Radioclare wrote:Priča je još uzbudljivija zbog toga što je njegova nećakinja neočekivano nestala u isto vrijeme kao je on imao prometnu nesreću.
Another small detail: I don't know if this is maybe a typo, but kao is only for comparing things, and actions, you cannot use it in a temporal meaning "at the same time that; while; when" (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/as #7).
You have to use kad(a) when or dokwhile, and in this case, only kad(a) fits, since you refer to a point in time (you have used the perfective verb nestatidisappear).
2 x
Check Easy Croatian (very useful for Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian as well)
So far the year is going quite well I'm trying to make changes in quite a few areas of my life, some of which are interlinked. So, for example, I'm trying to go to bed earlier in the hope that that will make me less tired, which might make me more efficient at work, which might mean that I can leave work earlier, which would give me more time in the evenings to spend on languages...
I'm wary of being over-optimistic given that it's still early January, but so far I've been managing to leave work on time at 17.30 (which is something that I haven't managed for several years!) and that means I get home before 19.00 and so even if I go to bed some time between 22.00 and 22.30, my evening is quite long. I know that there will soon be days when leaving work at that time is completely unrealistic, but I am enjoying my new free time while I can
Russian I've been religious about doing a lesson of Assimil every day since I got back from Lapland and so I'm now up to lesson 10. This is the first time I've tried to learn a language with Assimil and so far I really like it. The explanations in the book are really good and the audio is really clear. I am trying to fight the urge to create a Memrise course of the vocabulary.
I'm doing 15 minutes of Russian Memrise on the train to work every morning. This is something I tried and failed to do for most of last year, so I gave it some thought over Christmas and decided that the reason I was resisting doing Memrise for Russian was that I need to do it with audio, which means that if I'm on the train I need to stop listening to the Croatian music I have on my iPod and plug my earphones into my phone instead to listen to the vocabulary. Generally I was trying to make myself do this during a 6WC, when I would then also be trying to make myself spend the next part of my commute - walking to the office - listening to a Russian audiocourse like Michel Thomas or Pimsleur (rather than listening to Croatian music). I've now reached a deal with myself that if I do 15 minutes of Memrise on the train instead of listening to music, I can then listen to music on my walk instead of doing an audio course. Maybe this sounds silly, but it's working really well for me. I've realised that listening to music is actually really important to me - both before work to psyche myself up to go into the office and after work to start winding down - so that it isn't sustainable to try and completely displace it from my life with Russian. This compromise I've found means that I can do Memrise and then still have the music as a treat But it may mean I never finish Russian Pimsleur!
In my evenings, I'm also trying to do at least 15 minutes of Colloquial Russian. 15 minutes doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm aiming for the consistency rather than the quantity, and again it's working for me so far. I've gone right back to the beginning of the book to start from scratch and this afternoon I worked through to the end of chapter 3, so I am making progress already.
Croatian I'm trying to do 15 minutes of Croatian Memrise every day as well, which so far has mostly been getting to and staying at Memrise zero. The main new word I've learned this week has actually come courtesy of Donald Trump, however: vukojebina. That is the word that some of the Croatian media have used to translate a certain opinion he allegedly expressed about some developing countries. I followed some debates on Twitter about whether vukojebina was a good translation or not. Other regional media used the translation "odvratne zemlje", apparently.
I'm persevering with my revision of grammar from my BCS textbook. Again, I'm trying to dedicate 15 minutes per day to this, but it is my lowest priority activity, so I haven't succeeded in doing it every day this week. I'm still stuck somewhere in the middle of chapter 2.
Something which I have still managed to do every day is writing at least 150 words in Croatian. I'm not posting them all here, partly because I don't want to give Daniel a full time job of correcting them, but I'm up to 2183 words already which I'm very happy with.
Part of my aim with going to bed earlier is to do some reading before I fall asleep. At the moment I'm still working my way slowly through "Na rubu večnosti" by Ken Follett. I'm on page 922 of 1192 at the moment, so the end is in sight. Unfortunately the Tadoku page seems to be down today, so I can't log everything I've read recently.
The main new song I've been listening to this week is "Živim na Balkanu" (I live in the Balkans) by the Serbian band S.A.R.S. I like some of their music, but this isn't a very optimistic song. The lyrics start with "Lep je dan i šetam se po gradu i mislim kako je savršeno sve, a onda setim se da živim na Balkanu, desiće se neko sranje kasnije il' pre." (It's a nice day and I'm walking around town, thinking how everything is perfect. And then I remember that I live in the Balkans and some kind of sh*t will happen sooner or later")
Can I just say, that nobody at a divorce hearing, or on their death bed has ever said. "I wish I'd spent more time at the office." Tell your boss you're going home at 17:30 every day, for mental health reasons. It would be better than you being signed off work for 2 months with mental exhaustion.
Yesterday was a momentous day, because I finally got to the end of 'Na rubu večnosti' I started reading this book on 22 October, so it has taken me the best part of 3 months Obviously I haven't been reading it continually during that time, mainly because every time I went away anywhere for a weekend or longer, it was far too big to bring with me.
In total the book has 1192 pages, of which I read 700 in 2017 and 492 in 2018. This is what 1192 pages of Serbian looks like:
(I'm still having a weird issue where I can't rotate photos properly but never mind, you get the idea!)
It was a really good book anyway, else I would never have made it to the end I think Ken Follett is a good author to read in any language because he doesn't use excessively difficult words and his plots are always exciting. This was the third book in a trilogy that spans the entire twentieth century, following the stories of families in Britain, Germany, Russia and the USA. In English it's called 'Edge of Eternity'.
The hardest thing about reading this (or any other book translated from English) in Serbian is trying to understand the names. I managed to work out that "Džeki Džejks" was Jacky Jakes but I spent the entire novel thinking that a major character "Ivi" was called Ivy, only to realise tonight when looking at Goodreads that she was actually called Evie This is the one area where I hugely prefer Croatian (which tends to retain original spellings of names) over Serbian
Radioclare wrote:The hardest thing about reading this (or any other book translated from English) in Serbian is trying to understand the names. I managed to work out that "Džeki Džejks" was Jacky Jakes but I spent the entire novel thinking that a major character "Ivi" was called Ivy, only to realise tonight when looking at Goodreads that she was actually called Evie This is the one area where I hugely prefer Croatian (which tends to retain original spellings of names) over Serbian
The french translations of the famous five books (Le club des cinq) moved them all to France, and Timothy the dog became Dogobert!
I have a quick question for people who speak Russian: what does "общежитие" mean?
It has just appeared in my textbook in the following context:
"Уже две недели Марина студентка университета. Ёе день - типичный день студентка МГУ. Но Марина живёт в общежитии, далеко от центра, а ёе факултет в центре города."
The translation given in the book is "hostel"
In UK English at least, my understanding of a hostel is either a place where homeless people/victims of domestic violence might get housed temporarily when they don't have anywhere else to go, or a place that young people stay when they travel and can't afford a hotel. In either case, it is a place with shared accommodation, ie. large rooms full of bunk beds. Do Russian students normally live in hostels? Or is there some other translation/some other meaning of hostel that I'm not aware of?
In this context it's something like a student dorm or similar. It's formed from общий (common) + жить (live). I think in many countries student housing is for everyone who's eligible, but here you only get it if the university provides it. You can only get it if you're from another city/town (so you can't use this option just to start living independently from your parents, that's not deemed a necessity). It's not uncommon to have to rent a room/flat during your first couple of years and only get your общежитие spot after that. BTW, the main MSU building also includes some student housing, especially for postdoc students - it can house up to 2000 according to wikipedia. I think generally the rooms are for 2-3 ppl, not a dozen. It can also be another kind of community housing, like one for refugees. According to wikipedia there are also общежития for workers (mostly seasonal) but i've not heard of that really. btw wikipedia says the equivalent is a dormitory, hall of residence or hostel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormitory but hostel is normally translated as хостел (in the context of travel especially)
Thank you Serpent - that makes loads more sense When it said hostel, I was imaging some sort of huge rooms with rows of beds in them, which sounded a bit grim.
In the UK it's a bit different in that the students tend to have their own bedrooms and just share the kitchens and bathrooms. But I have stayed in university accommodation in other countries which is similar to what you describe; 2 - 4 beds in a room.
The mistakes were the fault of my poor typing and not the book
I'm trying to make changes in quite a few areas of my life, some of which are interlinked. So, for example, I'm trying to go to bed earlier in the hope that that will make me less tired, which might make me more efficient at work, which might mean that I can leave work earlier, which would give me more time in the evenings to spend on languages...
Obviously I haven't been reading it continually during that time, mainly because every time I went away anywhere for a weekend or longer, it was far too big to bring with me.
This is the one area where I hugely prefer Croatian (which tends to retain original spellings of names) over Serbian 
