A language learners’ forum

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Hello Arnaud,

I noticed that you deleted all your posts and seem to have left the forum. I don't know why, and you don't need to explain it. But, I do want you to know that I, for one, miss your presence here. Good luck in all you do, and in your future endeavors.

All the best,
Tom

Bad times

Let's resurrect that agonising log...
Russian: These last months I've made progresses in my listening abilities by watching series and Vlogs on YT but currently I've reached a kind of glass ceiling: I don't understand when people speak in live shows or radio shows, more precisely I understand a lot of words but not the sentences: my brain hasn't the time to process the information. So I'm going to stop watching series and exclusively listen to the radio during a few months, to see if there is an improvement.
Second thing, reading the transcripts of series doesn't give enough descriptive vocabulary, that's really evident when I try to read books. So now, I'm going to concentrate more on books, that's how I learned english, by the way: by reading Sci-fi books, detective stories, etc.
So currently I'm reading a simple detective story (Любовь кончается в полночь: if you ask why that book, because after trying a lot of authors, I've finally found that the books of серова are at my level (серова is not a real writer, it's just a brand, and the critics are generally negative on online bookshops, but no problem: I use that as a learning tool) and the paper book was at 0,01 euro on Amazon), 2 pages per hour (last year it was 1 page, so I've doubled my reading speed...To be compared to 60/70 pages in french in case you wonder if I'm not visually or mentally impaired to read at such a slow speed... ).
Japanese: I try to do 1 hour in the morning. The progresses are erractic. I use Japanese for everyone and the french Manuel de Japonais by Kuwae (this one is good but really difficult to use: a lots of Kanji are thrown at you without any explanation, and they are used in the keys of the exercises...each time I open that book, the 2 or 3 following days are days without Japanese). I also listen again to Michel Thomas Japanese (4th time, I think)

Logging on today and finding your post has made my day. I enjoy your posting. Russian will be my next language to study and I will watch your log with great interest.

BOLIO

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welcome back Arnaud from your neighbour

Thanks to my fan club for following me, I don't know what I've done to deserve such a honor...
Russian: I've reached a quarter of my russian book (I decidedly don't recommand it) : a doctor who is also a specialist of mushrooms is found dead after a party at his datcha. Visibly, it's an accident, but his best friend thinks otherwise and engages the great detective Tatiana Bidulova (forgot her name, sorry). Ah, I hear you say « what an interesting plot », and the author must maintain the suspense during 200 pages with that...his best technique is the repetition (ah, what a great idea, I can revise my new vocabulary!) : ask witness number 1 why on earth a specialist of mushrooms would poison himself, then ask witness number 2 how on earth a connoisseur of mushrooms could poison himself, then ask the witnesses' wifes, then explore the datcha for clues, then add a little gore scene : a bloody dead dog's head is discovered on the dead's tomb. So obviously, it's not an accident, it's a murder, the murderer is full of hate !!!
Well, you see the style. I feel like giving up, but as I progress rather well (I can read up to 5 pages an hour, now) I continue.
I'm still listening to the radio 30 min a day : no progress but I feel something...(yeah I just watched the Star Wars saga once again after having read a book of pop philosophy: "Star Wars la philo contre-attaque", so I feel the Force, forcément)
I'm also currently creating an « Anki Notebook », where I note every words that I've already met several times but that I constantly forget. I'll try to learn by heart these words because I'm loosing to much time looking for them again and again and again and again....
Japanese: I've installed Anki on my phone and I study five Kanji cards per day (it takes 2 min), so I don't feel guilty of doing nothing... (where on earth did I find the motivation to learn russian, I don't know: impossible to find the same stamina to feed the engine on other languages)
That's all, to be continued...

Little update:
I've reached 1/3 of Любовь кончается в полночь (70 pages read on 190), and I've finally entered the story and I follow the plot with pleasure even if the book is really not a masterpiece. I've calculated that 3.5% of the words I meet are unknown, the majority are in the descriptions, I have almost no problem with the dialogs. Next time, before buying a pulp book like that, I'll have to check that I can find the corresponding audiobook somewhere because it's a little annoying not to be able to hear the unknown words.
I need to work on the verbs of mouvement, I've to force myself to eat that emetic content in a way or another because I feel that I don't understand all when I meet them.

I've reached the end of chapter one of Japanese for everyone and started chapter two. Difficult.
I've used Anki these 2 or 3 last weeks to learn some Kanji, but it's absolutly not efficient for me (I knew it, but I tried anyway). So I think I'll use rather the classic "Basic Kanji book 1" that suits me more.
I've also listened to a few tracks of Modern Russian and FSI Chinese. Curiously FSI is not that boring when you don't know the language.
Ni shi shei, ni shi shei ? Wo shi Wang Danian, wo shi Wang Danian