A language learners’ forum

This week seems to have gone pretty quickly.

I've been working my way through another few articles with LWT. I'm quite enjoying it because there are actually lots of really well-written articles on Deutsche Welle that I would like to read, but never normally get around to. As well as the article about the Balkan podcast, this week I've read this one about new border controls at the Slovenian border causing havoc for tourists and I'm halfway through this one about the protests in Serbia. LWT is still slow going, because it thinks slobodno, slobodnog, slobodnom etc are all different words, so it is taking ages to mark all the various forms I know, but I'm definitely making progress.

I'm still doing Serbian Glossika, but I've only just finished track 35. My trigger for listening to it is normally getting off the train in Birmingham in the morning, because each lesson is about 20 minutes and I can make the walk from the train station to my office last 20 minutes. But that only works on days when I'm going to Birmingham, which for example was only two days last week. I need to think of some additional ways I can incorporate it into my routine.

My new language learning strategy is to copy what Brun Ugle does, so I've just started experimenting with Clozemaster again I did already have an account but I'm not sure I've completely got the hang of it yet. There aren't as many sentences for Croatian as there are for a lot of other languages, but there are more sentences for Serbian, so I guess I can work through the Croatian ones first and then do the Serbian ones.

I'm curious as to where the sentences come from, because some of them are a bit unexpected.



I'm still slowly working my way through the Croatian book I mentioned a couple of weeks ago; 'Slušaj i gledaj, Latice'. I didn't really read any of it last weekend because I was away from home and it was too big to bring with me, but I'm hoping to make more progress now it's Easter

I've watched about six episodes of 'Larin izbor' this week and I think there are only about 14 left until the end of the series. I know it's going to have a happy ending, but I can't see yet how it's going to happen.

Unexpectedly, I've actually been listening to more German this week than Croatian. First of all I was listening to some of those Balkan podcasts I mentioned, and then my boyfriend and I have been watching a DVD he bought me for Christmas of Ken Follett's 'Die Säulen der Erde'. It's dubbed into German with English subtitles, so we can both enjoy it

I've slipped with writing in Croatian every day over Easter, but I'm still doing much better than I normally do. I've got about 2,000 words for the month so far; if I could keep this up, my writing total for the year would be quite respectable

Oh my that sentence would be unexpected. Making a mental note that clozemaster is not kid safe.
I've heard it is the Tatoeba database.

If you're copying whatever I'm doing, you're going to be in trouble. I've been slacking off ever since the end of the last 6WC. I really need to get going again, but I'm so tired all the time. And then I get bursts of energy and can't sit still. I'm not being at all productive and I feel like I'm forgetting everything. Clozemaster is good because I can do a round in a minute or two, which is about the length of my attention span at the moment.

Brun Ugle wrote:I've been slacking off ever since the end of the last 6WC. I really need to get going again, but I'm so tired all the time.

Same here! Basically anything beyond watching TL TV and reading TL comics seems too much for me these days. Brain not braining! I think I may have overdone it a little with the Russian during the 6WC.

I definitely wouldn't recommend Clozemaster for kids - I've had three sentences with F-words in this evening Although it would be interesting to know whether the other languages also have these kind of sentences or whether it's just that there is a lot of swearing in Croatian

Hope everyone feels better/more productive soon! I guess it's good that the 6WC is six weeks on and six weeks off so that there's time to recover and prioritise other stuff. I always enjoy reading other people's logs and stealing ideas for new things to try anyway

blaurebell wrote:

Brun Ugle wrote:I've been slacking off ever since the end of the last 6WC. I really need to get going again, but I'm so tired all the time.

Same here! Basically anything beyond watching TL TV and reading TL comics seems too much for me these days. Brain not braining! I think I may have overdone it a little with the Russian during the 6WC.

I think it's a combination of spring fever, stress, lack of sleep, and the fact that I finished FSI Spanish. It was the center of my universe for so long that I'm a little lost without it. It's weird because I have plenty of other things to do; I'm just not doing them. I think the main problem is spring though. It always throws me off balance.

Radioclare wrote:I definitely wouldn't recommend Clozemaster for kids - I've had three sentences with F-words in this evening Although it would be interesting to know whether the other languages also have these kind of sentences or whether it's just that there is a lot of swearing in Croatian

Hope everyone feels better/more productive soon! I guess it's good that the 6WC is six weeks on and six weeks off so that there's time to recover and prioritise other stuff. I always enjoy reading other people's logs and stealing ideas for new things to try anyway

I haven't come across anything very rude yet in my various languages. Maybe something like "I don't give a damn," but nothing like what you've been seeing. I'm doing a whole bunch of languages and language combinations. For example, I'm learning both Spanish and German through English, but I'm also learning both of them through each other. I'm hoping it will make me better at switching between them.

In Russian I've only seen a few rather harmless insults and a couple of hells and damns. I'm used to hearing way more awful language from Russian-Germans in Germany I haven't seen any of the really strong insults or any sentences like the one you came across!

Just in case you don't already know, you can ignore any sentences you don't like. You can also report sentences if they are wrong, but I don't know what the policy on reporting things is when they are not wrong but just nasty.

Radioclare wrote:I definitely wouldn't recommend Clozemaster for kids - I've had three sentences with F-words in this evening Although it would be interesting to know whether the other languages also have these kind of sentences or whether it's just that there is a lot of swearing in Croatian

It's Slavic. They swear a lot.

Brun Ugle wrote:Just in case you don't already know, you can ignore any sentences you don't like. You can also report sentences if they are wrong, but I don't know what the policy on reporting things is when they are not wrong but just nasty.

I thought you had to be pro to do that! Thankfully I've not had any bad language in my sentences, but I would say they're still not very kid friendly. Tom's led a hard life!