Radioclare's 2020 log (Russian, Croatian)

[Radioclare]

9 November
A very frustrating evening. I've got five 90-minute modules on US accounting standards I need to study in my own time, so I decided to make a start on the first one this evening. It was extremely boring but I eventually got through it, sat the quiz at the end and then had a technical problem which meant the window wouldn't close and save my progress So once I've found a solution to the technical problem I'll have to do it all over again.

Russian
I started a new chapter in Schaum's Grammar today and this one is about prepositions. I learned about the few instances in which it is possible for a preposition to be followed by the nominative case and then started studying those prepositions which are exclusively used with the accusative case. These include the preposition "сквозь" which wasn't one I was hugely familiar with, so that was useful

Croatian
I read another chapter of 'Na zapadu ništa novo'. I'm trying to be more diligent and look up some of the words I don't know when I read. Today I looked up "treset" (peat).

Total - Russian: 31 mins, Croatian: 17 mins

[overscore]

the preposition "сквозь" which wasn't one I was hugely familiar with, so that was useful

is it the same as "kroz (+ obič. ak)"?

----

i have a bit of trouble parsing "po svemu sudeći", do you know if it's like "by all judging", or maybe "by everyone judging" or what's the role of po and svemu here? is it sve or sav?
that 'po' is the most confusing of particles.

the context is like:

Знали сте да је Џингис-кан (1162–1227), по свему судећи, мушкарац који је оставио највише потомака на нашој планети?

http://www.politika.rs/scc/clanak/167102/Dzingis-kan-zagadivac

[Radioclare]

the preposition "сквозь" which wasn't one I was hugely familiar with, so that was useful

is it the same as "kroz (+ obič. ak)"?

It is and it isn't There's another preposition "через" which seems to be used more commonly with a similar meaning to "kroz". "сквозь" seems to be reserved for situations where you're passing through a physical substance or there's some sort of obstruction. So one of the examples in the textbook is "Трудно увидеть берег сквозь туман" (It's difficult to see the shore through the fog). I guess in Croatian that would be something like "Teško je vidjeti obalu kroz maglu". So I think what I'm trying to say is that the meaning of "сквозь" is probably translated by "kroz", but not all meanings of "kroz" are translated by "сквозь"; some of them are translated by "через" instead.

i have a bit of trouble parsing "po svemu sudeći", do you know if it's like "by all judging", or maybe "by everyone judging" or what's the role of po and svemu here? is it sve or sav?
that 'po' is the most confusing of particles.

I hate "po" I don't think I've ever seen a direct English translation of "po svemu sudeći", but in my head I tend to think of it as something like "by all accounts". Literally, perhaps something like "judging by everything"? I feel like sometimes it's just a fancy way of saying "apparently" or that something "appears to be" a certain way.

[Radioclare]

10 November
I managed to fix my technical issue with the US training. It turns out the course only works in Chrome, despite the fact that the very first instruction the course gives that you must only use it in Internet Explorer.

Russian
Continuing with prepositions, today I learned about the uses of the prepositions о, по and с with the accusative. Exciting stuff.

Croatian
I watched another episode of 'Drugo ime ljubavi' while I was on the exercise bike. Plenty of drama to cycle fast to today. Having thrown his daughter out of the family home last week, this week one of the main characters is throwing his fiancée out.



Total - Russian: 30 mins, Croatian: 46 mins

[Radioclare]

11 November
I finished work at 10pm, so not the best of days.

Russian
By the time I was free at 10pm I didn't really feel like doing any grammar study, so I watched an episode of 'Татьянин день' instead.

Croatian
I also read another chapter of 'Na zapadu ništa novo' to wind down. I mean, it's not exactly a book you read for light entertainment, but I guess at least it puts my work-related problems into perspective!

Total - Russian: 45 mins, Croatian: 30 mins

[Radioclare]

12 November
I managed to finish work before 8pm today. And I got through all my very boring training.

Russian
The section of Schaum's Grammar I studied this evening was about the uses of в/на with the prepositional and accusative cases. As Russian grammar goes, this isn't a bit I find terribly difficult. I made two errors in the exercises I did. One was because I mistakenly thought that стол was one of those words that takes a weird ending after в/на in the prepositional case. I think possibly I was getting confused with шкаф, which is also a four-letter word for an item of furniture and does take the funny ending. The second one was because I couldn't remember whether to use в or на with шахматы. I knew that you use one of the prepositions for playing a musical instrument and the other one for playing a sport/game, but for the life of me I couldn't remember which way round it was

Total - Russian: 41 mins, Croatian: 45 mins

[cjareck]

The second one was because I couldn't remember whether to use в or на with шахматы. I knew that you use one of the prepositions for playing a musical instrument and the other one for playing a sport/game, but for the life of me I couldn't remember which way round it was

Since it seems to be very similar to Polish - "na" and "w" I assume that it would be "в шахматы". You may try to remember that playing a game absorbs you entirely and you are "in" the game. Playing a musical instrument is just using in to produce sound

[Radioclare]

Since it seems to be very similar to Polish - "na" and "w" I assume that it would be "в шахматы". You may try to remember that playing a game absorbs you entirely and you are "in" the game. Playing a musical instrument is just using in to produce sound

Yes, you're right about "в шахматы". And that's a good way to remember it, thank you

13 November
Nothing explicitly went wrong today, but I'm going to have to work for a few hours tomorrow. I just lacked energy in the second half of the day to get through everything I needed to.

Russian
I cleared a few Memrise reviews before dinner; I've been a bit lax with Memrise this week so they've built up again. I had a glass of wine with dinner, with meant I then didn't feel like doing any grammar study afterwards. I listened to a Russian Progress podcast instead and then watched a Russian video on YouTube about downsides of living in England. The latter was the usual complaints, like separate hot and cold water taps

Total - Russian: 55 mins

[Radioclare]

14 November
Not the most relaxing weekend day I've ever had. I did proper work until 2pm, then spent more time than I intended doing some work for the Esperanto association. So it was dark by the time I eventually stopped and got outside for a walk.

Russian
This evening I made more progress with the prepositions chapter in Schaum's Grammar. The two prepositions I was studying today were за and под, and their uses with the accusative and the instrumental.

Total - Russian: 34 mins

[Radioclare]

15 November
No work today, so it was a lot more relaxing

Russian
I started the section on prepositions which are followed by the genitive in Schaum's Grammar. There are a lot of prepositions which are followed by the genitive, so today I was just learning about what the book described as the fourteen core genitive prepositions. Actually I didn't get through all fourteen of them today... I think I managed around nine before I got too bored to continue

Croatian
I watched the 100th episode of 'Drugo ime ljubavi'. According to my spreadsheet I started this series on 23 April. I think there are another 79 episodes to go, so I definitely won't finish it in 2020.

I spent quite a lot of time reading this morning and finished 'Na zapadu ništa novo'. It's not an uplifting book, but well worth reading in any language.

Total - Russian: 30 mins, Croatian: 233 mins