Radioclare's 2019 log (Croatian/Russian)

[Daniel N.]

Well, at least it will be a change

Since the adjectives are declined together with nouns, I wouldn't expect the change to be significant

Nouns and adjectives often have different endings for the same case.

[Radioclare]

2 May
I still haven't got over the fact that it's May.

Russian
I wasn't diligent enough to put new vocab into Memrise last night so once I'd finished my reviews this morning, I started the Memrise official "Russian 2" course.

On the way to work I did lesson 15 of Pimsleur 2, which was mainly about learning how to invite someone to your house. That's not something I anticipate having a great need to do in Russian, but I keep reminding myself that I'm doing Pimsleur for the speaking practice There has been some useful practice on pronouns in the past few lessons as well. I can stare at tables of pronouns until I'm blue in the face but I'll never remember them unless I actually start learning them in sentences.

I had some admin and emails I needed to deal with this evening, so couldn't devote as much time as I hoped to language learning, but I did listen to the audiobook for chapter 7 of Twilight (about 40 minutes). I was feeling a bit disheartened about how many words I still have to look up, but it was actually really fun to listen to the audio while reading the text and realised that I had absorbed the definitions of a few new words at least

Total time = 84 minutes. Streak = 122 days

[Radioclare]

3 May
Only a quick update today, because I'm going to Italy tomorrow and I think it involves getting up at 03.30. Today was a horrific day at work which culminated in me being asked to work the weekend. What a shame that I can't because I have plans

Russian
I made some more progress with the Russian 2 Memrise course on the train to Birmingham this morning. I wouldn't say it was amazing progress; it was one of those end-of-the-week mornings where I felt really tired.

I was going to a client today which involved changing trains and a minimal amount of walking, but I got through lesson 16 of Pimsleur 2. The conditions weren't ideal because I did most of it while standing on train platforms, which meant I felt too self-conscious to do the responses out loud and sometimes couldn't hear the questions properly either because of incoming trains.

This weekend will be a test of whether I can still keep up 30 minutes of Russian a day when travelling!

Total time = 49 minutes. Streak = 123 days

[StringerBell]

I hope you have an awesome time in Italy! I wonder how many times you will respond in Russian when someone speaks to you in Italian.

I'm very curious to hear what you think about Cinque Terre; I haven't been to Liguria yet so it's a destination I always have in the back on my mind.

[IronMike]

I hope you have an awesome time in Italy! I wonder how many times you will respond in Russian when someone speaks to you in Italian.

Italy is the #1 vacation spot for Russians, so good chance you'll get to speak Russian there.

[Radioclare]

4 May
I flew to Genoa this morning and had a few hours there, on the basis of which I definitely wouldn't rank it highly within my list of favourite places in Italy. But in the afternoon we travelled on to the little village where we're staying in Cinque Terre, and it's really beautiful; there are amazing views of the sea and coast

I did indeed hear several groups of tourists speaking Russian when I was walking round Genoa earlier. I am reassured that I have now progressed far enough with Russian to at least be able to identify it when I overhear people speaking it, as opposed to just labelling it as "unintelligible Slavic language"

I hope you have an awesome time in Italy! I wonder how many times you will respond in Russian when someone speaks to you in Italian.

On the plane this morning I was trying to remember what words of Italian I might know... I was sure the word for "thank you" was on the tip of my tongue... but all I could remember was "спасибо"

Russian
Anyway, I managed to keep my streak. I managed about 10 minutes of Memrise reviews in the airport while waiting for breakfast and it felt ridiculously early to be doing it, but actually it was about 07.30 and 07.30 is the time I start Memrise most days. The difference was just that today I'd been awake since 03.30 and only had four hours sleep.

I had a coffee before I got on the plane and figured that was the most alert I was likely to be all today, so while I was waiting for the plane to take off I starting reading the adjectives chapter of TY Russian Grammar. I realised that there actually two chapters on adjectives and now I'm worried that there are some adjective-related surprises still waiting for me in Russian grammar, because the author managed to fit the whole of nouns into one chapter.

Once the plane took off, I fell asleep and nothing else Russian-related has been achieved today.

Total time = 42 minutes. Streak = 124 days

[Radioclare]

5 May
One of the main reasons I booked a trip to Italy for this long weekend was to get a bit of sunshine, but it has absolutely poured with rain most of the day today; I suspect it has probably been drier in England Despite that, the Cinque Terre villages are all really beautiful and I suspect that the rain will have put other tourists off today, making it possible to visit places without them being so busy

Russian
Today has mostly been about walking around villages in the rain, so I haven't done tonnes of Russian. Over the course of the day I managed 31 minutes of Memrise in total, done in little bursts as and when I had spare time.

This evening I spent 20 minutes reading TY Russian Grammar and progressed a bit further with adjectives. I've covered nominative and accusative endings now and the next section is genitive, but I've decided to save that for tomorrow

Total time = 51 minutes. Streak = 125 days

[Radioclare]

6 May
Happily today it was sunny in Cinque Terre. We revisited all the places we went to yesterday to see what they looked like without the rain, before flying home from Pisa this evening.

Russian
Once again I've managed to do a bit of Memrise throughout the day; a little bit over breakfast, a few minutes while waiting for a train and some more at the airport all added up to a grand total of 14 minutes.

I also persevered with TY Russian Grammar, mainly on the plane home, and have got through the sections not just on genitive adjectives, but on dative adjectives too.

Total time = 46 minutes. Streak = 126 days

German
Once I'd had enough of Russian grammar, I spent the flight home reading the novel 'Anonym', which is written jointly by Ursula Poznanski and Arno Strobel. It's a detective story featuring two police detectives who don't get on, and it's got the potential to be really confusing because the point of view alternates between detectives in each chapter. I'm only about halfway through at the moment, but really enjoying it so far

[Radioclare]

7 May
Back to reality As days after getting back from holiday generally go, today wasn't too bad; I got home about 11 last night and was able to work from home today, so didn't have to set the alarm for 6. But I still feel tired. And I had one of those annoying work days where the morning was taking up by a series of Skype meetings and then by the time I got to the afternoon and had space to do some actual work, I'd already used up all my energy being polite to people

Russian
I did a fair bit of Memrise this evening while waiting for my computer to get a grip. It was having a slight breakdown trying to sync all the photos I took while in Italy to the cloud. I'm enjoying the Memrise Russian 2 course; I'm still only near the beginning of it, but there's been lots of hotel-related vocabulary so far, which feels useful.

This evening I made also made more progress with the TY Russian Grammar book. I worked through the sections on prepositional and instrumental adjectives, making it to the end of the first adjectives chapter

Total time = 50 minutes. Streak = 127 days

[Radioclare]

8 May
Still feeling tired from Italy!

Russian
More Memrise on the train this morning. I'm making good progress with the Russian 2 course.

While walking to the office I did lesson 17 of Pimsleur 2. This was actually a pretty hard lesson, which started introducing comparatives. For some reason it was shorter than usual, which was good for me because I can stretch my walk from the station to take about 20 minutes, but I'm struggling to find a route long enough to cover an entire normal 30-minute Pimsleur lesson in one go.

This evening I started the second adjective chapter in TY Russian Grammar. The first bit is about the difference between long and short adjectives and then it moves onto comparatives.

I also spent half an hour this evening on LWT and have started reading chapter 8 of Twilight.

Total time = 100 minutes. Streak = 128 days