A language learners’ forum

Ani wrote:Nothing dramatic to report. Finnish slipped a hair as I did a little more in Russian during the first part of this week. I only have 30-40 minutes a day to devote to them combined. Since they are such new language, I think 15-20 minutes each is better than alternating days but it is hard to pull myself away when I hit a place of enjoyment. The root of the issue being that Finnish is with Assimil, Russian is not. How does anyone deal with getting little bits and pieces of information in drips and drabs over months? It's making me beyond insane.

Okay, I've come up with an idea for a new type of language course. It will be the way I make my millions. The THREE WAY LANGUAGE COURSE. It will start L1-L2 and then, as the learner becomes a bit more familiar with L2, it will slowly introduce L2-L3! I think I'm really on to something here The first will be the French-Russian-Finnish course, just for you. (And we can sucker Systematiker into Finnish that way too. Laddering! I mean, we will not try to get anyone to pick up yet another language at all that's not my style )

In all seriousness, as you get a bit further along you can do an Expug and use a Russian Finnish resource, or the other way round. I have actually a Russian-Finnish something - although I'm not sure what as I can't understand a single word!

Elenia wrote: (And we can sucker Systematiker into Finnish that way too. Laddering! I mean, we will not try to get anyone to pick up yet another language at all that's not my style )

I'm watching you very closely here....

Systematiker wrote:

Elenia wrote: (And we can sucker Systematiker into Finnish that way too. Laddering! I mean, we will not try to get anyone to pick up yet another language at all that's not my style )

I'm watching you very closely here....

I'm innocent! Quick, where's Brun Ugles 'Angel' smiley?

Elenia wrote:

Systematiker wrote:

Elenia wrote: (And we can sucker Systematiker into Finnish that way too. Laddering! I mean, we will not try to get anyone to pick up yet another language at all that's not my style )

I'm watching you very closely here....

I'm innocent! Quick, where's Brun Ugles 'Angel' smiley?

The tortise ate it.

Elenia wrote:In all seriousness, as you get a bit further along you can do an Expug and use a Russian Finnish resource, or the other way round. I have actually a Russian-Finnish something - although I'm not sure what as I can't understand a single word!

Lol. Highly targeted language laddering for the clinically insane I would go for that. Actually I can't give up Finnish for long enough to later from Russian or I'll never make it. I'll just have to press on.. Unless I find some other French -> Finnish resource. Nothing I have found yet will get me even close to starting Harry Potter around the middle of the year. I'll probably just have to keep whining for the next six months :-p

Ani wrote:

Elenia wrote:In all seriousness, as you get a bit further along you can do an Expug and use a Russian Finnish resource, or the other way round. I have actually a Russian-Finnish something - although I'm not sure what as I can't understand a single word!

Lol. Highly targeted language laddering for the clinically insane I would go for that. Actually I can't give up Finnish for long enough to later from Russian or I'll never make it. I'll just have to press on.. Unless I find some other French -> Finnish resource. Nothing I have found yet will get me even close to starting Harry Potter around the middle of the year. I'll probably just have to keep whining for the next six months :-p

Ha, we can make it go the other way! I only put Russian first because I thought it might be a bit easier to start with...

About reading, why don't you do as me and find a book you're not particularly interested in to read intensively alongside courses? (Pretend I didn't see you talking about time issues earlier, time is a human construct really, right??

Also, in answer to your question on Expug's log: I've only read one Murakami from start to finish, called After Midnight or maybe After Dark, I'm not sure. It was very weird, but I enjoyed it. It was also short, which helped

Can't believe I didn't update my log for 10 days. My log for 10 days. Could have sworn I did. Oh well.

Things are good. Study is ok. I was trying to do one Assimil lesson/day in Finnish, meaning that I'd be on lesson 21. Uhm nope. I think I am going to aim for 4/week. I am glad the pronunciation is fairly straight forward because there are just letters (the vowels!) going every which way on me I have faith it will eventually come together. I find it all very amusing.

Russian feels like a mess of squiggly lines. I guess that is the summary of my Finnish and Russian projects at the moment... Mess of vowels, mess of squiggly lines. The cyrillic alphabet seems more transparent than it did a week ago though and I am successfully learning how to count (and spell the numbers).

I am having a little dilemma in French. With French. I said I'd do 1 course this year. So far I have been continuing my dabbling in the 4 courses discussed last year. I need to pick one and finish it first or I am not going to finish any of them. Trouble is... I can't pick. I need to choose between FIA and FSI for starters. Grammaire Progressive I am going to pick at. I like it but find it better as reinforcing review. I need audio drills and writing practice. Structured writing practice. Both courses have both the way I am using them. I am only on unit 4 of FIA but a good bit further in FSI. I truly have no idea which to do Help.

I didn't read much this week so I am super close but not done with Sous Les Ventes de Neptune. I watched the new Lemony Snicket on Netflix (on french) instead of reading. I find the story sort of meh.. But oh my goodness the clothes. The libraries. The architecture. That show had the most drool worthy eye catching sets I have seen in ages.. Ever maybe. I think I am going to watch it again for the architecture.

Ani wrote:I am having a little dilemma in French. With French. I said I'd do 1 course this year. So far I have been continuing my dabbling in the 4 courses discussed last year. I need to pick one and finish it first or I am not going to finish any of them. Trouble is... I can't pick. I need to choose between FIA and FSI for starters. Grammaire Progressive I am going to pick at. I like it but find it better as reinforcing review. I need audio drills and writing practice. Structured writing practice. Both courses have both the way I am using them. I am only on unit 4 of FIA but a good bit further in FSI. I truly have no idea which to do Help.

I must apologise, as I definitely roped you into some of these courses, sorry I would advise you to go with FIA, since it appears to be the most versatile- audio, video, written exercises, readings, some drills. Best all round I think.

I also must confess. I went out for a bike ride yesterday evening when I really didn't want to. I almost turned around, but soldiered on and got on with the job while my mind contemplated, analysed, toyed with, got serious about and then turned it upside down and shuffled it all sideways on a 33 degree angle- more than once. I concluded, that although stupid, I have a very strong urge to return to "the Big 5", and stronger again of working through my massive list of courses. So in conclusion, you might be confused, but i'm worse off- it might be karma for leaving you in a lurch! I might join you in some kind of a course completion mission if you so please- can't guarantee i'll last more than a day though. I'm not helping am I?

If you're looking to save some time, give up spelling the numbers in Russian. No need, really. You can just write the numbers using digits. Use your Russian time working on other things.

PeterMollenburg wrote:I must apologise, as I definitely roped you into some of these courses, sorry I would advise you to go with FIA, since it appears to be the most versatile- audio, video, written exercises, readings, some drills. Best all round I think.

Haha no totally not your fault. FIA is definitely strongest in writing, which I keep saying is my goal for this year. BUT starting back with "Ce sont des animaux" seems kinda ridiculous. I don't have TONS of free time this year for seated book work... so I am still torn with "well then just get on with it" and "find a faster route" ... I can't think of any way to accelerate FIA. For example. I just flipped to Lesson 22 and I can fill in the writing exercises just straight off the top of my head, but I wouldn't get there until probably June if I do everything. On the other hand, there are at least some good things tucked inside that I missed elsewhere, and the practice of structured writing is something I really do need.

IronMike wrote:If you're looking to save some time, give up spelling the numbers in Russian. No need, really. You can just write the numbers using digits. Use your Russian time working on other things.

Spelling the numbers is part of the Memrise course I am doing. I could ignore them but then I wouldn't have them in the course to memorise. It wouldn't be a major issue except for still grappling with the alphabet. I think soon I'll have it down and then it won't be an issue. Spelling ANYTHING at this point is the same difficulty, yk?