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My Russian Learning Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| zografialep Hexaglot Groupie GreeceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3949 days ago 41 posts - 71 votes  Speaks: Ancient Greek, Greek*, EnglishC2, GermanB2, Spanish, Latin Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 26 05 May 2014 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey there!
I love languages, and ever since I realized how much I love the process of learning thm I took on several. For me every language is beatiful and useful, so choosing one is extremely hard-I always end up not deciding or changing my mind and dropping every language for my next interest- the result: I don't speak any of them. For this log I was between a lot of languages( french, swedish, turkish, Italian, japanese to name a few) but in the end I decided to go with Russian. Why? Because I can't stand Russian anymore! I've been struggling (alright, semi- struggling, I always drop the languages like I said) with Russian for about 2 years, but I have made no progress. I always use excuses so that I will not study, like: it's impossible to learn without a teacher, my methods are not good, why would I need it anyway, I can always learn it later etc .So it's time for me to change being incredibly lazy and just get on with it! My Tools -Teach yourself Russian -The Everything Learning Russian Book -Russian World Series (it's actually a series on youtube from an old teaching method. It is amazing, evething I have learned I learned from this) -(Greek-Russian) Τα ρωσικά χωρίς δάσκαλο Also I have a lovely Russian cousin( actually my cousin's wife) that is always there to help me out, Russian italki friends that can help and a Russian pen-pal that has sent me music, movies and books in Russian. Last but not least, on the internet or youtube one can find a lot of material about vocabulary and grammar and is able to hear the accent. So no more excuses for me. These resources are enough to learn even the hardest of languages! I will give me a years time, until I start the next language, whatever that may be. However I already know that it is going to be a very hard year- I am taking national exams that will determine my studies, the most vital exams in my country. I will not be able to study Russian so much, so I say I must do about 30-45 minutes a day! Apart from Russian, I am doing intensive Ancient Greek and Latin for the nationals exams(god I hate Latin) , as well as German . So I thought I should also mentain my level in German and Spanish (especially Spanish, I have really let go there..) by watching movies in those languages or reading books. So that's it! I'll post every two- three days what I have done and my progress, and see where this gets me! I wish me a good start! :D ps: If anyone wants to take on Russian with me, please say so. We could keep each other motivated. Edited by zografialep on 05 May 2014 at 2:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mrs. Dalloway Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 4779 days ago 70 posts - 95 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, Russian Studies: GermanA2, French, Danish | Message 2 of 26 06 May 2014 at 12:06am | IP Logged | ||
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Russian is a very peculiar and special language, I don't think you'll regret this
decision. I learnt it in full immersion and I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to learn autonomously. But definitely keep working on it! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Penelope Diglot Senior Member Greece Joined 3679 days ago 110 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English, French Studies: Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 26 06 May 2014 at 8:15am | IP Logged | ||
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Good luck with your πανελλήνιες and καλό κουράγιο :D We had the same direction in studies, and I wish you to succeed in getting your dream university.
Russian is studied a lot in this forum so there will be no lack of support. But I do hope you'll study for your exams more, focus there and leave languages for untill after all that. There used to be very cheap classes for students at the φοιτητική λέσχη, at Ιπποκράτους st., and they provided great quality lessons and teachers. I hope that is not ruined along with everything else. I'll be checking you!!! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zografialep Hexaglot Groupie GreeceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3949 days ago 41 posts - 71 votes Speaks: Ancient Greek, Greek*, EnglishC2, GermanB2, Spanish, Latin Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 26 07 May 2014 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||
Χαχαχαχ thanks so much for your wishes! I hope I do well in πανελλήνιες too !:P Yes you're right, I have thought about it a lot. Actually I barely have time to sleep now, much less study such a demanding language... But I don't know, I wanted to learn russian, since εκτη δημοτικου, and because it is an anusual language nobody took me seriously and now εχω μεινει με το παραπονο ! :P I know I probably use this ''extra time'' for more ancient greek and latin, but I just can't. Even since I started φροντιστηριο, I feel like my life is over(the one I go to is very pressing)- I dropped out of literally everything (piano, violin, Spanish, german). I just need something for me... And I need to feel that these last years of school are not completely wasted. :P I still have 1 year to go.. But ok, until now I've done well. If I see myself getting worse or not being able to cope I'll have to stop russian for a while :/ Yes, this in Ιπποκρατους still works as far as I know! It is great for those living in Athens, but I'll probaby have to move to another city for my studies. :) Anyway I don't know why σε πρηζω'' with those. I actually wrote a whole paragraph! Sorry :P It's probably because I'm very stressful, and need to convince myself Im doing th right thing xP Thanks for the support again!! I'll check on you too ;) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| zografialep Hexaglot Groupie GreeceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3949 days ago 41 posts - 71 votes Speaks: Ancient Greek, Greek*, EnglishC2, GermanB2, Spanish, Latin Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 26 07 May 2014 at 11:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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1st day- 5/5/2014
Russian -watched episode 11 from the Russian World series and wrote down some things. (40-45 min) Basically I learned some new vocalbulary, the difference between и and а and to difine the location of some things. - I also listened to a lot of Russian songs- my favourites now are from the movie '' Frozen'' by Disney. They are adorable! Let it go ) Spanish + German I did nothing apart from listening to songs, sadly... I wish I had watched some short film at least..! Currently I listen a lot to Tranquila(spanish) and Lieder- Adel Tawil (German) If someone know any good songs in those languages please share :) 2nd day- 6/5/2014 I did nothing- apart from music. I had to unexpectedly study a lot of ancient greek and had time for nothing... 3rd day- 7/5/2014 I did Russian only. I learned a lot of vocabulary and wrote down some new unknown words. Then I did half of the 3rd chapter in the ''Teach Yourself Russian'' series, and learned more iregular verbs- I also revisioned the other conjugations to make sure I know everything. Also, I learned how to ask and give exact directions and ways to be polite and since I have trouble with the spelling and reading fast the cyrillic alphabet, I wrote down and read aloud a lot of sentences to get used the the feel of the language. I still can't say Здра́вствуйте though; my mounth just isnt able to say this thing :P My Russian coousin passed by my house, and of course I told her of my tries. She was hapy and said that we can speaj together, but she doesnt believe I'll be able to keep this up- I'm always ''learning'' russian. This was a great motivation boost; I'll just prove her wrong and surprise her :D Next time I'm doing the Imperative and the accusative case, the second case I learned, so I'm pretty excited. Until now I'm doing well- considering the circumstances, so I'm very happy, and looking forward to tomorrows' lesson. Until my next entry, see you :) Edited by zografialep on 11 May 2014 at 12:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Penelope Diglot Senior Member Greece Joined 3679 days ago 110 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English, French Studies: Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 6 of 26 08 May 2014 at 6:36am | IP Logged | ||
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You can rant and vent all you need, and I'll be happy to listen. This is a very stressfull time in anyone's life, so don't feel bad about expressing that. No, your life isn't over and nothing you ever learn is wasted. Soon you'll see your toil give good results and this hectic time will be gone forever. There isn't a better time than being a university student!
Здра́вствуйте is not pronounced clearly by the russians, I think. They "eat" a few letters saying it. Well done on your progress. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zografialep Hexaglot Groupie GreeceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3949 days ago 41 posts - 71 votes Speaks: Ancient Greek, Greek*, EnglishC2, GermanB2, Spanish, Latin Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 26 11 May 2014 at 12:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello again! privyet!
Time for my next entry :D 4rth Day- 8/05/2014 I didn't have much time, so I took my Russian to school and studied at physics class- I was not going to understand anything anyway :p So I memorized what I learned the previous day, since I had covered a lot of material and remember all that was really hard. Also, I made small dialogs, about asking directions and simple things like that. I emphasised on the writing part, since while I can read the russian alphabet in the computer form, the hand-written form seems intelligible to me, and my hand can't write that well or fast. Now I have significantly gotten better! 5th Day- 9/05/2014 I didn't have much time for studying again, so I just wrote a few dialogs to stay in touch and not forget what I learned. But then at night I went to italki(a website where people can find language partners) and a Russian guy talked to me in English. We kept on talking about various things- ourselves, our countries, politics etc- until he said ''sorry English is not my mother- tongue, now let's talk in russian!'' (you will hardly find russians speaking good english sadly... though that works great for learners of russian!) At this point I was excited, but pretty much thinking that his English is much better than my russian will ever be. He talked to me, and explained some basics of the russian language when I didn't understand him. So with his help and the help of my lovely dictionary I managed not only to understand, but also reply! :D Then we talked in skype , until very late , and I could also hear the accent. This experience- not so much of an experience but anyway- has left me shocked. I practiced russian for what, five days? And I could talk! And I learned so much by trying to find the words and using them, things I'd never remember on my own. I guess that is the proper way to learn a language- practice. Grammar books aren't of much help if you're not in the position to struggle for the words to make the message understood to the other person.russian has gained the favourite language status for now haha :P 6th Day- 10/05/2014 The only thing I did was go through the vocabulary we disgussed with my russian skype friend. At night though we talked again. We were watching eurovision and commenting on the songs. He also talked to my brother and a friend who had come over, haha. the internet is miraculous, uniting people from different parts of the world.. I love talking to native speakers, because they convey their country's culture as well. I've learned a lot about russia now, which has made my interest in the language grow. (Everybody was shocked to see the Russian at my school, which i had not predicted. I recieved lot of is-she-crazy glances, but it's ok, I guess it's normal. I have a half russian friend who doesn't speak any russian, since his parents didn't teach him, and he was trying to get a hang of the language with me! Also my Moldovan friend, who speaks both russian and romanian(and greek of course) kept asking me if there's something wrong with my brain for learning it, but then pushed me to converse in russian with him :D though i told him another time, since I'm so bad right now that we wouldn't be able to say much. Nevertheless, I am very happy and proud of myself! I've learned so much that I never thought possible . Can't wait to see what I'll learn next!! Edited by zografialep on 11 May 2014 at 12:21pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| zografialep Hexaglot Groupie GreeceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3949 days ago 41 posts - 71 votes Speaks: Ancient Greek, Greek*, EnglishC2, GermanB2, Spanish, Latin Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 26 15 May 2014 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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7th/8th/9th Day- 11/05+ 12/05+ 13/05
Soooo all these days I haven't updated at all! Nothing happend , and my studies went on as usual but I was too bored to write anything.. The problem now is that I don't remember what I did all these days ago! I just have vague idea, so I'll write down what I can recall. I studied words again, and used the ''Teach Yourself Russian'' book for vocabulary- i'm still in the 3rd chapter. I learned the Imperative(easy thank god!) and the Accusative case. Now I can pretty much hold a basic conversation- where only the present tense, little to no adjectives and only three of the seven cases of the russian language are used- but a conversation nevertheless! I continued chatting with my Russian skype friend, and he helped me a lot! He says useful slang expessions that one doesn't find in books and shows me parts of the russian culture. He insists on speaking russian, which is good for my case since I've learned so much without having to press myself to memorize. He showed me some pictures outside his house and helped me say: 'I see the road, the sky, the trees, the car etc'' , so now I can indentify objects in russian :D Apart from that, I chatted in German with a Turkish boy that lived in Germany. My german is at a fluent level so I didn't have any problems understanding, but practicing is always good! 10th Day- 14/05/2014 Today I just practiced some words at school. I was so tired, I was studying for school and I could barely move my hand to write. Plus I had a panic ''attack''(not really, just an incredible anxciety I couldn't shake off), so all this combined with a fight with parents and a terrible mood left me exhausted... As a result I didn't progress much, but I guess sometimes it's logical to take some time off. Overall I think I'm doing great :) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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