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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| aloysius Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6035 days ago 226 posts - 291 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, German Studies: French, Greek, Italian, Russian | Message 1 of 20 28 December 2011 at 3:17pm | IP Logged |
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Skål Kosmonauter!
(c) Alexander Barks Russian My current level of Russian is hard to estimate, but it’s not above A2 for listening and reading and practically non-existent for speaking and writing. By the end of next year, however, it has risen to an active B2 and a passive C1. Right? But how will I get there? By combining a top-down approach of mostly LR and a bottom-up analysis of phonology and morphology, me thinketh. When I’m in the right mood grammar books are great fun, be it hands-on manuals or theoretic and academic theses. I will concentrate on nouns and cases this winter and spring, and save most of the verb system for the autumn. I have countless resources and will use whatever feels right, but in order to retain some structure Assimil will remain the foundation. Reading I’m nowhere near handling even easy native texts, but I discovered today that I enjoyed reading a few paragraphs of Bulgakov in parallel format and even that used to be too much of a strain before. Studying vocabulary and grammar will help my reading as well as all other skills, but so will more LR. So that’s what I’m gonna do. I need to be a liitle more advanced before I really start to enjoy it though. Listening Native radio and podcasts? Not a chance. The greatest obstacle is vocabulary. But LR will help here too. Speaking All I’ve done is some shadowing. This is where I must start improving at once. To begin with I will start on Modern Russian, shadowing Assimil and translating sentences aloud from Learn in Your Car and SRS. At least, I’m beginning to get the hang of Russian pronunciation, thanks to many hours of listening. But there will be some time before I get my tongue around all the soft consonant sounds and that strange ы vowel. Assimilation and unstressed vowels are easier to handle. At least 100 hours of speaking in 2012. Writing My entire production of written Russian doesn’t exceed 100 words. I’ve only just started on teaching myself writing in longhand (so maybe some real scriptorium in a few weeks time) and only yesterday did I add a phonetic keyboard to my Russian language profile in Windows. I’m going to start by copying template sentences from grammar books. And then perhaps some written excercises and translation. At least 100 hours of writing in 2012. Some more numbers: I’m going to study Russian for at least 500 hours in total. I’m aiming for an active vocabulary of 4000 words. French I have the same goals for French as for Russian (B2/C1) but since it’s an easier language and I’m already much more advanced (regarding passive skills that is) the journey will be shorter. I will continue using native material for LR, listening and reading but I will also do some grammar and vocabulary practice. And, above all, start writing and speaking. Hopefully I will spend a couple of weeks in Belgium and France this year. And I’m going to read the first book of À la recherche du temps perdu. Italian No set goals. This will be just for fun. But I expect to make progress nevertheless and to at least approach that longed-for stage where I’m able to consume Italian native media. German It’s great that there’s a lot of interest in German in Team Sputnik. I will probably have limited time for it but will try to maintain my skills by using it as a base for my other languages and to read Die Zeit every week, as I have a Kindle subscription for it. And I’m going to read Der Mann ohne Eigenshaften. English I’m not really happy with my English but there will be no time for systematic studying. But since it’s always there on television and on the Internet, at least I will get a lot of exposure. And I will write regularly in this log. And I’m going to read Ulysses (Just a coincidence ...). Wanderlust TBA Commencing countdown. Take your protein pills and put your helmet on. /aloysius 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5129 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 20 28 December 2011 at 3:56pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah! We seem to be doing most of the same languages - and unless you are being very modest, you do not seem to be that far ahead of me in Russian, which is a huge relief, as I was fearing that everyone else was at an extremely advanced stage.
Are you doing Pimsleur or Michel Thomas in addition to Assimil? Which Assimil do you use, French or English? Do you use the Danish grammar too( (Gyldendals gymnasiale grammatikker) or do you have a Swedish one? And if you also have the saying "En dåre kan spørre mer enn 10 vise kan svare" in Swedish, you know what category I am in :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| M. Medialis Diglot TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Sweden Joined 6152 days ago 397 posts - 508 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Russian, Japanese, French | Message 3 of 20 28 December 2011 at 5:01pm | IP Logged |
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Skål, друг мой!
Your plans are pulsating with cool methods and goals. This year has every potential to be fantastic. :D Helmets are on, We're aiming for космос! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5351 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 4 of 20 28 December 2011 at 11:50pm | IP Logged |
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"Ulysses, Ulysses, soaring through all the galaxies!"
Great goals for next year, and I'm sure 500 hours of Russian will definitely take you places! I'm particularly looking forward to your rocket boosts through future 6 week challenges. And "À la recherche du temps perdu", now that's some undertaking. Good luck munching your way through that little lot in French next year. :P Edited by Teango on 29 December 2011 at 12:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| senor_smile Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6181 days ago 110 posts - 115 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Russian | Message 5 of 20 31 December 2011 at 4:47am | IP Logged |
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It sounds like you have a very diverse yet balanced methodology to your language
learning. I expect you will accomplish a lot. I also wish to bring up my Russian to C1, at least. I'm probably barely at A1, maybe somewhere between A1 and A2. I really like how you have specific goals for number of words learned and hours spent. I look forward to reading more about your progress. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Woodsei Bilingual Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Woodsei Joined 4592 days ago 614 posts - 782 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)* Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian | Message 6 of 20 02 January 2012 at 11:03am | IP Logged |
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Your goals are really structured, and I really like how you quantify them. My log post seems like a mess now,
lol :) I believe you will accomplisthey our goals, so helmets on and charge ahead! Good luck on your language learning odyssey! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| aloysius Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6035 days ago 226 posts - 291 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, German Studies: French, Greek, Italian, Russian | Message 7 of 20 07 January 2012 at 1:30pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks team mates for your supportive comments!
@Solfrid - Unless I miserably fail in any other way to start speaking Russian I don't think I'm going to touch Pimsleur. I've tried it once but found it rather boring. I like Michel Thomas better, but I must restrict my number of resources. I have the French and German versions of the second and third generation Assimil. Don't believe there's an English edition apart from the first generation. I've considered getting the forth generation too, but as I just said ... As for grammars I have a really elementary one (Rysk minigrammatik by Erik Fält) and a really old one (Rysk grammatik by Richard Ekblom) in Swedish. I haven't had a look at Gyldendals. The most appropriate for my level is probably Schaums, which I will try to read through this year, but the one I plan to use for scriptorium is A Practical Grammar with Exercises. @M.Medialis - Glad to be flying with you again! @Teango - Yes, Proust is a tough one that I will save for the end of the year, but you know ... the sky is no longer the limit. @senor smile and Woodsei - Setting goals and choosing methods is a delicate issue. I want them to be structured (it's kind of the original TAC idea) but at the same time leave some space for improvisation. Since this year started on a Sunday, I will make my study weeks do the same. So tomorrow I will post a progress report of the first week. /aloysius 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| aloysius Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6035 days ago 226 posts - 291 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, German Studies: French, Greek, Italian, Russian | Message 8 of 20 08 January 2012 at 8:24pm | IP Logged |
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Week 1 (1 – 7 January)
Hours studied this week: 20.4 h Russian 14.45 h. Most of which (9.15 h) were spent on revising Assimil (both editions) up to lesson 21. In order to get a steady rhythm in my studying I’ve decided to start following the intended plan from now on, doing one lesson of Le noveau russe sans peine a day, which means I will start on the active phase in two weeks’ time and finish the whole thing by the end of March. Included in the above hours are 2.0 h. of shadowing and reading aloud that I will count as speaking. It feels rather awkward and it’s difficult to pronounce and intonate correctly, even though I hear how it should sound in my head, and all I have to do is come up with a mechanical imitation of the recordings and this inner voice. But it’s still early days and I know I need a lot of practising to get there. I spent 3.91 h. (0.92 h. on writing) on memorizing vocabulary. I use Roots of the Russian Language to teach myself as much morphology as possible, pursuing an old idea of mine that this is essential for future vocabulary building from reading native texts. I also play around with an app from AccelaStudy on my iPod and Pons Grundwortschatz Russisch, which contains “die 2.500 häufigsten Wörter, Wendungen und Beispielsätze /…/ decken das Niveau A1 – A2 ab”. The only grammar I did was 0.33 h. spent reading part of the chapter on nouns in Shaum’s. And finally I started on the first part of Learn in your Car, doing 1.05 h. of silent translation. I’m so glad Audible finally made the transcripts for this course available*). I bought the German, Italian, French and Spanish courses on cassette tapes long time ago but I didn’t study Russian back then and so far I’ve had to make do with just the audio for this one. French 5.28 h. I did listen to 0.5 h. of RFI’s Journal en français facile without transcripts and although I understand most of it I sometimes have difficulty following what I understand when reading it, and I also miss some vocabulary. I did 1.1 h. of Learn in your Car. This went rather well, which it should considering it’s just elementary stuff. And I did L(Sw)-R(Fr) L’amant by Marguerite Duras (3.68 h.). Very beautiful, poetic, sad and tragic. And not difficult to read. German Reading Die Zeit: 0,67 h. Maybe I should start writing here in German now and then, since that’s something I never do. *) Learn in your Car Russian part I /aloysius Edited by aloysius on 08 January 2012 at 8:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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