Radioclare's 2021 log (Russian, Croatian)

[Radioclare]

Well, there's another book I'll have to add to my bookshelf. When will it come out?

September 16, apparently.

That's the release date in the UK, the US date might be later (Amazon.com is suggesting Jan 2022).

[Radioclare]

11 July
A nice quiet day at home today. I felt pretty tired, so this was good.

Russian
I continued watching 'Татьянин день' on the treadmill this morning. I felt like my comprehension was better than yesterday, but honestly I think it's just too hard to watch Russian before the first coffee of the day.

After coffee and breakfast, I read another chapter of 'Знак четырех'. Reading Sherlock Holmes in a foreign language is quite hard. I realised this a few years ago when I read a Sherlock Holmes book in Esperanto; there were actually quite a few words I didn't know, or wouldn't have understood if there hadn't been footnotes explaining them. So it's pretty slow going for me in Russian. I was examining my to-read pile earlier and realised that I actually have another two Agatha Christies in Russian, which were hidden behind some other books. So I think once I get through this one, I'm going to read something easier

I also spent half an hour or so on the B1.1 textbook. I find it tough using a monolingual textbook but the exercises in this one are really cleverly designed to help you try and learn the vocab and phrases.

Also continuing with Memrise. I'm working through the 100 - 200 most frequent words at the moment and was surprised to learn the word "покачиваться" today. Is this really one of the most frequent 200 words in Russian? I was surprised to find a word I've never seen before so early on in the course because I was hoping my now I might have learned the 200 most common words at least

Croatian
I spent a lot of time reading in Croatian this morning and finished 'Susjed u nevolji'. I enjoyed the story a lot in the second half; it was a clever plot and quite exciting. So I think perhaps I just struggled to get in to it at the start because I hadn't read the previous books in the series.

Total - Russian: 120 mins, Croatian: 114 mins

[Meddysong]

Well, there's another book I'll have to add to my bookshelf. When will it come out?

September 16, apparently.

That's the release date in the UK, the US date might be later (Amazon.com is suggesting Jan 2022).

That might explain why people in the US have been buying from us then. (With postage to the US, it comes to £27, Mike. The retail price of the book is £35 in the first place!)

[Radioclare]

12 July
I decided to work from home today, which was just as well because when I opened my email it turned out I'd missed a message on Friday saying that the office wouldn't be opening until 10am to give people chance to recover from last night's football!

Russian
No Russian on the treadmill this morning - I reverted to Croatian, which was much more relaxing This evening I spent another half an hour with the B1.1 textbook, still working through the exercises. Well, in half an hour I actually only got through one exercise They're quite in-depth, especially if you look up all the phrases to make sure you definitely know what they mean.

After that I caught up with my Memrise reviews and read another chapter of Sherlock Holmes. Words which I looked up today included "сообщник" (accomplice) and "верёвка" (rope).

Croatian
I've just started reading a new book - 'Šaptač' (The Whisperer) by Donato Carrisi. This is a translation into Croatian from Italian and I have a feeling it's going to turn out to be quite gruesome.

Total - Russian: 69 mins, Croatian: 63 mins

[Radioclare]

13 July
I was working from home again today but I didn't end up with as long an evening as I expected because I got sidetracked by something I needed to read from my old job.

Russian
That meant I didn't get as far as my textbook tonight, but I did keep up with my Memrise reviews. They're not too bad at the moment, because I'm managing to resist the temptation to learn more than 10 new words a day.

I also read another chapter of 'Знак четырех'. Definitely found it heavy going today. Twilight is a lot easier than Sherlock Holmes

Total - Russian: 31 mins, Croatian: 60 mins

[Radioclare]

14 July
Went into the office today - it was pretty quiet. Well, quiet in the sense that there weren't many people in. It's actually a pretty noisy office because there's constantly music playing.

Russian
I went out for a drink on the way home, which had the knock on effect that I didn't get the textbook study which I'd planned done for this evening.

I have got through my Memrise reviews though. And I watched an episode of 'Татьянин день'. Quite a big episode actually; Сергей told the evil Татьяна 2 that he wants a divorce. The textbook chapter I'm currently working through on marriage break-ups should help me understand this storyline

Total - Russian: 56 mins, Croatian: 53 mins

[Radioclare]

15 July
Worked at home today. Have a bit more work to do know compared to when I first started, but things are still pretty relaxed

Russian
This evening I opened up my B1.1 textbook again and persisted with the exercises. There are just so many of them! The ones I was working on today mainly involved using given verbs to write my own sentences, so they took me quite a long time to do. It looks like the next batch up exercises are listening, so that will be a change at least.

I also slowly read another chapter of Sherlock Holmes. Today's word that I had to look up was "катер". Honestly, I'm still not entirely sure what it means beyond the fact that it is a type of boat, but that's as much understanding as I need to be able to follow the plot.

Total - Russian: 58 mins, Croatian: 86 mins

[cjareck]

I also slowly read another chapter of Sherlock Holmes. Today's word that I had to look up was "катер".

In Polish, we have "Kuter," which may be a small fishing boat, but also a military one (with some adjectives added to it). In Russian, it seems to be a small and fast boat: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0 ... 0%B5%D1%80

[Meddysong]

Today's word that I had to look up was "катер". Honestly, I'm still not entirely sure what it means beyond the fact that it is a type of boat, but that's as much understanding as I need to be able to follow the plot.

It's presumably a cognate of cutter: "A light, fast coastal patrol boat."

[Radioclare]

Thanks both! I would never have guessed in a million years that "катер" came from "cutter"

16 July
It's such an unusual feeling to finish at 17.30 on a Friday

Russian
I had a glass of wine, so didn't end up getting loads of Russian done this evening. I watched another episode of Татьянин день, because I was aiming to try and watch 3 episodes a week and I'd only managed one so far this week. This felt like a slow episode but I really do need to try and watch it more often to feel like I'm making progress.

Croatian
I spent most of the evening reading 'Šaptač' by Donato Carrisi. I didn't actually realise how long I'd spent reading it until I realised that I was over 150 pages in Oh well, the reading part of my Croatian Super Challenge needed a boost

Otherwise I'm still watching an episode of 'Čista ljubav' every day. Lots of drama - today's episode involved a hostage situation in a deserted factory with plenty of armed police. And I've been really enjoying following the Croatian travel blogger Kristijan Iličić on Instagram. I was trying to find content that's actually interesting to follow in Croatian (which sometimes feels like a struggle!) and I saw him recommended somewhere at some point. A few weeks ago he was travelling around Sudan, which was really fascinating, and he's currently travelling in Yemen, which looks absolutely terrifying!

Total - Russian: 45 mins, Croatian: 213 mins