Re-Inventing the System: Systematiker repeatedly changes his plans

[Systematiker]

This isn’t the update, there probably won’t be one for a bit because we have company.

But,

I was away Monday and Tuesday for a retreat for my religious order. I used German, as always, and Spanish (unsurprising, I was in central Florida), and then had the opportunity to speak Russian, Ukrainian, and Czech. How in the world does that work out?

Anyway, I didn’t make an ass of myself, so it was good.

[Systematiker]

Not a lot to report, but some things, so here's an update. This is the comparatively little I've managed since the last real update, so almost 20 days. I also had a detour in which I read a sci-fi trilogy in a couple of days (Three-Body Problem), translated because I'm probably not going to learn Mandarin and certainly not going to wait until I do after the recommendation I got for it...ha!

However, lately NoManches has been an inspiration to me. Not only in terms of an audiobook, but also an attitude:

I'm very happy with my current level of Spanish. I'm not satisfied, but I'm happy with where I currently am and the direction I'm heading in.

This is how I'm feeling about several of my languages, and it's pretty good, especially considering that I couldn't be making progress in everything at the same time, not with all I'm doing.

Balancing this is some stuff Reineke shared, that seems to indicate that anything under an ILR 3 (~C1) will deteriorate over the long term. Of course, any gain makes re-gaining it easier, but it appears to be the difference between knocking off the rust and re-learning. So that's a consideration as well.

That's probably a decent target for most of my languages - what I should also probably watch out for is what I'm using as a benchmark for that level. "Professional working capacity" and "I can do my profession as well as I otherwise could" are two different things, and that's been apparent recently.

Well, enough musing, on to the update.

Spanish
ES Reading: 6391 / 10000 ES Listening: 200 / 200
FSI: 28 / 53
Not much to report here, just watching things (I realized I still haven't finished Casa de Papel, for example) and reading (started Lituma en los Andes by Vargas Llosa most recently, and some of Pedro Páramo but I fell asleep [which made for really odd dreams]; not back to some stuff I've started and already eyeballing the list of novels from CMX). Podcasts as I'm interested, music as it strikes me. Nacidos para correr as an audiobook, while running last week, of course.

I hit the 200 hour mark for audiobook/film (actually I'm 4 over). Do I move the target out, or stop tracking? I haven't decided yet, it snuck up on me.

French
FR Reading: 3756 / 10000 FR Listening: 95 / 200
Not much. Started a new audiobook three times, fell asleep in the first chapter three times. Can't do French in bed. Haven't made space for the shows. Some reading, Imitation de Jesus Christ and Le Nom de la rose, which I've read a number of times in other languages but never finished in French.

Portuguese
PT Reading: 875 / 10000 PT Listening: 19 / 200
Finished Casa Velha today, though it's taught me a couple things about using audiobooks: starting an audiobook if I can't do it under certain conditions (e.g. travel noise) and spreading it out for a long time means I lose the thread of the narrative. Also I probably need to get another audiobook under my belt before I do Portuguese while running, I get a little distracted. Not much reading, but some, I should be finishing a couple more novels in the next week or so. No watching, but I want to know what happens in 3%...

Catalan
CAT Reading: 245 / 10000 CAT Listening: 7 / 200
Nothing.

Galego
Ugh, some experiment, I'm not even doing anything! I'll read on that novel on vacation next week.

Swedish
SV Reading: 1289 / 10000 SV Listening: 34 / 200
FSI: 8 / 16
Nothing, and here's one of the "I'm happy" but "I don't want to ignore it and lose it" situations.


Danish
DK Reading: 130 / 10000 DK Listening: 7 / 200
Nothing.

Latin
LAT Reading: 50 / 10000
Nothing.

Ancient Greek
GK Reading: 72 / 10000
Very little, and only because weekly stuff.

Hebrew
Pimsleur: 17 / 30 FSI: 1 / 40
LR Psalms First Pass: 27 / 150
Jenni: 7 / 30
I might have done another lesson of Pimsleur since I last updated? Kind of neglected lately.

Korean
Video: 11 / 200 TTMIK 2: 9 / 25
FSI: 1 / 19
Working along on TTMIK, and talking to my friend. Slow and steady - I'm still seeing progress, and it's still sticking.

Persian
Pimsleur Farsi: 2 / 10 Pimselur Dari: 0 / 10
Managing a few podcasts weekly, not quite ready to put more effort into it, but it's coming.

Czech
CZ Pent: 9 / 70 Video: 2 / 200
Coming along, mostly reading random things and watching what I can find on YouTube. Might have an exchange through a friend of a friend, with someone in the same field as I.

Ukrainian
Managing 3-4 podcasts weekly, plus some YouTube, and it's relatively comfortable at the moment. I'll be looking at solidifying things in the latter half of the year.

Russian
MT Foundation: 8 / 8 MT Advanced: 5 / 5
Assimil: 60 / 90 Reading: 0 / 10000
RU NT: 25 / 90 Listening: 1 / 200
Finished MT. I've been doing some slow Russian podcasts and YouTube videos, following the majority, and after reading about The Sniffer in Ani's log, I have started watching...and I can follow it. I also bought a graded reader, started it, and realized after that it's B1 not A2 - it's hard, but not impossible. So I'm making gains here as well! Ah, it'll slow down, I'm sure. After all, this is over a decade of momentum

German
Die Leiden des jungen Werther, because it's that time of year and that kind of year. And the normal daily use, of course.

Everything Else
Reading some in Kreyol, and I've listened to some music. Still poking at Georgian, and Expug's temptations keep showing up. And I totally didn't start looking at Kiche and Náhuatl for no good reason, and I didn't find free courses for both of them (German and Spanish base, numerous of the latter), and totally didn't start the Náhuatl course, because why would I do something so foolish?
And I'm not about to pick up something in Anglo-Saxon tonight, because I certainly have other priorities...


Have I forgotten something? I feel like I've done more. I feel like I started dabbling in another language that I've now forgotten.

[Ani]

My husband just read the Three Body Problem last week and has been talking to me about it. I guess I'd better read it now /.
Congrats on the MT Russian a and your Russian gains. I've been keeping an eye on that MT bar for a while

[Systematiker]

My husband just read the Three Body Problem last week and has been talking to me about it. I guess I'd better read it now /.
Congrats on the MT Russian a and your Russian gains. I've been keeping an eye on that MT bar for a while

Be careful, it ate all my free time for three days...

[NoManches]

I'm glad I could be an inspiration to you. The truth is, you are an inspiration to me and many others here.

Keep up the hard work!

[IronMike]

My husband just read the Three Body Problem last week and has been talking to me about it. I guess I'd better read it now /.
Congrats on the MT Russian a and your Russian gains. I've been keeping an eye on that MT bar for a while

This book has been on my list for some time. Perhaps we should have a virtual book club?

[coldrainwater]

My husband just read the Three Body Problem last week and has been talking to me about it. I guess I'd better read it now /.
Congrats on the MT Russian a and your Russian gains. I've been keeping an eye on that MT bar for a while

This book has been on my list for some time. Perhaps we should have a virtual book club?

Not to hijack the log, but I think the forum as a whole would benefit quite a lot by having a monthly book club. To get participation up, putting it in the multilingual room would work, no holds barred on what language you want to read in (and likely options for different books in different languages for obvious reasons). We have done a few read-alongs in Spanish and I would like to extend the notion to other languages. I know Sytematiker has lots to choose from (for example). From experience, we need a deadline and a month is usually plenty of time to read a single book. I think we have enough serious readers at this stage of the game if we pool all our language resources. With 10 years+ of HTLAL data, I don't doubt it has been tried before.

[IronMike]

To be fair, there is a book club-like thread. Where forumites do book reviews of books they've read. I know that's not exactly what you mean, but wanted to point it out (and hope that more folks would comment in that thread).

[Ani]

My husband just read the Three Body Problem last week and has been talking to me about it. I guess I'd better read it now /.
Congrats on the MT Russian a and your Russian gains. I've been keeping an eye on that MT bar for a while

This book has been on my list for some time. Perhaps we should have a virtual book club?

Not to hijack the log, but I think the forum as a whole would benefit quite a lot by having a monthly book club. To get participation up, putting it in the multilingual room would work, no holds barred on what language you want to read in (and likely options for different books in different languages for obvious reasons). We have done a few read-alongs in Spanish and I would like to extend the notion to other languages. I know Sytematiker has lots to choose from (for example). From experience, we need a deadline and a month is usually plenty of time to read a single book. I think we have enough serious readers at this stage of the game if we pool all our language resources. With 10 years+ of HTLAL data, I don't doubt it has been tried before.

This is a great idea. We could pick books that are likely available in at least several languages. Do you want to run that group? (Edit: @coldrainwater) We could start with The Three Body Problem and poll for some ideas for the following months? Would be nice if we had a few months scheduled so people could order books if needed.

[coldrainwater]

My husband just read the Three Body Problem last week and has been talking to me about it. I guess I'd better read it now /.
Congrats on the MT Russian a and your Russian gains. I've been keeping an eye on that MT bar for a while

This book has been on my list for some time. Perhaps we should have a virtual book club?

Not to hijack the log, but I think the forum as a whole would benefit quite a lot by having a monthly book club. To get participation up, putting it in the multilingual room would work, no holds barred on what language you want to read in (and likely options for different books in different languages for obvious reasons). We have done a few read-alongs in Spanish and I would like to extend the notion to other languages. I know Sytematiker has lots to choose from (for example). From experience, we need a deadline and a month is usually plenty of time to read a single book. I think we have enough serious readers at this stage of the game if we pool all our language resources. With 10 years+ of HTLAL data, I don't doubt it has been tried before.

This is a great idea. We could pick books that are likely available in at least several languages. Do you want to run that group? (Edit: @coldrainwater) We could start with The Three Body Problem and poll for some ideas for the following months? Would be nice if we had a few months scheduled so people could order books if needed.

I agree we should start with The Three Body Problem for July, even if 100% informal. Looks interesting. My ambition for reading far outstrips any talent I might have for running a group, so I had better not run it. My work schedule over the next two months may not permit it either, unfortunately. To that end, I would aim for it to be automatic and all-inclusive. A headless one-liner for the entire group thread would suffice in my mind: Monthly book club. Any books. Any languages. Starts now. Go...I vote for all reading and no/minimal setup.