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Well I guess I�m learning Russian... | ||
Tags: Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| rafey Newbie United States Joined 5764 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English* | Message 57 of 248 02 March 2009 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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While we have accumulated an enormous assortment of data regarding sleep/dream states, we still haven't a clue regarding its actual mechanism, function, evolution or usefulness in terms of practicality. Although much of your personal interpretation appears to be primarily Freudian (and Jung has a great deal to say concerning the universality of dreams), I have not encountered more revealing insignts to date.
Your resignation regarding "reasons" for learning Russian is similar to my own. I have long since given up rationalizing my attraction for languages (or mathematical logic, for that matter). Our brains apparently crave such information in the same way we crave food (possibly a similar mechanism at work?). I write a good deal of poetry, etc. so there might be some linquistic relationship there but that dosn't explain you and many others. 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 58 of 248 02 March 2009 at 5:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Finally, some down time.
75 hours in one week, wow I work way too much. Someones going to be crying when they write up my check because that's a lotta overtime lol. Whatever though, if they're stupid enough to pay me for those kind of hours...I'm stupid enough to work them. Down time is nice. Now I can give Russian the attention it deserves. On that note.....verb groups 1-6 are so going down. Edited by Brian_N on 02 March 2009 at 7:49pm 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 59 of 248 02 March 2009 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | ||
My interpretation appears to be Freudian? Not a clue what that means Rafey, your general knowledge appears to be much greater than mine. I just explained it in a way that made sense to me, I’ve always found that explain things, even crudely is the first step to hammering something useful out of them. Yeah I’m not to sure what my deeper motivations are for learning Russian either. All I know is that there’s something about how it sounds that summons my attention. Though I don’t think it’s very common that a non-academic persons successfully learning a language with that as the prime motivation. For now i’ll keep rationalizing lol. “Our brains apparently crave such information in the way we crave food” – I agree 100%. If I had it my way I would spend the rest of my life just learning about things day after day. But alas, I can’t because some individual developed this idea called ‘capitalism’ and apparently it means I have to go to work if I want to eat. It does make sense though that such a trait of craving knowledge would exist in our species, I could see such curiosity being highly advantageous to the earliest members of our species. Even if it was only present in a small portion of a larger group, it would still offer definite survival advantages to both. Edited by Brian_N on 02 March 2009 at 7:41pm 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 60 of 248 02 March 2009 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thoughts on Deep Listening
Put Deep Listening to work again before I went to sleep. Not too sure how long I was listening to Russian before I went out though. Time is always hard to tell when your mind is stuck somewhere between being awake and asleep, especially when it’s on purpose lol. Waking up the past few days have been very interesting. When I wake up I feel so energized, so relaxed and so...peaceful. From my experiences there’s only two times you wake feeling like that, the first is when you spend half the night having hot passionate sex, and the second is when you did some serious meditation before you went to sleep. Since there’s a shortage women in this hamlet i’m going to guess it has something to do with meditation. When I think about it, yeah I guess Deep Listening is a form of meditation. The method of clearing the mind of distracting thoughts was adapted from mindfulness meditation. I guess simply the process of self regulating the minds thoughts is enough to experience those benefits. So lets see, Deep Listening gives me the ability to rapidly pick out the words i’ve drilled in normal Russian speech by utilizing the minds natural receptivity to sound at that level of consciousness. And on top of that, I wake up feeling very well rested...and all in all, pretty awesome. I’m really starting to like this Deep Listening. 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 61 of 248 03 March 2009 at 1:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Hmmmm, having issues with putting a picture on my profile, I keep getting
-An error occurred on the server when processing the URL - (firefox) Tried internet explorer, different computer too, neither worked. The pic is 150 by 150 JPEG...there's no reason why it shouldn't work, but its not. Has anyone found away around this??? Edited by Brian_N on 03 March 2009 at 1:24am 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 62 of 248 03 March 2009 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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March 3st – Day 22
Vocabulary (+15) Nouns – Part 1-6 => Complete Verbs – Part 1 => (32/50) => Under Review Verbs – Part 2 => (6/50) => Under Review Verbs - Part 3 => (1/50) =>Under Review Verbs 4-5 => Pending Daily Quick Review => Complete Daily Deep Listening => Complete 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rafey Newbie United States Joined 5764 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English* | Message 63 of 248 03 March 2009 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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“loosening of ego boundaries ... openness, sensitivity, internalization-subjectification of the physical and mental environment (empathy) and diffuse-absorbed attention,” That sort of thing is pretty Freudian. Freud also "just explained it the way it made sense to him" and drew essentially similar conclusions. Of course, most of his concepts of ego, etc. have long since been discarded; exhanged for the more neural-based findings of cognitive science.
My mind also has always been a curious wanderer, ever digging into new knowledge of every type; always attempting to figure things out. Sometimes I think it's a curse. You might send some of your extra cash my way and I'll send you some women. We have a surplus. By the way, you might visit the U.S. We just spent the last eight years destroying the very concept of Capitalism. Don't know what we are left with at this point, but Capitalism it's not! My photo also destroyed the Internet. I thought they had rebuilt it with safeguards (?) In Zen, the practice of 'Zazen' or sitting in meditation requires one to be of two minds, so to speak. One must passively allow the thought processes to focus simultaneiously of both generalities and specifics (for example a rock and the mountain range on which the rock resides). There are entire volumes of Koans (riddles) to train the mind to think in this way. What you are doing is not entirely dissimilar in a fashion to this type of thought/image processing. Focusing on sound is an essential in Zen! 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 64 of 248 04 March 2009 at 1:40am | IP Logged | ||
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Learning a language by flashcards, fun fun. I actually kind of enjoy drilling in sound and meaning, although I understand it can only take me so far. The first 3 weeks I’ve been doing more than drill i’ve been analyzing and thinking of the best way to learn this language.
Declan’s Russian flashcards are definitely staying, I’m pleased with my current progress and I like the features built into it. It is well suited to drilling something to the point of immediate recall and I definitely like that. Even if it only is a textbook definition I’ll sort it out later as I become more advanced. Like seriously lol, 22 days. Deep listening is also definitely staying. Its very encouraging to be able to listen to another language and hear the words you are drilling. I was considering using Assimil and Pimsluer to advance my studies however I have some issues with both of them. Assimil=>Uses a process of putting native language and target language side by side complete with audio. It is definitely something that catches my attention and I can see being quite effective. However overall its similar to that big site of newspaper articles I found about a week back. The only difference is those newspaper articles are free. I can’t justify paying for a tool I already possess, so what it doesn’t have a brand name attached to it. Pimsluer=> A very nice course that I can also see being effective, especially if you work from beginning to end. My beef with it is its price. I can definitely afford it, and if it was something that would bring me to an advance level of Russian across the board I might consider it. However I can’t justify shelling out hundreds of dollars for it because 1, it will still require severe augmentation and 2, why should I pay for a course who’s success is based around the concept of “spaced-interval learning” when I can simply adapt the concept to my learning...for free. Yes, I’m cheap. You don’t get rich by giving all your money away or spending it stupidly. The days of dumping 15000 into a penny stocks or throwing down a grand on a hand of blackjack on ‘just because’ are over. Yes, its nice having a 50 inch plasma flat in your bedroom to play xbox on but common now I’m not 20 anymore. I’m 23 lol. Everyone must grow up eventually, even me. I’m done being a kid. Anyways though I’m off topic. I believe these resources meet my requirements -Schaum’s Outline of Russian Grammar by James Levine ($16.75) -A Russian Grammar Workbook by Terence Wade ($51.99) -Roots of the Russian Language by George Patrick ($15.29) These will provide me with an in depth study of Russian grammar, and used in combination with the knowledge i’m gaining from my flashcards and a free online Russsian dictionary, it should provide everything needed to start working on understanding how all those words I’m memorizing are used in context. (via all those newspaper articles). While my understanding of Russian spoken language grows abit each day, I can see myself eventually hitting a wall if I don’t start developing a strong understanding of Russian grammar. Looking forward its the only way I can see that I can transition from understanding single words to understanding sentences in the spoken context. Edited by Brian_N on 04 March 2009 at 1:42am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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