Mista's new perpetual log (currently: Russian and Japanese))

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Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
x 1459

Re: Mista's new perpetual log (Christmas interlude: German)

Postby Mista » Mon Dec 19, 2022 9:35 pm

Monday, December 19
I finished the vocabulary round of the second section today, and then transferred all the vocabulary I have collected so far into my Goldlist book (about 275 words). Tomorrow I'll write the summary. I'm not sure I've quite understood everything here, as this is the section where he explains the theory he is basing his analysis on, so it's probably the most challenging part of the whole book.

I've also gone through my papers from last year and found the text and my notes on the Rilke poem. I'm planning to get to work on that on Wednesday.

Today's stats:
SRS: 112 min
Reading: 69 min

Total: 903 min = 15h03

Another thing that happened today was that I got my copy of Air & Light & Time & Space. How Successful Academics Write by Helen Sword. We got the introduction to this book at a writing seminar I was at a few weeks back, and what I particulary like about her approach is that she talks about the process of writing rather than the result (which is also what we did at the seminar). She divides the writing process into four different spheres, which she discusses separately in this book: behavioral habits, artisanal habits, social habits and emotional habits. One of my problems with writing has always been that any kind of feedback and assistance you get with writing tends to be exclusively focused on what she calls artisanal habits (which are concerned with your ability to construct a good text), but I'm actually quite good at that, once I get started. What I need to work on, is how to get started without being overwhelmed by all sorts of fears and anxieties. This book looks very helpful in that respect.
7 x

Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
x 1459

Re: Mista's new perpetual log (Christmas interlude: German)

Postby Mista » Thu Dec 22, 2022 9:47 pm

Tuesday 20 - Thursday 22
I've been a little tired the last few days, so I haven't been able to put as much time into studiying as I had originally hoped. But I have done some every day, and have now finally worked myself all the way through the second section of that introduction. It turned out to be much more manageable than I had feared.

I'm not sure I'll find the time to do anything more than Drops tomorrow, I have to pack and do some other Christmas preparation stuff. And go to the dentist. I may not be awfully busy with German over Christmas either, but I will bring the text along - if nothing else, I should be able to find some time for it during the flight.

Tue Dec 20:
SRS: 32 min
Writing: 25 min

Wed Dec 21:
SRS: 32 min
Writing: 37 min

Thu Dec 22:
SRS: 32 min
Writing: 22 min

Total: 1083 min = 18h03

Outside of this challenge, I'm also working on a couple of other typical end-of-year projects: reducing my list of half-read books (currently 49, according to Goodreads) and reducing my list of to-be-read or half-read library books (currently 46, according to the library). At the moment, I'm reading A History of English Literature and Livy, book 1, both of which belong to both of these categories (which makes me feel very efficient, obviously :lol: )
7 x

Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
x 1459

Re: Mista's new perpetual log (Christmas interlude: German)

Postby Mista » Sat Dec 31, 2022 11:57 pm

Christmas (and post-Christmas) update
I spent the Christmas days with my parents in Trondheim, and the flight home was a nightmare. I was supposed to go at 8.30 pm on the 26th, but first the flight was delayed, and then it was cancelled. Then I had to sit up and wait until 11.30 to report that I couldn't come to work that night, and then I had to get up at 6.30 to go back to the airport. This time, the flight seemed to be on time, but when we had already boarded, we were informed that we would be an hour delayed because of heavy snowfall in Bergen. And when we finally got to Bergen, my connection to Oslo was also 90 minutes delayed. I finally came home at 4 pm, and have been completely exhausted ever since. I probably caught some bug along the way, because I started getting headaches yesterday, and today I woke up with a stuffy nose. I had to drop the party, of course, so that's why I finally got some proper studying done today, and why I'm posting an update at this incredibly strange hour.

Fri Dec 23:
SRS: 32 min

Sat Dec 24:
SRS: 16 min
Reading: 25 min

Sun Dec 25:
SRS: 32 min

Mon Dec 26:
SRS: 32 min

Tue Dec 27:
SRS: 32 min
Reading: 47 min

Wed Dec 28:
SRS: 32 min

Thu Dec 29:
SRS: 32 min

Fri Dec 30:
SRS: 32 min

Sat Dec 31:
SRS: 32 min
Reading: 72 min

Total: 1499 min = 24h59
6 x

User avatar
MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2109
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mista's new perpetual log (Christmas interlude: German)

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Jan 01, 2023 12:16 am

At least you got to spend time with your parents, but, gosh, getting home was awful. Hope you feel better soon!
2 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
x 1459

Re: Mista's new perpetual log (Christmas interlude: German)

Postby Mista » Sun Jan 01, 2023 12:37 am

December Super Challenge update (total numbers)
English
Books: 6231 pages = 124 books
Films: 2104 minutes = 23 films

I finally finished:
A History of English Literature (Alexander)
Discourse Analysis (Paltridge)
Black Skin, White Masks (Fanon)
The Secret History (Tartt) (audio)

I’ve also read:
Elizabeth Costello (Coetzee)
No Name in the Street (Baldwin)
The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger) – read the whole thing on my trip back from Trondheim

In progress:
Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature (Emerson)
The Anglo-Saxon World (Higham)
Register, Genre, and Style (Biber)
Neo-slave Narratives (Rushdy)

Watched:
Emily – the new movie about Emily Brontë. It was every bit as gothic as Wuthering Heights, and as my friend commented, it wasn’t really about Emily Brontë, but more specifically about the Emily Brontë who wrote Wuthering Heights. If that sounds tempting to you, I would definitely recommend it. It was very well made, and I loved it.

French
Books: 317 = 6 books
Films: 786 minutes = 8 films

Continued listening to the first few chapters of Le café de la jeunesse perdue

German
Books: 284 pages = 5 books
Films: 330 minutes = 3 film
Read Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte by Sebastian Conrad. Reading Leid und Verwandlung by Walter Falk (intensively) and Das siebte Kreuz by Anna Seghers (extensively). Listening to Umberto Eco’s Der Name der Rose.

Italian
Books:
Films: 120 minutes = 1 film
No change

Spanish
Books:
Films: 225 minutes = 2 films
No change

Portuguese
Books:
Films: 170 minutes = 1 film
No change

Dutch
Books:
Films:

Latin
Books: 94 pages
Finished the first book of Ab urbe condita

Greek (ancient)
Books:

Russian
Books: 615 pages = 12 books
Films: 2184 minutes = 24 films
Third reading of HP chapter 1, first reading of HP chapter 2

Icelandic
Books: 892 pages = 17 books
Films: 142 minutes = 1 film
No change


Swedish
Books: 527 pages = 10 books
Films:
Read Doktor Glas by Hjalmar Söderberg

Danish
Books:
Films:

Arabic
Books:
Films: 193 minutes = 2 films
Listened to HP chapter 1 and 2 (Azkaban)

Japanese
Books:
Films: 295 minutes = 3 films

Northern Sami
Books: 48 pages
Films: 15 minutes
No change

Finnish
Books: 138 pages = 2 books
Films: 201 minutes = 2 films
No change

Average per day (245 days/610)
Books: 32/64 pages
Films: 28/126 minutes

Unofficial:
Bokmål
Books: 2766 pages = 55 books
Films:
Read Den tredje løgnen by Agota Kristof

Nynorsk
Books: 19 pages
Films:
No change
8 x

Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
x 1459

Re: Mista's new perpetual log (Christmas interlude: German)

Postby Mista » Sun Jan 01, 2023 10:37 pm

Sunday, January 1
I'm feeling better today, which isn't really what I expected, so I'll go to work tonight as planned, and then I'll have to consider after that if I should go to the gym tomorrow.

I've been working on vocabulary today. Back to writing tomorrow.

Stats:
SRS: 86 min
Total: 1585 min = 26h25
7 x

Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
x 1459

Re: Mista's new perpetual log (Christmas interlude: German)

Postby Mista » Tue Jan 03, 2023 8:28 pm

January 2+3
Not sure I'm getting better after all, as I've been sneezing all day. Apart from that, I'm feeling fine, though.

I went to the gym yesterday, and didn't quite manage to find the motivation to study afterwards, so I ended up with a very short writing session. I've done a bit better today, and I'm now done with the introduction of Leid und Verwandlung. My next task is to start working on the anaysis of the two poems. I may start on that tomorrow, or I may instead start looking at some of the other books I have and see if I can narrow down what I should read and make some copies, like I did with the book I'm working on now. I've registered for a yoga class tomorrow, so I'll have to go to the university anyway. It would be nice to get some of those library books delivered.

Next week is the last week before the start of the new semester, and I'll be spending it in Edinburgh with my parents. This will be my first visit to Scotland. To prepare for this, I have placed to orders at the public library: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie on DVD, which I hope to find the time to watch before going, and Waverley by Walter Scott, which I plan to take with me.

Apart from that, I'm currently reading:
- Marxism and Literary Criticism by Terry Eagleton
- Das siebte Kreuz by Anna Seghers
- 1984 by George Orwell

Mon Jan 2:
SRS: 32 min
Writing: 17 min

Tue Jan 3:
SRS: 32 min
Writing: 55 min

Total: 1721 min = 28h41
6 x

Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
x 1459

Re: Mista's new perpetual log (Christmas interlude: German)

Postby Mista » Mon Jan 09, 2023 6:39 am

Wednesday, January 4 - Sunday, January 8
This week has been tough. I'm delivering newspapers full time over the Christmas break, which is a lot of physical activity in the first place. Then we had very slippery conditions in the beginning of the week, and on Wednesday, it started snowing. Then a covid/flu-wave set in, and I said yes to working extra on Saturday, which meant I spent over 9 hours wading through the meter of snow that had piled up between the road and the mailboxes. Then I slapt all day, and when I woke up again, I felt like a zombie. My head worked fine though, so I've spent most of the time since then on the couch reading.

I read the first chapter of Air & Light & Time & Space, the book on academic writing I mentioned earlier. This chapter talked about how you find the time to write, and more specifically discussed the piece of advice that you should try to write something every day, which is apparently quite common. Her conclusion was that this is not necessarily the best thing for everyone, but that it usually works well for people who struggle with procrastination and writer's block (that's me!), as it takes this huge thing that you have built up in your head and transforms it into a mundane everyday activity. This is pretty much what I have been toing over Chrismas, and it seems to be working very well, so my next step now is to see if I can keep it up when classes start up again. I think I'll have to plot in some specific hours for writing in my schedule, so I'll do that next weekend, when I'm back from Edinburgh (I'm leaving today).

Challenge stats:
Wed Jan 4:
SRS: 32 min

Thu Jan 5:
SRS: 66 min

Fri Jan 6:
SRS: 32 min
Writing: 47 min

Sat Jan 7:
SRS: 32 min

Sun Jan 8:
SRS: 32 min
Writing: 17 min

Total: 1979 min = 32h59

While I'm away, I'll mostly do Drops, and I'm also bringing my text so I can do some reading while traveling.
8 x

Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
x 1459

Re: Mista's new perpetual log (Christmas interlude: German)

Postby Mista » Sun Jan 15, 2023 8:25 pm

January 9 - January 15
I'm back from Edinburgh. Beautiful city, challenging accent :shock: . And despite what they say about the British weather - it was a good deal better than what we have here in Oslo at the moment. I've never been there before, so we did some of the obvious tourist stuff - Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, Mary King's Close, and the National Gallery. And half an hour of Drops every day. :lol:

Mon Jan 9:
SRS: 32 min
Reading: 48 min

Tue Jan 10:
SRS: 32 min

Wed Jan 11:
SRS: 40 min

Thu Jan 12:
SRS: 32 min

Fri Jan 13:
SRS: 32 min
Reading: 51 min

Sat Jan 14:
SRS: 32 min

Sun Jan 15:
SRS: 32 min

Total: 2310 min = 38h30

The nest semester starts tomorrow. I won't be sure which courses I will be allowed to take until Friday, but I'm planning to go to some German classes tomorrow. I've also plotted some writing sessions into my calendar most days of next week.
10 x

Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
x 1459

Re: Mista's new perpetual log (Christmas interlude: German)

Postby Mista » Sat Feb 04, 2023 6:07 pm

Ok, let me sum up the AI6WC, before I get started on other things. I fell a bit out of it when I found out, at the start of the semester, that I won't be able to take any of the two German exams I was planning to take, including the one I was already working on. At that point, I completely stopped working on the writing project I was working on for this challenge. I'm glad I didn't find this out earlier, though, because the work I did put in was very useful in a general way, and has definitely improved my ability to read and write academic German.

Mon Jan 16:
SRS: 113 min
Reading: 90 min
Writing: 21 min

Tue Jan 17:
SRS: 73 min
Writing: 45 min

Wed Jan 18:
SRS: 86 min
Reading: 88 min

Thu Jan 19:
SRS: 32

Fri Jan 20:
SRS: 32 min

Sat Jan 21:
SRS: 32 min

Sun Jan 22:
SRS 32 min

Mon Jan 23:
SRS: 32 min

Tue Jan 24:
SRS: 32 min

Wed Jan 25:
SRS: 32 min

Total: 3050 min = 50h50
3 x


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