Surprise German lesson!

I see so many people who don't speak German and try to write a German word, just take our "ü/ö/ä" letters and just turn them to "u/o/a", and I have to beg you all to PLEASE STOP DOING THIS.

Not only is this grammatically wrong, in some instances it can also just change the meaning of the word (since those letters are often used to multiple of something, you can suddenly (for example) turn multiple apples into a single apple (Apfel = singular, Äpfel = multiple) not to mention that some words get written with ü/ö/ä sounds if you turn them to past tense forms as well.

Yes I KNOW not everyone tends to have the ü/ö/ä letters on their keyboards, but there is a legitimate alternative GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT way to write these letters! Please use the alternative writing of those letters if you want to write a German word that has those letters!

Alternative writings for these letters:

ü = ue ö = oe ä = ae

Examples with words who use ü, ö, and ä with the grammatically correct alternative writing of these letters:

Tür (Door) = Tuer Mücke (Mosquito) = Muecke Verrückt (Crazy) = Verrueckt Bühne (Stage, like a theatre stage) = Buehne Köstlich (delicious) = Koestlich Fröhlich (happy) = Froehlich Überhöre (overhear, with both ü & ö sound to spice things up) = Ueberhoere Knöpfe (buttons) = Knoepfe Päckchen (small package) = Paeckchen Äpfel (apples) = Aepfel Ägypten (Egypt) = Aegypten Wächst (grows) = Waechst

Now these alternative spellings also look odd for a native German speaker at first (since we usually have the letters on our keyboards and would use those everywhere) BUT these are the actual grammatically correct spellings AND they make sure there wont be possible misunderstandings with some words!

Extra funfact:

in German crossword puzzles you actually also use the "ue" "oe" and "ae" spellings for the ü, ö, and ä letters!

I am not really into crossword puzzles myself, so even tho I am a native German speaker, I also only found out about that myself not too long ago, LOL.

love

The anti-vax and anti-science propaganda is very real - and also, frankly I think doctors and nurses would've had an easier time getting people not to fall for it if they spent less time treating people like fucking shit

digital selfharm is real. do NOT check up on that ex-partner/ex-friend. do NOT reread those old messages/conversations that you know will hurt your feelings all over again or that will otherwise make you feel like shit. do NOT block evade to see if you’re being talked about. inhale. exhale. let it pass and you’ll be better for it.

fuck harry potter and fuck jk rowling’s transphobic racist ableist ass

that's a weird shaped speed bump, zhanna

warning ⚠️

reblog for a hit of the joint that makes you gay

"Learn the fundamentals first" seems like really sound universal advice, and as a former classical musician, I can vouch for it. You will have a more solid foundation for increasing complexity if you put in the time to study in a structured way. If you don't, you'll have a lot of shit to fix later.

As a former music teacher, I can also say that "learn the fundamentals first" is the death knell for a vast percentage of beginners, especially adult learners.

I've run into this with drawing several times, where some well-meaning artist has lectured me on needing to study anatomy properly or not use shortcuts like CSP brushes. And oh, believe me, I know. I know exactly how to learn an artistic discipline in a structured way. I just...don't want to!

The thing is, I'm not aiming to be a professional artist. I want to draw my gay little anime guys. I would undoubtedly improve at art much faster if I approached every gay little anime guy drawing as a study exercise. But I would also have quit drawing a decade ago if I couldn't just let myself enjoy drawing imperfect fucked-up little guys with whatever shortcuts I needed to body myself across the finish line.

With my adult piano students, my approach was always "What's your goal?" If their goal was to learn exactly one Elton John songbook to play at parties, then...that's what we did. We'd put tape on the keys to label the notes, and just fuckin go for it. Learning exactly one Elton John songbook is a good and noble musical goal, full stop.

Some of my students needed and enjoyed a more structured approach to learning; if they wanted to be able to play classical music, then yes, scales were going to have to enter the equation at some point. And yet others would learn the Elton John songbook, catch their white whale, and realize they wanted to explore more of the ocean. The scales were still there for them to learn!

Often the choice isn't between "learn art well" and "learn art imperfectly" - the choice is between "learn art imperfectly" and "don't do art at all." To which I say, learn imperfectly! Or, what the hell, don't 'learn' art. Just do, and enjoy the doing of it.

You have official permission from your local pretentious classical music snob: fuck the fundamentals. You can always unfuck them later (but only if you want to).

Sometimes having an OC is like "this character is an outlet for my insecurity and trauma" and sometimes it's like "this character is an outlet for my love of vampires :)". Sometimes it's both

Sometimes you think it's "this character is an outlet for my love and nothing more :)" and then you look it over later like "shit. product of the deepest depths of my soul again"