|
 |
Well I guess I’m learning Russian... | ||
Tags: Russian | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 Brian_N Pro Member Canada Joined 5769 days ago 200 posts - 202 votes  Studies: English*, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 217 of 248 28 July 2009 at 5:41am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Decided to take Extralean’s advice, take some time off. I guess I almost did, working over 60 hrs a week though doesn’t really help the whole rest bit. Still doing the same thing as before, memorizing spoken Russian words to the point of immediate recognition. I figure about 4 more months and I should be pretty close to done with those flashcards.
Started up my University courses, so that’s also taking time away from this little project. But somehow I’m managing, little by little I move forward. The Trip to Russia fund continues to grow, about $1500 stocked away so far. It’s small but growing steadily. I hope to have at least $6,000 when I go. Shouldn’t be too hard...being a 23 year old kid making 240 a day and having no real obligations...saving money becomes insanely easy. Hmmm...recession = sweet job, go figure. Anyways though, Tangent. I’ll update as I find time and interesting things to write about. Going slower, but still going....Russia is such a very interesting country. Unique in that it’s the only one that makes me feel curiosity, admiration and fear all mixed into one. Admiration of Russia’s rich culture and history, and fear of Russia’s nuclear capabilities. It is the only country capable of truly being a serious threat to the North America continent. That in itself makes them worth knowing...but mix that in with the culture and history bit...yeah i’ll play. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| SII Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5796 days ago 184 posts - 194 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English | Message 218 of 248 28 July 2009 at 10:40am | IP Logged | |||||
Firstly, China have bulk of the nuclear weapons too. Secondly, thanks to the nuclear weapons for that the Third World War don't begin still. Vis pacem, para bellum :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Brian_N Pro Member Canada Joined 5769 days ago 200 posts - 202 votes Studies: English*, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 219 of 248 29 July 2009 at 5:27am | IP Logged | |||||
Mutually assured destruction...keeps the peace in a way the U.N. Security Council never will. I hope I’m not around to see the day someone figures out how to shoot down ICBMs. The world will become a very scary place. I see these hippies who talk about destroying all the world’s nuclear weapons and I shake my head at their stupidity. Hearts are in the right place though I guess. As a Russian I’m sure you can appreciate your country having a nuclear deterrent, it’s kinda been awhile since foreign armies have been on Russian soil lol. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| gatton Newbie United States Joined 5856 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 220 of 248 29 July 2009 at 6:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Thanks for sharing so much of your learning progress Brian. I have put my Russian studies on hold for the moment to concentrate on French but I am taking notes and getting ideas from you. Also thanks for sharing those online resources you found.
Looking forward to reading more after your break and especially anxious to hear about your trip when you finally make it to Russia. Take care. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| SII Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5796 days ago 184 posts - 194 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English | Message 221 of 248 29 July 2009 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, I really happy because USA is afraid of our nuclear weapon and therefore don't try to inflict the direct strike on my country. It is impossible to build anything good by the instrumentality of violence: remember, for example, Vietnam, Serbia, Iraq ("democratization" with B-52s and Tomahawks). In short-term the violence can give some benefits, but later we very often find out that it was the bad or even the worst solution... Of course, sometimes it is possible that the violence is the necessity or inevitability, but it is the rare occurrence. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Brian_N Pro Member Canada Joined 5769 days ago 200 posts - 202 votes Studies: English*, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 222 of 248 31 July 2009 at 4:18am | IP Logged | |||||
Most have no idea about the actual potency of Russia’s nuclear deterrent, but among those in the Pentagon...I have no doubt in my mind that many of them have sleeplessness nights whenever they hear the word Russia. Consider this, even with the mass integration with the American’s economically, culturally and militarily the Pentagon blocked the launch of a Canadian weather satellite in 2003 because of ‘security concerns’ regarding its optics. These people are our allies, we are no threat whatsoever to them and yet they still blocked it because people in the American intelligence community were quite concerned over it. Now imagine how they see Russia, a country that is not America’s enemy but at the same time, not its friend either, with enough nukes to destroy every major North America city, town and village inside of half-an hour...lol insomnia definitely. As for the use of use of Force in internal relations...i’m not too sure what I believe yet, my overall opinions are still being formed. I’m not as well read as I should be on international conflicts. I do hear alot of people talking about the Iraq war though I’ve never taken the time to do some actual indepth reading about it. I know some basics, but I’ve never really concerned myself with it. The Canadian government saw the invasion as a violation of international law and my people stayed out of it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Brian_N Pro Member Canada Joined 5769 days ago 200 posts - 202 votes Studies: English*, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 223 of 248 01 August 2009 at 6:18am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Day 170
As I go about learning Russian I have been monitoring my psychology in an effort to better understand my motivations for learning Russian and my attitudes and opinion towards the Russian people, both in the here and now and as they evolve. Going into this I was fully aware of the potency and the appeal of the Russian culture, it can grab an individual and never let them go. Has it taken me? Lol perhaps, it’s effects on my psychology are subject to debate. However, regardless of Russia’s culture power, certain cognitive distortions have developed since I started learning Russian that cannot be explained through Russian cultural capabilities. In order of occurrence... 1. Why when I listen to the Russian language can I call it my language? 2. Why when I look at the Russian people I feel that they are my people? 3. How, as someone who has never been to Russia and who doesn’t even speak Russian can I look at Russia and call it home...and mean it, body, mind and soul? 4. Why as I hear the hymns of the Russian Orthdox Church do I feel I know this somehow? I have answers now to most of these questions. The answer was something I never expected nor would I have ever considered had I not started learning Russian. It’s quite simple actually...as a child my soul was painted with brush of a collectivist culture. My mind is a product of collectivist thought and as I gaze at Russia I also see collectivist thought and it penetrates to the very depths of my mind. My collectivism? Yes, my collectivism. A full comparison to Russian collectivism will be done in time, but for now I will say that it was almost…egalitarian. Gangs, murders, violent crime, homelessness, drugs….none of this existed there. We were a microculture isolated by hundreds of kms of forest from the individualism and materialism of Western Society. And yet all things must come to an end and eventually western culture caught up to us and washed away who we were. There is no ‘we’ and ‘us’ anymore…only I’s and me’s. And as my mind realizes what happened I feel sorrow, my collectivism is gone and it will not return. My mind is among the last to be painted with the collectivist brush. Because of the insights I have gained recently I understand perfectly now the psychological basis for why the Russian people and the Russian nation attract me so and I can now answer the above questions. 2. Why when I look at the Russian people I feel that they are my people? + 3. How, as someone who has never been to Russia and who doesn’t even speak Russian can I look at Russia and call it home...and mean it, body, mind and soul? It’s the way they talk about things, our great nation, our beautiful city, our great Catherine….ours. This type of thought resonates within my mind. It holds an emotional power that it hard to put into words. I was raised with the concepts of ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ before being sent off into a world of ‘I’, ‘me’ & ‘mine’. And then I look at Russia I see those values of ‘we’, ‘us’, and ‘our’ embedded in their minds and their culture. How could I not look at them with the thought of ‘my people?’ Are Russians my people? No of course not, such notions are silly. Canadians are my people. I’m just a product of unique conditions. These unique conditions however will allow me to experience and understand Russian society and Russian culture in a deeper way than would be expected for a typical Westerner. Just the fact that I can call it home I find psychologically telling. Most people from the west can never truly blend into Russian society, how could they? Their minds have not been shaped by Russia’s collective values. The same goes for me, I’ll probably never truly blend into Russia society…but if I choose to stay in Russia for at least a few years and surround myself with Russian people and Russian culture…I think I’ll come pretty close. 4. Why as I hear the hymns of the Russian Orthdox Church do I feel I know this somehow? This ties into two things, firstly my definition of beauty => Beauty is human minds united towards a single goal. Or I guess simply unity would also suffice. Secondly, it also has to do with the sound of the Russian language which I find beautiful. Now taking both of these and I look at a Russian religious service I hear a beautiful language, and I see (thanks to Youtube) all strata of Russian society gathered, I see unity. The combination of both produces a ‘sooooo beautiful’ response in me. Now that I understand it it can move from being something that I do not understand to something I can actually put it into words. 1. Why when I listen to the Russian language can I call it my language? Because it’s better than English. But is it mine? Again, no it isn’t. But it is still very beautiful. There is still one unanswered question that still eludes me. Why do I find Russian so beautiful? For me the Russian culture is like gravity, but so is its language. The fascination with the language came first, the culture second…yeah this will take some time, thankfully I have a menial labor job that gives me plenty of time to devote to thought. Wow, long post…but it was necessary. I needed to understand the mechanism by which Russia can produce certain emotional reactions in me, i.e ‘my people’, ‘my home’. And now that my identity is once again stable lol, I can proceed once more. Edited by Brian_N on 01 August 2009 at 8:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| SII Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5796 days ago 184 posts - 194 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English | Message 224 of 248 01 August 2009 at 10:51am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Russian Orthdox Church uses Church-Slavonic language, not Russian. There are many differences between these languages. For example, Church-Slavonic has four past tenses, Russian -- only one past tense.
1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
