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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 65 of 248 04 March 2009 at 2:14am | IP Logged | ||
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In addition to Russian I’m going to start a study of Chinese. Nothing as serious as what I’m doing (and going to be doing) with Russian, just a low intensity...incursion.
My analysis suggests that Chinese is primarily a very large exercise in mass memorization and mass memorization takes time. It only makes sense to me to begin that now so when I do get serious in the future my efforts will be backed by a few thousand Chinese characters. I sense it will make things go...smoother. Declan’s Chinese flashcards will be my main resources. The few thousand characters it has should be enough to keep me busy for the better part of a year, especially at a casual pace. 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 66 of 248 04 March 2009 at 2:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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March 4th – Day 23
----------------------------------------------------------- Russian Vocabulary -(+10)=> 349 Nouns – Part 1-6 => Complete Verbs – Part 1 => (42/50) => Under Review Verbs – Part 2 => (6/50) => Under Review Verbs - Part 3 => (1/50) => Under Review Verbs 4-5 => Pending Daily Quick Review => Complete Daily Deep Listening => Complete Grammar Study => Pending ---------------------------------------------------------- Chinese Vocabulary -(+2)=> 2 Nouns - Part 1 (2/50) => Under Review Edited by Brian_N on 05 March 2009 at 12:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rafey Newbie United States Joined 5764 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English* | Message 67 of 248 04 March 2009 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's quite true that one can handle two languages as well as one (even more) and, in fact, the mental processing is enhanced although it's true that it kind of drags out the learning process just a bit. I am not a big fan of Pimsleur, et.al. unless you're in a terrible hurry. Oriental languages are absolutely fascinating in and of themselves. I think you'll have fun.
Just an example of contextual problems encountered in Russian: Ceebeerckeeye ryekee Ob, Eneecee E Lena vchodyat v decyatku camich bolsheech ryeh meera. (Pardon the phoneticization but this post screen apparently does not except language fonts) Anyway, if you look up each of the words, you will still not come close to the actual translation of this sentence since Russian is ever so idomatic (as is English). It is one of the major stumbling blocks to the language. That is why I decided to forego vocabulary in favor of reading, reading, reading and a bit of grammer thrown in. The more I read, the more I encounter these structures that are a complete puzzle until you gradually become accustomed to the method in the madness. 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 68 of 248 05 March 2009 at 12:14am | IP Logged | ||
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I’ve been seeing some common patterns as I’m working through the flashcards. I’ve included two examples.
pабота – work (noun list) работать – to work (verb list) жизнь – life (noun list) жить – to live (verb list) These are quite similar. Similar enough for me to guess that there’s probably an underlying grammar rule here that I’m not yet aware of. What does that mean for me? It means that I shouldn’t be memorizing a chunk of verbs if there’s some rule that I can memorize that will allow me to turn nouns into verbs. Its much much quicker to memorize one thing instead of dozens of things. All drilling of new verbs will cease until I have a chance to go through my grammar books cover to cover. For the moment my efforts will be shifted back towards noun expansion. Edited by Brian_N on 05 March 2009 at 12:24am 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 69 of 248 05 March 2009 at 1:14am | IP Logged | ||
Lol, the interpretation wasn’t mine. It was copied and pasted from Wikipedia. I have the brains to write something like that, but not the education. I’m not too sure if what I’m doing is really related to zen, actually I can’t really say that because I know pretty much zip about zen, but isn’t it all that humming and stuff? My little trick takes its roots from mindfulness meditation. (stripped of anything spiritual or enlightened of course) Essentially it aims for quietening the mind via shutting down random thoughts as they appear. I think one of my friends called it being a ‘thought nazi’ because of its emphasis on shutting down the minds natural chatter. Myself I find it great for dealing with procrastination, because really when you think about it procrastination starts with a thought, if you shut down the thought before it becomes action procrastination cannot occur. Lol, there is a reason why I can do so much drill. Thanks for telling me about that photo upload being crashed. I thought it was just me. Apparently I missed the memo. Edited by Brian_N on 05 March 2009 at 1:20am 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 70 of 248 05 March 2009 at 3:18am | IP Logged | ||
Yeah, Chinese is pretty neat. I was going through the world files, listened to the first five, listened to five more, then five more after that and I was like...no way, it can’t be...a language........of gibberish? Cool lol. Yeah I image Russian is pretty entertaining once it becomes more intermediate. I’m hoping that instead of doing reading, reading, reading, I can get away with listening, listening, listening. I’ll know in a couple of months if I can take that route. I really really hope I can. 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 71 of 248 05 March 2009 at 10:54am | IP Logged | ||
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March 5th – Day 24
----------------------------------------------------------- Russian Vocabulary -(+12)=> 361 Nouns – Part 1-6 => Complete Nouns - Part 7 => (12/50) Verbs – Part 1 => (42/50) => Under Review Verbs – Part 2 => (6/50) => Under Review Verbs - Part 3 => (1/50) => Under Review Verbs 4-5 => Pending Daily Quick Review => Complete Daily Deep Listening => Complete Grammar Study => Pending ---------------------------------------------------------- Chinese Vocabulary -(+1)=> 3 Nouns - Part 1 (3/50) => Under Review 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rafey Newbie United States Joined 5764 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English* | Message 72 of 248 05 March 2009 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Your affinity for listening (as oposed to reading) will pay off with Mandarin since that is essentially a tonal-based language ... but a word of caution is warrented here ... #1) the slightest unintentional nuance in intonation can get you into a heap of trouble and 2) During my time doing clinical work in a plague struck area in the South China Sea region, (which included numerous excursions onto the mainland) some years back, I was surprised to discover how many Chinese really didn't quite understand Mandarin. In fact, I encountered so many dialects that appeared to be nearly entirely different languages that I wondered why I had spent so much time trying to learn Mandarin. Never the less, the language itself is absolutely fascinating and opens up a vast window onto a very different culture, history and way of thinking about the world. One could easily spend a lifetime in its study.
I also just learned through a private message that this window doe apparently accept fonts so I'll try out some Russian a bit later and maybe we can practice that way. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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