Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

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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 » Thu Jul 01, 2021 9:31 pm

1 July
Was able to work from home today, which was quite relaxing :)

Russian
After I finished work I read 'Смерть и немного любви' for half an hour or so. Slow progress. Later this evening I got very excited because I saw that Anton Ptushkin had released a new travel video, so I couldn't resist watching that :) This one is about Namibia, which is not a place I've ever been interested in visiting, but his videos are so good that I really enjoyed it anyway. And learned a lot, as always :)

Total - Russian: 97 mins, Croatian: 76 mins
7 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:26 pm

2 July
Another day working from home and I've survived my first week in the new job.

Russian
I read another 10 pages or so of 'Смерть и немного любви' this evening. Hoping to make more progress with it at the weekend. I also watched another episode of 'Татьянин день' before bed, though this wasn't a particularly exciting episode. I don't enjoy episodes which involve the characters getting drunk (this is a fairly regular occurrence for the male characters!) because then they all speak in a slightly slurred way and I find it impossible to follow.

Total - Russian: 64 mins, Croatian: 70 mins
9 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Sat Jul 03, 2021 8:20 pm

End of Q2 goals update
I did a goals update at the end of Q1, so I figured I'd better do one for Q2 too. It's been a strange three months; essentially I spent all of it in the notice period at my old job. I always figured people don't really do a lot in their notice periods, but I ended up working really hard right up to my final day, which was quite a disappointment :lol:

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

Still keeping up with this one :) I've done at least 30 minutes of Russian every day, as well as spending some time on Croatian on 51/91 days and German on 9/91 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

So it looks like my Russian study time was significantly less in Q2 than Q1, but not really sure what was driving that.

Radioclare wrote:2. Complete my Russian Super Challenge.

This is going well :) I completed the reading part of the challenge this quarter and am currently up to 106.6 'books' read, of which 67.7 were in 2021. I've read eight actual books in Russian this year, of which two were this quarter. I'm partway through a ninth book too, which is the first non-translated book I've attempted in Russian.

The listening part of my challenge is still lagging behind, but not too far behind. I'm up to 87.7 'films' now, most of which is coming from watching the telenovela 'Татьянин день'. I'm hoping to reach 100 'films' in Q3.

Radioclare wrote:3. Complete my Croatian Super Challenge.

Croatian reading is still losing out both to Russian reading and to reading for pleasure which I want to do in English and German. But I'm progressing and am up to 68 'books' for the challenge now, of which 28 were read in 2021. I've read six physical books this year, of which two were this quarter, and I'm partway through another one.

The listening part of my Croatian challenge began progressing really quickly once I decided to start getting up and exercising before work. At the moment I'm watching an episode of a Croatian telenovela on the treadmill every morning, which means that this quarter I completed the listening challenge and am currently on 103.4 'films'. This quarter I finished the series 'Drugo ime ljubavi' which I'd been watching approximately since the start of the pandemic and moved on to a new series called 'Čista ljubav', which I'm really enjoying.

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

This doesn't feel like it's been a great quarter for textbook study. I did finally finish Schaum's Grammar towards the end of April and started a new B1 textbook, but I haven't been committed to studying it every day and so I've made very little progress with it. I need to try and get back into a routine of opening a textbook for at least a few minutes a day.

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

Erm, I've completely failed at this one :oops: Honestly, I haven't really tried to do any writing since March. So far this year I've written 6 718 words in Russian and 12 338 in Croatian, but those were almost exclusively in Q1. I go in phases of thinking writing is helpful, followed by phases of thinking it isn't helpful at all, but mostly I think I just wimped out of doing it this quarter because it's hard :lol:

Radioclare wrote:6. Read 10 novels in German.

I'm up to five German novels now, so at least this one is on track :) I don't think I mentioned in my log, but last month I read a really good book - 'Vanitas - Schwarz wie Erde' by Ursula Poznanski. It was a really exciting thriller about a woman in a witness protection scheme, hiding from the Russian mafia, and getting drawn into an investigation about a series of mysterious deaths linked to big construction companies. I think it's the first part of a series, so definitely hoping to acquire the second book at some point :)

Summary
Overall I think the year is going ok, but I'm hoping to put in more study time in Q3 than I've managed in Q2. Starting a new job is stressful in some ways, but I think once I settle in it's going to be less stressful than the old job and I ought to have more spare time. Now I just need to figure out how to use that free time effectively :)
9 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Sat Jul 03, 2021 8:49 pm

3 July
The weekend! It's been nice to spend a day at home for a change. Because of the way I was using up my holiday before leaving my old job, I haven't actually spent a weekend at home since 22/23 May :shock:

Russian
I'm trying to keep on top of my Memrise reviews. Somehow I'd acquired another 100+ words to review since last time I logged in mid-week, so I cleared those this afternoon. Then I spent another half an hour or so reading and got to the end of another chapter of 'Смерть и немного любви'. It is definitely harder work reading this than it is reading Agatha Christie or Twilight and it feels like I've been working on this book forever. But I'm trying to just be happy about the fact that I'm reading a book originally written in Russian for the first time :)

Croatian
'Čista ljubav' continues to be very dramatic. There's been a murder, a character getting hit by lightning, plus a near-fatal car crash and I've only watched 32 epsiodes.



When I was watching this morning I noticed that one of the characters was pronouncing words with a different stress to what I expected. She kept saying "do-la-zim", whereas I would have said "do-la-zim". I need to look it up and figure out whether this is one of those instances where the western stress is the syllable after the standard stress, or whether I've just learned to pronounce this word incorrectly :lol:

I'm currently 90 pages into a novel called 'Susjed u nevolji' by Goran Tribuson. I read a novel called 'Propali kongres' by Goran Tribuson earlier this year and thought it was amazing. This one hasn't grabbed me in the same way, although I realised belatedly that it's the seventh and final book in a detective series, so maybe it's more enjoyable if you've read some of the other books and are emotionally attached to the detective.

Total - Russian: 41 mins, Croatian: 124 mins
7 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Sun Jul 04, 2021 7:52 pm

4 July
I didn't have anything to do today, which meant I could spend lots of time on languages :)

Russian
I read another chapter of 'Смерть и немного любви' and it feels like the end of this book is in sight now. I think I should finish it this week, if nothing goes wrong. The main word I looked up was "инсульт"; initially I assumed it meant "insult", but when the character who had suffered the "инсульт" ended up paralysed as a result, I realised that it must mean something different :? Turns out it's a stroke, which makes a lot more sense.

I bit the bullet and finally reopened my Russian B1.1 textbook. I couldn't remember exactly where I'd got up to, but I think I'd more or less finished the first module, so I made a start on the second one. This one is still on the theme of family, and in particular on the theme of family break-ups. So far I've just been reading some of the initial texts, which are about marriage, why people do and don't want to get married, people getting married later in life, etc.

I also decided that rather than doing endless reviews of old vocab, I should try learning something new in Memrise. I found a course of the top 10,000 words in Russian, which looks pretty cool (there's audio and detailed definitions of the words), so I made a bit of a start on that.

Croatian
I've dedicated a fair amount of time to reading 'Susjedu u nevolji' today and I'm enjoying it a lot more. I think maybe the first chapter just didn't grab me because there were too many characters being introduced. It's actually quite an exciting story about a private detective trying to track down a man who was allegedly killed during the war in the 90's, but who has been seen walking round town 20 years later. There have been a few words which are completely new to me and I've had to look up. One of them was "inkasator" - I haven't found a one-word translation of this in English, but I think it's basically a person who goes around collecting bill payments.

Total - Russian: 86 mins, Croatian: 123 mins
9 x

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

Postby Nogon » Sun Jul 04, 2021 8:13 pm

Radioclare wrote:4 July
The main word I looked up was "инсульт"; initially I assumed it meant "insult", but when the character who had suffered the "инсульт" ended up paralysed as a result, I realised that it must mean something different :? Turns out it's a stroke, which makes a lot more sense.

Even in English "insult" may be used in a medical sense: Insult (medical)
4 x
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sun Jul 04, 2021 8:22 pm

Nogon wrote:
Radioclare wrote:4 July
The main word I looked up was "инсульт"; initially I assumed it meant "insult", but when the character who had suffered the "инсульт" ended up paralysed as a result, I realised that it must mean something different :? Turns out it's a stroke, which makes a lot more sense.

Even in English "insult" may be used in a medical sense: Insult (medical)


I didn't know that :shock:
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:40 pm

5 July
Had a pretty relaxing day working at home today, then went out for a meal with my boyfriend's parents this evening. It felt really weird to be finishing work at 17.30 and then having plans for the evening; to me, working to at least 19.00 feels like a normal day.

Russian
I also had some spare time at lunch, so I fitted in a few Memrise reviews. Really loving this 10 000 Russian words course, although it is going to take a very long time to get through 10 000 words :lol: It's a shame there aren't many good quality courses on Memrise for Croatian.

Before I went out for dinner I spent a little bit of time on the B1.1 textbook. It was only 12 minutes, so no great progress made, but I'm trying to rebuild the habit of opening a textbook every day. I had a glass of wine with dinner, so when I got back I just did a bit of reading in Russian to push my time over 30 mins.

Total - Russian: 41 mins, Croatian: 86 mins
7 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 » Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:51 pm

6 July
Went into the office today. Working in a big open-plan office is taking a bit of getting used to again; this office has music playing constantly, which adds to the overall background noise.

Russian
When I got home I watched an episode of 'Татьянин день' on the treadmill to get some extra steps. For a while it looked like things were heading towards a happy ending, but there are still 100+ episodes left so now it's becoming clear that everything is on the verge of going horribly wrong again.

I'm persevering with reading 'Смерть и немного любви' and got through another 15 pages this evening. It's just at the stage where it's becoming clear who the murderer is; definitely not someone who I'd suspected.

I spent another half an hour on the B1.1 textbook, reading some texts about divorce, why marriages break down etc and then answering some comprehension true/false questions. I seem to be meeting less unknown vocabulary in this module than in the first module (where the opening text was about Pushkin and his family) so it feels a bit easier.

Also did a bit of Memrise - again, trying to get into a daily habit of spending 10 minutes or so on it.

Total - Russian: 104 mins, Croatian: 83 mins
7 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Wed Jul 07, 2021 8:54 pm

7 July
Worked from home so got an extra half an hour in bed :)

Russian
My main achievement today is that I read in Russian for nearly an hour after work today and got to the end of 'Смерть и немного любви'. The book was 352 pages in total, so 7 books towards my Russian Super Challenge, but more importantly it is the first original piece of Russian fiction which I've managed to read, so it genuinely does feel like an achievement :)

Otherwise all I've done this evening is keep on top of my Memrise reviews. I did mean to open my textbook as well, but then I had a glass of wine with dinner, so that didn't end up happening.

Total - Russian: 60 mins, Croatian: 79 mins
10 x


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