Die schönste Sprache der Welt (German log)

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
Polyclod
Yellow Belt
Posts: 99
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:46 pm
Location: Texas
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Spanish, French, German (Intermediate)
Learning: Russian
Hit List: Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1181
x 188

Re: Die schönste Sprache der Welt (German log)

Postby Polyclod » Thu Sep 10, 2015 11:29 am

pir wrote:Jürgen Prochnow -- das soll sich wirklich lohnen! Normalerweise mag ich Audiobooks nur für L-R, aber das ist sehr verlockend.



Ja, er ist Hammer! Doch eine kleine Überraschung...im Hörbuch spielt er nicht Herzog Leto (wie im Film) sondern Baron Wladimir Harkonnen. :o Es lohnt sich wirklich, er ist phantastisch. Leider lese er nicht im Der Herr des Wüstenplaneten, aber hoffentlich im Kinder des Wüstenplaneten wird er zurück!
1 x
Bücher:

Star Trek The Next Generation Tod im Winter: 82 / 348

Русский

Assimil Russian: 30 / 100

User avatar
Polyclod
Yellow Belt
Posts: 99
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:46 pm
Location: Texas
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Spanish, French, German (Intermediate)
Learning: Russian
Hit List: Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1181
x 188

Re: Die schönste Sprache der Welt (German log)

Postby Polyclod » Thu Oct 29, 2015 10:46 am

Holy crap, haven't updated this blog in a while. Well, I've been busy, and honestly I wasn't quite ready to write anything because I wasn't exactly sure what my plans were or if they'd change. But now that I've fallen into a steady routine, I feel like I can start making more regular updates.

So as it says in my signature, I started Russian exactly one month ago. I've been using Assimil, which I bought I think about a year ago and then stuck on the shelf. I was so intimidated by Russian and it's reputation as being incredibly difficult that I wanted to wait until I was "finished" with my other languages. But in the end I realized that I'm 31, and I'd like to have gotten a good start on all of the languages I want to learn before I'm 40. I'll constantly be improving my Spanish, French and German just by using them as much as possible, so I might as well tackle Russian while I'm still (relatively) young and able.

And holy shit is Russian tough. I am so happy I took the Assimil approach, it's much less painful...But even with a gentle course like this...holy shit. For the first time in my language studies, I feel the burn. It feels like studying. I don't know what the worst part is, the pronunciation, or the grammar...screw it, ALL of its hard.

And yet...Russian has that certain something that once it has you in it's grip, you can't escape. Maybe I'm just a sadist, but I keep coming back for more. Every morning I wake up, brew some coffee and excitedly start the day's lesson. And within an hour to an hour and a half I feel like my ass was kicked. I limp away, tell myself this language is impossible, that it's too much, etc, etc...and then the next day I come crawling back.

It's a new experience for me. The toughest course so far for me was New French With Ease, and that usually took me between thirty minutes to an hour per lesson. Now I'm spending an hour to an hour and a half per lesson, including time I use to review previous lessons, since nothing seems to stick. Well that's not true, I think I'm doing okay, but everything about this language feels so alien.

Anyways I think I've written enough, I'll continue this post tomorrow when I have more time.
1 x
Bücher:

Star Trek The Next Generation Tod im Winter: 82 / 348

Русский

Assimil Russian: 30 / 100

geoffw
Orange Belt
Posts: 195
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 3:15 pm
Languages: Speak well = English (N), Deutsch
Speak poorly = יידיש (Yiddish), Français
"Speak," I guess = עברית (Hebrew), Русский (Russian), Español, Nederlands, Esperanto
x 338

Re: Die schönste Sprache der Welt (German log)

Postby geoffw » Fri Oct 30, 2015 10:08 am

It WILL get easier! It's a distant memory now, but I can still remember my first attempts at Russian, using a Pimsleur teaser course. The consonant clusters were a huge adjustment. It seemed impossible to ever pronounce words like где, even.

Assimil is great, but I also found it shockingly difficult to get started with. For French and Italian, my usual routine with the lessons worked fine. For Russian, I ended up doubling the number of times through the lessons, and then listening to them randomly throughout the day. I dropped Assimil for a while (I'd started it as part of a 6WC), but later came back to it after doing some extensive reading, and it finally seemed relatively easy.

And FWIW, Duolingo Russian is supposedly complete and due out in Beta imminently.
0 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests