nothing serious here

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MamaPata
Brown Belt
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Languages: English (N), French (C1*), Russian (B1), Spanish (B1).

Long lost: Arabic and Latin.
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3004
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Re: nothing serious here

Postby MamaPata » Thu May 17, 2018 3:26 pm

I completely understand how you feel, both failing the exam and finding it difficult to care any more. It sounds like you're doing all the right things, taking a break, singing, etc. It's just really miserable sometimes. Much sympathy!
2 x
Corrections appreciated.

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
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Re: nothing serious here

Postby Cavesa » Fri May 18, 2018 2:56 pm

Thank you, Mamapata!

Curiously, I did unexpectedly well in my singing class yesterday. It was probably the "jumping progress" I've mentioned in another thread. We started with a very hard (at least for me) modern thing by a Czech author, which is very beautiful but so complicated to learn and the Czech lyrics are not exactly helping. I really prefer to sing in Italian! And we reopened a thing we haven't touched for two months (a beautiful Mozart aria) and obviously work on the other things has helped this one too. We'll be trying some pop and musical soon too, and I am really excited about it, but I don't want to ever leave the classics either. I was told I was an exception. Anyone has a tip on good popular music female singers in German? Middle voice, please, or a bit lower but not an extreme. I know some great ones for my other languages but German is really a challenge :-D Or a good musical in German?

Learning music is a lot like learning languages. Not because of the theories of people with talent music also having talent for languages. I dislike theories like this. Firstly, it is very hard to prove stuff like that, which is highly influenced by motivation, education, IQ, tons of genetics and epigenetics, health conditions, teachers encountered, and a lot of other factors. Secondly, people claiming these things (I've even heard a theory about the talent for languages and math being closely connected,) unintentionally divide the human kind in just two groups. Those with a talent for everything and those with no talent at all :-D That is fortunately absolute nonsense. But learning to play an instrument or sing is a lot like language learning (and we'd surely find parallels with other things too). For example, working on just a few areas can strengthen the temporarily abandoned one. And in both cases, you have to put in a lot of time and efforts, just to have people telling you "oh, you're so lucky, I'd love to have a talent like that!" :-D

I obviously progress in "jumps" in everything. I could do with a few such jumps in my other areas of interest now :-D Such as my main studies.

I've just returned to seriously learning Spanish (as I wrote in the first post here). I've just finished the textbook part of lesson 1 in Método, with the exercise book part left. And I did a few exercises in Cvičebnice (an awesome thick book with exercises, many of them translation based). I am sooooo rusty!!! My past tenses are wobbly again. My vocabulary is gone! It feels horrible, having to painfully drag lots of supposedly obvious words out of my memory. It will come back fast, I hope. It's high time I returned to Spanish. I need some tv series, that should help, it usually does.
7 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
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Re: nothing serious here

Postby Cavesa » Mon May 21, 2018 10:35 pm

A few Spanish grammar exercises, almost no digital playing for my German "learning".

Aaand I got stuck in that Spanish thriller. Why? It slowed down and went to stuff not too relevant to the main story (well, that will perhaps show to be important later, but right now it is just annoying), and the main qualities are not there. The sarcastic main protagonist and his mysterious complices in crime are there much less. Instead, there are some policemen hunting the basque terrorists. The late delivery fee is becoming astronomical. But I want to finish this. And I'll stop the library use again, except for some learning stuff I'll be sure to return early enough. They don't have that much interesting literature for me anyways. It looks like they are approaching the book choosing in the typical way "language learners are people focused on humanities and therefore high literature". Books like crime novels are a tiny minority, from what I've seen. Among the magazines, there is not a single popular science one. And the digital library, which I hoped to be great, turned out to be quite a disappointment. Not practical to search in at all. Perhaps there are some good books in there. But they are well hidden.

Oh and I am procrastinating again but I must not.

And I would love to attend the Gathering! And to meet many of the forum members in person! Too bad the date is at the end of the academic year here. At the worst time of the year.

If I happen to win a huuuuge lottery at some point in my life, I will found a huge digital library, accessible worldwide, with tons of awesome books of both the high and low genres!
3 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
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Re: nothing serious here

Postby Cavesa » Sat May 26, 2018 3:38 pm

I've been progressing really slooooooooooowwwwwwwly through my grammar book Cvičebnice španělské gramatiky. It is very useful, I just need to stick to it for a while.

I am not feeling exactly great these days. My mind is simply overworked, overstressed, overly frustrated by stuff. I am not a pleasant person to be around (and that is at times still a way too nice way to call it). I could really do with some positive motivation. A piece of success would be great. It is highly unlikely I will succeed at anything at university, so I thought of signing up for a Spanish exam. If I signed up for a B2 DELE for the summer, I would have very strong chances of passing without the preparation taking too much time and therefore endangering my trash studies. Too bad I thought of this three days too late, the signing up ended on the 23rd. SIELE would be great but that would include travelling abroad.

But I found out something on the website: if you sign up now, you'll get an online SIELE preparatory course for free. So, who is in a more pleasant situation than me, such as having a testing center nearby and 165 euro lying around, now might be a good time to consider it.
2 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
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Re: nothing serious here

Postby Cavesa » Fri Jun 08, 2018 9:42 am

I passed a scary exam on Wednesday. I was extremely lucky to have an awesome examiner (yes, that is the main part of this exam. Who do you happen to get as your examiner. It is not fair, it is not right, it is the reality. This time, I was the lucky one :-D it is not the norm).

Since, I used my languages for work a bit (French and Spanish) but mostly spent my time in bed. The exam has destroyed me :-D I am still recovering.

I have to finish that damned Spanish book, the late return fee is gonna be astronomical. I am buying my books again instead.
9 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
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Re: nothing serious here

Postby Cavesa » Wed Jun 13, 2018 12:18 am

So, I got my studies a bit more organised now. And my sleep deficit has been balanced out a bit more. What I can realistically do:

SC: I am finally moving forward in the book I'll be paying an arm and leg for. I hate myself for it. But I should have it finished soon. The story is good again! Finally!

SRS: I am back and focusing on this project. Both languages and medecine decks. Anki and to some extent Memrise.

More "serious" learning: I found two of my grammar books again (which I had hidden on purpose). Spanish and German. To warm up a bit, I have been continuing with the German Duolingo. The good news there: I haven't forgotten much. The drill with the new crowns system is a very good thing. The bad news: I cannot hide from the fact it is sooo slow progressing and bellow a real challenge. The grammar book will rectify this.

The next exam: June 18. But it is a much less of a nightmare. If my health doesn't betray me, I should prepare enough to pass.

Half a year ago, I counted and posted that I had these left: four standard exams, two hard exams, and two nightmarish exams. Now, I have three standard, two hard, and one nightmare left. In June, I must pass two normal ones. I hope to pass one hard in July and the nightmare in September.

So, any language exams will come after that. I have plenty of time to just use languages is fun, ego saving, and so on. I'll decide about the following progress in September.
3 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
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Re: nothing serious here

Postby Cavesa » Thu Jun 14, 2018 10:43 pm

Just a few nice words and phrases from various sources:

Me importa un carajo. A phrase I am not sure I want to use but definitely good to know passively
cachivache- a nice word for junk :-D

balurdo, a nice adjective "De poco entendimiento y sensibilidad." says the wictionary

Two nice sentences from the German Duolingo:
Das Gemüse mag keine Vegetarier. This made me smile.
Mein Geschlecht ist nicht wichtig. A nice phrase for a woman wanting to work as a doctor. Majority of my classmates is already looking for jobs (or has got them) and the sexism is definitely still well alive. But it is finally changing, just too slowly (we need lots of dinosaurs to finally retire, so that the things can change. Too bad there are few doctors, so the system keeps the dinosaurs active for far too long). I've heard Germany is different, but who knows.

For people interested in Medical Spanish: https://medicinamnemotecnias.blogspot.com

And for Czech learners, I can't recommend Žamboch enough. Iv'e just finished Líheň (the Hatchery). I think his style would be well accessible to intermediate learners, it is a good compromise between colloquial and standard language, the story is not too hard to follow, but really fun. Medium level of violence.
2 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
x 17565

Re: nothing serious here

Postby Cavesa » Fri Jun 15, 2018 3:32 am

I'm fully back at my SRS experiment.
Spanish: Nouns 1 from the +Spanish series on Memrise (when I'm finished with it there and don't feel I need to type that so much, I'll move it to anki). there is a lot of ignoring in the course but not as much as I had thought, I really need to review the spelling.
German:yes, I am continuing the course for my courseboob
Medicine:I am continuing my huge anki deck creation.
2 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
x 17565

Re: nothing serious here

Postby Cavesa » Fri Jun 15, 2018 5:11 am

Adding a few numbers here:

German Duolingo: 196 crowns
right now, I am just doing the "dumb" repetitions that drill easy stuff into the brain and MORE importantly: are a nice game in between studying. I am getting the crowns slowly these days, as I am now at level 3 and 4 in the nearest skills, so the new crowns require mostly 12,15,or 20 reviews

+Spanish Nouns 1:
out of the 4285 words total: 346 words "learnt", 713 ignored
It is much more fun to do the new words, but the reviews will be doable. One or two 50 words sessions a day should do the magic.

And there are two apps I'd like to share:

Harry Potter: the Hogwarts Mystery
It is a classical free to play game with lots of waiting (and that is actually an awesome thing for a student, I can't spend a lot of time on it continuously). Either you can use it too much (and that would be detrimental to your other activities. Even though it is so easy at the beginning for us, fans eager to get anything good from our beloved world), or you can use it as a nice reward for some time outside of it spent studying. It is mostly an interactive story. It is nice, the choices don't make much of a difference but still a bit, and the game is not bad, despite the silliness of tapping on screen to learn some magic. There are SEVERAL available languages and you can FREELY switch between them. I have chosen English for now, because of the nostalgia but I'll chose German the next time (and a different House for change). There are such jewels like this: https://imgur.com/uiYKVpF

The available languages: English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese

Forest: another app. A lot like pomodoro with one change: you plant a forest! For every pomodoro, you get a tree for your forest. And you also get coins you can buy other kinds of virtual trees, or you can donate this virtual currency and the app makers will transform that into a real donation, paying for one new real tree to help cover our quickly balding planet. Oh, I almost forgot what was the main difference compared to other pomodoro apps: this one helps against the smartphone addiction. It is embarrassing to admit but I find it hard to stay away from my phone and focus on studying. So, this app doesn't work on the background, quite the opposite. You can take a call but that is all. Leave your forest screen and the tree dies! Perfect!
5 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
x 17565

Re: nothing serious here

Postby Cavesa » Fri Jun 15, 2018 11:07 pm

the French word of the day night: dédramatisation.
Don't ask about the context I've just read it in. I'm studying for a urology exam. But the word is pretty universal.

Btw it is weird to type French words on a non French keyboard now. But switiching all the time is annoying. German is ok on the Czech keyboard, Spanish typing is an unsolved issue for now.

A poll: what type of loud noises do you prefer in a studyroom: snoring or crying? I can't decide, both are a hell.

At least snoring makes me just angry. The crying people wake in me an urge to comfort them but I'm afraid they'd find it humiliating, as they are trying to be heard the least possible, so I usually do nothing.

And cafés should be open nonstop!
2 x


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