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Trans-Siberian Express | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5558 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 1 of 55 07 June 2011 at 9:50pm | IP Logged |
Trans-Siberian Express: Moscow (0 km) - Intro
[Trans-Siberian Express: "A wee dram for the road...and off we go!"] Despite it's illustrious name, the Trans-Siberian Express is no Shinkansen or TGV when it comes to speed; on the other hand, the ride is steeped in over a century of Russian history and reported to chug along the longest railway in the world. Connecting Moscow with the far eastern port of Vladivostok, it faithfully crosses 7 time zones at its own pace, passing through hundreds of towns and cities and 9,289 kilometres of Russian countryside along the way. 
[Trans-Siberian map: "Glad I'm not taking the bus..."] So what have trains got to do with language learning? Well, along similar lines, I feel I've hit the beginning of a long unhurried intermediate stage in my Russian studies too, not unlike the Express. The initial journey from St Petersburg to Moscow was swift and exciting, a whirlwind romance taking my vocabulary and reading levels up to 80% and beyond. However the honeymoon period now seems to be dampening down a bit, and my progress has long since leveled off along with the fizz. Once again, I feel unsure of myself, and the path ahead looks long and daunting... 
[Slow coach: "In the reassuring words of Buttons, 'sometimes life just gets in the way'."] But this is neither the time to feel despondent about being a slow coach in Russian, nor an excuse to run off with another fancy language in search of new thrills and chills. This is rather the time to deepen the relationship into something more serious, turn everything back around to face in a positive direction, despite daily obstacles, and embark on a fresh adventure together! So in the spirit of the Trans-Siberian express, I aim to read and listen to as much Russian as I can over the weeks to come. The journey will require patience and dedication, and I'm not even sure whether I'll make that much progress compared to other more efficient methods. Nevertheless, it's certainly worth a good try to see where the ups and downs will take me with massive exposure to this beautiful language. Following the route illustrated below, I plan to spend a minute on listening and reading for every kilometre of the journey, stopping to report on my progress at each of the 16 virtual stations along the way, starting today with 0 km from Yaroslavsky Terminal in Moscow, and ending up hopefully in Vladivostok 9,289 listening and reading minutes (and approx. 1,000,000 words) later. My methodology will be straight-forward: I'll just read a section in English, and then re-read and listen to the corresponding section in Russian (probably starting off with chapters back-to-back). And just like traveling on-board the Express, I'll also try to speak and watch some authentic Russian along the way. So all aboard, and hope to see you soon in Yaroslavl!! *whistle toots* 
[Trans-siberian route: "In stops and starts, Ivor pushed up the hill...pshtk...pshtk..."] Edited by Teango on 12 June 2011 at 5:28pm 8 persons have voted this message useful | |
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5969 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 55 07 June 2011 at 11:52pm | IP Logged |
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Best of luck with your new - or ongoing, I should say - adventure! I love the concept you've set up for your new log, too. I'm not sure I'd head for Siberia, myself . . . but then again, a Language Nerds's gotta do what a Language Nerd's gotta do.
Glad to see that you are persisting with this difficult study, as well as a being a consistently original and very creative writer! Edited by meramarina on 08 June 2011 at 12:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tbone Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4993 days ago 92 posts - 132 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 3 of 55 08 June 2011 at 12:44am | IP Logged |
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To clarify, you'll do R1 for a section, and then come back and do L2-R1? (L-R stages 1 and 3) Materials? Re-
reading? Approximately 150 hours. Eight books? Looking forward to your postcard from Yaroslavl. Edited by tbone on 08 June 2011 at 12:44am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5558 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 4 of 55 08 June 2011 at 11:15am | IP Logged |
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@meramarina
Спасибо большое! Hopefully the vodka parties on-board and warming folk-tales will keep out the cold. ;) @tbone One postcard coming up... To clarify a bit further: I'll read a section in English first (i.e. read L1), and then read the same section in Russian whilst listening to the corresponding audio at the same time (i.e. read and listen to L2). So I guess it's closer to (but certainly not the same as) steps 1 and 2 in Atamagaii's original post. I just feel that I've got to that stage now where I can understand the gist of most texts and would profit more comfortably from further direct immersion in the language. Other encouraging success stories: Professor Arguelles wrote several excellent posts on this method back in 2005, which are well worth a good read: "Russian - advancing to reading literature". In these, he describes how he learnt to read Russian to a high degree in just a year by following the same approach for at least an hour each day. Doviende also reached an impressive level in German after reading and listening to 5 Harry Potter books and watching 140 hours of German-dubbed Star Trek: Most efficient way to spend 120 hours. Currently reading: A. de Saint-Exupéry, "Маленький принц" (The Little Price) - a nice gentle start, likely closer to my current level. Estimated journey time: I'm hoping it won't take much more than 155 hours to eventually get to Vladivostok, but of course this doesn't take into account reading the English translation for each section in advance. So altogether, the total time could well end up approaching 300 hours (as I'm not a particularly fast reader after all ;) ). Edited by Teango on 09 June 2011 at 12:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5558 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 5 of 55 09 June 2011 at 4:30pm | IP Logged |
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I've finished reading and listening to "Маленький принц" (The Little Prince)! Distance from the next station, Yaroslavl: 159 km.
Currently reading: J K Rowling, "Гарри Поттер и Философский Камень" (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone [Book 1]). Edited by Teango on 09 June 2011 at 5:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 7 of 55 09 June 2011 at 6:46pm | IP Logged |
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Teango, this has got to be the most creative idea for a language log that I've ever seen! I'm really looking forward to trailing along behind you on your exciting train journey through Russia, although I think I'm still stuck somewhere between Saint Petersburg and Moscow myself. (There seems to have been a breakdown a few weeks ago and we're still working on fixing it, now that we've located the problem.) Счастливого пути!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| M. Medialis Diglot TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Sweden Joined 6359 days ago 397 posts - 508 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Russian, Japanese, French | Message 8 of 55 09 June 2011 at 8:46pm | IP Logged |
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The Transibirian Express..
Steadily advancing through the endlessly vast and endlessly beautiful Russian wilderness. Slowly realizing how big the country is and how many unseen mysteries there are yet to discover. Occasionally taking a day off at a Russian town. -Then I join you so we can sing a couple of песни at the town square, and relax with some cups of крепкий чай filled with unbelievable amounts of sugar. This is the dream come true, happy journey друг мой! :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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