Dylan95's log

[Dylan95]

Congrats on the exams results, they are excellent!

On the words meanings, good dictionaries may help, but only to some extent. There are words that match well to our native language, others that can be easily explained, but then there are others that really need to be learned from context to properly understand them. For me the key is to actively learn the ones that can be understood from a dictionary and just leave the others to be naturally assimilated.

That sounds like a good attitude to have. Probably one that will save me from burnout. Sometimes it's just not a good idea to force it. I'll definitely keep this in mind.

[Dylan95]

While I have always made sure to study Russian verbs in context, previously, I didn't think it was usually necessary to study nouns in the same way. To a large extent that is probably true, but recently I have begun to realize that this has been leading to some issues when producing sentences on the fly. I realized this when one of my friends corrected me for saying "в фабрике" and not "на фабрике." Usually в translates more or less to "in" and "на" to on. For example, "в шкафе" means in the cupboard, but "на шкафе" means on the cupboard. Still, there are always exceptions. As it turns out, "в фарбике" just isn't correct.

While in most cases it's pretty easy to figure out the necessary prepositions, that's not always the case. I think I'm going to play it safe in the future when learning nouns, and make sure I know how they fit into sentences 100% before I incorporate them into my vocabulary. It's a lot easier to get it right the first time than it is to correct fossilized mistakes.

[Arnaud]

Is it not в шкафу ? (The locative, the prepositional being о шкафе)

[aaleks]

To me "в шкафу", "на шкафу" sounds more natural.
And "о шкафе" is right.

[Dylan95]

I don't know how to quote two people in one post, but thank God you guys both read my log

[Dylan95]

I haven't sat down and studied Russian for probably more than a month now. I began my first semester of graduate school towards the end of August, and have been swamped in reading. Who would have known!

Still, I've continued to use conversational Russian a lot by keeping in touch with people in Russia. I've found that my vocabulary hasn't suffered that much. I was expecting a huge decline in vocabulary, but it hasn't been that terrible at least so far. I started studying Ukrainian a couple of weeks ago, so I am trying to use Russian as often as I can in order to avoid mixing the two up. I know it's impossible to avoid mixups entirely, but I'm doing my best to limit that as much as possible.

[Dylan95]

My first semester of graduate school finally ended. Studying Ukrainian hasn't interfered with my Russian hardly at all which is a nice surprise. I assume there will be more interference as my Ukrainian approaches a higher level, but so far it's virtually had no effect. My Russian definitely interferes with my Ukrainian, but it's not a huge problem because I usually correct myself quickly. This all being said, I'm still a upper-beginner (probably a high A2 in terms of active proficiency), and I haven't had any lengthy or complex discussions in the language, although I believe I'll be able with a little bit more vocab practice.

[Dylan95]

I've been studying Ukrainian since September in a classroom situation. My Ukrainian is still pretty bad. It's not that it's difficult or anything. Already speaking Russian makes learning Ukrainian a bit of a breeze. But I don't have a huge amount of motivation to learn it and my other classes are the priority, so most of my study thus far has been cramming before exams. I'd say, I'm definitely in the B range passively for Ukrainian, but my active skills are either a high A2 or a low B1. I probably won't continue studying it in a classroom environment at this point. I think at this point, I'm either going to drop it or just focus on learning vocabulary little by little. I have no desire to really be able to speak Ukrainian. I'd just like to be able to read newspaper articles a little more comfortably. I can already, but that definitely requires a dictionary if I want to understand every detail (which I do).

I haven't studied Russian at all since leaving Russia really. I've noticed that my Russian is definitely worse. I keep on forgetting all kinds of random words, but recognize them immediately upon hearing or seeing them. I think I'm a solid C1 at this point. My main problem is that I only use Russian with friends at this point, so my Russian for the past year has basically been solid bar talk. Luckily, I'm going back for the summer in a few weeks. That will force me to have more formal interactions.

I would like to begin studying Turkish in a formal classroom environment next fall. I've wanted to learn Turkish for a while, and I dabbled in it a while back.

My language goals for this summer are:
- improve Russian (widen vocabulary, improve my ability to express myself eloquently in professional contexts)
- not let my ukrainian vanish into oblivion (as has more or less been the case with French, Italian, and Latin)

[MamaPata]

Good to hear how things are going! I sympathise with the Russian issue.

[Dylan95]

I was talking to one of my friends from Russia about Chinese, and I really find it shocking. He's been studying Chinese now for five years, including 2.5 years in China. I've seen him speak Chinese many times before, and while I don't speak it, it's clear that he's comfortable speaking it. He passed the HSK level 5 test last year, for example. What shocks me, however, is that he said he still can't read newspapers. I know that he hasn't made any special effort to learn how to read the news. He just isn't interested in that kind of thing. But I would have thought that anyone who has passed HSK level 5 would be able to read newspapers regardless. I found this to be rather discouraging. I'm a graduate student who has long dreamed of learning Chinese so that I could use Chinese sources in my research. That would be fine if it were something I could do in a few years, but it seems like it requires much more than that.