Конец игры

[Expugnator]

According to my experience (which took me a good couple of years to acquire while making little progress), it might be more productive to combine intensive and extensive reading in order to get more results. I 'd to my extensive reading with a parallel text (just to keep following the story) and my intensive reading, well...intensively, looking words up at the dictionary (actually at the glossary, as I was still using textbooks for intermediate learners and/or reader-textbooks).

[neofight78]

I must be an A2 in Russian, because it's starting to feel like a grind every once in a while.

I guess I'm just frustrated at the slow rate of progress. Why am I not fluent/literate yet?

Because you've only been studying Russian since September On my Russian journey there have been times when it's been a tough grind, but with bursts of noticeable improvement. I think somewhere between B1 & B2 it started getting a lot better, and I'm really enjoying it now.

[Xmmm]

I've seen the first 28 episodes of Interns. I thought there were 20 episodes per season (IMDB says so) but actually looks like there are 60, so I'm not nearly done there.

I've found some nice podcasts on LingQ at the upper intermediate and advanced level so I'm working through those. The beginner resources I just didn't like much but at a higher level it's better. I also can only do about 90 minutes a day at the most in Glossika so I need podcasts when I have a long commute.

I also think I'll try to do more "intensive" reading of the podcast transcripts. Which simply means (for me) I'll read/listen ten times instead of once before moving on. My listening comprehension is not moving ahead at the same speed as reading comprehension so maybe listening ten times when I have the transcript halfway memorized will help.



: 956 / 10000 10000 pages
: 2004 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 325 / 2000 Hours to C1
: 56 / 312 Glossika GSR
Known words as per LingQ: 2069
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: 715 / 50000 Output challenge -- words written
: 160 / 3000 Output challenge -- minutes recorded

[MorkTheFiddle]

Known words as per LingQ: 1462

The LingQ method helped my reading of French and then Spanish become fluent. I began as a false beginner in both and read the LingQ way for about a year and a half in each, mostly French at first, and then, once content with my French, switching over to all Spanish. Like you do with Russian, I had to import a lot of French and Spanish to supplement the rather extensive stash of French on LingQ and the not-so-extensive repository of their Spanish. My situation was not helped by the fact that I find the prolific Hugo, Cervantes and Dumas dull and prolix, but I made do with what I found outside of LingQ. My main supplement to LingQ audio was Librivox and Litteratureaudio.

This is all to lead up to the fact that I did not feel comfortable reading French and Spanish until I hit around 40,000 known words and 1,000,000 words read. So I think in this regard you may have a ways to go.

Just about the time I was reaching my goal in French and wanted to do a bit of Ancient Greek in addition to my Spanish, I dropped LingQ and moved over to LWT. Same method, same metrics (but without tallying words read). After I finished with Spanish (and flirted with and then dropped Latin and flirted with and L/R'd some Norwegian), I concentrated on Ancient Greek, which I am still doing. Like you, from time to time I grow impatient with my progress. Currently I am a bit over 30,000 known words, but this is after 3 years (!), come next month.

The lack of any (I would call distracting) other viable methods for learning Ancient Greek forces me to stick with LWT. Over the years I did toy a bit with Anki, Memrise, Cram, Study Stack, Quizlet, Duolingo and who knows what else, but I always found that I would rather spend a spare 15 minutes reading than memorizing. There is some audio-visual stuff too out there for Ancient Greek, but the amount of it is pitifully small. But recently, and reading your log has helped me understand something, I began to see a light. The LingQ/LWT and now /ReadLang way of learning a language is a viable method in and of itself at least for learning to read and to understand the spoken language. It needs supplements only if you want them. But one just has to remember that it is a method that takes time, a lot of time, and that requirement means it is a method that requires patience, a lot of patience. For me, an hour to an hour and a half a day, 7 days a week, 18 months each for Spanish and French and now going on 3 years for Ancient Greek, which is a far more complex and "alien" language than Spanish or French, though probably no more difficult than Russian.

In any event, I have enjoyed reading your log and wish you the best.

[neofight78]

I also think I'll try to do more "intensive" reading of the podcast transcripts. Which simply means (for me) I'll read/listen ten times instead of once before moving on. My listening comprehension is not moving ahead at the same speed as reading comprehension so maybe listening ten times when I have the transcript halfway memorized will help.

I also use LingQ and I've found the method you described is what works best for me. My usual routines is to listen to a couple of texts to and from work, and then re-read them at lunchtime having reviewed the flashcards. I work with each text for 3 days and then move on to the next. Even though I am reading and listening at different times, my brain still manages to tie the meaning of the words to the sounds. It's also quite pleasant how the level of comprehension goes up each time. Of course I don't repeat for more than a few days, as then it's a case of diminishing returns.

[Xmmm]

I've been listening to and reading podcasts on LingQ. There are some fairly interesting ones at the "Intermediate 2" level, enough to keep me busy for a couple months or until I get sick of them. I've been going through "ПОПЫТКА ПУТЧА В РОССИИ В АВГУСТЕ 1991 ГОДА" as well as the podcasts on the Russian army, Russian newspapers, Russian TV, Russian election (2012?). It's interesting also to hear a native speaker talking with a learner (Steve K.). It seems like "как сказать" is a handy filler to use instead of "uhhhhh".

Since I'm doing Italki every week, I can boost my spoken output for the output challenge any time I want just by pushing the 'record' button. I've just been too lazy to do so consistently.

On the other hand ... written output is not going so well. I was working on it the first week or two but even 100 words, reasonably correct, was a drain on a daily basis. In the back of my mind I guess I'm hoping I hit B1 sometime around September and writing becomes effortless.

: 1001 / 10000 10000 pages
: 2154 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 334 / 2000 Hours to C1
: 57 / 312 Glossika GSR
Known words as per LingQ: 2244
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: 715 / 50000 Output challenge -- words written
: 160 / 3000 Output challenge -- minutes recorded

[Xmmm]

I'm struggling a bit with getting burnt out on glossika. Day 57, where I've been stuck, is a particularly difficult day. Sentences like "Jerry worked at a bank from 1995 to 2001" are hard to say at native speed due to all those numbers. I might just move to day 58. In fact, I guess I have to.

Italki tutoring continues and I'm pretty happy with how that is going.

I've also order a paperback written in Russian. All this online reading with popup dictionaries is convenient, but I'm getting tired of clicking to look up words. I thought I would try going old-school with a highlighter. If it works and I can get through the book somehow, I might start doing that together with online reading.

"Russian Sector". I don't know if it's any good, but it was good enough that somebody bother to translate it into English, so it must not be horrible. I guess I'll see.



: 1029 / 10000 10000 pages
: 2154 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 341 / 2000 Hours to C1
: 57 / 312 Glossika GSR
Known words as per LingQ: 2504
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: 715 / 50000 Output challenge -- words written
: 226 / 3000 Output challenge -- minutes recorded

[Xmmm]

A difficult week in the area of overall life, which impacted language learning to a degree.

I'm wondering if I'm devoting too much time to Glossika relative to reading and listening.

I'm wondering if I should go back to duolingo to force myself to learn case endings properly.

Reading went tolerably well. My known words went up a lot because I hit a motherlode of cognates going through some short articles. I doubt if that will be repeated soon.


: 1046 / 10000 10000 pages
: 2277 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 352 / 2000 Hours to C1
: 58 / 312 Glossika GSR
Known words as per LingQ: 3224
----------------------------------------------
: 715 / 50000 Output challenge -- words written
: 286 / 3000 Output challenge -- minutes recorded

[Xmmm]

I'm starting to go through some "особое мнение" mp3s and transcripts. It seems like radio talk shows have to be the most efficient way to get input. Over 4000 words per 30 minute segment, and it's all topical political and economic stuff.

Recently iguanamon commented that on the old HTLAL board, people weren't supposed to put CEFR levels next to their languages if they hadn't taken the exams. I took that to heart and removed my self-assessed "A2~". But on the other hand, I was unhappy with "beginner" or "high beginner" as they seem to be totally amorphous ways to describe the level you're at.

So I decided to go with whatever LingQ says that I am. I'm a "Beginner 2" in Russian, and will remain there until I hit 10,000 known words, at which point I will be an "Intermediate 1".

In the last five months I've put in over 350 hours into Russian with no detours and no sight-seeing in other languages. But my strength is failing. In January I started shopping around for my next language using intro memrise courses. Thing went from bad to worse as I started eliminating target languages from the "next language" competition.

And so now, I'm sorry to report that I'm dabbling in Norwegian on the side. I'm trying to limit it to 15 minutes a day on days when I have free time only. And I'm still trying to do 2+ hours of Russian a day every day until I hit at least hit "Advanced 1".



: 1073 / 10000 10000 pages
: 2412 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 364 / 2000 Hours to C1
: 59 / 312 Glossika GSR
Known words as per LingQ: 3308
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: 715 / 50000 Output challenge -- words written
: 346 / 3000 Output challenge -- minutes recorded

[Xmmm]

Up to now, I've done all my reading online with a popup dictionary. That's been very convenient but in the back of my mind there's been a voice saying "You're nothing without that dictionary."

So I bought a couple Russian paperbacks as a test. The first one is "Russian Sector" which I thought was a high-brow thriller, but after reading the first two chapters looks like a run of the mill thriller. There were a lot of words I didn't know, but they were mostly off in the descriptive sections. I've had no problem following the main story so far. So, comprehension without dictionary is about 75-80%.

As for Glossika, I'm getting stuck. I only bought the GSR files, not the books. On day 60 I'm running into long sentences where I don't know all the vocabulary. When I try to reverse engineer the sentence with Google translate, I get garbage. I can probably break every sentence down and go over them many times and puzzle them out, but that's very time consuming. So the moral of the story is that if you are getting Glossika, pay the extra money and get the books/pdfs as well.

Russian
: 1110 / 10000 10000 pages
: 2412 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 372 / 2000 Hours to Advanced
: 3381 / 37000 Words to Advanced
: 60 / 312 Glossika GSR
: 778 / 50000 Output challenge -- words written
: 346 / 3000 Output challenge -- minutes recorded

Just dabbling! I have nothing to say about this!

Norwegian
: 10 / 75 Duolingo
: 16 / 10000 10000 pages
: 30 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 3 / 1000 Hours to Advanced
: 105 / 22000 Words to Advanced