New Flashcards, Covid-19...

The cards for chapter 6 were released today.

Since we were on chapter 5 for so long, I forgot the extra effort required to import all the Quizlet cards into Anki.

I do this because I want the spaced repetition for memorising the vocab. The deck (well, the Quizlet term is "set") is private to certain classes, so I first make a copy that is public and then import it using the Anki add-on. Then I delete the public set.

Next, I add my custom tags since eventually I will throw all the notes/cards into a big "All" deck. I leave them as nested when I'm learning.

Finally, I have to make some adjustments to the imported cards. I also use Forvo to download the audio for each word (sentences where I can find them) and add them in one by one, and turn on the "Add Reverse" flag (also one by one, and usually I have to scroll as the cards come with an image that pushed the field below the fold) so that I get tested on the English > Korean direction.

It seems like the newest version of the add-on has changed to prefix the deck name with "Flashcards". (Newest supported by my Anki version, which is 2.1.15 - I had tried to update to 2.1.20 about 2 weeks ago but realised it wasn's compatible with this add-on... or another. That resulted in me downloading the older version again...)

Anyway, we will be learning the native/pure Korean numbers in this chapter. I also saw words for different foods, and some relating to buying things. I guess we'll be learning that tomorrow.

I borrowed a Lonely Planet guide on Korea and another one on their food from the library (eBooks, naturally) but have not gotten around to reading them yet.

I'm not sure how much time will be spent covering the test tomorrow.

The other thing about tomorrow... To be honest, with Covid-19 getting worse worldwide, I'm a little afraid of going for the class tomorrow.

I know how irresponsible some people are. I attended a training course (~20 people in the class) in the last few days. According to the instructor, it's the last in-person training for a while - the next one in 2 weeks will go virtual. The training location was around the CBD, and I definitely ran into more people than I normally would if I'd been going to the office. Especially the first day, the bus was so crowded I almost couldn't get on. (I took a different bus subsequently.) AND there was someone coughing at the event, which the venue hosts (not the same as the company conducting the training) on the third day sent someone to ask if everyone was fine, and of course no one said anything. The instructor was being nice and said it's just to make sure since he sometimes would also cough due to dryness. Later during the break someone said that it's due to his throat being dry, but please. In such a sensitive time, at least wear a mask?

For my Korean class, I have to take public transport and it's about an hour there and back, so there's always the risk of running into someone... The only thing that's great is that the class size is small, so, well. Hopefully everyone who shows up is responsible.

The measures have become stricter... but... I know my friends (the one still in the class and the one who quit, both) went to Malaysia last Sunday. that worries me because of the situation there right now. I really hope they didn't get it. (And if he feels even the slightest bit unwell, he had better not turn up for class tomorrow.)

I wish the stricter stay-home notice measures applied to everyone who travelled during this one-week school holiday. not just those who return after tonight. The schools having a LOA imposed is fine but honestly I would say SHN is probably more effective... but then again I wonder if there's enough manpower to do the checks that they conduct to make sure that you are home when you get the notice.

Personally, it seems really irresponsible to travel at this time, especially if it's to Malaysia, and if it's for no reason other than a vacation or to do things like getting their hair cut at a discount - such as my friends above did. (They normally do that, anyway, but it's beyond me as the cost savings is not worth the extra time that it will take me to cross the border and back.) This is especially after knowing that there was a mass religious gathering at the start of this month that 16,000 people attended, that is a known cluster, and that contributed significantly to the number to the cases in the country. From the local TV news yesterday, 4,000 of the attendees are still being tracked down.

Sigh.

This wasn't meant to be nearly so depressing.