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

[cjareck]

Now I have more time to explain my reasons for dropping the challenge. When I was signing up, I remembered that I spend enough amount of time on my languages. I thought that I could motivate me to learn in that seldom days when I skip it. However, when I faced the choice - 6 hours of sleep and no streak or continuing streak and have 5,5 hours of sleep, I have chosen the first option without much hesitation. I knew that such a situation will repeat very often, so I resigned from both challenges.

I've started writing my book on the Battle of Marne 1914 more seriously, and it consumes a lot of time each day.

MSA
I added some new flashcards and I hope to finish adding drills from the 13th lesson of the DLI course.

Mandarin
The clear gain of the short challenge period is work with LWT on Mao's partisan warfare rules. There are only about 50 characters left - perhaps I will finish it next week.

Hebrew
Well, Hebrew suffers most since I do it in the evenings and sometimes simply I can't. I have also noticed that doing flashcards just before going to bed isn't a good idea for me since I have problems with falling asleep after that. Probably my brain is activated and I need time to deactivate it.

[rdearman]

Mao's partisan warfare rules.

Is this public domain? Where can you get it?

[cjareck]

Is this public domain? Where can you get it?

It is part of "The Little Red Book" that I bought (bilingual edition Mandarin-English) on Aliexpres:
https://www.aliexpress.com/premium/Mao- ... ong%20book
But it is also available in Polish (if you would like to study the language ):
https://maopd.files.wordpress.com/2012/ ... a-1964.pdf
English:
https://www.marxists.org/reference/arch ... /index.htm
Or Chinese:
https://zh.wikiquote.org/wiki/%E6%AF%9B ... D%E4%B8%9C
I was looking for audio for the Chinese version, but found only English one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN7rEC0 ... dm-jYPqHeD

[cjareck]

My language progress suffers from my other passion, which is writing. I put a lot of effort into my book about the battle of the Marne. I hope to have it completed until the end of April. I can practice English, German, and French during that. My French, however, isn't good enough, so I have to use Google Translate to support my translation. In some cases, a paper two-volume dictionary also goes into the action

MSA
I finished adding exercises from DLI Lesson 13, and I hope to finish reviewing the flashcards this week. I hope to switch back to the Polish ESKK course at this time also. My crisis with Arabic seems to be behind me since I feel that only a lack of time limits my learning sessions.

Mandarin
Here I finished translating in LWT Mao's partisan warfare rules, and now I am going to make flashcards with them to learn some military vocabulary like "flank", "attack", "siege", "campaign" and so on. I also review flashcards for Mandarin sounds but still can't hear the difference between -n and -ng ending. I'm thinking about restarting Assimil, but I feel like I don't have time. I have to finish writing the book first.

Hebrew
Hebrew progress is slower. I review flashcards and speak on Whatsapp and Skype. Since I learn Hebrew in the evenings, it is late, and I am too tired. I decided to do it because my LE's are in the evening so I thought it would be a good idea since I do not have to change the time of the day. I will probably change it soon.

[cjareck]

I missed updating my log last week. I had a hard week since I had seminars on Mondays and Tuesdays but last week, Wednesday and Thursday were also Mondays, so there could be 15 days of each weekday in a semester. Now finally I have winter holidays! I am writing my book, so language learning is rather slower.

Hebrew
I started learning Hebrew in the morning so I spend a lot more with the language. I finally have time to listen to radio (Galei Zahal) and other activities like LWT.

Mandarin
I learn Mandarin after Hebrew and mostly as a pause between Hebrew and Arabic. Due to my other activities, I still can't restart Assimil.

Arabic
Well, due to switching places with Hebrew, Arabic lost its tempo, and for quite a long time, I was unable to review all due cards.

[cjareck]

I'm still focusing as much as possible on writing my book. Everything else (family, languages and other academic activities) suffers from it. Nevertheless, I have not only passed the 50% mark but a 60% one as well I hope to finish writing till end of March but then I will surely need some time for corrections. I plan to send it to the publishing house before Easter.

Hebrew
During my last LE I asked my LEP to read the first side of the handwritten war diary of the 71st Armored Battalion. This was like casting a spell! When he read and send me printed version of each line, I felt like blind who can see - suddenly all those mysterious signs started looking like letters and even words! I told him that I will try to read a little more and we will consult it next time. I cut some words and put as pictures into Anki, writing on the other side what is there. It surely helped me, but I still can't read everything.

Yesterday I finally started listening to my interviews with veterans. I have recorded a few hours with the first one and I've done about 15 minutes until now. But I use it on 3 dimensions simultaneously:
- for my article about the 71st Armored Battalion
- for the printed version of the interview (it will contain only the most interesting fragments)
- for improvement of my Hebrew
Here is the last field relevant, so some words about it. I can understand almost everything (recording is mixed - English and Hebrew), if not directly, then from context. If I encounter an interesting phrase, I cut the recording and put it into Anki. Often I understand it but I don't know that such a phrase exists - it is nice to learn it to be able to use it later.
So finally I feel that I'm concentrating on my Hebrew. Hopefully, it is not just the feeling
I have problems with catching up with the Anki reviews, but I will try no to make too many arrears since it is difficult to catch them up later.

Mandarin and Arabic
"All Quiet at the Western front" I would say, but the translation is wrong since the original "Im Westen nichts neues" means that there is nothing new on the Western front and not that it is quiet there...
Nevertheless, I skipped Anki reviews from Arabic in the last few days and I will surely need some time to catch up with them.
I tried to generate flashcards from the first Assimil dialogue in Mandarin in the method I described some time earlier but it was a disaster. They were boring and not much of value. I have to change the whole template.

[guyome]

My language progress suffers from my other passion, which is writing. I put a lot of effort into my book about the battle of the Marne. I hope to have it completed until the end of April. I can practice English, German, and French during that. My French, however, isn't good enough, so I have to use Google Translate to support my translation. In some cases, a paper two-volume dictionary also goes into the action

Hi cjareck,
I am impressed by your work on Hebrew (and other languages), especially since you juggle with family life and acadeia at the same time. Let me know, if I can help with French.

[cjareck]

I am impressed by your regularity at working on Hebrew (and other languages).

Thanks but this is most probably because it looks better in my log than in reality

Let me know, if I can help with French.

That surely would be appreciated! The main problem is with the documents since they are handwritten, and thus no electronic translation is possible. I will let you know when I will need help.

[guyome]

Thanks but this is most probably because it looks better in my log than in reality

Maybe but still it impresses me. Based on your experience, it seems to me that FSI Hebrew was quite good as a main resource. Would you recommend it to others?

[cjareck]

Would you recommend it to others?

Sure! But there is one thing that needs to be corrected. My LP said that I use quite a large vocabulary and speak a lot. This is partially feature of my character but I think I learned that in all FSI drills which I put in Anki. The drawback is that I struggle with understanding others. My oral comprehension is much worse than my speaking. Also, my reading comprehension is not that good, what is a problem since that part of the language is the most important for me.