Конец игры

[geoffw]

And no guarantee how close the English translation is. Given what they do to the titles of his books, I think that's a valid concern.

Right you are. I tried doing L-R with a Harry Potter audiobook, and they had taken multiple sentences and rephrased them as single sentences, cut some stuff altogether, etc. It was possible to do something with it, but very difficult.

[Ed1991]

For one thing, there seems to be something wrong with the "10,000 most common russian words" course on memrise. I've only done 668 words, but here is a sampling:

завод, экономический, политический, работий, общество, современный, комитет, человекический, условый, энергия

So this list must be "the 10,000 most common words found in government documents".

It's based on the Nicolas J Brown book which was first published and compiled in the early 90s. The book uses Russian newspapers as one of its main sources, so you get a lot of language which is found in pre-1991 newspapers. Комитет is definitely not in the top 1000 words by frequency in modern spoken Russian.

[Xmmm]

It's based on the Nicolas J Brown book which was first published and compiled in the early 90s. The book uses Russian newspapers as one of its main sources, so you get a lot of language which is found in pre-1991 newspapers. Комитет is definitely not in the top 1000 words by frequency in modern spoken Russian.

That would explain a lot, thanks! That's why I'm learning "collective farm", "party", "revolution", "communist" and I'm not even up to 1,000 words yet.

I still seem to be finding value in it, though. I've run into a lot of the words already. And it forces me to type those long words out in Russian and prove I can spell them ...

[Xmmm]

Did a ton of reading and finished We. I was going to start Notes from Underground, but the audio (from LibriVox) is by a non-professional and he reads a little too fast for me. I found an 'audible' version of Heart of a Dog on amazon. That is great. Acted with lots of exaggerated pronunciation and much slower.

I guess I'm not really doing L-R. I'm pre-reading a chapter in English, then L2/R2 using LingQ and clicking on all the blue words. I L2/R2 each chapter three times before going onto the next one. Since the magic of L2/R1 only works if you can do it ten hours at a time, and since I never get that kind of free time, I guess L2/R2 is as good as anything else. I do have "Sharik" and "kolbasa" stuck in my in my head. And the more useful words like: Дурачок, Дурак, чудак.

We was considerably easier than Heart of a Dog though. I think that is because there is more action in the latter. We is all "we are reasonable, but ancient people were very unreasonable. The woman has very sharp, white teeth". Whereas Heart of a Dog is more like "the guy in the white coat chased Sharik around the lab, sending him crashing into a jar of foul-smelling liquid".


Я бросил Дуолинго. Я закончил читать «Мы». Я начал читать «Собачье Сердце». У меня есть аудио для етой книги. Аудио медленнее, чем аудио для «Записки из Подполья»




: 67 / 100 Assimil Passive
: 18 / 100 Assimil Active
: 699 / 5000 High Frequency Words (5000)
: 28 / 104 Glossika GSR 1
: 190 / 250 Hours 2015
: 373 / 10000 10000 pages
: 630 / 10000 10000 minutes

[Xmmm]

I'm really enjoying СОБАЧЬЕ СЕРДЦЕ. Halfway through. I found the operation disturbing because, reading it in Russian I couldn't understand what they were doing with Sharik's brain. So my method currently is:

1. read a chapter in LingQ and google translate all the words I don't know.
2. read again with audiobook
3. maybe read again with audiobook
4. if something is not clear and it's bugging me, read the chapter in English.


: 68 / 100 Assimil Passive
: 19 / 100 Assimil Active
: 737 / 5000 High Frequency Words (5000)
: 30 / 104 Glossika GSR 1
: 197 / 250 Hours 2015
: 436 / 10000 10000 pages
: 630 / 10000 10000 minutes

[Xmmm]

Almost done with СОБАЧЬЕ СЕРДЦЕ. Reading is getting easier!

I dropped duolingo in favor of New Penguin Russian and the book has arrived. So far, so good.


: 5 / 30 New Penguin Russian
: 68 / 100 Assimil Passive
: 19 / 100 Assimil Active
: 778 / 5000 High Frequency Words (5000)
: 31 / 104 Glossika GSR 1
: 205 / 250 Hours 2015
: 457 / 10000 10000 pages
: 630 / 10000 10000 minutes

[Xmmm]

Reading was getting easier on the back half of Heart of a Dog, but got harder immediately
when I started Envy. I think Yuri Olesha writes in a less direct, more 'poetic' style.
It is harder to follow even though you wouldn't think so, looking at the English translation.

I'm going to redirect my energies towards Assimil (which has been languishing) for a while.


novels 'read': Мы, Собачье Сердце, Зависть (in progress)

: 7 / 30 New Penguin Russian
: 69 / 100 Assimil Passive
: 20 / 100 Assimil Active
: 797 / 5000 High Frequency Words (5000)
: 33 / 104 Glossika GSR 1
: 218 / 250 Hours 2015
: 540 / 10000 10000 pages
: 630 / 10000 10000 minutes

[Xmmm]

I watched one episode of Физрук, and two of интерны, and read the transcripts.

I was speaking (in English) with a Russian speaker and some others and the subject of the drought came up. I was able to blurt out: зимой часто идут дожди ... and it was almost relevant to the conversation. Thanks, Glossika!

I'm struggling with courses -- Assimil, New Penguin, Memrise. I basically don't want to do courses. I feel like LingQ lets me cheat and read far above my level, and transcripts for Физрук and интерны let me cheat and watch TV above my level. And I will just learn by osmosis. Glossika is a separate case, since that time is otherwise wasted during my commute.



novels 'read': Мы, Собачье Сердце, Зависть (in progress)

: 7 / 30 New Penguin Russian
: 71 / 100 Assimil Passive
: 22 / 100 Assimil Active
: 860 / 5000 High Frequency Words (5000)
: 36 / 104 Glossika GSR 1
: 227 / 250 Hours 2015
: 578 / 10000 10000 pages
: 750 / 10000 10000 minutes

[Xmmm]

10000 pages is a much tougher goal at the A1 level than 10000 minutes. I can only read about 35 words a minute since I have to look things up a lot. Whereas one minute is the same amount of time for me as for a C1 learner, even if 98% of the dialogue escapes me ....

Watched episode 12 of Interns (the one where Lobanov shaves the wrong woman's head). Spent one hour and forty-five minutes reading the transcript twice before watching the episode. That's about 15 pages or 0.15 percent of the page goal in almost two hours. Watching, in 25 minutes I achieved 0.25 percent of the minute goal.

Hopefully my reading speed will improve!

: 7 / 30 New Penguin Russian
: 71 / 100 Assimil Passive
: 22 / 100 Assimil Active
: 872 / 5000 High Frequency Words (5000)
: 40 / 104 Glossika GSR 1
: 239 / 250 Hours 2015
: 606 / 10000 10000 pages
: 840 / 10000 10000 minutes

[Xmmm]

I went back to watching кухня and reading its transcripts, temporarily.

I prefer интерны (greatly), but I'm trying to save those episodes for down the road when my reading is better.

It's amazing how slowly my reading improves. I've read 673 pages in Russian. I would have thought by now I'd be flying along, but no. Every time I load a new 2000-2500 word transcript into LingQ, there are 200-250 words I've never seen before. And 500 dark yellow words that I've been exposed to but don't remember.

That's why I've put novels on hold and am focused on transcripts (and the easier transcripts from кухня at that). I'm trying to get to the point where I can read for an hour without looking up 400 words. And I'm trying to improve my reading speed from the current 35-40 words a minute.

: 673 / 10000 10000 pages
: 940 / 10000 10000 minutes
: 250 / 250 Hours 2015
: 41 / 104 Glossika GSR 1
Known words as per LingQ: 1313
-----------------------------------------------
: 7 / 30 New Penguin Russian
: 71 / 100 Assimil Passive
: 22 / 100 Assimil Active