BCS Study Group

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
Daniel N.
Green Belt
Posts: 357
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2015 12:44 pm
Languages: Croatian (N), English (C1), German (beginner)
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Re: BCS Study Group

Postby Daniel N. » Thu Feb 28, 2019 11:33 am

Denzagathist wrote:I feel like those are very generous estimates of my Croatian vocabulary size, though. I'm curious how the test extrapolates the final value from the answers to the test. In some cases I could have probably guessed the correct translation even though I didn't know the word, simply because I knew the Croatian translations of the other words listed as options. Depending on my degree of certainty in such cases, I picked either my guess or "I don't know".

I will likely have to adjust the algorithm, but actually there are many "connected" words -- if you know vidljiv "visible", you surely know nevidljiv "invisible", and so on. If you know prijatelj "friend", you know prijateljica "friend, female", and so on.

Everyone also knows words like analizirati "analyze", parsirati "parse", terorizirati "terrorize" etc. I picked words randomly out of a 70000-word dictionary. The extrapolation is trivial: you get 20 "frequent" words (out of 6000 most frequent) and if you know half of them, you know 3000 words. You get also 20 less frequent words (out of... 50000) and if you know fifth of them, you know 10000 words more. Total: 13000 :D

In other news, I've reached the limit of my knowledge while exploring obscure parts of both Croatian and English syntax to explain constructions like:

- too big to...
- so/such... that...
- not... so/such... to...,

in 77 As If: Advanced Clauses. I still don't know how too big... to... construction is called in English, and how the matching Croatian construction is called. :? The second construction is result clause...
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Check Easy Croatian (very useful for Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian as well)

Daniel N.
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Re: BCS Study Group

Postby Daniel N. » Fri Mar 15, 2019 10:45 am

I've uploaded yet another minor update of the PDF files, containing all recent updates, and many small corrections. The files are available through the same links, and the file names are the same. I recommend anyone using one of them download the last update.

EasyCroatian_r47-forum.png
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Check Easy Croatian (very useful for Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian as well)

David1917
Blue Belt
Posts: 596
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:36 am
Location: USA
Languages: English (N)
Professional Level: Russian, Spanish
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Re: BCS Study Group

Postby David1917 » Thu Apr 04, 2019 8:35 pm

Anybody have strong feelings on Linguaphone vs. Assimil for this language? Serbian is my primary focus of the group - if I recall correctly Assimil does 50 lessons in Croatian and 50 in Serbian, or 50 in latin and 50 in cyrillic? And then an old HTLAL post I found said that Linguaphone is 99% Serbian.

I'm not sure if I'm going to do this or Czech as my 2nd Slavic language (will want both eventually), but my current research interests lead me more toward the FRY.
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Daniel N.
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Re: BCS Study Group

Postby Daniel N. » Mon Dec 02, 2019 12:14 pm

If anyone is using my web site, I've recently made significant changes to a number of chapters - more examples, many errors corrected, more explanations.

33 School Yard and Bunk Bed: Relations - added more examples (photos)
40 Future Tense - a bit expanded, added an example (song)
41 Somewhere, Nobody, Something... - chapter split from another chapter, a new example (song)
43 And, Or, But: Basic Conjunctions - added an example (song)
47 Of Flowers, Thorns and Counting Children - added an example (song)
48 Everybody, Each and Everything Else - split, expanded
59 Whose, What Thing and What Like - expanded, a new example (song)
60 Put, Give, Take, Get: More Verbs - major expansion, unfortunately no example song yet
61 The Friend I Saw: Relative Clauses - moved, expanded a bit, added a great example (song)
63 Bigger and Better: Comparatives - added an example (song)
64 Something is Heard: Fun with se² - almost completely rewritten, added an example (song), exercise
65 Carry, Bring, Drive: Transport Verbs - added an example (song)
68 Sneeze Once and Start Blooming - moved, a bit expanded, added a an (awesome) example (song)
73 Teach, Borrow, Succeed: Two-Sided Verbs - expanded, renamed
76 Inner, Outer, Step by Step: More on Space and Time - expanded a bit, added an example (song)

So, if you like to listen to music, there are many new songs :)

Also:
- most exercises now have a pop-up Croatian keyboard
- translation to French is under way (check Croate facile)
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Check Easy Croatian (very useful for Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian as well)

Daniel N.
Green Belt
Posts: 357
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2015 12:44 pm
Languages: Croatian (N), English (C1), German (beginner)
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Re: BCS Study Group

Postby Daniel N. » Mon Jan 13, 2020 8:26 pm

News about the Easy Croatian website:

- translation to German has started
- some chapters got expanded
- the first 40-ish chapters have been translated to French
- I am working on the chapter with "taboo words"
- I've decided to add a chapter on dialect variations since there are texts and songs in "dialects" people will likely encounter
- I found some parts of grammar missing from the blog :(
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Check Easy Croatian (very useful for Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian as well)

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IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
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Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
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Re: BCS Study Group

Postby IronMike » Sun May 03, 2020 7:39 pm

OK, group, question for you all:

Do you have a source for legal (seriously) ebooks and audiobooks?

So here's the thing: I want to L-R BCS to try and get back to my old scores (2+ to 3 range). I think L-R might be the way to go.

I asked on a FB group for learning Croatian, and here is one response:
audiobooks aren't really a thing here..when it comes to the literature translated from other languages, we still prefer physical books more than anything else, so I doubt you'll find either audiobook or e-book versions of the titles you mentioned [HP, The Martian, Dan Brown books, Hunger Games]


Now I'm torn. I really liked the wee bit of L-R I've done with Russian. And after reading the Italian experiment by Yuurei, I thought L-R might just be the method I needed to get my BCS back.

So, back to the question: I don't care if it is Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin...if I can buy an eBook and audiobook of any of the books I'm looking for, I'd be happy for your recommendations!
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You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
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My reading life.

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rdearman
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Re: BCS Study Group

Postby rdearman » Mon May 04, 2020 8:54 pm

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: 0 / 150 Read 150 books in 2024

My YouTube Channel
The Autodidactic Podcast
My Author's Newsletter

I post on this forum with mobile devices, so excuse short msgs and typos.

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IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
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Re: BCS Study Group

Postby IronMike » Mon May 04, 2020 9:20 pm

rdearman wrote:Have you tried LibriVox ??

https://librivox.org/search?title=&auth ... m=advanced

Yes, which is fine if I want to read old stuff. And not interesting old stuff either. I want to L-R The Hunger Games, or HP, or The Martian.
1 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

annelions
White Belt
Posts: 42
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2020 12:31 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (A1), German (A1), Italian (A1), Croatian (Beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=15851
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Re: BCS Study Group

Postby annelions » Thu Aug 20, 2020 8:29 pm

Hello everyone! I'm trying to learn Croatian to at least a basic A1 level. Does anyone have any good channels to watch on YT? I've found some kids cartoons and a Croatian friend pointed me to the official Croatian school channel (created because of the pandemic) but I'm hoping to find something that is at least young adult level but in relatively simple Croatian. For German, I really like "Dinge Erclärt - Kurzgesagt" ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwRH98 ... 6NxXDo8npw ) on YouTube; I'd like to find something like that but for Croatian. It's probably just wishful thinking, but I remain hopeful for now!
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Spanish
: 1 / 17 ModernStates
: 2 / 16 Forge
: 0 / 100 Busuu
Croatian
: 0 / 18 Teach Yourself
: 1 / 38 Mondly
German
: 0 / 100 Assimil
: 1 / 64 Lingodeer

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NIKOLIĆ
Orange Belt
Posts: 219
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 11:11 pm
Location: Banat, Serbia.
Languages: Speaks: Cрпски (N), English, Română.
Learning: Italiano, Magyar, 中文, Levantine Arabic, Русский.
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Re: BCS Study Group

Postby NIKOLIĆ » Mon Aug 24, 2020 4:15 pm

annelions wrote:Hello everyone! I'm trying to learn Croatian to at least a basic A1 level. Does anyone have any good channels to watch on YT? I've found some kids cartoons and a Croatian friend pointed me to the official Croatian school channel (created because of the pandemic) but I'm hoping to find something that is at least young adult level but in relatively simple Croatian. For German, I really like "Dinge Erclärt - Kurzgesagt" ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwRH98 ... 6NxXDo8npw ) on YouTube; I'd like to find something like that but for Croatian. It's probably just wishful thinking, but I remain hopeful for now!


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCb2Ui ... SDw/videos
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