There are worse things I could do... (FR, RU, ES)

[Elenia]

BBC America Dirk Gently? We're watching the first season (which I hadn't even known about until last week) in English with Swedish subs. My partner also has the four books of Hitchhiker's Guide in Swedish, which is something I'd like to tackle this year.

Yes, that's the one! A friend of mine is really into it so I started watching it with her, in English. I was sitting there, trying to work out why the guy's voice sounded so familiar until it hit me. So I suddenly went "He's the little one from the History Boys!". Which would have been a lot more helpful had she seen the History Boys.

(Side note, if anyone is looking for Brit film recommendations, History Boys is definitely up there).

How are you enjoying it? I've never managed to get into the Hitchiker's Guide books, I don't really know why.

I love it so far. I've read I think the first three books, but never quite managing the fourth. At least, I think I read the second book, but I'm not actually sure.

[MamaPata]

I passed the DELF B2! Overall I got 92.5/100, which is much better than I thought I was going to get - I wasn't even sure I had passed the production sections!

Written Comprehension : 21/25
Written Production : 23/25
Oral Comprehension : 23.5/25
Oral Production : 25/25

To be honest, I am totally gobsmacked. I would have said I was a decent B1 based on the CEFR self assessment stuff, maybe entering into B2 realm. When I did the exam, I thought I had maybe done well-enough in the oral and writing, but I figured that the quality was way below what was expected. I was pretty sure my comprehension had gone okay, but figured it was a few points lower than what I got. I never would have expected to do higher on production than comprehension. (Thank god for being a chatterbox, I guess?)

I am keen to follow this up and do the C1 exam, but it won't be until at least December, possibly not until next year. With uni, I can't afford to really do much French (aside from when I'm relaxing, and even then it's a guilty pleasure) until my exams finish in May. Depending on where my life is after that, I may start working for C1.

[DaveBee]

I passed the DELF B2! Overall I got 92.5/100, which is much better than I thought I was going to get - I wasn't even sure I had passed the production sections!

Written Comprehension : 21/25
Written Production : 23/25
Oral Comprehension : 23.5/25
Oral Production : 25/25

Awesome result! Well done You!

[neofight78]

Congratulations! TRKI next!

[rdearman]

Congratulations, now you have to change your profile to say B2.

[Elenia]

Well done! What wonderful progress

[MamaPata]

Congratulations! TRKI next!

Why would you do that to me?! What did I ever do to you?

Congratulations, now you have to change your profile to say B2.

I read this and had the immediate gut reaction of "but what if I'm not B2?" My ego's normally pretty huge, I don't know what goes weird with languages!

Well done! What wonderful progress

Thanks!

Awesome result! Well done You!

Thank you!

[MamaPata]

I'm currently studying the Baltic countries and we've been talking a lot about the role of language in politics. And lo and behold, today, one of the Russian language youtube channels I follow posted a video in which a woman had to only use Latvian all week. I don't know if anyone on the forum is studying Latvian, but I felt like I ought to share her efforts! If you are, let me know how she managed. I obviously relied entirely on the subtitles.



Generally, this looks like a pretty fun channel for Russian students.

[MamaPata]

I've been thinking a lot about life lately. As you may have noticed, given that I whine about it constantly, I am quite worried about my grades this year - it's my final year, yada yada. As a result, I've really been trying to be as productive as possible and cut out distractions. But I don't think this is actually the best thing for me to do. Yes, I need to focus and get my nose to the grindstone, but also, I think the best students are the ones who are interested in a variety of things and study for the pleasure of it. It means you can make wider connections, you're more invested... It chimes in a lot with the discussions that have been happening in various logs about balancing various interests, wanting to be a polymath much more than a polyglot.

So currently, while I'm not adding in things like Spanish and I am still trying to focus, I'm also trying to read books/watch films simply because they interest me, and focus on enjoying what's left of my degree. We'll see how it goes.

Russian
Reading: I've been reading the 'Stories of Love: Gay Propaganda', that I mentioned over in the Russian Study Group. I've also been continuing with У войны не женское лицо.
Watching: I watched Legend No. 17. I would definitely recommend this, if you're looking for something pretty light and easygoing. It's very glossy and at times it feels a little like they're ticking off as many sports film cliches as possible. But it's very nice, it's engaging, the actors are good (and attractive ). They play a little fast with the truth, but it comes out as a very watchable film.



I also watched Впервые замужем, which I had heard of for some reason and therefore had high hopes for. It was fine - it's a sort of sweet little romance, but there's nothing very special about it and it feels a bit tired. (though I admit, that might be just that I have seen similar stories that were much better filmed). I actually liked the first half a lot more than the second, and there are some very fun bits in it.



Both, I found easier to understand than other films.

French
Not too much to report here. Class, watched a couple more Ainsi soient-ils...

[MamaPata]

I've been off this last week so you'd really expect me to have done some language work... Sadly, no, not really. I've been being really productive and sensible, which has meant working on essays and dissertation, rather than any real language study. I had a couple of italki lessons booked, but one had to be cancelled because skype just collapsed. (I still haven't actually worked out what the problem was, and it pretty much did it again, so I'm going to have to give up on it. One of my teachers already uses Zoom which has been great, so I think it'll be that and Google Hangouts, which I've never used).

That said, dissertation work and other bits has involved:

Russian
Reading: A few articles for my dissertation, some of which I've put into LWT to go through for vocab rather than content later. I've also read a few pages of my Tamora Pierce book here and there.
Watching: Майор by Буков (2013). I don't know if it was the version I was watching (the sound and the picture weren't brilliant) but I found this really hard to follow. From time to time, there would be really clear sections and then it would drop off again. That said, I would quite like to see some other of his films. If you're into grim police dramas/social crisis films, I think it's probably well worth watching. I thought lots of it was good, but the quality of my DVD just threw me off.

I have also been putting off watching Изгнание (Звягинцев, 2007) for ages. (It's really long guys! Nearly three hours!) And the sheer level of uproar surrounding Zviagintsev always makes me a bit distrustful. I've seen his early film Елена, which is very good, but I've just never got round to the other ones.

I admit, I was totally wrong. It's really worth watching. The cinematography and the acting is just brilliant. (Although Lavronenko looks oddly like someone I know here, which was a bit weird).



French... Ahhh... Not really. But I have ended up reading quite a few articles in French as part of my research, which has been pretty cool. It's nice to know it's actually useful for something!