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

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cjareck
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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 Nov 01, 2020 12:51 pm

English
I've sent an email to ask about my English article but didn't receive any reply for a few days. I suppose that the project was canceled due to coronavirus or something like that. That would be, of course, sad news. Nevertheless, working on the text was an excellent language practice that gave me confidence (even overconfidence, I would say ;) ).

Hebrew
I decided to begin a day with Hebrew. In effect, I pay much more attention to the language. I listened to podcasts from "Osim Historia" by Ran Levi. He has some military topics among them, so I am extremely happy!
I did one GLOSS lesson. I managed to get 100% on the final test, but only because the questions were repeated from the previous exercise. I have to put the vocabulary into Anki. The text was about Iron Dome entering into the service. Next time I will try to reverse my activities - I will put vocabulary first (you may download pdf + mp3 for the lessons) and then do the lesson itself.
I had LEs with both LEPs last week, I am satisfied with them as usual.
I have also finished listening to my interview with Yom Kippur Veteran. It was 60% English and 40% Hebrew. I used it for learning the language, for my article about his unit (71st armored battalion), and for the interview with him that will be printed in Polish. We just have to polish some minor issues.

Mandarin
Unfortunately, Mandarin had to pay the price for lack of my free time. It turned out that one lesson every two days is impossible for me. Perhaps the best idea would be to switch the leading lanuage on the weekly basis. Planning such things is extremely easy, but turning those plans into action is much more complicated ;)

MSA
I finished the 7th lesson of the ESKK course and started doing previously added material for the DLI's 16th lesson. I also slowly add drills for DLI's 17th lesson. I will switch to ESKK most probably later since the 18th lesson talks about pausal forms, which seems to be important.
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

User avatar
cjareck
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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 Nov 08, 2020 4:32 pm

English
I received a reply about my text in English - it is still planned for publication. That was great news! However, as I said before, it helped me a lot already!

Hebrew
I did a GLOSS lesson on level 1 today. It was about trip to Jerusalem. I read the lesson's pdf once I realized that I understand almost everything. The lesson itself also went very easy!
I applied to a yearly conference about military conflicts after the year 1945. This time I've selected the conquering of the Gaza Strip during the Suez Crisis. I already looked at my Hebrew books about it and partially scanned and OCR'ed them into LWT. I slowly work with the LWT.
Besides that, I've made only Anki and had my regular LE.

Arabic
I've prepared the sounds of the 17th lesson of DLI and added the presentation drills into Anki. Hopefully, in a few days, the whole lesson will be added. I also increase the number of reviewed cards daily - so I hope to finish 16th lesson soon.
Since the Gaza Strip was Egyptian, I put some Arabic website paragraphs: moqatel into LWT and slowly work with them.
That is an excellent opportunity to try my Arabic and Hebrew and use them in my professional work! Unfortunately, the above-mentioned conference will be only online, so I will not meet my friends this time.

Mandarin
I was thinking about using my Mandarin for that conference. I have some American materials about the Korean War, so I thought that obtaining some Chinese texts would allow me to prepare a speech about 中国人民志愿军 (People's Volunteer Army), but I had to postpone that idea. First, my Mandarin is too low. Second I lack some basic resources, like the official Chinese history of the war and some memories published even in English. Something like a common American-Chinese project, as far as I remember. Maybe next time ;)
I also didn't manage to make any new lesson of Assimil. I almost finished preparing cards for one, so maybe tomorrow the time for Chinese will finally come ;)
I worked with LWT - I scanned a page of a book that I bought some time ago - about Mao and his generals. Rather propagandist work, but interesting and providing me a lot of interesting vocabulary.
8 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
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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 » Sat Nov 14, 2020 10:54 pm

I noticed that making cards give me more pleasure than reviewing them. It is dangerous ;) This referred to FSI Hebrew and now DLI MSA. There are repetitive patterns that allow generating cards fairy quickly.

Hebrew
I try to keep Hebrew as the main focal point of my language study. It is not easy, but I managed to add about 100 new words into LWT during the last 7 days. I also slowly work through podcast about 188th Brigade, adding new words from it into Anki. I put it into LWT, and at first, I look for the words and later listen to podcast and create Anki cards. The tempo isn't impressive - about a minute each day...
Each week I also watch an episode of the new Israeli TV series about the Yom Kippur War. It seemed excellent initially - with all commands of the armor's crew like in my interviews - but slowly becomes more and more inaccurate.

I finish working on one of the interviews. It was planned for publication only in Polish, but the veteran offered to publish it in English if I could only translate it. So I will start doing it soon and probably ask on the forum for some corrections...

Arabic
I finished adding the 17th lesson of DLI. I hope to review all the remaining cards of the 16th lesson next week. In my LWT, I added 30 words during the last 7 days. Not that many, unfortunately.

Mandarin
I did lessons 26th and 27th of the Assimil course. Next week I hope to finish the 28th lesson. It is complicated because it is a review lesson, and I want to do it thoroughly.
I also added about 90 words into the LWT, but only a few added into Anki to learn them. I will do it probably after finishing Assimil.
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
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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 Nov 22, 2020 11:00 am

This wasn't a good week for language learning. My wife accompanied Helen in a hospital again (this time diagnostics only), and I was with the rest kids home alone from Tuesday morning to Friday afternoon. We have lessons online, so I had to solve various computer problems or even motivate them or split their fights. Besides all that, I worked on my presentation of the conquest of Gaza in 1956, practicing usage of my Hebrew and Arabic and Google Translate ;) Nevertheless, I managed to review my Anki cards.

English
I started listening to the Water Margin Podcast, which is about an old Chinese novel 水浒传 that was the base of the video game "Bandit Kings of Ancient China II" that I used to play as a teenager. Even now, I play It sometimes using DOSBox ;)
Besides that, I wrote some posts on this forum.
There was a funny thing with my boys singing something like "baby suck, baby suck." I found it suspicious, so I asked them who taught them the song - "the English teacher in the Kindergarten" was the answer. So I asked what does it mean in Polish. It turned out that it was "baby shark, baby shark" ;) So I instructed them to pronounce "sh" (in Polish, it is more or less "sz") properly :)

Mandarin
I finally managed to add the 28th Assimil lesson to Anki. I hope to review it soon and go forward with the course. But it seems that I will not manage to finish the first part this year.
I added the first two texts from a DLI reader into LWT and worked a little with it (18 words). I also started the second (third?) try with the Chinese Prestudy addon with the second text. I don't know. I feel like my brain is blocked when I work with it. Perhaps doing 5 new words a day will not be too fast...

Arabic
I worked with the Arabic text, preparing my presentation but mostly used Google Translate. My Arabic skill is much too low to read anything alone. Nevertheless, I can find out some basic errors or check military vocabulary. I also learn Arabic that way. I added 12 new Arabic words to LWT last week. I also finished the 16th DLI MSA lesson. Since the next one is already added, I hope to review it this week.

Hebrew
I had my regular language exchange and a mixed Hebrew-English interview with "my" Yom Kippur War veteran. I am preparing the interview for publication in Polish, and I send him a Google Translated English version, so he knows what I wrote in Polish, more or less. Perhaps it will also be published in English, but, of course, I will translate it manually for that version. I will most probably ask here for some corrections...
Next week I will also have LE with my older LEP.
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
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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 Nov 29, 2020 7:52 pm

On Monday and Tuesday, I took part in an online conference for the first time in my life. It was not bad, but I would prefer to meet the people in person, especially that some of them are my friends with whom I was in Israel! And the conference - in stationary version - would be in Bydgoszcz - only 50 km away. But, despite being only online, I enjoyed it very much. I spoke about the Israeli conquest of Gaza in 1956. I had an occasion to practice my Hebrew in Arabic while preparing my presentation. Now I have to write an article about it. I find it difficult to balance academic work and learning languages. The day is simply too short!

Arabic
I slowly review cards from the 17th lesson of the DLI's course that I added some time ago. I don't add anything new. I hope to finish the lesson within a few days, and then I decide what to add next.

Hebrew
I had to LEs this week what I found interesting. Found out something interesting. While working on the abovementioned article, a found out that the Israelis used special Bangalore torpedos, extended up to 25 m length. They were invented by an officer named Bardanow. When he was killed in battle, the soldiers nicknamed those torpedoes "Bardanow's ..." guess what ;) Reverso context informed me that the translation would display 18+ content. And it displayed. I asked my younger LEP if any other translation is possible. He said that it is the only possible. So I will put it somehow into the text.

Mandarin
Most cards I currently review are Mandarin ones. I use the Chinese Prestudy addon, Hanping Chinese HSK deck, and Assimil. When I review 10-20 new cards in each of them, the overall number grows rapidly. I noticed that Chinese Prestudy cards, after a difficult beginning, are finally useful. Maybe next week, I will see all the cards necessary to understand the text in my reader. I also probably finish the 28th lesson of Assmil tomorrow. I reviewed all the cards already, but I want to reread the text.
8 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
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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 Dec 06, 2020 9:16 am

This week I have a scheduled consultation with an oncologist. I do not need to write that I am stressed because of that...

Arabic
According to my plan, I've finished the 17th Lesson of the DLI course. I didn't add anything new to my Arabic decks (one for dialogues, one for vocabulary, and one for exercises) and wait until the number of reviews decreases. I had to put more effort into Hebrew now!

Mandarin
The progress bar for Assimil doesn't show that, but I feel I'm working with that language the most of my learning time. I hope to finish HSK 2 deck for the Hanping Chinese in Anki and also all the cards generated by the Chinese Prestudy addon. I am eager to see if I will understand the text from the reader. I started watching the war drama series "My battalion": https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... o8IY-RrcsU I understand only about 10% of the characters and even less of the words, but who cares ;) I learned some new vocabulary like commanders of battalion, platoon, and regiment, "open fire," and so on. Something that I need for my work!

Hebrew
Here I just limited myself to reviewing Anki and one LE. I also watched an episode of a war drama about the Yom Kippur War. It is geo-blocked, but there is not much trouble with setting an Israeli proxy for that ;) Here I understand quite a lot, especially if there are "military" dialogues. I hope to be able to push more with Hebrew this week.
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
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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 » Wed Dec 09, 2020 5:09 pm

I had an oncological consultation today. The computer tomography didn't show any changes caused by cancer. So everything went according to the plan! Next time I am will have to undergo two consultations in March - one surgical and one oncological. They both are normal control procedures. The cancer is like the Fatum in Greek tragedy. Will always be there, waiting for its moment to strike. Hopefully that moment will never come!

As for language learning reports:
Mandarin
I finished reviewing first set of Chinese Prestudy cards. But I am far from knowing them, so I need some repetitions before I will dare to read the text. I also scheduled a LE on Skype with my Chinese LEP. I can't wait!

Hebrew
Yesterday I watched the last episode of the series about the Yom Kippur War. I understand a lot, if not directly, then from the context. Even the crucial dialogue between father and son before going into the battle.

Arabic
Only reviewing flashcards.
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 Dec 13, 2020 1:03 pm

Time for a weekly update!

Mandarin
I had my first LE in Mandarin. Well, we talked mostly in English, but we get through some simple dialogue. This was nice! Next week we will practice Polish. I hope that we will be able to maintain our meeting weekly.

I also received a book that I bought on Aliexpress. It is about Chinese history and has 369 pages and many chapters. That is good - each one I will treat as a lesson for reading! It was fairly cheap - about 17$ with shipment to Poland. It was quite well packed but came damaged and dirty. As someone took it out from the trashcan, packed and sell. It is my fourth purchase there, and only it was in such an appalling condition. I decided not to make any complaint about it since I do not have time for such things. The book can fulfill its role despite the abovementioned problems.

As for Chinese Prestudy, I am not satisfied. It skipped a lot of characters and vocabulary. It is because I followed the suggested number of vocabulary and left it at 3500. I forgot that what is interesting for me is rather far from everyday use ;) So I will increase the number and see what happens next ;)

I also hope to finish the HSK Level of Hanping Chinese Anki deck today. There are only 25 cards left. After that, I will focus on Assimil, but my plan to finish a passive part this year is impossible to fulfill. No problem, no one is chasing after me ;)

Hebrew
I try to make learning Hebrew more active. I managed to add some vocabulary based on about a minute of the podcast about the 188th Brigade. I need to speed up the process. It surely yields some results - I listened to the podcast while cycling and understood a lot more than before.

Arabic
I had to limit myself to reviewing Anki. Arabic has to wait for its moment.
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
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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 Dec 20, 2020 8:15 pm

Arabic
The time for Arabic came earlier than I expected. I found motivation and added the 8th lesson of the ESKK course to Anki. I even listened to it (as well as the 7th lesson) while cycling. I should review those cards next week, but that means that my goal of reaching the 10th lesson this year is unreachable.

Mandarin
I had a LE on Saturday, but we practiced Polish only. In two weeks will by my Chinese ;)
Currently, I'm only reviewing flashcards. I decided to learn a short presentation of myself that my LEP translated for me a long time ago. It is difficult, but I hope to master it in those two weeks.

Hebrew
I hope to push forward with Hebrew. I know, that I wrote it many times already ;) I found a YT channel with many interviews with the Yom Kippur War veterans. I'm downloading them and organizing a video library. I hope to use them soon. I listened to one - an artillery officer on the Golan Heights. I certainly didn't understand everything, but I could follow the story. For the details, I would need help since there are no subtitles. By the way, I've learned a new word - "katak" "קת"ק" that means a "forward artillery officer-observer" ("קצין תצפית קדמי")
8 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 Dec 27, 2020 1:27 pm

I've signed in to the 365 Day Challenge. I had some doubts about which language I should choose, but I eventually decided to do it with Hebrew. The progress will probably not be as swift as it would be with Arabic or Mandarin, but I need the language most, and I am closest here to reach a level where maintenance only will be necessary. If, after the challenge, I will be able to work with the source material without any problems, that will be a great success and fulfillment of my expectations. I will test my Hebrew soon to have a starting point for comparison ;)

Hebrew
I had two LEs that week. Both were very satisfactory, as usual ;) I've downloaded nearly 30GB of various interviews with the Yom Kippur War Veterans, so I will have plenty of material for studying. I plan to create a database where I could put fragments of them into different categories. I could then quickly access all descriptions of the same event from different perspectives. It will be hard work to create it and fill it with the data, but I am optimistic. I manage to do so for the scans of documents of the German Reichsheer with about 7000 scans inside.

With my younger LEP, we started reading a handwritten report about tanks stored in the alarm depot in Filon base. Extremely interesting "PS I would shoot the person responsible" ;) After deciphering the script, I have to translate it thoroughly. It will take some meetings for sure. The sad thing is that my level is not improved much since reading the war diary. Different hand, different writing style, and I am almost back to square one...

Arabic
I am slowly going through the 8th lesson of ESKK. I may even finish it this year ;) I will at least try. I also prepared audio for the 18th lesson of the DLI, but I will wait to add new cards until the ESKK lesson is finished.
I also found a documentary film about the Yom Kippur War with the subtitles in Arabic. I've downloaded them, put them into LWT, and started translating them (I'm fully aware of the auto-translation possibility, but I want to do it myself). I will surely create some Anki cards based on this.

Mandarin
I scheduled a LE for 2nd January. I hope to learn a self-introduction that my LEP prepared for me a long, long time before. I hope to practice that with him.
Perhaps in 2021, I will start learning HSK 3 vocabulary, but I'm not sure. There is also an Assimil course waiting for completion. I don't want to push too much into Mandarin since I decided to give Hebrew a priority. But who knows! I like the Chinese language very much :)
8 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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