Military historian's corner - EN, HE, ZH, AR, sometimes RU, FR and DE

[Xenops]

I have a question for you: how was the Hebrew FSI? There doesn’t seem to be many beginner resources for this language.

[cjareck]

I liked the Hebrew FSI very much. However, I wasn't a total beginner. I made a Polish beginner's course by Shorr Foundation, but it was really basics. Nevertheless, it would be best to learn the alphabet by yourself, but such things are easy to find on youtube. You may also find a DLI Headstart2 (free online modern course) interesting: https://hs2.dliflc.edu/hebrew.html (there are 10 normal basic modules and 10 military modules that you may simply skip). You need to register, but it shouldn't be any problem.

As I stated earlier, after the FSI, I speak better than I understand. I don't know if it is my character, the general rule of language learning, my learning style, or just the course. However, drills are beneficial, and I don't have any problems with conjugating verbs if I know them of course.

At first, I learned up to lesson 33, just listening to the lesson a few times each. But I realized that it was not a good idea. I forgot almost everything. So from lesson 34 to the end I put everything to Anki, and after that, I decided to do the same with the lessons 1-33. I can share my Anki deck with you (some phrases are translated into Polish, but it seems to be mainly in English) if you wish. Just send me your email address in a PM.

[cjareck]

Normally, I would call it a "normal" week, but this one was far from normal. Let's say it was "non-chemical." It all started on Tuesday morning. Helena (10 years old)sai that she has a stomachache. It was not the first time, and she stayed home. She mostly sleep and had a little fever. During the night diarrhea occured, and the pain in the stomach intensified. But we came many times through rotaviruses, so, OK, it's the critical point. Especially that during Wednesday, she felt better. But when all the symptoms came back next night, there was no point in waiting. After "tele-advice" with the emergency doctor, my wife took her to hospital. They did a lot of tests, and it is salmonella. They, of course tested Helena for Covid. The result was "inconclusive" (I even didn't know that it can be that way). So they tested my wife and Helena again with the quick test and the more complicated one (I have no idea which is which). Basia's (my wife) was negative, but Helena's inconclusive again. So they were moved into a special isolation roomand they weretold that in cas of a positive result, Helena will be transported to another city (50 or 60 km from my Toruń) to a special Covid hospital. I came to the conclusion that either Covid is not that infectious or the tests are bad. Helena slept together with my wife last two nights. None of us had any symptoms. Luckily the result came back negative.
My part of the story is also interesting. I had to bring my boys to school and immidiately after that have on-line classes in place of my wife. It was awful - the students just logged it, muted their microphones and turned off their cameras. I thought I was talking to the mirror... The said only "goodbye" at the end. After that, I made some shopping, brought my boys from the school and fed the children. I asked a friend to transport me to the shop to buy things for girls in the hospital, and I took some clothes and food to them. On the second day, I also had to bring boys, go to marketplays, buy some stuff for art lessons and give it in school while taking boys home.
I noticed that I can't run so quickly like before the surgery, and I get tired quicker. Nevertheless, I all that madness I managed to do most necessary things. I even caught up with the pending Anki reviews today....
If the girls do not come back on Monday, the diffictulty level will increase since I have a consultation with the oncologist on Tuesday and start my chemotherapy on Wednesday. I have some ideas on how to handle those days, but from Thursday onwards I will be most probably to weak to transport (by bus since I don't have a car) my boys to and from school. But the chances that girls will not come back before are luckily very low.
So let's say it was English writing practice Maybe next time, I will tell you how in 2014, I ended up having 4 kids in 3 hospitals in 2 towns...
All other languages were limited only to Anki reviews. I had only one Hebrew LE.

[Ezra]

It was awful - the students just logged it, muted their microphones and turned off their cameras. I thought I was talking to the mirror...

For some students COVID, it seems, has certain advantages...

[Xenops]

I work as a medical technologist in my hospital, and I run molecular Covid tests on a weekly basis. I can write about it more when I’m back home and not on my phone.

[cjareck]

Please share your experiences! I'm extremely interested!

[Xenops]

They, of course tested Helena for Covid. The result was "inconclusive" (I even didn't know that it can be that way). So they tested my wife and Helena again with the quick test and the more complicated one (I have no idea which is which). Basia's (my wife) was negative, but Helena's inconclusive again. So they were moved into a special isolation roomand they weretold that in cas of a positive result, Helena will be transported to another city (50 or 60 km from my Toruń) to a special Covid hospital. I came to the conclusion that either Covid is not that infectious or the tests are bad. Helena slept together with my wife last two nights. None of us had any symptoms. Luckily the result came back negative.

My emphasis: in my experience, the tests can be bad. In ideal situations, diagnostic tests and vaccines are in extensive trial periods that can last months or years. But because of the emergency status, the CDC in the U.S. has made emergency exceptions to allow diagnostic tests to be released early (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/virus-requests.html. Because these tests were released early, these tests are not as fool-proof as tests for, say, the flu. Different factors can be a problem:

• Tests might not be as sensitive. There might need to be a greater viral load before detection.
• The tests might not be specific enough to Covid. They might pick up flu particles.
• Operator error: maybe the nurse or technologist didn't mix the sample enough?
• Prolonged time between collection and testing: some tests have to be done within one hour, or the specimen is useless.
• Bad collection: the nurse didn't stick the swab far enough in the nose.
• Instrument error: this could be the maintenance was bad, a tip was jammed, incompatible viral media, etc.
• Type of test: PCR for RNA is pretty good and specific. Other tests might be for viral particles, which are unstable.

And these are just possibilities for the "inconclusive/invalid" results. I didn't mention clerical errors, delays in processing, etc.

[cjareck]

And these are just possibilities for the "inconclusive/invalid" results. I didn't mention clerical errors, delays in processing, etc.

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation! A. friend of mine told me a story that a lady was to do tests for her workers she decided for a shortcut and did all of them on herself. She was astonished that some of them were negative and some positive, and this was proof that they are extremely bad and unreliable. I told thim that it may depend on how you gather the sample, and you just confirmed that I was right

MSA
A few days back, I started DLI's Headstart 2 for MSA. Today I decided to put all the words in Anki and got stuck since one task is broken. It doesn't load all the images that I should click on. Grrr... I will have to have that task unfinished...

[cjareck]

The last scheduled chemotherapy wasn't that bad. Contrary to the previous ones, the first day was the worst. Now I have a Computer Tomography scheduled for the 16th of November and the oncological consultation on the 9th of December. It seems I will have at least a few normal weeks!

During the weekend I played computer a lot since I got the old "Close Combat V" to work I used to play it with a friend of mine 20 years ago. He transported me to the hospital to have me the infuser removed, and we spoke about the game. So I had to try, and it - unfortunately - worked

I encountered another broken task in MSA Headstart2 and decided to drop it. They will probably change the course, and all my progress will be lost, as happened in the past already.

I limited myself only to Anki and was not that consistent at the time.

Helena came back home on Tuesday - just after my oncological consultation. So my wife took over all household chores when I was disabled.

I plan to push forward with my languages this week, but my editor sent me the typescript of my book on the battle of the Marne with his remarks. Well, I started doubting if I wrote a good book! He is precise and has huge knowledge, and I wanted him to edit that not to be nice but to force me to correct all that has to be corrected. Like the German saying from WWII: "The more sweat on the training ground, the less blood on the battlefield". The book will be immune to critical reviews

So some academic activities will also take a lot of time and even slow the tempo of language learning. I hope to find some compromise between those two fields of my activity soon!

[cjareck]

I finished a draft of the review of Polish book about ISIS. I "just" have to read it again and correct. It is waiting for that a few days already. But I have to finish it and move on with other things that became urgent.

Hebrew
I used to do Hebrew at the end of the day. In effect, I was tired, and progress wasn't that good. I finished transcribing (with a great help of my LEP who checked me) the war diary of the 71st armored battalion! Now I have "just" translate it
Nevertheless, I managed to do one DLI's GLOSS lesson (level 1, security). It was fairy easy with only some new words. They were, however, very useful - like Iron Dome. Today I switched Hebrew to the Morning and managed to listen to the radio and work with one of the interviews. I will try to stick to that schedule and maybe do one GLOSS lesson weekly. This routine should finally improve my Hebrew skills.

Arabic
MSA was my "morning" language for a long time. I used this to add 16th lesson of DLI course. I have to finish 7th lesson of the ESKK course first. This will happen in the next few days. The improvement in this language is the fastest because the level is not too high, and in the morning, I have the most energy and it always tempted me to add some new cards to ANKI. This will however change due to Arabic being the "evenig" language now.

Mandarin
After a long stop, I came back to Assimil. I decided to do one new lesson every two days. This should provide some improvement in the languages and not to overwhelm my study time. Mandarin is used as a "separator" between Hebrew and Arabic. But the language is extremely interesting to me.