August 31, 2026
Last night I worked on a few small UI tweaks to improve some things on the site that have been bothering me for a while. When viewing the site on a large screen, the navbar at the top was always just a little too tall for my liking, and I realized it's because of the settings cogwheel, combined with the fact that I added some bootstrap class to it to give it extra padding. Well, I removed that class and then added three other classes to it, which felt kind of hack-y, but it worked.
I also noticed that the headers on the category pages had a weird amount of left padding, but only when viewed on "small" (not extra small!) screen sizes. Now they should be always be properly left aligned with the rest of the content on the page.
I do reference these pages of word lists a lot, and it was getting annoying to always have to scroll down to find the category I wanted. So I added some links at the top of the category page so it's easier for me to jump to the specific category I want.
Even though bootstrap is kind of weird, it is nice to work on something that is less modern! I don't know, it's easier for me to make old technology do what I want it to do. And it's so nice to be able to make changes quickly without me wanting to pull my hair out.
Besides all that, I've added three words today!
- in front
- at the back
- the most...
August 30, 2026
Last week, I was talking to my cousins when suddenly my mic stopped working. I figured it was just my computer being weird and that a reset would fix it. Well, the next day I tried to record another audio clip for this site, and it turns out my headphone mic was completely broken.
But I have a new pair of headphones now, and the mic works, and since I went a few days without posting any updates, I decided to add a bunch of new words today!
- hearts
- diamonds
- spades
- clubs
- peach
- plum
- to take someone somewhere
- Chinese barbecue sauce
I learned the different card suits while I was visiting family and we were playing Cắt Tê. And since I've added those, I figured it would be good to add a new category for games and sports words.
August 26, 2026
Today I added the words first doi(7) ek4, second doi(7) yi6, and third doi(7) san1, and I could keep going but I think it's obvious enough what the pattern is there.
While looking up the doi6(7) syllable, I noticed that some sources actually nasalize this word, so it's doin6. Was I wrong about how this is pronounced? After scouring the discord, it seems like some people nasal this and some people don't. I'm always a bit unsure about what to do in these instances (it's like this with the word for fruit as well!), but I default to not-nasalizing things just because it seems easier. Not like I can tell the difference usually anyway.
I also realized that I already had an entry for "first", but it's like, a different meaning of "first" that means "beforehand". Like, telling something to "wait first" or "I need to pee first" before doing something else. So this actually revealed a bug in my script for adding new words that I still need to fix.
And "second" has multiple meanings as well! It could mean the length of time second! And that made me realize...I don't know how to say that kind of second. I've probably heard it at one point, but unlike the words for "minute" and "hour", I guess I've never had it to say it in my every day speech.
August 24, 2026
My daily Teochew practice consists of:- adding at least one word to the site's database
- going through a set of flashcards on the site
- adding words to a separate Anki deck and reviewing those
- either listening to a recent conversation I had with my aunt or watching a Teochew video and seeing if I recognize all the words or not
- ...and sometimes I add an update here!
I started my Teochew practice some time this morning. While I was going through my first set of flashcards, I got SO dou2 kung3. And then after I made lunch and ate, I started reviewing words in my Anki deck, and I got SO mak8 siap4. So then I took a nap. When I woke up, I started watching a video, but I really wanted to get outside and ung7 dong6 before it was too late. And now it's almost jap(4) diam2, and I'm finally writing my update.
August 23, 2026
I was doing so well practicing my Teochew every day, and then I went on a family vacation and that all went kaput. You'd think that if I were around my family, I'd be practicing more, but I don't think my brain is there yet. Right now I actually prefer to practice in the comfort of my own apartment when no one is around to hear me. One day I would like to practice more around other people. One day.
My family did teach me some new words while I was visiting, but I didn't write any of it down at the time, so I'm just trying as hard as I can to remember them now. I did ask about how to say "to roll up" (like, an egg roll, or a joint), and while I already had gaoh4 in this database, I swear my aunt always says gap4 instead. And she does! But apparently no one else on the internet uses that word, which is just par for the course.
When I ask about certain words, my family likes to also tell me other words that sound similar. So my grandma brought up the fact that gak4 means horn, and she put her fingers up above her ears. I added "horn" to my database, but I realized that horn can mean either an animal horn or a music horn. When I have these ambiguous English words, I usually add something next to it in parentheses (see the word "fly"), but I wasn't really feeling like doing that here. So I decided to add the category underneath the word in the flashcard! This only shows up when you're not already looking at flashcards specific to one category.
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