True.
(via umbrellas-and-raincoats)
In the arms of winter (2021)
“Rainy Night at Shinobazu Pond” (1938) by Shiro Kasamatsu, Japanese painter.
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Summertime fireflies.
Gifu, Japan.
Like another world.
꧁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻,𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗴𝗶𝗳𝘀꧂
𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲,𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘂𝘀𝗲/𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲 ⌨︎︎
♡︎𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙏𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙡𝙧 ♡︎
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
- There are between 6000 and 7000 languages in the world - spoken by 7 billion people divided into 189 independent states.
- There are about 225 indigenous languages in Europe - roughly 3% of the world’s total.
- Most of the world’s languages are spoken in Asia and Africa.
- At least half of the world’s population are bilingual or plurilingual, i.e. they speak two or more languages.
- In their daily lives, Europeans increasingly come across foreign languages. There is a need to generate a greater interest in languages among European citizens.
- Many languages have 50.000 words or more, but individual speakers normally know and use only a fraction of the total vocabulary: in everyday conversation people use the same few hundred words.
- Languages are constantly in contact with each other and affect each other in many ways: English borrowed words and expressions from many other languages in the past, European languages are now borrowing many words from English.
- In its first year, a baby utters a wide range of vocal sounds; at around one year, the first understandable words are uttered; at around three years, complex sentences are formed; at five years, a child possesses several thousand words.
- The mother tongue is usually the language one knows best and uses most. But there can be ‘perfect bilinguals’ who speak two languages equally well. Normally, however, bilinguals display no perfect balance between their two languages.
- Bilingualism brings with it many benefits: it makes the learning of additional languages easier, enhances the thinking process and fosters contacts with other people and their cultures.
- Bilingualism and plurilingualism entail economic advantages, too: jobs are more easily available to those who speak several languages, and multilingual companies have a better competitive edge than monolingual ones.
- Languages are related to each other like the members of a family. Most European languages belong to the large Indo-European family.
- Most European languages belong to three broad groups: Germanic, Romance and Slavic.
- The Germanic family of languages includes Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, German, Dutch, English and Yiddish, among others.
- The Romance languages include Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian, among others.
- The Slavic languages include Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian and others.
- Most European languages use the Latin alphabet. Some Slavic languages use the Cyrillic alphabet. Greek, Armenian, Georgian and Yiddish have their own alphabet.
- Most countries in Europe have a number of regional or minority languages – some of these have obtained official status.
- The non-European languages most widely used on European territory are Arabic, Chinese and Hindi, each with its own writing system.
- Russia (148 million inhabitants) has by far the highest number of languages spoken on its territory: from 130 to 200 depending on the criteria.
- Due to the influx of migrants and refugees, Europe has become largely multilingual. In London alone some 300 languages are spoken (Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, Berber, Hindi, Punjabi, etc.).
(via phoenixyfriend)
Rookie 9, waiting for the Chunin exams to begin:
Kiba: Let’s play a game! Regardless of your gender preference, rate how good looking the rest of us 9 are out of 10.
Kiba: I’ll go first. Shino is a 5, Hinata is a 6, Naruto and Sakura are 4′s, Sasuke and Ino are 7′s, and Shikamaru and Choji are 3′s. Naruto, you go next.
Naruto: Easy! Sakura is a 10, Sasuke is an 8, Kiba and Shino are 4′s, Hinata is a 5, Ino is a 6, Choji is a 3, and Shikamaru is a 2. Sakura, you go!
Sakura: Umm.. Naruto is a 2, Sasuke is a 10, Ino is an 8, Hinata is a 6, Kiba and Shino are 4′s, Choji and Shikamaru are 2′s. Ino, your turn
Naruto: I got higher than a 1? Not bad!
Ino: Shut up, Naruto. Sakura is an 8, Sasuke is a 10, Hinata is a 6 and the rest of you boys are 1′s. Choji, you’re up.
Choji: Hmm, ok, Shikamaru is a 5, Ino and Hinata are 6′s, Naruto and Kiba are 4′s, Shino and Sakura are 5′s, Sasuke is a 6. You go, Shikamaru
Shikamaru: Choji is a 10, Ino is a 4, and the rest of you assholes are 1′s.
Choji: Aww, now I feel kinda bad about putting you at a 5
Kiba: Just your teammates get higher than 1 scores?
Ino: You can’t rank us based on who your favorite people are
Shikamaru: I don’t want to look at people I don’t like, so I think it’s fair.
Sakura: Whatever. Sasuke, you go next!
Sasuke: Tch, I won’t be participating
Shikamaru: Sasuke is a -12