There are worse things I could do... (FR, RU, ES)

[MamaPata]

(I had not realised you could add phrases and I am even more impressed by LWT)

How? How? Teach us, o great one!

I'm so glad it wasn't just me that didn't know. When you click on a word to add (known or unknown), in the drop-down bit there's a line that starts "Expr:" and then has numbers and the last letters of that word. So if the phrase was four words long, you'd pick four. Then depending on your settings I think it shows up in different ways - mine comes up like a footnote sign at the start of the first word. I don't use the test function in LWT so don't know how it comes up there.

(My one bugbear is that sometimes there's unrelated/unnecessary words in the middle, but that's really picking at hairs. I am so impressed by it!)

[Elenia]

(I had not realised you could add phrases and I am even more impressed by LWT)

How? How? Teach us, o great one!

I'm so glad it wasn't just me that didn't know. When you click on a word to add (known or unknown), in the drop-down bit there's a line that starts "Expr:" and then has numbers and the last letters of that word. So if the phrase was four words long, you'd pick four. Then depending on your settings I think it shows up in different ways - mine comes up like a footnote sign at the start of the first word. I don't use the test function in LWT so don't know how it comes up there.

(My one bugbear is that sometimes there's unrelated/unnecessary words in the middle, but that's really picking at hairs. I am so impressed by it!)

I want to 'heart' this post fifty times. Thank you so much!

[MamaPata]

This past week has not been amazing for Russian - I had a few fun things going on but also, I spent most of my time doing essays and other academic stuff. I did a bit of reading in Russian, though not as much as I would have liked. I also lost my memrise streaks and am having trouble sinking back into it - I have a stupid number of reviews, which means I avoid it, which means that the reviews get worse, and so on. I can deal with it, I just need to get back in the rhythm of it all. Same with reading really. That said, because of the nature of one of my essays, I have been reading a few Russian sources for that. Not in depth, but I am able to skim through. That's true of quite a lot of the things coming up, which is satisfying.

Generally I am a bit all over the place about my Russian. I appreciate that literally in my last post, I was talking about how it felt like things were coming together, but I've been feeling a bit less positive. I don't take that back, but I think I'm more aware of the gap between my production and comprehension. Like I said last time, my comprehension is genuinely improving and that's brilliant. Production is definitely lacking behind, which is annoying. Partly it is that I am trying to say more complicated things, partly it is that I am so stressed, partly it's just that it's not as good as I would like.

I've also got two potential exchanges for Russian. I am not good with exchanges, which is why I tend not to do them. I've never got a regular timetable so I'm not a great exchange partner - I just can't guarantee a regular time and I don't want to disappoint people. I also find the way people go about trying to get exchanges really really weird, which has put me off. I don't have that much time and Russian teachers are so cheap that it's always worked out a bit easier to just pay and have lessons on my terms. (French teachers are not, so I would love a French exchange at some point). But I've spoken to these two people, they have been warned, and it seems like that might work a bit, if not perfectly. I ended up just speaking to one of them in Russian, which is always nice for me!

Anyway, enough of Russian. I actually did some French last week! There is a theatre company 'Cheek by Jowl', who I quite like so I went to one of their plays. They're a British company, but they've been performing in Russian as well for decades - I saw their version of Measure for Measure in Russian, which was really interesting. I'm trying to see all of Shakespeare's plays, so I keep an eye out. I only have Troillus and Cressida and Henry VI left. T&C is coming up in the UK but if anyone knows of a performance of Henry VI, I beg you to tell me. I am willing to travel! (Though, like, Europe. I'm not going to the US or somewhere just for a play).

Anyway, Cheek by Jowl were doing a French version of Pericles, which was really rather good. I find it quite hard not to read surtitles if they are there, so I don't know how much I would have understood without them, but there were definitely sections where I wouldn't have needed them. And amusingly, two of the cast members were in 'Ainsi soient-ils'!

[MamaPata]

Well, exam season has started! My final essays are in, dissertation is due soon, and my first exam was yesterday. I have exams until the end of May, but the stress will die down a little after next Friday hopefully. I'm not feeling fantastic about it, but hopefully it will all be solid.

In terms of Russian, things tick along. I haven't been able to do that much, because of essays and the exam, but a lot of my reading was in Russian. Now planning to push it back up again.

I've reached 30,000 known word forms for Russian on LWT! In total, I have about 37,000 words. So it works out at about 80% known, 8% ignored (names, anglicisms, words in English), 10% unknown. (Roughly- obviously this doesn't add up to 100%). So of the actual Russian words I'm seeing, I seem to know about 88% of them.

The number of unknown words in a text varies massively, from about 10-45. Some of this is about names - I read a lot about cinema, so I get a lot of new names and surnames. If I go through and delete those, sometimes I can drop about 3%. It also has a lot to do with language islands - I read quite a few articles on health, so weirdly sometimes I will know a lot more of those words. Interestingly, despite the fact that I read quite a bit about cinema, these remain high in terms of unknown words. I think this is related to a couple of things. One is that I get a lot of my cinema articles from Искусство кино, which is a more high-brow source. In contrast, my other texts are from mainstream news sites, informal articles, or quite simple books. I definitely want to do more intensive work with this site because, even when I understand the words, sometimes I'm still not getting the sense of a paragraph. Maybe I'll do something like Axon did with Russian news for it in June/July. Maybe not. Also, the vocabulary about a film varies massively. Obviously, there are some cinematic terms that do come up regularly, but I'd say it's the minority. For example, because I was reading about Легенда но. 17 (fun feel-good film, I'd recommend it if you're looking for something light) I ended up learning a lot of hockey vocab - puck, hockey stick, goalie, etc (шайба, клюшка, вратарь in case anyone was wondering). It's a good way of reading about stuff I'm interested in, but still getting more of a spread.

During one of my breaks, I was having a brief look to see how many word forms gets you to a sort of useful B2 ish position, but I haven't really figured it out. I definitely don't feel like I'm at B2. (To be fair, I still don't feel like I'm really at B2 in French, but they gave me a certificate for that). When I look at guidelines, one of the things that really gets me is that they often say you should be able to watch most films at B2 level. I can definitely follow a film (if it's not too weird - Прорва, I have no idea what happened), but there will be big chunks of speech that I miss, so I don't get all the detail and motivations. I've signed up for a half Super Challenge so I am really hoping that by the end, I will have overcome that for the most part.

[neofight78]

When I look at guidelines, one of the things that really gets me is that they often say you should be able to watch most films at B2 level. I can definitely follow a film (if it's not too weird - Прорва, I have no idea what happened), but there will be big chunks of speech that I miss, so I don't get all the detail and motivations. I've signed up for a half Super Challenge so I am really hoping that by the end, I will have overcome that for the most part.

Nah, I'd say most films would be C1. If you do ok with Soviet classics, you should be fine for B2.

[MamaPata]

When I look at guidelines, one of the things that really gets me is that they often say you should be able to watch most films at B2 level. I can definitely follow a film (if it's not too weird - Прорва, I have no idea what happened), but there will be big chunks of speech that I miss, so I don't get all the detail and motivations. I've signed up for a half Super Challenge so I am really hoping that by the end, I will have overcome that for the most part.

Nah, I'd say most films would be C1. If you do ok with Soviet classics, you should be fine for B2.

Argh, language levels are so vague! But thanks, I appreciate that

[MamaPata]

My dissertation is in! I don't think it's necessarily good, but it's as good as it was going to get and also, the deadline had arrived. Not much you can do at that point! And I am very glad to be able to draw a line under that. (well, not under the topic, I'm going back to that, but you know)

Such communication, so clear.

The downside of it being done is that it's made me a bit (more) crazy. I'm not good when I don't have a routine and in the UK we had lecturers' strikes, then holidays and now exams, so I have been routine-free for too long. (And obviously, once exams are done, I just have job hunting and unemployment ahead of me, so that doesn't really help). I'm generally very motivated and can achieve a lot... as long as I'm busy. But because I need to concentrate, I'm not busy. I'm going to the gym a lot and trying to break up my day like that and with Russian exchanges, but I've hit a bit of a limit. I've ended up getting a bit sick of Russian and I don't know what the best way to combat that is.

I want to do something fun for the rest of today before I go back to revision tomorrow, but I'm no longer sure what is actually fun. I don't really want to watch anything in English, but I'm also banning myself from French and Spanish until exams are done. What do I enjoy doing? I'm not sure I remember. I have a list of things I want to do after exams but they're all a bit too big for an evening off.

Anyway, this was just a whinge, ignore me. Now that the dissertation is over, it should be a bit easier to make it all a bit healthier and sane.

[Ani]

I want to do something fun for the rest of today before I go back to revision tomorrow, but I'm no longer sure what is actually fun. I don't really want to watch anything in English, but I'm also banning myself from French and Spanish until exams are done. What do I enjoy doing? I'm not sure I remember. I have a list of things I want to do after exams but they're all a bit too big for an evening off.

Congrats on getting your dissertation in.

A hike and celebratory dinner are what your need

I am feeling similarly with French as you are with Russian I think. I'd love to find a way to get over the hump and really commit to that last push to be a well rounded C1 or even C2. I'm interested in hearing what techniques you try.

[neofight78]

Argh, language levels are so vague!

Yep, there's a lot of subjectivity.

My dissertation is in!

Nice one! That's a weight off your shoulders

Regarding Russian, don't burn yourself out. Do more fun stuff, reduce your study or even take a break. Mix up your routine somehow, try something different. Breakthroughs happen, you just have to hang around long enough for them to come.

[MamaPata]

Congrats on getting your dissertation in. A hike and celebratory dinner are what your need

I am feeling similarly with French as you are with Russian I think. I'd love to find a way to get over the hump and really commit to that last push to be a well rounded C1 or even C2. I'm interested in hearing what techniques you try.

Thank you! I did one of those things.

It's definitely a struggle! I have no real thoughts or advice yet, but between us I hope we will figure something out.

Regarding Russian, don't burn yourself out. Do more fun stuff, reduce your study or even take a break. Mix up your routine somehow, try something different. Breakthroughs happen, you just have to hang around long enough for them to come.

Thanks for the advice! I have Russian exams until the end of the month, so I'm not really taking a break (for more than a few hours) until then, but I do plan to completely leave Russian for a few weeks in June. Until then, like you say, balance and mixing things up. How's your Russian study going?