Postby booksandtrains » Fri Jun 14, 2019 8:49 pm
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.
10 x