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Köln to Kiev TAC ’14 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4226 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 41 of 55 10 July 2014 at 8:14am | IP Logged |
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I'm nitpicking, but Luda (Lyuda) and Luba (Lyuba) are different names (one is short for Lyudmila, the other is short for Lyubov). It's not important from the point of the language, and frankly I think this is just a typo, but it would've been awkward to mix up names like that when you're actually talking/ writing to someone. So I recommend to keep an eye on this in future :)
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| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4361 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 42 of 55 10 July 2014 at 2:30pm | IP Logged |
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Ahh thank you! Apparently it's a bad idea for me to type out names when I've been typing for awhile and have been awake since before 6am--proofreading doesn't happen!
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| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4361 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 43 of 55 13 July 2014 at 7:45pm | IP Logged |
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The only thing more challenging than speaking with one native speaker is speaking with several at the same time. Today, I brought one of my classmates to the church where I sing. I told one of the Ukrainian speakers that we would like to speak some Ukrainian and whether it would be okay to sit with them. The result: about 45 solid minutes of speaking Ukrainian! When you're in a group of speakers, the topic can change very quickly, so it's important to really focus on what is being said. I didn't speak as much as I probably could have (after an hour and a half of singing, I needed to warm up again before I could speak quickly), but I think I still managed to show that I was comprehending what was being said.
To say I was shocked that the conversation stayed in Ukrainian is an incredible understatement. While speakers of English or a lot of "common" foreign languages are very used to hearing beginning speakers and adjusting accordingly, I had NO idea how this was going to go. The Ukrainian speakers did slow down their speech considerably, and used much simpler language. Somehow it worked, and they were absolutely shocked how much we were able to communicate after only a few weeks. After a week of learning verbs of motion and genitive plural, this was something I really needed as a motivational boost. I did feel good that I was able to speak and communicate, and now I'll be able to do so again. Now, I completely understand why my teacher had us warming up everyday for 15 minutes in Ukrainian. When you're a beginner, that really is how long it takes before you can start to function in the language. After about 15 minutes of speaking, I noticed I suddenly became much more confident. That's something I'll have to keep in mind in the future. It really is amazing what you can accomplish after an intensive period of studying. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4361 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 44 of 55 14 July 2014 at 6:39pm | IP Logged |
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Finally made it to week 6. Of course, that means we have our final exam on Thursday in addition to an oral exam. I found that starting with Dative case I began to fall behind. So my plan is to review the material from that point forward, focusing more on vocabulary. I didn't realize how weak my vocabulary actually was.
Still looking for listening comprehension materials. It's not an easy task to find beneficial audio, because most of it is just too much for my level. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7148 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 45 of 55 14 July 2014 at 7:59pm | IP Logged |
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When it comes to free and fairly easy audio material for beginners, there's not a lot to choose from. Assuming that you find .mp3s of fairy tales a little too much to handle (e.g. this one), you could try the links here and in particular Мова і Розмова which consists of 9 short interactive dialogues in Powerpoint format (works best in Internet Explorer) accompanied by some notes and reading/listening comprehension exercises for each dialogue.
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7148 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 46 of 55 14 July 2014 at 10:54pm | IP Logged |
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I just remembered that I posted about Langmedia: Culture Talk Ukraine on the team thread, but maybe you'll find the videos handy for training your ear or even forming dictation exercises. I'd say that a little over half of the videos are in Ukrainian, and if you want to challenge yourself a bit, give them a shot.
I know that Expugnator really enjoyed "Culture Talk Georgia" to build up his passive abilities and vocabulary in Georgian but he was probably sufficiently past the beginner's stage so as not to be overwhelmed by the material. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4361 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 47 of 55 15 July 2014 at 2:36am | IP Logged |
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The Culture Talk Ukraine videos do look interesting. I think I'm going to have to set a goal for myself of improving one skill at a time, and this looks like a good way to improve my listening. They aren't too long, and are about familiar (and interesting) subjects, but they go more in depth than the typical materials for learners.
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| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4361 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 48 of 55 16 July 2014 at 3:29am | IP Logged |
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I had my first experience with Surzyk today. A Ukrainian speaker came in for a little bit and she generally spoke Surzyk. It was quite an experience as I had always heard about it, but have never heard it spoken. The rest of the time we did several "active" activities, like reading texts and summarizing them for the class, giving mock interviews, and having lectures about Ukrainian authors (in Ukrainian). A question that my teacher asked me: "What do you think is the best way to learn a language." Not exactly something I expected to be asked! She really made us think and expand our answers, which is something I was hoping for.
The last two days have really seen an increase in the amount of Ukrainian used in class. After the first 15-20 minutes it really does become easier. She even started picking up the pace when talking about the daily things like what our assignments are going to be. Grammatically, we've covered reflexive verbs as well as genitive and locative plural. I had a goal of getting 150 hours this summer and so far it looks like I'm going to make it. Tomorrow will be a review for our test, then Thursday we have our final and Friday we have our oral exam and a presentation (we're singing Pidmanula Pidvela). On my own, I've looked up some of the cartoons on Youtube and have written out summaries to them. I find that this helps my active skills. The one bad thing about such an intensive program is that "fast memorized is fast forgotten." It will be very important to continue using the language after this week. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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