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 » Sun Jun 13, 2021 1:48 pm

I’ve had quite a horrible couple of weeks, but things should have resolved now. I have nonetheless kept up with languages, albeit I ignored Russian for a while and did some things that required less brain power.

French therefore made a comeback! I started reading Le français dans tous les sens, a French linguistics book. I really liked the first (quite long) chapter going through the historical development of the language, but to me it’s since become less compelling. I’m around 40% of the way through, however, and am going to continue to the end. I’ve also watched a few Lupin episodes now that season 2 is on air, and listened to some podcasts.

For German, I finished my latest Krimi (Der Prinzessinnenmörder) and have also listened to the usual podcasts.

Portuguese has continued with lots of classes and homework, and additional work I’ve done to try to ensure I “perform” well in the classes. I also worked through quite a lot of exercises in Whitlam when I wanted some distraction… I’ve also listened to some podcasts, with varying levels of comprehension achieved!

As mentioned, I couldn’t bring myself to do much Russian for a while. I’m back on it now, though: I have gone through the grammar on participles and gerunds for the millionth time, and it might finally be sticking. This grammar is a large chunk of the grammar introduced in the B1.1 book I’m using. I want to have finished revising the rest of the B1.1 book (vocab as well as grammar) before the end of the month.

I’m well on track to reach (and slightly surpass) 50% of my time goals for all of German, Portuguese and Russian by the end of the month. I would quite like life to get a bit more interesting (in a good way) at some point soon, however, so in a way I wouldn’t be disappointed not to get to 100% by the end of the year!
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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 » Thu Jul 01, 2021 9:59 am

This month I completely got out of the habit of posting weekly. Life generally was a bit tricky and then some language stuff decided to play up too! In the end I decided just to wait for the end of the month and to do a half-year wrap-up.

I’ll take things in alphabetical order still and start with French, even though it has been somewhat neglected. I’ve read four books and am part-way through a fifth. I’ve watched some odds and sods, but really nothing to write home about. In total I’ve notched up an average of just over ten hours of French a month, which is really quite pathetic! However, I’ve just not made it a priority. It’s not going anywhere (it’s suffered much worse periods of neglect before!), and I can always get back to it.

With German, I’ve kept up my plan of listening to an hour of the language each day. I think I deserve to give myself credit for this! I even got a joke/cultural reference on a politics podcast the other day, when part of a Goethe poem was cited, making use of the double meaning of Gipfel (summit as in treetops* and as in a political summit). Oh how I chuckled… I’ve also read seven books. I haven’t done much “proper” studying at all, though, and have effectively given up on lessons. Again, time, priorities, motivations, emotions… However, I feel I really *ought* to have made some improvements with what I have done; I just have no hard data to point to. German does feel in a better place than French, though: I have spent significantly more time with the language, and I also have so much stuff in German that I genuinely want to engage with, that it makes everything so much easier.

With Portuguese, thanks to a great tutor, I ended up finding loads of enthusiasm, and have spent just over 230 hours on the language this year so far. I have let myself be guided to a large extent, but then I put in a lot of work myself working around this framework. This approach works well for me. I feel like a happier version of myself when speaking the language, which definitely helps with motivation. Recently I’ve added Brazilian podcasts into my listening rotation; I’m not sure how much good they are doing, as I definitely miss a lot compared with German, but I also can’t see the harm in using dead time in this way.

Russian has continued to cause heartache! I feel as though I’ve stagnated at the same time as I feel I’ve made progress. I think a large part of this is that I’ve been working on B1 material for nine months now, but my “level” (as recently externally assessed - by a multiple choice test as well as orally) is somewhere at the beginnings of B1. It seems to be apparent that I have a good basis, but am not always able to activate it fully. Rationally I think there is just a huge jump from A2 to the beginnings of B1 and there is a lot of extra familiarisation of the language required before you can properly engage with the B1 material and stand a chance of memorising it and deploying it for yourself, but on an emotional level it’s easy to feel as though I’ve stayed still for months on end. Especially when I see I’ve spent pushing 300 hours this year so far on the language! I’m currently trying to deceive myself that a big jump forward is just around the corner ;-) I have started reading a book in Russian, with a parallel text in English. I’m about five times slower than when reading German, but at least the translation means I can read something I want to! I’m also trying out some new classes to see if there is anyone out there who can help rather than hinder ;-) I find that teachers can be extremely helpful (though dealing with bad ones is one of my least favourite experiences). I have one very promising option, whom I hope will help pull my passive knowledge to active knowledge, and give me the positive encouragement I need to keep going. I’ll continue to work through textbooks on my own. In that regard, I’ve just discovered the three-book series of Let’s improve our Russian. It seems to be designed to go up to B2, but, having looked at some sample pages online, I’m quite excited by the nice, clear lists of which verbs without prepositions take which cases, with very helpful, and multiple, English translations - I’ve been hankering after something like this for ages, so I might have to indulge.

Edit: * I meant to say mountain tops. Tree tops is Wipfel and another line of the poem!
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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 » Sun Jul 04, 2021 5:55 pm

I've had a week very full of Russian. Trying to set up a new routine is time consuming, but I suppose doing all the research and negotiating your wants/needs in Russian is good practice in itself, if frustrating at times ;-). In the spirit of being evaluated to death, I decided to try the grammar tests at the end of both the B1.1 and B1.2 textbooks on my own. In the first one, which I have already studied once, I got 66%; in the second, which I have only just started studying, I got 88%. I think the moral of this story is that I should not bother! Seriously, though, the level was lower than I'd expected; I even got the vast majority of the verbs of motion questions right, because familiarisation seemed to be more what was required, rather than a solid grasp (which I most definitely do not have!). I then spent time going through all the questions I got wrong in the B1.1 test (I only glanced over the latter, as it's not a problem if I don't know what I haven't even looked at yet; where I got questions right was because these were A2 topics and I'd clearly learnt them pretty well then, so the knowledge carried forwards). Some mistakes were stupid, whilst others flagged points I hadn't quite grasped. I went over all of those again, which ended up being quite useful, targeted revision. I'm feeling reassured that my grammar is pretty solid; I now need to focus on vocabulary. I feel I am at a point now where I can learn stuff that I encounter more easily, and think what I need is a lot of consolidation of what I've looked at before, and thus just a lot more practice. I'm still finalising how to go about doing this, but I think it will end up being some building of vocabulary/ability to speak about issues in a number of topic areas and more reading (out loud, which I hate but I think is needed). The reading I'm doing at the moment with an English translation seems to be working well with putting Russian in my head. I also had a good day yesterday of listening to (and understanding) a Russian with Max podcast. I need to incorporate some intensive listening into my routine too; I plan to tie this in to my topic area work.

I should have a lot more time in August (and September too, probably). With that in mind, I have decided to spend the next three months concentrating on Russian and Portuguese, and dropping my German work. The focus on Russian this week has been motivating, so I'd like to continue giving it this extra time. I'm not going to ban myself from German, but it won't be a goal for a while. Dropping the German listening should also force me to choose to listen to Russian or Portuguese in my dead time, and get more passive exposure in alongside the additional study time.

Portuguese has continued as usual for the first few days of this month, albeit I haven't yet done my homework so the time spent is down compared with Russian. For the moment I'm satisfied with what my classes are giving me, and that preparing (comprehensively) for them, reviewing vocab/grammar from them, and doing the homework set is enough - which is good, as taking the need to make decisions away from me frees my mind up considerably!
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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 » Sun Jul 11, 2021 7:41 pm

Another solid week of Russian! More tests, this time B1 level reading/listening/vocab and grammar, unofficial but under exam-like conditions, in which I got 93/100/94% respectively. It's obviously nice to see some indication that I'm doing something right, and especially that I had no problem with the listening, given that just a few months ago I could barely understand anything. It just goes to show that listening for just eight hours total a month has an impact (which appears to be what I've been doing this year, albeit listening exercises don't get counted in that figure). As I put such high expectations on myself, it's also nice for me to get a reality check on the level actually expected in terms of reading, vocab, and grammar, i.e. it's much lower than I would have thought. Having said that, my speaking remains quite ropey. Also, I'm not using these results to claim any kind of official achievement; it's just a personal measure of progress and an indication of where I am with Russian right now.

I rewarded myself with some new books :-). First up, Let's improve our Russian (1, 2 and 3). When doing A1/A2, I got loads of grammar exercises to do each week. Since then I've done far fewer. I quite like grammar, so my plan is to work my way through these books as though I were doing the exercises for correction by a teacher. The books have the answers in the back, so I can self-correct. I've started off with the section on reflexive verbs, and, really assuming the teacher role, have corrected myself in red. Whatever makes me happy... Book 1 seems to track quite closely the grammar topics in my other B1.1 textbook (and in the beginning of the B1.2 book), so I think it will be good revision/reinforcement. The more repetition, the better, as far as Russian is concerned, I think. The second book I've got is Russian: from intermediate to advanced, which is a slightly misleading title as it apparently includes vocabulary to take you up to the second certificate (B2). There is a companion website with all the video/audio. So far it seems that there are quite a lot of listening exercises, which I appreciate (plus I can make good sense of them, which is another bonus). The text also has stress markings throughout, which is something I really need to focus on - pronunciation is never one of my strengths, and at the beginning I had so many other things to think about, I never had the bandwidth to deal with it. I've started doing a lot more reading aloud recently, and stress marks obviously help a lot with that. Each chapter is long and seems to build on itself (words are introduced, then come up again on later pages). Again, the book has some overlap with what I've done before (I think I've covered most, if not all, of the topics that are subject of each of the ten chapters), but the repetition is just serving as reinforcement, and there is still a lot that is new. There are no answer keys, but so far that is not much of a problem; I've been able to make sense of everything. The one thing I will need at some point is feedback on written tasks. I still have my B1.1/B1.2 textbooks to finish working through/consolidating with, but I think mixing and matching sources (and hence approaches) will be beneficial right now.

I've also finally got into a book on Russian history (in English), albeit I had to get the audio book because I was struggling to concentrate when reading. This has the benefit of allowing me to listen whilst cooking, for example, and just generally requires less effort to decide to do! I'm starting with a fairly light book (it was originally a BBC radio series, so the audio is in fact those recordings, not just a written book being read out), but I have some heavier stuff to move onto next. I'm hoping that this book will at least give me a framework, onto which I can add more detail and nuance later on.

I've done less reading in Russian (with the English parallel text), but plan on getting back to that this week.

Portuguese has not got much of a look-in; I've kept up with classes and homework, but not done much beyond that and some podcasts. I've been struggling to decide upon activities that feel useful and I enjoy.
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Radioclare
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Radioclare » Sun Jul 11, 2021 8:22 pm

Wow, well done on the test results! It's always a great feeling when you feel like you've been working hard and it's actually starting to pay off :)
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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 » Mon Jul 12, 2021 1:57 pm

Radioclare wrote:Wow, well done on the test results! It's always a great feeling when you feel like you've been working hard and it's actually starting to pay off :)


Thanks! I'm back down today to feeling as though I can't do anything, so it's nice to celebrate when the feeling fleetingly passes by...!
2 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 Jul 19, 2021 3:28 pm

I'm not sure I've got much of an update for the past week. I haven't found that putting German to one side has been a success. On the one hand, I have got more Russian done, but I'm feeling quite grumpy about languages as a result. I think it might be because it feels like, by focusing on two, I'm giving myself the message that I should be cramming. This is not at all what I want or need to be doing: I have nothing I *need* to achieve here. It's also taken some of the enjoyment/sense of purpose of language learning as a hobby away: Russian and Portuguese still feel like work, and as a result there seems to be a hard limit of how much time I am able to spend each day with them. German, on the other hand, is comfortable, and everything I listen to in German is out of real interest and doesn't require the same mental effort. By taking German out of the equation, I have ended up with times when I have wanted to do something, but have not known what, and I have therefore ended up procrastinating with pointless scrolling etc in English. So, after the shortest of experiments, German listening is coming back!

Russian has continued and, as mentioned, I've spent a lot of time on it, but I am back feeling as though I am incapable of remembering anything in the language and that I'm stuck in a rut! It really seems like I've spent months and months now going round in circles. I'm getting frustrated too with the unequal development of skills: I can read now at a level noticeably higher than that at which I can speak, so the stuff I'm engaging with for speaking I'm starting to find boring. Perhaps coming across less novel stuff will be good for me, giving me room to remember what's new now the amount of new is lower, but I have a low patience threshold so this is hard! Also frustrating is one of my potential new teachers continually rescheduling on me - it's not exactly conducive to setting up a new routine and, as mentioned, patience is not one of my strengths...

Portuguese is continuing nicely. It's like the better behaved sibling. Not much to report, really, other than that I continue to attend classes, do the assigned homework, read around the topics introduced, and come up with things I can talk about in class.
Last edited by Caromarlyse on Tue Jul 20, 2021 4:26 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)
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:05 am

I forgot that I had some other news. I have started to write Russian cursive in as messy a way as my English handwriting... At first my Russian writing looked neat; that time has now passed, it seems. I suppose it's progress, but not the kind I wanted! The other Russian news was that I've gone back to some audio verb drills I have had for ages. The Russian as a foreign language syllabus to me seems very much to be case-focused at the A levels, and then at the B levels you're suddenly expected to have verbs down pat. And I don't... My issue with the teaching of the conjugation of Russian verbs generally is that they are split into two groups, but there is absolutely no way that they actually fit in any kind of sensible manner into two groups (in my humble opinion :roll:)! So these drills split verbs into many more groups (15 and then some additional fully irregular ones), attempting to explain the patterns of each group. (Obviously within each group you then have sub-groups depending on how the stress pattern works, but I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere...). It was all a bit much for me when I was a beginner, but I managed at the weekend to go through quite successfully есть (as an irregular verb) and then the group containing ехать, писать, сказать, прятать, искать, and понять. Doing it this way I think should mean I no longer confuse едят and едут. I need to go over all of these again, then just another 14 groups to go...!
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Radioclare
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Radioclare » Tue Jul 20, 2021 10:36 am

I feel your pain on the handwriting - my Russian handwriting has become really messy too. I guess it was unrealistic of me to expect my Russian handwriting would stay neat when my English handwriting definitely isn't :D

What resource are you using for the verb drills? I tried working through the verb chapter in Schaums early in the year but just found all the verb groups a bit overwhelming!
4 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 » Tue Jul 20, 2021 4:25 pm

Radioclare wrote:What resource are you using for the verb drills? I tried working through the verb chapter in Schaums early in the year but just found all the verb groups a bit overwhelming!


It's a website called Russian verb drills ;-). (I bought access when there was a big sale, because the full price is pretty high...). There are some recorded lectures, lots of accompanying notes, and then you have audio files with drills. As I said, it was too much early on, but it seems more accessible now, and the audio nature of it might do my appalling pronunciation some good too ;-). I'm not sure I'm going to move on from being overwhelmed by Russian verbs too speedily, though! I also think I'm going to drop in and out of it as and when problem verbs pop up (as happened last week with едут/едят). There's so much to learn! I don't think Russian verbs/conjugations get the same kind of focus as the equivalents do in Romance/Germanic language courses, precisely because (I surmise) there are just so many other problem areas to cover!
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