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Russian Read&Speak - TAC 2013 Team Mir | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5348 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 65 of 142 27 March 2013 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Whew! Your workload as outlined above is really daunting! I admire your stamina for managing so many languages at once, but I see where your fear of burnout stems from.
I’m not an expert in time management and my track record at keeping plans is patchy at best, so take what I say for what it is: a personal opinion based on my own experience. I find that dropping a language often turns out to be a beneficial step in my winding road to language acquisition. Being stuck in a rut in your learning method plus the effects of the law of diminishing returns on the time invested in studying a language means that drastically overhauling your routine is often the key to freeing more energy and that allows you to be more efficient in general. Moreover, a few weeks or even a few months away from a language, say Chinese, give you the opportunity to evaluate from the clarity of a little distance why you wanted to learn Chinese in the first place, what you enjoy about it and whether it’s really worth the effort. Practicing a little self-awareness never goes astray. I’ve noticed that even though I often drop one or more languages for some time, I never really give up on them: the motive I started learning them rarely goes away, and I usually even find further compelling reasons to go back to them. Finally, if what you actually fear is losing what you’ve already acquired in the language, don’t worry too much. Language skills generally sediment quite well in periods of quiescence, and when you pick up the language again you realize that you still remember most of it and you just need to brush it up a little. And a general review is always a great idea when it comes to studying any subject. So, my personal opinion is this: don’t feel guilty if you slack off a little and drop a language (or even more than one) whether you decide to substitute it with another or not. You’re much better off staving off burnout by changing your tack and keeping your routine fresh than if you plow through your textbooks when all the joy’s gone and it all feels just like drudgery. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 66 of 142 27 March 2013 at 10:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you Emme. Evaluating burnout is not that simple though. Today I didn't feel burnout and I managed to read 5 pages of a Papiamento phrasebook and flip through 20 Anki cards, and that was before going through all this (well, I skipped the non-language reading for the time being).
I don't think it would be honest now to drop either Russian or Chinese, after all I'm not even putting much effort on them. I spend about 30 min on Chinese and then 15 on Russian. They are the first two languages I deal with during the day, while my mind is fresh, and I know the results aren't that better because I don't work that much on them. It's still little if one wants to be ambitious. OTOH, if I studied only one language I wouldn't be able to spend my 5 hours on it. Burnout would happen much sooner. That's what it's about, shifting subjects just that you get some rest from one when you get into another. I think the feeling of being worried also adds to burnout. If I have several pending activities - be it work, housekeeping, plans for the future - I will feel tired of studying sooner, even if it doesn't affect directly my concentration. I think 86 minutes for watching TV in English and in French is a bit too much now, but that's the total length of the episodes in the series I've been watching (40 Fr + 46 En). It doesn't make any sense to split episodes anyway, I'd just get anxious or curious. What would help me now would be extensive activities that don't demand sitting in front of the computer with headphones, my USB driver and my iPad. That includes: - extensive reading - Anki (when words are easy and I know their meaning in the source language, which almost never is Portuguese) - grammar reading (as long as can read page after page it's ok. The problem is when I have to look words up or do exercises whose answer keys are at the back of the book I think extensive grammar reading for both Chinese and Russian would do really great, as long as all the sample sentences got translated. I learn a lot from those approaches. In fact, it could work for all of these languages. You see, ideas start to show up. As for making Papiamento my 5th language, that's ok, that's how I started doing Norwegian when I said I couldn't take more than three. I'll just keep it at the bottom of the schedule and try to do extensive reading, like the phrasebook I'm reading now, which I can read during dead time. Anyway, I realize now that I have enough time for textbook learning, but I'm usually tired when it comes to trying to write paragraphs or trying to read something different like a news item. Edited by Expugnator on 27 March 2013 at 10:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FDppkaul Groupie Norfolk Island Joined 5242 days ago 36 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English* | Message 67 of 142 28 March 2013 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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What resources are you planning to use for Papiamento?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 68 of 142 28 March 2013 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have Getting around the islands in Papiamento, which is a phrasebook, but very useful
for a language with a simple syntax and many cognates. Plus I have Papiamento Textbook, which seems to be the only comprehensive source for learning the language as a foreigner, also available in Dutch and Spanish. The problem is that I don't have audio at this stage. I'd have to wait till I reached a better level and start using native resources, like videos, radio broadcasting and songs. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5348 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 69 of 142 28 March 2013 at 8:09pm | IP Logged | ||
I know what you mean! ;-) After the mince piece approach to grammar used by Il nuovo russo senza sforzo going through a systematic grammar textbook seems a most reasonable approach. Let me know if you find a good grammar with all sample sentences translated. The ones I’ve seen so far require that you’ve already mastered a decent vocabulary, and with the unusual approach Assimil takes, it’s not a given that even after finishing Assimil you know the kind of words most beginner’s courses teach and that grammars take for granted! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 70 of 142 28 March 2013 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I have this New Penguin Russian Book which heavily focuses on grammar. I'm just a
bit fed up with having tried to start it so many times and stopping by the 8th lesson, when I usually get overwhelmed with vocabulary. I really think Nina Potapova's books could do the job, are you familiar with them? I'm pretty much sure they've got Italian editions as well, but anyway there are French and Spanish editions. They are normal textbooks, which means the grammar is graded and the declension tables are all there when you need'em. Schaum's Outline also comes in handy, though there are more expressions covering a specific grammar issue (like case) than actual sentences. I have this short Dover grammar, Essential Russian Grammar. It has all the basics, it has a cozy typewriting even though the book is old. Anyway, I think a Russian deck with sentences is what I need now. I'll just wait for my Assimil Le Russe deck to finish. I promised myself I wouldn't add a Russian deck after that one, but I really think I can learn a lot from sentences deck. I found one just named russian sentences, it has around 1040 notes, so it won't take long and will be just enough to keep me motivated. Thanks for bringing the log back on topic =D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 71 of 142 01 April 2013 at 3:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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One more morning of little study and no surprises. I found a deck with Russian sentences
and I believe it is going to be very useful. I'm just a bit overwhelmed with Anki right now, so I'm going to wait a few days. I believe all of my other decks are far from being finished (that is, reaching a mature status for all of the words), but I still think a few days of break will be OK before I starting delving into sentences. They're gonna be my training if I want to try reading later. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5348 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 72 of 142 02 April 2013 at 10:21pm | IP Logged | ||
What a useful piece of information! I’ve heard so many good things about the Penguin grammar that it’s great to hear about its drawbacks as well. Maybe I’d better wait until I’ve got a sounder foundation in Russian before I start shopping around for it. Otherwise I too am likely to get stuck after just a few lessons. By the way, I’d never heard of Nina Potapova, but now I’m trying to track one of her books down through the interlibrary loan system. Thanks for the tip! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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