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Flagg’s Annihilation Challenge | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Flagg Newbie United States Joined 6046 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 10 28 April 2008 at 3:46pm | IP Logged |
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I have been interested in learning languages ever since I can remember, and I'm getting sick of not doing it! I seem to have a knack for it, which makes the fact that I only speak English seem quite sad.
My last attempt at language learning was Japanese, and within the few weeks I was actually studying, I got very far. After two or three weeks, I had gotten up into the 1500s in Heisig's Remembering the Kanji. I don't want to toot my own horn, but that's pretty super considering I had a recall rate of 90-100% on most of the reviews. I used The Reviewing the Kanji website. And I loved every minute of it! But alas, all good things must come to an end. I was having problems on the home front, and have since moved out. Unfortunately, this did not happen until my studies were forced to come to a screeching halt. When I came to my current home, I just never got back into my grove. But that's all behind me now, and after much thought (procrastination), I have decided to start learning Russian. I know almost nothing about the language, so aside from a basic understanding of the Cyrillic alphabet and a few phrases, I will be starting from scratch. As the title says, I am "entering" the Total Annihilation Challenge! The starting date is April 28, today. I will be using Pimsleur and The Rosetta Stone to start out, and if I like the way things are going, I will finish them both. I may buy/download The New Penguin course I have heard so much about. Also, I will most likely incorporate L-R. Other than those things, I'm pretty much undecided when it comes to which courses I am going to use. I hope that by the end of the year, I will have made significant progress. To all others taking this challenge, good luck. Updates to come! Edited by Flagg on 28 April 2008 at 4:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Flagg Newbie United States Joined 6046 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 10 29 April 2008 at 10:09pm | IP Logged |
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Today was my first "real" day spent studying Russian. Yesterday, I took a few minutes to learn the Cyrillic alphabet using this nifty little website. After only five or ten minutes, I was reading Russian texts, albeit rather slowly. I also took the time to download Princeton's Russian course. The URL has been posted somewhere else in this forum, and I have lost the link.
Today I worked my way through the first four lesson in Pimsleur Russian 1. Lesson five might get done tonight before bed. So far, so good. Only a few words gave me trouble, скажите being the main one. I had to look that one up using Babel Fish... I am in need of a good dictionary... I started the Princeton course; not very satisfied with it as of yet. I figure I will give it a chance before I throw it out. Overall, aside from a few pronunciation difficulties, this looks like it just might be smooth sailing! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Flagg Newbie United States Joined 6046 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 10 01 May 2008 at 9:28pm | IP Logged |
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I've been taking it easy the last few days. I'm up to Pimsleur lesson 8, because I'm spending most of my time on other methods. I skimmed through a unit in The Rosetta Stone, but have only committed the first few lessons to memory. For a few hours today I had Russian dialog playing as white noise, to get a better feel for hearing it.
L-R will be a key aspect once I learn more about the method and acquire the materials. Tomorrow I will likely ride down to the video store and invest in a few good movies. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6143 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 4 of 10 02 May 2008 at 4:11am | IP Logged |
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If you want some nice Russian chewing for the mind, you should pick up Nightwatch and Daywatch. If you feel like watching a film you'll never forget try, "Come and See".
Best of Luck with this TAC. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Flagg Newbie United States Joined 6046 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 10 02 May 2008 at 6:13am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the recommendations man. I just looked up Nightwatch and learned it is a tetralogy. How do you feel about the other two volumes?
And as to the film, is the whole movie in Russian? Looking on IMDB, it seems as though an abnormally high number of English-speakers have seen it. That, and the "MOVIEmeter" has gone down 42%. Ouch. I'll check at the video store for the film today. Edit: I just found out that there was a movie made which was based on the book Nightwatch. I'll see if it can't be found as well. Edited by Flagg on 02 May 2008 at 6:30am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tricoteuse Pentaglot Senior Member Norway littlang.blogspot.co Joined 6670 days ago 745 posts - 845 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian | Message 6 of 10 02 May 2008 at 8:19am | IP Logged |
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A good Russian online dictionary is www.multitran.ru. It looks up conjugated words as well, which is great :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6143 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 7 of 10 02 May 2008 at 9:46am | IP Logged |
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Both films, Nightwatch and Daywatch, are in Russian. I think it's probably one of their most successful films. A lot of my friends have seen it, and have no interest in learning Russian.
I've been tempted to buy the books, which are in Russian and English. If they're are audiobooks, they'd be ideal for L-R. [EDIT - I'v never read the books. I just saw the films] Edited by DaraghM on 02 May 2008 at 9:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Flagg Newbie United States Joined 6046 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 10 02 May 2008 at 10:24pm | IP Logged |
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That clears things up. I thought we were talking about the books. Thanks for the dictionary tricotuese. I'm sure that will come in handy! I found a copy of both Nightwatch and Daywatch. I will most likely watch the first one tomorrow, so I'll be sure to tell you what I think about it once I'm done with the first run-through.
Made a bit of progress today; no time to type up all of it now, so I'll update in the morning. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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