日本語 + Русский + norsk (part 1, CLOSED)

[brilliantyears]

No worries! I really appreciate the recommendation, no matter how often

[brilliantyears]

Just copying my Super Challenge sign up and some other useful information here:

Language: Japanese
Challenge: Japanese half
Current level: JLPT N2~N1
Comments, links: I joined for Japanese before but failed miserably on the reading part (and at some point forgot to register things for the movie part ). I doubt I'll be able to get through the reading part this time around but we'll see. I really need to maintain my Japanese.

Language: Russian
Challenge: Half
Current level: A1.2 (at best)
Comments, links: I want to improve as much as I can as quickly as possible, so along with my classes this will be a good challenge to join (guess I'll have to find kids' books at first though ).

Challenge	Book Pages/day	Film Min:sec/day
Half	4.10	7:23
Full	8.20	14:45
Double	16.40	29:30

[tarvos]

I used both Dutch and English materials. It's just - what does the job at the time you need it to be done? And a lot of stuff is just really only learnable by going to Russia, I find.

[brilliantyears]

And a little Super Challenge update after the first week (not full week, but I'll go with it).

I started enthusiastically and I'm quite satisfied after this first week

Japanese (half challenge)
Reading: 1.2 books, 62 pages
02 May 2018 ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石 7 pages
02 May 2018 レズビアン的結婚生活 13 pages
04 May 2018 レズビアン的結婚生活 8 pages
05 May 2018 レズビアン的結婚生活 16 pages
05 May 2018 ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石 18 pages

Watching: 2.9 films, 264 minutes
02 May 2018 aggretsuko s1e1 15 minutes
02 May 2018 aggretsuko s1e2 15 minutes
02 May 2018 aggretsuko s1e3 15 minutes
05 May 2018 aggretsuko s1e4 15 minutes
05 May 2018 aggretsuko s1e5 15 minutes
05 May 2018 aggretsuko s1e6 15 minutes
06 May 2018 宝塚歌劇団星組公演「スカーレット・ピンパーネル」 174 minutes

I got a lot more reading done than I thought. Reading was definitely my weak spot during the previous challenge. I finally feel motivated enough to finish Harry Potter (which I started reading... 2 years ago?), and I picked up some manga. I'm not a manga person, but I might become one...
I started watching Aggretsuko. But much better than that: I felt inspired to dust off my old Takarazuka dvds and watched The Scarlet Pimpernel. Best 174 minutes of my day I forgot how much I love Takarazuka! And it's excellent listening practice.

Russian (half challenge)
Reading: 0.1 books, 4 pages
02 May 2018 Паспорт в Россию 4 pages

Watching: 4.2 films, 380 minutes
02 May 2018 Питер fm
02 May 2018 Нюхач s2e1 60 minutes
02 May 2018 Нюхач s2e2 60 minutes
02 May 2018 leningrad 110 minutes
05 May 2018 Нюхач s2e3 60 minutes

Only read a few (text filled) pages from my text book. Less than two weeks until the final exam!
I continued watching Нюхач and watched two movies in between. I need to find some more Russian series

[brilliantyears]

I used both Dutch and English materials. It's just - what does the job at the time you need it to be done? And a lot of stuff is just really only learnable by going to Russia, I find.

Agreed, agreed and agreed

[brilliantyears]

Random moment of delight when I realised how well Russian and Japanese go together! At least, when it comes to studying.

I mean, after Japanese I started learning Mandarin and then Korean. Both languages really halted my progress in Japanese. I just wasn't able to combine them with Japanese at all and had to put Japanese on hold almost completely. I couldn't study them at the same time, not the same day, not even the same week or month. My brain simply refused.

Korean and Mandarin didn't actively harm my Japanese (thankfully - my N2+ level didn't go down), but I also clearly wasn't advancing. I really had to decide: focus on the new language (Mandarin, later Korean), or focus on the language I really truly love (Japanese, always Japanese)?

It's a bit frustrating to think about how far I could have come with Japanese if I hadn't spent 3-4 years learning interfering languages. At the same time, even if in reality I've completely dropped both Mandarin and Korean, I don't regret learning them. I've become much better at learning languages, that's for sure.

But Russian! Such a perfect combination with Japanese! Neither language hinders the other. I couldn't be happier There really is a future for me and Russian, and Japanese finally doesn't accuse me of cheating

[brilliantyears]

Celebrating the small victories:
I realised I should take the hurdle of producing Russian and just get on with it. So I brought my old Lang-8 account back to life and actually wrote a (short, minimal, error ridden) post in Russian. I don't care how many errors there were, I'm pretty happy and learned at least 5 new useful things writing it

Then I decided to write a (much longer) message in Japanese too. It's been a while but thankfully it's still a breeze.

I wonder if Lang-8 is the best place to drop these posts though. I want the corrections and input, but the site seems pretty dead (compared to 5 or so years ago)

[tarvos]

Ja, lang8 zou ik ook even links laten liggen. Ik gebruik normaal gesproken eigenlijk alleen professionele docenten om mijn teksten te corrigeren (het meeste van wat je op mijn blog ziet is ergens wel door iemand gecorrigeerd van tevoren. Sommige ook niet, daar kun je de fouten tellen )

Maar je kunt ook de functies van iTalki gebruiken, volgens mij zijn die actiever. Maar als ik aan schrijfwerk begin probeer ik meestal wat langere teksten te schrijven, dan worden het korte opstellen of betogen.

[brilliantyears]

Ik heb nu wel wat reacties gehad op mijn Lang-8 posts, dus er zit nog een kleeeeiinn beetje leven in. Daar feedback krijgen is niet ideaal maar beter dan niets Betaal je voor iTalki niet voor alles? Ik ben ultra-cheap en probeer eigenlijk alles gratis te doen (behalve m'n cursus Russisch dan...)

Super Challenge update!

Japanese (half challenge)
Reading: 1.7 books, 84 pages (total)
09 May 2018 ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石 7 pages
10 May 2018 ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石 9 pages
12 May 2018 ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石 6 pages

Watching: 8.5 films, 763 minutes (total)
09 May 2018 aggretsuko s1e7 15 minutes
09 May 2018 aggretsuko s1e8 15 minutes
10 May 2018 小さいおうち 136 minutes
10 May 2018 aggretsuko s1e9 15 minutes
11 May 2018 aggretsuko s1e10 15 minutes
13 May 2018 宝塚歌劇団星組公演「ロミオとジュリエット」 153 minutes
13 May 2018 弟の夫 s1e1 50 minutes
13 May 2018 弟の夫 s1e2 50 minutes
13 May 2018 弟の夫 s1e3 50 minutes

I haven't spent a lot of actual time on reading this week, but I'm starting to read faster
I finished watching Aggretsuko, watched a movie (小さいおうち which was good but not mindblowingly so) and dusted off yet another old Takarazuka DVD. Romeo and Juliet this time. I forgot how easy to follow that musical is! Lots of plain language and few difficult words or sentences (and no French revolution - that generally helps).
But my favourite thing I watched this week was 弟の夫 (My Brother's Husband), a drama based on a manga by Gengoroh Tagame (his other work is extremely NSFW, so Google at your own risk). It was much better than I dared dream (and not gonna lie, I cried ). I had to watch without subs, but I expected I wouldn't need them and I was right about that Out of the three episodes, there were only 2-3 lines that I didn't quite catch the first time around. Everything else I understood 100%. Sure, lots of plain language, but I'll still count that as a victory. I know my Japanese is fine, but I don't usually have the confidence to watch unsubbed things. If the Super Challenge can change that, I'll be quite content.

Russian (half challenge)
Reading: 0.1 books, 4 pages (total)

Watching: 6.2 films, 554 minutes (total)
09 May 2018 Нюхач s2e4 60 minutes
11 May 2018 Страна Глухих 114 minutes

Didn't read any Russian this past week but I spent a lot of time studying. The exam is next week and after that I've got time to do whatever I want
I did continue watching Нюхач, and I watched Страна Глухих (thank you for the recommendation, MamaPata!).

[MamaPata]

What did you think of it? I really liked it but I watched it a few years ago.

Good luck with the exam! The end is in sight!