Hunter-Gathering in Russian, French, and German u.a...

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
Ingaræð
Orange Belt
Posts: 170
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:34 pm
Languages: English (N), German (heritage)
Learning: Russian, French, German, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish.
Mostly forgotten: Italian, Welsh.
x 377

Hunter-Gathering in Russian, French, and German u.a...

Postby Ingaræð » Sun Feb 09, 2020 7:36 pm

[Old log here]

Having dabbled in Russian over the last few years without getting very far, and with time ever-ticking away, I've decided that I need to pull myself together and get certified. I'm also eagerly impatient, so I've had the crazy idea of sitting the TRKI in July rather than waiting until next year.

I have 20 weeks left and can spend most of my time studying (I'll try for a minimum of 4 hours per day). I'm currently aiming for the Basic (A2), but after 10 weeks I'll evaluate and see if maybe I can scrape a 1st Certificate (B1). I think I'd rather ace the former than fail the latter. I'm aiming for the 2nd Certificate (B2) next year.

Also, I have two hurdles to get over that are much bigger than learning Russian: actually getting to London for the exam; and I am a chronic procrastinator (if it was an Olympic sport, I'd be a medal-contender). Hopefully my bullet journal and copy of 'The Now Habit' will help me get there this time!

I have a bit of a headstart: I can read and write Cyrillic; my pronunciation and listening skills are pretty good for my level; and I previously did about 49 lessons of Assimil's Russian without Toil and 27 of Russian.

Study Resources

I have all the generations of Assimil, and will start with Russian intensively and continuing work on pronunciation (I'm determined to get those Rs!). The rest of my resources include Modern Russian, the New Penguin Russian Course and the Pushkin Institute online courses (if I'm correct in thinking that they're free). I'll decide exactly what to use as I go along. I'll look at tutoring/language exchanges for speaking practice further down the line, when I've got a solid base. There doesn't seem to be much available in the way of past papers.

Fun/Native materials

Yay for Youtube! I can watch 'Мухтар. Новый след', Mosfilm classics, Final Fantasy playthroughs, and listen to 80s music for free. For reading I have Anna Karenina, the Дозоры series (and films) and some Darya Dontsova. I think I'll also get some Agatha Christie translations as I've the read the originals a lot over the years, so that will make L-R/LWT a lot easier. I'll prioritise studying to begin with though, and I'll save news-type stuff for when I'm at a higher level.

I think that's about all for now. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an awful lot about others' experiences of the TRKI on the English-language internet. I'll try and log my progress at least once a week. I'm also aware that the exams will probably be harder than those I've taken in the British education system. I just have to keep telling myself: don't panic, and take it one lesson at a time!
Last edited by Ingaræð on Wed May 27, 2020 1:04 am, edited 6 times in total.
13 x

Ingaræð
Orange Belt
Posts: 170
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:34 pm
Languages: English (N), German (heritage)
Learning: Russian, French, German, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish.
Mostly forgotten: Italian, Welsh.
x 377

Re: A Procrastinator Acquires Russian or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Take the TRKI/ToRFL (07/2020)

Postby Ingaræð » Sun Feb 09, 2020 8:57 pm

Reserved.
0 x

Ingaræð
Orange Belt
Posts: 170
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:34 pm
Languages: English (N), German (heritage)
Learning: Russian, French, German, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish.
Mostly forgotten: Italian, Welsh.
x 377

Re: A Procrastinator Acquires Russian and French or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Studying

Postby Ingaræð » Sat Apr 11, 2020 5:27 pm

So, the TRKI plan is off for now courtesy of the Covid-19 lockdown. Silver lining: I can be relaxed about which languages I study, how I do it and when. I had a long break from active study while I was 'prepping' for the impending lockdown, but have picked things up again now. Current goal is getting receptive skills good enough to start using native content comfortably.


Russian

I've switched from Assimil Russian back to the older Russian without Toil. My impression is that RwT focuses on acquiring grammar and vocabulary by pointing out patterns for your brain to assimilate, whereas Russian provides (comparatively) lengthy descriptions of grammar rules/case endings and (as someone else described) the authors forgot the adage 'repetitio est studium'. My brain definitely prefers the RwT approach. Also, I question whether the book is really so 'outdated': the words that I can pick out from Putin's recent addresses are those I've learned from RWT, eg. достаточно. I will still use Russian for pronunciation work, echoing the audio.

My pronunciation continues to improve, down to two things I've found out which I think are key for native English speakers (maybe others too) but apparently rarely mentioned. Firstly, from http://www.study-languages-online.com/sounds-info.html:
One more thing that should be mentioned is that Russian consonants are pronounced with less tension than in English. If you want to have a good Russian pronunciation, you should pay a special attention to this fact.


My brain had recently started to pick up on this when listening to Russian, but not enough to identify it properly yet (I just used to think that Russian women sounded super-feminine!). The second thing was on Русский Реддит (annoyingly, I didn't note the original link): a native was complaining that English speakers kept putting a 'y' in between palatalised consonants and vowels, and how terrible it sounded. (What?! That's what all the books are telling me to do!!!) But listening to the Russian audio again, я and е really do sound the same as а and э - the consonant is the only thing that's changing.

The Russian 'r': I found a partial translation of a video from a Russian speech therapist which is aimed at teenagers who want to learn the sound at home, and a follow-up video is here. Copying the exercises is easy to do even if you don't understand what she's saying.

I had a listen-through of the first lesson of Modern Russian. I think it would be enjoyable and a good learning method for me. I won't use it before I've at least finished with Assimil, unless I feel the need to drill certain grammatical patterns that aren't sticking.


French

I've decided to pick up French again as it's probably the language where I can get to comprehension of native materials the fastest. I planned on doing French without Toil and Using French before using some books/audiobooks in LWT and/or L-R. I got halfway through FwT (at speed), but found the dialogues kind of boring. I had a look at Using, and decided that I couldn't be bothered with that either. Dialang says I'm B1-B2, so I'm not sure how much I'd get out of it anyway (though I'll probably look at it again at some point, knowing me...!). I previously did a passive wave of New French with Ease, which I found pretty easy, and I think I'll use Assimil again in the future for pronunciation practice (echoing).

My current goal is enjoyable vocabulary acquisition. I've been reading Agatha Christie's novels since I was a kid, so I decided to do some L-R with Mort sur le Nil as there's an (apparently) unabridged audiobook available now. Unfortunately it's of a new translation and the corresponding ebook has DRM, which I'm assuming will prevent me from making a parallel text or putting it into LWT. Which is....annoying. So I'm now using an earlier translation in LWT, with Google Translate for audio as it's better than nothing. I have a pile of Christie books and some other novels with audiobooks to keep me going, and at some point I'll get stuck into news/geopolitical articles as well.


Current future language goals

Have at least two languages in 'active study'. Dabbling in others is ok, but just sounds' acquisition. Improve German to at least B2. I figure knowing the 6 UN languages will get me good coverage of what's going on in the world, so that means learning Arabic, Spanish, Mandarin (and probably in that order). Maybe pick up Welsh again, in case it's ever useful (or worst case scenario, the lockdown makes it hard to leave the UK in the future). Maybe some other Mediterranean/West Asian languages?

I guess languages are like Pokemon for me: gotta catch 'em all! :D
5 x

Ingaræð
Orange Belt
Posts: 170
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:34 pm
Languages: English (N), German (heritage)
Learning: Russian, French, German, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish.
Mostly forgotten: Italian, Welsh.
x 377

Re: Hunter-Gathering in Russian, French, and German u.a...

Postby Ingaræð » Wed May 27, 2020 1:19 am

New log title (again), inspired by Iversen:
And yes, there are language learners who expect to learn all their words from genuine speech and texts, but I see them as the hunter-gatherers amoung os. Those who use dictionaries and language learning tools like Anki in a systematic way are the farmers.


I'm not going to write 'properly' here anymore - transferring everything in my head into writing just takes far too long. So, a collection of organised 'notes' from now on. (Yet somehow an even longer post... :roll: )

THOUGHTS

- I've been wondering whether MBTI/Jungian functions correlate with learning styles (might post about this elsewhere). As an ISFP, I need to keep things fun. I also learn best and quickest by doing. How to adapt this to languages? Maximum sensory input: both hearing and seeing words, visual cues, context, self-talk... Content/instruction where I can assimilate patterns, not rules and tables. Anki with premade decks is fun, but I learn little from it.

- Procrastinating. I come up with a plan/learning idea for a language, am super-enthusiastic/-motivated with prep, but procrastinate when ready to start it. WHY??? Too big a task? Unachievable goal (seems like climbing Everest)? Fear of failure? Frustrating, because procrastination is a form of anxiety, and you can't cure it till you figure out the root cause. Ugh....

- Re-read a few posts in my old log. Turns out I often forget previously-reached conclusions and just keep going round in circles...

FRENCH

- LWT: 8/130 texts (~24 real pages) of Mort sur le Nil. Google audio is terrible for intonation, but 99% accurate for sounds I think. I use blaurebell's method for LWT - add definitions etc. for words I don't know, then check 'mark all as known' box. Tedious as, otherwise!

- Learned that pronunciation of 'plus' varies according to meaning and grammar.


GERMAN

- By chance watched Inspector Borowski - turns out it's actually rebranded Tatort! Have seen ~15 episodes, but during dinner so wasn't paying enough attention to the language for any real learning. I need subtitles for northern accents. Tatort.Tube has all episodes, and at least some with German subs.

- Der Tod auf dem Nil in LWT - 1/171 texts (~3 real pages) and O.M.G. it's slow-going compared to French... Takes ~3 times as long.

- Preposition and case recognition/comprehension is not good - I learnt via tables in formal education, so a lack of pattern recognition/assimilation with instinctive meaning. Trawling through GWT for examples - and have I finally got 'in den Park' = to the park?! (The 'noticing' thing from....Kaufman?) Currently find this easier in Russian, with cases indicated as noun endings.

- Should do LWT with Kommissar Rex subs and videos.

RUSSIAN

- Мухтар on Youtube has Russian subs, so with a Firefox add-on I'm downloading and putting them into LWT, and going through them along with the videos. Sentences seem short and simple, so 'easy' grammar with tons of vocab and visual context. Series 1-10 here (series 10 not in a playlist yet, some have auto-generated subs).

- German (cases) and French (pas de) grammar knowledge has previously helped with understanding Russian grammar concepts (couldn't 'get' negative taking genitive till I realised it was like in French, then it instantly clicked. Polandball also makes more sense now).

CROATIAN

- Courtesy of Radioclare, I've been binge-watching Na granici (promo and promo), a comedy/crime/romance telenovela (with earwormy music) - perfect escapism for keeping sane in lockdown! Got to episode ~76, but missed about half of those as they're not all on Youtube etc. Nova TV does 7 days free subscription, so will sign up and start from the beginning again.

- Starting Assimil Croate, because if I end up watching 200+ eps of a show then I may as well learn to understand more than 10% of what's going on. Hopefully the extra Slavic will help with Russian rather than bork it... Polyglots in Lomb's Harmony of Babel confused SP/IT/PT, but not Slavic languages, so hopefully will be the same for me. My limited Russian is helping. Focussing on comprehension, not production at this point. (Croatian countryside looks like a nice place to live! Brits probably won't be allowed in anywhere for a while, though. Thanks, Boris...)

ARABIC

- Dabbling: watched Wyner's pronunciation videos on Youtube. Didn't expect a discount with the Welsh 'h' sound! Listened to old and new Assimil, although with insufficient concentration for graded listening. I find 'incomprehensible' listening is good for hearing/picking up intonation/'music' of the language (prosody -> sounds -> meaning).

MANDARIN

- Dabbling: listened to Assimil. Watched/listened to a 'learn Pinyin in 5 minutes' video for native children.

WELSH

- I recurringly feel like I ought to take this back up, but don't really want to (partly because it's tantamount to admitting failure). Watched an unfunny comedy (Beryl, Sheryl a Meryl or something), which surprisingly did not inspire motivation.


GENERAL

- For low-frequency vocab, Googling a word will bring up whole articles etc. to learn from context?

- LWT installation instructions for Linux work! In Linux Mint 19, at least. Though I still got an error because I made a mistake during installation (and let's face it, it's not a true LWT install if it's not borked on the first attempt :D ). Also forgot I'd need to redo Night Mode css (available here - FYI it's not optimised for 'test mode').

- When learning a new verb, use it in a sentence with 1st person singular (and also imagine situation/context) and brain will learn it more easily.

- Read Assimil/LWT texts out loud for active knowledge of new/infrequent words?

- D'Abadie in Harmony of Babel, Kato Lomb

I heartily recommend learning half an hour before sleep. Sleeping is a subconscious state that draws from the experience directly preceding the dream. Recently acquired information becomes firmly rooted and consolidated.

Totally works. Not terribly effective if you're already struggling to keep your eyes open, though.

EDIT: Added some links 'n' stuff.
Last edited by Ingaræð on Wed May 27, 2020 7:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
3 x

User avatar
eido
Blue Belt
Posts: 841
Joined: Tue Jan 30, 2018 8:31 pm
Languages: English (N), Spanish (C1)
x 3181

Re: Hunter-Gathering in Russian, French, and German u.a...

Postby eido » Wed May 27, 2020 11:32 am

Someone else who’s into MBTI? I’d never thought I’d see the day! OMG, my kin—my sister!

I’m an ENTP.

Have you ever considered INTJ for yourself? You seem to be familiar with Jungian function theory, so you’ll know that ISFPs and INTJs have the same functions just in a different order.

I think it’s the Ni and Fi that are giving you a bit of an inaccurate reading. Not to be an armchair psychologist (though most Jungian fans are by nature of being so enthused), but I think it’s fun to type people. That’s why I gave you my opinion. I was just reading through your log and got that impression.

If you want more information from me on that, feel free to PM me! I love MBTI.

That said, I love the way your log is written. It’ll shape up to be something surely interesting. I’ll certainly be reading from now on. I hope you pass your exam for Russian! I’ll be here at the sidelines cheering for your success!
1 x

User avatar
Radioclare
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2250
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:59 pm
Location: England
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Esperanto, German, Croatian
Learns: Russian
x 10434
Contact:

Re: Hunter-Gathering in Russian, French, and German u.a...

Postby Radioclare » Wed May 27, 2020 8:19 pm

Ingaræð wrote:CROATIAN

- Courtesy of Radioclare, I've been binge-watching Na granici (promo and promo), a comedy/crime/romance telenovela (with earwormy music) - perfect escapism for keeping sane in lockdown! Got to episode ~76, but missed about half of those as they're not all on Youtube etc. Nova TV does 7 days free subscription, so will sign up and start from the beginning again.

- Starting Assimil Croate, because if I end up watching 200+ eps of a show then I may as well learn to understand more than 10% of what's going on. Hopefully the extra Slavic will help with Russian rather than bork it... Polyglots in Lomb's Harmony of Babel confused SP/IT/PT, but not Slavic languages, so hopefully will be the same for me. My limited Russian is helping. Focussing on comprehension, not production at this point. (Croatian countryside looks like a nice place to live! Brits probably won't be allowed in anywhere for a while, though. Thanks, Boris...)


Wow I had no idea you'd watched so many episodes :o Totally agree about the Croatian countryside. I mean, I know there are no jobs and they all have to smuggle to make ends meet, but it looks so pretty I just want to buy a house like Zorka's and relocate there :lol:
1 x

Ingaræð
Orange Belt
Posts: 170
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:34 pm
Languages: English (N), German (heritage)
Learning: Russian, French, German, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish.
Mostly forgotten: Italian, Welsh.
x 377

Re: Hunter-Gathering in Russian, French, and German u.a...

Postby Ingaræð » Wed May 27, 2020 11:21 pm

eido wrote:Have you ever considered INTJ for yourself?


Nope, I'm definitely not an INTJ! :D

There's an old thread on MBTI here which has some further links in it. Also, if you do a search for MBTI you'll find other members have mentioned it, but it's really not a popular topic here. I think because Jungian functions were sort of co-opted as a personality test, which from my perspective they're not (or at most, just a small part of 'personality'), and also because it doesn't seem to be that well-known outside the U.S./Anglosphere, whereas this is a very international forum.

Radioclare wrote:Wow I had no idea you'd watched so many episodes :o Totally agree about the Croatian countryside. I mean, I know there are no jobs and they all have to smuggle to make ends meet, but it looks so pretty I just want to buy a house like Zorka's and relocate there :lol:

Erm, yeah... :oops: I really needed some escapism! :lol: There's so much space around the houses, it looks like heaven! I've concluded that a lottery win is the answer, then no need to get involved in smuggling shenanigans. :D
2 x

Ingaræð
Orange Belt
Posts: 170
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:34 pm
Languages: English (N), German (heritage)
Learning: Russian, French, German, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish.
Mostly forgotten: Italian, Welsh.
x 377

Re: Hunter-Gathering in Russian, French, and German u.a...

Postby Ingaræð » Mon Jun 22, 2020 3:24 pm

THOUGHTS

-
Just_a_visitor wrote:The pain is, I can't get used to doing either of them regularly - and that's the way to nowhere.

Calling me out here.... :oops: :lol: I've barely progressed in any language since I started logging here (although I'm realising that my Russian is a little better than I thought, which is something at least). Some of the reasons are my fault, some are things beyond my control, so I'm not going to beat myself up about it too much.

Then serendipitously, the SRS vs natural repetition thread began:

smallwhite wrote:[...]one acquires vocabulary and reading skills 4 to 11 times faster when one's extensive reading is reinforced with flashcards. Without flashcards, word repetition is outside your control, based on word frequency rather than your memory - your individual needs for each individual word at each individual point in time. With flashcards that use the SM2 algorithm, each and every word is revised just when you need to revise it - minimal redundancy, minimal insufficiency.

Learning 1,000 words...
By reading reinforced with flashcards = 2,200 minutes / 36 hours
By plain reading 3,000,000 words = 18,750 minutes / 313 hours

I like these numbers! And all Smallwhite's numbers, really. I don't have years to spend on learning something: I need fast efficiency, esp. for vocab. I need to be more systematic as well as having fun input, tackling from all sides - à la the Smallwhite approach! :D She kindly answered my questions about her SRS method and beginning an opaque language, and I've now put together my personal SRS plan with Anki:

  • SM-2 algorithm, but with a 1.9 multiplier (minus 3 hrs, just to make sure the reviews come on the right day - probably overkill!): 1,2,4,7,13,25,47,89,170. I think 9 reps should be plenty, because the words will also be encountered passively elsewhere. (My 1st step is actually 10 mins: it's used when you fail a card. 2nd step - i.e. 1 - onwards is for 'pass'.)
  • Low-key Anki - basically changes to a pass/fail choice, and changes some other settings to get rid of Anki torture.
  • Cards are 99% lemmas, L1 -> L2 with audio (although this sort of feels like cheating? Skipping the passive step... :? )
  • Incorrect word stress = fail.
  • Words sourced from context via official certification wordlists, Assimil, LWT, FSI, other textbooks etc. Will export between Anki and LWT where possible - hopefully this will save some time and effort in the long run.

- Anki will give me a daily achievement/award of passing a test to keep motivation up. Benefit of learning a word in context, timely revision, and then hopefully being able to identify/use it independently in multiple contexts.

- Feeling more optimistic than my other plans that this will work, and that I will stick to it! Even if I don't get any study done one day, or feel like doing another language, Anki is still there with cards already set up for reviewing. The SM2 is automated - I haven't got to remember when to do things (or work out another system for scheduling).

- I have a basic tracking spreadsheet now: date; activity; title; ch./pages/mins/cards; time spent.

- I've started doing some of Deepak Chopra's guided meditation in the morning before I get up. Seems to be helping with stress, so should also help with learning.


RUSSIAN (current focus)

- 3 days in with Anki. Going very well so far (better than I expected), but have only reached lesson 10 of RWT, so the caveat is that these words are not new to me passively. Aiming to power through to the new lessons ASAP (did 83 new cards on Day 2).

- мы - brain still associates with me not we :roll:

- Need to echo Assimil Russian for pronunciation practice. Also need to do 'r' practice!

- Someone wrote here recently about (Nochnoi) Dozor series, indicating that they would probably be too hard for LWT etc. for me at this point.

- Need to write down grammar patterns/reference tables in a notebook to help get instinctive comprehension/production.

- I find grammatical tables useful for reference/reinforcement after I've been introduced to/learnt the grammar concept through patterns/context. E.g. noticed нужен and болен '-ен' in RWT, then seeing it a declension table reinforced it. Feel like short form recognition is acquired now?

- No pre-made Anki decks for TKRI. Boo. Got the official minimum wordlists A1-B2, but couldn't import into spreadsheet because of accented vowels, only into text file. So doing RWT and copy/pasting words into spreadsheet, then import to Anki. ~2 hrs to make the first 15 cards! :o It's getting much quicker as I get used to the process (~25 mins), but tiredness is also a factor. First 9 lessons of RWT are mostly A1 words, with a sprinkling of A2-B2, and I think maybe a few C. FYI the official wordlists contain translations in EN, ES, DE, FR and ZH (I'm guessing!)...

-Need to learn to type in Russian. Though probably won't be quicker than copy/paste for wordlists.

-Need to get some graded readers, preferably with audio. Red Kalinka and Классное Чтение have been mentioned here, not sure what else there is.


GERMAN

- Did a Dialang test mid-2018. Placement test: 340. Listening: B1 (I estimated B1). Writing: B1 (est. B1). Reading: B1 (est. A2). Structures: A2 (est. A2). Vocabulary: A2 (est. A2). So I had a decent self-assessment!

- Watched Der Tatortreiniger (courtesy of the German TV/films thread). S01 I found laugh-out-loud funny, some interesting scripts (Northern accent/vocab often beyond me though). And a pretty cool theme tune! S02 I didn't find as entertaining.

- Did LWT with an A1 graded reader, with particular attention paid to prepositions taking accusative. I find that using easy material is really good for consolidation.

- From German Intonation thread: where in EN we put more stress on a word for emphasis, in DE words move to 1st position rather than stress for emphasis. Knew the theory of that, but this comparison explanation is better for me for understanding intuitively.

- Will probably return to German and start Anki-ing when a bit further along with Russian. Need to get wordlists for CEFR levels, then will have current spellings for GWT.


FRENCH

- Did a Dialang test early 2018. Placement test: 340. Listening: B2 (Est. A1). Writing: B1 (Est. ?). Reading: B2 (Est. A2). Structures: B2 (Est. A2). Vocabulary: B1 (est. ?). I think my self-assessment was off because I spent much less time in France during my year abroad, so had less real-world experience to draw upon. Overall the results are a step above German, which is an accurate reflection of how the languages feel to me.

- As time passes, I'm increasingly less bothered about French - unless I'm watching something like French Kiss or A Good Year! :D Will have to use them for extra motivation when necessary. Hoping that my new Anki regime will be successful, then it will be easier to go and 'blast through' some French to get to a solid B2 (or above).


MANDARIN

- Someone posted the video Chinese tones in English. I think I'll have to listen to more like this when the time comes, to help hear/produce them. I feel like tones will be hard...


CROATIAN

- I prefer the older Le serbo-croate sans peine to the new Le croate. Shocker. (I'll have to collect all the old Assimils! :D) The audio is slower at the beginning - I know a lot of people find this annoying, but I think it's important for getting really good listening and prosody. Language difference so far: sta instead of sto. Harder than I expected with French base... Probably because I'm not B2 yet!


GENERAL

- I use Audacious for playing audio with multiple tracks. Has tabbed playlists, remembers which track I'm on in each one. (Previously used Exaile, but it's not available in Cinnamon). SMPlayer better for single, long files as it remembers position.

- Youtube subtitle downloader add-on in Firefox: dumps an .srt file, can then manipulate text for whatever you want - L-R, LWT. Shows all available subs (proper ones, not auto-generated). E.g. Mosfilm has subs in ~8 languages for Иван Васильевич меняет профессию.
4 x

Just_a_visitor
White Belt
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 3:20 pm
Languages: Russian (N)
English
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=14557
x 111

Re: Hunter-Gathering in Russian, French, and German u.a...

Postby Just_a_visitor » Thu Jun 25, 2020 7:33 am

Mosfilm has subs in ~8 languages for Иван Васильевич меняет профессию.
4
In case you need a hand with understanding some bits of the film, you're welcome.
BTW, it's based on a theatre play written by Michail Bulgakov, who had a long-lasting relationship with Stanislavsky and Nemirovich's Moscow Art Theatre (Московский Художественный театр) and wrote a lot for them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Vasilievich_(play)
The director Leonid Gaidai set the film in the 1970s - the time it was shot. And the "Kremlin" the heroes are racing through is actually the Metropolitan palace in an old town of Rostov Velikiy - a nice place to visit off the beaten track and not that far from Moscow (please, don't confuse with Rostov-on-Don, which is much bigger but doesn't go that back into history).
https://www.google.com/search?q=%D0%BC% ... 66&bih=625
1 x

Ingaræð
Orange Belt
Posts: 170
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:34 pm
Languages: English (N), German (heritage)
Learning: Russian, French, German, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish.
Mostly forgotten: Italian, Welsh.
x 377

Re: Hunter-Gathering in Russian, French, and German u.a...

Postby Ingaræð » Thu Jun 25, 2020 4:45 pm

Just_a_visitor wrote:
Mosfilm has subs in ~8 languages for Иван Васильевич меняет профессию.
4
In case you need a hand with understanding some bits of the film, you're welcome.
BTW, it's based on a theatre play written by Michail Bulgakov, who had a long-lasting relationship with Stanislavsky and Nemirovich's Moscow Art Theatre (Московский Художественный театр) and wrote a lot for them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Vasilievich_(play)
The director Leonid Gaidai set the film in the 1970s - the time it was shot. And the "Kremlin" the heroes are racing through is actually the Metropolitan palace in an old town of Rostov Velikiy - a nice place to visit off the beaten track and not that far from Moscow (please, don't confuse with Rostov-on-Don, which is much bigger but doesn't go that back into history).
https://www.google.com/search?q=%D0%BC% ... 66&bih=625

Thank you, that would be great! I've watched about half of it but it's definitely beyond my capabilities at the moment, so I'll try again when I've improved. I understand that it's the kind of film that everyone in Russia knows and references (and even in 'Мухтар. Новый след', I'm guessing, as the slightly geeky police student is called Шурик! :D).
0 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests