In the first two weeks, I learned ~76 vocabulary words related to landscape (mountains, valleys, hills) and direction (distance, east, west, south, and north). The Anki program has been great, allowing me to not only track my progress, but stay organized. It comes with a built in algorithm that doesn't drill you everyday on the same words, but rather, mixes them up according to how you've rated the word when "flashed" before you: easy, medium, hard. In other words, the frequency with which the word comes up is dependent on the rating you give it. For each week, I plan to label the decks by week. It keeps things in good order and allows me to easily track my progress.
I've also finished a book called Balkan Ghosts. It's kind of broad-brush journalist's travel memoir account of noteworthy locations, events, and cultural references of Eastern Europe. In any case, I thought that this book would be an appropriate place to begin my exploration of Eastern European culture. While not specific to Bosnia, the Balkans, I've learned from skimming a book called Balkan Popular Culture and the Ottoman Ecumene: Music, Image, and Regional Political Discourse, are closely tied to one another in many ways. Due to empire and conquest, the argument could be made that countries of Eastern Europe actually are more similar than they are different, as much as they try to accentuate those differences in the last century. After I read this book, I have actually developed a greater interest in visiting the greater Balkans, not necessarily just Bosnia. Anyhow, The Bridge on The Drina is next on the reading list.
For our meetings, Milica prepared a flashcard game that encouraged me to review my ability to use the past and future tense, which proved to be a bit rusty. Mixed in the flashcards for instance, would be the word "crkva" and "alert." If the former was drawn, she would talk about the word without saying it, in Bosnian of course. If the latter was drawn, I would talk about the word without saying it, in Bosnian. This semester is quite busy for the both of us. I'm furiously working through an honors thesis, while Milica is working eight and a half dozen jobs, so our meeting schedules are a bit flexible. At this point, we're aiming for 4 days per week.
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