Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian/Welsh)

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Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Wed Sep 01, 2021 7:26 am

END OF MONTH WRAP-UP

Looking back, I appear to have failed all of my goals for the month! I don't think this accurately reflects how I've been doing however, just that I've been doing different things.

German: I wanted to read a Krimi, but didn't. I've been so bad at reading. The weather has not helped at all - every time I had some free time, it was grey/cold/raining so I didn't sit outside with a book. And otherwise the curse of low concentration has continued. I also didn't quite get an hour of listening a day in, though I only missed out by just under two hours. I'd say I must do better, but we shall see. I suppose picking up a book rather than my phone would be a start...

Portuguese: I've continued with classes, homework and podcasts but haven't read my book much. I got a bit further in it towards the beginning of the month, but then started to find it so much of a trudge that I didn't want to get back to it. In any case, I think articles read intensively might be the better way to go. Generally I feel my Portuguese is in a weird place - it is *fine* but not much more than that. I don't know why, nor what to do about it. I do have someone to use the language with, but with the weird times we are living in, that's not quite the opportunity it might otherwise be. I think just continuing to plod on will be enough of a goal for me with the language for the time being. I've spent over 300 hours with the language so far (this year and ever), so I have been putting some degree of effort in.

Russian: I've spent quite some time over the past couple of months trying to sort out new classes, and have basically failed in that attempt. Instead I've been working more independently. I've made good progress on verbs of motion, so even though I haven't got through my B1.2 book as I'd wanted, I have (I hope) solidified my understanding on a topic covered in it. I already set out in my last post how I want to take things forward. On top of that list, I also have my verb drills to go through. This is another area of weakness: I'm not actually too bad on getting aspect right, but knowing the right conjugation doesn't always follow... It will also continue to make me focus on stress, which is definitely much needed too. Reading in Russian hasn't happened, but I have very nearly finished another book in English about Russia. I'm at over 400 hours spent on Russian this year so far, so, again, I've been trying!
8 x

Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Mon Sep 13, 2021 9:25 am

13 September update

I've missed an update because I took some time off. I still did bits and pieces but it was nice to have a break. I can't say I'm ready to be told it's time to get back onto overcrowded public transport though!

I have more or less managed to keep up with my German listening. An imminent election is providing lots of material!

I did a few Portuguese classes but generally just did the bare minimum. Still moving in the right direction though!

I found that keeping up with my Russian pronunciation work was fairly easy to do without losing that holiday feeling... I've now been through all of the explanatory videos in the course and have done the (30+) audio drill exercises on the vowels multiple times. There are definitely some words I am not saying correctly, but at least I am getting a better understanding of what I am trying to say. I do wonder why a lot of this never came up before. However, I think that this course is a perfect fit for me, in that a clear framework is precisely what I need to understand, so perhaps it's just a case of me having found explanations and exercises that work for me, as against an approach in the past that clearly didn't.

I also finished the (very long) chapter in Let's Improve our Russian on verbs of motion. Having done so I'm feeling quite solid on choosing the correct verb. I'm now committing the conjugations to memory. The audio verb drills course is helping a lot here. It divides all Russian verbs into 15 categories, with a few irregular verbs that don't fit into any of them, and tells you which category all of the most common Russian verbs fall into. I've sorted the verbs of motion I'm learning into these categories, and it's really helped me to memorise them, because once I know which category I'm dealing with, the conjugation follows (apart from the stress, of course...). The video explanations have also given useful pointers on the formation of the past tense, which I've been able to apply. I've got about ten of the verbs of motion pairs off by heart now, so not much more to go. I'm holding back on moving forward until I've got these memorised. I'll then have to decide if I also want to try to memorise the idiomatic expressions using the verbs of motion before moving on. I think maybe I do - I really feel I need to solidify my base before getting distracted by new material that I will again only learn partially. There is also definitely a synergistic effect going on, with pronunciation rules coming up in verb conjugations. I'm thinking it might be some time before I go back to moving forward in my coursebook, as I think this kind of review would be worth doing for participles/gerunds, reflexive verbs, numerals... Russian really is a bit of a beast!

I also read a couple of books about Russia in English. My pile of books hasn't decreased though, as I bought two books in the excitement of being able to browse in a proper bookshop again...

Separately, I signed up (very late!) for the polyglot fitness challenge. Since then I've kept up with my sub-goals of doing three lots of training a week, mobility every day, and Russian pronunciation practice every day. I'm working towards a competition next month (which is the main fitness goal), and think I should have got through my pronunciation course by that date too (which is the main language goal).
10 x

Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Mon Sep 20, 2021 8:46 am

I think I've lost my language learning mojo... It's not been the most productive of weeks.

German - I did actually keep up with my hour a day of listening.

Portuguese - Just the essentials, though some of that required vocab learning so I spent some time going through flashcards.

Russian - I did some stuff: pronunciation practice on five days, audio verb drills on four days, watching various videos. However, I was mainly getting annoyed with myself for not being able to make sounds that I can hear. I'm also questioning whether I am getting anywhere!

Doing the verb drills, I do have my full list of 15 verb of motion pairs memorised (except for getting the stress wrong in some cases - this is a work in progress as there are no rules...). I also started reading through a chapter midway through Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced (that I went to because I wanted to see how it dealt with prefixed verbs of motion), and was cheered slightly by the fact that I could understand almost everything in the texts I read in that chapter. I've been hesitating going back to my B1.2 textbook as it doesn't mark stress and at the moment I feel I really need to continue focusing on it in combination with going through the pronunciation course. So although this will mean chopping and changing a bit, I'm going to go through the chapter in Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced properly next - this book does mark stress and the chapter will continue to reinforce verbs of motion. I might have to find a tutor who can correct written work I produce - I have been scared off a tutor for the moment for other things, but corrections done asynchronously would be helpful!

I also did some flashcards (from the last quarter of my A2 course that mainly dealt with verbs of motion - spotting a theme yet?!). Most of the words were familiar, which was good. I think I'm going to make flashcards from Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced because this book, like my A1 and A2 books did, has vocab lists at the end of each chapter. I tend not to like flashcards, but I definitely do need repetition, and I've found less painful ways to review flashcards now.

Polyglot fitness challenge - this took a bit of hit this week too, because I sprained a muscle that caused excruciating pain for a few days (thankfully it is now easing and should recover soon). I did work out three days in the week (albeit one that was a bit of a write-off given how interlinked all our muscles are!) and did mobility on six out of the seven days. As noted above, I did my pronunciation practice on only five of the seven days - I don't know why I set daily goals, as I know from past experience that trying to do something every.single.day does not work for me!
9 x

Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
x 1611

Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Mon Sep 27, 2021 6:55 am

I feel as though I'm going to repeat myself here: it's not been the most productive of weeks again, with various other things coming up!

German - just the regular listening. The post-election analysis last night wasn't interesting enough to keep me engaged for long! I am planning on listening to the special episode of Die Lage der Nation tonight, though.

Portuguese - again, just the normal classes + homework.

Russian - more pronunciation practice: I've finished the course now and done all the exercises at least once, racking up a total of 23 hours in so doing. I'm planning on continuing to work on the exercises, however, in an attempt to get patterns more automatic and to improve my articulation of them. I read somewhere online that in a university course students spent 70 hours on pronunciation (I forget where this information came from!) so I figure that tripling the time I've spent so far wouldn't be excessive.

I also continued to work with Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced. I realised that the accompanying website has a whole manner of goodies on it... There are Quizlet flashcards for each chapter, and I started learning the vocab from the chapter I'm working on. There are also online vocab tests - I did one of them and got 100% ;-). There are also transcripts for the video excerpts, which was useful when I understood very little of the one I listened to... I listened several times after I'd been through unknown vocab from the transcript, which I hope will help me improve. And finally there are answers to the questions in the book. I read a few passages and did some of the exercises following them. They felt slightly repetitive at the time, but I think did help to draw my attention to stuff I'd read and thought I'd understood but was glossing over a little.

For my verb practice, I moved to verbs that take the dative, as this topic is covered in the chapter of the above book that I've chosen to work through. I started to note which of the groups each of the verbs falls into, and noted stress. I then tried a few exercises from Let's Improve our Russian. It's a total memory overload but it felt useful. I found that I am getting better at conjugating verbs in the imperative now I'm focusing more on conjugations and stress (the imperative formative requiring you to know both the third person plural and where the stress falls on the first person singular).

Polyglot fitness challenge - because of my injured shoulder I missed one training session. I also missed two stretching sessions because of life! I did do pronunciation practice every day though :-).
6 x

Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
x 1611

Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Mon Oct 04, 2021 8:52 am

END OF MONTH WRAP-UP

I've been delaying posting this as I wasn't feeling very positive and didn't want to be negative. I'll keep it short.

German: I kept up my hour's listening each day but did nothing else.

Portuguese: I spent just under 30 hours on the language, comprising classes, homework, and podcasts again. I did some targeted vocabulary study too. I got a bit frustrated with my ability to forget stuff again and again, but otherwise all fine.

Russian: I did just over 43 hours of work, comprising vocab, pronunciation, verb drills, watching videos, listening to podcasts, working with a course book, and working with a grammar book. I also finished a book in English about Russia (which takes me to 16 books read this year). I *think* I've noticed an improvement in my understanding of podcasts, albeit the Russian with Max ones (that are around a B1 level, I think).

Polyglot fitness challenge: challenges really don't work for me! I'm on track with the overall goals (fingers crossed re: shoulder), but I feel I've slacked on the sub-goals.

THIS MONTH
I've tried to make a better start to the month. I've started (again) another Krimi by Andreas Foehr: Schafkopf. I'm a quarter of the way through already - it's a quick read. I'm keeping up with the listening and will supplement with this reading of Krimis.

Realistically I don't have more time to give Portuguese than I'm already giving it, but I need to make sure I use some of that time to review class work a little more.

I also want to get through the chapter in Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced that I'm currently working on. It's a lot of work, as it's very dense and I'm being pretty thorough. It's quite an interesting chapter, though, about different towns in Russia. I will finally be writing stuff in Russian again soon, too, and might post it here for accountability.
6 x

Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Mon Oct 04, 2021 3:29 pm

I wrote something - corrections welcome if anyone would like to :-). It was meant to be a blog post about my home town. It's not all true, by the way ;-)

[removed so I can get someone to check this for me without thinking I've plagiarised myself ;-)]
Last edited by Caromarlyse on Wed Oct 27, 2021 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
x 1611

Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Mon Oct 11, 2021 8:13 am

I got back into the swing of things a bit this week. However, I've got a professional development-type course coming up, which is looking as though it will take far more time than advertised, so things might get tricky again after this week.

German: I'm about 70% of the way through my book. It's starting to feel a little same-y (it's the third in a series, and some of the "jokes" about the traits of the main characters are wearing a bit thin already), but I'm still enjoying it enough to persevere, and I do feel I'm picking up vocabulary too. I also listened to my usual hour a day of podcasts. I tried out a new podcast - Frisch an die Arbeit - but I wasn't entirely convinced. People talking about their work can sometimes end up being a bit self-congratulatory for my taste.

Portuguese: just the usual (though when I say classes + prep for classes, my prep is quite wide-ranging, and involves revision plus coming up with new stuff to talk about), but my brain had a good Portuguese week and seemed willing to cooperate ;-)

Russian: I did loads of work from my Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced book (which, as a reminder, isn't really all that advanced!). It's definitely helping having a chapter that is 50-odd pages long, because the vocabulary is repeated multiple times in written and oral form. I also watched a Russian with Max video about Krasnodar, which ended up tying in really nicely with this chapter (on towns and cities). I'm finding all the accompanying material on the website helpful too - I used their flashcards some more and did some of their online vocab and grammar tests for this chapter. There are some speed-reading tests for the chapter online too, which I'm intrigued by, but I want to get through all of the chapter in the paper book first before attempting these. I also listened to a Russian with Max podcast about space, which I felt I followed pretty well.

Polyglot fitness challenge: I fully completed the fitness bit of this challenge this week (though I still don't know if my injury will be properly healed in time), but I slacked on my Russian pronunciation work... I just need to start going back through exercises so I don't really know why I'm procrastinating here. I'll try telling myself I just need to do one exercise a day, and see if that does the trick...
5 x

Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
x 1611

Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Mon Oct 18, 2021 10:45 am

Another week when some external stresses came up, which knocked me off course a little. I also got my course material, and had to make a start on some of that. I'm a bit disappointed so far, but we'll see how it progresses. However, I still did the following:

German: I finished reading Schafkopf and have started the next in the series, Karwoche. I also did my usual listening, adding in some videos from the DW Deutsch youtube channel (a couple of the 45-minute-long ones) and from MrWissen2Go. The reading seems to cause German to float around in my brain more than (just?) listening does. I'm now at 128% of a super challenge with German reading (I'm tracking very unofficially).

Portuguese: All just ticking along. Nothing really of note to report.

Russian: I continued to work through my textbook chapter, revised vocab again, did some of the exercises online... I found the grammar exercises online helpful, as although I'd already done them on paper, I'd clearly not absorbed everything fully; the online exercises flagged this, and then seem to have reinforced the points quite well. I also attempted a couple of the speed reading exercises, but I ended up focusing more on the clock ticking down than scanning the texts... I'm going to have to try again. I also listened to some podcasts and watched some videos. I ended up coming across the word уничтожить (to destroy, eradicate, annihilate) in two contexts; it's always nice when that happens.

Polyglot fitness challenge: I'm trying! The fitness element got thrown off a bit by the external stuff, but only to the extent that one session ended up being of a lesser quality than it should have been, not that it didn't happen. However, I've still not got back to the Russian pronunciation :? I suppose I do have until the end of the year...
5 x

Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
x 1611

Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Mon Oct 25, 2021 12:16 pm

I had a really busy week, with my professional development course, work being a pain and then my sports competition. As mentioned in the polyglot fitness challenge thread, I came fifth. My aim was just to get through it, which I did, more or less according to plan (and even when I had to go off piste a bit, it still more or less worked out). All in all, I'm pleased. I'm also starting today to feel less like a bus has hit me, which is also good ;-)

Languages therefore had to take a bit of a back seat. I did come across the singer/band (?) Christine and the Queens, in particular the performance of the song Tilted on Jools Holland a few years ago (available on YouTube). Only some of the lyrics are in French so it doesn't really count as language learning, but I was blown away by the creativity of it so thought it worth a mention.

I still read quite a bit of my latest German Krimi - I'm about halfway through now. And I watched quite a few MrWissen2Go videos and listened to my usual rotation of podcasts.

Portuguese continued as usual. Tbh I think I can speak better without also trying to speak Russian at the same time, though of course the flip side of that is that I feel I'm forgetting my Russian. Argh!

Russian got a bit less of a look in, as it requires more brain power, which I just didn't have too much this week. I am on track, though, to finish the chapter in my textbook by the end of the month. In my wisdom, I left most of the heavy writing tasks till last, so I'm ploughing through those...
8 x

Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
x 1611

Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Tue Oct 26, 2021 10:27 am

Putting this quote here as I love it and I've finally found it again: from this page https://jamesclear.com/zanshin

"... We live in a world obsessed with results. Like Herrigel, we have a tendency to put so much emphasis on whether or not the arrow hits the target. If, however, we put that intensity and focus and sincerity into the process—where we place our feet, how we hold the bow, how we breathe during the release of the arrow—then hitting the bullseye is simply a side effect.

The point is not to worry about hitting the target. The point is to fall in love with the boredom of doing the work and embrace each piece of the process. The point is to take that moment of zanshin, that moment of complete awareness and focus, and carry it with you everywhere in life.

It is not the target that matters. It is not the finish line that matters. It is the way we approach the goal that matters. Everything is aiming. Zanshin."
7 x


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