Re-Inventing the System: Systematiker repeatedly changes his plans

[Systematiker]

I'd love to write a full update, but all that breakdown takes a bunch of time that I don't have at the moment.

Developments of note include finishing Ressurreçao a couple of days ago, and starting Brás Cuba, which though I've only read a bit, has shown me why Machado de Assis is considered such a master.

I will actually be having my second Russian session tomorrow, have done 1/4 of the MT advanced, and 12/90 of Assimil. I've got the 1971 (72?) French base without audio and the 1950s English base with, so I'm doing a run through of the French one first, in the evenings.

An observation that may make me hated by other learners of Russian: perfective and imperfective aspect makes perfect sense, I just need to learn the pairs (that said, it makes sense because of imperfect vs aorist in Ancient Greek, and I didn't get that overnight, so the frustration just happened years ago). I'll sure mix them up, but I get the difference now that I've understood what that difference is.

I've kept caught up with Swedish (so far). I've had three planned days so far, and I caught up today, but caught up is caught up. There's probably little chance I'll get the 16 done in January, but I might get close.

I played around with gloss (hey, it loads on my tablet, who knew) and did some Spanish exercises in the 4s, which was no problem. Feels good.

Finally, I've been doing Korean while I'm running, and presently I'm running daily since it's briefly warm enough and I really have to. It doesn't make me hate running any less, but it does require enough of my attention that I can focus on it instead of how much I hate running.

[MamaPata]

I don't hate you.... (mostly ).

Personally, I do get the difference between them, I just then can't work it out when I'm using them - am I emphasising the process or the result here? is this a warning or a command or an invitation? What is my point?!

[Elenia]

I'm going to clear the next three notifications an then get to FSI! Or maybe I'll do them simultaneously. I haven't managed to get through all my notifications here in a while...

[Fortheo]

I am re-starting Russian after studying it for 6 months last year and then neglecting it for the second half of last year. it looks like we have a similar plan-- review Michel Thomas, then do Assimil (I'm working with the 1973 version), and I'll probably do pimsleur if I get my hands on it.

It seems like you want to make a quick read through of Assimil? I wish you good luck! I think I made it to around lesson 30ish last year when I noticed it becoming significantly more difficult.

Out of curiosity, are you planning to do another grammar focused course for Russian other than MT?

[Systematiker]

I am re-starting Russian after studying it for 6 months last year and then neglecting it for the second half of last year. it looks like we have a similar plan-- review Michel Thomas, then do Assimil (I'm working with the 1973 version), and I'll probably do pimsleur if I get my hands on it.

It seems like you want to make a quick read through of Assimil? I wish you good luck! I think I made it to around lesson 30ish last year when I noticed it becoming significantly more difficult.

Out of curiosity, are you planning to do another grammar focused course for Russian other than MT?

The current plan is this "rolling read-through" of the French-base Assimil that I have while finishing MT Advanced Russian, then the "2-week-focussed Assimil" plan from the link above using the English-base Assimil I have (since it has audio), while having regular tutoring sessions. Following that I'm hoping to begin reading the New Testament and start working through the DLI Russian Basic course (somewhat slower, mind you, than with Assimil!). I'll be done with this Assimil project either at the beginning of February or halfway through February, depending on the demands on my time in the last two weeks of January.

[Systematiker]

Time for an update!
I'm curious to see how the rest of the month will go. I will be gone the last two weeks of January in a situation where either I will have no time at all and am super busy, or will have tons of time at the end of the work day and be away from my family with nothing to do, so I'll either put everything on hold or get a super lot done. I am tight enough on time that I can't even update here as often as I'd like...

Spanish
ES Reading: 4824 / 10000 ES Film: 154 / 200
FSI: 26 / 52 FSI: 26 / 53
Not really all that much here, aside from reading, mostly Ribeyro. I'm still hoping to make some good progress running through FSI, though, I'd like to have it done to say I did it (and it is surely solidifying my production).

French
FR Reading: 2456 / 10000 FR Film: 85 / 200
FR Bible without Pent: 40 / 90
FSI: 1 / 24
I'm behind again on the Bible plan, because it's just too much to get done in a day without impacting something else, and then I get behind and don't want to do it. I will definitively not try to read the whole Bible in 90 days again. Haven't done much else, either, but have been talking on Facebook messenger almost daily.

Portuguese
PT Reading: 175 / 10000 PT Film: 12 / 200
PT NT: 37 / 60
Mentioned in a previous post, done a good bit of reading and still reading along, enjoying things very much. I am finding my reading speed to increase already, and interestingly, I'm better able to follow round-table style podcasts now. Whether that's bow wave or reading synergy I don't know.

Catalan
CAT Reading: 15 / 10000 CAT Film: 6 / 200
Nothing. Wait, doch, Clozemaster.

Swedish
SV Reading: 589 / 10000 SV Film: 31 / 200
FSI: 4 / 16
If I get another unit of FSI done today, I'm on track. Not likely, but I'd be on track.

Danish
DK Reading: 130 / 10000 DK Film: 5 / 200
Nothing.

Latin
LAT Reading: 50 / 10000
Nothing.

Ancient Greek
GK Reading: 60 / 10000
Just the usual for the weekly pensum, with wistful looks at doing more.

Hebrew
Assimil: 3 / 90
LR Psalms First Pass: 25 / 150
Nothing.

Korean
Video: 6 / 200 TTMIK 1: 9 / 25
FSI: 1 / 19
As mentioned above, some TTMIK while I'm running. Did I mention that I hate running? I know I did, I just need to say it again.


Czech
On hold, so nothing.

Gaelic
Nothing

Russian
MT Foundation: 8 / 8 MT Advanced: 1 / 5
Assimil: 15 / 90 Reading: 0 / 10000
Doing a "rolling read" of the French-base Assimil (Read a lesson aloud. Check unknown words. Read it aloud again. Read it aloud a third time. Read every previous lesson up to this point aloud once through. Begin a new lesson. Do the four steps for the new lesson. Read every previous lesson...). After scheduling issues, second tutoring session finally today (maybe!). Playing with Clozemaster, which is actually understandable right now, so I must be at the right point to do it. Listening to music or podcasts, of which I understand little, when I have time unspoken for. Starting the 2-week Assimil plan either on the 22nd or in February.

Basque
Assimil: 1 / 90
Nothing.

Dutch
NL Reading: 66 / 10000 NL Film: 20 / 200
Nothing.

Swabian
Nothing, but it's here to remind me to do that read-aloud I want to do.

German
Daily use, but nothing worth remarking on. I want to find something that challenges me in German, but then, I don't really have time, so I don't look...

[Systematiker]

Illness raging through my household, starting a few hours after my last post, means that I have done the least learning in the last week while at home since I came (back) to the forum a couple years ago. Nothing, nothing, and a few pages in French because I switched a prayer app to French and the app was the only way I was getting anything done.

Things are getting better now - in time for me to leave on Sunday for two weeks. Well, I guess I'll see how that goes.

[MamaPata]

Glad to hear things are improving! Much sympathy!

[Systematiker]

I'm not going to write a full update, because I honestly can't invest the time to do so, but a few remarks:

There's no way that the FSI project in Swedish is going to be done within January at this point. This was already true, because when I first planned it I forgot about being gone those two weeks (costing me about 6 planned days of Swedish), but more so now because I last did any Swedish at all last Wednesday. That means even if I finish out this week as planned (and use a "flex day" from my plan) I'll only be halfway, or two days behind for the whole project (without losing two weeks, of course). Now, I may be surprised and end up with not only the ability to catch up but also to get some done while I'm gone, and if so, that's great - but I'm not at all worried about it. If I get around halfway by the end of the month, I'll just finish in February.

Russian ground to a halt. I made no progress with anything, not even the read-through or MT, and had to cancel my tutoring sessions. I won't be having any for a couple weeks, so this will push back the intensive Assimil experiment from the beginning of February probably to the middle of the month. Again, I might be surprised and end up with more time and energy than I think - in which case I will probably try to start that Assimil experiment while I'm away, and just drop the '72 read-through.

I probably will have to drop my chatting on social media due to the difference in my day structure while I'm away, so I'll re-engage with that in February as well.

At the most, I hope to get some reading done, and catch up on my Bible plans for the rest of the month, maybe some clozemaster. A slightly better case sees me doing some TTMIK as well - and the best case has me finishing FSI Swedish after all, and doing the Russian experiment (but still postponing tutoring and other engagement).

I don't know how much I will be on the forum, either - today may be the last day for a while, or I may be around.

[Systematiker]

My trip has been cancelled, and I'm home - the change happened 9/10 of the way there, which was no fun, and resulted in being awake and traveling for abut 36 hours. We can't comment on politics and such here on the forum, but those really interested can put the pieces together as to why I had to come back home and reschedule everything.

Anyway, it took me a couple of days to recover from both that travel and the mental effort around dealing with it (and having been geared up to go, then getting the rug pulled out from under me). I'm still tired today, but closer to normal.

I've never done well with unplanned or unstructured time, so the change in plans with everything open now this week has mostly been...nothing.