Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

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

Postby Radioclare » Fri Jan 07, 2022 10:03 pm

7 January
A much quieter day at work with no meetings today, but I feel kinda tired this evening after the first week back.

Russian
That means that I chickened out of grammar study! But I did clear my Memrise reviews and read a chapter of Agatha Christie. Words I looked up today included "сторожка" (gatehouse, like a lodge), "сарай" (in the context used in the book, I think it was a shed or some other sort of garden building) and "буфетчица" (the translation I get when I look this up is "barmaid", but in the book it's referring to some sort of maid who works in the house. Maybe a parlourmaid?).

Afterwards I watched the sixth episode of 'Разведчицы'. I'll try not to spoil the story in case anyone else watches the series, but today's episode involved some German soldiers. I find it a bit annoying when the German characters speak German, because there is Russian dubbed over them; I'd do a much better job at understanding the German if I could hear it :lol: Some of the German soldiers spoke Russian with very strong German accents, so that was funny.

Croatian
I ended up watching two episodes of 'Najbolje godine' today because the first one I watched was quite short. Still nothing I could describe as a plot. I chickened out of Croatian textbook study too, but I did watch the midday 'Dnevnik'. I'm thinking perhaps I should use the Covid reports as practise for understanding large numbers; the newsreaders frequently read out stats about the number of new infections, hospitalisations and deaths in different regions of Croatia, and I'm rubbish at understanding large numbers at speed so this could be a useful exercise :D

German
Last night I finished reading 'Vanitas - Grau wie Asche' by Ursula Poznanski. It was a really exciting thriller, if a little dark at times, and it ended on a cliffhanger too. I definitely recommend the series if you want something exciting and not too taxing to read in German. But this was the second book and it's definitely a series where you need to start with book no.1, otherwise the story would probably make little sense.

Total - Russian: 84 mins, Croatian: 99 mins
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sat Jan 08, 2022 10:11 pm

8 January
I spent half of today working on an Esperanto translation project and by the end of it, I felt like I didn't know the correct word for anything in any language any more :lol: So I don't think I've actually got any more language study done than on a working day.

Russian
Did some housework this morning, then cleared my Memrise reviews and tackled the next section of 'A Comprehensive Russian Grammar'. Have moved on to feminine nouns now and it seems like they have just as many obscure exceptions in their genitive plurals as nouns of any other gender.

Once I'd given up Esperanto, I watched the next episode of 'Разведчицы'. Still very exciting and the subtitles mean I've been trying to make a list of words I don't recognise to look up later. One I looked up today was "мент" (a cop).

Later in the evening I allowed myself two chapters of Roger Ackroyd as a weekend treat :)

Croatian
I had a headache by the time I'd finished with Esperanto so I opted out of my Croatian textbook again. I did watch 'Dnevnik' while on the treadmill, which confirmed that Covid cases in Croatia continue to rise. The newsreaders are all wearing badges to try and encourage people to get vaccinated.

Total - Russian: 118 mins, Croatian: 67 mins, Esperanto: 120 mins (at least - a conservative estimate as I forgot to set a timer!)
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:37 pm

9 January
It was really nice and sunny today so went for a long walk in a country park.

Russian
I cleared my Russian Memrise reviews before I went out, then when I got back I read two more chapters of 'Убийство Роджера Экройда'. I looked up a few new words, including "печень" (liver). I had to look that up because there's a slightly similar word ("pečenje") in Croatian, but that refers to grilled or roasted meat, which obviously didn't make any sense in this context :lol: I also looked up the adjective "скользкий", which means "slippery".

Later I did some grammar exercises on feminine nouns from ACRG (struggling with the genitive plural ones as per usual!) and then watched another episode of "Разведчицы". It's only a short series so I'll probably finish it next week. Still very exciting though.

Croatian
I was very lazy this morning and didn't get out of bed to go on the treadmill, so I haven't watched an episode of 'Najbolje godine' today. I did watch 'Dnevnik' though, which continues to be quite interesting. Today there was something about the Covid situation in Mexico, for example, which I haven't seen covered in the UK news at all. I also continued working my way through the geography chapter in 'Hrvatska na prvi pogled'. The section I tackled today was about Croatia's water (the Adriatic, the rivers, the lakes etc). It was a bit dry and I had to look up quite a lot of words. But the good news is that that seems to take me to the end of the physical geography section. The next bit seems to be human geography, all about population etc, so I'm hoping the vocabulary won't be quite as technical.

Total - Russian: 119 mins, Croatian: 49 mins
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby IronMike » Mon Jan 10, 2022 1:46 am

Radioclare wrote:I spent half of today working on an Esperanto translation project and by the end of it, I felt like I didn't know the correct word for anything in any language any more :lol: So I don't think I've actually got any more language study done than on a working day.

What translation project? I've been translating Medalionoj and it's been challenging and fun.
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Mon Jan 10, 2022 9:18 pm

IronMike wrote:What translation project? I've been translating Medalionoj and it's been challenging and fun.

I'm translating a couple of children's books into Esperanto. They're picture books really, with only a few sentences per page, but I've still found some bits really challenging to translate!

10 January
A fairly quiet day at work today. But starting to think about a potentially really exciting trip for July, Covid-permitting.

Russian
I had 20 minutes worth of Memrise reviews today, which was a surprise of the less pleasant variety. Once I'd got through those I read a short chapter of Roger Ackroyd and looked up the word "пёрышко", which is a feather.

Today's grammar topic was the declension of feminine soft sign nouns. I made some notes and worked through the exercises in my book on these. I feel like I got on pretty well with them; the genitive plurals seemed more straightforward.

Finally I watched another episode of 'Разведчицы'. Very tense. The time has jumped forward from 1942 to 1944 since the last episode and the spies are in Poland. So at least now I've got Russian being dubbed over Polish rather than German :lol:

Croatian
Back to watching 'Najbolje godine' on the treadmill this morning. This evening I read a section on changes in population in my 'Hrvatska na prvi pogled' textbook and watched today's midday 'Dnevnik'. The main report was from the Split region, which has the highest number of Covid cases and a shortage of nurses at the moment. Vaccination rates there seem to be low even by Croatian standards and there was an interview with an official trying to convince local people to get vaccinated to save the upcoming tourist season, if for no other reason.

Total - Russian: 99 mins, Croatian: 88 mins
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Tue Jan 11, 2022 9:24 pm

11 January
Went to meet a new colleague in a cafe today, which was novel.

Russian
Fewer Memrise reviews today - yay! I read a fairly easy chapter in 'Убийство Роджера Экройда' and I'm now around 60% through. I suspect as I get nearer the end, the temptation to read more than a single chapter in a sitting will get bigger.

Today's topic in 'A Comprehensive Russian Grammar' was nouns which decline in slightly odd ways. So things like neuter nouns ending in -мя. I didn't think any of these were too hard but then I only scored about 50% in the subsequent exercises, so I think I need to revisit tomorrow (and perhaps concentrate more!).

I watched the tenth episode of 'Разведчицы'. Today there was a situation in which one of the Russian spies told the Poles who had captured her that she was a Russian spy in such badly accented Russian that she convinced them she was a German spy. So that was quite impressive!

Croatian
I'm making much better progress with the human geography sections in 'Hrvatska na prvi pogled' and finished the part on population today without having to look up vast quantities of words. I learned that there are surprisingly few towns in Croatian with a population of more than 20 000 people. I also watched 'Dnevnik'. The reporting of Covid statistics was pushed off the top spot in the headlines by a large fire that broke out last night, being made worse by very strong winds.

Total - Russian: 116 mins, Croatian: 77 mins
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Wed Jan 12, 2022 10:19 pm

12 January
Nothing very exciting today. Cold, but very sunny so had a nice walk at lunchtime.

Russian
After the Memrise reviews I read a short chapter of Roger Ackroyd. Today's new word was "горшок" (pot, in this context it was a pot of jam).

I went back to 'A Comprehensive Russian Grammar' and tried to revise the stuff on neuter nouns ending in -мя which I didn't do too well at yesterday. This part of the book was followed by a long section on the declension of first names, surnames, place names, abbreviations etc which I read this evening, but really just let wash over my head. My Russian isn't good enough for this to be a useful thing for me to concentrate on; if I want to know how to decline a surname then I'll just have to look it up.

Later I watched episode 11 of 'Разведчицы', which is the penultimate episode. Can't believe I've got through the series so quickly! There seem to be lots of other series available on the channel where I've been watching so hopefully it won't be hard to find something else interesting to watch next :)

Total - Russian: 115 mins, Croatian: 70 mins
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby IronMike » Thu Jan 13, 2022 2:00 am

Radioclare wrote:I went back to 'A Comprehensive Russian Grammar' and tried to revise the stuff on neuter nouns ending in -мя which I didn't do too well at yesterday.

Do yourself a favor. Memorize all of these. I think there are 10. You would not believe how many times I impressed native Russian speakers by listing off -мя neuter nouns. Great fun at cocktail parties!
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby rdearman » Thu Jan 13, 2022 9:56 am

IronMike wrote:
Radioclare wrote:I went back to 'A Comprehensive Russian Grammar' and tried to revise the stuff on neuter nouns ending in -мя which I didn't do too well at yesterday.

Do yourself a favor. Memorize all of these. I think there are 10. You would not believe how many times I impressed native Russian speakers by listing off -мя neuter nouns. Great fun at cocktail parties!

Seems the parties we attended in the military were very different.
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Radioclare
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Re: Radioclare's 2022 log (Russian, Croatian)

Postby Radioclare » Thu Jan 13, 2022 10:49 pm

13 January
Seemed to spend most of today on Teams, but it stopped me feeling hungry. I'm still in that whole January, trying to be healthy kind of phase :lol:

Russian
I watched the final episode of 'Разведчицы' today. It was very exciting and a really cool ending. Shame there were only 12 episodes. I was surprised to recognise one of the actors in today's episode from a role in Татьянин день. I recognise actors in Croatian series all the time because there's a limited number of them who recycle through the telenovelas, but I didn't think I'd watched enough Russian TV to start recognising anyone! Not sure what I'll watch after this, but Антон Птушкин has released a new video on Norway this week so that's definitely what I'm going to watch tomorrow.

Otherwise just did some Memrise, a bit more grammar and read another chapter of Agatha Christie. The characters spent this chapter playing a game of Mahjong. The Russian translation has extensive footnotes explaining the meaning of various references to the game, so to be honest I understood more of this chapter than I would have done if in the English original, which has no such helpful clarifications. In a similar vein, I sometimes find it helpful when there are Russian footnotes clarifying French expressions used by Poirot :)

Croatian
Still ploughing on with 'Najbolje godine'. I've watched 28 episodes out of a total of 318. I don't think I'm going to make it through all 318, I'm still holding out hope of a more exciting series being released over the next few weeks. Otherwise, just keeping up with Memrise and still watching the 15-minute version of 'Dnevnik'.

Total - Russian: 114 mins, Croatian: 70 mins
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