Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Tue Mar 15, 2022 1:22 pm

Anki cards added
added.png


That's the last 90 days of card creation for the collection (all decks). Card adding has been cut down for the last 2 weeks. The biggest recent spike was 16 cards added six days ago. The negative values on the graph mean that many days back. I grabbed the graph now because that "90 days ago" bar on the left of the chart will drop off tomorrow. Showing it gives more context. E.G., 3 months ago I went 3 weeks without creating any cards.

I watched a couple of La hojarasca (Leaf Storm) summaries over the last couple days. One interesting thing about them is that video creators do not all have the same take on what happened in the story. One reviewer will say the novel takes place over about 30 years, and another will say it takes place over 30 minutes. They are using different "scales" for measuring time. I.E., if a narrator recounts something that happened years ago, does that expand the "timeline" of the story? Even a simple question like that may not have complete consensus among academics.

But the "novel takes place over 30 minutes" fellow is interesting. I hadn't picked up "30 minutes" during my listenings, although I was wondering. Gabo does give the time at 2 points, so I'm sure the fellow is correct. Below is that video. The creator is a professor. Student and enthusiast videos summaries can be helpful too.



Oh, and this morning I completed the FSI Basic Spanish Presentations of Pattern for the first time:
: 55 / 55 FSI Illustrations

Looking forward to having a good day. Hope you have one as well.

(Edits are generally always clarifications - more accurate word choice - etc. This time it was changing "adding" to "creating").
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Last edited by luke on Tue Mar 15, 2022 11:43 pm, edited 3 times in total.
9 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Tue Mar 15, 2022 3:51 pm

The professor reminds us how the whimsical fiction of GM is rooted in stark, harsh reality, which gives it its resonance. The review is nicely and concisely done. Thanks.
2 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Wed Mar 16, 2022 10:43 pm

2 Ideas
La primera idea me vino cuando empecé el segundo paseo del día. Cuando terminé el primero paseo, el capítulo terminó de manera exitante. Quería escuchar más para oír, ¿que va a pasar?

En el segudo paseo, he olvidado el hilo de la historia del capítulo anterior. ¿Que hago? Escuchar el fin del capítulo anterior, por supuesto. Pero la comprensión que siempre sería un buen comienzo escuchar un poco del capítulo anterior.

Segunda idea - con FSI
Estoy pensando escribir esto en inglés, pero, voy a continuar. Se puede crear sus propios ejercicios según los ejemplos del FSI.

Okay, enough Spanish, get it out
This morning, on the first walk, chapter 8 of La hojarasca finished in an exciting way and I was tempted to just keep listening. I hit the rewind button a few times and listened to the end of 8 and that brought me back into the thread. I should hit <rewind> to hear the end of the previous chapter on a regular basis.

But I've been getting good results by doing some Live Lingua FSI drills at the end of my walks and I want to keep the fire burning, so, with discipline, I finished my walk doing an FSI drill. It was Spanish Basic Course - Volume 4 - Unit 48 - 48.21.21 Substitution Drills. That's a 12 minute drill. That's 3 drills, but 1 mp3. For the curious, the 2nd drill starts around 6 1/2 minutes in, and the 3rd around 8 1/2 minutes in. The 2nd and 3rd drills were notably challenging.

To deal with the challenge, I've taken to pausing the exercise and making up variations. Example:
prompt: Si se levantaran a las siete, llegarían temprano.
response: Si se hubieran levantado a las siete, habrían llegado temprano.

It had me tongue tied for a couple days.

As I wandered on my walk, I turned the example into a bunch of responses and imagined real life:
Si me hubiera levantado a las siete, habría llegado temprano.
Si nos hubiéramos levantado a las siete, habríamos llegado temprano.
Si te hubieras levantado a las siete, habrías llegado temprano.

From the second set of drills:
Si tú te hubieras acostado temprano, no estarías tan cansado.

I imagined talking to my brother, my sister, both of them, the women in the family, the kids, Mom, etc. That made for a good bit of conjugation exercise and linking the words with what I was saying. It helped.

It made me think, I should have been doing this all along, but better late than never. I can always circle back and have more fun with the exercises and improvisation.

I've also been re-reading the discussions around the linguistic points presented in my new run at Presentation of Pattern - Illustrations.

I mean to turn these notions into a notebook, but so far, my notes might be something like:
ser = identity
¿Dónde es la fiesta? = Where's the party being held?

estar = association
¿Dónde está la fiesta? = Where's the party?


estar = definite (el, la, los, las)
hay = indefinite (un, una, unos unas)


Final thoughts
I watched a guitar teacher video the other day. He was trying to help the student not struggle trying to learn all 5 pentatonic scale shapes on the guitar at once. He suggested going back and forth between 2 of them. Switch those 2 up. Eventually, you'll be able to go from any of the 5 to any of the rest. His point was work on something small and get good at it.

Helen Abadzi, a polygot who's done a few presentations on language teaching and learning reminded me to try this trick:
With just your eyes, look left and right and left and right and left and right for about 30 seconds. (or 10 or 5, she said 30). It's supposed to help link the two halves of the brain and help memory. I did that a little bit today.

Also, at the end of the walk, I spent more time just imagining conversations. May have been speaking out loud. With my narrations being out loud, I'm not overly attuned to whether I was speaking out loud or not. I think I was. It was helpful too. It stemmed from the FSI improvisations. Play with the language. It's not all work.

The hole in Anki created cards was due to vacation
RepAsos.png


See that hole in the "Reviews" around -80? That means there were none. That means I was visiting the family. That means I couldn't create any new cards. So much for "discipline". ;)
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10 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Fri Mar 18, 2022 2:22 am

As to be promised, Mr. Iversen is going to Make Anki Great Again:
arboladura1.png


Actually, the image I made it too big to attach, but you can see what luke thinks a cucaracha de mar might look like in Iversen's Second Multiconfused Log.

: 12 / 12 La hojarasca (2x)

Un nińo con su mamá, Isabel, con quien una amiga anciana que se llamaba Meme le llamaba Chabela, y su abuelo, el coronel, quizás el mismo papá Laurel de Un hombre viene bajo la lluvia, están esperando y rumiando antes de un entierro que pueda nunca pasar, y ese niño, que podría ser el mismo perdido Noel de la otra historia, luego muerto, pero ahora joven, sentado observando sus parientes, mientras ellos se luchan consigos mismos para hacer lo bueno, cuando un ahorcado malentendido medico está tumbado, esperando una vieja solicitude para un puñado de tierra se cae en su sepulcro, lo que el pueblo no desea para negar en absoluto ningún respeto, y lo que su abuelo el coronel habría dado a cualquier hombre en su tiempo de la muerte.

That reminds me of a Led Zepplin song:


I picked up El coronel no tiene quien le escriba [No One Writes to the Colonel] to celebrate the consummation of listen 2 of La hojarasca.

I also picked up 4 pocket sized notebooks for a dollar, which is about 1 Euro these days, and I've made notes that didn't get in the summary above. They're questions:

El cachorro, ahora sacerdote, pero antes guerrero, ¿podría ser el hermano menor del ahorcado arriba? ¿Quién es el ateo? ¿El ahora ahorcado? ¿Era realamente médico? ¿Es el niño Noel? ¿Va a ir a la guerra? ¿Por eso su abuelo no quiso ser nombrado capitán por el coronel Aureliano Buendía? ¿Porqué su nieto se fue para ser guerrero y luego estuvo extraviado?

Needless to say, I'm liking following the Camino a Macondo track. So many mysteries. So much life. So much death. Tantos almas extraviados.

Here's what I was trying to say in the summary of La hojarasca:
A boy with his mom, Isabel, whom an old friend named Meme would call Chabela, and his grandpa the colonel, who might me the same papá Laurel of Un hombre viene bajo la lluvia, are waiting and ruminating before a funeral that may never happen, and that boy, who might be the same lost Noel of the other story, then dead but now young, sitting observing his relatives, while they struggle within themselves to do good, when an apparently self hung mysterious medical man is dead and lying, waiting for an old request for a fistful of earth to be tossed on his grave, which the people of the town don't want to give to deny him completely of any respect, which his grandfather, the colonel, would give to any man in his time of death.

The notebook continues
este/esta estos/estas = near me
ese/esa esos/esas = near you
aquel/aquella aquellos/aquellas = away from both of us
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Last edited by luke on Thu Apr 07, 2022 6:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
6 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sat Mar 19, 2022 11:41 pm

Ideas and better ideas
Once upon a time I came up with the notion of Hard Core FSI. Today, I'm making a refinement. No need edit the audio. Live Lingua has manuals and most importantly the MP3s in smaller chunks. By "smaller", I mean smaller than the 1 MP3 per tape originals (about 30 minutes). Not that there's anything wrong with that either, nor my original proposal.

So what's the idea?
The typical format of an FSI drill exercise is:
1. prompt
2. time for you to respond out loud
3. correct response
4. time for you to repeat that response.

That's a good format for learning.

Here's a format for improvisation:
1. prompt
2. time for you to respond
3. correct response
4. time for you to create and say an alternate but correct response.

Example:
1. Alicia dice que no va a fumar más. (prompt)
2. Alicia dijo que no iba a fumar más. (silence for you to produce the correct response)
3. Alicia dijo que no iba a fumar más. (correct response)
4. Yo dije que no iba a fumar más. (improvisation)

El coronel no tiene quien le escriba excitement
I created this Anki card for Cien años de soledad some weeks back:
ojos_almIbar.png


Those ojos de color almíbar belong to an unnamed youth who appears in a single paragraph in Cien años delivering physical evidence of the surrender of Colonel Aureliano Buendía. I don't want to give too much away, but remember los aperos, the "tools of the mule" from another Anki card example some weeks back? I also have a card for cabestro. Cabestro comes cabo (head), and it's the gear that one would use to guide a mule by the head. Well, por el cabestro is how our squalid youth led the burro into the patched tent where Colonel Aureliano Buendía was sitting, making ready to sign the Treaty of Neerlandia, which was a historical event, by the way.

A day or two ago, I had a suspicion the moment ojos de color almíbar were mentioned in el coronel no tiene quien le escriba, that those eyes might be the same eyes as those of the squalid youth from Cien años de soledad, which belong to the colonel, to whom no one writes.

As today's chapter unfolded, the story of el oro de la rebelión en la carpa remendada came from the old colonel's mouth. Not Coronel Aureliano Buendía's, but the youth who became a coronel, to whom no one writes. It is so beautiful I've got tears in my eyes!

You said something about "ideas" - I thought I'd hear some "tips" (plural)
Okay, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba has chapters of about 20 minutes each. The story doesn't come through as clear as I'd like on the first listen. Below is the "how to listen" idea I've been using on this book. The numbers below represent chapters. The bars (|) represent days. There are 2 walks per day most days, so the first number is the morning walk and the second number is the afternoon walk.

1 | 1, 2 | 2, 3 | 3, 4 | ... | 7

There are 7 chapters. There is a well-known passage in a famous book that describes the significance of 7 days and morning and evening and the next day, which reminds me of Le Baron's comment about the embodiment of Brash Krashen.

Okay, and next week, I can listen to the story again. The evening, next morning after sleep, a week later after several sleep cycles all makes sense from a memory and brain perspective too.

That's my plan. It sounds easy to stick to.
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8 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Mon Mar 21, 2022 10:36 pm

Cainntear wrote:It has been observed in a variety of situations that the brain doesn't build new structures when there is doubt.
...

Except that human beings are exceptionally weak at losing false certainty. This is not a character flaw, it's just human nature.

That is so helpful I'm saving it for posterity.

Ideas that came on today's walks:

Practice this type of exercise more:
El cuarto de ella es pequeńo.
La casa de él es blanca.


A noun of one gender, followed by "de" followed a pronoun of the other gender, followed by a descriptive adjective of the first noun.

On Gabo sequencing - with reasoning.
Camino a Macondo - backstory
El amor y otros demonios - Parallel text. Only 5 hours.
El amor en los tiempos del cólera - Super narrator Con Kepa Amuchastegui finalizing the final chapter.

The "El amor" titles have texts. For "tiempo", it's in two books, the original and the Edith Grossman translation.

Camino a Macondo is a listen mostly track. Before I start an 'El amor' book, I want to finish this a trip to Macondo.

On flashcards and intensively reading Cien años de soledad
It's been 3 weeks since I've added cards in earnest to Anki for Cien años. That was the plan. During that time, I've 44 cards, which doubles to 88 with the "other side". Those were all "clean up" based on an extensive reading I started during the interim. I'm starting chapter 9 extensively. The intensive read picked up at chapter 10 today.

Here's the forecast. Almost the same number of cards for the next 30 days as it was 3 weeks ago, but the curve is again flatter:
prognOstico3.png


idea
Rather than do a sub-chapter each day and then loop back and do the whole chapter again so Anki doesn't become cranky, do a sub-chapter, then re-read it the following day. I did that today. Sub-chapter by sub-chapter, rather than chapter by chapter. Buried new cards get a day to show themselves before I pile on another sub-chapter.

Getting back to the Cainntear quote and my recent experience with El coronel no tiene quien le escriba and Dan Lernt Deutsch's audiobook approach as well, it's better to wade into a book, getting more from redoing the current chapter than pushing through and repeating.

That's the new idea and for it we have a linguistic and un saltimbanqui to thank. :)
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6 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Wed Mar 23, 2022 6:06 pm

FSI unit 48 (of 55) complete
Unit 48 focused on the conditional, conditional perfect, periphrastic conditional (iba a conocer), and using the conditional with the subjunctive. Drills on walks, in addition to commutes and in the bathroom were helpful. This unit took about 3 weeks.

FSI gave me a gift with respect to the reading/response section. Several pages are missing and with that, all the of the questions, so an extra pleasant way to finish the unit :)

"Conversational stimulus" has become more situational in the 4th and final book of the course. E.G., You've had a great meal at a fine restaurant with your family and the waiter has just presented the bill, at which time you realize you forgot your wallet. Ask the waiter to speak to the owner or manager. Talk to the manager. Pretend you're the manager. Tell a co-worker about what happened. More room for invention.

: 48 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish
: 48 / 124 Cien años de soledad (10x)
: 14 / 55 FSI Illustrations (2x)
: 7 / 7 El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (2x)

The Colonel to whom no one writes decides what's for dinner
That may be funny if you've read or listened to the book. I finished trip 2 this morning, doing the 1 | 1, 2 | 2, 3 | ... | 7, morning and evening walks over the past week.

I've started Los funerales de la Mamá Grande. Last night I read the first short story and made some vocab notes. I reviewed the vocab this morning. Haven't decided yet how I'll integrate this set of short stories with the El coronel no tiene quien le escriba, or if I have, not remembering it at the moment. The big thing is both of these books on the Camino a Macondo will be reviews before I meet La mala hora on my way to Macondo.

Notebook
Past subjunctive is formed like nosotros in Past I. There are no exceptions.
Past subjunctive - Past I
tuv-iera, tuv-e

Irregular present subjunctive forms - (except saber, ir, dar, estar, and ser) - are derived from the irregular stem of the "yo" present:
Present subjunctive - Present "yo"
teng-a, teng-o
salg-a, salg-o
dig-a, dig-o
quep-a, quep-o
sep-a, sé


The future tense is formed on the same stem as the conditional - the infinitive - except for twelve irregular verbs:
Future - Conditional
hablar-é, hablar-ía

podr-é, podr-ía
sabr-é, sabr-ía
habr-é, habr-ía
cabr-é, cabr-ía

tendr-é, tend-ría
vendr-é, vend-ría
pondr-é, pond-ría
saldr-é, sald-ría
valdr-é, vald-ría

dir-é, dir-ía
har-é, har-ía
querr-é querr-ía


Present - Past I
aprendemos, aprendimos


¡Que les vaya bien, señores!
5 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Tue Mar 29, 2022 6:36 pm

El camino a Macondo es largo
Boom!
: 8 / 8 Los funerales de la Mamá Grande (3x)

According to the table of contents, La mala hora would be next, but recent new material has been El coronel no tiene quien le escriba and La hojarasca. If it sounds like I'm getting ready for justification to divert from the path, your psychic powers are strong.

This morning, I started Vivir para contarla again on my daily caminos. It has the upside of not having been listened to for a couple three months, is in the first person, is familiar, and now I have more background and better Spanish skills.

The real upside is that, since the chapters are so long, like 2-3 hours each, there's no way I could fit one into a single walk. So, that leaves space for FSI drills, which have been fruitful lately.

He tocado el fin de la unidad 49
Which means I haven't finished it yet. The memory stick has been whittled down enough so the remaining drills fit in my very short commutes to the walking place. I'm so close, I added unit 50 to the stick today. I don't like to pile all the "todo" on at once. It's more satisfying to think about the "next stop", as opposed to the destination.

What about Anki?
anki_hoy.png


That shows that I did 193 cards in the "collection" today and the "prognostication" is looking favorable. 153 cards tomorrow. I set the "Frequency 5000" deck to 0 new cards this morning. It had been "3 new cards per day" for many weeks. That deck only takes about 4 minutes, but I've got bigger fish to fry. As Aureliano Segundo has shouted more than once, apartense vacas, que la vida es corta.

I'm getting Cien años de soledad vocabulary rolling once again. Here are two delightful new cards featuring Úrsula:

Úrsula se preguntaba en qué enredos se había metido, si no estaría robando, si no había terminado por volverse cuatrero, y cada vez que lo veía destapando champaña por el puro placer de echarse la espuma en la cabeza, le reprochaba a gritos el desperdicio.
Úrsula wondered what
entanglements he had got into, if he might be robbing, if he had ended up becoming a rustler, and each time she would see him uncorking champagne for the pure pleasure of pouring the foam on his head, she would reproach him yelling of the waste.

La tardía comprobación de su involuntario paganismo agravó su desconsuelo.
The tardy verification of her involuntary paganism agravated her disconsolation (unconsolability).
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3 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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luke
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Fri Apr 01, 2022 10:11 pm

FSI Basic Spanish 7/8s Complete
I finished unit 49 today. That would be book 7 of 8 in the Platiquemos version of FSI Spanish.

Today's reading was funny in places. I enjoyed this:
--¡Pero mujer!-- le decía una elegante matrona a otra que llevaba algo en la cabeza que parecía pasar por sombrero

It's a busy street. The story paints a picture of Latin American life, thoughts of a busy waiter, a young diplomat, and a surprise ending.

Lately I've noticed each unit gives me some skills I've been lacking. In the 4th volume (units 46-55), there are generally 2 or 3 new grammar points. This unit covered the future and future perfect tenses, as well as another aspect of the conditional.

The Review Drills are helping too. There are 3 review drills in each unit. Although they cover things taught earlier, they do it in a new way. So, each unit is going over 5 or 6 linguistic patterns.

Recent FSI readings have made me think the Garcia Márquez book of journalism articles might serve a similar purpose down the road. I was happy to find words I learned in Cien años de soledad, like aturdido and bullicioso show up today.

: 48 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish
: 25 / 55 FSI Illustrations (2x)
: 53 / 124 Cien años de soledad (10x)
: 144 / 1386 Vivir para contarla (3x)

Writing Anki Vocabulary is Helping
Two graphs below. One is the "collection" for the last month, the other for the last 3 months. The good news here is that the last month has higher "remembering" than the 3 month chart. Writing the words in a notebook as I do Anki is new behavior. The charts suggest it is helping.

1month.png


The red bars are smaller in the most recent month chart. Those represent the "I don't know this yet" button. The percentages below each of the groups of bars show the "knew the card to some degree". Those numbers are a bit higher over the last 30 days. The "Jovenes" (young cards - light green bar) have been getting a lot more "good" than "okay" over the last 30 days too.
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Last edited by luke on Sun Apr 17, 2022 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Luke's very confused Spanish Learning Log

Postby luke » Sun Apr 10, 2022 12:01 pm

4 weeks good in distraction limiting challenge
I was thinking about posting to the Distraction Limiting Challenge thread, but maybe it's more apropos here. I've been good with all three of my markers for 4 weeks. No ice cream binges, no extra mozzarella cheese, pizza buying and binging have stayed within the constraints I set for myself.

Idea to rein in Anki
prog3-100-20220410.png


That's the "collection" 90 day forecast. Regular readers will realize I'm reining in Anki regularly. I'm doing it again. Sorry for the R sentence, but I like words and wordplay, and that can lead to trouble with Anki.

It's not a brand new idea, but in the vein of limiting distractions, I'm going to try to limit adding new words to Anki unless some form of them is repeated 3 or more times in Cien años de soledad, or something seems important for some reason.

I'm half-way through the book, intensively reading and creating Anki cards. It's fun to do. I think they're helpful. It's a pleasant pastime, but work work is getting busier and I need to be able to bring time to that as it becomes necessary.

I watched this last night. It's great. An educator, author, philosopher, extoling the virtues of the humanities:


Nothing I've been doing with Anki is in any way contradictory to what I got out of Nuccio Ordine's lecture on La utilidad de lo inútil en nuestra vida (the usefulness of non-utility in our life), but I feel a pull to focus on getting through the current intensive read with a pace of apparent progress. I've been in the 10th chapter (of 20) for a few weeks. It is pleasant and I should perhaps keep a long term outlook, that if it takes 10 more months to get through the book this way, that that's fine; but I'm off the beaten path far enough in my language learning approach and I don't want to be middle of the forest alone at night, not sure whether my compass is accurate or not.

So, I'm planning to keep some sign of civilization in sight, even if it's only a glow in the distance, so I know I can get back from this adventure.
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