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TAC 2012, Team Sputnik, Teango | ||
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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 5554 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 33 of 96 06 March 2012 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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@Solfrid Cristin
You and Woodsei have put in a blinding performance during this 6WC - I'm absolutely amazed at these hours! I do worry though that it could all prove at bit much after a stretch...so please don't forget to take a good break every now and again...you more than deserve it. :) @Woodsei Thanks for the vote of confidence - your kind comment really cheered me up (see, here's the proof --> :D ). I'm absolutely loving my new film and tv method but I feel terrible about letting everything slide in the 6WC over the last week and a half to supercharge my software. I guess there aren't many days left in the challenge but I hope to at least climb back into the top 10 again, so we can still claim 4 members of Team Sputnik made it there to the finishing line. @fabriciocarraro Sadly, no. I'd love to have the subtitles in Russian too! I guess there's nothing available at the moment because it's a relatively new film. So unless some kind soul out there can point us in the right direction, I'll just have to watch it without subs later on. It'll be a fun test of progress! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 34 of 96 07 March 2012 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
I have complete faith in your ability to be one of the top 10! Woodsei and I'll stretch out our hands, and all the team Sputnik members can sprint (crawl more like it) over the finishing line together, after an amazing effort this time. As for breaks, I feel like quoting my mom who used to say this in what I hope is Swedish (but with some Norwegian spelling as I do not have the Swedish letters on my Norwegian/Russian key board: "Arbeta ni jævlar, i graven begagna ni hvila!" Which translated means: "Work on you devils, in your grave you will get to rest!" Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 07 March 2012 at 5:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| M. Medialis Diglot TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Sweden Joined 6355 days ago 397 posts - 508 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Russian, Japanese, French | Message 35 of 96 07 March 2012 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Teango! You are doing totally absolutely great!! I get happy when I read your posts. とっても うれしい!! (totally happy) :D The transition to the Longer Double Sentence is a fantastic feat. It's like the moment when an ice-skater manages to pull off his first double loop jump. (but it's even cooler for us, because we can proceed to the Triple Sentence, Quadruple Sentence and even onwards to the breathtaking Infinite Sentence).
Hahahaha. I know this. Once you start coding language learning tools it's so darn hard to stop. But we know it's worth it. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Woodsei Bilingual Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Woodsei Joined 4795 days ago 614 posts - 782 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)* Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian | Message 36 of 96 15 March 2012 at 6:34pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Yes, the double sentence! I still feel happy when I understand a sentence, longer than a phrase, but not yet double :) Maybe more like a sentence and a half :P Comprehending clauses, that's a dream. And then comprehending all.... I have to agree with M.Medialis on that! Absolutely amazing the work you're doing. Keep it up, your log's a joy to read! 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 5554 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 37 of 96 25 March 2012 at 7:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Quick update
Don't worry folks, this log still has a pulse...it's just that things are a bit topsy-turvy at the moment to write anything up, as I'll be heading off to Mother Russia for 2 glorious weeks tomorrow! Rest assured, when I return, I'll be eager to post my next installment and fill you in on my embarrassing attempts at speaking Russian in the big kid's playground. Edited by Teango on 25 March 2012 at 7:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| M. Medialis Diglot TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Sweden Joined 6355 days ago 397 posts - 508 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Russian, Japanese, French | Message 38 of 96 25 March 2012 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Wow. You're going to the Final Fortress. The Legendary Boss Level.
Have you been to Russia before? I remember that I was extremely impressed by Moscow. It's probably the most beautiful city I ever visited. :) I look forward to hear about your adventures. I'm sure you will see that your brave юношеский speaking attempts will pay off and bring you many steps closer to your future Elite спецназ skills! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4713 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 39 of 96 25 March 2012 at 11:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Wow, Teango! Have a great time there, man! Let's spend your Russian, huh?
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 5554 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 40 of 96 15 April 2012 at 10:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Russian (the return): Weeks 10-15, 2012
Total language study over this period: 27 hours, 25 mins Total language study this year: 97 hours, 12 mins  Russian (27 hours, 25 mins)
Studying films: 23 hours, 56 mins Checking film vocabulary: 1 hour, 51 mins Listening and reading: 52 mins Conversation: 26 mins Reading test: 10 mins Crosstalk: 10 mins  Notes
I'm back from my 2 week full immersion holiday in Russia, and I've got to tell you with a big smile plastered all over my chops, I had an absolutely amazing time! I now have a suitcase full of the strangest stories and a mind buzzing with Russian sounds and images. It's hard to put into words what it's like to travel through the open countryside at break-neck speed in a beat-up Lada museum piece, held together with tape, rope and scattered icons, whilst cheesy 80s and 90s Russian pop tunes blare out the window and roadside babushki try to sell you jars of pickled gherkins at the traffic lights. And that's just the first hour of my epic journey! The rest of the time, I visited beautiful museums and churches, went out on the town with my hosts, and walked off 3kg in -4 degrees whilst learning more about the country's rich cultural heritage. I literally ate and drank the tastiest dacha cuisine you can imagine till I almost burst at the seams, and traversed the streets of poets and revolutionaries dressed in more layers than an onion till I almost dropped from sheer exhaustion. St Petersburg was as stunning as ever (I'd visited her back in 2009), and I got to see my first ever ballet performance, as well as attend my first ever Russian variety show (which was somewhat reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil...if you also happened to throw some magic mushrooms into the equation). I stayed with my girlfriend's family, who were overwhelmingly warm and generous and treated me like a long-lost son, and I got to speak and immerse myself in Russian nearly 24-7. As a little thank you, I treated my newly adopted parents to a 2-day break in Moscow. Like me, they'd also never visited the capital before, and it was a fantastic getaway. Moscow's architecture was much more modern than classical, as you you'd otherwise see in St Petersburg, and I simply couldn't believe it when I finally got to stand back in awe and take in the scenery on Red Square (it's something I never imagined I would be able to do as a kid back in the 80s without first becoming a double "00" agent). I didn't get to visit Lenin in the mausoleum during my stay, due to closures, but I did retrace the steps of Homeless and the Devil from my favourite book "Master and Margarita". And whilst I was at Patriach's Ponds the next morning with my girlfriend, reminiscing over the setting of the infamous conversation between the devil and Berlioz, something very bizarre happened... An elderly bearded tramp was sitting on a bench surrounded by a manslaughter of pidgeons one moment, I took a very quick photo in the other direction, and in the blink of an eye he was gone...исчез...I mean, he straight-up disappered along with over fifty pidgeons! I ran out of the park to the intersection of roads to see where he might have run off to but there was absolutly no trace of him anywhere, and this old guy certainly didn't look like the speediest Gonzales on the block. Draw your own conclusions to our sobriety at the time, but I'm deeply suspicious that we may have indeed run into a cunningly disguised Кот Бегемот!! On the way back home I was stopped twice in the airport and asked to empty my large suitcase destined for the cargo hold. The first time was because they found a skipping rope as I entered the airport and suspected I was some kind of Nikita-esque assassin, the second time was because they feared our 9 jars of homemade jam may be weapons of mass destruction. When I said to one of our smileophobic guardians that they were just варенье, she simply scowled and replied "Не верю!" and proceeded to personally examine every single jar. I was so tempted to offer her a spoon and slice of bread in the moment but feared that a sense of humour might not be permitted on the luggage list. During my stay I definitely levelled up my listening and speaking skills. Having watched lots of movies and tv prior to this holiday was a huge helping hand. I could understand so much more than at the start of this year, and was able to follow most of the fast colloquial conversations without too much struggle. Speaking, however, was a tougher nut to crack. I decided to speak only in Russian from my first minute at the airport, and in the words of my better half, it was a nightmare. However by the second day I was already much better, and although it was still very difficult to sound like I had even half a brain most the time, I found that after a week I was able to say whatever I wanted with a touch of creativity and circumnavigation around unknown words. Then I hit a crisis after the ballet (about 8 days into the holiday)...I just burned out and simply didn't want to speak or listen to any more Russian. I guess the constant strain had just taken it's toll and I needed a break, so I confess I spoke in a mixture of English and Russian for the next 2 days. After this, I felt much better, and made a concerted effort to communicate only in Russian again for the remainder of the stay...and you know what, I levelled up a little again! Now I estimate my listening level is around B2 (up from B1) and my speaking level is a more comfortable B1 or even B1+ on a good day (up from A2+ at the start of the year). My plan now for the next few months is to really get down to some serious study and hit all three of my planned study languages for this year simultaneously: so this spells out lots of Irish, Russian and German from here on out. My priority will be on getting my Irish listening and reading from A1 to B2, and then the rest of the time will be split between brushing up my German and progressing further in Russian. (In case anyone's interested, I've included some pics from Russia on my blog for the curious at heart.) Edited by Teango on 15 April 2012 at 10:56pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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