Radioclare's 2017 log (Croatian/Russian)
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 8:44 pm
Wow, it's 2017 already Happy New Year to everyone - I hope 2017 turns out to be better in many ways than 2016 was!
I've been giving some thought to my language goals over the past few days and decided to try and be more specific and measurable this year. Last year I was deliberately vague about things to avoid putting pressure on myself, but this year I feel like I could do with a bit more direction.
RADIOCLARE'S GOALS FOR 2017
1) Read 10 books in German. This should be easily achievable, as I've received about 10 German novels for Christmas (and may already have demolished one of them since yesterday!). I will try to read something in German every time Tadoku is on at least. The aim is to stop my rusty German from deteriorating any further. If I go to Germany during 2017 (a vague possibility) then I would definitely need to do more than this to get my active skills back to a usable level.
2) Try not to forget any more Esperanto. My Esperanto vocabulary is still there somewhere, but I increasingly feel like it needs a bit of a warm up to come out correctly. I want to be able to speak Esperanto fluently (and not some sort of dreadful Croatian-Esperanto-hybrid) during the British Esperanto Conference in Edinburgh in May. Specifically I want to read Kalle Kniivilä's new book 'Idoj de la Imperio' once I can get my hands on it.
3) Increase my Croatian vocabulary. This will predominantly be by using Memrise more diligently. I had a book of 9,000 Serbian words for Christmas 2015 and so far I've only learned 1298 of them.
4) Read at least 4,200 pages in Croatian (this would take me to 200 'books' in the Super Challenge, ie. completing a Double Challenge in reading). I am aiming to read approximately 50% translations and 50% real Croatian literature. Hopefully I will easily accomplish this goal, because I have received around 20 novels in Croatian for Christmas.
5) Listen to/watch at least 9,990 minutes of Croatian TV/films/audiobooks. This would also take me to a Double Challenge for the Super Challenge 'films'. This sounds like an awful lot still to do, so I'm anticipating this goal may be more difficult to achieve.
6) Do better than last year at Croatian output! Well, I did so badly in 2016 that that shouldn't be difficult. I'm going to aim for 25,000 words, which is only half an Output Challenge but more than I've succeeded in writing any year before now. Definitely a stretch goal.
7) Learn enough Russian to feel confident enough to take my Mom to St Petersburg. Okay, so it's difficult to quantify exactly how much Russian that would be I think I'd want to speak it at least as well as I did the second time I went to Croatia (in 2013) as a minimum. I gave my Mom a St Petersburg guidebook for Christmas but the jury is out as to whether we plan a trip for late 2017 or leave it until 2018.
I've been giving some thought to my language goals over the past few days and decided to try and be more specific and measurable this year. Last year I was deliberately vague about things to avoid putting pressure on myself, but this year I feel like I could do with a bit more direction.
RADIOCLARE'S GOALS FOR 2017
1) Read 10 books in German. This should be easily achievable, as I've received about 10 German novels for Christmas (and may already have demolished one of them since yesterday!). I will try to read something in German every time Tadoku is on at least. The aim is to stop my rusty German from deteriorating any further. If I go to Germany during 2017 (a vague possibility) then I would definitely need to do more than this to get my active skills back to a usable level.
2) Try not to forget any more Esperanto. My Esperanto vocabulary is still there somewhere, but I increasingly feel like it needs a bit of a warm up to come out correctly. I want to be able to speak Esperanto fluently (and not some sort of dreadful Croatian-Esperanto-hybrid) during the British Esperanto Conference in Edinburgh in May. Specifically I want to read Kalle Kniivilä's new book 'Idoj de la Imperio' once I can get my hands on it.
3) Increase my Croatian vocabulary. This will predominantly be by using Memrise more diligently. I had a book of 9,000 Serbian words for Christmas 2015 and so far I've only learned 1298 of them.
4) Read at least 4,200 pages in Croatian (this would take me to 200 'books' in the Super Challenge, ie. completing a Double Challenge in reading). I am aiming to read approximately 50% translations and 50% real Croatian literature. Hopefully I will easily accomplish this goal, because I have received around 20 novels in Croatian for Christmas.
5) Listen to/watch at least 9,990 minutes of Croatian TV/films/audiobooks. This would also take me to a Double Challenge for the Super Challenge 'films'. This sounds like an awful lot still to do, so I'm anticipating this goal may be more difficult to achieve.
6) Do better than last year at Croatian output! Well, I did so badly in 2016 that that shouldn't be difficult. I'm going to aim for 25,000 words, which is only half an Output Challenge but more than I've succeeded in writing any year before now. Definitely a stretch goal.
7) Learn enough Russian to feel confident enough to take my Mom to St Petersburg. Okay, so it's difficult to quantify exactly how much Russian that would be I think I'd want to speak it at least as well as I did the second time I went to Croatia (in 2013) as a minimum. I gave my Mom a St Petersburg guidebook for Christmas but the jury is out as to whether we plan a trip for late 2017 or leave it until 2018.