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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| jedimindtrick Diglot Groupie United States 8monthsinukrain Joined 5220 days ago 90 posts - 119 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 25 of 92 11 September 2010 at 6:30am | IP Logged |
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Ahhhh!!!!!! I found it! After years of vaguely remembering this AMAZING resource and regretting not using it more, I stumbled across it tonight- Russian newscasts
This suits my learning style perfectly! They're short segments, transcribed in English and Russian, and I can pick interesting topics...and it's way less intimidating than trying to read the news in Russian on the BBC website. I'm so happy!! Check it out- maybe it will help you too? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jedimindtrick Diglot Groupie United States 8monthsinukrain Joined 5220 days ago 90 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 26 of 92 12 September 2010 at 2:59am | IP Logged |
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Based on the addition of these Russian newscasts to my study materials, and because I haven't been satisfied with my methods, I'm making some changes.
Weekly Goals A) Get through at least one newscast a week. By “getting though” I mean being able to read the entire newscast out loud and understand/be understood as well as be able to understand by listening. There are several steps between picking a newscast and being able to read/understand: I will make note cards for each unknown word, look up the definition, have my long-suffering and very patient fiancé record the words as a sound file, practice them myself over and over, and then at last put them into Anki for a slow but continual review. Even though I'd rather memorize sentences than individual words, my “Google sentence” method would make this take sooo much longer. Hopefully in the future I will have less words to look up per article, and this will go faster! B) Continue to put on the BBC morning news in Russian a couple of times a week. Activity A should complement this nicely. Right now I can only understand the general topic of conversation when listening to the news; I want to be able to get more of the details in the future. C) Grammar. I haven't really thought this one out yet.....but I keep struggling here and there with the grammar in начало. I'm debating either just skipping over the parts I don't get (there aren't that many but unfortunately they're probably important) or using the Szczepanka book to focus on grammar, case by case, and then returning to начало. D) Add something fun in every week. I probably already do this, but it would be interesting to document. Ideas include playing Roller Coaster Tycoon in Russian, picking a song and memorizing the lyrics, watching a film in Russian, write a pen pal entirely in Russian, etc. I already finished a newscast (started last night). It was one I had studied a couple of years ago so it was already familiar. I ended up with 45 new words from the 1-minute-18-seconds-long recording. Haha, now I have to memorize them :p They're pretty fancy words too, like “law enforcement agency.” Anyways, those are my ideas for now....but my situation might be changing in the next couple of days/week so there may be some adjustments. After reading the journals of so many other language learners on this forum, I see that the one constant in life is change and success depends on how we accommodate for the new circumstances. Edited by jedimindtrick on 12 September 2010 at 3:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jedimindtrick Diglot Groupie United States 8monthsinukrain Joined 5220 days ago 90 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 27 of 92 13 September 2010 at 6:46am | IP Logged |
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Success so far with my chosen Russian newscast! I've gotten all the unknown vocab memorized and entered into Anki and am now working on pronunciation. The hardest word for me to pronounce is объявляться (to show up, turn up)... so many я's! The most intimidating phrase was правоохранительные органы (law enforcement agencies). The coolest but least-likely-to-ever-be-used word: вменяемость (soundness of mind). Tomorrow I will continue to work on pronunciation, both with the words I learned and with the entire newscast.
No BBC news this morning...I took a cat nap instead, but at the library this afternoon I did score some cool books for the next round of research. I just finished a bunch of language-learning books (still working on one more, though) and this time I got several books on Russian culture. The first one I've started is From Nyet to Da: Understanding the Russians. After I finish the first chapter, I'll post the things I want to remember here. That might be a lot...when I started reading I realized how little I know! At the library, I also saw a bunch of biographies of famous Russian politicians, both living and dead. Time-permitting, maybe I'll check some of those out later. They may not be the most interesting material ever, but they'll help me fix “who's who” in my mind. Total new words learned since Sept. 11th: 45 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jedimindtrick Diglot Groupie United States 8monthsinukrain Joined 5220 days ago 90 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 28 of 92 24 September 2010 at 3:55am | IP Logged |
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Oops. I've been slacking off again since my last post.....and I feel really guilty about it. It feels like my Russian is getting worse, like I trip over the words when I'm trying to say them. It feels uncomfortable.
We're still working on the "moving to Russia" plan, but it looks like the move may be pushed back at least 3 - 6 months, which is definitely de-motivating. Part of my brain thinks "Hey, here's a 6 month extension! Go learn something!" while the other part is like "*sigh* Why study now? Let's just wait and then study frantically at the last minute." On the bright side, I found an awesome new (well, 2008 or so) website- Major Awesome-ness!!!! It reminds me a little bit of Livemocha, but with more relevant material and cooler ideas. I started at the Russian B1 level and was really pleased with the vocab. The section was about family but they didn't have the average, boring family words; instead, they have terms like "single mom", "common-law couple" and "distant relative". Kudos for originality! I also like the whole 'growing a tree/bugs attacking/earning items' concept. It's cute and nice to see your progress so visibly. I even wish I could start a new language on here- but that's just wishful thinking. No new languages for now! Must study more, must study more, must study more..... Edited by jedimindtrick on 03 October 2010 at 8:59am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| jedimindtrick Diglot Groupie United States 8monthsinukrain Joined 5220 days ago 90 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 29 of 92 26 September 2010 at 6:22am | IP Logged |
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My thoughts on the book "From Nyet to Da; Understanding the Russians".
This was not the most exciting book ever. It's pretty old (published 1992) and while it may be accurate in describing the society emerging from the ruins of the USSR at that time, it doesn't seem as helpful in "understanding the Russians" of today (...or does it?). That said, it is an introduction to a Russia very different than I'm familiar with, since even most of my friends in Russia were about 5 years old when it was written, and it's always important to study the past to see how it affects the present day. Right? The premise of the book sounded interesting- how has Russian behavior been shaped by geography, history, culture, religion, and governing powers? Again and again (and again!) the author draws Russian behavior back to the days of the мир, or village commune. There, now you don't have to read the book yourself; that is apparently the answer to everything, group ethic this, group ethic that :p That was the main focus of the book, but I don't want to continue on about that here (but it was interesting to think how Russia's agricultural past influenced the way people behave today.) Instead, some things that rang true or surprised me: - Russia has 9 time zones (11 in the days of the USSR) - the Дворец Советов, the Palace of Soviets, a never-completed project from the 1930's. It was planned to be the tallest building in the world at the time. Construction was halted because of WW II, the steel frame used up in the war effort, and the foundation is now a gigantic swimming pool in Moscow (yeah!) - novel to read in the future: Обломов by Иван Александрович Гончаров, because I'm all about fatalistic laziness - a common Russian toast: За мир и дружбу (to peace and friendship) This book really made me think about the huge complexity of Russia. It's like time + tragedy + resilience + one foot in the East + one foot in the West + the government vs. the people (and all possible permutations of these words) + more time = Russia. Haha, I'm no poet :p but it's a fascinating country. The more I learn, the more I want to learn. Edited by jedimindtrick on 26 September 2010 at 6:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jedimindtrick Diglot Groupie United States 8monthsinukrain Joined 5220 days ago 90 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 30 of 92 02 October 2010 at 4:25am | IP Logged |
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Finished reading "The Intimate Diary of a Russian Woman; My Search for Meaning in the Midst of My Country's Upheaval" by Elena Romine (pub. 1992) It's a translation of her diary from the late 1980's and tells of her life in Moscow during those years. There are a lot of Soviet jokes and stories about people she knew and the situations they found themselves in. At times I felt really close with the author, at other times I felt worlds apart. Now I'm halfway thru "All the Clean Ones are Married.....and Other Everyday Calamities in Moscow". This was published in 2001 by a Russian-speaking American journalist living in Moscow between 1991 & 1997. This book is a super-fast read because I find it highly entertaining. It's interesting to compare the experiences of these 2 women, living in the same place merely years apart but so different in background and outlook.
It's a little....off-putting to read all the dismal descriptions of public toilets, rudeness, bureaucracy. It makes me think "Hmmm...maybe we should just move to Costa Rica instead!" And I certainly get that kind of feedback from a fair amount of Russians; some of them are quite scornful about someone wanting to move there. Why? I mean, I think I understand why, but I'm not totally sure. On the other hand, I've already been there once (4 months in Russia and a month in Ukraine) and so the desire to go back again must mean something, plus I feel like there's a sweeter, hidden side to the Russians, if you can get past their brusque public demeanor. But this is all silly, because as cultures we're pretty similar, much more similar than, say, the Somali I worked with (and I'm not dissing the Somali, I'm just saying the culture gap between our cultures is understandably muuuch bigger in that case). Anyways, my recent studying has again been piecemeal and varied. I'm using a book I'm in love with- Russian: Stage 3 (Focus on Speaking)....and yes, I totally take back my earlier post about it being better to "focus on fewer materials..." I'm so guilty of doing the opposite! What I like about this book, despite it being a bit old, is that it's exactly at my level and doesn't focus on grammar, only on comprehension. The preface states it is "intended to provide training in oral communication and self-expression in Russian for those seeking to reach the advanced level." It encourages me, instead of what most study materials seem to do- discourage. Also, this week I met with 2 former colleagues (both Russian) to practice speaking. It didn't go super-well, it was mainly them correcting me and talking to each other, and I was uncomfortable because I've always used English with them, and for a host of other reasons. But it was a good start at speaking with people who aren't fluent in my version of Russian (for example, my fiancé understands me perfectly but it's only because he can already guess at what I'm trying to say). That's all for now! Edited by jedimindtrick on 03 October 2010 at 9:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jedimindtrick Diglot Groupie United States 8monthsinukrain Joined 5220 days ago 90 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 31 of 92 02 October 2010 at 4:40am | IP Logged |
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Total new words learned since Sept. 11th: 58 (from newscast and Chapter 1 of Russian:
Stage 3...I'm reviewing them with Anki) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jedimindtrick Diglot Groupie United States 8monthsinukrain Joined 5220 days ago 90 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 32 of 92 04 October 2010 at 12:37am | IP Logged |
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Final Notes from "All the Clean Ones are Married....and Other Everyday Calamities in
Moscow" * Содружество Независимых Государств (СНГ) = the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) * The author states that most couches in Moscow in the USSR were backless- they had fabric only in the front, and from the back you could see the wooden frame inside, so you would always have to put the couch against the wall (but in the 90's shops began selling "imported" couches aka what we're used to in the US) * Famous film to watch: Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром! Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (my sources say that back in the day this film was shown on TV every New Year's Eve) * According to this book and to Wikipedia, Stalin was the same height as I am- 5'4"! * Kind of tying back in with the emphasis of an earlier read, Understanding the Russians, this book (All the Clean Ones...) claims that before the revolution, more than 80% of the population lived in villages. I can't find confirmation of this exact number, but there are a lot of other similar estimates out there. Wow, stopping to think about it, that is a truly monumental number and yes, I can see how that would have tremendously influenced the people of the following decades. I live in an area where people come from the villages to live in the city and it can be a very difficult struggle for them. But now (from Wikipedia), "...rural population accounted for 27% of the total population according to the 2002 Russian Census." This is more info from Wikipedia, that I found interesting and want to document here: "The population of Russia is 141,927,297 as of 1 January 2010.[2][3] The population hit a historic peak at 148,689,000 in 1991, just before the breakup of the Soviet Union, but then began a decade-long decline, falling at a rate of about 0.5% per year due to declining birth rates and rising death rates. However the decline began to slow considerably in recent years, and in 2009 Russia recorded annual population growth for the first time in 15 years, with growth of 23.3 thousand." Edited by jedimindtrick on 04 October 2010 at 12:39am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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