Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

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vonPeterhof
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby vonPeterhof » Fri Dec 03, 2021 7:15 am

Radioclare wrote:The main words I looked up today were "лазутчик" (spy, but not sure what the difference is between this and "шпион", which is the word I've learned for spy before) and "ефрейторша" (seems to be a military rank).

Лазутчик is a somewhat archaic word, and at its most literal it refers specifically to a spy who sneaks in behind enemy lines in an active war situation. Nowadays шпион and разведчик are somewhat more common.

As a military rank with an added feminitive suffix, ефрейторша could mean two different things depending on the context. Historically the addition of the suffix -ша to a military or civilian rank denoted not a female bearer of the rank in question, but the wife of a man holding that rank. This usage still shows up sometimes, but usually informally or jocularly. Now in formal modern usage military ranks don't have feminine forms even when applied to actual female holders of the rank, so any forms with feminitive suffixes are either as of yet non-standard proposals or informal/slang terms (and the suffix -ша in particular is considered to have pejorative connotations, so it's generally avoided by advocates of introducing more feminine forms into formal usage).
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Fri Dec 03, 2021 10:04 pm

Thank you, vonPeterhof - explanations really appreciated :) I think "ефрейторша" was being used in a non-literal, derogatory way in the book to describe a female character in an office environment who was quite overbearing and bossing people around.

3 December
I had to go to the office today for some training. Luckily only one dog made it in :D

Russian
I went out for a meal after work and this involved some wine so I couldn't face reading in Russian today. I cleared some Memrise reviews while waiting for my lift and then once I got home, I watched an episode of 'Кухня'.

Total - Russian: 32 mins, Croatian: 48 mins
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sat Dec 04, 2021 9:35 pm

4 December
A nice relaxing day at home. I feel so much better than I did last week after my booster.

Russian
I cleared my Memrise reviews over breakfast and then once I'd got through all the housework, I sat down to try and make more progress with 'С небес на землю'. I gave it half an hour or so and feel like I got into the story a little bit more, though still struggling a bit with the lack of clarity over where one scene ends and another begins.

Later in the evening I did some exercises from 'A Comprehensive Russian Grammar'. I had an old second-hand version of the workbook that accompanies it, which was full of pencil scribblings from the original owner. The pencil scribblings upset me so I was very happy to get a shiny brand new copy of the workbook for my birthday :) Seeing as I hadn't got very far with it anyway, I decided to go back to the beginning and re-do the exercises from the start. So today I did a couple of pages of exercises on gender of nouns. I mostly got on okay, but got the gender of some of the soft sign nouns wrong.

It's getting to that time of year when I need to think about what my goals are for next year. I think I said at the start of this year that my aim was to do enough Russian this year that I didn't need to do the 365-challenge again next year. But I'm starting to wonder whether there's any downside to continuing with 30 minutes of Russian a day. I'm not always sure I'm moving forward, but I feel like it stops me from moving backwards.

Total - Russian: 70 mins, Croatian: 89 mins
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sun Dec 05, 2021 4:14 pm

5 December
I've been very lazy today, but half of it was reading a book in English.

Russian
I did some more reading this morning and I'm now almost 100 pages into 'С небес на землю'. It feels like a lot of pages to have read without really being sure where the plot is going or exactly who the main character is (as in, I know which character is the main one but his backstory is quite unclear, it's not even clear exactly what his profession is). I don't think this is down to my poor Russian; it's just the way the book is written.

Then I worked through some more grammar exercises. The ones I was doing today were around male and female names for different professions. Turns out I'm not very good at these, I don't think I can have studied the topic very thoroughly first time around.

Total - Russian: 93 mins, Croatian: 60 mins
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Mon Dec 06, 2021 8:23 pm

6 December
Found out today that I'm likely to spend most of the winter working from home. This is good news :)

Russian
It was really wet and horrible today so I didn't go out for a walk at lunchtime. Instead I watched two episodes of 'Кухня' while getting extra steps on the treadmill. I felt like I understood one of the episodes really well and one of them really badly, so there's no logic to that at all :D

Total - Russian: 59 mins, Croatian: 61 mins
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Tue Dec 07, 2021 10:54 pm

7 December
Was working in the office today so feel kinda tired this evening.

Russian
Once I'd cleared my Memrise reviews I felt a bit sleepy so I didn't feel like reading. I watched an episode of 'Кухня' and that was enough to take me past my 30 minutes of Russian. But, then I realised that Антон Птушкин had created a new video about Lebanese food and I felt compelled to watch it, because I'm supposed to be having Lebanese food for lunch this Saturday. It was a really cool video; I learned a lot about Lebanon and some of the food looked really nice. There was some food which looked less nice; it's not a video I'd recommend if you're squeamish about watching people eat different parts of sheep!

Total - Russian: 90 mins, Croatian: 58 mins
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Wed Dec 08, 2021 10:19 pm

8 December
Home alone for the next few days.

Russian
I went for a walk at lunchtime and was organised enough to download some podcasts to listen to. I listened to the latest Russian Progress one first of all but honestly, I didn't get a lot out of it. It was an interview format, which I always find more difficult, and the girl being interviewed spoke so fast you wouldn't believe. It was probably one that would have been better listened to at home where I could concentrate rather than while walking with background noise. After that I listened to an episode of the 'Что это было' podcast and that was so much better :) It was an episode from a few weeks ago about the migrant crisis on the Belarus-Poland border so it was an interesting topic and the journalists spoke significantly more clearly than the interview on the Russian Progress podcast :)

Total - Russian: 61 mins, Croatian: 6 mins
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Thu Dec 09, 2021 10:47 pm

9 December
Started putting a few Christmas decorations up this evening, so beginning to feel festive :)

Russian
I wasn't organised enough to sort out any podcasts for my walk today so once I'd cleared my Memrise reviews this evening, I resorted to getting the rest of my minutes by reading some more of 'С небес на землю'. I'm really not sure what to make of this book. There's been another attempted murder and it seems like any time anything remotely sinister happens in the plot, there's a large black dog lurking in the background. But I still have no idea what's going on or who all the characters actually are. I did learn a new word today, though: "лужа" (puddle).

Total - Russian: 58 mins, Croatian: 82 mins
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Fri Dec 10, 2021 11:13 pm

10 December
Finished work early today because it was the Christmas party. I decided weeks ago that I wasn't going to go to the party because it's in a town which is quite difficult to get to. Now that we've got this new Covid variant, it definitely feels like the right decision. But it was nice to be able to finish work early anyway :)

Russian
I deliberately didn't listen to any Russian podcasts when I went for a walk today, because I suspected that if I'd already achieved my 30 minutes of Russian during the day then I wouldn't be able to force myself to read some more of 'С небес на землю' this evening :D I think this is a book I need to read every day; it's too difficult for me to read for hours at a time without a break, so little and often is preferable, and the storyline is also so confusing that if I leave a few days between reading sessions I'm literally losing the plot. I did read it for 20 minutes or so this evening anyway and made a bit more progress :)

Made up the rest of my time clearing Memrise reviews. I tried to do them on the computer initially, because the ads on the app are getting on my nerves. But the Memrise website seems to have been redesigned in a way which makes it almost unusable, so after a few minutes I reached the conclusion that the app was the better option, despite the ads.

Total - Russian: 34 mins, Croatian: 129 mins
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sat Dec 11, 2021 7:50 pm

11 December
Went to visit my family today, which involved some long public transport journeys in both directions. One train in particular was crazily busy; if one person in the carriage had Covid, everyone will have it.

Russian
While on said train I had 10 minutes where I managed to manoeuvre myself into enough space to get my phone out of my pocket, so I used the time to clear my Memrise reviews.

On the way home later I had a problem with a bus and missed the train I needed, meaning I had a long wait at the station. I passed some of the time by reading in Russian and made a bit more progress with my book. Well, I just realised that characters who I thought were two separate people are actually one character, so progress of a sort :lol:

Total - Russian: 34 mins, Croatian: 50 mins
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