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FabricioCarraro - TAC’15 Pushkin, Rätsel

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Expugnator
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Brazil
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3335 posts - 4349 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian

 
 Message 417 of 439
14 May 2014 at 11:41pm | IP Logged 
No, I haven't subscribed to FluentU. They don't seem bad, but I think you can get loads of videos with subtitle in English and Chinese elsewhere. I don't know about Japanese, though. Essentially, FluentU uses the same engine as Lyricstraining.
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fabriciocarraro
Hexaglot
Winner TAC 2012
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Brazil
russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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989 posts - 1454 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French
Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese

 
 Message 418 of 439
20 May 2014 at 8:27pm | IP Logged 
@Expugnator I see. Well, they don't even have Japanese now, so I won't be subcribing any time soon.

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Japanese - Kanji

I'm amazed to say that my Kanji studies are going great. I've found a great combination, using Heisig's book + a notebook where I write down every single Kanji with its keyword and eventual comments + the website Koohii to review all the learned Kanji and read the stories invented by other people for each Kanji.
It's working amazingly, even if some keywords are pretty new to me even in English, such as: ladle, bull's eye, plump, meadow, fathom, eventide, nightbreak and so on.
I've just finished lesson 8, so I'm on Kanji #172!


Japanese - Michel Thomas Review

I'm stil reviewing Michel Thomas' Advanced course for Japanese, but I'm almost done with it. I realize now that I had forgotten most of it. Probably because I didn't have enough basis to sustain such grammar structures, but I didn't remember many things, such as:
      - "て-verb + みます", meaning "I'll try and (do something)";
      - "て-verb + も", meaning "even if" or "even though";
      - "て-verb + も + いいです", meaning "It's ok if you (do something)..." or "You may (do something)...";
      - "た-verb (casual past tense) + ことがあります", meaning "I have (done something)..."
      - "た-verb (casual past tense) + ほうがいいです", meaning "You should (do something)..."
      - "た-verb (casual past tense) + ら", meaning "if (I do something)..."
      - "た-verb (casual past tense) + り", to list what you've done ("I did things such as bla1-り, bla2-り..."

It's great though, because since I know what's been missing, I'll make a list of it with examples and read it as much as I can, in order to make sure that I won't forget them anymore.


Japanese - Italki

An amazing lesson last Wednesday with my Italki teacher. She even complimented my level and hard work, saying that I'd improved a lot since our last lesson.
We started out just chatting as always, I showed her my Kanji notebook...then she realized I don't know many important grammar structures like the passive voice, the "I can (verb)" form of the verb, so we went back to it on her book and I think we'll do it again tomorrow. It's great though =)
The sad part is that her schedule is pretty busy for the next weeks and, after tomorrow, I won't be able to have lessons with her until the middle of the World Cup.


Russian - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

One good and one terrible experience here. First, my wife agreed to speak Russian with me at home (again) when she'll be on a good mood...haha The first day went well, even if I was a little shy (years of her reprimends when I spoke Russian lol), but it got better.

Later, we went to have açaí (heaven's best gift to humanity) with a couple of friends, another Brazilian guy married to a Russian girl. The thing is that he's a professional translator for Russian who majored in it. I couldn't stand a chance... haha their level was way out of my league, and although I could understand most of it, I couldn't answer properly, which got me a little nervous and overwhelmed and made my Russian even worse than normal.

I'll be at the CouchSurfing meeting this evening to try and practice my Russian a little more.
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Teango
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United States
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Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 419 of 439
21 May 2014 at 6:55am | IP Logged 
Держи нос кверху, мы добьемся! :)

I've tried speaking only Russian at home many times in the past and fallen flat on my face. The major hurdle for me is that my wife already speaks exceptionally good English, and I guess it doesn't help that I get so quickly disheartened with being unable to communicate beyond the level of a toddler in the language.

So let's make a deal mate...let's see how long we can keep speaking (mainly) in Russian at home with our lovely patient other halves from this week onwards. The first to falter buys the other the first round of drinks when we hopefully meet up one day, by which time, we'll no doubt be speaking like Pushkin's long-lost distant cousins. ;)

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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 420 of 439
05 June 2014 at 9:08pm | IP Logged 
@Teango Yeah, it was too good to be truth. We basically haven't spoken in Russian since that day, however:


Japanese - Italki

My regular teacher seems to be busy like I mentioned on my last post, and since I'm participating in the Italki World Cup Challenge (and don't want to leave my Japanese for so long) I scheduled lessons with other Japanese teachers.
Yesterday I had my first lesson with Tatsuya, a very nice 22yo guy from Kyoto. Our lesson lasted only 30 minutes, just for him to know my level better, but it was nice. I'll keep having lessons with him at least until the end of the challenge.

The funny thing was that I scheduled a Russian lesson on Italki just after this Japanese lesson, and:


Russian - Italki

Yeah, I'm back with Russian on Italki! Several months ago I met a Russian girl at the CouchSurfing meeting who was also an experienced English teacher. She stayed in Brazil for some time, and since she left she's been living in Bogotá, Colombia.
We were chatting a couple weeks ago and I asked her (partly joking, partly not) if she wanted to be my Russian teacher, because I wanted to start having lessons again, and she agreed!
She created an Italki account, last week we spoke in Russian and English, just to decide how she'd go about it because she'd never taught Russian before, only English, and yesterday we had our first lesson!
Like I mentioned, it was literally minutes after my Japanese lesson, so at the beginning I was still replying with "Hai" or "Un" to my Russian teacher, but I felt that moving from a weaker to a stronger language was so great! While I was struggling with Japanese, speaking Russian after that seemed like a walk in the park =)
I'll have weekly lessons with this teacher, so wish me luck guys!


Japanese - Kanji

Things are going swiftly! (Note to myself: the Kanji story for "swift" is "After the truck accident, the pedestrians were crossing the road swiftly because the smell of fishguts was terrible.") =P
Not much to tell really, just some more unknown English words, such as: den, yonder, parch, portent, reed, angling, rut and mellow. They're not that bizarre, but since I'd just never seen them before. I guess they're not so common in speech?
Aaand I've just finished lesson 14, so I'm on Kanji #323!


CouchSurfing

The CouchSurfing meeting is getting more crowded as the World Cup nears. Despite that, this week was not that great. Most foreigners were either American, British or Australian, and I wanted to practice my other languages, not just English =P
I'm hoping the next weeks will be the best ever, with the World Cup here in my city. (Also, I'm veeeeeeery excited about it!!! Can't wait to go to the matches! =) )
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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 421 of 439
11 June 2014 at 7:46pm | IP Logged 
Hey guys! This week was amazing! The Italki World Cup Challenge has begun, and because of it I'm having way more Italki lessons.

Japanese - Italki

My regular teacher won't be free for another week, so I've only had a 30 minute lesson with a Japanese who lived in Ecuador. The lesson was a little hard, because we were talking about polyglot stuff, since he also loves languages and speaks like 7 or 8.


Russian - Italki

This week's lesson with my new "official" teacher was great as always. We spoke about Russia in general and her city, Samara. The best thing is that we're friends, so we can talk about anything.
Also, I had a lesson with another teacher, which was one of my most fun lessons ever! She's a very nice girl and we share a lot of interests, so the lesson went by really fast. I'll be having lessons with her as well at least until the end of the challenge, and hopefully after it as well.


Japanese - Kanji

One more lesson completed, and now I'm on Kanji #352.
New English words: happenstance, admonish and rebuke.

CouchSurfing meeting

I think this week's meeting must have beaten some record. Around 300 people came, many who are here for the World Cup, and it was AMAZING!!! In the end, I could speak ALL my languages in one single night!! Even Japanese for a while with a native! It was awesome, and I can't wait until next week!

And while we're on that, the World Cup begins tomorrow!!!!!!!!! \o/ \o/ \o/ VAI BRASIL!!! =D
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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 422 of 439
17 August 2014 at 4:27am | IP Logged 
Hey guys! It's been a while, huh? But I haven't stopped studying languages at all. As a matter of fact, I started learning German about 1 month ago, and I'm loving it! My prior knowledge of Dutch helped me A LOT, especially with the grammar, word order and some vocabulary. I'll be posting things in German here, but for now I'll leave you with a text in Russian, telling about my trip to Russia in December. It's good to be back! =)





Как я представляю себе зиму и Новый Год в России

Привет! Сегодня я хотел бы рассказать вам о том, чего немного боюсь. Прежде всего, я бразилец, моя жена русская из Москвы и мы живём вместе в Бразилии. Я уже был 2 раза в России, но всегда летом. В Бразилии, как вы себе представляете, снега вообще нет, но в этом году мы с женой проведём Новый Год в Москве!

Насколько я знаю, зима в России слишком холодная, и температура может достичь минус тридцать градусов. У нас в Бразилии во время Нового Года - лето, таким образом разница температуры между Бразилией и Россией может достичь шестидесяти градусов. Поэтому, я должен заранее приготовить холодную одежду, сапоги и, наверное, много лекарств ))
К счастью, внутри дома и магазинов тепло, иначе я бы точно умер от холода.

Жена рассказала мне, что зимой город становится очаровательным и что на Красной Площади люди катаются на коньках. Для меня это звучит очень необычно!
Я также хотел бы попробовать другие зимние виды спорта, которыми невозможно заниматься в Бразилии, как лыжи, сноуборд и так далее.

Другой важный аспект поездки это вечер Нового Года. Семья моей жены соберётся, чтобы вместе отпраздновать Новый Год. Я уверен, что блюда будут очень вкусными, потому что моя тёща готовит очень хорошо! Я ещё не знаю меню, но так как я не ем рыбу, я бы хотел, чтобы были разные салаты, блины, разные мясные блюда и много фруктов.

Мы с женой также поедем в Питер. Я там никогда не был, но все мои русские друзья говорят, что Питер - самый красивый город России. Я представляю себе, что зимой он будет ещё красивее.

Пожелайте мне хорошей поездки! ))

Edited by fabriciocarraro on 17 August 2014 at 7:59am

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Solfrid Cristin
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Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
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Norway
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4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 423 of 439
17 August 2014 at 7:06am | IP Logged 
Do not worry, I am sure you will love Russia in the wintertime. The only time I have been there I admittedly
almost froze my tail off, but that was still during the Soviet Union, and things have changed for the better
since then. You may be cold when you are outside, but you will be nice and warm when you are inside a
building. And please show us pictures of you skiing and skating :-)

I have not tried Russian Christmas food either, but if Ukrainian Easter food is anything to go by, you are in for
a treat.

And I am sorry that it does not work to speak Russian with your wife, but I think it s an extremely common
phenomenon. You tend to speak with someone in the language wich on average is strongest for both. I think
the only exception I have encountered to that is a French guy I once met where we were both close to fluent
in English, French and Spanish, so we just went back and forth between those languages.

One of my coworkers speaks French and we have tried using that, but it never worked for more than 3
minutes at the time. He also speaks (a somewhat rusty) Russian, so I am hoping I can engage him into
speaking that, but my hopes are low.

And St. Petersburg is beautiful. You'll love it :-)
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vonPeterhof
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 Message 424 of 439
17 August 2014 at 10:47am | IP Logged 
Очень хорошо написано! Я бы сделал только одну небольшую поправку - одежду для холодной погоды обычно называют "тёплая одежда", а не "холодная". Тут имеется в виду, что это одежда, которая сохраняет тепло, а выражение "холодная одежда" создает впечатление, что она буквально холодная на ощупь (например, если она полежала в холодильнике). Еще можно сказать "зимняя одежда".

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your trip! I myself have been toying with the idea of travelling to Japan for the winter holidays, so I might not be here in late December and early January, but feel free to ask me for recommendations of authentic Japanese restaurants in Moscow and Saint Petersburg :)


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