Bookworm's adventures in the exile

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Serpent
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Re: Bookworm's adventures in the exile

Postby Serpent » Wed Nov 25, 2015 11:10 pm

Same here. I especially have this problem with mindbloom life tree, as it's for reporting what you've done. I have my timezone set to LA so that I can add stuff until 10am next day :lol:
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Cavesa
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Re: Bookworm's adventures in the exile

Postby Cavesa » Thu Nov 26, 2015 12:10 am

thanks for the ideas. I'll look into it. Or just give up on keaping streaks.

tiny news: SCs: finally finished livre 3 tome 1 of kaamelott. 19 movies to go. still watching cuentame como paso

cuentame como paso cultural notes:
-why are the boys wearing shors in december, outside in the snow?
-the information barrier must have been very thick. it seems so absurd there were people in spain dreaming naively about communism and absolutely not knowing the truth
-i find especially fascinating the evolution of the role of a woman there, the various takes on the matter by various generations and individuals. the sixties were trully an era of change.

italian: just bits, half a lesson in a course, a bit of duolingo (My favourite sentence so far: Io sono un insetto. :-D obviously meant to improve the learners's confidence). on a side not, I am slowly testing out of the French tree, out of curiosity. The computer voice is horrible (il neige really sounded like l'image and there were more such confusions.), some of the sentences are a bit weird. Some things are barely covered. Alternative translations are covered quite well, I rarely lose hearts on those. I mostly lose them on English mistakes (losing concentration sometimes leads to translation fr-cz-en and it complicates things). I lost a few on French mistakes of a weird kind, which simply confirms there is nothing like perfection and maintance, unless you live in the country or something like that, should include grammar reviews.

memrise:lost motivation after losing my streak, need to come back to it.

wrote a funny english test, more about this later. probably when i'll have seen the results
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Cavesa
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Re: Bookworm's adventures in the exile

Postby Cavesa » Mon Nov 30, 2015 7:44 pm

A bit of progress in Italian, not enough time. But I studied yesterday and I'm gonna continue today. It is not hard, I just need to pay attention and I'll need some time to learn.

SCs: Quite a lot of Cuentame, one French movie-Le Grimoire D'Arkandias. By the time I found out it was gonna be much worse than I had expected, I was already twenty minutes in, so I finished it. Books! Completed Le Coeur de la Terre by Chattam. I love the series. I am gonna buy the next book next year. Finished Les exilés du tsar, first part of Terre Noire series by Honaker. It was good and different from my usual reads (nearly no magic)! I think the rest of the series could be worth reading but I'm not sure whether I'll buy them. I've just started another book and it looks I may have found some awesome, French, pure sci-fi!

No Duolingo or Memrise. Somehow, losing streaks demotivates me much more than keeping them motivates me.
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Cavesa
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Re: Bookworm's adventures in the exile

Postby Cavesa » Mon Dec 14, 2015 8:26 pm

Spreading myself too thin, obviously. University, other duties, language learning, finishing my SCs, 6wc... too much, it appears. But I am not that disappointed. I have moved my Italian from zero into quite stable beginner stage. And I plan to continue. Perhaps another important aspect of my drop in activity was loss of several motivation factors. I am not going abroad for a student exchange this summer. I lost the streaks on the websites. I got some overall confidence damage. I hope the new year will be much better for my motivation and studies.

As far as SCs go: Still continuing with the Spanish one (Cuentame should give me the last 8 movies I need soon, reading another Pratchett and will need one more book), trying to finish the French ASCR (Kaamelott and books now. Finished Levy: La premiere nuit and it was awesome!)

Plans for the next year: I've spent a few minutes on those already. Basically thinking about the ways to create reasonable, yet ambitious, plans. I've got a few ideas and I'll let you know in my 2016 log. I just need a name for it.
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Cavesa
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Re: Bookworm's adventures in the exile

Postby Cavesa » Sun Dec 20, 2015 4:06 pm

One of the last few 2015 updates.

What have I been doing lately:

French reading: Completed Cosmos Incorporated by Maurice G. Dantec and it was awesome. Sci-fi, dytopian, philosophical, religionistic, with bits of cyberpunk. And quite demanding. I have no trouble with medical or technical terminology (at least the commonly used technical terminology). But philosophers, especially those of the 20th century) are not my strong side. I loved the book!!! And it gave me quite a lot to think about. I am likely to finally finish the ASCR this year.

French listening: Kaamelott. It is still not easy in some moments and it is awesome. Again, I am likely to finish the ASCR.

Spanish SC: Going great! The Pratchett I am reading now and Ruiz Zafon on my bookshelf are gonna complete the book part, while Cuentame como paso will take care of the movie part. I have just finished the first season.

Real studying of my languages: a bit of duolingo, not much time for studying left.

ASCR English books will be finished next year.

My goals for the rest of the 2015: Complete the French ASCR (begun in 2012 or 2013) and the Spanish SC (begun last year with others), complete my Memrise French verb deck, continue with Duolingo, as it is not too demanding when it comes to free time (Italian, German, others). And last point: put toghether a new log.
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Serpent
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Re: Bookworm's adventures in the exile

Postby Serpent » Sun Dec 20, 2015 7:11 pm

the original super challenge started in 2012 :D
i'm so impressed by how you're still continuing it :)
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Cavesa
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Re: Bookworm's adventures in the exile

Postby Cavesa » Tue Dec 22, 2015 2:29 pm

Serpent, I know it is quite embarassing to still be doing the Advanced 2012 challenge :-D but I am a bit stubborn.

Now, I've got a serious problem. I need to list my languages on an Erasmus sign up form. I have no clue whether I'll be chosen for the exchange (I think my chances aren't too high, depends on the number of applicants) but I still want to try. What levels of Italian and Spanish can I promise and show in March? :-D I don't have certificates for these two and won't have by then. So, it might be a nice crazy goal to spend the first three months of 2016 to get to B2 Spanish and B1 Italian speaking :-D do you think it's realistic? I'd say Spanish realistic is, Italian is more of a question.
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Serpent
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Posts: 3657
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:54 am
Location: Moskova
Languages: heritage
Russian (native); Belarusian, Polish

fluent or close: Finnish (certified C1), English; Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian
learning: Croatian+, Ukrainian; Romanian, Galician; Danish, Swedish; Estonian
exploring: Latin, Karelian, Catalan, Dutch, Czech, Latvian
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Re: Bookworm's adventures in the exile

Postby Serpent » Tue Dec 22, 2015 5:15 pm

no, not embarrassing at all! I love how you have the motivation to just continue it, rather than sign up for more challenges with the same langs like I did.
hmm imo B1 in both would be more realistic, and kinda sounds more credible maybe. what about German btw?
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Cavesa
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Re: Bookworm's adventures in the exile

Postby Cavesa » Sun Dec 27, 2015 6:49 pm

A few days ago, I completed the Spanish Super Challenge. :-)

Well, I am much more advanced in Spanish than in Italian. I'll need to think about my plans for the months to come. B1 should be attainable in both but I think B2 in Spanish could be possible, considering the fact I can already express myself quite a lot (but with tons of mistakes I need to get rid of) and the fact my comprehension nearly equals the French or English one. Whether my claims will be credible, that is not much of a problem, I will be tested during the interview that is part of the selection process. German is still planned to continue but not for the Erasmus. There are places in Germany being offered by the competition is too fierce, I'd have just as little chance to get there as if I wanted to go to Sweden or Norway.

I am thinking of the name for my 2016 log. So far, not many good ideas struck me. Battlestar Linguistica, Cavesa's Folly (fans of WoT might understand), Journey around Europe... nothing good so far.

Btw Christmas is a great practice time. Translating bits of the midnight mass in other languages was interesting. And we attended part of a Spanish mass with my dad. :-) I attended a French mass in Versailles as well, even though accidentally. And only a few in Czech. Hmm, perhaps the regular Spanish masses in Prague might make me a better christian :-D
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James29
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Re: Bookworm's adventures in the exile

Postby James29 » Sun Dec 27, 2015 8:04 pm

Hi Cavesa! Congratulations on your accomplishments this year. Can you explain your Spanish accomplishments a bit more? How much do you think your Spanish reading and watching TV from the Super Challenge helped? I understand your posts to mean that you do not think your Spanish is at B2 yet. With such a high level of French and having done so much reading/TV in Spanish I'm wondering if you think the reading you did was helpful? Maybe your Spanish is really higher than you think?
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