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 » Wed May 05, 2021 11:09 pm

5 May
Bit of a headache today and it's also really cold, so I don't feel like I've had the most productive of evenings. Not sure why but my motivation to do useful things seems to decrease when I am cold :lol:

Russian
That said, I did make a supreme effort and open Memrise tonight. On the one hand, I do hate SRS. On the other hand, it has worked for me with Croatian and I can't think of a more effective way to learn to Russian vocabulary. Which is something I definitely need to do. So I opened it this evening and my outstanding Russian reviews were even worse than when I posted the screenshot before (> 5 000, which is ridiculous, because I clearly don't know 5 000 different words in Russian!). I told myself I'd spend 10 minutes clearing them and in the end I managed to spend 19, which got my total down to 4 933. I'm going to try posting the number of outstanding reviews in my log every day in the hope it motivates me to keep working on it.

Otherwise, I read another chapter of Agatha Christie and spent some time looking up new words from my B1.1 textbook. I did an exercise yesterday where I had to match verbs to related nouns. That was pretty easy but the problem with these sorts of exercises is that it's perfectly possible to deduce that разлука is a noun related to the verbs разлучать/разлучить without actually knowing what any of those words mean. So that was the kind of thing I wanted to look up today.

Croatian
I'm getting towards the end of 'Drugo ime ljubavi', the series I've been watching since April 2020. There are less than 10 episodes to go now and it is so exciting! Of all the telenovelas I've watched in Croatian, this is definitely the one that is most dramatic and has the best plot. Far too complicated to explain it all, but if you want to hear what angry Croatian sounds like, this is a good clip from the episode I watched today :)



Total - Russian: 51 mins, Croatian: 45 mins
Outstanding Memrise reviews - Russian: 4,933, Croatian: 2,820
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
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Thu May 06, 2021 10:48 pm

6 May
Had a fairly productive day today but then the evening seemed shorter, because there were local elections today and so I needed to go out and vote.

Russian
I attacked Memrise before I went out to vote and got my Russian reviews down to 4 743. Not huge progress, but every little counts :lol:

I read another two chapters of 'Убийство в Восточном экспрессе' and I'm 170 pages into it now, which feels like fairly rapid progress.

I didn't get around to my textbook, but I did watch another episode of 'Татьянин день'.

Total - Russian: 90 mins, Croatian: 7 mins
Outstanding Memrise reviews - Russian: 4,743, Croatian: 2,551
3 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 May 07, 2021 10:41 pm

7 May
Yay - the weekend again :)

Russian
Did some more Memrise this evening. The past few days I've been doing the "proper" reviews, where you go through the words slowly and type them all out, hence not making very fast progress. This evening I decided to cheat a bit (a glass of wine may have been involved) and do the speed reviews instead, where you just have to click the correct answer from multiple choice. Those really are quite speedy, so I got my stats down a bit.

Unfortunately Memrise seemed to use up all my willpower for the evening, so I didn't achieve a lot else. I watched some short videos in Russian on the Deutsche Welle website; a couple about Germany, and one about the sad situation with lack of oxygen in India.

I'm contemplating giving up on the 6WC as I've decided to block my social media again for a while and having to log onto Twitter to record things I've done kinda interferes with the intention not to keep logging into Twitter.

Total - Russian: 38 mins, Croatian: 1 min (somewhat half-hearted attempt at Memrise!)
Outstanding Memrise reviews - Russian: 4,273, Croatian: 2,566
6 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 » Sat May 08, 2021 8:07 pm

8 May
Had an extremely productive day today, which started with me getting up at 07.30 and immediately going on the treadmill, while watching an episode of my Croatian telenovela. It was kind of an experiment; I am not naturally a morning person, but I've been exercising increasingly late at night during the pandemic (typically not starting until 22.00 this week) and then struggling to sleep afterwards. This morning's experience proved that exercise really is very effective at waking me up!

Russian
I had four hours of Esperanto trustee meetings on Zoom today. There was a two-hour break in between the two sessions of two hours, part of which I used to go on the treadmill again (it was raining heavily, so not worth going outside!) and watch an episode of Татьянин день. Татьяна 1 has finally admitted to Сергей that he's the father of her daughter, so it was quite a momentous episode.

Once the meetings were over I made some progress clearing my Memrise reviews and spent 20 minutes or so with my new textbook, doing an exercise which involved forming nouns from related verbs. Possibly slightly delirious from all this exercise, I decided that there was so much useful new vocabulary in this textbook that I really do need to put it all into Memrise to learn properly. Clearly, what I really need in life right now is more Russian vocab in Memrise :lol: So I then spent approx. 90 mins inputting the words I've accumulated so far and adding audio.

Total - Russian: 172 mins, Croatian: 67 mins
Outstanding Memrise reviews - Russian: 3,930, Croatian: 1,789
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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Contact:

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

Postby Radioclare » Sun May 09, 2021 8:26 pm

9 May
Managed to get up early again and watch 45 minutes of Croatian on the treadmill before 08.30. This is most unlike me :lol:

Russian
I had more Esperanto meetings today, but I managed to read another couple of chapters of Murder on the Orient Express in my lunch break.

Once the meetings were over I spent an hour with my B1 textbook. I did a couple more exercises which were along the same them of building related words and then I put a bit more new vocabulary into Memrise. I didn't spend loads of time on Memrise today, but my number of outstanding reviews is slowly coming down.

Total - Russian: 91 mins, Croatian: 53 mins, German: 26 mins
Outstanding Memrise reviews - Russian: 3,461, Croatian: 1,619
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
Learns: Russian
x 10434
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Mon May 10, 2021 9:31 pm

10 May
Got up early again and did 45 mins of exercise while watching my Croatian telenovela before breakfast. This is the first time in my entire life that I've done proper exercise before starting work for the day, so I was interested to see how the day turned out. It went pretty well; I think I felt more awake, drank less caffeine and had better focus.

Russian
It was wet and showery today so I did a second treadmill session over lunchtime, this time watching an episode of 'Татьянин день'. I felt like my level of comprehension was better than normal today, but not sure whether that's because I've made some progress or because I was just more awake watching it at lunchtime compared to after 10pm at night.

This evening I've spent some more time on Memrise to get my reviews down, as well as read over 40 pages of 'Убийство в 'Восточном экспрессе'. I also spent half an hour on the B1.1 textbook and finished all the exercises about Pushkin (finally!). I started a listening exercise which involved listening to some audio about a family circus dynasty and then filling in the blanks, but I only managed to get a couple of the blanks on my first attempt. I decided to give up and try listening to the audio again tomorrow.

Total - Russian: 124 mins, Croatian: 62 mins
Outstanding Memrise reviews - Russian: 2,983, Croatian: 981
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
Learns: Russian
x 10434
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Tue May 11, 2021 9:47 pm

11 May
I had my second Covid jab today (the doses are up to 12 weeks apart in the UK). So far I haven't had any side effects beyond a sore arm, so hoping it stays that way :)

Russian
I spent 20 minutes doing Russian reviews on Memrise which was pretty grim, but it is motivating to see the number of outstanding reviews reducing.

To reward myself for making progress, I then allowed myself to spend longer than usual reading 'Murder on the Orient Express'. I've only got another 40 pages or so of the book left now, so I should finish it within the next couple of days. The Super Challenge has definitely improved my ability to read Agatha Christie in Russian :D

Because I spent so long reading, I ran out of time to study from the textbook today.

Croatian
My Croatian reviews on Memrise are coming down nicely too. I watched another episode of 'Drugo ime ljubavi' on the treadmill this morning, because I am not yet such a morning person that I want to watch Russian before breakfast. I've only got a handful of episodes left now, so it's at that very rewarding part of a telenovela where the baddies who you've spent 100+ episodes watching getting their own way finally get what is coming to them. Below is a very exciting moment when a particularly nasty character meets a sticky end:



Total - Russian: 70 mins, Croatian: 62 mins
Outstanding Memrise reviews - Russian: 2,333, Croatian: 449
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
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Wed May 12, 2021 9:00 pm

12 May
Did have some side effects from the vaccine today, unfortunately, so it's felt like a long day at work. I alternated between feeling boiling hot and freezing cold for most of the day, but starting to feel a bit better now.

Russian
I've also had a headache so I just couldn't face any Russian grammar tonight. I did put a considerable amount of time into my Memrise reviews now, so those are still coming down. I also spent half an hour or so reading in Russian, with the result that I got to the end of 'Убийство в Восточном экспрессе'. Definitely one of my favourite Agatha Christies and fun to read in any language :) The Russian version was 320 pages, which takes me up to 94 books for the reading part of my Russian Super Challenge.

Croatian
I was highly confused when I went on the treadmill this morning to watch the penultimate episode of 'Drugo ime ljubavi' because the plot didn't 100% make sense. Or, at least, it felt like I had missed an episode which had included some big revelations for some of the characters. I actually stopped the treadmill to check that I wasn't on the wrong episode :? Turns out that this series was still being filmed in March last year when the pandemic struck and they had to wrap up the filming really quickly. That meant that out of 200 planned episodes, they were only able to film 175, so in the last couple of episodes they basically had to wrap up a really complex plot unnaturally quickly. It feels like a shame - yet another thing that Covid has spoiled!

Total - Russian: 61 mins, Croatian: 63 mins
Outstanding Memrise reviews - Russian: 1,788, Croatian: nil :)
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
Learns: Russian
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Thu May 13, 2021 10:25 pm

13 May
Feeling back to normal today, thank goodness :)

Russian
I'm still plugging on with the Memrise reviews and today feels like a milestone because I got my outstanding words below 1 000 :)

I haven't started reading a new book in Russian today, because I have one I'm still trying to finish in German and I'm also long overdue some reading in Croatian. But I did open the B1.1 textbook and have a second attempt at the listening exercise I failed at the other day. The good news is that I succeeded in getting all the words today (at least, I succeeded on the third attempt, once I'd realised they were all reflexive verbs!). The text was all about a circus family who work with wild animals (I'm guessing that's still legal in circuses in Russia). I did a second exercise afterwards which was comprehension and much easier than the listenining.

Croatian
I watched the final episode (episode 175!) of 'Drugo ime ljubavi' today. So tomorrow I have to choose a new series to watch! They just about managed to wrap up the key parts of the plot (though not all the subplots), but some of the revelations did feel a bit forced because they happened so quickly. There would definitely be scope to film a second series of this one.

Total - Russian: 50 mins, Croatian: 53 mins, German: 46 mins
Outstanding Memrise reviews - Russian: 951, Croatian: nil
4 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 10434
Contact:

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

Postby Radioclare » Fri May 14, 2021 10:21 pm

14 May
This feels like a long week, so glad it's Friday :)

Russian
I had some alcohol with dinner, so it didn't feel like a textbook evening. I did spend 20 minutes on Memrise, so the reviews are still coming down. Clearing these has been painful but I think I've learned that I need to persevere with regular reviews. I've been surprised at how many of the words I looked up and made a note of from the first few pages of the B1.1 textbook on the basis that they were "new" to me, actually turned out not to be completely new to me because they're in these existing Memrise decks I have. I guess it shouldn't really be a surprise that I'm not familiar with the content of my Memrise decks given that I haven't reviewed them since I stopped commuting over a year ago, but still.

Otherwise I just watched another episode of 'Татьянин день' this evening. Татьяна 1 is getting ready to marry Игорь who is definitely a bad guy, but my Russian isn't quite good enough to understand what sort of evil plot he is caught up in.

Croatian
I forgot to decide in advance what new series I was going to start today, so I had to make a snap decision just around 07.30 this morning when I'd only just woken up. I chose one called "Zlatni dvori", but I'm not sure it was a good choice. It seems to be about a rich guy from the city coming to the countryside in Slavonia and falling for a girl who rides horses. I don't know, it just didn't grab me. I didn't really enjoy the music (which matters to me when I'm watching on the treadmill) and the whole thing just seemed a bit... twee? (is that a word??). I've linked the promo below to give a flavour of it. Anyway, I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to watch the second episode on the treadmill tomorrow or whether I'm going to try a different series instead. It may come down to another spur of the moment decision :D



Total - Russian: 65 mins, Croatian: 56 mins
Outstanding Memrise reviews - Russian: 481, Croatian: nil
3 x


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