Expug's 2018 Log - Sustainable Dabbling

[Expugnator]

The weekend had almost nothing language-wise. At least I got to use the computer a little. I managed to download the new music for my playlist: the usual top hits, the suggestions from Grand Bien Vous Fasse and even a couple from PM's log. I downloaded 90 songs after listening to some excerpts and ignoring a few that wouldn't work for the gym. No app-learning though. Just enough to keep the streak on Mandarin and Norwegian on Clozemaster. Also, watching the Viki series with double subtitles is no issue. I even got simplified-ZH soft subs.
Health is much better. Yesterday was Father's Day here in Brazil, so it was nice to receive the messages from my family. Other than that, my student in the mornings found a job so hell be doing classes in the evening (where I'll have to struggle to find free time), so I'm back to having one extra hour in the morning for language study.

Today the wi-fi wasn't working, so I couldn't listen to the Mandarin audiobook. I had to read only, with Pera-pera. Not a bad result. I know most of the characters already and I only check the translation for some more complex phrasings.

Estonian is becoming easy to read. I'm really happy for all the time invested on it. It's a language where I've seen progress rather quickly when compared to my older ones, and it's not a very commonly learned one. It' not as trendy as smaller languages such as Icelandic or the Celtic ones.

Ok found a workaround for Castbox. I just have to filter for the unfinished episodes. I'll then find the one I was listening to last. I have developped the sound habit of always pausing my listening with a file already being played, so that I don't have to wonder at which file I had stopped.

Modern Greek is even more encouraging. Thanks to its straightforward syntax, I wouldn't be surprised to catch myself reading better in Greek than in German (which is going better than I expected but not so much yet as to allow for reading extensively).

Interesting how Hebrew uses the future for imperative. That might sound biblical for us. In informal Portuguese, you can use the past as imperative (though it's rather abrupt than polite); in Georgian, the aorist becomes imperative, sometimes the optative, but not the future.

I survived another long Hebrew lesson. Today I abused the OCR for reading the exercises. Luckily I had more time for studying and I could finally breath and read some Spanish afterwards.

Has anyone NOT heard about Baba Dum up to now?

I'm finding Proyecto Nocilla quite interesting, although I didn't manage to link the chapters yet. There are so many unknown words. I'm planning on reading it intensively, but today is the first day I manage to read it after so many weeks, and so extensive it is for today.

Now that I have more than an hour left (which roughly corresponds to my headstart in the morning), I can do some Clozemaster. I might write in one of my TLs if I can come up with a subject that is not my learning process itself.

FR Les derniers apps pour gérer l'écoute de plusieurs podcasts en même temps se montrent vraiment éffectives, comme par exemple Castbox. Pourtant, quand je pense à comme je n'ai plus écouté Grand Bien Vous Fasse ces derniers jours, je me demande si avoir un app pour garder le fil des épisodes ne ferait-il davantage de mal que de bien. Lorsque j'écrivais toujours dans mon cahier où j'en était dans chaque épisode, j'écoutais presque un épisode entier par jour. Maintenant qu'il ne faut que toucher un app dans mon portable pour ouvrir mon dernier épisode, ça va déjà presque un mois que je me suis arrêté dans le même épisode.

NO Det var alt for i dag. Jeg klarte å leke litt med Clozemaster, men jeg er klar over at jeg ikke ville være i stand til å gjøre alt dette, hadde jeg ikke begynt én time tidligere. Jeg trenger fortsatt å organisere timeplanen min og kompensere for at fra nå av har jeg mindre tid til å lære meg språk hverdaglig.

[Mista]

NO Det var alt for i dag. Jeg klarte å leke litt med Clozemaster, men jeg er klar over at jeg ikke ville være i stand til å gjøre alt dette, hadde jeg ikke begynt én time tidligere. Jeg trenger fortsatt å organisere timeplanen min og kompensere for at jeg fra nå av har jeg mindre tid til å lære meg språk hverdaglig hver dag.

You are using the main clause word order in a subordinate clause. Sometimes you can do that, and I won't insist that you can't here, but I think it's better with the regular subordinate word order.

The adjective hverdagslig should only be used as an adjective, not an adverb. In other words, if you can say every day in English, you have to say hver dag in Norwegian.

[garyb]

Back to Podcast software, I tried Castbox but hated it! I found it far too focused on telling me what to listen to rather than letting me choose, and it was a bit too keen on auto-downloading episodes. I'm trying one called Podcast Addict and it seems fine so far. I suppose it's just about finding one that suits you.

[rdearman]

Try MyPod: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... 2&hl=en_GB

[brilliantyears]

Have you tried Pocket Casts? After Apple completely destroyed the iOS app, I've been app-hopping. Pocket Casts is by far my favourite, and I've stuck with it ever since I got it.
(But maybe you have tried it already in which case, sorry for missing it!)

[Elsa Maria]

Has anyone NOT heard about Baba Dum up to now?

I just now heard of it Thanks, it is fun!

[Ani]

Back to Podcast software, I tried Castbox but hated it! I found it far too focused on telling me what to listen to rather than letting me choose, and it was a bit too keen on auto-downloading episodes. I'm trying one called Podcast Addict and it seems fine so far. I suppose it's just about finding one that suits you.

The auto download is a setting you can turn off under settings/autodownload/advanced. You can turn off listening suggestions with the paid version which is 99 cents a month

[Expugnator]

You are using the main clause word order in a subordinate clause. Sometimes you can do that, and I won't insist that you can't here, but I think it's better with the regular subordinate word order.

This was clearly hypercorrection. I just thought I had to invert the subject and forgot the 'at' would atract the subject.

The adjective hverdagslig should only be used as an adjective, not an adverb. In other words, if you can say every day in English, you have to say hver dag in Norwegian.

Ouch, not the first time I make this mistake. I just assume the rule that in Germanic languages adjective = adverb to be absolute

Tusen takk!
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Thank you guys for the suggestions. I'll try Castbox a little more, as so far I only have two podcasts and I'm not even listening to them regularly, but it's nice to know there are more sophisticated options in the store.

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Yesterday I did some Clozemaster, but stopped halfway the schedule. Today I might have more free time, who knows.It's undeniable how even working on the worn out, short decks such as Georgian and Estonian strongly helps activate and round up passive knowledge of the most common words. I'll just repeat myself and say that larger decks such as Russian and German border on ineffectiveness because you spend too much time on each level and there is way too much repetition.

Finally getting the hang of the Georgian reading. Four pages don't feel like torture for this book anymore, and I'm beginning to read full sentences before checking the translation. It took me around 10% of the book to get used to it.

Butter in Indonesian is "mentega". A true friend.

Finished over 1 hour earlier, started some Clozemaster then remembered my Spanish reading, which I'm enjoying. Maybe I should get back to a previous plan and alternate Clozemaster and its respective languages. It was working until I started doing Clozemaster while watching series.

[Expugnator]

Yesterday was a public holiday, so no studies. It's weird to break the workweek in half. It feels like there are two Mondays! I did all of my Clozemaster, just to confirm how effective it is. I'm just mad at the counting issues, where mastered sentences are reset to 0% when viewed.

Today's not likely to be that successful. I had to take my car to repair in the morning, after a small incident last week. I lost a good hour of study. What surprised me (negatively) was that in two bus commutes of around 50 minutes total all I got done was reading 19 pages from Italian non-fiction. Nothing against Italian, it's the subject that is complex, the font size is small and the pages are long. I'm really looking forward to finishing this book and starting something new. Usually at my post-lunch commute I manage to read all the 20 pages plus the Italian fiction plus some Spanish.

Finished watching The Zero Theorem dubbed in French. Boring. Not worth breaking the native-film-only sequence.

INDONESIAN DUOLINGO IS IN BETA!!!

Given the busy day, I still managed much by going up to Hebrewpod. I had to go back and pick up the car in the afternoon, spending one more hour on it. No Clozemaster, as a result, though.

[Elenia]

Finally caught up with your log, Expug!

I'll just repeat myself and say that larger decks such as Russian and German border on ineffectiveness because you spend too much time on each level and there is way too much repetition.

You mentioned before that you're something of a completionist, so I'm not sure that this will be an idea that you like, but I handle the large deck problem by simply NOT completing each level. I'll either do roughly fifty percent of the deck, if that seems manageable/reasonable, or I'll do one-two hundred more sentences than the 'words' in that level. So, for example, in 500-1000 words, I'll study six or seven hundred, if that is significantly less than half the deck. I'll also move on before studying that much, if I find the deck to be far too repetetive. I think that I can always go back when I have had space from that vocabulary set and see how much I actually remember but doing the 'new' words.

As for the problem with 100% mastered cards coming up, I think I remember that happening to me when studying a deck with mastered cards, where none of the unmastered cards where ready to come up for review. I believe it only happens when you've 'played' all the words in a deck, which is why it might be happening with your Norwegian deck?

Best wishes going forward!