Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sun Jan 23, 2022 9:48 pm

23 January
Back home this evening. But had another lovely walk in the countryside before setting off.

Russian
I read a short chapter of 'Код да Винчи' before setting off this morning and a further chapter once I got home. I'm 75 pages in now and for the first time the story is starting to feel interesting. I know when I read this book in English I would have done it so quickly, skimming over boring descriptive bits to get to the action. Reading it in Russian means spelling out every single word and taking half an hour to read a handful of pages just describing someone walking through the Louvre at night :lol: But I'm hopeful that from now on it's going to be more exciting and reading will feel like less of a chore.

Cleared my Memrise reviews at the computer while drinking a coffee and I did appalling at them. I mainly use the app for convenience and to stop myself picking up my laptop as soon as I finish work (I'm trying to read, study grammar etc before opening my laptop in the evenings to stop myself getting sucked down the black hole of the internet). But I'd kinda forgotten how dumbed down the multiple choice is compared to actually having to type out the words. It turns out some of my Russian spelling is pretty awful and it took me upwards of five attempts to spell "отсутствие" correctly this evening. So now I feel like I need to force myself to do Memrise at the computer more often.

Total - Russian: 46 mins, Croatian: 3 mins
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Mon Jan 24, 2022 9:55 pm

24 January
Went to the optician today which is something I don't think I've done since I was at primary school. But my eyes are fine and I don't need glasses :)

Russian
I was going to do loads of Russian this evening and then I got distracted by trying to take a screenshot of something that it turned out I couldn't take a screenshot of. And the fact that taking a screenshot in Windows 11 does not seem to be as straightforward as it should be. Never mind!

I did clear my Memrise reviews, which took an entire 18 minutes. And I read not one but two chapters of 'Код да Винчи'. I only intended to read one, but that one ended on such a cliffhanger that I had to read a second one. So this is positive, I feel like I'm getting into the story a bit more now. New words looked up included "язычник" (pagan or heathen) and "хохма" (joke, although not sure how this is different to "шутка", which is the word I've learned for joke before).

Total - Russian: 38 mins, Croatian: 58 mins
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby vonPeterhof » Tue Jan 25, 2022 12:34 am

Radioclare wrote:New words looked up included "язычник" (pagan or heathen) and "хохма" (joke, although not sure how this is different to "шутка", which is the word I've learned for joke before).

"Хохма" is a more colloquial word and, at least historically, it has been used with implications similar to "witticism". The word apparently comes from the Yiddish-influenced urban dialect of Odessa and is ultimately derived from the Hebrew word חכמה meaning "wisdom", although its later semantic shift to becoming basically interchangeable with "шутка" might have been influenced by its similarity to the unrelated word хохот ("guffaw"). I don't think I've heard it used much by people born in the post-Soviet days.
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Tue Jan 25, 2022 10:51 pm

Thank you for the explanation, vonPeterhof :)

25 January
Nothing as exciting as an eye test today. I really did mean to open my Russian grammar book this evening and then I got caught up reading a book in English and didn't.

Russian
Memrise was pretty brutal again today; ended up with 19 mins of reviews. Every so often I flirt with the idea of giving up on it, then I remember that I can't think of a better way of learning vocabulary and carry on :lol:

I actually got quite caught up in the storyline of the Da Vinci Code tonight and read multiple chapters. Well, the chapters are so short that counting them isn't terribly meaningful, but I read 20 pages without it feeling like a massively unpleasant effort, so that is definitely progress.

I was going to watch another episode of Фронт and then I had to unblock my social media for something and I realised that Антон Птушкин
and his friend had published a second video about Lebanese food, so I ended up watching that instead. Being honest, I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first video or, at least, I didn't learn as many new things about Lebanon from this second instalment. I think it was also partly because I wouldn't normally watch food videos, so I didn't find an entire hour of food content as exciting as I would have found an entire hour of travel content. But there were definitely interesting bits, in particular about different Lebanese desserts :)

Total - Russian: 115 mins, Croatian: 72 mins
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:55 pm

26 January
My coffee machine stopped working today. If you love caffeine as much as I do, this is a very sad state of affairs. In totally unrelated news, for some reason I have a headache this evening.

Russian
I had great plans to read several chapters of Код да Винчи this evening and then finally get around to opening my Russian grammar book. But before dinner I started reading a book in English, only intending to read a couple of chapters... and two hours later I found myself on the last page :oops: I think from tomorrow onwards I need a rule that I'm not allowed to read in English unless I've read in Russian first.

Anyway. I did clear my Memrise reviews (only 12 minutes today #winning) and then I decided to watch the 4th episode of Фронт. Unfortunately it's about a week since I watched the 3rd episode and in the intervening days I'd managed to completely forget the names of all of the characters :lol: I watched today's episode without the subtitles which means I also missed out on some of the intricacies of the plot.

Croatian
But at least Фронт has a plot! Unlike Najbolje godine, where the episode I watched on the treadmill this morning involved one of the characters licking a freezer and getting his tongue stuck to the ice :?

Total - Russian: 60 mins, Croatian: 53 mins
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luke
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby luke » Thu Jan 27, 2022 12:55 am

Radioclare wrote:26 January
My coffee machine stopped working today. If you love caffeine as much as I do, this is a very sad state of affairs. In totally unrelated news, for some reason I have a headache this evening.

That's a sign that your kidneys and liver are in extremely good shape.

It takes a full day and then some for caffeine deprivation to get a message to my brain that something's wrong.

So, your brain is also top notch. :) That's got to help for Russian and Croatian.
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby stell » Thu Jan 27, 2022 1:00 am

Radioclare wrote:My coffee machine stopped working today. If you love caffeine as much as I do, this is a very sad state of affairs. In totally unrelated news, for some reason I have a headache this evening.

Oh, my heart! So much empathy for you! I only drink decaf, so I'm not addicted to the caffeine. But for some reason I still NEED my cup(s) of coffee every morning. The psychological addiction is real for me!
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Thu Jan 27, 2022 1:34 pm

luke wrote:
Radioclare wrote:26 January
My coffee machine stopped working today. If you love caffeine as much as I do, this is a very sad state of affairs. In totally unrelated news, for some reason I have a headache this evening.

That's a sign that your kidneys and liver are in extremely good shape.

It takes a full day and then some for caffeine deprivation to get a message to my brain that something's wrong.

So, your brain is also top notch. :) That's got to help for Russian and Croatian.


I get a headache by noon if I don't have caffeine in the morning, and it lasts a full ten days if I withdraw fully. I thought I was just a hopeless caffeine addict; nice to know it's a sign everything's working as it should ;-)
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Thu Jan 27, 2022 10:19 pm

I don't deserve much sympathy re the coffee machine; it only stopped working because I'm a bad coffee machine owner and hadn't run the de-calc process during the entire year I've had it :oops: All sorted now thanks to my other half's Amazon Prime subscription enabling me to get the tablets I needed delivered at short notice. And now that I've had two cups out of my newly cleaned machine, my headache has gone :lol: I definitely get one within half a day of not drinking enough coffee... I can't imagine what it's like to go cold turkey and have a headache for 10 days :shock:

27 January
I had my hair cut today, which was mildly exciting. I think it's only the second time I've had it cut since the pandemic started, so it was definitely overdue.

Russian
I was more disciplined this evening and didn't start reading a book in English :) I cleared my Memrise reviews before dinner and then after dinner I read 30 minutes or so of Код да Винчи which got me through a couple of short chapters. They weren't the two most exciting chapters so far, but I'm 100+ pages into the story now so I figure it has to start becoming consistently more exciting pretty soon.

I also watched the 5th episode of 'Фронт'. I capitulated and watched with the subtitles on today. Plenty of shooting and explosion scenes today, which at least didn't require much of an understanding of Russian. Despite my limited understanding, I am enjoying watching these war programmes, if for nothing else than the fact that the war is taking place in some really scenic forests. Really, the forests are amazing. Watching it reminds me of a time I went hiking in a couple of national parks in Lithuania a few years back; so beautiful :)

Total - Russian: 92 mins, Croatian: 59 mins
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby StringerBell » Fri Jan 28, 2022 2:37 pm

Radioclare wrote:I don't deserve much sympathy re the coffee machine; it only stopped working because I'm a bad coffee machine owner and hadn't run the de-calc process during the entire year I've had it :oops:


I have to ask - what does it mean to "de-calc" a coffee machine? I've never done this - or even heard of anyone doing it. I'm intrigued!
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