A language learners’ forum

Despite being AWOL from here, I have continued my language journey. Just been a bit busy the last six months or so. Kept working the Coptic until about 6 weeks ago when I started cramming for Russian. Still reading Esperanto. Will start German next month.

The Russian truly was a surprise. In January I did a virtual course with DLI like I did last year before summer. One-on-one with the instructor, two hours a night, twice a week for four weeks. Prior to that, I started L-Ring HP4. Only did that for two weeks (~20min a night) till the DLI course started. Read tons of Deutsche Welle Russian articles. Also watched minimum of 10 minutes of news every night (still love Kartina for my Russian TV needs), along with some episodes of Воронины. This month's Kartina subscription will end on 1 March-ish, so I'll keep watching till then.

The best part of the brain-hurting DLI course was the instructor cluing me into тема и рема. In short that means theme and something, unsure how to translate the second part, but target? point? Basically, each sentence has a theme and a point. Russian news writing is big on stating the theme up front, then lots of filler, then the point. I kept my ears open during the Listening for this, which I believe helped me get the 3. Same with the Reading, skipped all the fluff (no one cares the name of a company director, for example).

Still no result yet from the OPI. It's killing me! I want to know!

IronMike wrote:The best part of the brain-hurting DLI course was the instructor cluing me into тема и рема. In short that means theme and something, unsure how to translate the second part, but target? point?

In Mandarin studies they talk about topic - comment. I've also heard the expression tema - rema in Swedish, and of course theme - rheme in English.

Topic - comment is good enough for me.

I've been "paired" so I can officially announce that from the middle of March to almost the end of May, I'll be in a full-time, virtual, German class! Six hours of class a day with 2-3 hours of homework. And that will be my M-F job for 10 weeks! w00t! Can't wait.

I lived in Berlin for 4 years in the late '80s/early '90s, leaving that wonderful city in April '92. In '93, the Air Force finally let us take the DLPT for languages we weren't working, so I took the German DLPT (then a III, I think) in the fall of 1993 and despite being away from Germany for over a year, still managed a 2L/1+R.



For this acquisition course, I had to declare a goal: 2L/2R/1+S. Of course, the office managing the classes did simple multiplication: 6 x 5 x 10 does not equal enough hours to reach my goal for a Cat II language, and they told me my realistic goal should be 1/1/1.

Challenge accepted!

I'm having an internal debate: Keep the Kartina (Russian TV) subscription, at $18/mon, or dump it till DLPT time at the end of the year? I intend on still listening to Russian news at least 10 min a day, but certainly I can get that online? There's also the podcasts I listen to (Что это было? and Эхо Москвы) which are free.

But I do like the option to watch other programming on Kartina. But $18/mon is a lot if I'm only listening 10 min a day, right?

See. Debate. Have till the next monthly charge at the end of the month to decide.

IronMike wrote:I'm having an internal debate: Keep the Kartina (Russian TV) subscription, at $18/mon, or dump it till DLPT time at the end of the year? I intend on still listening to Russian news at least 10 min a day, but certainly I can get that online? There's also the podcasts I listen to (Что это было? and Эхо Москвы) which are free.

But I do like the option to watch other programming on Kartina. But $18/mon is a lot if I'm only listening 10 min a day, right?

See. Debate. Have till the next monthly charge at the end of the month to decide.

There's not much point in paying for something you don't use. Could you use it more?

I'm thinking about replacing the kitchen radio with an internet radio so I could listen to L2 stations when I'm cooking, but I already listen to L2 music CDs so it wouldn't be a big change, and internet radios are more expensive than CDs

DaveAgain wrote:

IronMike wrote:I'm having an internal debate: Keep the Kartina (Russian TV) subscription, at $18/mon, or dump it till DLPT time at the end of the year? I intend on still listening to Russian news at least 10 min a day, but certainly I can get that online? There's also the podcasts I listen to (Что это было? and Эхо Москвы) which are free.

But I do like the option to watch other programming on Kartina. But $18/mon is a lot if I'm only listening 10 min a day, right?

See. Debate. Have till the next monthly charge at the end of the month to decide.

There's not much point in paying for something you don't use. Could you use it more?

I'm thinking about replacing the kitchen radio with an internet radio so I could listen to L2 stations when I'm cooking, but I already listen to L2 music CDs so it wouldn't be a big change, and internet radios are more expensive than CDs

We solved this in our house by getting an Alexa, and then I link my L2 podcasts to it, so when I'm cooking I can passively listen in.

I'd say it's a lot of money for something you don't use. You can get the news for free and with transcriptions at https://www.1tv.ru/

There's plenty of good serials on YouTube some even with Russian and English subtitles.

You guys all make good points and I do really need to use Youtube more for Russian. And 1TV for the news will be perfect. I'll dump Kartina before it charges me for March.

Just reread my last few posts here and can't believe I didn't update you all. Got my OPI result back: 2+. So happy! I was afraid I'd dropped down to a 2 from the last OPI. I'm gonna buckle down like crazy next year; who knows, maybe a 3/3/3 is in my future?!

Pool finally opened back up here after a two-week maintenance closure. It was so nice to be back in the water. Only did a mile, was feeling the time not swimming. Only hours later did I realize I've caught a cold.

I usually get a cold once or twice a year, and I'd been lucky here not getting sick. Six months away from home as of today and I'm in bed with all the symptoms I normally have with colds: sneezing, fatigue, body needing to "return some coffee back to nature" as my wife so elegantly describes peeing. Thankfully, I can still smell things.

But of course this cold puts me off swimming for a couple days. I'm so close to getting the 150 mile t-shirt here, I'm at 141.5 miles after yesterday, total swum since 9 Sep. And that includes two, two-week breaks. (Besides the maintenance one, I had to take two weeks off in October after I had a tumble which road-rashed my leg something fierce.) I've got 11 days left to get those 8.5 miles, which shouldn't be a problem. Still not sure what marathon to swim this year for the 2021 Polyglot Fitness Challenge.

Reading La Momento de Vero (The Moment of Truth) by Bogomolov. It's set in 1944 and concerns a Soviet unit searching for German spies. So far so good.

Woke up today feeling a bit better, think I'll be able to swim again tomorrow. Finally!

Been listening to a lot of Pola Ret-radio (Polish Internet Radio) which has the best Esperanto new broadcasts out there. I've finally fixed my Podcast app so that when I'm done it doesn't delete the broadcast, so now I can relisten. I've listened to the 10 Feb broadcast 3 times and have moved on to the 12 Feb one. Since I'm done with my Audible book, I'll listen to Eo podcasts for all my walks now.

La Momento de Vero is going ok. Hard to concentrate when your eyes are itchy and you're sneezing. I try to knock out at least 10 pages a day, and so far so good.