#i always think of pez (fish) when i read his name | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

psychotic4ghost · 11 months

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Simon Riley x Mykie (OC) {fem!character}

I wanted to introduce my OC on my Tumblr, this is the character I identify with so I apologize if this isn't one you can really insert yourself into. I plan to write some of those too. But I thought I'd write this cute lil one-shot. I do plan to write some smut eventually too hehe. There is also Spanish in this and if I messed up please tell me! I don't speak Spanish so I did my best.

SWF (mentions of nudity and drinking) Everyone is of age for all activities mentioned in the story!

“Two whole months off. Can you believe it, Soap?” Mykie nudged her team mate in the shoulder.

Soap chuckled. “It is exciting, how many pubs do you think we can hit up this time?”

“At least ten, like, minimum.” Mykie chuckled. Both of them were full blooded Scots, drinking together was how they bonded. The rest of the group would tag along but they secretly went just to make sure Soap and Mykie didn’t kill themselves on their bender. Ghost was mainly, if not only there to make sure nothing happened to his squad mates.

—---

“Dos cervezas, un pez. What does that even mean?” Soap asked as he read the sign that hung above the door to the bar they found.

“I have no clue but I think ‘pez’ is fish…” Mykie trailed off.

“Significa dos cervezas un pez- It means, Two Beers, one fish.” Alejandro informed the two puzzled Scots.

“Fuck kind of names is that?” Soap questioned as he pushed the doors open. Alejandro shrugged his shoulders. He usually joined in on their benders for two reasons, he loves to drink, and he had to be their translator most of the time. The two Scots knew some Spanish, but not enough to order good drinks.

“Una ronda de tequila, hermano.” Alejandro waved to one of the bartenders. They nodded their head and soon a tray of tequila shots were placed in front of the group.

Soap and Mykie didn’t hesitate to grab a shot each. They clinked the glasses together, tapped the bottoms on the table and shot them back quickly.

Mykie let out a satisfied sigh, “C’mon Ghost, take a shot. Pretty please?”

“No. Can’t keep watch if I’m drunk.”

“Are you saying you're a lightweight?” Mykie teased.

“Quite the opposite.”

“I don’t believe you. I bet you can’t even take a shot of some basic tequila without winsing.” Mykie pushed further.

Ghost let out a long sigh as he pulled the chin of his black baklava up, just enough to reveal his lips. He gripped the shot in his hand, tapped it on the table and downed it in quick succession. “Easy.”

Mykie giggled as she grabbed another shot, tapping the bottom and throwing it back just the same as the last.

After a few more rounds, Soap was starting to slur his words just a little. Mykie was turning a bright shade of pink, Gaz was passed out with his head on the table. Price had even joined them but he ordered himself a glass of sipping whiskey along with Ghost who did the same. Alejandro was in the same state as Soap, the two were giggling and cracking dumb jokes.

“Ghoooossttt, do shots with meeee.” Mykie pleaded as she scooted her stool closer to Ghost. She always made a point to push his buttons, even more so when she was drunk.

Ghost rolled his eyes, “How many shots have you had, Mini?” He couldn’t fully fight the small smile that tugged at his lips under the mask.

“I lost count…” Mykie giggled even more.

“I think they both did about 7 shots. You know they can both do more before they are black out.” Price sighed.

“I wanna do more, I’m fiiiine.” Mykie groaned as she laid her head on the table.

“I think you’ve had enough. I’m going to take her to the barracks, can you handle the others or should I come back?” Ghost asked as he stood from his stool. Price shook his head and did a little ‘shoo’ hand gesture. Rudy was with them too and had also opted for sipping whiskey.

“We’ve got it, take care of her.” Rudy chimed in.

Ghost nodded his head as he hooked Mykie’s arm over his neck. Mykie let out some more giggles and incoherent whispers as she swung her body to face Ghost’s, she threw her other arm around his neck. He was much taller compared to her, causing her to hang from his neck. Ghost quickly scooped her up bridal style as he carried her off to one of the two jeeps they drove.

“In ya go.” Ghost said as he sat Mykie down in the passenger seat. He buckled her in while swatting her hands off his mask. She was always super touchy with Ghost when she was intoxicated. Before he could pull himself out of the passenger side, Mykie gripped his dog tags that were poking out of his jacket. She gave them a slight tug, pulling him towards her face.

“I want to see your lips again.” Mykie looked up at him through glossy eyes.

“Let go, Mini. We need to get you back home.” Ghost let out a breathy chuckle. He had to pry her small fingers off his necklace before closing the passenger door. He climbed into the driver's seat and took off down the tight streets of La Almas.

Back at the base, Ghost lugged Mykie out of the car and up the steps to the base. He tossed her down onto one of the couches in the common room and threw himself into an armchair that sat cross from the couch.

“Ghost…you know…you smell good.” Mykie slurred out as she cuddled up onto the couch. She gripped on of the decorative pillows and hugged it tightly.

"Thank you?" Ghost was finding it harder and harder to fight the smirks that tugged at his lips. He pulled the skull mask and black baklava off of his head. He shook his head as he pushed his hands through his hair, ruffling it back up.

"Ghost." Mykie was making grabby hands towards his location, her eyes where half closed.

"We should get you to bed. What do you say to a quick shower?" Ghost asked as he pulled himself back up off the armchair. He lifted her up bridal style once more and carried her to her own room.

Ghost set her down on the toilet lid which was across from the shower. He shifted his body to turn the small shower on, he ran the water over his ungloved hand, waiting for it to reach the right temperature.

"Arms up." Ghost ordered. Mykie lifted her arms up lazily. Her head hung between her shoulders. Ghost gripped the hem up her shirt and pulled up and over her head and arms. He gently tugged her belt off, her shoes, socks and pants came soon after.

"Oh jeez it's cold." Mykie let out a small shizzer, the cold slowly stealing her drunk state away.

"The shower is hot, come here." Ghost gripped Mykies hands and pulled her up and into his body. She hugged him sloppily as he undid her bra and tossed it to the floor with the rest of her clothes. Mykie hooked her own fingers into her panties and pushed them down.

"Off..." Mykie mumbled as she tugged at Ghost's shirt. "Please...shower with me..." She grumbled as she continued to press her now naked body into him.

Ghost sighed. "Get in first, I'll join you."

Mykie giggled softly as she was turned and pushed lightly into the running water. The showers all had small built in shelves for sitting, and she didn't hesitate to sit down on it.

Mykie watched as Ghost pulled his jacket and shirt off. He undid his belt and dropped his pants and boxers to the floor after unlacing his boots. He climbed into the shower after her.

"Come here." Ghost directed as he tugged Mykie up by her hands. Her hands were tiny compared to his. Her dainty fingers interlaced with his large ones. She pressed her body against his as she took a big, deep breath in.

Mykie sighed, "I could stand like this for hours."

"Me too." Ghost smiled against the top of her head.

"Simon?"

"Hm?"

"I know the words aren't exactly ones we say much...but I love you." Mykie mumbled against his bare chest.

"I know, Mykie. I know."

#heh heh #simon ghost riley #mw2 simon riley #OC #soft simon riley #simon riley x fem!OC #call of duty #ghost call of duty #simon riley #simon riley call of duty

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danniburgh · 3 years

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Carlos; a RushBit extra

From chapter 24 // ao3 // fic index // Masterlist

So, @disgruntledspacedad asked when she read chapter 24:

“Okay I have just one question. What is the backstory on Carlos???

Alligator gars are impressively large and prehistorically scary, and the fact that Chucho has one mounted in his home says so much about him. I am genuinely intrigued.”

And that question made me laugh a lot, so here we have the story of Carlos, the alligator gar fish;

Thanks to @purplepascal042 that helped me a lot with this one bc I know NOTHING about fishing, love you always.

The beginning of Carlos' story starts in 1960, in which Chucho started going fishing with some neighbours and their kids; it had started as something Javi (aged 9 here) had asked and Chucho being somehow (fully, Margarita would add) wrapped around the kid's finger, had put together.

Just a trip to go fishing with three neighbours from the nearby ranches and their kids.

It became something they did every month and then, something they did without the kids.

Margarita would say, years later, that she was happy her husband was bonding and making friends with other men but she really disliked that they had left out the children, even if Javi moved on to something else, like tending to the baby cows.

To celebrate a year of their fishing trips, one of the guys would mention something about going onto a larger road-trip to see if they could catch larger fish.

What Chucho didn't know, and wasn't informed because his friends were little assholes, was that the trip was focused solely on catching the large, trashy, monstrous alligator gar.

Those years, that fish was seen as a threat because what the fuck do you mean there's a combination between alligators and fish?????? so when Chucho let his wife and kid know he was going to be gone for a full weekend to try to catch big fishes he got two reactions:

"Oh, hell no." and "Llévame, pop!" (take me)

You already guessed; Margarita was pissed, Chucho was a hands on dad, and he would take Javi with him to work after school and on weekends so his wife could have a rest, Javier wasn't a bad kid or naughty, but he was just so fucking curious and active that she just didn't have energy to keep up with him, so, for Chucho to be gone for seventy-two hours was a NO from her.

Chucho had to beg and promise he would take Javi for a road trip the next weekend so Margarita would have the house to herself.

Javier was pissed too, though, he wanted to go and spend the weekend with his dad fishing, but Chucho told him it was a grow-up's trip and promised the same thing.

So, a six-hour road trip with four men on a van later, Chucho confirmed a suspicion just by looking at the river and at the bait... They were gonna use actual fish. And of course, the other people around hanging their large catches.

But, as a good Mexican man, he wasn't chickening out; he grabbed his fishing rod, and he didn't even ask his friends if they were completely out of their minds, he knew they were.

Up to the challenge, you could see four men standing on a boat, on the place where two currents converged, talking about how amazing would it be if they caught a monster fish.

“You don’t really think we’re gonna catch that thing, do you?” he had asked, and got a groan echoed by three voices.

“Stop being so pessimistic, Jesús.”

And just like that, well, four hours later, the first fishing rod to start pulling, was Chucho’s.

Everyone lost their minds in that moment, one of them even let his own rod fall to the water and didn’t even bother to look twice at how it sank, Chucho was struggling, so two of his friends dropped their rods on the boat and started helping him with the fight while the fourth kneeled on the boat to pull the anchor and rushed to the steering wheel to keep the heavy fucker from pulling the boat, the two guys that were helping Chucho were screaming at each other, one grabbing him by the waist to keep him on the boat and the other taking the rod to keep it steady as Chucho concentrated on releasing the line and reeling back.

Everyone was screaming around him but Chucho was silent, frowning and focused on not letting the heavy fish go away, he had begged his family for a chance to go on the trip and he wasn’t wasting it.

After forty-four minutes of fighting, tensioning, reeling back and constant screaming that had Chucho’s ears ringing, the fish gave up and between the three guys pulled it into the boat, one of them took his shirt off to wrap around its mouth just to prevent any chomps and they all let out a spent sigh at the same time.

“Let’s get out of here.” one of them said.

So, a day earlier than expected, Chucho arrived home and yelled out for Javi, who rushed out of the house to see his dad and his friends take out of the van a large four feet, green and scaly dead fish that looked scary enough to make a ten-year-old stop on his feet and frown at four grown men.

“Pop, what is that?” Javi asked loud enough to make the other men laugh.

“A fish!”

“What in God’s name you brought, Jesús!?” his wife yelled behind Javier.

“¡Un pez para la casa!” (a fish for the house)

“No vas a poner eso en mi casa, no señor.” (you're not putting that in the house)

“C’mon Maggie,” one of Chucho’s friend stepped in “we spent forty-five minutes catching this thing.”

“I don’t care, it’s not getting inside the house.”

“It’s part of the family now.” Chucho teased his wife, who frowned and glared at him.

“It looks scary” Javier let out, sauntering towards the dead animal “looks like a dinosaur.”

“Looks like the man that knocked up your sister.” spat Margarita, Javier widened his brown eyes to his mom and Chucho let out a loud cackle.

“Carlos!”

let me know if you wanna be removed :)

pedrito's perma list: @queenofthefaceless @northernpunk @pascalesque @sleep-tight1 @cheekygeek05 @bii-aan-ckaa @letaliabane @starlightmornings @mouthymandalorianalso @supernaturalgirl @metalarmsandmanbuns @purplepascal042 @asta-lily @greeneyedblondie44 @missswriter @juletheghoul @pedro-pastel @agirllovespancakes

Javi's babies: @pulplorrd

RushBit tag list: @shestillwrites1 @absurdthirst @alliterative-albatross @thoughtfulpandawasteland @wifeofdindjarin @lank-sextburg @helloannbananalove @diogodxlot @pascalslittlebrat @sarahjkl82-blog @pedritobalmando @a-court-of-feysand-and-elorcan @mamacitapascal @dobbyjen @callsigncatfish @feminist-violinist @jasmincita @pascalove @eury-dice3 @gingaahhhh @athalien @girlimjusttryingtoreadfanfics

#javier peña #Javier Pena #javier peña x reader #javier peña fanfiction #javier peña fanfic #chucho peña #narcos #narcos fanfic #narcos netflix #Jose Pedro Balmaceda Pascal #Pedro Pascal #pedro pascal characters #rushingly bittersweet tag

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wheel-of-fish · 4 years

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By the Numbers Jöback, Hill, Stolle

By the Numbers: The Peter Jöback/Samantha Hill/Jeremy Stolle Stream, August 15, 2020

A more timely roundup! The things that can be accomplished without a kitten on your head!

This was a fascinating boot, featuring a Phantom with a lovely Swedish accented tenor voice, Samantha “too sweet to be hot, except to the Phantom” Hill, and release-the-thirst-floodgates Jeremy Stolle. The Stolle thirst was boundless. The Stolle thirst was all encompassing. There was scarcely a vocal phrasing, gesture, line read or body part that was not only mentioned but gushed over. I did not even begin to count the ways. Every category would have been “greater than infinity”. And, every comment was true. This man delivered! From the height of his tallness to the depths of his deep baritone, Stolle was on a roll in this boot. The boot itself was very good quality, only one large Head occasionally swallowing the action like a black hole. Very worth seeing! The passion of the AIAOY Kiss is matched only by the physics involved in making it happen between oh so tall Stolle and oh so small Hill. But true love always finds a way!

Suggested names for this boot: Jöback in Black Boot, IKEA Phantom Boot, Stolle the Show Boot (Okay, nobody suggested these. It was me. I suggested these. The first one was from Fish’s password for this stream, though!)

Statistician’s Favorite Boot Name: The FÅNTØM Boot (again, nobody’s suggestion but mine, spelling courtesy of missbuster)

Wow, we like to talk about Phantoms: Well this week, we seemed to talk about everybody except other Phantoms. Oh sure, some were mentioned, but let’s mix it up and see what other names were dropped this week. Supply your own context for even greater amusement, because heaven knows you won’t find it here. These numbers are a lot more accurate because, again, no kitten on head this week. It occurs to me that instead of meticulous record keeping, I could just make crap up. Not this week. Maybe next week. All these people were genuinely mentioned in this week’s stream.

Carly Rae Jepsen (7), Vin Diesel (1), John Travolta (3), Antonio Banderas (5), Hugh Jackman (3), Ian McKellen (3), Judy Dench (1), Emmy Rossum (2), Anne Hathaway (4), Russell Crowe (3), Patrick Wilson (1), James Corden (1), Rebel Wilson (1), Hadley Fraser (1), Kelly O’Hara (1), Francesca Hayward (1), Michael Gruber (1)

Fond mentions of 1998 “Cats”: 6

Mentions of 2019 “Cats”: 12 (I have left out any adjectives as most were Not Charitable.)

Opinions that “Cats” should only be done as an animation: 2

Oh, hey, yeah, another Phantom, mentions of Gerard Butler: 5 (I have left out any adjectives as most were along the lines of Bless His Heart)

Oh, hey, yeah, another Phantom, mentions of Paul Stanley: 14 (I have left out any adjectives as most were somewhere between Not Charitable and Bless His Heart)

Wishes for Rose to have good luck on her date while the rest of us stayed glued to our monitors on a Saturday night: 9

Inappropriate Random Zoom: to Christine’s dressing table during Raoul’s visit (not NEARLY as inappropriate as the Random Zoom to Barbara the mannequin’s doors of summer during last week’s stream.)

Self-Caress mentions: 3 (The Phantom. The PHANTOM. Not whatever you were thinking.)

What scent are the Phantom’s candles: Hopeless Mist (no, the Phantom’s candles were not discussed this week. As the creator of the candle line which includes Underground Despair, I have decided to use this statistical summary to focus group test additional scentsations suitable for the Phantom’s Lair. You are warned that this may be an Ongoing Feature.)

For Science mentions: 6

Boner mentions: 2 (I will not name names, you know who you are)

Apparent confirmation of boner mentions by people noticing Christine looking down during The Sprawl: 3

Is there any safe way to say that boner mentions are ummm trending downward?: No

Unofficial Dialogue: “TA DAAA” when the Phantom reveals the mirror bride (courtesy Wheel-of-fish, who just barely beat haunted-hideaway to it)

Outrageous Rumors Category:

“Carly Rae Jepsen as Meg…..A dream”—deardaaery

“Carly Rae Jepsen played Meg???” –mrskroger

“I love how these streams can be used to start outrageous rumors”—Aldebaran

“rushing to tumblr to tell everyone about carly rae jepsen playing meg”—Wheel-of-fish

“Vin Diesel played Raoul, fact”—Aldebaran

IKEA mentions: 10

Suggestions for additional characters Jeremy Stolle could play in the All Stolle Show (phantom-of-the basement): Mirror Bride (christinegrrl), Monkey Music Box (Flora-Gray), Madame Firmin (ktarinajones)

Everyone’s a critic: “First review for the all stolle show has to be “he stolle the show” otherwise it’s a missed opportunity”—butdreamsofbeauty

The Phantom’s pillows mentions: 7

People of the opinion that the Phantom should use one of his 600 pillows as a cushion for fainted Christine’s head: 2 (question and number of pillows estimated by ashadeintheshade)

Vintage madamefaust on the Pillow Question:

Look, he took a long time arranging those pillows. They’re from Pier One, they’re expensive, he doesn’t want to put them on the floor.

Erik has skillz:

“You know he’s handy. Everything is probably homemade. Bitch can sew a hem.”—Melancholy’s Child

“Erik as a contestant on Project Runway”—Benny-Lynne

“I’m convinced he hand-sewed the Red Death costume.”—haunted-hideaway

“Five and half months working on that Red Death cosplay”—yamiangie

“has a “Red Death” pintrest”—blahahala

Outrageous Rumors Part Two:

“The pillows are hot-glued to the boat”—wheel-of-fish

People who fell for the Phantom hot-gluing pillows to the boat: 4

Outrageous Rumors Part Three

“Carly Rae Jepsen hot glued those pillows”—wheel-of-fish

We stan a crafty Phantom:

“I just like the idea of Erik with a glue gun”—wheel-of-fish

“erik bedazzling things”—butdreamsofbeauty

“He DEFINITELY has a bedazzler.”—madamefaust

“erik bedazzles his own capes”—christinegrrl

“erik with a staple gun putting pillows on a boat: KACHUNK”— phantomofthebasement

Barbara Speaks:

“Being a mirror bride must be a hard job”—mrskroger

“damn straight”—the-real-barbara

Rare Don Atillio appreciation mention: 1

Andre’s probable fear of ballerinas mentions: 6 (as suggested by madamefaust)

Andre’s issue gets a name: Tutuphobia—Aldebaran

Possible alternate ending for POTO:

There’s like 8 ballerinas….if they all came together the Phantom would have no chance.—hell-lawliet

That’s why Buquet always carries a noose, fear of ballerinas–Aldebaran

AIAOY Kiss comments: 45 comments in 24 seconds

Requests for AIAOY Kiss replay: 6 (replay occurred)

Incorrect use of the Raoul as an International Unit of Measure: 1 (I misstated in the stream that Christine would be 1.62 Raouls in height. This is clearly false, as it would make her much taller than Raoul, who is already impossibly tall. Using as our values Mr. Stolle at 6’3” and Ms. Hill at 5’4”, Christine’s height expressed in Raouls would be .8533 Raouls. The statistician regrets the error. This is why maybe I should just make crap up next time. No, I will not convert the heights to the metric system.)

Debut of IKEA Phantom:

“And the Phantom is just quietly weeping in the angel because…even he knows that is a hard act to follow”—madamefaust

“That is a kiss to cause a Phantom mental breakdown for sure”—Flora-Gray

“oh no the ikea phantom becomes unassembled”—Aldebaran

“he wasn’t anchored to the wall”—Benny-Lynne

“Someone get the allen wrench, we need to put back together a saad boi”—haunted-hideaway

Unholy Trinity of Cooper/Thiago/Uwe mentions: 1 (by madamefaust, who perhaps is protected by the sheer power of her vast Phannish humor and talent. Please do not invoke the Unholy Trinity on a whim yourself.)

Respect given to Steve Barton in the form of “Fs”: 11 (entirely appropriate at any time but especially during a boot with such a stellar Raoul)

Red Death as a Swedish Fish mentions: 3 (not to his face, never to his face)

“tiny swedish fish red death”—Aldebaran

“HE IS A SWEDISH FISH”—madamefaust

“the most dramatic swedish fish”—butdreamsofbeauty

Best from Onthevirg’s Mom: “We should talk about Phantom Jaws”

Fathering Gaze lyric: 1

Split decision on the statement by mrskroger that Wandering Child has a strong Daddy’s Home vibe:

*Strong NO from Wheel-of-fish

*Strong YES from Benny-Lynne

That staff tho:

“Fire Pez One. Fire Pez Two.”—Aldebaran

“Skeletor Pez Dispenser”—DoCTy

“I wonder what it’s like to be that dramatique that you fashion a staff that shoots fire”—haunted-hideaway

“He probably bedazzled the staff as well”—Aldebaran

“oh he definitely bedazzled it”—christinegrrrl

“ ‘bedazzled staff’ definitely sounds like something hmm”—onthevirg

Number of audience cell phone rings at insanely crucial moments: 1

Attempting to bring Logic to PONR:

“I know it’s a plot device, but who has a hood that big, really?”—haunted-hideaway

“THIS IS THE EXACT SAME MAN. MUCH STEALTH. SUPER INCOGNITO”—madamefaust

“Yeah, I don’t know guys…I don’t think that’s Piangi…?” —Flora-Gray

“yeah swedish italian accent is a giveaway”–Aldebaran

Education of the Innocent:

“ok, I don’t know The Lore, why do we call her Barbara”—butdreamsofbeauty

“Haunted named her in a stream. She said: ‘Her name is Barbara and she had hopes and dreams once.’ I said I would never forget it and I have not.”–Aldebaran

The mob storms IKEA:

“time to flat pack the FÅNTØM”—missbuster

“So you’re saying Stolle should just squash the Phantom” —GlassPrism

“he comes apart for easy handling”—missbuster

“Get the Allen wrench”—madamefaust

Reactions to the Phantom after Christine’s final exit: 37 comments in 59 seconds

Sad comment is sad: We don’t even need the allen wrench, he came apart on his own. – madamefaust

Things I wish I had said:

“Moist Raoulette”—haunted-hideaway

“no Tol Raol Pol?”—missbuster, at not seeing Raoul boating away post Final Lair

“No Stolle Tolle Rolle Polle?”—missbuster, with continued disappointment

Dreams do come true:

You know. If you had told 14 year old me that in the future I could watch Phantom EVERY WEEKEND I would have died on the spot—missbuster

Statistician Aldebaran’s two no three favorite personal quotes:

re: Jöback “He crawls with an accent”

“Raoul conveniently wore a ladder jacket to make it easier for Christine to climb”

“Erik is just in a perpetual state of PONR”

Thank you as always for the submission, kind statistician Aldebaran!

#gooood stuff #saturday streams #submission #aldebaran #by the numbers

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koreanstudentiseul · 5 years

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My Language Learning Experience (2006-2019)

Hello~ as requested, here is my language journey/experience post. So fair warning this is a very long post. Way longer than I meant it to be, but I did warn this when you guys asked for it so I’m sorry in advance.

For this, I’m going chronologically, but I’ll mark it clearly if you wanna just read specific bits, I don’t blame anyone who wants to skip sections it is a lot of text. With that said, let’s begin~

1st: Spanish.

My first experience learning language was in Primary school, at aged 10 (due to a late birthday) when we were surprised by a sparkly new class that wasn’t offered in the school before. Spanish. I don’t remember much from this point being nearly 14 years ago but I remember finding the class difficult because the teacher wasn’t very approachable and seemed to play favourites. At least in the context of only helping certain pupils rather than all the pupils. I picked up a few things, like 1-10 and some animal names but that was about it.

I continued Spanish in High school as it was a mandatory subject in the first 2 years, I learned more from these classes mostly I think because they were more used to teaching the subject but I can’t say that with any certainty. I have mixed memories from this time as we were forced to endless exercises that didn’t explain anything, yes/no style corrections which don’t help anyone, and my teacher told me off for knowing the answer (I still remember this clearly, she asked what the word for fish was, I said pez. Then she asked what the plural was, I said peces and she scolded me for knowing that. To this day, I don’t know why) so that was traumatising for me and meant I didn’t speak up in class again for well over a year.

At this point I’m 4 years-ish into Spanish and I think I’m doing okay, I can do the homework and the exercises with minimal issue (not always correct, but was done in a reasonable time) and we get to picking our subjects for our exams. At which point, my teacher who was talking to everyone about their choices as most did (this was to explain the exam courses and what to expect so you know what you’re choosing, which I think was a nice thing but they stopped doing this sadly) and when it was my turn, it was “implied” that if I picked the subject I wouldn’t be allowed to take the class. I was told that I wasn’t smart enough to pass so I couldn’t take either language course and that I’d to pick another department.

This knocked any confidence I had with languages, I thought I’d been doing okay, at parents night I always had good comments so I don’t know what prompted this delightful comment. And with it being their word against mine I couldn’t prove it was said, but I knew the school would have sided with them anyway. This is also the reason I have Spanish as a want to learn rather than can speak because aside from my fish trauma, I can count to 99 and do basic insa chitchat and that’s all I retained. Oh and the words for library and sharpener, because my favourite place is a library and un sacapuntas is just something that’s always amused me for reasons unknown.

2nd: Korean

So, fun fact, I’m surprised that Korean’s here because I actually had been counting it as 3rd until I actually thought about it for this. My derpiness aside, Korean comes in at the beginning of my 5th year so would be late 2011 (Our school year starts mid-August) when my friend introduced me to K-Pop and oh boy my mp3 player has never looked the same since. It was a serious exam year, so no great progress was possible, especially with trying to get into college. I didn’t find TTMIK till much later than this but for this point in time, I found the lyrics on live performances really intriguing. I mean it’s nothing I was used to seeing on our equivalent shows, they never had the lyrics up for songs, in fact I don’t remember them telling you the artist half the time was towards the end of their broadcasting time. That tangent aside, the words just looked really beautiful and by September that year I was enamoured by the sound of the language, so I started looking up things about Korean in between the onslaught of homework and assessments. Also according to old social media I was subconsciously singing it from the December onwards, so good to know that that was always a thing I did. It took me until March to be able to read enough to write and even then it crude as anything. There’s very little trace of anything from that time but I struggle to read what there is.

Sadly this is where things end here for now, exams and getting into college and having space to breathe after years of being up till 2am trying to get all my work done and not having weekends cause I had to study too kind of pushed it to the back burner. What can I say, it was the first actually free summer I’d had in 5 years and I wanted it to be a detox before college started just in case it was the same set up of no sleep. And then I bumped into the aforementioned Spanish teacher again over the summer who made a comment to the effect of “Bet you’re glad you didn’t take Spanish, otherwise you’d have a nasty fail on your results.” Which for one annoyed me because it implied I had any say in the matter, but also removed any confidence I had regained since our last encounter.

3rd: Japanese

Now this is going to be really underwhelming, you’ve been warned. So I picked up Japanese in exam season 2012 (’cause I clearly didn’t have enough going on) and if I recall correctly used Japanesepod101 for it. I just followed their podcasts so I never learned to read just speaking/listening really. I suppose the 3 alphabets scared me off some, still kinda does scare me but I have a plan of action now so it’s a long term goal rather than wishful/fearful thinking. Still not sure what prompted this though, maybe an anime revival, or just finally caving since I’d wanted to for years.

Anyway, I got through the most basic level on JP101, and a little into the next one when as previous stated getting into college/return of the Spanish teacher caused a little bit of a crisis and I fell away from languages. I also have retained basically no Japanese, and this bothers me so I look forward to getting back to where I was.

2nd (again): Korean

Oh hi, Korean’s back again. Okay this time it’s gonna be a little longer, this goes up until the day I’m posting this. So I picked Korean back up in 2013. At this point I found TTMIK (through yahoo answers would you believe, they hadn’t come up in my search for learning Korean back then). I did level 1 and then I think only got to lesson 4 of level 2 before college hit like a tonne of bricks. And then we have another gap.

We come back in yet again in 2017. I never stopped listening to K-pop, sorta dipped in and out of dramas in that time very lazily, but didn’t really learn anything between 2013-2017. I had to reteach myself to read because it was really hazy and only half remembered, no surprise though it had been more than 5 years since I’d really touched on it at that point.

So once I could comfortably read again, I was confident to go ahead and redo level 1. I did all 25 lessons in 2 weeks. Level 2 however, that caused more trouble. Admittedly I was really ill at this point, I actually had to stop working because of it so level 2 was a lot slower than I wanted or even expected. I knew it was basically new ground in level 2 but even so it was difficult to see the time between lessons, and how much work it was to understand lessons progressively increasing.

I had hoped to get it done in 6 weeks, but it took about a year. Even now some things I still struggle with and get muddled, though it’s getting better with time which is reassuring. At this point my motivation was crippled. I wasn’t progressing, I was barely looking at Korean and I honestly thought about quitting. It also wasn’t helping that the studygram that had once been an ally turned foe showing me all the work everyone else was doing while I was doing nothing at all.

I have now since learned that it doesn’t have to be something demotivating. If someone wants to study 13 hours a day, fantastic! But that’s not for me. Some days are easier than others, I am still in recovery and that’s okay. Some days I can do 4 hours no trouble, others 5 minutes seems impossible. But I should have days off, I shouldn’t make myself ill worrying about studying. I should have time for games, and painting, and wandering round the woods with my camera, and general self care things.

In saying this, I’m guilty of saying this then ignoring it. Especially since I started using italki, where I’d have to learn 100 words, write a presentation and answer 30 questions in a week. I should push myself to try and do the homework, but at the same time, I have other things to do too and I shouldn’t torture myself with cramming homework and nothing else cause it takes so long to try and do the stuff that’s physically handed in let alone anything else.

Don’t get me wrong I love my tutor, she’s the only person who has me laughing at my mistakes, has me trying to use the language because I was terrified of doing that before. Well, I still somewhat am, but it’s getting better. Sometimes the workload is a little crazy, funny how I wanted homework now I just want to throw it all away and just do what I feel I need with the language between lessons. Not sure if it’s a phase or the initial excitement’s wore off and it’s not like wading quicksand.

So, before I start rambling I’m going to have a tl;dr summery here in regards to Korean this year.

The good from this year is hands down the studygram/studyblr community. Before I was annoying people talking about or posting about studying Korean, and these communities offered me a safe welcoming place to be where I could discuss what I was learning, and even get help when needed. I will always be eternally grateful to those who answer my questions in relation to anything, be it being unable to read handwriting, or grammar, or vocab confusion or something as simple as recommendations.

Slightly less good, no fault of Korean admittedly, probably is the difficulty in understanding and retaining information. Most of it is down to being ill. The rest, just generally me being confused because the way our schools teach English, so I don’t really know the different word classes and the rules for each. I can’t look at a word and be like, that’s an adverb, or even if I’m told ‘oh this is and adjective’ I really don’t know what to do with that information. I can do noun, and verb that’s about it. Not for lack of trying though, I have since tried to teach myself, and I have a cheat sheet but I can’t use that in a conversation so hardly a great use. It also means forming sentences is quite tricky, since if one type of word must follow another to be grammatically correct, or even make sense I have no clue about it.

Even further from good, and not something I like to dwell on too long, I feel like I’m cheating with Korean 95% of the time. With Spanish, I never had to double check anything, I could form sentences, and say what I wanted with what I knew and it was fine, but with Korean, it’s like the exactly opposite. I don’t trust myself to write anything without quadruple checking it. I wish I could just write sentences and just look up words/grammar as I need them but no every word of every sentence and even then it’s still flooded with mistakes which doesn’t help me try and wean bad habits.

So yeah I think that about wraps up Korean, but it doesn’t sound particularly good in this explanation. Hopefully next year it’s better.

4th: Turkish

Langjam number 1 (for me), and I had Turkish. Delightful experience, granted I was very ill. I had the flu that weekend because of course it had to hit that weekend, I’m not allowed to have plans apparently. But it was fun, I learned how much of a time sink grammatical concepts are. I feel like all I did was learn grammar that weekend, and I don’t remember any of it, but I still have the sentence I made at the end of the weekend:

“Merhaba, adım Rosie. Hastayım bu yüzden fazla çalışmadım. Ama, Türkçe çalışmaktan mutluyum.”

Not going to lie, all I remember clearly is Merhaba, but that’s better than nothing. I would love to go back and do it properly, or at least without the flu. One of my best friends, a very sweet bean is from Turkey and I’d love to be able to try and speak to them in Turkish a little since they speak English every day for me and yeah I’d love to be able to chat to them a little (though I still can’t type it on my laptop properly so that should perhaps be task one on returning to it).

I don’t know when I’ll go back to Turkish, but I kept all my resources and my notebook so it should be good when I do. Perhaps when I get to an intermediate level in Korean Turkish can resurface, though don’t hold me to that I may just wanna do it randomly.

That’s it for now! Bet you’re glad you don’t have to read anymore of my boring language past ;) If I missed anything, or didn’t entirely answer the question you asked, just let me know and I’ll try and get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for reading, have some cookies and happy learning~ ♡

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