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

[cjareck]

This week was unfortunately, not much productive...
Mandarin
I don't know why, but I am unable to learn a few basic words from the song "When that day comes" that I extracted using Chinese Prestudy. I think I will suspend the cards. Mandarin is not my priority so that it can wait until better times.

Hebrew
I decided to return to the FSI Basic Course. Currently, I add dialog cards for the skipped dialogs. I manage to do one per day, so when there is 20 more to go, it will take me about to the end of the month. I had to finish the course to stop thinking about it. After that, I will return to Kahalani.
The interesting thing is that last night I dreamed about Hebrew. I was quarreling with friends of mine about translating a Hebrew term חיל החימוש
(khel ha-khimush) - Ordnance Corps. The subject of the dispute was the usage of capital letters in the translation. The best thing is that in the dream I said it correctly
Most of the added cards were not reviewed anytime. I hope to do it soon. Maybe this week will be more language-friendly.

MSA
I slowly go through the Polish ESKK course. Slower than I expected but steadily. Here I review most of the added cards.

MSA:
Notes: 616 (+7)
Cards: 3278-3245 (+33)
Repetitions total: 30779 (+414)
Time of repetitions: 63 hours (+1 during last week)
Age of the deck: days 851 (708 days of learning)

Words in LWT: 382 (+0)

Hebrew:
Notes: 1678 (+7)
Cards: 8331 (+50)
Repetitions total: 98591 (+727)
Time of repetitions: 242 (+2) hours
Age of the deck: days 850 (764 days of learning)

Words in LWT: 5834 (+0 last week)

[cjareck]

I've created a habit of updating my log every week, but I feel that it is about three times a week - time goes so quickly

English
I work on my article it is a lot of chaos at this stage, and even that chaos has only about 20% of the necessary word count. A lot of work is before me, but I see steady progress. I have time until the end of September, so I should complete it on time. I consider this as a good exercise since it forces me to go beyond my comfort zone if I wish to express certain things in a more complicated manner. The editor will have probably a lot of work with that but he had been warned

I also plan to co-author another article in English. This will be an easy task since my co-author has Ph.D. in English philology. First, we have to finish one in the Polish language...

My post here seems to be quite long, but writing here is also an exercise for me.

Arabic
My LP from Hello Talk texted me a few times and I texted him. Everything seems to be OK now. I'm very happy since he seems to be an intelligent guy. I feel we could learn a lot from ourselves if only we intensified our contacts. But Arabic is still not the priority, so I do not push for it. Nevertheless, I have finished adding the flashcards from the 3rd lesson of Polish ESKK course. It was a pleasure for me and that is a reason of fairy significant increase of the notes and cards number. In 2-3 days I will review all of them and the lesson will consider being "finished". Then I will switch do DLI, lesson number 12, as far as I remember.

Notes: 616 (+23)
Cards: 3278 (+101)
Repetitions total: 31294 (+515)
Time of repetitions: 64 hours (+1 during last week)
Age of the deck: days 857 (715 days of learning)

Words in LWT: 382 (+0)

Hebrew
I struggled and added a few dialogs from FSI, but not daily. This is an exhausting activity due to the necessity of searching for proper pictures, which is very distracting for me. There is, however, a visible increase in reviews. The reason is that I finally reviewed the previously added cards. I added also a few words to my LWT database, but the amount is insignificant. I had of course LE with my younger LEP and, as usual, it was a very pleasant experience.

Notes: 1680 (+2)
Cards: 8346 (+15)
Repetitions total: 99544 (+953)
Time of repetitions: 246 (+4) hours
Age of the deck: days 856 (771 days of learning)

Words in LWT: 5846 (+12 last week)

[cjareck]

This was not the best week for language learning for sure. I found a new hobby, which, perhaps will get combined someday with language learning - I have my own youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0litK ... Nl8AypTJMA Currently I am posting only book reviews there, so it is only useful for those of you that would like to test their Polish comprehension

Hebrew
I continued my interview with Yom Kippur War veteran. I really understood Hebrew fragments, but we spoke mostly English. I received some materials from him, so this will help and motivate me to work.
I worked with LWT a little bit. Thank God I made backups because my laptop with Windows suddenly refused to work with this. (Mysql socket error).
Working with FSI dialogs is so boring for me that I switched back to LWT. At least I am doing something

Notes: 1680 (+0)
Cards: 8346 (+0)
Repetitions total: 100234 (+690)
Time of repetitions: 248 (+2) hours
Age of the deck: days 863 (778 days of learning)

Words in LWT: 5888 (+46 last week)


MSA
I prepared audio for the 12th lesson of the DLI course. I hope to add some new cards next week. I'm still enjoying the language.

Notes: 639 (0)*
Cards: 3379-3278 (+0)*
Repetitions total: 31717 (+423)
Time of repetitions: 66 hours (+2 during last week)
Age of the deck: days 864 (722 days of learning)

Words in LWT: 382 (+0)
* I probably messed up something last week. I didn't add any cards now.

[MorkTheFiddle]

I worked with LWT a little bit. Thank God I made backups because my laptop with Windows suddenly refused to work with this. (Mysql socket error).

When my LWT database got corrupted, it was after I had shut down the computer or put the computer to sleep without closing mySql. Obviously, may not be your problem, and besides I realize I am arguing post hoc ergo propter hoc.
Well done with the channel. Wish I could understand it.
For later, much later, I want to learn a Slavic language. Do you think Polish would be a good place to start? Again, this won't be today or tomorrow or even this year.

[cjareck]

When my LWT database got corrupted, it was after I had shut down the computer or put the computer to sleep without closing mySql. Obviously, may not be your problem, and besides I realize I am arguing post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Well, I was doing it for a longer period of time and everything was OK. I presume it is a security issue within Windows. I am better with Linux, so I left it for now and switched back to my stationary computer.

Well done with the channel. Wish I could understand it.

Thanks! Maybe I will prepare something like that in English since I would like to review some English books also. But for that, I will surely need help in correcting my text. I will ask for help on the forum.

For later, much later, I want to learn a Slavic language. Do you think Polish would be a good place to start? Again, this won't be today or tomorrow or even this year.

You can't expect me to say anything else Yes it surely would be. It is a very beautiful language. It is not as much popular as Russian, but with great cultural impact on Eastern Europe during the 15-18th centuries. One of our early poets, Mikołaj Rej in 1562 stated:
"A niechaj narodowie wżdy postronni znają, iż Polacy nie gęsi, iż swój język mają."
"Let it by all and sundry foreign nations be known that Poles speak not Anserine but a tongue of their own."
(translated in linked Wikipedia article)

Here is the oldest Polish song:

The oldest known manuscript of it is from 1408. But I understand more from the English subtitles than from Polish

[MorkTheFiddle]

Very lovely melody. The slow enunciation gives me a good hint about pronouncing the letters. Thanks for posting the song.
As for my learning Polish, we'll see what happens. There is a lot on my language plate.

[cjareck]

Another week is behind me!
English
I slowly write my article about POWs in the Polish-Soviet war. This is a quite complicated task, not only due to language difficulties (I have to write in English but read in Polish and Russian) but mostly due to the complexity of the topic itself.

Mandarin
It seems I can't delete it from my list. Every day I work with an app "Hello Chinese":
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... nese&hl=pl
I use the free version, but it - at least at the beginner level - seems to be good. I also keep my streak on Clozemaster. I don't have any TTS for any of my languages, so I find it pretty useless for Arabic or Hebrew. Mandarin, however, has Pinyin and that is a lot already
Recently I started learning characters with "in Flow"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... flow&hl=pl
It says, that I learned first 30 of them already. Not much

Russian
I work with some published Russian documents for my English article and also for a Polish one. This a good way to refresh my, unfortunately not much advanced, skills.

Hebrew
This is the most important, but next week in row progress is close to ZERO. I started listening to the recorded interviews with "my" veteran. I can't listen to myself, but he sounds clear and understandable. I must get used to my poor speaking. I will not be disappointed on my next visit to Israel

Notes: 1680 (+0)
Cards: 8346 (+0)
Repetitions total: 100847 (+613)
Time of repetitions: 249 (+1) hours
Age of the deck: days 870 (785 days of learning)

Words in LWT: 5925 (+37 last week)

MSA
I started 12th lesson of DLI and added some new vocabulary. But the road ahead is still long. The most important is that I enjoy learning the language!

Notes: 669 (+30)
Cards: 3409 (+30)
Repetitions total: 32067 (+350)
Time of repetitions: 67 hours (+1 during last week)
Age of the deck: days 871 (729 days of learning)

Words in LWT: 382 (+0)

[cjareck]

I got cold a few days ago, and the tempo of my work has slowed down rapidly...

Russian
Currently, I am preparing an article about the Gorlice-Tarnow offensive in 1915 in the vicinity of Jasło. That means working with Russian sources what is going pretty well. The main problem is with the names of Villages - Polish ones, written in German on the map and then transcribed into Russian in reports and orders. I must apply some reverse engineering and look at the map to figure that out. One example - Jaworze Dolne was written as Явожед [Jaworzed].

English
I'm also working on my article about prisoners of war in Polish-Soviet conflict of 1919-1921. Due to abovementioned cold, I do not progress as quickly as I would like. Nevertheless, I feel that all those words typed here in the forum make my work much easier

[/b]Mandarin[/b]
I sill progress with materials that I mentioned earlier. I discovered that I get very good results with Clozemaster in Mandarin when I choose an answer in learning mode and typing in it in the review mode. Learning that language and trying to write hanzi makes a lot of fun

MSA
I started adding new cards but didn't progress much in that activity. I limited myself to reviewing the existing cards. Maybe next week will be better.

Notes: 670 (+1)
Cards: 3414 (+5)
Repetitions total: 32315-32067 (+248)
Time of repetitions: 67 hours (+0 during last week)
Age of the deck: days 878 (736 days of learning)

Words in LWT: 382 (+0)

Hebrew
Earlier I added some words to LWT, but I achieved the greatest today - I prepared cards for dialogues from the lessons 17 and 18 from the FSI Hebrew Basic Course. Again, I decided to finish the course finally. We'll see if this happens this time

As usual, on Wednesday I had LE with my younger LEP. As usual, I enjoyed it very much.

Notes: 1687 (+7)
Cards: 8368 (+22)
Repetitions total: 101455 (+608)
Time of repetitions: 251 (+2) hours
Age of the deck: days 877 (791 days of learning)

Words in LWT: 5947 (+22 last week)

[MorkTheFiddle]

I remain fascinated by the work you are doing with the little-reported subjects about the wars you are working on. One of the more fascinating books I have read was about how the Allies handled German POWs after World War 2.

BTW, if you do NOT prefer corrections about your English, read no further!








In English, the word "cold," when it is used as a noun in the singular to refer to the illness, always needs an article, definite or indefinite. Hence "I got a cold a few days ago" and "due to the abovementioned cold".

[cjareck]

BTW, if you do NOT prefer corrections about your English, read no further!

Thanks! I, of course, prefer corrections! I have this in my signature, but it may be hard to find among those progress bars