|
 |
Russian and Spanish through use | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Bradley326 Groupie Joined 5963 days ago 78 posts - 104 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Kazakh, Spanish | Message 1 of 13 29 December 2014 at 6:47am | IP Logged | ||
|
I've always found that the most useful way for me to learn/improve my language
abilities is to just dive in and try using the language. To that effect, I'm going to be writing and recording some short compositions on a variety of topics in my two target languages: Russian and Spanish. I'll post them to Youtube and put links here, hopefully to get some feedback from people more knowledgeable than me regarding my grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. However, even if no one even sees this, I think writing and recording these compositions will be a useful tool in improving my language abilities. That's the gist of this log. Below is a little bit of history about me, but you can feel free to skip it and get right to the Russian/Spanish content in the following posts. I've always been a lover of languages, but I'm not gifted with a great memory for vocabulary or a magic tongue for accurately reproducing accents and nailing pronunciation. For these reasons, I've struggled to really learn languages. In university I majored in modern languages and linguistics for my first degree, with a focus on Russian. This got me to a pretty good high-intermediate level with my Russian after 4 years, at which point I moved abroad and spent just over 2 more years teaching English as a second language in Kazakhstan. Being immersed in the language for so long really brought my Russian up to its highest level. However, I've been back in the U.S. for about 3 years now, and my Russian is beginning to suffer. After teaching ESL in Kazakhstan I decided that's what I want to do for a living, so upon returning to the U.S. I set out to get a master's degree in applied linguistics, which I recently completed. Now I find that as I seek out jobs in the ESL field in the U.S., I'm running into lots of desire by employers for Spanish language ability. I've studied Spanish off-and-on in the past, but I never really reached a high level with it. I was at my best after spending a month in Seville, Spain, in 2009. Since then it's gone fairly steadily downhill. So now I find myself with inadequate Spanish and gradually worsening Russian, and it's time I do something about it. So this log will serve as a tool to raise my abilities in both languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bradley326 Groupie Joined 5963 days ago 78 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Kazakh, Spanish | Message 2 of 13 29 December 2014 at 6:51am | IP Logged | ||
|
Russian Update:
Here is a link to my first composition in Russian: Russian Composition 1 - Museums I posted it on Youtube for ease of listening, as well as a convenient way to consolidate my compositions into one place. If any Russian speakers are reading this, take a listen if you have a minute and let me know if you see/hear any problems with grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation. The video in the link contains both the audio and video (in picture format) as well as a text version of the composition under the "Show More" tab. I'll be doing a Spanish version of this composition soon and posting the link here. Edited by Bradley326 on 29 December 2014 at 6:53am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4021 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 3 of 13 29 December 2014 at 7:32am | IP Logged | ||
Very decent pronunciation, resembles some Southern accents (around Georgia). The language is also quite good, most of the stresses are ok. Not flawless though:
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bradley326 Groupie Joined 5963 days ago 78 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Kazakh, Spanish | Message 4 of 13 29 December 2014 at 4:42pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Thanks Via Diva! I'm not very happy with my Russian pronunciation, as I think it
sounds too...American? I dunno, it just feels weird to me when I'm speaking, but that is probably just because I speak so rarely nowadays that I'm not used to it. Anyway, it's good to know that everything I said is understandable by a native speaker. Thanks for pointing out the small mistakes, too. I wasn't sure about как обычный человек and I think it would have been better to say something like как большинство, которые посещают музей That's the meaning I was trying to get across, but I think I translated too literally from English using обычный человек. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bradley326 Groupie Joined 5963 days ago 78 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Kazakh, Spanish | Message 5 of 13 29 December 2014 at 4:46pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Spanish Update:
Here is a link to my first composition in Spanish, which is also posted to Youtube for ease of listening and consolidation. Spanish Composition 1 - Museums It's a bit shorter than the Russian version, which I think reflects my considerably lower level of Spanish. Again, if any Spanish speakers want to take a minute and listen, I'd appreciate any feedback regarding grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. The video file contains the audio and the text in a graphic format, and there is text version of the composition under "Show More". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4021 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 6 of 13 29 December 2014 at 4:57pm | IP Logged | ||
|
It's okay not to be satisfied (tell me about it), but I can assure you that your pronunciation is good. It is clear (not all Russians speak clearly enough, yours truly is an example of that). It might have been affected by the way
people speak Russian in Kazakhstan (although I don't distinguish between Russians' and Kazakhs' pronunciation, and I get to hear Kazakhs' Russian once in a while). Yeah, большинство is much better. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bradley326 Groupie Joined 5963 days ago 78 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Kazakh, Spanish | Message 7 of 13 30 December 2014 at 5:52pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Russian Update:
Here is a link to my second composition in Russian: Russian Composition 2 Photograph Like before, the video contains the audio and a graphic of my composition, with a text version under "Show More". After just a few days of doing this I can already feel my Russian coming back to me a bit, especially some of the vocabulary that I haven't used in a long time. In addition, I think my mouth/tongue are getting a bit more comfortable with pronouncing the various sounds. I'll have a Spanish composition on this same topic coming sometime in the next day or so. It takes me a lot longer to put together the Spanish compositions because I really have to check the grammar I'm using and look up a lot of words. With Russian, I'm at a high enough level that I can more or less write the whole thing off the top of my head. LOL, and I just noticed a super obvious mistake right after I posted the video: I said я его вижу but I should have said я ее вижу since фотография is feminine. It's always those little mistakes that slip through the cracks! Edited by Bradley326 on 30 December 2014 at 5:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bradley326 Groupie Joined 5963 days ago 78 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Kazakh, Spanish | Message 8 of 13 02 January 2015 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Spanish Update:
Here is a link to my second composition in Spanish: Spanish Composition 2 Photograph Like before, the video contains the audio and a graphic of my written composition, with a text version under "Show More". I'm really enjoying making these, and I can see how it's helping to cement some of the language knowledge in my mind. I'm sure I'm making lots of mistakes, but overall I think it is helpful to use the language. I've been lurking on these forums for a very long time, and I've tried pretty much all of the various methods, strategies, and programs suggested here, without much success. In my personal experience, I've found that the best way for me to learn a language is to just start using it and trouble-shoot any issues I have as they arise. I approach most things in life this way, so I guess that's how my mind works. I might put up another Russian composition this weekend if I have time, otherwise I'll shoot for doing another 2 compositions next week for each language. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
