Radioclare's 2017 log (Croatian/Russian)

[IronMike]

This is one of the main problem areas for me in Slavic languages. Then I studied Kyrgyz and it is even worse. Younger sister is different from older sister, same with the brothers. Then the different uncles, including mother's older brother vs. mother's younger brother, it was mind-boggling.

[Radioclare]

Thank you everyone for all the insights on this topic It's nice to know that I'm not the only person who finds all these different terms confusing. And at least now whenever I get confused I can tell myself that it could be worse, I could be learning Kyrgyz

Life still seems to be getting in the way of me doing much language learning. My main success this week has been to finish disk 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the Michel Thomas Foundation Russian course. So that just leaves me disk 8 to get through, hopefully early this week, and then I have to decide whether I want to do the Advanced Michel Thomas course or switch to Pimsleur Russian instead as my audio course. Part of me is wondering whether I should splash out on Glossika Russian before this dreadful change which they keep emailing about takes place, but when I logged in last night to refresh my memory of the prices, I didn't feel I could justify the expense.

Tadoku is on but I haven't signed up because I'm still trying to get through Doctor Zhivago in English. I'm into the second half of it now and to be fair it seems a lot more readable than the first half. There's far less jumping around, so you actually stand some chance of understanding who the characters are and what is happening to them. This makes reading it less of a chore

My 6WC feels like a poor effort at the moment but I'm at home all day tomorrow without many other commitments so hoping I can do some proper textbook studying. Earlier in the week I toyed with the idea of signing up to an evening class in Russian; I was thinking it might help with my motivation. There's a class for absolute beginners on a Tuesday evening, but I remembered how frustrating I found the Croatian beginners class I attended at the same college a few years ago. So then I considered the "Beginners Plus" course, which is for people who have done a bit of study before. That sounded more suitable, but it's on from 17.00 - 19.00 on a Friday, which isn't really a time which works for me, so I've given up on the idea.

For anyone lucky enough to live in London, the Raindance film festival is on again at the end of September: http://calendar.raindancefestival.org/. There are a couple of Balkan films which I would really love to see, but unfortunately they are pretty much all only showing on weekdays, when there is no chance that I can get to London to see them. Never mind.

Does anyone here learn Yiddish? I'm sure someone must, but I can't think. If anyone does, the Amikumu app is launching for Yiddish speakers later this month. This is the first language to be added after Esperanto.

[Radioclare]

This hasn't been a great week for languages. I've had a few very late finishes at work, which means I haven't had time to watch any Croatian TV in the evenings

However, one positive is that I did manage to finish disk 8 of the Michel Thomas Foundation Russian course, and I've started on the advanced course now. I'm only on the first disk of that at the moment, but so far it's not very "advanced" (mainly just a recap of the foundation course), which suits me fine.

Otherwise my 6WC stats aren't looking very good this week. There were a couple of days when I didn't log anything at all. I did finish reading Doctor Zhivago though, which means I am now free to read books which aren't in English again, and I spent quite a lot of time on Monday evening writing an article in Esperanto. I don't write in Esperanto very often these days and I kept finding myself having to consult an online dictionary to check the transitivity of verbs

Monday is a public holiday in the UK, so I've gone to Italy (Lake Como) for the weekend. It's really beautiful here and all the travelling I've done today has given me an opportunity to read in German. As of this evening, I'm halfway through a thriller called 'Die Petrusmünze' by Daniel Holbe. It's a bit difficult to briefly summarise the plot, but it feels a bit like a Dan Brown novel, ie. it's easy to read and there's a lot in it about the Vatican. It's about the consequences of the papal schism, when there were rival popes in Rome and Avignon, and what might have happened to the descendants of the final "antipope". It's fun for me to read, because in the past year I've been both to Rome and Avignon

[jeff_lindqvist]

As of this evening, I'm halfway through a thriller called 'Die Petrusmünze' by Daniel Holbe. It's a bit difficult to briefly summarise the plot, but it feels a bit like a Dan Brown novel, ie.

Sounds like a book for me, then. Thanks!

[Serpent]

This will seem a bit out of the blue I finally went back to the series that Clare watched back in 2015. The quoted post is from the old forum

(Serpent - don't read the rest of the post as it may spoil some storylines!)

Series three picks up six months after where series two left off. I thought we were going to have an eternal summer in Budva but now it is actually winter. Everywhere still looks amazingly sunny and there hasn't been any rain, but some of the characters are wearing jackets and one of the girls even had a woolly hat, which seemed a little bit excessive as it looked like it might still be about 15 degrees

I found this hilarious too! I was able to wear t-shirts in December (other than in Cetinje), though not for a long time.
I guess she wore a hat because she's pregnant though

The girl herself seemed to think this would be the natural course of events and went off to tell her boyfriend. He wasn't quite so thrilled and - I think - suggested that she have an abortion. I had learned the verb 'abortirati' but he kept using a verb which sounded like 'očistiti'.

Can anyone clarify this usage btw? The word is used again later in the series. Does it technically refer to a specific common technique? and/or a procedure that has some uses apart from pregnancy termination? In Russian чистка is curettage (technically выскабливание or абразия/abrasion) but I don't think the word is ever used for abortion.

They also decided that he, his new wife and the baby would come and live in their family home. This would be the tiny family home in which we already have living the boy's grandad, his dad, his aunt and his aunt's boyfriend.

Haha to me any house with more than one floor isn't tiny by definition

The boy eventually became reconciled to the idea of getting married, but in the meantime the girl had decided to get an abortion after all. I'm assuming by the speed at which she was able to arrange this that abortion is legal in Montenegro and pretty easily obtainable.

I suspect her (dad's) money sure makes it easier
Wow this wikipedia map is shocking. I didn't realize it technically has limited legality in Finland, though the Finnish article says in practice it's enough to say that the pregnancy/parenthood is causing or expected to cause you significant distress, and everyone who requests abortion before week 12 gets it.
(also wow, Malta and other ministates )

[Serpent]

And some minor things that i'm curious about

https://youtu.be/FoByfWgJihI?t=3m14s what did the doctor say here? I couldn't make out the joke (right after hladno)

https://youtu.be/FoByfWgJihI?t=24m13s again i'm missing out, seems like she said smth funny

https://youtu.be/FoByfWgJihI?t=31m12s what's the connection between the vacuum cleaner and spring water?

Also I found it interesting how ahead of the wedding they were discussing whether they wanted narodna or zabavna muzika. Using folk music at a wedding seems like a hippie thing to me (I don't mean it in a bad way at all) And as a Russian it's hilarious to me that the word for pop music is zabavna muzika

[tarvos]

It's hilarious. Literally.

(for those not in the know, in Russian забавный means funny)

[Radioclare]

It is very difficult to remember the details of a series I watched in 2014/15

https://youtu.be/FoByfWgJihI?t=3m14s what did the doctor say here? I couldn't make out the joke (right after hladno)

It sounds to me like he says "Ne bi bilo sada hladno da ne bješe mnogo vruće". I'm assuming he was joking in a "if you can do the time, don't do the crime" sort of way

https://youtu.be/FoByfWgJihI?t=24m13s again i'm missing out, seems like she said smth funny

Which bit? I find their accents a struggle sometimes so there are some words in this bit that I'm struggling to catch. I just looked up "parangal" because I didn't have a clue what that meant and to be honest I'm not sure I understand what it is even now I've read the explanation

https://youtu.be/FoByfWgJihI?t=31m12s what's the connection between the vacuum cleaner and spring water?

I think she lists all the qualities of the vacuum, saying how it can even pick up water, and then jokes about how she could even vacuum "Vrela" to here? He queries what she means and it seems like she's talking about a specific place near her village, Obzovica. If you look for Obzovica on Google maps, there's somewhere called Vrela marked to the north of it. I'm guessing it must be called that because there's a spring

[Serpent]

Which bit? I find their accents a struggle sometimes so there are some words in this bit that I'm struggling to catch. I just looked up "parangal" because I didn't have a clue what that meant and to be honest I'm not sure I understand what it is even now I've read the explanation

I wondered about parangal too but I meant directly the part I linked to, where he's trying to iron his shirt and protests that he can do it himself, but Olga says "I know you can, but you'll look like _______".
but that part you're referring to seems to mean "she'll catch you on her hook" then?

I think she lists all the qualities of the vacuum, saying how it can even pick up water, and then jokes about how she could even vacuum "Vrela" to here? He queries what she means and it seems like she's talking about a specific place near her village, Obzovica. If you look for Obzovica on Google maps, there's somewhere called Vrela marked to the north of it. I'm guessing it must be called that because there's a spring

Is she saying something like "S ovim bih mogla i Vrela kad nadalje usisati"?
Yeah I wondered why she suddenly starts telling him about her village

Thank you! hvala!!!

[reineke]

Parangal is a form of longline fishing. I see that in the preceding scenes they are mentioning a boat and a (fishing? ) permit. Getting one of the many hooks through one's skin is not a pleasant experience.

... Like you were licked by cows.