Curbside Library - A Collaborative Cultural Newsletter

[haumeaGeth]

Hellooo language and culture nerds!

I've created a newsletter! To get right into it, this newsletter focuses on - surprise surprise - language and culture, as well as a smattering of other topics in the realms of humanities and anthropology.

My goal for this newsletter isn't so much for it to be a magazine-esque piece of writing, but rather, a bimonthly collection of people going, "Hey, look at this cool thing!" It's going to share interesting linguistics facts, cultural highlights, and celebrations of people's achievements (shout out to anyone who passed the recent JLPT exams!). Think of it like a little club where people show up just to do show-and-tell and infodump about whatever they find interesting within the realm of the theme.

I decided to create this newsletter in light of the recent Discord exodus. I'm going to be leaving behind a really comfortable, friendly language learning community; it's the only thing I'm going to miss from the platform, even if I never got close with any specific person there.

However! A weird coincidence occurred.
Not even a full week ago, I had a conversation with a couple people in that server talking about alternatives to social media, and personal newsletters came up. After digging around MelonLand, I realized there are a solid handful of people with those! So, as soon as I heard the news about Discord being smelly, that conversation immediately popped back into my head, and I thought I'd give this a shot, to see if I could carry that lovely community with me elsewhere. And, expand upon it too! I know there are lots of nerdy cool people here on the indie web. I'd be stoked to hang out with y'all in this way

While I do have a background in creative writing, this is my first time running a newsletter, so if anyone has any suggestions, let me have 'em! (And, in future, if anyone has any feedback, I'd love to hear it!)

[BlazingCobaltX]

Subscribed! I love linguistics but I've never really engaged in communities around it, as I always felt like too much of a 'casual enjoyer' of linguistics (weird thing to say, huh). Looking from the side is a bit more fun for me. Looking forward to reading.

[_ghost_]

I just subscribed! I love linguistics and language learning and cultural studies--it's something I do both academically and also as a hobby--and I have been meaning to start subscribing to some newsletters. I never liked the Discord format for community building in the first place, so something like this is much more my style.

How does the collaborative aspect work? Do we just reply to the email? What kinds of things are you looking for?

[haumeaGeth]

How does the collaborative aspect work? Do we just reply to the email? What kinds of things are you looking for?

Eyy awesome, I hope you enjoy it!!

To collaborate, you can either reply to one of the newsletters or just email me directly with your written segment. I'm not looking for anything specific -- anything you want to share that falls within the scope of the theme is welcome. Think of it somewhere halfway between a forum and a zine!

I would prefer a couple sources to be included if it's something informative, just in case readers are curious and want to learn more, but I also trust that everyone subscribed knows how to do their own research, so it's optional

[rolypolyphonic]

Sounds interesting, good luck with it. I have signed up. I find linguistics interesting although I'm less into language-learning per se as most people into linguistics are and more interested in psycholinguistics. The overlap between linguistics and schizospectral conditions is my current topic of research. Might be too niche but I will see if I could possibly contribute something related to that

[haumeaGeth]

The overlap between linguistics and schizospectral conditions is my current topic of research. Might be too niche but I will see if I could possibly contribute something related to that

That is absolutely not too niche, I'd love to read about that!! Psycholinguistics is so fascinating to me. Or rather, more broadly, how closely entwined language is with psychology, sociology, and anthropology as a whole. The brain is such a crazy machine, it boggles my mind.

I've also made a note to write a segment at some point on dialect formation. I feel like that's a good show of how language entwines with all those aspects. That'll take a hot sec though, since I'll want to do a ton more research first.

[_ghost_]

The overlap between linguistics and schizospectral conditions is my current topic of research. Might be too niche but I will see if I could possibly contribute something related to that

That sounds really interesting! I would be really excited to see more about this.


My background is predominantly in cultural studies through studies of literature (with a focus on Hispanic cultures, specifically, although I also know a good bit about British literature), so I'm not sure what exactly I could share. I did recently purchase a translated copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula, so talking about translation as a form of adaptation might be a possibility, but that depends on when I can get around to reading it (and I'm nowhere near fluent, so it may take a while).