Thursday, 31 January 2019

jayeless: a cartoon close-up of a woman, with short brown hair, lipstick, and a red top (Default)

Recently, I've been reading the first Harry Potter book in Spanish. This year will be the tenth since I started learning Spanish, and as I'm sure many of you would know, learning a language isn't something you ever finish doing, it's just that the activities you do to work at it change. For me, I've long been at a plateau of about B2 level (slightly stronger with written communication, and weaker with spoken). My understanding is that this is more or less where you'll finish up if you're not going to move to a country where your target language is spoken, or if you can't use it extensively with loved ones or close friends or whatnot… but still, that's no reason why I can't aspire to gradually improve from where I am.

So, enthused by the new year, I've been doing two things: practising my listening comprehension with Spanish podcasts and TV shows on Netflix (La casa de papel is ♥), and slowly working my way through Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal (via Readlang, which lets me click on any unfamiliar word to get an instant translation and builds me flashcard decks out of them, with good SRS algorithms – I'm no advertiser but this site is great).

At the moment I've just read the part where Harry and Ron finally befriend Hermione (and also, ¡TROL EN LA MAZMORRA!). Nonetheless, it's also obviously the book where Harry and co. get sorted into their houses. As I was reminded today, pretty much EVERYONE who's grown up on these books has tried to work out where they'd fit, and since this journal is a bit new I figured I might as well post about it as a form of "get to know you" post.

Read more... )

Typing this up reminded me a bit of this system of categorising gamers: diamonds, spades, hearts, clubs. Trying to match them up, I'd say that Ravenclaws are spades (they dig for information), Hufflepuffs are hearts (they treasure the community), and Gryffindors and Slytherins are probably both diamonds in different ways (they want the glory for making big achievements). Some Slytherins, clearly, also embody the club player type (i.e. the griefers), although I don't think that's a core part of the house – the pursuit of power is, though, and intimidation would be a tactic used by some to get there.

If you've read all this, please feel free to tell me your own house! Or, also, if you think I've mischaracterised any of the houses (I know people have discussed them a ton over the past 20 years, and I've missed almost all of it). Or, really, if you just have anything to contribute. I don't bite, and if I did, I'm pretty sure it'd be non-lethal.

February 2021

S M T W T F S
 12 3456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28      

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Monday, 18 August 2025 05:30 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios