the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

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Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Cavesa » Fri Mar 24, 2017 3:45 pm

tiia wrote:
Cavesa wrote:
tiia wrote:Do you mean this book? If I remember correctly I saw it in a local bookstore, but you can also find it on amazon.


Of course I can, but amazon's delivery fees make everything significantly more expensive, and the German one (the only one with free delivery above 40 euros) doesn' have it, as far as I looked. But I was more interested in looking at a sample, and I didn' find that on amazon. I am a bit careful, when it comes to paying a price + a delivery fee for something I haven't seen.

The link above includes a sample. That's why I didn't link amazon, but the publisher's website. German amazon has it here.


Thanks! No clue how I missed that but I did.

..........
I might get a language exchange partner, wish me luck. I am curious.
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smallwhite
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby smallwhite » Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:40 am

Hey Cavesa,

Just wanted to say thanks for giving me tips back in July about watching series. I didn't watch them the way you did as I just couldn't bring myself to sit in front of the screen so much, but I combined your tips with my usual/preferred ways, and there's been improvement. If you hadn't made it sound so easy at least, I wouldn't even have bothered. So thanks :P
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Dialang or it didn't happen.

Cavesa
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Cavesa » Fri Mar 31, 2017 2:38 pm

You are welcome, Smallwhite.

March: a language learning desert. My real life has been interfering too much. At least some parts of the unpleasant last weeks are finished and won't bother me anymore. The worse stuff stays for now. I am tired and trying to filter my communication (even here on the forum) to not let my not that stellar mood turn into a computer virus. I respect and value you all too much for that. I need to get some more energy and get the momentum, so that language learning becomes a source of confidence again.

I did a few tiny bits of coursework. I need to speed up.
Some Memrise, but again too little to waste more than this sentence on it.
I did, however, some reading in Spanish, I am in half of quite a long and dense book. The story, style, and sense of humour are very enriching.
I've just finished my second game in German and I really feel more confident. Time to use the new skills more seriously. This is the highlight of March. A bit of immersion. Improvement of my comprehension. And it was fun. Thinking about it, I finished each of the two games in approximately 7 hours (+some hours of unsaved time) (and yes, I was using walkthroughs a bit...sometimes more than a bit, I admit). But I would say at least two thirds of the time were accompanied with mono and dialogs. Not bad.

April will be better.
Plans:
1.return to the CCC, redefine goals, with just one Spanish goal and one German goal at all times.
2.lots of coursework, grammar, memrise
3.SC? sure, reading books in Spanish, watching tv series in German. Despite the usefulness of such input, I won't play any games in April, I think they have served extremely well as a stepping stone towards the tv series.
4 x

Cavesa
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Cavesa » Fri Mar 31, 2017 8:34 pm

Update:

ad point 1:
My main courses (and CCC goals) are Fiesta 2 and Themen Aktuell 2. Today, I started Lección segunda. Tomorrow is a German day, and I'll be continuing with Lektion 1.

ad point 2: I signed up for the April vocab challenge. I need to Memrise Spanish like crazy. I'll be progressing through 6 wordlists, and my goal is to get through at least 2000 cards total. It shouldn't be hard, as I won't be learning totally new words, but mostly bridging the huge gap between my passive and active vocabulary.

part 1: conjugation courses by edthird. I've just spent almost an hour reviewing the already done parts, and I'll leave here a quick note, to avoid counting these in at the end of April. -AR 1377, 204 learnt -ER 1581, 204 learnt -IR 1836,153 learnt
part 2: the +Spanish courses by Eunoia. Verbs 3474, none "learnt" so far in Memrise Adverbs 1977, 4 Nouns 1 5000, 5
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Brun Ugle
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Brun Ugle » Sat Apr 01, 2017 7:04 am

No GdUdE?!
0 x

Cavesa
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Cavesa » Sat Apr 01, 2017 6:14 pm

Acabo de leer la segunda parte del mapa del tiempo. Y mi cabeza está llena de emociones y pensamientos. Compré el libro creyendo esto sería un otro buen ejemplo de novela fantástica, steampunk, o ciencia ficción. Es algo diferente y mucho más impresionante de lo que había buscado. El escritor juega con motivos de estos géneros, pero en una manera original y mucho más razonable a la vez. Me resulta demasiado difícil deciros, sin destrozar vuestra futura lectura. Leed lo. Leed una obra sobre nuestra fascinación por los viajes al pasado o futuro. Sobre decisiónes éticas, que pocos autores abordan. El modo de viajes así y sus consequencias os sorprenderán, de eso estoy convencida. El sentido del humor bastante sombrío y divertido, que el autor dejó aparecer más en el primer partido, no me ha quedado dispuesta a tantas emociones en el segundo. Tuvo que leer más de 150 páginas sin parar. Sí, había una parte lenta en la primera historia. Y todo el libro es una experiencia intensiva, no tan rápida y relajante cómo la mayoría de libro que suelo leer. Pese a eso, estoy disfrutando de la lectura enormemente. Pero voy a necesitar algo lígero cuando termine.
...................

Of course I am joining the GdUdE folly, Brun Ugle!
As anyone can see, my Spanish needs a lot of work. But it is moving forward.
5 x

Cavesa
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Cavesa » Sat Apr 01, 2017 11:03 pm

Btw, I got the rank of Memonist yesterday on Memrise.
3 x

Cavesa
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Cavesa » Tue Apr 04, 2017 11:36 pm

I have a good chance of getting back into the January pace!
I need to continue this way, and I'll have finished the first German and the second or third Spanish lesson in my current courses. + a book I can count as two whole weeks of planned reading.

Good news: I am finally getting the hang of the adjective declination in German. Sure, I'll need many more exercises and a lot of time to digest all this, I am gonna make a thousand more mistakes, but I am finally getting through this wall, that had stopped my learning twice or three times before.
4 x

Cavesa
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Cavesa » Wed Apr 05, 2017 4:46 pm

YES! I've just finished Lektion 1 in Themen Aktuell 2! I am doing it all quite slowly, as I want to draw as much value out of the course as possible. But I am moving forward.
3 x

Cavesa
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Cavesa » Wed Apr 05, 2017 10:26 pm

Finished Lección segunda. I am making tons of mistakes in Spanish, but that means I am leaving my comfort zone and covering my gaps.

And I admit it: I have started Broken Sword 5 in German. Yes, I shouldn't have. And I am quite far in the game already. I should be reading instead.
1 x


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