Stell's log: Russian and Spanish

[stell]

Here’s what I did in Russian yesterday:

- Memrise: 7 minutes
- Duolingo: 16 minutes
- Russian Accelerator: 63 minutes. Unit 3 lesson 4
- Pimsleur: 30 minutes. Unit 16
- Russian Made Easy: 17 minutes. Listened to episode 16.

Total time: 2 hours and 13 minutes

[stell]

Here’s what I did in Russian yesterday:

- Memrise: 6 minutes
- Duolingo: 22 minutes
- Russian Made Easy: 57 minutes. Reviewed and did exercises for episode 16, and listened to episode 17. My paper flashcards took a long time!

Total time: 1 hour and 25 minutes

[stell]

Here’s what I did in Russian yesterday:

- Memrise: 6 minutes
- Duolingo: 38 minutes
- Russian Accelerator: 30 minutes
- Pimsleur: 29 minutes. Unit 17. Numbers are hard!!! I will definitely be repeating this lesson.

Total time: 1 hour and 43 minutes

I'm definitely spending way more time on Russian than I'd intended. In the beginning of January, I decided to reactivate my Spanish. I had no intention at all of starting Russian. And yet here I am, spending over an hour on Russian every day...and I haven't read my book or listened to the news in Spanish since the beginning of February. I'm allowing myself to spend all of this time on Russian because I'm really motivated by the Six Week Challenge, but long term I really need to think about finding a balance. I want to keep learning Russian, but I also really want to revive and strengthen my Spanish.

[stell]

I started learning Spanish a little less than 10 years ago. I’ve dabbled in a few other languages since then:

- Tagalog: I’m a perpetual toddler who can follow basic conversations at the dinner table
- Italian: I was able to read Stephen King novels and watch dubbed Star Trek, but it just didn’t capture me - probably because I never dove into the culture
- Esperanto: I was able to hold a conversation for an hour, but I quickly lost interest

Only Spanish really stuck.

I’m currently feeling about Russian the way that I felt about Spanish when I first started learning. I think about it all of the time, and I love how the words feel in my ears. I certainly love it far more than I ever loved Tagalog, Italian, or Esperanto - even though it’s far more difficult for me than Italian or Esperanto ever were.

So I’ve come up with a goal! I learned Spanish in my 30s. I’ll learn Russian in my 40s. And if ever I decide to learn a fifth language, I’ll wait until my 50s.

How’s that for an ambitious plan? Never mind “Learn X in 6 months!” - I’m here for “Learn X in a decade!”

Although I doubt I’ll be selling many books…

Here’s what I did in Russian yesterday:

- Memrise: 10 minutes
- Duolingo: 36 minutes
- Russian Accelerator: 22 minutes. Listened to unit 3 podcast.
- Pimsleur: 29 minutes. Unit 17.
- Russian Made Easy: 27 minutes. Revisited episode 17 (flashcards, exercises, videos).

Total time: 2 hours and 4 minutes

[luke]

So I’ve come up with a goal! I learned Spanish in my 30s. I’ll learn Russian in my 40s. And if ever I decide to learn a fifth language, I’ll wait until my 50s.

How’s that for an ambitious plan? Never mind “Learn X in 6 months!” - I’m here for “Learn X in a decade!”

It sounds very sensible and mature. I've thought similar things, but your decade of Russian will beat mine by about a decade.

[stell]

Here’s what I did in Russian yesterday:

- Memrise: 6 minutes
- Duolingo: 17 minutes
- Russian Accelerator: 26 minutes. Flashcards and Unit 3 media centre.

Total time: 49 minutes

Yesterday I just wasn't feeling Russian after work. Sometimes it's difficult to sit down and study, especially when you'd rather binge-watch cheesy early 2000s sitcoms.

[stell]

Here’s what I did in Russian on Friday:
- Memrise: 8 minutes
- Duolingo: 38 minutes
- Russian Accelerator: 43 minutes. Reviewed first three units (flashcards, transcribed dialogues, read example sentences in my notebook).
- Pimsleur: 30 minutes. Unit 18.
- Russian Made Easy: 18 minutes. Listened to episode 18.
Total time: 2 hours and 17 minutes

...on Saturday:
- Memrise: 7 minutes
- Duolingo: 20 minutes
- Russian Made Easy: 14 minutes. Episode 18 audio exercises
Total time: 41 minutes

...and on Sunday (yesterday):
- Memrise: 7 minutes
- Duolingo: 26 minutes
- Russian Accelerator: 36 minutes. Unit 4 Lesson 1.
- Pimsleur: 30 minutes. Unit 18, take two.
- Russian Made Easy: 11 minutes. Episode 18 videos and flashcards.
Total time: 1 hour and 50 minutes

It was my husband’s birthday on Saturday, and we were busy with family all day, so I had to sneak some Russian in between other things - Memrise over a cup of morning coffee; Duolingo while waiting in the car for take-out; a bit of audio while taking the dog for a quick walk around the block.

Because I'm always curious about other people's language learning schedules, here's mine - keeping in mind, of course, that I’m focusing solely on Russian for the Six-Week Challenge. After the challenge, I’ll tweak my schedule to find a balance between learning Russian and consuming native Spanish media.

Right now my daily language-learning schedule on weekdays looks something like this:

In the morning over coffee, 15-20 minutes: Memrise and maybe one or two Duolingo lessons to wake up. Then, I go through my paper flashcards, and either do day 2 review of a Russian Made Easy podcast or watch some videos from the media centre (Russian Made Easy or Russian Accelerator).

8:30-12:00 - work time. I don’t try to sneak in language learning during working hours.

While walking the dog at lunch, 30+ minutes: Audio resources: Pimsleur lesson, Russian Made Easy podcast or Russian Accelerator podcast

1:00-4:30 - work time.

After work, 15-30 minutes: Duolingo as a transition from work to regular life.

Evening (if time), 45-60 minutes: Lesson from Russian Accelerator. Ideally, I do this every day. Realistically, I do it about three times per week.

A few times a week before bed, 20-30 minutes: Russian Made Easy or Russian Accelerator podcast while soaking in a hot bath. Whether or not I take a bath depends 100% on whether I like my hair enough to keep it dry for one more day. Women with curly frizzy hair will know where I’m coming from.

On weekends, I usually spend the morning on Russian, because my husband sleeps in and I tend to get up earlier. I put on a pot of coffee, and then do Memrise, a lesson on Russian Accelerator, and a few Duolingo lessons (in that order). Once my husband gets up, I put Russian away and focus on other activities, although I might still do some audio study while walking (if I find myself walking alone, which is much less likely than it is during the week). Of course, some weekend days start earlier than others, depending on whether or not we have plans, so I can’t always spend the morning on Russian. But I love my slow weekend mornings and I miss them when I’m busy doing other things!

[stell]

Monday Feb 21:
- Memrise: 8 minutes
- Duolingo: 7 minutes
- Russian Accelerator: 64 minutes
- Pimsleur: 30 minutes. Unit 19, take one.
- Russian Made Easy: 18 minutes. Listened to episode 19.
Total time: 2 hour and 7 minutes

Tuesday Feb 22:
- Memrise: 8 minutes.
- Duolingo: 15 minutes
- Pimsleur: 30 minutes. Unit 19, take two.
- Russian Made Easy: 33 minutes. Flashcards, videos and exercises for episode 19.
Total time: 1 hour and 26 minutes

I’m losing some of my enthusiasm for Pimsleur. I’m finding it less and less engaging, although in all fairness that might be because the weather has been so crappy. I only do Pimsleur while walking, and walking has become a bit of a chore with the constant melt-deep freeze cycle that we seem stuck in this month.

The Pimsleur instructions say that you should move on to the next unit if you can respond correctly 80% of the time, but that seems woefully low to me. There’s no way that I would feel ready to move on after making mistakes on 20% of the sentences. That said, maybe my slow progress and insistence on doing each lesson twice (which effectively leads to me only doing 2-3 units per week) is a big part of my current demotivation. I’m considering the possibility of doing the program as it was intended for the remaining 10 units of level 1. But then I remember that I find the first go-through of a new unit more onerous and tiresome. The second go-through is much more “fun”, as I feel more confident and answer more quickly. And my approach to language learning has always been to do stuff that feels fun.

I definitely plan on finishing all 30 units of Pimsleur Level 1. I just have to decide if it’s going to take me two weeks or a month to finish!

[luke]

The Pimsleur instructions say that you should move on to the next unit if you can respond correctly 80% of the time, but that seems woefully low to me. There’s no way that I would feel ready to move on after making mistakes on 20% of the sentences. That said, maybe my slow progress and insistence on doing each lesson twice (which effectively leads to me only doing 2-3 units per week) is a big part of my current demotivation. I’m considering the possibility of doing the program as it was intended for the remaining 10 units of level 1. But then I remember that I find the first go-through of a new unit more onerous and tiresome. The second go-through is much more “fun”, as I feel more confident and answer more quickly. And my approach to language learning has always been to do stuff that feels fun.

I'm with you. Fun is important. It can be a balancing act between "good enough" and "feels good".

One thing I like about your approach is that you haven't tied yourself to a deadline.

[stell]

One thing I like about your approach is that you haven't tied yourself to a deadline.

I actually have a pretty tight deadline: in my 40s. Ha!