In my case, it's me and only me to blameIngaræð wrote:THOUGHTS
-Just_a_visitor wrote:The pain is, I can't get used to doing either of them regularly - and that's the way to nowhere.
Calling me out here.... I've barely progressed in any language since I started logging here. Some of the reasons are my fault, some are things beyond my control, so I'm not going to beat myself up about it too much.
And I've been thinking about logging more frequently, but...
So, my update for June 25th (abt 6 weeks since I'm here).
It looks like the choices I make for my SC "film" part for English are determined mainly by theatrehd.com programmes. They, like many others, have gone online, generously providing free streaming of some plays from the previous seasons.
During the last fortnight, I watched three of them (except usual operas). I won't count Globe's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" - that's what I decided about Shakesperian plays.
What is left, is "The Small Island" (3h 18min) and "The Madness of George III" (2h 28min).
"The Small Island"
I watched the performance for the second time, the first one was on the big screen this autumn. It seems so long ago: a real cinema theatre, just imagine! Almost unbelievable...
One more (in)famous trip is featured here, happened almost a decade after the one I listened about a month ago. Compared to the passengers of the luxury MS St.Louis in 1939, those who disembarked HMT Empire Windrush in 1948 were lucky devils, even though the reality failed to meet their expectations. For the National Theater, the story is told by one of their descendants, Andrea Levy, who managed to win Britain, "the Mother Country" for Jamaicans, with her books.
I think I could read the book, or watch the mini TV series based on it.
Then, "The Madness of George III".
It's a Nottingham Playhouse production of Alan Bennet's play with "Mycroft Holmes" in the leading role. Actually, after "Coriolanus" watched a week or so before, Mark Gattis is no longer just a "Sherlock's big brother" in my eyes but also a noble Roman patrician - morally noble; not all of the high-rank characters were.
But back to poor George.
I really liked both acting and the play; but, suddenly I realized how little I know about the events behind.
Just think: the Plantagenets and the Tudors had Shakespeare to tell their stories - no matter, how accurate and close to the truth these stories are - everyone now is familiar with their names, at the very least. Henry VIII and Elizabeth I had become household faces long before Hollywood took them aboard - just remember Schiller or Donizetti. The Stuarts (for me) always were and will always stay Alexander Dumas and Sir Walter Scott's characters.
But the Hannovers? A blind spot for me, except, maybe, V&A.
So, to mend it, I decided to read or watch something on the topic, so that it could gain me a few points for the SC, at the same time. The first thing my eye fell upon, was a series of Lucy Worsley's documentaries, about 60 min each. That's how I've got a to-watch list for the next days!
One more good news: I've started reading at last! A BOOK, not the Internet stuff. It's Mark Zusak's "The Book Thief" and I've read about one-third of it so far. I'll include it onto my scoring list when it's finished - just to keep the maths easier.
GERMAN
Nothing to report SC-wise.
Keep going (so so, to be honest).
Keep fighting the temptation to boost or re-direct the process just for the sake of scoring (successfully up to now!).
So far, all the stuff I'm reading or watching is way too short to meet the requirements.
Well... It may seem good and reasonable and reserved, but the fact is, that I could have made it much better. And much, much more - even within self-imposed limitations of "Free & Legal Challenge".
Speaking of which, it reminds me that I started with Duolingo. Never tried it before. Not a big fan yet.
Now that I'm looking at what I wrote, I think again that I definitely should report oftener - every week, maybe - just to keep it shorter.
And I will. I hope I will. Otherwise, it's trouble to read and even greater trouble to edit my posts.