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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5871 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 25 of 31 03 June 2013 at 6:47am | IP Logged |
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I've found that Audacity makes things much easier, i can cut the pauses out of an Assimil lesson in about 2 seconds (you can repeat the last action with Ctrl+R). Removing the exercises can't take more than a few seconds, either! I generally leave the lesson number in for reference later if i go through the lessons randomly and just to hear the number several times. I can still hear "Урок номер один/два/три/etc.!" clearly in my head, years after i've listened to them. The same with the songs, no idea anymore about the content of the lessons, but the songs and lesson numbers are forever embedded into my brain :D
Anyway if you want help removing the spaces/exercises/lesson numbers let me know, maybe i can start working back from the last lesson as you work forward. Another option which might be a little faster is to add "labels" with Ctrl+B. Put one at the start of the lesson just after the lesson number and another at the end, just before упражнения. Then export multiple (Ctrl+Shift+L). Or you can just select what you want and export selection. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4717 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 26 of 31 04 June 2013 at 4:50am | IP Logged |
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Alright, tomorrow is the big day. I will begin Modern Russian 1! I am honestly a bit
intimidated since this course looks SO huge and comprehensive. But, I am confident from what I've read in a ton of threads on here that sticking with it will take me incredibly far in my studies. One other resource others might like are these Russian language podcasts: http://russianpodcast.eu/podcasts.html I've yet to use one, but it appears to be 152 (as of this post) podcasts ENTIRELY in Russian. They also all include a PDF! I've yet to use any of them, but found the link when reading up on Russian resources in other threads. It looks handy. I think maybe working on my listening skills with a podcast a day might be a nice supplement to Modern Russian to hopefully pick up on more modern speech patterns since MR is from the 1960's. Anyway, I may not post much for a while because I really want to sink my teeth into this language and spend less time perusing the forums. But, roughly speaking, I hope to complete the following, in an order yet to be determined, in the months/year to come: Modern Russian 1 Michel Thomas Advanced & Vocabulary Karavanova's "Survival Russian" The above linked podcasts Also, at some point, I will work to integrate native materials. Mainly reading books, listening to the news, and conversing with native Russian speakers on Skype. I'll stop by here every now and then if I get stuck or to give an overall update, but I imagine the frequency will be less than it has been. Anyway, thanks to everyone so far for their positive feedback and support. Cпокойной ночи! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5871 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 27 of 31 04 June 2013 at 3:09pm | IP Logged |
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Lang-8 is also great, lots of Russian speakers are way too eager to help you out!
Also, if you really want to learn Russian you might want to stay as far away from the forums as you can get, they can be dangerous in how they suck up study time ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4717 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 28 of 31 05 June 2013 at 5:07am | IP Logged |
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You are very right, Crush. Just tonight I wasted an hour reading random threads on
resources, haha. I see a lot on Lang-8, but have never used the site. That is the one where I write and then a native corrects me? Anyone here ever use GLOSS? I figure since Modern Russian is all about listening & speaking, I should do something to work on reading skills. GLOSS Russian reading exercises total 264 all together! From level 1 all the way to level 4. Would it work to simply start at level 1 and do all the reading courses? If I were to do all the 1 courses, I could then go to 1+, then to 2 after completing all the 1+, etc...right? I think that could be a good way to gradually build up my reading level. This way, I'd be getting practice in listening/speaking through heavy drilling, and active reading. I've never used GLOSS, though. Also, Modern Russian Day 1 went well. I have never used an FSI course or anything audio-lingual, so it is definitely a very different way of learning for me. Too soon to say if I will like it. However, the way the conjugation for the personal pronouns of идти were nailed into my skull makes me think it will be quite effective if I stick with it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5871 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 29 of 31 05 June 2013 at 6:41am | IP Logged |
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I've never used GLOSS but i've heard a lot about it. It sounds like a nice way to improve your reading, at least if you find the texts you're reading interesting. Another option for reading would be trying out SteveRideout's http://readlang.com/ site (or the LWT, LearningWithTexts, project). Essentially you paste a text you'd like to read, click on words you don't know and a Google translation will pop up with the word. Some languages have extra dictionaries if you don't feel like the Google translation is correct. Then it makes flash cards of all the words you didn't know and puts them into an SRS system to review. You could even take the texts from GLOSS and put them in there. That way you can find texts that you're interested in, though it's true they might not always be suited to your level like the GLOSS texts.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on Modern Russian as you go through it. I (generally) really like the FSI style as i can actually feel the progress after each unit/chapter. Since there's no FSI Russian, it might be something i'd really enjoy :) And yeah, Lang-8 is where you can write entries and native speakers will correct you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4717 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 30 of 31 11 June 2013 at 3:47am | IP Logged |
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Well I just had the wind taken out of my sails. My long-term goal was to get to Level 3
on the ILR scale in 2 of reading, listening, and speaking. According to the following site, that coincides with C1 on the CEFR everyone is more familiar with: http://www.comoto.com/optimise/cvhelp/cefr-compared-to-north -american-language- proficiency-standards A friend of mine had 3 years of Russian in college and recently finished a year living in Russia on a Fulbright. He came back and got tested for a job with the State Department and only hit that level in reading. If someone who has basically spent half a decade studying the language and just spent a year living in an immersive environment and didn't hit it, that makes me wonder what hope I can have :( Man, this is depressing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5871 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 31 of 31 12 June 2013 at 6:37am | IP Logged |
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3 years of Russian in college might not mean that much. Also, i spent all last year in China and spent most of it speaking English with people. Being in Russia doesn't necessarily mean chatting all day long in Russian. Also keep in mind that C1 is a pretty advanced level. I'm not quite there in Spanish and i can freely read books without a dictionary, watch movies, talk, etc. without any trouble. In my experience self-study has moved much more quickly than classes, though it really depends on the teacher, the materials used, and the effort put forth by yourself and your classmates.
Don't get your hopes down, the most important thing is to be consistent (and to try to enjoy it, of course!). There are plenty of people here who have studied Russian to a decent level and also plenty of great resources for learning Russian. And, lucky for you, you don't have to waste three years studying in university! ;) But really, who cares about a test? Try taking the C2 level test in English without studying for it and see if you can pass. If you can speak it well, read it well, understand it well, who cares if a test says you can't? 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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