|
 |
Decoding the Riddle, Mystery, and Enigma | ||
Tags: Russian | ||
Share with:
| ||
 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 33 of 92 09 October 2010 at 4:22am | IP Logged |
|
Wow..... I actually used my microphone and spoke to someone in Spanish, some poor soul in Uruguay who put up with my nervous floundering about, through busuu.com! I usually ignore chatting completely- I've never even used Skype in my life- but I thought it was time to try something new. Holy cow! I can't believe I did that!! It was kind of odd though, because I was speaking and they were typing back to me since then didn't have a microphone.... So, what does this have to do with Russian? I hope this means I will have the courage to invite some of my penpals to chat thru Skype! Even thinking about it makes me mega-nervous!! Ahhh!
In other news, both yesterday and today I met up with my Russian-speaking former coworkers (actually, former bosses) to practice. It went a lot better this time. I'll probably go back again and do it next week. It already seems to have helped me some. Also, I finished one unit on busuu.com (I'm really slow) (but the word have been really useful) (and I still 100% endorse the site). This brings my total on Anki up to.... Total new words learned since Sept. 11th: 103 (including the word собеседование (interview), which I picked up last week when my old boss insisted it be used instead of интервью. But интервью is so much easier to pronounce.... Edited by jedimindtrick on 09 October 2010 at 4:24am 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 34 of 92 19 October 2010 at 11:32pm | IP Logged |
|
Recently I've been focusing on Anki....I have learned 132 new words now and it feels pretty good. I just added the final слова урока from Chapter 1 of "Russian Stage 3" and my new count is 160 words, but I don't know these final words yet.
On another topic, I've been thinking about how the immersion method just flat out doesn't work...unless you work too. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just pick up a language by being around it? I used to think it worked that way.... This weekend we were visiting my fiance's parents and it just struck me, how we're both in the same boat. They've lived here for 6 years but they don't speak English. Why? It seems like the ideal set-up for language learning- a permanent 'study abroad' of sorts. They go grocery shopping, go to the doctor, live their life outside of the house completely in English, but very, very little of it has gotten through. The same for me or anyone else who is living with a native speaker of their target language. I've heard lots of stories about how "my husband/wife speaks language X and I want to...but I still don't." Why can't it just rub off on us? Why do we always slip into the most convenient language instead of trying language X? Is it laziness? But I don't think his parents are lazy, I don't think all these husbands and wives are lazy, and I don't think I'm (terribly) lazy. If you're in this situation, what do you think? Is it just your age/education level/drive that makes you succeed/fail even with the advantage of being immersed in the target language? I'm trying to use this situation to my advantage (having a native speaker around) but honestly, no matter what, we end up using English 95% of the time. The little I do know...The further I go with language learning the more it seems to come down to plain-old practice and repetition. If I study what I learned in the immersion environment outside of the immersion environment, I learn something. If I just show up for dinner and sit there, it's meaningless babble (and it's funny because I think to myself "Hey, I've heard them use that word several times! Wonder what it means?") In other words, the visit with them this weekend (in terms of communication between them and me) felt like a failure. Oh, and the other thing that seems to make a difference is courage...otherwise known as not-being-afraid-to-look-like-an-idiot. I say this because his parents study alone non-stop, but they won't practice speaking because it makes them feel silly. At least I've got this going for me, haha, during one dinner I learned that презерватив does not mean preserve/jam, it means condom! That was embarrassing :p 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 35 of 92 06 November 2010 at 5:32am | IP Logged |
|
It's been probably 2 weeks since I last studied anything in Russian. My circumstances changed last month and it took a while to adapt to the new situation. One thing is (sadly) clear- no Russia or Ukraine in the immediate future. Long story short, we were not able to find work there. I was really bummed out for a couple of weeks....well, still am, but am trying to make the best of it. We still would like to move there but I think it will take about another year to attempt it again, and right now "in a year" feels like the distant, distant future! Anyways, so over the past couple of weeks my motivation to study was really low. My fiance always says "I don't know why you study Russian. Why would you need to?" and at that point I was thinking "Damn right!"
Well, I shouldn't mope around forever. If I can't go to Russia, then Russia will just have to come to me. Since I wanted to teach English there, I've started teaching privately here to Russian-speakers. This was my second week of classes and so far it's been great. I'm definitely learning a lot of the nuances of English but it's taking all my energy to do that and prepare my lessons. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll be able to start my own foreign language studies again, but in the meantime I think this intensive English cramming will make me more employable in the future and prepared to deal with tough grammar questions (since all my students seem really fixated on grammar). That's all for now- I guess I'm on hiatus. Edited by jedimindtrick on 06 November 2010 at 5:33am 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 36 of 92 13 November 2010 at 8:28am | IP Logged |
|
Okay, still haven't done any studying...but I did read an essay on MMM, this massive pyramid scheme in Russia in the 1990's. My goal this week is to watch all their old TV commercials on YouTube. My favorite one so far is commercial #3. I learned a new word- халявщик (freeloader)- from commercial #4.
In other news, I will soon be teaching a citizenship class for older Russians and I'm very excited about this!! 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 37 of 92 19 January 2011 at 11:58pm | IP Logged |
|
Happy 2011 to all my fellow language learners!! :) Best wishes with your studies this year!
I wish I could say I have some New Year's resolutions about my studies....but I know myself better than that. Right now Russian is (still) taking a backseat to my studies of English. Later this year I want to interview with various Russian schools to teach English over there, and I want to be super-prepared for that interview and for any future classes I teach. As of this moment, I'm teaching about 8 students here in town and I'm learning a lot about English as I prepare for our lessons. So, no focusing on Russian for now, but I still hope to keep this blog going as a form of motivation. Here's some random things I've come across in the past month: - from a textbook, даклод, which means report or paper. - doing some interpreting for a family I know, прививка, which means vaccination - I'm in the middle of "Oblomov", the book about the guy who lies around all day (except that after 100 pages or so he gets up and goes on to do other things). I learned that you can say "Мне в облом" or simply "облом" when you don't feel like doing something. Haha, I'm going to say that all the time! - These are some cool lists that I'll be using with some new students (their English level is very low, so I want to give them some "freebies" and warn them off from other words) Russian-English cognates and Russian - English false cognates 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 38 of 92 13 May 2011 at 10:30am | IP Logged |
|
Yikes, I can't believe it's been three months since I posted here! That means it's been three months since any serious Russian studying took place.
I want to restart with dedication and a plan for once but life still feels so chaotic. That could be good- that's a challenge, I guess. New words I'm memorizing for work: Бивень мамонта = mammoth tusk слоновая кость = ivory нефрит = jade Yeah, weird job, huh? 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 39 of 92 13 May 2011 at 10:33am | IP Logged |
|
Oh wait, score one point for me in 2011: I did actually finish reading Oбломов....in English, of course, but still! Ура!
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 40 of 92 17 July 2011 at 5:29am | IP Logged |
|
Um...no real progress in Russian recently. I feel completely unmotivated and have instead been reviewing my old Latin study materials. Yeah, I'm sure that will come in handy....like, never! I love Latin- and all these years of Russian have given me a better understanding of cases, etc- but let's face it, it's more likely I'll meet a Russian-speaker walking down the street than a Latin-speaker. And right behind Latin, I had been studying Spanish. So, no Russian at all, really. Except this- I'm on crutches right now and so I memorized the famous line from Бриллиантовая рука, the old Soviet comedy: "подсказнулся упал-очнулся гипс." I've been trying that out on my friends for a good laugh. Except since I don't actually have a cast, maybe it doesn't make sense to them.
Okay, not to write incessantly about non-language-study stuff, but I got a job offer abroad and am hopefully moving there in the fall. As in, in 6 weeks from now. Many people speak Russian in this country and I don't know a word of the other language spoken there, so I need to get cracking on my Russian studies! Must...get....motivation! You'd think this would be easy to do since my mobility is so limited this month!! 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
