basica's 2018 log: Serbian B+

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
basica
Orange Belt
Posts: 221
Joined: Sat Jul 04, 2015 12:07 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), Serbian (A2ish)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?&t=7335
x 412

basica's 2018 log: Serbian B+

Postby basica » Sat Dec 09, 2017 8:39 am

EDIT: I know I am just as interested in learning the reasons behind someone learning their language of choice as much as I am in how they're progressing so I'm putting those details at the top here :)

Why Serbian?

My parents are from the Balkans, and growing up at home we spoke BCS. Shortly after I started going to school we started using more English at home until it essentially became the main language with little bits of BCS here and there. As a result I quickly forgot how to speak it. For many years I wanted to learn how to speak it, but I always put it off. I feel learning how to speak BCS is in some way reclaiming my heritage and taking back what is "mine". It's a bit hard to describe the connection that I have with it, but I guess all that's really needed to say is that it's important to me and that's why I'm learning it :)

So, as you might've noticed I said they're from the Balkans, and not Serbia. That's because while my mother is a Serb, my father is a Bosniak. Now, I could've chosen to learn Bosnian but the resources are scarce enough as it is for Serbian and Croatian. Ultimately, for reasons that go beyond what I feel like getting into here I identify more with the Serbian side of me than the Bosniak and the dialectical differences are minor enough that I feel comfortable to just understand them without having to actively use them. Plus, Serbian is written in Cyrillic, and who can argue that this doesn't make it cooler just on face value alone? :)

Initial Post

Hello everyone, very long time no see.

I've had a lot go on in the time I've been away, but I will fill in those who remember be as this blog goes on. This can be considered my revitalized effort at learning Serbian. It's been around 2 years now I think since I really touched it in any meaningful way. I unfortunately got really burnt out with the effort I put in and it turned me off for quite some time.

Anyways, I'm ready to give it another crack :) I went from a strong A2, maybe even a B1, to I think to a very shallow A2. I've forgotten a lot of vocabulary and I need to work on that. More to post a bit later on.

Once again, hello to those who remember me, and i look forward to catching up with all that's gone on with you :)

Take care,
Last edited by basica on Thu Dec 14, 2017 11:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
10 x
Glossika Fluency 1: 16 / 104

Learning or already speak Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian? Join us here! :)

User avatar
Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
Learns: Russian
x 10434
Contact:

Re: basica's 2018 log: Serbian B+

Postby Radioclare » Sat Dec 09, 2017 2:24 pm

Hi basica, I definitely remember you and it's great to see you back :)

I look forward to reading more about your progress with Serbian!
2 x

User avatar
iguanamon
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 11:14 am
Location: Virgin Islands
Languages: Speaks: English (Native); Spanish (C2); Portuguese (C2); Haitian Creole (C1); Ladino/Djudeo-espanyol (C1); Lesser Antilles French Creole (B2)
Studies: Catalan
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=797
x 14196

Re: basica's 2018 log: Serbian B+

Postby iguanamon » Sat Dec 09, 2017 2:47 pm

Welcome back, basica! This time, try to remember that it's a marathon, not a sprint. Enjoy the journey and have fun!
3 x

User avatar
basica
Orange Belt
Posts: 221
Joined: Sat Jul 04, 2015 12:07 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), Serbian (A2ish)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?&t=7335
x 412

Re: basica's 2018 log: Serbian B+

Postby basica » Sat Dec 09, 2017 11:03 pm

Thanks for the welcome guys. Good to see you're still at it, will have to catch up on your logs :)

And yes iguanamon; I've learnt my lesson. Should've listened to your advice earlier on, unfortunately I have a bad habit of being either 100% on or 100% off. Need to find a more sustainable pace. Let's see how I go this time around :)

Personal Update

That said, let's give a bit of an update about me:

I'm a bit lazy to go through my post history at the moment, so I don't know exactly where I left off but I do recall starting a Korean log for a trip there. Well, I went to Korea and didn't really end up doing much studying beforehand at all. I essentially just learnt the greetings. Wish I learnt more but my friend and her husband speak more than enough Korean for all of us so they helped us get around and do things.

I got to see snow for the first time while I was there, saw a few museums and art galleries and some wonderful historical sites. I also went to the DMZ (on the day of the NK nuclear test, January 6). I would've liked to have seen some more, but there's always next time :)

I've also switched careers now, and joined the ranks of a few others here of being a programmer. Been enjoying the work and the new position has opened up a lot more opportunities for me and given me a host of perks I never imagined possible before (such as working from home!). All in all, work wise things have been great.

Unfortunately, this is contrasted a lot with my personal life. I was initially going to go to the Balkans in 2015 but my mum wanted to postpone it till middle 2016. In that time my grandmother passed away and my mum didn't have in in her to go over there. Since that point both of my parents have had health issues and been in and out of hospital and overall the though of an international trip just didn't come to mind.

Language Log

This now sorta ties into my language learning. So seguing into that topic, because of the above and my being burnt out from how much effort I was expending my Serbian fell by the wayside. I had been thinking for months of getting back into it, but life happens and because it happens, I've now got considerably more time on my hands and decided finally to make the plunge again.

Yesterday I eased myself into it by restarting my GSR on Fluency 1 (will have to update my sig). Did the first day and was immediately hit with how I'd forgotten so many personal pronouns. Him and his, her and hers etc. Might dust off my Anki deck too in the coming days, but let's not jump off into the deep end just yet.
6 x
Glossika Fluency 1: 16 / 104

Learning or already speak Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian? Join us here! :)

User avatar
basica
Orange Belt
Posts: 221
Joined: Sat Jul 04, 2015 12:07 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), Serbian (A2ish)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?&t=7335
x 412

Re: basica's 2018 log: Serbian B+

Postby basica » Sun Dec 10, 2017 10:57 am

Day 2 of GSR and it's all slowly coming back to me. Really glad I have this as a resource to be honest, damn shame Glossika is a subscription model now though. Oh well.

Dusted off my memrise account. It was a sight for sore eyes. Did a bit of much needed revision and ugh, so much forgotten vocabulary. Look forward to putting some more work into this again. Haven't dared looking at my Anki deck yet. Might do it soon though. In other news, I think it's time I finally update my signature so hopefully by the time you read this it'll be more up to date.

Catch you guys around :)
4 x
Glossika Fluency 1: 16 / 104

Learning or already speak Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian? Join us here! :)

Daniel N.
Green Belt
Posts: 357
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2015 12:44 pm
Languages: Croatian (N), English (C1), German (beginner)
x 733
Contact:

Re: basica's 2018 log: Serbian B+

Postby Daniel N. » Mon Dec 11, 2017 9:09 am

Likely, it's all - or most of it - still somewhere in your mind, and will come back really quickly ;) Try listening to songs you like, for example, and see how much words you recognize.
1 x
Check Easy Croatian (very useful for Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian as well)

User avatar
basica
Orange Belt
Posts: 221
Joined: Sat Jul 04, 2015 12:07 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), Serbian (A2ish)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?&t=7335
x 412

Re: basica's 2018 log: Serbian B+

Postby basica » Mon Dec 11, 2017 10:20 am

You're right, Daniel. I've found that with little hints I am able to recall the words fairly easily and with my glossika sentences it only takes hearing them once to get them down, and sometimes just hearing the English sentence is enough for me to recall it. Slowly slowly as they say :)

They say great minds think alike, and well, I dunno if we've got great minds but I did start listening again to some Balkan music :lol: One song I keep coming back to is this one here:



No idea what it's about, but love the beat. I know it's considered tacky by some to like Turbo Folk, but I'm sure you all can give me a break ;)

moj brat, nikolic did me a solid and gave me a host of songs to listen to so I'll be listening to them at work tomorrow (and onwards) :) So I'll mix it up a bit from my turbo folk is what I guess I am saying :)

Anyways, did my next glossika lesson. Still pretty straightforward. Will be doing some more memrise tonight as well. I'll slowly pick up a routine with it all. I think memrise in the morning and glossika at night'll work best. That's it for now, cujemo se :)
3 x
Glossika Fluency 1: 16 / 104

Learning or already speak Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian? Join us here! :)

User avatar
neofight78
Blue Belt
Posts: 539
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 8:02 pm
Location: Novosibirsk, Russia
Languages: English (N), Russian (B2+), Spanish (A0)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=833
x 1232

Re: basica's 2018 log: Serbian B+

Postby neofight78 » Mon Dec 11, 2017 12:32 pm

Glad to see you back! :D
1 x

User avatar
Dandelion
Yellow Belt
Posts: 60
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2017 3:54 pm
Languages: Chinese(N),English(beginner)
x 79

Re: basica's 2018 log: Serbian B+

Postby Dandelion » Mon Dec 11, 2017 4:04 pm

Hi,basica!
welcome back!
Haha.I am an new entrants.
1 x

User avatar
Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
Learns: Russian
x 10434
Contact:

Re: basica's 2018 log: Serbian B+

Postby Radioclare » Mon Dec 11, 2017 10:02 pm

basica wrote:They say great minds think alike, and well, I dunno if we've got great minds but I did start listening again to some Balkan music :lol: One song I keep coming back to is this one here:



No idea what it's about, but love the beat. I know it's considered tacky by some to like Turbo Folk, but I'm sure you all can give me a break ;)


I prefer this punk cover version :lol:



It's quite a sad song about a guy singing about how being drunk is the only way he can get over his (former) girlfriend.
3 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests