Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

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

Postby Radioclare » Sat Mar 20, 2021 7:02 pm

20 March
Glad it's the weekend. This has been a more stressful week than I expected.

Russian
I haven't been very diligent at reading in Russian this week, so I decided to make more of an effort this morning. I actually only intended to read for half an hour or so, but these Agatha Christie novels tend to start slow and then get progressively more exciting as you get closer to the end and the revelation about who the murderer is. This one was no different and so I became unexpectedly hooked on it and in total spent just under two hours reading in Russian, which was sufficient to finish the book. So 'Смерть приходит в конце' becomes the fifth book I've read in Russian this year, giving me an extra 283 pages towards my Russian reading challenge. I'm now up to 83 books for Russian reading in total, so I'm considering whether I need to start reading less in Russian. Seems like a strange problem to have, but my Croatian reading challenge and the listening part of my Russian challenge are significantly behind that.

Later in the afternoon I attempted my weekly 500 words of Russian writing. I got there in the end but it felt particularly slow today because this was my first attempt at typing Russian on my new laptop. It takes a while to get used to a new keyboard... I'm only just getting used to it in English... so I kept finding when I was typing Russian that I was hitting the wrong keys. Then I had a weird technical problem where my computer reinstalled a US keyboard despite the fact that I'd specifically uninstalled it the other day, so I probably wasted 15 minutes of my day trying to sort that out.

Total - Russian: 211 mins
6 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Sun Mar 21, 2021 8:16 pm

21 March
A nice relaxing day today with nothing in particular that I needed to get done :)

Russian
I started the day with Schaum's and managed to get to the end of the section on the imperative. I didn't do amazingly well on the exercises, which I think is partly because for various reasons I haven't been very diligent about doing Russian grammar in the evenings this week, so it felt like a long time since I'd been studying the first part of the imperative section and I seemed to have forgotten some of the finer points about aspect.

German
I spent a bit of time reading in the morning and finished reading 'Der Thron der Sieben Königreiche'. I'm not doing a Super Challenge in German because I don't have time for the listening side, but so far I've read three novels totalling 1,494 pages in German in 2021.

Croatian
I have a target to write 1,000 words in Croatian on Sundays to balance out my target of writing 500 words in Russian on Saturdays :lol: Writing in Croatian is obviously still significantly easier, though today was one of those days where hitting the required number of words felt like a struggle! I also watched an episode of 'Drugo ime ljubavi' while on the treadmill. It's so exciting now that I'm getting sad that I'm nearly at the end of the series (I think I'm on episode 155 out of 175).

Total - Russian: 30 mins, German: 88 mins, Croatian: 109 mins
4 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Mon Mar 22, 2021 11:18 pm

22 March
I had another slightly stressful meeting today, one of those where you can't quite tell how it's gone and afterwards you just want to go and lie in a darkened room :lol:

Russian
However, I'm normally full of good intentions on Mondays so I didn't use this as an excuse to ignore Russian grammar :) I tackled a section on the conditional in Schaum's, which recapped the difference between real and unreal conditions, and then completed the three exercises that followed. I found these really useful.

Later I watched an episode of Татьянин день on the treadmill. I wasn't very diligent at watching this last week so I'm trying to get back into the plot. One character was assaulted a couple of episodes ago and another character described him as feeling "неважно". This confused me, because I assumed it meant he felt "unimportant" and this didn't make a whole lot of sense. Having looked it up, it seems like it just means he wasn't feeling great, which does make more sense in the context.

Total - Russian: 95 mins
6 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Tue Mar 23, 2021 11:44 pm

23 March
I was going to say that I don't think anything of interest happened today, but a few little things did. I ordered some Easter cards online and they turned up without an additional envelope in which to give them to the recipient :evil: An acquaintance in Armenia sent me a present to celebrate 8 March (obviously it took a while to get here!). And I read a new children's book in Esperanto. This is about as exciting as life in lockdown gets.

Russian
Today was a Croatian day for TV, so all I've done in Russian is some grammar study. Following on from yesterday's section on the conditional in Schaum's, today I was working on a section about the subjunctive. So it was how to say things like "I would advise you to do that", "I want her to call him" etc. I got through 3 pages of the grammar, then realised that they were followed by another couple of pages of exercises, but stopped short of doing those.

Total - Russian: 30 mins, Croatian: 45 mins
4 x

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IronMike
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Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby IronMike » Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:54 am

Radioclare wrote:23 March
And I read a new children's book in Esperanto.

What's the book called?
0 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

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

Postby Meddysong » Wed Mar 24, 2021 6:20 am

IronMike wrote:
Radioclare wrote:23 March
And I read a new children's book in Esperanto.

What's the book called?

We haven't announced it yet. It was an advance copy of a new one we've published. You'll have to wait a while before we give the details: the copies are currently on a ship somewhere close to China :-)
1 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Wed Mar 24, 2021 11:55 pm

24 March
I got some unexpected news this evening. It's good news, but I was so surprised by it that it just kind of disrupted any sensible plans I had for the evening.

Russian
It was the sort of news that required wine to celebrate, so it follows that I did no Russian grammar studying this evening. Maybe tomorrow! I decided to watch another Twilight film in Russian instead (this was Breaking Dawn, Part 1), because watching trashy films always seems like a good idea after a certain quantity of wine. I've got nearly 90 minutes into it this evening, so only have half an hour or so to watch tomorrow. Honestly, I know the Super Challenge is supposed to be a "films" challenge but it feels like counting these films towards it is cheating because there is so much less dialogue in them compared to a TV series. There's so many pauses, so many musical interludes, so many action shots etc. The TV series I'm watching doesn't seem to have the budget for much more than a few characters sitting in a room talking and as a result there is definitely a lot more Russian per minute!

Total - Russian: 87 mins
6 x

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IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
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Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby IronMike » Thu Mar 25, 2021 12:03 am

Meddysong wrote:
IronMike wrote:
Radioclare wrote:23 March
And I read a new children's book in Esperanto.

What's the book called?

We haven't announced it yet. It was an advance copy of a new one we've published. You'll have to wait a while before we give the details: the copies are currently on a ship somewhere close to China :-)

It's very possible I already know the name, due to someone (I won't say who, but her initials are Radioclare!) putting it on her Goodreads. ;)
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You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

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

Postby Meddysong » Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:21 am

IronMike wrote:
Meddysong wrote:It's very possible I already know the name, due to someone (I won't say who, but her initials are Radioclare!) putting it on her Goodreads. ;)

Yes, you've got it! I added it thinking that that's not quite the same as making an announcement, so I'm not breaking my own embargo. I suppose I should put it up for pre-order soon...
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:40 pm

25 March
Today was slightly less dramatic. I got my good news confirmed in writing this evening, which was nice. Tomorrow I will have a difficult phone call to make.

Russian
I didn't feel very motivated this evening to be honest, so all I did was watch the remainder of yesterday's film, 'Рассвет'. I'd forgotten this was the Twilight film with the gory birth scene (if you've read it, you know!).

Croatian
I did watch an episode of 'Drugo ime ljubavi' while on the treadmill. Very exciting, I honestly think this is the best Croatian series I've watched in terms of plot and tension :)

Total - Russian: 33 mins, Croatian: 46 mins
5 x


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