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Well I guess Im learning Russian... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 Brian_N Pro Member Canada Joined 5769 days ago 200 posts - 202 votes  Studies: English*, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 137 of 248 18 April 2009 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Strange, Iām noticing that Iām starting to make some mistakes in my spoken English. Theyāre minor mistakes but they should still be noted.
āWhen we done?ā => should be āWhen are we done?ā āThatās not townās truck, it looks not as newā => should be āThatās not townās truck, it doesnāt look that newā There were a few others but I canāt recall them anymore. Basically those were just me dropping the odd it, is or are. Again itās minor, but itās still something that Iāll have to keep an eye on. Iām going to wager it has something to do with me learning Russian. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Brian_N Pro Member Canada Joined 5769 days ago 200 posts - 202 votes Studies: English*, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 138 of 248 23 April 2009 at 7:53am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Day 73
Watched the Sum of All Fears today, I was surprised I actually understood a little of what was being said in Russian. Recognized a nice chunk of words too. It was infant like understanding but still understanding. Apparently Iām learning something lol. My vocabulary is closing in on 1000 words. Figure sometime within 10 days Iāll hit that mark. Iām doing well so far. Continuous sustained effort...definitely a first for me. Iām quite pleased. Ever since I started this not a day has gone by where I havenāt done some study of Russian. Nothing as regulated as āsit at location A, study for amount Bā, more just drilling, reviewing and a whole lot of listening as I find (or make) time. Iāve developed this dream lately of having a vocabulary of about 7500 words memorized and drilled in by the end of my first year. So weāll see how that goes...itās definitely doable. So far my grammar books are doing a nice job of collecting dust...I havenāt even opened the things in weeks. Iāve totally abandoned any form of grammar study, spoken Russian is the egg I want to crack. Iāve been trying to review some grammar, but itās just not working...I refuse to let myself open those books. Iāve read too many things about spoken Russian being difficult because of its āflexibilityā...I canāt shake the idea that integrating and imposing a rigid set of rules on myself in the beginning will only serve to screw me later because Iāll only naturally be trying to apply those same rules to spoken Russian. Yeah...not happening, Iāll worry about putting in boundary posts later, I'm still a beginner here and my main priority is to keep my thinking and learning as flexible and adaptable as possible. Obviously you can learn by going this route, Russian children can speak their language just fine...and my ass they started with grammar study. Itās not the normal way...but it makes sense in my mind, and since Iām seeing results from it, thatās all that matters. Edited by Brian_N on 23 April 2009 at 7:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6707 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 139 of 248 23 April 2009 at 12:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm sure you are right. Of course you don't want to speak gibberish in your native language, but it is a good sign for your Russian that you start thinking in Russian sentence patterns. When you get better you will also be able to switch thinking in Russian off and on, and then that kind of interference will cease. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Brian_N Pro Member Canada Joined 5769 days ago 200 posts - 202 votes Studies: English*, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 140 of 248 24 April 2009 at 7:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Well itās nice to know itās only temporary. Itās the strangest thing when you start screwing up your native language, especially when youāre a monolingual. Thankfully though it only seems to happen when I start getting worn down. Actually its kinda funny when I think about it now. I just went about my day ignoring my obvious errors until I found myself sitting at my table typing something up and I had to go to the dictionary to look up theĀ English word ānewā. I couldnāt believe it, Iāve used the word thousands of times and probably encountered it many thousands more. But at that moment, it looked wrong and it sounded wrong and only the dictionary could convince me otherwise. I was like āwhat the hell is going on here?ā , I pulled up my sleeves and looked at my arms, āK, Iām nay for a drug habit, and I donāt recall getting a good knock to the head by anyone Iāve pissed off lately...so what gives?ā I was so not pleasant that evening lol. But yeah, Itās good to know its only temporary. I shouldnāt be surprised though that there is some sort of cognitive interference developing, especially considering that there are days when I hear more Russian thanĀ English. Nice list of languages you have yourself. That would take a lot of dedication, Iām impressed. Edited by Brian_N on 24 April 2009 at 7:39am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Brian_N Pro Member Canada Joined 5769 days ago 200 posts - 202 votes Studies: English*, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 141 of 248 26 April 2009 at 5:30am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I couldnāt believe this brief little chat I had today with a family friend. I was just stunned, iām still kinda stunned.
I was sitting at my table drilling in words āthis guyā comes in and asks me what iām doing, I tell him Iām learning Russian...below was part of our conversation Guy - āRussian? What the f**k you learning Russian for? Hitler would have killed you." Me - āHitler was German you dumb f**k.ā Guy ā āNo, Hitler was Russian wasnāt he?ā Me āāStalin was Russian, Hitler was German...dumbass....go get soom fooken EdooKayShawn." Guy ā āf**ken Naziā *door slams*. Me ā āWow...just surrounded by the intellectual elite." *goes back to word study* Welcome to Northern Canada, racist, homophobic, and sooooo uneducated. Canāt believe I was raised here...its home, backwards as it may be. I used to have this attitude that we North Americans were somehow better and brighter than the rest of the world...but as I begin to broaden my horizons...Iām really starting to have some serious doubts lol. Edited by Brian_N on 26 April 2009 at 5:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| SII Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5796 days ago 184 posts - 194 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English | Message 142 of 248 26 April 2009 at 10:45am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Brian_N
More exact, Stalin was Georgian. Or, as somebody say, he was half-Georgian and half-Jew. But he wasn't Russian. And he was ruler of USSR, not Russia.
"If people live somewhere, they must live as we". It is very unpleasant when Americans (and West people altogether) try impose West mode of life and mentality to other nations and countries. North Americans or West Europeans aren't better than Japanese, Russians, Chinese, Arabs etc. Simply we are different. For example, some things which have great importance for Americans, may be absolutely unimportant for Russians and vice versa. Because you learn foreign (and non-Western) language, you have the great chance to overcome the Western stereotypes about mentality and mode of life. But to this effect you must learn not only the language, but the history and the literature. I hope that I didn't offend you or somebody else. It is quite difficult to me to express such things by English... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Brian_N Pro Member Canada Joined 5769 days ago 200 posts - 202 votes Studies: English*, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 143 of 248 27 April 2009 at 12:39am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Yeah I guess technically Stalin wasnāt Russian. In the Western psyche though he is lumped right into the Russian category. Same thing with Napoleon, technically a Corsican, but will usually be seen as French.
Russian history is definitely on my to do list. I tried taking some classes in University but I never cared for it because it was taught with a condescending tone. I guess I could order a Russian history text from Amazon, but I want to wait until I can read Russian that way I can learn Russian history from Russians. As for the literature, Iāll read it...not because I have any love of literature though. I just donāt want to be that āstupid foreignerā whoās never heard of and never read the most common of Russian books. Seen way too many American tourists up here for the fishing while I was growing up...theyāre all so arrogant and so stupid...you could spend a life time pondering how these āpeopleā can get so much money to buy all their boats and their trucks and their sea-doos.....Itās just not right lol. I will not become one of these people that I hate. If I go anywhere outside my countries borders itāll be with knowledge of the people whose country Iām going too, and in my case that just happens to be Russia. As for offending me...lol, that takes effort...comes with being a part time troll on youtube. ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------- More (exactly), Stalin was Georgian. Or, as somebody (said), he was half-Georgian and half-Jew. But he wasn't Russian. And he was (a) (ruler*1) of (the) USSR, not Russia. "(Wherever the) people live, they must live as we (do)". It is very unpleasant when Americans (and West people altogether) try (to) impose (Western) (mode*2) of life and mentality (on) other nations and countries. North Americans or West Europeans aren't better than Japanese, Russians, Chinese, Arabs etc. Simply we are different. For example, some things which have great importance for Americans, may be absolutely unimportant for Russians and vice versa. Because you (are) (learning) (a) foreign (and non-Western) language, you have the great chance to overcome the Western stereotypes about mentality and (mode*2) of life. But to this effect you must learn not only the language, but (also) the history and the literature. I hope that I didn't offend you or somebody else. It is quite difficult to me to express such things (in)Ā English.. *1 - (ruler) => try using āleaderā instead. (ruler) is usually used in association with a medieval state or kingdom. *2 ā (Mode of life) works okay, (way of life) works better. Edited by Brian_N on 27 April 2009 at 12:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| SII Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5796 days ago 184 posts - 194 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English | Message 144 of 248 27 April 2009 at 5:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Brian_N
Probably, you are more educated than many others Canadians or North Americans :) In days of my youth, 15-20 years ago, I could asserted that majority of Russians knew (at least in outline) not only who are Stalin and Hitler, but who are Roosevelt, Churchill, Mussolini, Napoleon, Richelieu etc. But now I can't assert this: level of education in Russia now significantly less than 20 years ago. Who are Hitler and Stalin we still know, but others... "Amount of intellect on the planet is constant, but populaton is grow" :)
History is powerful ideological weapon, although for "home consumption", so all governments in all countries use it for its goals. But even without this it is natural that for people of some country the most important events are these what directly related to this country. However such narrow-mindedness brings to misrepresentation of significance and reciprocal relationship of historical events. For example, in USSR was very many literature about the Great Patriotic War -- the "Russian" part of World War II. But all others events of WW2 was covered extremely poor. It is seemed what in all the world are fighting only the USSR and German. Too litle information was even such German's satellites as Finland, Romania and Hungary: these countries after 1945 were under Soviet "protectorate" (or we are in good relationships as in case with Finland), and the Soviet government tried to inculcate "the friendship between nations" by means of the concealment of unpleasant events in our common history. On the other hand, when I saw the historical movies on Discovery and Explorer (in modern Russia these TV channels are quite popular -- in Russian translation, of course), I don't get away from sense that all the most important events of WW2 were on Pacific ocean, in the last resort -- in North Africa and in France, but absolutely not in the USSR :) In general, it is need to use many different sources that to understand the real history.
In Russian isn't the proper Russian direct equivalent of this word; we adopted it from English: "Š»ŠøŠ“ŠµŃ". In modern Russian "Š»ŠøŠ“ŠµŃ" is the often using word, especially in political news ("ŠŠøŠ“ŠµŃŃ Š±Š¾Š»ŃŃŠ¾Š¹ Š²Š¾ŃŃŠ¼ŃŃŠŗŠø ŃŠ¾Š±ŃŠ°Š»ŠøŃŃ..." -- The leaders of G-8 gather together...). But in the "natural", non-"political" Russian language more often we use the proper Russian word "ŠæŃŠ°Š²ŠøŃŠµŠ»Ń" which is full equivalent by meaning to English "ruler". These words even came from the roots with equivalent meanings: Russian "ŠæŃŠ°Š²ŠøŠ»Š¾ -> ŠæŃŠ°Š²ŠøŃŠµŠ»Ń" (the root is "ŠæŃŠ°Š²-"), English "the rule -> the ruler". Since I don't able to think by English, I must to think by Russian and then to translate mythoughts from Russian to English. Therefore I used "ruler" as direct equivalent to "ŠæŃŠ°Š²ŠøŃŠµŠ»Ń": I don't knew that "ruler" uses used "in association with a medieval state or kingdom" :) I have a question to you. Have the Canadians' way of life and mentality of the significant differences in comparsion with the Americans' ones? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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