Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

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kelvin921019
Green Belt
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:11 pm
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Cantonese (N)
Chinese Mandarin (Semi-Native)
English (C1-2)
Spanish (B2)
Japanese (N1)
Russian (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16306
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Re: Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

Postby kelvin921019 » Sat Nov 13, 2021 7:43 pm

Progress
Very short update.
Russian - last 10 lessons in Assimil. One important lesson I'm going to learn this year and the coming year is to slow down. I originally plan to do NPRC in between the breaks but I was just too busy(lazy) to do anything outside clearing the Anki decks. I would put NPRC on hold since the vocab deck has recently gone up to 200+ review a day, which is a sign of slowing down.

Spanish - I'm now working again on las claves de nuevo dele B2. It's funny because I took the B2 exam 1 year ago.

I am now taking the vocabularies into my anki deck. I am obviously much better in understanding the audio after the constant contact with the language in this year. I am going to consolidate my foundation in B2 before moving on. Once again, no rush. I will then complete the novels before getting on C1 materials.

Japanese - I started working on vocabularies for N1. It is really the much harder level for me. Unlike the N2 book, basically every words in that list are new to me. I am progressing on a very low pace. Since it would be easier to deal with N1 exam, my plan would be to take the N1 exam next year in the December.

Since I don't think I can travel anywhere in the near future, so it is basically impossible for me to challenge a Russian exam any time soon. I am now aiming to take ТРКИ 2 earliest in 2023.
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kelvin921019
Green Belt
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:11 pm
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Cantonese (N)
Chinese Mandarin (Semi-Native)
English (C1-2)
Spanish (B2)
Japanese (N1)
Russian (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16306
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Re: Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

Postby kelvin921019 » Wed Dec 01, 2021 2:35 am

Russian: Assimil - Done!
It is pretty unbelievable that I managed to finish all 100 lessons of Assimil. It is, I must admit, a much more tougher journey than any languages I have learnt. Obviously, it is much tougher than I would have expected. I have taken multiple breaks to keep me from exhaustion.

I will be doing all the reverse translation the coming week. Near the end of the book I skipped lesson 99 which is a poem. I only do translation / anki cards for the exercise sentences and put some of the useful words into anki. I will keep doing the anki decks until end of this year and reverse translation until end of Jan 2022.

In general, this book pushes me to a stage where I can start creating my own simple sentences with "voids" in vocabulary. It is now very important for me to work on the A2 list in order to build a strong foundation.

Yet, I am still way far from my expected level (high A2). Partly it's due to my laziness in doing all the reinforcing exercises (podcasts etc), and party due to the fact that it takes more time than expected to get use to the language. It is quite apparently that, the book doesn't cover much advance grammatical ideas like the Spanish book. Working on NCPR and then в пути would be a good combination for the coming year. Hopefully I can get to a stage where I can start reading books by the end of 2022.

Taking from my experience in Spanish, I am trying to reinforce my knowledge and hone my skills before moving on to more advanced material. I am now clearing the Anki decks and aim to lower the review count. Meanwhile I work on the stories in LingQ and train up my listening skills, especially on my ability to catch declensions of known words. This is going to be one big challenge.

As expected, it is much slower progress than Spanish and Japanese. Getting to B2 in 2 years now sound quite remote and impossible given my progress. Nevertheless, I am in no rush (especially travelling in 2022 seems to be another impossible dream given the recent development in the pandemic)
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kelvin921019
Green Belt
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:11 pm
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Cantonese (N)
Chinese Mandarin (Semi-Native)
English (C1-2)
Spanish (B2)
Japanese (N1)
Russian (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16306
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Re: Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

Postby kelvin921019 » Fri Dec 03, 2021 3:42 am

There are more speakers around me than I would have imagined...
One interesting phenomenon after I have started learning new languages is that...
Once I have learned a language (be it Spanish, Japanese or Russian) up to a level, I often notice that there are far more speakers of that language in my city than I would have imagined.

Just this morning while I am commuting in metro, I overheard the dialogue between the persons sitting next to me and soon realised that they are speaking Russian. This also happens to me when I started Spanish when I came across a group of wasted teens speaking Spanish. Not sure if it is mere coincidence haha
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golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

Postby golyplot » Sat Dec 04, 2021 2:45 am

I think that depends on the language and the area. I don't think I've ever heard Italian or Dutch in the wild.
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kelvin921019
Green Belt
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:11 pm
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Cantonese (N)
Chinese Mandarin (Semi-Native)
English (C1-2)
Spanish (B2)
Japanese (N1)
Russian (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16306
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Re: Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

Postby kelvin921019 » Thu Jan 06, 2022 9:25 am

2022 new year resolution
I have been caught in a lot of personal matters recently and can't really spend quality time on studying new languages. I limit my time to doing Anki cards for the time being.

Russian
I'm pretty behind schedule and I'm still on Chpt 22 of NCPR. I am working on A2 vocab list and doing a lot of LingQ listening exercise lately. My target is to take things slowly so as to reduce the Anki workload. I am switching to a more lenient approach in Anki.

Since Omicron is hitting the world hard, my plan to do Russian exam this year probably won't happen so I have plenty of time to work on this language. However, I am running out of patience grinding the A2-B1 phase so I aim to complete V Puti this year (and hopefully start listening to native materials + working on an advance textbook by the end of this year). I also want to start speaking lesson by the end of this year.

My aim is to push my Russian level to intermediate (or hopefully upper intermediate) so that I will no longer need to maintain my Russian with water down material.

Japanese
I have stopped speaking lesson due to personal matters. Probably I will resume speaking lesson in second half of 2022.

I am now working slowly on a N1 vocabulary list since realistically I think DELE C1 or N1 exam would be the most feasible exam to take this year. N1 exam would be less time consuming (given that it's a listening and reading only exam) so this would likely be my goal this year (N1 in December).

Spanish
I am still stuck in the intermediate plateau in this language yet this is the only language I have consistent output practice (1 hr speaking on italki every week). My aim is to complete B2 book and start to polish my listening skill more. I'm not going to spend much time with the language tho.

Next language?
My next language will most likely be French but that will be my plan in 2023 (and after I get comfortable with Russian).
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kelvin921019
Green Belt
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:11 pm
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Cantonese (N)
Chinese Mandarin (Semi-Native)
English (C1-2)
Spanish (B2)
Japanese (N1)
Russian (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16306
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Re: Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

Postby kelvin921019 » Thu Jan 13, 2022 4:25 pm

Progress?
Due to shutting down of gyms, I go back to do running at night and I listen to Spanish podcast (Radio Ambulante) during those short runs. To my surprise, I understand only limited amount of contents. I still need absolute concentration to understand what is being said in the podcast. It is rather disappointing because I expect after constant contact with the language I would have picked up more words than before but the end result is that I read subtitles much faster than before. Besdies, these are words that I know because I can understand perfectly the transcription. Unfortunately I have forgotten how I get from subtitle to no-subtitle in English many years ago so I need to just do try and error until I break through this stage in listening. My task this year is to get my brain "lock" into Spanish and Japanese.

I just wonder, if reading subtitles while listening would eventually get me to the point where I wish to be, or I need other sort of training.
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kelvin921019
Green Belt
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:11 pm
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Cantonese (N)
Chinese Mandarin (Semi-Native)
English (C1-2)
Spanish (B2)
Japanese (N1)
Russian (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16306
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Re: Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

Postby kelvin921019 » Tue Jan 18, 2022 5:23 pm

Difficulty for listening is a multi-variable matrix
Since I started the running-and-listening session (almost every day), I find myself more "lock into" Spanish. It turns out that my "lock" with the language differs depending on the intensity of immersion in that particular period of time. I have been primarily using Radio Ambulante show as the main source of listening accompanied with some news segments.

It turns out that my comprehension rate differs not only according to the difficulty of the content, but depends on a lot of factors:-
- Difficulty of the language (vocabulary / grammar)
- Colloquialism / Technical terms
- Rate of speaking
- Clarity of delivery
- Accent (familiar to unfamiliar)
- Clarity of the recording
- background noise
- MASK!
I once struggled trying to understand a phone interview with an expert on psychology who speaks pretty slowly, but he slurred most words and using quite technical terminology. I also struggle to understand a daily conversation recording of natives since it's in unfamiliar accent from someone who speaks quickly and slurry.

Perhaps denoting a recording only according to its difficulty might not be the best for learner to search for appropriate contents
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kelvin921019
Green Belt
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:11 pm
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Cantonese (N)
Chinese Mandarin (Semi-Native)
English (C1-2)
Spanish (B2)
Japanese (N1)
Russian (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16306
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Re: Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

Postby kelvin921019 » Fri Jan 28, 2022 9:14 am

Progress
Russian
I'm still working on NCPR (now Chpt 24/30) and A2 vocabulary. In the meantime, I try to expose myself to more learner oriented contents. I have just finished "Who is she" on LingQ and now move on to "eating out". I will relisten to these contents a few more times in the future.

I am to start V Puti after NCPR and after that I will start working on native contents.

Spanish
I keep listening to podcast during workout and my listening ability is gradually getting better. However, I think that there's a need to expand my thematic vocabularies e.g. food, insects, technical language.

I am trying to listen to more natural speech and more "less clear" audio. This requires a lot of effort on my part. I need to train up my ability to anticipate the words in a sentence since for very blurred speech we don't actually pick up the sound but to instinctively deduce those slurred words from our instinct on the language.

Japanese
Just by calculation I am a bit worry if I can finish N1 material by the end of this year. I am now thinking about taking JLPT N1 perhaps next year instead to give myself more time to practice. It also depends on how my life will go in these 2 years of course.
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kelvin921019
Green Belt
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:11 pm
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Cantonese (N)
Chinese Mandarin (Semi-Native)
English (C1-2)
Spanish (B2)
Japanese (N1)
Russian (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16306
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Re: Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

Postby kelvin921019 » Wed Mar 02, 2022 5:13 pm

Havn't updated for a long time, the pandemic has hit my city hard and I also got very busy with a lot of personal matters.

Russian
I plan to finish my Russian studies by this year. I am already in the last 4 chapters of NCPR and last few pages of A2 vocabulary list. I plan to self assess reading and grammar A2 after finishing NCPR. I am still finding place to do an assessment of the language on listening but it's difficult to buy a book / official book nowadays.

I originally want to get an official certificate on my Russian level but now I decide not to do so anymore for obvious reason. Nevertheless, Russian is still has its historical value and very likely I will just keep this language casual. I will put this language on maintenance after finish V Puti.

Japanese and Spanish
I am still exploring chance of taking C1 Spanish / N1 Japanese this year. I am still maintaining both languages (doing N1 Japanese). Listening would be the most challenging area in both parts, I might need to do more focus practice

Next language plan
Next year I will start French. My plan is to keep this language largely passive. As an experiment, I plan not to use Anki and using bidirectional translation with Assimil using the schedule of Luca (which is available on his facebook). I aim to treat this language as a stepping stone for accessing other languages using Assimil and besides it is a language rather similar to English. I plan to finish the "speed run" learning in 6 months (120 days for Assimil French + extra 2 months for Using French) and see how things work out for me.
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kelvin921019
Green Belt
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:11 pm
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Cantonese (N)
Chinese Mandarin (Semi-Native)
English (C1-2)
Spanish (B2)
Japanese (N1)
Russian (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16306
x 1228

Re: Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

Postby kelvin921019 » Mon Mar 28, 2022 4:39 am

Russian
I am currently doing chapter 28 of the Penguin book. According to the schedule, I am going to complete the book probably by mid to late April. While I'm tempted to go straight into В Пути, I think I'll take 1 month do the following:
- complete the A2 vocab list + some remaining vocab in Penguin book (the vocab list for the last 3 chapters are extremely long)
- complete the book Русский язык в упражнениях since I think my grammatical foundation isn't strong enough for me to move on
- focus on listening exercise. I think it takes much more exercise for me to "click" the meaning of the spoken word immediately.

The language itself never stops to fascinate me. It has a very unique way of expressing things and I look forward to reading their literature and hopefully I can find something interesting to watch as well.

Spanish
My focus on Spanish is once again listening. I started watching a show called "la Resistencia" and oh gawd I can barely understand a word, let alone the jokes. I tried to go through a part with my tutor and it takes me about 30 mins to understand 3 mins of the content.

Since it is my believe that understanding jokes and stand up is the key to advance level, I think my focus would be to work on more listening material so that I can start understanding the language without so putting so much mental strain on focusing.

Japanese
While I'm slowing grinding through the N1 vocab book, judging from the schedule I can take N1 exam next year earliest. I still have to go through a few books and work a lot more on listening before I'm comfortable taking the exam.

Another thing I want to do is to once again find a tutor. I was probably too lazy this few months and I hope I can resume doing speaking exercise because I can definitely feel that my ability to form sentences is slowly declining.

Anki Decks
I have spent quite a lot of time (usually just travel time and dead time) doing Anki deck and it has never been something too pleasant. Yet I find it quite useful because it helps me recognise words quicker. I think there are words which I will never remember by repetition unless I see it quite often on Anki.

Having said so, I still need to pace out the reviews and new cards. I am adding new cards into JP deck every day and it's inevitable because of my goal. However, I am considering to stop adding new cards (or 1 - 2 cards everyday) when I'm doing the 1 month "break" in Russian. The deck has grown massively and I think I need to give time for the deck to die down.
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