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

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nikolic993
Diglot
Senior Member
Yugoslavia
Joined 3778 days ago

106 posts - 205 votes 
Speaks: Serbian*, English
Studies: Italian, Mandarin, Romanian, Persian

 
 Message 49 of 292
04 February 2015 at 8:23pm | IP Logged 
Radioclare wrote:
Haha, I wish that was my handwriting :D Unfortunately it's just the example writing in my Macedonian textbook that I am trying to copy!

I posted an example of my writing on Twitter and Serpent noticed that some of the letters looked a bit odd, so I have been searching for examples of different handwriting styles since then to practise :)
That's still pretty good. :)

Just a couple of tips: 1. your small "T" and and big "Д" should look something like this. 2. You are also missing a horizontal line in your "Ђ". The top line for "T" should be separated from the lower part. :)

@Serpent: Тhe cursive Н should start with a curve at the top, but the horizontal part should be a relatively straight line. Even if you do write it with a little curve, it won't make a big difference. And regarding the letter Ф, I write it like this because it's much faster to write, but still intelligible. :)

LMAO I actually forgot how to write Latin cursive but I can still read it. It's been 6 years since the last time I wrote it. :(


Edited by nikolic993 on 04 February 2015 at 8:40pm

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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 50 of 292
04 February 2015 at 10:36pm | IP Logged 
Thank you everyone for all the pictures and examples :) Russian handwriting looks crazy - I am all in favour of
compulsory lines!

Nikolić - I was basing my т on this website which
had some worksheets to download and practise with, but both you and Serpent have commented on it looking unusual,
so I'm trying to draw it like in the alphabet you linked me to now :)

I'm looking forward to doing some more practise at the weekend now!
2 persons have voted this message useful



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 51 of 292
05 February 2015 at 11:43pm | IP Logged 
I left work at 6pm today which I think is a personal best for 2015, so it feels like
I've had a really long evening :)

I watched another episode of 'Budva na pjenu od mora' and it was really good. I think
the second series is more interesting than the first series (which had a fairly
predictable "boy meets girl, boy's family don't like girl, girl's family don't like
boy"storyline). The storylines in the second series seem a bit deeper and part of
today's episode nearly made me cry.

I am understanding the dialogue so much better now, to the point where I am rewinding
when there are words that I don't understand (as opposed to letting entire sentences I
can't make head nor tail of wash over me!). There was one bit today when someone was
explaining that one of the characters had lost her husband in the 90s. I rewound three
times without being able to understand what had happened to him, but then I managed to
catch the word "izrešetan" which Google Translate tells me means "riddled". I am
guessing "riddled" in the sense of "riddled with bullets".

I am really enjoying the fact that nikolić has revived an old Serbocroatian thread :)
It's really good to be able to practise and I have already written more than 350 words
this week without evening trying.


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nikolic993
Diglot
Senior Member
Yugoslavia
Joined 3778 days ago

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Speaks: Serbian*, English
Studies: Italian, Mandarin, Romanian, Persian

 
 Message 52 of 292
06 February 2015 at 12:21am | IP Logged 
Radioclare wrote:
I managed to
catch the word "izrešetan" which Google Translate tells me means "riddled". I am
guessing "riddled" in the sense of "riddled with bullets".

I am really enjoying the fact that nikolić has revived an old Serbocroatian thread :)
It's really good to be able to practise and I have already written more than 350 words
this week without evening trying.

Yup, that's exactly what it means. :)


1 person has voted this message useful



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 53 of 292
07 February 2015 at 11:33pm | IP Logged 
Today was mostly dominated by an Esperanto trustee meeting, but this evening I had time to watch some more of 'Budva na pjenu od mora'. I am
totally hooked on this now and today's episode was particularly exciting. I have been wondering for a while how all the characters can drink so
much rakija and then drive cars, but there was a dramatic mountainside car crash today which suggests that it probably isn't such a good idea!

Interesting cultural insights into Montenegro continue. There was a lot of tension in today's episode between different generations of the same
family who are all living together in one house. That sort of storyline just wouldn't arise in the UK, because a woman in her forties wouldn't be
inviting her boyfriend to come and live in a house with her, her father, her brother and her brother's son! But it is clear that family values and
the concept of the family all sticking together are extremely important, at least to those characters with more traditional/conservative
backgrounds. There was also a funny moment when the woman's father was interrogating her boyfriend and alongside fairly standard questions,
wanted to know whether his family had been Chetniks or
Partisans during WW2, although it wasn't clear (to me at least) what would have been
the most acceptable answer to him.

Anyway, the most important thing about today is that I FINISHED THE SUPER CHALLENGE :) :) :)

(I may be just a little bit excited)

I officially now have 100 films and 200 books. The 100 films have been twice as hard as the 200 books. But I have definitely seen a big
improvement in my listening abilities. I am planning to continue watching 'Budva' and will probably find another series after that, but I think
it's unlikely that I'll have time to complete a Double Challenge, so I'm not going to aim for that.

The second most exciting thing about today is that I found some more Croatian music that I really like. I have been a little bit obsessed with
Hladno Pivo for quite some time, and when I was listening to them via lastfm a couple of weeks ago the website randomly threw in a song by a punk
band from Split called Đubrivo. I quite liked the music, although some of the lyrics are
not for the faint-hearted! But while I was exploring their videos on Youtube as a background to some overtime this week, I got a recommendation
for another band called Brkovi and they are amazing :) They describe their music as "turbofolk-punkrock" but you kinda have to listen to it to see
what that means:

Brkovi - Nisam ja za tebe

(Just for clarification, this is nothing like Ceca-style turbofolk which I wouldn't touch with a barge-pole!)

What's really cool is that you can download all their songs legally for free on their website. And
one of their albums is called "Balkanski Esperanto" :D


4 persons have voted this message useful



rdearman
Senior Member
United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 54 of 292
08 February 2015 at 12:43am | IP Logged 
Congratulations on completing the Super Challenge! You've worked really hard to get those stars!

2 persons have voted this message useful



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 55 of 292
08 February 2015 at 9:49pm | IP Logged 
Thanks rdearman, and thank you for your recommendations about audio books and TV
series last year - they definitely turned out to be easier for me than actual films :)

******

Today I tried to generate some improvement in my dreadful 6WC stats in Macedonian. I
feel a bit awkward about Macedonian, because Croatian is still so much more important
to me but with Macedonian being completely new it kinda needs more of my energy than
it is currently getting.

This afternoon I revised the first chapter of my Macedonian textbook, which I started
studying in earnest last weekend, and which deals exclusively with spelling,
pronunciation and voicing/devoicing. I practised my handwriting (and finally feel like
I am making real progress with this!) and confirmed that I still have a complete
inability to remember which consonants are voiced and which ones voiceless. Also my
textbook says that voiced consonants are devoiced at the end of words but doesn't
mention whether this also needs to happen at the end of syllables where the syllables
aren't at the end of the word. I'm sure this has been an issue in at least one
language I have failed to learn, but possibly not this one. After wrestling with the
whole concept for an hour, I remembered why I love Serbocroatian so much :)

I eventually gave up and moved onto chapter 2, which teaches some more interesting
stuff like pronouns and the gender of nouns. The gender rules seem pretty similar to
Croatian, so don't think I am going to have any problems. I am finding it a bit
frustrating that the textbook introduces vocabulary without translating it or
including it in a vocab list, though. I can guess a lot of words from Croatian so it
isn't a major issue for me, but I can imagine that this wouldn't be an easy textbook
to use for someone whose first foreign language was Macedonian.

Luckily I have found a really nice Macedonian dictionary online
(here) so that I can look up new words and make
sure they do mean the same thing as I am guessing they mean. I am creating a Memrise
course of vocab from the textbook, but it is quite slow work because I have to type
everything in Cyrillic, check the English translations to make sure I have them
correct and then input them into Memrise.

All that makes me 38 in the 6WC which is pretty poor, but I was about 48 yesterday :D

This morning I went for a walk and listened to a lot of Brkovi in Croatian, which was
nice :) I am in the process of trying to buy a Đubrivo album, but it's so complicated
that I'm on the verge of giving up and just downloading it from somewhere. They are
too cool to be on iTunes it seems :D

Otherwise I have been reading a Krimi in German, which feels incredibly relaxing after
Slavic languages :)
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Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
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 Message 56 of 292
08 February 2015 at 11:57pm | IP Logged 
Radioclare wrote:
Interesting cultural insights into Montenegro continue. There was a lot of tension in today's episode between different generations of the same
family who are all living together in one house. That sort of storyline just wouldn't arise in the UK, because a woman in her forties wouldn't be
inviting her boyfriend to come and live in a house with her, her father, her brother and her brother's son! But it is clear that family values and
the concept of the family all sticking together are extremely important, at least to those characters with more traditional/conservative
backgrounds.

While for some it might be about family bonding, I think it's commonly just a practical issue. It's not so much about liking to live with your parents/grandparents, but just about this not being shameful. This probably varies but I'd say in Eastern Europe there's much less pressure to get your own house (or flat), this isn't seen as a status thing to the same extent. Or at least it's much better to live with your parents but have your own car than to have your own place but use the public transport :D

I think it's also because people don't trust mortgages and loans to the same extent as in the West. They are still a relatively new concept, and obviously most have used them at some point by now, but there can always be pitfalls. For example, some people have loans in dollars or euros, probably due to the terms being better at the time (than for rouble loans). Now they find themselves having to pay A LOT more in roubles, and this on top of the inflation and sanctions, grrr.

We might also have a different concept of how much space is enough XD During socialism there used to be "communal flats", ie flats where several families have rooms and share the kitchen etc. For example, we have a two-room flat, but originally only one of the rooms belonged to my family. There used to be one more family living in the room that is currently mine :D I've heard they were from Mordovia (not to be mixed up with Moldova). So obviously when people got a full flat in possession they would let their family members live with them.

My aunt lives with her mother, husband and son. Originally it was her grandparents' flat, and they lived there until their death (1998 and 2008). That is, they were my (and my cousin's) great-grandparents. And well, grandma (ie aunt's mum) did live in a different flat for many years, but as great-grandma's health weakened she started to live with her again, first on-and-off and then permanently after grandpa died at just 65. (What *is* seen as shameful is sending old people to a nursing home etc, especially if they live in the same city/town. I'd say some even consider it shameful to pay to a sitter instead of taking care yourself, perhaps out of fear that they might steal something, take advantage otherwise or not make enough effort at what may turn out to be a fatal moment.) She's been letting that other flat ever since, which due to the high prices in Moscow has become an important source of income both for her and aunt's family (legally the flat belongs to both of them).

Of course some people do give a flat/house a very high priority, and many regret not having their very own space. However that's not due to social pressure, but more of a personal thing, like being down to earth, not giving travelling a high priority etc. Which is relatively uncommon since 25 years ago going abroad was nearly impossible, and *comfortable* travelling became affordable even later. (In 2004 and 2005 our lyceum arranged bus tours to Prague and Germany, and that was extremely cool then, despite most hotels being crappy, although we did have a good one in Köln)

My aunt is a rare exception to this, partly due to her personality and probably also because she saw so many changes as a teen, and had some great experiences without leaving her city, most notably the 1980 Olympics. (My mum forever regrets being in Crimea during them, while aunt vaguely regrets never having been to the seaside) She probably had less resentment of the iron curtain than those who waited longer. And she did experience a relatively high living standard that she's been seeking to replicate. Also, she does have a lovely summer cottage that is her family's personal space, so in suitable weather she puts a lot of effort into it. I find it baffling that she loves growing her flowers and vegetables so much, but to each their own :) And she does take advantage of living in Moscow much more than I do, going to the cinema and to various events etc.

Wow what a ramble :))) Obviously I can't speak for the Balkans, but what I said definitely applies to Russia and Belarus, likely to Ukraine as well. Although in places with more affordable flats you may be able to choose which kind of pressure you "prefer", posting glamorous photos of famous places or of your own fancy flat ;D (I'd say if you buy your own flat, there's much more pressure to make it cool and fancy than if it belongs to your parents)

Edited by Serpent on 09 February 2015 at 12:42am



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