FLC Log for Czech and Ukrainian

[Systematiker]

So I'm not even good at keeping my regular log updated more than a couple times a week, but here it goes. I'll try to keep it in parallel to my regular log, but if you are interested in this and it looks silent for a while, check https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7332


Czech
I dabbled in Czech a bit last August/September, during which I read part of Luther's Small Catechism and about half of the first chapter of the Gospel according to John, and listened to maybe the first 7 chapters of John as audio a couple of times. I also listened a few times to a native podcast. I did no formal study, and I've managed to figure out less than 100 words that I'm not getting from context. I watched about 10-15 minutes of the Jesus film dubbed into Czech, too.
I'm doing a pure FLC for Czech, and the "super" variant, so I'm aiming at B1 in 15 months.
Disclosures: I've been doing a lot of work on Russian, so it's not my first Slavic language (not that my Russian is great!).

Ukrainian
For Ukrainian I'm doing the "With pre-existing streaming, super" variant - and my pre-existing streaming is Spotify. I'm counting this because I've paid for ad-free Spotify for a long time, and I got interested in Ukrainian in the first place by running across Ukrainian music that caught my attention, so I'm not going to stop that. Although I have e.g. video streaming services available to me, I'm not going to use them. So still aiming at B1 in 15 months. So far, I've done almost all the alphabet lessons on Duolingo
Disclosures: The same as for Czech, plus I'll be doing some music.



Global Disclosure: These two languages are easier for me to access than others might be, even others in the same family. I use the Bible and church services heavily across all my languages, and both of these have not only easily-available resources in this area, it's easy to get stuff from Western Rite liturgy in both Czech and Ukrainian, as well as things from my own specific tradition (for those who care, my own tradition is of course represented elsewhere, but it is e.g. much harder to find Western Rite stuff in Russian, because of the Orthodox presence. I happen to have access to Western Rite and specifically Lutheran in both Czech and Ukrainian). I've also got the opportunity to connect to colleagues and individuals of the same faith tradition in both countries, through some connections I already have (so I'm an introduction away). I therefore won't have nearly the trouble finding materials that I'm familiar with and interested in as I would had I chosen languages that tend towards other traditions or who do not have a significant presence in the faith community I'm a part of, and that has a lot to do with the spirit of this challenge, as I won't have quite as much "make do" as I might with some other languages.

[Systematiker]

Reserved for resources

[Systematiker]

Reserved in case it's a good idea to have another reserved post

[Systematiker]

Posted in my regular log, and expanded here. And I still haven't listed my resources...

Czech
Czech has been exhilarating. I did only one lesson on duolingo, because it's in beta and won't come up on my phone, and that's the value of duolingo for me, "hidden moments." But switching to English-Czech on Clozemaster has got me able to do words by frequency instead of a huge lump (I had played around with French-Czech before) and it makes it actually accessible. I've found some youtube videos, in the spirit of the FLC challenge, and done a few lessons. Czechclass101 does a number of free youtube videos, and "Learn Czech with Rich" has a "basic course" which is pretty much just phrases so far but it's not bad. I'm feeling good about Czech at the moment, at least receptively.

This shouldn't be taken to mean that I'm somehow doing magic with Czech. At this point, I'm getting a ridiculous number of cognates from Russian, and seeing a German and Latinate influence as well - plus with a more familiar writing system. The problems will come with production. The grammar bits that should be tricky in Czech (so far) I have a point of reference for, and presently I can really only judge by what I can understand. I've got a leg up, but it's not a magic bullet.

Ukrainian
Ukrainian, on the other hand, is proving harder. Clozemaster is too difficult at this stage, so I'm using only duolingo in hidden moments - but anything else gets super hard, too. The "easy Ukrainian" Youtbe videos are too hard as well. I've been listening to a bunch of music, and not being able to understand much, but most probably I just need more practice to shift over to clozemaster and easy youtube videos.

Assuming this shift happens the way I think it does and I keep doing the other language work I'm doing, I'll probably be able to continue leveraging stuff to make Ukrainian easier. It's somewhere between the way I picked up Portuguese and the piano teacher who just stays one lesson ahead of the pupil...

[tarvos]

Once you speak one Slavic language, nearly all the others are easy as pie. I found Czech a breeze after I struggled with Russian.