ignoring this will prevent you from using most learning resources.
    • use Anki; again, everyone says this, because it's true. You can download a pre-made pack for Genki. 10-15 cards a day are a good leisurely pace, allowing you to tackle a new chapter in Genki approximately every 7-10 days.
    • don't fall in the rabbithole of watching YouTube videos on learning Japanese. Just study instead. If there's a concrete thing you struggle with, look for a Video on that topic. Most of the geberal advice videos seem to come from English-speaking folks for whom Japanese is their first foreign language (which is great! Don't get me wrong!), and the resulting information ranges from obvious to questionable.
    • decide if you want to learn Kanji (if you don't know them anyways, given your stated experience). I'd recommend it. It's actually quite fun, and if you want to watch Anime in Japanese, there's a good chance you'll have to use Japanese subs for a while to help along anyways...
    • most people online seem to suggest only learning to read Kanji, because "you never need to handwrite things today anyways". I call bullshit. It's marginal additional effort, can actually help you with recognition, and if you ever end up needing / wanting to write by hand, you'd have to start all over otherwise.

    Lastly, no, it is not a waste of time. Apart from anime, a new language means new ways of thinking, of challenging yourself, of being able to experience people and culture through a new lense, and potentially increasing job opportunities.

    Plus if you ever end up visiting Japan, it really comes in handy.

    Feel free to ask any followup things that I've forgotten about...

    Edit: I forgot to mention: I am nowhere near fluent yet, and do not claim the suggestions above as "ultimate Japanese learner advice" or anything like that.

    Also, very quickly you'll start noticing phrases, words, topics when watching anime or japanese videos or music, even if you can't follow the full conversation. That's what really motivated and kept me going early on.

  • Why?

    Jump
  • Grew up on it. My dad set up a Ubuntu 4.10 PC for my brother and I when we were 3/5 (no internet, obv), and it stuck.

    Used Windows for a brief time in highschool to be able to play online with friends.

    Went right back to Linux when going to university. Will never change back, both for ideological reasons and because Linux is just better.

    Next step: NixOS on a phone

  • Another thank you! Sumire is exactly what I have been looking for

  • A substantial amount of open source devs will probably just give up working on their projects if they can no longer be installed by most users.

    That will also affect Graphene users.

    Graphene will also only work until Google one day says "You know what... No!" and stops allowing it on their (new) hardware. I don't think that's far in the future.

  • Do not

  • Ah crap I'm dead. Should have known. Arguing with you felt like purgatory after all.

  • Hey, it's me! I made that comment! And I stand by it.

    Not a lib though.

  • I don’t fed post.

    So "no", got it.

  • As a part of at least one of those minorities: fuck you!

    You let me know why you thought not filling out a slip of paper was more important than the lives of my brothers and sisters.

  • Good news! I am doing something! I'm an active part of a vehemently anti-fascist party in my country! And I'm proud to say that we've been passing actually progressive legislation and being the stop-block against a slide right.

    How about yourself? Have you actually done anything besides shitposting?

    If you'd fight in the revolution, but not fight in the revolution and cast a vote, I seriously question your commitment to the fighting-in-the-revolution part.

  • Seeing as you have not done that yet, it would appear that voting would be, well, more than you have done :) How do you justify your complacency and subjugation to the system you pretend to loathe?

  • Whenever I read a comment such as yours, I get the distinct impression that you actually relish the thought of causing suffering.

    You self-glorify through the thought of "Well I did not support this system! If everyone was like me, this would all be solved!" - it's so easy, right? All those people experiencing additional suffering because you are too lazy to cast a vote sure are grateful to you for sticking to your principals, heroically practicing non-participation in a system built on suffering by... furthering that suffering. Hey, wait a minute!

    I don't even know why I am writing all this out. Chances are you are either a troll, a bot, or simply so deeply misguided that nothing I say could possibly reach you.

    At some level though, you must know that making it easier for fascists to seize power actively hurts what you claim to stand for. You could always move the needle a little by voting, and still do whatever you believe needs doing beyond that; those are not mutually exclusive.

  • I'm not American.

    The lesser evil is still less evil. Not voting actively makes your goals more unattainable.

  • Lmao I kept thinking you forgot to put quotes and was waiting for the inevitable "...this is what too many idiots think, even though it is obvious bullshit", and yet it just...never came. Amazing. This might be the single most stupid comment I've ever read, and I've been on the internet for a while.

  • Ok, but not voting is harm increasement.

  • Is this about the straight werewolves author?