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

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Caromarlyse
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Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Thu Sep 01, 2022 9:28 am

AUGUST REVIEW

Monthly totals
French: 23.32 hours
German: 6.72 hours
Portuguese: 6.88 hours
Russian: 103.63 hours

French: I read Les impatientes by Djaïli Amadou Amal, which was very readable from a language perspective but pretty harrowing in terms of content! I have now started Tout le bleu du ciel by Mélissa da Costa. It is 840 pages long but in a few days I've got a quarter of the way through because I'm enjoying it a lot. Again, the premise is a bit depressing (young man with early onset dementia takes himself on a road trip with a stranger), but I'm actually finding it very calming and uplifting. I have also listened to a lot - I wanted to get back on track with the listening portion of my personal super challenge, and I made it! I'm going to try not to get so behind again. The news on TV5 monde should be a nice regular thing I can listen to given I still haven't found anything that regularly hits the spot. I do enjoy some of the Géopolitique podcasts, but it very much depends on the topic choice - my interest can wane sometimes if the topic isn't of a huge amount of interest for me. Ditto really for Le téléphone sonne and various true crime podcasts. Anyway, overall I'm pleased that I've stopped the neglect that I had kind of been showing French.

German: Again, not much, for the same reasons as next month - principally, I was so far ahead in terms of my personal super challenge that my efforts were needed elsewhere. I do think I'll pick up a German book again, though, once I've finished the French one mentioned above. And it looks like ZDF Magazin Royale should start up again tomorrow night after the (really long!) summer break, which should be good.

Portuguese: I finished 3% and then listened to quite a lot of (news) podcasts so as to make up my listening deficit. Reading didn't happen though :shock:

Russian: Lots! I was feeling positive, but in the past few days I've been feeling a bit frustrated again, so this update has fallen at a bad time.

I'm getting frustrated with being given B1 material that only gives me grammar that I know already (and would know if standing on my head in a howling gale) and gives me texts (audio and written) that I can understand almost entirely (i.e. there is only the odd word that is new but the meaning is 100% clear). Admittedly, there is some new vocab in this material (all the names of wider family members, like the mother of your husband, the mother of your wife, the husband of your wife's sister; nationalities that I haven't had cause to use much; and such like), but I'm starting to feel a bit bored. I wonder whether there is a fundamental pedagogical question here: how much in the learning material should the student already know in order to learn more? I do seem to be able to retain the new vocab more easily because there is no other unknown stuff to be distracted by, and that is clearly a positive. But I find myself wanting to turn off because the challenge isn't quite there. I don't really want to give up classes entirely in favour of self-study, because my weakest skill is always speaking, so it seems a bit silly not to work on it. But I'm not really happy with the current situation. I'm definitely dropping some classes now my summer focus on Russian is over and I am going to work through a textbook on my own to replace that time (as well as continue reading graded readers - which I enjoy - and working with Russian with Max podcasts), but I've not yet come up with a comprehensive roadmap... I see parallels with my workouts - I'm told that one shouldn't chase a certain weight for ego reasons, but equally if an exercise is very easy with a certain weight, it's time to move up. With most of my Russian classes, I just don't think the right weight is being chosen.

Fitness: average daily steps for the month: 10,017 - just made it! My workouts have been going better too. And I have even managed to reintroduce daily yoga and do a meditation thing each night before bed!
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Caromarlyse
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Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Mon Sep 05, 2022 8:36 am

Not much to report from a truncated first week, which included a lazy weekend.

But I've finished Tout le bleu du ciel. I loved it and would highly recommend it. I'm now 36% of the way through the books part of my French super challenge.

The only other thing to report is that I decided to try sitting some Russian B2 tests (from the Тесты по русскому языку book). I hadn't prepared for them at all, but I wanted to reassure myself that I have been making progress and also that I am a bit further along than some teachers have been giving me credit for recently. I did the reading, listening and grammar/lexis tests, all under exam conditions (in fact, I was a bit harsh on myself, as a dictionary is allowed for the reading test, and it would have been handy because in places I came unstuck precisely because there were too many unfamiliar words).

    - All were fine in terms of timing, which I'd been a bit wary of - it always felt as though the limits were on the stingy side. But no, I had plenty of time.
    - Reading: I got 80% (pass mark in the actual exam is 66%, or over 60% if you get over 66% in all the other sub-tests). It was a very comprehensive test, getting you to read one text about art history, one text from the pop science domain, and one extract from a piece of literature. The middle one posed no problem at all. In the first I got a couple of questions wrong, but because of those quasi trick questions that seem to bedevil reading comprehension exercises. The last was the hardest, and I would have benefited from a dictionary. My takeaway here is that it is definitely a good idea to push on with reading adapted literature.
    - Listening: 88%. It was a lot easier than I'd expected. Again, there were different types of audio extracts, as well as one video clip from a film and one video clip from a talk show. The videos were harder, but the visuals provided clues, so I was still able to get the answers right, for the most part. I think it's still worth working with the Russian with Max podcasts and videos, as I have been doing, and pressing on with watching some series too. (I'm four episodes through Sorge...).
    - Grammar/lexis: 70%. I usually like grammar, but I think this result really shows that I have not been working too much with material at the B2 level. I have done some self-study, and around a dozen classes on the grammar required here, but there are obviously still gaps. On the positive side, I hardly got anything wrong with the participles/gerunds questions - my work using the tips4russian.com site for this topic has paid off. I now have a list of grammar topics I need to cover more: aspect (especially with the infinitive), verb governance, time expressions. These are all dealt with in the Let's Improve our Russian books I have. I also came unstuck with some vocabulary and a cloze deletion exercise involving a very formal letter, simply because these are things I haven't covered yet. I know they are covered in the Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced book that I have. So I know now that working with both of these books will take me in the right direction.
    - I didn't attempt the speaking or writing tests, but both look intimidating. I definitely wouldn't be capable of tackling them right now. However, they do both also look very formulaic, so I think that a short period of focused preparation for them would suffice, if I were to want to sit the exam.
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frenchfish55
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby frenchfish55 » Mon Sep 05, 2022 10:30 am

Caromarlyse wrote:
- With another teacher I am working with such harder material (for this one I did a grammar test to assess my level, so I got to start higher), and I credit this for improving my reading skills. Reading does feel as though it's become easier. I've also read a couple of graded readers this month: Дама с собачкой (The lady with the little dog - Chekhov) and Пиковая дама (Queen of Spades - Pushkin). I'm going to push on with other books from the same series (by the publisher Zlatoust), .

Queen of Spades - Pushkin good choice. I also like it
Those fiction books (Ионыч Woman with a dog etc ) We study them at school. It's obligatory for children
I didn't know that AKUNIN wrote graded readers. He is famous author.
P/S You mentioned WORD ORDER in Russian. It's not important. So you can write how you want.
Ending of words -it's difficult even for native speakers ,so kids here forced to learn endings,verbs conjugation etc.
You can skip this part, migrants here who live many years inside of Russia often speak and use only one form 1 male singular for verbs and adjectives etc they don't bother themselves with others
OUR pronunciation is almost always the same. So you knw sound and we will prononce it exactly how it's written (there are few exemptions etc).So listet russian speech is easier than english in this way
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Caromarlyse
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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)
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Wed Sep 07, 2022 9:00 am

frenchfish55 wrote:
Caromarlyse wrote:
- With another teacher I am working with such harder material (for this one I did a grammar test to assess my level, so I got to start higher), and I credit this for improving my reading skills. Reading does feel as though it's become easier. I've also read a couple of graded readers this month: Дама с собачкой (The lady with the little dog - Chekhov) and Пиковая дама (Queen of Spades - Pushkin). I'm going to push on with other books from the same series (by the publisher Zlatoust), .

Queen of Spades - Pushkin good choice. I also like it
Those fiction books (Ионыч Woman with a dog etc ) We study them at school. It's obligatory for children
I didn't know that AKUNIN wrote graded readers. He is famous author.
P/S You mentioned WORD ORDER in Russian. It's not important. So you can write how you want.
Ending of words -it's difficult even for native speakers ,so kids here forced to learn endings,verbs conjugation etc.
You can skip this part, migrants here who live many years inside of Russia often speak and use only one form 1 male singular for verbs and adjectives etc they don't bother themselves with others
OUR pronunciation is almost always the same. So you knw sound and we will prononce it exactly how it's written (there are few exemptions etc).So listet russian speech is easier than english in this way


Yes, I mentioned to a teacher that I am reading (an adapted version of) First Love by Turgenev, and got told that in Russia you read it in the eighth class. I do appreciate being able to mention these books and being able to have a conversation about them - I don't think our curriculum in the UK gives anywhere near as comprehensive a knowledge of English literature!

Here is the first of the Akunin books from the series by this publisher: https://www.zlatoust.store/catalog/chtenie/knigi_9/azazel/. I think they are pretty well done, but some of the books have better exercises and vocabulary help than others.

The word order discussion came up in relation to the following sentence. I was told that the second variant would be more neutral/better when appearing as a standalone sentence without prior context (тема - рема).
Влажность воздуха измеряют эти приборы. -- Эти приборы измеряют влажность воздуха.

RFL teachers will not let you get away with getting endings wrong! But it's nice to know that in real life the odd mistake won't be too terrible.

I would never argue that English spelling and pronunciation were easy, but equally I still find Russian pronunciation hard!
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Caromarlyse
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Wed Sep 14, 2022 4:55 pm

I needed to come up with a new plan, and I think I've decided what to do.

    - My focus on Russian is going to continue. I don't have the time or head space for the other languages really, so they're just going to come in via reading (for pleasure), some watching of series, some listening of podcasts, etc. I've started a new German Krimi and have also started to watch Biohackers (albeit with English subtitles, because this is a social activity, as well as a language learning one).
    - I'm going to cut back on classes. I bumped up the number for the summer, and was due to cut back again anyway. But the terrible USD/GBP exchange rate now supports this decision. Some of the classes have started to irritate me too, for various reasons. So, all in all, this is not going to be difficult. I'll keep my fairly longstanding class where we alternate between a discussion topic one week and a grammar topic the next, as well as a newer one where the material is a bit easier but is actually proving to be decent in giving me a solid base from which to develop discussion and allowing me to learn new vocab, even if the grammar is already known to me. I also have an informal weekly session I can join and speak with other learners. I'm just now running down the last other ones that I've already paid for. Sadly, having made this decision, my motivation is now close to zero!
    - I'm going back to working my way through Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced on my own. This definitely feels more manageable as a basis for self-study than it did when I last looked at it. A lot of the material is already familiar to me, so the amount of new stuff is much less daunting. I should now be able to make a real stab at memorising the lengthy vocabulary lists at the end of each chapter and internalising the (very dense amount of) grammar in each chapter. The audio material also feels to be just challenging enough.
    - I'll continue to work on grammar via tips4russian.com, my test books, and my Let's Improve our Russian books as and when the inspiration strikes or I need to look something up.
    - Other listening should continue without much issue; it's pretty integrated in my routine now. And then I will fit reading in when I find the time. I've been waylaid this week by one of my teachers giving me an excerpt from a different graded reader to read. The text was pretty simple, but the exercises really wanted you to delve into seemingly every word in great detail. It was fine as "study", but I do want to try to find time to read with a little less intensity as well.

Other than that, I want to focus on health/fitness - I have a basic framework set up already, but need to make an effort to get all the yoga/relaxation stuff in. I've also slacked on the steps a bit recently - my fitness tracker is on its last legs, and somehow that has killed my motivation to go for another walk when I could choose not to. I'm also going to have to start commuting again, not often but regularly; these extra demands, which were once normal but which I'd almost forgotten, are really starting to eat into the time I was getting used to having to focus just on myself. Really, it is these changes that have influenced the shape of the plan above. My most immediate trip will take me near a bookshop with a large foreign language section, though, so perhaps it's not all bad...
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Caromarlyse
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Posts: 387
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Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Sat Oct 01, 2022 9:44 am

Chateaubriand: "Il y a des gens qui visitent des jardins et des jets d'eau au milieu du renversement des empires: les barbouilleurs de papier ont surtout cette faculté de s'abstraire dans leur manie pendant les plus grands événements; leur phrase ou leur strophe leur tient lieu de tout."

SEPTEMBER REVIEW

Monthly totals
French: 17.6 hours
German: 20.27 hours
Portuguese: 6.03 hours
Russian: 73.02 hours

French: I read Tout le bleu du ciel by Mélissa da Costa. I absolutely loved it. I don't like reviewing books, because I don't want to leave unwanted spoilers, so I'll leave it at that! The curious can find reviews elsewhere. I also got a range of listening/watching done, including some Easy French podcasts (they're growing on me), some episodes from the Géopolitique podcast, some episodes of Le Dessous des cartes, some news broadcasts from TV5 monde, and a film on Arte called Petite fille that I watched when I was at a loose end one evening and ended up enjoying (biological boy wants to be a girl and his family support her despite lots of struggles with school/dance class). I'm on track for my personal Super Challenge - it's definitely far easier to hit the numbers when you can engage with the language without much issue. I think it's still useful for me though, as it's making me keep French in my life - which is something I can struggle with as I never seem to find quite as much that interests me in French compared with German.

German: I have been ploughing through the next book in the series by Andreas Gruber that I have been reading. I'm on book no 6 now (Todesschmerz). I've enjoyed this series to date, but in this book it seems to have run out of steam a bit. I'm just 40% of the way through. On the Krimi-couch website it doesn't have as high a reader rating as the earlier books, which I enjoyed. But no 7, which only came out this year, seems to be very well liked again, so I'm going to persevere. I listened to the usual Easy German podcasts, watched some MrWissen2Go videos, and listened to a few news podcasts. I also watched all of the two series of Biohackers, which I thought was good if quite rushed - they could have done with a few more episodes per series to round the story off a bit better. I have also been watching the satirical programme ZDF Magazin Royale. The jokes haven't quite landed so far for me, though I have been pleased with my ability to pick up some cultural references (allusions to the nursery rhyme Backe backe Kuchen and the song Astronaut). I'm on track with the Super Challenge here too.

Portuguese: I started watching Bom dia Verônica, though I have to hide behind a cushion a lot; I'm not enjoying it as much as 3%. I've also listened to some CNN podcasts, a couple of podcasts for learners that I found on YouTube (the first one I listened to - the most recent - was fine, but then I went back to an earlier one and it was so ridiculously slow and dumbed-down that I'm not going back), and the first of the LingQ Portuguese podcasts (which was much better, and I'll go through the others that are available this month). No reading again, though I did do a tiny bit of actual study. I'm feeling slightly guilty about neglecting the language, even though I know it's silly to feel this way, but I'm still not decided whether I can/want to do anything about it. I suppose a gentle approach could be to continue this listening/watching and work through Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar, which I think is a good book and has an answer key so lends itself to independent study. We'll see how this goes. Needless to say, I'm behind on the Super Challenge for both reading and listening, though only by a little bit for listening.

Russian: I read Azazel by Boris Akunin (graded reader) and First Love by Turgenev (also a graded reader, but a much longer one). As it takes so long for me to read Russian, though, I'm still very far behind on the Super Challenge numbers, but I don't mind - I'm still working in the right direction and getting a benefit. Next up is White Nights by Dostoevsky. Listening, by contrast, is going well, and I'm well ahead.

Other than that, classes have continued, albeit less regularly than during the summer: I've been winding up some blocks of classes that weren't giving me too much. Just one more of these "legacy" classes next week. One recent class was very useful in explaining aspect with the imperative - I'd studied the topic myself but hadn't understood the explanations my book was giving me. Having it explained in person and going through examples discussing why the choice of aspect that had been made, had in fact been made, has really helped. In the classes of the other teacher I'm sticking with we've moved onto the topic of the economy, which feels like quite a landmark in terms of my progress. The government here is giving me a lot of material to discuss...

I've worked through most of chapter 4 of Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced. (We probably need a poll as to whether people are able to work through courses in order; I'm not. Though I have already completed chapter 1. And chapter 5 :shock:.) I've just got some writing exercises to do now, which I'll get one of my teachers to correct. On the website there are additional exercises accompanying each chapter, some of which are speed reading exercises, where a text and questions are displayed on screen and you have to answer them before the time expires and the screen locks. I remember finding these difficult when I worked through the other chapters; now I found them very doable (and got 100% right). This month I'm going to finish chapter 4 and then consolidate chapters 1 and 5 before then trying to complete chapters 2 and 3 in November and December.

Fitness: average daily steps for the month: 10,577 based on what my watch actually recorded, but I think I should add 667 a day to take account of steps it didn't record, giving me 11,244 (as if anyone really cares :D). Workouts have been going well, though apparently the chink in my armour is my cardio (I am not taking up running...). I have been fairly diligent with yoga, though not with meditation. And I've been plagued by headaches again too, which is not good.
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Caromarlyse
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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 10, 2022 7:34 am

Life sort of took over this week. I did a little bit of Portuguese and German watching/listening, but the focus was Russian. Even then, there is not much to write about.

I have started watching Russian news on Deutsche Welle's Russian-language station. I definitely feel as though I've improved - I can watch without subtitles (previously I relied a little on the auto-generated subtitles) and follow quite a bit. I had to talk about politics a little this week, and watching some broadcasts on the topic beforehand gave me some material that I was then able to use when speaking. I have also worked through a fair number of chapters of Русская лексика для жизни, a book I bought using money made from selling some German books I wasn't enjoying. It's a vocabulary book pitched at the B1+ level. I actually know a high percentage of the words already, which means I am moving through it pretty quickly, but it is providing some new material. I've also worked through my Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced book (which is actually designed to go up to the B2 level, so not advanced in the CEFR sense). I've revised chapters 1 and 5, which I'd already completed. I'm also almost finished with chapter 4. I particularly like the audio material that comes with this book - there are a lot of authentic video clips (plus transcripts), and I feel as though I am getting a lot from working with this material. So, overall, nothing desperately exciting, but I've kept plodding along!
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Radioclare
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Radioclare » Sat Oct 22, 2022 8:23 pm

Caromarlyse wrote:I've also worked through my Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced book (which is actually designed to go up to the B2 level, so not advanced in the CEFR sense). I've revised chapters 1 and 5, which I'd already completed. I'm also almost finished with chapter 4. I particularly like the audio material that comes with this book - there are a lot of authentic video clips (plus transcripts), and I feel as though I am getting a lot from working with this material. So, overall, nothing desperately exciting, but I've kept plodding along!

I thought this book sounded interesting so I was just having a look at it on Amazon but I'm slightly horrified by the price :lol: Have you found it to be worth the investment? I am always nervous about buying expensive language books because I know I have a tendency to get halfway through them and then run out of steam.
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Caromarlyse
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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)
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Sun Oct 23, 2022 9:06 am

Radioclare wrote:
Caromarlyse wrote:I've also worked through my Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced book (which is actually designed to go up to the B2 level, so not advanced in the CEFR sense). I've revised chapters 1 and 5, which I'd already completed. I'm also almost finished with chapter 4. I particularly like the audio material that comes with this book - there are a lot of authentic video clips (plus transcripts), and I feel as though I am getting a lot from working with this material. So, overall, nothing desperately exciting, but I've kept plodding along!

I thought this book sounded interesting so I was just having a look at it on Amazon but I'm slightly horrified by the price :lol: Have you found it to be worth the investment? I am always nervous about buying expensive language books because I know I have a tendency to get halfway through them and then run out of steam.


I bought mine just over a year ago and it was £61.99, which was already a lot, but it seems to have increased significantly further since then. Routledge have a big discount on it on their site at the moment, which brings it down almost to what I paid. They also have most of the first chapter available as a preview, so you could take a look and see if it's worth it for you. The companion website for the book is here: https://bruinlearn.ucla.edu/courses/138848. That site gives you access to the audio and video material for the whole book, plus vocabulary sets and online quizzes.

I bought it originally to work through with a teacher who seemed very promising - but she very soon thereafter abandoned teaching altogether! It was a bit beyond me at the time (the hand holding would have helped bridge that gap), but it is much more doable to work through on my own now. From what I have learnt about the Russian textbook market, there are quite a few options taking you to the end of B1, but then there is a jump and all you have are books from Russian publishers targeting the B2-C1+ range, which don't give you much of a stepping stone from the end of B1 to starting to move towards B2. For me this book fills this (big!) gap. Personally I like having the structure of material divided into topics and new grammar introduced gradually within the framework of those topics. I also appreciate stress being marked - in my view it's daft to say that beyond beginner level you shouldn't need it (and is just a poor justification for not going to the effort to add it).
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Radioclare
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Radioclare » Sun Oct 23, 2022 7:14 pm

Caromarlyse wrote:I bought mine just over a year ago and it was £61.99, which was already a lot, but it seems to have increased significantly further since then. Routledge have a big discount on it on their site at the moment, which brings it down almost to what I paid. They also have most of the first chapter available as a preview, so you could take a look and see if it's worth it for you. The companion website for the book is here: https://bruinlearn.ucla.edu/courses/138848. That site gives you access to the audio and video material for the whole book, plus vocabulary sets and online quizzes.

I bought it originally to work through with a teacher who seemed very promising - but she very soon thereafter abandoned teaching altogether! It was a bit beyond me at the time (the hand holding would have helped bridge that gap), but it is much more doable to work through on my own now. From what I have learnt about the Russian textbook market, there are quite a few options taking you to the end of B1, but then there is a jump and all you have are books from Russian publishers targeting the B2-C1+ range, which don't give you much of a stepping stone from the end of B1 to starting to move towards B2. For me this book fills this (big!) gap. Personally I like having the structure of material divided into topics and new grammar introduced gradually within the framework of those topics. I also appreciate stress being marked - in my view it's daft to say that beyond beginner level you shouldn't need it (and is just a poor justification for not going to the effort to add it).

Ooh, thanks for the tip to look at the Routledge site - I just realised that they have a new grammar of BCMS out, so that will definitely be going on my Christmas wishlist :)

Completely agreed re stress being marked! It stresses me out to learn a new word without knowing how it's pronounced so I get really annoyed by textbooks that don't bother to mark it.

I'm definitely tempted by this one but will have to have a think about whether I can justify more expenditure on my Russian hobby. I feel like I've definitely spent more money on Russian resources than any of my other languages :lol:
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