Russian Study Group

[Ogrim]

Hi all!

I've been poking around some other study groups here, and I was wondering if the Russian group has done any monthly challenges in the past. With the new year coming up, it could be fun to crowdsource some ideas (watch a movie and write a review, listen to a song, translate a poem, etc.) and check in each month to see how we're all doing.

This is something I'm probably going to do for myself to keep on track and do something a little more fun than grammar lessons alone. But I wanted to check in and see if this is something we've ever done as a group, or if there would be any interest in doing it in 2018!

It's not something this version of the group has done, though I think previous ones have? If there is an interest for it, I'm definitely up for it, though there are some very different levels, which could prove challenging.

Back on HTLAL in the times of TAC groups, monthly challenges was typically what some groups did to keep some activity in the group threads. It seemed to work well in a few cases, but as often happened with TAC groups, there would be a lot of enthusiasm and participation in the first few weeks of the year, and then the groups more or less died, or only a few members would continue to post and take part in the challenges.

By all means, I don't see any harm in trying it out - one could try to find challenges which could be adapted to different levels. Like "write a short text about yourself (or your city, or country)", which you could either answer with a lengthy essay or just five lines stating your nationality, age, where you live, if you work or study etc. That would be a task both an A1 and a C2 could answer, each in their own way.

[geoffw]

How is everyone doing with Russian lately? Nearly the end of the year - I'm looking forward to seeing how people have progressed through the course of 2017!

Lately Russian hasn't really been happening in my life - there's been a lot going on and I don't enjoy a lot of the associations Russian has for me at the moment, so it has slipped. However, I'm doing a lot of Russian cinema study, so there is that at least. What about you?

I haven't been posting or even reading posts at this site much at all this year, but language study, and Russian in particular, have been continuing on a regular basis for me. In 2017 I would say that I made significant progress, but I still am very far from where I'm trying to be. I haven't been able to muster the will to do intensive formal study in Russian for a while, but I've done other things, like chatting on HelloTalk, listening to lots of music, and reading books.

For the chats (text-based, primarily), I can understand what is written and compose a response with little use of electronic crutches like dictionaries. I struggle with producing low-frequency vocab. My productive grammar is ridiculous, but seems to cause misunderstanding only rarely.

With the music, I'll hear certain songs over and over, and eventually get very frustrated about the parts I can't understand, which leads me to look up the lyrics online and translate them. I usually learn some new words this way.

For the books, I've been using Lingq. I started subscribing specifically for the purpose of improving my vocabulary in Russian. What really got me hooked was discovering that you can upload your own ebooks (if you can convert them to text) for your private studying. So I've been (slowly) plowing through my fantasy novels, using the Lingq interface to look up every unknown word. My ability to read at speed, as well as my overall hit rate for unknown vocabulary have been improving noticeably. The numerical tracking system there gives me objective feedback showing that I've made progress, but that I unfortunately still have a long way to go before I can hope to have enough vocab to read truly comfortably without Lingq.

[MamaPata]

Back on HTLAL in the times of TAC groups, monthly challenges was typically what some groups did to keep some activity in the group threads. It seemed to work well in a few cases, but as often happened with TAC groups, there would be a lot of enthusiasm and participation in the first few weeks of the year, and then the groups more or less died, or only a few members would continue to post and take part in the challenges.

By all means, I don't see any harm in trying it out - one could try to find challenges which could be adapted to different levels. Like "write a short text about yourself (or your city, or country)", which you could either answer with a lengthy essay or just five lines stating your nationality, age, where you live, if you work or study etc. That would be a task both an A1 and a C2 could answer, each in their own way.

Like I said, I'm very happy to organise this if people would like to take part, but as nobody is expressing interest, I probably won't. Very happy for anyone else to though!

[MamaPata]

I haven't been posting or even reading posts at this site much at all this year, but language study, and Russian in particular, have been continuing on a regular basis for me. In 2017 I would say that I made significant progress, but I still am very far from where I'm trying to be. I haven't been able to muster the will to do intensive formal study in Russian for a while, but I've done other things, like chatting on HelloTalk, listening to lots of music, and reading books.

For the chats (text-based, primarily), I can understand what is written and compose a response with little use of electronic crutches like dictionaries. I struggle with producing low-frequency vocab. My productive grammar is ridiculous, but seems to cause misunderstanding only rarely.

With the music, I'll hear certain songs over and over, and eventually get very frustrated about the parts I can't understand, which leads me to look up the lyrics online and translate them. I usually learn some new words this way.

For the books, I've been using Lingq. I started subscribing specifically for the purpose of improving my vocabulary in Russian. What really got me hooked was discovering that you can upload your own ebooks (if you can convert them to text) for your private studying. So I've been (slowly) plowing through my fantasy novels, using the Lingq interface to look up every unknown word. My ability to read at speed, as well as my overall hit rate for unknown vocabulary have been improving noticeably. The numerical tracking system there gives me objective feedback showing that I've made progress, but that I unfortunately still have a long way to go before I can hope to have enough vocab to read truly comfortably without Lingq.

Sounds like you're doing really well and making a lot of progress!

[leosmith]

Soviet movies.
The Village.

[Systematiker]

I haven't been much in the group, but I'm still around, and attacking Russian anew the coming year. In fact, I'm even getting some tutoring sessions, so you know I'm serious about it.

[MamaPata]

I haven't been much in the group, but I'm still around, and attacking Russian anew the coming year. In fact, I'm even getting some tutoring sessions, so you know I'm serious about it.

Good luck! Let us know how they go!

[MamaPata]

How is everyone doing? Are you off to a good start with Russian in 2018? Is anyone planning on writing their log in Russian?
My Russian studies are ticking along - I'm starting to get back into the habit of it all (though I am of course on here, procrastinating on my homework...).

I've also been flicking through Street Russian. I follow her on Facebook but don't go on it very often, so had totally forgot about this website. It's written by an American woman studying Russian (I think she's married to a Russian and used to live in Russia, but I could be wrong. She may work as a translator?). It's full of nice short articles with links to useful resources for all levels or lists of vocabulary she has come across. There's one full of cat photos, so it's definitely worth a look.

Okay, doing my homework now, I swear.

[Systematiker]

So I've had a first meeting with a tutor in Russian, and got some good feedback (pronunciation good, active vocabulary insufficient), and I'm going to be doing at least one session a week moving forward. I'm embarking on a somewhat ambitious plan to jump-start my Russian this year and get where I can do the sort of "learning" activities I do in many of my other languages (since getting over that humor has proved to be the sticking point for me a couple times now). At least for the moment, it looks like 2018 is the year I get serious about getting decent at Russian.

[MamaPata]

So I've had a first meeting with a tutor in Russian, and got some good feedback (pronunciation good, active vocabulary insufficient), and I'm going to be doing at least one session a week moving forward. I'm embarking on a somewhat ambitious plan to jump-start my Russian this year and get where I can do the sort of "learning" activities I do in many of my other languages (since getting over that humor has proved to be the sticking point for me a couple times now). At least for the moment, it looks like 2018 is the year I get serious about getting decent at Russian.

Sounds really positive - we'll all look forward to seeing your progress through the year!