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

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vegantraveller
Yellow Belt
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Location: Turin, Italy
Languages: Italian (N), English (C2), French (C2), German (B2-C1), Japanese (B2), Spanish (B2-B1), Swedish (B1). Just started: Icelandic, Romanian, Occitan/Provençal.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16482
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Re: Military historian's corner - EN, HE, ZH, AR, sometimes RU, FR and DE

Postby vegantraveller » Sun Feb 21, 2021 6:19 pm

cjareck wrote:Well, I hoped that 2021 would be better than 2020, but it doesn't want to! Last week my Mom died. She was 81 and had many health issues, but it isn't easy to accept. She wanted to be a good mother and good mother-in-law, so we had to put a border not to let her interfere too much what surely wasn't pleasant for her. Also, my own health made our contacts rare. There is nothing I can do about it now. "Show mus go on" I have to care for my family.

There is also good news. I received results from the blood tests. The cancer marker CEA level is normal, so my chances for the upcoming future seem to look better and better. But I am aware that it may change at any time.



I'm sorry about your loss. I lost my father last November, and I can only imagine what you are going through.
I'm also happy to read your cancer marker is normal, hopefully it will stay as it is.
3 x
I'm a man from Italy, not an owl from Japan :mrgreen:

Please correct my errors!

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

Postby Elsa Maria » Wed Feb 24, 2021 8:56 pm

I'm catching up on your log. I'm so sorry to read about your mother, and also about your health problems. It sounds like you have had some positive news about the cancer, and that is great! I had cancer 15 years ago, and it was a very scary and difficult time. Hopefully, that is all behind you now. Best wishes and happy studying.

You did a lot of studying while I was away from the forum! I am impressed!
4 x
Corrections are always welcome.

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Chmury
Green Belt
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Castellano (Adv)
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Polski - currently inactive, but I will return to it
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1516
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Re: Military historian's corner - EN, HE, ZH, AR, sometimes RU, FR and DE

Postby Chmury » Wed Feb 24, 2021 9:57 pm

Sorry to hear about your mum passing cjarek. Hope you're doing well considering and very glad to here that you at least got some good news regarding the marker for cancer. Hopefully the rest of 2021 will bring you nothing but the utmost positive.
2 x
Hindernisse und Schwierigkeiten sind Stufen, auf denen wir in die Höhe steigen

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cjareck
Brown Belt
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Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N) English, German, Russian(B1?) French (B1?), Hebrew(B1?), Arabic(A2?), Mandarin (HSK 2)
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Re: Military historian's corner - EN, HE, ZH, AR, sometimes RU, FR and DE

Postby cjareck » Wed Feb 24, 2021 10:38 pm

Vegantraveller, Elsa Maria and Chmury
Thank you for your kind words and the support! I am not going to give up. My wife and children need me, even if I am not the best husband or father...
My mother also had cancer 15 years ago, but she managed to overcome it. So I hope for the victory also.
Honestly, I thought that I would be mourning more... My father passed away 21 years ago when I lived with my parents. We both felt a lack of him in our small flat. Now life goes so quickly that I don't have much time for that... When I have some free time, I want to call her and quickly realize that it is already impossible...

To finish optimistically, I've had interesting LEs this week - one in Arabic and two in Hebrew. My Arabic very weak, but in Hebrew, I've managed to keep up the conversation both times!
7 x
Please feel free to correct me in any language


Listening: 1+ (83% content, 90% linguistic)
Reading: 1 (83% content, 90% linguistic)


MSA DLI : 30 / 141ESKK : 18 / 40


Mandarin Assimil : 62 / 105

User avatar
cjareck
Brown Belt
Posts: 1047
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:11 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N) English, German, Russian(B1?) French (B1?), Hebrew(B1?), Arabic(A2?), Mandarin (HSK 2)
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Re: Military historian's corner - EN, HE, ZH, AR, sometimes RU, FR and DE

Postby cjareck » Sun Feb 28, 2021 3:03 pm

On Thursday, I've received the results of CT. They surely could be better, but also could be worse. There are some changes, and the radiologist in the description suggests doing both gastroscopy and colonoscopy. I've consulted it quickly with an acquaintance who did Ph.D. in oncology, and he said that it hasn't to be something really bad, but I'm a little stressed. I'll wait until March 15th for a visit to the oncologist. I slowed down Arabic and Mandarin's learning speed, but I caught up with the first yesterday and with the second today.

Mandarin
As mentioned above, I had a pause in learning from Thursday until today. I had about 200 Flashcards to review, but I've managed to handle them today.

Arabic
Here I had two LEs, and both only with Arabic since my LEP offered to teach me Arabic without learning Polish. We did the Little Riding Hood story on Tuesday and Saturday. Due to the abovementioned problems, I've skipped MSA on Thursday and Friday and really spent almost the entire Saturday learning it. But the results were not as good as if I could split the time amount into three days. Nevertheless, I saw great improvement already. I could describe not only the pictures but also answer some questions related to them.
My LEP encouraged me to write a few sentences each day to have an output practice. So here they are ;)

27th February:
استيقظت اليوم في الساعة الثامنة
كل اليوم درست اللغة العربية
أنا كتبت مقالة حول معرك غزة في حرب ١٩٥٦
سمعت القصة عن الرداء الأحمر
بعد الظهر أنا تحدثت مع صديقي ضلير
عند المساء سأدرس اللغة العبرية

28th February:
كنت في كنيسة مع عالتي اليوم
درست اللغة الصينية قبل الظهر
انأ أبدأ أدرس اللغة العربية الآن
علي أن أراجع الكلمات من أمس وأدرس الكلمات الجديدة
سوف اقرأ الكتاب عن معركة أميان في ١٩١٨
علي أن أحضير دروسي للغد

Hebrew
I could mention it every week that only thanks to 365 Challenge, I kept learning Hebrew. Last week it was clearly the case since I even didn't consider dropping Hebrew, even if I limited myself to mostly around half an hour.
I had two LEs during the week, and I was delighted with them. I could talk with both my LEPs more or less fluently and even find some way around it when I didn't know the necessary vocabulary.

21st - 39 minutes (12 Anki, 19 veterans, 8 adding flashcards)
22nd - 42 minutes (12 Anki, 30 LE)
23rd - 34 minutes (14 Anki, 10 veterans, 10 adding flashcards)
24th - 64 minutes (14 Anki, 10 veterans, 30 LE, 10 adding flashcards)
25th - 40 minutes (17 Anki, 18 podcasts, 8 adding flashcards, 5 adding flashcards)
26th - 36 minutes (19 Anki, 17 veterans)
27th - 31 minutes (12 Anki, 14 other videos, 5 adding flashcards for handwritten script)
11 x
Please feel free to correct me in any language


Listening: 1+ (83% content, 90% linguistic)
Reading: 1 (83% content, 90% linguistic)


MSA DLI : 30 / 141ESKK : 18 / 40


Mandarin Assimil : 62 / 105

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2109
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Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Military historian's corner - EN, HE, ZH, AR, sometimes RU, FR and DE

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Feb 28, 2021 7:05 pm

We wish you all the best in the upcoming days. It's inspirational how you keep up your languages in the face of it all.
5 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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cjareck
Brown Belt
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Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N) English, German, Russian(B1?) French (B1?), Hebrew(B1?), Arabic(A2?), Mandarin (HSK 2)
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Re: Military historian's corner - EN, HE, ZH, AR, sometimes RU, FR and DE

Postby cjareck » Sun Mar 07, 2021 1:05 pm

MorkTheFiddle thanks! My father died when he was 69, so after my 35th birthday, I've realized that I also may be halfway through my life. Now, I consider that the end may come sooner. But it is the destiny of us all, and everyone here, despite this, tries to learn something new. Learning languages is also a pleasure for me so that I won't resign from that easily ;)

During the last few days, I've put everything behind (except language learning, that is) and concentrated on finishing my article about Gaza Strip in 1956. I hoped to finish it this week. Well, perhaps in the evening, I will have a beta version of the text... So, basically, I failed in my plan, since there are some things that I have to do next week. Nevertheless, I hope to finish it on Tuesday instead of resting after my seminars ;)
The main problem is with the battle of Rafah. I am used to reading accounts from both sides that differ seriously, but here I have got a series of descriptions about fights in various outposts. Arabs give them names and the Israelis, numbers. Luckily, I have an Arab map and some Israeli ones. However, there are not all strongpoints there, and not all of those have their Arabic name. I can't understand the course of events, and without that, I can't finish writing.

Mandarin
I've finally finished the 33rd lesson of Assimil. I also add 10 new flashcards for HSK 3 set. I need more contact with the texts to practice character recognition. Hopefully, I will figure out something in the future, especially that I have some DLI readers with audio.

Arabic
My LE scheduled for yesterday was canceled, but I've enjoyed one that I had on Tuesday. My progress was not that good as I expected, but I feel I'm going forward. Since my LEP corrects my short log entries, I will not publish them since I don't know which one to choose (original, corrected, or both?) ;)
I plan to make flashcards of them to learn it. Starting today :) By the way, I've found a useful Arabic TTS: https://ttsmp3.com/text-to-speech/Arabic/ It may not be perfect, but surely it is better than me!

Hebrew
I managed to keep going with my 365 Challenge! I limited myself mostly to Anki and some listening, but I was doing something! I had one LE on Wednesday, and it was very nice. I've noticed that I can explain what I mean when I forgot a word. Such activity becomes more and more simple. As for statistics:

28th February - 39 minutes (11 Anki, 18 adding flashcards for Hebrew cursive, 10 adding vocabulary)
1st March - 31 minutes (15 Anki, 16 a recorded discussion about the Yom Kippur War, moderated by a daughter of "my" veteran)
2nd - 32 minutes (14 Anki, 18 YKW discussion)
3rd - 30 minutes (5 Anki, 5 YKW discussion, 20 language exchange )
4th - 30 minutes (22 Anki, 8 adding vocabulary)
5th - 44 minutes (15 Anki, 15 YKW discussion, 14 adding vocabulary )
6th - 32 minutes (12 Anki, 20 grammar movies from "The Kefar" YT channel about Nifal conjugation)

February together - 19,7 hours (1714 minutes)
March together - 3,1 hours (187 minutes)
365 Challenge together - 51,5 hours (3084 minutes)
13 x
Please feel free to correct me in any language


Listening: 1+ (83% content, 90% linguistic)
Reading: 1 (83% content, 90% linguistic)


MSA DLI : 30 / 141ESKK : 18 / 40


Mandarin Assimil : 62 / 105

User avatar
cjareck
Brown Belt
Posts: 1047
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:11 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N) English, German, Russian(B1?) French (B1?), Hebrew(B1?), Arabic(A2?), Mandarin (HSK 2)
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Re: Military historian's corner - EN, HE, ZH, AR, sometimes RU, FR and DE

Postby cjareck » Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:33 am

This was a heavy week, but I've finally managed to finish my article about the Gaza Strip's conquest in 1956! I need to finish drawing maps and look for some illustrations. Those are only additions since the text is academic. I enjoyed writing very much, and I even read some Hebrew and even Arabic (but mostly used Google Translate). I was proud of myself since, in an Arabic book, I understood the organization of the Egyptian 8th Palestinian Border Guard Division that was placed in the Gaza Strip in 1956. Not much, but it made me happy :) I didn't count the time spend reading Hebrew in my 365 Challenge because it was mainly short glimpses to check something, and turning on and off the timer would distract me too much.

The next text that I have to write is about the intelligence and counterintelligence before the Yom Kippur War, so there will surely be plenty of opportunities to use Hebrew and Arabic in my academic work!

Mandarin
Well, Mandarin, as usual, suffered the most. I add some new HSK 3 Cards, but there are still plenty of them left. My Anki statistics show that for the HSK 1 - 3 levels, I've seen 1570 flashcards, and there are still 830 left. Each character/word gives at least 4 flashcards (pronunciation, simplified, traditional, and meaning). I hope to do the 33rd Assimil lesson this week.
Perpahs there will be a conference about the impact of the civil wars on the art of war, so I'm considering taking part with something about the Chinese Civil War. That would give me the motivation to work harder on Mandarin, and also, I could show that using Chinese sources is possible! :) But I fear that it is simply too ambitious...

Arabic
I didn't work as much as I should in Arabic, but I keep writing my log and even record myself. My LEP is correcting it for me. I describe the pictures, and it is going quite well. I need to work harder to acquire the necessary vocabulary from our last two sessions.

Hebrew
I managed to meet the requirements fr the 365 challenge each day. I looked at the statistics, and it seems that reviewing Anki cards is from 30 to 50% of the amount of time spend on Hebrew. When I have more time, the podcasts and watching veterans' interviews can have up to 30% each. Those are my main activities. I need to spend more time on adding vocabulary. I slowly go through a podcast about the 188th armored brigade. I have done only about 30 minutes so far. But 20 minutes of that is a result of this year, so it is not that bad in comparison to the last year ;) I dream of doing 10 minutes per month. Perhaps I will manage it!
As for statistics:
7th - 31 minutes (17 Anki, 4 adding vocabulary, 10 watching discussion about YKW)
8th - 31minutes (20 Anki, 7 adding vocabulary, 4 veterans)
9th - 47 minutes (19 Anki, 28 podcasts)
10th - 31 minutes (6 Anki, 25 language exchange)
11th - 37minutes (17 Anki, 20 podcasts)
12th - 33 minutes (13 Anki, 5 adding vocabulary, 15 podcasts)
13th - 54 minutes (15 Anki, 8 adding vocabulary, 31 podcasts)

Total for March: 463 minutes (7,7 hours)
Total for 365 Challenge: 3360 minutes (56 hours)
9 x
Please feel free to correct me in any language


Listening: 1+ (83% content, 90% linguistic)
Reading: 1 (83% content, 90% linguistic)


MSA DLI : 30 / 141ESKK : 18 / 40


Mandarin Assimil : 62 / 105

User avatar
cjareck
Brown Belt
Posts: 1047
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:11 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N) English, German, Russian(B1?) French (B1?), Hebrew(B1?), Arabic(A2?), Mandarin (HSK 2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=8589
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Re: Military historian's corner - EN, HE, ZH, AR, sometimes RU, FR and DE

Postby cjareck » Sun Mar 21, 2021 12:50 pm

All quiet on the health front. I focused on my other activities, like reading the Ph.D. thesis that a friend of mine wrote. It was from law history, so I was to look at it as a historian. It was interesting but time-consuming. Yesterday we spoke about my remarks for about 4 hours, and this was the first day I seriously considered skipping my 365 Challenge. I went to sleep at 2 am, but managed to keep up with it!

Mandarin
I've finished the 34th lesson of Assimil. It goes slowly, and Mandarin is usually the first to pay the price of my lack of time or strength to learn. Now I have to prepare the review lesson. They usually were more complicated, but this one seems to be easy. I hope I will check it this week :)

Arabic
Here everything goes well! I write my log regularly and even try to record myself. My LEP is checking it. I can speak about some simple pictures and even answer the questions or at least understand them.
I started watching videos from Book 2, prepared by the Institue of the Language of the Quran. The teacher is indeed excellent. I like to listen to him.
I think I will be able to talk about pictures fluently with basic grammar. I hope that the next step - improving vocabulary - will be quite easy.
Of my three courses, each one has a different approach:
- Polish ESKK course - try to be interesting, and the Arabic grammar is reached like French or German. Present tense at first and some other things
- DLI course - basic explanations with a lot of drills to memorize the usage and not the rules
- LQ Toronto course (Madeenah Arabic) - detailed explanations suited for the Arabic grammar. It is intended for Muslims, but I've asked them if they don't mind me as a Christian using it. They told me that they don't.
I like the last one the most since it really teaches to understand why. But the others help to see the problem from a different point of view, and they complement each other.

Hebrew
I continue with the 365 Challenge. Currently, I have returned to listening to the podcast about 188th Brigade. I'm delighted with the level of my comprehension of the part that I worked through with Anki. It really helped!

14th - 32 minutes (13 Anki, 11 adding vocabulary, 8 veterans)
15th - 31 minutes (24 Anki, 7 veterans)
16th - 46 minutes (23 Anki, 8 adding vocabulary, 15 podcasts)
17th - 32 minutes (12 Anki, 20 language exchange)
18th - 58 minutes (23 Anki, 12 adding vocabulary, 23 podcasts)
19th - 42 minutes (21 Anki, 3 adding vocabulary, 18 podcasts)
20th - 32 minutes (24 Anki, 8 veterans)

Total for March: 736 minutes (12 hours)
365 Challenge total: 3633 (60,55 hours)
10 x
Please feel free to correct me in any language


Listening: 1+ (83% content, 90% linguistic)
Reading: 1 (83% content, 90% linguistic)


MSA DLI : 30 / 141ESKK : 18 / 40


Mandarin Assimil : 62 / 105

User avatar
cjareck
Brown Belt
Posts: 1047
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:11 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N) English, German, Russian(B1?) French (B1?), Hebrew(B1?), Arabic(A2?), Mandarin (HSK 2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=8589
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Re: Military historian's corner - EN, HE, ZH, AR, sometimes RU, FR and DE

Postby cjareck » Sun Mar 28, 2021 11:06 am

I've had my gastroscopy that week. The report said that everything seems to be OK. The doctor took samples for the histopathology test that will give the final answer. Nevertheless, that gave me a lot of energy :) As, after I left hospital after my surgery, I thought about that scene from "Das Boot":



I've finished also the article about the conquest of the Gaza Strip by adding two maps and a little more than 10 pictures. I'm ready for a new challenge on my academic field ;)
Last night I had a dream about LE in Hebrew and that I mixed German (I surely used "haben" for the past tense). I don't know what I was talking about in Hebrew, but surely something in that language. The problem of the LEP responses was fixed by the sound problems - I couldn't hear him in the dream.

Mandarin
Since Mandarin needs most work to make it a useful tool, I was deliberately leaving it behind. Since, as I wrote before, I received some good news, I decided to push forward. I hope to finish the 35th Assimil lesson today or tomorrow.
I also applied for the conference with the military lessons from the Chinese Civil war. It is like learning to swim by starting in deep water. Do you know that joke:
"Little John (Jaś in Polish) won the swimming competition. So they ask them:
- how you learned to swim
- my father used to take me to the middle of the lake by the boat at left me there
- you are brave, it surely was difficult
- not that much, getting out of the bag was more complicated" :)
I've got some materials in English, Mandarin and even german since general von Seeckt (my first book was about him) was briefly a military advisor to Chiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek or 蒋介石). Nevertheless, this will be a challenge that will force me to look for Russian materials also. And, in the end, the most unexpected one - Arabic! In the last phase, there was an insurgency by Chinese Muslims! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintan ... insurgency

Arabic
I spend quite a lot of time on that! I've finally started putting my log sentences into Anki to practice translation ARA <-> PL. I decided to use Assimil's method where they put the literal translation below the normal one. It helps! Today I decided to put an important vocabulary also as separate cards. Mostly due to pronunciation issues.
I really can describe some basic things from the pictures or from my daily routine. Each time I try to go slightly beyond my comfort zone to learn something new. I also try to practice phrases already learned in different contexts to really master them.
On Wednesday I've had my LE in Hebrew and I wanted to say some words in Arabic during that. It is the biggest proof that the language is coming into my head :)

Hebrew
I've developed a habit of working with Hebrew and I don't have to struggle much with it. I try to add vocabulary from the Podcast about 188th Brigade but it goes slowly. Nevertheless, I listen to it again and really understand a lot!
I've had two LEs that week that really went nice. I see the difference from what was at the beginning of my LE activity in Hebrew. As for the statistics:

21st - 34 minutes (17 Anki, 7 adding vocabulary, 10 podcasts)
22nd - 54 minutes (14 Anki, 30 LE, 10 adding vocabulary)
23rd - 32 minutes (22 Anki, 10 adding vocabulary)
24th - 52 minutes (24 Anki, 20 LE, 8 adding vocabulary)
25th - 45 minutes (16 Anki, 5 adding vocabulary, 24 podcasts)
26th - 41 minutes (22 Anki, 6 podcasts, 13 veterans)
27th - 37 minutes (18 Anki, 19 podcasts)

Total hours in March: 17,2
Total hours during 365 Challenge: 65,5
13 x
Please feel free to correct me in any language


Listening: 1+ (83% content, 90% linguistic)
Reading: 1 (83% content, 90% linguistic)


MSA DLI : 30 / 141ESKK : 18 / 40


Mandarin Assimil : 62 / 105


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