Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

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Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
Learns: Russian
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Thu Oct 07, 2021 8:42 pm

7 October
Back working from home today so had more time in bed, but somehow still seem to have had one of those days where I just feel tired.

Russian
Battled through the daily Memrise reviews and then attempted the reading test at the back of the B1.1 textbook. There were two texts to read with a series of multiple choice questions to answer and, like with the listening, I didn't find these particularly hard. At least, nowhere near as hard as the grammar part of the test! I thought that might be the end of the textbook but there appears to be some more reading material after the test, so I'm saving that for tomorrow/the weekend.

Later I read another Agatha Christie short story. Of all the supernatural short stories I've read recently, this is the one that's made the least sense. I'd struggle to coherently explain what the plot was in English, never mind in Russian. I looked up the word "калека", for which I found the definition "cripple". Don't know whether this is a politically correct word these days; there are certainly lots of other things in Agatha Christie which don't seem very PC.

Total - Russian: 52 mins, Croatian: 59 mins, German: 65 mins
7 x

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Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
Learns: Russian
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:34 pm

8 October
I was supposed to be having a flu jab today but when I'd walked a mile into town almost as far as the pharmacy, I got a phone call telling me it had been cancelled. So then I had to walk straight back home again, which made me grumpy.

Russian
I seemed to have loads of Memrise reviews this evening, so I spent about 20 minutes clearing them. Then I read an Agatha Christie short story and realised there was actually only one more story left in the book, so I read that one too. Honestly, neither of them were very good! I looked up the word "кладовка" (pantry).

Afterwards I read the short stories at the end of the B1.1 textbook. These were a lot easier than Agatha Christie - and also a lot easier than some of the texts in the textbook itself. Anyway, that means I'm officially at the end of the textbook :) And have to decide what I'm going to do next. Before bed I also watched another episode of 'Кухня'.

Total - Russian: 119 mins, Croatian: 54 mins
9 x

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Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sat Oct 09, 2021 7:19 pm

9 October
A nice relaxing weekend day and the weather has even improved a little bit; it was quite warm and sunny outside.

Russian
Having finished my latest Agatha Christie book last night, I had to choose some new reading material today. In the end I went with an English-Russian parallel text called 'Great Russian Short Stories of the Twentieth Century' which has been sitting in my to-read pile for quite a long time. I think this is the first time I've ever had a proper parallel text book for a language I'm learning, so when I opened it I almost wasn't sure what to do with it. In the end I read the first story in Russian first, then read the English translation, then re-read the Russian version while looking back at the translation of various bits in English. The first time I read the story in Russian there were some key vocabulary items which I didn't know ("извозчик" = cab driver, "могила" = grave) and also some which I definitely had known at some point in the past but had temporarily forgotten ("кладбище" = graveyard). So I definitely got a lot more out of it after having read the English.

I don't think I'm going to count the pages in this book towards my Russian Super Challenge because it feels too tedious to try and keep track. It's not as simple as just saying half the book is in English, half is in Russian and dividing the total pages in two. Each story has an introduction in English giving details about the author etc, so overall it feels like there's a lot more English in the book than Russian.

Of course, I'd also finished a textbook yesterday so I also needed to decide what I was going to study next. After consulting my Slavic bookshelf, I decided to attempt Terence Wade's Comprehensive Russian Grammar. This was a Christmas present many years ago, along with the accompanying workbook, but I've never felt my Russian was at a level where I was capable of using it. I'm still not sure my Russian is at a level where I'm capable of using it, but never mind :lol:

My current plan, such as it is, is to go through this book very slowly. I've never got too hung up about not having fully grasped various points of Russian grammar in any given textbook, because I've figured I'll encounter the same points again from different sources and eventually get the hang of them. But having encountered lots of Russian grammar now and still having a hazy grasp on most of it, I think now might be the time to start trying to be a bit more thorough.

We'll see how long that lasts :D I read through the first few pages of the book this afternoon anyway. Unsurprisingly it started with the alphabet and having written here only the other day that I felt I had mastered the alphabet, I realised today that I'm actually still not very strong on alphabetical order :oops: I'm okay until I get to ф and then it all falls apart a bit. So I've tried to practise that today and it's been a good opportunity to watch children's alphabet videos on YouTube :D



Total - Russian: 171 mins, Croatian: 65 mins
11 x

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Radioclare
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Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sun Oct 10, 2021 7:55 pm

10 October
I seem to have spent most of today singing the Russian alphabet in my head :lol:

Russian
That aside, today's activities were quite similar to yesterday's. I cleared some Memrise reviews, then read the second short story in my parallel text book. This one was called 'На святках' (At Christmas time) by Chekhov. I actually found it slightly easier to decipher than the story I read yesterday, but still had to look up some key words. The main one was "трактир", which is not a tractor but a tavern. I also had to look up "швейцар" which I initially assumed was something to do with Switzerland, but turned out to be a doorman.

Afterwards I spent another 45 mins or so with 'A Comprehensive Russian Grammar'. I'm still only in the introduction, so haven't got as far as doing any exercises yet. The main sections I was focussing on today were about voiced and unvoiced consonants, which is something I've always struggled with in Russian (and in every Slavic language I've ever dabbled in, except Croatian). BCS has a wonderful principle called "piši kao što govoriš, čitaj kako je napisano" (write how you speak, read as it's written) which in practice means you don't have to try and understand voicing and devoicing at all, because spellings change to reflect any changes in pronunciation which happen when consonants are combined. The masculine adjective "težak", for example, changes to "teška" when it is afflicted by a disappearing vowel in the feminine. You don't need to think about why, you just need to learn that that's the word. But in Russian, a ж/ž will similarly sound like a ш/š when written before a к/k, but it will still be written like a ж. So you have to identify that you have a ж next to a к, remember that the к is unvoiced whereas the ж is voiced, figure out that an unvoiced consonant turns a preceding voiced consonant into an unvoiced consonant, recall that the unvoiced equivalent of ж is ш and pronounce a ш. To my brain this just feels like a superhuman feat :lol: But today I have at least made progress at memorising which consonants are voiced and which are unvoiced, which is something that has previously eluded me.

Total - Russian: 102 mins, Croatian: 57 mins
7 x

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Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Mon Oct 11, 2021 9:41 pm

11 October
Increasingly tempted to book a trip abroad, although I feel like the second I do wherever I book will ban UK visitors based on our current Covid rates.

Russian
Another day where Memrise made me grumpy. I'm currently 960 words into the 10 000 most frequent Russian words course, so still quite a long way to go :D I'm only learning 10 words per day in the hope that that stops the reviews becoming overwhelming, but sometimes they really seem to build up regardless.

I read a third Russian short story from my parallel text book. I've decided that the quality of the English translations in this book is not very high, but never mind; it's sufficient to understand what's going on, just a bit jarring to read at times. The story was called "гостинец", which if I'd had to guess I would have thought was something to do with a hotel, but it turns out that it's a gift or present.

I spent 20 minutes or so with 'A Comprehensive Russian Grammar' too. I've got through the section on voicing (thank goodness), so covered a section on stress and have just reached a section about spelling rules. This book seems to list 5 spelling rules, which I think is more than my other books have listed, so I'm going to have to go through them carefully.

Total - Russian: 68 mins, Croatian: 115 mins
9 x

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Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Tue Oct 12, 2021 9:11 pm

12 October
My alarm clock went off this morning while I was in the middle of a really weird dream and I've felt kinda sleepy all day as a result.

Russian
Memrise wasn't so bad today, by which I mean fewer than 100 reviews. I read another short story after dinner and learned a couple of new words like "кузнец" (blacksmith) and "фарфор" (porcelain). I feel like I've read a lot of short stories recently, especially given that I don't actually like short stories :lol: But today's wasn't too bad and having a parallel text is interesting.

Carried on with 'A Comprehensive Russian Grammar' later and covered the spelling rules, as well as a section about capital letters. I learned that in Russian, only the first word in a book title (for example) is normally capitalised. Croatian has the same rule, but it was something I didn't realise for years and kept getting wrong. The next section is about punctuation so I'm looking forward to reading that and learning all the mistakes I make with Russian commas :lol:

Total - Russian: 54 mins, Croatian: 119 mins
11 x

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Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
Learns: Russian
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:30 pm

13 October
Went into the office today. And then went to the pub after work.

Russian
There's some sort of negative correlation between quantity of alcohol drunk and quantity of Russian learned.

I have cleared my Memrise reviews. Turns out I'm not very good at typing in Cyrillic after a couple of glasses of wine, so fully expecting a large number of reviews tomorrow based on all the words I've mistyped today.

Also watched an episode of 'Кухня', which is an easy get-out for clocking up the best part of 30 mins when I don't feel like doing anything more intellectual.

Total - Russian: 37 mins, Croatian: 52 mins
8 x

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Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
Learns: Russian
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Thu Oct 14, 2021 9:30 pm

14 October
Managed to get my flu jab today on the second attempt :)

Russian
No wine today so a bit more Russian. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have as many Memrise reviews as I'd expected this evening. Once I'd cleared them, I read another short story from my Russian parallel text. This was one of the better ones I've read so far and I learned a new word - "бродяга" (tramp).

Later I read about commas in my grammar book. I learned that you put a comma before "и" if the two clauses it joins have a different subject. I'm not sure I'm going to remember that (or get in correct in practice) but at least if I get corrections on my (lack of) us of commas after "и" in future I'll have a better idea of why.

Total - Russian: 46 mins, Croatian: 124 mins
10 x

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Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
Learns: Russian
x 10433
Contact:

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

Postby Radioclare » Fri Oct 15, 2021 9:20 pm

15 October
Went out to celebrate my cousin's 18th birthday this evening.

Russian
I wasn't organised enough to do my Russian before going out, which meant I needed to do something once I got home. So not a very exciting update this evening, I'm afraid; I've just watched two episodes of 'Кухня' before bed.

Total - Russian: 49 mins, Croatian: 49 mins
5 x

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Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
Learns: Russian
x 10433
Contact:

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

Postby Radioclare » Sat Oct 16, 2021 9:06 pm

16 October
More time spent with family today which was nice, but reduced time for language learning.

Russian
This morning before I went out, I cleared my Memrise reviews and read a short story from my parallel text. Today's story wasn't enjoyable at all; too much description and too little action.

This evening I've watched another episode of 'Кухня', partly on the treadmill, and finished reading the chapter about punctuation in 'A Comprehensive Russian Grammar'. The sections I was reading today were about less common punctuation marks like colons and semi colons, as well as about how to punctuate dialogue in Russian.

Croatian
I finished reading a crime novel called 'Crveno pile' by Pavao Pavličić. A really good one which kept me guessing right until the end. It didn't quite give me enough pages to finish my Croatian Super Challenge though; I'm going to need to read one more book for that.

Total - Russian: 74 mins, Croatian: 112 mins
7 x


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