someone has dumped a bunch of masks into the Donation Center if you want one! Might be a great way to plan your Masquerade outfit early :D

missed this wig ;_:

I'm sorry your weekend was a bummer, but yay for getting your sleep schedule back on track!! When I started reading about your glasses, I was SOOO about to suggest a rubber band... But maybe they can repair the frames without charging too much, or maybe they have another frame that's not too expensive that they could fit those lenses in? Are they a really unusual shape, or fairly standard?

But it's super exciting that your work is going better! (Or that you're feeling more positive about it, that is!)

An oh dear, people want to hear about me... I translate (French to English) through a website called babbelcube. Basically, it hooks up authors with translators so you can get a book translated more easily. Traditionally when you translate, you get paid a big chunk of money up front, but that can be really hard for authors to come up with the funds, especially in our digital age. So, the website connects you and gives you a contract, and instead of being paid a bulk wage, you get paid a share of the book. So basically, I get 40% of any copies of the English version that sell for now. The shares that the author, translator, and site each get vary over time, and as sales come through, and after five years, the website drops out of the contract, so if you want to continue to sell copies, the author and the translator have to make their own agreement with each other. So yeah... But I don't translate with German! My German is NOWHERE near good enough for that. :O

Basically my languages are as follows:

1. I'm a native speaker of English

2. I'm fluent in French, because I studied it at Uni, and have a degree with it. I'm comfortable speaking in French, and my comprehension is quite good, so I'm pretty confident translating from French to English. Of course, my grammar and vocab, while good, aren't at a native level, so I wouldn't want to try to translate an actual book the other direction (from English into French). Maybe I could do it, but then I'd have to have a legit editor helping me fix it before publication! (Because the way I translate now, I don't have an editor. I translate and edit myself, then send it to the author through google docs, where we can discuss bits of translation and work things out if I'm not sure of a bit, or if I think we need to change something so it works in the English culture, and also he catches a few of my mistakes, and then I edit it some more on my own, just to catch those last few mistakes, hopefully)

So yeah. The translating is completely freelance, then, and so far I've really only worked with one author. He has six books, and I've translated the first three, and am working on number four. :) We haven't made much money off of it, but it's good to get some experience, in case I want to try for a real translating job someday, and plus, it helps me keep up my French, so I don't lose the skill I worked so hard to get!

3. I speak High German at about an intermediate level. I can understand some spoken High German, but I'm much better producing German (speaking and writing) than I am at understanding it, and I understand written German much better than spoken.
4. I'm working on learning Swiss German, but it's super hard because it is difficult to find written material (Swiss authors usually write in Swiss High German, which is mostly like high German, but with just a few Swiss words thrown in, and all of the ß's turned into double s's), and you can't really take classes unless you're already fully fluent in High German. Unfortunately, that is the spoken language here, and I just really don't understand the people around me. Either I don't understand what they're saying at all, or they give up and switch to English with me, which just makes it that much harder to ever learn. I'm working on my High German comprehension by watching films and such (because theoretically if I understand more High German, I'll have a tiny bitter better chance of figuring out what people are saying in Swiss German... And if I can understand a bit of the Swiss German, then I can start picking up more of the pecularities of their language that separate them from German, and maybe I'll eventually get it). And also, I'm trying to force my husband to speak German to me sometimes. If he's willing to be patient, repeat things, and slow down and explain things, I might start getting better at Swiss. :O But ultimately, I learn language by reading it. Frankly, I spent most of my childhood in books, so I probably learned 90% of my English from reading it rather than speaking it, and I learned French from studying literature, and that's where I learn German most comfortably, too... So trying to learn a language that is almost entirely oral is a real struggle for me!

So, yeah, those are my languages.

My real job is teaching English. And no, I don't teach children in school, and I don't teach at Uni. I work at a language school. The school teaches just about any language, but primarily they teach German, English, Italian, and Spanish, with a few other languages thrown in. I know there is at least one Chinese class running, and I think I saw a sign for a Dutch class the other day. (When a teacher is using a room, they put a sign on the door that has their name and the language the class is in). We teach individual lessons and small groups, with the largest possible group size being six students. And of course, the more students there are in the group, the cheaper the lessons are for the students, while doing one-on-ones are fairly expensive for them.
(more about my job in a later post, because I'm out of characters...)

Haha sounds interesting XDD I was about to say something but it'll be immature/inappropriate xDDD

Thank you so much for letting us know!! :D 👍 I love your HA, btw! <3

Haha that is the hard part. I got my husband to help me actually take down the tree this year. It was greatness! lol

lol, we didn't even put on lights/set up a tree last Christmas... xD well the only 'exciting thing' happening to me this week is classes.... they're gonna start again on Wednesday~

BUT THEN IN TWO WEEKS I'M GOING TO SÃO PAULO WITH MY FRIENDS TO WATCH A BTS CONCERT AND I'M FANGIRLING SO HARD AAAAAAAH. sorry... i'm just so excited for that! xD

Haha, immature and inappropriate? Now I'm terribly curious...

Well, my hubby got down the boxes and carried them back up, but that's pretty much it... For the actual tree take-down, he mostly sat in a chair and asked me when I was going to be done... -_-

No tree at all? Aw, bummer. But Sao Paulo, that sounds fun! Is that a cool band? Is that a kpop band?

Reply to the rest of your questions...

So anyway... … Most of our students are adults who are learning languages for fun, for tourism, or for work. We do sometimes get young people, too, though, especially if they want the class as extra tutoring for the classes they're already taking in school. At the moment, my youngest student is an apprentice (so probably between 16 and 18?), though my boss often sends the younger ones my way, since I have previous experience working with them. And my oldest student is a teacher in the local school system who is maybe... I dunno... 45 or 50? I'm really bad with ages.

I love my work, but I don't get as many hours as I like, so I use translating as a bit of a filler for my time. :O Hopefully I'll get more classes in the future, but it's tough, because there are SOOOO many English teachers in Switzerland. Even in our town, which is fairly small, there are at least five or six language schools. :/

And yeah, when my hubbie speaks in Swiss German, he sometimes calls me meini Schätzeli (pronounced mini shettszellli) or meini Schätzchen, both of which basically mean my little treasure. :) It's very sweet! The High German would be more like mein Schatz (mine shots)

Oo, exciting, free masks! Looks like there are (were) a bunch of them, too!

That is usually the case for me too so I was happy for the help this last time lol! So sleepy today DX

yes, we moved to another town last year and my parent's schedule has been crazy because they still work in my old town, so we didn't feel like wasting energy on Christmas decorations! xD yes, it's a k-pop band!~ I'm totally obsessed with them right now, lol It's going to be my first time going to São Paulo too, I'm super excited~

do they add a "li" to... 💩? :p

Two things for the group!

1. Does anyone want a free pet profile? I'm thinking of starting a shop but I want to make some examples first. I work as a web coder so I can probably make something nice for you :) Post in this thread if you're interested: Making 3 free pet profiles [Full]

2. Would anyone, by any chance, have recommendations for a good glasses strap? My glasses frames have loosened and they keep falling off my face. I am wanting to buy a strap online, but a search on Amazon shows a lot of different options, I have no idea what is best to get. I definitely prefer something cheaper, but I would sacrifice money for quality because these glasses are extremely important for my job.

Ok, now individual replies and stuff:

Waah so interesting! I took French in school for a few years, but I've forgotten most of what little I've learned, sadly. But I really admire anyone who can learn a second language fluently - I admire you even more knowing two. (Or three? I'm not too sure if the two Germans count as two different languages, or just very different dialects, hm..)

You live in Switzerland? I've actually never been to Europe, can you believe that? I've grown up in the US and basically been here my whole life. But my partner and I have been talking about moving to Germany, possibly, in the future, after he gets his degree. We have to stay in the US until he completes that degree, but afterwards we are seriously thinking of leaving for Europe, because of... well... the politics here (I guess you still hear about it, I don't actually like to talk about it though cuz it's depressing to me) The 40% of book sales thing sounds really awesome, also - 40% is quite a large fraction of the profits. So that must be nice to have trickling in :)

Woo a kpop concert!!! That's gonna be so fun and exciting ^^ Both for the band and for visiting a new place, I hope you have a great time there. I'm not into kpop myself, but there's a few bands my partner and I wanna see as well, it just seems like they're always touring on the wrong coast for me :P

ahh so many responses already. I'm sure you'll be able to practice hehe. Have you been doing a bit better at work?

Feel free to post anyway if you're interested... I'm looking for things that will inspire me, rather than making it first-come-first-serve :)

And thank you for asking! I am doing better... I had a really bad panic today over having to do something, but my partner helped me calm down and tackle it. And after getting that task out of the way, I feel better. I still feel like I'm behind on everything I need to do. But I'm here now to try working on things more, I have a coffee, going to make more coffee, and keep tackling it.

My only problem right now is that my eyes hurt.... but hopefully I can buy a strap soon, to fix that. For now I'm gonna try to improvise with a rubber band again... I am an engineer.... X)

I am glad to hear that. You got me pretty worried last time, but I get worried over people I don't know personally very easily :P I hope your eyes get better soon too. In what way do they hurt? Mine usually hurt because of a lack of sleep.

I would definitely request a pet profile from you, although I haven't the slightest idea what I want and who. So far only Natsu and Lucy have profiles cause they're fan pets. I also want to get one for my Pokémon but I need to get a good image :)

Omg you have Heliolisk and Swirlix! Two Pokemon I like ^^ And I think the color/species you picked for Swirlix is absolutely perfect. You could do something cute with an ice cream parlour theme if you can find a good background and art for it.

It might also help to try and start with the pet's character or story. So like, what personality does Swirlix have? Like, maybe she is very kind, sweet and helpful, and she likes to assist the customers and workers alike at the ice cream parlour. Or maybe she is mischievous and lurks about trying to steal the sprinkles :3 Then you could think of designing a profile to reflect that. Just an idea :)

For my eyes, it's from the computer screen, because it strains them and dries them out. Mostly strains, I think, because I tend to work at night when it's dark, and I don't have wonderful lighting in this room. I actually have special glasses to help with this, but I haven't been using them lately because the frames got loosened somehow and they fall off my face now :(

Aw, yeah, it's weird when family isn't around... I honestly didn't put it up until just before Christmas this year, which is unusual for me. :O

Haha, they probably do if they're talking to a kid about it!

Hmm, if I had an idea for a petpage, I'd so run to you for help! At the moment, though, I mostly just have my pets to look at... They don't have any stories or anything. :/ But yeah, I love languages, and when you love them, they're easier to learn. Sometimes, though, because Swiss is a language I'm learning out of necessity, instead of fun, I let myself get bogged down by grammar and the words I don't know, and I get frustrated, which in turn makes it harder to learn. :( But yes, Swiss and High German qualify as two separate languages! Although school and lots of official things are done in High German here, German classes are considered foreign language classes. :O And lots of students really hate them, and find German grammar super confusing. :O

I think living in Europe can be really fun, but I wouldn't leave just because of the politics, because frankly, I hear and deal with more about American politics here than I ever did in the States! Europe seems to be obsessed with American politics, and they're always trying to get me to explain why America is such a horrible place. -_- Meanwhile, frankly, problems like America has are everywhere, so I don't know why every other country is so focused on OUR politics. They always want me to explain why America doesn't just ban all guns (which is weird, because every household in Switzerland is basically required to have a gun in it, because of their mandatory military), and why is America so racist (and meanwhile, I'm constantly shocked by how racist many Europeans are in comparison... The Swiss even hate the Germans, French, and Italians, despite sharing languages and many aspects of culture with them)... I dunno... Politics, and racism, and discrimination and all of that happen everywhere, I'm afraid.

And as far as the books are concerned, if they ever start selling well, my percentage will be amazing! However, up until now, we haven't sold many copies... The website won't send you your cash unless you've made at least 10 dollars, so I still haven't gotten paid, lol... This month, though, another copy must have sold, because my total earnings have gotten up to 4 something! So yeah... The author and I need to get the book listed on some special listings, recommended reading lists, etc, and I need to make sure the English version is on goodreads and such. Because honestly, there are a kajillion digital books out there, so the biggest challenge is getting your book on people's radar, so that they see it and decide to buy it. That's the really hard part!

Yeahhh they're two of my favorites!! I was surprised they were available. I checked all of my favorites and I liked those best. The previous owners were deemed inactivate so I could use the names.

Celebi is actually one of my favorites too!

I am definitely going to center Swirlix around food. I like the Swirlix from the Mystery Dungeon game, where it cooks the food for everyone and it eats it before anyone else can.

Oh that makes sense, bad lighting can tire your eyes very easily. Would you be able to change your lighting in any way? When it gets dark I always turn on mine cause I know I'll get bothered by it.

Hello! How have you been?

I'm a resident from Europe myself. It's so much easier to travel here, but I wouldn't mind paying a visit to the states :3 I have been to Switzerland though, but it was only passing through with a car. You and I aren't quite country neighbors though. I live in the Netherlands :D

Oh my, that's a lot less money than I'd expect for 40%. I assume the other 60% goes to the authors, so they're making less than 10 dollars too in that case, right? That's kind of sad, to work so hard on something but not have it sell. I agree that marketing is a HUGE challenge and super important for these things though. Are the books listed on Amazon? Do they all have social media accounts to post on? Recommended reading lists are also a great idea - and if the book is available in two languages, you might be able to target second-language-learners if the language is simple enough (just a thought..)

Mm.. I know I said I wouldn't talk about politics, but... I guess that's kind of a thing. A lot of Americans idealize life in Europe because we've never lived there, we imagine it to be better because of how extremely terrible politics are here. But you're right, that there's still sexism, racism, corruption, etc etc everywhere you go. I think I would definitely need to do more research to find out if moving is actually worth it. My partner and I have real concerns about staying in America, but you're right that we might find the same concerns in Europe depending on where we go.

Warning: some political-related stuff ahead. But aside from prejudice, discrimination, hate, etc, the main concerns I have with America are healthcare and education. We don't get free healthcare here like I hear many people in Europe do. Getting sick can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, and without insurance you're really just completely fucked over here, I would actually just be dead. There is talk of our new president wanting to repeal the affordable care act, which is an act that many people here rely on to stay alive. And personally, I know that I will need daily pills probably the rest of my life, I need to know that I can get those somehow. The other thing is education- My partner and I actually went to the same high school, but we were both schooled completely in the US and there is a huge education problem. Maybe other countries have similar problems, but we always read in the news about how low the US is ranked and how everyone else has smarter kids. But me and my partner both remember struggling because school would often get in the way of learning, and a lot of times it wasn't even the teacher's fault, they were also forced because they had to get good test scores to keep getting govt funding... My partner and I want to have at least one child, and we want that child to have a good education, and we are thinking maybe we can give them a better environment for that in Europe.

So those are some of our thoughts and concerns. We haven't lived there though - My partner has visited Germany, but still, it's different when you're a tourist. So I really value anything you can tell me about life there, any misconceptions we might have, after all we get a lot of info and stuff from the media, the internet, etc which can all be biased.

Haha, the Netherlands are aways away! And Switzerland IS beautiful to pass through by car. Did you get near the mountains at all? That IS what most people come to see. :O

The official rates are: From 0 to 2,000 US Dollars Author: 30% Translator: 55% From 2,000 to 5,000 US Dollars Author: 45% Translator: 40% From 5,000 to 8,000 US Dollars Author: 65% Translator: 20% From 8,000 US Dollars Author: 75% Translator: 10% (With that percentage being the profit, so the amount of money after the selling site, like amazon or apple takes their cut, and with the babelcube website getting the rest of the profit (15%))

But the books aren't very expensive, either. They sell for about 3.50, depending on where you buy them (Amazon 3.21, 3.25, 3.28 googlebooks 2.56, Barnes and Nobles 2.99), so in the end, my share winds up being between 93 cents and 1.54 per copy, and we've sold four copies. Lol, so not terribly profitable.

Babelcube is really good about getting it listed, but the advertising part isn't their problem. Their side of the agreement is that they get the book on basically every ebook provider out there. They all sell it. Amazon, B&N, apple, 3M (I didn't even know they had ebooks...), and another 10 or 15 booksellers I wasn't particularly aware of. :O

However, I DID just add the books to GoodReads, so maybe that will help? The author has a website for the books, in all of their languages, and I've STARTed a facebook page, but I haven't made it complete enough to make it seem worth actually publishing, so I haven't gotten that far yet...

As for the political stuff, and what it is like to live here... I'll send you some stuff in a smail (because I tried posting here, and I am WAAAAAAAY over the character limit). And if anyone else wants to see my comments there, I can send them to you, too, just ask...

But ultimately, I think there are about an equal number of pros and cons for every one of the western countries, whether you're talking about Germany, Switzerland, England, America or any of the others. I don't think you'd necessarily find it better or worse over here, just different. I think in the end, you can research and research, and try to to decide which small aspects of the different cultures and systems are most important to you, and go from there...

I know loads of foreigners here, and honestly, an awful lot of them stay for a few years, and in the end, they want to go back home (even if that is America)... So much is so different when you move to a different country, and often the culture shock doesn't outweigh the pros you expected from coming... So I don't know.

And as far as healthcare and education are concerned, I can't say my experience has been so great here... In Switzerland, we pay plenty for our insurance, and yes, it covers our expenses. But on the other side, I broke my foot last January, and spent 8 months fighting with my doctor, trying to get him to do one proper x-ray, or properly diagnose my injury (which he never actually did). In the end, after breaking and rebreaking it a bunch of times, because it was never properly treated, I wound up basically sitting in my chair, doing as little walking as possible for two months, until it healed on it's own...

And my husband had a horrible time in school, and never had a possibility of going to high school or university, just because he's dyslexic. Where I come from in the States, he would have been given extra tutoring, would have had loads of help through school, and he would probably have qualified for so many scholarships, he could probably have gotten a degree as an engineer. Here, he was basically told already in kindergarten he could never be successful...