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Assimil lesson becomes Sisyphean task | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| chokofingrz Pentaglot Senior Member England Joined 4984 days ago 241 posts - 430 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Japanese, Catalan, Luxembourgish | Message 9 of 14 19 July 2014 at 8:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Speaking of Sisyphean tasks, I think you'll find that when you get to lesson 50, they tell you to revise an earlier lesson after every new lesson you do. So, you are now faced with not 50 remaining lessons, but 100. (And after 100 they tell you to do the last 50 over again.)
I don't like goalposts that move. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5140 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 10 of 14 19 July 2014 at 10:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't approach language like mathematics. Mastering a given lesson (least of all phonetics!) is not a prerequisite for continued learning. Keep reading and listening to the language, and eventually you'll forget a particular hurdle even existed.
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| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4483 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 11 of 14 20 July 2014 at 2:41pm | IP Logged | ||
In my book that's the lesson on days of the week. Did you just start recently with Russian (e.g., a few weeks ago)? I have not had similar problems with Assimil Russian, but I remember starting out with Pimsleur Russian over 10 years ago (I haven't studied Russian very diligently) and being blown away by the consonant clusters. I think it's a bit like physical training for strength, endurance, coordination, etc. You just need time and continued exposure, and your brain will adjust. It just can't absorb a whole new phonetic system in one go; it wants to take it slow. I suggest just stumbling through as best you can and keep moving forward. When you come back to it later, you may be surprised to find that what one seemed impossible has gotten easier. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4463 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 12 of 14 20 July 2014 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Consonant clusters are difficult in any language:
1. In English: biRDS THaT FLy, THE TRuTH'S THere, ... cloTHES THE GRass.. 2. In Swedish: Örnsköldsvik, västkustskt 3. In Croatian: zelenortski, Tvrtko Etc. Edited by Medulin on 20 July 2014 at 6:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5660 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 13 of 14 20 July 2014 at 9:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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The pronunciation lessons of the Princeton Russian course are really great:
http://cytrussian.tuxfamily.org/ For the consonant clusters, i think all you can really do is say them over and over slowly, sometimes it might help to add a vowel in front and slowly take that away. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| apache güero Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4182 days ago 12 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian, German | Message 14 of 14 21 July 2014 at 3:43am | IP Logged | ||
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All this advice motivated me. I decided to rip that lesson from my CD, put it in Audacity and create mp3 files for each word, then build up to sentences. It was a lot of work but I survived. I rewarded myself by watching a Russian film (9th Company) and was amazed at how many words I could make out after just a month of Assimil. I can see why so many people are fans on here.
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