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Josquin’s Language Symphony (RU, IR, 東亜)

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prz_
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Poland
last.fm/user/prz_rul
Joined 4860 days ago

890 posts - 1190 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian
Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish

 
 Message 89 of 646
29 May 2012 at 5:41am | IP Logged 
I don't have to, I have my own one. And currently the number of pages I've written isn't a positive number.
Anyway, on Thursday is my Russian test, so cross your fingers ;)
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Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4845 days ago

2266 posts - 3992 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

 
 Message 90 of 646
30 May 2012 at 12:10am | IP Logged 
TUESDAY, 29 MAY 2012

Today, I managed to read a new essay for my dissertation and to do a good deal of studying Russian. I am so proud of myself!

I focussed on lesson 9 today. As I already said, lesson 9 mainly deals with telling the time and reporting one's daily routine. Some grammatical features that are mentioned are consonant shifts in the present tense, the conjugation of the verbs ending in -авать, as well as the usage of the verbs начинать(ся), кончать(ся), and нравиться.

I read the reading section and the dialogue, listened to the recording, and did most of the grammatical exercises. I also tried to memorise some vocabulary, but I will have to repeat that tomorrow.

As I already told you yesterday, lesson 9 was rather easy, but in the next lesson, verbal aspects will be introduced. I am really anxious what they will be like. But I won't start with lesson 10 before the day after tomorrow, that's for sure.


@prz_: Fingers crossed! :)
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prz_
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Poland
last.fm/user/prz_rul
Joined 4860 days ago

890 posts - 1190 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian
Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish

 
 Message 91 of 646
30 May 2012 at 12:59am | IP Logged 
And I currently focus on phrases such as 'Мы всегда проводим в нём летний отпуск' and 'Около дома мы выпращиваем овощи и цветы'.
Nah. I don't find the idea of stricly following самоучитель the best way of teaching...
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Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4845 days ago

2266 posts - 3992 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

 
 Message 92 of 646
31 May 2012 at 10:53pm | IP Logged 
THURSDAY, 31 MAY 2012

I didn't have any time for studying Russian yesterday. I was fully occupied with German bureaucracy, which is terrible. Fortunately, I managed to do a double lesson today, so I made up for missing out yesterday.

I repeated all of lesson 9 (reading section, dialogue, grammar, vocabulary) and did the exercises that were left over. As I have already told you, lesson 9 was very easy and kind of a breathing-space before tackling verbal aspect in lesson 10. And that's what I did today!

I read the reading section of lesson 10 and the grammar explications concerning verbal aspect. Now, lesson 10 only deals with verbal aspect in the past tense, aspect in the future tense will be addressed later. And I must say it's not as bad as I thought it might be. All the explanations were plausible and made sense. I think getting a feeling for when to use the perfective or the imperfective aspect will be only a matter of time.

A little more confusing are the rules of how to generate a perfective verb from an imperfective verb and vice versa. One may need a prefix, a suffix, or a completely different stem. I guess this is one of the points in language learning where one cannot hope for really understanding the rules, you simply have to learn and get used to them. The most confusing part for me is that sometimes the perfective and the imperfective form may only be distinguished by a single letter, e.g. изучить (pf.) vs. изучать (impf.).

So, I have finally tackled the big ol' beast of verbal aspects. By what I can tell now, it seems to be a manageable task. But, as everything in language learning, it may take time to really get used to it.


@prz_: Oh my God, even I can understand those sentences, and I have only been studying Russian for a month now! By the way, how was your Russian test?
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prz_
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Poland
last.fm/user/prz_rul
Joined 4860 days ago

890 posts - 1190 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian
Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish

 
 Message 93 of 646
31 May 2012 at 11:56pm | IP Logged 
Luckily not bad, thanks. Though with my plans I must try harder and shouldn't be satisfied with decent results ;]

Josquin wrote:
The most confusing part for me is that sometimes the perfective and the imperfective form may only be distinguished by a single letter, e.g. изучить (pf.) vs. изучать (impf.).

That's the clue of the Slavic verbs!
1 person has voted this message useful



Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4845 days ago

2266 posts - 3992 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

 
 Message 94 of 646
03 June 2012 at 9:04pm | IP Logged 
SUNDAY, 3 JUNE 2012

I didn't have much time for studying Russian during the last days. Applying for scholarships is an awful lot of paperwork, and that some bureaucratic monster like the employment agency urges you to finally get a job, while you're already trying to get your academic career started, doesn't help either. Worst of all: the two professors who should write you some letters of recommendation are notoriously slow and lazy and don't seem to bother that your complete career stands at risk.

But today, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 60th anniversary on the British throne with a great boat parade on the river Thames, and I tried to forget my sorrows a little bit and studied some Russian. I didn't do much though. I repeated lesson 9 and the grammar of lesson 10, then I read the dialogue of lesson 10. This whole aspect thing seems to be rather subtle, and I'm not quite sure if even native speakers always know exactly when to use which aspect.

The worst part are not the aspects themselves, but rather that Russian verbs are so incredibly irregular. All those consonant shifts and stress patterns are really a pain in the neck! The fact that a little 'a' in the ending can turn a perfective verb into an imperfective verb doesn't make the whole thing easier. I think I will spend some more time on this lesson in order to get really acquainted to the whole aspect thing and all the complications that come along.
1 person has voted this message useful



Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4845 days ago

2266 posts - 3992 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

 
 Message 95 of 646
04 June 2012 at 11:54pm | IP Logged 
MONDAY, 4 JUNE 2012

Наконец, мой профессор написал письмо для меня.

Yeah, I can actually use the perfective aspect to describe my day, because my professor has finally managed to write (написать) his letter of recommendation for me. Now, I only have to collect it on Wednesday (в среду). Then, I'll write another poison-pen letter to my other supervisor so that he finally comes along with his letter of recommendation, too.

Nevertheless, I had a lot to do today - especially, because I had to write an extensive CV for my application. Not a normal, two-page, tabularized CV, but a real account of my life from childhood up to now. It took a lot of time, but I think the text turned out quite well.

This evening, I could forget all the stress of the last days and I had some quality time studying Russian. Okay, I think I finally wrapped my head around the whole aspect thing. Yes, it is subtle, but it is definitely manageable. So, I repeated all of lesson 9 and lesson 10 and did some exercises. They turned out quite well, so I'm confident I am headed in the right direction.

Tomorrow, I will do the remaining translation exercise and - first of all - learn all the vocabulary. Ugh, I hate cramming vocabulary and especially verbal forms...
1 person has voted this message useful



prz_
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Poland
last.fm/user/prz_rul
Joined 4860 days ago

890 posts - 1190 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian
Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish

 
 Message 96 of 646
04 June 2012 at 11:58pm | IP Logged 
Your progress overawes me!
But wait until July - my Russian comeback is just a matter of time ;)

And good luck with your test. If I can ask - what are you studying? English philology?

Edited by prz_ on 05 June 2012 at 12:02am



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