Radioclare's 2019 log (Croatian/Russian)

[Radioclare]

27 March
I was working quite locally today, which was good because I got a lift and a lie in

Russian
Of course, not having a normal commute meant I didn't get quite as much done. I spent half an hour or so on Memrise at my computer this evening and am at the end of lesson 6 vocabulary from TY Russian now. I had a headache (lack of caffeine!) so couldn't face any textbook study. But I did persevere with LWT and finally(!!) got to the end of Chapter 1 of Twilight. I am thoroughly sick of this chapter now but I have learned so many new words it's unbelievable. I'm looking forward to tackling the next few chapters now and (hopefully!) finding that it gets gradually easier.

Total time = 152 minutes. Streak = 86 days

[Radioclare]

28 March
I spent half of today doing graduate interviews, which I find a bit exhausting. I had two candidates but only one space and I didn't enjoy having to make the decision about who to offer to.

Russian
At least I was in Birmingham, so I got through loads of Memrise on the train to work. Plus I did another lesson of Pimsleur - lesson 26. This was mostly about a man being told he couldn't buy anything because all the shops in Moscow were closed. I'm hoping lesson 27 will be a bit more exciting. I only got through one lesson today; the interviews started at lunchtime, so I couldn't get out for a walk.

This evening I watched the latest Russian Progress video but it was about going to the gym and the names of various pieces of equipment and exercises. To be honest, I wouldn't have known what most of the things were in English in the first place so this wasn't really the video for me

After that I persisted with reading chapter 2 of Twilight and I'm about 75% through. It's already starting to feel a bit easier to read. I think Twilight is for reading what crazy telenovelas are for listening; there are so many pages of the same characters saying the same things to each other over and over again that you can't help but learn things The characters are incapable of just saying anything - they always have to nod or sigh or exclaim - and so even after less than two chapters, I've started to familiarise myself with a huge pile of new verbs. If I was reading it in English, that sort of writing might feel a bit cringe-worthy, but in a new language it's genuinely really useful.

Total time = 185 minutes. Streak = 87 days

[Radioclare]

29 March
I was unexpectedly able to work from home today, which was rather nice for a Friday

Russian
I finished on time too, and managed to go for a walk before it got dark. I listened to lesson 27 of Pimsleur and learned how to say I intend to spend a few days in St Petersburg. This feels more useful than learning how to ask whether I've got enough petrol in my car to travel 80 kilometres

I spent half an hour on Memrise when I got in and am getting towards the end of the vocabulary from lesson 8 of TY Russian now. I've only entered vocab as far as the end of lesson 8, so that means I need to devote some time tomorrow to expanding my course.

This evening I persevered a bit more with LWT and finally got to the end of chapter 2 of Twilight

Total time = 183 minutes. Streak = 88 days

[StringerBell]

I think Twilight is for reading what crazy telenovelas are for listening; there are so many pages of the same characters saying the same things to each other over and over again that you can't help but learn things The characters are incapable of just saying anything - they always have to nod or sigh or exclaim - and so even after less than two chapters, I've started to familiarise myself with a huge pile of new verbs. If I was reading it in English, that sort of writing might feel a bit cringe-worthy, but in a new language it's genuinely really useful.

HA! I'm having this same experience right now in Polish; I'm reading a translation of a god-awful novel that is just a dumpster fire, but from the perspective of learning the language, it's fantastic because there is so much repetition and the vocabulary level is quite low, so it's more accessible than a well-written novel.

[Radioclare]

HA! I'm having this same experience right now in Polish; I'm reading a translation of a god-awful novel that is just a dumpster fire, but from the perspective of learning the language, it's fantastic because there is so much repetition and the vocabulary level is quite low, so it's more accessible than a well-written novel.

I'm glad I'm not the only one There's no way I could read a well written novel in Russian at the moment, but a badly written one is absolutely perfect for me

30 March
I thought I was going to have lots of time for Russian today, but I had lots of boring and tedious tasks on my to-do list and I decided to do those first before I studied... then somehow they ended up filling most of the day!

Russian
I did sit down after I'd finished the housework and do twenty minutes of Memrise, which was enough for me to get to the end of the vocabulary for chapter 8 of TY Russian.

In the afternoon I walked into town and got through two lessons of Pimsleur; 28 and 29. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm quite enjoying Pimsleur now

In the evening I listened to the audiobook of the first chapter of Twilight, while reading my text in LWT. I was planning to listen to the second chapter as well but was astonished to find that the audio for the first chapter took me over 50 minutes So chapter 2 will have to wait for another day. After dinner I finished looking up all the words I needed for chapter 3.

Total time = 129 minutes. Streak = 89 days

Croatian
Croatian is being horribly neglected. I'm kind of doing this deliberately, given how little time there is before my trip to Russia in June. After June, I hope to restore a bit more balance to the amount of time I'm devoting to each language.

I am still watching my series, which is about 3.5 hours of audio a week, and today I've made some more progress with the novel 'Tajna povijesti Moskve'. I have to say that the first 60 pages or so really didn't grab me, so I've been procrastinating reading more of it. But as of this evening, I'm about two thirds of the way through and while I wouldn't quite say I understand the plot, it is at least holding my attention now

[Radioclare]

31 March
Today was Mother's Day in the UK, so I spent most of the day with my family.

Russian
I ran out of time to make any progress with TY Russian yesterday, so I was determined to spend some time on it today. I surprised even myself by managing to get up early and spend half an hour on it prior to having to leave home for my train. Half an hour was enough for me to finish chapter 15. I definitely haven't mastered some of the stuff on dates, but this isn't an immediate priority for me. There was a very useful section on verbs of motion to which I will definitely be returning.

As I walked into town to catch my train, I listened to lesson 30 of Pimsleur. It turns out this is the end of the first course. I have never ever got this far in Pimsleur in any language so I am quite proud of myself

On the train I did some Memrise and cleared quite a large pile of reviews that were due for today. The next part of my journey involved taking a bus for 45 minutes or so and I literally couldn't think of anything productive to use this time for. Reading on buses makes me feel vaguely ill and I couldn't do Pimsleur sitting down. I mean, even if I could focus on, I couldn't really make the responses out loud on the bus. It kind of bothered me that I couldn't find anything useful to do, and then it bothered me that it bothered me It occurred to me that I spent 14 consecutive years travelling to school/university/work by bus every day and I must have spent the majority of that time just looking out of the window and thinking. That isn't something that feels terribly easy to do these days!

Anyway, I survived the bus journey and had a nice day with my family. This evening I put the vocab from chapter 9 into Memrise. I was hoping to get through more chapters than that but there were about 90 new words in chapter 9 and I lost the will to live after I'd done those. I have done enough to keep me busy on the train for the next few days at least

Finally before bed I reread chapter 2 of Twilight while listening to the audio. Defining all the words in LWT is tedious, but being able to hover over them and read the definitions is wonderful and I really do feel like I'm learning loads. Listening to the audio takes forever though; 40 minutes for this chapter!

Total time = 163 minutes. Streak = 90 days

[Radioclare]

It's the end of the first quarter of the year (how did this happen???!!) and so I thought I'd better take a look at my goals.

1. Read 10 novels in German.

I've only read one (Agent 6), so technically I'm behind on this one. I'm not stressed about it though because most of my reading happens over the summer when I'm travelling.

2. Read 6,510 pages in Croatian. If I can achieve it, this would be enough for me to finish the current Super Challenge with a double challenge in reading.

I'm behind on this one too, so I don't think I'm going to complete the double challenge in reading this time. I've read two Croatian books so far this year: 'Dvadeset godine samostalne Hrvatske' (my first non-fiction book!) and 'Salon za plakanje'. Those give me 687 pages, and I've read pages of 'Tajna povijest Moskve' too, but all in all this only gives me about half the number of pages I was aiming for.

3. Watch 11,871 minutes of Croatian TV. This is the magic number that would bring me to a double challenge in the films part of the Super Challenge too.

I calculate I've got 2,590 minutes so far this year which makes me almost on schedule. I'm going to take that as a win, because the series that I follow wasn't on TV for most of January and it was a struggle to find other things to watch.

4. Spend at least 30 minutes per day every day learning Russian as part of the 365-day challenge.

At least I can say that I've definitely succeeded with this one! Getting 30 minutes has been harder some days that others, but I haven't yet had a day when it's been impossible. Hopefully that will continue into the second quarter of the year

[Daniel N.]

I've read two Croatian books so far this year: 'Dvadeset godine samostalne Hrvatske' (my first non-fiction book!)

a small correction: Dvadeset godina samostalne Hrvatske (wrong case: should be genitive plural, not genitive singular/dual)

[Radioclare]

1 April
I was working in Birmingham today so I feel like I've had a productive start to the week.

Russian
I had to stand on the train this morning but I've decided to try to stop complaining about train travel after my reminder of what it's like to travel by bus at the weekend I made a good start at planting the vocabulary from chapter 9 of TY Russian in Memrise.

While walking to the office, I listened to the first lesson of Pimsleur 2. It's starting to practise the past tense now, which is good. When I went out at lunchtime later, I managed to do lesson 2 as well.

This evening I started chapter 16 of TY Russian. This introduces relative pronouns and soft adjectives. I enjoyed the description of a soft adjective as being one "whose masculine singular ends in -ий for no apparent reason". The main grammar point of the chapter is the conditional and I decided to save that for tomorrow (or a future day when I feel strong!) because I remember getting incredibly tied in knots with the conditional in Croatian.

I then typed the new vocab from lesson 10 of TY Russian into Memrise, Again, I had nearly 100 new words so it took the best part of 45 minutes, although I'm sure not as long as if I was trying to get the words into Anki. I listened to Russian music while I was sorting out all the audio etc, and found another song that I like:



Total time = 169 minutes. Streak = 91 days

Croatian
I finished reading 'Tajna povijest Moskve', so now I can read something more interesting. I don't want to slag the book off, because I probably just didn't enjoy it because it was fantasy and I don't normally enjoy fantasy in any language, but it's definitely not a book I particularly recommend. I got to the end feeling like I had no more of a clue what it was about than I did when I started. But it gave me an extra 264 pages towards my SC, so that is good

[Radioclare]

I've read two Croatian books so far this year: 'Dvadeset godine samostalne Hrvatske' (my first non-fiction book!)

a small correction: Dvadeset godina samostalne Hrvatske (wrong case: should be genitive plural, not genitive singular/dual)

Oops I just checked and luckily I have spelled it correctly when recording it on the Super Challenge bot even if I got it wrong here