Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

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

Postby Radioclare » Fri Oct 01, 2021 9:07 pm

1 October
I had to start half an hour early for a call at 08.30 today. But then I was able to finish half an hour earlier at 17.00 to make up for it, which was pretty cool :)

Russian
After work I read another short story from 'Гончая смерти'. This was another genuinely very short one - only about 10 pages - and it involved the ghost of a small child.

I cleared some Memrise reviews and then spent some time on the B1.1 textbook. I got through most of the comprehension exercises in the chapter; they didn't seem too hard, several of them were just deriving adjectives from nouns, and there are definitely worse things in Russian grammar than that.

Later on I listened to a short Russian Progress podcast. I seem to have got a few episodes behind on these again. One of the ones I've missed is an hour long, but I didn't feel like I could face that this evening :lol:

Croatian
I'm still watching an episode of the telenovela 'Čista ljubav' every morning while on the treadmill. I haven't been listening to much new music recently, but something I have been unexpectedly enjoying is a Slovenian band called Polkaholiki. They sing covers of well-known Croatian songs (in a polka style, as the name suggests!) and have recently been on a TV talent show in Croatia. But what I've found fun is that they have a few songs in Slovene on YouTube with subtitles in Croatian. It's quite cool to listen to the Slovene, read the Croatian and spot the similarities and differences :)



German
I've started reading another Game of Thrones novel in German. This one is called 'Die Saat des goldenen Löwen' and it's the second half of 'A Clash of Kings'. For some reason each English book has been split into two when translated into German. It's very easy to read anyway and I'm already 100+ pages into it.

Total - Russian: 60 mins, Croatian: 57 mins, German: 92 mins
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby DaveAgain » Sat Oct 02, 2021 4:51 pm

Radioclare wrote:The programme was showing what the grocery stores are like there (very limited selection and everything is very expensive because it's so hard to transport it there).
I remember seeing a programme that followed a Swedish ferry around as they delivered stock to shops, and collected school-children. Sweden and Finland both seem to have almost archipelago landscapes, with a rather thin rural population. It looks very pretty, but I suspect your point about the prices is valid there too. :-)

------
I watched a programme about the Crimea the other day, it looks WARM!
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:19 pm

End of Q3 goals update
I find it easy to forget about my goals once I get to this stage of the year or get caught up in what I want to achieve next year, but there's still a reasonable amount of 2021 left so time for an update. If Q2 was all about working my notice period, Q3 has been all about starting my new job. Which has been equally strange in its own way.

Radioclare wrote:1. Maintain consistency by continuing to study for at least 30 minutes a day.

I've kept this habit up for so long now that it just seems normal :) I studied Russian on each of the 92 days in this quarter, with my most impressive day being 185 minutes on 18 Sept and my least impressive being 31 minutes on 13 July. I also did something in Croatian on 87 of the days and read in German on 14 days.

My total study time for the year to date is:

Jan: Russian - 41 hours, Croatian - 28 hours, German - 7 hours
Feb: Russian - 54 hours, Croatian - 20 hours, German - 6 hours
Mar: Russian - 47 hours, Croatian - 14 hours, German - 8 hours
Apr: Russian - 29 hours, Croatian - 10 hours, German - 2 hours
May: Russian - 35 hours, Croatian - 29 hours, German - 5 hours
Jun: Russian - 22 hours, Croatian - 15 hours, German - 3 hours

Jul: Russian - 41 hours, Croatian - 44 hours, German - 7 hours
Aug: Russian - 34 hours, Croatian - 33 hours, German - 2 hours
Sept: Russian - 36 hours, Croatian - 29 hours, German - 8 hours

I feel like overall I've spent more time on languages since I started the new job.

Radioclare wrote:2. Complete my Russian Super Challenge.

This one is a big tick :) I completed the reading part of the challenge last quarter and am now up to 129 'books' read, of which 90 were in 2021. This translates to 13 physical books read in Russian so far this year. The main news this quarter is that I finished the listening part of the challenge too; this is always the hardest part for me, because I find reading quite easy. I'm now up to 111 'films' (still haven't watched a single actual film :lol:)

Radioclare wrote:3. Complete my Croatian Super Challenge.

I still haven't finished this, but it's more through choice as I've been deliberately trying to clear a backlog of unread books in English over recent weeks. I completed the listening part of the challenge last quarter and I'm currently on 143 'films'. This number just keeps growing and growing because I watch an episode of Croatian TV on the treadmill before breakfast almost every day. I'm only on 94 'books' for the reading part of the challenge, but I have plenty left in my unread pile so I will definitely make it to 100 before the end of December. I've read 9 physical books in Croatian already this year.

Radioclare wrote:4. Continue to improve my grammar knowledge.

I don't really feel like I'm winning at this. The early finishes at my new job mean that I have been better at doing textbook studying in the evenings, whereas under my old job I was often too tired to do it except at weekends, and I'm spending a reasonable amount of time working through this B1.1 textbook in Russian but sometimes I wonder what I'm getting out of it. I feel like perhaps I need to go back to something more basic and practise some things like adjective endings and verb conjugations over and over again.

Radioclare wrote:5. Write short texts regularly in both Croatian and Russian.

I completely failed with this in Q2. The good news is that I have (sort of) got back to doing some writing during Q3, although not necessarily a significant amount. After experimenting with different things, I've decided to write in Croatian on Saturdays and in Russian on Sundays, because I found trying to switch from one language to the other on the same day just fried my brain. In Russian I just aim for 100 words, because even that feels difficult. In Croatian I write at least 200, sometimes more if I feel inspired. I've only been doing this on weekends when I'm at home and don't have anything else on though, so my progress hasn't been massive.

Totals for the year to date are:

Russian: 7 626 words (908 words written in Q3)
Croatian: 15 041 words (2 703 words written in Q3)

Those stats seem to suggest that I haven't quite succeeded in recapturing my enthusiasm from the start of the year :lol:

Radioclare wrote:6. Read 10 novels in German.

I've read 7 novels in German so far and I'm in the middle of no. 8 at the moment. I certainly have a number of unread German books (I have quite a large pile of unread books, full stop :lol:) so this ought to be doable.

Summary
Overall not too bad :) I think the biggest win so far is that rewatching episodes of 'Кухня' has made me realise that my Russian listening has actually improved, at least a little bit, and that's encouraging.
Last edited by Radioclare on Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:31 pm

DaveAgain wrote:I remember seeing a programme that followed a Swedish ferry around as they delivered stock to shops, and collected school-children. Sweden and Finland both seem to have almost archipelago landscapes, with a rather thin rural population. It looks very pretty, but I suspect your point about the prices is valid there too. :-)

------
I watched a programme about the Crimea the other day, it looks WARM!

Whenever I've been to Sweden or Finland, everything has just felt really expensive to me even in populated areas :lol:

And yes, it's really interesting how Russia is so big and has such different climates. I was watching a Russian Progress podcast earlier; the guy who makes them is from Novosibirsk and he was talking about how he's rented a flat in Krasnodar in the south of Russia for a few months to avoid the cold autumn weather :)

2 October
It's rained so much all day that I haven't even left the house.

Russian
Not too many Memrise reviews today. I read another Agatha Christie short story and for 90% of it I thought the storyline was about a haunted radio (no, really!). But when I got to the final page it turned out there was a non-supernatural explanation for what was happening, so that was quite refreshing :)

I started the grammatical exercises in this chapter of the B1.1 textbook. So far they seem to be on the theme of sentences with expressions like "из-за" and "благодаря". I practised these quite a lot in the online RT lessons (maybe last year?) so it doesn't feel too difficult.

Because it was raining I went on my treadmill in the afternoon rather than go out for a walk as normal. I caught up on one of the Russian Progress podcasts I'd missed. This one was about travelling through different towns in Russia and what it was like trying to travel in Russia with a bike. I learned quite a lot and it was much better than some of the recent episodes which have involved interviewing non-native Russian speakers in noisy environments.

Total - Russian: 123 mins, Croatian: 70 mins, German: 117 mins
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sun Oct 03, 2021 8:36 pm

3 October
Nice relaxing day at home. The weather was better so I did make it out of the house for a brief walk :)

Russian
I read an Agatha Christie short story straight after breakfast. This one was actually about a murder and had a great twist in the end, so I enjoyed it much more than all the ghost stories I've been reading recently :)

Then I cleared some Memrise reviews and progressed through the latest grammar in the B1.1 textbook. I spent about half an hour on it and got to the end of the chapter. That's actually the last chapter in the book with learning materials, but there seems to be quite a long final chapter which consists of a test, so I'll have a proper look at that during the week.

I suffered through my weekly attempt to write 100 words in Russian and then this afternoon have listened to a couple more Russian Progress podcasts, so I think I'm up-to-date now :)

Total - Russian: 166 mins, Croatian: 62 mins, German: 148 mins
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Mon Oct 04, 2021 10:08 pm

4 October
Started the week with a dentist appointment. But didn't need any new fillings, which was good news :)

Russian
I started the test in the back of the B1.1 textbook but it's too hard for me :lol: It started with a speaking section where there were various scenarios that you were supposed to initiate a conversation about. I could tell straight away by reading them that it was above my level. Then I tried the grammar part of the test which was essentially multiple choice but honestly, I got halfway through it and lost the will to live, feeling like I haven't learnt anything from this book at all. Sometimes Russian just makes me feel like I need to go back to the beginning and start again :lol:

I didn't feel like I had a lot of reviews in Memrise today but I do seem to have clocked up 20 minutes on it. Later I read another Agatha Christie story and started getting annoyed because I thought that, once again, this was going to turn out to be something with a supernatural explanation. But when I got to the final few paragraphs it surprised me with a non-supernatural explanation, so that was cool :) Words I looked up included "лунка" (hole - this was in the context of a hole in a golf course) and "прополка" (weeding).

Total - Russian: 76 mins, Croatian: 55 mins
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Tue Oct 05, 2021 7:26 am

Radioclare wrote:I started the test in the back of the B1.1 textbook but it's too hard for me :lol: It started with a speaking section where there were various scenarios that you were supposed to initiate a conversation about. I could tell straight away by reading them that it was above my level. Then I tried the grammar part of the test which was essentially multiple choice but honestly, I got halfway through it and lost the will to live, feeling like I haven't learnt anything from this book at all. Sometimes Russian just makes me feel like I need to go back to the beginning and start again :lol:


I know exactly what you mean! I feel as though I've just got to the starting line - the alphabet doesn't feel that foreign anymore and I can attempt to decipher stuff rather than it being a wall of meaninglessness, but sometimes that feels about all. Participles and verbal gerunds in particular are just refusing to stick and, less prosaically*, I don't feel I'm able to have a comfortable conversation.

Edit: I meant *more* prosaically.
Last edited by Caromarlyse on Wed Oct 06, 2021 8:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:59 pm

Caromarlyse wrote:I know exactly what you mean! I feel as though I've just got to the starting line - the alphabet doesn't feel that foreign anymore and I can attempt to decipher stuff rather than it being a wall of meaninglessness, but sometimes that feels about all. Participles and verbal gerunds in particular are just refusing to stick and, less prosaically, I don't feel I'm able to have a comfortable conversation.

I'm glad it's not just me! I agree, I feel like I've mastered the alphabet now (which I guess I should be happy about because it feels like it's taken a long time :lol:) but a lot of grammar just fails to stick in my head. My comprehension is improving thanks to all the listening and reading from the Super Challenge, but my active skills are dreadful and I'm not really motivated to work on them because every time I try it just reminds me how bad my grammar is :oops: You look like you're making good progress with writing though!

5 October
Nothing as exciting as a dentist appointment today :lol:

Russian
I cleared my Memrise reviews after dinner and then opened the B1.1 textbook again to continue with the final test. I ended up giving up on an entire page of the grammar test which covered participles, because I felt like I would have literally been guessing which answers were correct. I did better on the subsequent pages, which dealt with some of the later grammar topics that I've found less difficult. I then did the listening comprehension part of the test, which I didn't find very difficult at all, so I guess I should take this as a positive. I read the tasks for the writing part of the test and decided they seemed too much like hard work :lol:

I've still got the reading part of the test to do later this week. Haven't 100% decided what I'm going to do after this textbook but I think I need to work on grammar again, in particular practising some of the things like verb conjugations that I feel I'm particularly weak on.

I read another Agatha Christie short story. This one was about a murderous ghost cat and so I learned the word "когти" (claws).

I also watched an episode of 'Кухня' but I didn't enjoy this one at all because it featured a food fight and I'm really squeamish about food fights. Absolute worst part was when one character threw an octopus :cry:

Total - Russian: 83 mins, Croatian: 56 mins, German: 71 mins
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Wed Oct 06, 2021 8:17 am

Radioclare wrote:
Caromarlyse wrote:I'm glad it's not just me! I agree, I feel like I've mastered the alphabet now (which I guess I should be happy about because it feels like it's taken a long time :lol:) but a lot of grammar just fails to stick in my head. My comprehension is improving thanks to all the listening and reading from the Super Challenge, but my active skills are dreadful and I'm not really motivated to work on them because every time I try it just reminds me how bad my grammar is :oops: You look like you're making good progress with writing though!


It is reassuring that others have the same struggles! That's something that you lose out on when not studying with classmates. I always end up measuring myself up against wherever a book expects me to be, and falling far short! I tend to like writing, but I *can't* watch series like you do (I have just never done that much watching ever, even in English) and haven't managed to get into reading for pleasure yet either. It just shows we all have our own stronger and weaker points. If it helps, the (official) B1 grammar/vocab exam I did (under exam conditions) was a lot simpler than the grammar exercises at the end of the B1.1 book we both have.
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Wed Oct 06, 2021 7:54 pm

Caromarlyse wrote:It is reassuring that others have the same struggles! That's something that you lose out on when not studying with classmates. I always end up measuring myself up against wherever a book expects me to be, and falling far short! I tend to like writing, but I *can't* watch series like you do (I have just never done that much watching ever, even in English) and haven't managed to get into reading for pleasure yet either. It just shows we all have our own stronger and weaker points. If it helps, the (official) B1 grammar/vocab exam I did (under exam conditions) was a lot simpler than the grammar exercises at the end of the B1.1 book we both have.


Yes it's kinda a relief to know that other people find Russian as much of a struggle as I do :D And definitely reassuring to know that you've done a B1 exam that isn't as difficult as the end of the B1.1 book; that test was honestly making me wonder whether I was B1 in any language :lol:

6 October
Had a day working in the office today and then went out for a meal after work.

Russian
When I got home I cleared my Memrise reviews. It was one of those days where Memrise hated me and gave me over 200 reviews.

I didn't feel like doing any grammar or any reading, which may have something to do with the glass of wine I had with dinner, so later I watched an episode of 'Кухня'. There weren't any food fights in this one so it was much better than yesterday :)

Total - Russian: 37 mins, Croatian: 60 mins
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