Aloyse's study log (ZH + some ARB, ARQ, KAB, EN, ES, JP)

[Cavesa]

Good to hear from youä

- still alive

good news!

- workload recently decreased (1 year after I told my boss it was too high )

Better late than never.

- still not taking language classes

Not a problem.

- gave up on the language elearning platform (dislike tts+no interaction with other learners)

You'll find something better. Btw which platform was it?

- not really exercising beyond minimal walking and stair climbing
- weight is going up instead of down
- still doing the USB key thing at the glacial pace of 1 update per month
- feeling at a crossroads

You may have more energy or time for self care, including physical, now that your workload will be more reasonable. I wish you all the best! And good continuation from that crossroads on.

[Aloyse]

Could you use a bicycle for transport? That way you're forced to exercise, and you save money on petrol/fares.

Thanks for the suggestion. That would be difficult on weekdays. But I guess I could give it a try on the weekends. I live in a reasonably bicycle-friendly city if you don't count bike theft. I don't own a car. I rely mostly on walking and public transport.

[Aloyse]

Random update

Daily audio listening / USB key:
: 5 / 25 5/25 Arabic track updates (still the older Assimil volume 1)
: 5 / 25 5/25 Berber or Darja track updates
: 4 / 25 4/25 Spoken Chinese track updates (finished IT Talk, started Office Talk)
: 4 / 25 4/25 Japanese track updates (NHK course)
: 5 / 25 5/25 Spanish track updates (el espanol de los negocios)
: 3 / 25 3/25 English track updates (English for Engineering)
: 4 / 25 4/25 News Chinese track updates (RFI audio tracks mostly)

Saw 77kg on the scale, anxiously reduced chocolate consumption.
Saw 75kg on the scale, anxiously increased chocolate consumption.
I seem to have some kind of mental block wrt weight loss.

[Aloyse]

I have about 10 free days so I'm going to give myself a little challenge:
learn as much as possible from the book "Best Chinese Names" and/or country names.
Starting tomorrow (Saturday). Perhaps 1 to 2 hours a day or something like that.

1-Sat: 姓：艾～风，male：祖、宗、继
2-Sun: 姓：冯～柯, femate : 贞、淑、贤
3-Mon: 姓: review, female: 善、爱、姬 、素、娴
4-Tue: 姓: 空～龙
5-Wed: 姓: 楼～聂
6-Thu: 姓: 牛～饶
7-Fri: review
8-Sat: 任～夏
9-Sun: 鲜～翟
10-Mon: 詹～左丘

[Aloyse]

I also had some other smallish (non language) challenges for this staycation, perhaps too many of them.

Anyway I actually went (walked) to Decathlon and had a look at the bikes.
Then I imagined myself having to pedal with this subborn adductor tendonitis.
Then I imagined myself having to brake with this lingering wrist tendonitis.
So I gave up (for now) and walked back home at my very sedate pace.

My "Best Chinese Names" challenge has mostly turned into a 百家姓 challenge, except in pinyin order rather than in the original order.
My goal is to be able to take a reasonable guess at which character is used for the surname when I hear a person's name.
It does feel nice to be learning things because I want to, rather than because I have to. It's been quite some time since I last did that.

[Aloyse]

Watched a bunch of DNA testing videos including this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPZ8SCKwUSw

Our French protagonist is first disappointed that his first DNA map doesn't show France itself but only neighbour countries.
But ouf! the 2nd DNA analysis company shows a big "French or German" blob.

Meanwhile the CNRS guy says "well these companies collect DNA from a bunch of people and record it with the test subject's claimed ethnicity in order to build their database."
Meanwhile the CNIL guy says "well DNA analysis is illegal in France unless ordered by a judge or a doctor."

My logical conclusion (I don't think it is explicitly enunciated in the video):
either the DNA companies don't have any data from actual French people that live in France, or they obtained said data illegally, or from a handful of French people that live outside France.
And they hide this weakness of their database from their customers.

So either they can't tell or they don't want to tell whether your DNA matches a specific region of France unless it can be bundled with a neighbour country (Breton/Celtic, Iberic, Basque, Italian, German) or a historical invasion (Norse, German) or migration (Roma, Jewish) etc.
So don't expect Auvergnat vs Breton vs Normand vs Corse details anytime soon... (assuming it would even be technically possible. But I remember a documentary about Etruscan features that survive in today's local population in that particular area of Italy, so...)

Edit: actually Breton vs Corsican will probably show in a roundabout way, as one would be bundled with Welsh/Scottish/Irish, and the other one with Italian. But Auvergnat vs Alsacien?