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Solfrid Cristin’s way TAC 2011 Team Ohana | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5130 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 33 of 221 07 January 2011 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Preposition: - I am afraid I do not have the guts to start on Russian handwriting. I am still struggling with the printed letters, and have the reading skills of a 5 year old. Oh and by the way, you almost got me comitted this morning. I was reading your log on the train, and I laughed so hard when I hit the bellybutton part, that a passenger next to me asked what was so funny. When I answered "Russian grammar", I could see that he was looking around for the men in white.
Iversen: – What can I say – I am a tad masochistic and not a quitter. I try to stick with it if I possibly can. I have dropped a few books in my time, like Mme. Bovary which I have started and dropped 3 times, but otherwise, I am usually too curious to quit. Merv: – That is actually a very good question. What makes me persevere after I have been doing this for almost a year and still feel like an idiot every time I try to construct a simple sentence? I think it is a combination of the sound, the interesting grammar and the fact that I can communicate with a few more million people – and in particular a little 10 year old in the middle of nowhere in Ukraine, who is the little sister of my daughter’s best friend and who has forgotten all the French I used to communicate with her in. I am also looking forward to being able to talk to those of my colleagues who come from Russia or from the old East block, and who do not speak much of the languages of Western Europe. I look forward to reading Chekov in Russian. He sounds like shit in Norwegian translation, so I am hoping it will be a better experience in Russian. The Russian sounds also feel good in my mouth, and it’s almost intoxicating the few times when I actually feel the “click” of having understood something new. And then of course there is something about the raw masculinity of that language which is appealing. We cannot underestimate the “A fish called Wanda” effect… Аня Спасибо большое! К сожаленню говорю толко чут-чут по-русский, а я очень люблю русски язик! Кристина RUSSIAN/FRENCH I only got to revise lesson 21 of Assimil on the train yesterday. I had planned to do some Russian on my lunch break this week, but I have had to work through my lunch break four days in a row now, so that plan failed miserably. I had a bad cold today however and was home – and what it the up side of having a cold: Lots of time for doing Russian!!!! I continued at “Le Russe pour les nuls (Russian for dummies)” . The last time I mentioned it I was at the beginning of chapter two, at page 45, and I am now proud to say that due to my diligent reading today, I am now at page 185!! That is 140 pages in one day (ok, so the pages are small, but even so). I must make sure I get a cold more often!! It is the weirdest of language books though. I mentioned the last time, that chapter two was more than 50 pages, the reason being that it is about Russian grammar. All of it in fact. I am used to language books which introduce the language by a bit of phonetics, then a little dialogue, with some grammar points, and then you add dialogues and consequently vocabulary together with some more grammar points “peu á peu”. But here you had the phonetics, then the 50-some pages of grammar, and then you have vocabulary lists. Weird. I remember thinking this morning that either I am not a dummy or I am such a dummy that I cannot even keep up with the other dummies. But it did actually appeal to me as I kept reading. I think it is a waste of time if you expect to actually learn Russian by it, but it is perfect for me who get bored easily with any one book, and like to jump from book to book, in order to get the same vocabulary, and the same grammar points in through another angle. Plus it is a bonus, that since most of it is in French I kill two birds with the same stone. I noted down 30 grammar points from the book that I entered in Anki, but I did not get time to write down the words, as I had also planned to. Dinner and family got in the way. Did half an hour of Anki revision though, which was good. One of my words was deactivated on account of it being a “leech” (I failed to remember the answer 15 times in a row.) Does anyone know how I activate it again? However I got to listen to Assimil, lessons 24 and 25 some more while making dinner. My children hate it when I listen to my Russian CDs because I need to put it on pretty loud in order to hear it properly, so usually I only get to do it when I am cleaning out after dinner and they do not hear me because of the TV, or when I am down in the basement folding clothes where they can’t hear me anyway. So today I gave my youngest an offer she couldn’t refuse. She could come and help me peel potatoes, and cook, or she could continue at her computer with her headset on, while I got to listen to my Russian lessons. She just smiled and gave me the thumbs up, so it wasn’t hard to know what her choice was. I picked up a couple of things on Russian culture today, which amused me. One thing is that they are so sensible that their 1st floor is actually the 1st floor like in Norway, and no nonsense about the 1st floor being the second floor and the ground floor being the 1st floor like in so many other countries. They also hold their forks in the right hand – which as everyone knows is their left hand. :) It also said that most Russians only drank alcohol with their meals on special occasions. Could I get a confirmation of that from someone local? Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 07 January 2011 at 9:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Préposition Diglot Senior Member France aspectualpairs.wordp Joined 4910 days ago 186 posts - 283 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC1 Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 34 of 221 07 January 2011 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
Haha, bless! I discovered the word last year at university and it kept my friends and me laughing for a good 5min, simply because it sounded like "poop" (which is rather sad, but I never forgot the word!) I'll definitely try to find more funny words, because they make learning grammar a lot easier. My Arabic lecturer actually wrote an entire grammar book (the thing is 1000 pages heavy and he said he could have easily written another thousand pages, which scared us to death as to how long it would take us to reach a decent standard in the language…) and some examples are hilarious, like "My sister hit the dog with a stick" or "The camel had regurgitated his meal on his owner's feet" and stuff like that. Regarding the Russian script, I made a little guide you can find here: http://how-to-learn-any- language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=24635&PN=1, and the project was mainly inspired by you, because I thought you may find it helpful if you ever decide to tackle the cursive script (I know it's not easy and you don't have much time, but it looks so nice!) Anyway, good luck with Russian, I always jump on your thread when I see it's been updated! Edited by Préposition on 07 January 2011 at 11:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5130 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 35 of 221 08 January 2011 at 12:02am | IP Logged | |||||
Well in addition to the term bellybutton being funny in itself, and of course the poop dimension, we also have the Norwegian word "pupp" which is a common word for breast - usually the female kind. The trippel level was too much for me, which is why I just doubled over. And I'll definitely have a look at your Russian script project! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| snovymgodom Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5521 days ago 136 posts - 149 votes Speaks: English*, Russian | Message 36 of 221 08 January 2011 at 12:10am | IP Logged | |||||
When I was in Russia, most of the meals I had with my host family didn't involve alcohol. If it was a holiday or a guest was coming to visit, we would have wine. Also, on cold winter days, my host mother would offer me some vodka with my meal in order for me to warm up. (Vodka, among other things, are used in Russian home remedies). Before this, I lived with a family that didn't drink - I think it was because they were in their 60s and 70s and were watching their health. If you are going to a cafe or bar though, it's common to have alcohol without any special occasion. People in Russia will walk outside on the street carrying beer bottles/cans, too. But a lot of older Russians who lived through Soviet days prefer to save money and eat at home, so the "eating out" is mostly for younger Russians. Of course, I really can only talk about how it was in St. Petersburg - it may be different elsewhere. By the way, is the French "Russian for Dummies" book similar to the English version in that series (you know, with the yellow and black cover?) A few years ago I used to have the Russian for Dummies in English, but it wasn't very good - it didn't even use Cyrillic. Edited by snovymgodom on 08 January 2011 at 12:12am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Préposition Diglot Senior Member France aspectualpairs.wordp Joined 4910 days ago 186 posts - 283 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC1 Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 37 of 221 08 January 2011 at 12:17am | IP Logged | |||||
Oh my god, that word is absolutely brilliant! :D 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5938 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 38 of 221 08 January 2011 at 5:00am | IP Logged | |||||
Here's what I do, I hope it makes sense. 1. Go to the "Browse Items" tab within your Anki deck. 2. Search for "tag:leech" and the leeches should show up in yellow. 3. Select the leeches (only the ones in yellow) and delete them. 4. Then, in the remaining cards, delete the "leech" tag within the tags field. 5. Finally, select these remaining cards and do Actions --> Generate Cards --> Highlight both "Forward" and "Reverse" --> OK I just realized that this would only work if all of your cards are double-sided, but hopefully it's of some help. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| dragonfly Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6275 days ago 204 posts - 233 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, Mandarin | Message 39 of 221 08 January 2011 at 7:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello, Cristin! Your sourse was quite right abot the floors, but I have to admit we often put the fork into the right hand. My family really drinks alcohol mostly on festive occasions, but also on said ones, for example, to remember those who passed away. But there is a real problem with young people here, drinking beer in large quantities and on daily basis. Edited by dragonfly on 08 January 2011 at 7:26pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| geordie Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 4883 days ago 24 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 40 of 221 09 January 2011 at 7:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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You're quite the committed poster on here, Кристина :). Glad you're on my team. I've
started reading Russian for dummies in English, and I haven't had much trouble with it so far. I have Russian Phrases for Dummies as well as a pdf, if you're interested. I answered your Anki/gold list question in my log. Not sure which is better, but they are definitely very different. I'm going to stick with gold list for a while and then try out Anki. I'd do them concurrently, but I think that might confuse me more than anything else. J'ai recommencé mon travail cette semaine, et c'est difficile de trouver le temps d'étudier. Mais, je me rappelle que vous pouvez le faire avec votre style de vie actif, vos enfants, et votre travail, donc je n'ai aucune raison de se plaindre ;) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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