Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

[Radioclare]

3 October
Still didn't feel amazing today; definitely not the most productive day ever at work.

Russian
For some reason I had loads and loads of Memrise reviews this evening, so I spent nearly 20 minutes clearing those after work. I felt tired after that so I decided just to watch another episode of the telenovela 'Обручальное кольцо'. Comprehension felt a bit hit and miss today; there were some bits where I did quite well and other bits where I just lost focus.

Total - Russian: 64 mins

[Radioclare]

4 October
Starting to feel a bit more normal today. I seemed to get through the entire day at a normal temperature at least

Russian
I do still feel pretty tired though so I decided to keep things simple this morning and watch another episode of 'Обручальное кольцо'. I actually really got into it this time, to the point where I was surprised when the episode was over and decided to watch a second one as well That doesn't often happen to me in Russian!

Total - Russian: 90 mins

[Radioclare]

5 October
Theoretically I feel better but in practice I still feel really tired and am lacking motivation and focus to do very much at all. My other half did a test this morning and is still positive, so I guess the illness is still running its course.

Russian
I've done something to offend the Memrise gods because I had loads of reviews again today; like 20 minutes worth. Later this evening I watched another episode of 'Обручальное кольцо'. Just one episode this evening but it was quite exciting and included a murder.

Croatian
I did go on my treadmill this morning for the first time since Friday and I watched the first episode of the third series of 'Novine'. This picks up the story a year later, so there's a mixture of new characters plus old characters in new situations. I spent most of the episode trying to work out who was who, what was happening etc. But I'm sure it will be good once I get into it properly

Total - Russian: 66 mins, Croatian: 52 mins

[Radioclare]

6 October
Felt more energetic today than I have since getting Covid. Still not back to normal but I did manage to focus on more work than I have any other day this week.

Russian
I didn't have so many Memrise reviews today, thankfully; only 5 minutes or so. Once I'd cleared those I tried a bit of reading. I'm still progressing pretty slowly with 'Тайна голландских изразцов', but hoping to be able to devote more time to it at the weekend. I looked up the word "опекать", which in the context used in the book seems to mean "to patronise". This evening I watched another episode of 'Обручальное кольцо' as well.

Total - Russian: 69 mins

[Caromarlyse]

I looked up the word "опекать", which in the context used in the book seems to mean "to patronise".

I've learnt it recently in the sense of "watching over": единственные дети постоянно опекаются своими папами, мамами...

[Radioclare]

I looked up the word "опекать", which in the context used in the book seems to mean "to patronise".

I've learnt it recently in the sense of "watching over": единственные дети постоянно опекаются своими папами, мамами...

That's interesting! I was really confused by what it meant, because in Croatian there's a verb opeći which means to burn and the story I'm reading is about arson so I had burning on the brain But that meaning didn't make sense in the context of the story so I had to look it up.

7 October
Felt worse again today. It's been a week since my initial positive test so I did another test this morning and I'm still positive. In fact I got a stronger positive line than last time. So that's annoying.

Russian
Luckily I only have to work half days on Fridays at the moment so I was able to relax a bit this afternoon. I went to bed to read for a bit and brought 'Тайна голландских изразцов' with me. I was feeling diligent so I looked up quite a few words:

брандспойт - I think it's a hose, like a fireman's hose. I stared at this word for ages because it looked suspiciously like a word that might have come from German, but I couldn't work it out.

судимость - I think it's a criminal record, like all the things you've been convicted of in the past. Somehow I seem to have read a lot of detective stories without coming across this word before today.

рухлядь - junk

чадра - I got the translation "veil" when I looked it up, but in the story it was describing head coverings worn by Muslim women. So not the sort of veil you'd wear with a wedding dress.

Total - Russian: 35 mins

[snoopy]

I could imagine опека being related to the whole series of the baking/fire words. The verb to bake in Russian is печь, but it gets a к in the past tense (пек/пекла). One can think about опека as giving warmth with one's heart
For example, there is an expression взять под опеку meaning take someone under your wing.

Брандспойт comes from Dutch, so it's pretty close to German

Чадра is a full-body veil, and there is a similar word in English actually, all of them coming from Persian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chador

Get well soon!

[Teango]

It can take a quite a while to get over COVID (especially if it's your first rodeo). My wife and I tested positive for a couple of weeks, and then we still felt pretty awful for a few weeks afterwards. To be honest, we're still not really back to normal. With two young kids, battling the overwhelming fatigue was one of the biggest hurdles. I hope you test negative and feel better soon, Clare. Just remember to go easy on yourself and try to pace things, you'll need extra time to rest and recover.

[vonPeterhof]

I could imagine опека being related to the whole series of the baking/fire words. The verb to bake in Russian is печь, but it gets a к in the past tense (пек/пекла). One can think about опека as giving warmth with one's heart

I've always imagined the metaphor as baking representing the act of shaping the child into a fully-formed person, but apparently it's related to a less common use of the verb "печь(ся)" in the sense of "to take care of" or "to be troubled by" (reminds me a lot of Japanese idioms like 手を焼く and 世話を焼く).

Брандспойт comes from Dutch, so it's pretty close to German

Yeah, apparently the original spelling is "brandspuit". Also this is literally me learning not only the etymology of the word, but its actual pronunciation and spelling in Russian for the first time, because my whole life I've been certain that the word was брандспойнт, without ever stopping to think why this compound word seemingly has a continental West Germanic word appended to an Anglo-French one. Как говорится, "век живи - век учись"

[Radioclare]

Thank you everyone, it's always fun to learn more about words And I didn't know the word "chador", so I have learned something new in English too!

8 October
I suppose I don't feel too bad today, just tired more than anything and I'm getting really bored of coughing. I'm also getting really bored of not leaving the house! I can't think of any other time in my life when I've not been outside for an entire week. Normally I start getting grumpy if I don't go outside for two days.

Russian
I spent another 45 minutes reading 'Тайна голландских изразцов' this morning but I was too lazy to look up any exciting new words today. I'm getting closer to the point where the identity of the murderer is going to be revealed so the storyline is becoming more exciting. But overall I think this book has probably been too hard for me because it feels like it costs a lot of effort to read. I'm at the stage where trashy fiction is better for me!

I also went through another chapter of the NPRC. This one was mainly about adjectives. And I made a start on the next lesson in the Kalinka course too.

Total - Russian: 119 mins, Croatian: 80 mins