Radioclare's 2016 log (Croatian/Russian)

[Radioclare]

Happy New Year everyone

I can't believe it's already 2016 and time to start a new log!

My main language goals for this year are:

1) Make a slow start at learning Russian. Okay, so I know that isn't exactly a goal you could call SMART, but I'm trying to avoid putting too much pressure on myself because I know my spare time is going to be limited, particularly towards the start of the year. I've wanted to learn Russian for about 10 years now, so I'm excited about finally making a proper start.

2) Complete the writing part of the Output Challenge (50,000 words) in Croatian. I tried and failed to complete the Output Challenge last year, but looking forward to having another attempt. I know that writing is the main thing I need to do to take my Croatian to the next level now, but I have a lot of internal resistance to overcome to make myself actually sit down and do it. Watching Croatian TV is just so much easier

3) Continue sporadic reading in German. I did a lot better at this last year than I have in previous years, and I've had several German novels as Christmas presents, so hopefully this will be easily achievable. I plan to have German and Croatian as Tadoku languages every time Serpent tells me that it's Tadoku (seriously, why is Tadoku so confusing - I literally never know when it is!).

4) Try to do something positive in Esperanto. My love-hate relationship has been erring more on the side of hate recently, mainly as a result of the amount of work my partner and I get dragged into for the Esperanto movement. I've had an Esperanto book about Lithuania for Christmas, so I'm looking forward to reading that to relax at least

[rdearman]

I'm really excited to see how you progress this year. Also I'm glad you started a new log! I was debating what to do with my logs which are all split up between the super challenges and mandarin. So I might take a leaf out of your book and just start again and put a link to the old logs in the first post. Thanks for the inspiration.

[Serpent]

Good luck, dear!
As for Tadoku, it's at the same time every year, designed to have as little overlap with the 6 Week Challenge as possible. The specific dates are listed in the sidebar:

Round 1: January 1st - 31st
Round 1.5: March 15th - 31st
Round 2: June 1st - 30th
Round 2.5: August 15th - 31st
Round 3: October 1st - 31st

The summer ones overlap with the 6WC, but lordsilent really wanted to have at least one full summer round. I was the one who came up with the current schedule for June and onwards

[Radioclare]

Thank you, that's really useful

I have just added all the dates into my online to-do list, so I won't have any excuse for forgetting them now! It's the rounds which start in the middle of a month that have been confusing me in particular.

[Expugnator]

Yay, 2016, the year of Russian!! Good luck to us.

[Radioclare]

I'm having a bit of a slow start to 2016. I spent the time between Christmas and New Year in a tiny village in Finnish Lapland and it was an absolutely amazing experience, but didn't leave me a lot of free time to get stuck into language learning.

Finnish looks like a crazy language. It looks like what sometimes happens when my cat sits on my keyboard, but with umlauts The only word I managed to master was thank you, which makes me feel guilty. Finland was so beautiful that my boyfriend and I really want to book to go back again next winter, but we don't feel like we can justify going twice without trying harder with the language, so my boyfriend is considering getting a copy of Teach Yourself Finnish. We shall see!

German is the language going best for me in 2016. Due to all the downtime I had at airports etc while travelling home this weekend, I've already read 1.5 books in German, so my Tadoku stats are looking quite good so far

The book I've completed was called 'Eisfieber', a German translation of the Ken Follett novel 'Whiteout'. I think Ken Follett is a good author to read in a foreign language, because his plots are always really exciting without the vocabulary being too complicated. This book was about thieves breaking into a high-security laboratory and stealing a deadly and contagious virus with which they planned to release in a public space, starting a plague-like epidemic. There were lots of twists and turns

The other book, which I've read just over half of, is called 'Kroatien: Ein Länderporträt' by Norbert Mappes-Niediek. It's giving me an interesting perspective on modern Croatian culture and politics. I was quite tired when I was reading it on the plane last night so I almost feel like I want to go back to the beginning and read it through more attentively, perhaps taking notes, but I'm not sure if I'll manage to find time for that.

I haven't done much in Croatian itself over the past few days, except start trying to clear my Memrise backlog (again!). I'm down to 200 words needing review, which isn't bad by my standards.

I haven't started with Russian properly yet. I've got some audio courses (Pimsleur and Michel Thomas) that I want to put on my iPod and start listening to while commuting etc, but I'm having some technical problems with a new laptop at the moment which are preventing me from getting into iTunes. Don't even ask.

Mi plurfoje longe babilis kun mia koramiko en Esperanto dum ni feriumis en Finnlando; kiam ajn ni aŭdis ke iuj aliaj turistoj parolis en la anglan, ni tuj saltis al Esperanto Antaŭ Kristnasko mi estis iom kolera kaj trista pri kelkaj aferoj rilate al la Esperanto-movado ĉi tie en Britio, do mi preskaŭ findecidis ke mi ne plu volas esti membro de Esperanto-asocio de Britio kaj certe ne volas mastrumi ĝin. Novjare mi tamen decidis ke mi devas almenaŭ klopodi pensi pli positive dum 2016, do mi realiĝis al la asocio kaj eĉ aliĝis al la Brita Kongreso de Esperanto kiu okazos en Liverpolo marte.

Incidentally, "Finnlando" is a somewhat strange word in Esperanto as it contains a double n. All letters in Esperanto should be pronounced, so you should technically pronounce it with two ns, which is rather difficult in this context. The reason is because the name for a Finnish person in Esperanto is "Finno", spelled with a double n because the word "fino" already exists with the meaning "the end, the finish".

[tarvos]

Vi almenaŭ devas pensi pli positive pro Esperanto, specifice pri la homoj en aliaj partoj. Mi neniam partoprenis en la Nederlando Asocio (tio ne eblas ĉar mi eĉ ne loĝas en Nederlando, sed en Hispanio...), sed, ekzemple, mi volas fari unu jaro de volonta laboro en Slovakio por Esperanto, kaj mi jam babilis kun kelkaj homoj pri tio. Mi ne konas la situacio en Britio, kompreneble, sed por mi, dum IJS kaj JES, mi faris multajn novajn amikojn kaj mi sentas min pli kaj pli parto de la Esperanto-movado. Mi ne scias se tio bonas, sed almenaŭ oni povas diri ke parto de via ĉeesto en la movado estas ankaŭ la renkontiĝoj kun homoj. Festu pli, pensu malpli.

Homoj en kelkaj asocioj estas nur homoj kaj eble ili ankaŭ havas siajn problemojn mem. Mi ne scias miajn eblecojn, sed ekzemple se vi farus IJK ĉijare tio estus vere bona, laŭ mi.

[Brun Ugle]

FINNISH!!!! It's a wonderful language. So beautifully logical. Don't let the umlauts scare you; it's easy to pronounce. And the grammar actually makes sense (unlike German ). I'm looking to get back to Finnish, maybe in the second half of the year. It just makes me feel all giddy and wonderful inside.

[Serpent]

Haha totally agree that the grammar makes more sense than German! To me it also makes more sense than Russian or Esperanto
Not sure about Teach Yourself... Since Tim speaks French, I'd recommend Assimil. Although the very best textbook I've seen is German-based Langenscheidt.

If you go to a place like Turku, Porvoo or Vaasa, Tim can also practise his Swedish there

The double n is funny/strange in Polish too.. See inny for example. Now that I think of it, the almost lack of double consonants bothered me in Esperanto

[Rebecca]

Hi there! Good luck with your goals this year!