Well, I could'nt make it through the first episode of Остров Ненужных Людей, I got too bored. So viewing suggestions would be appreciated
I've spent pretty much most of Saturday and Sunday studying so that was great
I've not completely caught up on all the flashcards but I've made a nice dent in the backlog. I also got a load of new cards prepared.
Saturday morning I spoke to a someone new. He's a teacher of computer science, so I'm hoping this language exchange may turn into something that will help me develop my ability to talk about programming. Not that it's a subject I'm keen to talk about in and of itself but rather I have an eye on working in Russia for a while at some point in the future.
I've also started taking lessons with a teacher that likes to work with video clips and add subtitles and annotations. The great thing is that I can get all the context and explanations in the lesson, and then I can use subs2srs to really nail it all down. Given the clips are only a few minutes long, it means I can get through all the cards quickly and get a sense of completion, whereas a whole film is a big more of a slog. Learning wise it probably makes little difference, but psychologically those smaller milestones help a lot.
This Saturday was a clip form Интерны, and it made it obvious to me why the series is hard to follow. There really is a high number of expressions and cultural references. Of course these little constructions and phrases that are so common in everyday speech (although no doubt there appear even more frequently in интерны) get little coverage in textbooks and dictionaries. So I am hoping getting a grip on these will give my listening comprehension a big boost, although of course it's not the only factor.
I need to get back in to the reading habit after Christmas, and I'm going to have a go at moving this to before work and use my lunchtimes for speaking practice. I am moving things around a bit because as I mentioned previously I'm trying to change my sleeping and exercising habits somewhat. Anyhow, we'll see how this goes.
Overall, I'm feeling back in the swing and really motivated to study. Onwards and upwards!