Anyway the last point I have to make here is that even if tumblr breaks under the algorithm (almost certain if they don’t back out of using it) and/or everybody leaves… I don’t have anywhere else to go or post things
people like to joke about it being bad, but I legitimately really like Tumblr. it actually feels like a blogging platform in a world where facebook and twitter are active political weapons that manipulate us elections. i don’t feel like i’m baring myself to content i don’t want to see here, or having to engage with a popularity-focused culture. the content isn’t sorted to influence you or trick you. it’s a bunch of people being themselves on their own terms. it’s oldnet.
yes, i do use other websites, but i’m not interested in posting personal things to any of them. this was a place i had control over and i’ll stay with it until i can’t. and when that happens there’ll be nothing left.
I underestimate myself SO MUCH, like when I’m watching a movie in english without captions, or watching an awarding ceremony live and people aroune me are all like “lol do you understand this?” and I’m like “yeah, it’s easy, it’s only english!”
But then it clicks
English courses cost around $350 per month (good ones)
Private teacher will charge like R$80 for ONE HOUR of conversation
not everyone has the money (I never did)
or the energy (thanks God for giving me this one at least)
but learning english by myself was something so easy for me that when people compliment me I’m all like “psh, it wasn’t that hard!” but I AM BILINGUAL.
I mean, my english is not perfect, but I can read 400 pages, write small texts, listen to natives and understand them, I can actually speak.
And I’ve done this BY MYSELF, so yes, this is a big thing.
It’s an entire new language, I should value myself more.
[image: 4 panel fancomic of Drift in different eras visualizing/remembering Ratchet.
Young Drift remembers Young Ratchet, who says “Take care!” with a soft smile on his face. Drift’s crying with his hands on his face and a bandaid on his helm “I met an angel today!”
Deadlock visualizes early-war Ratchet, who says: “Didn’t think we’d meet like this but I’m glad you’re okay.” Deadlock steams. “What the fuck is wrong with him? Like he cares.”
Drift visualizes late-war Ratchet, who says: “Good to have you on this side.” Drift smiles happily “Still too kind for his own good I see…”
mtmte era Ratchet sticks his middle finger up, radiating fury. Drift sweats in confusion, little shocked question marks floating around him.
I started Hebrew, which is why I’ve been dead on this blog, but I don’t think I can ever properly convey to you guys the sheer cultural whiplash of spending years learning Japanese from Japanese teachers and then trying to learn Hebrew from an Israeli
Japanese: you walk into class already apologizing for being alive Hebrew: you walk into class, the teacher insults you and you are expected to insult her back
Japanese: conjugates every single verb based on degree of intended politeness, nevermind keigo and honorifics Hebrew: Someone asked my teacher how to say “excuse me” and she laughed for several seconds before saying we shouldn’t worry about remembering that since we’ll never need to say it
Japanese: if you get one stroke wrong the entire kanji is incomprehensible Hebrew: cursive? script? fuck it do whatever you want, you don’t even have to write the vowels out unless you feel like it
Japanese: the closest thing there is to ‘bastard’ is an excessively direct ‘you’ pronoun Hebrew: ‘bitch’ translates directly
Fun fact: Israel has possibly the lowest power-distance metric of any culture in the world, while Japan has one of the highest. I didn’t realize that the CTO of my company was the CTO until somebody else told me, because everybody called him by his first name and engaged in mutual shit-talking/playful insults with him.
In Japan, even calling your boss by the wrong honorific is liable to get you in trouble.
And apparently there’s some sciencey cooperative venture going on between Israel and Japan in an official diplomatic capacity. I want to be a fly on the wall when Japanese and Israeli scientists work together.
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