Your Girl Is On A Red, White And Royal Blue FIXATION Right Now!

tips for writing bilingual characters

there are different types of bilinguals

the All Around: speaks, reads, and writes both languages pretty well

the Conversational: one language is stronger than the other; can speak the other language a lot better than they read/write it (a lot of kids of immigrants are this type)

the High Schooler: understands what’s being said to them in the other language, can’t really speak it

don’t have your characters randomly drop words from their other language mid-sentence around people who don’t speak it lol

languages are a mindset thing. like personally if i’m around english-speakers, i’m speaking english and i don’t really switch to my other language (which is portuguese)

so like if you’re writing a bilingual character who speaks spanish and have them say something like “hey chad let’s go to the biblioteca” to an english speaker i’ll probably spend 5 minutes laughing and then close your story lmao

exception: the character is speaking in their weaker language and forgot a word (”where are the…? uh… llaves…. keys! keys, where are they?”)

otherwise really the only time your character should be randomly switching languages mid-sentence is if they’re talking to another bilingual

like i don’t speak spanish but i’ve legit never heard a spanish speaker say “ay dios mio” to gringos lmao

conversations between two bilingual people can take a few different forms:

Pick One: they pick one language and kinda stick with it for the whole conversation (a conversation i might have with my portuguese-speaking mom: ”you okay?” “yeah, i’m good. how’re you?” “i’m fine, but your dad-”)

Back-and-Forth: someone says something in one language, the other person replies in the other (”tudo bem?” “yeah, i’m good. how’re you?” “tou bem, mas o seu pai-”)

Combo: they speak a combo of the two languages, a popular example being spanglish, though basically every bilingual has their own combo language (”tudo bem?” “sim, tou bem. how’re you?” “i’m fine, mas o seu pai-”)

when in doubt: just ask a bilingual to look at your stuff and tell you if anything sounds weird

remember how the blade of marmora was teaching keith that to be a valuable member of the war efforts he had to be willing to sacrifice his life. remember when he tried to do that. remember when they never addressed that ever again ever in the whole show

Does anybody have fic recs for one or both of them being inexperienced romantically it’s so so cute and I feel like I haven’t read any in such a long time

me when ao3 is down so I'm forced to go to bed early and have a good 8 hours of sleep before going back to work tomorrow instead of burning my retina on my screen phone reading about the same guys falling in love over and over until 3 am

Basic adulting tips you wish your parents had taught you?

How to Really Comprehend a Scientific Paper

**credit to my research advisor, she’s an amazing mentor and I aspire to be just like her someday :)

Read the abstract. Write down what the paper says it is going to be about.

Read the introduction. Write down what the paper says it is looking to accomplish and how.

Read the conclusion. Write down what the paper actually did accomplish.

Go through and find all the pictures, graphs, or diagrams. Write notes explaining these images to yourself.

Read the whole paper start to finish. Write a summary of the paper as though you are explaining it to a layperson, and then another summary as though you are explaining it to a colleague.

Throughout all of the above steps:

If there are words you don’t know google them and write down the definitions

If the paper defines a formula, law, variable, etc in a certain way write that down

If there are references to or recommendations of other literature write those down. After the last step if there’s anything you’re uncertain about or would like more information on look to that list for further reading

Part Four of "Stand Here on the Edge With Me" is out on ao3 today!

Read it here!

the "pretty little shit" title really suits alex well ngl

i’ll break the sound barrier for you

secret dating klance but one of them is kidnapped or some shit but the rest of the team doesn’t know so the remaining one is losing their mind and either completely despondent or enraged. think like s1-3 vibes and bonus points if Keith, mr. impulse control issues himself, is left behind and forced to sit by and wait.

And imagine lances captors are sending video proof he’s alive, each transmission showing him more bruised and bloody than the day before and it’s been weeks but he still snarks his kidnappers. eventually they have enough of him and just fuckin stab him or something on video and he’s screaming and Keith just goes ballistic. And he’s yelling and throwing shit and pidge and hunk are terrified and shiros frozen and corans trying to calm him down. And the video and lances screaming cuts out and suddenly it’s quiet Keith just starts sobbing and he’s still trying to fight, trying to do something, and shiro rushes up to him to restrain him and he just. falls apart. and the teams never seen him like this before and they have no idea what to do.

and later the team starts to pick up on Keith’s feelings too; pidge finds Keith staring out the window of the observatory, lances blanket around his shoulders, and she just knows. And she sits next to him for a while and then says, “you love him, don’t you.” And Keith kinda freezes bc he really didn’t wanna do this w/o Lance, they were gonna tell everyone together so he’s abt to say some shit abt how ofc he loves him, he loves everyone on the team-

“don’t even try to deny it man, you’re literally wearing his shirt right now” and Keith kinda stutters but starts to laugh a little and says “yeah i really do” and they go back to looking out the window.

fast forward to them finally getting Lance back. the team rushes to meet him in the hangar and they see him emerge from the ship on shaky legs, arm around shiros shoulders, and him and Keith see each other and the tears immediately start pouring. Lance shakes off shiro and he’s walking to Lance and Keith’s running and they crash together, sobbing and clutching at each others clothes and Keith takes lances face in his hands so gently and presses their foreheads together and whispers “I love you I missed you so much” over and over and over

anyways that kinda got away from me WHOOPS