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

[brilliantyears]

(Yes, I know out of these three languages Russian is probably the one where you don't necessarily have to use that construction, but it happens regularly anyway and that's why the explanation showed up in my grammar exercises).

True, and if I were feeling pedantic I would argue there are subtle differences in nuance between constructions like "на столе есть книга", "на столе книга" "книга на столе", "книга лежит на столе", etc.

We have the same type of nuances/constructions (different but comparable) in Dutch so I think I sort of get it

Also, that story

[brilliantyears]

SC update:

Japanese (half challenge)
Reading: 7 books, 349 pages (total)

Watching: 35.1 films, 3,158 minutes (total)
17 Aug 2018 マイドリーム大作戦！7話 (ポッドキャスト) 5 minutes
17 Aug 2018 マイドリーム大作戦！8話 (ポッドキャスト) 5 minutes
17 Aug 2018 マイドリーム大作戦！9話 (ポッドキャスト) 5 minutes
19 Aug 2018 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン s1e12 24 minutes
19 Aug 2018 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン s1e13 24 minutes

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Russian (half challenge)
Reading: 1.4 books, 71 pages (total)

Watching: 33.6 films, 3,025 minutes (total)
14 Aug 2018 Бал Вампиров (Мюзикл, 2017) 51 minutes
15 Aug 2018 slow russian (podcast) 60 minutes
17 Aug 2018 slow russian (podcast) 16 minutes
18 Aug 2018 slow russian (podcast) 11 minutes
18 Aug 2018 slow russian (podcast) 18 minutes
19 Aug 2018 Операция «Ы» и другие приключения Шурика

I hadn't realised I didn't do any reading the past week Ok, not entirely true, I spent some time writing Russian and chatting on iTalki, but no reading for the Super Challenge...

I had a bit of an odd week. I didn't have any plans but ended up being pretty busy anyway. I didn't watch a lot for the Super Challenge, but I did a lot of biking and so had plenty of time to listen to podcasts. I started the Slow Russian podcast and am really enjoying it. I still only understand maybe half of the simpler stories, but the content is really interesting and the narrator has a pleasant voice. I may or may not pick up the transcripts.

[Tristano]

Кухня ? False friend or is it something about kitchen?

[brilliantyears]

Кухня ? False friend or is it something about kitchen?

Something about a kitchen, yes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_(TV_series)

[Tristano]

Funny
So now I know how to write kitchen in Russian, thanks to Bulgarian

[tarvos]

(Yes, I know out of these three languages Russian is probably the one where you don't necessarily have to use that construction, but it happens regularly anyway and that's why the explanation showed up in my grammar exercises).

True, and if I were feeling pedantic I would argue there are subtle differences in nuance between constructions like "на столе есть книга", "на столе книга" "книга на столе", "книга лежит на столе", etc.

We have the same type of nuances/constructions (different but comparable) in Dutch so I think I sort of get it

Also, that story

I had to laugh too XD

[brilliantyears]

6 Week Challenge update time!

6WCweek3.jpg

Nothing spectacular to say about the past week. Still doing well on the challenge! Studied 101 new words the past week. Wrote down most of the aspect pair verbs from my Paspoort voor Rusland textbook because damn, I keep having trouble remembering which is which.

The speaking was Russian bingo (lotto) with study group An excellent way to practice your numbers (and get very, very drunk on shady cocktails - as was obvious the next day, with only 20 minutes of studying )

More interestingly, I'm now halfway through the challenge. Here's the stats so far:

6WCweek1-3.jpg

(Annoyingly it no longer matches up exactly with my 6WC page and it's bothering me a lot )

What have I accomplished so far? I studied 376 new words in the past three weeks. Reached the next checkpoint in Duolingo. And a lot of undefinable not-exactly-goals. Most of all, I feel a little more comfortable with Russian, and a lot more comfortable studying on my own.

Still, I feel like I need to make a plan for the last three weeks. By the end of the challenge I want to feel like there are things I can 'do', create language islands basically. I will focus on Russian that's immediately useful to me. Set expressions. Language exchange. Travel related vocabulary. Things like that.

Obviously I'll also continue Memrise and probably Duolingo (I ruined my Duo streak today because I'm a fool a bummer for my motivation).

[brilliantyears]

I just had my first Russian-Dutch language exchange via Skype and oh man, I feel so bad for my exchange partner I was terrible! First of all we moved it forward by an hour by accident and I wasn't prepared at all. Then I thought we were just going to discuss how we were going to set up the actual exchange, but she ruthlessly made me speak I really cannot string together a proper sentence under (self induced mental) pressure, which sucks (because I know I can be comprehensible - flashback to Ukraine). She was super nice about it though.
We're talking again on Friday, and now I plan to come prepared

I've also started another Dutch-Russian exchange of sorts that might be super interesting. We'll see how it goes.

I definitely have to figure out something to make myself speak properly, and asap. Speaking is such a large gap in my Russian ability and it freaks me out to be honest. I've been eyeing the TPRS method ever since I started listening to the Slow Russian podcast. The host talks about it regularly, and has her own TPRS programme. Maybe that's a good first step??

I've also been chatting (not voice chatting) a lot through iTalki and Tandem in the past week and that's been going surprisingly alright.

So that's Russian. As for Japanese: I had a 'business' meeting with someone on Wednesday and spoke easily and fluently for over an hour. Easy topic of conversation (food), but still. I'm so glad Japanese doesn't seem to leave me, even if I speak it so rarely.

[brilliantyears]

SC update:

Japanese (half challenge)
Reading: 7 books, 349 pages (total)

Watching: 36.2 films, 3,254 minutes (total)
25 Aug 2018 ルパン三世 カリオストロの城 96 minutes

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Russian (half challenge)
Reading: 1.9 books, 78 pages (total)
25 Aug 2018 Кухня s1e10 7 pages

Watching: 36.2 films, 3,262 minutes (total)
21 Aug 2018 slow russian (podcast) 23 minutes
23 Aug 2018 Стиляги 136 minutes
25 Aug 2018 slow russian (podcast) 15 minutes
25 Aug 2018 slow russian (podcast) 19 minutes
25 Aug 2018 Кухня s1e10 25 minutes
26 Aug 2018 slow russian (podcast) 19 minutes

Nothing interesting to say about the past week. Except maybe: I'm so used to nothing being easily available in Japanese, and watching stuff can be such a hassle. And then there's Russian, and everything's just on YouTube (with subtitles even) Legal or not, no idea *cough* but I'm so used to Japanese videos being taken down within an hour.

[brilliantyears]

Very late with my 6WC update... But I have been studying a lot, and I really feel I'm progressing, even if progress only means becoming more comfortable with the language. As for study hours: I'm still constantly in the top 6 of target scores, and I consider places 3-6 my 'pack'

In the final two weeks I plan to focus mostly on speaking and pronunciation, since that's were my skills are seriously lacking and I think that's pretty bad after a year of classes

In the past week I've started TPRS. Basically simple, ridiculous stories, with dumb questions that you answer out loud in order to force your brain to be able to respond in Russian in a timely manner. I think it's surprisingly helpful. I don't need to be an absolutely amazing speaker any time soon! I just want to spare my conversation partner the long wait and many "ehm.."s when I'm trying to reply to whatever they say.
Besides this podcast (from the same maker as Slow Russian), there are also a bunch of videos available on YouTube.

I've also started another tried-and-tested method. I realised the method we used in Korean class (almost 2 years ago already time flies) really worked for me. Our teacher spent a lot of time on conversational skills, amounting to the following:

- Repeat sentences from the textbook over and over in class
- Answer questions from the teacher... again and again and again ("What time did you have breakfast? What time do you go to work? What time do you study? What time..." and then listen to all your classmates answer comparable questions)
- Memorise sentences and conversations from the book at home, in order to be able to present/perform them in class
- Record ourselves as homework, send the recordings to the teacher, then get feedback and comments in class

The result was that almost all of us, even those who were struggling a lot with Korean in general, were able to speak relatively easily. Once that skill is in your system, it's fairly easy to adapt whatever conversation you are having to something more natural/relevant.
Soooooo that's what I'm going to try with Russian, albeit all by my lonesome. I've been making a compilation of relevant sentences and mini conversations, and I plan on practising those every day until I know them by heart and can say them out loud without even thinking about it. I also hope I can gather enough courage to record this and present it to one of my language exchange partners, or even practice real time

So that's my plan for the final bit of the 6 Week Challenge. Hopefully all of this will erase at least some of my shyness, self-doubt and mental blockage when I'm having an actual conversation with someone