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

[cjareck]

Arabic
Despite the vivid discussion in the Team Middle East, I didn't put more effort into the MSA then reviewing flashcards.

Russian
Lack of time does not allow any serious learning of this language, but I have to work with Russian materials again. This time I am writing about the crossing of the San river in may 1915. I didn' have much about it, just a few pages. But I have to understand them

Hebrew
I had a language exchange today. I am impressed by how good my language partner was. He used limited vocabulary but mastered some sounds really well. He prepared a note about himself and read it last time. I corrected his pronunciation and spelling and recorded myself reading this. He was probably shadowing this for some time because the result was very good. I think about applying this method for my study. I copied a Hebrew book for children - "My father is in the Air Force", and I will try to read it.
I also added a few drills to Anki.

English - something like perfect tenses practice
I have been learning English for an extremely long time, about 30 years. Not all of that time actively, of course. I have reached a satisfactory level in my high school and only recently started to think about bringing it higher. So English has been my first foreign language, although I never been neither to England nor any English-spoken country. I registered on this forum one year ago to ask for something about Hebrew, and after receiving an answer, I disappeared for some time. Luckily I have returned since here I find motivation for learning languages but also I have an excellent opportunity to practice my English. I have been using Grammarly for more than a year. It corrects my most obvious errors - at the beginning, most of them were missing articles. Recently I noticed that I am using them much better than before. Grammarly now tries to teach me how to put commas, but this is not an easy task

[StringerBell]

English - something like perfect tenses practice
I have been learning English for an extremely long time, about 30 years. Not all of that time actively, of course. I have reached a satisfactory level in my high school and only recently started to think about bringing it higher. So English has been my first foreign language, although I never been neither to England nor any English-spoken country. I registered on this forum one year ago to ask for something about Hebrew, and after receiving an answer, I disappeared for some time. Luckily I have returned since here I find motivation for learning languages but also I have an excellent opportunity to practice my English. I have been using Grammarly for more than a year. It corrects my most obvious errors - at the beginning, most of them were missing articles. Recently I noticed that I am using them much better than before. Grammarly now tries to teach me how to put commas, but this is not an easy task

Most of those tenses were pretty good! Just a few small corrections (I'm assuming you'd like corrections)

I have reached a satisfactory level in my high school -> should be: I reached a satisfactory level in high school. ("my" is not needed)

So English has been my first foreign language -> should be: So English was my first foreign language.

although I never been neither to England nor any English-spoken country. -> should be: although I have never been to England nor any English-speaking country.

here I find motivation for learning languages but also I have an excellent opportunity... -> should be: here I find motivation for learning languages and also I have an excellent opportunity...

***********

I, myself, have a lot of trouble with using commas in Polish. At first I was assuming that all languages used commas in the same way, but I quickly realized this wasn't true! At this point, I know that there is a comma before "że" as in: mam nadzieję, że (which feels very weird to me because that would be the equivalent of writing in English: I hope, that). I'm totally lost about the other commas, though!

[cjareck]

Most of those tenses were pretty good! Just a few small corrections (I'm assuming you'd like corrections)

Thanks for corrections! Your assumptions were correct

[cjareck]

At first I was assuming that all languages used commas in the same way, but I quickly realized this wasn't true! [...] I'm totally lost about the other commas, though!

I have the same experience with English It seems that we have to learn them just by practising. I will look into my girls' schoolbooks - they are the second grade, so they start to learn such things. Maybe I will find there something helpful for you.

[cjareck]

I haven't reported anything for more than a week, so the time to write has come
Arabic
Since this language has no priority at the moment, I limit myself mostly to reviewing flashcards. Nevertheless, I prepared audio for the next lesson, and maybe I will add it to Anki even this week. But this is more struggle to maintain my current level than to learn something new. Unfortunately.

Hebrew
This language has a priority, but this doesn't mean that I can devote myself to it as much as I would like. I finished adding lesson 24 some time ago, and I hope to review all it's cards at least once today or tomorrow. I started even preparing audio for lesson 25, but this will not be an easy task. The lesson is much longer than the previous one. At least as long as the number 23. So I assume that I will be doing it till the end of this year.
I had two or three language exchanges. It seems that I have found two stable language partners. That really helps a lot. I am confident in speaking. So confident that I often stop middle in the sentence in despair searching for a missing word Because I do not hesitate to start a sentence and do not bother if can finish it properly.

Since I am busy with my scientific work now, there is not much to report from other languages. They have to wait.

[cjareck]

Again my report comes after more than a week. But this was genuinely occupied at that time.
I prepared audio for lesson 25 of Hebrew FSI. That is about 800 mp3 files. So it will surely take a lot of time to put into Anki and to get through it.

In Arabic, I started adding lesson 8 to Anki, but it I will not finish it soon, because of lacking time. But who knows, sometimes I take irrational decisions

Maybe some of the Readers noticed my struggle with a presentation in [url="https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=9357"]German[/url]. The end effect was not bad, mostly thanks to Kat, but I realized that my level of German decreased a lot. I do not mean passive knowledge, but had difficulty in answering the questions. Luckily I found someone to speak to and refreshed my capabilities a little. Nevertheless, some regular practice - maintaining language - may be necessary.

[StringerBell]

Again my report comes after more than a week. But I was genuinely occupied during this time.

In Arabic, I started adding lesson 8 to Anki, but I will not finish it soon, because of a lack of time / because I'm lacking time. But who knows, sometimes I make irrational decisions

I know you like corrections, but I'm not sure how often you'd like them - let me know if it gets annoying and I'll stop! You only make very small mistakes that don't interfere with understanding what you are saying, but that's generally when corrections help the most, I think.

Do you find German grammar easier than English? I know that German has a case system, a little simpler than what Polish has, so I imagine this would feel easier than a language with no case system. Maybe that's not the case? (pun intended)

[cjareck]

Do you find German grammar easier than English? I know that German has a case system, a little simpler than what Polish has, so I imagine this would feel easier than a language with no case system. Maybe that's not the case? (pun intended)

No, I don't. German case system is too different from Polish, so it is complicated and not intuitive for me like the Russian one. Because of that fact, English is much easier for me.

I like corrections, and I will never get tired of them. But not always I have enough time to analyse them deep enough to make instant progress. But I appreciate them since my goal - writing texts in English may be distant, but is still valid.

[cjareck]

Hebrew
I had 1,5 hour of language exchange (LE as rdearman writes), half of it in Polish and half in Hebrew. I managed to tell some jokes in Hebrew I simply opened Google Translate, set the translation from Hebrew to English, wrote in Hebrew and checked if the translation makes sense. I use this tactic very often, but you have to know the language at least a bit to know what to write

I started adding the Drills from lesson 25 to Anki. There is a looooong way ahead.

I have a conference on military conflicts after the second world war, and I will present the Destruction of the "Barak" Brigade (Yom Kippur War on the Golan Heights). There are many materials on this topic, but most of them in Hebrew. So preparing the speech and the article will be challenging

Arabic
Of course, I was unable to put it totally on the side, and I completed adding the Pattern Drills of the lesson 8. I must figure out how to deal with comprehension drills (I have recording, transcription and questions without answer key) and some Free Selection Drills and other things like that without an answer key (since the drills are "free" lacking of answer key is logical). Probably I use Multilingual Room or Team Middle East to ask for checking my answers or put the questions into HiNative.

[cjareck]

Hebrew
I had two LE last week, and I will have one tomorrow. I reached a level that I speak, and I am understood. I know because my partners are then translating my "Hebrew" into actual Hebrew, and it sounds exactly as what I was trying to say
I decided to read a book slowly but did not manage to stick to it for more than one day.
I plan to start writing an article in which I will have to use Hebrew materials soon. The above mentioned should motivate me to work on the language

Arabic
There is nothing much to report here — only regular Anki sessions.

English
Recently my article has been published:
https://www.academia.edu/37824746/The_r ... at_Gorlice
My co-author has a PhD in English philology, so it should be correct. He was not translating but only correcting since I wrote in English only. He is very precious as a co-author because he has great knowledge in the Austro-Hungarian military and that is why we co-authored some publications in Polish. Now we are switching to English to use his professional education