TW’s Log (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

TW’s Log
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Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log

TW
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 3421 days ago
11 posts - 14 votes
Speaks: English*, Portuguese
Studies: Russian

Message 1 of 8

08 June 2015 at 7:02am | IP Logged

I've only recently joined this forum, but as I've been reading through it I've realized that I'm always most intrigued by
the language journeys chronicled in this section. They are detailed testaments to all of the hardwork it takes to learn
a language to any level. So I have decided to start my own log in order to keep myself focused in my language
studies and to help me feel like I'm making progress for the times when I feel like I'm going nowhere.

First, some background:

Right now I study Portuguese and Russian. In the past I have also dabbled in Latin, Spanish, and Arabic. I'm a
university student who has the summer off, so I'm hoping to use my time wisely in order to improve my Portuguese
and Russian. I can read comfortably in Portuguese, but I'm only at an intermediate level in Russian.

Goals:

This summer I plan to focus primarily on Russian and primarily on the acquisition of new vocabulary. I currently do
not have a textbook, so I've been compiling vocab lists from random sources and TV shows in Russian. If anybody
has any recommendations for textbooks, I'd be delighted to hear them.

As I'm focusing on Russian this summer, I don't plan to do much with Portuguese. However, I would like to read at
least one-two BBC news articles in Portuguese each week and learn any vocabulary that I don't know from them.

Finally, I recently purchased Assimil in French, so I plan to complete 1 lesson a day in that as well.

My goal is to keep this log active until at least the end of 2015, so I can discover how much I can learn in languages
with self-study. I am tentatively studying abroad in Russia in the Spring semester of 2016, which is prompting my
focus on Russian. Hopefully, I will have something to show for my work!

Now, on to the log:

Р: Я сегодня запомнила почти сорок слов. Мне надо ввести их в Анки. Я также читала что-то по
здравоохранению России. Была старая статья, но мне было интересно.

F: I did lesson 2 of the passive wave in Assimil. Even though it's called the "passive" wave, I feel like I should do
something more active to learn the vocabulary....
3 persons have voted this message useful

TW
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 3421 days ago
11 posts - 14 votes
Speaks: English*, Portuguese
Studies: Russian

Message 2 of 8

09 June 2015 at 6:18pm | IP Logged

So yesterday I decided to try out memrise for learning vocabulary. So far, I'm a big fan of it. It requires me to be a
bit more attentive when I'm learning since it's timed, but this is definitely a good thing as it will be easier to learn if
I'm paying attention. I've entered about 100 Russian words into a course on memrise, and I've gone through 60 of
them. I figured that I shouldn't go through too many words in the beginning so that my words to review don't build
up too much. I've gathered these words from materials that I've read, so they are a bit easier to remember since I
have that context.

Later today, I think I will look at the Russian courses uploaded by other members on memrise, so I don't have to
spend so much time making a course!

1 person has voted this message useful

TW
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 3421 days ago
11 posts - 14 votes
Speaks: English*, Portuguese
Studies: Russian

Message 3 of 8

09 June 2015 at 10:31pm | IP Logged

I went through the rest of my list on memrise, and I decided to spice my studies up a bit with some poetry. Today I
focused on "I loved you" by Pushkin.

Я вас любил: любовь, ещё, быть может,
В душе моей угасла не совсем;
Но пусть она вас больше не тревожит;
Я не хочу печалить вас ничем.
Я вас любил безмолвно, безнадежно;
То робостью, то ревностью томим;
Я вас любил так искренно, так нежно,
Как дай вам Бог любимой быть другим.

I really love the language in this poem, so I made a list of the words I learned from it:

угаснуть-to extinguish, to fade away
тревожить-to disturb
печалить-to sadden
безмолвно-wordlessly
безнадежно-hopelessly
робость-timidity
ревность-jealousy
томим-tormented
искренно-sincerely

Now I'll add them to my memrise list and continue with the learning.

Edited by TW on 09 June 2015 at 10:36pm
1 person has voted this message useful

rtickner
Diglot
Groupie
AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3462 days ago
61 posts - 95 votes

Speaks: English*, German^B2
Studies: French, Spanish

Message 4 of 8

11 June 2015 at 2:45am | IP Logged

Hey TW, nice work incorporating the poetry. Your organic approach to finding / memorising
vocab from the wild is interesting, looking forward to seeing your progress with Russian
as time progresses. Studying abroad in Russia sounds fantastic, what a great motivator.
Best of luck with your studies and your trip abroad.
2 persons have voted this message useful

TW
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 3421 days ago
11 posts - 14 votes
Speaks: English*, Portuguese
Studies: Russian

Message 5 of 8

11 June 2015 at 5:52pm | IP Logged

rtickner wrote:

Thanks! I'm not for sure how effective this method is for the long term, but it's helping me retain words that I
encounter often but always seem to forget. Studying abroad is a fantastic motivator although it makes me feel a bit
impatient with my learning. :)

Log:
Yesterday, I reviewed my Russian words on memrise without adding any new ones. I also rewatched all of the videos
that accompanied my Russian textbook that I used last semester. I really enjoy these videos, because they show
native Russians speaking Russian as they would in their everyday lives. The people in these videos don't have a script
to follow, they are just asked a question and they respond normally. These videos were particularly motivating for
me because I remember how difficult they were to understand the first time I went through my textbook and
watched them. However, now I can understand nearly everything that is said in the videos and I'm recognizing the
vocab that I've recently learned on my own in these videos. I had been feeling a bit down about my learning, so this
was a nice experience to have!
I also sent a letter to my Russian language exchange partner and then posted it on Lang8. I received some excellent
corrections about wording things more naturally, and I made a list of these corrections for future reference.
1 person has voted this message useful

TW
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 3421 days ago
11 posts - 14 votes
Speaks: English*, Portuguese
Studies: Russian

Message 6 of 8

13 June 2015 at 4:32am | IP Logged

Yesterday, I just reviewed my Russian words on memrise and read some Russian emails that I found in my old
Russian textbook. Today, I reviewed gerunds with some exercises from a really old Russian textbook that I had
checked out from my university's library. It wasn't too strenuous, so I'm hoping to be more diligent with my
vocabulary study tomorrow. I was hoping to find a nice shared deck to use on Anki, but I didn't have much luck.
1 person has voted this message useful

TW
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 3421 days ago
11 posts - 14 votes
Speaks: English*, Portuguese
Studies: Russian

Message 7 of 8

16 June 2015 at 5:17am | IP Logged

Over the last couple of days I've been reviewing my words on memrise and adding/ learning words in Anki from a
big book of Russian vocab words in thematic lists that I found. Anki works surprising well for me, and I'm able to
retain the words well so I'm very happy to continue to use it! The only downside with Anki is I absolutely hate
entering the words into the software. It's the most tedious task. I should probably just set aside a day where I focus
on entering a massive amount of vocab into Anki, so I can study without constantly worrying about this.

On a side note, I spent some time today reading about the translations of Harry Potter into foreign languages, which
is a really interesting process. It'll be interesting to get my hands on the Portuguese and Russian translations of
Harry Potter some day and compare them to the English version.
1 person has voted this message useful

SladeWilson
Newbie
Canada
Joined 3400 days ago
17 posts - 26 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Esperanto, French

Message 8 of 8

21 June 2015 at 1:47pm | IP Logged

Good luck in Russia!

Assimil is pretty effective from my experience, though I haven't actually gotten that far, twenty-some lessons I've done I think. I haven't picked up the book for weeks though. I hope you enjoy the method.

Yes, adding Anki cards isn't the most pleasurable experience. I think I got up to 30 cards entered in last night, and that included searching images on Google Images and embedding them into each card.

1 person has voted this message useful

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