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Continue with Polish or start Russian? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Koen Triglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 5460 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Polish | Message 1 of 7 31 August 2014 at 12:24pm | IP Logged |
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Hi everyone!
I've been studying Polish on and off for about 3,5 years now, and after not having done anything for the past few months I kind of want to pick it up again. But, here's my dilemma. My Polish is at a reasonable level, I'm not quite satisfied with it but I can get by. Over the last year, Russian has gotten my interest. I'm planning to travel there and also see it as a slightly more useful language than Polish. The thing I'm scared of is that I'll lose some knowledge of Polish once I get more proficient in Russian. So here are my questions: Would it be a good idea to study both languages simultaneously? Should I focus first on getting my Polish to a higher level, where I'll be able to converse without problems and also understand the deeper grammar? Or should I just follow my gut feeling and start with Russian? I learned Polish with this course: http://www.supermemo.net/course/polski_bez_problemu_beginner It's developed by a Polish company, and worked really well for me because it uses intervals to have the words and sentences you learned come back to you based on how well you know them. Is there a similar course for Russian? Thanks for all the help! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 2 of 7 31 August 2014 at 1:51pm | IP Logged |
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Are you able to read Polish for pleasure and/or watch movies? Not necessarily understanding everything, but simply understanding enough to avoid stress while reading? Polish offers an amazing selection of literature, and I think the ideal situation for you would be to read Polish books, maybe watch movies, while you go through the more easy stuff in Russian. You can still refer to your grammar-focused books when necessary, and you can use SRS for both languages.
Did you use SuperMemo with your Polish course? Spaced repetition software (SRS) can apply the same algorithms to any content, including things you pick out from native materials. Note that it's a paid software, and there are free alternatives like Anki, which also has a web version, mobile apps (some are paid), plugins and syncing/backups of your cards. I recently did an online course on learning how to learn, and one of the things I learned (ha!) was that our brain stores and uses information by creating neural pathways, and it prefers to re-use them when possible. This would explain the stories of "losing" a language. So to avoid losing your Polish you need to keep these pathways active, and maybe compare Polish and Russian both to avoid making mistakes and to prevent your brain from using the existing pathways. Hope this made sense :) One more idea for preventing your new interest from distracting you from Polish could be to read guidebooks about Russia in it. This way you'd be indulging your interest while still practising Polish, and these books will also offer a different perspective compared to those in Dutch/English/German. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Koen Triglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 5460 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Polish | Message 3 of 7 01 September 2014 at 10:39am | IP Logged |
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That's some very useful information, thanks! The thing I liked about the Polish course
(that I did on supermemo, yeah) is that it played audio every time you repeated a word. People always compliment me on my pronounciation now, so I'm pretty sure it was a good thing... I think my level of Polish is not yet good enough to really understand books without frustration, so I guess the choice is obvious at first! I'll look into this Anki, would be nice if one could add audio to that. Love the advice on 'how to learn' btw :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 4 of 7 01 September 2014 at 3:50pm | IP Logged |
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Well, it doesn't have to be either/or. In my experience, if you don't start a language when you're very motivated, it may not wait. The motivation itself can burn out if you don't add fuel.
Also, it sounds like you're at the level where it's time to start using native materials, whether you feel ready or not. See the multi-track approach. Oh and yes, you can use audio in Anki :) I think you'll be able to find shared decks with audio, too. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Enrico Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 3735 days ago 162 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Italian, Spanish, French | Message 5 of 7 01 September 2014 at 9:13pm | IP Logged |
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You can use Polish for reading and listening native materials (3,5 years of study, you are supposed to be at A2 or B1
level at least) and at the same start to learn Russian. You can even start learning Russian using Polish based course so you will be maintaining and maybe improving Polish and studying Russian at the same time. Edited by Enrico on 01 September 2014 at 9:13pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Koen Triglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 5460 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Polish | Message 6 of 7 03 September 2014 at 12:48pm | IP Logged |
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It all sounds good, I think I have some things to work with right now, thanks!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5718 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 7 of 7 04 September 2014 at 4:32pm | IP Logged |
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It's hard to say what level you are based on what you wrote, but I'd say to go for it. You might get things mixed up but if you persevere you will be alright. As long as you have the time to dedicate to both languages.
I started learning French a couple of years after I had studied Portuguese intensively for a year. It really helped with some of the vocabulary (so did the knowledge of English) but also it helped me to get back to Portuguese. What might be a disadvantage at first (the risk of interference) becomes an advantage, one language from a family kind of helps keep up the skills in another language from the same family. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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