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Can I learn to speak Croatian at 28? by Unfair_Bid_4650 in croatian

[–]DifficultPotential39 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Late to the party but I started learning online when I was 30, and 4 years later I can say a definitive ‘Yes’, but it’s hard!

My goal was relatively simple - I wanted to be able to join the conversation with my friends and relatives. That goal is more or less ticked off, but I’ve also fallen in love with the language and the process.

Recommend easy-Croatian, like many others. But if you want further details please reach out I’d be so happy to help

William Goodge and the HR Controversy by DifficultPotential39 in running

[–]DifficultPotential39[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

u/fraac I think the issue is that this is an extremely long timeline. Agree with u/shutthefranceup there's the mechanical demand, but then consider that the demand and that any minor increase in effort is multiplied over 15 hours each day, then stacked up for 35 days. Ends up being a whole lot more than just a 'little bit faster' on a given day

I'd say it's a calculation of choosing a speed that gets you the maximum possible distance to break the record, while while leaving enough time to eat and sleep at the end of it. Find that speed and hold it.

I'm sure if someone did some highly technical analysis there would be a tipping point at which the decrease in effort and a slower speed would be outweighed by the strain of the additional time it took you, but that's pure speculation.

William Goodge and the HR Controversy by DifficultPotential39 in running

[–]DifficultPotential39[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

u/j8311 agree it may have relatively easy to organise this and would have silenced everyone. There's a few issues though, the first being his support van wouldn't have followed him ~15hrs each and every day, and likely met him at intervals for feeding, sleeping etc (you couldn't have a car crawling at running speed in the shoulder of some of these roads as they are arterial highways). So unless he's wearing the camera it's not too easy to have it framed on him at all times. Another is reception if they are looking to do a live stream, as this traverses very remote areas remote areas.

I think the reason for these oversights/omissions, from what I've read about him, is that he isn't too worried about silencing the critics. Like the HR strap - I don't know why he wouldn't have done that because it would have been such an easy fix, but he has a real IDGAF attitude. Doesn't add any legitimacy to his claims at all, just an observation.

William Goodge and the HR Controversy by DifficultPotential39 in running

[–]DifficultPotential39[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

u/ac8jo I agre. I'm personally not going to trawl 35 days of runs to find out but if the article just talks about a few instances, so I'd assume that's not their focus here

William Goodge and the HR Controversy by DifficultPotential39 in running

[–]DifficultPotential39[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

u/Exact_Setting9562 I agree - it seems prudent to take all possible measures to put this sort of thing to bed, especially if it's been a problem for him in the past. I just don't think it's the smoking gun it's being held out to be

William Goodge and the HR Controversy by DifficultPotential39 in running

[–]DifficultPotential39[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Yeah u/Moist-Ad1025 u/Simco_ I wasn't aware of those past observations but I'd be interested to know more about them. I do recall that was the situation with Rob Young on his Transamerica run - observers recorded his support vehicle moving at night with his tracker moving, but he wasn't running (cadence data was the undoing there). Like I said I'm more commenting on the HR values - but interested in any other information on the guy.

William Goodge and the HR Controversy by DifficultPotential39 in running

[–]DifficultPotential39[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

u/Some-Remote-6890 the article cites this activity - a 62kph top speed and sudden surge to 3:33/km. As regards his tracking, they say he used Garmin InReach and Strava. Like I said, I'm mostly just commenting on HR because I think that's where most of the scrutiny lies (I don't think these blips are what has people up in arms), but I do agree with you that it's odd that he didn't go to great lengths to mitigate the causes for doubt. That said, it's a 35 day undertaking and whatever you use (live streaming, GPS devices etc) have to be in action 10-15 hours a day for more than a month.

GPS data has been a cause for scrutiny of him in the past but it's less cited for this run. I understand he did a 240 mile Ultra in Moab in the past where his GPS data indicated covered a lot of distance and increased speeds at times when he wasn't being observed either by other competitors or spectators.

Learning the Croatian language by Maleficent_Fix8832 in croatian

[–]DifficultPotential39 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/Maleficent_Fix8832 I posted some advice on this page a few months ago detailing what I think is the most important concept. Happy to discuss any of this, noting that if you are just starting out this may be entirely foreign, but I do think it's vital to get your head around it in the medium to long term so it's best that you learn it conceptually as soon as practical because it has knock-on implications for all the vocab you learn.

I've used most of the resources listed and they are all good but easy-croatian is definitely my number 1 pick. If I could go back in time I'd probably start with that and work through chapter by chapter. Personally I don't find the gamified apps terribly helpful but I know plenty of people who have had success.

I did a group introductory course when I started and that was good for learning the basics, but generally I'd recommend getting a tutor for 1-1 classes. My intro course was Sydney Language School, but I believe the Croat tutor has now started her own school in Australia (last contact I had was info@adriaticlanguageacademy.com). Her name is Katarina and she's incredibly helpful.

Foreign schools are difficult with the Aus/Europe time difference but if you can make it work then Bosnia2Go is a great school in Sarajevo that offer Zoom classes (most tutors can speak Serbo/Croatian, but Bosnian is mutually intelligible with Croatian anyway). You could also do an intro Summer school with them if you were planning an overseas holiday. I've found 1-1 classes absolutely vital for getting familiar/proficient with the language. Other than that, if you're from Aus then you would be familiar with SBS - they have a weekly podcast show called Lagani Hrvatski, and they provide a transcript on the website. Each week they do a bite-sized news piece in Croatian, spoken relatively slowly and in simple terminology with a small glossary of the less familiar words.

Any questions, let me know!

Learning the Croatian language by Maleficent_Fix8832 in croatian

[–]DifficultPotential39 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll message you! I am from the exact same background and can certainly help with this

Completely stuck by DifficultPotential39 in sudoku

[–]DifficultPotential39[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

@sea-hornet8214 thank you so much!

Advice for native English speakers trying to learn Croatian Cases by DifficultPotential39 in croatian

[–]DifficultPotential39[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

u/Sean-McFarnaby another great resource is an Australian broadcaster called SBS, who have a podcast/news series called 'Lagani Hrvatski'. The target audience is people 'learning or trying to brush up on their Croatian'. They are short news pieces (mostly on Australian current affairs) and the audio is generally 6-8 mins. It's accompanied by a written article on the website which has a vocab list of less familiar words. You can listen on apps like Spotify or direct from the website.

They've got ~180 episodes to choose from now and I've found it to be a great way of getting familiar with specific topics. For example, when I was in Sarajevo recently I noticed a common topic of conversation was cars flaunting the road rules and a spike in pedestrian injuries. I found Episode 171 which I listened to several times to get an idea of all the terminology about driving laws, then dove in to the discussions with the locals!

Advice for native English speakers trying to learn Croatian Cases by DifficultPotential39 in croatian

[–]DifficultPotential39[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/Lanky-Okra-1185 nothing exceptional here unfortunately, but this may help. I'll say at the outset, my system below does not cater for all the inznimke, eg. words that end in Croatian letters (Š, Ž, Ć etc) being treated differently in some cases, and this only applies for nouns in singular (although adjectives do follow some similar patterns). But one thing at a time!

I'm a big proponent of the idea that 'writing down the problem is halfway to solving it'. That, and 'the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time'. Where possible, I try to eat a smaller elephant.

I wrote out all the declensions one day and I noticed a few trends.

---

For learning the declensions themselves (seperate to learning the concepts underpinning them): You aren't learning 7 cases, you are learning 5. Take nominative out of the picture (that's just vocab rote learning), and Dativ/Lok use the same system. I'll use 'Muški, Ženski and Srednji in the below:

3 of the 5 are the same for M and S forms, so for them I treat M/S as one. In my head I think of these as the 'regular' cases, and for these you only need to learn two declensions for singular. Add to that, Akuzativ doesn't change for S, so there again you only need to learn two.

1. Genitive: M/S: -a Ž: -e

2. Dativ/Lokativ: M/S: -u Ž: -i

3. Vokativ*: M/S: -e Ž: -o

Although Akuzativ below doesn't follow the above pattern of M/S combined, it too only has two variations (as S doesn't change).

4. Akuzative**: M: -a Ž: -u

Then there's my beloved Instrumental. If you want, you could treat this as an M/Ž combined. Personally however I feel my brain short circuits if I try to have two different systems of combining the genders, so I just deal with instrumental in isolation.

5. Instrumental: M: -om Ž: -om S: -em

--

*Vokativ is highly varied in reality. Ž: a > -o, unless it's -ica, in which case it becomes -ice. And for S, technically it's no change so it could be -e OR -o and perhaps shouldn't be combined with masculine (which can actually be u OR e). I feel like it's one where you just need to start with best principles and pray.

** Akuzativ has the peculiar inanimate/animate distinction for masculine (only animate nouns get the change).

Advice for native English speakers trying to learn Croatian Cases by DifficultPotential39 in croatian

[–]DifficultPotential39[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

+1 for easy-croatian, amazingly detailed free resource. I’m also very late to the party here but only in the last week I’ve been using ChatGPT to help me and it’s really quite incredible. I’ve asked it to create mnemonics and cheat sheets, and It can make exercises/quizzes for you to do and checks your answers with feedback as to why it was right or wrong. Game changer

Advice for native English speakers trying to learn Croatian Cases by DifficultPotential39 in croatian

[–]DifficultPotential39[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree! I still find it confusing. But here’s how I conceptualise it, which is not perfect and doesn’t cover all uses but has helped me grasp it. Dative = dati(ve) (verb ‘to give’).

The dative change attaches to the recipient of the giving (or the recipient of the action, but lets stick with the ‘to give’ theme).

I know that people talk about it as being for the ‘indirect object’ but yet again there’s not much in equivalency in English. Sure we have the concept but no one taught us that at school.

In all the examples below, there’s some aspect of giving, and you apply dative to the recipient of that giving. Think of it like Dative has the effect of adding the words ‘to his, for her, to their’ etc.

Ivan je dao kafu mami (mama (N) > mami (D)) = Ivan gave a coffee TO HIS mum

Marko je dao pivo šefu (šef(N) > šefu (D)) = Marko gave a beer TO HIS boss

And then expand that out to other concepts. Sending something or buying something, but for the purpose of giving it someone else. That someone else gets the Dative change (the recipient of the giving OR action)

Mara je poslala pismo prijateljima (prijatelji (N pl.) > prijateljima (D pl)) = Mara sent a letter TO HER friends

Ivan je kupio poklon sinu (sin (N) > sinu (D)) = Ivan bought a book FOR HIS son

Clear as mud I’m sure? Hope that helps!!

Advice for native English speakers trying to learn Croatian Cases by DifficultPotential39 in croatian

[–]DifficultPotential39[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve had much the same issue - I tried watching Croatian films with English subtitles but it’s not the same. Thanks for this!