Конец игры

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
whatiftheblog
Orange Belt
Posts: 222
Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2016 3:29 am
Location: France
Languages: English (N), Russian (N), French (C2?), Spanish (~B1)
x 775

Re: Островная крепость Хммм

Postby whatiftheblog » Fri Apr 14, 2017 4:01 am

I generally find classical Russian literature to be incredibly boring (hashtag bad Russian), but there's a lot of outstanding 20th century work. If you're bored by Tolstoy, which I absolutely do not blame you for, try Nabokov, Bunin, or Pasternak if you haven't yet. Nabokov is especially good to work with - he wrote Lolita in English, then translated it into Russian himself, so there's your "parallel" text :-)
2 x
Books completed: 5 / 20 5 / 20

Xmmm
Blue Belt
Posts: 821
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 1:19 am
Languages: ru it tr
x 2221

Re: Островная крепость Хммм

Postby Xmmm » Thu Apr 20, 2017 6:12 am

Russian (Start: 1 September 2015)



Семнадцать мгновений весны -- Giving up on this Soviet show for now. It is really slow.
I was zoning out during episode #3 but I think literally nothing happened.

Красная Королева (#2) -- This show has a great historical feel to it and some good writing.
The lead actress is also playing her character with a disturbing, barely submerged volatility.
I keep hoping there aren't any knives around when she gets upset ...

Чистая проба (#2) -- This show about crooked cops and gold mines in Siberia continues.
The cops are portrayed very humanistically. They are not monsters, just losers who've stumbled into positions of
(not very much) power. They have just enough power to ruin the lives of the protagonists, and that's it.
The weakest thing about this show is the lead actor. He is a total cardboard cutout.

Ласточкино гнездо (#1) -- This show might be too intense for me. It's a Russian cinderella story
probably minus the happy ending and they're really trying to beat the audience into submission.


: 910 / 1760 Projected Hours to S3
: 15601 / 50000 Words Known
: 1571885 / 5000000 Words Read
: 6 / 36 Modern Russian
: 61 / 300 Glossika
: 10 / 395 RussianPod
: 12 / 100 Learn Russian RT


Italian (Start: 15 December 2016)


Il commissario Nardone (#2). Wonderful historical flair, and the crimes are gritty, stupid crimes
like in real life, not "he was poisoned by the museum anthropologist, who of course used curare", etc.
I mean, the crime in episode #2 is just some bankrobbers who rob banks using stolen cars. By itself the crime is nothing. What's
interesting is Nardone's brainy girlfriend, and his efforts to recruit an expert driver who happens to be an ex-Fascist onto his
crime supersquad. I now prefer this show to Montalbano, which is somewhat bland and artificial by comparison.

: 74 / 960 Projected Hours to S3
: 6345 / 50000 Words Known
: 165834 / 2500000 Words Read
: 38 / 45 Language Transfer
2 x

Ещё раз сунешь голову туда — окажешься внутри. Поняла, Фемида? -- аигел

Xmmm
Blue Belt
Posts: 821
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 1:19 am
Languages: ru it tr
x 2221

Re: Островная крепость Хммм

Postby Xmmm » Wed Apr 26, 2017 4:33 am

Xmmm wrote:Чистая проба (#2) -- This show about crooked cops and gold mines in Siberia continues.
The cops are portrayed very humanistically. They are not monsters, just losers who've stumbled into positions of
(not very much) power. They have just enough power to ruin the lives of the protagonists, and that's it.
The weakest thing about this show is the lead actor. He is a total cardboard cutout.


Okay, I have now watched all eight episodes of this show and I was wrong about it. This show is terrific! As the show progresses, I feel like the actors are actually competing with each other to see who can go more over the top with their performances. It's glorious.

Alexei Makarov (playing Vadim) is my personal favorite, and it was his performance in episode one that kept me from giving up on the show ... but there are great performances across the board.

If you want to watch a classy, high quality drama ... you want Leningrad 46. But if you just want to be entertained, Чистая проба is the show for you. No spoilers from me!

taiga.jpg

Another bad day in the taiga for our heroes

major.jpg

And another bad day at the office for "Sheriff" Vadim!
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
1 x

Ещё раз сунешь голову туда — окажешься внутри. Поняла, Фемида? -- аигел

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: Островная крепость Хммм

Postby IronMike » Sat Apr 29, 2017 6:21 am

Xmmm wrote:Russian (Start: 1 September 2015)



Семнадцать мгновений весны -- Giving up on this Soviet show for now. It is really slow.
I was zoning out during episode #3 but I think literally nothing happened.


This is so funny to me if only because this is why Russians love von Stierlitz. I read somewhere that it is (or was?) the most quoted film in the Soviet Union and I think even nowadays. I hear someone (of the Russian employees of my embassy) quote Stierlitz every couple of months. (I only know because I ask them who they are quoting.)

I haven't watched the series yet but we read parts of the book in my basic Russian class oh so many decades ago. Where are you watching the show? Youtube?
1 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

aaleks
Blue Belt
Posts: 884
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2017 7:04 pm
Languages: Russian (N)
x 1910

Re: Островная крепость Хммм

Postby aaleks » Sat Apr 29, 2017 9:59 am

IronMike wrote:
Xmmm wrote:Russian (Start: 1 September 2015)



Семнадцать мгновений весны -- Giving up on this Soviet show for now. It is really slow.
I was zoning out during episode #3 but I think literally nothing happened.


This is so funny to me if only because this is why Russians love von Stierlitz. I read somewhere that it is (or was?) the most quoted film in the Soviet Union and I think even nowadays. I hear someone (of the Russian employees of my embassy) quote Stierlitz every couple of months. (I only know because I ask them who they are quoting.)

Yes, the film is definitely widely quoted :) . I think probably every adult person in Russia know the phrases “Штирлиц, а Вас я попрошу остаться” or “Никогда еще Штирлиц не был так близок к провалу” :D . There are also plenty of anecdotes about Штирлиц, Мюллер, радистка Кэт, Пастор Шлаг etc. But I can’t explain why it is so. I mean I can’t give some rationale explanation of the phenomenon.

--------
There are also modern series of the War and spies with more action in it, for example, “Диверсанты”.
3 x

Xmmm
Blue Belt
Posts: 821
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 1:19 am
Languages: ru it tr
x 2221

Re: Островная крепость Хммм

Postby Xmmm » Sat Apr 29, 2017 2:14 pm

IronMike wrote:
Xmmm wrote:Russian (Start: 1 September 2015)



Семнадцать мгновений весны -- Giving up on this Soviet show for now. It is really slow.
I was zoning out during episode #3 but I think literally nothing happened.


This is so funny to me if only because this is why Russians love von Stierlitz. I read somewhere that it is (or was?) the most quoted film in the Soviet Union and I think even nowadays. I hear someone (of the Russian employees of my embassy) quote Stierlitz every couple of months. (I only know because I ask them who they are quoting.)

I haven't watched the series yet but we read parts of the book in my basic Russian class oh so many decades ago. Where are you watching the show? Youtube?


Yeah, YouTube.

Episode #1: nothing happens until he gets one secret message in the last two minutes.
Episode #2: something actually does happen! it sets up the expectation that pressure is going to go up in Episode #3. Sure the events in Episode #2 are going to make trouble in Episode #3.
Episode #3: nothing happens. He does spend half the show in a bar staring at a woman who stares back at him.

I've watched plenty of slow Soviet and Russian films that I thought were great. I'm okay with slow. But I guess there's slow, and then there's Семнадцать мгновений весны. :)
1 x

Ещё раз сунешь голову туда — окажешься внутри. Поняла, Фемида? -- аигел

aaleks
Blue Belt
Posts: 884
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2017 7:04 pm
Languages: Russian (N)
x 1910

Re: Островная крепость Хммм

Postby aaleks » Sat Apr 29, 2017 2:39 pm

Xmmm wrote:Episode #3: nothing happens. He does spend half the show in a bar staring at a woman who stares back at him.

:)
This is one of the most famous scene of the film - the meeting Stierlitz with his wife :D
1 x

Xmmm
Blue Belt
Posts: 821
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 1:19 am
Languages: ru it tr
x 2221

Re: Островная крепость Хммм

Postby Xmmm » Sat Apr 29, 2017 5:28 pm

aaleks wrote:
Xmmm wrote:Episode #3: nothing happens. He does spend half the show in a bar staring at a woman who stares back at him.

:)
This is one of the most famous scene of the film - the meeting Stierlitz with his wife :D


"I guess you had to be there" (idiom). :)

I watched part 1 of Диверсанты. This is the four part StarMedia documentary series? It was pretty good, and had the rare benefit of Russian subtitles which means I'll be watching the other three for sure. Thanks!
0 x

Ещё раз сунешь голову туда — окажешься внутри. Поняла, Фемида? -- аигел

aaleks
Blue Belt
Posts: 884
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2017 7:04 pm
Languages: Russian (N)
x 1910

Re: Островная крепость Хммм

Postby aaleks » Sat Apr 29, 2017 6:00 pm

Xmmm wrote:I watched part 1 of Диверсанты. This is the four part StarMedia documentary series? It was pretty good, and had the rare benefit of Russian subtitles which means I'll be watching the other three for sure. Thanks!

No. I was talking about this series https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/89607/ . But I'm glad that you have found the other one with the same name :)
1 x

Xmmm
Blue Belt
Posts: 821
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 1:19 am
Languages: ru it tr
x 2221

Re: Островная крепость Хммм

Postby Xmmm » Wed May 03, 2017 12:57 am

My reading ability improves steadily but my listening ability lags further and further behind.
I think I'm at risk of becoming a C1 reader and a B1 listener if I continue with my current methods.

I'm taking a break from L/R. Maybe I'm reading the wrong material, or maybe it's just me, but
I'm not seeing the promised gains in listening comprehension when I switch from reading to TV
... at least not in Russian.

Instead, I'm going to veer off and try the telenovela method for a while. The difficulty there
is that there are very few media products that have Russian audio and Russian subtitles. At
least that I know of.

For Russian I will be watching золушка.ру on YouTube. This is a film by StarMedia and I doubt
it won any awards. But the language is simple and the subtitles are accurate. что еще мне надо?

For Italian, I'm not aware of any native Italian material with Italian subtitles. So, I've chosen
House of Cards on Netflix. I had started to watch that show extensively and have watched several episodes.
I was rather amused to get an email from "Presidente Underwood" (from Netflix) all in Italian today.
крутяк!

As part of the telenovela method, I'm supposed to learn vocab. I'm not a fan of anki/memrise so
I'm going to try goldlists. If that doesn't work out, I have all the new words on paper, I can
always port them over to an app.


I've noticed a couple cool things about the telenovela method right away:

1. You have to use reading, listening, and speaking skills pretty evenly.
2. You don't need Glossika. I would much rather repeat ad nauseum a sentence like:
Мало ли что мне нравится. Главное, чтобы пипл хавал. (from золушка.ру)than "Migumi usually plays tennis on Sundays".


It's frustrating to make a course correction here. I'm beginning to see the wisdom in "learn one
language properly first, because then you will know what works for you."
Last edited by Xmmm on Wed May 03, 2017 2:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
1 x

Ещё раз сунешь голову туда — окажешься внутри. Поняла, Фемида? -- аигел


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Zomxilla and 2 guests