Russian to A2 log (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

Russian to A2 log
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yaboycon
Groupie
United Kingdom
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Russian

Message 1 of 5

11 November 2013 at 6:51pm | IP Logged

Background

I attempted to learn Russian about 2 years ago and I got to a basic conversational
level. I stopped for a few reasons however now I am keen on starting again.

I think I will be more successful this time as I am older and a bit more disciplined
and driven in life. I also have the goal of taking exams in the language which could
provide me with some motivation and something to work towards. I am looking to go into
a field where knowledge of other languages could benefit me greatly and I have a strong
desire to move to a non English speaking country in the next few years.

I also have an interest in Portuguese and Spanish but I am leaving these two for now
until I have a solid start in Russian. Trying to focus on both Russian and Spanish last
time held me back I believe.

I am taking an A2 level TORLF (test of russian as a foreign language) exam in mid March
hopefully.

This is what my language learning will consist of for now

- Assimil without toil 1951
- Assimil Russian with ease 2011
- The New Penguin Russian Course
- Russian language partner on skype

I plan to run both Assimil courses alongside each other as I have the time. The method
is the same but lessons are completely different. I am supplementing this with the
Penguin course which is regarded quite highly and I like the look of it. It will go
well alongside Assimil.

Goals
- Complete passive wave (first 50 lessons) in both Assimil courses by end of December
2013
- Complete first 20 lessons in Penguin Russian Course by end of December 2013
- Complete all courses by end of February 2014
- Pass A2 Russian exam in mid March 2014

There are 51 days left until the end of December 2013. This means that I would need to
do 1 lesson from each Assimil course every day to achieve that goal. I think this is
well within my grasp due to the amount of time I have and because my previous knowledge
of Russian means the beginning lessons are very easy to get through for me. I think I
will exceed this goal although I am not rushing anything.

The first 20 lessons of the Penguin course is also within my grasp. I already fully
understand the first 4 lessons due to my previous knowledge. So it leaves 16 to do in
51 days which averages out to about 2 lessons per week. That is something I feel I can
easily achieve

I think that if I managed to achieve the goals for December 2013 then I will be able to
complete all the courses before my A2 exam. The Penguin course will hopefully be
completed well before

The Russian with ease is advertised at leaving you at a B2 level when you complete it.
There is some debate about that. I am only trying to achieve A2 so I hope that when I
complete all 3 courses that I will be at the necessary level to pass my exam. The
Penguin course says it contains a vocabulary of over 1,500 words. That is the amount
which A2 apparently requires.

I do not think I have been overly ambitious with my goals, I have no intention to rush
through anything in order to achieve my goals, they are there to keep me on the right
track and help structure my days as I am also studying a degree right now.

Things I am unsure of

I am kind of experimenting by using both Assimil books together. I havent found anybody
else doing this and I hope it is effective. My own thinking is that it will be more
thorough and leave me with a wider vocabulary at the end as the lessons are completely
different. I am doing the method which is given in both books, where the first 50 are
the passive wave. So I effectively have 100 lessons of passive wave. I will report back
on what I think however I dont have anything to compare it to.

What I plan on doing after

If I am successful in March then I plan to take a B2/C1 exam in March 2015. I also plan
to start learning either Portuguese or Spanish. I will be visiting Russian speaking
countries and hopefully working in a Russian environment in the summer of 2014.

I will begin tomorrow (12 nov) properly, tonight I will have a look at some things
though
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aspie.sharaf
Tetraglot
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Denmark
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Speaks: Danish*, English, Serbo-Croatian, Dutch
Studies: Persian, German, Russian, Arabic (Written), Turkish, Thai, Polish, Bulgarian, Pashto, Urdu, French

Message 2 of 5

11 November 2013 at 9:47pm | IP Logged

I have completed Assimil Russian with ease 2011. I belive it can take you to a high A2/low B1 passive and maybe a low A2 active.
The B2 claim is just an advertising trick.

1 person has voted this message useful

yaboycon
Groupie
United Kingdom
Joined 4736 days ago
40 posts - 50 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Russian

Message 3 of 5

13 November 2013 at 7:18pm | IP Logged

13th November 2013

I havent done as much as I wanted to but it isnt bothering me too much because the
weekend is coming

- Spent time speaking to my Russian friend

This is not always that beneficial for my Russian (although I still enjoy it) as we
spend most time discussing his English just because of how much better his English is
compared to my Russian. As I get better hopefully it will even out.

- First 6 lessons of each Assimil done

I really do like these books. I think the older version is more difficult and will be
more difficult as I get further. I feel like it expects more of you than the modern
course and this seems to be the case with older courses in general. I have compared old
teach yourself books with new as well as old colloquial books with new and I noticed
the same thing.

- First 5 lessons of Penguin

This was was quick and easy to do

I am hoping that by the end of the week I manage to get up to lesson 10 of Penguin and
get past lesson 10 in both Assimil books. I think I should be able to achieve that
quite easily.

It is nice to have some familiarity with the language as the basic grammatical concepts
and reading are very natural to me.

I'm enjoying it which is the main thing. Im really looking forward to getting stuck
into material which is not so easy for me.

aspie.sharaf wrote:

I have completed Assimil Russian with ease 2011. I belive it can
take you to a high A2/low B1 passive and maybe a low A2 active.
The B2 claim is just an advertising trick.

Different people seem to say different things although I see most people say it leaves
you in the A2/B1 region. I am not that familiar with the grading
systems but I would imagine it isnt that easy for most people to make a very accurate
guess and perhaps this is something which varies from person to person as well. As
Assimil is making the claim I understand that they are probably being generous to
themselves.

After reading what I need to achieve to pass the A2 exam I am taking I think these
books will get me to a good enough level. So I'm not too concerned whether it is A2 or
B2, as long as I can pass my exam.

Thank you for your response and for reading my thread

Edited by yaboycon on 13 November 2013 at 7:20pm
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Oheao
Diglot
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Canada
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Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Mandarin, Greek

Message 4 of 5

14 November 2013 at 2:44am | IP Logged

I wish you the best of luck with your language learning! I want to learn Russian, but I
think that I'll have basically no time with a
French/German/Greek/Spanish/Chinese/Japanese schedule (I haven't even started Spanish or
Japanese yet, and it seems like a lot!) -_- Maybe one day! Are you planning on moving to
Russia and working there? Or is it somewhere else?
1 person has voted this message useful

yaboycon
Groupie
United Kingdom
Joined 4736 days ago
40 posts - 50 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Russian

Message 5 of 5

14 November 2013 at 1:42pm | IP Logged

Oheao wrote:

I wish you the best of luck with your language learning! I want to learn
Russian, but I
think that I'll have basically no time with a
French/German/Greek/Spanish/Chinese/Japanese schedule (I haven't even started Spanish
or
Japanese yet, and it seems like a lot!) -_- Maybe one day! Are you planning on moving
to
Russia and working there? Or is it somewhere else?

Thank you. That really does seem like a hectic schedule. I dont know how some of you
guys manage with so many languages. How much time do you spend every day doing this?

If I were offered an opportunity to live and work in a Russian speaking country I would
take it but I am pretty much up for going anywhere. I plan to work in international law
so knowledge of other languages can be very useful. For example, next summer I may have
the opportunity to get some work experience with a company that does a lot of work with
CIS countries, in particular Kazakhstan and Russia. So I will be exposed to a lot of
Russian. I am hoping this will help me out, it's probably going to be the closest thing
to immersion I can get outside of a Russian speaking country. I hope I manage to get
the job.

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