Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

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

Postby Radioclare » Mon May 02, 2022 3:58 pm

2 May
Had a great time walking around the beautiful peninsula Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat today.

Russian
At the airport waiting for my flight back to the UK now, so just another short update today.

I had a decent length wait for a train this morning, so I decided to be diligent and use the time to read in Russian. Making good progress with Ken Follett now; over 200 pages in and haven't had to look up loads of words. Back home and back to longer updates tomorrow.

Total - Russian: 39 mins
7 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Tue May 03, 2022 8:01 pm

3 May
Back to work today. I didn't miss any significant emails while I was off. I didn't get home until after midnight last night though so I felt pretty tired at times today.

Russian
After I work I had to deal with unpacking and laundry and the other boring things which make up the aftermath of a holiday. Also clearing Memrise reviews; I hadn't logged in for a couple of days while I was away and somehow the uncleared reviews managed to climb over 250 :shock:

I wanted to read more Ken Follett but that felt like a bit of a cop-out so I went back to TY Russian Grammar, which I hadn't brought with me on my travels, and read the next section which was on adjectives in the prepositional case. That took me to the end of the adjectives chapter which left me pretty excited until I realised that this was only the first of two chapters on adjectives. Never mind.

That wasn't quite enough to take me to 30 minutes, so I decided to find something to watch in Russian instead. Couldn't face experimenting with a new series today so decided to try a video from the Russian with Max channel which I've seen a few people recommend. Now that I am officially boycotting the Russian Progress channel I need a new source of comprehensible Russian content :)

Total - Russian: 44 mins, Croatian: 65 mins
8 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Wed May 04, 2022 8:57 pm

4 May
Felt a bit less tired today :)

Russian
Not necessarily a much more exciting language update, though. I started the second adjectives chapter in TY Russian Grammar. Today's section was about the short form of adjectives, so that was fine. I flicked forward and the rest of the chapter is about comparatives which is one of the topics I'm really weak on in Russian so I should probably add that to my list of things I need to focus on.

I logged into Memrise thinking I'd just spend 5 minutes clearing reviews and realised that somehow I'd acquired 400+ since yesterday :shock: By the time I'd got through those I'd kinda lost the will to live, so I didn't do anything else.

Total - Russian: 56 mins, Croatian: 51 mins
7 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Thu May 05, 2022 8:00 pm

5 May
Local elections to vote in today, otherwise not much exciting happening here.

Russian
I felt like reading in Russian after work tonight, so that is what I did :) I actually read for quite a long time, almost an hour. Feeling slightly jealous when I see everyone tweeting for the Super Challenge, but I'm reminding myself that I don't need the extra motivation to read in Russian at the moment. I'm averaging one physical book in Russian per month so far this year and in SC terms I've read 34 "books" since 1 Jan. It's the parts of language learning which I don't enjoy that I need to challenge myself to do :D

Total - Russian: 83 mins, Croatian: 51 mins
10 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Fri May 06, 2022 8:30 pm

6 May
A fairly hectic day at work today. The next month is probably going to be my busiest since I took this job (though nowhere near as busy as my old job!).

Russian
Another fairly boring update today, I'm afraid; I've just been reading 'Третий близнец' again. I'm at home this weekend, so I'll try to do some "proper" studying to compensate for what has been quite a lazy week!

Total - Russian: 43 mins, Croatian: 54 mins
7 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Sat May 07, 2022 3:02 pm

7 May
The weekend! And a weekend at home, which feels like a nice relaxing thing to have after spending last weekend travelling.

Russian
I reined in my temptation to start reading in Russian once I'd finished my chores this morning and instead made myself open TY Russian Grammar and look at the section on comparatives. I spent half an hour on this and only looked at long comparatives, which are the easier ones, but nevertheless it was useful because this does feel like an area of grammar I haven't mastered. Afterwards I opened up the Big Silver Book of Russian Verbs but then after about 5 minutes I closed it, because it just felt too overwhelming I'm going through a phase where I feel like I can't remember anything in Russian properly and like I just need to go back to the beginning and start the NPRC all over again :lol: There is a chance I might actually do this. For now, I've just blocked all my social media etc again in the hope that this will give me a bit more headspace to concentrate on remembering things.

Croatian
I finished the chapter on the Croatian economy in 'Hrvatska na drugi pogled' earlier. It was quite heavy going at times and I could definitely benefit from going back through it and looking up some words.

Esperanto
I also finished chapter 8 in 'Enjoy Esperanto', which was the chapter on transitivity. I don't feel like I'm very good at transitivity in Esperanto but I did okay on all the exercises because they were mainly verbs I already felt comfortable with. The other grammar theme of the chapter was de vs da and I did much worse on those exercises; clearly a topic which I haven't fully grasped. I feel like it's something which is probably more critical to master in writing than in speaking; if I'm not sure when I'm speaking I just attempt to speak quickly enough for the other person to hear a "d" sound but not be able to tell whether I got the vowel right :lol:

Total - Russian: 49 mins, Croatian: 22 mins, Esperanto: 66 mins
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Serpent » Sun May 08, 2022 9:49 pm

Radioclare wrote:The main word I looked up today was "тумбочка" which seems to be a bedside table.
Weird way to resume posting :lol: Тумба is basically a not very tall closet, generally with something kept both inside in drawers, and on top of it (indeed often used as a bedside table). It's also common to have this piece of furniture under your tv, and this was ubiquitous before LCD screens :D
The word also has other meanings such as "advertising pillar" (I had no idea this is what they're called :lol: )
had to look it up but it's indeed related to tomb :shock: (wiki describes it as coming from Greek)
Some of the words I looked up today included "плоть" (flesh) and "епитимья" (penance).
Both are mostly religious words, I had to double-check epitimia (looks like this is the English equivalent and it's more specific than penance). Wiki also says civil court used to apply epitimia in some cases before 1917 :shock:
Плоть is more common metaphorically (and I think it's related to flesh/Fleisch), you may see it in the context of sex or veganism. плотский has basically come to mean sexual.
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sun May 08, 2022 10:03 pm

8 May
Less time spent on languages today. I went for a walk in the countryside this morning and I spent most of this afternoon trying to sort out logistics for a short trip to Liechtenstein I'm doing next month.

Russian
I cleared my Memrise reviews in the morning, although they weren't very numerous today. This evening I spent 45 minutes reading in Russian, though the Ken Follett felt a bit harder than usual today. The storyline involves scientific experiments with DNA, so there were some quite long technical explanations in today's chapter which probably would have been boring/difficult to read even in English!

Total - Russian: 50 mins, Croatian: 60 mins
9 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Mon May 09, 2022 8:38 am

Serpent wrote:Both are mostly religious words, I had to double-check epitimia (looks like this is the English equivalent and it's more specific than penance). Wiki also says civil court used to apply epitimia in some cases before 1917 :shock:
Плоть is more common metaphorically (and I think it's related to flesh/Fleisch), you may see it in the context of sex or veganism. плотский has basically come to mean sexual.


Yes, I think these were words that came up when I was reading 'The Da Vinci Code' so definitely religious undertones. I'm fairly sure "плоть" was used in the context of a character who was whipping himself. I think "епитимья" would have been used to translate the concept of Catholic penance. I have never heard the word epitimia in English :shock:
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Ogrim » Mon May 09, 2022 10:20 am

Radioclare wrote:
Serpent wrote:Both are mostly religious words, I had to double-check epitimia (looks like this is the English equivalent and it's more specific than penance). Wiki also says civil court used to apply epitimia in some cases before 1917 :shock:
Плоть is more common metaphorically (and I think it's related to flesh/Fleisch), you may see it in the context of sex or veganism. плотский has basically come to mean sexual.


Yes, I think these were words that came up when I was reading 'The Da Vinci Code' so definitely religious undertones. I'm fairly sure "плоть" was used in the context of a character who was whipping himself. I think "епитимья" would have been used to translate the concept of Catholic penance. I have never heard the word epitimia in English :shock:


The Russian "епитимья" must surely come from Greek "επιτιμία" (epitimía), which, according to Liddell and Scott can mean both "the enjoyment of civil rights" and "rebuke, punishment". The latter meaning seems to be the most common in Koiné Greek and is how it was used by the early Christian writers.
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