nogoodnik Senior Member United States Joined 5571 days ago 372 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Russian, French
| Message 81 of 194 29 April 2010 at 6:45pm | IP Logged |
For the past two days I've completed two pimsleur Russian lessons daily, and watched several episodes of the Israeli program "Ramzor". I've also had many Hebrew conversations. This is a pretty good start, but I'd like to do more.
Besides finishing Pimsleur and Michel Thomas in the next two weeks, I'm going to get back in the habit of entering content into an SRS and doing daily reviews.
edited because I wasn't done rambling:
I'm really interested in finding some language conversation partners. I would love to find someone to meet with once per week and spend a half hour on my target language, and a half hour working on their English. I don't think I have a chance with Hebrew, considering that all educated Israelis (except for recent immigrants) speak decent to impeccable English and there are not many Israelis here to begin with. I do however think I have a decent shot finding a Russian speaker. I frankly don't think my Russian is good enough yet to begin speaking, so that's why I'm so motivated to finish Pimsleur already and start SRSing sentences and learning additional vocabulary.
Edited by nogoodnik on 29 April 2010 at 7:09pm
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nogoodnik Senior Member United States Joined 5571 days ago 372 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Russian, French
| Message 82 of 194 01 May 2010 at 10:54pm | IP Logged |
stopping by with nothing really exciting to write down. I said before that I would write down my progress here every day for the next two weeks to motivate myself, but that approach is not working. I am still on schedule though with Pimsleur, and after I can no longer deal with Pimsleur, I will review the Advanced Michel Thomas Russian Course. With Hebrew, I've developed a good routine of reading, speaking and watching TV.
Edited by nogoodnik on 01 May 2010 at 10:54pm
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nogoodnik Senior Member United States Joined 5571 days ago 372 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Russian, French
| Message 83 of 194 03 May 2010 at 7:26pm | IP Logged |
I should be able to finish Pimsleur and Michel Thomas on schedule. I also downloaded some Russian language exercise videos that are quite cheesy, but I'll give them a try anyway. I'm also listening to a lot of Russian music and podcasts. I'm still trying to get used to the sounds of the language.
This evening I'm going to SRS some new Hebrew sentences.
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nogoodnik Senior Member United States Joined 5571 days ago 372 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Russian, French
| Message 84 of 194 04 May 2010 at 6:56pm | IP Logged |
I'm kind of neurotic, so I kind of have to strike a delicate balance when I make goals. On one hand, I need to set goals to measure progress or I'll feel like I'm not getting anywhere. On the other hand, I sometimes get overwhelmed when I feel like something must be done. Language learning needs to stay fun for me.
So along with finishing Pimsleur and Michel Thomas for Russian by May 15, I will also complete 1000 new anki entries for Hebrew. The entries will mostly be sentences with new vocab, but I've also come across some roots that I've found interesting.
I set this goal at the beginning of the year, to take a university course in Hebrew for native Israelis. That's a pretty hardcore goal, but entirely achievable if I pick up the pace a little bit.
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nogoodnik Senior Member United States Joined 5571 days ago 372 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Russian, French
| Message 85 of 194 05 May 2010 at 9:18pm | IP Logged |
Rabotai,
I'm so glad that I'm learning Russian! I found several Systema and other martial arts instructional videos in Russian, and now I am sooo motivated to make more language-learning progress!
I may also have to learn a bit of French earlier than I scheduled. I may have to fly out to France in order to help a good friend of mine who is getting surgery. I do have Michel Thomas French, but I really need Pimsleur also and they don't have it at my library. I definitely will not pay for it though because it is absolutely not worth the price and I'm a kamtzanit (cheap person).
I didn't do my Hebrew sentences yesterday so I'm going to have to do double today to make up for it. I'll go work on that now.
Everyday I work a bit harder to make my environment more Hebrew, Russian, and Spanish (eventually) and less English.
Edited by nogoodnik on 05 May 2010 at 9:21pm
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nogoodnik Senior Member United States Joined 5571 days ago 372 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Russian, French
| Message 86 of 194 10 May 2010 at 6:49am | IP Logged |
I downloaded and worked through the first six lessons of Assimil's Russian Without Toil, and then I stopped to listen to one of the dialogues and realized that I had the audio for the 1971(?) version. I'm sad, because working through the course was a very enjoyable experience, but an audio component is essential for me to understand stress and just to tie everything together. Tomorrow I'm going to check out the Princeton Course to see if it is just as fun. I really couldn't stomach the Penguin Course, although it looked extremely thorough.
I hung out with another Israeli friend this weekend, which is always great for Hebrew practice.
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nogoodnik Senior Member United States Joined 5571 days ago 372 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Russian, French
| Message 87 of 194 10 May 2010 at 10:04pm | IP Logged |
This 1000 new anki entries for Hebrew this week is just not going to happen. Actually it's for a rather good reason: There is very little new information that I can extract from TV shows. There is one show, Tevat Noach (o mashu kazeh) that deals with psychological issues, and has more complicated dialogue and unknown words and I'm able to extract a bit more from that show.
I know that there is this huge gap between what I want to know and do know in Hebrew, but because I basically speak the language, it is more difficult to see dramatic progress. With this language, one day I feel like Eliezer ben Yehuda and the next day I totally suck.
For Russian I'm going to work through the 1951 version of Russian Assimil without audio as long as I'm able to. I'll also take a look at the Princeton Course today when I have time.
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nogoodnik Senior Member United States Joined 5571 days ago 372 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Russian, French
| Message 88 of 194 12 May 2010 at 5:51am | IP Logged |
I got to lesson 9 in Assimil's 1951 version of Russian Without Toil before I got too annoyed due to lack of audio. I really loved the style of the instruction, with the humorous stories and occasional peptalks. I need a little handholding when it comes to language-learning, and I prefer to limit my exposure to grammar until I can intuit the rules.
So I was able to "acquire" the 1971 French-based Russian Assimil course and I'd like to use that eventually. I've previewed the Princeton Course, and it looks awesome.
I'm also adding another language to my studies this year, which is French. I've been planning on beginning the language in a year or so after Spanish, but there are too many circumstances that are putting French in front of Spanish at the moment. First, I'm probably going to France soon, and furthermore, I really really want to check out the French-based Assimil courses...I'm especially salivating over the Yiddish course to use as a review!! Also there are tons of French speakers in Israel. So I've purchased the Assimil French course, and I have Michel Thomas and Pimsleur as well.
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