Introduce yourself here

[zvezda]

Hi! I'm a 17 year old girl from the US who has been studying Russian on and off for a few years (at a snail's pace, due to some poor habits I would like to fix!) and I'm very interested in strengthening my skills. I first started to develop an interest in language learning when an online friend told me about her recent progress in learning German, and I thought that it sounded like fun. Since then, I've been reading through language forums (like this one) and checking out different resources and languages during a lot of my free time to find like-minded people who are taking the same journey as I am. I finally decided to make an account when I heard that this forum has study groups for a few different languages and I wanted to get involved!

There are a lot of languages I'm interested in and would like to dabble in (at the very least), the one I'm most eager to learn, (aside from Russian) is Belarusian, and to freshen things up a little, I've just started a resource search recently. I haven't made much progress in the way of that, but I've taken a look at the beginner's lessons on 50languages. I don't really know how accurate that site is, and I've been super wary about it (since the site offers way too much to seem legitimate, imo), so I've been pairing it up with Wiktionary and slounik.org, hoping that I'll catch on to any errors. I don't really know what to do from here, since Belarusian is a little bit more of a niche language than most others that people study, but hopefully I'll figure it out. I could always seek out resources written in Russian too!

This post wasn't really meant to devolve into a story about my recent study methods... but I'm excited to finally start my new journey! I hope to see you guys around and to become a part of your community!

[Jim]

Welcome to the forum!

There are a lot of languages I'm interested in and would like to dabble in (at the very least), the one I'm most eager to learn, (aside from Russian) is Belarusian, and to freshen things up a little, I've just started a resource search recently. I haven't made much progress in the way of that ...

You might want to check out the DLI Belarusian course here

[booksandtrains]

Hello, I'm a person on the internet in England. I graduated with a degree in modern languages (Russian with German) in 2017. I am very attached to my Russian, lived in Moscow for two years, would give a limb to go back but the job I was doing (teaching English) wasn't for me. Last May I passed the delightful TRKI 3 test so I have a piece of paper attesting to my Russian level (although that exam is a poor reflection of someone's actual level IMO, I'm sure I'll go into that on the language log of the future). I also studied German, however we're not on the best of terms. I can still read and listen theoretically, I can probably even still speak and write. I just don't.

The problem is I'm not disciplined. I have joined this forum because I admire the users on this site who put in so much work and make progress as a result of that. I love the idea of being part of a community of supportive people from different walks of life who are brought together by language.

I've attempted many times to learn various languages beyond my languages of study. I did a Spanish course at college, and a year of Ukrainian at university. Many times I've attempted to learn languages independently, as a 'hobby', not as an academic pursuit, as so many people on this website do. Many times I've given up, telling myself that I can only ever see languages as an academic field, I'm not 'motivated' or disciplined enough to get past learning the present tense conjugations of Spanish verbs or the topic of family words in Ukrainian.

However, since I've returned from Russia, got a job in which I'm quite frankly overpaid and underworked, moved back into my home town where there's nothing to do after 5:30pm, I've had a lot of time to reevaluate assumptions I made about myself and my capabilities. I've been learning Spanish again to give myself an intellectually stimulating focus outside of my boring job and I'm having a great time. At some point I'd like to brush up on my Ukrainian as well, and maybe one day I'll even tackle the mess I've made of my German.

I'm looking forward to starting my language log and sharing my own dodgy expertise and unsolicited advice directed at learners of Russian.

[linguology]

Hi! I'm a lifelong language dabbler who's always struggled with keeping up the consistency to actually learn a language to a high level. I graduated university with a Bachelor's degree in German, but since then I've neglected it almost entirely (beyond listening to music now and then), so I know my abilities have absolutely tanked. I've lived in China for the past two years, but due to some demotivating experiences and personal laziness I have made almost no progress in that time. I'm moving back home to the States in a few months, and lately I've been feeling a little embarrassed about my terrible Chinese. I'm hoping that keeping a log and interacting with fellow language enthusiasts will help me shake off the blues and keep me accountable and motivated.

[Koneho]

Hi, I'm Koneho. I live in the Philippines and I have *ok* Filipino. I've gotten an itch for indonesian. Right now I'm trying to find ways to boost my filipino reading (literary filipino is like a whole different beast). I also want to know if anyone has the glossika Indonesian legacy course?

[brad-alm]

I was a student of foreign languages since I discovered this innate talent in Middle School. I continued my study of
languages through high school, and went on to study languages and theoretical and applied linguistics and Columbia
U and NYU. I used a system in public school called A-LM which was an excellent series. I learned Spanish, French and
German with this series, and owe me academic career to the strong base I got from this series. )You have to be around my age to have used this series, so those of you out there who are may be familiar with A-LM. I went on to
specialize in historical linguistics and etymology, and my university-level studies in linguistics include morphology,
syntax, phonology/phonetics, semantics and etymology of languages. I have also taught languages and also ESL
to foreign students in this country. I appreciate how very important it id to study languages in a global environment;
unfortunately, many public schools have been eliminating foreign languages in part or totally, due to budgetary
issues and general lack of interest on the part of American students. Since the early to mid-1980s, when A-LM was
being discontinued, textbooks have been "dumbed down" as students have made less of an effort to learn!
I hope that my contributions to the forum will be interesting and informative to others.

[devalike]

My name is Demetres (that's a better romanization of Δημητρης than Dimitris i believe). I recently became really interested in language learning. My native tongue is Greek, I'm proficient in English (although I've lost the catch of it since I entered uni) and i'm beginner in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. The magic of ideographs fascinates me, it feels like some sort of modern hieroglyphic !!

[AnthonyLauder]

My name is Anthony. I used to be on HTLAL, with the nickname Splog. I haven't posted anything here or on HTLAL for quite some time. Mostly because I realised I was spending more time talking about language learning than actually doing language learning. So, I took a long break from talking to focus on doing. Now I feel ready to do some talking again.

[tommus]

My name is Anthony. I used to be on HTLAL, with the nickname Splog.

Anthony, we have all been waiting patiently for you to show up here on LLorg because you taught us so much about language learning on HTLAL. I especially liked the very important Splog's Connectors. It is great to have you here. Welcome!!!

[Jean-Luc]

My name is Anthony. I used to be on HTLAL, with the nickname Splog. I haven't posted anything here or on HTLAL for quite some time. Mostly because I realised I was spending more time talking about language learning than actually doing language learning. So, I took a long break from talking to focus on doing. Now I feel ready to do some talking again.

So true! I am trying hundreds of Apps and supports for my reviews on my blog and have to stop sometimes in order to "learn" languages...