Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

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

Postby Radioclare » Sat Oct 29, 2022 6:43 pm

29 October
Very lazy day in the countryside today. Got my 10 000 steps this morning, otherwise have just been sitting down reading.

Russian
I brought my battered copy of the NPRC with me and spent some time before lunch finishing chapter 9. This was all about the genitive plural, probably not anyone's favourite part of Russian grammar. But this book does quite a good job at explaining the rules in an accessible way and I managed to get full marks on the exercises. Slowly, I'm improving. Otherwise I did a bit more reading of Ken Follett but no exciting new words today.

Total - Russian: 53 mins, German: 145 mins (reading one of the books in the Game of Thrones series)
5 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Sun Oct 30, 2022 4:29 pm

30 October
Back home now. Enjoyed a weekend away and definitely enjoyed an extra hour of sleep last night. How is it already the end of October though?!

Russian
I read a bit more of 'Игольное ушко' this morning. Because I'd spent the whole morning sitting down, I then needed to go for a walk in the afternoon and this was a happy walk because I not only remembered to pick up my earphones so that I could listen to a podcast but the earphones were actually charged :lol: I was pretty much trying to get my entire 10 000 steps in one walk so I actually had time to listen to two podcasts. First of all I listened to the most recent Russian with Max podcast about politics. Then I listened to a much older one about families. He spoke about how long children tend to live with their parents in Russia and why this isn't necessarily a good thing, so that was quite interesting.

Total - Russian: 98 mins, German: 49 mins (reading)

I don't think I'm going to participate in the 6WC this time around; I don't think I need an excuse to log on to Twitter more frequently. I am starting to think vaguely about what my language learning goals for next year should be. I like to set goals that I can measure but I think out of the eight goals I set on the first page of this log, I'm only actually going to meet two of them by the end of the year :lol: So perhaps I need to put more thought into my goals or have fewer goals I can be more focussed on, I don't know. I'm also considering whether continuing to do 30 minutes of Russian per day every day is still the right goal to have or whether I should try something different next year, like having weekly goals :?
9 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Mon Oct 31, 2022 10:55 pm

31 October
Went out for dinner tonight because I'm a grumpy person who wants to be away from home on 31 Oct to avoid potential knocks on the door from children demanding sweets :lol:

Russian
Dinner involved a glass of wine so didn't feel massively productive when I got in. Today was also payday so I had some Christmas shopping I wanted to do as well. I decided to do another lesson of the Kalinka video course; because it's mainly watching instructional videos, I find it quite a good "low energy" activity. I've started the second phase of the course now. Haven't got to any very difficult grammar yet but I'm still enjoying the practice I'm getting from the exercises. I did a good one this evening on more difficult nominative plurals which was good repetition of what I'd been revising in the NPRC the other day.

Total - Russian: 96 mins, Croatian: 51 mins
9 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Tue Nov 01, 2022 8:14 pm

1 November
That time of year when everything starts to feel dark and miserable. It was so wet at lunchtime that I didn't bother leaving the house today.

Russian
I went on the treadmill after work for some extra steps and watched a couple of Russian with Max videos on YouTube. The first one was about Russian slang and I'd say it was good except that now I come to write this I can't actually remember any of the phrases I allegedly learned :oops: The second one I started watching, but haven't got to the end of yet, was about verbs of motion. You can never have too much on verbs of motion!

Later on I logged into Memrise and - somewhat to my surprise - found I had 800+ outstanding reviews. I swear I only logged in a couple of days ago and it was fine. Luckily they all seem to be pretty easy words, the sort that only come up once or twice a year. I didn't clear them all this evening but I gave it 10 mins or so.

Total - Russian: 40 mins, Croatian: 47 mins
5 x

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

Postby Teango » Wed Nov 02, 2022 6:00 pm

I particularly like how you were in full motion while studying verbs of motion. Молодец!
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Wed Nov 02, 2022 8:39 pm

Teango wrote:I particularly like how you were in full motion while studying verbs of motion. Молодец!

Just please don't ask me which verb to use to describe that motion :lol:

2 November
I actually had to leave the house today to go and visit a prospective new client. It feels quite odd getting dressed up and putting a suit on these days, even though I used to wear one every single day.

Russian
I felt tired this evening after so much excitement. But I did go on the treadmill with some more verbs of motion, finishing the video I started yesterday. And I did a bit more Memrise too, though I still haven't managed to get those reviews down to zero.

Total - Russian: 31 mins, Croatian: 48 mins
8 x

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

Postby Cavesa » Wed Nov 02, 2022 11:39 pm

Not sure what is so particular about the Russian verbs of motion, but I can somewhat empathise, because decribing motion is horrible in any language imho. You know, I have to answer a lot of questions like "and how did he fall?" "And how exactly did she move that leg/arm/whatever" at work. And even with my C2 French, I struggle. Today, I understood just partially how exactly had the patient accidentally hit his car with his bare foot. And describing such stuff (active speaking or writing) is even harder. How exactly did the basketball player twist his leg, how did the old old lady fall on the stairs, what was she doing, what was the middle aged worker exactly doing, when their back started hurting like hell...

So, I suspect there is something grammatical and hard about the Russian verbs of motion, as they get mentioned so often by Russian learners and with so much respect (or terror). But in any case, describing motion is hard! :-D
3 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Thu Nov 03, 2022 10:53 pm

Cavesa wrote:So, I suspect there is something grammatical and hard about the Russian verbs of motion, as they get mentioned so often by Russian learners and with so much respect (or terror). But in any case, describing motion is hard! :-D

Terror is definitely the word :lol: Rather than coming in nice imperfective/perfective pairs, Russian verbs of motion have three forms: two imperfectives and a perfective. You use one of the imperfective forms when talking about "multi-directional" motion (where a return journey is implied, for example) and the other imperfective form for "uni-directional" motion, when you're only going in one direction. I get massively confused by this all the time and frequently choose uni-directional verbs when I should be using a multi-directional one. Then you throw into the mix that Russian is one of those languages where you use different verbs depending on whether you're going by foot or in a vehicle, plus the endless list of prefixes you have to add to the verbs to clarifying whether you're arriving or leaving, entering or exiting etc and it all feels extremely difficult. I don't know whether there are other slavic languages where motion is this complicated :? It's definitely a lot simpler in Croatian where there's only one verb for "to go" and you can use it to go anywhere you like without anyone needing to know whether you're returning :lol:

But I know what you mean about motion in general being tricky. And I am in awe of how you manage to do such a difficult job in a foreign language!

3 November
I didn't have to go anywhere today, so that was nice. I did have a three-hour training session on recent changes to International Accounting Standards to sit through though. That was less nice.

Russian
It's the financial year end of the Esperanto charity I'm treasurer of so I had some accounting tasks to do this evening. That means I've done the bare minimum of Russian. I listened to some more Russian with Max while on the treadmill for a couple of thousand extra steps. This was part of a recent livestream Q&A session. I decided not to listen to the end of it because the sound quality wasn't very good. Later on in the evening I had another attempt at my Memrise reviews. Made a bit of an indent into them but still have > 200 outstanding.

Total - Russian: 34 mins, Croatian: 53 mins
11 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Fri Nov 04, 2022 4:10 pm

4 November
Had a Covid booster jab this afternoon. Feel fine so far but this is my fourth dose of Pfizer and I felt quite rough after doses 2 and 3, so not sure how energetic I'm going to be tomorrow.

Russian
I worked a half day today and then walked into town at lunchtime to get jabbed. My headphones were charged (yay!) so on the way there I listened to a Russian with Max podcast which was about alternatives to the American dream, so doing things like living in an eco-village for example. I listened to a second podcast walking home; that one was about minimalism. The speech in both these podcasts felt quite slow but I'm finding this useful because it means I can listen out for the case endings and think about them. I was revising genitive plural last weekend so I was paying particular attention to genitive plurals when listening to these two.

Total - Russian: 67 mins
4 x

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

Postby Radioclare » Sat Nov 05, 2022 8:52 pm

5 November
It turns out my reaction to my 4th Pfizer jab was the strongest yet. I've spent most of the day feeling like I've got Covid again. But I'm starting to feel a bit more human again this evening.

Russian
I managed to get to Memrise zero again this morning, so that was good. Once I started feeling a bit better, I read another chapter of 'Игольное ушко'. The main new word I picked up was "лезвие" (blade, like of a knife).

I also spent 10 minutes or so starting a new chapter of the NPRC. This one is carrying on from where I left off last week with more uses of the genitive. More about the genitive after prepositions and things like that rather than the hard stuff like the genitive plural.

Total - Russian: 76 mins, Croatian: 5 mins, German: 30 mins
5 x


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