#so many times that we missed the equivalent of 20 lesson last semester | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

viking-hel · 5 years

Text

Writing British Fanfic

Hi guys! This little post is just something me and @survivor-reborn put together for when you want to write fanfic with characters that are from the UK!

This isn’t to discourage, or poke fun at, but to help really set the scene or location, because sometimes there’s nothing more jarring than seeing a word or phrase that just isn’t used as much/if at all in the UK, especially when the rest is pretty good!

Now, that’s not to say you need to do this; these little things can sometimes really aid in telling the story, especially if they are set in Blighty.

1. Mom / Mum

Kinda obvious? Yeah, I know. However it is easily done. Perhaps some people in the UK say this, but more often than not, it’s with the ‘u’ and not the ‘o’.

2. College / University

Right, this might get hard to explain. What people in the USA call college, we call University or ‘Uni’ for short. College in the UK is actually something else. The education system here is not like the US for example, which I’ll get onto. College here is where you get qualifications called ‘A-levels’ which you need to get into uni.

3. Kindergarten / Primary / Middle / Secondary (High) School

Kindergarten: we don’t really use that word. Or at least, I don’t where I live and down in Devon. Does that mean it isn’t? Perhaps not, though I don’t think so. In the UK we have something called ‘nursery’ and that’s for little kids, aged about 3-4 years.

This leads onto primary school, which is sort of elementary school equivalent. Primary school may have a nursery (mine did) but really it goes from Reception (4-5yrs) up to Year 6 (10-11 yrs). HOWEVER, and this is where it can get confusing, some areas of the UK do have a middle school system, but NOT ALL. I never went to middle school, but my niece did!

[If the area is a middle school systems, then it goes Infants/First - Middle - Secondary/High. Infants/First school ends at Year 4. Middle school covers from Year 5 to Year 8, and high school from Year 9 to either Year 11 or Year 13 (Years 12 and 13 are essentially college years where you do A-levels).]

For simplicity, just stick with Primary school and secondary/high school. Certain places in the UK call it high school, others say secondary. Others say both. Secondary/high school goes from Year 7 to Year 11 (or perhaps Year 13).

4. Highways, roads, streets.

This will seem silly. Though we have something called ‘Highway Maintenance’ we don’t use the word ‘highway’ or ‘freeway’. We use motorway for the big (UK-big, which is no more than fours lane in each direction) main arteries if you will.

We say main road to mean the next step down. These roads connect to the motorways (which start with M e.g. M6, main roads start with A e.g A500). High street often implies a street with shops on it through the local ‘hub’, not always meaning city centre.

5. Supermarket

We don’t often have grocery stores. We might have a greengrocer / grocers, but don’t add ‘store’, we don’t use that word much. But there is the supermarket, where you get most food e.g. Tesco or Morrisons.

6. Chemist / Pharmacy

Can use either but if ever you see the word chemist, we mean the pharmacy.

7. Stores

The only time we use the word store is in relation to ‘department stores’ which sell clothes, home items and makeup / perfumes perhaps, like Debenhams. Use the word shop instead as most people are likely to say that.

8. ‘Ay up mate!

Mate means friend, and though some may beg to differ, you don’t commonly hear the word buddy or pal. Except for perhaps a dog’s name.

9. Lass!

The further north you go in England, and then into Scotland, lass or lassie means girl. They’re more likely to say that.

10. Pop

Some places in the USA use the word pop to mean soda. If we want a particular kind, we’d say the name e.g. Coke = coca cola, Sprite or 7-UP = lemonade (yes, we don’t do the lemon and sugar thing much, so we mean pop if we want lemonade).

11. Sofa / Settee

Though couch is becoming slightly more common, certain areas of the UK might say sofa or settee more.

12. Kettle

You boil water in this for cups / mugs of tea. Found in the kitchen, plugged into the wall, likely next to the teapot.

13. AC

We don’t have AC built in with the house. They might be in offices, but not in the house.

14. Drinking age

Is 18 here! So if you’re writing about teens in the UK, then legally can drink from 18 years, but have likely been drinking since they were 14/15 because, yeah rules.

15. Age of consent

Is 16 years old. Just so you know.

16. POPTARTS

Others in the UK may say “WTF are you talking about, I eat them everyday,” but I can count on ONE HAND how many poptarts I’ve ever had (three!). They aren’t common in my neck of the woods, and so I don’t think they’ve become a staple in breakfast diets until recently.

17. Pies.

Here in the UK, pies are often savory as well as sweet. We do have apple pie, I have had other fruity pies. But we do also have meat and potato (yum!), chicken, steak, steak and kidney pie, the list goes on.

18. Pasties

Not pastries, though we do have those too, pasties, as in Cornish pasties are savory and delicious. Can be flaky and make mess when eating.

19. Cheese

Unless you intentionally buy the pre-sliced stuff, most kinds of cheese in the UK comes as blocks of cheese. And depending on the type of cheese, different ‘strength of taste’ from mild to extra strong (cheddar).

20. Cookies / Biscuits

Cookies have chocolate chips in them. They are a particular type of biscuit and don’t refer to all of them. Those are biscuits.

21. Gravy / Biscuits and Gravy

Gravy is savoury and commonly brown coloured, made from veg flavours, chicken or ‘meat’. And we don’t have biscuits and gravy.....that wouldn’t make sense with the former!

22. Holidays

Only in Uni have I ever seen the period of teaching called ‘semester’ and the holiday breaks termed ‘vacation’. When in school they’re called instead ‘terms’ and ‘breaks / holiday’.

We don’t have Spring Break, but we have something called half-terms, which is a week long break in the middle of each term, which usually last between 6-9 weeks, depending on how things are scheduled which are not the same country wide.

Easter is two weeks off, Christmas is also two weeks, and Summer holiday lasts for 5-8 weeks, it keeps changing but they’re often 6 weeks, and get called 6-week holiday.

23. No Thanksgiving or Fourth of July, just to remind you!

24. Lessons

What are called classes in USA, are often called ‘lessons’ here, or in high school, you just refer to them by subject e.g ‘I have geography now’. Class / classes are often reserved for external activities like dance.

25. Canteen

Essentially the cafeteria of the school. This may not be the same for all of the UK.

26. Queue

What we are known for. We queue, which means standing in a line. At school you might be asked to ‘form a line’ before going back into the classroom, but outside of that, you queue.

27. Rubber

An eraser. They rub out.

28. Take-out

What is called take-out we call takeaway!

29. Bangs

Bang means something else in the UK, so we say fringe: the hair that falls over your forehead.

30. Half-an-hour

We have perhaps an odd way of saying time? We don’t say counter-clockwise, we say anti-clockwise. We often use the 24-hour clock so we know what 16:45 is telling us, which is ‘quarter to five in the afternoon’. We say half-an-hour, meaning thirty minutes. We say ‘ten to’ or ‘twenty to’ or ‘half past’ or ‘quarter past’ etc.

31. Fortnight

Not the game. This means two weeks. Bi-weekly.

32. Aye

I use this to mean yes. Though in the south of England you might not hear it much, the further north and into Scotland, you will hear this.

33. PB and J.

Peanut Butter and Jelly. Well jelly in the UK is what Americans call jello. What they call jelly is jam in the UK. There will perhaps be some people who have this, but I don’t think Peanut butter and jam is that common. At least, not to together.

34. Cheers

Thanks, thank you. Or “ta very much”.

35. Fanny

Fanny means arse (ass) in the USA. It doesn’t here and if you said that we’d give a right funny look.

36. British Accent.

NO. NO SUCH THING. I don’t sound like Sam Heughan or Ewan McGregor. Nor do I sound like Tom Holland or Kit Harington. They’re all ‘British’ but the British accent does not exist: if you live in England, you will have an English accent. Live in Wales, you’ll have a Welsh one. Live in Scotland, you’ll have a Scottish accent. Live in Northern Ireland / Ireland, you’ll have an Irish accent.

And to further make it worse, they’ll all sound different!

I don’t speak like the guys of Peaky Blinders. I don’t sound like a cockney from London, and I don’t speak like the Queen. Me and @survivor-reborn won’t sound the same. This goes for people in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. We’ll have an English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish accent, but we won’t sound the same, and at times, will use dialectal words: if I said “what do thee know, owt o’ nowt?” only certain people will know what I’ve asked.

So these are just things to perhaps keep in mind, and I know people will likely get things in American culture wrong and across the globe. If you don’t live in it, how will you know?

Add to this if you like, because I know I’ve missed some things. And if you want, you can ask either me or @survivor-reborn and we’ll try to help!

#writing resources

5 notes · View notes

mimosaeyes · 6 years

Text

Stuff I’ve been reading in 2017

The third annual reading list! (Here’s 2015 in two parts, and 2016.) School was killing my love of reading but I refused to let it. And so here we are, three years and 280 books later.

I’ve taken the liberty of bolding my favourite reads this year, and including some background about how I came to read what I did. Here we go:

I pseudo-resolved to read slower this year, and savour books that need time to seep in. Longer books tend to fit that profile for me, so I went and read the longest book in my home library.

1. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, translated from the Russian by Rosemary Edmonds (reflections here)

Don’t know how I zeroed in on this gem in a Kinokuniya bookstore, but I love it and you should definitely read it. Go. Go now. I was two years slow on the uptake for Pulley’s debut, but when her second novel came out this year, I literally ordered it online in 0.0002 seconds. It’s number 51 on this list.

2. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

I can’t summarise how I feel about this next one. It just gets to me. After reading it, I went on to watch the film as well as its 20-years-later sequel. I might read some more by Welsh, but gosh the Scottish accent is hard to decipher.

3. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

Perfect for bringing along on my first semester studying overseas.

4. Hector and the Search for Happiness by François Lelord

And then the school texts start! As does leisure/procrastination reading: all the Neruda and Sexton poetry, plus Dostoevsky. Only novels, novellas, plays, and anthologies are listed here; this semester I studied many isolated short stories and poems. Books I read twice are the ones I happened to write essays on – it doesn’t necessarily mean I liked them a lot. (In fact, if I really like a book, sometimes I deliberately avoid writing about it, because analysing something too much can ruin it.) I read all the poetry aloud, because poetry, but I worry also in part because the silence in my room was getting oppressively lonely.

5. Joe Cinque’s Consolation by Helen Garner 6. Bereft by Chris Womersley (twice, actually) 7. Melanctha by Gertrude Stein 8. Breath by Tim Winton (twice, actually) 9. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 10. Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems edited by Nathaniel Tarn, translated from the Spanish by Anthony Kerrigan, W. S. Merwin, Alastair Reid, and Nathaniel Tarn 11. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 12. Carpentaria by Alexis Wright (out loud just because) 13. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky 14. To Bedlam and Part Way Back by Anne Sexton 15. All My Pretty Ones by Anne Sexton 16. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (twice, actually; pseudo-thrice) 17. Live Or Die by Anne Sexton 18. Love Poems by Anne Sexton 19. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde 20. Transformations by Anne Sexton 21. The Book of Folly by Anne Sexton 22. Sorry by Gail Jones 23. The Death Notebooks by Anne Sexton 24. The Secret History by Donna Tartt (her second novel is number 79) 25. The Awful Rowing Toward God by Anne Sexton 26. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent 27. 45 Mercy Street by Anne Sexton 28. Words for Dr. Y. by Anne Sexton

In the break between semesters, I marathoned several TV shows (oops) and revisited a book series from my childhood. (Which, incidentally, ends in a greatly upsetting way?) That series is bookended by two novels which are companions to each other.

29. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce 30. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer 31. Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer 32. Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer 33. Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer 34. Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer 35. Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer 36. Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer 37. Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer 38. The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce

Back to school! Again, quite a few short stories and poems not reflected here. 42, 48, 49, 51, and 57 for leisure; the rest were for my courses.

39. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (twice, actually; making it thrice in two years, dammit) 40. The Hunter by Julia Leigh (twice, actually) 41. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney 42. Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller 43. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 44. My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin 45. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis (twice, actually) 46. Slaves of New York by Tama Janowitz 47. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon 48. My Career Goes Bung by Miles Franklin 49. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz 50. Bad Behaviour by Mary Gaitskill 51. The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley 52. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon 53. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead 54. Simulations by Jean Baudrillard, translated from the French by Paul Foss, Paul Patton and Philip Beitchman 55. Frisk by Dennis Cooper 56. Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (twice, actually) 57.《边城》沈从文著 58. Motion Sickness by Lynne Tillman 59. Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk (twice, actually) 60. Affinity by Sarah Waters 61. The Lost Stradivarius by John Meade Falkner 62. The Twyborn Affair by Patrick White (twice, actually)

The school year concluded, while still in Australia I read books I’d been given or chose on whims. I bought number 65 in Cairns Airport because I had nothing to read for the rest of a five-day trip; I’d started and finished number 63 during my domestic flight on day one. Clearly I’d underestimated how much I still wanted to read, having overloaded during the semester.

63. Mãn by Kim Thúy, translated from the French by Sheila Fischman 64. The Arrival by Shaun Tan (no words, only illustrations; please, please experience it for yourself) 65. And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave (it’s a Bible reference; think Southern Gothic)

Back home once more, I had access to my personal library, as well our national libraries! Although I’d embarked on a big crochet project as a Christmas present for some close family friends, I went pretty hard in the rest of my free time, which was abundant, because unemployment.

Some of these books just caught my eye on the shelf. Some have been on my To Read list for ages, because of friends’ recommendations (76 and 77, for instance) or because I figured I needed to see what the hype was all about (81 through 83, and 85 through 87). On the subject of YA fiction: no offence if you’re a fan of the genre, or indeed of these two series in particular, but to me it tends to feel like the literary equivalent of empty calories — easy reading that makes for a change of pace from books like 79, or 76. I read each trilogy in a day. Also, yes I realise I’m very late to the party; I haven’t watched the movies, either. Heh.

66. The Great and Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms by Ian Thornton 67. The Borrowers by Mary Norton (on which Studio Ghibli’s The Borrower Arrietty is based) 68. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (before I went to watch the movie) 69. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka 70. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (on which Studio Ghibli’s film of the same name is based) 71. Calligraphy Lesson: The Collected Stories by Mikhail Shishkin, translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz, Leo Shtutin, Sylvia Maizell, and Mariya Bashkatova 72. The Sage of Waterloo by Leona Francombe 73. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman 74. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom 75. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez 76. White Teeth by Zadie Smith 77. Uprooted by Naomi Novik 78. How To Be Both by Ali Smith 79. The Little Friend by Donna Tartt (her first novel is number 24; I’ll read her third in the new year, as it demands slow enjoyment) 80. The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff 81. The Maze Runner by James Dashner 82. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner 83. The Death Cure by James Dasher 84. Jip by Katherine Paterson 85. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 86. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 87. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 88. Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

And that’s it: another year in books! Do note that thanks to my new theme, I now put updates in the sidebar about what I’m currently reading and watching, respectively. So if you’re ever curious, mosey on over, I guess.

In the new year, I’ll be creating a Goodreads account specially to complement my (admittedly infrequent) postings here. I haven’t gotten an account there previously because the star rating system seemed so reductive, but I have since realised that if professional movie critics can do it, I ought to stop being so high and mighty. Besides, I’m curious about the Goodreads community, and might want to try my hand at writing a couple of reviews, if I find the time and energy.

See you in 2018, everyone!

(Update: here is my Goodreads profile!)

#mimo reads #2017 book list

2 notes · View notes

proudayla · 7 years

Text

It’s finally the New Year! And of course, with a new year everyone is setting new goals to achieve. I read somewhere that you shouldn’t have the same goals as last year because it’s counterproductive. I partly agree with that, but I have my objections, too. Every year, even every day I have the goal of maintaining balance in my life. If you know me personally you know I can go from one extreme to another and in the blink of an eye. I’m either all the way in or all the way out. That’s why balance is imperative. And sad to say I struggled all through the last 6 months of 2016 with keeping my balance as I have struggled most of my adult life.

In 2016, I was constantly battling myself to find discipline because of my self-diagnosed addiction to fun! Sounds kind of silly, right? I know! The demand of school along with the required attention needed from a nursing student in particular really took a toll on my “life”, special emphasis on FUN. By the end of the semester I literally felt dead from all the work and stress of school. A part of that exhaustion could be attributed to the few times I tried to squeeze “fun” into the agenda, but I was so pressed at times to feel relief from the pressure I thought it was deemed necessary.

Let’s rewind to May of 2016 when I was granted three weeks off from school and was just having so so so so much fun! I knew that if I didn’t get a grip it would interfere with the summer term, so I birthed loveburn the blog as an outlet. For years, I have used writing as a means of escaping stress and anxiety but decided to “go public” and transparent to help encourage open minds along with positive vibes. The only thing is that by September of 2016 not only was I unable to get anymore post out, but I didn’t even have time for myself. The most consistent regimen that remains is my skin care routine!

Redefining fun

2017

I was so bummed out from how school had taken total precedence over my life. Fun literally had become equivalent to taking a five-minute study break on social media. In fact, I began to really increase my time on social media as if in rebellion or protest of my lack of fun. Our teachers tell us all the time, “life will be there after you finish, graduate, and pass your licensure test!” Realistically, what twenty year old wants to hear that let alone accept it. I literally was going to class, studying, sleeping and netflixn’ in between when time permitted. And to bring it all home, I wasn’t reaping the academic results I wanted, so I became even more frustrated. I was restless and discouraged with self-disappointment and convinced I was missing out on life!

And remember when I said I go from one extreme to another? So when switched into “ fun mode” I turned it all the way up! I’m an adventurous girl and just adore everything spontaneous, but I don’t always think of the consequences that may be attached. And this past year I didn’t have to think of the consequences many of times because I was living them out! In November, I was really just getting tired and grasping for fun… I mean air so when opportunities were presenting themselves guess who was taking them. I was moving so fast that I was doing things out of the ordinary and completely out of character in some instances. And looking back after each occasion, I feel as if had I been practicing balance I wouldn’t have jumped at majority of those opportunities.

I was acting spontaneously in an attempt for relief, with a terrible approach. Now, even today roughly two months later I’ve been dealing with the consequence of chronic acne break outs on my face. Every time I look at my face it’s a reminder of my choices. I use the breakouts as a reminder of what my outrageous bursts of fun can literally look like if not chosen wisely. I’m sure most people feel like break outs probably aren’t that big of deal and actually I prefer it as a consequence over the many others that I could have incurred on my flight of sporadic adventures. It’s important to recognize and learn from the small trials to prevent the more impactful tribulations.

As I mentioned earlier I’ve struggled with balance for a while, but I’m glad I’ve made it a consistent goal for life. Struggle doesn’t determine your achievement only determination in accordance with persistence. In 2017, I’m looking forward to doing so many great things but I know they’ll come with hard times, too. We all have things that we lean towards when times get tough, but I encourage you to make a true effort toward balance in your life so those things won’t challenge taking control over your life. In 2016, I allowed my addiction to fun to almost lead to my destruction in attempt to escape the pressures of life. This year let’s challenge ourselves to show growth from all the life lessons we’ve experienced thus far while incorporating balance. If you have a new goal(s) don’t let those be the only focus. Write it all out, make a plan, set realistic dates and create a schedule. If you slip up, just get right back up and back on schedule because winners never quit and quitters never win. And if ever you get down in the midst of the struggle remember it’s not where you are, it’s where you are headed! Happy New Year! XOXO

2017 jumpstart goals:

Love the Lord with all my heart

Lean on Him in times of struggle

Be a better me than the day before

Redefine fun

II Chronicles 20:12

Feel free to share your goals for 2017 down under! Positivity is welcomed and appreciated in all forms (like, comment, share, explore)!

My Addiction & it’s Near Destruction It’s finally the New Year! And of course, with a new year everyone is setting new goals to achieve.

0 notes