Because this week I am off work, I am going to attempt to complete the bulk of my Russian learning (including posting to this forum) before supper. In the evenings, I will exercise, watch movies in English, read in Spanish or play board games. Last summer I bought some cooperative board games that I like to play solo, and I haven’t really played any of them for several months. I’ve been contemplating buying Spirit Island for solo play, but it’s pretty pricey, so I want to be sure that I’m actually still motivated to play solo games before I order it.
If I do end up doing any more Russian in the evening, I’ll just log it the following day.
Today went really well. Even though I did Russian on and off all day, I interspersed it with lots of other things: playing with the dog, cooking up some pasta, chatting with my husband over a cup of coffee, doing a few loads of laundry, reading the forum, talking on the phone for an hour with my best friend…
My motivation for Russian remains high. I really want to get to the point where I have more options for input. Lower intermediate is my first big goal, although I know it will take me a long time to get there. For now, I’m focusing on A1 materials for listening and reading. I’m hoping that by summer I’ll finish Russian Accelerator, and be able to move on to Assimil Russian and A2 reading and listening material. For now, I’m happy with my Red Kalinka graded reader and In Russian From Afar A1 videos, but I do look forward to having access to a wider variety of materials.
1. coursework:
- Russian Accelerator (73 minutes) - watched the media clips for unit 7. Also completed Unit 8 Lesson 1.
2. ”doing Russian” (listening, reading, writing):
- Listening (30 minutes) - In Russian From Afar: rewatched an older video about daily routines, and then watched one of his newer videos with Russian subtitles.
- Reading/listening (41 minutes) - 25 Texts in Easy Russian: I did my anki reviews, created new anki cards for text 8, and then spent a good chunk of time “shadowing” the audio from texts 1-12. I put “shadowing” in quotation marks because I wasn’t really speaking out loud…just whispering. I didn’t want to disturb my husband, who was hard at work on an assignment. Still, even without actually speaking aloud, this very intensive and focused listening takes a lot of energy!
- Writing (20 minutes) - It took me a long time to write this, in part because writing is hard, and in part because I’m hunting and pecking for each letter. Last year I started doing typing lessons to learn the Russian keyboard. It may be worth starting up again.
I wrote about my typical morning. I tried to use words I already knew, but I just didn’t have enough vocabulary. So before starting, I looked up these sentences, which I also added to anki:
I get up at ____ o’clock in the morning. - Я встаю в _____ часов утро.
I take a shower. - Я принимаю душ.
I brush my teeth. - Я чищу зубы.
I wash my face. - Я умываю лицо.
I go for a walk. - Я иду гулять.
I walk my dog. / I walk with my dog. - Я гуляю с собакой.
I also ran my text through a grammar checker (https://grammarchecker.top/russian-grammar-checker), which may have been cheating. Haha! The only big corrections that it made were: Мы с Тобим -> Мы с Тоби (which I’m honestly still not sure is correct); я гулaю -> я гуляю; and видео на русский -> видео на русском.
Corrections welcome!
Привет, друзья! Вот моё обычное утро. Я встаю в 7:00 часов утро. Я не принимаю душ утром. Я принимаю душ вечером. Утром, я только чищу зубы и умываю лицо. После этого, я иду гулять с собакой. Его зовут Тоби. Мы с Тоби идём гулять в парке. Когда я гуляю, я слушаю Пимслеп. Иногда, я занимаюсь йогой утром, но не каждый день. После этого, я ем завтрак. На завтрак, я ем хлеб или кашу, и я пью кофе. Иногда, смотрю видео на русском. После этого, я на работу. Иногда, я работаю дома и иногда я работаю в офисе.
3. speaking:
- Pimsleur 2 (30 minutes) - unit 5 while walking the dog. So far so good!
- unscripted audio journal (5 minutes) - my typical morning. I recorded this one after writing, but I didn’t use my text. I did allow myself access to my list of short sentences, because some of that vocabulary has yet to make it into my long-term memory.
4. vocabulary:
- apps (22 minutes) - anki (main deck), Duolingo and Clozemaster
total minutes: 440
goal between February 26 and March 4: 1,500 minutes