Ani's 2017 Log

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Ani
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Wed Feb 01, 2017 12:41 am

Elenia wrote:Sorry to hear about that, Ani, but glad that it wasn't anything serious, and that you're well! About the vacation... maybe it just wasn't meant to be?


DH and I are feeling that way, but the way cancellation works, we now have a huge credit with the hotel :-/ So we kind of have to try again. Hoping third time is the charm!

[As an aside, Elenia, my two year old is obsessed with your avatar. Not sure if that is a picture of you or if it is from somewhere else but he finds it/you extremely lovely :)]
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But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

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Elenia
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Finnish?!
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Elenia » Wed Feb 01, 2017 8:36 am

Ani wrote:
Elenia wrote:Sorry to hear about that, Ani, but glad that it wasn't anything serious, and that you're well! About the vacation... maybe it just wasn't meant to be?


DH and I are feeling that way, but the way cancellation works, we now have a huge credit with the hotel :-/ So we kind of have to try again. Hoping third time is the charm!

[As an aside, Elenia, my two year old is obsessed with your avatar. Not sure if that is a picture of you or if it is from somewhere else but he finds it/you extremely lovely :)]


In which case, good luck! (At least the hotel have given you a credit and your money hasn't sunk into a gaping bureaucratic hole!)

[And thank you, Ani! It is a picture of me, courtesy of an extremely talented friend!]
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Elsa Maria
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Elsa Maria » Thu Feb 02, 2017 1:12 am

Sorry things did not work out for the vacation, Ani.

I would be interested in a writing group. I really want to work on writing in Danish this year.
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Ani
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Sun Feb 05, 2017 4:07 am

Elsa Maria wrote:Sorry things did not work out for the vacation, Ani.

I would be interested in a writing group. I really want to work on writing in Danish this year.

I don't know about an actual group, but please do join in and share progress. Maybe something more formal will develop out of it? I am really great at making plans and then doing nothing about it, so I am not the one to lead a group project :)


So I have hesitated in writing an up date this week only because it would be awfully boring. Studied same things. Read different pages, same books. :) I know everyone was dying to see that update.

On the other hand, I think I am ready to start writing tomorrow. I think I have finished mulling over what I plan to do enough that I can actually DO something. I found a few great sentences to work with. I am going to pick one, dissect all the grammar, and then "imitate" the sentence by changing out fragments of the sentence. Hopefully writing 3-5 imitations of each sentence I decide to work with.

I am also wondering if I should change my goal of 24 books this year to a double super challenge for the calendar year. I don't actually want to track minutes of TV watching, but if I add up whole series that I watch and exclude the bits and pieces of other things, that could work. I am not sure how many hours I am at for TV now (maybe 20?) but I could look back at netflix and my series tracker and find out. I'm just over 1400 pages of book reading so far. I don't know. I don't even know if it matters :roll:
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But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

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MamaPata
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby MamaPata » Sun Feb 05, 2017 11:45 am

That's what I do for the Super Challenge - I watch some youtube videos and so on but I don't bother counting them, only TV programmes and films. I am sure that everything you are doing (and whatever you decide to do) is making a difference. Sometimes it can feel really overwhelming, particularly in this intermediate phase, because you can see all of your weaknesses really clearly but it's hard to see where you are making progress. But you absolutely are, and it's all paying off.
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Ani
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Sun Feb 05, 2017 11:27 pm

MamaPata wrote:Sometimes it can feel really overwhelming, particularly in this intermediate phase, because you can see all of your weaknesses really clearly but it's hard to see where you are making progress. But you absolutely are, and it's all paying off.


That is so true! That can be the most frustrating part too. I know exactly where I make frequent mistakes and where I need more memorization or particular skills, and yet nothing seems to change very quickly. I do wonder if I will ever clear enough hurdles to feel like I have passed the intermediate phase into advanced (or whatever that really means!)
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But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

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MamaPata
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby MamaPata » Mon Feb 06, 2017 5:36 am

Ani wrote:That is so true! That can be the most frustrating part too. I know exactly where I make frequent mistakes and where I need more memorization or particular skills, and yet nothing seems to change very quickly. I do wonder if I will ever clear enough hurdles to feel like I have passed the intermediate phase into advanced (or whatever that really means!)


Ah, yes, I know that feeling. You have all of my sympathy! We'll get there somehow!
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Ani
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Wed Feb 08, 2017 3:12 am

Finished Outlander, french edition. Crossed over 1600 pages read in French since Jan1. I swore I wasn't going to read all these books again this year, but here I am being tempted. I just ordered books 2 &3 from Amazon which means I have a month to read other things before they arrive.

One neat thing about trying to read all my paperback books in a short time frame is that I am now fully reading without a dictionary. I'd
If there is no pop-up dictionary I really have no motivation to look things up :) I only hit 50-100 unknown words in the 640 pages of Outlander. Obviously it would be good to learn them but this is really fun for a little while.

Yesterday I had a bit of a panic that I wasn't studying enough French, so I did about 7 hours of reading, watching, writing and drills. Today just reading and maybe a tv show later. Tomorrow, hopefully I will get to Russian and Finnish for the first time this week. Oops.
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But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

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Ani
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Thu Feb 09, 2017 7:08 am

Pretty good on the languages today. It will take me all year to get to speaking full sentences in Russian at this rate but I am just fine with crazy slow progress at this point. I still find it fascinating. Tiny bit of Finnish done. Couple good hours in French including a few paragraphs of writing.

It looks like I might start training with the eventual intention of leading a different (higher) level of the catechism class I teach every week. I am ridiculously unqualified so it means lots of reading and study. My first thought was "Where can I find useful books not in English" and then I started making a new list of languages I need to learn :) Exactly how long will it take me learn Hebrew and Greek on top of the Russian which should also be useful? Hehe.
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But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

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Expugnator
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Expugnator » Thu Feb 09, 2017 8:59 am

Any language will be easy after Russian :twisted:

Seriously, Greek has some vocabulary discount for attentive speakers of English and/or a Romance language. After a year my active skills are way better than my non-existent Russian ones.

I can't speak for Hebrew but from a brief contact it does seem easier than Russian.
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