Xmmm's Log ...

[Xmmm]

I went back to episode #29 of Невский, only to see that one of the subplots I don't care for has taken increasing prominence. Basically Pavel the cop's wife has been in prison on a drug frame-up for the longest time, and despite him doing everything in his power to get her out (including payment of bribes and threatening people) -- no luck. The whole prison story is escalating and -- I don't care. The wife is not very likeable, Pavel is already having an on-again-off-again affair, and their one son looks like he's 13 going on 22 -- he'll live.

So ... I went off to Первый Канал and watched a couple of documentaries: Сергей Бодров. В чем сила, брат? and Михаил Кононов. Против всех. They were pretty interesting, and there's plenty more of them. I may do that for a while. Comprehension is on the low side of 50%, but since a lot of it is interviews with muttering old people, they often have subtitles in Russian -- for Russians. So that's not cheating, right?

I'm also trying the non-fiction (well) thing with audio books. I have one audio book in Russian by Tony Robbins. It's definitely easier to understand than a random novel, and I think it's maybe 16 hours long. I'll use that for the car for now.

With Italian, I'm kind of tired of reading (and I have maybe 30 pages of Vuoto a perdere left, need to crank that out), kind of tired of dubbed tv, kind of tired of audio books. What would be great, actually, would be listening to the news -- but that wouldn't count for the super challenge. That's kind of a stupid reason not to do it, so I may end up switching to the news anyway. My tutor already complained why do I want to learn Italian if I don't care what's happening in Italy, I should be informed, etc. I don't disagree ...

[StringerBell]

Since you're reading a book by Tony Robbins, you might like the website EfficaceMente. It's focused on "personal growth" but the guy who created it covers a lot of topics; there's over 500 articles. They're written in a very conversational style, I've picked up a ton of really useful vocabulary and expressions from it.

[Xmmm]

Since you're reading a book by Tony Robbins, you might like the website EfficaceMente. It's focused on "personal growth" but the guy who created it covers a lot of topics; there's over 500 articles. They're written in a very conversational style, I've picked up a ton of really useful vocabulary and expressions from it.

I don't think I was really looking for a book by Tony Robbins, it's just that Russian non-fiction audio books tilt towards the inspirational style, and I figured Mr. Robbins' book in translation was going to be easier to understand than an original "unleash your primordial energy" book by a Russian author.

I really want to read all my news in Italian and listen to news mp3s in the car, that's probably the direction I'm heading. I keep flipping Google News to Italian, but it keeps flipping back because I'm in the wrong timezone or have the wrong GPS or something. I need to find an Italian newspaper online (I know wikipedia has a list of them somewhere). I need to get to the point where I can describe the political macchinations in Italy to the finest detail, yet be clueless about what's going on in the US ...

[reineke]

Try Euronews and la Repubblica.Also Flipboard and News Republic. I've just installed the apps. Great minds etc.

[StringerBell]

I don't think I was really looking for a book by Tony Robbins, it's just that Russian non-fiction audio books tilt towards the inspirational style, and I figured Mr. Robbins' book in translation was going to be easier to understand than an original "unleash your primordial energy" book by a Russian author.

I've never actually read a Tony Robbins book, but I know he's big in the self-help world. I actually have no interest in "personal growth" at all, but somehow I don't mind reading about it in Italian.

[MamaPata]

Thanks for the documentary suggestion - I hadn't thought of watching those, but I think it would be a good option for me. I'll check them out.
If you liked the Bodrov documentary, ВДудь has one (with some really great interviewees) all about him on his YouTube channel.

[Xmmm]

If I were being sent to a penal colony on Mars for the rest of my life and could only have learning resources for one language, what would it be? Russian, of course.

What about two languages? Russian and Italian.

What about three languages? Russian and Italian and Irish (I've mentioned I have this thing for Irish -- as do most people, I guess).

What about four languages? Russian, Italian, Irish ... and maybe Turkish. I'd have to think about it. This is the rest of my life I'm talking about. I like Turkish a lot, but I'm not obsessed by it.

What about five languages? Russian, Italian, Irish, maybe Turkish, and definitely not Georgian. Really I need to get Latin in there, or German, or maybe Mandarin if they live longer on Mars.

So really, if I were fully rational, I should be spending 90 minutes on Russian, an hour on Italian, and 20 minutes on Irish. Let everything else go. I'm not going to do that, but ... maybe a thought experiment like this gives me some clarity on what I'm doing wrong.

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I finished Vuoto a perdere. It was great. It gave you the whole conspiracy-angle slant for the Aldo Moro affair in 3D. I then followed it up by L'affaire Moro by Sciascia, who was there at the time. Sciascia really works the human angle and gives you a sense of what an appalling crime it was -- and the appallingness of it doesn't really stem from the Red Brigades, but from the Italian government and the powers that be. You cannot read Sciascia's book, though, if you don't have any idea what the Moro affair was. So it should be prefaced with at least a Wikipedia article.

I found out that if you go to amazon.it and look for kindle books it will say "this book is not available in your country/area" but if you drill down to the book details it will often say "actually, we lied. Do you want to buy it? Click here and you can buy it on amazon.com."

So now I'm starting Il grande gioco by Peter Hopkirk. I always wanted to read this book in English and never got around to it, and there are many books like this on my English waiting list, so I'm starting to cross over from the point where I'm studying Italian to the point where I'm just living my life in Italian -- absolutely great.

And ... I remember Antonio Graceffo's advice to read 100 actual books in your TL. I counted for Italian and I've finished 18.

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For Russian, I really need to step up my game and read, read, read. I'm trying to read 20 pages a day, but it's still hard and slow and takes a toll on my energy. I'd rather read 60 pages in Italian than 20 in Russian. I need to push through that. I do have a great stack of books waiting. And the number of books that I've officially read (not deciphered) in Russian? 6. A lot of work to do here.

[jeff_lindqvist]

And ... I remember Antonio Graceffo's advice to read 100 actual books in your TL. I counted for Italian and I've finished 18.

100 books... I've only read that many in Swedish and English. Even if I count easy readers (or even children's books!), I'm nowhere close to 100 in any other language. One problem which I have is that some languages are less transparent than others. I could reach 100 (or any other arbitrary number) in German and Spanish (and French and Portuguese and...) because they're transparent enough. I think Gracieffo wrote something like that he read books in order to become better in the language, instead of studying in order to be able to read books.

I wonder how many books I've read in Russian... A couple of children's books, one easy reader, and a handful of Dan Brown's suspension novels. When does it get easier? What say you, Xmmm?

[Xmmm]

And ... I remember Antonio Graceffo's advice to read 100 actual books in your TL. I counted for Italian and I've finished 18.

I wonder how many books I've read in Russian... A couple of children's books, one easy reader, and a handful of Dan Brown's suspension novels. When does it get easier? What say you, Xmmm?

I don't know when reading Russian gets easier, but it stopped being impossible when I started Империя должна умереть. That's a 900 page book divided into sections that average 3 pages. So all you have to read is 3 pages and you can be done for the day! And it's nonfiction, which is key. The vocabulary is more repetitive, the style is more straightforward, there are no flights of fancy etc.

sapiens: Краткая история человечества is harder than Империя должна умереть but not too bad. Lots of cognates, lots of repetition. I should finish in a another week or so. I've got a translation of Ray Dalio's Principles, I've got the sequel to sapiens: Краткая история человечества, a couple of Soviet pop-history books (at least I hope they are pop-history).

So, I'm probably not touching Russian fiction for another two years. I have to say, I read the first 100 pages of The Gulag Archipelago, and even though it's too hard for me right now, it's not way too hard for me. Maybe in six more months. It's much easier than The Red Wheel.

In Italian, I can read lots of fiction, but I've switched to history because I want to read easier stuff to improve my reading speed. I think Paul Nation said it's possible to reach 250 wpm in a foreign language. That's maybe twice my current speed in Italian.

[Kess]

And ... I remember Antonio Graceffo's advice to read 100 actual books in your TL. I counted for Italian and I've finished 18.

I wonder how many books I've read in Russian... A couple of children's books, one easy reader, and a handful of Dan Brown's suspension novels. When does it get easier? What say you, Xmmm?

I don't know when reading Russian gets easier, but it stopped being impossible when I started Империя должна умереть. That's a 900 page book divided into sections that average 3 pages. So all you have to read is 3 pages and you can be done for the day! And it's nonfiction, which is key. The vocabulary is more repetitive, the style is more straightforward, there are no flights of fancy etc.

sapiens: Краткая история человечества is harder than Империя должна умереть but not too bad. Lots of cognates, lots of repetition. I should finish in a another week or so. I've got a translation of Ray Dalio's Principles, I've got the sequel to sapiens: Краткая история человечества, a couple of Soviet pop-history books (at least I hope they are pop-history).

So, I'm probably not touching Russian fiction for another two years. I have to say, I read the first 100 pages of The Gulag Archipelago, and even though it's too hard for me right now, it's not way too hard for me. Maybe in six more months. It's much easier than The Red Wheel.

In Italian, I can read lots of fiction, but I've switched to history because I want to read easier stuff to improve my reading speed. I think Paul Nation said it's possible to reach 250 wpm in a foreign language. That's maybe twice my current speed in Italian.

The Gulag Archipelago is very hard book even for Russian people. Majority Russian people even didn't read it book.