Postby Dylan95 » Fri Apr 20, 2018 9:11 pm
Over the past two weeks I've been trying to spend more time consolidating what I have, and overall trying to correct as many habitual errors as possible. I've been focusing a lot on improving my intonation, and I think that's slowly improving.
Honestly, earlier in my studies, I thought that if one became immersed in a language, they would wind up speaking like a native speaker after at least a few years. I've come to realize that this is simply not true. I've spent the past year in a Russian university with hundreds of foreigners studying Russian from many different countries. (US, France, Germany, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, South Korea, Vietnam, and especially China)
Two of my closer friends here are both 22 years old and from Istanbul. One of them has been studying Russian in Russia for four years and the other for five years. Both speak Russian practically 24/7. Even amongst themselves they usually speak Russian. Both of them are intelligent, but one of them speaks considerably better. Their pronunciation is very good and their overall conversational vocabulary is also very good. But while one of them makes very few grammatical errors, the other usually makes a few mistakes in every sentence. They aren't terrible errors, and they don't have any effect on his ability to communicate, but they are nevertheless mistakes. He's a smart guy, and he speaks well, but his Russian skills seem to have stagnated because he is satisfied with his current level. While a lot of people might think this is obvious, as a novice language learner, this particular comparison has really influenced my view on language study. I think this anecdote illustrates the necessity of applying one's self to one's studies if they want to progress in their language skills, especially at the more advanced stages.
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