Stell's log: Russian and Spanish

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Re: Stell's log: Russian and Spanish

Postby rdearman » Sat Mar 25, 2023 10:13 pm

Have you ever considered just eating dinner at midnight? Lots of golden time!
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Re: Stell's log: Russian and Spanish

Postby stell » Sun Mar 26, 2023 7:35 pm

rdearman wrote:Have you ever considered just eating dinner at midnight? Lots of golden time!
You know, I hadn’t thought about that. You should write a self-help book about time management! :D
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Re: Stell's log: Russian and Spanish

Postby stell » Sun Apr 02, 2023 1:35 pm

Weekly Russian Update:

I continue to plug along in Russian! I feel that my progress is slow, but continuous. If I carry on at this pace, I hope to reach A2 level by the end of the year. I've decided to shelve Skype lessons for now, because I'm already tired before they begin. But I do know that I would benefit enormously from making time for writing. I think that unscripted audio journals would also be a very good tool at my current level.

That said, I'm starting a new job on April 11, which begins with six weeks of intensive training. I think that I need to be kind to myself...which means carrying on as I am now until the end of May. If I feel a sudden unshakeable urge to write before then, then I will. But I won't force myself to do anything. Instead, my goal will be to maintain my current momentum. Then, once June comes along, I will reevaluate my goals and methods.

1. coursework (four times since last update):
  • Russian Accelerator - unit 10 lessons 1 and 2.
2. ”doing Russian” (listening, reading, writing) (daily since last update):
  • Listening: Maria Petrova’s Russian Immersion course - watched videos 31-34
  • Reading: 25 Texts in Easy Russian - anki reviews and intensive reading of text 20. Also worked on story 2 of A1 Russian Stories.
3. speaking (daily since last update):
  • Pimsleur 2 - units 24-28. Had to repeat a few of them.
4. vocabulary (daily):
  • anki: As of right now, I have 0 “new” cards, 667 “young” cards and 1628 “mature” cards (not including the intensive reading deck).
  • Duolingo: currently working on unit 2 of Russian Foundations 1.
  • Clozemaster: 100 Most Common Words is currently at 65.36% mastered. I’m currently “playing” 6.5% of 500 Most Common Words.

Spanish Update:

This week I watched 11 episodes of Casa de Papel. I’m still using Spanish subtitles along with the Spanish audio, but that doesn’t really bother me. I turn on subtitles in English shows and movies, so I figure…what’s the difference? I also listened to Democracy Now daily.

I only read La Reina del Sur for about an hour this week, even though I’m right at the end…which means that I’m STILL not finished. Anyway, I’m certain that I’ll be finished by next week.

I’ve written in a journal six times this week, which is a record for me. It takes me about 10-12 minutes to fill three A5 pages, about whatever is weighing on my mind. I started this for sleep hygiene, because I have some anxiety that I need to work through, and I figured I may as well do it in Spanish instead of English. I’m doing stream-of-consciousness writing, and I’m honestly not sure how useful it is as a language-learning activity. But it does seem to help calm my mind!

Monthly Updates

I started using Polylogger after reading about it in philomath/Amanda’s log. I now wish that I’d used it in Russian since the beginning of the year! It would be very interesting to see a running total of time dedicated to learning Russian. I had a few days that were "bad" for Russian, but it was nice to see that a bad day still gives me an hour of contact with the language. My three vocab apps (anki, clozemaster and duolingo) take me between 20 and 30 minutes to complete. A Pimsleur lesson while walking gives me another half-hour of Russian. And my intensive reading deck on anki takes me between 10 and 20 minutes. If I'm feeling tired, and only get through that, it already bumps me up to over 60 minutes of Russian study for the day.

I’m not sure it’s quite as useful for Spanish. My hours go up in spikes, depending on whether or not I’ve binge-watched 3 or 4 episodes of Casa de Papel on that day. I do think that it’s useful for other listening/reading/writing, because I do feel motivated to ensure that I log something every day.

Anyway, here are my stats for March (although it appears that I screenshotted in the morning of March 31, before actually logging any of my minutes):

Russian: total 30.82 hours, for an average of 1.71 hours per day.

IMG_3808.jpg


Spanish: total 20.22 hours, for an average of 1.12 hours per day. Please note: this daily average means absolutely nothing, because it is heavily skewed by the days I spent binge-watching Casa de Papel.

IMG_3809.jpg
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Re: Stell's log: Russian and Spanish

Postby tastyonions » Sun Apr 02, 2023 1:45 pm

I’m watching your Russian progress with interest. It’s one of my dream TLs. :-)
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Re: Stell's log: Russian and Spanish

Postby stell » Sat Apr 15, 2023 2:42 am

Brief Russian Update:

Russian has not been a priority for the past few weeks. I started a new role at work, and have been in full-time training, which is taking up most of my mental energy. I had houseguests over the Easter long weekend. And I have zero interest in listening to anything through my headphones right now, because Spring has sprung and the birds are singing. Pimsleur while trudging along in February was motivating. In April, when the sun is shining and the world is waking up? Not so much.

It was around this time last year that Russian fizzled out for me, although I’m a lot farther along this year than I was last year when I quit. This year, although I’ve definitely let Russian slide, I haven’t abandoned it. I have no intention of abandoning it. But it’s ok for my interest to ebb and flow, and for this to be a time when I focus more on other things.

For the past week, I’ve done nothing but the bare minimum every day, all of it app-based: anki reviews (both vocabulary deck and intensive reading deck), 3 rounds on clozemaster, and 3 lessons on Duolingo. All of this takes me around half an hour. The week before, I did a few lessons and activities here and there, but nothing focused or consistent.

While my four categories (coursework, speaking, “doing Russian” and vocabulary) served me well over the past months, I want to rethink my approach, both to continue progressing and to respect my current shift in priorities. I’m mentally tired, and not interested in speaking or writing. But I would like to continue to learn and grow. So for the foreseeable future, I’m going to aim to touch on these four categories every day:

1. coursework (30 minutes per day): focus solely on Russian Accelerator
2. listening (15ish minutes per day): finish Maria Petrova’s Russian Immersion videos
3. reading (at least 15 minutes per day): finish both 25 Easy Texts in Russian and A1 Russian Stories
4. vocabulary (15-20 minutes per day): anki, clozemaster, duolingo

Here’s where I’m at in my resources as of today:

  • Russian Accelerator - finished Unit 10 lesson 3, and got about halfway through Unit 10 lesson 4.
  • Pimsleur 2 - finished all 30 units. Taking a break now before deciding whether or not to continue with Pimsleur 3.
  • Listening: Maria Petrova’s Russian Immersion course - watched up to and including video 34.
  • Reading: 25 Texts in Easy Russian - anki reviews and intensive reading up to and including text 23.
  • Reading: A1 Russian Stories - intensive reading up to and including story 3.
  • anki: As of right now, I have 0 “new” cards, 509 “young” cards and 1910 “mature” cards (not including the intensive reading deck).
  • Duolingo: they changed the names of levels. I’m now on Section 2: Explorer.
  • Clozemaster: 100 Most Common Words is now at 100% mastered. I’m currently “playing” 9.71% of 500 Most Common Words.
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Re: Stell's log: Russian and Spanish

Postby Le Baron » Sun Apr 16, 2023 1:53 pm

stell wrote:And I have zero interest in listening to anything through my headphones right now, because Spring has sprung and the birds are singing. Pimsleur while trudging along in February was motivating. In April, when the sun is shining and the world is waking up? Not so much.

Yes. This very much encapsulates what I also feel as spring arrives. I find myself removing the earbuds and just switching off. I don't want to miss the sounds around me.
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Re: Stell's log: Russian and Spanish

Postby stell » Sun Apr 23, 2023 2:24 pm

Due to my current life situation, I’ve been walking a lot - to the tune of about 23 000 steps per day - so I’ve been really tired at night and not terribly motivated to study. I’ve been reading a lot more in English in the evenings.

I need to start a new novel in Spanish, but the first page of “Cadáver exquisito” was…a bit much. I knew that it was a story about cannibalism, but I think that it might be a bit too graphic for my taste at the current moment. I’ll read it, but not today. “La Sombra del viento” is waiting for me, as soon as I finish up with my current novel in English.

I did watch six more episodes of Casa de Papel in Spanish, making it to the end of part 2. It’s such a fantastic show! I’m a bit hesitant to carry on with the next part, because I can’t help but expect that the quality will diminish.

It was a quiet week for Russian. I didn’t do as much as I would have liked, but I did more than the previous week.

1. coursework (four times since last update):
  • Russian Accelerator: I finished Unit 10 Lesson 4 and am almost finished with Unit 10 Lesson 5. I also reviewed the vocabulary sections from Unit 5.
2. listening (five times since last update):
  • Maria Petrova: I watched five more videos from the Russian Immersion course. I really enjoy her presentation style, but I’m feeling ready to finish up with the series and move on to something with more variety.
3. reading (five times since last update):
  • 25 Texts in Easy Russian: I have now done extensive reading of all texts, and added all of them to my anki intensive reading deck. I have seriously overlearned these texts, but I find it relaxing and rewarding to be able to read sentences with fluency and comprehension.
  • Russian Stories: I worked on the third story in the collection. It felt relatively easy.
4. vocabulary (daily):
  • anki: As of right now, I have 0 “new” cards, 427 “young” cards and 2056 “mature” cards (not including the intensive reading deck).
  • Duolingo: currently working on unit 4 of Section 2.
  • Clozemaster: I’m currently “playing” 12.93% of 500 Most Common Words.
Le Baron wrote:Yes. This very much encapsulates what I also feel as spring arrives. I find myself removing the earbuds and just switching off. I don't want to miss the sounds around me.
Glad to see I'm not the only one! Who are we to fight against the birds? I've been spending a chunk of what used to be my study time watching the robins who built a nest right outside of my living room window.
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Re: Stell's log: Russian and Spanish

Postby stell » Sat Apr 29, 2023 1:57 pm

Here’s my sad little update: I’ve done nothing in the past week aside from keeping up my anki, duolingo and clozemaster streaks…and failed at even that a few times. Oh well!
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Re: Stell's log: Russian and Spanish

Postby stell » Wed Dec 27, 2023 7:49 pm

As seems to be my habit, I’m restarting Russian now that the year is nearly over. I started for the first time in January 2022, worked on it daily at varying levels of intensity until May 2022 and then…stopped. Started again during the very last few days of December 2022, and kept at it until the end of April 2023. And here I am, on December 27, starting again. I may just have to accept that this is my approach to learning Russian: do it for four months per year, then quit, rinse and repeat.

My goal when I started this version of my log was to learn Russian in my forties. I’m halfway through that decade, so I figure I still have plenty of time!

The last time around, I finished up to Unit 10 Lesson 5 of Russian Accelerator. I did a bunch of Duolingo lessons. I finished Pimsleur 2. I finished Red Kalinka’s first collection of 25 texts for A1 learners, and read a few of the A1 stories. I worked through the first five chapters of New Penguin Russian Course. I also watched most of Maria Petrova’s A1 video course on Youtube, and a bunch of videos by From Russia From Afar. I finished the absolute beginner deck on Clozemaster.

I think that my plan for this year, at least to start with, will be to touch on these four categories every day:

Coursework: Finish up Russian Accelerator. I’ll start back up at the first lesson of Unit 10, because the idea of restarting from the beginning isn’t even a little bit appealing. Who knows? This may be the year that I actually finish Russian Accelerator! I may or may not also pick up Pimsleur again. Meh. We’ll see. I also bought a beginner textbook from Red Kalinka, which I’m hoping to use to support language exchanges and/or tutoring sessions.

Input (reading and listening): I have two more audiobooks from Red Kalinka, each of them with 25 texts for A1 students. I still have the book of A1 stories that I never finished. And I still have my intensive reading anki deck, with all of the paragraphs from the first book of 25 texts. All of these resources have full audio, so I can use them for reading practice, listening practice, or both. I may or may not watch YouTube videos again at some point, but to start with I’ll just focus on my Red Kalinka books.

Output (writing and speaking): I’d like to start writing short texts and making short audio recordings. I’ve also put some feelers out for language partners - which I may end up regretting.

Vocabulary: anki and only anki. I’m not going to do Clozemaster or Duolingo this time around. I still have my anki decks from last year. I think I have over 2000 cards that need reviews. I may or may not end up deleting the deck and starting over…but I hate doing that, because most of the vocabulary is from Russian Accelerator, and I don’t plan on revisiting earlier units.

So yeah! Let’s start learning Russian! (Again.)
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Re: Stell's log: Russian and Spanish

Postby stell » Sat Jan 06, 2024 1:11 pm

Well, the day after my last post, I woke up feeling unwell and tested positive for covid. I've managed to avoid it up until now, and it seriously kicked my butt. 0/10, would not recommend. I was sick for over a week, and now I'm just so utterly exhausted.

I reached out to both potential Russian language partners I'd been in touch with, and apologetically told them that it just wasn't the right time for me to start practicing. I feel like kind of a jerk, but the mere idea of trying to speak just...ugh. Not sure if it's the covid fatigue, but I don't really even want to try to activate my Russian at this point in time.

And so...a change in my plans from just a little over a week ago. I'm going to take output right off the table for now, and just focus on coursework and input.

My plan for the next few months will now be to touch on these three categories every day:

Coursework: Work my way slowly through Russian Accelerator.

Input (reading and listening): This will probably be mainly A1 texts with audio, at least to start. I like "overlearning" each text. I work with one short text multiple times in one day, and then create an anki card for each sentence, so that I'm constantly reviewing them. I have two anki decks from these audiobooks. One is a reading deck with sentences, and the other is a listening deck that only has audio (no text).

Vocabulary: anki, mainly using words and sentences from Russian Accelerator. I make L1>L2 and L2>L1 cards. I'm not very creative with anki, but it seems to work for me. I'm still working my way through the backlog of reviews from the past 8 months.

If I put in 30-45 minutes of Russian per day, I'll be satisfied. Especially the way that I'm feeling right now, I'm really not in any rush.
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