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| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 89 of 212 08 November 2013 at 9:32am | IP Logged |
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I forgot to mention yesterday that the language wanderlust bug bit a little bit yesterday. I was watching The Amazing Race... and the contestants went to Austria and sang with the Vienna Boy's choir... in German. German is pretty much the next language that I want to start working on... but I must wait. I need to focus on Russian, especially at this stage. However, I might be able to sneak in some German in a small way... if I continue to volunteer for Project Gutenberg, I could proofread some German pages just as easily as I can English pages.
Today for Spanish, I proofread five pages of a Spanish book for Project Gutenberg and went over my Anki words. That's about it. For Russian, I finished L1/Unit 2/Lesson 3 and started on Lesson 4. I might have made a slight pronunciation breakthrough. By focusing some on the softness of с, I was able to get RS to say that I pronounced that sound more than before. I'm still having trouble with ш and щ though. It did not like my pronunciation of grandma and grandpa at all. Russian is in a fairly challenging place for me. I had the same thing happen with Spanish though, so I'm not too concerned. I'm having a lot of new words thrown at me, and every time I start a new lesson, it feels overwhelming. By the end of the lesson, I usually have it though. I'll have to write down a list of Russian words to study though, while I'm answering phones at work on Sunday at 6 in the morning. Might as well make use of the time I have. I noticed a feature in Google translate that I hadn't noticed before. It's probably been there all along and I just didn't notice it... but in the lower left corner of the translate screen, there's the option of turning that window into a place where you can type using the keyboard of the language that you're trying to get translated. It's easier than switching the keyboard for the entire computer. You can also show the keyboard underneath, which is nice. I am learning how to type without looking at a picture of a keyboard, but it's still something I'm working on. This will make it easier. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 90 of 212 09 November 2013 at 9:41am | IP Logged |
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Today I had work, but all was quiet when I got home because everybody went to a friend's house, so I had plenty of time to study languages without interruption (plus I don't work tomorrow).
For Spanish, I proofread six pages for Project Gutenberg from a Spanish book, and did my Anki words. I haven't added any words in over a week... perhaps I should try to make an effort to read the next article on my list, which is on birds in Australia, so I can get some new words in there. We'll see. In Russian, I finished Unit 2 of RS Russian Level 1, and started lesson 1 of Unit 3. So far, the lessons are covering numbers up to 20, some places that people work, working and playing, tall and short, more colors, and some other topics. Some of the color words, along with the time of day, stir up faint memories from Russian class in high school. I have to say, I don't think that my high school Russian class really covered a lot in the grand scheme of things. My guess is that we did about 10 lessons in my Russian textbook. More than likely, RS will pass the level that I actually did in Russian class shortly... if I keep practicing, almost certainly by the end of the month. It's amazing how much more you can do on your own, even though getting practice with someone else does have value. It's strange to compare the difference between working on two languages. With Spanish, I am rarely frustrated any more. Sure, I might not know a word or two, but I never get that feeling of "I'm never going to be able to do this!" Even proofreading the Spanish book, which I'm not reading for understanding, I'm basically reading to compare words, with comprehension second, I feel like this will be completely understandable someday. With Russian, it still sometimes feels like I'd have trouble booking a hotel room or ordering a meal in a restaurant, and that there is so far to go to do even the most basic things. I know that I will get there, because I've done it before, but sometimes it feels like I have no clue how I'm ever going to be reading Russian like I do Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 91 of 212 11 November 2013 at 9:52am | IP Logged |
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The last two days were pretty busy. I had church and my little boy's birthday party. While my language study hasn't been completely abandoned and I am still managing to stay in the 30s rank for the 6 Week Challenge, it hasn't been on the top of my radar. Still, I have been making progress.
For Spanish, I've been doing a little bit of page proofreading for Project Gutenberg, and have been doing my Anki work. I'll go on a roll with Project Gutenberg, seeing several phrases that I know, and then I'll run into words that I don't know. At least I'm getting exposure to the language. I finished Unit 3 lesson 1 in Rosetta Stone Russian 1. I may have made a breakthrough today with pronunciation. I only got one wrong answer in the "Speaking" section of this lesson. Sometimes I'll end up with a ton. While some of the consonant combinations can be a little bit tricky, I think that this will be a language that I'll be more successful pronouncing than Spanish, for which I'm supposed to be able to roll rs for (and have trouble with, perhaps due to my tongue tie). I have work for the next two days, but as there's not a whole lot of other stuff going on, I'll probably be able to get some good studying done in the evenings. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 92 of 212 13 November 2013 at 10:37am | IP Logged |
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I got to leave work early today (yay weekend!) because there wasn't much work to do. So I spent a little extra time working on Russian. I finished lesson 2 of Unit 3, and started on the next one. I also worked on Spanish with Anki.
It seems like I have better luck with pronunciation when everything is quiet. Pronunciation doesn't seem as hard as it did initially, although there are sometimes that it seems difficult decoding new words. While there are plenty of words that make sense or seem to be related to words that I already know, there is a lot that is completely different. We take so many words for granted that everybody knows them... the days of the week or seasons, for example. I went over those today, along with the words for month, day, and year, as well as more numbers. The Six Week Challenge seems to be down. I don't know what happened to it, or when (or if) it will come back up. I'm keeping track of my minutes just in case. I did pretty well today, with a total of 1 1/2 hours in Russian, and 2 hours of study time with Spanish and Russian combined. Not bad for a work day. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 93 of 212 14 November 2013 at 10:51am | IP Logged |
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I had the entire day off, so I was able to get a good amount of language study done.
For Spanish, I worked on Anki, and then I proofread two Spanish pages for Project Gutenberg. While the book is not as understandable to me as it would be if it were in English, there is a lot that I do understand. For Russian, I finished Level 1/Unit 3/Lesson 3 and started lesson 4. It's hard to believe that I was just in this position with Spanish about seven or eight months ago. I'm learning the words for blankets and brushing teeth and hair, and I wasn't there too long ago with Spanish. I was thinking about goals yesterday, and how I probably will be able to finish levels 1 and 2 of Rosetta Stone Russian during the six week challenge. I want to finish all three levels before the Olympics in February, but I also want to get to a higher place in Spanish. At some point I would like to pick up German, but I don't want to be studying three languages at a time (maintenance is fine). I figured that if I learned the top 5000 Spanish words in that particular Anki deck, and go through the entire Notes in Spanish course (Intermediate, Advanced, and Gold) then I should be in a pretty good position to just use Spanish. While there's a lot of work to do there, I think that those are good goals to shoot for. I don't have a timeline yet, but when I accomplish those goals, I shouldn't have to focus so much on Spanish and can start working on German. At that point, I should be much better with Russian as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 94 of 212 15 November 2013 at 9:53am | IP Logged |
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Today I spent most of the day taking the kids to the zoo, but I did find some time to work on my languages in the evening. For Spanish, I worked on my Anki deck and proofread three Spanish pages for Project Gutenberg. For Russian, I did some work on Rosetta Stone 1 Unit 3 lesson 4.
I ended up working on the writing section, which is fairly difficult for me. I thought that it might help me if I actually wrote some Russian down on paper. I learned how to write Russian in cursive in high school, and although I did forget the formation of a few letters, I have a book that can show me anything that I can't remember. So I did one exercise from lesson 4 in my Russian book. It seems to be a good use of time. Not only, I think, will writing help me to actually learn the spelling of some of the words, but doing the exercises will help with some of the grammar. So today, I was writing sentences like "I do not know, where my shirt is." I have to use the right form of "my" though, matching the gender to the possessive pronoun. I was thinking of perhaps doing some journaling in Spanish as well. I do plenty of reading, and I can understand a lot of what I read, but when it comes to actually using Spanish, I can come to a blank. As kids, teachers often will have students free write in a journal or something, which helps with their writing skills. It might help me to start to think of the words that I want to say in Spanish, rather than just understanding it. During the next four weeks, I'll still be focusing on Russian, but it will be something to work on at least on occasion. Next Tuesday, we are having a missionary from Mexico coming to preach at church. I'll have to go talk to them and try to practice my Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 95 of 212 17 November 2013 at 9:25am | IP Logged |
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So tired. I've been trying to stop drinking soda, and the lack of caffeine is making me tired at night. I suppose that's good because I should be going to sleep?
I'm still getting my studying done in the 6 Week Challenge though. For Spanish, I'm keeping up with Anki, and have been doing some Notes in Spanish Intermediate. I've wanted to do some more reading in National Geographic, but I've just been too tired, especially with trying to get a lot of Russian done. Perhaps I'll make some progress when I get a five day "weekend" in a couple of days. I work at a hotel and I work with guest's reservations, assigning them to rooms that (hopefully) match their preferences. I ran into someone whose last name was Zont today. I thought that was very interesting, since it pretty much means "umbrella" in Russian. There is a lady at work who is bilingual. While it's unlikely that we'll have a lot of long conversations, I am able to practice my Spanish with her a little. I'm still a little bit slow to process the language, but I'm sure that I will get better over time. I'm SO looking forward to my five days off in a couple of days. On two of the days I do have things scheduled (an all day church event, where there will be a missionary from Mexico I might be able to speak to in Spanish, and a party and trip to the zoo with the kids), but that still leaves three days where I can stay at home, work on my small business, and spend a little bit more time studying my languages than I do on work days. Hopefully I'll be able to stay away from the Coca-Cola. Workdays are generally the hardest to avoid soda though because I have to get up earlier than normal. I've been drinking iced tea instead, which is at least better for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4244 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 96 of 212 24 November 2013 at 10:26am | IP Logged |
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You would think that when you have five days off of work that there'd be plenty of time to study languages. Not so this week. Between a church meeting, taking the kids to the zoo, and going to see the new Hunger Games movie, the week was pretty packed. Today was relatively event-free, so I did get a lot of time in today.
For Russian, I am almost done with level 1 of Rosetta Stone. I'm probably at about the same point that I was when I finished RS Spanish 1... feeling completely clueless and thinking that I'll never be able to learn the language well. I suppose sometimes I still feel that way about Spanish, but I know that I have come a long way. I've been worrying about resources to work on Russian after I finish level 3, which is all that I have for Russian. I discovered Russian videos on YouTube :-). Today as I was watching a Spanish YouTube video on how to germinate an avocado pit (Google translate wasn't able to translate that phrase, so I looked it up elsewhere and ended up at the video), I wondered if there were Russian YouTube videos. Sure enough, there were. So that will be a resource when I get to that point. I'm continuing to work on Spanish, of course. I listened to Notes In Spanish today while eating dinner. At the church meeting, I did get a chance to talk to the Spanish missionary, but only for a very short period of time. Today I started reading an article on birds in Australia from September's National Geographic en Español. It is the last article in that magazine, but then of course, I have October and November's issues to read as well, and December's issue will arrive in about a week. I read a little more than a page, and had to look up 24 words. I did recognize some of the words that I have been going over daily in Anki; which is cool. Since I have been focusing on Russian more during the six week challenge, the amount of words that I needed to review has been going down, but these new words will keep me pretty busy. Some of them I'm sure that I'll start to recognize quickly, like the words for avocado and ostrich, but others will probably take longer to learn. I did learn some new English words today as well. Cassowary, which is a kind of bird, rheas, another kind of bird, and frugivorous, which means fruit-eating. There has been a discussion of whether you have to know all words in a language to sound like a native... well, there's three words in a little over one page of text that I needed to look up. I guess that you don't need to know all terms. I will soon know how to say those words in both English and Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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