Radioclare's 2019 log (Croatian/Russian)

[Radioclare]

11 February
One of those mornings where you wake up and can't believe it's Monday again

Russian
I finished most of lesson 9 of Pimsleur today. This is the one where the man keeps asking the man if she wants to have a drink with him at one o'clock, at two o'clock etc and not getting the hint when she keeps saying no I've come to the conclusion that Pimsleur is much more useful for practice when you already know the words, which is the situation I'm in now, as opposed to when you're using it to learn new vocabulary for the first time. I really don't like learning words without being able to visualise how they're spelled.

This evening I practised instrumental plural endings, which seem comparatively simple actually. And then I moved onto the section of my textbook about uses of the instrumental, but I stopped halfway through because I really wanted to have time to watch my Croatian series this evening

Total time = 104 minutes. Streak = 42 days

[Serpent]

But I fell almost at the final hurdle in the prepositional lesson, when there was a task which required you to drag things which a person was dreaming about to be under the headings of a woman, a man and a child. Some of them were quite easy to guess, like the woman was the one dreaming about perfume and the man was the one dreaming about motorcycles. But although I tried my best to get into a sexist frame of mind, I just couldn't get it 100% correct. Eventually when I checked the answers I found my error had been to assume that the man was dreaming about a coat. I'd assigned the coat to the man mainly because I'd just assigned "dress" to the woman so I thought perhaps they were dreaming about one item of clothing each. And, I mean, men do wear coats! I was imagining a very manly coat for a cold Russian winter. But I was wrong anyway, and I would have never figured it out without checking the answers.

Yeah, this one is definitely much more cultural. (Disclaimer: I'm speaking of Moscow, St Petersburg etc here, no idea what it's like in Siberia... Well, I do follow one woman from Yakutsk on instagram, based on her pics I would say she's just more inventive about the winter fashion because their winter is so long and it's boring to wear the same stuff all the time)

Basically, in Russia a jacket (куртка) is generally seen as unisex, while coat and especially furcoat (пальто, шуба) are seen as more refined/feminine. People of all genders wear jackets often because they're more practical, easier to wash and can be used for various outdoor activities. A very warm пуховик (puffy jacket) is a necessity for the winter, most people also own something lighter for when it's not so cold. A winter coat is generally something extra that is stereotypically seen as what you want to show off, especially шуба. About 50% of Russian sexist jokes are about a woman who wants a shuba. It can also be seen as an "idgaf about greenpeace" statement, although of course you can get one with artificial fur. I guess in some fancy dresscodes a coat or furcoat can be somewhat obligatory but I have no personal experience with this. I only wore them as a kid and now I wear jackets exclusively. My current winter jacket was purchased in the men's section. Most of those intended for women had plastic zippers which are basically more like jewelry, and they break all the time (be sure to browse/swipe through the rest of the post if you want to learn what the arctic circle is called in different languages)

I discussed this with my parents too and my mum said any kind of clothes can be used for showing off, while my dad added that especially some time ago a jacket was supposed to be something mostly young women wear, while older women wore coats. I guess we've made some progress with accepting that at least winter clothes are expensive and everyone deserves something practical and easy to wash. (But we still wear more coats and especially furcoats than for example Finns do)

Is it possible to give a direct link to the exercise? I'm curious what else I'm supposed to dream of

----
Про музыку я писала здесь А что за видео ты смотрела про Хельсинки?
Кстати, я в своем логе постила видео про Италию на русском Есть даже с английскими субтитрами!

[Radioclare]

Basically, in Russia a jacket (куртка) is generally seen as unisex, while coat and especially furcoat (пальто, шуба) are seen as more refined/feminine.

Thank you for all the explanations, but I still feel a bit confused How does Russian define the difference between a coat and a jacket? To me a jacket has always been something short, i.e. it comes down to your waist/hips, whereas a coat is anything longer that comes down towards your legs, regardless of how warm it is or what gender you are. In the picture you linked to, I would have called what you're wearing a coat

About 50% of Russian sexist jokes are about a woman who wants a shuba.

Yes, there has already been at least one dialogue along these lines in the course I'm using!

Is it possible to give a direct link to the exercise? I'm curious what else I'm supposed to dream of

It's in this lesson (number 8). I'll be impressed if you manage to get it right

А что за видео ты смотрела про Хельсинки?
Кстати, я в своем логе постила видео про Италию на русском Есть даже с английскими субтитрами!

It was a vlog on the Russian Progress channel - https://youtu.be/VJwBePXhJ-8. And thanks, I will have a look at the music and the Italy video

***
12 February
I dropped my access pass down the toilet and that pretty much sums up how today went

Russian
I finished lesson 10 of Pimsleur today. This one is about telling the time and it's round about here that I've given up previously, so I'm interested to see whether I can get further this time

Memrise was painful today. The past chapter of Penguin Russian had some really difficult words in it. I'm torn between whether the word causing me most problems at the moment is пересаживаться or поворачиваться. Both have got too many letters in them! I am actually pondering whether to quit Penguin Russian and try an easier course (TY?) that might have more useful beginner vocabulary in it. I mean, the Penguin course is really good and I'm sure all these words are ultimately really useful to know, but I've got really limited time to learn useful things before my trip in June and I'm not sure I've got time to master the content of this textbook before then. I'm torn because I was trying to be consistent and stick with one book rather than keep switching between them.

I did another RT lesson. This one was practising case endings for masculine nouns, which was mostly fine. The errors I made were mainly where I didn't know which case came after which preposition and it turned out to be instrumental (which I didn't know because I was doing this to procrastinate finishing the chapter on the instrumental ).

Total time = 81 minutes. Streak = 43 days

[Serpent]

Maybe officially it's supposed to be overcoat? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overcoat I've never really seen the word outside textbooks (the article mentions French paletot, which is where пальто comes from)
Well in winter you need a long jacket or coat, though waist-length ones are embarrassingly common (any babushka will tell you that it's a sure way to get a uti) I try to stay away from the short jackets when it's below +10 or so. Well, I have a long leather jacket that I wear from +12 to -5, at least if I don't need to be outside much *. Many people just use short jackets for these situations, especially within a close distance to the metro.
*Or at +15 if I do need to be outside for a long time.

I'd say in Russian anything that's made of leather or other "modern"-looking materials is by definition a jacket rather than a coat. To us this is also a jacket (Found this on a page about Wisconsin where it was called parka) Basically a synthetic куртка can withstand heavy rain and snow perfectly. A leather one is generally fine too, though mine looks far less nice after a very heavy rain in Poznań A пальто is somewhat waterproof but not water-repellent (???), and it lacks a hood, so you also need an umbrella when it rains.
Another option is дублёнка but I don't really know how to explain it It's often somewhat less fancy than пальто.

Also, both жакет and кардиган are false friends in Russian. We were supposed to learn the correct English equivalents at university but I don't know if I ever understood what they are. If you go shopping your best bet is just to have a pic of what kind of item you want

Omg I'm glad your first visit should be in spring/summer

[Radioclare]

Omg I'm glad your first visit should be in spring/summer

After this discussion, so am I! I think the only conclusion I've reached is that I'm never going to attempt to talk about coats in Russian; it feels like it's almost as difficult as the genitive plural

Also, both жакет and кардиган are false friends in Russian. We were supposed to learn the correct English equivalents at university but I don't know if I ever understood what they are.

I have no idea what a кардиган would be if it isn't a cardigan, but if I'd had to guess I would have assumed that a жакет is the jacket on a women's suit? The sort of jacket that you need to wear a coat over when you go outside

***
13 February
The most exciting thing about today may have been that I went to the dentist. I practised counting to 100 in Russian in my head while I was having things done to my mouth, though I haven't counted this towards the 6WC

Russian
I was working from home today so didn't get a lot of studying done. I managed a whole 7 minutes of Russian Pimsleur while I went for a walk to the cashpoint this evening

I did make some more progress with the Penguin book later though, finishing the sections on the instrumental of adjectives and pronouns. I've saved the exercises and a bit more grammar for tomorrow.

Total time = 43 minutes. Streak = 44 days

[Radioclare]

14 February
I had to work in town which is really difficult to get to today, so my boyfriend very kindly gave me a lift. This meant I avoided having to get up at 5am, which is probably the best Valentine's present I could have had

Russian
Another not very inspiring day for Russian, I'm afraid. I got through lesson 11 of Pimsleur while I was waiting for my lift after work in the evening. This one has got loads of numbers and telling the time in it, which is good. I think I must be almost at the limit of where I've managed to get to with Pimsleur previously.

This evening I made a little bit more progress with my Penguin chapter. I did the instrumental exercises and then read a section which tried to explain when to use the instrumental and when the nominative after the verb быть. I think I would probably benefit from rereading this tomorrow because I started drinking wine at this point and lost motivation to continue.

Total time = 55 minutes. Streak = 45 days

[Radioclare]

15 February
Another day working at home which was nice because I got a lie in, to make up for the fact that I'm not getting a lie in tomorrow, because I've got to get up early for an Esperanto trustee meeting.

Russian
I don't feel like I've done very well with Russian this week at all. This evening I watched a couple of videos from the Amazing Russian Youtube channel which dealt with weather-related vocabulary.

I also forced myself to log into Memrise, because I didn't log in at all yesterday and I didn't want the reviews to build up too much. It wasn't as bad as I feared, so I had time to learn the 20 remaining words from Chapter 15 of Penguin Russian. That brings me up to 900 words (allegedly!) learned from this book. I was impressed with myself today that, when doing reviews, I managed to correctly spell both пирог and звукоизоляция on the first attempt, so I have definitely learned something. But I still can't remember either пересаживаться or поворачиваться!

I definitely need to try and make some more serious progress with the textbook on Sunday.

Total time = 46 minutes. Streak = 46 days

Croatian
My series peaked this week with an episode where both the bride and groom ran away from their own wedding (separately, I mean) and where the main character returned from the dead. Even by the standards of Croatian telenovela storylines, I thought this was impressive. I'm not really sure where the series has left to go from here

[Radioclare]

16 February
Most of today was taken up by an Esperanto trustee meeting. At least, it resulted in me being out of the house for about 10 hours, once travelling and everything were taken into account. Now I feel more tired than if I'd been at work all day

Russian
There was no opportunity to do any Russian until I got home this evening. I spent some time on Memrise and focussed on trying to reduce the number of words it had highlighted as being "difficult" for me. I try to blitz these words at least once a week to keep the number under control. Today I practised long enough to get it down to two words which I still can't spell for toffee. I'm not even going to try to type them out again right now; they're the same two I mentioned yesterday

Once I'd had some coffee, I worked through three lessons (23 - 25) on the Learn Russian RT website. These were practising endings for feminine nouns/adjectives and possessive pronouns and all the exercises were really useful practice I stopped at the end of lesson 25 when I saw that lesson 26 was about plurals. I am definitely weaker on plurals.

Finally I watched a couple of videos on Youtube, including one which was an interview with a guy had walked all the way across Russia. Considering he'd done such an interesting thing, he didn't give a very interesting interview!

Total time = 79 minutes. Streak = 47 days

[Serpent]

But I still can't remember either пересаживаться or поворачиваться!

Do you know how they're put together or are they a bunch of random syllables?
I'm sure you know сидеть.
сажать can be to offer a seat or to plant. (or to put someone in prison - "make them sit in prison") wow didn't realize the plant meaning is logically connected too.
пересаживать is to transplant or to make someone change their seat. for example a teacher at school may пересадить a pupil - either forcing them to sit away from their friends due to misbehaving, or as an accomodation (for example if someone needs to sit in the front row due to their eyesight, but all seats were taken). meanwhile в Черногории водитель автобуса не пересаживает пассажиров
it can also mean repot/replant when it comes to plants. (had to look that up )
so пересаживаться is to move yourself into a different seat for whatever reason, and from there come meanings like to move yourself from one bus to another, or from one plane to another etc. it's a clumsy word tbh and wrt transport it's more common to say делать пересадку (which is also an expression used about transplants ), or ехать/лететь с пересадкой. also, пересесть feels much less clumsy but it's more common in the direct meaning.

поворачиваться should be more straightforward if you know вернуть, повернуть, повернуться. arghh didn't realize they're all so similar, what a mess
ворочаться is to keep turning in bed if you can't sleep or while sleeping restlessly.

if I'd had to guess I would have assumed that a жакет is the jacket on a women's suit? The sort of jacket that you need to wear a coat over

Nope, that's пиджак regardless of gender. I think жакет looks very similar but is an independent and less formal item? It's also made of different materials like wool/трикотаж (tricot???). It's not part of a suit but it can be part of a combo (often with a skirt). I think it's normally feminine-coded.
IDK, it's really not part of my active vocabulary at all

Нашла у меня видео про Италию?

[Radioclare]

17 February
I was technically at home today but most of the day managed to get swallowed up by Esperanto work. The problem with having meetings is that when you come back from them you end up with lots of things to do

Russian
I more or less finished Chapter 16 of Penguin Russian. That is to say, I finished all the exercises and the dialogues, but I haven't put the vocab into Memrise yet. And it looks like there is a lot of vocab at the end of this chapter! The main grammar point I covered today was how to decline Russian surnames and I am still considering putting this textbook on hold and using an "easier" one instead, because while I appreciate that that is something I ultimately need to learn how to do, I don't think it's my biggest priority before June.

Total time = 83 minutes. Streak = 48 days

so пересаживаться is to move yourself into a different seat for whatever reason, and from there come meanings like to move yourself from one bus to another, or from one plane to another etc. it's a clumsy word tbh and wrt transport it's more common to say делать пересадку (which is also an expression used about transplants ), or ехать/лететь с пересадкой. also, пересесть feels much less clumsy but it's more common in the direct meaning.

Thank you, I actually managed to spell пересаживаться for the first time today after this explanation Before that it was definitely just a collection of letters to me!

Нашла у меня видео про Италию?

Да, я посмотрела одно видео, но я ничего не поняла, потому что женщина говорила очень быстро!