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 » Thu Dec 30, 2021 1:54 pm

PART FOUR - RUSSIAN
TOTAL: 596.08 hours
OF WHICH:
- 72.83 hours of classes
- 135.53 hours of homework for classes
- 145.62 hours of work on a coursebook
- 59.22 hours of focused grammar study
- 31.43 hours of reading
- 120.48 hours of listening/watching
- 5.62 hours of focused vocabulary study
- 25.35 hours of focused pronunciation work

I set myself a target of 540 hours total in the year, which I therefore exceeded by some way.

I continue to have mixed feelings about Russian. I am more interested in the language than I am in French; I think part of this is because I am very pig-headed and do not want it to get the better of me! But I also think somehow Russian meshes with my personality quite well. It is still a *** to learn, though! I was feeling really low about it, having had quite a few terrible experiences with classes/teachers that I could go on about for a long time over a gin or two… But not wanting to continue feeling this way at least pushed me to try again, and I have - fingers crossed - found a new teacher who I think is a good fit.

I definitely need to get back to speaking, as it’s the only way I’m going to get more fluid, and rust has started to develop even with a short break and keeping up with independent study. It’ll also be good both to be pushed by someone else and - conversely - to get reassurance that I don’t need to learn everything all at once. I feel I’m at a weird level - over the past few months on a couple of occasions I’ve got all or almost all the questions right on teacher-administered B1-level tests for grammar/vocabulary, reading, and listening. I have also been able to perceive progress in listening, and I am definitely able to deal with more complex written texts now compared with a year ago. But it still feels so painful using the language, and so hard to remember stuff. This new teacher seems to think I am at this level (which makes a change from those who thought I needed to go back to the beginning and start again, which I can’t see would ever be a good idea, but there you go), and proposed a sensible plan to move forward. Unlike others who always wanted to keep the content of each lesson a secret, here I’m going to know the topic in advance and be able to prepare. The same topic will also extend over several lessons, which I think will be much better than each lesson being discrete. I’m going to continue doing stuff on my own, but I’ll also have work to do for the lessons with her.

Plan:
    - Weekly lessons, with the aim of focusing on one topic for a while and developing the ability to speak fluidly on more complex topics, and interspersing these lessons with some on particular lexical/grammatical issues.
    - Deal with one Russian with Max podcast a week - this involves listening to a c 45-minute podcast, reading the transcript and looking up words (and listening to a c 20-minute separate audio file in which less common words are explained), listening again with the transcript and again without, listening to a short story using new words and do the question/answer and shadowing exercises linked to it. Passive listening has really helped boost my listening this year, despite not doing all that much of it (the number above includes a lot of more focused listening work that I’ve only started doing recently). I’m hoping that putting more of an effort into learning from it will further improve my listening (and also help my pronunciation). It’s also necessary I think because Russian as a foreign language materials tend not to put enough emphasis on developing listening. On pronunciation, I have a cheat sheet from the course I completed, so I can have that to hand to remind me of the rules.
    - Read! I have a couple of B1 graded readers, an encyclopedia-type book on Russia, a collection of essays on Russian history, and some texts on Russian art. Over Christmas I read a very abridged version of Anna Karenina, which I really enjoyed - I looked up quite a lot of vocabulary, but it was simple enough not to be overwhelming. I do learn well through reading, so I’m planning on getting some more and working on this further. There are exercises at the end of the graded readers, which I haven’t done at all yet, but plan to.
    - Textbook study? I may do some on my own, depending on whether I have time with the classes. Where topics overlap (i.e. I am covering a topic in class that is also covered in a book I have), I’ll be able to use my book as a source of vocabulary/structures.

Basically, I plan to make Russian quite a major focus this 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 Dec 30, 2021 1:55 pm

PART FIVE - OTHER 2022 GOALS
Expanding beyond languages, I’ll include some other goals here, because it’ll make me more likely to keep to them.

    - Stretching/mobility - at least for the first few months, this is going to be a hamstring focus, because it’s been pointed out to me that tight hamstrings are probably the culprit behind my tight lower back. I am going to choose a video from the library I subscribe to, and do a hamstring-focused video each day. Some are only ten minutes long, so I really should be able to do this! This is going to be especially important, as I’m not sure how sensible going to a massage therapist is going to be for the immediate future.
    - Three days a week of training (rest for one session every fifth week) - which should be doable, as I just need to show up. I’ve got no performance targets to achieve, as staying healthy really trumps performance for me.
    - Walking - aim for over 10,000 steps a day, which I get at the moment if I go out twice a day so will involve me going out for a second time when I’m not on the dog-walking rota! It was pointed out to me that my cardio could do with some work, which I think is a bit harsh as I do do some HIIT, but it’s true I walk less now than I did pre-pandemic because of pandemic-induced life changes.

This all seems quite a lot… I also got a promotion at work this year, so it remains to be seen if I get thrown off track. The pandemic seems to be conspiring to keep us all massively constrained in our lives for a while longer, though, so I might just learn Russian properly yet…
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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 Jan 02, 2022 8:31 pm

I may as well do a first end-of-week update already, even if we are only two days into the new year, because I'm feeling positive about my Russian, and I'm not sure how long this feeling will last! I've had a first proper lesson with my new teacher, which went really well. I think that going forward with these classes should help me to continue to progress effectively. I got to practise some reading, writing, and lots of speaking over the course of the class preparation and class itself. I got some useful feedback on little mistakes in writing, and then lots of conversational practice. Whilst I was as slow and stumbling as ever, I did note I was able to bring in vocabulary and grammar structures that I've studied by myself over the past few months - it was nice to experience the feeling of something having stuck. I'm also so pleased that I've managed to find someone who seems to understand where I am and what I need - the level of the materials and tasks seemed to be pitched at the perfect point of being challenging but doable. (I was so tired by the end and could barely formulate the English I needed when I went out immediately afterwards.) I also have a good amount of stuff to go over outside the class, and then to prepare for next time. I'm pleased we have a plan, and that there will be continuity between classes, because my view, based on experience, is that discrete classes are ineffective.

I've also done some work with podcasts (their value has been reaffirmed to me after this class) and some reading. I've started my new encyclopedia-type book, as well as another B1 graded reader. I'm coming across lots of names of fishes that inhabit Lake Baikal and of types of flowering plants, which I doubt I'll try to do much with... But it's nice to feel I can sit down and read for enjoyment, even if that enjoyment involves looking up lots of words. I looked up сплетничать as well, and then realised I hadn't needed to, given @radioclare's recent log. (This was not the only word I looked up and then immediately remembered I did actually know it, ish...)

Apart from that, I've been reading L'Anomalie in French in the evenings. I've not been drawn into it yet, but I think it's starting to warm up. I've also listened to a couple of podcasts from my new list. Again, nothing earth-shattering as of yet, but it's early days.

No Portuguese at all so far, and just the one (long) German podcast.

Fitness goals all met too. I think the dog is going to love me deciding, into the evening, that I need to walk round the block if I'm going to hit the requisite 10,000 steps for the day - so far it's been giving him a short bonus outing each day. He gets far more than 10,000 steps as I'm not the only one who walks him, but is more than happy with this new routine.
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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 Jan 09, 2022 5:28 pm

I've been pretty diligent this week but it's been one of those weeks when work doesn't seem to have translated into feeling I've done particularly well. Aka Russian has started to misbehave again :shock:

Anyhow, pulling myself out of that pit of despair, what have I been up to? I've been reading L'Anomalie in French - I found it a bit of a slog at first, as the story wasn't really gripping me, but I'm more into it now and hope to finish it this week. For German I've just listened to podcasts. The Der Tag podcast from 5 January had a feature on the dominance of English as a second language. Nothing all that novel, though I found what was said on language and identity interesting.

My vague plan is to try to spend five hours a week each on French and German - this should be enough to keep my eye in, as it were, without being too much of a distraction from my focus languages.

For Portuguese I have actually found a series I seem to be enjoying. This is huge for me, as I'm not much of a TV person. Thanks to @clara for the inspiration. I'm trying to watch one a day, as they are usefully short. I've also done classes and homework as usual. Here I'm aiming for an hour a day on average, which again seems doable so far.

For Russian I've done some work with a podcast and read quite a bit (both from a graded reader and my non-fiction book about Russia). This graded reader feels harder than the first one, despite ostensibly being the same level. The non-fiction book is getting easier now I'm getting deeper into the chapter about Russian cities, rivers, etc, as the vocabulary is starting to repeat. The words приток (tributary) and судоходный (navigable) have come up a lot. I've also had another class, which was challenging, though I suppose the point of finding holes is being able to set to work to fill them. I've got a bit frustrated at the gap between my ability to understand and manipulate the language in writing and my spoken abilities, but the problem is not going to go away unless I tackle it head on, so we continue...

I've continued to meet all of my fitness goals :-)
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Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
Learns: Russian
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Radioclare » Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:51 pm

Caromarlyse wrote:The words приток (tributary) and судоходный (navigable) have come up a lot.

This is really funny because I was reading something about Croatian waterways in a textbook today and two of the words I had to look up were "pritok" (tributary) and "plovnost" (navigability). Often I feel like Croatian is no help in learning Russian at all, but at least today I seem to have learned one Russian word for free :lol:
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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 Jan 10, 2022 8:11 am

Radioclare wrote:
Caromarlyse wrote:The words приток (tributary) and судоходный (navigable) have come up a lot.

This is really funny because I was reading something about Croatian waterways in a textbook today and two of the words I had to look up were "pritok" (tributary) and "plovnost" (navigability). Often I feel like Croatian is no help in learning Russian at all, but at least today I seem to have learned one Russian word for free :lol:


Even funnier when I read your log and saw you'd looked up a word (скользкй) that I already knew and had spontaneously used in my class yesterday!
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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 Jan 16, 2022 6:21 pm

French: I finished L'Anomalie! It felt like a bit of a slog tbh. I can see why it's got lots of prizes/attention etc, but I didn't enjoy it all that much. I'm sure that says more about me than the book - with everything going on at the moment, deep ideas are not really where I want to go; I need escapism! Anyway, I'm pleased with myself for having got through it, and for having kept on track with reading a French book a month.

I also listened to a few podcasts. I've still not really found anything in French that grabs me; in German, there are 3/4 podcasts that I will always listen to when a new episode comes out. I reverted to Le téléphone sonne in desperation, which is decent French exposure but (for me) not a whole lot of fun. I might have a browse of Arte this week and see if I can find anything interesting.

German: Just some podcasts. Now the French book is finished, I can move onto another Krimi, which is a much more exciting prospect!

Portuguese: Classes + homework as usual, plus I watched some more episodes of the Brazilian series I've started to get into, and an edition of Brazilian TV news. I enjoyed the latter a lot, and am going to continue with both, alternating. I think it helps that subtitles aren't an option with any of this stuff, so I'm just having to get on with it. The absence of choice is a powerful thing. I've been really pleased at my level of comprehension; it feels as though I'm at the kind of level I remember being at maybe 6-12 months post-A level (as in the English school leaving exams, not the CEFR scale) in French and German. This is nice because: (1) it's pretty rapid progress, which gives me a feeling of satisfaction; and (2) means I'm at a place where input can start increasing without too much strain and (I hope) progress can snowball. It's also interesting in showing me that Russian is, for me at least, way more than twice as hard as Portuguese!

Russian: Continues to be hard... I had a load of news articles to read (and summarise) for class this week, which was quite a step up. A lot of the preparation didn't get used in the end because of time constraints, but I still did the work and learnt some new words in the process: things like заявлять/заявить, заявление (to state, statement), обеспечивать/обеспечить, обеспечение (to ensure, ensuring). I feel my speaking remains terrible, but we can but try. I think I'm being challenged by the classes and therefore that they must be doing me some good! Other than that, there was no podcast this week, as they were still on holiday, but I did do quite a bit of reading about Russian cities. As well as some geographical words that I now forget, I learnt домовой, which is some kind of mythological house sprite (one lives with Снегурочка - the Snow Maiden - in Kostroma). The last chapter in this book I have (which was cross-referenced) is all about mythology, and I'm quite tempted to skip ahead to that one once I've finished the geography of Russia, mainly because I really like the art work illustrating that chapter, and who doesn't want to be able to talk about mythical creatures in Russian?!

Oh, and almost forgot, I also kept to all my fitness goals. 10,000 steps a day are making me hungrier... I also got to up the weight in one exercise, which I didn't think I'd manage but then it was easy. I love it when progress just decides to show up like this!
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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 Jan 23, 2022 6:51 pm

A better week:

French: I'm still struggling a bit to find enjoyable podcasts, but I have found one Canadian news podcast that I think I'll continue with, which is an hour long and covers international and Canadian news as well as (in a separate segment) news from a number of Francophone countries. I also listened to a very interesting podcast about Armenia. This led me down a bit of a Caucasus rabbit hole: my Russian podcast this week was about the Northern Caucasus, and I then read a chapter from a book in English that a friend got me for Christmas that was about Georgia. I also watched a few booktube videos to see if I could get ideas for my next French read, but no luck yet: one I thought would be ok has got some absolutely terrible reviews (alongside some much better ones), but the bad ones have put me off. I want to finish my German book first though, so I have some time to do some more digging. I just want a good story that does not go too deep (emotionally that is; I don't mind "difficult" language, I just cannot cope right now with difficult thoughts/feelings)!

German: I started reading the next Krimi in my series by Andreas Gruber. I've well and truly learnt the expression "jemanden unter seine Fittiche nehmen" (to take someone under one's wing) because it's come up so many times now. I also remember Eidotter (egg yolk). Schilf (reeds) also seems to be a very popular word in Krimis!

Portuguese: I've continued watching Brazilian TV, which I continue to be pleased about. I also continued with my classes.

Russian: I did my usual podcast work again now that the first one of the year has been released. I've also done a bit of reading. My class went better than last week - I prepared a huge amount, very much "overlearning" the material, which helped. I spent a short amount of time putting some vocab from recent classes into flashcards, but, as with every time I go back and try flashcards, I end up concluding that I don't think they work for me. I've just come across in my reading, some words that I had in class: словно (= как будто) and незаметно (imperceptibly). Seeing them again when I didn't expect to does so much more for my memory than trying to learn them in flashcards does. Also, as part of my overlearning, I effectively memorised a monologue, which I could do fairly easily, and that did more for me in remembering the new words than trying to learn them in a list did. I feel that I *should* have a better vocab learning system in place, but perhaps I already know/do what works for me? At least I feel I'm doing well at putting the time in (which is ultimately going to have to yield results, right?!), and I have a good list of tasks that I can turn to each week: podcasts, reading, classes, prep for the classes ...

Fitness goals: All met, even if I did have to walk up and down inside the house on a couple of evenings to get up to the 10,000 steps :o. Progress on some things is weirdly slow here too, despite lots of work, so at least I'm consistent!
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 » Sun Jan 30, 2022 6:42 pm

Another pretty good week.

French: Some podcasts, including the new (to me) L'heure du crime. I also - finally - started watching the third series of Plan cœur on Netflix, but I got a bit confused as it's been so long since I watched the last series. It's also not as enjoyable as I remembered it. It's short, though, so I'll finish it off.

German: I finished my latest book, Todesmärchen by Andreas Gruber. It was 544 pages long! (As I discovered when I looked up the paperback page count, having not understood why the electronic percentage completion marker was seemingly moving forward only incredibly slowly.) Anyway, it was another enjoyable read. I am also increasingly convinced by the benefits of extensive reading (albeit with touch/electronic look-ups): Sonnenblende, Pokal and Glimmstängel are the words that immediately spring to mind as having solidified themselves in my memory recently, without any real effort on my part (the best kind of effort :P).

Portuguese: Only the normal stuff to report. I need to get back to watching TV more regularly - I only did it a couple of days this week, and have no excuses.

Russian: All good again :D. I'm so pleased with how my new classes are working out. I feel I'm getting a lot out of them and am being stretched, but they don't make me feel terrible. This is huge progress! It's nice too that what I'm doing now is along the lines of reading articles or texts and then summarising them and discussing ideas that arise in them, which is a definite step up. I definitely make lots and lots of mistakes, but I have a decent-ish pool of vocab and grammar to draw from, and I know I need to put up with being a bit uncomfortable to make progress. I get to choose a new topic to start around mid-February, and am planning on working through one of my own resources on that topic over the next few weeks, so that I get a toe-hold in the topic in advance.

I've also done the usual podcast work. I haven't done much reading besides the class work, but I did discover this week that a history book which I thought I'd lost access to, will actually open up on my computer, and it seemed a lot more accessible (to read/understand) than I remember it being five months ago. Reading Russian does still feel quite challenging, though, so I am good at not prioritising this activity...

Fitness goals: I'm discovering that it's quite a commitment to get 10,000 steps every single day, especially when I've still been working from home. I've still got the streak going though :-). I think the fact that I have an app linked to my watch helps - I can't lie about it. I slacked off a bit with stretching, but have got back on the wagon tonight. I got praise for my work in my workouts proper this week, which was nice - consistency is paying off there too.
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Sonjaconjota
Green Belt
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Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2021 8:12 am
Location: Barcelona
Languages: German (N) - English, Spanish, Catalan (advanced) - French, Dutch, Italian (intermediate) - Turkish (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 24#p192024
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Re: Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian)

Postby Sonjaconjota » Mon Jan 31, 2022 9:09 am

Caromarlyse wrote:French: I'm still struggling a bit to find enjoyable podcasts

Do you know these?
https://podcasts.audiomeans.fr/chroniques-criminelles-6ba7547671cf
https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/crimes-histoires-vraies/id1490133385
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/ohdio/balados/8389/criminelles/545495/monica-la-mitraille-vol-poursuite-accident
I'm suggesting them because I have seen that you like crime stories, although I guess real crime is kind of another genre.
Personally, I especially enjoy the first one, Chroniques criminelles.
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