Steyyan's log (DE | ES | nl | fr | ja)

[steyyan]

at least I don't have to look for ebooks on Amazon.jp, which is a nightmare in my opinion, and I always run the risk of having my account closed and my content deleted...

Why would that happen? I haven't tried getting e-books from them yet, but I might. Is there a trick to it?

Well, they are breaking the law by selling me region locked content. I don't think they bother too much. My UK account is still there even though I graduated from uni and moved back several months ago.

There is a way to access their content. In essence, you just register with a fake address (or a "real" one, for instance a Tenso address) and hope they don't figure it out too soon. Make sure you have used the same address everywhere where they require an address (even when you enter your credit card details, since they don't check the card address).

[Brun Ugle]

Hmmm. That would probably be tough for me. I can hardly even make myself cross the street without waiting for the green man even if it's early on a Sunday morning and there isn't a car anywhere in sight.

[steyyan]

Hmmm. That would probably be tough for me. I can hardly even make myself cross the street without waiting for the green man even if it's early on a Sunday morning and there isn't a car anywhere in sight.

As someone with 15% vision, I should be doing the same, but... hmm... Long story short, I was almost run over once this year, but to my defence, there weren't any traffic lights there and a bus blocked the sight...

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Week 40 28 Sep - 04 Oct

This week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages 179 pages (170%)
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes 14:09' minutes (202%)
- NL Reading: 24 pages 29 pages (121%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 1:44' minutes (173%)

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-: 25 / 100 ハリーポッターと不死鳥の騎士団
-: 18 / 100 Ik reis alleen

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I havent't done anythong noteworthy this week. I noticed that the 5th Harry Potter book's Japanese translation is slightly better than the previous HP books that I've read. There seems to be less "Engrish" than usual, and the dialogues don't seem as "stiff" either. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I find this one more enjoyable than the previous Japanese translations.

As for Dutch, I noticed that I can understand some of what they say, but there is still lots that I don't understand. I still read slowly, but I already see signs of improvement. I kind of regret not sticking with Anki for longer than a couple of months, but I think I'll manage.

I've also improved my logging web-app, and everything except my own comments were actually automatically generated. This is why I write this entry on a Monday rather than a Saturday or more than a week late...

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Next week's goals
- ES Reading: 140 pages
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 25 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes

[steyyan]

Week 41 05 Oct - 11 Oct

This week's goals
- ES Reading: 140 pages 229 pages (164%)
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes 14:43' minutes (210%)
- NL Reading: 25 pages 38 pages (152%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 1:43' minutes (172%)

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-: 100 / 100 Memorias de Idhún I: Búsqueda
-: 28 / 100 El fin del mundo y un despiadado paí­s de las maravillas
-: 27 / 100 Ik reis alleen
-: 10 / 100 El tiempo entre costuras

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I decided to give the first installment in the Memorias de Idhún series a shot this week, because its description on Amazon made it seem interesting. It wasn't bad either, but I did find the plots a bit simple and maybe "childish" at times although the story and background seemed quite elaborate.

I've also decided to let the Dutch reading goal remain at 25 until I get more comfortable with reading in it.

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Next week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 25 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes

[steyyan]

Week 42 12 Oct - 18 Oct

This week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages 236 pages (225%)
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes 12:05' minutes (173%)
- NL Reading: 25 pages 26 pages (104%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 1:40' minutes (167%)

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-: 42 / 100 ハリーポッターと不死鳥の騎士団
-: 33 / 100 Ik reis alleen

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I did go a bit overboard with reading in Japanese this week, but apart from that, it was rather uneventful in terms of language study, because my brothers - who live in different parts of the country - decided to spend the week (or well, parts of it) at home.

I'm also getting along well with my online studies (not language related), and I'm soon to be done with my weekly exercise sheets, which leaves two group assignemnts, three exams (1st, 2nd, and 3rd December) and a wee online 1-hour exam on the 11th December.

Next week, I'll be reading the two "extra" books that I've been reading in addition to the "main" book for quite a while: El tiempo entre Costuras and El fin del mundo y un despiadado país de las maravillas. Maybe I'll catch up with the book club in the Spanish sub forum soon eough, who knows?

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Next week's goals
- ES Reading: 140 pages
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 25 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes

[Brun Ugle]

Laura Gallego Garcia's books are meant for young teens, so it's not surprising you found the one you read a little childish. I've got the first book in one of her other series, but I haven't started yet. Fortunately, I happen to like children's books.

[steyyan]

Laura Gallego Garcia's books are meant for young teens, so it's not surprising you found the one you read a little childish. I've got the first book in one of her other series, but I haven't started yet. Fortunately, I happen to like children's books.

They're quite easy reading, fortunately, and I found it interesting enough to keep reading. I'll probably pick up the next book in the series, though. The first book sort of left a lot of loose ends.

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Week 43 19 Oct - 25 Oct

This week's goals
- ES Reading: 140 pages 301 pages (215%)
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes 14:25' minutes (206%)
- NL Reading: 25 pages 56 pages (224%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 2:14' minutes (223%)

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-: 56 / 100 El fin del mundo y un despiadado paí­s de las maravillas
-: 45 / 100 Ik reis alleen
-: 29 / 100 El tiempo entre costuras

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I did indeed catch up with the book club this week, and I sort of liked reading two books at a time - I switched between books after each chapter, for instance chapter X from book A and chapter Y from book B and then chapter X+1 from book A and so on and so forth.

I also read an interesting thread on /r/Mexico -- the only really active subreddit that's (mostly) in Spanish -- about urban myths and real stories from people who claim they've seen, heard or felt anything supernatural. You can find it here: Clicky

I consider adding a third book to the "loop" during the next odd-numbered (Spanish) week to keep it interesting. Reading several different books seems to be more rewarding too, since I don't stick to one style each week.

As for Dutch, I listened to the 3rd and 4th chapters of the audiobook version of the first Harry Potter book. As I've already mentioned earleir, audiobooks count as the easiest type of listening material out there. I also watched a few Youtube videos in Dutch. In addition, I find that my Dutch reading comprehension just gets better and better each week. I suspect my German comprehension has something to do with it...

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Next week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 25 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes

[steyyan]

Week 44 26 Oct - 01 Nov

This week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages 224 pages (213%)
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes 11:00' minutes (157%)
- NL Reading: 25 pages 29 pages (116%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 1:48' minutes (180%)

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-: 59 / 100 ハリーポッターと不死鳥の騎士団
-: 52 / 100 Ik reis alleen

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Nothing new this week, except that I decided to pick up Mushishi again. If there's one thing I like about the anime, is that it doesn't matter how rarely you watch it since there doesn't seem to be any developing plot behind it. Even though I still peek at the subtitles, I can still understand a lot of it without them, but that's not really that impressing since I've been learning Japanese for about 3.5 years now...

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Next week's goals
- ES Reading: 140 pages
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 25 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes

[steyyan]

Week 45 02 Nov - 08 Nov

This week's goals
- ES Reading: 140 pages 310 pages (221%)
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes 14:13' minutes (203%)
- NL Reading: 25 pages 54 pages (216%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 2:05' minutes (208%)

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-: 78 / 100 El fin del mundo y un despiadado paí­s de las maravillas
-: 64 / 100 Ik reis alleen
-: 45 / 100 Memorias de Idhún II: Revelación
-: 39 / 100 El tiempo entre costuras

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This week I read 7 chapters each of the three books in Spanish (see above) that I'm reading at the moment.

As for Dutch, I read quite a lot too, considering that I still read slowly. As for listening, I watched a couple of Youtube videos and and listneed to three chapters from the first Harry Potter audiobook.

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Next week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 25 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes

[steyyan]

Week 46 09 Nov - 15 Nov

This week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages 217 pages (207%)
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes 15:58' minutes (228%)
- NL Reading: 25 pages 53 pages (212%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 2:06' minutes (210%)

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-: 76 / 100 Ik reis alleen
-: 75 / 100 ハリーポッターと不死鳥の騎士団

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The almost 16 hours of listening is due to the fact that I binged some Japanese Youtube stuff in the beginning of the week. I stil don't feel like my comprehension is where I want it to be, but I am indeed improving.

This HP book has to be my favourite in Japanese, since it seem like it's better written than the previous books: at least, sometimes they link initials to actual Japanese words, like Fred's (?) suggestion for name for what became DA: MMM, 魔法省はみんな間抜け.

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Next week's goals
- ES Reading: 140 pages
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 25 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes