Конец игры

[Rotasu]

Congratz!! You've come a long way after only a few months.

[Xmmm]

Русский

Italki -- I waited four months and almost 300 hours before I started conversations on Italki. When I did start, I was proud that on a scale of 1 to 10, my speaking ability was a 2. Now, after eleven sessions, I realize that my ability has improved to maybe a 2.2. Now I'm wondering why I started speaking so early instead of waiting a year or two. I feel like the next one hundred Italki sessions are going to be a tough slog. With any future languages, I'll wait until my vocabulary is much larger. Inability to come up with the word I want seems to be the biggest problem.

Radio -- I'm really enjoying «Особое Мнение». I've worked through five radio episodes so far, which in terms of transcripts is already 22,000 words. The political discussions are lively and topical ... and should be interesting for Russian learners, as it's all domestic Russian politics. I think this might be a better alternative for the intermediate learner than a TV show like Interns. Interns can be a bit subtle, and it can be a bit all over the place. Whereas «Особое Мнение» is similar to the old US show Crossfire--very straight talk, often lively, sometimes heated.

Book -- Русский Сектор. I'm on chapter 5. I'll finish it for language practice. For the book itself, thumbs down.

Glossika -- Blocked. I need to get the book. On my todo list.

: 1167 / 10000 10000 pages
: 2412 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 383 / 2000 Hours to Advanced
: 3615 / 37000 Words to Advanced
: 60 / 312 Glossika GSR
: 778 / 50000 Output challenge -- words written
: 346 / 3000 Output challenge -- minutes recorded





Norsk

Duolingo and LingQ are good enough for now. In the long run, I worry about a lack of resources. Podcasts I can find, but where are the transcripts, etc.

: 15 / 75 Duolingo
: 21 / 10000 10000 pages
: 48 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 4 / 1000 Hours to Advanced
: 155 / 22000 Words to Advanced

[Xmmm]

Русский

I'm getting plenty of listening practice in the car but lately I've been having trouble finding time to read. I'll try to catch up this weekend.


: 1225 / 10000 10000 pages
: 2495 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 396 / 2000 Hours to Advanced
: 3775 / 37000 Words to Advanced
: 60 / 312 Glossika GSR
: 778 / 50000 Output challenge -- words written
: 396 / 3000 Output challenge -- minutes recorded





Norsk

I'm starting to understand why people read HP in L2. For Norwegian, it looks like HP is not even available so when I finish Duolingo I might be reading Artemis Fowl--which will no doubt leave me wishing I could read HP. I will have a bottle of aquavit handy to kill the pain.

Norwegian will be a lean learning experience compared to Russian. I won't have Assimil, almost no LingQ, no Glossika, no lib.ru, no Interns, no "Echo of Moscow".

The six national Norwegian newspapers look like the same newspaper and seem to consist of big pictures of celebs and 50 word articles. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place.

I'm hesitant to attempt books written in Norwegian with no English translation with shaky Duolingo skills this summer. So right now I'm thinking it will be Artemis Fowl followed by Dan Brown followed by ... some real to-be-determined Norwegian authors. Subject to change.

Still focused mainly on Duolingo and limiting this language to 15 minutes a day.

: 17 / 75 Duolingo
: 24 / 10000 10000 pages
: 48 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 5 / 1000 Hours to Advanced
: 184 / 22000 Words to Advanced

[Xmmm]

Русский

I read Chapter 6 of Русский Сектор. Ugh. Tedious.

I listened to Vladimir Putin answering questions about the annexation of Crimea on Прямая Линиа from 2014. That was super interesting. Avoiding the subject of politics entirely, I will simply say,по моему, he has excellent public speaking skills.


: 1308 / 10000 10000 pages
: 2519 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 408 / 2000 Hours to Advanced
: 4001 / 37000 Words to Advanced
: 60 / 312 Glossika GSR
: 778 / 50000 Output challenge -- words written
: 396 / 3000 Output challenge -- minutes recorded





Norsk

Still thinking about the path forward. [Edited: registered at bokkilden.no as they ship to USA ... looking at 'Odinsbarn' by Siri Pettersen]

: 19 / 75 Duolingo
: 24 / 10000 10000 pages
: 48 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 6 / 1000 Hours to Advanced
: 184 / 22000 Words to Advanced

[Xmmm]

Русский

Another busy week at work and my Russian study suffered for it. When I run short on time, reading rapidly drops toward zero and all that's left is time in the car, which lately has meant listening comprehension. And I don't feel like it's improving. I don't know if that's because it's actually not improving, or because measuring comprehension by yourself is pretty subjective. Too bad особое мнение doesn't come with quizzes at the end. That would really make it the ultimate resource.

So ... I'm a bit stumped how to proceed. Work will calm down and go back to normal eventually, but what is the best use of the 10-12 hours I spend the car every week? Something FSI style like "Modern Russian"? I shudder to think about it ...

Or just carry on with listening comprenhension and trust that instead of floundering randomly between 10 and 20 percent, I'm actually gradually inching up from eleven to twelve percent, etc. I don't know.


: 1355 / 10000 10000 pages
: 2575 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 422 / 2000 Hours to Advanced
: 4171 / 37000 Words to Advanced
: 60 / 312 Glossika GSR
: 803 / 50000 Output challenge -- words written
: 396 / 3000 Output challenge -- minutes recorded





Norsk

I went off the wagon the last couple of days and spent more than 15 minutes a day here. Getting discouraged with Russian progress, it's so easy to look over here and make visible progress in Duolingo. But I don't want to make a habit of it. Russian first.


: 22 / 75 Duolingo
: 24 / 10000 10000 pages
: 48 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 9 / 1000 Hours to Advanced
: 184 / 22000 Words to Advanced

[geoffw]

Norsk

I'm starting to understand why people read HP in L2. For Norwegian, it looks like HP is not even available so when I finish Duolingo I might be reading Artemis Fowl--which will no doubt leave me wishing I could read HP. I will have a bottle of aquavit handy to kill the pain.

Of course Harry Potter exists in Norwegian. It may be harder to find, though. It certainly is available online from the Norwegian booksellers like adlibris.com, but no idea if they deliver where you are, or how many millions of dollars it would cost to ship there.

[geoffw]

Check out www.ark.no. They sell the Harry Potter books and audiobooks in Norwegian, and they claim to ship to the USA and all sorts of places. For a 299 kr book I'm being quoted 200 kr in shipping. Not cheap, but if you have to have it, it's available.

[Xmmm]

Русский

I'm reading особое мнение transcripts and listening to the show. This week I listened to all episodes from last week, and read four of the transcripts.

I'm getting really good at understanding (and using) all the low info content connecting phrases:

с сожалением
Я думаю, что
мне кажеться
к тому же
то есть
потому что

Also I can spot the words for: migrants, state criminals, sanctions, inflation, election, corruption, economy, European Union, etc. from a mile away.

And anything ending in чески.

So ... I probably understand 30-40% of the words used in these shows, but it's all still pretty much a word salad and my true comprehension (without reading the transcript ahead of time) is 10-15%.

Still waiting for an elusive breakthrough.


: 1412 / 10000 10000 pages
: 2575 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 438 / 2000 Hours to Advanced
: 4348 / 37000 Words to Advanced
: 60 / 312 Glossika GSR
: 803 / 50000 Output challenge -- words written
: 396 / 3000 Output challenge -- minutes recorded





Norsk

LingQ is a great resource for Russian, but no good for Norwegian. So I'm changing my plan to Duolingo + Memrise, followed by native materials.

I've lowered my known word count to 127 to match what I have on Memrise (5000 most common words, part one).

: 24 / 75 Duolingo
: 24 / 10000 10000 pages
: 48 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 12 / 1000 Hours to Advanced
: 127 / 22000 Words to Advanced

[Xmmm]

Русский

I'm still doing Italki. I've done 18.5 hours in 2016. I just don't track it in my metrics because I don't have a goal equivalent to "10000 pages". (By the way, 10000 pages is a lot of pages, as I'm finding out).

My speaking is still barbaric, but by degrees it's becoming more fluently barbaric. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would self-assess that I started at 2.0 (decent vocabulary and tolerable accent) and have moved up to 2.4. Listening to особое мнение has definitely helped in this area. I'm memorizing all the canned phrases and figures of speech and then sprinkling them into my own conversation, as appropriate or not (occasionally making my tutors burst out laughing).

I forget if I mentioned it, but I now have a plan to listen to all of особое мнение on a one week delay. So I'm up-to-date with the latest news, whether it's the great Eurovision controversy or the Boris Nemtsov memorial procession.

: 1500 / 10000 10000 pages
: 2868 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 454 / 2000 Hours to Advanced
: 4590 / 37000 Words to Advanced
: 803 / 50000 Output challenge -- words written
: 396 / 3000 Output challenge -- minutes recorded


Norsk

This is the fun, easy language at the moment. I'm just playing video games (Duolingo and Memrise).

: 24 / 75 Duolingo
: 24 / 10000 10000 pages
: 48 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 15 / 1000 Hours to Advanced
: 339 / 22000 Words to Advanced

[tangleweeds]

Norsk
This is the fun, easy language at the moment. I'm just playing video games (Duolingo and Memrise).

Keep us updated on those fun Norwegian resources. It's my top temptation, perhaps for the next 6WC. I've been neglecting my duties to Team Wanderlust.