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Confessions of a Teenage Poly-not | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4990 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 9 of 19 01 February 2011 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mysteryfaith, I can't imagine how frustrating that must be not to be able to trill your r's. I can trill, but I don't really know how I figured it out. It just happened. Good luck! I'm sure you'll get it eventually. :)
As for flashcards . . . I have thousands. They have helped me a lot. I think they are useful in building a vocabulary of a few thousand words or so, but I also agree that reading is very beneficial. By the way, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who takes flashcards everywhere. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mysteryfaith Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4866 days ago 14 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, French | Message 10 of 19 01 February 2011 at 11:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for your advice, both of you! :D
I'll definitely check out those sites. :) But before I can start reading anything Russian I need to get a grasp on those pesky letters - so I'm afraid the papery nuggets of information are back, at least until I can get the basics down. :D And thanks, Amerykanka. ;D Lucky to be able to trill your r's! I have a very wide tongue - not tongue-tied, thank goodness, but with little to no 'point' on the end - so it's hard to get it to vibrate. xPP However, I take hope from the fact that I can do it easily enough at the back. People have commented that when I use the French R for Russian, I sound like a French person speaking Russian - but better that than no rolling r at all! :) Now I'm off to make some more flas-- -hides- 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Matty Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5113 days ago 31 posts - 35 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 11 of 19 02 February 2011 at 12:17am | IP Logged | ||
I laughed! On the question of trilling the Rs, one thing that helped me (in Spanish) was saying "br" or "gr" rather than just "rr." I am not sure why that helped, but it was easier to do something approaching trilling when I said "brestaurante" than when I said "restaurante." Alternately, try making a bunch of very strange sounds with your mouth and tongue, moving your mouth around every which random way. Imagine that you are making up a fake alien language. Eventually you may get something sort of similar to trilling. From that point, you can work towards actual trilling... ! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mysteryfaith Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4866 days ago 14 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, French | Message 12 of 19 02 February 2011 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, Matty! :D That really helps - I'll definitely be practicing the 'br not rr' method - now I'll look even weirder walking around town! :)
Okay, better put today's targets: FRENCH I've been neglecting poor ol' French for a couple of days in favour of Russian, but today I should really get on top of that. If I didn't have so much homework, I'd be sitting there all evening with my book, trying to name the weather and pretty much everything under the sun... but as I do have a lot of homework, I guess it might be another off-day for French. :( RUSSIAN Last night I fumbled around for my creative stuff, and made a bunch of flashcards (alas, I'll end up with thousands) for the Russian alphabet, in order. (If anyone happens to speak Russian and read this, I may just have to ask you whether it really IS in the right order, or if it's all jumbled up and there was really no need for me to have bothered.) So I'll take those with me tomorrow, and try to memorise them. I was thinking, perhaps a song? (Oh gosh, I sound like some children's TV presenter, don't I?) Obviously, not to sing in front of other people - "HEY KIDS! NOW I'M GONNA SING YOU THE RUSSIAN ALPHABET!" 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mysteryfaith Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4866 days ago 14 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, French | Message 13 of 19 03 February 2011 at 11:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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So, update time! Last night I made a bunch of flashcards - so now I have six sets of flashcards each for French and Russian, totalling 12 sets (in varying sizes) for all. They've all got pretty title cards and everything now though, which is cool. :)
And I'm starting to read things in Russian! :D If I look at the pack I took with me to school today - Russian colours and French question words - I could cover up the pronunciation with my thumb and be able to, albeit slowly, say the words with just a letter wrong (e.g. saying "pah-loo-nee" unstead of "pah-loy-nee", or something like that.) Now, for my targets. I know it's a bit late in the eve, but this is where I get most of my studying in. :) So, here we go: FRENCH Well, well, well, looks like French is making its big comeback! :D Today I ran through the question words with my flashcard pack, but the focus was still mainly on Russian. However, I did manage to take a few things in - mainly where and why, but still. :D With a little more practice, I'll be well on my way to asking where the toilets are (despite not being able to understand whatever the reply might be! ;D) RUSSIAN: The colours are so hard to remember - but I trekked around Asda, Russian Alphabet flashcards in hand, so I think I've got the alphabet covered now. :) As I mentioned, I can generally pronounce the words mainly right. Spelling them right is another question entirely, but at least I know I'm on my way to being able to read Russian! :D ON A SIDE NOTE Or, two side notes, to be precise. ;) The first being that all my friends look at me with my flashcards, and say, "You know, if you just want to sit there with those, that's fine. We're going to have fun!" One of my best friends came up to me and just said, "You're not going to get anywhere with Russian. No one speaks it anyway." To which I replied, "When I leave school with 3 language GCSEs instead of 0 like you, I'll be the one laughing." (I might add that he is a very 'confident' actor who believes that he will be able to succeed in the world of acting with little qualifications other than one in Drama, and his 'pure acting talent' as he so lovingly refers to it.) The second note is also on the subject of GCSEs. German and French are both taught at my school (although you can only learn one: luckily I was put into the German set) so taking those as GCSEs should be no problem, so long as I can beg my Careers teacher to let me do it, and convince her that by the time these GCSEs come around, I'll be more prepared than most of the other kids because I study it for at least an hour every night, despite being at a beginner level at the moment. My problem is with Russian: it's not a widely-spoken language here, and I don't think anyone else in the whole time I've been at that school, or my siblings have (which, altogether, equates to a long time!) I've seen anyone do a Russian GCSE. One did Mandarin, I recall, but other than that, there's no 'far-out' languages which anyone seems to pick up. The hard part will be finding the place in which I can do these GCSEs... and the people who can help me prepare with it. :/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mysteryfaith Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4866 days ago 14 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, French | Message 14 of 19 05 February 2011 at 1:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Well just a quick update since... it's late and I can't be bothered to do a long one. xDD
RUSSIAN Can I read some stuff? Oh yes, I can! :D Albeit some complications, I'm getting better at it. And having chalkboards to hand helps. :) FRENCH Poor old French, I've been ignoring it! D: I should really get on the case tomorrow - maybe copying out some French sentences on to my chalkboard or something, I don't know. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| WillyJames Newbie Canada Joined 4920 days ago 15 posts - 16 votes Speaks: French* Studies: English, Spanish, Russian | Message 15 of 19 06 February 2011 at 2:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey I'm also a teenager learning... russian. I've been leraning it for 4 month now.
I was lucky enough to be able to trill my rr since birth. Just wanted to say Good Luck! I can tell you taht once you get the alphabet right, it will day after day (faster and faster) to read stuff! (even though most you'll pronouce most of the words right but you won't even understand what you are saying XD) I'll keep track of your log! Edited by WillyJames on 06 February 2011 at 2:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5092 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 16 of 19 06 February 2011 at 3:35am | IP Logged | ||
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You're tackling a lot at once. Although among the "easier" languages (i.e. not Japanese, Arabic, and Eskimo) for an
English-speaker, all three languages you're learning are tough to one degree or another. Perhaps focusing on only one would bring fruit sooner. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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