Radioclare's 2019 log (Croatian/Russian)

[Serpent]

I've gone from Moscow where it was nearly 30 degrees and sunny

It was definitely above 30 on some days Now we're back to the more usual early June temperatures of +20 or so +18 and rain expected this Saturday

Unrelated - did you buy any books in Russia/Ukraine?

[Radioclare]

Unrelated - did you buy any books in Russia/Ukraine?

I bought some Agatha Christies in St Petersburg (but they're a Christmas present from my boyfriend, so I need to forget about them after this post!).

I resisted the temptation to buy a lot of books because:

a) I was attempting to travel with a small suitcase
b) My Russian isn't actually good enough to read any books
c) I already have a pile of Russian books which I haven't read, due to b)
d) It's easier to buy Russian books in the UK than Croatian books, so I didn't feel like I needed to panic buy

[Radioclare]

13 June
I shouldn't really complain about my job because days like yesterday are cancelled out by days like today where my first meeting wasn't until 10.30 and so I got to sleep in until 8 and have a quorn sausage sandwich for breakfast (quorn sausages are one of my new favourite things!)

Russian
My journey to work was made up of two very short train journeys which I used to listen to a new Russian Progress podcast. I managed to listen to it twice before I got to my destination and was quite pleased with the amount I understood.

This evening I tried watching some Peppa Pig in Russian, inspired by Brun Ugle's new challenge. I've never watched Peppa Pig before so I didn't know what to expect. I wasn't sure if there was some sort of coherent storyline running through it so I started at S01E01 and watched three episodes, after which I've concluded that there isn't a storyline From a language point of view, it's much easier to understand than other children's programmes I've tried, like Thomas the Tank Engine, Fireman Sam and Postman Pat. But after three consecutive episodes, I was ready to scream with frustration every time there was a pig noise, so I don't think this is the right challenge for me

Total time = 63 minutes. Streak = 164 days

[IronMike]

Total time = 63 minutes. Streak = 164 days

63 minutes? Thought you were gonna shorten your Russian studying now?

[Brun Ugle]

There is no coherent storyline to Peppa and the language is very simple and repetitive, which is why I like it for language learning. I thought the snorting would drive me crazy too the first time I tried it, but after a few episodes, I got used to it and now I’m a big Peppa fan. The show is really very clever and funny.

Doesn’t your boyfriend read your log? I think you just spoiled the Christmas surprise.

[DaveAgain]

This evening I tried watching some Peppa Pig in Russian, inspired by Brun Ugle's new challenge. I've never watched Peppa Pig before so I didn't know what to expect. I wasn't sure if there was some sort of coherent storyline running through it so I started at S01E01 and watched three episodes, after which I've concluded that there isn't a storyline From a language point of view, it's much easier to understand than other children's programmes I've tried, like Thomas the Tank Engine, Fireman Sam and Postman Pat. But after three consecutive episodes, I was ready to scream with frustration every time there was a pig noise, so I don't think this is the right challenge for me

Lawyer&Mom was making he case for Caillou and Dora the Explorer the other day. There are options!

Caillou is definitely a level below Sesame Street. Toddler domestic drama versus little kid “venture out into the world” drama. (Having kids gives you time to really appreciate the subtleties of kid genres. Kids books fall into similar categories.). Toddler domestic drama is the absolute best for solidifying basic vocabulary. All the shows/books in this category cover the roughly same territory, so they can really reinforce each other. (Dora just taught me “frog” now Caillou sees a frog! Excellent!)

https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 30#p142825

[Radioclare]

63 minutes? Thought you were gonna shorten your Russian studying now?

Oops And I've actually done more than that today! I guess for the past few months I've been prioritising learning Russian over everything else in life and now I have no life left

There is no coherent storyline to Peppa and the language is very simple and repetitive, which is why I like it for language learning. I thought the snorting would drive me crazy too the first time I tried it, but after a few episodes, I got used to it and now I’m a big Peppa fan. The show is really very clever and funny.

Maybe I just need to give it a bit longer then and I'll start to tune the snorting out I might have a look and see whether I can find any episodes in Bulgarian, because I'm going to Bulgaria for a week in September and hoping to learn a little bit before then.

Doesn’t your boyfriend read your log? I think you just spoiled the Christmas surprise.

Sorry, I probably didn't explain it very well! I chose the Russian books for myself but my boyfriend paid for them and then he's going to give them to me as a Christmas present. So I need to forget that he's bought them for me so that it will be a surprise for me at Christmas and he needs to preferably not forget about them so that he remembers to wrap them for me

Lawyer&Mom was making he case for Caillou and Dora the Explorer the other day. There are options!

Thanks, I've never heard of Caillou so will have to investigate

14 June
I was supposed to be going to a client which is about 70 miles north of where I live today. But it turns out that no one there works Fridays, so I got out of it and just worked from Birmingham instead. I was a bit frustrated to start with, but in the end I haven't actually missed not having an extra long commute today.

Russian
I tackled the rest of my Memrise reviews on the train to work and finally got through them all. Phew.

The most exciting news from today is that I completed lesson 30 of Pimsleur 2, which means I'm at the end of that course and can move on to Pimsleur 3. The last few lessons have been quite challenging, in part because the sentences are now quite long and so sometimes I get halfway through and then forget what I'm supposed to be saying. But I'm still enjoying it, so I will move onto Pimsleur 3 next week and see how it goes.

On the way home, I watched a Russian Progress vlog about Bratislava. I like Bratislava as a place so it was fun to watch, but I've decided that I really do need to have the subtitles turned on for any videos which are recorded while walking round a place rather than sitting in a room. With the podcast I listened to the other day, the audio was so clear that I could understand the gist of it without needing a transcript. But with this video, there was so much background noise - whether it was wind or traffic or people talking - that I found it really hard to catch things without the subtitles. Obviously there comes a point when you have to be able to understand a language with background noise but I'm definitely not at that stage with my Russian comprehension yet.

Total time = 94 minutes. Streak = 165 days

[IronMike]

Lawyer&Mom was making he case for Caillou and Dora the Explorer the other day. There are options!

Thanks, I've never heard of Caillou so will have to investigate

As a father of four, whose youngest is now 16 and beyond any of these types of shows, I will say CAILLOU IS THE WORST! (I tried to insert a puke emoticon, but the forum wouldn't allow it.

[Meddysong]

Doesn’t your boyfriend read your log? I think you just spoiled the Christmas surprise.

I do but if there was something posted above that I'd be better off not knowing, the good news is that I can't remember what it is and I'm not going to scroll up. And the good news for Clare about living with me is that she'll be used to the snorting and so shouldn't be bothered about it in Peppa.

[Meddysong]

Thanks, I've never heard of Caillou so will have to investigate

Me neither, but it's French for Pebble. (Clare's cat is Pebbles so this sounds quite apposite! Mind you, 'Pebbles Pepperpot' works a lot better than its nonsensical translation, 'Cailloux Poivrier'!)