Military historian's corner - EN, HE, ZH, AR, sometimes RU, FR and DE

[guyome]

Thanks for your detailed answer!

I have long wanted to learn more Hebrew (would complement Yiddish well) but I've never found the time to do so.

[cjareck]

I've got about 70-75% of my book, so I hope finish writing in about a month. After that, the painstaking period of checking and correcting everything will come. So still my languages are rather put aside.

Nevertheless, I am working with Hebrew. I listened to the first recording with one of the veterans. II made notes for written interview with him for my article and also put some words into Anki. I'm very happy since it was not so hard work as I expected. So about 45 minutes are behind me and about 3-4 hours (2-3 recordings) in front of me. But using the ancient painter Apelles' proverd Nulla dies sine linea (Not a day without a line) I hope to finish it in February or March, so I can prepare my article.

I gave my LEP my reading of the next fragment of Israeli battle journal and he corrected it. I estimate that I was able to decipher about 70% of the text. Not bad, but far from perfect. I could improve that number by working with it - in Google Translate or something like that. But I wanted feedback for raw output. I put new words into Anki and decided to read some more for our next session. Hopefully, it won't be worse

[cjareck]

Writing consumes almost all my free time, but goes pretty well! There is, however, not much to report from the wide field of languages.

My deciphering of the Hebrew manual script was slightly better than last time. Unfortunately still not good enough to be useful without any help.

I listen to my interview and put quite a lot of phrases into Anki and I am generally satisfied with my comprehension level. The next part is mostly in English, so it should go much quicker. Nevertheless, there is a lot of work ahead.

I managed to review all Mandarin due cards. So only Arabic left. Since I didn't touch it for about two weeks, there are a few hundred cards already. I really hope to start reviewing them next week in order to at least stop their accumulation.

[cjareck]

With my book, I came to the point which Germans, according to their revisionistic literature, achieved on the Marne. I had to break the battle just before the victory. I pushed away all other tasks, and in the last days, I couldn't continue doing that. So I will need about at least two weeks for finishing the draft.

For language learning, the above means that I finally caught up with all the reviews. I have regained an interest in all my languages also! In Mandarin and Arabic I limited myself to reviewing the flashcards, but in Hebrew I continued listening to my interview with an Israeli veteran and not only used it for my texts but also for language learning. Last month I added 187 new flashcards. They are phrases or words from the interview, or they are for learning handwritten Hebrew. In the last case, cards are simply images of words taken from the war diary of the 71st armored battalion. I read it alone, and then my LEP checks it for me. I have about 80% good. But the main problem is that letters seem not to have a fixed shape, and the ability to understand the individual words is crucial in reading that document.

[cjareck]

Unfortunately, I worked much slower with my book and I am sure that I will need more time to finish the draft. Other academic work is chasing me and I will not be able to escape.

I resumed more active language learning and when I look back on the statistics, even the period of low intensity was not so unproductive.

ARABIC
I found an Arabic historical forum so I will try to get Audiatur et altera pars from there. Unfortunately, I am a total beginner in MSA so I can't participate actively there. In case any of you are interested: https://defense-arab.com/vb/threads/90732/ - this is a discussion on the battle of Valley of tears.
I decided to attach statistics again, mainly for myself, to track my progress
Notes: 819 (+40)
Cards: 4068 (+161)
Repetitions total: 40583 (+3468)
Time of repetitions: 90 hours (+10)
Age of the deck: days 1060 (892 days of learning)

Hebrew
I work with my interview with a veteran from the 71st battalion. Most of the added cards are from that interview. I add everything that seems to be important and what I was able to figure out only due to the context. If I can't find the spelling I ask my LEP for help. He also corrects my reading of the war diary of the battalion.

Notes: 1805-1743 (+62)
Cards: 8870 (+289)
Repetitions total: 116593 (+5943)
Time of repetitions: 288 (+14) hours
Age of the deck: days 1059 (949 days of learning)

[cjareck]

I temporarily lost passion for writing my book, so my language studies could profit from that. I hope to switch focus soon, especially since the book is close to finish and language learning will never end

HEBREW
I finished the second session with the veteran, there are two or three more. This surely takes a lot of time. Other than that and usual language exchanges I only tried to read war diary of the 71st battalion. The percentage of correctly deciphered words was not better, unfortunately.

Notes: 1814 (+9)
Cards: 8939 (+69)
Repetitions total: 117461 (+868)
Time of repetitions: 290 (+2) hours
Age of the deck: days 1067 (957 days of learning)

MSA
Currently, I work with the Polish course and I find it much more interesting than when I was doing it the first time. I hope to finish it this time! But I am on the 5th lesson out of 40.

Notes: 851 (+32)
Cards: 4222-4068 (+154)
Repetitions total: 41270-40583 (+687)
Time of repetitions: 92 hours (+2)
Age of the deck: days 1068 (900 days of learning)

MANDARIN
I returned to Assimil. I decided to follow your advice and instead of my overcomplicated cards (I tried them and it absolutely didn't work), I use:
- TRADITIONAL <-> POLISH
- TRADITIONAL -> SIMPLIFIED
I managed to follow the pattern - the first day adding cards and reviewing current ones; the second day reviewing current ones and recently added. As for the first three lessons, it seems to work

(statistics are for about 4 months):
Notes: 1113 (+93)
Cards: 2227 (+311)
Repetitions total: 30094 (+4505)
Time of repetitions: 49 hours (+5 during last week)
Age of the deck: days 1706 (1425 days of learning)

[cjareck]

I lost energy for my book or other academic activity. The university is closed temporarily and probably soon we receive dispositions for e-learning in this semester. Probably my youtube channel will benefit from this
As I lost motivation for writing I got it for language learning. Strange in the times of Apocalypse it should be exactly opposite - finish all tasks and do not bother to learn new things. Hopefully, subconsciously I know that everything will be OK But who knows... Surely the world will not be the same in the matter of freedom and civil rights. Just like after 9/11 external politics changed, now internal change will probably come.

I updated my status bars so they correspond to my goals for this year. I must admit, however, that I am not strict in following them

ARABIC
I can't explain that, but all my motivation for the language is restored and I feel like I could spend most of my time learning Arabic. I try to profit from that as much as possible, but other things have to be done also. I try to finish the 5th lesson of the Polish course. Then I will switch to DLI.

Notes: 870 (+19)
Cards: 4315 (+93)
Repetitions total: 41826 (+556)
Time of repetitions: 93 hours (+1)
Age of the deck: days 1075 (906 days of learning)

HEBREW
The main focus is on learning the manual script. Not much development in that matter. I spent so much time with Arabic that I had quite a few Hebrew cards overdue but yesterday I managed to catch up with them.

Notes: 1820 (+6)
Cards: 8986 (+47)
Repetitions total: 118177 (+716)
Time of repetitions: 292 (+2) hours
Age of the deck: days 1074 (963 days of learning)

MANDARIN
I like Assimil very much even if I mixed the passive phase with an active one. Yesterday I spoke with someone who I hope will be my exchange partner. This should make my learning faster and more pleasant. But at this stage, it is hard to predict the outcome.

Notes: 1129 (+16)
Cards: 2340 (+113)
Repetitions total: 30721 (+627)
Time of repetitions: 50 hours (+1 during last week)
Age of the deck: days 1713 (1431 days of learning)

[cjareck]

This was not a good week. On Monday I was diagnosed with a tumor at the entrance to the stomach. I immediately stopped language learning and started praying more and decided to push forward with my book. Luckily the draft is almost complete, I need just a few more days. I don't know what happens next but even to reach a positive result it will take a lot of time and struggle. Nevertheless, I can proudly say non omnis moriar - my kids, my books and even my students will have a piece of me.

In those days I established contact with two Chinese - one from Taiwan and one from Mainland - so ideally for learning both sets of characters. However, I was not able to push the contacts more so probably the first one will not be fruitful, but who knows, perhaps I will be able to reviewe it.

Today I decided to return to language learning. Just as saint Isidore of Seville said (I'm translating it from Polish): "Learn as if you were to live forever, live - as if you were to die tomorrow."

So I had my usual Hebrew LE and some chatting with my new Chinese LEP. I will learn a presentation about me in Mandarin that he translated. Surely not an easy task

[guyome]

Sorry about the bad news, cjareck. I hope everything will be for you fine eventually!

[rdearman]

Get well soon mate! Best wishes.