Radioclare's 2019 log (Croatian/Russian)

[Radioclare]

one about why people in Poland don't like Russia

Well, at least 500 years of wars, of which the last 300 we were mostly losing (being 1919-1921 the only exception) and a few conquests of Poland explains the matter good enough

Yes, that's basically what the video explained

14 December
Saturday, but I worked for about 3.5 hours this morning. I try not to work at weekends but it's actually really productive; it's amazing the amount of work you can get done when you don't have other people emailing and calling you.

Russian
I finished chapter 16 of Penguin Russian this evening. There was a section on the instrumental of adjectives and pronouns, followed by some exercises, and then a grammar point about the declension of surnames. I have to confess that I didn't make a huge effort to memorise the stuff about surnames, because I don't feel like that's a huge priority for me to master right now. There was also quite a long vocab list at the end of the chapter and a fairly complicated text about the KGB to read. This is the point at which I gave up with this textbook last time around and reverted to the easier TY Russian instead. This time I feel brave enough to progress to chapter 17

Total time = 40 minutes. Streak = 348 days

[Radioclare]

15 December
I had a day off today, and a very nice relaxing day off it was too I read a book in English, which meant I didn't get around to any Russian until late afternoon.

Russian
I started chapter 17 of Penguin Russian this afternoon, but then wished I hadn't when I found that it was all about telling the time I really don't enjoy telling the time and in Russian it seems particularly fraught with difficulties (surprise surprise!). So I didn't get very far with the chapter before I could feel my mind wandering and I had to give up.

I've been regretting not having taken a test in Russian last year, so that I could measure the progress I've made this year. To avoid me saying the same thing next year, I decided to try the ODA for Russian this afternoon. Well, I tried a Level 1 grammar test which was quite short (I wasn't sure what to expect, as they don't have a grammar test for Serbian/Croatian) and then I tried the reading assessment. I can't pretend I enjoyed the experience, because I always find the themes of these tests really boring Also concentrating on reading Cyrillic for an extended period of time makes my head hurt, so by the time I got to the end of the reading I didn't feel like I had the energy to do the listening part of the test too. I will try to do the listening before Christmas though, because I feel like the reading tests always overestimate my level, whereas the listening test is harder (and more accurate).

Total time = 67 minutes. Streak = 349 days

[Radioclare]

16 December
Today was my last day in the office before Christmas. I had a difficult HR meeting to get through, which wasn't very festive. Managing people is hard work sometimes.

Russian
I had plans to go out this evening, so I needed to get my Russian done during my commutes. I got through my Memrise reviews on the train this morning, then I listened to a podcast while walking to the office. The guest being interviewed on the podcast today was male and I seem to be doing better with male voices in Russian at the moment, so I felt like I understood a fair amount. I am struggling more with female interviewees on podcasts, who seem capable of speaking at the speed of light!

I drank too much wine with dinner to focus on telling the time in Russian this evening, but I intend to tackle that subject again tomorrow.

Total time = 48 minutes. Streak = 350 days

[Radioclare]

17 December
I've finished work for Christmas now - yay! Still had a few things going on in the background today, but it was really nice to be at home for a day.

Russian
I ended up getting less Russian done than I expected, though I started strong this morning and decided to work on improving my Memrise course for Penguin Russian. I went through each vocabulary item in the course and tried to make the definitions more precise for those which are habitually causing me problems (of the тоже vs также variety). Then I started inputting the vocab from chapter 17 of the book, but I gave up pretty quickly because there seems to be some sort of technical problem with Forvo at the moment which is preventing people logging in. Without logging in, you can't download any audio Hopefully it will get sorted soon!

I then spent all afternoon wrapping Christmas presents and so only had a brief interval to get more study done before going out for the evening. I attempted to tackle the telling the time section in chapter 17 again but I didn't really learn anything new; I was just trying to go over the content I looked at the other day for a second time.

Total time = 32 minutes. Streak = 351 days

Croatian
While I was wrapping presents I watched some more episodes of the series 'Na granici'. I've kinda lost steam with this series over the past few months because the storyline has felt a bit slow, but watching while doing something else worked quite well. I also discovered that one of my favourite bands, Brkovi, released a new song at the weekend.

[Radioclare]

18 December
Not having to go to work on a Wednesday is quite exciting More exciting is that I'm off to Italy (Bolzano) tomorrow for a pre-Christmas trip. I will try to keep updating my log (and maintaining my streak!) while I'm away.

Russian
As promised, I sat the listening ODA for Russian this morning. Much, much harder than the reading test! It concluded that my level was 1+; I think that equates to A2, which feels like a fair assessment

rsz_2019-12-18.png

Total time = 58 minutes. Streak = 352 days

[Radioclare]

19 December
My alarm went of at 02.30 this morning because I had an early flight from London to Verona. A bit painful at the time, but I'm now in Bolzano which is a really beautiful place, so ultimately worth it

Russian
I did 5 minutes of Memrise at the airport and cleared all of my reviews. After a nap on the plane, I then spent half an hour reading through chapter 16 of Penguin Russian. It was too cramped on the plane to take notes, but I found that I was actually able to focus quite well despite the lack of sleep. I think that, although it's not always very comfortable, studying on a plane is actually quite effective because there is no internet or anything else to distract you I felt like I made some progress towards understanding how to tell the time anyway, even though I will need to go back over the chapter and take proper notes, maybe tomorrow. The second half of the chapter was a recap of months of the year and also how to say what year something happened in etc, which was all quite useful.

Total time = 39 minutes. Streak = 353 days

[Serpent]

As promised, I sat the listening ODA for Russian this morning. Much, much harder than the reading test! It concluded that my level was 1+; I think that equates to A2, which feels like a fair assessment

Based on the Croatian test I'd say the vocabulary is definitely not A2!

[Radioclare]

As promised, I sat the listening ODA for Russian this morning. Much, much harder than the reading test! It concluded that my level was 1+; I think that equates to A2, which feels like a fair assessment

Based on the Croatian test I'd say the vocabulary is definitely not A2!

I know what you mean; I do find the subjects and vocabulary on these tests quite challenging. I think the section the diagnostic said I scored worst on was something to do with buying and selling weapons I'm not really familiar with what the levels mean but when I googled it, the consensus seemed to be that 1+ was A2 on the CEFR scale.

20 December
A fun day in South Tyrol. It was a bit damp and rainy, but we still managed to do a nice walk to see some earth pyramids. The language situation here is super confusing; you're constantly trying to figure out what language people are going to speak in, and everyone seems able to switch between German and Italian at the drop of a hat.

Russian
This evening I began making notes on the parts of chapter 17 which I read on the plane yesterday. I do feel like I'm making a little bit of progress with telling the time now. There were a couple of exercises which I skipped yesterday because I couldn't manage them in my head; I wrote them out with pen and paper today and surprised myself by getting them right I completed the section about months, but gave up before the section about years.

Total time = 34 minutes. Streak = 354 days

[StringerBell]

I've been to Trento but never made it as far as Bolzano. Are the pyramids like the ones in Zone, or totally different? Do you feel like it's a place definitely worth visiting? Does anything in particular stand out?

[Iversen]

Maybe Ötzi could lure you there?