Diaconia learns Russian and jumps on the (Ancient) Greek Bandwagon

[diaconia]

As mentioned in my last post, I’m a fan of associating new words with words that sound similar. German is my second language and I use it for about ½ of my vocabulary. It’s called an Eselsbrücke in German, “donkey bridge”. I love this expression. To get the pack animals (who were water-shy) to go over brooks and rivers, a bridge was built. Basically linking something that you don't know with something that you know. I think everyone does it, but I'm trying to perfect it into a learning strategy that I can apply to my other studies as well.

Sometimes it’s not so efficient, because the associated word sounds like the Russian one, but the meanings aren’t the same and this can lead to confusion – not to mention mispronunciation. I think the pronunciation/intonation will smooth itself out over time. This is just a stepping stone and experience always replaces first impressions.

So here are some easy food words and the way I've tried to remember them. Forgive the silliness, but I have to go with what works:

мя́со - YA, to cut MEAT I need a MESSER, (knife) . I add the “я́” so I won’t forget that it’s in there.

ры́ба - I like FISH, bring it RÜBER (over here)

сок - If I spill grape JUICE on my shirt, I have to SOAK it fast. (Fast means I should shorten the vowel)

пече́нье - If you PITCH ANY INNING, you get a COOKIE. Okay, I know that’s a stretch (baseball pun).

о́вощ - If you don’t like the VEGETABLE, just get it OVER with and swallow it

сыр - Are you SERious? Das ist KÄSE! (One of the many German expressions for “that’s nonsense”)

ку́рица - IT’SA KUH (German for “cow”) – yes, yes, I know the word means “chicken” but I have a way past that. I’m more concerned about forgetting the slight trill after the first syllable

вку́сный - This sounds like “focus” and “knee”, so I had to come up with a story to make me think “delicious”. I came up with the idea that I often try to avoid staring through the shop window of the local confectionery. I have to keep my eyes focused on my knees and not on all the delicious cake.

сала́т, карто́шка, суп, бутербро́д, вино́ are borrowed words so half the work is done there. Kiełbasa is a word I’m already familiar with, too.

I'll probably working on Chapter 2 for all of next week. There's a lot of text in Red Kalinka.

[sootynemm]

I agree, that's important. I have the book I just bought, and I think whatever happens I'll be happy to have a native say to me, "Uh, where did you learn THAT word?! Nobody says that." I'd be happy to be corrected.

That is so cool and I appreciate that endeavour. It's never not worthwhile. And Russian lexemes, roots and etymology is really special in its own right.

I was trying to locate the name of one of the books I borrowed from my uni library that had an alphabetical breakdown of various roots and words constructed from them, it was a little purple book that was thin but dusty, but really solid philological descriptions of everything. Possibly Dictionary of Russian Verb Forms by D. B. Powers, but don't quote me on that

Roman Jakobson also had a really great breakdown of meter across Slavic languages in his early work, though prosody isn't terribly enthralling as far as language learning goes per se.

You must hear a good mix of everything being part of the Orthodox Church eh!

[diaconia]

It's been about three weeks since I started my blog for Russian. I've spread myself a little too thin with the materials, but I think I can focus in on just one or two, and that will yield better results. I'll go over what I've been using starting with the least effective:

1. "Roots of the Russian Language" by George Z. Patrick -- I really had fun with this when I first got it. I spent hours pouring over words I don't need, dissecting them, creating stories for remembering them and storing them in Anki. Have I gone over Anki since then? No. Is there a good chance I will I remember them at the beginner level? No. It was purely an intellectual pursuit. I love words, I love my word palace! But this book will have to be shelved for now.

2. Sentence-mining in FORVO: This is great fun. One word leads to two or three example sentences and my Anki-Deck explodes. This deck is also collecting dust and will have to be shelved.

3. Red Kalinka E-Book: Not pricey at all, this has been very good for the level that I'm at. Not to hot, not too cold -- just right. The E-Book format does not let me print very well and the audio recordings gorge on battery power so that they have to stay plugged in, but I'll continue to move slowly through the lessons. I'm still on Chapter 2, which is about food and groceries.

4. "Russisch Ohne Mühe" (Assimil) - sootynemm asked me if I would consider using a German source for vocabulary, and I wasn't planning on doing that until I came across this little gem! It's rather ancient by today's standards -- hence, the price of 60 euros -- but I have an old CD-player. What I will probably end up doing is holding my old dictaphone up to a speaker while the CD is playing. My dictaphone is super light and much easier to use than my MP3, which has Red Kalinka and "50 Languages" Russian shuffled all over it, and is therefore too messy to navigate.

As it stands now, I'm working on my flashcards for Chapter 2 "Red Kalinka" and I will most certainly follow the Assimil recordings from Lessons 2-4 this week. It will be fun to try shadowing again. I have to make time for that!

My work time with the home care facility has ended and I'm back in school. I didn't get much language study done the second week of May because I was too busy with goodbyes, baking a cake, and basically trying to make a smooth transition back into the classroom. The third school block has now begun and will last 7 weeks! I've already made 200 cards for the Atmungssystem (just German/Latin like "Rippenfell/pleura parietalis"), GIT, and some meds and their ingredients that I really think I should know. I'm really going to be interested to see if my little card system will work. I haven't used it for school before.

I should be able to tell in about two weeks. New material will be added every day.

[diaconia]

It's been three weeks since my last post and I've been doing classes 5 days/wk, 8 hours/day. When I said "new material will be added every day" in my last post, I don't think I realized then just how much material would be added. I have been absolutely swamped with information. It's been a real learning challenge. I wish I could say it was Russian, but alas, I've been studying anatomy/medicine fulltime. I'm working on the circulus arteriosus willisii as we speak. The material is not that hard --- it's just simply a lot. I have a test next week over the entire respiratory system, the diseases and their prophylaxes. Then come two more tests on the nervous system and wound management. I'm using acronyms for the long lists that I have to remember. To answer the question, "welche parameter können Sie bei der Atmung beobachten" I'm using "FAHRGAST" for Atemfrequez, Atemqualität, Hautkolorit, Atemrhythmus, Atemgeräusche, Atemgeruch, Sputum, Atemtiefe. So goes it for all my test questions. The acronym doesn't have a whole lot to do with the question or answer, but it doesn't matter. In a timed test situation it has saved me in the past.

That being said: Now I can do a huge collective "SIGH" and stare admiringly and longingly at the book of hours I just got from Russia which I can't read yet. I just like to look at it. It's in church slavonic. Did I know that? I can't remember. The book took a while to get here. I have some friends to help me, in case I want to read it out loud. I also have the book of hours in English. And I've also read the hours in German. So I'm already familiar with the content. I have a website which has parallel Russian and church slavonic texts. I'll just be dabbling in it from time to time.


I'm devoting pretty much all of my time to my studies while I'm in school, but I did manage to get through some of the Assimil chapters. I breezed through chapters 1-6, and I'm starting to slow down now with 7-9. I'm absolutely loving the clear pronunciation of the Assimil speakers! There's quite a difference in quality compared to the other materials I've used. ("Aaaaaaah, THAT'S why we spend money on language learning materials!") It really makes me ashamed to think I struggled so long going the cheap route. It's a real pleasure to do shadowing with Assimil. I have something to look forward to when I'm on holiday in July (no, not going anywhere!) -- I can get some real language work done!

[diaconia]

I’m taking a break from studying at the moment. There’s now two weeks left in this school block – I can’t believe how fast the time has gone!

It has been quite the challenge keeping up with all the information that I’ve received, but I think I’ve managed to do well using the learning methods I’ve talked about here. I’ve been able to learn a lot using associations, basically. I gave an example of acronyms for lists, but when it comes to learning entire organ systems (and their diseases), I discovered that a go-to source for mnemonics is Medi-Tricks. They create stories in the form of comics to help med students. It’s a super helpful tool and saves me a lot of time since I don’t have to come up with mnemonics on my own. I’m not learning clinical, just quintessential med theory so I modify everything to suit my learning objectives.

I’ve been having such a good time with this associative learning, that I feel intrinsically motivated to learn vast quantities of Russian really fast. I have joined Rdearman’s challenge to learn 30 words per day for a month starting in July! That would bring me close to the end of A2, which is an inspiring thought in and of itself! Of course I’ll need to activate some of that in order to truly qualify for A2, so that will be something to think about.

But do I have the time?

Why yes, yes I do! It just so happens I have accumulated all of my vacation days for the entire year to be used up in July! No school, no work, just me and the Russian language! So, if anyone catches me surfing, watching “stuff”, or otherwise wasting this precious time, please hit me over the head with my Assimil book!

Having read the comments from leosmith, einzelne, iversen and others, I understand the problem of retaining large amounts of vocabulary learned over a short time span. It’s difficult not having much of a knowledge base to anchor new words to, which would be my case. The language is just too new. However, I think I can successfully convert associative learning to experience. I will be counting on you, Assimil!

By the way, I did a trial run and I found a weak spot in spelling with the i kratkaye and ы Eru but with a little bit of attention I think my recollection of the words is solid.

So! Break’s over. I really have to get back to studying for three more exams coming in about a week (*wince*). My lists will be waiting for me.

[diaconia]

I've started thinking about what language I would like to learn in addition to Russian and have decided on Ancient Greek. I'd really like to read it. I wasn't really ready to do anything about it until I read the posts from Axon and tastyonions -- that sort of cinched it for me. Axon ist just getting started so I'm tempted also to "jump on the Greek bandwagon", so that his pace with modern Greek won't be so far ahead that I can't run parallel with Ancient. Gotta jump on the train before it passes by! I won't put Greek in my log title yet, because I don't want to announce a big to-do and then end up not having the time. So I'll "stealthily" start with the alphabet and see where it goes!

Another thing that brought me AG sooner than anticipated was this used in good condition with a 10% markdown:


My French is not that good. It never was. But I think I can muddle my way through. I'll probably have to add French and learn parallel. I will not be able to get through this like I do the Russian Assimil with a German translation.

For now I'll just be dipping my toes in the water, so-to-speak. I went ahead and got the Assimil workbook, Cahier d'exercices GREC ANCIEN - débutants: 150 exercices avec corrigés.
The image is too small, but it was either this or really huge.

Tonight I'm working on my Russian lists. I've only got a week's worth of words. They aren't all completely new words; some are variants or conjugations, so I don't know if that's allowed in 30:30, but the pace is still so fast that I will be through half of Assimil before the end of July. Well, that's the plan, anyway.

[diaconia]

Well that escalated quickly! I'm so excited about Ancient Greek that I've been playing with the alphabet between hours spent studying for my exams. When I start the 30:30 Challenge I'll probably have a real dilemma!

Tooling around, I found a great online dictionary. I had the idea to pick out a bunch of words and transliterate to English letters. στόμα ⇒ stoma
just so I can learn the alphabet faster.

Then I discovered that there are some differences in the pronunciation of Koine Greek. Some letters are quite different:
beta, delta, gamma is veta, thelta, ramma.

I found a reading/audio of Matthew Chapter 1 in Koine and I started transliterating that. The differences are rather stark, but manageable

Βίβλος γενέσεως ….
transliteration: Vivlos reneseos

β “veta” is “v”
γ “ramma” is “r”

υἱοῦ Δαβἱδ
transliteration: iou Thavith

δ “thelta” is “th-”

This is just concerned with Koine Greek. The Assimil I bought, which I haven’t started, is not like this and uses beta, delta, gamma, and I plan on learning it as such. But anything from the Greek church, Scripture, or patristic books might have these differences.

EDIT: They say that learning an ancient language like Latin Hebrew or Greek can enhance learning in other areas. Wonder if it's true?

[Axon]

Hooray for more Greek!

The Koine video you linked is recorded with modern Greek pronunciation, which is pretty different from the various kinds of Greek pronunciations that existed in antiquity. I recommend checking out Luke Ranieri's YouTube channels and Patreon for a lot of very thoroughly researched information on Ancient Greek pronunciation if you're interested in potentially learning a reconstructed historical sound system.

[diaconia]

Hi Axon!

Thanks, so good that you said something I got it the wrong way around! Yes, it appears Luke's able to pack a lot of varied information into a short time span, even though he says he tries to restrain himself from doing just that

[tastyonions]

Γ is a bit tricky in modern Greek: it sounds like a velar ("light") German/French R (or Spanish intervocalic G) if it's before ο, ου, or α but almost like an English Y if it's before ε, ι, or υ.