Every now and then, I start writing an entry or post and midway through it wonder how I manage to get such "diarrhea of the keyboard".
This is the third version of today's episode...
I actually started this as an "update to a PM" to someone. Then, for some reason, I figured that others might also be interested - as if!!! (yeah, my ego gets away from me sometimes)!
I'm constantly facing the conflict of "normal language-learning advise/processes" relating more to normal conversation than to achieving my goal of reading LotR in Russian. Okay, the most frequently used words list theory should help here, right? Um, yes and no. It seems conversational or survival Russian word frequency lists are no more than 50% useful - at least out to the 1500th word from what my analyses of different translations of both LotR and The Hobbit show (and, of course, I could definitely be wrong/have processed the texts incorrectly there).
Add to this, I'm still trying to remember/improve my knowledge of the basics of Russian grammar, declensions and tenses... sigh. All with a 60plus year old mind/memory (or lack thereof!)!
And of course, I'm
always looking for "the missing key", the magic tool, the shortcut.... Yeah, we all know about that, right?!?!
But I digress...and obfusticate...and distract myself (and you?)...
Short version recap
-Started in August after a 15 year break from Russian...
-Figured I'd just "re-learn" Russian... for fun.
-Around Sep 1, got the bright idea to read LotR in Russian...by Xmas!
-Decided to invest - shoot for - a minimum of 6 hours a day concentrated study
---Examining my log, max hours studying a day - 10-12hrs/day on 22 different days
------------------------- avg hrs/day concentrated study - 6-8 between Sep 1 and Oct 10
------------------------- min hrs/day - 3 on 3 different days when I was sick
------------------------- days missed/no studying - 0 between Aug 21 and today
-Made inspiring (to me) progress
initially in re-claiming some of the easy stuff from the dank,
.................dark recesses of my gray matter.
-Reached 3 different plateaus (vocab and grammar) in Sep and early Oct...
..........worked through them each differently (just plugged away, switched focus for 3 days
................ and then returned, changed method/book)
-Gained and lost progress in dealing with the plateaus...
-Ran into the issue of real world vocab versus book vocab...
..........still don't have an answer here
-Still looking for that magic key!At this point, I
might have a functional passive vocab of 1200 words now. That is, I can read about this many words without having to look them up or I can figure them out from contextual familiarity.
--I probably have an "automatic production" vocab of about 5-600 words. That is, I can write or say something from a "bank" of this many words without having to use a vocabulary list to prompt myself. These are general use words commonly seen/heard across "conversational islands".
"
Is it reasonable to be disappointed" is the question I find myself dealing with this last week.
And thus concludes the "verbal diarrhea" for this post.