Ani's 2018 Log

[reineke]

While I think there's very low likelihood of your attempting to learn a foreign language in this manner, let me try to answer your question anyway.

I occasionally watched German TV during a period that spanned 12 years. I cannot reliably estimate the number of hours since I neither kept track nor I did I care about learning German.

I watched regular TV, including some popular cartoons like Heidi and Georgie. After a 7-year break I enrolled in a B2 and two C1 classes. I had no trouble participating in these classes and I would say that my pronunciation was excellent compared to other participants - which, unfortunately, is not saying much. Long before I enrolled in these classes I had no trouble following advanced TV programming.

Well it's possible might. I really appreciate your answer. Your language learning methods still seem rather mystical. I'm not quite ready to chalk it up to language assimilation super powers but I might have to one day I'm really not doing well with desk learning right now but I think I could fit in 15-20 minutes of Russian cartoons when I first wake up in the morning. I got a lot of French learning done that way but lately I've been listening to audiobooks in that timeslots. It's not something I mind rearranging.

Thanks. When I started listening to German I had a plump teenage brain and I would normally watch interesting programming (sometimes for hours).... If you can chill with cartoons without expecting anything in return you can give it a try. In any case, cartoons are a safer bet than TV dramas.

[Xmmm]

In any case, cartoons are a safer bet than TV dramas.

I'm sure it's because I look in all the wrong places, but I haven't had a great deal of luck finding these easy to understand dubbed cartoons.

I could find some in Italian, but the ones I enjoyed watching tended to have rapid fire dialogue and didn't seem any easier to understand than TV dramas. Plus a lot of character voices were little more than squeals.

And for Russian, even worse. I don't think I've seen any dubbed cartoons. Of the native Russian ones, Masha is pretty boring and Smeshariki is entertaining but I don't find the dialogue any easier to understand than the dialogue from Leningrad 46 (very clear dialogue in that show). Some of that is the high pitched voices, some of that is the complex story lines (all in 18 minutes). One character on that show liberally mixes German into his Russian, and so on.

I watch TV dramas because hundreds of hours of them are easily available and you can shop around for the ones where the speaking is clear (so for Russian, Silver Spoon is a big no. Leningrad 46 is a big yes).

Anyway, I'm sure cartoons would be more appropriate in theory, but there are operational difficulties (or I'm just clueless finding the resources).

[Ani]

Maybe Ani will finally remember which is which after reading all this discussion...

Lol I hope so!

Someone should put it in their calendar to give me a pop quiz this time next year and see if it stuck.

I'm sure it's because I look in all the wrong places, but I haven't had a great deal of luck finding these easy to understand dubbed cartoons.

I was watching Peppa Pig this morning which isn't so bad. I popped "Русский мультфильм" into YT and tons of stuff comes up, a lot of which looks high quality and fairly interesting. Of course I have been enjoying dramas too. I found мажор fairly clear though, not every line but enough to start picking up phrases, so I'll not sure what your expectations are. If it's interesting enough, repetition makes up for lack of clarity.

[Ani]

So the water situation turned critical yesterday when the men started trying to fix it. They shut off my hot water, which meant my toilets no longer flushed. 6 people on a house with no toilets is a very very bad thing, especially when it's -15F/-26C (and that had warmed up a ton!! From -40F/C) I tried melting snow, bowl by bowl to get enough water to flush them only to realize pressure assisted toilets can't be flushed like gravity flush toilets. It sounds like maybe a kind of small issue in the scheme of things but to be honest it was pretty defeating. We were eventually able to move to a new unit for the night, that had water but no hot water for showers, and today the hot water is back. Water will all be fixed tomorrow so we can move back to the original unit, where the rest of our stuff is. All of this nonsense was extremely consuming and I got off track this week with everything.

I was able to review through tape 7.7 of FSI French. I'm super shocked by how well and easily it is going. Maybe it is just an easy section but I'm popping out the substitution drills like nothing.
I took one of the French quizzes in Reineke's log based on a 5000 word frequency list. I was able to pass it, but I missed words in each section so I got to wondering what the list looks like. I took a peek at Rutledge's list and ended up skimming through 2400 words. There were about 20 the I wasn't fully comfortable with so I put them on little note cards on a ring. It's so fun to have paper note cards again. Old school. Given my pace, I'm thinking I'll finish with around 100 cards give or take? I think using a frequency list now that I mostly know all the vocabulary is really perfect. I'll get to fill my most important gaps without much pain.

I did manage to watch some Russian cartoons today. Peppa in the morning like I mentioned in the last post and then a movie I think is called Савва . It is entertaining enough for cartoons and I understood a disproportionately high number of words and phrases because he introduced himself a number of times in the first 10 minutes which was a nice confidence boost

[Xmmm]

I was watching Peppa Pig this morning which isn't so bad. I popped "Русский мультфильм" into YT and tons of stuff comes up, a lot of which looks high quality and fairly interesting. Of course I have been enjoying dramas too. I found мажор fairly clear though, not every line but enough to start picking up phrases, so I'll not sure what your expectations are. If it's interesting enough, repetition makes up for lack of clarity.

мажор is where I learned six words for drug addict plus the words for heroin, meth, and fascist pilots. It's pretty clear when красавчик isn't talking. But he does half the talking.

It's a little late for me for Russian cartoons, and I still don't think there's a huge selection (maybe this is why reineke listened to a Russian audiobook a hundred times instead?).

On the other hand, search on 'animasyon' and you get a ton of Turkish dubs. I'm trying out Thor-Türkçe Dublaj Animasyon Filmi İzle.

Thanks for the tip!

[Xmmm]

By the way, you asked what I wanted in terms of selection. This is what I want for selection!

mojojojo_turkish.png

There are 116 Powerpuff Girls videos in Turkish!

[aaleks]

I was watching Peppa Pig this morning which isn't so bad.

I watch Peppa Pig in French sometimes as a part of my dabbling .

I popped "Русский мультфильм" into YT and tons of stuff comes up, a lot of which looks high quality and fairly interesting.

It's a little late for me for Russian cartoons, and I still don't think there's a huge selection (maybe this is why reineke listened to a Russian audiobook a hundred times instead?).

There's a lot of soviet cartoons. There's nothing political/ideological in many of them.
For example, Золотая антилопа ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hshlvj3xr7g ) or Ореховый прутик ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiyP5O-yRRE ) they are just fairy tales. As a kid I liked these two because of the drawings.
Союзмультфильм youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/ClassicCar ... dia/videos

[reineke]

I was watching Peppa Pig this morning which isn't so bad. I popped "Русский мультфильм" into YT and tons of stuff comes up, a lot of which looks high quality and fairly interesting. Of course I have been enjoying dramas too. I found мажор fairly clear though, not every line but enough to start picking up phrases, so I'll not sure what your expectations are. If it's interesting enough, repetition makes up for lack of clarity.

мажор is where I learned six words for drug addict plus the words for heroin, meth, and fascist pilots. It's pretty clear when красавчик isn't talking. But he does half the talking.

It's a little late for me for Russian cartoons, and I still don't think there's a huge selection (maybe this is why reineke listened to a Russian audiobook a hundred times instead?).

On the other hand, search on 'animasyon' and you get a ton of Turkish dubs. I'm trying out Thor-Türkçe Dublaj Animasyon Filmi İzle.

Thanks for the tip!

It's never too late for cartoons but I wouldn't turn this into a chore . I didn't listen to the same book 100 times. That would amount to 4500 hours of Russian. I listened to the book mostly while walking or during commutes.That was several years ago. Most recently I watched a lot of cartoons, documentaries and TV series in Russian. I don't expect anyone to be my biographer but it would appear that these logs are a waste of time. In my opinion dubbed/translated cartoons are generally easier to process than native programs. Anyway, if words like "hole" "shovel" and "bucket" are new to you, there's a lot you could still learn from shows like "Kipper". PS I don't mind watching Kipper in any of my languages.

[Ani]

This week has been totally insane and I don't have a whole lot of time to post but two things.. I found Ben and Holly's Little kingdom on YT in Russian, which makes me very happy. Been watching that every morning with the baby while we wake up.
And.. Cavesa for me addicted to kwiziq. Worst name ever but one of the best language tools I've seen. They have one for French and Spanish is in progress. It covers grammar beginner to C1 and has a super cool mind map that turns green as you complete the sections. I'm obsessed with the mind map.
Can't post. Gotta go take kwizzes so my mind map turns green...

[DaveBee]

...especially when it's -15F/-26C (and that had warmed up a ton!! From -40F/C)

We've been moaning about a cold spell here, but crikey! You've got the real thing.

(There was a radio drama a while back where a man added icefish DNA to himself to adapt to temperature like yours. You could get your children working on that for their biology homework )