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 » Tue Apr 19, 2022 3:01 am

Russian
I planned to update my log when I finish the Penguin book but I think I am leaving this log to rot unless I update it now.

I am now doing the final chapter of the book (chpt 30) and will finish it by the end of this month. Getting closer to the end of the book, the vocabulary of the reading part are getting more and more useless. For example, on a general overview of the vocabulary in Chapter 30 reading, most of the words are literary / archaic / rare word, or an uncommon version of certain expression. So I deliberately cherry picked those words which I may use or of a more general nature. I have switched back to complete the A2 vocab list and also the words / expression I encountered in LingQ or youtube videos.

I am rather surprised at my improvement in listening comprehension. I tried a few podcasts and easy russian and I can sometimes understand a complete sentence spoken by native Russian (only sometimes) and native speed. One observation I have made is that Russian speaks quite clearly in general and at a pace which gives my brain enough time to process the words.

Anyway, as a milestone test, I have purchased a mock paper book for level A2 and B1 published by St Petersburg University, which, finally, has the audio for the listening part. My plan for the coming 2 months are as follows:-
May - work on "Russian in exercises" and A2 vocabularies, do a lot of LingQs and podcast listening exercise. Do an A2 test by the end of May to test my level
June - start V Puti and hopefully complete the book by the end of this year

Japanese
I am now halfway into my N1 vocabulary list. I think taking N1 exam this December is far from possible. It will take me another 5 months to complete the vocabulary list and another 4-5 months to work on the grammar and listening.

I am struggling a lot with the onomatope (giongo and may god have mercy gitaigo). I asked my friends as to how to memorize / associate them and they all told me that there is no other way apart from rote memorization and immersion.

Recently I listen to NewsPicks podcast in order to brush up my ability to comprehend more technical / complex theme in Japanese. I also try to watch more variety shows in Japanese to get myself used to the most native Japanese (I am a big fan of Japanese manzai / comedy but they are still too advance for me and require in-depth knowledge of Japanese current events).

Spanish
My focus on Spanish is once again listening. I tried to watch "Resistencia" with my tutor in italki and to my surprise even he cannot understand most of the content (since he's Argentinian). We decided to switch to more Argentinian content and things go smooth for him again (of course, I still struggle).

Next Language
I have absolutely no mood and time to start my 4th language (French). Originally I planned to start it next year but I think I will do it after mid 2023 (given that I need to probably do N1 and focus on Russian B level materials in the coming year).
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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 Apr 27, 2022 2:32 am

Something that bugs me....

Recently I wanted to do some short writing in Russian and went back to my good old friend langcorrect. I realised that they have implemented a ratio system which I have to correct a tonnes of writing before I can start writing my own. Since I have written a lot before so according to the system I need to correct quite a lot before I can resume writing.

I understand where the Langcorrect new system come from but it is a bit difficult for me to correct that volume of writing. Cantonese isn't that popular after all and I don't feel proper correcting Chinese and English since I'm not native to both.

So I have to turn to LingQ for writing practice. To be honest which is not as user friendly as langcorrect since people cannot give sentence by sentence feedback. I will keep writing a few until I get a general feeling of my performance (spoiler: it's bad).
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Herodotean
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Re: Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

Postby Herodotean » Wed Apr 27, 2022 4:32 am

In case you haven't seen it, I'll mention Journaly, which I learned about on the forum a few days ago. There are no quotas, and feedback can be as specific as one likes.
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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 Apr 27, 2022 2:49 pm

Herodotean wrote:In case you haven't seen it, I'll mention Journaly, which I learned about on the forum a few days ago. There are no quotas, and feedback can be as specific as one likes.

I just found out that it's created by Robin MacPherson!
How is the response rate in the site? One thing I like about Langcorrect (and LingQ now) is that I can usually get correction within a day.
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Herodotean
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Re: Kelvin's RU, JP, ESP log <- In this order

Postby Herodotean » Wed Apr 27, 2022 2:53 pm

I've done a fair amount of correcting there, but I've only written one post. It had feedback from a native speaker within a day or so, I think.
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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 » Mon May 02, 2022 12:58 pm

Russian
Finally done! NCPR indeed is a very good book for introducing me to most beginner materials in Russian. Of course, the exercise is by no means enough for me to understand all grammar points thoroughly. The last reading at Chpt 30 is basically way beyond my level in terms of vocabulary and I pretty much think that it is something expected by the author.

Originally, I planned to work on “Russian in exercises” book in order to work on my grammar. I have tried it 2 days and the problem is that - it is just boring. Just dry conjugation and declension exercise working on the same pattern over and over again. It will be effective for some people but definitely not me.

Any way, since I am having a rather hectic month on personal matters and I won’t have time and mood to do this kind of exercise everyday (in fact, even if I’m not busy, I won’t do it).

So here’s the new plan - I am going to take a 3 week break until my things are settled down. During these 3 weeks, I’ll do these things
- Complete the A2 Vocabulary list (Now I’m learning the vocabulary related to Russian grammar)
- LingQs
- Writing exercise when I feel like it
By the end of these 2 - 3 weeks I will do 2 practice paper I bought and check if I have reached that level for exam in terms of Grammar, reading and listening.

In any event, I’ll work on V Puti afterwards.
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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 » Mon May 09, 2022 7:00 pm

Russian: A2?
It's a long weekend so I tried a reading + grammar A2 exam from the book ТРКИ на 100% to check my progress.
I was a bit unsure about whether I'm prepared for this level but turn out at least for these 2 parts I did quite well.
Reading: 30/30
Grammar: 90/100
There is a listening part and I plan to do it in a few days time. I hope it won't be too difficult for me.

The test as compared to my good old friend DELE and JLPT is much lenient. It's straight forward and without all those traps and tricks. However, I can see it really test on certain important aspect of the language at that level and apparently I manage to do so (except I never truly grasp the difference between the prefix вы and у with verb of motion)

I also underlined all the new words in the test (it accounts for only 3-4% of the words in the test, which is surprisingly low). Perhaps my approach in building a foundation ex abundanti cautela turns out working for me. This also tells me that it may be the right call not to work on the "Russian in exercise" book and end up wasting 2 months and hating myself.

There are 2 sample exams in the book and I will work on another one before moving onto V Puti.
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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 May 10, 2022 6:39 pm

Russian A2!

Finally finished a listening test and got 23/25 score. I think I can call myself a A2 in Russian (for reading, grammar and listening). Of course, I don't feel like I have already reached high A2 level because honestly there are some words which I don't know in the audio and the test is a bit easy (as compare to the sadistic DELE) - the answer is actually what you hear and not too much distractions are inserted into the audio to make it unnecessarily complicated and looks more like a logic test than a language test.

Coming few days, apart from doing podcasts and LingQ, I will listen to the audio again and jot down the new words into Anki.

You may ask, why do I like to do exam so much. I blame largely to the education system in my home town. Apart from that, I think exam serves as a very useful benchmark on whether I can move on to more advanced material or I should stay longer at that level and work more on the foundation.

In terms of how I perceive the language, I notice that I to a large extent have simplified the language when I am digesting the information, especially in listening. I pay little attention to the function declension (except Genitive), omit the aspect and most of the time the words alone are enough to avoid confusion. I know it's probably not the correct way but it's how my brain work at this moment.
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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 » Fri May 20, 2022 5:58 pm

Russian
Before moving on to the next level, I did the second test on listening skill and got 20/25. I don't know if it's deliberate but this one is rather difficult with some words which imo should not belong to that level (like режим сна, соблюдать, принято) but I manage to understand the gist (or just the sentence or the portion of dialogue) enough for me to answer the questions.

I have been focusing on 2 channels since during this "textbook" break:
- Russian with Max
- Russian progress
Both are slightly above my current level but fortunately they speak quite clearly and I can catch most part of it as long as I have transcript and dictionary. It is once again that wonderful feeling of "clicking" part of the dialogue. As compared to other languages, I always get overwhelmed by the number of new vocabulary and sometimes I have difficulties in selecting which one to remember at this stage. That's why another textbook seems a very good next step.
4 x

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 May 23, 2022 3:11 am

Continue of Russian A2
Following the last attempt on the listening part 2nd test in the A2 test book, I completed the reading part yesterday and got 22/25 with the feeling / fear that I might not have reached A2 yet. The reading test is very difficult and I have to use dictionary (which is allowed) a few times and I can barely finish all the parts. I tried to highlight all the unknown words in the reading and perhaps for this reason I spent more time than expected and end up finishing the last part without reading completely the entire article. However, I think I was not expected to read and understand 100% the article in order to answer the question (since it's very straightforward questions).

Anyway, I think the test alone has provided me enough vocabulary to work on for the coming 2-3 weeks.

My Russian progress (no puns intended) is a bit stagnant at this moment and much slower than expected. It takes almost one to two weeks just for me to complete 1 podcast. I just hope that I can grind through this stage somedays.
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