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In the Motherland, Пушкин, *jäŋe TAC 2015

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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milesaway
Triglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 4332 days ago

134 posts - 181 votes 
Speaks: French, English*, Russian
Studies: Finnish, Sign Language

 
 Message 57 of 63
11 May 2014 at 10:49am | IP Logged 
It's been a long time since my last post. Rest assured I have continued to study. I've
just been unable to access the forum and update.

I got stuck reading a Russian book, and felt like I was never going to finish it, but I
finally did, thank God.

I did not watch any films in April, but I read 1364 pages.

So far in May I have read 349, so I'm off to a better start.

The Super Challenge has begun, and I've already got 349 pages of Russian done
(actually, a bit more, but I like updating in round numbers, it's a bit of an OCD
thing. So I'll change the tally once I complete this book, hopefully by mid-week.)

My success of the day, yesterday actually: I watched 60 minutes of the hockey game
between Latvia and Finland, in Finnish. The announcer still spoke at warp speed, so the
vast majority of what he said was lost on me, however I somehow managed to pick out 10
words (not including names or numbers).

The words were
huono (bad)
*tärkeä (important)
*jäljessä (behind) he might have said jäljellä, but I have no idea.
*takana (also behind, I don't know the difference yet...)
*maalilla (in the goal)
minuuttia (I think my spelling is wrong, but minutes)
suomalaiset (Finns)
ottaa (take)
totta kai (of course)
sisään (into, or enter)

The words with stars were new words for me, so I'm not entirely sure how I managed to
pick them out, but I did. :D

I have no context for any of them, other than maalilla, because the announcer said
Pekka Rinne maalilla, which I took to mean that he was in net for Finland.

There's another game tonight, so I'm hoping to find another Finnish feed and see if I
can pick out another 10 words, or at least, the same 10 words again. :D Small
victories, but I was really proud of myself for that. I think at this point, my end
goal would be to understand even 50% of what that announcer says, because he's
seriously spitting words out at a rate of 45 syllables a second, or so it seems to me.
Mind you, that's only about 2 words given the length of Finnish words. :P

My Georgian studies have hit a rut, but I've got most of the alphabet. I leave on
Sunday, so we'll see if I can make any more progress before then. If not, I'll just
keep plugging away at my Finnish and Russian, and try to get some Georgian materials
while I'm there.


Edited by milesaway on 11 May 2014 at 10:53am

2 persons have voted this message useful



milesaway
Triglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 4332 days ago

134 posts - 181 votes 
Speaks: French, English*, Russian
Studies: Finnish, Sign Language

 
 Message 58 of 63
31 May 2014 at 10:32pm | IP Logged 
Hello from Georgia! It is absolutely beautiful here. I haven't had much spare time
though. I'm doing a training course that has us doing 40 assignments in two weeks.

I have made some progress in Finnish, managed to understand slightly more than the last
time I watched any hockey. I'm still reading in Russian, so that's still happening. I
haven't had enough time to sit down and watch any films though, other than the World
Championships when they were on.

Total for May:
Russian: 997 pages, 210 minutes
Finnish: 307 minutes.
No pages read in Finnish yet. I'm hoping that once I get back to St. Petersburg, I'll
have a bit more time to myself.

I'm trying to watch the Irony of Fate 2, but it sucks. So far, anyway.
1 person has voted this message useful



Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4845 days ago

2266 posts - 3992 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

 
 Message 59 of 63
07 September 2014 at 11:19pm | IP Logged 
Hey milesaway, how are your studies going? Still doing Russian and Finnish? Would be good to hear from you again.
1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5335 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 60 of 63
08 September 2014 at 7:18am | IP Logged 
Hey, Milesaway - tell us more about Georgia! It is one of the places I would love to go to. And I was not a big
fan of Irony of Fate 2 either when I first saw it, but I assume that by the time I have watched the first film a
couple of times more, I will :-)
1 person has voted this message useful



milesaway
Triglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 4332 days ago

134 posts - 181 votes 
Speaks: French, English*, Russian
Studies: Finnish, Sign Language

 
 Message 61 of 63
08 September 2014 at 7:34am | IP Logged 
Thanks everyone!

I am still studying Russian and Finnish, although I'm not sure I'd really call it
studying in either case. I've worked through some of Assimil, but that's going fairly
slowly. I have also read a few pages in Finnish, so that's something. I'm doing a side
by side read of the Hunger Games in Finnish and in Russian. So far, my understanding
of the Finnish version is pitiful.

As for my Russian, I'm still reading a lot. I plan on sitting down and working through
some textbooks, but mostly I've just been reading. If anyone is following the super
challenge, they'll see that my films column is decidedly lagging behind my books
column.


Georgia was amazing. It's a place that I really want to go back to and visit. I didn't
have a whole lot of free time while I was there, since I was busy with my course the
whole time. I stayed in Tbilisi, and it's a really interesting city. The traffic can
be daunting at times, since there aren't that many crosswalks and drivers don't always
obey the rules. The people were all really nice, and I had no problems getting by with
English and Russian. It was a bit difficult with the Georgian alphabet, although I
tried really hard.
The only Georgian words I managed to pick up were: bread, next station, station
square. Oh, and stop. So...not great.
We went up to the mountains for one night, to Kazbegi. That was gorgeous. We took a
jeep up to the Trinity Church (I think that's the name) on the mountain, which was
spectacular. We wanted to walk, but got to Kazbegi in the evening, and were afraid
that we'd be stuck up there after dark.

The food is great. It's cheap too. I've taken my friends to the Georgian restaurant
near my house several times now, but it's not quite the same.

I brought back some Georgian wine, and my friends loved it. I do not drink, so I can't
say if it was good or not.

If you get a chance, go there! You won't regret it. (Except maybe if it's August and
40 degrees, then you might. It was 30 degrees in May.)
2 persons have voted this message useful



milesaway
Triglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 4332 days ago

134 posts - 181 votes 
Speaks: French, English*, Russian
Studies: Finnish, Sign Language

 
 Message 62 of 63
03 January 2015 at 5:01pm | IP Logged 
It's now 2015, and I hope to put some of the troubles I had in 2014 behind me.

Two days after my last post, I got injured playing hockey and spent 6 weeks on
crutches. After I got back to walking with a brace, the doctor discovered that I had a
blood clot in my leg, so he put me on blood thinners for at least 3 months. Last
month, I had severe problems with both legs, which was discovered to have been caused
by a compressed disc in my back. So while my knee is almost back to normal, I'm still
banned from most physical activity due to the blood thinner, and the risk of internal
bleeding (and subsequent death, which I'd rather avoid).

That said, 2014 did bring some good things, such as trips to Iceland and Georgia. Of
course, it also marked the year I got married.

In terms of study, my Finnish started off quite well, and then promptly collapsed.
It's been gathering dust for quite a while now. That needs to be fixed.

I haven't studied Russian grammar very much, if at all, however I have continued to
devour Russian books, so my vocabulary has continued to grow, along with my
understanding. Using it correctly and quickly in speech is still a work in progress,
but that should come with time (I hope). One would think I'd get a lot of practice
since I live in Russia, but oddly enough, I do not. It's sad actually. Something to
work on this year I suppose.


My intentions and plans for 2015:
-Continue my Russian, and finish that grammar book. I don't know if I'll end up taking
the C1 test, due to work and travel, but I'd still like to complete the book and get
my skills up to snuff.
-Make some progress in Finnish! Something, anything!


The plan:
Russian:
-Continue to read as much as possible.
-Finish my grammar and test preparation books.

Finnish:
-Complete Assimil and Pimsleur
-Read the Hunger Games trilogy. (I have them in both Russian and Finnish, so I do some
side-by-side reading).

Other:
-When bored, look at some Georgian, Icelandic or ASL.
-Dabble in Italian. I sat in on one of the lessons at work and was surprised to
realize that I understood some of it. I was able to read the text and get 75% of it,
which was impressive, given that I have never studied Italian, ever).
2 persons have voted this message useful



Sooniye
Diglot
Groupie
Sweden
Joined 3898 days ago

44 posts - 52 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: Spanish, Danish, Turkish, Japanese, Croatian, Hindi, Hungarian, Albanian

 
 Message 63 of 63
08 January 2015 at 6:51pm | IP Logged 
I hope you will have a year with plenty of good things ahead of you. I am looking forward to
reading your log and follow your progress in Finnish, such a beautiful language!

Best of wishes!


1 person has voted this message useful



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