Expug's 2019 Log - Reasonable Learning

[Expugnator]

So here I am. It's great to have some routine again. You know, I'm a routine fan anyway, but...you get what I mean.

Health
The kidney issue is getting better, still healing I believe, but I can get back to the gym on Monday, the doctor says. The first days after the surgery I couldn't stand sitting for long sessions because the kidney would hurt, so I had to lay down most of the day and I couldn't use the computer. Since it was Monday, it felt like time stopped and the week would never end. I ended up wacthing some series. For example, I watched the CW cross-over on Netflix instead of spreading it through German-Georgian-Indosubs. It was good because I didn't have to shift from one language to another within the same episode.

I also watched Plan Coeur saison 2. Entirely. Six episodes. It was the closest I could get to binge watching.

I thought "oh well at least I'm home with my kids, I'm eating well. Then on Thursday the aphthae issue started. It was a side-effect of too many preventive antibiotics plus I ate a garlic-based dressing for too many days and that was too acid. It's been a week now and before I resorted to an analgesic I experienced pain for the entire day. Much worse than the recovery from the second surgery and only compared to the first one but even that one lasted for some minutes. The aphtha in the throat doesn't seem to receed even though I feel better thanks to the medicine.

That idle time was therefore taken away mostly by app-learning:

Clozemaster
Regained the main role, leaving Duolingo a distant second now. I have a new stalker. I swear I have to let go off that leaderboard next week. For the time being, though, I'm doing as much Italian as Esperanto as my gaming sessions, so that's an advantage. Moreover, Indonesian reviews looks promising.

New TTS for Iceland on Android. Great, same voice as on Chrome.

Having impressive results for Catalan and Afrikaans. I'm actually able to chat in Catalan before doing proper textbook studying. Afrikaans isn't that far. The text input prompts do help with output.

Duolingo
I've embraced Duolingo as a full multilingual suit even though the lessons are longer and not readily accessible as Clozemaster's. I've got my 2nd crown on Guaraní and moving on to the third one, though it's getting tricky. I've added Latin, Greek, Romanian, Esperanto and Chinese all in the past fortnight. I don't know, at Duolingo the sentence seems only as an excuse to teach thematic, individual vocabulary as well as a little syntax, while in Clozemaster most sentences do communicate something and I can imagine myself using them. Still, it's worth that side-job.

Speakly
I've continued with Speakly.me . You have until the end of November to subscribe to a lifetime account on Speakly. It's a bet to place because you'd hope they'd add many languages in the future.

Conversational partners
I've tried Conversationexchange and reactivated Tandem. It's slowly working. I've chatted in Estonian, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Georgian and I've had a video call in German. The Russian guy actually seems to know vonPeterhof

Other activities
I didn't do any reading but I started some series in German, which is the only readily available language on Netflix among those I still need to train. I also resumed an Italian series I hadn't seen for a long time. For Russian, I gave the podcast Comprehensible Russian a try and it might be what I need now. I might have it replace the French audiobooks on my way home, even.It was mostly about doing some side activities I leave for whenever I have time during a normal day. Unfortunately, the pain, the heat and Clozemaster didn't allow me to actually sit down and start producing my own content. I still hope I'm going to leave that comfort zone.

=======
I've just read that over 30% of the population of Curaçao is below the poverty line. Not Dutch standards for sure.

No bounce-wave effect noticed, but the interest for the Estonian soap opera and for the language as a whole keep increasing.

Bounce-wave effect noticed on reading Georgian. The exchanges through the chat did help.

Bounce-wave effect for Russian, check. overall, Russian seems to have caught up with Georgian in terms of general reading comprehension.

No significant bounce-effect for Greek, though. The text - a translation from Portuguese - is more complex. Besides, I'm not that familiar with abstract Modern Greek vocabulary that don't rely on Romance-adopted roots, and these are more numberous than one may assume at the early Greek studies. Still, progress is definitely happening.

It was such an atypically busy Thursday that I once again played a little Grand Bien Vous Fasse. It's my main French listening activity now that I seldom have the energy to listen to the audiobook while walking home.

I would be too optimistic to think I'd manage the entire schedule the first day after sick leave, but it was close. Indonesian and the last two series left.

[Expugnator]

Yesterday when walking home I resumed the audiobook Fourmis. Won't say I paid much attention. The story itself is not really escalating anyway. I was doing Clozemaster reviews on Indonesian as multiple choice. It's a necessary intermediate step because the Indonesian levels aren't exactly graded, but my goal is to do this transition into text input where the magic takes place and activation happens.

At home I kept my Speakly streak, did way more Clozemaster and much less Duolingo. As I turned off the computer and went to bed I still found the energy to read ahead the non-fiction, which left me with more free time today.

This morning I spent mostly with the girls. As they grow up, they manage to watch TV and still interact. It's not like in the beginning when turning on the TV was sadly a certain way that they wouldn't even react to us anymore. Now the TV is more like a pastime and a background. They keep asking about my health, it's really cute.

Not a bounce-wave effect indeed but Greek reading has seen some improvement. I'm confident it will turn into a transparent language in the near future.

Same result as yesterday. No Indonesian or remaining series. I had an appointment at the doctor.

[OCCASVS]

Hey Expug, I wish you all the best with your recovery.

I have read that you have been looking for new language exchange partners lately. I was always curious to ask you: is there some structure you use in your tandem conversations?

I am asking because I have never been able to establish solid language partners agreements online, but only in person.

[Adrianslont]

I just learned a new word: aptha. Get 100% well soon!

I detect that you find it difficult to binge watch - I definitely do. I can pretty easily binge listen, though - listen while doing chores, walking to beach, sitting at beach, walking home, driving. Maybe my problem is with sitting still.

[Expugnator]

I just learned a new word: aptha. Get 100% well soon!

I detect that you find it difficult to binge watch - I definitely do. I can pretty easily binge listen, though - listen while doing chores, walking to beach, sitting at beach, walking home, driving. Maybe my problem is with sitting still.

Yeah I can binge listen as well. I just lose focus too easily, but when I manage to keep it it's fairly productive. It depends on the language though, I had to train it for Spanish even though it was already transparent for reading.

Hey Expug, I wish you all the best with your recovery.

I have read that you have been looking for new language exchange partners lately. I was always curious to ask you: is there some structure you use in your tandem conversations?

I am asking because I have never been able to establish solid language partners agreements online, but only in person.

Our mod rdearman is the man to go for how to establish solid language exchanges. I don't have the native-English privilege and Brazilian Portuguese is a cheap currency in the language exchange world. Moreover, it's over 10 languages to find language exchange partners for and keep these. Still, I try. Mostly conversationexchange , tandem and Speaky.

Having a long conversation the first time helps. Just open up without going too personal at first, keep topics for the next sessions.

======================
The weekend was basically a Clozemaster rally. My last one for the time being. I really have to get over this. I'm doing multiple languages so the mass sessions do help, but I fail to see the point in doing the same amount of Clozemaster for just one language, as there are other activities that should be performed when learning a language.

I did little Duolingo. It is a slower interface so it's much less dense in content. This and the sentences being much less meaningful discourage me. I can't do a Duolingo lesson in idle times, how I do the Clozemaster rounds.

I still did listen to Podcast Italiano while preparing my snacks. And I felt asleep just two pages away from my reading ahead plan, not bad at all. What I have been neglecting is material gathering for most languages.

Today I got back to the gym. The doctor said I'm good, so there I went. Weightlifting is no big deal as I know my limits, and I didn't have to reduce weight anyway. The problem is running. I did run a bit but much slower, paying attention to the impact. Tomorrow I have an appointment at the doctor who did my hernia surgery 4 years ago, so I'll discuss with him how limited I might be now, if anything serious happened the time I got injured last September. I know the hernia isn't recidive but I want to be sure of my movements. Enough with health issues for this language log.

As I came back to the gym, no time for a headstart this morning then. Going home with most app-study pending. Regarding the schedule, it was a fairly busy Monday so I just went as far as Estonian reading. Greek listening-reading, Hebrew and Indonesian textbooks and the two remaining series were left. Am I losing the hang of it? Today morning was the issue, last week were the afternoons. Anyway, tomorrow is Tuesday and I have a class in the morning, one in the afternoon, this appointment at the doctor and so I won't even bother studying tomorrow. Will try to solve some pending tasks as the translation course I had enrolled in at Coursera before the surgery.

[Expugnator]

A lot is going on. Really. All spheres.

Among all my non-study days, yesterday was the one I disconnected the most from my usual language sphere. I did some Clozemaster, read ahead, kept my Duolingo and Speakly streaks but I totally forgot getting down to Clozemaster again and renewing my streak for nearly half of my decks :/ Not being obsessed with the leaderboad has this disadvantage. Anyway, life goes on.

I spent some hours preparing a study plan for my cousin's husband who wants to finally learning English. Then I took the Translation in Practice course from Coursera. It has good information but I won't recommend this course because you're supposed to translate into Mandarin at the exercises. So it's basically a course aimed at Chinese people who speak fluent English and want to learn to translate. No way I'm going to spend time on trying to translate this. I'm better off reading some books on translation I've got lined up or one of the digital marketing/content marketing I need to take as well, since I'm looking forward to providing and promoting my own content in the future.

Still on the issue of which language-related parallel career I should follow, I have a city tour booked tomorrow. The passenger seems no less of a hyperpolyglot. Anyway, this means today and Monday remain as the only study days at this week as Friday is a bank holiday and we're off to the countryside.

It might be just the effect of the end of the year which is approaching or getting back on track after an overall of 12 workdays off, but I'm finding it harder to keep my currenty rhythm of 6+ study hours and over 20 desktop activities into 15 languages. I might cut down to a schedule that is feasible at 5 hours and complement with app learning whenever possible. This might allow me to regularly/daily work on the other projects. I received positive feedback on my lecture at the Brazilian congress Poliglotar so I have to keep preparing myself.

I'm back at the gym since Monday, trying to get back at my usual rhythm - or maybe not, as I figured out previously I had been running too fast and too long and loosing muscle instead. Today I was officially back at running, for longer periods. It's great to feel the liberation of endorphins associated with running, as that shows I have a better control of my body again, I don't feel that sick anymore. It's been a tough period on health. With all time breaks come hopefully a better self-awareness of one's limits and of how to do perform those tasks, both weightlifting and running, in a way that's both more effective and safer. I might be transitioning into a much less hectic lifestyle, not having to worry about to do at each hidden moment, not having only a specific precise time to start the gym/having more flexibility and having more time with family. The girls missed me as yesterday I left home earlier and came after they went to bed (one class before work, another after that). So they were very excited this morning about showing me the Christmas tree and they surrounded me with playing and talking about our plans for Christmas.

I was doing some Clozemaster Mandarin and they approached the phone and wanted to do some swyping. I told them that after pressing some specific characters they would make some pictures appear (the emojis associated at the Chinese keyboard). So they pressed yu and got a fish, mao for a cat, gou for a dog, shu for a book and a tree and it was fun. No problem if I had no headstart this morning.

When walking here I finished the content marketing podcast and resumed the Argentinian one, all this while deciding what to do next. There was one in Finances but it might discuss specificaly the banking reality of its country, so not much use for me apart from general strategy and even this is linked to the country's economical specifics. Healthy is not a bad idea either but maybe some mindfulness in Spanish would help me as well as provide my subconscious form a less hectic-machine-gun-speed-loud-talking image of the Spanish language.

Having been doing less for my languages, I'm starting to suspect that less can be more. as I reach or consolidate the B-range for most of them, it's important that when doing native materials I am at the best state of mind, relaxed, not time-stressed so I manage to immerse on that language. I understand much better, especially audiovisual, when I'm not worried about time. This and the micro-learning done at the apps might turn into a sustainable strategy per se. I don't have to worry that for this language I'm only doing video not listening-reading and for that one I'm not reading at all. With the repetition I get from the apps - and even the output - I can be sure that all languages are progressing. An example: with Russian and Estonian I only read 3 A4 pages a day (RU) or only 1 (EE), and as a matter of fact, even though my Georgian at 6 pages a day is more advanced, I noticed diminishing returns after the 4th page. Also with German and Norwegian I cut down from 10 to 6 pages and I can barely keep focus at these 6, leave alone the former 10.

If this microlearning proves useful, I'm well-off to do some language harvestin in 2020 with Swedish, Catalan, Romanian and Afrikaans.

It was a busy day again. I finally moved on with Indonesian, now only three lessons to finish DLI my loose way. No time for the remaining two series, though.

[vonPeterhof]

Conversational partners
I've tried Conversationexchange and reactivated Tandem. It's slowly working. I've chatted in Estonian, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Georgian and I've had a video call in German. The Russian guy actually seems to know vonPeterhof

To be honest, I was really puzzled as to who that might have been, until earlier today when I heard about your exchange from his perspective (not from him directly, but through a mutual friend). Small world, huh

[Expugnator]

Conversational partners
I've tried Conversationexchange and reactivated Tandem. It's slowly working. I've chatted in Estonian, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Georgian and I've had a video call in German. The Russian guy actually seems to know vonPeterhof

To be honest, I was really puzzled as to who that might have been, until earlier today when I heard about your exchange from his perspective (not from him directly, but through a mutual friend). Small world, huh

Haha now you got me curious as to what his perspective was. You can write me in PM as well.

Today is no study day. I delivered a city tour and the passenger was actually a hyperpolyglot. He talked about his plans of going to the Gathering, the Conference and LangFest and I even invited him to Poliglotar, the Brazilian one.

[Expugnator]

I spent the extended weekend at the countryside. I put emphasis on Duolingo, because it works better on unstable mobile connections. I managed to reach the Diamond league, the final one, as a result. Speakly is 2nd best and I managed to keep my streak, Only Clozemaster, supposed to be the lightest one give its interface, is too demanding on bandwidth and a 100% solid connection. I could barely check for each language pair on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I also read ahead for non-fiction.

When back home, I anaged to gather material. Mandarin issue is temporarily settled, but I'm in need a permanent solution, in thr form of reliable paid sources both for audiobook and ebook in Mandarin, preferably translated Western works.

I gathered the remaining two episodes of Heimebane. I'm not really short of Norwegian series to watch next. Got also mor Fais pas ci fais pas ça. Next weekend I'll take care of dubbed Georgian.

This morning I went to the gym later. I only did Mandarin on Clozemaster as a headstart.

Started a new podcast in Spanish, digital marketing again. Planeta M - Tertulia de marketing digital. Tertulia is a late adoption from Latin and belongs to the literary register both in Portuguese and in Spanish. Sometimes used in Portuguese ironically when someone ones to deliberately sound posh.

A good day for the Russian series. I could follow it nearly transparently. There was an excerpt from Luntik and I could see how much simpler Luntik was.

As for the listening-reading session, the audio file for the current chapter ended earlier than expected and so I was caught having to just read in parallel. It turns out my Russian have improved and it wasn't that much of a torture not having the audio to follow along.

FInally, almost per miracle, I managed to resume the Israeli series, which is my penultimate task right after Indonesian textbook. I managed some minutes from my final activity, the American series with Indonesian subtitles, but I had to leave earlier to stay with the kids.

[Expugnator]

Yesterday I managed to resume the audiobook Fourmis. It turns out I don't like the book's format at all, that's why it's taking me so long and I don't listen to it most of the days. Once I'm done I'll probably replace French audiobook by Russian podcast.

I had to go home earlier and take care of the kids all the way up to their bedtime. They were restless, pretending to be hitting each other (which could happen for real anytime). I couldn't involve them in any calmer activity and so it went like this until dinnertime. Then I put their pajamas and one of them fell just climbed to our bed and fell asleep earlier, before drinking milk or watching a little bit of TV. After the other one fell asleep, right after 20h, I was so tired that I was glad my class had been unbooked, as it was supposed to start at half past nine. Then I could just find the energy to get some resources on the computer, do Speakly and I when I went to bed I struggled to read 19 pages of non-fiction, even though it was a tricky chapter on economics.

I managed to sleep well and this morning I even went to the gym later. So no headstart. As I left home the girls were still sleeping so I probably won't see them awake today.

The podcast in Spanish has been quite fun and much easier to follow than the previous one at the same theme but with women talking instead of men.

I can follow a podcast in German pretty much satisfactorily now. Actually listening to one and being tolerant to ambiguity helped a lot. I thought I wouldn't have this effect because German wasn't entirely transparent in reading when I started, but it turned out my vocabulary also evolved from other sources in the meantime.

Reading Georgian has also seen improvement. Now I really feel I can follow a simple, translated story. The issue now is unknown words are completely cryptical. The roots aren't as clearly spotted as in a language such as German.

Russian reading is also getting easier. I thought that would never happen.

I might be finally getting back on track. Yesterday I had a productive morning and so I did today. As a result, I'm doing each task at the time I used to do before things derailed.

I've increased my rate of first-rights on Speakly. Some vocabulary is sinking in, even though I've been doing both Estonian soap opera and parallel reading rather loosely.

So here it is, first full-study day after several weeks. I even finished one CW-series and will now read Indonesian subs for another one. I got done over an hour before due time, and it could have been even earlier if I hadn't gotten distracted a bit towards the end.