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psychotrenny · 6 months

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Self-Indigenisation is something that I brought up on an earlier post and I think it’s something more people should be aware of. It describes the way that Settler populations will claim Indigenous identities for themselves in order to justify their presence on the land and mistreatment of actually Indigenous populations. This can include using tenuous or even outright fabricated Lineal connections to indigenous peoples in order to claim membership to a group they have no social or cultural ties to. The most well-known example in North America are USAmericans who claim that their grandmother was a “Cherokee Princess” or something of the like in an attempt to buttress their identity as being in some way more impressive or “authentic”. Another example I’ve read about is White Quebecois (who at most might have a very distant indigenous ancestor, and sometimes not even then) with no connection to Indigenous communities claiming indigenous identity in order to launch lawsuits over land rights, sometimes even to the direct detriment of actually indigenous communities. Self-Indigenisation can also include claims that a particular settler population itself has some deep enough connection to the land that it can be considered indigenous. In South East Australia in the 1930s you had locally born Settlers explicitly assert themselves as the original inhabitants of the land and the actual indigenous peoples as nothing more than peripheral transients. The idea of US Appalachian settler populations being some sort of indigenous people has become a recurring one in scholarship and activism in the region and serves as way to assert the rightfulness of their ownership of the land even in a progressive and supposedly anti-colonial context. I haven’t personally read it myself but apparently the book Distorted Descent by Darryl Leroux does a pretty good job of exploring Self-Indigenisation in contemporary Canada.

While most of the literature on the subject I could find focused on North America*, this process if far from unique to that region. Indeed, Self-Indigenisation is one of the major rhetorical strategies used to justify the continued existence of Israel especially in more “progressive” spaces. Like hell even just being active on tumblr recently is going to expose you to numerous Zionist claiming that the Israelis are the true natives of Palestine and that the Palestinian Arabs are merely “squatters”. “Zionism means Landback” and other such nonsense. To be clear there is very much an indigenous Jewish population in Palestine, the “Old Yishuv” Shepardim, but the Settlers who established the state of Israel are very not much it not it no matter how much they try and construct such an identity (such as by suppressing traditionally spoken Jewish languages like Yiddish and replacing them with a reconstructed for of Hebrew) or repute the identity of indigenous Arabs. Essentially self-indigenisation is an especially heinous tool that Settler populations use to evict indigenous peoples on a spiritual level in order to maintain their physical displacement. Such rhetoric must be resisted and discredited as much as possible lest it’s able to have its intended effect

*I suppose it makes sense given that I was only looking at English-language literature and that region is home to the most populous of Anglo settler states

#stella speaks

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matan4il · 12 days

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I heard many allegations from my friends that Israel is explicitly founded as an "ethnostate", and claimed that "having a secular state instead of an apartheid state" would solve many issues of the ongoing conflict. What's some advice to give when discussing with people using such strong terms to describe Israel?

Hi lovely!

I honestly hope that your friends are even willing to listen to the answer. One of the big problems we have, is that it's easy to make up a lie demonizing Israel to people willing to automatically believe the worst about the Jewish state. It takes time, effort and a lot of words (which is taxing for both sides) to explain the truth. So there has to be willingness to listen and learn. I hope your friends prove worthy of your efforts. *hugs*

Okay, so here's the thing about the term "ethnostate." It means a state with a specific ethnic majority (unlike an immigrant society), but most people using this term to vilify Israel do it as if it means "pure ethnostate," which is a state with only one ethnic group having citizenship and rights. In other words, while Israel is a Jewish state in the sense that it is a Jewish-majority state, they use the term as if it means that Israel is a Jew-only state. But Israel isn't a pure ethnostate, and in fact, that doesn't exist anywhere in the world. In Israel, 26% of the population is not Jewish (21% of Israelis are Arabs, 5% belong to other non-Jewish groups).

More than that, Israel has never been interested in being a Jew-only state. I know the narrative of these people is that Israel intentionally committed an ethnic cleansing, expelling Arabs, but that's not the case. The Arabs started a war against the Jews (which they referred to as a "war of extermination") and at a certain point, the leadership called upon the Arab population to leave, so they can make way for the Arab armies which would invade Israel once it would declare independence. One historian in a documentary I watched about this, said that about 80% of the Arabs fled of their own accord, about 10-15% fled because, once the war started, there was also violence between the Arabs themselves (settling scores under the cover of the fighting), and the rest, which means 5-10% of the Arabs, were expelled by lower ranking Israeli army commanders, due to those locals' hostility, violence, and unwillingness to accept the new sovereign Israeli state. Meanwhile, Arabs who were willing to accept Israel, who did not take arms against the Jews, were allowed to stay and become citizens. Those 120,000 Arabs became the foundation of the 2 million Israeli Arabs today. More than that, Israel actually promoted a plan to allow about tens of thousands of Arabs back and give them land, so long as they were willing to accept the new Israeli state, and not take arms again against its Jewish citizens. Only a really small number seized that opportunity (in part because they were still at the stage where they thought any day now, the Jewish state would be dismantled by the Arabs anyway), but those who did are, once again, proof that Israel wasn't into ethnic cleansing.

Bottom line is that the partial ethnic cleansing of Arabs wasn't a result of the Jewish refusal to live alongside Arabs, it was a result of the Arab refusal to live as citizens of a Jewish state, or in an Arab state which would coexist with a Jewish one, it was a result of the Arab refusal to accept the Jews as equals.

Sometimes, I feel really bad for Arabs who did not want the war, who could have lived at peace with the Jews, but their leadership and society forced the war on them. Other times, I remember they could have stayed there, remained peaceful towards Jews, like the 120,000 Arabs who were immediately a part of Israel once it was established. I also remember that they could have spoken up against the war before it broke out, at that stage when everyone was sure the Arabs would exterminate the Jews in a matter of months at most. If they would have spoken up then, it would have been them speaking up against the ethnic cleansing and intended genocide of Jews. Where were they then? Where were their voices when the Arabs were considered the strong side?

And I remember Petach Tikva, a Jewish moshava established in 1878, and how the Jews founded a new water well, that the Arabs benefitted from as well, after they had polluted the existing water well with cattle carcasses. I remember that when the Jews started working in agriculture there, they allowed Arabs to come and live with them in this small Jewish community (22 Muslims and 2 Christians), I remember the Arabs said, "Al-bracha ind al-yahud," the blessing is with the Jews, meaning they recognized the Jews were doing something right, and the Arabs themselves were benefitting from this. I remember the Arabs complimented the Jews on how hard working they were in the fields. And I remember that none of it mattered, and that by 1886 (just 8 years after its founding), Petach Tikva was targeted in an organized Arab attack, where one woman was murdered, beaten to death (Rachel Haddad Ha'Levi), and 5 people were injured, including Rabbi Aryeh Leib Frumkin (the great grandfather of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks), who the Arabs thought they had beaten to death. There was no State of Israel yet, there was no "theft" of land, Petach Tikva was founded on land bought and paid for, there was no occupation, there was no ethnic cleansing, no discrimination of Arabs, and yet seeing the Jews start to build themselves up as equals, in a community of their own, not just as second class citizens in cities where they were always a vulnerable, undefended minority, was enough to launch this violence.

To drive this point home, you can ask your friends about the ethnic cleansing of Jews by Arabs, which occurred in the Land of Israel, and are they opposed to that? Hebron and Gaza City in 1929. East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (re-named by the Jordanains during that year the West Bank) and the Gaza Strip in 1948. There are currently ZERO Jews in what is supposed to become the Palestinian State, and Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, promised it would stay that way. I wouldn't call the Palestinian-ruled territories a pure ethnostate, because they do have small non-Muslim, non-Arab minorities (although those minorities have been shrinking in size due to persecution since Israel gave over control of these areas to the Palestinians in the 1990's), but in terms of my specific minority group, I can't ignore that these territories are Jew-free, and that the future Palestinian state is meant to remain ethnnically cleansed of Jews. So, if your friends truly mind ethnically cleansing, will they call out the Palestinians on that? Would they vilify and demonize the future Palestinian state, the way they do Israel?

Back to Israel today, and the other allegation. According to the law, ALL Israeli citizens are to be treated the same, regardless of faith or ancestry. The apartheid in South Africa was a system where racism didn't just exist in society, it was coded into law. That means by law, government officials could only ever be white. It means the citizen rights of non-whites were by law limited, either reduced or revoked completely. That's not the case in Israel. Here, Jews and non-Jews enjoy the exact same citizen rights. For example, non-Jews were members of the Israeli parliament since our very first elections (mad respect for Seif el-Din el-Zoubi, who saved the 6 Arab villages that his family inhabits in Israel, by insisting that they don't join the fighting against the Jews, and was elected a member of the Knesset in 1949, and was even appointed at one point as its Deputy Chief). And here's a former Israeli Arab minister and member of Knesset, Isawwi Frej, refuting the apartheid allegation himself:

Also, for the record, Israel IS a secular state. The law here is secular, not the laws of Halacha (which is actually why some ultra orthodox Jews are anti-Zionists. Not because they're against a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, but because the State of Israel isn't Jewish enough in terms of its rule and laws for their liking). Israel IS Jewish, but in the same way that the US is Christian. There are certain cultural influences and indications, but religion doesn't rule the state, and there is more than enough room for people of religious minorities to practice their faith, and have all of their rights and freedoms.

I hope this helps! xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

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onefleshonepod · 2 years

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Strange Names in Nona the Ninth

Nona’s gang of kids, plus the Angel, all appear to have weird names because they are Nona’s transliterations of their names in their native languages into the language of the Nine Houses.

Hot Sauce nodded. Nona guessed again, “Born in the Morning.” “You mean Born in the Morning,” said Hot Sauce. “That’s what I said,” said Nona.

There are seventeen local languages (according to Ianthe) on New Rho. Nona can speak all of them, without really understanding what she’s doing, so she understands the names she hears and the meaning of these names to be synonymous.

Nona understood everybody, and could speak back to them so that they understood her, and nobody ever said she had an accent. This confounded Palamedes. When she first said that she could speak back by watching them talk and making her lips look like theirs, it confounded him so much more that it gave Camilla a headache.

(I think the same thing’s going on with The Building that Troia cell lives in; I think it’s a word in another language that means building and is used as an official name for the building, but I have no guesses as to what that could be.)

I believe Nona is able to do this both because she is Alecto, who plays the role of the Holy Spirit in Tamsyn's Catholic Trinity 2.0, and the Holy Spirit gave the Apostles the gift of tongues during Pentecost, and because she is the soul of Earth. The languages spoken on New Rho presumably came from Earth, so of course she can speak all of them!

This is my attempt to reverse engineer all of these names into House / English.

The Angel / The Messenger

BOE calls Aim "the Messenger" and the children and Nona call her "the Angel.”

We Suffer: “Usually you both meeting up with the Messenger, whom you call the Angel, would have been very bad.”

When the Angel first appears, her name is playing on the meaning of “angel” as a caring and godly being – the reader gets that it would make sense for children who love her to see her as an angel, so this remark flies under on the radar:

The Angel was what they called the nondescript, washed-out, dusty-haired personage who came to teach the Hour of Science. Why they called her the Angel was unclear.

But it is clear why they call her The Angel! It comes from a word with two meanings: the Greek word “angelos” originally meant “messenger” and later took on the meaning of “angel” or “messenger of God,” so all names originating from this word have both of those meanings.

Names originating from “angelos” include Angela (English, Spanish), Aniela (Polish), Aingeal (Irish), Anděla (Czech), Andjela (Serbian), Angèle (French), Angiola (Italian), Anzhela (Russian), and diminutives like Angelina.

The name is intended by BOE to mean Messenger, because of her societal role, but Nona is translating the other meaning of her name, Angel, because that meaning is what makes more sense to her given the way she sees and loves the Angel.

It's also possible that BOE has a more formal version of this name as a title for the Messenger and the children's "the Angel" which Nona hears as distinct from "the Messenger" is a diminutive or less formal version of the same name.

Born in the Morning

This name could be Sabah (Arabic), Akinyi (Luo from Kenya), or Asa (Japanese), all names which mean “morning” and more specifically “born in the morning.”

Honesty

This is a bit more difficult and I’m really not sure about any of these. There are quite a few boys' names meaning “honesty.” There are even more names that mean “honest” or “truthful,” but for strictly the noun “honesty” we have these names:

Pheakdei (Khmer, from Cambodia); Satyam, Onnesha, and Sachh (Hindi); Zaka and Sadaqat (Arabic); and Onestà or Onesto (Italian).

I don’t speak any of these languages, so I can’t comment on which name is most likely, and there are probably also way more possibilities that I missed in my deep dive into 457 baby name websites and dictionary translations!

Edit: I've seen "Frank" suggested a lot as a potential name, but I don't think this is likely, because "Honesty" is a noun, and "Frank" is an adjective. I think if Tamsyn intended the name to be a transliteration of "Frank" she would have used the adjective "Honest," not the noun "Honesty " – she doesn't seem the type to overlook something like that.

Beautiful Ruby

I think this name is probably just two names, in an unknown language, one meaning “beautiful” and one meaning “ruby.”

Unfortunately, there are millions of possibilities here and I can’t find any combination that particularly jumps out. If you have more thoughts on this please let me know!

Hot Sauce

Hot Sauce, of course – as a delightful choice that only serves to confuse the reader more with respect to all of these names – is literally just named Hot Sauce. You CAN put it on rice and you CAN put it on bread!!

#nona the ninth #ntnspoilers #ntn spoilers #nona the ninth spoilers #the angel #the messenger #aim #honesty #beautiful ruby #born in the morning #hot sauce #nona #edited to fix my misconception that lemuria and new rho are the same #ours

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timur-pannonicus · 9 months

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Language fun fact 1

People can have more than one first language. A few examples:

Children of immigrants very often learn both their parents language and the official one of their host country at an early age and develop fluency and a strong attachment to both. Oftentimes they speak in two languages before even the time of their first conscious memory.

Sometimes they don't just learn their parents language and the official language but also the local dialect or the minority language of the region. Example would be a child being born or brought early to Barcelona and learning both Spanish and Catalan in addition to their parents language. Which leads to my next example.

Sometimes the country someone is born in has two or more official languages or two or more languages are very widely spoken and used. People from countries like Tunis, Morocco and Algeria usually speak both Arabic and French.

There's also the example of couples from two different languages living in the territory of another language and their children learning all three.

However, we must not assume that the examples I listed always happen. Also we must not assume that someone from a certain ethnic group speaks the language traditionally used by that group.

Oftentimes immigrant parents DON'T teach their language to their children and those kids end up knowing only the local language. Sometimes people of an ethnic group don't learn their ancestral language despite living on that group's traditional territory due to being part of a larger country. Example would be Basque people in Spain or Kurdish people in Turkey not knowing Basque or Turkish. Conversely, sometimes a group isolates itself so much children from it speak the official language like a foreign tongue. Example would be Hungarians in Romania.

Hope the info was entertaining xD

#language learning #language #langblr #sociology #social impact #politics #history #human experience

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avelera · 1 month

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So I’ve gone back and I’ve been reading some Old Guard fic (as I try to get motivated to write the last damn chapter of my one damn TOG WIP finished so I can finally moved on), and I must admit, one silly and very minor pet peeve I have in some Nicky/Joe fics for the Old Guard that explore their Crusader days is the trope of having them go a really long time without being able to understand each other. Because based on Nicky’s path as a Crusader even getting to the Holy Land, and the various hints we have that Joe has a pretty worldly background, I would suggest they should have had a baseline to communicate already when they met and that bridging the gap would have gone very quickly for one or both of them once they committed to learning.

There’s a few reasons I find them going a really long time without speaking each other’s language (most likely Nicky picking up Arabic) somewhat implausible:

- First, just based on my own personal experience: I went through a full language immersion experience myself and yes it was painful and yes, having textbooks and classes certainly helped, but all told it was 3-4 months from almost zero before I could start doing normal things for my age group like read simple books and do homework. However, the most effective language learning program in the country, Middlebury, does a full immersion program that gets people to baseline functionality in 6 weeks. Yes, learning a language is hard and I will be the first to say that mastery takes years and mastery without immersion is nearly impossible, but if you’re completely immersed there, without options, it goes much faster. You won’t be fluent of course but you will be conversational. Also, by all accounts, being illiterate or otherwise not bothering to learn how to read and write at the same time and ONLY going for verbal communication actually makes things go even faster.

- People who pick up by speaking (rather than reading and writing) and people who speak multiple languages already tend to pick up other languages even more quickly. Once you learn one or two, a lot of polyglots don’t stop there. There is that old joke: the word for speaking three languages is trilingual, two languages is bilingual, and speaking only one language is American. Which is to say I think native English speaking writers might be the ones underestimating how quickly a language can be learned (at least to a conversational level).

- Now throw in the fact that both Nicky and Joe have been recently in multilingual societies or organizations as a requirement of their meeting during the First Crusade, no matter how you slice it. Either as both coming from a merchant trading backgrounds traveling across international (so to speak) lands, or Nicky being part of the pan-European Christian army where multiple languages would be spoken across the camp, to him possibly having a priest background which would mean Latin as well. Not to mention Greek if Nicky picked up anything while in Constantinople (if he came over land). Nicky also would have been on the road to the Holy Land, if he went overland, for as long as 3 years and in Antioch before Jerusalem.

- Now, as an admitted caveat to all of this, I’ve lived overseas and it is absolutely common for expats to live in a country for years without bothering to pick up the local language at all. There were cultural and societal reasons that European Crusaders and the Egyptian Fatimids who lost Jerusalem wouldn’t bother to learn each other’s languages or any of the common merchants tongue or other common languages like Greek to bother to talk to each other. That’s absolutely fair to invoke for why they wouldn’t have a single word of any language in common.

- However, I will say, once both or either of them decided to try, I think some writers don’t give enough credit for how quickly one or the other would pick a language up, especially if it’s the language of the country they’re in (basically, I think once he tried, Nicky would pick up Arabic very quickly if he’s still in the Holy Land by the time he and Joe start trying to communicate). Effort plus full immersion is probably the single fastest way to learn a language, you’d be able to have rudimentary conversations within a few months at most. Really from there it’s just a question of whose country are they in once they start talking and stop trying to kill each other.

TL;DR I will be the first to say an author should go with what makes their story work best BUT there’s plenty of historically backed reasons why Nicky and Joe should have been able to carry on a basic conversation with each other from when they first met, and not be completely stymied in communicating with each other because of a language barrier.

#the old guard #tog meta #kaysanova #tog fic

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humusboii2thereturnoftheking · 28 days

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Talking to Palestinian Refugees as a Diaspora Jew

These are quotes from a discussion I encountered and I believe will bring insight to many, on both sides of the conflict.

It starts as follows:

"There is this one woman who sings for a local band and is from a Palestinian family. She often tells the story of how her family owned a house and a shop in Ashkelon but during the war of independence they had to leave their house and ended up in a refugee tent city in Gaza. Eventually they made there way to Cairo and then to America. She has the key to the family's old Ashkelon house that her grandfather passed down to her father, passed down to her and will show people it to tell about how she lost her homeland. Something she often says is "how come they get to be on the land because their ancestors were there 2000 years ago but I can't even go to the land my grandfather was at 75 years ago?"

how am I supposed respond to that? Am I really supposed to say no you don't have a right to your family's land???"

The answers I found most insightful:

• You can empathize with her families story while still realizing that the Palestinian leadership is failing her people.

• Half of my family were forced out of their home in North Africa and ethnically cleansed from there alongside nearly 1M other Jews. My grandparents did not get to keep the keys to their house or business because that’s not usually what happens when you get kicked out. they came to Israel with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. We didn’t even know grandmother’s birthdate because their citizenships were revoked. They lived in tents for months and a new disease was spreading every week. How come I’m still not legally allowed where my grandparents were born? How come Palestinians are eternal refugees and my grandparents weren’t? The irony here is just insane.

• Not to mention Arab countries encouraged Palestinians to leave and return once the genocide (war) is over: "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades." - 1st secretary of the Arab league, 1948.

• “The Arab states encouraged Palestinian Arabs to leave” - Jordan’s newspaper, Feb 19, 1949

• “it must not be forgotten that the Arab higher committee encouraged refugees’ flight from Jaffa, Haifa and Jerusalem” - near East Arabic broadcasting station, April 3, 1949

• “since 1948 it is we who demanded the return of the refugees while it is we who made them leave. We brought disaster upon Arab refugees…”- Khaled Al Azm, Syria’s prime minister.

• Refugees all over the world (including Jews!) are forced to leave their homes. They make new lives in new lands. I don't hold onto the key of my great-grandparents' house in Belarus and demand the government give me our house and try to kill random Belorussians because of it.

• A quarter of Baghdad in the 30' was Jewish. My friend's grandparents came from there, they were so rich her grandmother didn't even know how to brush her own hair or dress herself because they had servants. They had to leave everything behind and live in a tin hut in Israel. Wars cause population to move. It's a tragedy but it's been happening everywhere. You think Germans were happy about leaving their homes in what is Poland today? I don't see them trying to go home to Poland.

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blackswaneuroparedux · 11 months

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Anonymous asked: Of all the many languages you speak which is your weakest one? Do you use those languages?

It’s privilege to learn any language that isn’t your mother tongue. As Ludwig Wittgenstein correctly observed, “The limits of my language means the limits of my world”. If English is our native tongue we put ourselves at a disadvantage because we expect every other nationality to take the trouble to speak it. There seems no incentive to learn a foreign language. We become lazy not just in language but also in other ways including our cultural enrichment, our imagination, and a misplaced sense of our self-importance in the world.

Of the European languages I know, I probably think German would be my weakest. When I was in school in Switzerland you’re brought up in three languages: French, Italian, and German (even if the Swiss speak Swiss German). When I say weakest I mean I can converse fluently, but I don’t have time to read German literature in the same immersive way I would say with French literature or take any special interest in German affairs.

I would say I’m fairly fluent in French now but still prone to silly mistakes. I’ve been told that I can speak without an accent and that is heart warming to know, because that was always the goal once I moved here to France. I don’t really use French in my work as it’s a multi-national entity and so English is the default language of corporate world, but I’m speaking French pretty much the rest of the time outside of work.

I was extremely fortunate to be born into a multi-lingual family where Norwegian and English were spoken from birth. All my siblings were being versed in Latin (not Greek which came years later after doing Classics at university) by the time I was 8 or 9 years old because my father was a classicist and he felt Latin was the building blocks to mastering other languages.

All this occurring whilst we moved lived and moved around a lot in the world such as China, Japan, India, and the Middle East. When I was initially sent to one of the first of my English girls boarding schools I was horrified that most of the girls only spoke English. I thought I was the stupid one for only knowing 6. Boarding school, if nothing else, gave me a great privilege to hone in on the languages I did know and start to learn others.

My parents didn’t take the easy way out and put us children in international schools like all the other expat children. That would have been too easy given how tight knit the British expatriate community was out there. Instead we were left to sink or swim in local schools in places like Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan or Shanghai in China or in Delhi, India. It was a struggle but you soon find your feet and you stumble towards some basic level of fluency.

I’m fortunate that before Covid my corporate work took me often to the Far East and it was a great opportunity to hone what I already knew. The result is I can converse and take business meetings in Chinese and Japanese (though English gets thrown into the mix too).

I would say Chinese is more of a struggle for me these days because I’ve not been back since before the Covid lockdown in 2020. Chinese is one of those languages that can easily melt away if you don’t get the chance to converse in it on a regular basis. Japanese less so, probably because the culture had more profound impact on me than Chinese culture.

Hindi is less of an issue because I have close Indian friends and also I watch Bollywood movies as well as converse with Indian immigrants here in Paris who have local stores. Urdu I learned through the backdoor because Urdu has a spoken affinity with Hindi (if you know Hindi then you know spoken Urdu, more or less, especially in Northern India and cities like Delhi where Urdu was born in the burnt ashes of Mughal India). Reading is another matter because they each use different scripts - Sanskrit for Hindi and Arabic and Persian script for Urdu.

Strangely enough when I was doing my tour in Afghanistan years ago with the British army, I would speak Urdu with local Afghans who served as official translators or were selling goods on the base. These Afghans knew Urdu because an entire generation of Afghan boys and girls grew up in refugee camps on the Pakistani border during the different phases of the Afghan war. I have very fond memories of their friendship and hospitality, but less so of the war itself.

With Arabic, it had lapsed woefully until I did a posting in Dubai in the past year (as catalogued in my blog) and I found myself suddenly remembering a lot and asking Arab friends. Soon I was able to hold my own amongst my colleagues and corporate clients. In these cultures it’s really hard to stay focused because so many of them speak very good English. So it’s hard to get them to stick with their own language because you want to learn from them - but they want to show off their English proficiency - and so you have to be polite but persistent to stick with Arabic.

If you’re learning a new language then I hope you stick with it. There’s almost nothing more rewarding in your life than the disocovery a rich culture through language. The key is to find a way to make it fun rather than a trip to the dentist chair for a root canal operation.

Thanks for your question.

#ask #question #languages #german #chinese #hindi #arabic #immersion #learning #education

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indigostudies · 4 months

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@princetofbone asked me to do a review of the mango languages app/programme, so here's my thoughts on it so far, having used it for a bit!

i've been using the app for korean, kazakh, and shanghainese, and i've also used the chinese and vietnamese courses as well. i have a full access account through my local library, so i don't pay anything for it. the pricing for if you want to purchase a subscription yourself is 7.99USD/mo for a single language, and 17.99USD/mo for a full access account.

so far, i've really found it very useful! while the shanghainese course doesn't have a ton of lessons (only one chapter and fourteen lessons), other languages have significantly more—mandarin chinese has seven chapters and almost 600 lessons, and korean has one chapter but 75 lessons.

it's a spoken, auditory, and reading-based system, with the emphasis being on listening to and reading phrases and words to learn them, and it has a specific exercise type for speaking a phrase or word aloud and recording it, and then being given a recording of the same phrase/word which can be played back in time or independently of your own recording to compare the two.

the speaking exercises are honestly the most useful to me, because i someone who really focuses on the pronunciation of words—for example, a lot of times the romanisation of hangul isn't very helpful for me, but i can pronounce a word perfectly after listening to the audio recording and adjusting my own pronunciation. in this way, it's somewhat similar to what duolingo used to be, but it hasn't been pared down and simplified the way that duolingo has—and, i think, considering that it's an entirely paid service, this is probably unlikely to happen.

additionally, for tonal languages, it actually includes the tones in the romanisation, and, for people who don't have any experience with tones, it includes explanations and recordings of tones to help, which i think is really useful. it also has a lot of languages that are harder to find resources for! as i mentioned it has shanghainese as i mentioned, but it also has armenian, thai, uzbek, and irish. as far as i can tell, all languages that use non-latin alphabets are taught in the app using the native script (though what script it is can vary, if there's multiple—kazakh uses the cyrillic alphabet used in kazakhstan rather than the arabic script used in china), though if you tap the word/phrase, the romanisation will pop up above it, which can help a lot, in my opinion, if you're unfamiliar with a writing system.

the only drawbacks, in my opinion, is that there's no writing exercises—but this is something that can be easily remedied by taking your own notes. there's exercises where you're asked to translate an english phrase or word into the target language, and you can pause the exercise and write down what you think it is, and then tap to show the answer and compare it to what you wrote down, and correct your answer if necessary. i use the mango app on my phone and take notes by hand in onenote on my laptop, which i've found to be a very efficient system.

personally, i would give it a solid 8.75/10—i've found it to be very useful, as someone who really likes and benefits from audio, reading, and speaking as methods to learn languages, and i've found that i retain far more information than if i only used a textbook for self-study. points are deducted for the lack of in-app writing exercises, and the fact that there's no option for a free account unless you have access through a library/other institution, but otherwise, i'd really recommend it!

#resources #langblr #langblr resources #post-it notes #indigo ink

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moneeb0930 · 10 months

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THE GREAT WA-SETIANS & KINGS TOMBS OF WASET (Theban Tombs)

The Wasetians, Known to the Greeks, and modern Egyptians as Thebans (not to be confused with Greek Thebans) originated in the southernmost regions of Kemet, known as Ta-Shemau "the Land of Reeds”. Waset was the main city of the fourth Upper Kemetic nome and was the capital of Kemet for long periods during the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom eras.

In antiquity Waset was known as a prominent city and royal house whose residents were dedicated to the worship of Amun. He was chief of the Wa-Setian Triad of deities whose other members were Mut and Khonsu. Amun’s primordial birthplace is located in Nubia at the holy mountain of Gebel Barkal. Waset served as a testimony not only to Kemetic life but also to the pinnacle of Hapi (Nile) Valley civilization. The Greeks would refer to the city as Diospolis Magna ('The Great City of the Gods'). The Greek Poet Homer once wrote about the majesty of Waset, labeling it a place where “heaps of precious ingots gleam.”

Over the centuries the Wa-Setian Kings from the south battled for control over Lower Kemet with invading forces from the near east. The reunification of the nation under Mentuhotep II ushered in a new sense of security throughout the country and established Kemet’s Middle Kingdom, an era that was to become a golden age for artistic and literary creation and a truly revolutionary period in regard to religion and royal ideology.

But during the reign of Amenemhat IV, a local ruler in Lower Kemet of foreign origin became more and more powerful. It is during this reign that the frequent expeditions into the Sinai came to a stop, probably because the expeditions had to go via the Delta. Towards the end of the reign of Nefrusobek, this foreign ruler was able to found his own dynasty, the 14th, which, ruling from the city of Avaris, controlled the eastern Delta, and perhaps all of Lower Kemet.

For a time Waset was a wealthy city under the rule of the Kemetic Empire but was later sacked by Assyrians, Persians, Romans, and later by the Arabs. Their destruction is illustrated in the Wa-Setian (Theban) Tombs list, as most of the statues and steles of these Southern Kings and Queens have been erased from history. It’s hard to believe that anything could survive several generations of destruction, but Waset has. The Wasetian Tombs known today as the Theban tombs were for the most part destroyed and over the years have been overshadowed by the Valley of the Kings. Remanence of the temples and tombs still remain as well as the Temple of Amun at Waset (Karnak), the tomb of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, and mortuary temples of Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut.

"King of Upper Kemet…Beautiful is the Ka-Soul of Ra who appears in Waset"

"I have not spoken angrily or arrogantly. I have not cursed anyone in thought, word or deeds." ~35th & 36th Principals of Ma'at

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bopinion · 29 days

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2024 / 13

Aperçu of the Week:

"Peace is never made with weapons, but by stretching out our hands and opening our hearts."

(Pope Francis at this year's Easter blessing "Urbi et Orbi" in Rome)

Bad News of the Week:

Turkey has voted. "Only" local elections, but an important test of sentiment in view of the severe economic problems facing the country of two continents, such as inflation of almost 70%. The winner was not the conservative AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi / Justice and Development Party) of ruling President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but the largest opposition party CHP (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi / Republican People's Party), a social democratic party founded by none other than the father of the country, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

The CHP now holds the office of mayor in the country's five largest cities, including Ankara and Istanbul. The latter in particular will hurt Erdogan, as he himself was once mayor of the metropolis on the Bosporus. A 75% voter turnout proves that the voice of the people has indeed spoken here. This is remarkable in that Erdogan has become more and more of an autocrat in recent years - among other things by restricting freedom of expression and the press, curtailing the independent judiciary, persecuting critics of the regime and transforming the state into a presidential republic.

The election result is therefore much more than just a yellow card to those currently in power, a "midterm effect" so to speak. It is a clearly articulated, unmistakable rejection of an authoritarian style of leadership in general and of wannabe despot Erdogan in particular. This rejection is all the more pleasing as the opposite direction has become increasingly established worldwide in recent years, especially in patriarchal societies. Freedom, pluralism, peace, equality and democracy are finding it increasingly difficult to be seen as fundamental foundations of nation building.

Many states such as Libya, Iraq and Yemen have been unable to emerge from the maelstrom of a failed state for years and decades. And beacons of hope such as Tunisia, which adopted a constitution following the Arab Spring revolution and held the status of the only democratic country in the Arab world from 2014 to 2020, have reverted to autocracies. Others, such as Myanmar, which tried to establish democratic elements from 2011 to 2021, are now even under the rule of military dictatorships. Which makes this actually good news into bad news after all.

Good News of the Week:

I have never understood many things that happen in Israel. For example, why the ultra-Orthodox - 13% of the population - enjoy so many exceptions in a theoretically secular state, such as not being called up for compulsory military service. Or why a people that has suffered so much from radicalism in its history is increasingly voting for far-right parties. Or why anyone who criticizes Israeli policy is immediately and reflexively vilified as an anti-Semite.

Israel could always be sure of one thing, no matter what it was about: the support of the USA. Although the protection of Israel is the official reason of state in Germany, it is primarily the Americans who see themselves as the unwavering protector of the Israeli state. Automatically and unfortunately often without reflection. For example, in all previous military conflicts in the Middle East, in which Israel has violated international law on more than one occasion, or in the oppression of the Palestinian people, which can safely be described as apartheid, the US veto has always ensured that Israel has not been subject to a UN Security Council resolution. Until now.

An abstention by the USA was the first time that a (theoretically legally binding) UN resolution called for a ceasefire, serious peace efforts and protection of the civilian population in Gaza - 14 votes for, 1 abstention, 0 votes against. Side note: historically, most UN resolutions were not prevented by the Soviet Union/Russia or China, but by the USA. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted like an offended child. Among other things, by canceling the US visit of an Israeli delegation. Which was actually on a mission to ask for more weapons. In soccer, this is called an own goal. The media response was corresponding - even in Israel, whose enlightened population continues to take to the streets in their tens of thousands against the wannabe despot.

You can take whatever view you like on the proportionality of Israel's military response to the Hamas attack. But this behavior proves once again that Netanyahu is not a sovereign politician who serves the interests of his people without thinking of himself. He is a selfish, consultation-resistant, undemocratic power politician who pushes an autocratic agenda regardless of the consequences. In this respect, any behavior that reveals this character is fine with me. Because that makes his re-election less likely. Which would be good for peace in the Middle East. And for the world. Which makes this actually bad news into good news after all.

Personal happy moment of the week:

We rarely treat ourselves with dining out. And there's a work colleague whose company I really appreciate, but rarely see, as he works from the north of Germany. Last week, he was a guest in our little town, of all places, for a three-day training course. And as this is a very beautiful area, he brought the whole family with him. And we met them with our whole family in a long-established inn to spend an evening feasting and exchanging anecdotes. Lovely.

I couldn't care less...

...that once again - and once again completely unnecessarily - summertime has begun. The basic idea dates back to 1784, when Benjamin Franklin (of all people) saw it as a way of saving energy by using less electric lighting. Its complete uselessness has long been proven, and the impact on wildlife is enormous. Which in this case includes me.

It's fine with me...

...that "crypto king" Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud in the collapse of his cryptocurrency stock exchange FTX. First, because he commited fraud. Secondly, because I reject all forms of speculation and (trading) derivatives in principle. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but the real economy is probably called that because it's real.

As I write this...

...I listen to the typically melancholy piano music of Frederik Chopin. It goes perfectly with the cold and wet April weather, which started right on time today.

Post Scriptum

Hardly anyone outside Germany has ever heard of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research) from Munich. It is named after Joseph von Fraunhofer, a leading inventor in the field of optics, e.g. telescope construction - hence the inscription on his tombstone "Approximavit Sidera" (He brought us closer to the stars). The purpose of the association is applied research for the direct benefit and advantage of society. In other words, less theoretical basic research than concrete usability.

The results of the 30,000 or so people working there are certainly noticeable in everyday life: The MP3 audio format, white LEDs, High Definition Television (HDTV), airbags or RFID technology are just examples of the inventions we are all familiar with. The institution comes up with over 600 inventions every year. These are not - as is the case with an industrial patent - exclusively available to one manufacturer, but to everyone. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is now celebrating its 75th anniversary. Congratulations. And thank you.

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beardedmrbean · 9 months

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The mother of an American influencer fears for her daughter who is facing jail time in Dubai after a public altercation that violated local morality laws.

Tierra Allen, who runs the “Sassy Trucker” brand of social media accounts was arrested after arguing with a car rental employee following a minor fender bender.

Ms Allen’s TikTok and YouTube channels showcase her life as a female truck driver. She was visiting Dubai on vacation at the end of May when the incident occurred.

Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is an extremely popular tourist destination known for luxury hotels and malls, skyscrapers, white sandy beaches and dramatic desert landscapes, making it extremely popular with social media influencers.

Ms Allen posted a YouTube video suggesting she was considering moving there from her current home in Houston, Texas.

Despite Dubai’s glittering image, many visitors do not realise that there are strict decency and morality laws and they can be arrested for swearing, making rude gestures, or being affectionate in public places.

Speaking to Fox 26 Houston, Ms Allen’s mom, Tina Baxter, said that after the fender bender, her daughter went to the car rental company to get her ID, credit card and some other personal items.

Ms Baxter said her daughter “found out she could only receive those items if she paid an undisclosed amount of money” and alleged that the employee dealing with her daughter was “very aggressive” and “screaming at her”.

Ms Allen allegedly screamed back at the employee who she claims then chased her out of the building. She called her mother when she got back to where she was staying and was “scared”, “afraid” and “very panicked”.

Worried that she might get Ms Allen in more trouble, Ms Baxter did not want to reveal the amount of money that was demanded. The car rental employee also allegedly doubled the amount owed to hand back the ID.

A police officer then allegedly showed up and arrested Ms Allen, though it is not known how soon after the altercation this occurred.

Ms Baxter has been in contact with Detained in Dubai, an organisation that offers legal consultation for clients who fall foul of the laws of the United Arab Emirates.

Radha Stirling, the CEO of Detained in Dubai, said they had reached out to Texas lawmakers — Senator Ted Cruz and Rep Sheila Jackson Lee — to work with the US consulate in Dubai to stop Ms Allen from being sent to prison.

“She’s being charged for shouting, which is actually a crime technically under the UAE laws,” Ms Stirling explained to Fox 26. “It’s offensive behaviour, and it can warrant up to two years in prison.”

“The agency actually said to her, they’d drop the police case if she paid money,” Ms Stirling continued. “So it’s a form of extortion and blackmail, and it’s extremely common with these rental car companies.”

Detained in Dubai has covered multiple cases where tourists are fleeced for sometimes tens of thousands of dollars by car rental agencies.

Senator Cruz’s office said in a statement: “We have spoken to the family of Tierra Young Allen and have contacted the Department of State about the case. Sen. Cruz will continue to gather details and engage on this case until Ms Allen is returned home to her family.”

The US embassy and consulate cannot comment on the case due to privacy laws.

#nunyas news

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dead-dog-dont-eat · 2 months

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fan kids for goth polycule?

if you have no presh

Oh, yes! I do! Three kids; two boys, one girl. All related from three different parents. One of them I am working on a bit in personality and characteristic wise, but the other two I mainly gotten down.

Hector

-He's the elder child, being the firstborn. He is Viktor and Kuphulu's son. A bi-species child of Transylian and Thep Khufan.

-He would be voiced by Christian Borle (aka Vox's VA from Hazbin Hotel) and have a bit of a same personality as Vox as well (minus the manipulative personality). His role isn't necessarily a protagonist, but not as much as an antagonist--but somewhere as a deuteragonist.

-His goal is mainly to convince Anur Transyl to be modern and up-to-date on technology. He also is a believer in Anur Transyl along with the other planets of the system to be as an independent system that isn't ruled over or taken over by a species of their own and to be equal. He learned this through learning about his fathers being assistants to Zs'Skayr, along with Anur Transyl's past history of being taken over by Vladats and also his disliking of the Ecto-Lords.

-Much like his fathers, Viktor and Kuphulu, he shares a knowledge of history and a tech engineer. He is a professional about technology (both past and modern). Though, seeing how Anur Transyl is very, VERY old-timey and somewhat Victorian, hence to why he wants them to be up-to-date, he wants his home planet to be able to know modern technology and learn it as well. BUT, he still likes Transyl the way it is--just wants to upgrade the technology.

-Unlike some citizens and locals, Hector is open-minded, smart, and sort of gruff and serious-minded like Viktor. He is very spoken about his views. He is multilingual in German and Arabic along with a bit of Hebrew in the mix. However, when someone is speaking negatively towards him, he isn't afraid to argue back and state facts and logic.

-Like his other dad, Kuphulu, he is also arrogant. Another reason why he had personal beef with the Ecto-Lords is how they disagreed with Hector on his views with Transyl's technology and how they didn't like how he has opposing views to how Ecto-Lords rule over the Anur System. (Note: in the Wiki for the Anur System, it stated that Ectonurites used their powers to slowly rule over every planet, meaning that there are Ecto-Lords who rule over each planet of the system - just so there is no confusion). Hence, why he also dislikes Ecto-Lords. However, he isn't negative towards the local Ectonurites whom some of them he is friends with.

-As much as Viktor is supportive and loves how his firstborn is very smart and knows his views, Viktor has to consistently warn him about getting on the Ecto-Lords nerves.

Vlanka

-She is the youngest child; being the daughter of Viktor and Crüjo. A bi-species mix of Transylian and Loboan.

-She is named after her late grandmother, Viktor's mother, as she bares a resemblance of her.

-Her voice actor would be Natasia Charlotte Demetriou (aka Nadja from What We Do In The Shadows and Calamaria from The Cuphead Show). She is smart, strong-willed and serious-minded, and has a knowledge in mechanics and science. She doesn't distinguish much personality characteristics like Crüjo, but is more so kind of a copy of her Transylian father. She also has a heavy German/Romanian accent.

-Because of her knowledge of science and mechanics, she is able to invent stuff. Her first invention when she was 10 was a biomechanical arm that connects to her nerves and system (she was created without a left arm, and the prosthetics made were none to her liking). She also helps Hector with his inventions as well.

-She is very supportive of her brother and what he is trying to do for his community, but like her father she does warn him about setting off the Ecto-Lords.

-She is very strong (can pick up heavy objects and throw them, also knock down large and sturdy stuff), but can be annoyed when messed with or someone does something stupid. She is also protective.

-While she is a girl, she doesn't wear dresses or makeup (reason is sensory issues and also because she doesn't like makeup as a preference). She also has thick long brown hair that she sometimes wears in a bun.

-Other info is a WIP

Anutris

-WIP; but is the middle child, the second son. He is the child of Crüjo and Kuphulu. He is a bi-species mix of Loboan and Thep Khufan

#ben 10 ocs #goth polycule

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syrma-sensei · 2 years

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Moon's Scarab → Ch. 1: Welcome to Egypt, again.

Marc Spector x Layla El-Faouly.

pre-canon fic; based on the Marvel comics and Disney's series Moon Knight.

warning: violence, cursing, angst, smut maybe in the future (?), the majority of spoken Arabic in this story is in Egyptian dialect.

word count: 1.9k

beta-read by the awesome: @kesskirata

series masterlist | next chapter

° Author's note:

okay, it's been a very very very long time since the last time I fangirl-ed over a canon and straight couple. Fuck, Marc and Layla are my favourite OTP now; despite the shit they've been through, their couple dynamics are just freaking awesome, they got me screaming in the last episode, and had me in bi panic. Just fucking amazing, I just adore power couples. And now we have the Scarlet Scarab in throughout the process... Chef kiss to Marvel. So, I figured that, especially with the criminal lack of fics for this amazing ship, I decided to do something and write a long fic about them; how they've met and got married. Yep, as it's said up there, this is gonna be a pre-canon fic.

And remember, feedbacks, likes, and reblogs are always appreciated!

Enjoy~

Marc Spector

The image of a fuchsia scarf with scarab details spurts into Marc's head as a female flight hostess instructs the passengers to tighten their belts, for they're about to land in Cairo International Airport. It hasn't actually left his mind, really; it hunts him almost every night ever since that night in the Egyptian desert close to the borders with Sudan, depriving him from sleep.

Marc feels nauseous, the urge to vomit is becoming stronger and stronger, lurching and tugging at his stomach as the plane descends within the air. It's very much unlike him, he never had this before. He notices his grips tightening on the armrests of the chair; his jaws tick.

Fuck, he almost hisses, but the vile word reverberates only through his head. He can't allow past memories to freak him out, and lose control now. He can't afford to. Khonshu's current mission, which has led him right back to Egypt, is critical; the country isn't at its best times.

After the military upheaval of Abdelfattah Elsisi, the previous defence minister, against Muhammad Morsi and overthrowing him, a great majority of people weren't pleased with the result. So, multiple protests have emerged, again. The people are enraged and pissed, for Morsi is the first elected president of Egypt since the royal family has been dethroned. However, Elsisi is a military man, and solving problems with peaceful negotiation isn't on the table.

And now, almost two years after the coup, Elsisi is the country's president despite the people's grouse; riots are rising, and the situation is unhinged, or Ala kaff ifreet [On a Jinny's palm] as the locals say. On one hand, Marc thinks, it may be in favour, he can easily carry on his god's wishes without much trouble, since the country is already in chaos, he can deal with and use it to his advantage, all he needs to do is to keep himself in check, and bury his emotions inside his consciousness, he's pretty good at that after all. He can do it — he must.

Marc flinches a bit as the plane sinks harder, and he sneers. Yep, definitely gonna hold it. He snickers.

“Heya awwal marrah as'ab marrah,” [The first time is the hardest one.]

Marc's head turns around, his adjacent traveller looking at him with concern. A kid girl, an elementary school student, fifth grade maybe. She has a dark and curly hair, her tan skin is revealed by the sleeveless top she wears.

She extends her hand to him, smiling so innocently, a window between her teeth is apparent, ready to cradle the permanent ones. “Feek temsek edy law awez,” [You can hold my hand if you want.]

Marc nods and swallows, surprising even himself when finds his hand reach out to hers. His large hand engulfs her tiny one, and oddly enough, he finds something sedating about the whole act.

“Sh-shukran,” [Thanks.] He tries to smile, but his lips curl into a grimace instead, the girl giggles.

“Enta mush masri?” [You're not Egyptian?]

Marc shakes his head, “No.”

The girl's smile widens, “No?”

“Ana amriki.” [I'm American]

“Oh! Amriki wo betetkallam arabi? Helow awy!” [American and you speak Arabic? So cool!]

The girl laughs in zealousness, “My name's Shahd, and you're...?”

“Marc,”

“Ammo Marc,” Shahd says, “Enta jay ala Masr leh?” [Why did you come to Egypt?]

Ammo? Marc raises an eyebrow, does he look that old to have a young kid calling him uncle? He's only freaking twenty nine; he scowls a bit.

“Uhhh...” Marc regards the young girl's face, discombobulated.

Of course, he'd not tell an eleven years-old why he's really here, and most certainly, he can't tell anyone, obviously. But looking at her grinning face unsettles him more than he already is. Wait, maybe she's one of those young spies who are trained to ensnare people who are like he's used to be. He's encountered many of them before, when he was still a soldier then a CIA agent, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and many other places, child recruits who work for certain groups and systems. Fuck, he even told her his real name.

Way to go, Spector, way to go...

“To see the pyramids?” She asks him, still giving him that toothless grin.

Damn, why is he so tense and suspicious? She's just a kid, a fucking kid, he can deal with her, he can deal with much worse.

Marc nods, flexing his brows, “Oh, yeah, to see the pyramids,”

“Ya'ni enta tourist?” [Means you're a tourist?]

“Exactly,” He hisses unintentionally when the plane dips down and the landing gear meets the ground. Shahd squeezes his hand for assurance, still smiling at him.

Marc gazes at their clasped hands, hers is so small compared to his, so soft and delicate compared to his calloused and rough one. He closes his eyes for a moment, seeing a blurry image of Randall's hand clutching into his desperately as he tries to push himself up to save himself from drowning, he sees his little brother crying and begging for help, panicked and scared to death, his only hope in his big brother to save them both, which he terribly failed at.

Marc yanks his hand from Shahd's. They look at eachother awkwardly for a moment, Shahd's blinking and Marc's swallowing hard. He throws a quick scan around before asking, “Howa feen babaki wo mamtek?” [Where are your parents?] He clears his throat and adds, “Akeed mush betsafri lewahdek, mush kida?” [Surely you don't travel alone, right?] He tries to grin playfully at her.

Shahd giggles, “Akeed la ya ammo Marc!” [Of course no, uncle Marc!] Then she points at the chair two lines in front of them to the left. Marc traces her finger to see a man watching them both, a proud smile on his face.

“Da babaya!” [That's Daddy!] She exclaims, “Baba bus! Ammo Marc amriki wo beyetkallam arabi zayina!” [Look, daddy! Uncle Marc's American and speaks Arabic like us!]

Marc tries to smile cordially, his qualms rising again in his chest, “She's lovely,”

“Thank you, sir,” The man smiles back, something truly genuine haloes his presence. Marc feels a bit more relieved.

The plane's movement hauls to a stop, then another stewardess' voice echoes through, in Arabic then English, politely informing the passengers of the safe landing they just had, then she courteously instructs them to keep calm and to not jostle among eachother, then wishes them a happy trip.

Marc loosens his belt then waits for several minutes before he moves and grabs his bags from the cabin baggage. He then puts his cap on his head, and takes a gum into his mouth and starts chewing on it. And before he walks down the aisles, a small hand tugs on his shirt.

“Nice to meet you, Ammo Marc,” Shahd extends her hand with confidence.

Marc smiles, “Nice to meet ya, kid,” He shakes her hand. She giggles and Marc's smile softens more. He offers her a gum which she delightfully accepts.

When he sees her father he nods at him in acknowledgement. Shahd's dad smiles back as he says in Arabian-accented English “Enjoy your stay in Masr, sir!”

Marc is already past him, he scoffs at himself, “Yeah, sure I will.”

•••

“Yeah, I'm in, Frenchie,” Marc's head rests against his right shoulder, while holding the phone in between, and unpacking his stuff. He sighs, grabbing the phone with his hand now, “Told ya I need a man to watch from afar, and can't trust anyone but you, Frenchie,”

It's a conversation he and his friend have had before. His co-worker and right hand, Jean-Paul Duchamp, has insisted to come along and help Marc in Egypt by being at the latter's side.

“Oui, oui, you did make it clear, Marc,” Duchamp's French accent answers from the other side of the line, “But let me remind you, shall I sense anything off, I'd certainly come for the rescue,”

Marc chuckles, “Yeah, counting on that actually,”

Duchamp guffaws, “You rascal,” Marc can see a very clear picture of his friend twirling his mustache playfully. “Anyway, sent you the info you might need on this case, if you want anything else, just gimme a call, d'accord?”

“Yeah, sure,” Marc scratches his eyebrow with his thumbnail, “Anything else?”

Duchamp clears his throat before he adds, “Well, actually yes, Marc,” He stops for a moment, “You're surely aware that, after the huge amount of investigation we've had, this is most likely has a link to what happened that day, aren't you?”

Marc tries to sound unaffected, unfazed, “Your point?”

“Are you ready to face it again, Marc?” Duchamp's usual sarcastic tone disappears as he asks, “Are you ready to—”

Marc cuts him off, “What happened that day remains in the past, Frenchie,”

“We have yet to locate him as you know,”

Marc cards a hand through his hand indignantly, “Doesn't matter,”

“You sure? Last time you underestimated him, he made a hole in your stomach and left you to die in the desert.”

“Yes,” Marc snaps, exasperated, “But I came back alive, didn't I?”

“Oui, somehow,”

“Then there's no need to worry, Frenchie,”

After they bid eachother goodbyes, Marc starts to set up his computer supplies, wires and devices have soon covered the entire room. From a year onwards, Marc has been careful when it comes to use Khonshu's armour, he doesn't summon it until the situation grows critical and too serious, he can handle many situations depending only on his skills and talents, obtained from years of experience, as a warrior against evildoers and sinners. He couldn't risk drawing the attention of the intelligence and the chance of being arrested; an international fugitive, uses superpowers and act as a vigilante. He either would be dragged to acquiesce to the bullshit they name "Sokovia Accords" or they're going to throw his ass in prison if he refuses to submit to it, which he certainly will do, like they did to many Avengers members.

Moon Knight doesn't work like that, he doesn't submit to anyone's wishes but his god, which in this case is Khonshu. The world is indeed going into deeper shit, with the Avengers split, and two of them are off of the world, crime has been increasing around the globe. That's when Moon Knight must act, maybe that what motivates him to keep doing this even though he hates it. It's his way to atone for his misdeeds.

“You know I will protect you with everything I have; you are worth protecting.”

Marc closes his eyes, trying not to startle, whipping his head to face his master. He nods silently, craning his head up to gaze at the deity, the one who saved his life two years ago. He still remembers every bit of it, every moment of it. Marc still feels the cold steel of his gun pressing against his chin ready to end his misery underneath the god's statue, still feels his blood life gushing out of his stomach, streaming and smearing the white sand he crawled upon, still hears his choked apologies for the people who'd met their demise because of his actions.

“You shall face your fears, Marc Spector,” He remarks, “And by my name you shall crush them underneath your feet and by that, you're going to protect the travellers of the night.”

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satoshi-mochida · 10 months

Text

Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains launches July 26 for PC, later in 2023 for Switch

Gematsu Source(from July 12th)

Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains will launch for PC via Steam on July 26, followed by Switch later in 2023, publishers Eastasiasoft and Gamera Games, and developer Softstar Entertainment announced.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

The Journey of a Frankish Knight in the Tang Empire

Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains is a classic turn-based RPG. Under the orders of Pepin III, the Frankish Knight Septem has embarked on a long journey to seek the Invincible Arts of War. Starting from the canals of beautiful Venice, the great knight’s path has spanned the Middle East, Western Regions on his way to the mystical orient. In his adventures, Septem has drawn into the intricate power disputes between local powers, along with the decade-spanning ambitions of the dark lord, Satan.

China enjoys peace and prosperity under the rule of the Tang Empire, Europe finds itself embroiled in the Dark Ages, the Arabian Empire is ascendant, and all the while, the march of progress brings these disparate cultures together. From ancient times, Chinese legends have spoken of the Xuan-Yuan Sword and Spirit Fusion Pot, along with the rise of great legends in the new era…

A Symphony of Western and Eastern Culture

The scope of Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains covers a wide range, spanning all of Eurasia and covering the Arab World, Francia, and China. From the canals of Venice, Damascus to the beautiful Chang’an, the story introduces unique architectural styles, clothing, food, and customs.

A Fusion of History and Fantasy

The story of Xuan-Yuan Sword III takes place in an era of collision between East and West, covering a range of historical events that include the Battle of Talas, the Arabian Civil War, and An Lushan Rebellion interspersed through character dramas. Xuan-Yuan Sword III perfectly integrates history with Chinese and Western mythology. Players will encounter unique historical enemies such as Merovingian soldiers, the Venetian navy, the Abbasid Caliphate, Tang soldiers, and Taoists along with unique mythical creatures such as centaurs, Medusa, the Black and White Reapers, and the Xuannü of the Nine Heavens.

Unique Spirit Fusion Pot System

Players can use the Spirit Fusion Pot to capture enemies in battle. Items and monsters can be used to craft a new item or monster from the codex. Users can craft items and monsters from the Eastern or Western altars, which the resulting item differing based on the selected altar.

Unique Ink Painting Art Style

The game features a beautiful traditional Chinese style, with the game map, battle backgrounds, and characters all painted in unique oriental ink.

Improvements and Changes

16:9 high-resolution graphic.

User interface rework.

High-resolution item texture.

Controller support.

China Episode, originally added in mobile version.

#Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains #Xuan-Yuan Sword #Xuan-Yuan Sword III #Softstar Entertainment #Gamera Games #Eastasiasoft #RPG #Gematsu

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