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Radioclare’s tac log 2015 (*jäŋe/*ledús)

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Chung
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Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 265 of 292
06 July 2015 at 10:54pm | IP Logged 
What struck me most about prosto is that the corrector's point is misleading. Anić's dictionary marks the term as a colloquialism and even includes the "proper" jednostavno in the definition. I too have had my share of Croats trying to make my Croatian seem less Serbo-Croatian (to them). The attitude reminds me a bit of the British outrage over Americanisms when it turns out that at least some perceived Americanisms have been attested in British English at some point or another. There are differences, but amateurs and nationalists make distinctions where there aren't any, if not distort existing ones.

Here there's no difference in prosto's meaning as much as a difference in register. However, the corrector's note that it's vulgar ('dirty words' (?)) to use prosto among Croats (in contrast to Serbs) seems at best to be a stretch given the dictionary's entry.
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Radioclare
Triglot
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United Kingdom
timeofftakeoff.com
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Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian

 
 Message 266 of 292
06 July 2015 at 11:40pm | IP Logged 
Chung wrote:
What struck me most about prosto is that the corrector's point is misleading. Anić's dictionary marks the term as a
colloquialism and even includes the "proper" jednostavno in the definition. I too have had my share of Croats trying to make my Croatian seem
less Serbo-Croatian (to them). The attitude reminds me a bit of
the British outrage over Americanisms when it turns out that at least some perceived Americanisms have been attested in British English at some point
or another
. There are differences, but amateurs and nationalists make distinctions where there aren't any, if not distort existing ones.

Here there's no difference in prosto's meaning as much as a difference in register. However, the corrector's note that it's vulgar ('dirty
words' (?)) to use prosto among Croats (in contrast to Serbs) seems at best to be a stretch given the dictionary's entry.


Yes, I was extremely confused by the "dirty words" comment too; it would probably have been clearer what he meant if he'd just written it in
Croatian!

It is frustrating to get corrections like this. I frequently get people correcting things like my use of 'da' for being too Serbian (it tends to slip
into my writing when I've been reading a lot in Serbian!) but at least with something like that I know I can just ignore the correction if I don't
feel like making it. These more subtle corrections are harder to assess the validity of.

Something came up the other day, for example, where I'd written "Mnogo radim od ponedjeljka do petka" and the girl correcting me wrote ""mnogo" -
meni iskreno ovo više zvuči kao nešto što bi iskoristili susjedi Srbi, prirodnije mi zvuči "puno" na istom mjestu". It was well-meant stylistic
advice but ultimately if I could get to the stage where the only mistakes I am making is sounding Serbian then I would be extremely happy :D
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Radioclare
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
timeofftakeoff.com
Joined 4581 days ago

689 posts - 1119 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto
Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian

 
 Message 267 of 292
06 July 2015 at 11:44pm | IP Logged 
No controversial corrections in today's writing :) Okay, so I didn't write all of the
following today; I started it yesterday but finished it today. After this text I'm on
7 232 words for the Output Challenge.

Quote:
Rođendan moje bake

Malo me je stid priznati da sam zaboravila da je u petak bio rođendan moje pokojne
bake. Rođena je 1928. godine u malom selu koje se zove Ballinlough. To selo se nalazi
u zapadnoj Irskoj, što je tada bio vrlo siromašno mjesto. Njen otac je bio
poljoprivrednik i imao je nekoliko krava. Njena majka se brinula o kokoškama i povrću,
ali se razboljela kada je baka imala trinaest godina. Zbog toga baka nije više mogla
ići u školu. Morala je ostati doma da se brine o majci.

Baka mi je često pričala o svojem djetinjstvu, ali sada mi je malo čudno što nikada
nije spomenula drugi svjetski rat. Teško mi je shvatiti da nije niti primijetila takav
značajni i strašni događaj. Ipak, Irska je bila već nezavisna od Velike Britanije i
odlučila je ostati neutralna tijekom rata. Čini mi se da su moji irski rođaci
ignorirali čitavu stvar te su živjeli kao i prije, kao da se ništa nije promijenilo.

Zdravlje moje prabake malo se poboljšalo kada je rat bio gotov. Baka je imala 20
godina i došlo je vrijeme da ode iz obiteljske kuće i zaradi nešto novca. 1948. godine
je prvi put u svom životu putovala vlakom u Dublin (glavni grad Irske). Od Dublina je
putovala brodom do New Yorka.

Ne mogu zamisliti što je pomislila kada je stigla u takav veliki i bučni grad nakon
mirnog života na irskom selu. Živjela je u maloj sobi koja se nalazila u kući nekog
dalekog rođaka. Uskoro je uspjela pronaći posao kao konobarica u velikom restoranu
blizu Wall Streeta.   Radila je tamo tri godine dok nije uštedila dovoljno novca za
povratak u Irsku.

Dok je bila u Americi, srela je Amerikanca iz dobre irske obitelj i te su se zaručili.
Htjela je vratiti se u Irsku, posjetiti roditelje i sve im to objasniti. Namjeravala
se nakon toga vratiti u New York i udati.

Međutim, stvarnost je bila drugačija! Nakon što se vratila u Irsku, srela je jednog
mladića iz susjednog sela. On je bio stolar i nije imao mnogo novca, ali su se
zaljubili.

Moj djed (jer je on to jednoga dana postao) došao je iz ogromne obitelj, koja je bila
zloglasna zbog toga što su dječaci previše pili alkohola i tukli.

Baka je znala da bi njeni roditelji bili bijesni ako bi saznali da nije više imala
namjeru da se vrati u Ameriku i se uda za bogatog Amerikanca. Kad bi saznali da se
umjesto toga hoće udati za mog djeda, bili bi još bijesniji. Zbog toga je odlučila
pobjeći, a da ne govori ništa svojim roditeljima unaprijed.

Mladi par su putovali vlakom u Dublin, gdje su nastavili putovanje brodom u Englesku.
To im je bio prvi put u Engleskoj, ali je djed imao nekoliko brata koji su već radili
u Birminghamu, pa su otišli tamo i tražili posao. Ubrzo su se vjenčali i nakon toga je
moja baka napisala pismo svojim roditeljima da im objasni sve što se dogodilo.

Roditelji su bili ljuti. Dugo nisu odgovorili na pismo, ali su na kraju odgovorili i
molili baku da se vrati u Irsku. Svi su u selo pričali da je baka otišla zbog toga što
je već trudna. To nije bilo istina, ali je već glasina bila velika sramota za obitelj.
Na kraju su djed i baka pristali i vratili su se u zapadnu Irsku.

Na žalost, privredna stanja u Irskoj još je bila loša i bilo je teško zaraditi novac.
Djed je opet radio kao stolar. Najčešće je radio mrtvačke sanduke, ali musterije su
bile siromašne i nisu uvijek plaćali na vrijeme. U međuvremenu je baka rodila
djevojčicu (moju majku), pa ona nije mogla raditi.

Kada je moja majka imala tri godine, djed i baka su morali odustati. Nije bilo posla u
Irskoj. Odlučili su se iseliti i na kraju su se vratili u grad u kojem su imali
vjenčanje, Birmingham.

Tamo su živjeli više od četrdeset godina do svoje smrti. Mislim da su bili sretni tu,
mada nikada nisu primili britansko državljanstvo. Uvijek su smatrali sebe Ircima.
Čitali su irske novine, jeli su irsku hranu, pjevali su irske pjesme. Često su pričali
o domovini, što je za mene kao dijete bilo jako čudno, jer sam znala da nisu imali
namjeru da se vrate u Irsku i nisam mogla razumjeti zašto su, dakle, još uvijek
pričali o "našoj domovini". Mislim da to sada malo bolje razumijem, mada sam sebe
uvijek smatrala Engleskinjom.

Djed mi je umro 1998. godine od srčanog infarkta. Baka mi je umrla dvije godine
kasnije od moždanog udara. Nedostaju mi. Mislim da ne bi razumjeli moj sadašnji život
i sigurna sam da ne bi razumjeli zašto učim hrvatski. Čini mi se, međutim, da kad bi
imali priliku posjetiti Hrvatsku, da bi im se svidjela, jer mislim da postoje pojedine
sličnosti između dvije zemlje.


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Radioclare
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
timeofftakeoff.com
Joined 4581 days ago

689 posts - 1119 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto
Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian

 
 Message 268 of 292
08 July 2015 at 11:16am | IP Logged 
A shorter entry for yesterday :)

I think rdearman's idea of writing a journal in your TL every day is a really good one, although sometimes I feel like the Croatian correctors on Lang-8 know far too much about my life :D My old French teacher at school used to say to us "Your French oral is not confession!", reminding us that the aim was just to speak and it didn't matter whether what you said was true, so long as it was in French. But I think it's hard to keep writing in a foreign language and not talk about your own life, at least when you're still a long way from being fluent. I tried writing about canals the other day but it didn't really work out :D

Quote:
Danas je bio čudan dan. Imala sam godišnju ocjenu rada. Nisam sigurna da li je to pravi izraz na hrvatskom jer sam ga morala tražiti u rječniku, ali kod nas svi zaposlenici moraju imati razgovor svake godine sa svojim šefom. Cilj razgovora je pričati o tome što je išlo dobro tijekom prošle godine i o tome što nije bilo tako uspješno. Obično mrzim takve razgovore jer nisam osoba koja voli pričati o sebi satima. Doduše, uvijek se bojim toga što će mi šef reći. Možda sam napravila neku strašnu grešku i još nisam svjesna toga!

Ove godine nisam znala što očekivati jer sam prošle godine promovirana. Dakle, posao mi je bio nov i bilo je mi teško shvatiti jesam li napravila sve što sam trebala. Jutros sam bila veoma zabrinuta.

Međutim, razgovor je prošao bolje nego što sam očekivala. Šefovi su bili zadovoljni mojim poslom. Vjerojatno ću biti opet unaprijeđena i da ću na jesen biti menadžer. To mi je bilo veliko iznenađenje, ali mislim da je to pozitivno.


I watched another episode of Budva last night. Not that this entire series is trying to be a massive advert for the Montenegrin tourist industry, but today there was a slightly spurious reason for two characters to visit Cetinje, so we were treated to several minutes without dialogue while they showed us shots of Cetinje to music :D Actually Cetinje (which is the old Montenegrin capital) looks really interesting and it's top of the list of places in Montenegro that I want to see but haven't yet, so it was actually quite cool.

The main thing which struck me about the series recently has been how many characters have guns and how casually they wave them around. In the past few episodes we have had a drug dealer with a gun (though in fairness, I guess that might be essential equipment for a drug dealer), Savo with a gun, Savo's friend Boro with a gun and a new character who is extremely angry that one of the existing characters has been sleeping with his wife, who has not just one gun, but a couple of scary-looking bodyguards with guns. I guess Montenegro has worse gun control laws than America :D Although in fairness, I think we have only had one fatal shooting in the series so far.

I think I now need to watch about another 30 minutes until I get another star :)
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basica
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 3534 days ago

157 posts - 269 votes 
Studies: Serbian

 
 Message 269 of 292
08 July 2015 at 12:04pm | IP Logged 
I too considered writing about things made up, but it's too hard for me to think of topics :) Much easier to say
what I did today or what I thought about as even though it might be boring I don't have to worry about
thinking of a topic and then finding the vocab for it :)

You are keeping up well, it's great to see! :)
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Radioclare
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
timeofftakeoff.com
Joined 4581 days ago

689 posts - 1119 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto
Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian

 
 Message 270 of 292
09 July 2015 at 11:25am | IP Logged 
Yes, I completely agree - writing is hard enough without trying to find something interesting to say :D

Not too many corrections to yesterday's writing, which was encouraging to see.

Quote:
Danas na poslu svi su morali napisati kratak tekst o svom najvećem uspjehu u ličnom životu ove godine. Nisam sigurna zašto smo morali to učiniti. Meni se činilo malo čudno, ali pretpostavljam da je neki šef negdje čitao da je na taj način moguće motivisati zaposlenike ili nešto slično. Ja nisam znala što napisati, ali sam napokon odlučila da ću napisati o tome kako sam ove godine prvi put pročitala knjigu na ćirilici.

Premda u glavnom želim učiti hrvatski jezik a ne srpski, mislim da je korisno biti sposobna čitati i na ćirilici. Kada sam bila u Beogradu prošlog ljeta, kupila sam nekoliko knjiga na ćirilici. To su samo knjige za djecu, ali su mi ipak bili savršene. Jako sporo čitam na ćirilici, pa su jednostavne priče najbolje. Sada sam pročitala tri dječje knjige na ćirilici i čini mi se da je to bilo dobro iskustvo, jer sada mogu čitati malo brže.


I watched another episode of Budva last night and it was very exciting. Still not at all clear how some of the main storylines are going to be resolved by the end of the series. And yes, there were more guns :D

I've now reached 125 films (yay!) so morally I am have gained another star. Sadly it's an invisible star because of the way the scoring algorithm works. I think I got two blue stars by the point at which I read 150 books, and now I am on 231 books I still have two stars because the scoreboard restricts it so that people don't end up with a ridiculous number. I thought I might be allowed an extra one for films, as the person next to me on the scoring, for example, has 233 films, 140 books and four stars, but I guess it must work so that if your films exceed your books you can have more stars than if your books exceed your films.

So now I have to try and get to 150 films to find out whether I would get a star for that :D I think there are 25 weeks left, so that would be watching 90 minutes per week which I think I can realistically manage. I originally wanted to complete a double challenge but that would necessitate 4.5 hours per week now and I don't think there's any way I can commit to that.

Overall I've been feeling more positive about things this week though :) I've been doing Memrise on the train in the morning, and then either writing my 100 words on the train home or soon after dinner. I've been watching Budva in the final hour before I go to bed if I have time. If every day could be this organised, life would be perfect!

Edited by Radioclare on 09 July 2015 at 11:59am

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Radioclare
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
timeofftakeoff.com
Joined 4581 days ago

689 posts - 1119 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto
Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian

 
 Message 271 of 292
10 July 2015 at 10:58am | IP Logged 
Still going with the writing - every day feels like an achievement :) 100 words is a really good amount, because it's long enough to be a challenge but not so long as to be a burden.

This is yesterday's effort:

Quote:
Trenutno pokušavam pročitati „Hobita“ od J R R Tolkiena na srpskom. Sjećam se da sam prvi put pročitala tu knjigu na engleskom kada sam imala jedanaest godina, pa sam pretpostavila da će mi biti prilično lako pročitati srpski prijevod. Nisam bila u pravu! Mislim da je to jako teška knjiga. Naučila sam mnogo novih riječi, primjerice „patuljak“ i „bauk“. Čini mi se da vjerojatno neću često upotrijebljavati te riječi dok vodim razgovore.

Ove godine sam već pročitala četiri knjige na hrvatskom, ali sve su bile knjige prevedene sa engleskog na hrvatski. Htjela bih čitati i knjige hrvatskih autora, ali ne znam odkud da počnem. Ako mi netko može preporučiti neke dobre knjige, bila bih zahvalna. Putujem u Zagreb ovog ljeta, pa ću imati priliku kupiti mnogo knjiga :)


Serpent shouldn't read the rest of the post because there are going to be more Budva spoilers.


OMG, where to start. Well, I was watching an episode of 'Budva' last night and I nearly fell off my seat because it sounded like one of the characters had used the word "Esperantist". I was convinced I had misheard, so I rewound and replayed the scene. I probably listened to it 20 times in the end to make sure I was fully understanding everything, and it turned out that I was actually correct first time; the character had said that his late uncle had been one of the country's greatest Esperantists.

The character he was speaking to said "What's that got to do anything?" which I thought was quite a surprising response, because generally I would have thought that if you told someone your late uncle was an Esperantist, their response would be "What's an Esperantist?". Especially if you are a character in a TV series whose viewers might not know what Esperanto is and might benefit from an explanation.

Even more strangely, Esperanto turned out to have a major role in the plot. I can't remember how much I have explained about Budva before, but it's basically a soap opera about a controversial business man called Savo. He made his money in probably less than ethical ways during the break-up of Yugoslavia and is now a millionaire, investing vast quantities of money in ugly building projects in Budva, often with complete disregard for any building regulations. He's actually a very likeable character though, and as the series progresses you get to see his softer side and feel sympathy for him when various professional rivals and drug barons try to ruin his business and/or assassinate him.

The main plot of the third series has been about a mysterious lady called Mila Kovač who appeared out of the blue and has been slowly insinuating her way into his life. She caught him at a low point when his wife, who had previously played a major role managing his business, had just left him. As the series goes on, she becomes his managing director and now she's on the verge of becoming his wife. She's an ambiguous character, at some points seeming like she feels real affection for him and at other times holding a gun to his head while he sleeps. No one knows who she is or where she has come from, but every so often the viewer gets to see short scenes where she sneaks back to her family home in disguise to see her father, who seems to be extremely ill (almost in a coma) and her brother, who seems to be a bit of a psycho. It seems that she has deliberately tried to manipulate her way into Savo's life with the intention of ruining him financially and/or murdering him, in order to avenge something unspecified which happened to her father and presumably ruined his life/resulted in his present illness. It's not clear what or why, which is why I thought that scene nikolic transcribed for me the other might be critical.

Anyway, upon finding out about his impending marriage, Savo's daughter Bojana decides she wants to investigate Mila's past, and conveniently has an old flame who happens to be a journalist and is willing to help her out. He is the guy whose uncle was an Esperantist, and coincidentally another character who has a grudge against Mila has given him a mysterious string of random names which he says will help him. The journalists excellent knowledge of Esperanto enables him to reveal to Bojana that she has also been using the name "Kara Forgisto" which is a direct Esperanto translation of "Mila Kovač". He believes this knowledge will help him work out her true identity, hopefully in time to stop Savo marrying her :)

All in all very exciting and I have to say I was relieved that the plot didn't turn out to be that she was a crazed Esperantist trying to destroy capitalism or something like that :D
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basica
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 3534 days ago

157 posts - 269 votes 
Studies: Serbian

 
 Message 272 of 292
10 July 2015 at 11:48am | IP Logged 
Seems like your corrector incorrectly corrected you (if I've understood what you said):

Ove godine sam već pročitala četiri knjige na hrvatskom, ali svi su bile knjige prevedene na hrvatskom sa
engleskog.

Should be:

Ove godine sam već pročitala četiri knjige na hrvatskom, ali svi su bile knjige prevedene sa engleskog na
hrvatski.

Your corrector it seems to have translated as from croatian to English :|

Anyways, I noticed you've been going at it for over a week now, congrats! :D


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