Shandra's log [Russian]

Welcome to my personal log.

Here I want to track my progress in my Russian Adventure.

I'll write only short notes because I tend to think too much about languages and learning techniques so I forget to study and reach my targets

Gamification

Judith Meyer at learnlangs suggests habitRPG to increase productivity of list and to-dos.
Chris Huff at Language Fan can explain better than me how this site could help us with language learning.
Adshap was the first I've read that suggest me to think about learning language as a game in Japanese Level Up.

HabitRPG is a site where you can list your to-dos and habits.
Every time you complete a task you receive points and your fantasy character increases his level.
Transform boring or repetitive tasks in points made them funny and works for me.

If you like retro pixel style and silly and virtual incentives, give it a try!
(HabitRPG is helping me to be more regular with Anki and Assimil, strange but truth!).

First steps in Russian

- Print IPA Russian Chart from omniglot DONE
- Print IPA Italian Chart from omniglot DONE
- Compare them IN PROGRESS

- Print Cursive Russian Chart from omniglot DONE
- Learn to write Russian letters looking animation IN PROGRESS

- Anki Cyrillic Deck (PC needed to update my decks)
- Android Cyrillic App (can't find what I have in mind: letters + space to write them)

Russian cursive is hard for me because some letters in Russian look like the wrong letter in Latin alphabet (why little t seems a m?!). Write them down is boring but help my visual memory a lot.

Books are print in capital letters, but the world of memes is full of cursive fonts!

Discovering sounds

- Voiced and unvoiced consonants > OK
- Hard an soft consonants > sound the same
- Voiced becomes unvoiced at the end of word > OK
- Group of consonants (es. Вств sounds /stv/) > what?

Why! Why? But I can do it

Good luck learning Russian.

Assimil

I have the old version of Assimil for Russian (I listened first ten lessons during last Christmas Holidays and then forget all).

I want to take it really easy: listen to L2, reading L1.
I want to understand greetings, words like yes/no, good/bad and so on.
Just one step at a time.

You do eventually get used to it with time and practice. If you convert some regular text to italic, it can help you get used to reading cursive that is not handwritten, so it's a bit easier. Another ''cheat" (not sure if it really is a cheat??) I have seen is that a bar can be written over the cursive te (т) or under the sha (ш) and you can add little loops to the л,м, and я. I don't know how Kosher this is, maybe BigDog knows (or another advanced Russian learner here may know). I'm a beginner a bit ahead of you (started in January), but I do encourage you to stick with Russian. It's a really awesome language!

First stop

The book I use, "Как дела?", is difficult.
No problem with the first and last chapters (about spelling, phonetic, pronunciation), they are hard but it was what I expected.
It is the approach of the rest, maybe because I don't understand the method used (why this choice of vocabulary and grammar points first?), and the graphic is heavy to the eyes.
I think I need something like a Lonely Planet's phrasal book and a good grammar to practice simple sentences and then go on "to the infinity and beyond".
Tomorrow, library!

And thanks everyone for the previous support!

I am still here.

I lost interest in Russian and I have plenty of excuses.
I moved to a new house (happy change!), but we have problems at work (200 people can be fired), so language learning hasn't been my priority during last months.

I need to do something concrete with the languages I already know, Spanish and English. I want to boost their level from intermediate to advanced because at the moment they are more useful in a working environment for me.

I'd also like to finish my book of Japanese (A1 level). I love Japanese culture, I already know kana, I am not intimidated by kanji, I don't have to decline nouns and verbs ( )

My plan is to fix some measurable goal for every language and reach it.

How good is your Spanish? You could have some fun with Chavo del 8 over on you tube I'm on a Japanese venture myself... there's a few around here.

Thanks Bob for "Chavo del 8", it seems really funny, as many series of the '70

2015 ESPAÑOL
- Leer una novela en español por mes.
Tengo que esperar hasta que la biblioteca abre de nuevo en enero, después de los Reyes. He reservado "La ciudad de las bestias" de Isabel Allende.

2015 ENGLISH
- Read a novel a month

2015 MISCELLANEOUS
- Decipher hangul
Videos on YouTube and an Anki deck.

2015 JAPANESE
- Read all "Minna no nihongo" みんなの日本語, a page every day.
Not struggle with kanji and grammar, simply read it.
- Listen to all 50 lessons of Japanese's Assimil first book.
Again, simply listen, maybe shadowing a little.
Keep it easy.

From the beginning of the month I've been read one or two pages of "Minna no nihongo" every day.
I'm still waiting the local library call me for the Spanish book (they open today after holidays). I'm interested in a new TV serie starting tonight, "Capitàn Alatriste" I hope I can find it somewhere on the Internet.
Basic Hangul's letters are easy enough. The challenge will be decipher syllables.
I read something in English every day.

제이름은 알레산드라 입니다
My first sentence in Korean, I feel like I'm a genius.